Last 1st of May I took an early train to Budapest, where my plane would take off the next day to Charleroi, Belgium. Aldona, a very kind Lithuanian girl who I had meet the year before in our Erasmus period in Braga, was waiting for me in Keleti station, ready to showed me the city. I changed some money to Hungarian florints and bought a 24 hours public transport card that we definetively afforded. I was very happy to had a guide that could take me to nice places besides the touristic yet must-see spots of the city. We combined metro and walking whole day until afternoon when we sat down in Szimpla Kert for a beer and just chill.
Next day she had to get back to her research internship and I spent my morning visiting the castle district -the only part we hadn't visited the day before- and also I passed by the Old Market for some langos for lunch and then headed to the blue metro line trough lovely Rastay street.
One of the outcomes of this kind of experiencing, as I see it, is that you become more independent. Last year when I was travelling sometimes home from Braga and back it wasn't so challenging because the airports and bus stations were familiar to me, as also was the language. But having to travel on my own to Namur, and especially back to Brussels-Charleroi-Budapest-Bratislava (in a more than 12-hour trip) made me more self-sufficient.
I arrived at Namur around 6 pm of the 2nd of May, found easily the place where I should meet the others thanks to a map I had print and just entered the room as it was time to arrange it for sleeping there. The facilities weren't the nicest, I must say, but after the first night the heating system was working again and we manage to share the only shower with 12 people and even more. Here's a funny family picture.
The guided visits of the first days were really nice. We visited a brewery (Brasserie du Bocq), a fortress (Poilvache) and we went kayaking for about 2 hours and a half -the Korean girls a little bit longer =P. Also one day we dedicate the visit to the Citadelle of Namur, the biggest in Europe, very interesting. That same afternoon we experienced the Wallonian culture with the Molons -their foklore group- who invited us to their society after the public In our free time I also went to Dinant, a small town were the inventor of the saxophone -Adolphe Sax- was born; to Luxembourg, which is surprisingly nice, I didn't expect it -I didn't expect nothing from it, never heard before about it, lol-: and last but not least to Brussels, because we finished the work one day earlier than expected. I loved the country, is really nice! If it wasn't because of the rather shitty weather and the fact that besides French you need to learn Flemish I would consider moving there.
And just a little testimony of the Wallonian Folklore Day
Finally, it was time to start preparing the festival. We had hard work, actually, I didn't picture something like that before but more related to decoration and painting and arts -that we also had, but in less amount. We helped loading and unloading trucks with material for the festival, we decorate the streets with grass -real grass, the kind that gets you dirty, haha-, we helped with the electric installation for the lights and the music system... Basically anything they needed and we could help, because we were really willing to help :)
And when the festival started I felt so rewarded! I saw the people enjoying the shows in every corner of the streets, the squares crowded when there was some performance and I knew it was somehow possible because of me and the other volunteers, and I had this strange feeling, I felt proud of our little contribution to this fantastic festival. In my opinion the espectacles were of a very good quality and -with the exception of spoken theater that I avoid because of language barrier- I especially enjoyed those that combined mime and clown, so creative and expressive with so little! Just amazing. Also, every night the day would conclude with diverse concerts in the main tent -the Cabaret, oh how I miss it!-, and I will never forget above all the groups Chapell Hill -with the devilish singer and the witchy violinist- and the great fun of the mosh-pit of Prima Nocta -celtic heavy music with 3 gaita players, not bad at all!
I forgot to say that during the festival and after it the nice weather we had before disappeared and instead we have this kind of London silly rain that eventually gets you soaked, so after the festival tiredness and a little bit of demotivation got into the group, but neverending jokes helped us go trough it and finish the work.
Saying goodbye in Brussels was nice because almost all the group met in a different framework. This wasn't the little cute town of Namur anymore, but the fancy capital with the perfect place to gather us all: the Maneken Pee -it's a rather little dissapointing statue tough. I arrived a little bit earlier and gather with a Spanish friend that is studying there and kindly took some hours of her time -still in exams- to show me the city around, very nice. Then in the evening we meet at this little boy peeing statue and we headed to Delirium bar -with 27 tab beers and more than 2000 in total- to say goodbye in a quite surrealistic night.
Next day it was raining, which means perfect mood to say goodbye, get nostalgic and travel calmly back home. Yeah, 24/7 with the same people you make bounds, I really liked hanging out with them and our no-very-political-correct humour, with some part of the group didn't seem to understand, lol. So now I have some contacts in Greece and also in Brussels, where our workcamp leader -greek EVS in JAVVA- will stay more or less the same period than me here in Bratislava.
I feel I should finish this sort of 'novel' I wrote about my experience with a deep and meaningful message about experiencing adventure and traveling and meeting new cultures, but I have the feeling that I can not put that down in words -even when nobody can say I didn't try!- but you have to live it yourself. So, I'm telling you, dare to join this amazing experience :)
Happy to finish in her second session writing (edit: third session adding pictures),
Ali
