Ahojte ludia! (That is Slovak for Hello people^^)
Yeah, lately I've been practising a lot of Slovak -maybe not so much this week but 4 out of 5 days of the previous one, yap. It's curious how depending with who I'm making the session I have different methods, but still it works everytime. Also I've recorded some of the meetings but I haven't found the time yet to go trhough the audio -anyway, it should be quite helpful.
Why didn't I have time for this? Because I've been meeting a lot with Dasa because of the workcamp starting on Sunday, the renovation of Jasenov Castle. I think I already wrote a few lines about it when I went for the previous visit. Since it is the first time that is going to take place there are all kinds of details that need to be clarify before starting. In this process I learnt a lot about organisation and communication, and I'm very happy I could count with the support of Dasa, who is very caring and perfectionist -good example to learn from, indeed.
So we wrote several emails to the participants and to the local partner, exchanging information all the time about practical issues like accomodation, meeting times, free time activities organisation... everything! It's good because know I also feel more prepare for the preparation of the next one, Slatinka, together with Peto. Even though I need to leave for a week for Jasenov we divided the work and he'll be in charge of contacting local partner and volunteers -I feel we're also going to make a good team and, besides, Slatinka has been taking place for few years already so everything should be smoother.
After work in the summer of Bratislava I've been enjoying a little bit my free time. I had tandem meetings, I've tried yoga outdoors in the nice park of Medicka Zahrada -with the cutest open-air tea house- and also tried jumping, which is basically making aerobic and work-out exercises in an individual trampolin for yourself -sounds fun but at the beginning it's quite difficult and gosh, it's intense!
Also this week I attended to two different foreigners' meetings in Bratislava: Monday with Couchsurfers and Wednesday with BLEM (Bratislava Language Exchange Meeting). Sarah is quite involved in the Couchsurfing community here and I joined her and had a lot of fun meeting new people, mostly travelers -and finally came back home at 3 am to work the following day with a little hangover, I didn't miss that but it was worthy.
On the other hand, Wednesday evening I meet a large community of people that are foreigners and they're working here in Bratislava. I was surprised there are so many of them, but as they explained me there are a lot of American IT companies around here and it's easy to find a work spot. Anyway, I stayed for a while in a group of Italians, then to the Spanish community and finally I ended up with a Slovak friend I met by Sarah, who was also with another friend of his -Juraj and Juraj or George and George. I stayed with them for a while and we passed by Rock Ok in the way to take the night bus -for enjoying the concert only aurally, not visually :P
Yesterday I had a short tandem meeting with Eva, one of my new contacts from Janka's birthday party. I was cleaning at home and I arrived quite late -to fulfill the Spanish archetype-, and after, instead of staying with her for Yoga in Medicka, I went with Dasa to buy our tickets together to Jasenov for tomorrow. Afterwards we passed by Lacinka, a communist-looking pancakes place -cheap and tasty, just the way I like it :D Take note: bryndzove je dobre, ale nie slany tvaroh. A potrebujem skusit especialne s vinou a smotanou (grapes and cream).
Then finally I arrived home, tired for the few sleep and the rush of the day, thinking that the family Skype meeting was not going to take long -but I was mighty wrong. This time I started only chatting with my sister since my mother was finishing something in the house, and we got to talk about how is she feeling about coming next year to Poland to study. Also she helped me calling my Spanish phone company to recover my PUK code -my battery was dead when I arrived from the weekend outside Bratislava and I couldn't remember my PIN code. Anyway, I had a great time with both my sister and my mother -and I'm going to give credit to Skype, perfect way to bring us together.
Actually, I realised talking with them more than ever that it's been hard for me to not come back home for such a long time. I mean, last year I was in Portugal as Erasmus and in the second semester I was also half a year straight without visiting my family -oh, wait, 5 months because of that snowboarding trip with my father on February. Anyhow, as I think about it, for me summer represents a kind of Christmas: I'm back home with my family and friends and enjoy the vacations by the sea (also in the winter time is pretty nice to walk in the beach).
The thing is I thought that it wasn't going to be a big deal to stay away so long from home, but actually I miss spending some quality face-to-face time with relatives and friends. In any case, I will survive :)
Well, I think that's all from me -I only skipt telling about a farewell party in Zvolen last weekend that wasn't so bad neither so good, probably because people were too much destroyed because of sangria made with Hungarian wine from plastic bottle, haha.
Right now I feel relaxed and excited, just in the right mood to go start my first experience as a workcamp leader. We'll see how that goes, tell you more when I'm back (after a week living in the woods without coverage and -of course- without Internet).
Take care, pals!
Hugs,
Ali
viernes, 26 de julio de 2013
lunes, 15 de julio de 2013
Just chill
Hey, how are you my dearest readers? Hope everything's fine and that you're enjoying your summer.
After June things are going pretty relax for me, but I can not complain -after traveling that's what I needed.
First week after I arrived I was given the news that the youth exchange project Matiss and I helped to write was approved, yay! Therefore, in this week we discussed about the different sessions of the agenda we had prepared before. We realise that actually -except 3 or 4 sessions that are about more specific topics-, we didn't need to prepare much about what are we going to say because we would like to focus on what the participants will share, involving them directly in the topics. Not bad idea, eh? :)
Monday, 1st of July, it was the farewell party barbacue of one EVS friend, Seamus -from Ireland. We didn't know each other very much, but I always enjoyed talking with him -and we have an 'Erasmus' program for parents that we should register, haha. It was also the celebration of the birthday party of Janka, a Slovak friend of him that is currently working in the National Agency of Slovakia. At the begining we were two close groups: foreigner volunteers and Slovak friends of Janka, but eventually we started mingling. In fact it was good, I met three girls interested in tandem conversation there -I have plenty of contacts now, great! Just need to organise my agenda, haha.
Then on Friday it was state holiday in Slovakia and I was thinking about going with another colleague on a trip to Prague to visit her brother. Unfortunately we both got a little sick and decided to leave it for another time. Instead we went the following Wednesday to watch The Great Gatsby in the cinema. I don't know whether the movie is mighty good or it just was really a long time for me since I didn't go to the cinema, but I really enjoyed the film -in original version, Slovak subtitles :P. I expected more from the story, that's true, but it was visually outstanding.
After some days that I voluntary shut myself away at home, hoping that the little cold I had healed properly but without getting any results, I decided to join Olga and her friend Julia -also former INEX EVS, from Belarus- in their visit to the lake on Sunday. For me is really funny the fact that people here go to the lake instead of the beach, but they have all the same stuff -or even more sometimes- than when going to the beach. I must say I don't like swimming in the lake as much as I like it in the sea, mainly because without salty water for me it's more difficult to float -which means I get stress when it doesn't work and rush to go back to the shore.
It wasn't until last Thursday that this cold -not strong enough to leave me resting at home, not weak enough to not be annoying- finally went away. Sadly, most of my tandem contacts were also away for the weekend, but luckily I have other friends.
On Friday I met Dasa that took me to a man-made beach by the Danube, just after crossing Aupark and Sad Krala park. There are plenty of hammocks and deck chairs to sunbath, and also some people were reading books from the open-air little library next to the beach. There is also a bar, volleyball pitches, an exercising playground and soon they will finish setting up the screen for the movie nights. It's quite a good place, I'm looking forward to visit it some time after the office hours, to mantain my tanning and just chill with some book.
Moving forward, Saturday I met Michele for attending some chorus concerts because of a international youth chorus competition taking place in Bratislava. I was late and I didn't watch all of them but the few I saw were great. Funniest part, sitting in the floor in front of the stage and suddenly seen ourselves surrounded by the different compiting groups. We decided to go with the South-African group and it was a good call, they won a lot of prices -though everybody did. After the prices we went to drink something to one of this boats by the river and later to grab some pizza. It was a nice afternoon.
Finally yesterday I met Mariano, another EVS friend, half Italian and half Argentinian. He was just coming from the Pohoda festival with my sleeping bag, which I had lend Azahara -also EVS but from Spain- few days before. His friend -from Argentina but currently living in Bristol- was also coming with him and I decided to take them both to this recently discover beach -all the way through the old town and with an icecream pause, of course. It's always good to have somebody to speak in Spanish every now and then, even when sometimes it was difficult for me to understand their expressions -very different versions of Spanish, indeed, but very funny guys.
It was almost evening when we said goodbye and I explored a new way home through Dvory bridge -I'm normally only taking the pedestrian bridges. I got home only to realize that I'm home alone for one whole week, since Sarah is in her on-arrival, Matiss in a workcamp and Olga -who was temporarily living with us instead of in her dorm- also in a workcamp abroad. Anyway, I think I can handle a little solitude -and even enjoy it. Calm times before the workcamps and crazy busy days that will start the 27th of July, with Jasenov workcamp.
Take care my pretty ones,
Hugs,
Ali
After June things are going pretty relax for me, but I can not complain -after traveling that's what I needed.
First week after I arrived I was given the news that the youth exchange project Matiss and I helped to write was approved, yay! Therefore, in this week we discussed about the different sessions of the agenda we had prepared before. We realise that actually -except 3 or 4 sessions that are about more specific topics-, we didn't need to prepare much about what are we going to say because we would like to focus on what the participants will share, involving them directly in the topics. Not bad idea, eh? :)
Monday, 1st of July, it was the farewell party barbacue of one EVS friend, Seamus -from Ireland. We didn't know each other very much, but I always enjoyed talking with him -and we have an 'Erasmus' program for parents that we should register, haha. It was also the celebration of the birthday party of Janka, a Slovak friend of him that is currently working in the National Agency of Slovakia. At the begining we were two close groups: foreigner volunteers and Slovak friends of Janka, but eventually we started mingling. In fact it was good, I met three girls interested in tandem conversation there -I have plenty of contacts now, great! Just need to organise my agenda, haha.
Then on Friday it was state holiday in Slovakia and I was thinking about going with another colleague on a trip to Prague to visit her brother. Unfortunately we both got a little sick and decided to leave it for another time. Instead we went the following Wednesday to watch The Great Gatsby in the cinema. I don't know whether the movie is mighty good or it just was really a long time for me since I didn't go to the cinema, but I really enjoyed the film -in original version, Slovak subtitles :P. I expected more from the story, that's true, but it was visually outstanding.
After some days that I voluntary shut myself away at home, hoping that the little cold I had healed properly but without getting any results, I decided to join Olga and her friend Julia -also former INEX EVS, from Belarus- in their visit to the lake on Sunday. For me is really funny the fact that people here go to the lake instead of the beach, but they have all the same stuff -or even more sometimes- than when going to the beach. I must say I don't like swimming in the lake as much as I like it in the sea, mainly because without salty water for me it's more difficult to float -which means I get stress when it doesn't work and rush to go back to the shore.
It wasn't until last Thursday that this cold -not strong enough to leave me resting at home, not weak enough to not be annoying- finally went away. Sadly, most of my tandem contacts were also away for the weekend, but luckily I have other friends.
On Friday I met Dasa that took me to a man-made beach by the Danube, just after crossing Aupark and Sad Krala park. There are plenty of hammocks and deck chairs to sunbath, and also some people were reading books from the open-air little library next to the beach. There is also a bar, volleyball pitches, an exercising playground and soon they will finish setting up the screen for the movie nights. It's quite a good place, I'm looking forward to visit it some time after the office hours, to mantain my tanning and just chill with some book.
Moving forward, Saturday I met Michele for attending some chorus concerts because of a international youth chorus competition taking place in Bratislava. I was late and I didn't watch all of them but the few I saw were great. Funniest part, sitting in the floor in front of the stage and suddenly seen ourselves surrounded by the different compiting groups. We decided to go with the South-African group and it was a good call, they won a lot of prices -though everybody did. After the prices we went to drink something to one of this boats by the river and later to grab some pizza. It was a nice afternoon.
Finally yesterday I met Mariano, another EVS friend, half Italian and half Argentinian. He was just coming from the Pohoda festival with my sleeping bag, which I had lend Azahara -also EVS but from Spain- few days before. His friend -from Argentina but currently living in Bristol- was also coming with him and I decided to take them both to this recently discover beach -all the way through the old town and with an icecream pause, of course. It's always good to have somebody to speak in Spanish every now and then, even when sometimes it was difficult for me to understand their expressions -very different versions of Spanish, indeed, but very funny guys.
It was almost evening when we said goodbye and I explored a new way home through Dvory bridge -I'm normally only taking the pedestrian bridges. I got home only to realize that I'm home alone for one whole week, since Sarah is in her on-arrival, Matiss in a workcamp and Olga -who was temporarily living with us instead of in her dorm- also in a workcamp abroad. Anyway, I think I can handle a little solitude -and even enjoy it. Calm times before the workcamps and crazy busy days that will start the 27th of July, with Jasenov workcamp.
Take care my pretty ones,
Hugs,
Ali
jueves, 11 de julio de 2013
Back in June III - Balkan-Unesco Trip
Last part of the trilogy of 'Back in June' is not about work, but about an incredible trip I made to the Balkan countries.
The reason why the 22nd of June, Saturday, I wanted to take a train that could save me couple of hours was not a craving but because I wanted to save some energy for the next day's train trip that was going to take 24 hours.
On Sunday I woke up at 5:45 am, took a shower, collected the dry clothes of the laundry I had made the day before and packed them again in my backpack, and made a lot of sandwiches for the trip -really, a lot. I was meeting Olga, my colleague from work who's now also a close friend -I would say- , and Michal, her Polish friend that she had met in a workcamp two years before, in the main train station of Bratislava for taking a train to Budapest. I found them there, greeted them excited and bought my go-and-return ticket Bratislava-Budapest (we knew we were coming back via Budapest and, besides, the price difference between one way or both ways is only 2E, keep that in mind!).
In the train to Budapest we chatted a while about how did we meet each other and Olga went trough the agenda she had prepared for us. We arrived in Budapest, got a little confused because the metro wasn't working and finally found our way to the international buses station -Nepliget. There we met Armin, also Olga's friend from a workcamp who had come directly from Germany, his homeland. Another round of introduction, agenda and expectations took place before taking the bus to Serbia -which few remaining places made us sit appart and I took advantage of it to rest my eyes for a while.
We arrived to Belgrade and we had something more than 2 hours to explore the city. So we bought our train tickets with reservation place -it's always better to pay for reservation 3-4 extra E and have a place to sit the whole night-, and as we didn't see any cloakroom just headed to the city center with our full backpacks. Belgrade is nice and the people look lively and friendly. I've also heard that is a good place of nightlife but we didn't had the time for that. Our train was waiting for us and we came back to the station, found our wagon and finally released our stuff and chill for a while.
In our very train car we met Luke, a guy from LA that is currently teaching English in Montenegro. Funny fact, his face looked familiar and it was because he had been some days before on holidays in Budapest and was in the same bus that we had taken before. He was really helpful about what was worthy visiting and what wasn't, and we adapt our agenda according to his tips: skip Sveti Stefan, add Kotor.
I must confessed I was a little bit sceptical about this whole 24-hour trip but Balkan trains have their charm. I mean, true, each time I wanted to pee I had to pass by a group of old man drinking and smoking, and once in the bathroom both the sink and the toilet were running with pedals. But the seats were really comfortable with those parts to rest your head without bodering the next passenger, and watching the sunset with half of the body out of the window I have to admit that it felt kind of magical.
Yaaaaawn* and then it was morning. Like really early, 6 am approx, and outside the window a whole landscape of green mountains and fluffy fog was showing in front of our still sleepy eyes. It was so nice but I was so tired that I struggled for sometime to finally wake up and look around. Montenegro is a beautiful country indeed, and this was just the first sample.
We arrived in Bar -the city, not a pub :D- around 7 am and headed to the city center. Since Olga is from Ukraine and even when by night we had a passport control but got nothing stamped, she was worried about it and we decided to ask in a police station before taking a bus to Budva -our final destination. Luke had an appartment rented close to the center and he showed us the way there. We said goodbye, found the police station that said we should ask in the border police in the port, and so we headed to the beach to wait until they would opened at 10am.
The Adriatic. 8 am. 25ºC already. HELLO WATER! :D Very strange to take a bath in the sea at that time, yet very refreshing! Though the water is warmer than in the Atlantic Ocean mixed with Mediterranean -yes, I'm referring to my hometown. This was nice, the fact about rocky beach instead of sandy one I didn't like it so much, but the water, on the other hand, is so clean. Is that kind of light blue closer to the Caribbean than to the Atlantic, pretty pretty.
Ok, I'm switching to quicker storyteller version now because I can not believe I only told about 1st day so far.
Monday 24th of June, 10:30 am, 'Hello border police of Montenegro, we want our passports stamped'. 'Sorry guys, can not do that here, but don't worry, you don't need it, with stamp of Serbia is already enough'. 'Great, thanks, goodbye!'.
Bus to Budva, getting lost in Budva finding our camping, finally finding our camping, leaving all the stuff in our brand new assambled tent, buying stuff for lunch -they, not me, I still had sandwiches-, going to the beach for having lunch, relaxing in the beach. Nice relaxing time, sleeping with the sound of the ocean. Gosh, I missed that.
Came back to the camping and realizing we had it for ourselves since the kid's group we had found in the morning were gone. Took shower and headed to the old town, with new energy to discover the city. And wow, it was this beautiful.
Have I already mentioned how much I like prices in Montenegro? I had risotto with vegeteables in the main square for 4.5E, check that! Also we took a bath and chill a bit after the lunch in Kotor's beach, altough I prefered the one in Budva because the water looked cleaner there.
Came back to Budva, shower, dinner, old town, concert, beer, camping, sleep. And good morning, 26th! Breakfast, bus station, Cetinje. Cetinje was the former royal capital of Montenegro and I really can not understand why. I mean, is a nice town, don't get me wrong, but is really town-size. Most interesting spot there? An ortodox monastery of some centuries before where you have to wear clothes that cover properly your body. This was the place and that my improvised outfit -yap, I'm wearing my towel with the flag of Montenegro as a long skirt. Close to that place there is also a small hill and a nice viewer on the top.
Nevertheless, Cetinje was not our main target for the day, it was Rijeka Crnojevica. We took a taxi from there -there's no other way to get there by public transport- and had a boat trip from this little river that flows into Skadar lakes, the biggest in Montenegro and Albania -yep, they're in the border. It's a protected natural park, beautiful.
Afternoon, same-old same-old. I think we even went earlier to bed, we were exhausted indeed. Michal woke up around 6:30 to take the bus to Zadar (Croatia) because he had a flight back to Poland the next day. Armin, Olga and me rested a little longer in the tent, woke up and packed lunch to take it in Jaz beach, only 10 minutes by bus from Budva. After two intensive days making tourism we had this day off just for chilling ang getting tanned. Funny fact, Olga -I insist, she's from Ukraine-, was more tanned at the end of the trip than I was -we joked a lot about this, that maybe I was Slovak and probably she was from Africa. Ah, melanin, you little senseless thing.
Anyway, we worked hard in our tanning, so even when after 3pm we took a bus back to Budva and Armin went to get some shadow-shelter in the camping, we decided to explore some new beach after the old town and stayed there for couple more hours.
Relaxation was that day's point. You see, next day (28th) we woke up 5:45 am, shower -very important, it could had been the last of the trip-, dismantled the tent, packed our stuff and took bus to Dubrovnik. Arriving almost at midday we were surprised by the rush of crowds of tourists waiting in the bus station for taking historical busses to the old town. Instead of joining them we took our time to change money -they have kuna there-, left our luggage in the cloakroom, buy our tickets for later in the afternoon, and finally took a normal urban bus to the old town -almost 2E the ticket, gosh it hurt after Montenegro.
Dubrovnik's old city is splendid and yet suffocating because of tourists. We took our time to explore it without getting into the high city walls that surrounds it -freeking expensive, aka 'European price'. Still we got some nice shots, a reasonable price fast-food restaurant and then we walked out the old city and headed to the beach for a little rest before taking the next bus. Here we dipped in the Adriatic for the last time and had a quick shower with Armin's Nivea for Men shampoo plus shower gel in the public showers of the beach -though you have to pay 1 kuna per 2 minutes shower, but it's nothing and it was totally worthy.
Friday 28th, 6pm, bus from Dubrovnik to Plitvice, arriving at 4 am. That's it, it was dark night and, as an extra, it was raining when we arrived. And as I'm not use to this other climate yet I didn't took any raincoat, not only because I don't have one but because it's still feels strange in my mind to have actual rain during summer -'come on, it's summer!'. Yeah, well, welcome to the East!
My friends assambled the tent with their raincoats while I waited in the bus stop shelter. But to make things worse, one hour later a well-intentioned local woke us up and told us we were very close to the path and we should move just a little bit deeper in the forest. We did so -it was still raining but moving the tent from the inside I managed to stay dry- and we slept until around 9, when the rain finally gave us a break.
Dismantling, breakfast, bathroom, buy tickets, left luggage and enter the Natural Park of Plitvice Lakes -under UNESCO Heritage. We paid around 11E (student price) and entered one of the most wonderful natural places I've ever been. This lakes are formed like cascades, which means they have different height levels and they flow into others in breathtaking waterfalls. Besides, the water is so clean you can see the bottom most of the time, and other times you can see a light blue colour similar than the Adriatic. Outstanding.
However, this is the biggest atraction in Croatia, which means that it was even more crowded with tourists than Dubrovnik, haha. We were confident that we could finish a route that could take from 4 to 6 hours in the minimum time, but in fact there were moments in the begining when we couldn't even move because we were stucked in the line you have to follow. In any case, after a while they appeared different routes and the journey turned more enjoyable.
It was around 5 pm when we left the natural park and got into a bus to Zagreb, final destination of the trip. We arrived at 7 pm -yeah, it's rather close- to the bus station and walked to the train station. It's only one avenue but if you're tired and have a heavy backpack in your back it makes you wonder why didn't you take bus or tramp. Still, this avenue is full with very original graffitis and I tried to focused on that while slowly approaching also the city center.
We entered the train station and realised that our train to Budapest was not at midnight but at 3 am -'grrreat!'. Nonetheless we were lucky, because due to Croatia joining the European Union the following day we attended the simulation shows that were going to take place the next night, for the big celebration. I especially enjoyed the folk dancing and singing performance, with folk costumes and swords and all that.
Besides, Zagreb is a very nice city. Just when we went out of the train station with our tickets -automatic lockers available, bingo! later, luggage!-, we found ourselves with a huge square with a great young atmosphere. There were groups of young people everywhere with their guitars and their booze, just having a good time. It attract my attention a group of -perhaps Turkish- people, singing with that magical spirit I could compare to some gypsy's singing back in Spain. Mystic.
And, pleasant surprise, Zagreb is not expensive at all! We had dinner the three of us for around 11E, right in the city center and with good quality food, in fact not bad. But well, after the walking and the dinner and the performances, we said goodbye to Armin -he was staying two more nights there- and came back to the train station with plenty of time before our train.
Here's a little tip. If you're in a country with different currency than yours -and of course you prefer to spend all the money or give it to your friend that's staying longer-, save at least like around 50 cents of E so you can pay the entrance to the bathrooms in the station. Geez, we didn't have more kuna left, I'm glad the dull woman in charge of the paying accepted 60 cents instead -the train wasn't coming so soon for me to wait.
Then a period of time passed when I was more a zombie than a person. Since it was only 1:30 am, I tried to sleep before the train came -late, at 3:30 am. Get in the train, sleep in the train, sleep in your sleeping bag because air condition is just crazy freezing, wake up several times for passport controls -got last lifetime stamp of Croatia as a non-EU country-, and finally arrive to Budapest. Waited some time in Budapest until our train to Bratislava arrived, got in it as quick as possible to seat in the few seats without reservation fee, got sleepy again and finally arriving to Bratislava.
I could almost hear a kind of 'Halellujah' hymn when I was walking into my flat at 2pm of 30th of June, Sunday. I found my flatmates and chatted a little with them before deciding to take a well-deserved shower and a long restorative nap.
Later that day it was a sad moment because we officially said goodbye to Stephanie from our flat -the owners came to check that everything was allright-, but actually we had further opportunities to meet her before she finally at the beginning of this week. And, looking on the bright side, Sarah moved to her room, Matiss to his previous room and I got my little one back -I had missed it.
After such intense trips it's always a little hard for me to readapt to 'normal life' activities. Going to work, cooking, making the same route two days in a raw, it just feels strange for me during some space of time. Anyhow, I'm already use to daily work again, though I really should think about investing some more time in cooking proper meals. Hm, collateral effects -eventually everything will get back to normal, even when you won't exactly be the same person you were before. Because for a short period of time you have seen things, you have done things and you have experienced things that enlarges your vision of what is normal, what is reality or what is life and how is it supposed to look like.
Tomorrow never knows.
Good night, mis pequeños capullitos de alelí.
Ali
The reason why the 22nd of June, Saturday, I wanted to take a train that could save me couple of hours was not a craving but because I wanted to save some energy for the next day's train trip that was going to take 24 hours.
On Sunday I woke up at 5:45 am, took a shower, collected the dry clothes of the laundry I had made the day before and packed them again in my backpack, and made a lot of sandwiches for the trip -really, a lot. I was meeting Olga, my colleague from work who's now also a close friend -I would say- , and Michal, her Polish friend that she had met in a workcamp two years before, in the main train station of Bratislava for taking a train to Budapest. I found them there, greeted them excited and bought my go-and-return ticket Bratislava-Budapest (we knew we were coming back via Budapest and, besides, the price difference between one way or both ways is only 2E, keep that in mind!).
In the train to Budapest we chatted a while about how did we meet each other and Olga went trough the agenda she had prepared for us. We arrived in Budapest, got a little confused because the metro wasn't working and finally found our way to the international buses station -Nepliget. There we met Armin, also Olga's friend from a workcamp who had come directly from Germany, his homeland. Another round of introduction, agenda and expectations took place before taking the bus to Serbia -which few remaining places made us sit appart and I took advantage of it to rest my eyes for a while.
We arrived to Belgrade and we had something more than 2 hours to explore the city. So we bought our train tickets with reservation place -it's always better to pay for reservation 3-4 extra E and have a place to sit the whole night-, and as we didn't see any cloakroom just headed to the city center with our full backpacks. Belgrade is nice and the people look lively and friendly. I've also heard that is a good place of nightlife but we didn't had the time for that. Our train was waiting for us and we came back to the station, found our wagon and finally released our stuff and chill for a while.
In our very train car we met Luke, a guy from LA that is currently teaching English in Montenegro. Funny fact, his face looked familiar and it was because he had been some days before on holidays in Budapest and was in the same bus that we had taken before. He was really helpful about what was worthy visiting and what wasn't, and we adapt our agenda according to his tips: skip Sveti Stefan, add Kotor.
I must confessed I was a little bit sceptical about this whole 24-hour trip but Balkan trains have their charm. I mean, true, each time I wanted to pee I had to pass by a group of old man drinking and smoking, and once in the bathroom both the sink and the toilet were running with pedals. But the seats were really comfortable with those parts to rest your head without bodering the next passenger, and watching the sunset with half of the body out of the window I have to admit that it felt kind of magical.
Yaaaaawn* and then it was morning. Like really early, 6 am approx, and outside the window a whole landscape of green mountains and fluffy fog was showing in front of our still sleepy eyes. It was so nice but I was so tired that I struggled for sometime to finally wake up and look around. Montenegro is a beautiful country indeed, and this was just the first sample.
We arrived in Bar -the city, not a pub :D- around 7 am and headed to the city center. Since Olga is from Ukraine and even when by night we had a passport control but got nothing stamped, she was worried about it and we decided to ask in a police station before taking a bus to Budva -our final destination. Luke had an appartment rented close to the center and he showed us the way there. We said goodbye, found the police station that said we should ask in the border police in the port, and so we headed to the beach to wait until they would opened at 10am.
The Adriatic. 8 am. 25ºC already. HELLO WATER! :D Very strange to take a bath in the sea at that time, yet very refreshing! Though the water is warmer than in the Atlantic Ocean mixed with Mediterranean -yes, I'm referring to my hometown. This was nice, the fact about rocky beach instead of sandy one I didn't like it so much, but the water, on the other hand, is so clean. Is that kind of light blue closer to the Caribbean than to the Atlantic, pretty pretty.
Ok, I'm switching to quicker storyteller version now because I can not believe I only told about 1st day so far.
Monday 24th of June, 10:30 am, 'Hello border police of Montenegro, we want our passports stamped'. 'Sorry guys, can not do that here, but don't worry, you don't need it, with stamp of Serbia is already enough'. 'Great, thanks, goodbye!'.
Bus to Budva, getting lost in Budva finding our camping, finally finding our camping, leaving all the stuff in our brand new assambled tent, buying stuff for lunch -they, not me, I still had sandwiches-, going to the beach for having lunch, relaxing in the beach. Nice relaxing time, sleeping with the sound of the ocean. Gosh, I missed that.
Came back to the camping and realizing we had it for ourselves since the kid's group we had found in the morning were gone. Took shower and headed to the old town, with new energy to discover the city. And wow, it was this beautiful.
Anyway, this 'new energy' didn't last long so we decided to get back to the camping not very late, even though before we stopped by the same spot we had been in the beach during the afternoon and Michal found the courage to take a bath with the moonlight while we watched and enjoyed his 'spontaneous' impulse.
Next day was already 25th of June, Tuesday, and we woke up around 9 not with alarms but because of the heat. You see? This was a dreamy camping with grapeyards in our head covering from the direct sunlight, but still it is summer and it was terrible hot -more if you're 4 people sharing a tent that should be for 2 or 3.
After buying some stuff for breakfast and taking it calmly we went to the bus station and ask for tickets to Kotor -this was going to be our first UNESCO Heritage place to visit. Let me give you an insight also on Eastern-Europe buses: they do not care so much if you are sitting or not as long as you fit on the bus. This trip was only 1 hour and we got the last -standing up- places. I had also experienced this before in Slovakia, in a 3-hour trip going to the mountains -luckily we had our tickets bought in advance and we were sitting, this is something I strongly recommend you, to buy in advance and arrive early to the bus to have a seat.
Where were we? Aha! 25th June, Kotor. I will let pictures talk by me because I was speachless about this magnificent medieval town and its path to the ancient city walls at the top of the hill.
Came back to Budva, shower, dinner, old town, concert, beer, camping, sleep. And good morning, 26th! Breakfast, bus station, Cetinje. Cetinje was the former royal capital of Montenegro and I really can not understand why. I mean, is a nice town, don't get me wrong, but is really town-size. Most interesting spot there? An ortodox monastery of some centuries before where you have to wear clothes that cover properly your body. This was the place and that my improvised outfit -yap, I'm wearing my towel with the flag of Montenegro as a long skirt. Close to that place there is also a small hill and a nice viewer on the top.
Afternoon, same-old same-old. I think we even went earlier to bed, we were exhausted indeed. Michal woke up around 6:30 to take the bus to Zadar (Croatia) because he had a flight back to Poland the next day. Armin, Olga and me rested a little longer in the tent, woke up and packed lunch to take it in Jaz beach, only 10 minutes by bus from Budva. After two intensive days making tourism we had this day off just for chilling ang getting tanned. Funny fact, Olga -I insist, she's from Ukraine-, was more tanned at the end of the trip than I was -we joked a lot about this, that maybe I was Slovak and probably she was from Africa. Ah, melanin, you little senseless thing.
Anyway, we worked hard in our tanning, so even when after 3pm we took a bus back to Budva and Armin went to get some shadow-shelter in the camping, we decided to explore some new beach after the old town and stayed there for couple more hours.
Relaxation was that day's point. You see, next day (28th) we woke up 5:45 am, shower -very important, it could had been the last of the trip-, dismantled the tent, packed our stuff and took bus to Dubrovnik. Arriving almost at midday we were surprised by the rush of crowds of tourists waiting in the bus station for taking historical busses to the old town. Instead of joining them we took our time to change money -they have kuna there-, left our luggage in the cloakroom, buy our tickets for later in the afternoon, and finally took a normal urban bus to the old town -almost 2E the ticket, gosh it hurt after Montenegro.
Dubrovnik's old city is splendid and yet suffocating because of tourists. We took our time to explore it without getting into the high city walls that surrounds it -freeking expensive, aka 'European price'. Still we got some nice shots, a reasonable price fast-food restaurant and then we walked out the old city and headed to the beach for a little rest before taking the next bus. Here we dipped in the Adriatic for the last time and had a quick shower with Armin's Nivea for Men shampoo plus shower gel in the public showers of the beach -though you have to pay 1 kuna per 2 minutes shower, but it's nothing and it was totally worthy.
Friday 28th, 6pm, bus from Dubrovnik to Plitvice, arriving at 4 am. That's it, it was dark night and, as an extra, it was raining when we arrived. And as I'm not use to this other climate yet I didn't took any raincoat, not only because I don't have one but because it's still feels strange in my mind to have actual rain during summer -'come on, it's summer!'. Yeah, well, welcome to the East!
My friends assambled the tent with their raincoats while I waited in the bus stop shelter. But to make things worse, one hour later a well-intentioned local woke us up and told us we were very close to the path and we should move just a little bit deeper in the forest. We did so -it was still raining but moving the tent from the inside I managed to stay dry- and we slept until around 9, when the rain finally gave us a break.
Dismantling, breakfast, bathroom, buy tickets, left luggage and enter the Natural Park of Plitvice Lakes -under UNESCO Heritage. We paid around 11E (student price) and entered one of the most wonderful natural places I've ever been. This lakes are formed like cascades, which means they have different height levels and they flow into others in breathtaking waterfalls. Besides, the water is so clean you can see the bottom most of the time, and other times you can see a light blue colour similar than the Adriatic. Outstanding.
However, this is the biggest atraction in Croatia, which means that it was even more crowded with tourists than Dubrovnik, haha. We were confident that we could finish a route that could take from 4 to 6 hours in the minimum time, but in fact there were moments in the begining when we couldn't even move because we were stucked in the line you have to follow. In any case, after a while they appeared different routes and the journey turned more enjoyable.
It was around 5 pm when we left the natural park and got into a bus to Zagreb, final destination of the trip. We arrived at 7 pm -yeah, it's rather close- to the bus station and walked to the train station. It's only one avenue but if you're tired and have a heavy backpack in your back it makes you wonder why didn't you take bus or tramp. Still, this avenue is full with very original graffitis and I tried to focused on that while slowly approaching also the city center.
We entered the train station and realised that our train to Budapest was not at midnight but at 3 am -'grrreat!'. Nonetheless we were lucky, because due to Croatia joining the European Union the following day we attended the simulation shows that were going to take place the next night, for the big celebration. I especially enjoyed the folk dancing and singing performance, with folk costumes and swords and all that.
Besides, Zagreb is a very nice city. Just when we went out of the train station with our tickets -automatic lockers available, bingo! later, luggage!-, we found ourselves with a huge square with a great young atmosphere. There were groups of young people everywhere with their guitars and their booze, just having a good time. It attract my attention a group of -perhaps Turkish- people, singing with that magical spirit I could compare to some gypsy's singing back in Spain. Mystic.
And, pleasant surprise, Zagreb is not expensive at all! We had dinner the three of us for around 11E, right in the city center and with good quality food, in fact not bad. But well, after the walking and the dinner and the performances, we said goodbye to Armin -he was staying two more nights there- and came back to the train station with plenty of time before our train.
Here's a little tip. If you're in a country with different currency than yours -and of course you prefer to spend all the money or give it to your friend that's staying longer-, save at least like around 50 cents of E so you can pay the entrance to the bathrooms in the station. Geez, we didn't have more kuna left, I'm glad the dull woman in charge of the paying accepted 60 cents instead -the train wasn't coming so soon for me to wait.
Then a period of time passed when I was more a zombie than a person. Since it was only 1:30 am, I tried to sleep before the train came -late, at 3:30 am. Get in the train, sleep in the train, sleep in your sleeping bag because air condition is just crazy freezing, wake up several times for passport controls -got last lifetime stamp of Croatia as a non-EU country-, and finally arrive to Budapest. Waited some time in Budapest until our train to Bratislava arrived, got in it as quick as possible to seat in the few seats without reservation fee, got sleepy again and finally arriving to Bratislava.
I could almost hear a kind of 'Halellujah' hymn when I was walking into my flat at 2pm of 30th of June, Sunday. I found my flatmates and chatted a little with them before deciding to take a well-deserved shower and a long restorative nap.
Later that day it was a sad moment because we officially said goodbye to Stephanie from our flat -the owners came to check that everything was allright-, but actually we had further opportunities to meet her before she finally at the beginning of this week. And, looking on the bright side, Sarah moved to her room, Matiss to his previous room and I got my little one back -I had missed it.
After such intense trips it's always a little hard for me to readapt to 'normal life' activities. Going to work, cooking, making the same route two days in a raw, it just feels strange for me during some space of time. Anyhow, I'm already use to daily work again, though I really should think about investing some more time in cooking proper meals. Hm, collateral effects -eventually everything will get back to normal, even when you won't exactly be the same person you were before. Because for a short period of time you have seen things, you have done things and you have experienced things that enlarges your vision of what is normal, what is reality or what is life and how is it supposed to look like.
Tomorrow never knows.
Good night, mis pequeños capullitos de alelí.
Ali
martes, 9 de julio de 2013
Back in June II - Eastern Slovakia
Back in time again, it was the 20th of June and I had just finished my quite enjoyable Mid-term training. After a quick lunch and sensitively waiting for the train I had checked on Internet before -I could had taken others that were late, early for me, but there were a different category, which means you'll probably need to pay more-, I took a repairing nap in my way to Kosice.
I recall waking up, watching the landscape and thinking how nice and green is Slovakia, and turning greener and wilder in nature as crossing it from west to east, from Bratislava to Poprad and then Poprad Kosice. Why Kosice? Why not?! It's European Capital of Culture 2013, the second largest city in the country and a beautiful one, as you may have heard by the locals from there -also the easter you go the more patriotic people feel, or something like this I had been told. Aha, lucky me I found a map to show you. See? That red line is the one I took to go and back.
Anyway, when I arrived around 4pm, my friend Peto -an INEX volunteer and soon to be leader together with me in Slatinka eco-village- was waiting for me in the train station, within the 34º the thermometer indicated in the pannel just outside it. Of course, with this melting feeling we agreed that the smart thing to do was just having a rest in his fresh and modern house until the sun was somehow calmer.
Peto is currently studying geography in Bratislava and he lives there, only coming in time to time back home for the weekend to his parents house, where I was their guest. I guess I haven't met many families so far to compare, but really, they treated me like a queen. Even when his father didn't know much of English he tried to talked with me via his son -in the role of a translator-, tough I could understand him in the basics -felt so proud and rewarded when this happened. And also her mother, who tried harder in English, was friendly and curious, making me questions -you know, funny fact, everybody wants to find our why I ended up in Slovakia, me included! :P
Well, his father prepared for me a tasty dinner and after some talking we decided to go for a walk. My impression of Kosice -compared to Bratislava that is the city I'm use to now- is that is peaceful and colorful, and the people in the streets are actual locals and not tourists crowds or crazy bachelor parties guys -no offence, Bratislava :P
Next day we had the other half of the touristic visit by foot, came back for lunch when I was happy to prepare for them pasta carbonara, and -last part- go all over Kosice in Peto's friend car, not only for visiting but for finding a place to buy this lens cover tap of the camara that I had offered to the spirit of the waterfalls in High Tatras the day before, haha. It was hard but we manage to find it in the biggest shopping center around. Shame on me, I don't have a picture with my hoster, but here's one of he and his friend in the entrance to a forest in the outskirts where it was built a tower from where you can see all the city -nice view.
Next day it was 22nd of June, Saturday, and we woke up extremely early for a Saturday morning -6:45 am, to take a shower before our meeting with Alex at 8 am to finally take a look to the castle (yes, there were showers! no, hot water was too much to ask, haha). He picked us up with his car and drove us somewhere close in the village, where a steep hill was waiting for our 15-minute walk to the top and find this amazing place.
I really liked the place and the atmosphere. For me since the night before I felt like in a fairytale, and the view of the castle and the certainty that we are going to live in the forest for a whole week -showering from a stream of water and cooking in a fireplace- just made this feeling deeper. Can not wait for this to start! :)
Alex drove us to Humenné's train station with plenty of time for taking the train at 11:22 am -that's the reason why we had woken up that crazy early, in case you wondered-, making it possible for me to take the connection of an InterCity (IC) train to Bratislava in Kosice and saving 2 hours of trip. In the train Dasa went trough her notebook and made sure to inform me of all the previous questions we had previously discussed, and had been answered by Alex.
Once in Kosice I said goodbye to Dasa, who wanted to visit Kosice since it was her first time there. Me, on the other hand, just wanted to reach home, make a laundry and prepare the things for my next trip, that was just going to start the very next day. But that's another story, a great one and therefore deserves a post on its own. So see you in the next post, unconditional reader.
Hugs,
Ali
I recall waking up, watching the landscape and thinking how nice and green is Slovakia, and turning greener and wilder in nature as crossing it from west to east, from Bratislava to Poprad and then Poprad Kosice. Why Kosice? Why not?! It's European Capital of Culture 2013, the second largest city in the country and a beautiful one, as you may have heard by the locals from there -also the easter you go the more patriotic people feel, or something like this I had been told. Aha, lucky me I found a map to show you. See? That red line is the one I took to go and back.
Anyway, when I arrived around 4pm, my friend Peto -an INEX volunteer and soon to be leader together with me in Slatinka eco-village- was waiting for me in the train station, within the 34º the thermometer indicated in the pannel just outside it. Of course, with this melting feeling we agreed that the smart thing to do was just having a rest in his fresh and modern house until the sun was somehow calmer.
Peto is currently studying geography in Bratislava and he lives there, only coming in time to time back home for the weekend to his parents house, where I was their guest. I guess I haven't met many families so far to compare, but really, they treated me like a queen. Even when his father didn't know much of English he tried to talked with me via his son -in the role of a translator-, tough I could understand him in the basics -felt so proud and rewarded when this happened. And also her mother, who tried harder in English, was friendly and curious, making me questions -you know, funny fact, everybody wants to find our why I ended up in Slovakia, me included! :P
Well, his father prepared for me a tasty dinner and after some talking we decided to go for a walk. My impression of Kosice -compared to Bratislava that is the city I'm use to now- is that is peaceful and colorful, and the people in the streets are actual locals and not tourists crowds or crazy bachelor parties guys -no offence, Bratislava :P
Next day we had the other half of the touristic visit by foot, came back for lunch when I was happy to prepare for them pasta carbonara, and -last part- go all over Kosice in Peto's friend car, not only for visiting but for finding a place to buy this lens cover tap of the camara that I had offered to the spirit of the waterfalls in High Tatras the day before, haha. It was hard but we manage to find it in the biggest shopping center around. Shame on me, I don't have a picture with my hoster, but here's one of he and his friend in the entrance to a forest in the outskirts where it was built a tower from where you can see all the city -nice view.
Then, after a moment of stress because of train delays -I told you, can not trust Slovak railways punctuality-, we headed to the train station in his friend's car -really helpful guy indeed- and I took another train to my real destination: Humenné and very close, Jasenov -final destination. See? I am also going to lead a workcamp of a renovation of a ruinned castle and it's very normal -and more necessary this time since it's a brand new project- to arrange an appointment with the local partner and talk over the living and working conditions. Yeah, this was the main purpose of the trip -tough I'm extremely thankful to Peto for hosting me and avoiding making all the way from Bratislava-, and the importance of taking an specific train was because Dasa was also coming.
Who's Dasa? This name should sound familiar for the genuine readers, haha. She's my menthor, she was a leader last year in Slatinka and this year we'll be leading together Jasenov castle workcamp. Since our local partner said that he didn't speak so much English she was the one who had been in touch with him for this visit and he was waiting for us once we arrived to Humenné to take us by car to Jasenov.
I was actually surprised to find in Humenné's train station a couple in their late-fortys/early fifties. I don't know why but I was expecting someone younger, ale nevadi. Alex and his wife -Barbara might be her name? my bad, I forgot- greeted us warmly and drove us to the Culture's House of Jasenov, where a friendly mayor came by bike and opened for us the place where we stayed the night over. It was a huge place and I didn't take any pictures of the inside because it was already dark, but no! I took this one photo of the dinner we had that night: home-made wild-pig soup, by Jasenov's mayor, check that! :D
During this visit Dasa and Alex were talking in Slovak about future work and the history of the castle and the organisation that is nowadays in charge of its renovation. Sometimes they will translate some words in English for me that I really appreciate, tough I felt certain that Dasa was translating the most important parts for me -she's so caring!
After reaching the top the only possibility was to go down again, so we start our descent passing trough some important places: the break area, the cottage where we are supposed to sleep during the workcamp -there were some mould in there, we hope is nothing serious and they will manage to fix it by then- and finally the way back to the car by a beautiful meadow.
Alex drove us to Humenné's train station with plenty of time for taking the train at 11:22 am -that's the reason why we had woken up that crazy early, in case you wondered-, making it possible for me to take the connection of an InterCity (IC) train to Bratislava in Kosice and saving 2 hours of trip. In the train Dasa went trough her notebook and made sure to inform me of all the previous questions we had previously discussed, and had been answered by Alex.
Once in Kosice I said goodbye to Dasa, who wanted to visit Kosice since it was her first time there. Me, on the other hand, just wanted to reach home, make a laundry and prepare the things for my next trip, that was just going to start the very next day. But that's another story, a great one and therefore deserves a post on its own. So see you in the next post, unconditional reader.
Hugs,
Ali
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