Such an intriguing theme. What 3 cold-blooded Estonians do in their room? Most of all we used our room resting. Nothing is better than a power nap or deep sleep during night. But we have wonderful stories what happened there. First of all, I talk about our room great advandages. We were on the second floor and had a great view of our garden. We had overview of everything that happened around us. Most useful was our balcony during nights. It was dark and nobody has an idea are you sitting there or not. So we had an opportunity to spy, listen what people talk on the swing or bench. Actually, the same happened during a daytime, because nobody noticed it. Yes, it was a perfect spot stalking people. Secondly, our room was next to professors one, so we were part of dirct connection. We didn't use that opportuny a lot, so it was even more disadvantage. Why? We had to behave decently, make no noise. Actually it wasn't a big deal, we would have behaved decently anyway. Haha, but still. Once I had an embarrassing meeting with professor. I was changing my clothes when professor got out of her room. Anna had left the door open (annoying habit she had) and from my bed was a direct view to the door. So, yeah. Heleri's weird habit was leaving you alone during a conversation. She just left without saying anything. And once, we talked and she left and switched off the light, so I was left there in the darkness.
Funny and unexpected situatuons happened more. When we were moving furniture in our room, we put television in the closet. So we hadn't an opportunity to use it even a day. We had a fridge in our room but it was more like a freezer. It freezed everything inside of it, we tried to trim the temperature but it didn't help. So, our chocolate, grapes, drinks were freezed. We thought it doesn't work on strong alchohol but hellyeah, probably Bulgarian wine is made of water because the cork had fallen off and wine was totally freezed. It was the cheapest wine (1 €) I have ever bought, so we thought it happened because of that but nope, about a week later Heleri bought average price range wine and we had the same situation. If I remember right, same thing happened with beer but it was explainable because it doesn't cosist so much alcohol. One day I unfortunately broke cover inside a fridge. My bad, but it wasn't an intentional move and after all it didn't chang nothing about fridge's functional work. Before we left, I washed our mini freezer totally and left it behind in very clean condition. Most unexpected situations were linked with water system. Firstly our shower top (where water comes out. I don't have better description of it) was broken. Water splashed out indiscriminately and it was really hard washing yourself if water doesn't hit you. We talked about or problem to Rashed and on the next day it was fixed. Fast and natty work, many thanks. But our scariest story happened after Anna had came out of shower. We had a hole in the bathroom and suddenly water flowed out of. This was unstoppable stream and it splashed out of bathroom. Anna was hysterical, and we were surprised with Heleri. We closed the door and hoped the best. After few minutes it stopped. The whole situation was so odd. After few weeks it happened again. This time I was with Heleri. Nobody even was in the bathroom. This time we couldn't react so quickly so our hall floor was drown. After that I was really scared of this pipe. If it had sunk when nobody in the room, it would have drowned all out room. In one sunny day after work I didn't have this fear because we didn't have water at all. It was disgusting because after archeology work, washing is needed. On the other hand, it was so humane and cool. It broke our routine and we cleaned ourself with wet wipes. It means, actually we didn't have a problem. I was concerned about how womens cook for us and how long this situation will stay in general. I went to bed and when I woke up the problem was eliminated. In Bulgaria where you can't count on a lot of things, the water-supply break was quick. Every morning first sunrays hit Heleri's face. We had to wake up already really early and the sun disturbed her sleep. Despite that, Heleri was the last one who got out of the bed. My alarm was the first one and I got off the bed immediately, otherwise I would have fallen asleep again. For me it was ordinar to spend time in my underwear. It was soo hot all the time that it was more comfortable to stay without clothes. Especially during my power-naps. Our room was Estonian culture centre. When we tried to figure out what we prepare for our Estonian cultural night we were listening any kind of Estonian music. It was so viral that even Marat got his influence from "Rändajad". Not only Estonian language made our room special. We had an Estonian sweets, so we munched a bit every week. Estonians are quite mystical people and maybe that's why we predicted future with Anna new playing cards. My prediction to Anna was pretty accurate. I read from cards that he finds a boyfriend, I made a mistake only with hair colour. More mystical things happened in our room. In my Italian notebook, where was written numbers I had made a mistake. I had written milla instead of mille and secretly someone had corrected it 😆 The bugs were mysterious creatures as well, they were sneaky and bit while sleeping. In one night some spider bit my legs for thousand times. All my leg was dotted and ugly. I hate spiders a lot and after all they decide to come and bother me. Big spider had a web in my corner. And one female spider lived in our bathroom and had baby spiders. This situation went out of control and we organized mission "Spiders to the nature", huuh, it was so disgusting and scary but somehow we managed the horrible situation with Heleri. And I still remember how Anna terrified me with spider. And I haven't forget the situation on the excavation! Why I have to deal with this kind of tasks? Most trustful was washing your own socks and underwear, our hosts were even so kind that they brought us a clothesline in out balcony. But before, when we didn't had it I dryed my socks on radiator. Probably on the first time I dried them I lost one sock. It fell between heater and wall and I couldn't get it from there. I had a lot of socks, so I didn't care but before we left the hostel I got it out thanks to a branch. It just stayed there for almost two months. Hmm, and our room hosted a few other participants. I never invited somebody in our room, even though some people tried their best to get in, I still didn't let nobody in. I would also like to talk about similarities we had with other Estonians. On the on-arrival training we had to do circles to write down our similarities. Well, it was super hard then. I was in group with Heleri but I think it wasn't easy to find similarities between us, at least wasn't easier than finding likenesses between me and Mariam. Well, now I am able to name some similarities. We all lost our things. For example my comb was missing at least 3 days before I finally found it under Anna's suitcase. Like what, how? And didn't pass a day when Heleri hadn't lost something. Anna and Heleri were obsessed by chilli and different sauces. I had a same taste with Anna. She bought a blue nail polish from Ruse cosmetic shop. And from all the brands and different colours and tones, she picked the one I already have had for a year. Life is full of surprises 😺
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On Sunday we had arranged one day trip to the city next to the Danube river. Firstly we went to the church and discovered monuments in this garden. It was something about war and patriotism, to be honest I didn't listen very carefully. After that we arrived at Tutrakan. This city was really quiet, I understand that it was Sunday morning but still, I only saw a few people and cars. In this ghost town we visited museums, they opened them only for us, such a fancy life with Professor. First museum was about Bulgarian lifestyle in different time periods. Exhibition was about national clothes and items people used that time, as well as historical furniture. There was also an old piano, Quirino used the situation and played it. Well, the piano was out of tune and it made the music weird. In the museum cellar was exposition about guns. Guys were so facinated about them. After staying there for a bit we walked through the ghost town until another museum. Uhh, that exhibition about semi-precious stones in the sea museum. It was Eleri's wonderland 😊 Technology gives you an unlimited possibilities. We hacked into an information screen to listen Estonian soundtrack for "The Moomins". Beat that! After our knowledgeable tour in museums we drived to the restaurant. It was located in a really beautiful place on the riverbank. I admit that the food wasn't the best one there but at least Mustafa tried fish. You could have seen from his face that it was grotty for him. Nice thing about this place was turtles who lived outside in the pool. They were so cute. Yes, I love animals! Once again, it was a super hot day. At first it was hard to feel it but hour after hour it turned more hotter.
On the other half of the day we spent with local businessman company. They showed us around, all the fruit trees and berryes growing there. An Estonian dreamland. You all know that we even picked wild plums from our excavation site. Others weren't really aware to even eat them. But it is so important to us eat fresh and just picked products. And those blackberryes and peaches. Muah 😘 The farmer family hosted us kindly with local food and drinks. They even made Bulgarian sangria. Our hosts didn't forget to offer us Shopska salad, banitsa and sweet pies. Bu the way the cucumber in the salad was the sweetest one I have ever tasted, it was so fresh and sweet. Oh, and their homemade rakia, they probably added some drugs there because the night turned out grazy for everybody. On our way back we saw many bonfires. In my opinion it was risky business to make fire during the drought. When we finally arrived, it was dark and our party continued in the hostel. At some point Görkem and Mustafa were dancing and twerking on the bench. I was truly loaded with good energy from museum, restaurant and food. Too much good is never good my friends! We all tried to travel around Bulgaria, not just sitting in the Sveshtari. Giuseppe had a plan to visit Burgas parties. Others didn't had so advanced plans, so I thougth why not to discover another tourist city. Estonians weren't certain what they want to do on the weekend but their idea was to visit surrounding cities. I was stubborn and wanted to go as far from Sveshtari as possible. Just to discover diversity of this country. So I accepted Giuseppe's public invitation. Everybody else found activities near by. Somewhere in the middle of the week we got a news that our Sunday is planned already and we are meeting with local businessman. So one day less to spend in Burgas. But anyway we took this long trip there. We started our journey on Friday after work. We hitchhiked there, it took 4 and a half hours to reach there. Not bad I would say. It was dark already when we reached there. Uhh, by the way, the last driver who carried us to the city, he had a Jordan gene. You can see it from his eyes. Hahaha, I qualified Bulgarian men in two groups. Ones who has a Jordan gene and others who doesn't. And it says everything. Anyway, we walked to the city centre and decided to take a bus to drive further, but we went to the wrong bus. But everything wasn't so hopeless, our bus stopped in front of a nice restaurant. Food was delicous but after munching we tried to find a way to this party place. It was located out of the city and busses didn't drive anymore. So, we took a taxi, the driver spoke a bit Russian and that's how we made through our destination point. Well, this party was even more than freaky. Rave party in the park with weird people. We were looking for Marina and her Italian friend who Quirino and Giuseppe had met a week before in Varna. We found their tent and sleeped next to it because no space inside it. Even though I had a towel it was super cold to sleep. First sunrays in the morning were such a relief and also a bonfire that Bulgarian who was with us made. In the morning we walked to the beach. This beach was wild and looked like an average Estonian beach. After swimming in the rock bottom sea we hitchhiked and one kind women picked us up and drove to the little shop and back to the bus station. We drove to the Burgas city centre again, ordered refreshing orange juice and went to the crowded beach. We sunbathed and swimmed in warm water. Ehh, again too warm water, not refreshing at all. Then we had a lunch. It was weird, I ordered piece of chocolate cake and all I could see was a profile. Evidentially I had been influenced by excavations. After another food orgia we walked out of the city centre. We met two travellers who gave us bigger cardboard to write on. It was useful because maybe after 30 seconds one truck stopped. 3 cars after we found ourself in the middle of the nowhere. This place looked pretty big on the map, but in reality it was village like Sveshtari. Never trust maps! Fortunately a guy with Turkish roots picked us up, at first he had an intention to drive us in Shumen, where he lived. But it was getting dark and man drove us directly to Dani hostel, such a cute act. Angels are not dead. It's a thing I love about Bulgarians. They are aware to help as much as possible, moreover they give you candies and peaches.
Our working day ended around 2 o'clock after lunch. It meaned a lot of free time. For me it was like ordinary school day; waking up early, eating, working/studying, eating again, communicating with others, coming home and relaxing. Only difference was that at home I need to do homework, but in Bulgaria I had no duties. Of course we had to keep our room tidy and help with chores but no mental learning tasks. Bulgarian classes were kind of something like this, but we had only few classes. Most of all, speaking with others was the biggest act how to claim information. And it is better than any ordinary class. Hmm, but what we did beside talking with each other? If you have no mood to talk, you can always sleep. I got used to with siesta so much that back in Estonia I couldn't resist and after school day I went directly sleeping. I try to give up this habit because I am not using time properly, but in Bulgaria it was useful activity. We arrived in Bulgaria during European Football Championships, so at some evenings we followed the maches. In guys vestibule was a big TV, where was cozy to watch football games, films and animes. At some point watching animes turned boring and annoying activity for me. It is just not my cup of tea. Obviously virtual football wasn't enough for our project members and we organized our Sveshtari match. We went to the local football fields, actually it was a park, where were two goals. Everybody took part of the game. Only all Estonians and Mirella were cheerleaders 😀 At first it was an intense game between two teams, but at some point there were local boys playing with them as well. It was a warm integration project, boys didn't speak but their behavior helped them to fit in. Local people also came to look that game, nice experience. Football wasn't the only sport people did. Popular was running and riding a bicycle. Once I joined, as I thought it was a good idea because in Estonia it wasn't a problem for me going running. Actually it wasn't problem in Bulgaria as well, but the weather was too hot and collective sporting is not for me. Unfortunately I wasn't interested in going jogging alone as well. Hahah, and once we took bikes with Heleri to ride to Isperih. Bikes were old, our legs were weak and hills were too high. This sum up this complicated trip there and back. Walking, running or riding was a good opportunity discovering around, this cute village. I tried to take everything from Bulgarian nature and on lasts days I was even sunbathing in the garden bench. It wasn't the best timing because it was pretty cloudy but at least I tried to get more tanned. There were more ways how to spend time. For example, playing with cats or trying catch them. On their free evening people cooked, mainly Italians. They once organized restaurant/pizza night. In one morning Seher prepared delicious pancakes 😙 Tsvety sent a guitar to us, so at this time there was a lot of live music around us. Very popular in men's coterie was cutting hair. Chiare incarnated a hairdresser so many times. They used Görkem's cutting machine. Even Heleri cut her hair with it. More complicated was a situation with Antonio, but thanks to Seher's advanced skills everything went well even with scissors-cutting. One more sociable activity was playing cards. Everyone tried to teach their state's common games. Unfortunately for now I can't remember even one game. I even tried my luck with lottery ticket. I bought it from local shop and I won. It wasn't money orsm, it was a free pass to the TV show orsm. Thanks, but I don't need this in my life and gifted a ticket away. Estonians planned their trip in time and roped it in with Armenians and with Spanish. In this time I was totally confused. I wanted to be clever and go to Varna by car a week later than others, but as soon as others left the hostel I felt that it was an horrible idea. At first we tryed to make plans with Ana and Turks to visit some place near by, but suddenly Gürkem felt like, nope, he needs to go to Varna immediately. And they hitchhiked to Varna with Ana. Only me, Seher, Mustafa and Florin were left in the hostel. If everybody was in Varna we couldn't stay behind. Quickly we booked our trip to this tourist city. We found a hostel and asked about bus times. It is funny that to be sure you have to call to the bus company, you can't trust information from the Internet in Bulgaria. Odd, but yeah, everything don't have to be like in your home state. I got a call from Anna that she had lost others while they were eating. I was a bit surprised, she had my phone number but not Heleri's, so I sent her one. Despite that, the evening was refreshing. I had an opportunity to have time only to myself; I listened to the music loudly, I cleaned the room, I cried (haha, not because I was sad or miserable, just sometimes you need to let all your emotions out), and I took a loooong shower. It is essential to have a time only for yourself. If I spend every day with same people I will get weary of them and it might cause troubles. But Dani hostel without majority of our project members is so lonely place that it's even hard to describe that atmosphere.
Early in the next day morning Verginia gave us (Me, Seher, Mustafa) a lift to Isperih. We took a bus from there. New experience again, I got a handwritten ticket, by the way, it was pretty cheap. When we arrived we helped Seher to find her hostel. With their Turkish and my bad Russian skills we somehow handled the situation and found a right bus stop. It was a funny journey, people were helpful and aware to help even though they spoke only Bulgarian. Wonderful thing was that our hostel was just behind the corner but there was a problem. Overbooking, so we had to find another accommodation. Luckily we found a place on the same street. The owner only spoke Russian so I had to use my language skill once again. Somehow I managed it but I really wished that I had studied Russian meticulously past 5 years. We got an apartment from this hostel. I qualify it to an ordinary hotel room: a room, a bathroom and a balcony. After being in a hostel for a while we met with Görkem and Ana in the city centre. They arrived late at night and struggeled finding a free room but at the end they found a nice place. We went to the beach, it was really hot day, and sea temperature was likewise warm, about 28°C. I don't really enjoy swimming in this warm water, it doesn't give any cooling. In Estonia we go swimming after sunbathing to cool ourself down. We did mini picnic there, it was a bad idea. Drinks and food went warm, disgustingly warm. After sitting on the beach for a while, we went back to the hostel with Mustafa. We watched Magnificent Century, he translated me Turkish text. We watched few series in Sveshatari as well. My problem was that I could not see the serial ending in Estonia and my only way was to watch it on youtube in Turkish. So, I found myself a living translator. Somehow I contacted with Estonians and invited them to visit us. They spent their day in Golden Sands beach. They were totally burnt and they met so many Estonians there. Fun fact is that while staying in Bulgaria so many my Estonian acquaintance visited the place as well. If you want to relax under the sunshine you go to Bulgaria, Egypt or to Turkey because it is super cheap. Nobody is even looking for a quality from this trip. Estonian traveling style 🤣 We went again to the beach, it was more quiet there. It was getting dark and people went more to the clubs than stayed in the beach. But beach empty seats were a perfect place for us. We visited 24/7 shop more than once as far I remember. Then I realised how cheap is food, like in my childhood in Estonia. Btw, I realised that there is no good light alcohol in Bulgaria. If you want to drink soft alcohol like cider then you have to buy Sommersby but it is so sweet. Alternative is beer but it is not tasty and wine is too strong. We randomly met with Quirino and Giuseppe on the beach. We invited also Görkem, Ana and Seher to our beach party. Sea is so relaxing place, the sound of the waves and sunsetting. I am glad that I had an opportunity to talk with Estonians again. I day without them was enough. Human is a social animal and needs to communicate. Estonians need to talk with nordic/baltic people, because people from other regions just can't relate with us. Anayway, I was concerned about my future and I made a backup plan with Estonians if something should go wrong. I won't give more detailed information. On the next day I somehow broke myself free and had an opportunity to spend last hours in Varna alone on the beach. I definately wasn't alone there. It was even hard to find a free place where to but my towel but if everybody around you are stangers you don't care about anything. Even though I used sunscreen I had burnt myselft after sunbathing a few hours. It sucked, I was reddish and my skin was hurting. Wasn't most comfortable bus trip back home but also not a catastrophic situation compared how I felt few days after Varna trip. Seher, Mustafa, Ana, Görkem and I walked to the bus station where we met with Estonians. We got tickets to Razgrad bus because Isperih bus was full. By the way Mariam and Ast were in that bus. But in Razgrad we bought a ticket to that full bus, we had to stood all the way there but at least they picked us up. Our final task was reaching in Sveshtari. We walked maybe 500 m but then we thought it would be more reasonable to hitchhike. At first I was against that because I hadn't done it before. Somehow Estonians convinced me and we gave a try. Our first car stopped and Mercedes drove us to the Sveshtari. Driver didn't speak English or Russian, we just sat those few minutes in silence. But everything went well and it gave me confidence to try it more 😀 |
AuthorJust another confused youth. Archives
November 2017
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