Interview with Antonio 1. Have you met with somebody from our project after it ended on August? Unfortunatelly I haven’t meet anyone from the project apart of Eleri. I haven’t had time to even meet with the other two Spanish boys who live not far from me. I’m missing them and I am looking forward to have the chance to meet them in a not too distance future. 2. What countries have you visited after the project? Days after the end of the Project I went to France for two weeks and visited Italy. Most recently I visited Czech Republic and Germany for two weeks as well. 3. Biggest thing that had happened in your life since end of our project? I found a job and I’ve got accepted in a Master Degree Programme!! Can’t complain after that. 4. Describe your most memorable situation from our project. There were many memorable situations. Hitchhiking non-stop with no particular destination…washing dishes for one hour…cooking for 20 fellows…digging, removing and cleaning soil at 7.00 a.m… I am sure I won’t forget these situations for the rest of my life. 5. What to you think about Bulgaria? It has surprised me in a good way. I haven’t had a clear image in my mind about Bulgaria before. Things that surprised me (in a good way): - Bulgarians shake their heads to mean yes and nod for no. - The oldest gold treasure in the world was found in Bulgaria - Bulgarian Turks. A Turkish ethnic group from Bulgaria, descendants of Turkish settlers who entered the region after the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. - Bulgarian Riviera, also known as the best beaches of the Black Sea coast. - Bulgarians are very proud their culture and heritage. - Rituals, music, dance, costumes and jewellery. - The kindness of locals. 6. Write a little summary of our EVS project in your point of view. (What emotions you had, what to you think about project members etc.) Time went too fast so that I felt a lot of emotions in such as short period of time. Happy, powerful, surprised, amazed, confused, excited, bored… The organization of the project was fantastic, accommodation, food and daily work faboulous as well. I would do it again and I strongly recommend it as a personal experience to other young people. Also project members were amazing. I am so glad to have met them. 7. Feel free to share something else with other project members. Thanks to all who made this happen. Seville diary Bus trip from Almería to Seville went sleepy. Majority of the time I was sleeping just sitting on my seat. Moments when I was awake a lady next to me tryed to communicate me, it was pretty comic. She talked and I was silent and only smiled and nodded 😁 Antionio was waiting me in the bus station. He was really excited and couldn't believe that I made all this way to Seville. We went to Antonio's flat and I met his flatmates Antonio and Jesus. They only spoke in Spanish, so no way for me communicating with them directly. On the same day when I arrived a Mexican girl left Antonio. He had a pretty busy schedule to host foreigners 😆 In the afternoon Antonio went to university and I still rested from sleepless night. We made an arrangement where to meet but I didn't find the accurate place and went a bit futher and found wifi. I let Antonio know about my new location but he didn't have mobile data to see that. So, he panicly was looking for me around the city. At the end everything went well and we drove to Antonio's working place, to a hostel in the city centre. Afterwards we dined in a nice place, there was a Morroccan menu but of course all the Morroccan dishes I wanted to order were out of order 😐 We catched the last bus to back home, it was a good workout exercise. On the next day I went to the city centre with Antonio and had a lot of free time to explore the city. I had a Seville map with most important sightseeings on it. So it was easy to visit all of them. I love Sevilla, this city is mixed with so many cultures. I love Arabic influences. People say that Seville is the most Spanish city in Spain. I don't agree, it has way too much exterior influences to be real Spanish city. Anyhow, I am in love with Plaza de España and I can't get over the beauty of Parque de Maria Luisa. Those two places are in my heart, I am even ready to abide all the high temperatures just to move there and sleep on the benches in the park 😂 Again we had problems to meet in the city but I took all it really slightly, I think Antonio was more concerned every time. After our reunion we went to have a lunch. I introduced Antonio sundried tomatoes, I thought they are popular in Mediteranian region, but I guess I was wrong. Only Italians can understand the magical taste of that additive. Because I had visited all the sights independently we went to a national archive and then back home. Suddenly Antonio's Italian classmate Marta offered to attend a party at night. So, we did a shopping and went by the riverside. It is not allowed to drink in public places like in Estonia, but who cares anyway? Moreover, ther was Ricky Martin's concert near by and police were everywhere. It was funny that part of the party was outside the area. It wasn't allowed to bring your own drinks inside, so everyboy drank outside. But it was an epic rave party in the historical factory building. It was like the drug pary in Burgas, Bulgaria. After for a while partying there, we left the place with some of Antonio's classmates. We were far away from his flat and busses didn't drive anymore. Fortunately there is a convenient bike system. You can rent a one and return it somewhere else. Night ride by bicycles was insane. I am not really an extreme person and riding a bicycle with skirt is another thing. But I survived it, actually others survived because the road was empty from people, otherwise I would have hit them for sure. Sunday was a relaxing day. I understood that for Spanish people it is a holy day, even so holy that all the shops are closed. I hate it so much. It is the biggest disadvantage after Spanish behaviour with animals that drives me grazy. We watched videos and photos of Antonio's trip to Estonia. In the evening we went to discover neighborhood. Next to us was Spanish poorest quarter, so, interesting place. Then we, once again went to Plaza de España and to this beautiful park. In the evening we made a pasta dish. It was spontenneous, we made it prom ingredients we just had at home. We both put our previous experiences on it. And it was worth it, our masterpiece was really tasty. In the morning it was raining. We went outside just for shopping but still got wet. I think it is a curse, everywhere I go is raining. Like, it even happened in Almería and Barcelona. Actually, in Barcelona it wasn't unusual. Oh, before my trip Antonio shared his contacts in Barcelona. His old classmate Cristina guided us with Madli in gothic quarter and talked about the city. So nice ☺️ In the afternoon we visited Reales Alcázares royal palace. Another incredible place in the city. Beautiful palace with amazing garden. Even there they have filmed The Game Of Thrones and in general Sevilla is a hot shooting place. This royal palace reminded me a palace I visited in Marrakech, Arabic influence, you know. Back at the apartment I finished my evening with blue sparkling wine that Mommo showed me in Almería. It was cheap so you can't expect wonderful taste, but it was totally worth of those few euros because you can't drink lagoon blue drink every day. I had to drank all the bottle of myself, got few hours of sleep and had a very sleepy flight to Berlin.
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Interview with Mommo 1. Have you met with somebody from our project after it ended on August? In the winter with: Tsveti, Rashed and Diliana, we talked and met in Sofia. But from January with no-one, just you. 2. What countries have you visited after the project? (Right after my visit) Hungary and Serbia. 3. Biggest thing that had happened in your life since the end of our project? I stayed extra 4 months in Bulgaria. 4. Describe your most memorable situation from our project. When we arrived to Sveshtari and I saw a village (so different from my city or other cities and too small) no bars, not restaurants...and of course a bathroom, hahaha 5. What to you think about Bulgaria? At the begining I disliked it way too much. But when we visited other places I started to like it more and more, finally I stayed 4 months more in Sofia. I like Bulgarian people, so warm, food, and of course Sofia. 6. Write a little summary of our EVS project in your point of view. (What emotions you had, what to you think about project members etc.) At the beggining we arrived and we were all strangers but we spent a lot of time together. The worst for me was my allergy to flowers, first month was so bad in this sense. Work was nice, we learnt a lot of new things. I learnt a lot about Bulgarian history. 7. Feel free to share something else with other project members I keep a contact with lot of people from the project, of course a Spanish team we talk every week, but I miss everybody sometimes. It was an amazing and different summer. Almería diary I was attending classes in Estonia when I had this grazy idea to visit Spain, not an average beach vacation organized by travel agency, but a real adventure on Iberian peninsula. My aim was to visit all our project Spanish participants, but Hutman was in Italy, and he lives anyway in Morocco. My itinerary consisted 4 different Spanish cities: Barcelona, Madrid, Almería and Seville. I am glad that I convinced my classmate Madli to spend time with me half of the time of the trip. Greetings to you 😘 So, after spending time with Alejandro (the same guy who hosted us with Heleri in Albania) in Madrid I arrived by train to Almería. I have to mention that travelling by train is convenient, at least my wagon was quite empty and I had a lot of space. And it is so beatiful how the railway goes through the mountains. Others warned me about Andalusia's weather and said that Almería is pretty deserted place. When I was close to the city I had to agree. All I saw was mountains covered by sand. Mommo was waiting me in the train station and we went to the supermarket to buy ingredients for evening's mojito party. Then we head for Erasmus students' apartment. An Italian girl Francesca was kind enough to let me use her room while I was staying in the city. Such a nice act ☺️ Most probably she is the kindest person I have ever met. We always had nice conversations about life. Fra, tu sei una persona meravigliosa. Then we had an appointment in cafe Paris (a legendary cafe through Mommo's friends) with Luis. The conversations they two have together, huuh, even a group of girls is not capable to gossip so salty things as Mommo and Luis do. After joined an Albanian girl Emi, actually she was the first female Albanian I had talk to. In Albania I have never talked to a one. And then joined others and we went to the beach. Mommo prepared mojito into a trash box, but no worries, it was a clean one. And Augustín bought shisha, by the way he had visited Estonia, which is rare. Anyhow, the welcome party for me was surprising and cool. It supposed to be an Ibiza style party, where everyone should wear something white, but I didn't have anything white 😕 It was nice to do hookah outside, near to the sea. Usually we make it inside a room with my friends, you know, a cold country. But when the sun had set the temperature decended and I felt really cold. Fortunately a Mexican girl Brens gave me her jacket, by the way she was my flatmate. Pretty weird situation though, Estonian girl needs warmer clothes while a Mexican girl can stand the weather without it. I spent good time and at the end of the day we even made Mexican food in our apartment. Huuh, it was spicy but I had a great possibility to introduce Estonian sweets. It is amazing that Spanish people are in love with "Kirju Koer". Their grande amore. On the next day Mommo made a tour in local museum for me, Augustín and his cousin Juan Angel who came, surprise, surpise from Estonia because he is living here. It is a pretty big coincidence I would say. It was archeological museum, so reminded times in Sveshtari in the excavation site. After educational lesson about Spanish history we went to a bar. It was funny to see what a Spanish guy is missing from his homeland while he is living in a cold and boring Estonia. Later we went to Mommo's place, he has a nice Italian style home. Mommo made pasta for us and showed me photoalbum of pictures of our project. I also met Mommo's sister and Mommo's cute nephew, he is such an adorable child. Mommo went to work and I went to the beach. It was really hot but ultra windy day. Sand was so hot that it burned my soles, meanwhile water was cold. When I sunbathed all the sand flew on me and it was annoying. Beach was pretty much empty, because locals don't want to grill themselves under burning sun. Somehow I survived this time. I already burnt myself in Barcelona and was reddish as tomato. So it was hard to burn myself on a second time. Randomly I met with Emi and Francesca on the street after my beach experience and I had an opportunity to discover new part of the city. We visited a shop where prices were extremely cheap, it is such a pity that I had no space on my bag 😛 In the evening Brens guided me to the city centre. There were again new people for me. We visited tapas bars and celebrated Rafael's birthday. Even a small miracle happened, it rained about a minute. Unusual situation that it is raining in the desert, right? 😆 On my last day Mommo did me a personal tourism tour in Almería. We visited city centre part with historical buildings and a castle. Up there was a nice view to the whole city and sandy mountains. I got educated that even some scenes of Game of Thrones were filmed there. I have never read a book or watched the TV series but for now I am following the second season of the TV show. And I need to admit that it was true, I saw familiar places there. It was surprising for me that Almería has to offer nice beach vacation as well as cultural experience. After exchausting excursion tour we went to Mommo's family restuarant Sicilia a la Carta. We ate pizzas, they were really delicious. I love all pizzas that are prepared by a real pizza oven, it affects the taste so much. Then we went to Luis flat. He bought a kitten that day and I was interested in to meet with that little creature. She was cute but exhausted because of the attention that everybody gave to her. To leave aside the fact that kitten pissed on me, everything went well 😂 Before sunset we even did a quick swimming. Even though a late hour water still wasn't warm. On the other hand it is explicable, it was still a spring outside. In the evening we had a typical Spanish party. In Madrid I wasn't used to this partying tempo but in Almería I did my best to keep my eyes open all night long. Really, it is hard to start a party about 11 o'clock and after a few hours go to a club and party all night long. In Estonia we start much earlier 😊 Anyway, pre-party was in Emi's flat. At some point we let tireness came over us with Francesca and almost fall asleep. Others noticed that and said that it is clubbing time now. In Almería there is one club only and it is pretty small and full of Erasmus students. There wasn't even enough space for dancing. On Thursday evening it was so crowded, a bit weird. It was an useful experience and I am glad that I found that power and chose club instead of sleep. When we came back it was almost time to go to my bus. I sayed goodbye to all those wonderful people and headed to Seville. By the way, Almería's bus station is way more better than Barcelona's one 😛 First sign of home welcomed me in Sofia. We passed by an old lady who had a "Säästumarket" (Estonian supermarket) huge bag. I was totally in shock and I couldn't believe my eyes. From trains station our road led us to the city centre. About 10 days before we already visited some shops and put an eye on some goods we wanted to bring at home. This shopping tour was hard, we bought way too many clothes and souvenirs that it was hard to carry them. We had a lot of time to discover Sofia, we walked around an Arabic street and saw a street market. I even made a song about Sofia but right now I can't remember even part of melody. In the evening we met with others in front of National Theatre. It was already a familiar place to us. All our project members first met there, so really symbolic place for our last meeting. Even Kaloyan appeared, even though he was cought a cold.
Almost everyone fit in a minibus and Diliana's car but still a few persons needed to drive by tram there. Riding took long because traffic out of the city wasn't the best one. And mountain road was in really bad conditions, with minibus it was quite dangerous trip. Spanish guys were alread waiting us, they cleaned the road from branches and made preparations for party. The house was really deep inside a forest and it was chilly outside. There was a stream /river beside a house, I am not sure which one it was. Anyway, a really detached building, only trees around. We started to pack our bags with Heleri. We needed to fit in also Anna's souvenirs and transport them to her relatives in Estonia. It was insane chaos, but somehow we managed to pack all the things. I dressed warmly because temperatures outside were low. For real, it felt that it is already autumn outside. Meanwhile others grilled outside, Mommo made sangria and Quirino made olive oil breads. It was unpredictable that Florin left us and walked away. But at the end everything went well and it was cheerful to hear good news back in Estonia. Though the disturbing situation we still dined, because it was our last dinner together. We were divided into groups between 3 rooms (I am not certain anymore). There were beds and mattresses. Eveyone had their own sleeping place and got some hours of sleep. It is such a pity that I personally said goodbye only to few persons. But yeah, I am correcting that mistake and my purpose is to meet up with as many project members as possible. Anyway, we started our trip to the airport really early with Heleri, Kaloyan and Diliana. At least we had an opportunity to say goodbye them properly. Our flights were good, but it was a nighmare for me hearing Estonian in Istanbul airport. I kind of hated Estonians there. Yeah, EVS after-effect, you are going to hate all that you left behind before the project when you are back in your country. I am glad that few days after my arrival I went back to school, it helped a lot to think about other things, not only recall EVS memories. Last but not least, I want to thank everybody who made my project just like it was. It was an amazing experience and changed my life firmly. From Sofia we started our Balkan trip with Heleri. I have no intention to translate all the text about our Balkan trip, but I'll make a summary about every country. Albania The journey started with epic trip to Albania, minibus with 5 passengers. Many stops and classic Balkan dance music playing while driving in the night. We passed Macedonia to reach Albania, pretty grazy roads there, it was hard to sleep. Another surprise was refugees. We had a toilet stop and when we came out of our WC there were a lot of people from Arabic countreis. It was scary, becauset it was unexpected situation. We met two Spanish guys Jasper and Pedro in the bus, they were also travelling around Balkans. Eraly in the morning we arrived to Tiriana. We started to walk though our hostel, city was empty and without a life. Fortunately one local woman helped on French girl to the same hostel, so it wasn't so embarrasing to arrive so early. The owner of this place was a middle-aged Albanian lady who loved her guests, she was like mother to them, especially to Italians guests. The love to Italians was obvious. Most of the Albanians speak Italian and products are from Italy. We walkd around the city, but it is pretty boring. though. There is not much to see to count that it is a capital city. We discovered one poor part of teh city, it looked like a Mexico. On the next day we went to Durres, a city nect to sea. Bus system to there was insane. There are illegal buses driving there and it is interesting finding them. Minibus waits until it is full and starts driving, there is no schedule. But highway goes there and road is pretty good. In the bus we met one Albanian guy, he spoke perfect English and Italian. He was cool and helpful, he leaded us to the bus that went to the best beach on that city. Coastline was full of bars like in Varna but water wasn't so clean. But it was good swimming there if you know that on the other side is Italy. It is hard to describe, but I like Albania a lot. It is soo different from Europe but on the other hand so similar. On the streets you can see expensive and fancy cars but people there are pretty poor. How they got those cars? Answer is illegal money. But this is one reason that makes this country so interesting. Sadly, Tirana is pretty boring city. No beautiful architecture or old town part, probably it isn't city for tourists. We had a meeting with Spanish guy Alejandro from Couchsurfimng. Heleri found him and he agreed to host us. Heleri was really nervous, me too, but she organized it and she had bigger responsibility than me. Now we can say that everything went well. At first we went to a cafe to drink something and meet with one Russian girl as well. By the way, I had lost all my Russian skills by that time. Then we visited communistic symbol of Tirana, an old pyramid. Heleri had some health issues and Russian girl was in hurry, so we climbed at the top with Alejandro. It was an amazing view from there and sky was so colourful. I was really scared to come down, but somehow I survived this experience. On the next day our biggest task was finding proper place to buy bus tickets. There are many agencies on the streets but no big bus station. Buses depart just from random places on the street. Fortunately we found tickets, unfortunately weather changed into a storm and a street transformed to river. We needed to walk to our travel agency on that weather. Things made better byrek, it was so cheap and tasty, I still miss it. Our bus trip was epic, at first bus was empty, only us and 1 passenger more. Then we stopped on a random place and were locked to the bus, at some point was bus full of people and in Macedonia they kicked us out from bus and we needed to sit to minibus. Early in the morning we finally reached our destination point Skopje. Macedonia We were exhausted and everything was closed anyway. So, we slept some hours in the bus station. We walked around the city centre and realized that all the institutions were still closed. They started to open malls but we had no time to wait. We discovered area beside Danube river. The city center was empty and we had opportunity to see all the massive sculptures and fantastic fountains. They make city centre so special and beautiful. We visited a castle on the top of the hill. Even there wasn't a lot of tourists which was weird because view to the city was amazing. Near to castle was a mosque with beatiful garden and singing birds. It was peaceful place to rest from the heat that was in the air. On our way to the hostel we noticed red double-deckers driving around. It is not only a London thing, you can also find them from Skopje. Out hostel was actually a private house, the owner was really lovely and helped us a lot. In that house I felt like I am visiting my grandmother. At first we were alone in our room, but in the evening two French guys arrived as well. We were located really close to the Vodno mountain and we decided to counquer it. At first we passed rich area, really modern and big private houses were there and somehow we found even right path to the mountain. This road had a medium difficult level. It was nice time walking up, time to look inside and let all your emotions turn into power that help you to continue your journey. On the top (actually it wasn't) we discovered one church, which was pretty average. There was possibility to climb even higher and visit a huge cross up there. But it was getting dark and we wanted to reach civilization before darkness. At some point we had a dinner in a Mexican place and got an interesting news. Mustafa and Anna were also in Skopje. On the next day we visited Matka Canyon. Owner of our hostel gave us a lift to the right bus station where we got bus directly to that natural sightseeing. There went one narrow path about 5 km. We made a little eating break and guess who passed by? No, not Anna and Mustafa but French guys from our hostel. Well, it was a surprise but we continued our walk in silence like we did on Vodno mountain. It was nice that most of the road was covered by shadow. When we reached end of the path we noticed those French guys again. They had swimmed other part of the canyon, water was really cold, I have no clue how they survived it 😆 We saw them 2 times more in thi canyon, so I have nothing to say, a lot of coincidents on a day. I mentioned it also to Heleri, it is such a small country that we have a pretty high possibility to meet with Mustafa and Anna. Somehow we spent our evening walking around the city and in our lovely bus station we met them finally. Suddenly Anna appeared and told us the they are going back to Bulgaria. Our buses departed almost the same time. Like whaat, how it is possible to meet so many familiar persons in Skopje? It is still a mystery for me. Serbia
Bus ride was really OK. Bus was modern and highway new but it was so much more difficult to sleep than on those grazy bus rides. Autumn was also in Belgrad, because early in the morning benches in the park were wet. But we wanted to sit and think what to do next. So we tore plastic bags and sit on them, around us homeless people. What a nice impression of the city. After walking for a while we found our hostel and had a proper sleep for some hours. I decided to apply for a youth organization. I was engouraged by Anna's and Heleri's good luck, because they both got a place in a youth exchange. We went to a castle, sun was setting and the view to the Danube river was great. There was metal consert around the area, so some parts were closed. But despite that we saw a lot of alternative people. We discovered city until it was dark. Then we decided to try Couchsurfing hangout application and everything went out of control. We got so many answers that at first it was hard to manage it. Somehow we made an appointment with Austrian girl and her Australian boyfriend to meet up. Also, some Turkish guys and a French guy promised to join with us. At our meetimng point we only met with this couple. We entered to a quite new party area. Actually it was an old factory area there made into clubs and bars. It was very popular and crowed place btw. We spentrest of our night there and we tried to connect with Turkish but thanks to a bad Internet connection it was hard. It was funny that many local people turned to me and asked me a favour in Serbian. They really thought that I am one of them. In general, it might be quite true. Serbians don't look like Bulgarians for example, Serbians have more Central European look. Our second day task was to fill in time until out train to Sofia. We visited sight in the city. For example The Cathedral of Saint Sava, there is a really nice area around the church, fountains and stuff. There were a couple of wedding so we saw locals fashion on this kind of events, pretty Slavic. We discovered reasons why people really built churches years ago. It is so peaceful to sit in it and be away from weather harming conditions. Then we discovered New Belgrade's mall. It had pretty Estonian look, a lot of shops and big grocery store. They sold sour vitamin pills that I loved. I bought many pack at home. One more positive fact about Serbia are Shop&Go groceries. They are small, but have big diversity of goods and most of them are open 24/7. In the evening we finally met with Turks from Couchsurfing. We had some beers on the riverside. We had a great opportunity to demonstrate our Turkish skills (thank you Görkem, Mustafa and Seher) and of course my favourite topics Turhish music and TV series. Our final shopping in Serbia was comic, we calculated a lot in the store to spend all our cash. We had 6 persons couchette in the train, wich we shared with 4 English people. We slept in the middle at the same level with the window and when the train started to drive a lot of cold wind blew in. We tried to close the window but it was old-fashioned and heavy so we couldn't make it. I put all my warms clothes on, and it was still cold. I was sceptical about train blanket, because there might have been bugs and other horrible things. At some point somebody from our couchette however closed the window. Border control was pretty same as crossing the border with bus. Border guart entered the train, collected the passports and after a while returned. Oh, and toilet in the train is frightful. After the border, our situatian was good, window was shutted and we didn't excpect any more stops. But then we stopped and a guardian told us a long story in Serbian/Bulgarian why we stopped and that we need to get out of the train. He was still kind enough to use international words "Tempo, хайде хайде" to make us move faster. In the train station a bus waited for us and carried us directly to Sofia's trains station. |
AuthorJust another confused youth. Archives
November 2017
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