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 😀 When we finally did all the jobs all by ourselves we really felt the difficult side of Bulgarian weather. We had umbrellas in the trench to work in shadow. Regardless one day was so hot that we needed to quit our job earlier. And finally we set our schedule earlier. It wasn't fun to wake up earlier because sleep in the mornings is the sweetest one but on the other hand it wasn't unsurmountable mission. I am used to wake up early and even though we don't want to admit it, morning are the most beautiful period of the day. Everything is so refreshing and clear. But in one beautiful morning after Bucharest there was different kind of weather. It was cloudy and windy. We thought that there is no work but we still prepared ourself for the work. Then we got news from professor that it is too windy to work but the weather forecast predicted better weather after noon, so we'll go work then. It was nice to sleep in one morning longer, especially after exhausting trip from Romania. After late breakfast there wasn't feeling that we are going to work. The wind was weaker but there was rain clouds coming closer.
But our wish didn't come true. We went on working but before that we visited The Candle House - Sveshtari. It was really modern house compered to the others in this village. European Union money 💶 It was nice house full of different types of candles and in the garden there was young sculptors pieces of work. Again, really modern ones. And there were dogs. The puppy was so cute, friendly and active. Armenians left us with some other workers to prepare for cultural evening. It was pretty producive day. Air temperature wasn't high and not too many workers. And we found bones, actually I don't remember was it on that day or not but let's pretend it was. We worked around an hour when downpour appeared. Everybody was in hurry to collect working tools and escape to the bus. When we reached to the hostel I just standed in the garden and let it rain over me. I just missed rain so much. I hadn't seen rain for 2 weeks by then. I was sick of those burning days and it was so refreshing standing there. Others probably thought that I am grazy Estonian. By the way in Estonia I try to avoid rain because it is cold, wet and bad. In that day Tsvety sent us an email to ask about our feelings. I sent her a photo of myself after being in a shower of the nature 😃 As I said before, it was a gift that we had swiss people working with use. On the other hand it was a suffering. Students kind of guided us and of course professors. But there was too many workers and not enough work for everybody. If you are working first time on this field and have no idea what to do, you are not so confident and better give up and just sit somewhere. I definately did it my way, I sat down scarf over my head. People were really concerned about my healt but in reality I was totally OK, I was protecting myself just for the sunlight. Soon you will understand that it's quite boring and you do everything to grab a shovel and start digging. Our favourite sentence on this time was "Do you want exchange?" Professors saw that there is no work at all and they made up new tasks. They weren't so useful but at least we something to do. For example one time we raked grass. It was funny, reminded me typical Estonian mid-summer day. And thank you Görkem that you helped me to clean my leggings. Those small things were all over my leggings like stickers. It was interesting cooperative with swiss people, they mainly spoke in French and we didn't understand nothing at all but it made our project even more multilingual. And swiss guys were so chilled. For example, I was scratching the ground when suddenly my tool broke. The blonde guy saied "Shit happens". Their attitude was so relaxed all the time. It is such a pity that our groups didn't blend together. There were always Geneva university group and our project group. The most prestigious one was of course "prantsuse keelt kõnelev isik" 😜 Haha, only Estonians can understand what I mean with that. And definately Jordan brought happiness in our days. He supervided us in the work being himself always so kind and helpful. One day he was singing "Bella ciao" and Shakira songs. Music always influences me and those songs were haunting in my head the whole week. Grazy thing. Even though we didn't communicate it was sad that students left us. Then we had work to do and even more responsible tasks but still...
Anna's will was visiting Romania because it is so close to Sveshtari. We even tryed to measure the distance between two places in Istanbul airport. Somehow this idea reached to others and suddenly whole project members were aware to join with us. It is such a shame that Armenians and Seher couldn't join with us. Visa is so complicated thing! Italians dealed with accommodation, Turks with transport. And in our first free weekend we were ready to discover Romanian capital city. Our first stop was in familiar Ruse. We had an opportunity to exchange lev to leu. I love Romanian money so much, its design is increadibly beautiful. The border wasn't far from Ruse and I thought it would be quick driving over the border, but I was wrong. Two European Union countries but it took so much time to cross the border. We have reached to this point in Europe because of refugees problem. Sad, that those things affects everyday life. I definately adore and appreciate Estonian - Latvian - Lithuanian border way more now. You just drive through, nobody wants to control documents or car. We are also in EU, but we are far from the problem core 😋
When we finally crossed Danube river, it took us about an hour to reach Bucharest. Southen part of Romania was similar to Bulgaria. Of course you can see a difference. Firstly, latin alphabet, no more cyrillic anymore. Secondly, different villages and architecture style. Thirdly, cypsies. Wa had a small problem to find our hostel but at the end everything smoothed well. Our hostel was London-styled and really cosy. And now about the situation that pissed me off. How is it possible that we didn't book a room for bus drivers? And even bigger problem is that I got to know about that brutal incident in Sveshtari from our prof. This kind of things drives me mad, it's not a human way how to act. Okey, Italians didn't book a room, but Turks talked with chauffeur and still didn't do anything. I was quilty as well, I did't ask where bus drivers sleep. This feelings sucks. The city itself reminds me Tallinn because of old town area with bars. For me Bucharest is more beautiful than Sofia. Probably because of all the sights are located really closely. It is easy to find them. Of course it was simple in Sofia as well but there is some kind of impression that creates your opinion on something. And impression of Bucharest, for some unknown reason, was better than of Sofia. After visiting some beatiful buildings all together, we took time off in some kind of Irish eating place. Suddenly our group was diveded in two parts. Mustafa, Görkem and Ana decided to dine somewhere else. After that I went with Spanish guys to visit the parliament house. I didn't want to use a map, my brain navigation system worked pretty well on this time. Antonio didn't believe in my abilities but after our short walk we reached our destination point. We reunioned with Turks and Ana and went back to the old town area. Others ordered some drinks and then there was me. Sitting there and tryed to communicate with everybody. It was weird, I was kind of alone, without Estonians practically first time after 2 weeks time. It means that I couldn't speak in Estonian and I had to communicate woth others. Otherwise, I was used to talk with Anna and Heleri and pretend that our converstaion is so personal that it is impossible to turn it into an English. Even though we were speaking in English it was a safe choice to have Estonians beside you. Somehow I handled the situation. I wouldn't say I did it properly. If I get bored I start to manipulate and my evil side appears. Actually I am all the time bad person, I definately have too much free time 😼 Anyway, if I couldn't talk with Estonians I could write with my Estonian friends. After some drinks we went back to the hostel, stayed some time there and went to the McDonald's. I was schocked! It was pretty late and eating burgers on this time!? Not the healthiest choice. Spanish tryed to convince me that it is OK, but hell no. After fast food stop we started to find others from Bucharest famous beer restaurant. Ana helped us a lot, she asked a way from locals. We briefly went in and concerted our futher plans. We decided to go and order drinks from some kind of Rock bar. I love this place, cheap drinks and tasteful wine. Romanian wine has a genuine wine taste but it's still cheap. I don't know how it is not possible in Bulgaria. Guys ordered shots even stronger ones than absinthe. After a while Mustafa was quite drunk. He took my phone and started to text with my friend. It was interesting conversation and at some point Mustafa started to write in Turkish, though, even Görkem couldn't understand what was written there. Antonio and Hutman left us after a while and Italians & Estonians joined with us. After a refreshing time away from Estonians I still was sincerely happy to meet with Anna again. She totally needed me, I don't know when and where, but she had drunk already enough amount of alcohol. It is risky business if somebody is paying for your drinks. I won't reccomend it. It was my lesson from the night. After helping Anna to recover we continued our journey in Bucharest. We went to the club,s but suddenly part of our group vanished. Well, okey. We went from club to club, dancing like freaks. What happens in club(Bucharest), stays in club(Bucharest) 😆 Nothing really sensentional happened with me but I am solidary and won't publish all the information I have got from others. After another club dancing marathon we had enough with Anna. My brain worked hardly to get us out of the old town. I have never been happier to see Danube river than in this night. From there was really easy to reach our hostel but my legs didn't collaborate with my other body. Few times I really-really wanted to give up and just sit on the bench and not to stand up. Somehow, Anna motivated me and we reached our destination point. It was such a relief. I am proud that GPS-system in my head worked through complicated conditions. I was really afraid that I will forget everything that had happened (like in Sofia), so I wrote all the facts to my friend. In the morning, my first thought was "Do you remeber what happened yesterday?" Guess what? I remembered everything perfectly and it was funny to read my text full of typos. Definately Romanian wine advantage of Bulgarian wine is a fact that you don't lose your memory. Everybody was sleeping on their beds, that was a good sign that everyone maked it to the hostel last night. There was a surprise waiting for us in the bathroom. I started to brush my teeth when I noticed that something is wrong. The sink was broken and I had to brush my teeth on the bathtube, new experience 😅 After bathroom surprise we decided to go in the market with Anna to buy a breakfast. Marketing in Romania is way more homely than in Bulgaria. For example I bought kefir. Classic Estonian drink after rought night. Guilty pleasure. When Heleri was totally awaken we packed our stuff and went on shopping. We visited the main malls and relaxed around the parks. We dined in Carul cu Bere, where girls had their dinner yesterday. Really fancy place with live music. It was so weird to meet with other people. Nobody really wanted to talk about yesterday. Everyone remembered something from their point of view. For me it was funny evening and last time when I felt myself totally free. Our way back to Sveshtari was really sleepy. I don't remember, did Mustafa those "sleeping beaty" photos of Anna from this bus trip or from previous one (on our way back from Rock Churches) Let's be honest. My aim has never been learning Bulgarian. Before coming in this slavic country I wanted to develop my Russian, Italian and English. I thought it might be easy. But at the end I only spoke in English and in Estonian. I thought it would be easy to speak with locals in Russian but hell no. It made everything so complicated. I am not really confident speaking in Russian and I was really confused every time when somebodie tryed to speak with me in that language. Sometimes I couldn't even recognize is it Russian or Bulgarian. So using Russian was my last option. I would like to say to myself, Eleri, study more this language but sad story is that I have Russian lessons only 2 weeks more. And then I might never study it again. This is my story with Russian but let's continue.
My second wish was to practise Italian. First weeks in Italy I tryed to speak in Italian, actually Quirino and Giuseppe tryed. If they gave up there wasn't even any point for me to start conversations in Italian. Actually this project was kind of developing my language skills. I have never been understanding Italian more than in our Greece trip. After that my language level was decreasing. And at the end "Non ho capito un cazzo!" Again, funny story, where am I now? I am still listening Italian music but I don't even pay attention to the lyrics anymore. I don't care about what they are singing, like 3 years ago. I can't say that Italian is past for me, I spent months to study this language. I rarely read something from Italian media or watch films. And I swear in Italian, even my classmate does it 😊 My English level is good but it can be definately better. My peers Engish level is even on C2 (Tsau Siim) level. Mine is hopefully B2. Anyway, I had a long journey to go and still have. EVS seemed to be a good language experience. Easy way how to develop your language skills. I have now more courage to start a conversation in English. Even thought all the errors I had speaking with others. It is really hard to express yourself as you are used to do in your mother tongue. My vocabulary has widen thanks to the project, grammatically I can't promise I got new knowledge but it was a good practise after all. Whilst, I started writing blog in English, it might help me even more. And again I am aware that I make a lot of mistakes. Important is an idea not an accomplishment 🙃 I helped Hutman and Seher with English learning. I promoted application Duolingo, where you can easly achieve basics at different languages. Hopefully it helped them learning English and Marat learning Italian. Marat also had private language lessons with Italian guys. Even though my aim wasn't learning Bulgarian I used the opportunity to get know with this language. First lessons were with Tsvety. Get to know with alphabet and basic expressions in two divided groups. People who knows Cyrillic and who doesn't. But then Tsvety left, which made my life complicated, but it is an another story. Rashed took over the lessons. We learned about everyday items, food, our work and travelling. I skipped the last class because I was too tired to wake up and learn something. But the class took place under our balcony and the balcony door was open. Probably my unconscious still heard those words and they are somewhere in my brain. The most eager learner was Quirino, he even learned Cyrillic before coming in Bulgaria. He tryed to speak with locals at every appropriate moment. Spanish guys had the hardest life. Everybody has their inner Spanish living there, because Spanish is so known language that even Estonians have learned it from telenovelas or from more professional way. Italians understood Spanish especially well. So, it was impossible to backbite somebody in front of other nations. There was always an opportunity that somebody might understand. And then we have Estonians who put on their poker face and talk about everything they want because nobody anyway doesn't understand. It is an advantage being Estonian. But if you teach others your language curse words you have no mercy. Every time you swear, somebody notices it and exhort you. Funniest moment of that was Marat reaction who asked why we are saying "Artura" all the time, instead we were saying "türa". Хайде, xайде! Before we had arrived in Bulgaria we had to discuss what we are going to prepare for cultural evenings. It was a hard task. All the things we though to make were not really good best before date, so we couldn't bring all those ingredients. And actually we couldn't make consensus, Estonian foods are not the tastiest one and we didn't want to shock foreigners with those flavours. Then we decided to bring snacks and sweets with us. I bought 1 kg Kalev candies and 900 g chocolate with me. Anna bought dried fishes and other sweet and salty snacks, so did Heleri. We tryed really hard to figure out what we should prepare for this evening. We even googled Estonian national food 😆 We understood that our cooking habits in Estonia is not really related with our national dishes. At least I don't eat Estonian foods at home. If you have no how idea how to cook for 30 people it makes everything much more complicated. Plus the fact that it is impossible to find right ingredients from Bulgarian trade. At least we decided to let main dish cooking for Turkish ladies and make a dessert. Our plan was to make Estonian food day.
In the morning we made "kama". In the afternoon we offered Estonian candies, chocolate and different types black bread. Probably we offered it in the evening as well, or only in the evening with the garlic sauce. I can't remember really well anymore. And finally in the evening we offered our cake and Vana Tallinn liqueur that Anna brought from Estonia. Rashed already has tasted it because Estonians always try to promote it. I am happy that even Antonio who doesen't drink alcohol tryed it. I am also glad that cake tasted well even though difficulties we had making it. I have no idea how it is possible that but in Bulgaria they not sell normal cookies. All cookies are weird. It's always problem when you travel away from Baltics. You don't have Kalev or Selga in the stores. I am not even going to talk about milk products. They are all different from our ones. But it was deffinately our fault that we shouldn't make ourself clear in Estonia that we want to prepare cookie cake and buy cookies from there. We spent hours in the kitchen to make that cake Estonian music playing in the backround. I was really done after being in the kitchen, I was so tired that fell asleep and when Heleri and Anna tryed to wake me up to decorate the cake I still didn't want to enter in the kitchen. I continued my power nap and woke up before the dinner. It was rude to let others finish the cake? Maybe but I am not the best cook and I better let others deal with that. It was such a relief when our cultural evening was over. Almost all other countries had already had their evenings. It put us even more pressure on but at the end the most important thing is that we did it. I really liked Turkish food and thanks to our cooks we had an opportunity to eat this kind of food more times. Interesting was Armenian evening. I love those stuffed grape leaves and quiz about Armenian architecture. We tryed so hard with Anna to remember all those names. Fortunately it payed off and Anna won. Wohoooo. What to say about Italian evening? We all know the story that you can't find right ingredients from Bulgarian shops. Well, yes it might be true but this excuse doesn't make food tastier. But everything wasn't so bad, tiramisu tasted good. Sangria made Spanish night perfect 😙 Seher can make miracles in the kitchen. It was nice that she helped Ana with Romanian foods. I didn't take any photos of cultural evenings. But I still have one culinary photo 😂 |
AuthorJust another confused youth. Archives
November 2017
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