Interview with Mustafa 1. Have you met with somebody from our project after it ended on August? Unfortunately after the project i only got a chance to meet with Görkem and Heleri (other than Anna and you obviously) 2. What countries have you visited after the project? I couldn't travel a lot after the project because my sister got married this summer and I needed to be there but this winter I went to Sweden, Finland and Estonia with Anna 3. Most important thing that had happened in your life since end of our project? I met with my lovely girlfriend during the project and we started to live and travel together. We even met with each other's parents so that was a life changer for me. 4. Describe your most memorable situation from our project. Since it was one of the best 2 months of my life I've had lots of memorable situations so it's really hard to answer to this question but I guess road trips with Tsvety(Sama) and rakia were especially memorable 5. What to you think about Bulgaria? It was a really lovely country. At first it felt so empty but then when I started to wander around it was really cute and people were so nice. 6. Write a small summary of our EVS project in your point of view. Most of the things were really positive with all the good and bad memories (even the work). It was really nice so, in my point of view our EVS project was really cool and I'm thinking every young person should do an EVS. Interview with Anna 1. Have you met with somebody from our project after it ended on August? Other than my boyfriend Mustafa who I am currently living with, I have met Görkem who is one of his best friends and who has visited us and vice versa a couple of times this past year. And of course Heleri together with you a month ago back in Tallinn. 2. What countries have you visited after the project? Straight after Bulgaria, instead of flying back to Estonia, I got on a bus and travelled to Turkey, where I have been living ever since. Last October I took part in a youth exchange in Georgia and I also visited Sweden and Finland last month when I was back in Estonia this autumn. 3. Most important thing that had happened in your life since end of our project? Well, as I mentioned earlier, I met my boyfriend during the project and moved to Turkey. I’m pretty sure nothing can top that! 4. Describe your most memorable situation from our project. I don't know which would be the most special one for me but it was definitely interesting to hitchhike for the first time, to bake a garlic-birthday cake with Mustafa which left me with a bright blue mouth from all the food colouring in the frosting (unfortunately I can't make a cake without eating one third of the ingredients in the process). 5. What to you think about Bulgaria? I think that it’s an interesting place. I really like mountainous areas and Bulgaria has a lot compared to Estonia. There are also some cute towns and ancient castles with a lot of history but I disliked the more popular areas like the beaches near Varna that only seemed to cater to a certain type of tourists. 6. Write a small summary of our EVS project in your point of view. Before going there I tried to avoid forming some type of a mental image of the experience that I'm going to have to avoid being let down but I actually really enjoyed it. All the people were very nice, the work was way better than expected. I visited so many new places, had so many new experiences and can honestly say that it was a life-changing experience and I am very happy to have been a part of it. 7. Feel free to share something else with other project members It was a great summer. Tallinn Diary
In October I received from Heleri information that Anna and Mustafa are coming to Estonia for a longer period of time. I was totally excited about that news. I am always happy to meet with our project members and it is even better to host them in my homeland. We arranged a meeting with our only project couple and with Heleri on Wednesday. It was a busy day for me. I started my day in an university lecture. After that I headed right away to a shopping mall where we supposed to meet. On the way I passed by Stelios (a Cypriot guy who also came to Estonia to visit us with Heleri after a youth exchange) This kind of things can only happen in Estonia. To be honest, I was pretty nervous before the meeting. So much time had already passed and they both hadn't been active in social media since that time. So, I didn't even know how do they look like. But in Tiger shop I had no problem identifying them. They came back early in the morning from their Finland trip and were pretty exhausted. It was the coldest day in the autumn so far and Mustafa was wearing a leather jacket. It was sad seeing him actually suffering in Estonian weather. At least he had gloves and a hat given by Anna's mother. We also waited for Heleri and started our walking tour in Tallinn. Firstly, Rotterdam quarter, then scandalous Linnahall and hipster area Balti Jaam. We visited Baltic Station Market, it is a modern market from where you can find everything. Funny thing was that even for Heleri those places were something new to discover. I also had an opportunity to show my amazing university building. Actually, more the location of the university. Then came the best part, we went to the best pancake place in Tallinn. Kompressor is located in Old Town and prices are also good. Mustafa tried kali and mulled wine and he didn't say bad words about them. It is a good sign because Mustafa is picky about food and drinks. He even admitted that Kompressor was probably one of the best places in Estonia where has been eaten. I am pleased that my guests enjoyed my city (even though I don't live there actually) I leaded them to the tram station where they took a tram to the coach station from where they went back to Pärnu. Maybe we are modest grown-up people by now because we didn't take any selfies or photos together at all. Which is a pity of course. I took quickly a few photos of Anna and Mustafa on our way to the bus stop. And because I am the local I didn't photograph surrounding. To see what Tallinn offers you need to visit it on your own and I can be the guide 😉 I had a plan to meet with Mustafa and Anna once again during the Halloween but then I got sick and unfortunately I couldn't make to this appointment. Anyway, it was nice to meet them and talk about our lives.
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Interview with Heleri 1. Have you met somebody from our project after it ended? Yes! During this summer, in June, me and one of my best friends decided to award ourselves after graduation with a trip to Rome, Italy. There I met Quirino and stayed with him for a while. I believe he showed me different, non-touristy, side of Rome and I had the chance to taste homemade wine 😀 Plus, I do want to mention you, Eleri, as well, because, in my point of view, we have had rather one unusual encounter. I mean, come on, ending up in the same project in Cyprus was significant and pure awesomeness. 2. What countries have you visited after the project? After the project, I guess, I unleashed my inner traveller. One month after my arrival to home I packed my bag and went to United Kingdom, for youth exchange. In November saw Stockholm again. In February I visited Milan, Italy, and like previously mentioned, I visited Italy once again in summer, but during this trip I also visited Germany for two days and ended up seeing Lithuania as well. I think this summer I didn’t even experience the shitty Estonian summer, because in July I went to another youth exchange in Spain. Right after that, thanks to my work, I had the chance to visit (Latvia, Lithuania), Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary, that even twice. And finally, I saw mysterious Cyprus. 3. Biggest thing that had happened in your life since end of our project? I’m not afraid to interact and communicate with people anymore. Before the project I was rather shy, conservative, and due to that I had missed lot of opportunities. I also changed my environment by sharing an apartment and surrounding myself with foreigners - mostly Erasmus people – and thanks to great support I finally graduated from university. All together, it has been eye-opening and emotional journey of self-discovery. 4. Describe your most memorable situation from our project. I am unable to pick one situation. I loved all deep conversations and contemplations with others; hitchhiking; learning the history; drinking Rakia; even working was okeish in some days. It was very different from my typical Estonian life. But, one of the most memoriable was definitely my first flying experience. I was little bit anxious, but Eleri helped me a lot 😀 5. What do you think about Bulgaria? When I think about Bulgaria now it just seems so far and it stirs up various emotions. I definitely dislike Bulgarian food, sorry. I love the nature, the mountains, it is just so rustic. Locals are very kind, even when they don’t speak English that much. Overall, it is not how I imagined – I thought It was more Soviet type of country (like my parents) before seeing it myself hahah. Still, it has a lot of developing to do – poverty is visible in all over the country. Except touristy places: e.g people who only go to Varna, they don’t see Bulgaria 😄 6. Write a little summary of our EVS project in your point of view. All the participants taught me something new, opened a path to different perspectives and I miss them. I had never ever experienced so much emotions in Estonia. I firmly believe I experienced all emotions there is to experience – from pure happiness to total sadness. Sometimes I wasn’t even capable of understanding what was going on. Perhaps I will never fully understand it, but every young person should crab this type of opportunity. It doesn’t even matter that we were tired all the time, had siestas, got bored, had some dramas and so on, because all the good things override negative ones. It’s worth it. 7. Feel free to share something else with other project members. I’m glad that I met the people I met and I wish you all the best 😀 Tartu diary Actually I have met Heleri twice since our project. First time we saw each other was in the winter, I don't even remember the month. I visited Ahhaa science centre where I had a meeting but after that I had a free time. Heleri picked me up with her cutie green car. We headed to her apartment, usually there were 3 persons more but all they were out of the town or in the hospital 😆 So, we had an empty flat. I brought a souvenir from Latvia, I guess it was a biggest mistake in my life. In the morning we both didn't want to hear about word "honey" anymore. I am really afraid of Heleri because everytime we drink together I'll be so drunk. She really influences me somehow. Because we only had one night and rough morning we didn't have a change to do something special during that time. And after that experience I hated Tartu even more! Cyprus diary It was pretty unexpected that we ended up in Cyprus together. I applied for a youth exchange in Cyprus and got approved. At some point there was one available place and I blandished Heleri to apply as well. Unfortunately she didn't get that place. But fate had other plans because one of the participant cancelled her participation and Heleri got a place. Life is wonderful if you can travel for free with your good friend. So, we met again in Tallinn coach station. We travelled together to Riga at first. I finally had an opportunity to hand over her youth pass. In the bus they offer free hot drinks. I was drinking my cocoa when suddenly bumpy road appeared and all the seat and my pants were all covered of it. Terrible, I feel so sorry about the bus company, I did my best to clean that mess there. In Riga we went for a small walk to the old town. Riga is a quite small city and similar to Tallinn so we didn't expect that we can get lost but we did. We were so certain that we made a small circle on the streets and we suppose to end up a place where we entered to the old town. But nope, actually we were pretty far away from the bus station. We used map and locals help to find our way back. Fortunately we made it to our Vilnius bus. It was deep night when we arrived and we weren't certain about using Taxify or not. But Heleri tried and luckily there was a car near to us. Driver was a local guy but still spoke English, so we had a small talk with him. Ride from bus station to airport was ridiculously cheap, only 2€ Airport was so empty that even security control didn't work. We waited a bit, then we passed the control and found a cosy sofa where to rest. We did our best to sleep but it was too cold and something disturbed us. In the plane we also tried to sleep. I am not sure when did I sleep but I felt that I have rested at least 3 hours. Out of plane we were pretty confused where to find a bus to the city centre. It was quite early in the morning an already super hot outside. Another confusing factor was the left-hand traffic, you have no clue which side you have to stand to get into the bus. Actually it wasn't difficult at all and now I know the airport pretty well. We did zig-zags in the city when we finally arrived to our destination point. We had a breakfast almost in the first place we saw. Costlone was full of cafes and bars. It reminded me Almeria a lot. I ordered a sandwich and ice cream. We thought that takes less time to prepare but hell no. It took quite a long time to make those two sandwiches. At least ice cream was really-really delicious. Then we went to the beach, we were rebel and didn't want to pay for a chair, so we just put all our things on the sand. Then Heleri noticed that she has lost her scarf. Really random but I also lost my scarf during the project. Larnaca's beach is literally amazing. Water was crystal clear and really warm. I felt like Aphrodite and understood how those myths came up. We did shifts to keep an eye of our bags. We had funny moment when we did a photoshoot inside a water, classic in our case. Coast guard members watched us and one of them passed by and commented something in Greek, it was so random but so funny. Because I saw how he scanned over Heleri's body. All day under the sun was harming for me. I was lazy enough to not put sunscreen on me and I saw results in the evening. My back and shoulders were totally burnt and ass as well, Bulgaria vol 2. We discovered city and Heleri bought a new scarf. Then we met with other Estonians, at least I wasn't only sunburn Estonian, Sten was my soulmate. Bus trip to Agros was the best opportunity to get to know other Estonians. We conquered back seats of the bus and started tindering. At some point situation went way too funny. Tiredness took over us and everyone tried to sleep a bit. Fortunately we shared a room with Estonian girls, so, me, Heleri and Laura were in the same room, Bulgaria vol 2.2. This time Heleri was more humane and during our conversation didn't leave me or didn't swich of the lights. Our room became a centre of Estonian community. Guys spent even way too much time in our room. Classic influence Heleri has to me got confirmed in the first evening. So much drinking, grazy dancing and it all ended in tears and with blanks in my head. I am kind of happy that Laura captured it all. It reminds me what happens if I drink too much. It was like the situation when I asked for Anna to capture my condition in Bucharest. Our village Agros concentrate to roses. We visited rose factory and it all reminded Bulgaria. This factory also makes rose candles, Sveshtari vol 2. We waited for the Bulgarian intercultural night a lot, rakia tastes still the same but nothing can beat homemade rakia, industrial one is not so valuable. During our projects we visited Pafos, Limassol and Nicosia. We even walked to Turkey, actually Northern Cyprus, which is occupied by Turks. And highlight of the trip was my birthday. I really felt love around me. It was a best birthday in my life and I definately enjoyed every moment of it, Heleri made it even more special. More about our youth exchange you can read under subject "Projects". After official project dates Heleri went with other Estonians to Ayia Napa. I heard rumors about wild life there but I wasn't there and comment it. Photos made by me, Heleri, Laura and Diana. 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. 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. Last working days were bizarre. We started our working days pretty late, some days even later than 10 o'clock. It was caused by weather conditions, autumn have had arrived to Bulgaria. Days were cooler and rainier. Site turned really muddy, it was even hard to step, all the mud was stuck under your footwear. We were at the end with work in our archeological site, Andrea had moved away and we had two working groups. One group started working in the new medieval site. Funding to clean this site came from this business man, who hosted us one night in his farm. We needed to collect cutted grass and branches. It was nice to work in another place surrounded by forest, not in the field anymore. Most fantastic thing about working there was to see the progress, at first (first days in Sveshtari when we visited the place) it was place with wild nature and it was hard to recognise old walls. But day by day the progress has been more visible. The end of August was in general pretty weird. So much grazy things happened and relationships were really complicated. At this time we were inseparable with Heleri because it was hard to find one language with foreigners and Anna spent most of the time with Mustafa. You know, at some point you have the whole world and another moment you are left alone. It is not the best feeling in the world, but it is still better than spending time with people you don't care about. Oh, and those frozen wines in our fridge, insane drinking games and other melanholic things that happened in those cold nights. Pretty lonely feeling but fortunately phone calls to my Estonian friends helped a lot. I remember one call really brightly, it was thunderstorm outside and it was so cosy to watch it from our room balcony. Some people watched a Spanish horror movie on our eating place and yeah, the view to the lightening sky was amazing. Even though the relations with all the participants wasn't so good anymore, it was hard to say goodbye to them for a week. Even harder was leaving Dani's hostel. It had been a home for us for weeks, so I cryed a bit before leaving. Then we took an epic night bus to Sofia with Italians, Kaloyan and Tsvety. We got seats to the last row and it is insane if you need to sleep while you are sitting without a seat belt on bumpy Bulgarian roads. Heleri told me about my funny positions, so, Kaloyan I am very sorry if I interrupted you 😆 Now it is a proper time to share some pictures from Sveshtari that I haven't published before. I didn't take much pictures at all, so nothing special to share with you actually 😕
Diliana had organized a trip to ex-capital cities in Bulgaria. At first we visited Pliska. We saw beautiful ruins of basilica. They are currently reconstructing it and it looks fancy, I can only imagine how the original building looked like. At some point Quirino climbed up the walls and after a second other guys followed him. It is like a domino effect. Then we visited another ruins and a museum near by. One part of that was more like open-air museum. Then we continued our trip to Madara. We climbed up the stairs to see a rock. It wasn't nothing special and I have no idea why we even went there. At least there was a good souvenir kiosk. The way up to the wall was easy but somehow Marat and Giuseppe got lost up there. We waited for them for nothing, like, how you can get lost on this kind of site 🤔 Then we went to another place called Veliki Preslav museum, we watched a movie about the city and it looked really interesting place. We also had a rare opportunity to see golden treasure usually behind locked doors 😝 Then we visited another place in ruins. There lived thousands years ago high civilization, they even had water pipes. I loved the place between forest and mountains, relaxing area.
Then we divided into two groups. One group went back to Sveshtari with professor. With buses we drove to Shumen. I had already visited the city when we hitchhiked to Greece, but now we had an opportunity to discover more the main street of the city. Shumen looked pretty much the same to other cities in Bulgaria. Because we had limited time we found a fast-food place with Heleri, Anna and Mustafa, a Turkish one by the way. We visited Billa shop with Heleri and that was kind of it, we had no more time to discover something else. I was in the same bus with Spanish guys, during that time we all had experienced that if they are sitting next to each other there is not even a minute of silence. So, I changed the situation sitting nex to Antonio or Hutman to separate Mommo from the group 😂 We were almost back in Sveshtari, when Diliana remembered that Ast have a birthday tomorrow and we need a cake to celebrate it. It was again Italians time to shine and to prepare a tiramisu. So, we drove back to Razgrad big supermarket. I loved it. Since then I had only visited quite small shops, Billa was the biggest one so far. It was good to walk around a shop and discover all the goods. So much space and bigger variety than usual. I bought pudding from there just because the information was written in Estonian on it. Those small things really matter if you are far from home and if you are Estonian. When we got almost proper ingredients for the cake we tried to choose a gift for Ast, but it was too complicated and we bought sparkling wine to celebrate this important event. Fun fact is that in the evening when we celebrated birthday we couldn't drink the sparkling wine because someone decided to but it in the freezer, so it was frozen like water 🤣 Our decision to go to Greece was really random. We got one extra free day thanks to professor's visit to Sofia. We tried to rent a car or search for bus times but at the end we still didn't have any proper plans. We started our journey with Heleri and Italian guys. Professor gave us a lift to Razgrad. Then we hitchhiked to Shumen and at the end of Thursday we found ourselves in Plovdid, in front of our rented appartment. Really cheap, oldfashioned but cosy place with cockroaches 😂 We really had an intention to visit city center but it was dark anyway and we were exhausted, so, this plan didn't work out.
In the morning we drove to Kavala, a city in North Greece coastline. The ride took about 8 hours, this is insane. Bus stopped about every hour in different gas stations. On one stop I saw an interesting small church and few meters away a chicken and a cock in the barrel. Creepy thing, I thought they are dead, but nope, they were pretty alive. I also got experience to use toilet with lizard. Crossing the border was smooth, we passed our document control twice but at least it was quick. And using Estonian ID card was a convenient act. In the evening when we arrived it was super-hot. We just went to the first beach to cool ourselves, actually kind of pointless because even water was warm and bottom of the sea was covered by sharp rocks. After beach experience we walked around the city to find a place to eat and sleep. Quirino talked with one printing office guy, he helped us a lot, reccomended place where to eat local food and showed us a hotel street on the map. He also gave us advice what to do in Thassos. We had a plentiful dinner in the local restaurant and finally found a hotel where to spend a night. On the next day we started our trip to Thassos island. First thing after leaving our hotel was finding a coffee bar. It is Italians habit to start a day with coffee. We ordered ice cream with Heleri. In my opinion, more reasonable choice on a sunny day. Ferry took us to the island, it took about 1,5 hours. A bit oldfashioned but functioning vehicle. The view to Kavala was amazing, this light blue water and mountains, breathtaking. It was weird that people gave food to seagulls from their hands. It is insane to feed wild animals that way. Our first shopping on the island included a lot of snacks and new flip-flops for Giuseppe. Then we spent some time in the beach, pretty close to the harbour. Water was warm, blue and sand wasn't full of sharp rocks. We wanted to travel other part of the island but bus system was uncertain. So, we rented scooters. I was against of it at first place. It was the worst moment during my EVS. I literally had a mental break down there. I was scared, far from home with strangers and without a plan what we even do there. It took me approximately 10 minutes to find former Eleri again. Finally we started our way to Golden Beach, unfortunately it was a really touristic place and we continued our trip. We visited a random shop and they also sold Estonian coctails as well as Billa shop in Bulgaria. Fantastic is to find piece of home in random shop in Greece. Thassos is a wonderful island with varied nature. Mountains, sea, forest and animals. Suddenly Quirino saw a small island and was interested in to explore this place. We found a wild road down the hill and decided to try our luck. It was curvy and desolated road. When we thought that we are close to the sea we noticed a car standing on our way. The blue car was covered in dust. The car had a lot of stuff inside and it was even working. What an insane situation, we had so many theories whos car it is and why it is here. The path ended with a car and it was almost impossible to reach sea. After walking uphill it was a great feeling to be back in the civilization. After our expedition in rural area we drove to Paradise beach. It was a nice place (it actually means it is a place that you can't find in Estonia), there was a sandy part and a rocky one. We went to the rocky one because there were a few people. Actually reason was pretty laconic, it was really close to the Nude Beach. We took many photos and had a good time in the water swimming with Heleri and seeing small fishes around us. It was getting dark and we decided to make a small picnic on the front of the cliff. Rocks were warm in the darkening evening. Everything wasn't so fantastic though. There were many mosquitos, and Quirino fighted with them in really interesting way. He put a lot of plastic bags on his legs. We couldn't stop our round trip around an island. In the dark we drove further and finally reached our first city. We were aware of our situation that we need to sleep on the beach. In the daytime we just didn't find a moment to search for an accommodation. At least it was warmer than sleeping in the Bulgarian park. Early in the morning we started our trip back to Kavala. We walked around the oldtown part of the city and started hitchhiking from the city centre. It seemed kind of impossible thing to do but it worked, after 5 minutes we got a car. A man who was heading to fishing picked us up. He was kind in every way 😝 Then we got another car also pretty easily, this man has a friend who has a business in Estonia by the way. Our journey back to Bulgaria had gone pretty smoothly at this time, but then we got stuck on the random highway. It didn't help that we divided ourselves into 2 pairs. It was sunny and hot day and we walked in the middle of nowhere. Many cars passed by but nobody wanted to pick up 4 backpackers before a border. So, we walked for a while until we reached the gas station. We bought a lot of munch there. And ice cream has never tasted so good than there. Our situation was pretty horrible, so we needed a plan. Suddenly, I have got an idea to ask help from drivers who got there. We waited for a lonely driver to arrive and asked a favour with Heleri. I don't remember much from this moment but he agreed. I excelled myself, I really discovered new side of myself and got a lot of confidence. The driver was an old Cyprus businessman and with his BMW X5 we hurtled really fast. We passed every car that was ahead of us. Insane but it was so exciting. I really loved that ride, it was full of adrenaline. Everyone in that car tried to sleep for a while, except me and a driver. In my opinion, it is impossible to sleep on curvy and bumpy roads. We passed a border with businessman and actually a huge part of Bulgaria too. We left the car in Ruse, near to Romania because the man's destination was Romania. Then we struggeled again but at the end boys found a Bulgarian driver who gave us a lift to our Sveshtari hostel. It is a thing that I admire about Bulgarians, they are always willing to help you every way as possible. For example, the driver didn't speak English nor Russian but somehow we still communicated and found our language. We arrived late at night but Anna still wasn't back from Istanbul. It was scary but at some point we got information that she is kind of stuck in Turkey with Mustafa. But it is already another story. Oh, and it is possible to hitchhike with four people, it took us only 4 cars to pass more than 500 km. I have exam period right now and what is better than speaking of reposibilities 😋 Our project was really well managed. I have spoken with EVS volunteers from other projects and countries and they had to handle with cooking and other chores. We were totally lucky that we had cooks who prepared dishes for us. And womens who washed our clothes and cleaned our rooms. Totally perfect life 👌 We needed to warm up the food every evening and serve it. It took about 5 minutes and wasn't a problem at all. Our main task was washing dishes once a day. Thanks to our big group we had an opportunity to make shifts for this chore. I am used to wash my own dishes because I have a small family and no need for a washing machine. But washing others' is something new. Actually, it was easy-breezy washing plates, knives, forks and spoons. Hardest challenge were pots, pans and all other crockery you can imagine. On the first evening when I was part of the cleaning team I made a grave mistake. We were waiting when everybody had finished their dining and after that started washing dishes. It took about an hour to clean all the mess up. Horrible memories. Next time I started with my duties way earlier and all went smoothly. It was funny that at first everybody was willing to fill in the cleaning team schedule but at the end barely few people cleaned. At the weekends cleaning was voluntary because most of the weekend we were out of the hostel anyway.
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AuthorJust another confused youth. Archives
November 2017
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