And if you wonder where in the world I take all this time to write this blog.. Well, for example, the morning after the movie, we had to wake up rather early because Maria had to go to work and I couldn’t stay home alone. So I just sat into a nearby locutorio and wrote, wrote, wrote... (locutorio – a place where African immigrants can call home cheaply, and others simply use internet) And then it was already time to go and meet Evita at the airport!
Yes, juggling is not the only thing I have infected people with recently. I can also be proud to spread a little bit of a travel-infection around. For example, the fact that Evita came to Madrid to „pick me up to fly to England together” is purely a result of me bragging to her how cheap RyanAir tickets I got :) So she discovered that Liverpool-Madrid-Liverpool is available also for only 20 EUR on the two last days of my stay in Madrid, and couldn’t resist getting the tickets at once :)
So, I am actually wrapping up the Madrid stories now, to write a couple of lines about England as well...
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Monday - university, moving again, and meeting CouchSurfing people
Monday is meant to visit the University. Another overload of memories and emotions :) We had a hearty lunch at the cafeteria with Aneta from the Polish flat, with Sarah, and with a Latvian girl Baiba, who almost fainted from surprise when she heard that she is actually not the only person in that cafe who can speak Latvian...
And not to hurt the pride of the local language, we also had a chat in Spanish, with another Polish student, in the inner yard of the university... And the university tour was completed by checking mail in the computer class, walking through the library, and two unsuccessful attempts to borrow a movie from the language center. The first time I hit the lunch break (or siesta, if you prefer), and the next time was past their working hours in the ‘movie-room’ (the women next door told me the wrong opening hours...). The good thing was that at least I met my favourite Spanish teacher Carola in the next room. Yep, I still love this language :-D
It was time to move again – and it was not the last time to change the sleeping place during this week :) So I had to take my stuff from Aluche, Emilie’s and Roberta’s place. I had slowly gotten tired of the 30-minute trips from Aluche to the center during the previous days, but this time it was even double – traveling from the South-East Madrid to South-West takes about an hour, together with the 10-minute walk to the house from the subway stop. This time, the walk home was actually prolonged another 10-15 minutes, because I simply couldn’t walk through the park without taking photos of the hundreds of old people killing their time in the fresh air, of the interesting construction of a climbing attraction in the children’s playground, and of the guy in his 30s who was flying a remotely controlled toy plane.. Of course, I was caught admiring especially the last attraction ;) You can see some photos of that park walk in the online albums soon (will put a link here), and here’s a video to give you an idea of the concentration of prosthetic teeth in the park in Aluche ;)
It’s lucky that I took some time off to have a chat with Emilie and Roberta before going back to the town. Because being lazy sometimes gets you further than running. To make the matters clearer – I got a call from Ramon, the guy whom I know since the first days of the Erasmus semester – me & Kristine lived at his place for a week before finding our own home. And he said his car GPS can find whichever address I tell him, so that we can have meet and remember old times. Nice :) So I said bye-bye to Emilie & Roberta, and traveled to the center with Ramon. Unfortunately we had not completely understood each other and our plans, so we didn’t do anything else in the center – he had thought of driving together to Rivas (SE Madrid, even further South-East than the University..) to chill there, while I had agreed with a girl from CouchSurfing to have dinner and watch a movie in the center. So we agreed to meet the next day, and I was out in the center, trying to orienteer towards Calle Viriato 12, where Maria lives.
Maria has an incredibly cool small flat! From the first step, you feel the atmosphere of a traveller’s home ;) Lots of half-packed suitcases and souvenirs from different places, of course, help in creating that image. The whole flat is actually a one-room studio, but the many hanging and standing shelves and wardrobes segment the room into a spacious apartment. The best element, undoubtedly, is her shower room, which is in practically in the center of the flat (or room, or studio, don’t even know how to call it now..), and partially see-through :) :) Well, you cannot actually see through the shower room walls, but it is built from glass bricks that let you understand movement and light behind them. And it is round and HUGE (1,3m diameter maybe?), so I preferred to call it her SWIMMING POOL :) And that’s not it – the whole bathroom is kind of 2 in 1: toilet and bathroom. But still in 2 different rooms. But you can use the same door to close both doorways!!! Can you imagine that? Open one doorway, and you close the other, which is at a 90-degree angle from the first, sharing one corner with the other doorway... That’s good space planning, I say!
Maria’s great! We discovered that we have rather many common interests and tendencies, during the long dinner table talk :) Traveling, love for Spanish language, logical thinking and tendency to understand things rationally and mathematically, juggling addiction, etc, etc.. Yes – and we discovered all that in Spanish :) It seemed that in that evening, the language kind of came out easier... Mysterious.
My Spanish was probably even better in the following morning than the night before – because the last thing we did before falling asleep was watching a Spanish comedy :) "Dias de futbol" it was called – or Days of Football, as one might translate it. It was about a bunch of guys who all have their problems with work, life, family, women, etc – and they share a common stress-relieving solution: they start a football team, and participate in the local amateur tournament. Of course, on their way towards their first big victory (which means finishing a match without losing with about 5 goals) they steal their uniforms from a sports store, lose one of the guys’ newborn baby, re-find old lovers, bribe the referees, etc, etc.. Definitely fun! I also received a list of next Spanish comedies I have to see from Maria ;)
And not to hurt the pride of the local language, we also had a chat in Spanish, with another Polish student, in the inner yard of the university... And the university tour was completed by checking mail in the computer class, walking through the library, and two unsuccessful attempts to borrow a movie from the language center. The first time I hit the lunch break (or siesta, if you prefer), and the next time was past their working hours in the ‘movie-room’ (the women next door told me the wrong opening hours...). The good thing was that at least I met my favourite Spanish teacher Carola in the next room. Yep, I still love this language :-D
It was time to move again – and it was not the last time to change the sleeping place during this week :) So I had to take my stuff from Aluche, Emilie’s and Roberta’s place. I had slowly gotten tired of the 30-minute trips from Aluche to the center during the previous days, but this time it was even double – traveling from the South-East Madrid to South-West takes about an hour, together with the 10-minute walk to the house from the subway stop. This time, the walk home was actually prolonged another 10-15 minutes, because I simply couldn’t walk through the park without taking photos of the hundreds of old people killing their time in the fresh air, of the interesting construction of a climbing attraction in the children’s playground, and of the guy in his 30s who was flying a remotely controlled toy plane.. Of course, I was caught admiring especially the last attraction ;) You can see some photos of that park walk in the online albums soon (will put a link here), and here’s a video to give you an idea of the concentration of prosthetic teeth in the park in Aluche ;)
It’s lucky that I took some time off to have a chat with Emilie and Roberta before going back to the town. Because being lazy sometimes gets you further than running. To make the matters clearer – I got a call from Ramon, the guy whom I know since the first days of the Erasmus semester – me & Kristine lived at his place for a week before finding our own home. And he said his car GPS can find whichever address I tell him, so that we can have meet and remember old times. Nice :) So I said bye-bye to Emilie & Roberta, and traveled to the center with Ramon. Unfortunately we had not completely understood each other and our plans, so we didn’t do anything else in the center – he had thought of driving together to Rivas (SE Madrid, even further South-East than the University..) to chill there, while I had agreed with a girl from CouchSurfing to have dinner and watch a movie in the center. So we agreed to meet the next day, and I was out in the center, trying to orienteer towards Calle Viriato 12, where Maria lives.
Maria has an incredibly cool small flat! From the first step, you feel the atmosphere of a traveller’s home ;) Lots of half-packed suitcases and souvenirs from different places, of course, help in creating that image. The whole flat is actually a one-room studio, but the many hanging and standing shelves and wardrobes segment the room into a spacious apartment. The best element, undoubtedly, is her shower room, which is in practically in the center of the flat (or room, or studio, don’t even know how to call it now..), and partially see-through :) :) Well, you cannot actually see through the shower room walls, but it is built from glass bricks that let you understand movement and light behind them. And it is round and HUGE (1,3m diameter maybe?), so I preferred to call it her SWIMMING POOL :) And that’s not it – the whole bathroom is kind of 2 in 1: toilet and bathroom. But still in 2 different rooms. But you can use the same door to close both doorways!!! Can you imagine that? Open one doorway, and you close the other, which is at a 90-degree angle from the first, sharing one corner with the other doorway... That’s good space planning, I say!
Maria’s great! We discovered that we have rather many common interests and tendencies, during the long dinner table talk :) Traveling, love for Spanish language, logical thinking and tendency to understand things rationally and mathematically, juggling addiction, etc, etc.. Yes – and we discovered all that in Spanish :) It seemed that in that evening, the language kind of came out easier... Mysterious.
My Spanish was probably even better in the following morning than the night before – because the last thing we did before falling asleep was watching a Spanish comedy :) "Dias de futbol" it was called – or Days of Football, as one might translate it. It was about a bunch of guys who all have their problems with work, life, family, women, etc – and they share a common stress-relieving solution: they start a football team, and participate in the local amateur tournament. Of course, on their way towards their first big victory (which means finishing a match without losing with about 5 goals) they steal their uniforms from a sports store, lose one of the guys’ newborn baby, re-find old lovers, bribe the referees, etc, etc.. Definitely fun! I also received a list of next Spanish comedies I have to see from Maria ;)
Sunday - capoeira show, Caceres again, and the Irish pub again :)
The Sunday morning was my last time to wake up at the Polish flat in Aluche. And it was an early waking, because we were supposed to go see a capoeira show, as agreed at Roberta’s birthday at Friday evening. With my hand-baggage sized rolling suitcase, I strolled through the green park-strip that separates the Polish flat from Emilie’s home, and arrived even in time to have a chat before going to find the sports hall of the capoeiristas. The show was definitely cool! And made even more special by the fact that one fellow exchange student was also performing there – Pauline from France.
I had some more plans for that day, but they were not meant to come true.. For example, the Retiro park visit (the huge park in the center of Madrid) was cancelled due to very suspicious weather, and the visit of the Flamenco dancing was cancelled due to lazyness... Instead, I visited Calle Caceres and Sarah again, and spent some more time, chilling, chatting, juggling, listening to music, and we even had a video-chat with Ariana who is now again living in the US... The weather, as I wrote, was not the best to sunbathe in the park, but it served well for having a slow and memory-packed walk around the familiar Delicias block. We even got some healthy (ok, cheating myself) kebab, and like last night with the chicken, Sarah chose not to eat... I continued my walk towards the little streets and Sol again, she remained at home due to an exam the next day.
Somehow, I ended up in the same pub as last night – O’Connell. The huge screens were unblocked this time – not many people at the bar yet - because I arrived rather early. And lack of noise and customers allowed me to have a chat with the girl at the bar. Besides looking good, she also told me many interesting things – for example that she is actually from Canada, knows almost nothing about Spanish, and has lived in Madrid only for 3 weeks, after her 3 months of backpacking around Europe. She is not my favourite Canadian, anyway – because she didn’t visit Estonia in her backpacking trip.. :)
Saturday - surprise-meeting, dear old flat, etc..
So... After having woken up around 15:30, I went on a tour to the town. For some reason I felt like walking around, so I took the subway to a station called San Bernardo. It’s a place where I’d been only once before, with Kristine, meeting a girl from the Hospitality Club. That had been on the very first days of the exchange semester, and she gave us some tips on the local life, places to see, etc. And also helped us with some calling, to find a place to live in Madrid. She showed us a bar where her boyfriend Felipe was working, and after that, we visited an internet cafe, where Kristine discovered that she passed FINANCE :)
All this here is to say that on Day 3 in Madrid, exiting the subway in the same place, vaguely remembering the surroundings, walking around the block – I ACCIDENTALLY MET THE SAME GIRL, Laura!!! What is the probability of that?! Another great coincidence, adding to meeting Roman on the first night :)
Saturday is also the day of visiting my dear old flat in the Delicias region, a bit south from the main railway station called Atocha. And it was like a trip back in time, seeing the Romanian women Elena & Alina, who lived there also before. And my link to visit the place this time was Sarah, also from Romania – an exchange who is staying for the full study year. She actually moved in exactly when the first semester crowd (me, Kristine, Witek) were moving out... It was great to see her again!
We had a bit of dinner, and just for old times sake, I drank tea from MY cup (which I’d brought along from Latvia for the Erasmus semester), and ate chicken from OUR plate (which we bought in winter in the downstairs Chinese shop). Between sharing some memories and stories from the time we’d missed inbetween, and having some wine in the kitchen, I discovered several things: (1) the kitchen is a lot cleaner now than it used to be – although I can say honestly that it was not our fault that it was rather dirty back then... (2) the past-middle-aged Russian couple who now live in our room are just lovely – besides learning their names (Ljuba & Aleks) they told us quite a bit about their home region Sotchi; (3) there is a club for middle-aged Romanian women somewhere – Elena & her friend looked nice when going out to party after having a bit of wine with us students. Not all can be described by words, so here is a photo proof of the clean kitchen ;)
We spent quite some time in the dear flat on Caceres street that day. Among other things, I got Sarah addicted to juggling, and left the Romanian song Lele (by Loredana, who is famous in her country..) (check the video in YouTube ;) haunting her for days. So, when she went to the center to meet a Romanian friend, and I went back to Aluche neighborhood to change into a warmer evening outfit, I already had to leave the SSE Riga labeled juggling balls to her place, because she said she needed to practice :)
Arriving back to the town, I had hell of a lot of trouble finding the Irish pub she said she was in, with that friend of hers. Wandering around the labyrinth of the streets around the central Puerta del Sol, some students stopped me to ask something in clumsy Spanish. And guess what – they wanted to know if I can guide them to an English/Irish pub nearby :) So we continued walking and searching together – me and the exchange students from Poland, USA, and Ethiopia... After about 10 minutes of special search operations, we discovered that we weren’t looking for the same pub after all. But on a positive note – their Dubliners and my O’Connell were exactly next to each other, about 100m from where we started the search... The others also stepped into O’Connell for a moment, because their betraying friends had left Dubliners right before we found it :) But they also stepped out soon, because some girls thought something was stinking in that place. I, on the other hand, found the place neatly noisy & crowded, with a cool Irish pub atmosphere. And the service personnel is cute and helpful, as I had the chance to discover in the next couple of nights...
So there is where we met up with Sarah again, and after a beer and some chat with her friend and her, they continued the night at a club (which sucked totally, as I heard the next day :) I, as a nice guy ever, arrived home at a bit before 5 AM already...
All this here is to say that on Day 3 in Madrid, exiting the subway in the same place, vaguely remembering the surroundings, walking around the block – I ACCIDENTALLY MET THE SAME GIRL, Laura!!! What is the probability of that?! Another great coincidence, adding to meeting Roman on the first night :)
Saturday is also the day of visiting my dear old flat in the Delicias region, a bit south from the main railway station called Atocha. And it was like a trip back in time, seeing the Romanian women Elena & Alina, who lived there also before. And my link to visit the place this time was Sarah, also from Romania – an exchange who is staying for the full study year. She actually moved in exactly when the first semester crowd (me, Kristine, Witek) were moving out... It was great to see her again!
We had a bit of dinner, and just for old times sake, I drank tea from MY cup (which I’d brought along from Latvia for the Erasmus semester), and ate chicken from OUR plate (which we bought in winter in the downstairs Chinese shop). Between sharing some memories and stories from the time we’d missed inbetween, and having some wine in the kitchen, I discovered several things: (1) the kitchen is a lot cleaner now than it used to be – although I can say honestly that it was not our fault that it was rather dirty back then... (2) the past-middle-aged Russian couple who now live in our room are just lovely – besides learning their names (Ljuba & Aleks) they told us quite a bit about their home region Sotchi; (3) there is a club for middle-aged Romanian women somewhere – Elena & her friend looked nice when going out to party after having a bit of wine with us students. Not all can be described by words, so here is a photo proof of the clean kitchen ;)
We spent quite some time in the dear flat on Caceres street that day. Among other things, I got Sarah addicted to juggling, and left the Romanian song Lele (by Loredana, who is famous in her country..) (check the video in YouTube ;) haunting her for days. So, when she went to the center to meet a Romanian friend, and I went back to Aluche neighborhood to change into a warmer evening outfit, I already had to leave the SSE Riga labeled juggling balls to her place, because she said she needed to practice :)
Arriving back to the town, I had hell of a lot of trouble finding the Irish pub she said she was in, with that friend of hers. Wandering around the labyrinth of the streets around the central Puerta del Sol, some students stopped me to ask something in clumsy Spanish. And guess what – they wanted to know if I can guide them to an English/Irish pub nearby :) So we continued walking and searching together – me and the exchange students from Poland, USA, and Ethiopia... After about 10 minutes of special search operations, we discovered that we weren’t looking for the same pub after all. But on a positive note – their Dubliners and my O’Connell were exactly next to each other, about 100m from where we started the search... The others also stepped into O’Connell for a moment, because their betraying friends had left Dubliners right before we found it :) But they also stepped out soon, because some girls thought something was stinking in that place. I, on the other hand, found the place neatly noisy & crowded, with a cool Irish pub atmosphere. And the service personnel is cute and helpful, as I had the chance to discover in the next couple of nights...
So there is where we met up with Sarah again, and after a beer and some chat with her friend and her, they continued the night at a club (which sucked totally, as I heard the next day :) I, as a nice guy ever, arrived home at a bit before 5 AM already...
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Scorpions - Hurricane 2000
Listen & watch. Preferably with headphones and good loud sound. One Greek guy showed that video yesterday. And it rocks, like a hurricane ;)
Dog found!
I just had to post this :D Can't remember exactly how we saw this photo one day, but yeah.. nice.
All the dog-owners hate me now, don't you... :)
All the dog-owners hate me now, don't you... :)
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Roberta´s birthday
Hey again :)
From another nice evening with Roberta's birthday.. Friday at Emilie's and Roberta's place. Well, the biggest trouble was getting her to her own birthday - because it was a surprise party, and she initially decided not to stay home for the night at first. Luckily Emilie, her roommate, managed to persuade her to come after all :) The photos speak for themselves - enjoy the atmosphere ;)
After all the wine & cookies & snacks & chats, some of us decided that 4 AM is not too late to arrive to the center of the city. Arriving in front of one bar where a friend (an ex-flatmate from the exchange semester times) was working, we discovered that it was kind of lateish after all... That means we couldn't get into the bar, all closed... So we stayed outside on the street, chatting.
After 15min, we saw a fight. Well, I don't know how much you can call it a fight, if some people throw a bottle over somebody else's head, and it passes the head too close, and that person gets a bit pissed off, and decides to put some sense into the throwers' heads, and just starts slapping around with open hands :) It was kind of interesting to observe, and got us preparing our fists in our pockets, just in case the mess got out of hand. In the end, we managed to keep our hands clean, and the 4 bottle-throwers had to admit that the 2 slappers were right and the four should get out of that street and go home...
The fight got our conversation turned towards the interesting life in Brazil. Tanain, who is from Rio, told us a lot and more about it. For example that you need to know the rules of the game when you go to parties in Rio, and you need to know which one of the 5 different police to talk to if you're in trouble. And how to behave when you are on a party that is organized (and guarded) by the criminal organizations. And what happens to you when you dance too close with a girl who belongs to one of the gang people.. BOOM!
And a lot about the rich and the poor, and everybody playing football, and some about capoeira, the traditional martial art/dance/game. See the next posts, I will hopefully upload some capoeira photos/videos.. Simply beautiful ;)
From another nice evening with Roberta's birthday.. Friday at Emilie's and Roberta's place. Well, the biggest trouble was getting her to her own birthday - because it was a surprise party, and she initially decided not to stay home for the night at first. Luckily Emilie, her roommate, managed to persuade her to come after all :) The photos speak for themselves - enjoy the atmosphere ;)
 |
| Madrid-tri |
After all the wine & cookies & snacks & chats, some of us decided that 4 AM is not too late to arrive to the center of the city. Arriving in front of one bar where a friend (an ex-flatmate from the exchange semester times) was working, we discovered that it was kind of lateish after all... That means we couldn't get into the bar, all closed... So we stayed outside on the street, chatting.
After 15min, we saw a fight. Well, I don't know how much you can call it a fight, if some people throw a bottle over somebody else's head, and it passes the head too close, and that person gets a bit pissed off, and decides to put some sense into the throwers' heads, and just starts slapping around with open hands :) It was kind of interesting to observe, and got us preparing our fists in our pockets, just in case the mess got out of hand. In the end, we managed to keep our hands clean, and the 4 bottle-throwers had to admit that the 2 slappers were right and the four should get out of that street and go home...
The fight got our conversation turned towards the interesting life in Brazil. Tanain, who is from Rio, told us a lot and more about it. For example that you need to know the rules of the game when you go to parties in Rio, and you need to know which one of the 5 different police to talk to if you're in trouble. And how to behave when you are on a party that is organized (and guarded) by the criminal organizations. And what happens to you when you dance too close with a girl who belongs to one of the gang people.. BOOM!
And a lot about the rich and the poor, and everybody playing football, and some about capoeira, the traditional martial art/dance/game. See the next posts, I will hopefully upload some capoeira photos/videos.. Simply beautiful ;)
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