Two cities and the Danube

I’m on the move, yet again. This time is Bratislava.

Just before coming I had at one of those moments when I would not have gone anywhere, partly because I was quite comfortable and partly because I was panicking that, after going away for 6 weeks, I would find people didn’t miss me or don’t count with me anymore when I get back. It's still early to know what's going to happen, but it doesn't look so bad. We will see…

But the fact is that once I settle really well into the hotel life (still missing my own home, of course), I’m not so embarrassed any more of walking into a restaurant and having dinner on my own, and as soon as I’m out of my comfort group of people I realize I can meet people and make friends quite easily.

Anyway, first weekend away I escaped to Vienna, which is only one hour away, and I fell in love. They market it as the imperial city, with palaces, Sisi museum, Mozart, etc. And all that is beautiful, with nothing to envy Paris. But I know that, in a few months, when I try to remember that weekend, the image that will come to my mind will be a very different one: The hustle and bustle and all the food at Naschmarkt and the Jugendstil style buildings by Otto Wagner, in particular the Majolicahaus. It left me speechless when I saw it while strolling through the market only to find out later on how famous it actually is (excuse my ignorance). Klimt is everywhere too, especially this year that is the 150 anniversary, with special exhibitions springing all over the place. Then, if you have architectural geeky moments like me, the Hundertwasserhaus is worth having a look. And on a completely different topic, of course, the food: Tafelspitz, Wiener schnitzel, Sachertorte, Apfestrudel, sitting in a Viennese coffee... Very typical, I know, but I can’t be surrounded by so much food and go to Macdonalds.

That’s city number one on the Danube.

City number two, of course, has to be Bratislava, where I’m staying at the moment.

Gul'ky plený ídenými mäsom,
dusená kapusta (apparently)

It couldn´t be more different than Vienna. It’s quite small, everything in the city centre is walking distance and, even if it doesn’t have the grandeur of Vienna, it’s full of tourists and foreigners in general. Also the historical parts are so perfectly maintained (I wasn’t expecting it) that it´s almost like stepping into a fairy tale. Well worth visiting, at least for one day. The only frustrating thing is the language. In general, most people in hospitality speak quite good English, and even German, but it’s not like walking around being able to speak the language and, unfortunately, one month is not long enough to learn much… And back to my favourite topic, food, they seem to be obsessed with dumplings, but everything I’ve tried for now was very tasty (and very consistent). What I would like to know is what I had for lunch on my second day here, have a look at the picture.

However, for now, the highlight of this trip has to be the people. In Vienna I got together with three other people through Couchsurfing. We went for a few drinks, the conversation was flowing very easily even if it was the first time we were meeting and in the end it was quite fun. However, yesterday, what I didn’t expect was to end up going for a drink with some Cuban musicians that were playing in the restaurant where I went for dinner. Lovely people, with very interesting lives and hugely welcoming. The coincidence that they sat at the bar next to my table so I probably stared a bit more that I thought, the fact that they noticed I was staring (so they were too, and I noticed) and one of them assuming I had to come from a Spanish speaking country and starting a conversation… I'm remembering now, apparently they were discussing wether I had been stood up or not, hahaha! I could have just chosen another table and I would have gone home by 10pm without knowing what I was missing. Great night.

Unpacking finished, time to unwrap my heart

How do I summarise the last 3 months? I changed countries one more time, I found a house and I finally unpacked the stuff I put away almost a year ago.

I was where I wanted to be, I had a job I liked and very quickly, to my surprise, I met a few people that made me feel a bit less alone. For once in a very long time I wasn’t sure what my next goal was and that somehow made me feel happy (very happy) and at the same time lost, with no sense of direction.

During that time, of course, a lot of food happened: A great birthday party with Grünkohl, a good amount of homemade pizzas, my first couscous in 3 years, and a barbecue at -3° C… It’s just a shame I have no pictures (I need to start putting remedy to that), because they were all memorable.

But then, just a few days ago, I read my dearest friend’s post about the book A brave new world, and somehow I felt a shiver down my spine. I was too busy laughing to remember that my heart is still tightly wrapped and protected by a thick layer of steel. So now the goal is to start opening it up, try not to be afraid of what people might think and risk a little bit more, even if the risk I take is getting hurt.

Wish me luck!

Alibaba and the fourty thiefs

So summer is over, I’ve just come back from a well deserved (I think) holiday and it’s time to get ready for the next challenge, but first, let’s do a quick recap of the last couple of months.

Since I knew I would be transferring to Bremen I took my time in Birmingham really lightly, not work, which I took very seriously, but my personal life. I knew this would only be temporary, so no point letting my feelings run the show. This was the time to be fickle, and fickle I’ve been. I still hope I will keep in contact with some of the people I’ve met. I think I really clicked with people, some that have been through a similar experiences as I have and I've made a friend who somehow helped me open up about the fact that I got divorced at the beginning of the year, and I have even told a few people with a relatively reduced amount of embarrassment.

Slightly related to that (although not quite) was my short escape to Marrakech. It was pretty much what I expected. A similar culture to Tunisia, it didn’t shock me and I had the chance to enjoy walking around the souks and eating that amazing food without feeling forced into it. Of course we also had a rude reminder that, however touristy the city is, it’s in the middle of a relatively poor country.

What happened? I had my handbag stolen just a few hours after landing in the country, with the subsequent string of experiences like a completely useless visit to a police station, the amability of a taxi driver who took us to the hotel (and never got paid for it) and being locked out of the hotel until a lovely neighbour managed to contact the hotel manager inside to open the door for us.

After that we didn’t leave the hotel after dinner time and especially Isa found it quite hard to cope with the constant harassment of street vendors, kids, taxi drivers, beggars and any other person trying to make some profit out of two female tourists travelling alone.

But the only bad moment was that on the first night. The other 3 days we visited old palaces, the souks, the main square, amazing restaurants, and an art deco villa given to the city by Yves Saint Laurent, but we also had time to relax around the lovely courtyard pool in our hotel, which meant I came back with a good opinion of the place and an overall positive impression of the holiday.

After that I let myself be spoilt by my mum. And, now, the countdown to my German adventure starts for real. If all goes well, I’ll be there before the end of the month!!!

Dorothy’s shoes

Can I just tap the heels of my shoes, like Dorothy does at the end of the Wizard of Oz, and go back home? But where is home?

Since the end of last year I feel like I've been swept away by a tornado and I still haven't landed. It might take me a whole year, but the latest news is that around my 31st birthday I'll finally get the chance to settle down for a while in the alleged birthplace of the best known animal musicians.

It's crazy how things slowly seem to be slotting into place. People who know me have had to listen to me for the last couple of years saying that I wanted to become an instructor or transfer to Bremen, and I seem to be very close to having both things!!

However exciting that sounds… Ok, I'll rectify, because most people won't be the least interested. However excited I am about reaching two of my most immediate goals, I still plan to enjoy to the full the time I have left in Birmingham.

How? I wish I could be more original, but I joined a gym, I want to go and visit friends in Dublin and Liverpool, and I need to make the most of the good relation I have with people I'm meeting here. And I hope this last thing doesn't sound like I'm taking advantage of them, nothing further from reality. I would like to believe that some of these acquaintances can actually turn into friendships. Unfortunately I doubt anything more than that, especially since my stay here already has an expiry date.

Anyway… I am quite busy with work and trying to have some sort of social life, and that is leaving me no time for anything like trying out new fancy recipes, or wasting hours around architecture websites, or watching movies, or even playing my beloved bagpipes (lacking the space as well). So I guess all that will have to way until I’m a bit bored or stuck at home in the middle of winter.

Until then, if you have already wasted a few minutes in reading this, enjoy the good weather if you are lucky enough to get any.

Into the wild... and back

My new position at work is keeping me really busy and it's still very exciting, however, today and after 5 weeks away, it was kind of nice to get back home, even if it only feels like a temporary place to live.

During those 5 weeks I was incredibly busy, more than I could have ever expected, but it was a pleasure to teach and see my students pass their exams in the end. One thing that bothered me was that, after all that time, I felt nothing when yesterday I said goodbye to them. How can I be so cold sometimes?

Anyway, I was lucky that there was some people there that I knew and who offered me great support and a lot of company, but sometimes I felt the need to be on my own, take a long bath and then sit on the sofa watching a movie with a beer in hand. And I had just the perfect movie to watch. It was a recommendation by one of my colleagues, who was also very eager to give me a copy of it, so I went and watched it.

Into the wild, based on a real life story, came out in 2007. It´s about a guy from a seemingly perfect suburban background, good student, etc. who decides to take some time to travel after college and, after wandering around the US for a while, decides to give away all his money, burn his documents and, under an alias, go to spend some time alone in the wilderness in Alaska. It really makes you think, first about society and how unnecessary are some of the things that we seem to value a lot. The realisation in the end that, however superfluous our lifes are, we need the people around us to share our joys and sorrows left me in shock.

The message itself is nothing new but, taken to an extreme environment like Alaska, the movie made me see it from a different perspective.

Just to finish for today, a quote from one of the last scenes of the movie:

"[written into book] Happiness only real when shared."

Planned Obsolescence

This morning, after one of my weird chain of thoughts I ended up having a geeky moment and watching a very interesting documentary about planned obsolescence.

So, how did I get to that? Well, the last few days I’ve been looking at new phones, I can’t really afford a new one, especially because most contracts around here are 24 months long and the way my life is, who knows where I’m gonna be in 24 months. I still wanted to know what’s around in case my battered Sony-Ericsson died. And since I refuse to get an iPhone, and the reason why is not the point now, I was looking at all sort of other phones. Then, this morning I woke up quite early and wanted to listen to some music, so I thought I would use my iPod (the one I found and never use) and it was out of battery, then it wouldn’t switch on… so while I was resetting it, because it froze, and trying to get the damn thing charged I remembered a documentary my sister told me about a few months ago about planned obsolescence.

It sounds kind of obscene, but it’s not. The documentary talked about how in this consumer society nothing is built to last. And that’s not because all these electronics are delicate or anything like that, but because if things lasted we wouldn’t buy new ones, so the factories wouldn’t need to produce so much, so the big companies wouldn’t make so much profit, etc. The documentary is easy to find in youtube if you search “obsolescencia programada”, however, it’s in Spanish and I have no idea if it’s available in any other language. I found it very interesting, although quite unsettling. I suppose that’s the purpose of it, a way to report that economic growth doesn’t mean all is well.

Finally, I started remembering what a friend always says, that nothing is supposed to last a lifetime any more, and now I’m not just talking about material things. I’m sure there is another documentary somewhere about the changes in society and the end of lifelong relationships is happening (and the problem is our generations are caught in a changing society). And somehow, I want to believe something different is possible.

New challenges

My last week in Porto was one of the hardest in last times. It was depressing, not just because of having to pack, but also because I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to the friend who has been there for me in the last year and a half. And it wasn’t hard just for me, no matter how many times she said that she didn’t feel like I was letting her down and that she was very proud of me, we didn’t know how to handle it. I would have liked to go out for a drink one last time all together but you can’t force people to do something they really don’t want to. And, as I said before, here comes the difficult part of keeping in contact. I hope we manage.

On the other hand, I’ve been already for a week in this new city, and for now things have been going quite well. I worked a couple of days without making a fool of myself, I found a house and I moved in, and last night I went out for a drink with my new flat mate/landlady. I still haven’t met many people at work and have no idea if I will make any long lasting friends, but that’s not something that can be easily predicted, and it takes time so, for the time being, I can’t complain. By the way, this is what my house looks like, small but nice, I think.

Obviously, this last week, I’ve been busy enough with adapting to a new place. But on my last Friday in Porto, I was going kind of mad on my own in the house surrounded by boxes and suitcases, so I decided to do something I had never done before: Go to the cinema alone.

It was kind of depressing because it was the way I was feeling, but it didn’t feel as awkward as I thought it would. What did I watch? The King’s Speech. Very English and also very inspirational. I thought it was very appropriate that the story was about a king who could not speak in public, and made me remember how, when a was little, in more than one occasion I got a bad grade in school because I could not force myself to speak in front of my classmates, and now I’m going to be the one teaching other people and talking to them for hours on end.