First Christmas and second New Year in Slovakia

Its been a while again since I wrote here... However, I hope no one is angry with me ;)

I wanted to say a bit late "Merry Christmas" and in few hours A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR ;) Hope next year brings loads of happiness and success!!!
Its going to be my year (and all those born in '86), if we look at the Chinese horoscope, so I am looking very much forward to it and hope it brings me more luck ;)

Anyhow, more posts next year ;)

Loads of hugs to everyone

for ladies :)

I guess some of my girl-friends would like to know a bit more about men in Slovakia :)
Well, in two weeks I have discovered that here are two types of guys-
1. very self-confident
2. a bit shy
However, both are very cute! When I know something more, I'll let You know ;)

"on-arrival" in Terchová

As You can see I havent done much writing. This was due to the fact that last week I was on my "on-arrival" training in a beautiful place called Terchová :)
Its pretty much North from where I live and nature there was amazing!!! Such beauty and majesty...
So, lets start with the beginning of my journey... Slovaks have a really nice website where its possible to plan all the trip from point A to point B, and that helps a lot, because it shows all the times and stops and so on... which for non-Slovak is very helpful!
I planned my trip through Banska Bystrica, because there lives another volunteer, so we decided that it would be much more fun to travel together, and in case of getting lost.. that would be much more fun together, as well :D The whole journey from Krupina to Terchová took me about 4,5 hours (~168 km) and three bus changes. Anyhow, I got a chance to see so many beautiful places here, mostly mountains and often only sounds I could make were "wow", "ahh", "wow, wow, wow"...
However, few times I as well screamed inside ("aaa...") since bus drivers here are very, very wild, especially on turns! So far there are two things, which I dislike in Slovakia- the way people drive here (they dont stop on pedestrian crossing, wild driving up or down the mountaines..or just regular streets), and their public busses, which sometimes seem to be a bit dangerous to be driven..
However, views behind bus windows were amazing :) The more we were going up the mountain, the more my ears were shutting (I dont know the right word in English, but its like when one is flying and afterwords it takes some time when ears work properly again :P, do You know what I mean?), but it seemed that Slovaks are born without this problem... Interesting! So, after changing busses me and French volunteer finally got to Terchová and the view was perfect! It looked like from some kind of Christmas movie- mountains covered in snow, small city in the valley, stone church...
Very easily we found pension we stayed in and since we were first to arrive, we decided to go for a beer and I wanted to eat.. When we found place called "restauracia" which means "cafe" or something like that, they told us that they dont serve any food, only alcohol :D So, I decided that beer in some way is food, but drinking it on an empty stomach..
When we came back, I found out that my room-mate is a girl from Lithuania :D we laughed that two of us choose the same room since we are from neighbouring countries (for those who dont know :P ) and actually our EVS projects are very close to each other as well. She lives in an eco-community not far from me, and I admire their way of life, since I know that I wouldnt be able to live this way...
By the end of the evening we slowly started to remember each other's names and we even got some assignments to do.. I wasnt that happy about it, because my "pre-departure" was a week before and I was afraid that I will get one more info overload.. However, by the end of the week I was happy to realise that it didnt happen, and the whole thing was a lot of fun :)
I wont go in too many details about the whole week, since Im sure You all can imagine that day approximately looked like that- waking up, beautiful view behind the window, breakfast, gathering together, some assignments, launch, gathering together, dinner, gathering together, a bit drinking, sleeping..
However, I would like to mention our hiking trip to Malá Fatra National Park.

The place is breath taking!!! Again I will mention mountains :D beautiful! River that was half frozen, and a very dangerous roads up since some parts of roads were covered in ice...

And as You can imagine some people fell down. However, it was so great to see that they are not bothered by the fact that they either fell down on an ice or got wet feet in a river.. They kept having a nice time ;)

During this trip my love for hiking grow even bigger and as well I realised how much I would like to learn climbing! So, this would be one of those outside the project activities which EVS offers :)

Overall, last week was amazing with loads of laugh and fun and excitment... Im looking forward to meet all these lovely people again either by visiting them in Slovakia or next time during the "mid-term" training ;)

Wien or Wine... :P

Finally after so many times being in Vienna's airport, I got to see a city as well... Hmm... not that much of a city as I would like to, since we spent two hours shopping in a huge mall, but if people think its cheaper for them to buy things in Austria rather than in Slovakia... whatever makes them happy :P
However, the company in a bus was great!!! Such lovely and funny people!! I havent laughed that much for a long time... And I havent been drinking at 11:00 for a long time as well, actually I think I have never done that before :P
Estonia taught me how to drink a good wine (actually it was Philip who taught me, thank You so much ;) ), Danmark taught me how to drink beer, since I disliked it and it never would be my choice, and now it seems that Slovakia will teach me how to drink heavier alcoholic drinks... 40% and up?


However, the best thing from this trip was seeing Claude Monet's works... Oh, its impossible to describe what I felt when I finally saw his art after so many years of loving it!!!!!!!!! It was a very speacial moment for me and it made my day :)
The one thing I didnt like about Vienna was its tourists :P There were so many people, so, so many people!!! I have been to some touristical places, but I have never seen anything alike... Mostly there were Hungarians and Slovaks since that weekend they had some kind of discounts in Vienna, and I was pretty sure that if all those people would want to make some kind of revolution, it would be very easy for them :P I didnt hear any Austrian language, except in the shops..
I think if I will go there again, then probably not on a weekend, or maybe not on a weekend before Christmas, or when Hungarians and Slovaks have discounts :D

First week

Well, its been already a crazy ride :P haha... I mean I had already my ups and downs, and Im pretty much looking forward ;)
On Tuesday I had this incredibly bad day... maybe because I didnt get much sleep or what, but I was moody... In these kind of days, the best thing is to be alone, however, when one is a volunteer who recently arrived then this mission is very much impossible! I tried to do my best not to upset anyone, so people dont think that Im some kind of freak, and hopefully I managed to survive because Im still here :P
Anyways, its been better since! I have started to learn the language and I am hoping to be kind of good in it soon, because the beauty of this proccess is that there are only few people who speak English, so I dont have other choice as to remember and repeat Slovak words. Phrase of the week is "Ako sa maš?", which means "How are you?" :) So, You can imagine that I look like a parrot, who asks this phrase everyone over and over again, every day :P However, no one has complained ;)
Past few days I have been waking up very early and tomorrow is the same since we are going to Vienna... I've been in Vienna's airport 5 times and never been in a city, so Im looking forward to this trip.
Oki doki, going to sleep and hopefully will write more after the trip to a big city :)

Saint Mikuláš and how we went hicking at night...

Well, its been an exciting weekend :) As I have written on Saturday I was in Zvolen, and on Sunday was Saint Mikuláš day, who is someone like Santa Claus... I still havent figured that out, but the idea is that Slovakians get presents in December twice- on the first Sunday of Dec and for Christmas (lucky bastards :P ).
So Domček organized a concert for children with white bearded man, a singer from Slovak Idol and loads of chocolate. Thats amazing how less You need to make a child happy :) and they enjoy every minute of it! Not like we, who run somewhere and get stucked with problems and blah, blah, blah...





Anyhow, it was a nice afternoon and in the evening Krupina's Christmas tree was lightened up :) I liked it so much, because people here all the time talk- "this city is so small", "there's nothing to be done", "its borring", but action is happening, its not that bad! There is life and there are people who want to change something about this borringness (Im not sure its an English word :P).

And around 21 o'clock my coordinator Peter decided to show me Vartovka (thats a construction on a hill, that was used to alarm people from other villages about danger by fireing something :P its like in a "lord of the rings", when they transfered that fire signal from one mountine top to another, if You know what I mean). So we went there and at first everything was nice, we were on a trail, but as it usually happens people have desire to find harder ways to get to the point, so we got a bit lost and made a bit of a circle... Did I already mentioned that I dont have any hicking shoes? However, I survived, and I will need to buy some special shoes! :D To get to the top was kind of ok, even there is a very steep hill, but to get down was kind of a problem... However, we Latvians are smart people, so I used all four of my extremities and almost like a turtile got down ;)



Well, need to go to sleep, since tomorrow some big boss is comming...
Sweet dreams everyone!

First impressions

Now its been 3 days as I am here and already so many things have happened... Thats what I love about traveling so much- it doesnt get borring! There are always new people to meet and new things to find out about yourself!

On Friday I had a challenging day since I didnt have anyone who could speak to me English, so the whole day was in Slovak with some Russian and German phrases from those who can speak them :) By the end of the day my head was actually hurting... I really thought I would understand more, but still it was nice to get at least an idea what the conversations were about.

I met my colleagues and they all seem very nice and friendly, and as far as I can see they all love the work they do, so I will do my best to get involved and help. I was lucky to see a performance by small children and youngsters, and they have a lot of passion, which made me realise that this project could be a lot of fun, after I learn how to communicate with them ;)

And of course, my first shopping on my own... I survived, but I got some things for my hair that smells like men's after shave (I checked it twice, its for hair)... Dont get me wrong, I like men and their smell, but not when my hair has to smell the same way. In case there is a girl, who likes that then I will be more than happy to give her hair mousse and spray :D

And yesterday I went to see some other EVSs in a near town- Zvolen. There was gathering for all volunteers, but I guess not all of them came, we were about 15 and still it was fun. Its strange since almost every slovak is asking me "why Slovakia?", but when I saw that there are many people like me from France, Italy, Lithuania, Germany, even Brazil and Uruguay, who came here, then it made me feels that Im not alone :D Almost all of them had their "on-arrival" training, and I hope my great coordinator will manage to get me on one which will be in two weeks. Fingers crossed, that its not too late ;)

Well, Im still happy to be here, so I guess its a good sign ;)

P.S these are some pictures from yesterday's gathering. Kapuera (I guess I spelled it wrong)danced by Brazilians and Slovaks and some Slovak rock.. Both bands were really good!!!

Day 1

So, here I am.. and it looks nice :) but lets start with the beginning...

My journey started in Riga airport, where I was smart enough to go to a counter where a man was sitting :) As You can understand I had more than 20 kg in my bag, it was actually 22,9 .. So he offered me either to take something out or pay. At that particular moment I was already so stressed, since I slept only 4 hours and repacked my bag at least 5 times (throwing in and out all kind of staff), so I agreed on paying and got tears in my eyes.. So he gave me a boarding pass and when I asked where to pay he said "just get into a plane" :) Ladies, its a good tip for You.

Flight to Vienna was good, and after landing I had about an hour till the bus to Bratislava. I wasnt really sure where the bus stop was, thus I asked at the information desk. And here a new stress started, since the lady told me that I had to go to some parking house 3... I went up and down in that airport with an extremely heavy bags (I had to get them down the stairs..brr..) and asked so many people, of course no-one had an idea where exactly is that bus stop! Then I went back to the info lady, and she sent me once again to P3... After not finding it, I decided to check the stop where the bus was to be at first place, and of course on the screen I saw my time and destination, so I went the third time to the lady to make sure that Im correct, and she just said "oh, I dont know, they told us stop will be in P3, Im sorry". All I had was to wait and hope Im getting the right bus.. Finally it came and in an hour I was already in Bratislava.

In Bratislava's bus station, my coordinator was waiting for me :) A really nice and cheerful young man Peter :D (if You are reading this then I want to say one more time a huge THANK YOU for carrying my bag, maybe later You will thank me for the muscles.. haha.. ;) ). After getting some tea we went to the bus stop and I had such a huge smile when I saw our bus.... I dont want to say anything bad and hope Slovak people wont be angry with me, but the bus didnt look very safe :P haha... It was something like "Ikarus" that we used to have in Latvia, and I havent driven those busses for some time. Anyhow, it was ok ;) It was full and there were few stops where so many people were getting in, that it was completely over crowded!!! Amazing how patient people have to be or maybe thats because they are already used to it...
Oh, I forgot to mention one more interesting fact- when one puts the baggage in the bottom it costs 1 EUR.. why? have no idea.. Peter didnt believe when I told him that in the Baltics we dont pay for luggage. I dont know, maybe its popular to do so in the South? anyone wants to share?
Anyhow, bus from Bratislava was only to Zvolen, so I was getting closer to my destination. In Zvolen we had to wait for an hour and a half for the last bus, so we decided to look around. Its a really nice town, which I hope to visit and see more on Saturday since there will be some big gathering of all (ex and current) EVSs. We got some hot wine and all the stressed dissapeared ;)

So, finally we got to Krupina! Already in a dark I could say that its typical Slovakian town. Dont know how to explain, its just different from the towns in Latvia. If in Latvia we have more wooden houses, then here its stone. It seems very cosy. And as I said it was small so everything is very close to each other (thats what I love about Tallinn, too). Speaking of a house where I live... At night it looks spooky, because its huge and Im the only one to live here. My room is very nice, just need a bit of renovation, but Im ok with that.

Well, that would be short description of my first day. Maybe later I will write how was my second day ;)

Smily,
Viktorija

Intro

Hi :)

As many of You know, I've done some blogging in the past and its been fun and exciting most of the time ;) So now Im starting to do it again...

This time I would like to share with all of You my EVS experience in Slovakia, which should start tomorrow.

I will be working as a volunteer in a small town called Krupina in a project with children and youth. To be honest at this particular moment I do not know what to expect, since some of Latvian ex-EVS told us that often projects in real life differ from what we've read on a paper... However, I keep myself positive since I have such a nice coordinator, who already told me that will keep me busy from the very beginning :D

I really do hope that I enjoy this project as well as all my fellow Latvians, who are going to start their EVS today or in the nearest future!!! I wish Agate (in Austria) and Aija (in Germany) a great start today!!!

Please keep Your fingers crossed for me today so I can get 20+8 kg in the bags, and tomorrow, when my EVS journey starts ;)

Excited and stressful

Viktorija :)