Sunday, August 29, 2010
Kitkat
Monday, August 23, 2010
Underneath the Gray Skies
A dedication to all the people I'm living with.
It's raining outside as usual, my lessons just ended and I have infinite amount of coffee under my command. I can tell you stories about the most amazing things or maybe a little less amazing things...or just casual things, it depends on how easily you get excited.
So soon after arriving I found out that this school of Folkehøjskole has an alternate purpose to teach people how to live together in small communities. To see the same faces during breakfast, lunch and dinner. I guess it's an important surviving skill, as it shows you who you actually are and what is your social status amongst others.
My company around this place is rather colorful as I've probably told you. Unfortunately I have no pictures to add.
As I was mistaken to be a boy I was put into room with a short disabled girl, although it doesn't show so much, she is as playful and as extroverted as any other person, she already has the boundaries for her comfort zone established. For the first week, she didn't say anything to me, not even hello nor goodbye. But recently she seem to have gotten used to me and even has enough courage to poke me and annoy me when I'm cleaning up. Actually yesterday was a big break trough as she started telling me about her family and how her dad died last year (even though it was in Danish I understood that much). I guess that is something that needs time to get over in every case. During the night I've had some problems with her, but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, or in my case, grouchy in the mornings. Today as I was vacuum cleaning the floor she came and turned the machine off several times and I poked her back, at least there's an international language of annoying people that works under every circumstance.
I also have a neighbor, tall, blond and thin girl who most parts reminds me of a boy. Somehow she found it a fun entertainment to sit on me while I watch TV, after that it has being a game of cat and mouse. She sneaks up on me and tries to tickle, the hardest part is that she is living next door which makes avoiding her sometimes hard, so whenever I find my shoes gone or keys displaced I know who to blame and then comes revenge aka tickling her until she gives over my stuff and that is the basis for our relationship as I can't really talk to her in Danish.
Btw as a side remark I should mention that we have touch screen computers and very fancy ones too.
Back to the people. In my class there's also this Japanese girl Y (for safety purposes), who is really the sweetest girl ever. She worked in Japan as a waitress in a small village, but ended up here. She is the only person who is trying to learn Danish too, so for that reason I always sit next to her.
There are also a few other Japanese people with I spend a lot of my time, but one thing is common to all of them. They are all very very polite, I guess it's already written in their DNA. I heard one Japanese lady apologizing one day for not knowing English, Truth be told there's nothing unnatural in not knowing a language. If you really want to communicate with the person you will do it, although it might require some creativity. Recently I've learned to talk with my hands and it seems to work much better. If you speak about liking something you tap on your heart, if asking other persons thoughts on something you tap on your head, for going you show a direction, things like that help a lot.
I also talk a lot or watch TV with some people who have been here for a while. Jør is around 60s and from the weight losers class, doing it very successfully. I met him on the first night I came here and he told me a lot about this school. He's a vibrant person, doing a lot of sports and enjoys being alive, even though he has been trough a lot. He comes here only for the company and I feel this school gives him a purpose.
From time to time I talk to a local Danish guy, who is in his 30s tall and blond, a very intelligent person, knows about movies, philosophy, music, politics, everything basically. I often enjoy talking to him about...well...everything. He is here in the disabled class, but you really can't tell it on the first sight. And even not when talking to him, but he did told me that giving him drivers license would be a mistake. Today I just noticed that he had a picture of a tractor and sunrise on his glasses. A thing he wasn't aware of. I also named his alter ego, he's name is Peter.
There are also two disabled people I should mention. First one...lets call him B is an artist, he has his own imaginary world, with an imaginary kingdom and language, he invented. He has tons of pictures of the citizens of those countries and their castles/houses. Each and every one of them have different names and the hole kingdom is built on equality, peace, fantasy and freedom (at least that's how I remembered it). From time to time he looks into people's eyes, which in my mind is a pretty good thing. He's 28 and should also live somewhere on Fyn (the central island I'm living on). I often envy him, his art has his own styles, he knows what he does and what to do, he even has a goal to his art.
There's also a B2 who is living in the same house that I'm living in. He arrived recently, but turned out to be rather scary. At first I didn't think much of him, seemed rather okay, but he has problems with the left side of his body, but that's not the issue. The thing is, every time I happen to be in the same room he is just staring at me until I get uncomfortable enough to cover my view of him or to leave the room, always saying hello and once he even decided to greet me shirtless after I finished washing my teeth. I just assume that is just a form of how his state, but it's still a little hard to handle. Just another day in Denmark.
Good news: There are jellyfish here, yesterday I went swimming and they were floating around, so soft and transparent, purple, as big as hands or tiny like peanuts, glowing in the water a little blue-ish. Next time will try to get some pictures. I LOVE jellies. In Danish jellyfish is vendmand (literally water man) and in Japanese it is 水母 [kurage].
Now if you're still awake you can pat yourself on the shoulder and find something exciting to do and think about jellies while doing it.
Cheers!
It's raining outside as usual, my lessons just ended and I have infinite amount of coffee under my command. I can tell you stories about the most amazing things or maybe a little less amazing things...or just casual things, it depends on how easily you get excited.
So soon after arriving I found out that this school of Folkehøjskole has an alternate purpose to teach people how to live together in small communities. To see the same faces during breakfast, lunch and dinner. I guess it's an important surviving skill, as it shows you who you actually are and what is your social status amongst others.
My company around this place is rather colorful as I've probably told you. Unfortunately I have no pictures to add.
As I was mistaken to be a boy I was put into room with a short disabled girl, although it doesn't show so much, she is as playful and as extroverted as any other person, she already has the boundaries for her comfort zone established. For the first week, she didn't say anything to me, not even hello nor goodbye. But recently she seem to have gotten used to me and even has enough courage to poke me and annoy me when I'm cleaning up. Actually yesterday was a big break trough as she started telling me about her family and how her dad died last year (even though it was in Danish I understood that much). I guess that is something that needs time to get over in every case. During the night I've had some problems with her, but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, or in my case, grouchy in the mornings. Today as I was vacuum cleaning the floor she came and turned the machine off several times and I poked her back, at least there's an international language of annoying people that works under every circumstance.
I also have a neighbor, tall, blond and thin girl who most parts reminds me of a boy. Somehow she found it a fun entertainment to sit on me while I watch TV, after that it has being a game of cat and mouse. She sneaks up on me and tries to tickle, the hardest part is that she is living next door which makes avoiding her sometimes hard, so whenever I find my shoes gone or keys displaced I know who to blame and then comes revenge aka tickling her until she gives over my stuff and that is the basis for our relationship as I can't really talk to her in Danish.
Btw as a side remark I should mention that we have touch screen computers and very fancy ones too.
Back to the people. In my class there's also this Japanese girl Y (for safety purposes), who is really the sweetest girl ever. She worked in Japan as a waitress in a small village, but ended up here. She is the only person who is trying to learn Danish too, so for that reason I always sit next to her.
There are also a few other Japanese people with I spend a lot of my time, but one thing is common to all of them. They are all very very polite, I guess it's already written in their DNA. I heard one Japanese lady apologizing one day for not knowing English, Truth be told there's nothing unnatural in not knowing a language. If you really want to communicate with the person you will do it, although it might require some creativity. Recently I've learned to talk with my hands and it seems to work much better. If you speak about liking something you tap on your heart, if asking other persons thoughts on something you tap on your head, for going you show a direction, things like that help a lot.
I also talk a lot or watch TV with some people who have been here for a while. Jør is around 60s and from the weight losers class, doing it very successfully. I met him on the first night I came here and he told me a lot about this school. He's a vibrant person, doing a lot of sports and enjoys being alive, even though he has been trough a lot. He comes here only for the company and I feel this school gives him a purpose.
From time to time I talk to a local Danish guy, who is in his 30s tall and blond, a very intelligent person, knows about movies, philosophy, music, politics, everything basically. I often enjoy talking to him about...well...everything. He is here in the disabled class, but you really can't tell it on the first sight. And even not when talking to him, but he did told me that giving him drivers license would be a mistake. Today I just noticed that he had a picture of a tractor and sunrise on his glasses. A thing he wasn't aware of. I also named his alter ego, he's name is Peter.
There are also two disabled people I should mention. First one...lets call him B is an artist, he has his own imaginary world, with an imaginary kingdom and language, he invented. He has tons of pictures of the citizens of those countries and their castles/houses. Each and every one of them have different names and the hole kingdom is built on equality, peace, fantasy and freedom (at least that's how I remembered it). From time to time he looks into people's eyes, which in my mind is a pretty good thing. He's 28 and should also live somewhere on Fyn (the central island I'm living on). I often envy him, his art has his own styles, he knows what he does and what to do, he even has a goal to his art.
There's also a B2 who is living in the same house that I'm living in. He arrived recently, but turned out to be rather scary. At first I didn't think much of him, seemed rather okay, but he has problems with the left side of his body, but that's not the issue. The thing is, every time I happen to be in the same room he is just staring at me until I get uncomfortable enough to cover my view of him or to leave the room, always saying hello and once he even decided to greet me shirtless after I finished washing my teeth. I just assume that is just a form of how his state, but it's still a little hard to handle. Just another day in Denmark.
Good news: There are jellyfish here, yesterday I went swimming and they were floating around, so soft and transparent, purple, as big as hands or tiny like peanuts, glowing in the water a little blue-ish. Next time will try to get some pictures. I LOVE jellies. In Danish jellyfish is vendmand (literally water man) and in Japanese it is 水母 [kurage].
Now if you're still awake you can pat yourself on the shoulder and find something exciting to do and think about jellies while doing it.
Cheers!
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Danske
The daily program in the Folkehøjskole.
If you are reading this you must be either really bored, or have way too much time on your hands, But if you're reading this because you want to learn more about Denmark you have come to the right place. The organization here is supposed to be like in the army. At 7.45-8.15 there's breakfast. then a meeting from 8.30-9.00. Till ten o'clock we'll have some lessons after which there's a coffee break. The lessons continue till 12 and for half an hour we have lunch after what we have to do our chores aka cleaning. More lessons till 3- another coffee break. 6-6.30 we have dinner. Of course everyone adapt to their needs, so my program looks a little different.
I sleep trough the breakfast just to catch some food 5 minutes before the kitchen closes. Appear halfway to the meeting where we sing some songs. Be minimum 10 minutes late for the class. Do the chores before lunch, so have 5 minutes for eating and even be on time for the second class. I just feel the need to control my own life and doing it with my own groove just feels great. It's a small attempt to bring chaos into this organized world. And when I say organized I mean Denmark is seriously on the point country.
Nobody throws anything on the streets and random people even clean up the streets, all the houses in the nearest village are renovated and really tidy with added decorations like old tuned BMWs. There's huge infrastructure here and even the smallest roads are pavemented. Everything is nice and tidy and rather expensive. For example owning a car is worst than smoking around here (even though cigarettes cost 50 kronas, which is a lot even in their standards, 90% of people staying in this school smoke). Per half a year people have to pay on the car weight, registration and even the fuel consumption. SO if you want a car, Denmark is not the right place for it.
The average pay a Danish person receives is about 105 kronas per hour, which is about 5 times more than average in Estonia. Although about 1/3 of the money goes for taxes and 25% of all goods you buy. The taxing system is progressive as people who get around 600 000 kronas per year have to pay 62% for taxes as a person with 400 000 kronas has to pay p.e 42% for taxes. At least that's what I learned in the last class.
Ooh and also some good news, as I didn't have any money it has been rather difficult for me during the past few days, but I met this nice artist who hired me to clean her house once a week and giving me 100 kronas per time, so I can live here almost normally and finally I can buy a beer!!! Oh the small joys.
Plus I'm also learing Danish now, there's always something to add to your language skills...although thanks to my ex roommate I learned two of the most importand words in Danish befor I even came here: billeder (a picture) and indbakke (inbox). They are very important.
Anyways take care and look at your toes, they might need trimming and painting over.
If you are reading this you must be either really bored, or have way too much time on your hands, But if you're reading this because you want to learn more about Denmark you have come to the right place. The organization here is supposed to be like in the army. At 7.45-8.15 there's breakfast. then a meeting from 8.30-9.00. Till ten o'clock we'll have some lessons after which there's a coffee break. The lessons continue till 12 and for half an hour we have lunch after what we have to do our chores aka cleaning. More lessons till 3- another coffee break. 6-6.30 we have dinner. Of course everyone adapt to their needs, so my program looks a little different.
I sleep trough the breakfast just to catch some food 5 minutes before the kitchen closes. Appear halfway to the meeting where we sing some songs. Be minimum 10 minutes late for the class. Do the chores before lunch, so have 5 minutes for eating and even be on time for the second class. I just feel the need to control my own life and doing it with my own groove just feels great. It's a small attempt to bring chaos into this organized world. And when I say organized I mean Denmark is seriously on the point country.
Nobody throws anything on the streets and random people even clean up the streets, all the houses in the nearest village are renovated and really tidy with added decorations like old tuned BMWs. There's huge infrastructure here and even the smallest roads are pavemented. Everything is nice and tidy and rather expensive. For example owning a car is worst than smoking around here (even though cigarettes cost 50 kronas, which is a lot even in their standards, 90% of people staying in this school smoke). Per half a year people have to pay on the car weight, registration and even the fuel consumption. SO if you want a car, Denmark is not the right place for it.
The average pay a Danish person receives is about 105 kronas per hour, which is about 5 times more than average in Estonia. Although about 1/3 of the money goes for taxes and 25% of all goods you buy. The taxing system is progressive as people who get around 600 000 kronas per year have to pay 62% for taxes as a person with 400 000 kronas has to pay p.e 42% for taxes. At least that's what I learned in the last class.
Ooh and also some good news, as I didn't have any money it has been rather difficult for me during the past few days, but I met this nice artist who hired me to clean her house once a week and giving me 100 kronas per time, so I can live here almost normally and finally I can buy a beer!!! Oh the small joys.
Plus I'm also learing Danish now, there's always something to add to your language skills...although thanks to my ex roommate I learned two of the most importand words in Danish befor I even came here: billeder (a picture) and indbakke (inbox). They are very important.
Anyways take care and look at your toes, they might need trimming and painting over.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Hello Denmark
Gonna skip last days in Berlin and return there later. Right now I'm planning to talk about Denmark.
I arrived here a day too early. I was brought in by a woman from Greenland who brought me all the way in front of the school. I was dropped off and the only worker greeted me with open arms. Jør was his name and he told me about being in the school and losing 20 kg. He offered me coffee and we watched TV together. I didn't have a place to sleep so I made a bed out of couch pillows that decided to sail their separate ways during the night.
Next morning the rest of the educator y gang arrived and as I was sleeping there random old people started saying good morning to me...while I was still sleeping. I tried to swim against the currency and continue sleeping, but in the end gave up under the pressure. I got my act together and went to say hello. And then a surprise...they expected me to be a boy. And it didn't matter how much I apologized for my gender they told me that it might cause problems. Apparently my name Kart hints to a un-denying masculinity. Darn testosterone. They situated me to another house to live with a disabled girl. Random people started flowing in and I tried to adjust to the situation. Met with one of the teachers, the art teacher Sys who turned out to be also a lifelong traveler, so obiously we got along great, I explained about the difficulties of not getting diarrhea in Moldova and she replied with her adventures in India. We exchanged art and she offered me a job as her cleaning lady, which I accepted as gracefully I could. She also told me about this really cool program for artists called artmoney which means that you can pay with your art in some places where they accept it. It's also possible to go traveling with it.
Afterwards we went to Bogense which is a small city nearby having 3000 inhabitants (I'm in a tiny village called Harritslev). Bognse is a small harbour city with a long history and looking pretty good, but being as boring as a nuclear catastrophy to a cocroach. We went there to a local library where of course most of the people spoke English. I'm not a person who takes that self-granted. I got back just in time to chill out with my two Estonians who made a small detour to Malmø via the wrong train. I pretended that I already knew all about the place and have spent tons of time here, which almost succeeded till they found out that I just arrived last night.
Now a little about the school. I'ts called Norfyns Folkehøjskole, Fyn being the name of the middle island in DK. They have a pretty big place and a lot of possibilities. The main idea being to find about yourself, here's a description:
Nordfyns Folkehøjskole is part of the Informal educational system in
Denmark. The overall idea is to explore the potentials of life. That
means to develop life competences and to build up social networks.
Informal education is without marks and exams. The impact will show
in your life afterwards. In short we say that your output of informal
education will be in your head = more knowledge and in your heart =
more commitment towards your future. Take a look at this general
web: (www.danishfolkhighschools.com
Other classes at our school:
• Life class - predominantly mentally handicapped students.
• Social and health class - predominantly Japanese students
• Life style class focusing on weight reduction.
• General Class - preparing for job or further education.
Some foreign students use the course as social pedagocial training
with handicapped people. Both in theory and pratice you can learn a
lot.
Basically they are funded by a government, the people themselves and Estonians, Latvians, Polish and Lithuanians can get scholarships to study there as part of a EU. Also there are Japanese and Chinese who have payed for everything themselves. This type of schools I was told were typical only to DK as education used to be only the priviledge of rich people. The first schools were founded as religious schools to teach the farmers to read and afterwards it was reformed to be available to everyone and not so religious.
Hold tight, to be continued...
I arrived here a day too early. I was brought in by a woman from Greenland who brought me all the way in front of the school. I was dropped off and the only worker greeted me with open arms. Jør was his name and he told me about being in the school and losing 20 kg. He offered me coffee and we watched TV together. I didn't have a place to sleep so I made a bed out of couch pillows that decided to sail their separate ways during the night.
Next morning the rest of the educator y gang arrived and as I was sleeping there random old people started saying good morning to me...while I was still sleeping. I tried to swim against the currency and continue sleeping, but in the end gave up under the pressure. I got my act together and went to say hello. And then a surprise...they expected me to be a boy. And it didn't matter how much I apologized for my gender they told me that it might cause problems. Apparently my name Kart hints to a un-denying masculinity. Darn testosterone. They situated me to another house to live with a disabled girl. Random people started flowing in and I tried to adjust to the situation. Met with one of the teachers, the art teacher Sys who turned out to be also a lifelong traveler, so obiously we got along great, I explained about the difficulties of not getting diarrhea in Moldova and she replied with her adventures in India. We exchanged art and she offered me a job as her cleaning lady, which I accepted as gracefully I could. She also told me about this really cool program for artists called artmoney which means that you can pay with your art in some places where they accept it. It's also possible to go traveling with it.
Afterwards we went to Bogense which is a small city nearby having 3000 inhabitants (I'm in a tiny village called Harritslev). Bognse is a small harbour city with a long history and looking pretty good, but being as boring as a nuclear catastrophy to a cocroach. We went there to a local library where of course most of the people spoke English. I'm not a person who takes that self-granted. I got back just in time to chill out with my two Estonians who made a small detour to Malmø via the wrong train. I pretended that I already knew all about the place and have spent tons of time here, which almost succeeded till they found out that I just arrived last night.
Now a little about the school. I'ts called Norfyns Folkehøjskole, Fyn being the name of the middle island in DK. They have a pretty big place and a lot of possibilities. The main idea being to find about yourself, here's a description:
Nordfyns Folkehøjskole is part of the Informal educational system in
Denmark. The overall idea is to explore the potentials of life. That
means to develop life competences and to build up social networks.
Informal education is without marks and exams. The impact will show
in your life afterwards. In short we say that your output of informal
education will be in your head = more knowledge and in your heart =
more commitment towards your future. Take a look at this general
web: (www.danishfolkhighschools.com
Other classes at our school:
• Life class - predominantly mentally handicapped students.
• Social and health class - predominantly Japanese students
• Life style class focusing on weight reduction.
• General Class - preparing for job or further education.
Some foreign students use the course as social pedagocial training
with handicapped people. Both in theory and pratice you can learn a
lot.
Hold tight, to be continued...
Just interesting
A compilition of things that amazed me!
 |
| I had never seen cigaret pack with those lung pictures everybody kept discussing about. So they look like this. |
 |
| I never knew that Swiss also created ducks. |
 | |||
| I didn't know that A-Team is cool in other countries except my head. Problem? Call the A-Team!. |
 |
| I never knew that Duff was a real beer. |
 |
| I never knew that universe could create such a hideous monstrosity - a bicycle for 7 |
 |
| I never knew that it was possible to create such an....artistic car, that makes you want to close your eyes and wish-want it to go away. |
 |
| I never knew that European union made tons of orange statues that couldn't fall over and fill a whole square with them...and then they whine about people using too much gasoline for cars. |
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Faster, stronger, harder
The second day in Berlin...
The big adventure of the second day included visiting the contemporary art gallery and the best part was that it was totally free! All the best things in the world come in small and free packages.
The big adventure of the second day included visiting the contemporary art gallery and the best part was that it was totally free! All the best things in the world come in small and free packages.
The art museum wall
The art museum itself was a big white block building like all those Soviet Hrushovkas, but I guess that was the idea, because from the inside it looked a lot like small housing compartments where the people are usually stuffed away. The exhibition inside was really cool, here are some of them:
 |
| The exhibition from outside |
 |
| mmm shadows |
 |
| Composition of birdpoo and traveling |
 |
 |
| Pink pipelines |
 | ||
| some awesome cement in the black light |
 |
| Magnetic washing trummel |
 |
| Nowadays minimalism |
 |
| Playing with mirrors |
After that we went out and spend the evening in the big city visiting a big beer festival in a little soggy weather. There were tons of people crawling around trying out different beers and publicly getting drunk (as I mentioned it's one of the good things about the city). The music got better during the evening, at first it started with some horrible sausage music and in the end it was some groovy rock'n'roll. The weirdest thing was that in front of the stages there was a huge oval field left for I dunno for what and it just called out for somebody to trample all over it...so I did it in hopes that people will join. I did some serious rocking in front of the stage causing serious neckpains for the days to come, but still nobody joined in. The most important thing was that it was fun. Only me, Joshcka and some of his friends were there, but suddenly out of the blue some crazy or drunk enough people pop out and join us. After a while I got annyoed with ordinary people walking in front of the stage so the next ´90 year old got all my feelings, I just rocked, danced and partied all the while he was walking past. The great thing was that in the end he gave up and finally joined me. That was the highlight of my evening, when I can get a 90 year old man with a cane to dance. After a while we moved on and I got really tired and we went home around 10.
The next we chilled around the house most of the day and in the evening went out for a house warming party. The living costs accordingly to the zone you happen to have your house in. Next block might have the double amount of rent if it's situated in a 'cool' place. At least that was how I understood that. The appartmentwe went was a pretty nice one, although I have no idea where it was situated. The young people who buy an appartment have to renovate it themselves and so it had been done. Furniture from IKEA and a nice two roomed appartment and as much beer as you can manage to drink.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Berlin Berlin
How my first nights were spent in the coolest city in Germany.
...After bobbing off the train I saw Joschka, who's German, just the irony of the matter was that we met in the greatest country...around...from the point of view of cheap good wine - yes, you're right, it's MOLDOVA!!! Ironically we met over a beer, but that doesn't matter, they also do good beer. Anyways he came to meet me and we went to his house in the East Berlin suburbs, which is as I was told the cool region. I threw my stuff in and then we headed off to the one of the most important places in Berlin - the Brewery. I Actually thought it was the second coolest idea right after Newton invented gravity, because beer in Denmark is really expensive and it would
have been awesome to learn how to make it yourself. Unfortunately the tour to the brewery proved exactly the opposite, making it seem more complicated than solving rubik's cube
The next morning was rather fast as we had to leave to take something to the city and afterwards do some fun fun sightseeing. But in the morning I woke up and went down and then I saw him...the coffee machine. From the first moment on we had this love-hate relationship. It has so many needs that I can't satisfy, it wants new coffee, be cleaned, old coffee thrown out and overall he was just so needy, but I wanted coffee and wanted to use the other machine. Only problem was that I was too lazy so I couldn't live with him and couldn't live without him.
...After bobbing off the train I saw Joschka, who's German, just the irony of the matter was that we met in the greatest country...around...from the point of view of cheap good wine - yes, you're right, it's MOLDOVA!!! Ironically we met over a beer, but that doesn't matter, they also do good beer. Anyways he came to meet me and we went to his house in the East Berlin suburbs, which is as I was told the cool region. I threw my stuff in and then we headed off to the one of the most important places in Berlin - the Brewery. I Actually thought it was the second coolest idea right after Newton invented gravity, because beer in Denmark is really expensive and it would
have been awesome to learn how to make it yourself. Unfortunately the tour to the brewery proved exactly the opposite, making it seem more complicated than solving rubik's cube
The inside of a train
We arrived in the brewery exactly on time and got a nice tour in it for 8 euros per person and in German, so I was just enjoying the view. I saw most of the process and probably more bottles than I've seen in a 18 bags of bottle collecting hobos. The system was long and demanding, you can always google it up, but it easily destroyed all my personal desire to make drinkable beer (I can manage making undrinkable golden liquid all by my own). After the tour we had a chance to taste different Berlin beer and which were not so bad. After some beers we headed into town and bought falafels which in this context is a salty pancake-ish thing filled with some sort of white sauce, meat and veggies. It was rather tasty although I was hoping that it ended up in mouth as by the time we got them it was way too dark. I was really tired and whiny about it so we crawled home. The good thing about Berlin is that transportation works almost all the time, on weekends you can take the subway home trough all the night and there's a subway that drives around and around all trough the night, so it's almost a hobo heaven, as public drinking everywhere is legally allowed...I mean sitting and drinking a nice beer on your way to your work! How pleasant is that!The next morning was rather fast as we had to leave to take something to the city and afterwards do some fun fun sightseeing. But in the morning I woke up and went down and then I saw him...the coffee machine. From the first moment on we had this love-hate relationship. It has so many needs that I can't satisfy, it wants new coffee, be cleaned, old coffee thrown out and overall he was just so needy, but I wanted coffee and wanted to use the other machine. Only problem was that I was too lazy so I couldn't live with him and couldn't live without him.
I found myself a new best friend that has big needs - the coffee machine
My favorite window consists of - Kvint from Moldova, fruits and Bombay Gin.
My hitch hiking hat with an AIDS reflector and Joshckas Allstar sneakers.
Finally after my coffee dilemma we started off for the city centre, full of pleasant surprises of which I'll tell you all about next...
To be continued if you can wait...
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Warzawa-Berlin
How I got to Berlin.
...the owner of the happy little red car was an ecological entrepeneur and cuz I had a weird little Estonian hat on my head she thought I was a happy treehugger straight out of the Polish swamps, as there are some around that area (aka Ostrow maz, she recommended to go there). I told her that I was heading to Berlin and she assured that there's a train going there and if I'm lucky I can get it extra cheap. My second question to her was if she was a couchsurfer, which she was of course. A really lively person and as she was pressing her car trough the orange light in the city she told "Don't worry it's only dark green" so basically she was superawesome. She told me that she didn't take in CSers because her cats had conquered her flat, it was the power of the furriest ones.
She took me to the central train station where I found out that in Poland the train system is more complicated than baking chocolate-marmalade teddy-bear shaped cookies. THe place where you buy tickets isn't the place where they can tell you where and when the train leaves. That is why you have to hang out with the information booth lady and her line. Finally the moment arrived when I was asked to answer the question that decides my fate "Do you want a train ticket to Berlin for tomorrow morning for 34 euros?" and after a small calculation I said YES. Next time I thought about it I realized, crap, it was 3/4 of my money for three months in Denmark and then I patted myself on the shoulder and said, money comes and goes, you can ask for food from the car drivers...
After getting the ticket my host told me I could stay at her teeny-tiny flat and I thought that I'd seen small flats, but I realized that I had mistaken. Her flat really was tiny it looked more like a closet than a flat, but it was still very nice in a good condition. the kitchen was a hallway and the bedroom was filled after my matress was full of air. Her cats were really cute one friendly and wanted to emerge with my petting hand and the other older one stared at me from a distance probably blaming me for eating her food.
The night was fun. The mattress wasn't half as air proof as the commercial said it to be and I had to wake up at 5 o'clock. The young cat found it really amusing to jump onto my shrinking mattress and look what's going on in my nose several times during the sleep. At five the alarm went off, I drank some coffee and found my way into the bathroom where 3 people could almost fit in with the door closed (if one is under the shower). I asked my host if I should leave, but she said it's an hour too early which was the point I realized I hadn't turned my clock, soo I crawled back into my little sleeping bag on the empty mattress and slept 30 minutes more. Finally she told me it's time and sent me to the gate. She looked very funny when she said goodbye, because everyone looks funny 5 o'clock standing on the gates in their PJs and just woken up.
After some looking I found my seat in the train and was looking for a way of getting a free ride in the future, but I found it rather impossible. The tickets were checked at least 3 times and hiding in the toilet would be too suspicious as there more than enough people on the train to notice a hobo hiding in the bathroom. So finally around 12 I arrived at Berlin train station discovering that my phone works in Germany...that's amazing!!!
...the owner of the happy little red car was an ecological entrepeneur and cuz I had a weird little Estonian hat on my head she thought I was a happy treehugger straight out of the Polish swamps, as there are some around that area (aka Ostrow maz, she recommended to go there). I told her that I was heading to Berlin and she assured that there's a train going there and if I'm lucky I can get it extra cheap. My second question to her was if she was a couchsurfer, which she was of course. A really lively person and as she was pressing her car trough the orange light in the city she told "Don't worry it's only dark green" so basically she was superawesome. She told me that she didn't take in CSers because her cats had conquered her flat, it was the power of the furriest ones.
She took me to the central train station where I found out that in Poland the train system is more complicated than baking chocolate-marmalade teddy-bear shaped cookies. THe place where you buy tickets isn't the place where they can tell you where and when the train leaves. That is why you have to hang out with the information booth lady and her line. Finally the moment arrived when I was asked to answer the question that decides my fate "Do you want a train ticket to Berlin for tomorrow morning for 34 euros?" and after a small calculation I said YES. Next time I thought about it I realized, crap, it was 3/4 of my money for three months in Denmark and then I patted myself on the shoulder and said, money comes and goes, you can ask for food from the car drivers...
After getting the ticket my host told me I could stay at her teeny-tiny flat and I thought that I'd seen small flats, but I realized that I had mistaken. Her flat really was tiny it looked more like a closet than a flat, but it was still very nice in a good condition. the kitchen was a hallway and the bedroom was filled after my matress was full of air. Her cats were really cute one friendly and wanted to emerge with my petting hand and the other older one stared at me from a distance probably blaming me for eating her food.
The night was fun. The mattress wasn't half as air proof as the commercial said it to be and I had to wake up at 5 o'clock. The young cat found it really amusing to jump onto my shrinking mattress and look what's going on in my nose several times during the sleep. At five the alarm went off, I drank some coffee and found my way into the bathroom where 3 people could almost fit in with the door closed (if one is under the shower). I asked my host if I should leave, but she said it's an hour too early which was the point I realized I hadn't turned my clock, soo I crawled back into my little sleeping bag on the empty mattress and slept 30 minutes more. Finally she told me it's time and sent me to the gate. She looked very funny when she said goodbye, because everyone looks funny 5 o'clock standing on the gates in their PJs and just woken up.
After some looking I found my seat in the train and was looking for a way of getting a free ride in the future, but I found it rather impossible. The tickets were checked at least 3 times and hiding in the toilet would be too suspicious as there more than enough people on the train to notice a hobo hiding in the bathroom. So finally around 12 I arrived at Berlin train station discovering that my phone works in Germany...that's amazing!!!
Boredom on the train
And there in the train station my homie from Moldova came to pick me up. And new adventures of Berlin awaited...
Hello Everybody
Now is the best time to fill in everybody on what has happened recently. My goal was to get to a magical city called Berlin filled with fairies or at least absinthe fairies.
All was good. Starting from Estonia and Latvia until one fatal moment when I got a ride from Lithuania to Poland. I was standing in the middle of Lithuania in a very important road curve (its importance is still under question) hitching my way to South when a big black 4x4 picked me up the driver being this 50 year old thin Azerbaijan who grew up in Ukraine and was currently living in Estonia Tartu. He was heading back to Ukraine to L'viv and was quite talkative. I tried to speak Russian and somehow managed. Then as I was rather tired I made a mistake. He had this really unnerving smile that I didn't notice in the beginning, so I should've stayed awake, but no. I fell asleep as we were riding a 4--5 hour stretch. Then at some point in Poland he pulled off the road telling that he wants to eat. He went deep into bushes and I started panicking a little. He told me he was just turning around while I was mentally checking where's my nerve gas (which I had never thought of while hitch hiking). But it was okay, he went out and offered me some coffee and food. After eating we sat back into the car and were looking at the map on where to go. But suddenly he put his arm around my head and tried to lean in. Everything was in slow motion, there were thousand thoughts bursting trough my head, calmly planning on how to get out of this situation. I grabbed the door really fast threw my stuff out and tried to get my head out of his grip. He saw it and started laughing. "No, no you stupid girl, this is Ukrainian politeness" but I could see that he was feeling as nervous than I was. There's a small bond of trust between the driver and the hitch hiker and by doing that he annihilated it. I took my stuff and we continued, but I felt claustrophobic and a need to get out. The guy tried to explain that he has 2 daughters back in Estonia and stuff like that, but I couldn't believe anything he said.
Finally we got to a city called Bialystok where was some wonderful road construction giving me time to bond with my horrible driver. At one point I saw that a sign was showing that Warsaw is straight, but as the guy was heading South he turned left. I couldn't take it. I told him that it was not my way and he kept telling me that, he's not sure which direction to take and finally asked if I wanted to get off. I said an undeniable yes and in front of the traffic light he went out and threw my bags out. I said thanks and he drove off. That event has haunted me since. I have been hitch hiking for years now and that was one of the first events that my adrenaline got a chance. I mean, it was a bad experience, but I think it rather teaches me to be more careful in the future. I love hitch hiking and will not stop. This was just something to learn from.
Anyway after getting out of that car I went on my dumpster diving mission to get some card board and found my fate waiting behind a big green smelly dumpster. I took the cardboard and wrote Warsaw on it. Walked a little till a nice green port-a-potty where I barely fit in because of my stuff, but it had some wonderful toilet paper, which was nice comfort and I stuffed some of it in my pockets for later fun use. Finally reaching the read to Warsaw I decided to ask a man standing next to it if it was the right road or not. With my crappy Russian I asked and he started to explain in such a fast and fluid Russian, that I felt that I wanted to slap him, but somewhere in the mid blabbering I heard the words Warsaw, yes, there. I tried to sneak away thanking him, but in the mid sneak I remembered something about trains going from there to Warsaw-Berlin. So I tried again, I went back and because I couldn't remember how is a train in Russian I asked "Where tsuckha-tsuckha-tsuckha toot-toot?" and he started explaining. Again I was confused as he spoke so fast and didn't seem to care that my language skills were below average, so I asked the same thing again, this time with according moves "Where tsuckha-tsuckha-tsuckha toot-toot?" and then I saw myself as other people would see, a girl standing next to a road with a big bag, pretending to be a train to a blabbering Russian. It was funny, plus no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't understand him. So I said thanks several times and ran off on to the road. No one wanted to pick me up and most of the cars were local Bialystok cars. It started to rain and I kept on standing there with my sign, till a very nice classical polish truck driver picked me up.
He was a little bald, but he was a good person. As I was still in a kind of shock I didn't pursue a very long conversation. Still he gave me the best sandwich I've had in days and a nice tomatoe. I ate it gratefully as we were plowing trough the rain.
He dropped me off in a big truck stop on the road to Warsaw and there were some nice Estonian truck drivers. I chatted a while and then went to the road side as it was getting rather dark already. No trucks were going anymore and I stood there for a while. Until I was picked up by the cutest little red car...
All was good. Starting from Estonia and Latvia until one fatal moment when I got a ride from Lithuania to Poland. I was standing in the middle of Lithuania in a very important road curve (its importance is still under question) hitching my way to South when a big black 4x4 picked me up the driver being this 50 year old thin Azerbaijan who grew up in Ukraine and was currently living in Estonia Tartu. He was heading back to Ukraine to L'viv and was quite talkative. I tried to speak Russian and somehow managed. Then as I was rather tired I made a mistake. He had this really unnerving smile that I didn't notice in the beginning, so I should've stayed awake, but no. I fell asleep as we were riding a 4--5 hour stretch. Then at some point in Poland he pulled off the road telling that he wants to eat. He went deep into bushes and I started panicking a little. He told me he was just turning around while I was mentally checking where's my nerve gas (which I had never thought of while hitch hiking). But it was okay, he went out and offered me some coffee and food. After eating we sat back into the car and were looking at the map on where to go. But suddenly he put his arm around my head and tried to lean in. Everything was in slow motion, there were thousand thoughts bursting trough my head, calmly planning on how to get out of this situation. I grabbed the door really fast threw my stuff out and tried to get my head out of his grip. He saw it and started laughing. "No, no you stupid girl, this is Ukrainian politeness" but I could see that he was feeling as nervous than I was. There's a small bond of trust between the driver and the hitch hiker and by doing that he annihilated it. I took my stuff and we continued, but I felt claustrophobic and a need to get out. The guy tried to explain that he has 2 daughters back in Estonia and stuff like that, but I couldn't believe anything he said.
Finally we got to a city called Bialystok where was some wonderful road construction giving me time to bond with my horrible driver. At one point I saw that a sign was showing that Warsaw is straight, but as the guy was heading South he turned left. I couldn't take it. I told him that it was not my way and he kept telling me that, he's not sure which direction to take and finally asked if I wanted to get off. I said an undeniable yes and in front of the traffic light he went out and threw my bags out. I said thanks and he drove off. That event has haunted me since. I have been hitch hiking for years now and that was one of the first events that my adrenaline got a chance. I mean, it was a bad experience, but I think it rather teaches me to be more careful in the future. I love hitch hiking and will not stop. This was just something to learn from.
Anyway after getting out of that car I went on my dumpster diving mission to get some card board and found my fate waiting behind a big green smelly dumpster. I took the cardboard and wrote Warsaw on it. Walked a little till a nice green port-a-potty where I barely fit in because of my stuff, but it had some wonderful toilet paper, which was nice comfort and I stuffed some of it in my pockets for later fun use. Finally reaching the read to Warsaw I decided to ask a man standing next to it if it was the right road or not. With my crappy Russian I asked and he started to explain in such a fast and fluid Russian, that I felt that I wanted to slap him, but somewhere in the mid blabbering I heard the words Warsaw, yes, there. I tried to sneak away thanking him, but in the mid sneak I remembered something about trains going from there to Warsaw-Berlin. So I tried again, I went back and because I couldn't remember how is a train in Russian I asked "Where tsuckha-tsuckha-tsuckha toot-toot?" and he started explaining. Again I was confused as he spoke so fast and didn't seem to care that my language skills were below average, so I asked the same thing again, this time with according moves "Where tsuckha-tsuckha-tsuckha toot-toot?" and then I saw myself as other people would see, a girl standing next to a road with a big bag, pretending to be a train to a blabbering Russian. It was funny, plus no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't understand him. So I said thanks several times and ran off on to the road. No one wanted to pick me up and most of the cars were local Bialystok cars. It started to rain and I kept on standing there with my sign, till a very nice classical polish truck driver picked me up.
He was a little bald, but he was a good person. As I was still in a kind of shock I didn't pursue a very long conversation. Still he gave me the best sandwich I've had in days and a nice tomatoe. I ate it gratefully as we were plowing trough the rain.
He dropped me off in a big truck stop on the road to Warsaw and there were some nice Estonian truck drivers. I chatted a while and then went to the road side as it was getting rather dark already. No trucks were going anymore and I stood there for a while. Until I was picked up by the cutest little red car...
That's my non hitc hiking hand.
To be continued...
Monday, August 2, 2010
On the road again...soon
I have finished packing today. Successfully stuffed my swimming clothes (for jellies) next to my warm socks. In a weird way I've managed to pack more things for three months than when I last left home for 6 months. So things are strange there's just no denying it. Btw I've seen the new season of Futurama and it. is. totally. awesome! As I didn't manage to find a place to stay in Kaunas I'm just gonna push on to Poland and from there to Berlin. Pray there will not be any rain as my tent is rather allergic to rain and will leak if it rains too hard.The proof was last time when I visited South of Poland and in the mountains it just started to rain...hard...very hard. I had to cover my face with my hands and hope that I wouldn't drown in the darn thing. There are just some ways of dying that don't deserve to be mentioned...p.e. "We will dearly miss our relative Kärt, who due to an unfortunate accident, drowned in her tent..."
Anyways, I'll hit the road tomorrow at 9.
Till then, eat a sandwich!
Anyways, I'll hit the road tomorrow at 9.
Till then, eat a sandwich!
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Whats it all about?
This blog is dedicated to my adventures in Denmark. As a native Estonian who has inhabited Moldova half a year I feel safe enough to go to Denmark. Why? Cuz I got a chance to study for three months in a Danish uni for free in a small place called Bogense.
What will I study there:
• What is culture?
• Danish Democracy and culture
• 2015 Millenium Goals
• Civil Society
• NGO hopping
• Forum Theatre
• Open Space Forum
• Green project – green flag
• Coaching
You might think it's boring, but far from it, I'll be doing it with all kinds of different people, so it might be more fun than watching the paint dry on my canvas.
Plus I'm gonna take a big fat book, I've been trying to read, about a stupid soldier named Svejk, written by a Czech author. It's not the best book, but it's a must book.
Anyways, I'm naturally born with principals against money, so I like traveling cheap, which is a challenge in Europe, which is why I only hitch hike and stay with friends or in a tent or in an airport or with strangers I like hanging out with and who happens to have food. I have to be in DK by the 10th of August, so I will try to head off tomorrow on route Kaunas-Berlin-Bogense. Overall the money I have for the next three months is around 70 euros and that's a really small amount of money, but it'll have to do. I'll take my pencils and sketchbook with, so maybe I can earn a little extra.
But there is one important thing I'm looking forward to, it's jellyfish...I was told that one can swim in jellies there and even have jellie wars and it's something I've been dreaming about for a long time.
Anyways, I'll keep you posted on my adventures and wish me luck:)
What will I study there:
• What is culture?
• Danish Democracy and culture
• 2015 Millenium Goals
• Civil Society
• NGO hopping
• Forum Theatre
• Open Space Forum
• Green project – green flag
• Coaching
You might think it's boring, but far from it, I'll be doing it with all kinds of different people, so it might be more fun than watching the paint dry on my canvas.
Plus I'm gonna take a big fat book, I've been trying to read, about a stupid soldier named Svejk, written by a Czech author. It's not the best book, but it's a must book.
Anyways, I'm naturally born with principals against money, so I like traveling cheap, which is a challenge in Europe, which is why I only hitch hike and stay with friends or in a tent or in an airport or with strangers I like hanging out with and who happens to have food. I have to be in DK by the 10th of August, so I will try to head off tomorrow on route Kaunas-Berlin-Bogense. Overall the money I have for the next three months is around 70 euros and that's a really small amount of money, but it'll have to do. I'll take my pencils and sketchbook with, so maybe I can earn a little extra.
But there is one important thing I'm looking forward to, it's jellyfish...I was told that one can swim in jellies there and even have jellie wars and it's something I've been dreaming about for a long time.
Anyways, I'll keep you posted on my adventures and wish me luck:)
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