Vienna Calling

My personal Vienna Un-Guide, based on my two-legged (one in October, one in December) visit of the city. By the end of it, you will have seen almost all the main attractions (but you will have difficulties on remembering the names), you will have visited no museums, you will have taken no photos, probably you will have taken some kilos and you will have found a total of 5 euros in the streets.

DAY 1: Arrive late. Have your friend drive you around the main sights and up the hill to admire Vienna by night. Then, straight to the bars at Museum District, drink all the gin tonics you can handle and dance the night away. Finally, go to a chalet-looking tiny bar, full of drunk Austrians singing loudly austrian songs. Learn some lyrics and impress them.

DAY 2: Get a problem with your lenses, throw them away and eat pumpkin soup for lunch. Go to St Stephen's Cathedral. Get lost in the crowd at the Military Fair in front of the Hofburg Palace (organized due to the National Day). Pretend that you do not want to go to Prater and get on the Wheel (but do it anyway) and eat fried garlic bread. Later, follow your friend's flatmate to a club and spend the night drinking cocktails and gossiping.

DAY 3: Have brunch. Go to the Christmas Market at the Town Hall, eat half a candy apple and let the other half fall on a man in the tram. Then, go to the Christmas Market at Schonbrunn Palace, drink berry punch, listen to a gospel choir and freeze to the point of feeling your toes in pain. Back home, share a Chinese duck dish and watch the last James Bond movie dubbed in austrian.

DAY 4: Go for breakfast in a typical austrian student cafe and take a stroll at the Danube channel. Spend some time reading the mirrors of Carlsplatz metro station. Laugh with the Golden Cabbage and then, cross the street to the open market and buy some yummy turkish finger food. Watch Avatar on 3D munching surimi and for desert, after the cinema, eat strawberries dipped in chocolate (not as good as it sounds, better try the banana).

5 Months in Bratislava

I arrived in Bratislava mid-October, at night, and waited in the empty bus station my brother to pick me up. He led me straight to an underground bar in Hviezdoslavovo Square, where I was warmly welcomed by his friends over dark Saris beers.

The first days, taking advantage of the distance which allowed me to see some things more clearly, I tried to put my thoughts in order, especially when it came to what I want to do with my life in general. Then, I started meeting people, I visited Vienna and Prague and read some books I wanted to read for a long time.

After Christmas, I returned to Bratislava ready for some action. The weather did not help a lot, though. It was snowing every two days, until I got sick of it and then I re-appreciated it when I realized that it was actually less cold if it was snowing. The lake in the park next to my house froze, it was the first time I saw something like that, let alone walk on it!

Maybe the consumption of Slovak drinks would have helped to live more succesfully through the Slovak winter, but I didn't dare approach them, after my first experience which included all of them and I hardly remember how it ended...

My brother had adapted as well and, after his exams were successfully over, we started spending time together. Before, I had been afraid that if we continued living together without actually communicating, we would lose any kind of contact, so I was more than relieved when I saw the situation improving.

Mid-February, I got the opportunity to move to Italy and I decided to grab it. Then, it happened exactly the same that had happened in August, when I decided to leave Athens: I started having an amazing time! It seemed that my everyday life in Bratislava was becoming exactly as I wanted it to be: friendship, romance, drama, all was included and in the most balanced way.

The last day, I sent half my stuff back to Greece, went for dinner in my favorite restaurant, drank a bottle of wine, packed whatever had remained unpacked, gave someone to keep a few things for me -as a guarantee that we would meet again in order to take them back- and off I was, excited and sad at the same moment: excited for the new beginning, sad for leaving at its best moment, when everything had started working out. Even the sun had reappeared and the snow had started melting!

My first days here, I searched flights for a weekend visit - with no result, as all Ryanair weekend flights till April are booked. I see my friends' photos on Facebook and get jealous for not being there to share those moments with them. One of them is visiting me in some days and, hopefully, the others will follow, sooner or later.

I do not regret leaving though. I like it in Bologna: I love the city, I feel at home and, the people I know, I feel as if I know them for years. Most important, I am doing exactly what I wished when I left home: I live my adventure. Yes, I miss Bratislava but I do not complain and, to be honest, in a way I am happy it turned out like this: Bratislava's goodbye was the sweetest it could ever be.

Jobs, applications, CVs etc

When I decided to leave Greece, I arranged to keep my job and do it through internet, but I planned on finding a second work too. With the security of earning more or less enough money for living, I decided to look only for positions relevant to my studies.

So, after arriving in Bratislava, I applied for a job at a school. No surprise they didn't reply back: though my CV was ok, cover letter and the rest were awful. Obviously, I had no idea back then, I realized it two months later, while preparing my second application.

This time it was for a language school in Prague that needed a teacher of Greek. I desperately wanted that job (teacher of Greek and Prague, sounded perfect!), so I made a thorough research on CVs and cover letters, improved mine and off they were.

I was praying day and night to receive a positive answer and, 3 days later, I received an e-mail informing me that they are interested in an interview. I jumped up and down, shouting from joy, and, trembling from excitement, sat down to immediately respond. It was then that I realized that the e-mail was actually from the first school. Ironic, eh?

Anyway, I did respond, stating my interest and asking some additional info on the position. They didn't reply back.

I sent the last CV a few weeks ago, to a language school in Italy. Two days later, I was accepted for a 4-month internship.

That's it, people - I'm moving to Bologna!

Nirvana (?)

After 4 months away from home, I can say that everything is fine and no way do I regret my decision to leave. I met new people, I learnt new things, I saw new images. But most important, I found the time and the space to calm down, think seriously, sort out some unfinished business and figure out what my next steps should be. I got rid of some of my demons, reconciled with the remaining ones and, day by day, a feeling of balance fills me up. I feel like the sea early in a sunny, summer day, stretching towards horizons I thought that were long lost and approaching to lands whose existence I was unaware of.

Guess what. It turns out that inner balance -though definitely positive- does not equal to absolute happiness. It seems that, for some people, some (healthy) drama is necessary after all.

On Darkness and Other Daily Problems

Life in a different country is exciting, invigorating, enriching. That is, if you manage to approach with humor and patience the problems you have to face every day.

WEATHER:
I grew up in a city where it reaches at least 45C in the summer and almost never snows in winter - here, it is colder than cold and it snows every second day.

• Every time I want to go out, I wear layers and layers of clothes to avoid freezing - then, I enter the bars and sweat.
• It takes me 30 minutes of trouble (15 to get dressed, 15 to get undressed) just to walk 100m to buy cigarettes.
• I do not know where and how to walk, either I swamp ankle-deep in the snow or slide on the ice.
• No question of wearing high heels.

LANGUAGE:
My original plan was to start learning Slovak the moment I set my foot here, but I didn't. I know just a few words, so I am totally unable to communicate in Slovak and, from what I got till now, "expert in English" is not a characteristic I would attribute to Slovaks.

• Every time I need to ask something, I use the most basic English words and structures. I was more than once embarrassed because the person to whom I sounded like a primitive could speak English after all.
• The only time I talked to someone without checking their English level first got me into trouble, because the girl thought I was hitting on her and the more I tried to explain, the more suspiciously she looked at me.
• At the supermarket, I have to check the photos on the packets to realize what is what. Not such a big problem, unless you are standing in a long corridor, looking at bags of dark-colored spices, trying to guess which one is the pepper. And, when it comes to ready-made meals, I search in the tiny-lettered instructions for numbers, so as to at least understand how long and in what temperature it must be cooked.
• The janitor of the building does not speak English at all (or any other language I know), so every time there is a problem, I make a fool of myself, gesturing like a monkey in order to explain the situation. Once, I wanted to ask him for a key (there is a separate space for the garbage and it is always locked). We didn't manage to communicate, so now we have to walk three blocks every time we need to throw the garbage away.

DARKNESS:
Do you know "Hostel", the horror movie that is supposed to take place in Bratislava? Obviously, being one of the people who do not dare watch horror movies and get scared in the dark, I haven't seen it - actually, I had never heard of it until I came here and someone told me what it is about (I should have covered my ears and scream lalala). One evening, both the elevator and the staircase lights were out of function, the janitor couldn't fix it right away (yes, we managed to communicate that time, it was a 20-minute show) and I climbed 4 floors running and praying that nothing is hidden in the dark.

HEIGHT:
I went to this bar and the mirror in the bathroom was hanged 10cm above my head. I suppose that was just a mistake, definitely I am not the shortest one around!