If the Scandinavian trip was epic, this is possibly even more. Or at least it's getting more and more epic once we reach the end.
10.11 - the sleazy hostel in Budapest
For some reason, always when your intention is to go for just one beer it doesn't end up like that. Another hangoverish packing and the journey to Budapest with Jenny, Jaime and Valtteri may start. Secretly we finish one can of long drink in the airport. Not much happening in Budapest, just lodging ourselves in the worst hostel of the city (don't ever take "Caterina Hostel", there's even cheaper and better options).
11.11 - the best Serbian hospitality in Novi Sad
On our way to Keleti train station we meet Thomas, our ESTIEM friend. He joines us for the trip to Novi Sad, Serbia. This "international" city shows it internanionality in international tickets selling point - the cash clerk doesn't speak English. She tries to sell ticket to Novi Sad for bigger price than ticket to Belgrade, which is 2 hours further. Finally we buy a ticket to Belgrade to go to Novi Sad.
The train is slow as a snail. The landscape is neither that interesting. If you happen to close your eyes for 5 hours and open them again, no difference can be seen. ESTIEMers work hard during the 6½ hours trip to Novi Sad. Why don't we have beer? Another frustrating moment in Subotica train station, in the border. The train is just stopped for 1½ hours for "border control". Serbian customs workers seem quite laid back. One guy comes to our cabin asking something about control (in Serbian of course), we tell we don't speak Serbian, he repeats it and as far as I understood, he asked if someone checked our bags already. We told no, and he just looks at the bags and says "...ok" and continues, without checking. He doesn't really care.
Finally we arrive in Novi Sad (in time!) and I get to see one really wonderful person - Dunja who I worked with during my volunteering time in Slovenia! Dunja and her brother Ivan took me to their home and offered me the best Serbian hospitality. Novi Sad is a really beautiful city, definitely a place to come back during summertime. The old red-brick roofs reminded me of Kamnik, a city in my heart. EXIT Festival is now put in my bucket-list. It's also rather warm, could be August in Finland. One beer, medovaca, burek and recalling some good old times and what we've been up to during the past year. I really missed Dunja so much and I will miss her once I leave Novi Sad again! Need to get back there!
12.11 - 2 liters for 1 euro.
In the morning it's the time to meet some 20 fellow ESTIEMers and continue to Belgrade. The train is probably from the Yugoslavian time. The door to the cabin was flying and one seat collapsed when I sat on it. Anyway, what could be better than put your head outside window and enjoy the wind on your face.
Belgrade didn't impress me as much as Novi Sad. Especially during autumn it was even more grey and sad. Although I saw only some parts of it but these didn't give very good image of the city, although I was told that the old town is actually pretty cool. Many familiar faces came to me in the hostel and what else can an ESTIEMer do than go to buy beer. Belgrade prices are good for us, 2 liters for a bit more than 1 euro. In Finland you get hardly 0,33 for that price (bad beer). I also needed some eqipment for my Working Group like marshmallow and tape and tights for the gala dinner. Finding them in this Belgrade suburb was really tough but after overcrossing language barriers I got them and we sat down to enjoy beer in the hostel. Same games, typical Serbian hamburger, a bit more pivo, quick city tour and time to check out the infamous Belgrade night life. We were told not to be drunk because the next day was going to be company fair but some didn't really obey that. Obviously it was some upper clases place of Belgrade since long island ice tea costed nearly 4 euros! (wow, in Finland you can get it for 6 euros the cheapest, but during 2 days I already got used to these prices). And of course rakija in small bottles. I returned hostel rather early and by foot because the taxi drivers asked ridiculous prices. Poor drunken tourists.
13.11 - CM Belgradish Opening, bus crash and drinks from 27 different countries.
Luckily there was no rush at all in the morning, and even though I woke up at 7, we played guitar in the corridor until 10. We learnt the amazingness of Serbian time - we were supposed to leave at 9 o clock, while nothing happent until 10 once they announced "we're leaving in 20 minutes!", after one minute "we're leaving in 10 minutes" and just 10 seconds after "we're leaving right now, get out!". Wow, in Serbia time goes fast.
The grand opening was something unexpected, something that can now be called "CM Belgradish". Singers, dancers, TV, discussion panel, CEO of Delhaize Europe..? Wow. These guys have put a lof of money in promotion. Well done, Belgrade. This was followed by job and ESTIEM fair, very impressive start, I must say. We decided to buy some beverages from the shop and again Serbia was very friendly to our wallets. This beer was for the long and tiring bus trip to Zlatibor.
And it was LONG. In the beginning everyone was more or less sleeping, until the bus crashed with a truck (no one got hurt) and we got stuck in the middle of nowhere - visibility zero, no idea where we were. But we could at least go to toilet in the nature when we wanted, so we started drinking beer and singing. This lasted for around 2 hours until the police came (oh man we were really in the middle of nowhere) and we could continue our journey towards Zlatibor. 2 liters of beer was finished. Finally we arrived in Zlatibor in really luxorius hotel and got BUREK. Life looks good again.
This night was going to be the infamous international night. This means that everyone brings food and drinks from their country and serves these to others. In ESTIEM this means beverages from around 70 cities, and LOTS OF THEM. The outcome is always very hilarious when you drink alcohol from 27 different countries. First of all, the party was super funny, but I must conclude what we did during the after party
1) finished a bottle of wine on the way to the hotel
2) climbed on truck full of rocks
3) stole an axe and used it to break a rope to pedalo
4) tried to steal the pedalo but didn't managed, dropped the axe in the lake
5) Max hurt his hand and painted everyone's face with blood
6) we were playing with trambolines
7) I climed on a carousel
8) we were searching for Polish guy Adam who had got lost
9) one hour later Adam is found in the hotel
10) we have a sleepy after party in the hotel (all of us covered in blood)
11) it's 6 o clock and we go to sleep.
Awesome night!
14.11 - A round of rakija.
Not very awesome morning. I managed to keep my eyes open and focus during the GA. I managed to help Justine with her WG. This is a great success. Very important decisions were made, definitely.
That night was going to be "bachelor & bachelorette"- party in wedding theme. Girls and guys were split which caused some anger. The girls entered a really noisy small rakija bar which wasn't even cheap (really, 2 euros, ridiculous). I, Elmira and Justine decided to find a cheaper place to have a drink and entered in a small restaurant where the owners took us happily in, being the only customers of course. They didn't speak a word of English, but understood our needs and I got rakija for 80 cents - and the second one for free. They took some for themselves as well. Good people.
After this we buy beer from the shop and drink outside the bar until the Swedish guys had got enough of their party and we threw the "oppa Nordic style" dance. ENOUGH we say, ENOUGH, let's go to the boy's party! It wasn't any better than ours and the restaurant had ran out of beer. It was just sad I must say - the music was bad, everyone was sitting apathetically in their table sipping rakija. Rakija?! Yes, rakija! Aaro decided to turn the party into good by ordering rounds of rakija. And there was a rapid change in the atmosphere. Rakija, the magical spirit. Or medovaca I think it was. 90 cents, a decent price. On the way home I obviously took a short cut through the forest (where was cows according to Dimi) and found my way to the hotel.
15.11 - The Productive Day.
The feeling in the morning was one level worse than the day before and even worse - I had a fever. I was just about to dye in the GA. During the coffee break I was having Siesta WG. Some people joined. This meant sleeping in the couch. I was slowly recovering for giving my WG which turned out very succesfull. Good SERI people! Now I was a new person and motivated to work more for my SER Event in the future. Yay. No drinking that night I promised to myself.
Well, I did witness the Serbian 'wedding' and entered a night club, but left early. Although, this doesn't mean going to sleep early, we had some really deep discussion in the hotel corridor. But 3 o clock is rather early for a CM.
16.11 - Anything But Clothes, Nothing But Rakija
My body just thanked me for yesterday. I was like a new person and ready to get serious again. I didn't have time to join WGs for distributing the Nordic t-shirts and the day was full of good ESTIEM talk. Must say our organization truly rocks and I nothing but love these people. After good, productive day it was the right time to thank myself with a bottle of Jelen.
ABC party, one of the craziest ideas I ever heard. "Anything But Clothes". It really was - 90% had taken the theme seriously and I had a costumed made out of Ikea bag and Bauhaus advertisements. How awesome looks a crowd of 200 people wearing all kind of ridiculous stuff like maps, cardboard boxes, legos, sheets, flags, plastic bags and so on..? We are really made it customary to have a pre-party in the entrance because the night club is "too expensive". The kiosk was ran out of beer and the restaurant had to close it's doors. This pre-party can last even one or two hours, just outside the night club. The party was crazy and I can't say if there was a single sober person but well, this was basically our last whole night together. After some rakija and tequila it was the time to go home.
17.11 - The Day That Laster For 3 Days.
Although I should not reveal it to public, for some reason I woke up to sunshine in my eyes (fog for the last 5 days) and there was no one else in the hotel room. I looked at watch.. 10 o clock! What the! I didn't wake up when the others left! Fucking ABC party! I rushed quickly to the GA and didn't miss anything important. Maybe it was better to get some sleep, I'd have been totally dead if I had woken up at 7. The most interesting thing was still coming up - the elections! I must say our new board is very different from the previous one, but this can be also a good think - and it it as good thing I think. Although all the boardies a) are Germans b) work in Germany c) study in Germany. Germans rule ESTIEM! The official ending of CM was grandeour with trumpets and band playing outside, real Serbian style, awesome!
Last thing is the gala dinner which had some melancholic mood in it - nobody in for drinking, just being a bit sad for saying good byes to each other. The food was really fance and great - a good variation to the restaurant food that was always the same food with different name. During the after party we listened to Serbian band for 5 hours which sounded all the time more or less the same, but we didn't care! Maybe half of us left already because they had an early flight while the other half continued to hotel for after-after party. This included accordion and singing and dancing until the sun rose.. Some pretty magical moments. I started to pack my stuff, having a bit down mood for leaving.
Well, with a crazy Paderborner we decided to open a morning beer and we invented an amazing drinking game on the way to breakfast. We figured out we can say "cheers" in 13 different languages. We need more! During the breakfast we ordered beer and rakija, being not the only one. The waiters were laughing so badly, finally giving rakija for free because we were so ridiculous. Felix made his best chairman parody with an elfhat in his head. For some reason, I don't remember the bus trip to Belgrade that well..
But I do remember entering Belgrade and getting cheated by a taxi driver! A journey that takes 5 minutes by bus and costs nothing took 15 minutes by taxi and costed 10 euros. Fucking guy! Well, in the hostel in Belgrade we decided to go for a beer in a bar nearby. And a hamburger for 1,6 euros. So big I couldn't eat it. And better than any in Finland. Our intention was to have a city tour in Belgrade but no chance. We were just laying on the floor of hostel common room until 3 at night. Last magical moments with ESTIEMers. Locals offer us home made rakija. Serbia is good. It's time to catch my train to Budapest.
The train took total 12 hours. For some reason it was stopped for 4 hours in Serbian border, but I didn't care, I slept. I slept like a baby until the border control wanted to check my luggage. No rakija, sorry.
In Budapest my old friend from 4 years back offered me the quickest city tour ever in Budapest - 2 hours and I saw everything! Thank god he had a car, my feet were hardly holding me. Once I returned to hostel I fell asleep imidiatelly, but then woke up at 6 and chatted with a random drunken Hungarian guy. He had problems with girls. Also met some cool Polish travelers.
Finally I returned to Finland. Alive. At this point, although, I wasn't sure which day it was, it's even difficult to put it in this blog text because I didn't realize it myself for staying awake two nights. Let's just say that it was a really long and awesome 17th of November and the next day was 20th of November.
Now I made myself a promise - I won't travel for 4 months. I spent so much money and time on traveling during the last 4 months (total 8 countries, 6 weeks abroad, ~1200 euros) I need to now concentrate on my studies and maybe work some.
But definitely in March or April at the latest I'm on the road again.
