Saturday, August 04, 2007
Austria, Romania and Slovakia
Instead of going for a holiday in 4 countries, in the end I found one more travel opportunity, so the grand total is 5 countries visited. Now I am writing this final wrap-up in the bus on my way back to Prague.
Let's start where I left off, in Vienna, Austria. I had visited this city before in January 2005 but it did not impress me very much. Maybe it was the bad weather or the poor planning, I am not sure.
My second visit to Vienna had exactly the same starting conditions. I arrived without planning anything, and the weather was again bad. However, after finding a good hostel I tried to get in a sightseeing mood with a visit to Schonbrunn, in the rain. Surprisingly, it was quite an enjoyable walk, and I was happy to be able to give my new camera a good test drive.
In the evening I met up with Shomy, a friend from the conference Yu Can 2003 in Serbia. Even if our meeting was only short, he quickly showed me some highlights of Vienna, and told me what he loved about the city. We ended the evening having a very nice (strong and cheap) Long Island Ice Tea in front of the Rathaus (city hall).
The next day I used Shomy's guidelines to go for more sightseeing, and I also quickly passed by the MC office to see if I knew the new team of AIESEC in Austria. I was quite amused to find them in a meeting discussing LC structures, this seems to be a hot topic in AIESEC every year again.
I spent my last evening in Vienna with Petar from Macedonia, also he was at Yu Can, but we did not actually remember meeting each other before. So many conferences, so many people... We had a nice evening in the Museumquartier and discussed about living abroad with AIESEC and how that makes you feel.
The balance: Vienna is a monumental city, which feels a lot like a huge museum. My visit to Vienna was fun this time, partially thanks to the AIESEC network. I am glad I returned to this place which I left in 2005 with mixed feelings.
Next stop was Romania, one of my favourite holiday destinations. Jason and Adina had picked Adina's home country as the location for their wedding, which was the perfect reason to visit again.
Jason picked me up from the airport in Bucharest. I was amazed by how Jason and Adina were able to organise everything perfectly, on what must have been very stressful, but also beautiful days of their lives.
The wedding was taking place in the beautiful monastery of Curtea d'Arges. Because of logistical issues with the buses our group arrived one hour late, but Adina had held the ceremony especially for us. Thanks Adina, we love you!
The party was amazing as well. A live band, traditional dancing, both by professional dancers and by the guests and family, and more food than we could ever eat.
After the wedding we spent some time in Bran, visiting the local castle and having fun at a special camp fire evening. The only unhappy one there this evening was probably the lamb which was being roasted, but it tasted great.
We wanted to visit Peles castle as well, but we arrived there just too late. This was exactly the fourth time that that happened to me in 4 years, it was almost as if I'm not meant to see this treasure of Romanian history.
During this trip I also met Lucka, who used to be member of AIESEC Prague. What was quite amazing is that we were at many AIESEC events already, but somehow we never really spoke to each other before. Now during the different bus rides and in the train back to Bucharest we somehow caught up.
In Bucharest I met Marius and Stefan. Marius kindly hosted me in his place. However, I had a lot of time left, and I had seen a lot of Bucharest before, so I decided to return to the mountains and more importantly, the Peles castle, which I finally managed to see the 5th time I got there.
The castle is absolutely beautiful and the experience was even more fun because I found some Czech hikers from Plzen there. After taking their picture for them we were speaking more and we went for the visit to the castle together.
I took a train to Sinaia and went for some long walks, which gave me excellent time to relax completely and think a bit about different things I needed to think about.
One of the best moments was standing at a height of 2200 meters, in the clouds, and then just making it to the ski lift 2 minutes before closing time, to get back down to the town.
Another important moment for me was realising that I can communicate both in Czech and Romanian, as long as I relax and put my mind to it. I am more than ever motivated to study Czech properly.
Returning from Romania I landed in Vienna airport again and found out that for less than 10 euros I could get to Bratislava instead of back to the center of Vienna. Without a doubt it sounded a lot cooler to visit this new place.
Randomly walking around Bratislava with 20 kilos of luggage in search of a hostel is even less fun than it sounds. In the end I got some help from 3 Dutch guys. They were making a lot of noise so I figured they were already settled and could help me find a hostel. In fact, they did. They gave me a city map which greatly facilitated my hostel expedition.
When I found a free place it was unfortunately only for 1 night. I decided to make the best of it and go for a nightly walk without luggage after checking in. Then I heard the magic words: Hey AIESEC! I had been found by the members of AIESEC Bratislava. They immediately offered me help to find accommodation for a second night at their university dorms and they gave me good advice about the city. Especially Zuzka was really helping me a lot, thanks Zuzka!
One of them was Katka, who I had not seen anymore after we were in a working group at the conference TWIN 2004 in Germany. Even at the reception of the hostel, the girl who was having the night shift turned out to be an AIESEC member. The world is so small!
My sightseeing in Bratislava was great. I love this little city, divided by the wide Danube river into a residential part with almost only panel buildings like the one I live in in Prague, and the historic center with the castle and many other interesting sights.
The best atmosphere is for sure to be found strolling around the center in the evening. I also rediscovered the fun of making night photo's with long exposure times.
Now the holidays are almost over. On Monday it's back to work, but I really feel energised and happy, exactly as it should be after such an amazing trip.
Let's start where I left off, in Vienna, Austria. I had visited this city before in January 2005 but it did not impress me very much. Maybe it was the bad weather or the poor planning, I am not sure.
My second visit to Vienna had exactly the same starting conditions. I arrived without planning anything, and the weather was again bad. However, after finding a good hostel I tried to get in a sightseeing mood with a visit to Schonbrunn, in the rain. Surprisingly, it was quite an enjoyable walk, and I was happy to be able to give my new camera a good test drive.
In the evening I met up with Shomy, a friend from the conference Yu Can 2003 in Serbia. Even if our meeting was only short, he quickly showed me some highlights of Vienna, and told me what he loved about the city. We ended the evening having a very nice (strong and cheap) Long Island Ice Tea in front of the Rathaus (city hall).
The next day I used Shomy's guidelines to go for more sightseeing, and I also quickly passed by the MC office to see if I knew the new team of AIESEC in Austria. I was quite amused to find them in a meeting discussing LC structures, this seems to be a hot topic in AIESEC every year again.
I spent my last evening in Vienna with Petar from Macedonia, also he was at Yu Can, but we did not actually remember meeting each other before. So many conferences, so many people... We had a nice evening in the Museumquartier and discussed about living abroad with AIESEC and how that makes you feel.
The balance: Vienna is a monumental city, which feels a lot like a huge museum. My visit to Vienna was fun this time, partially thanks to the AIESEC network. I am glad I returned to this place which I left in 2005 with mixed feelings.
Next stop was Romania, one of my favourite holiday destinations. Jason and Adina had picked Adina's home country as the location for their wedding, which was the perfect reason to visit again.
Jason picked me up from the airport in Bucharest. I was amazed by how Jason and Adina were able to organise everything perfectly, on what must have been very stressful, but also beautiful days of their lives.
The wedding was taking place in the beautiful monastery of Curtea d'Arges. Because of logistical issues with the buses our group arrived one hour late, but Adina had held the ceremony especially for us. Thanks Adina, we love you!
The party was amazing as well. A live band, traditional dancing, both by professional dancers and by the guests and family, and more food than we could ever eat.
After the wedding we spent some time in Bran, visiting the local castle and having fun at a special camp fire evening. The only unhappy one there this evening was probably the lamb which was being roasted, but it tasted great.
We wanted to visit Peles castle as well, but we arrived there just too late. This was exactly the fourth time that that happened to me in 4 years, it was almost as if I'm not meant to see this treasure of Romanian history.
During this trip I also met Lucka, who used to be member of AIESEC Prague. What was quite amazing is that we were at many AIESEC events already, but somehow we never really spoke to each other before. Now during the different bus rides and in the train back to Bucharest we somehow caught up.
In Bucharest I met Marius and Stefan. Marius kindly hosted me in his place. However, I had a lot of time left, and I had seen a lot of Bucharest before, so I decided to return to the mountains and more importantly, the Peles castle, which I finally managed to see the 5th time I got there.
The castle is absolutely beautiful and the experience was even more fun because I found some Czech hikers from Plzen there. After taking their picture for them we were speaking more and we went for the visit to the castle together.
I took a train to Sinaia and went for some long walks, which gave me excellent time to relax completely and think a bit about different things I needed to think about.
One of the best moments was standing at a height of 2200 meters, in the clouds, and then just making it to the ski lift 2 minutes before closing time, to get back down to the town.
Another important moment for me was realising that I can communicate both in Czech and Romanian, as long as I relax and put my mind to it. I am more than ever motivated to study Czech properly.
Returning from Romania I landed in Vienna airport again and found out that for less than 10 euros I could get to Bratislava instead of back to the center of Vienna. Without a doubt it sounded a lot cooler to visit this new place.
Randomly walking around Bratislava with 20 kilos of luggage in search of a hostel is even less fun than it sounds. In the end I got some help from 3 Dutch guys. They were making a lot of noise so I figured they were already settled and could help me find a hostel. In fact, they did. They gave me a city map which greatly facilitated my hostel expedition.
When I found a free place it was unfortunately only for 1 night. I decided to make the best of it and go for a nightly walk without luggage after checking in. Then I heard the magic words: Hey AIESEC! I had been found by the members of AIESEC Bratislava. They immediately offered me help to find accommodation for a second night at their university dorms and they gave me good advice about the city. Especially Zuzka was really helping me a lot, thanks Zuzka!
One of them was Katka, who I had not seen anymore after we were in a working group at the conference TWIN 2004 in Germany. Even at the reception of the hostel, the girl who was having the night shift turned out to be an AIESEC member. The world is so small!
My sightseeing in Bratislava was great. I love this little city, divided by the wide Danube river into a residential part with almost only panel buildings like the one I live in in Prague, and the historic center with the castle and many other interesting sights.
The best atmosphere is for sure to be found strolling around the center in the evening. I also rediscovered the fun of making night photo's with long exposure times.
Now the holidays are almost over. On Monday it's back to work, but I really feel energised and happy, exactly as it should be after such an amazing trip.
