"Luck is when an opportunity comes along and you're prepared for it."
Denzel Washington
Nice sunny day. Motorcycling is fun I've discovered. Staying up for no reason and watching the sunrise too.
It's only ignorance and fixed beliefs that blind people, why not change it, let go of your beliefs, you just have to want it and there is the challenge. Some people just don't wanna change, maybe they're lazy, saying they're too busy, being frightened to face the truth when they'd have to deal with it or saying it's fucking bullshit. Well if being happy is fucking bullshit then you did something wrong. Depressed people wanna stay depressed. I know what I'm talking about. But isn't it much better to overcome its weaker self and start to enjoy things instead of wallowing in self-pity all the time? You can't be moaning and be miserable and expect your life to change. And there is not a single instance in history where hate has brought joy to human beings. Hate destroys those who hold it in their minds and bodies.
Think about it.
"Think of all the beauty still around and be happy."
Anne Frank
25 June 2010
Hmmm I was thinking if you find an eyelash in your mouth, can you still make a wish? I did it regardless.
THIS music video is fucking brilliant!! Simple but genius! I so love it. Haha especially the jumping in puddles and the fireworks bits. Oh and the very end of course, awesome!
Like in the olden days, the three of us together in the bathroom. One sitting on the toilet, the other's taking a shower and me sitting on the bathtub telling each other stories, haha oh my! Visited Marc's parents, his siblings were there too. We spent a very nice amusing afternoon coffee party. Some tears were running too but this is just alright and healthy. It still stirred me up that much I couldn't sleep that night. Miss him big time.....
Haha I know I know terrible, but Marc and I were dancing to this song like wild!
19 June 2010
Everyone knows that a bumblebee can't fly. Based on weight ratios to wing power and wind resistance its body is too big for such small wings, yet, the bumblebee doesn’t know that, so it flies anyway.
As a consequence, the bumblebee is without doubt my new hero!
17 June 2010
"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."
When a big chance occurs in your life it forces you to change direction. Sometimes the new path may not be easy, but you can be absolutely certain that there is a magnificence for you on the new path because it contains things that you could not have experienced otherwise, even if it might seem very surreal and desperate at one instant. But when we look back at a negative event that occurred in the past, we often see how in fact it transformed our life. We see how that event directed us to word a life that we would not change for anything.
Last but not least the end of my adventure: 4.- 6.06.10: Friday, guys left to the airport, Laura and I made it to bed at 11.00 am? The other people in our dorm must've been wondering why we always only showed off in the morning, not at night....in the evening we packed and off to the bus station. Taking the bus from Istanbul to Plovdiv, Bulgaria. I know. We didn't have a choice. Actually we wanted to go back via Romania, Slovakia and Czech Republic in the first place but nevermind. If they even haven't been able to make a simple reservation for one train, it woulndn't have worked out for three more. So we decided to drive back via Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Austria. Then from Plovdiv to Sofia further by train. We just made it to the next stop and they kicked us out the train in Pazardzhik. If you know where on earth this place is, please tell me because it looked like nowhere. And why did we have to leave the train? No reservation. And why didn't we have one? They didn't understand at the counter, in their own country, that we need and wanna buy one. Sitting there in this godforsaken place next to a scary gypsyish witch, we tried again to make a reservation, instead we got 2 new train tickets we didn't accept and were told rubbish, so we gave up and just took another train where the same problem occurred. No reservation. So we tried to explain everything with hand signals and I just think after a certain time the conductors were fed up with it theirselves, they let us stay. Oh and we broke a young's boy heart so heavily that we thought he's gonna start to cry every moment. Still big thanks to you Mitkov for your sincere attempt to help and protect us.
After hours arrived in Serbia. In Belgrad we felt safe, nothing can happen to us anymore but we didn't have the slightest idea those are gonna be the last pictures we would ever take by this camera. Night, sleeping train, straight to Austria, hurray. Out of a sudden I got a message, "Dear customer, your flatrate is herewith canc *some text missing*" oh well, no phone from now on. And then it happened, my stuff got stolen. I were woken up by the border police still in Croatia. Passport please. And I couldn't find my bag. After ten minutes we all realized it's stollen. I sat down apathetically. Fuck I know it's stupid but all my life was in there. My Ipod, my passport with all the stamps of all the countries, my train ticket, my notebook with all my thoughts and addresses and yeah my wallet and among all my documents, a german penny from the year 1895! No passport, no ticket meant staying in Croatia or Slovenia forever. I was done, buggered. It was simply impossible to steal our things as they were lying next to our sleeping faces and this was so damn fucking far from the door, too scary to imagine how and where and what they did exactly in our compartment. But suddenly the police found my bag!!!!!!! In the filthy toilet bin!!!!!!! I looked inside, "only" my wallet was gone, kind of release....wanky yet, especially as we realized Laura's digi cam is gone as well. This was like the worst thing ever, it felt as if we haven't been anywhere the last 10 days.
It still sucks massively though but hey! It's long over, we managed to get back some of our pics, nothing worse happened, we're still alive and life's going on right. So there is nothing better than laughing, it makes all bad things disappear :)
13 June 2010
" Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." Abraham Lincoln
I am a money magnet
Everything is a mindset
" Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."
Edison made over 1,000 attempts before he created the first long-lasting light bulb, but he simply viewed every failure as moving him closer to success.
Fourth part of my journey, 02.06./03.6.10:
Yeah in our budget of only bread and water, we definitely included the ferry for 70 Cent! So the next day we planned to get up early to get one to Eyüp in the morning, apparently a beautiful place with a sweet cafe on top of the hill with a special cemetery. L: " Dejan told us there is a really cool and beautiful funeral we should go to" G: " Beautiful funeral? Okay, weird. How does he know this?" E: " Hahahahhaha! I think you mean cemetery, don't you!"
As the party only ended in the morning though, we slept first and eventually got to the ferry at 4 pm. Jon and Gareth gave us company. Well I'm not sure if this was such a good idea because we managed to take the wrong ferry, back again and managed to take another wrong ferry and ended up in Asia which was the complete different way. A bunch of 4 jerks. Hilarious. On the third attempt we made it to Eyüp. Gorgeous place really. Very enjoyable and cute. Not as hectic as Istanbul. The special thing was, as we dawdled so much time away getting on the right boat, we had only 1 hour left to catch the last ferry back. Pity! Still happy.
On thursday, on thursday tried to sort out many things to provide a safe journey back to Germany. Nothing worked, instead went up with Stefen that other hill with that tower and that big street. Yep. Ha, and we drove a hard bargain with the sunglasses seller or maybe we just looked too pitiful, he had sympathy with us. Either way we got our fake Ray Ban sunglasses almost for free, that's the only thing that counts. In the evening we celebrated life again. We had a blast till the morning, again. I mean listening to Joe LaJoie says it all. The owner of the hostel just came up around 8 am with new travellers showing them around, pointed at us and said totally casually as if that would be the most normal thing ever , " and those are the 24 hour people" and went on.
12 June 2010
Fuck! I need this drummer in my band!!
Third part: Okay, the memory starts to cease. Hurrying up.
31.05/01.06.2010: Istanbul. Arrived. Finally. Our hostel- perfect! Just our cup of tea. Rock'n'Roll hippie ghetto style. Absolutely lovely! Had to go up upstairs to the common room, chillaxing lounge, lawn of carpets whatever. Red faces, sweaty, smelly, 3 days with no shower. Awkward moment for us in front of the other guys. We just had to explain our look to them to feel better, not that they start to think we came by plane and looking always like that. They were woooow crazy and we already earned some respect of them. Nice one! Then something really incredible occurred : a shower! The feeling of cold fresh clear water on my body was indescribable. I've never felt so fresh afterwards. New born is the right expression for it.
Next day. I think on that day we did lots of tourist stuff, boring. The evening is much more interesting. We sat outside on the roof terrace with our sparkling wine and got to know and talking to all the other guys. We smoked Shisha, orange, banana, grape, cappuccino, apple. Pretty much everything. It was awesome, we all got along so well together, we had a fantastic party. I think no one of us will forget this night so fast. Mega fun. Especially when Jon's cock was on fire and the shisha coal was glowing through his white trousers. That was the ultimate killer. Epic laugh. Everybody was lying on the ground yelling.
The spaghetti in the morning
My feet afterwards
Our hostel. I love the way Erasmus is written.
11 June 2010
How can you not miss this rooftop
It's time for remembering some words, I've promised to myself! I'm aware of the fact that I let things drag me down in the last couple of days. One the one hand I had an incredible happy and funny time, on the other hand I just felt really worn out at some moments, I couldn't create good energy.
I promise myself
- to be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.
-to think only of the best, to work only for the best and to expect only the best
- to be so strong that nothing can disturb my peace of mind
-to think well of myself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud words but in great deeds.
YES, not in loud words but in great deeds. And I believe even if some of your good deeds won't be appreciated at the very moment and you honorably cut back on something in silence like for the sake of the other person and piece and quiet and nobody notices it and even if this might make you pretty sad sometimes, you will get your reward one day. And maybe even a bigger and better one.
No worries, third part of my Istanbul story in the next post!
10 June 2010
SO. So so so so so so so! What shall I say?! I'm fucking happy! Our Istanbul photos got stolen and now they are b a c k!!! This means everything to Laura and me. Seriously! Fuck the wallet, the camera and the other things. Still not nice but it's replaceable, pictures aren't! Gareth managed to restore some of them on his computer which is the best gift ever!
Second part: 30./31.05.2010: 11.30 pm arriving in Sofia, Bulgaria. We planned to take the next possible train to Istanbul. Failed. Security closed up the station, chased us away and let us stand outside. Next trains going at 7 o'clock in the morning. A taxi driver told us, no train going from Bulgaria to Turkey either. Fucking hell! Why couldn't anyone tell us this a bit earlier? Like in Greece? Nobody knows anything. Service sucks. And now? No money for a taxi nor hostel, we took the street. The problem or should I say the challenge was that we were in Bulgaria. Plain criminal and poor country with terrifying creatures running around ready to eat you. Believe me you don't want to spend a night outside in Bulgaria. We did. Felt like juicy fresh rabbit meat surrounded by hungry wolves with burning red eyes. No shit, not kidding. This wasn't funny anymore. Holding my pepper spray tight all night, telling all boozy life stories and eating carrots to stay awake. Yep. Eventually after dragging hours it got light somehow sometime. Train station opened again, all the homeless plus us both went inside. The question was, should we give up and go back to Greece and stay there? Or even back to Germany? Big no. Let's go the whole hog. Giving up is beyond debate. Okay. Our new plan, get to the next big town to make the most of our Interrailticket and from then taking a bus to Istanbul. Laura had some emergency money on her credit card. We could use that for the bus.
And we thought hell is over. But you haven't been on that train to Plovdiv. It must have been a third class one maximal. The toilet full of shit, actually just a hole on the ground where you could see the tracks passing by, if you were funny you even waved at them. Windows, yes there was something I would name it windows but funnily enough you couldn't see through them because of the thick smeary dirt. Seats, you sat on them, you felt wonderful springs in your arse and your bum was nearly touching the ground. Left alone the smell of feces and the deafening noise of the driving train. Okay. Nice. I mean after that night, this train yay. Anyway after centuries we arrived in Plovdiv. Nobody understands us, so to the bus station and there we met Stefan! A 70 years old bulgarian man who could speak german. He was like, girls what are you doing here? It's dangerous.Yeah we already knew that. He was an angel, he helped us with everything, to find a bank machine and to get our bus tickets (otherwise they would have charged us much more). He was our knight in shining armour. And then finally we got on that bus and became big big eyes! Screens for every seat, water and coffee and snack for free! Wow! Sheer luxury. Our night on the street felt far away. And after 72 hours we eventually arrived in Istanbul! Bingo.
7 June 2010
Istanbul
This is not fake, Laura took it. Proud. Actually the only one left of our photos.
Gareth stole it before our robbery because it was that fuckin awesome.
Isn't it just amazing that the right people at the right time and the right place make a perfect life moment. People randomly thrown together from all over the world for one moment and you're enjoying the best possibly party. One big family. Yeah, this is quality of life. Having massive fun. Istanbul was one those moments. I fully loved it.
Even though I'm sick, meh nevermind. My body apparently just couldn't handle the extremes and the stress caused by the unfunny things happened to us. Like robbing our stuff including our camera. That's why I don't even have a picture to show you. 800 priceless memories only left in my head. But this is part of travelling and adventure, it makes a hell of a lot better story, so let's the story begin:
28/29.05.2010- Laura and I driving to Salzburg waiting from 2am till 7 am, realizing Internet is bullshit, catching the train earlier at 4.30 am to Budapest. Meeting my friend Anna for 2 hours in Salzburg in the meantime, nice one. In Budapest staying for 2 hours, I found hungarian money at home, 10 years old. That's why we could afford a marvellous breakfast by our standards for 10 Euro. We felt like kings. Yumyumyum. But we ordered without knowing that 2 bills didn't exist anymore. Oops. Though we made it to pay it to the cent, lucky bums. No tip for the waiter then, sorry.
Further to Serbia, Belgrad. There we ran out of water, that would mean no water for the next 14 hours. They didn't accept Euros and to draw money only for peanuts wasn't worth it. And there it was, our miracle! A water spot next to our train to Greece. Awesome, all happy again. Yippie! Rescued our night. Sleeping train alias Serbian style, haha oh yes. Laura and I alone in the train compartement, window open all night, fresh air, fresh wipes for face, fotze, feet, perfect smiling pillow, eyes closed, snoozing, breathing happiness. ENJOYING.
30.05.2010- Arrived in Greece, Thessaloniki. 36 hours behind us. 30 degrees. 30 kg. 7 hours stop. There they told us "line to Turkey is destroyed". No train to Istanbul, maybe in 2 weeks again. In 2 weeks?? We bursted out laughing. Is this the end? Okay first a cigarette and then let's see. The woman at the info point gave us a map of Greece in greek to find a bus going to Turkey. Haha. Nice. First we hadn't planned any extra money besides bread and water and second good we could decipher the phoenician font, not. However we had a brilliant idea. Back to Serbia over Bulgaria to Istanbul. But then it became even better. There was a train going straight to Sofia. Yeah baby high five. Interrail ticket rules, we thought. How the whole thing turned into a disaster, tomorrow.
