Sunday 30 December 2007

Balkan Expedition - part II


There were so, but sooooo many guiches in the bus station, that I got a bit confused. I decided then to go to the "Information" desk (yes, "information" in english, written exactly like this), and ask for some help. "Speak english?", I asked. The woman on the information desk made me a sick face and said a dry "Ne". Bastard. I gave up asking for help and started roaming around the bus station, passing guiche by guiche, trying to find "Varna" written in cyrillic. After several minutes I finally came across "Варна" written in one of the guiches and bought two tickets, for 26 Leva (something around US$ 20 dollars), departuring at 9 am. We had something like and hour and 20 minutes til then.

With the tickets in hands and some spare time, Nara and I decided that it was time to call Kostovinski e tell him at what time we would be arriving in Varna, so he could pick us up at the station when we arrive. From Sofia to Varna it's a 7 hours trip, which meant we would be arriving there around 4 in the afternoon. We went to a public telephone and tried to call, but somehow it wasn't working, at all! We tried all the possible codes to make the phone call, exactly like Kosta told us to do, but it simply wasn't working! When I was on my 10th try, Nara suddenly held my arm strongly, with a scared look on her face and said "Teta... Bad news..."
I was breathless for a second. "What is it Nara??", I asked. She said "It's 2 minutes to 9 o clock".
I said "So what?!" but then, immediately I realised: fuck!!! Bulgaria is one hour ahead of Serbia, and I completely forgot to set my mobile clock to the right time!!! That meant we had exactly 2 minutes to get to our platform and get into our bus! We got all our things and bags as fast as we could, coats and everything, and ran as fast as possible to the platform number 8. But alas: even though we were officially a minute before the departure time, our bus to Varna wasn't there. Get the picture: Nara and I, standing on the empty platform, disappointed faces on, with our coats wrongly buttoned up and scarfs badly tied, holding our baggage in the clumsiest way possible, with heavy snow falling over our heads. I wish somebody would have taken a photo of that moment. Even my gloves were not correctly on, I was probably looking like Monty Python's Dr. Gumby or something similar.

Then we thought that perhaps the bus was late or something. But no. We waited for 15 minutes and nothing came, at all. So we went inside the station again as outside was far too snowy and muddy for us, and started the expedition to find another guiche selling tickets to Varna - cause that one where we bought our "lost" tickets had only one daily bus to Varna.
After 20 minutes having to put up with people making sick faces at me when I had to switch from my shitty russian speaking to english (after all, my russian is far, faaar away from being enough for such things and even so, bulgarian is quite different), I finally made it to find another guiche selling tickets to Varna - the next one departuring at 10:30 in the morning. We had almost one hour til then, this time with clocks correctly set to the right time, hehe.

We went to the second floor of the station to try and find a functioning public telephone. We were excited as never when we saw a shop with a huuuge display saying "internet and international phone calls". But as it was too good to be true, of course it was closed and nobody could tell us when it would be opened.

When it was 10:10 we ran to the platform and to our happyness, this time our bus was there: bright and shinny, waiting for us! Now, this bus was waaaaay better and modern, comparing to the one that took us from Belgrade to Nis - and we had plenty of space to place our legs! If there's one thing that drives me crazy is not having space enough for the legs inside buses.
But well, there we were: sitting (almost) comfortable inside the warm, cozy bus, heading from the Bulgarian capital to Varna, on the other side of the country, as you can see in the map below:


(Click on the map to enlarge)

During the trip - between the several stops the bus made, admiring the beautiful and white balkan landscape and taking some short naps - I was trying to call Kosta from my serbian mobile phone. After trying tones of times, I realised I wasn't managing to call him because I had run out of credits - damnit! Now our only chance to talk to him was to wait for him to call us. Hoping that he would realise that I didn't have credits (and then, call me) made me aprehensive all the rest of the trip.

When it was around half past four in the afternoon, my mobile finally ringed and yes, it was Kosta himself calling us!!

K - Tchetche!
M - Kostinho!
K - Heeeeeeeeeeeey!
M - Heeeeeeeeeey!
K - Bonitchinhas!
M - Saudades, "Julinho"!
K - How are you doing? How's the trip?
M - Just great!
K - I'm so glad you're coming! My whole family is already waiting for you two!
M - And we just can't wait to meet all your people! The view from the bus is so amazing!
K - And at what time are you arriving, after all? Where exactly are you now?

When I was about to answer, the phonecall was suddenly interrupted.
I was swearing all the dirty words I could remember (in portuguese, of course), and so mad I felt like destroying my mobile. Again we were hoping he would call back at anytime soon. But he didn't: instead he sent me a message, asking me to call him as soon as we were in Varna, so he could pick us up at the station. Fuck again!!!
At this time of the trip, the sky was already getting pretty dark - winter days are soooo short... The bus' lights soon were very low, almost off, and then Nara and I, tired and exhausted, fell asleep. That was when the real adventure started.

I woke up all of a sudden, like if somebody had called my name or something like that, but no. Nara was asleep in the seat next to mine and, to my surprise (and later, to my despair) the bus - that was pretty full when we left Sofia - was now almost completely empty: beside us two, only a young bulgarian couple were still there with us. One of the two bus drivers (obviously the one that wasn't driving at that moment) came to us and started asking a lot of things in Bulgarian. I had to concentrante and pay huuuge attention to what he was asking, and I understood that he wanted to know where were we going to. "Varna", I replied.
The guy turned completely white, opened his eyes wide, asking me back "Varna? Varna??? Oj Boze, Boze!!". He started walking from side to side and talking to himself, very nervously. I was so, but so in shock I couldn't say a word. I looked at Nara, and for the look on her face I could see that, like me, she had just realised what had happened: we missed our stop in Varna and we were now heading to some other city.
I turned to Nara and asked "What are we gonna do now?!" and she replyed "I don't know, I have no idea...". At this moment, the guy was talking to that couple that was still in the bus with us, and the girl stood up from her seat and came to us, followed by him. When she got closer, I explained her (in english, of course) that we were going to Varna and before I could finish my sentence, she said "Hey, Varna was 80 kilometers ago. The next and last stop is still 30 kilometers away, in Shabla".

Shabla. Sha-bla. S h a b l a . . .

I asked her if she knew of a bus from Shabla to Varna still on that day, she said "Only tomorrow morning, at 5 am".
Fantastic. We were supposed to spend Christmas eve with Kosta and his family and now we were heading to heaven knew where, and without being able to reach Kosta on his phone number. Could it get any worse?
After a while, the bus finally stopped. The couple went out, and Nara and I were even more desperate then before. Nara went to the bus driver and started trying every language she could, haha. When she realised that she would have to speak bulgarian, she freaked out and her eyes were almost crying. The bus driver was SO nervous with the whole situation that he hit her on her shoulder rather strongly, twice, and said something in bulgarian that, in that context, it could be only "Wait, wait and stay calm!".
He went off the bus, and started walking in the icy, melted snow, looking down and smoking heavly. We went off the bus too, and looked around.
Have any of you guys ever watched "Priscilla, the Queen of the Desert"? Do you remember the cities they would have to go to, during the film, that were nothing more than a square, a church, and 24 hour bar? So, that was Shabla. The only difference is that it was covered in mud, snow and dry, leaf-less pine trees. But then, something came out to our view, like a light in the end of the tunel: a big display saying "Internet and international phone calls".
Nara quickly took her purse and went to the bus driver, asking him to wait a bit that she was going to make a phone call. Heaven knows how, he got the "phone call" part of her speech, and asked her to wait. He took his mobile phone on his hand, and gave it to Nara, so we could call from it! I ran inside the bus and took my notebook with the phone numbers, and the bus driver dialled for us. We waited several seconds, and it didn't work. He dialled again, and again no answer. When we were about to start freaking out again, his mobile phone ringed - it could only be Kostov calling back - and this time, it really was!!! The bus driver passed me his mobile and hearing Kostovinski again was a relief:

K - Tete!
M - Kosta!!!
K - What happened? Why you didn't call me back, or messaged me?
M - My serbian mobile phone went out of credits and the german one wasn't working here in Bulgaria...
K - Yeah, I thought so. I tried to call you, but it didn't work. Where are you now, after all?? It's 7 pm, are you close to Varna or?
M - Well, it happens that, hmm, we missed the stop in Varna...
K - You missed Varna?? How come?! It's probably the biggest stop after Sofia! Where are you now???
M - We're at... Ahm... Shabla.
K - You're in fucking Shabla?!?!
M - Yeah...
K - Fuck!
M - Yes, yes, fuck!
K - I can't believe it, oh god
M - I can't believe it either, believe me.
K - Do you know where Shabla is?
M - No?
K - Good for you, then. You're 15 kilometers from the romanian border, Tete...
M - Fu - cking - hell . . .
K - Yes, you get it... Where exactly in Shabla are you now?

I passed the phone to the bus driver, as he would most certainly know where we were better than me. After a minute talking to Kosta, he gave me back his mobile, and Kostov just asked us to wait inside one of the (only) two cafes/bar of the city, that in about 1 and a half or two hours, the most, he would be getting there by car to pick us.
R e l i e f. I was so relieved to have talked to him and to know that he would be there to rescue us anytime soon!
Only at this point I could stop and analise the whole trip we were taking (since we left Belgrade til then) and damit, I could help but laughing. I was laughing so loud and hard, I started crying, hahahaha. The whole situation was SO completely surreal: when in my entire life I would imagine that I'd be lost in Bulgaria, almost at the romanian border, with Nara, on a Christmas eve?!
After crossing the large square from side to side, we finally reached the cafe. When we got in, again I felt like in the movie "Priscilla, the Queen of the Desert": there were only men in the cafe, miner looking ones, with deep drunk look on their faces. Faces those now completely turned to the door, where me and Nara were standing, over-thinking if we should really get in there. I remember myself saying a long "puta que pariu", and Nara confirming and repeating what I had just said "Ehhh, puta que pariu mesmo".
Anyways, we got in and took a table.

(3rd and last part at anytime soon)

Intermission I

Saturday 29 December 2007

Balkan Expedition - part I

So, on december 24th, half past midnight, Nara and I headed to the Central Bus Station here in Belgrade, to start our loooooong journey to Varna - in the Bulgarian Black Sea coast - to spend christmas with our beloved friend, Kostov, and his family.

We waited the Niš Ekspres bus for about half an hour in the station, side by side with an amazingly beautiful gypsy woman, her small kid, and her husband.

Nara and I got into the bus, took our seats and right away a chubby guy, a Serb, came to us asking (in serbian) if we were bulgarian. I said that no, and his second guess was "Russia". I said "ne" again and then, in english, Nara and I told him we were from Brazil. The reaction was as it always is: everybody gets so excited when we tell we're from Brazil, hahaha. That is, when they believe us, of course. Cause most times people think we're joking.

Anyways, this guy was showing us the gps system of his super modern mobile phone for the first 20 minutes of the bus trip (mobile phones are pretty, pretty important here in Serbia). Thank god after those 20 minutes the guy decided to rest a bit, allowing us rest too. That was when I started sleeping like a stone, and Nara too.

Nara told me that in the middle of the trip she woke up once, and could see the gps guy talking to another one, looking and pointing at her. She was scared, of course: imagine yourselves waking up with too guys looking and pointing at you while speaking in serbian! As soon as the gps guy saw that Nara had just awaken, he said loudly "go back to sleep! go back to sleep! Everything's ok, back to sleep!!" - almost like if he was ordering her to do so, hahaha. She was so sleep, she couldn't help but really getting back to sleep, haha. Thank god I was sleeping far too heavily at that time.

I was suddenly awaken by some guy, from the bus company, speaking very loudly and walking from side to side in the bus, asking the passangers some questions. The gps/mobile guy came to us asking "Sofia? You going to Sofia? You need to change bus, this is Niš! Change the bus to Sofia, this is Niš. Now, now move!!!". Nara and I grabbed our coats and bags and left the bus like if we were being thrown away or something, hahaha. Along with us came a bulgarian girl, and a serbian guy.

So, we were in Niš, the third biggest city in the country (although you could never tell by looking to it's central bus station). It was almost 3 and a half in the morning, snowing, the floor of the trashy, traaaashy station was completely covered in muddly snow and my sleepy self forgot to put the coat on - so yes, I was freezing, hahaha. The guy from the bus company (the one who woke me up with his loud voice in the bus), took us to a room, and asked us to wait a bit. I was so sleepy and confused, I can only remember there was a TV, with the movie "Swordfish" on, with serbian subtitles. Trying to read the subtitles - as the TV volume was far too low to be heard - helped me to feel more and more awaken after a few minutes. So cool, I love trying to read subtitles in cyrillic! After a few minutes in this "rustic" waiting room, the serbian guy came to me and asked me "Speak english?". I said "YES!!!" right away, hahaha - I was so relieved! And the bulgarian girl spoke english too, and quite some serbian as well. He then told us we were waiting for the bus that was gonna take us to Sofia, because that one we were in would go from Niš to another serbian city, which I can't really remember the name now.

We waited for half an hour, until the loud speaking guy from the bus company came in again, asking us to follow him. This time I had my coat and my gloves on, so I didn't mind the wind and the snow at all. As we walked throught the platforms, I couldn't see any bus waiting for us. Perhaps it was yet to arrive?

No, it wasn't. There wasn't any bus. At all. There was a taxi, actually. A red, Yugo (a.k.a. "the worse car ever produced in the world") taxi, probably as old as me, some twenty-some years old. It looked even older, though, believe me. Do you people know what is it like a Yugo??? I believe the picture below to be quite enlighting:



When I saw the so called car, I could only remember the words of Trajan, a romanian guy we met in Cologne, when we told him we were heading to Serbia soon:

"Serbia is an interesting place, you know. Very "rootsy", hehehe". Indeed.

Ok, it's just four of us, I thought. And just til the other bus station. So, Nara, me ad the bulgarian girl took the back seat, and the serbian guy was in the front seat. After some 15 minutes squeezed inside the red Yugo taxi, we started taking the road. On that moment, I realised: there wouldn't be any bus to us - we were actually going to Sofia by car. By Yugo, I mean.

I think Nara and I were just so exhausted that we accepted the whole situation and just relaxed. Or at least we tried to, until everybody in the red Yugo (but us!) started smoking compulsively. Yes, our last drop of confort had just being spilled.
It took us more than 3 hours to get to Sofia. The roads were terrible, we could't barely see anything from the Yugo windows. Passing through the border was pretty fast: it took us some 10 minutes only to show all the documents and get the entrance stamps to Bulgaria (people from Brazil do not need a visa to Bulgaria).

The day was dawning and we were arriving in Sofia, under some pretty heavy snow. I remembered that early on the day we left Serbia, when I spoke to Kostov, he told me he was stucked in the airport in Sofia, on his way back from Thessaloniki to Varna, because the flights were being cancelled one after another due to the bad weather.
When we finally came out from that red Yugo taxi - smelling to cigarette smoke like I've never been before! - we headed to the central bus station, just 50 meters ahead of where the taxi left us.

On the moment we stepped into the bus station, I took a deep, deep breath and smiled: thank god I could read cyrillic script! I mean, thank Marcos and Jelena, my two russian teachers, hahaha. If I had their phone numbers on that noment, I swear I'd have called them both just to thank them for teaching me, hahaha. Everything, literally everything in the central bus station was in cyrillic. Not like in Serbia, where there are lots in latin script too.

Anyways, I told Nara to sit, wait and take care of our bagagge, so I could walk around and look for a guiche selling tickets to Varna. It was december 24, the day of Christmas eve, and we had to be in Varna around late in the afternoon/early in the night. So we had to find a bus leaving from Sofia as soon as possible.



To be continued tomorrow, I desperately need some sleep now.

Thursday 27 December 2007

LOTS to tell, hahahaha.

Tomorrow I'll start writting about the last four days we had here. In details ;)

Tuesday 18 December 2007

Marković in concert

Ontem perambulamos pela cidade no inicio da tarde, eu e Nara. Depois de algum tempinho batendo pernas, Toma me ligou e nos esbarramos no meio da rua, de onde comecamos a tomar nosso caminho rumo a um cafe, o preferido dele. No meio do caminho mudamos de ideia, haha, e resolvemos entao ir a Kafana de tematica "Iugoslavia". Me lembrei muito do restaurante Sovjet, em Colonia, mas nada que se compare: essa kafana eh mil vezes mais "roots", como disse a Nara, hahaha. Fotos de icones politicos socialistas por todos os lados sendo que, eh claro, Tito reina solto lah, forrando todas as paredes - um arraso, haha! Tito em foto, em cartazes, em tapecaria, em estatuas, em tudo e qualquer coisa e de todas as cores e formas (???), haha.


A gente jah tinha tentado ir nessa kafana logo no nosso segundo dia aqui, mas estava tao, mas tao lotada, que nao havia como. A coisa lah eh disputada. Dessa vez, como ainda estavamos no meio da tarde, tinha lugar de sobra. Entao pudemos sentar e conversar, beber, tomar sopa, e etc etc. E de lah, saimos desvairados e correndo pro outro lado da cidade, pra nao nos atrasarmos pro evento mor: o show do Boban Markovic!
Esperamos uns bons 20 minutos pelo tram que deveria chegar em, no maximo, 7. Assim que chegamos na Vasar - uma especie de feira, sendo que essa especificamente acontece na epoca das festas de fim de ano, com venda de varias coisas e, todo dia, um concerto ou algo do tipo. Pagamos (o equivalente a 5 reais pra entrar) e entramos correndo, crente que estavamos atrasados ou que estaria cheio e sem lugar. Ha, pra nossa surpresa, eramos 3 dos no maximo 20 que esperavam pelo show num salao enorme, hahahaha. Enquanto viamos a banda toda do Boban Markovic conversando tranquilamente num canto, bebendo, assistiamos a um show bizarramente delicioso de disco music, hahahaha. Uma mulher, com ar de bibliotecaria, cantando todos os grandes "hits", um estouro! E lah estavamos os 3, empolgadissimos com cada hist mais senior que o outro que comecava a tocar - e, claro, a gente sabia as letras todas, haha. Ateh na televisao aparecemos: um magico esquisitissimo que faz truques pra um programa na TV servia veio nos abordar e filmar. Eu nao conseguia parar de rir, hahahaha.


E entao o show finalmente comecou!!!

Marko Markovic e a banda

Boban e a banda

Boban Markovic :)

Nara, instantes antes de perder a linha - no melhor dos sentidos! - e subir no palco pra dancar, hahahahahaha

Marko e Boban Markovic
Soh hits! Foi absurdamente maravilhoso ouvir ao vivo todas as musicas que eu escuto em casa, ha teeeeempos, o dia todo. Foi magico! As pessoas dancando em cima da mesa, geral podia subir no palco se quisesse, e dancar! E tanto o Boban quanto o filho, o Marko, eram super simpaticos com todo mundo :) Saimos de lah felizes da vida, com vontade de dancar pela rua, haha. E fomos acompanhados, ateh a saida da feira, por um menininho cigano muito, mas muuuuito fofo. A gente deu nossos baloes pra ele, e ele ficou todo feliz. Eu fiquei tao encantada com a figurinha, que esqueci totalmente de tirar qualquer foto dele. Uma noite incrivel.
Ainda hoje a musica tah ressoando na minha cabeca... :))))))))

Ps.: Devo fazer upload de alguns videos do show no youtube em breve, e ponho os links aqui ;)

Sunday 16 December 2007

Photos!!

Some photos os the past few days

Sexta feira, quando comecou a nevar


Our street, when it started snowing

Saint Sava temple. It was the coldest day we got here, I think... Despite the (little, liiiiittle snow), the sky was clear and there was even some sun :)

Essa eh pro Fecu e pros interessados em placas, haha. Abaixo, um "close-up":


Yes, it's still there...

\o/

Sunday morning :)

Random, random...

Woke up around 9 and a half in the morning today, and when I looked through the window, everything was softly covered in snow. Like candy! Actually, it looked pretty much like the krempita I made for the triple birthday party we threw in august!
Two days ago Nara and I were in a cafe, craaaazy to eat krempita but alas, it was the only candy/tort that they didn't have anymore at that time. We still need to try krempita here...
And ice cream! Fuck, it's been over a month since I last had some ice cream! I don't think I ever stayed this long without any ice cream. And everytime I see snow ("live" or in some picture, or on the telly), I think of ice cream.

But back talking about snow... The past couple of days made me remember of 1990 Christmas, when my father came home one night saying that, on the next day (the day we were gonna start decorating the house for Christmas), he would bring us some snow to put all over inside the house. I remember I was SO excited, already figuring the living room with the floor covered in snow, snow on the back of the couch and over the dinner table, and on the leaves of our (plastic) Cristmas tree, hahaha. When he came back home from work on the next day, with that can of "snow spray" I was so, but sooooo disappointed, that I was speechless for several minutes, haha. I can still remember the smell of that "snow spray" though... And weirdly enough, when I'm out on the snow, I can clearly feel that same smell :)

Frase do dia



"Na hora do kolo, ninguem eh de ninguem"


Madame Fecula, 2007

Thursday 13 December 2007

Neve!

Momento emocao na rua hoje:

0 graus em pleno meio dia, comeca a ventar horrores. No meio da ventania comecou a chuviscar, e eu comecei a resmungar: eu nao tinha levado meu guarda-chuvas, e mesmo que tivesse levado nao ia adiantar muito, no maximo eu ia sair voando. A chuva estav muuuito, muito fininha e fria, gelada. Tao, mas tao gelada, que de repente a gente se tocou: opa! a chuva tava virando gelo! Hahaha, neveeeeeee, uhuuuuuuu!!!

Haha, durou pouco mais de 5 minutos, e nao deixou nem sinal de um possivel vestigio. Mas diz a previsao de tempo que teremos neve mesmo amanha e talvez pelos proximos dias. E temperaturas abaixo de 0! Issaaaaaaaa!!!

Luva na bolsa, suas meias, meu cachecol, e to feliz da vida!!!

Wednesday 12 December 2007

Boletim

O cheiro daqui de Belgrado me lembra Vaduz, nao sei por que cargas d'agua. Um cheiro de madeira queimadinha e planta... Tao familiar!
E o clima aqui eh muito, muito umido... Nao chove de verdade, mas as ruas estao totalmente molhadas, surreal. Hoje tah fazendo algo em torno de 5 graus, e eu to gamando.
Me disseram que no Rio tava fazendo algo em torno de 40 graus. Nao consigo nem imaginar isso agora, haha, Nao troco meus 5 grauzinhos por nada :P
E pode ser que neve ainda essa semana, uhuuuuu!!!

E o mais legal? Eu como chocolate e porcarias aqui e nao engordo e nem fico com espinhas - pelo contrario, perdi 2 kg desde que cheguei na Europa e minha pele nunca esteve melhor.
Issaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

PS.: SE PECULIO LER ISSO AQUI, ME LIGA, SEU PUTO! MEU NUMERO AQUI EM BEOGRAD EH 381 (codigo da Servia) 064 (Beograd) 0309333 (meu celular)

Tuesday 11 December 2007

1º dia em Belgrado!!!!!

Sabem assim, estado de graca? Sou eu aqui na Servia, hahaha. Estou muito maravilhada com tudo, e as coisas todas que aconteceram desde que chegamos aqui 2 dias atras, so deixam tudo ainda mais fantastico!

Acordamos 6 da manha pra pegarmos o taxi ate a estacao de trem e, de la, o trem ate o aeroporto de Dusseldorf. Nosso aviao - que mais parecia um micro onibus com asas, hahaha, da Lufthansa - saiu da Alemanha as 10:25, e chegamos em Belgrado por volta das 12 horas. Eu estava tao, mais tao tensa a viagem toda, que nao consegui tomar nada no cafe da manha nem comer no aviao - o meu coracao estava mega disparado, como se eu estivesse correndo minutos e minutos sem parar. Tomica, muito fofo, foi nos receber no aeroporto e de la pegamos o bus do aeroporto ate o centro de Belgrado. No caminho deu pra ver que a vegetacao estava toda queimada - Toma me disse que nevou nas ultimas semanas, e que em breve deve nevar denovo (yes!).

Momento emocao dentro do onibus foi quando vimos uma banda de metais saindo de dentro de uma van, no meio da cidade! Eu e Nara pareciamos duas criancas mongas e felizes apontando os trompetes, hahaha. E vimos, dentro de dois carros, instrumentos de sopro no banco do carona - foi um momento totalmente "eh, voces estao nos Balkans agora". A Nara disse que eu estava com um sorriso trincado de lado a lado, hahaha. Ela tambem estava :)

Ainda no domingo, porem a noite, resolvemos sair pra comer algo. Foi o momento "forasteiras" do nosso primeiro dia: parecia cena de filme do Emir Kusturica, hahaha. A Nara, traumatizada e dizendo que nao queria mais saber de falar alemao, praguejou muito quando perguntamos ao recepcionista do restaurante se ele falava ingles, e ele respondeu (em alemao), perguntando se a gente falava alemao, hahaha. Destino mesmo, da lingua germanica a Nara nao se livra tao cedo!

Acabamos comprando uma coisinha ou outra no mercadinho da esquina, pois estavamos acabadas demais pra andar e procurar qualquer outra coisa. Dormimos feito pedra de domingo pra segunda, uma beleuza.

Ai ontem saimos com o Tomica. Demos uma volta gigaaaante a pe, pela cidade, e foi maravilhoso. Denovo, eu estava tao deslumbrada com tudo, que esqueci totalmente de tirar qualquer foto, hahaha. Logo de inicio, eu e Toma fomos super premiados com um coco de corvo cada, e exatamente ao mesmo tempo, hahahahaha. Aqui tambem dizem que ser premiado com uma "arriada" de passaro eh sinal de sorte. Assim espero.

Fomos ao templo de Saint Sava, que eh um dos simbolos da cidade: o mais volumoso templo ortodoxo do mundo, eh uma coisa assustadora ate! Por fora ele esta quase todo terminado, porem por dentro, por conta da 2a. Guerra Mundial, e mais tarde por causa do governo comunista, a construcao por dentro nunca chegou a comecar de fato. Soh depois dos bombardeios da Otan em 99 eh que a construcao do interior de Saint Sava foi retomada. E tah muito longe ainda de terminar. Mas mesmo assim, eh muuuito, muito impressionante. Ao lado de Saint Sava tem uma especie de "anexo", pequenininho e totalmente terminado, todo decorado por dentro com afrescos bem bizantinos, feitos por artesaos russos que vieram pra Servia no inicio dos anos 90. Uma coisa de tirar o folego tambem, lindo demais.

De lah fomos andando ateh a parte mais conhecida da cidade, aonde paramos pra um cha com torta no cafe do teatro: g-zuz, que tortas eram aquelas??? Affffeeeee...

Enchemos a cara de pipoca, eu tirei meus primeiros dinares no caixa automatico... Uma emocao!

Depois fomos nos encontrar com um amigo do Toma num cafe muito legal tambem, e de la fomos, finalmente, pra Kafana!!!

Kafana, pra quem nao sabe, eh uma especie de pub a moda servia, com musica ao vivo e tudo o mais. Meu sonho de consumo durante o ultimo ano era estar numa dessas, hahaha. E lah estavamos nohs! Tao, mas tao inacreditavel! Conhecemos varios amigos do Tomica, super legais todos, ganhamos ateh presentinhos. E ficamos la, bebendo, conversando, cantando - e, mais tarde, quando o nivel etilico do pessoal jah estava elevadinho, dancando - ateeeeeh tarde.





Eu, Nara e Ivan








Toma e eu







Meu cabelo, a Nara, e a mao do Ivan, hahaha




Voltei pra casa ainda em mais estado de graca do que jah estava antes, hahaha. Foi fantastico demais. Amo Belgrado desde jah :))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

Ps.: As fotos da catedral e do onibus eletrico nao fomos nos quem tiramos, sao so pra ilustrar por onde passamos e onde andamos.

Monday 10 December 2007

Ahhh, Beograd... :)

Chegamos em Belgrado ontem, por volta de meio dia. Eu estava tao absurdamente ansiosa e ainda cansada das festas na Alemanha, que cheguei no hotel e dormi feito uma pedra ate hoje de manha.
Vou sair pra uma volta agora, encontrar um amigo enfim, conhecer a cidade. Mais detalhes mais tarde ;)

We arrived in Beograd yesterday, around noon. I was so, soooo anxious and excited to get here, and still very tired from the parties in Germany that I couldn`t help but sleeping like a stone till this morning.
I`m going out for a walk now, meet a friend and well, get to know the city. More datails later today ;)

Saturday 8 December 2007

Gogol Bordello + balkanXpress = ...

O que dizer do show e da festa noite passada? Ainda estou com os pés doloridos, cheirando a cigarro e vodka (e eu näo bebo e näo fumo!) e ainda sem palavras pra dizer o quäo maravilhoso foi :))))))))))))))

E amanhä... Sérvia! :))))))))))))))


What can I say about the gig and the party last night? My feet still hurt, I am still smelling like cigarettes and vodka (and I don´t drink and don´t smoke!) and I still can´t find words to say how wonderful it was :))))))))))))))

And tomorrow... Serbia! :))))))))))))))

Friday 7 December 2007

E hoje...

Eu adoro cidades com 2 coisas: parques grandes e com amplos gramados e rios. Cidades com Rios tocam meu coracäo. Londres, Colônia e, provavelmente, Belgrado também. Näo sei se estou mais ansiosa pra Belgrado ou pro show do Gogol Bordello e pra balkanXpress hoje.









No Stadtgarten, anteontem






Ainda näo sei com que roupa vou nas festividades de hoje. Queria muito usar o cinto croata que a Katja me deu, mas näo sei com o que. Ele é täo fofo!


A katja também me deu uma calca de montaria, azul escura, liiiinda de morrer. Eu estava usando ela nas fotos da sessäo que fizemos hnoite passada, no post logo aí embaixo. Täo anos 40...

Hoje é dia de ver galeria e museu, tirar fotos de turista, perambular pela sunny Colônia (siiiiiiim, a chuva foi embora e tem uma tentativa de sol lá fora). Qualquer coisa é melhor do que a chuva non-stop de ontem - até o Kostosvinski tava azedinho por causa do clima ontem, haha.
Mas é isso, povo. Amanhä posto fotos mil do show e da festa de hoje à noite.

Strike a pose!

Ontem chegamos em casa e baixou o espírito "vamos tirar fotos". A Anja näo estava em casa, entäo aproveitamos pra perder a linha, hahahaha. Deu nisso aí, ó:
Yesterday when we got home, we were taken by this "let´s take tones of pictures" spirit. Anja wasn´t home, so we took the chance to go crazy, hahahaha. Here are the results:








Hahahaha, uma festa intimista no apê. Amei-iê!!!



Thursday 6 December 2007

Rainy Cologne...

Hoje Colônia já amanheceu debaixo de chuva, e näo deu trégua até agora.

Assim que acordamos corremos pra estacäo de trem, pra encontrar a Val - uma amiga de myspace que fiz pouco antes de viajar, e que ficou muito pilhada pra vir pra Colônia me conhecer - fanática, até o talo, por Balkans, assim como eu e a Nara. A mäe dela é polonesa, na verdade, e ela é dancarina, volta e meia tá dancando nas festas de música dos balkans mais cool pela Europa afora.

Enfim, marcamos 1 hora na estacäo central, e o pior aconteceu: näo nos encontramos! E o pior do pior: meu celular ficou bloqueado, porque eu näo me lembrava o pin pra re-ligar ele. Ficamos 1 hora e meia rodando pela estacäo, e nada de Val. O pior é que o Kosta tinha ficado de me ligar também... Voltei pra casa, puta da vida e chateada, afinal a menina se despencou da Bélgica pra vir me ver... Assim que peguei o pin do maldito celular, em casa, liguei pra ela. Pra minha sorte ela ainda estava em Colônia, esperando dar a hora do trem de volta pra Liége, a cidade dela. Marquei com ela no mesmo lugar que tinha acabado de marcar com Kostinho Maluco, e pá! FINALMENTE conseguimos nos achar, e foi super!

Saímos todos juntos pra tomar um chá/café, conversamos um bocado, sobre música, basicamente, e ela nos convidou pra ir na cidade dela quando voltarmos pra alemanha, no finalzinho da nossa viagem. Talvez a gente vá mesmo, afinal, por 28 euros ida e volta, vale mais do que a pena, pra passar uma tarde batendo pernas em Liége e dancando Kolo ;)

Aliás, estamos cigitando um pulinho na Grécia também. Kostinho vai estar tocando lá logo anates do natal, numa puta festa. E além do mais, o Vasilis me chamou pra passar lá e ficar na casa dele, com quem mais eu quiser levar, yay! Thessaloniki deve ser fabuloso, vou pensar com muito carinho nessa possibilidade...

Amanhä é o show do Gogol Bordello e a balkanXpress. Eu estou que näo consigo nem pensar direito no dia de amanhä, hahaha. Vai ser sem precedentes...

E domingo... A Sérvia nos espera!

AI ZEZUS!!!

Wednesday 5 December 2007

Algumas fotos...

Mais fotos dos últimos dias...















Noite "perdidos em Colônia", com a Nara e o Kaska. Destaque pro momento em que a Nara gritou que estávamos sem chave, lá debaixo do prédio do Kosta, e o vizinho dele chegou na janela morrendo de rir, pra ajudar, hahahahahaha. O mais legal é que a ajuda dele näo adiantou absolutamente nada.















Início da noite "perdidos em Colônia"















Checando os emails no notebook da Katja, na cozinha dela, tentando achar as letras e acentos no teclado...
















Andancas por Colônia... Essa catedral é de tirar o fôlego...
















Assim que chegamos no nosso hotel, no 1° dia









Tsunami Club, adorei aquilo lá! A música, com o Kostov, dispensa comentários ;)

Katja, um amorzinho, cozinhando comida russa pra gente, awww :))))

Fotos dia 1













Sobrevoando a France, de manhä cedinho













De Paris à Paquetá. Saudades do Pecúlio puto, que näo liga, sabe...















Alemanha e...













... finalmente Düsseldorf!




E Köln :)

Monday 3 December 2007

Resumo da viagem até segunda feira de manhä (post atrasado, hehe)

Resumo da viagem até segunda feira de manhä (post atrasado, hehe)


Bom, postando com um pouco mais de calma agora...

Estávamos na casa do Kostov agora, ajudando ele com uns posters pra balkanXpress de sexta feira agora, que vai ser, aliás, a "after party" oficial do show do Gogol Bordello. Quem vai tocar com o Kosta vai ser o Click, DJ francês, o mais famoso e o melhor (na minha opiniäo) de música dos balkans e oriental. Vai ser um arraso, com certeza!

Mas bem, vamos à um resumo rápido dos últimos dias nossos aqui.

Na quinta feira chegamos em Colônia na hora do almoco, mais ou menos, depois de uma rapidíssima parada em Paris, aonde pegamos a conexäo pra Düsseldorf. Kostovinski foi nos pegar no aeroporto, e de lá fomos de trem e metrô até Colônia, coisa de meia hora, no máximo. Pegamos uma espécie de trem aonde os trilhos ficam em cima, muito "do futuro", haha. Chegamos em Colônia por volta de 13 horas. Kosta nos deixou no hotel que ele reservou pro nosso primeiro dia aqui e teve que sair correndo pra ir pra rádio, trabalhar. O hotel era super jeitoso e espacoso e do futuro também, hehe. Portas com código e tal, adorei. Eu e Nara saímos pra bater perna pela cidade até a hora de voltar pro hotel, nos arrumarmos e irmos jantar com o Kosta no restaurante preferido dele - Alkazar, se a memória näo me falha. Um fenômeno de restaurante! Comida típica alemä, tudo mui fino, e o melhor: BARATO!!! Comemos muuuito, e mal deu 40 euros! De lá fomos pro bar/clube Barracuda, aonde o Kosta ia tocar com o Kaska, DJ brasileiro, porém residente em barcelona nos últimos anos. Foi fodíssimo! Conhecemos a turminha eslava do Kostov, gente de todo lugar da europa oriental: Ucrânia, Rússia, Sérvia, Bulgária, Polônia, e etc etc. As melhores pessoas que conheci aqui até agora! Os alemäes säo terrivelmente sem sal, mas os eslavos säo fodas e animam qualquer lugar, haha. Bom, depois da festa no barrucuda voltei pra casa torta de sono e ainda semi-arrasada da viagem de 14 horas de aviäo. Dormi como uma pedra até meio dia do dia seguinte, atrasada pra fazer o check out no hotel e ir pra casa da Katja.


A estadia na casa da Katja foi maravilhosa! Ela é, como já disse, um amor de pessoa. No primeiro dia, assim que soube que a gente gostava de cozinha russa, ela fez um jantar lindo pra gente, com Borsch e um prato ucraniano fenomenal, pro qual eu peguei a receita até. Dia seguinte saímos pra ver vitrines, andamos loucamente pra ver livros, comemos tortas finas num café lindo nas redondezas - a confeiteira chefe é russa - fomos ao mercado e etc etc.

Hoje pela manhä, antes de irmos embora, trocamos roupas e bijouterias, hahaha - descobrimos a paixäo comum por roupas e coisas de brechó, em geral. Ela me deu uma calca de montaria que ela comprou num brechó que é assim, breathtaking! e cabe certinho em mim, um pouquinho larga só! \o/


Ontem à tarde fomos todos nos encontrar num café, aonde conhecemos mais amigos eslavos do Kosta de da Katja, e inclusive amigos gregos e romenos também, que säo pessoas igualmente queridas. O grego, Spiros, inclusive nos convenceu a dar uma esticadinha pra Grécia quando estivermos em Ohrid, na Macedônia, hehe. Eu e Nara vamos ver se dá pra fazer mesmo. Mas acredito que sim, porque tenho amigo na Grécia, e ele já havia me dito que näo seria um prazer nos ter com ele por uns dias. Vamos ver se rola...


Hoje nos mudamos pra casa da Anja que, pra minha surpresa, é portuguesa, hahaha. Portuguesa e näo fala uma palavra de português, o que deixa tudo mais surreal ainda. Muito simpática também, amiga das antigas do Kosta. Acho que amanhä a gente vai cozinhar pra ela, eu Nara e Kostinho :)


No sábado Kosta tocou no clube Tsunami, e lá fomos nós! A música foi fantástica, como näo podia ser diferente quando se trata do Kostinho. Mas o público alemäo é uma porcaria! Eles näo dancam, por mais que esteja estampado na cara deles que eles estäo se contorcendo de vontade de dancar, haha. Dá agonia, vontade de chegar e sacudir eles pra ver se pegam no tranco!

Enfim, saímos de lá por volta das 5:30, o que nos custou a manhä seguinte toda de "sono extra".


Noite seguinte fomos com o Kaska bater perna perna pela cidade. Nos perdemos, nos deram as chaves erradas do apartamento do Kostov e tivemos que gritar pelo vizinho, depois comecou a chover loucamente e a gente näo achava o clube Lotta, achamos o clube, dancamos, e acabamos a noite comendo burek (!!!) na loja do Iraquiano da esquina, com o Kostov e o amigo dele, também DJ, porém alemäo. E depois...



Tenho que sair voada agora, meu tempo online tá acabando. Depois conto mais ;)

Primeiro post! - First post!

Caros leitores,

Me encontro em Colônia agora, em casa de Katja, uma amiga Russa (do Uzbequistao, na verdade) do Kostov. Um amor de pessoa, e o marido dela - Peter, alemäo - um amor também. Daqui há pouco me "mudo" para a casa da Anja, também amiga do Kostov e também eslava, ao menos pelo que o nome sugere.
Sol em Colônia hoje, o dia mais quentinho desde que chegamos. Eu sinto calor nos bracos e pernas, haha. O mais friozinho que pegamos aqui foi algo em torno de 0° graus, e foi super tranquilo pra mim e pra Nara.
Ainda hoje, porém mais tarde, vou por minhas fotos e videos online, e alguns disponíveis aqui no blog pra quem quiser ver ;)

___________________


I am now in Köln, at Katja´s place - a russian (actually, she´s from Uzbequistan) friend of Kostov. A lovely person, and her husband - Peter, from Germany - is lovely too. In an hour or so I´ll be "moving out" to Anja´s place - another Kostov´s friend and also a slav, at least taking from her name.
It´s sunny in Koeln today, the warmest day here since we arrived. I feel warm in my arms and legs, haha. The coldest day we had here was something around 0 degrees, and it was pretty ok for both me and Nara.
Still today, a bit later though, I shall be uploading my photos and videos, and putting some of them available here on my blog so you can check them out ;)

Monday 15 October 2007

Uma introdução...

Faltam 10 dias pra viagem e, sinceramente, eu acho que a ficha ainda não caiu. Pelo menos não completamente.
Já comecei a juntar as tralhas e arrumar as malas: casacos, luvas, meias, chapéus (chapéus!!!), sapatos...

Dia 28 nós 4 - eu, Nara, Fécu e Rodrigo - saímos do Rio de Janeiro e seguimos juntos até Paris, de onde Fêcu e Rodrigo pegam a conexão para Genebra e eu e Nara seguimos pra Düsseldorf. De Düsseldorf vamos imediatamente à Colônia de onde, depois de 1 semana e meia, seguimos para Belgrado, Sérvia. Belgrado vai ser nosso "QG" nos Balkans. Da Sérvia iremos à Bulgária e provavelmente também à Macedônia (que é meio que questão de "honra" no nosso roteiro, hehe). Fécula e Rodrigo devem se juntar à nós denovo ou em Belgrado ou em Varna, ainda não definimos muito. Talvez a gente passe o ano novo (católico) juntos, em Belgrado. Eu e Nara ainda ficaremos para as festividades ortodoxas antes de retornar à Alemanha, conhecer Berlim e, então, ver o que faremos de nossas vidas (momento mais temido do plano todo, com certeza).


Minha mãe diz que é o roteiro de viagem mais "não-ortodoxo" que ela já viu (sem trocadilhos, hehe). Mas eu acho lindo. E ela também acha.

Daqui há alguns dias volto a postar. Com fotos e novidades da viagem ;)



Bem vindos ao Wish I could reach you in Belgrade :)