29th June. Day 15

Woke up at 6 in the morning to catch a train. Kind Don gave us a ride on his car. Oh, forgot to say, he is limousine driver!!

So at last we got to train and went to Belgium, a small town called Roeselare, to my dear friend.

Meeting with Milya was great! She is so sunny and kind person! Kamila was as always opened and beautiful! alina brought some spice with her simple caracter and teen age:)

We went to Kortrijk, did some shopping. Then Aldi and picnic:)

Nice photos, good mood and nostalgy about time passed:) That was just unfreakingbelievable to meet them after so many years of nit seeing each other!

But this is how it goes with friends- no matter how long you haven't seen each other, we had much to talk about and felt free to be ourselves, being still opened and being able to speak about everything.!

The world is mine!

28th June. Day 14.

Woke up at 7! Bloody tired, for sure, very sleepy! Yann had to go to work, so we left with him and without any hesitation went to the park next to metro Jourdain.

that was very funny- many asians doing excersises, europeans with children, staff of park.

Took us quite long to find a place to set up as grass was wet:) At last we found a perfect spot- some lit bit hilly:)

Veera was shy at first to lie down.

-Let's just pretend like we came here to sit down.

-Jajaja, let us

We put a blanket, sat down, but in few seconds took the second blanket, used bags as pillows, bend for eyes... It really seemed like we were well organized for sleep over:) (look photo)

I think i have even seen some good dreams:)

What else was memorable that day? Or, picnic on stones next to Notre Dame:) and well, we got lost in mazes of parisian metro and missed our train. well done. Proud of us.

To say i was furious means to keep silence. I was so DAMN ANgRY.

When I was 14-15, I was chatting in realchat.kz. My home city with 40000 inhabitants seemed to small to me:) I really needed fresh air, new waves, new people and cultures. 1.5 years of chattin, vast number of friends, many of whom I have visited in other cities. Phone calls everyday. That was crazily awesome! May be that was one of the reasons I didn't start to smoke, drink, didn't get pregnant as many of my age:) Didn't get to bad companies, to jail, didn't have heart being broken by some assholes. One of the precious people I got acquanted with through net was Ramilya. At that time she was living in Belgium. when I stopped chattin we still kept in touch, which is great. We met when I was 18-19, spent 3-4 beautiful evenings together with her and her lovely sister Kamila, then university, job, getting busy and at last me going to USA and South Korea for studying, her leaving to different city. And still we kept in touch. And now, when I am 23, her family came back to Belgium and I had a chance to meet them again!

Do you understand that I HAD a reason to angry.

On the stairs next to the train station one guy looking like Indian, came to us and started to talk to Veera, then to me a little (which was a surprise as I can imagine what a "lovely furious" face I had=)).

We ended up Don offering us to stay in his house for 1 night. Great!

As a local, he of course knew where we can find good sushi:) Nam-nam-nam!

Cozy apartment in good neighbourhood, shower and bad, the mood raised up and life played with bright colors again:)

In general, Paris has disappointed me. With my head full of stereotrpes like "Paris is a city of love", I had to face a realty. Realty like smell of urine, many homeless people with matrasses on the street, long lines everywhere, totally unstructured metro system, unfriendly and not speaking good english staff in metro, who gave us wrong direction sometimes, and sometimes just didn't want to answer. (yeah, and these people in information center are planning a strike soon to have their salaries encreased...wwhhyy?) Gloomy parisians, snobbish and not speaking english though they understand it sometimes better than they want to show it.

I will tell you what has happened to me in the subway. I was going to gay parade. Spotted a nice young couple on the platform next to me. The girl was speaking on phone, so I asked the guy:

-Hello! Do you know if this train goes to Bastille?

- bubububu- said in french. as I understood, it meant "no french, merci"

His girlfriend says "yes, yes, bastille".

Ok, standing and waiting. Guy asks:

-parle wu france?

- no, no, english parle, - as always, I am smiling.

The guy turned away. I had a great mood, so dunno why I added "russo turisto!"

haha, the reaction was great.

- Russo turisto? Privet!

-Privet! you speak russian?

-No, no

Guy went to look on metro map. Train arrived and we came in. He checked the map again, now inside the train. Couple had to go before me. On their stop, before stepping out, the guy tells me in english, with perfect english accent "you stop is next, don't miss it! next is Bastille!"

Hahaha...so I guess when you are in Paris you better speak russian.

The world is mine!

27th June. Day 13

The second attempt to go to "Crime and punishment", and this time it worked:)

The exhibition was different, nice and quite interesting. After that walking and walking again:)

Went to Monmartre.

Miguelito made me great surprise- he sent a message he is coming to Paris! That was unexpected, and that was really nice.

Met with Miguel next to Louvre and went to eat something. Flans and crepes were soooooo gooood...He was with his friends, Fredy and Ilanda, very nice people, who spoke mostly Spanish though:( We had plans to go to picnic, and that was a reason why we could not attend Bosa Nova Concert. However, we have a plan to meet up later.

After that we bought some cheaps in metro:) and went to picnic next to Eifel tower.

oh, that was so beautiful! Locals everywhere, the grass is yellow and dry because of many people sitting there. Peace memorial next.

By coincidence met some friends of Yann and sat with them. Wine, french sausages, cherries, baget and cheese made everyone to relax more. Played with colorful helicopters, made footage dancing swing dance next to tower again by accompaniment of Veera's singin:), laughed and had fun.

After picnic it took us long 1 hour to get to Arc de Triumph when Miguel called again and asked to come to Moulin Rouge.

and here it begins...

Miguel gave us the wrong name of metro station. Then said it will take him 30 minutes to come to where we are. We gave up on meeting and went to metro, when... Surprise, surprise, the metro has closed. So no meeting with Miguel and his friends, as Yann had to go to work at 7, we should have gone to his place to pack and sleep.

We asked some girls how to get to Yann, they of course tried to help us, and we ended up in being even farther from where we had to go to:=) 1 more bus. Drunk people, long lines, strong smell of alcohol. awful.

At 3 a.m. we understood that this is bullshit and decided to take a taxi. Haha, not so fast...

-bonjour!

-Hello! we want to go to this address, - showing him address on piece of paper. Though already after my HELLO taxi driver looked laim.

- Oh, this is just 10 minutes by walk, you dont need a taxi, I will have to go around and you can alk straight...

....very nice...

crossing the road in search of more friendly taxi. Taxi and 2 drivers. The same story. "It will take like 20 minutes".

Ok, guys, whatever, decided to go by feet and, of course, got lost:) I see a young man coming our way. I go to him, he goes towards me and the first his words were spoken with a smile "You are lost!":)

Phillip

Young, drunk, with a pack ( I guess there were socks and beer:)), he said he is walking the whole night, because his cousin is in love, and he wants to give love birds privacy. He was realy funny uy talking to us sometimes in french as his english wasn' so good.

Was really great to meet him, because it took us more than hour to get to place on the streets, where some black guys looked at us suspiciously. So in some point he was our angel:)

Absolutely exhausted, sweatened, sleepy, we came to Yann's place at 4.30,went to sleep at 5 after warm shower, refreshed and just felt asleep

The world is mine!

26th June. Day 12

Paris

The whole day spent with Yann, and that was great one!
We talked, walked around. We had a nice breakfast and left home together. At some point split up, because he had to go to salsa lessons.

But before splitting up he gave me a key, and that was just sp surprising. I mean, that was a sign of trust, wasn't it? i don't remember any other case before when a stranger gave me a key...Yann knew I came for several days only, but still wasn't aware of me stealing anything. For post soviet countries' citizens I guess it is very shocking. And I really appreciated him trusting me, so everytime I went somewhere I was rechecking if the key is still there, in my safe-belt:) As the worst thing a person can do is breaking a trust of someone, and I didn't want that. Not because it is expensive to make a key again, no. But because if I lost it I would be so ashamed...

I was walking in the center, there was an exhibition deciated to Charles de Gaulle, called "Resistance". Quite interesting one, though the main reason I went there was becaue it was so hot outside:)

Next to the door there were 3 security guards. So when I was passing by to go out, one said "Sayanara", another "Ni hao", the third one "annyon":) So you can imagine how round they had after I said "Good bye and do svodaniya":)

Next to the Hotel de Ville met an old woman. She was soooo hilarious:)
- I hope you, young woman, don't think that Hotel de Ville is hotel! I know some woman, she came here at 9 p.m. and looked for Hotel de Ville,and was complaining that they dont have a room for her!

I couldn't put a word into her speech, but she continued...

-and did you young woman take a picture next to the Charles de Gaulle's photo? You have to! it is great! I can make it...

Pushed me, took a picture, because of sun she didn't see if I were even in photo:) When Yann came, she kindly offered to take photo of both of us:) It took like 4 minutes! We were standing smiling under heat of sun while she was trying to make focus again. so I had to come to her, to make focus on Charles de Gaulle's portait, put her hand on camera and aks her not to move, and then we tried to stand so that we are on the photo:) anyway, funny woman of 87 years!

Then there was the 1st attempt of ours to go to special exhibition "Crime and punishment" in Musee D'Orsay. What a joke of fate. In 5 minutes after we came, there was an announcement saying that for today the tickets for that particular exhibition are sold out.:) So we just walked around nearby, taking photos near Louvre,went to park. After that Yann went home as he was sooooo tired after hours of dancing salsa, and I went to... Gay Parade!!!!

On the way to parade found a nice square with beautiful fontain. Next to it black people were dancing RnB and performing for crowd. OMG! I love black people dancing. Drive, passion, motion...

Gay parade

I caught it in Bastille. Stage, really good music and many funny looking people.Some funny, some hm....too open?

For several minutes I felt myself strange,surrounded by gays and drunk people, but then the music led me. Step, step, step, then hand, hand, hand, spinning body.jej!

At last the introduction of gay groups. OMG, the cars, people, music, photos...

In a word, that was real drive! Loved it, loved it, loved it!

Then just went home to take shower before going to meet Veera on metro stop.

The world is mine!

25th June.Day 11

On my waking up on the table coffee, orange uice,some sweets waited for me:)

so we packed and went with Hector's car to Cerebre. Well, again "If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans".

The police stopped the car, frenchmen searched it on drugs etc, the verdict was: this car doesnt go anywhere as tired are n bad shape!

niiiiiceeee

So police guy with a wide smile offered me to walk:) But well he joked around as it would take me like 2 hours in the mountain road. So he stopped a car, with 80 year old man from Lille:) So the whole way we were admiring french views, listening to twist and Elvis Prestley. So he gave me a ride to Perpignon, much farther than Cerebre:)

From there to Nimes and then to Paris.

The first obstacle in Paris- metro. People didn't speak english so much, so it took me half an hour to find place where to buy tickets without credit card. There are many tocket machines, where you can buy metro ticket using your card, but not so many people knew wher to get ticket using cash. unbelievable! After looking around found in the corner glass kiosk, woman inside wasn't that friendly, but anyway sold a ticket to me. Thanks at least for that:)

Yann met me next to the metro stop and it took us like 7 minutes to get to his place.

Quite nice and cozy, comfy couch (the most important:)) He made a good salad, we drank BCN beer (Estrella, which I took with me), he offered me a really good "french beer", which appeared to be belgian (we found out another day). Yann invited me to party, but I was too disappoined with some occasions and pissed off to go partying, so just trid to relax, took shower and went to sleep.

The world is mine!

24th June. Day 10.

Like I said before, after waking up at 6 and checking routes and times for future, I went back to La Rambla, lying down and chilling out. But there was too hot to sleep,I was tired and pissed off ( well, those days I slept like 2-3 hours, walked a lot, got a lot of information, tried new things, met new people). I was waiting there like 6 hours, sometimes walking around with my backpack. But BCN is quite expensive city, besides our plans there was strike in France, so couldn't go to France like planned, but couldn't also afford staying in BCN. so I went to the city close to the border- Portbou.

Portbou

small town, or village:) with a great view on rocks and sea. Breathtaking view indeed.

Now I am sitting next to the church made in gothic style. The church is situated on the hill so I can see houses down hill and a sea, cafes and rstaurants, roads and people-ants.

My fiction that everything is cheaper in small city was silly. High season, 4 hostels in the town, and 1 of them doesn't work. Rooms only for two with price around 40-50. So I just decided to sleep in the beach again. I clibmed on the stairs searching for locals to learn if there is another hostel and met a guy, Hector. He told me that those hostels are the only ones. I thanked him and was going to go when he asked what I am gonna do.

-Sleep in the beach of course.Is it safe?

-Hm...yes, it is safe, but cold!- answered after hesitation

-Ok then, thanks!

-hey! if you don't find a place, you can sleep one night in my house. I will come from work at 11 p.m. and will go to the beach to give a walk to my 5 dogs, and if you are there, no problem, stay here.

No matter how crazy were my days while travelling in USA, everytime we stayed somewhere there was my dear friend Nasty with me. But well, I decided even before the trip to be opened. And all people deserve a chance- that is what I always believed in. Besides, how the person with 5 dogs can be bad? So I agreed.

I walked around the whole city, having pleasure of everything! Th town was sooo nice, but well 4 hours is enough to walk it through:) so if you ever plan to go there, be ready and don't plan to stay there for a week if you are not gonna just stay on the beach.

At 10 I occupied a place on the beach close to rocks and had a full harmony for myself. Looking on the stars, lying down under black sky with bright stars, thinking of many things, good and not good ones.

Echoes of midsummer fest- still fireworks and damn petards. I thought I have heard my name, but well, still was waiting. 12 p.m. No Hector around. He was right, the sea wind was chilly. Some man walking with a dog asked what I am doing here. "sleeping" was my answer.:) We talked about Finland, he said I can come to sleep in his house if I want, but something made me to hesitate. 1 a.m, me alone. Weigh of chances for good and bad. And here I heard it again "Janee!" Oh mY! Hector:)

He came with dog and we went to his apartment. He said he was looking and screaming many times. So I was right, someone shouted my name.

Something that looked like apartment was a 3 floor flat:) so I have got my fucking whole floor! With My room, My own bathroom, My gym which I didn't use for obvious reasons. I had a nice shower, good chat, although he ddnt speak english much and I dont understand Spanish. so some things we just googled to translate:) almighty internet! We talked untill 3 a.m. and he offered to give me a ride to Cerebre, a city in France nearby.

The world is mine!

23d June. Day 9

Чем пахнет Барселона? Кофе и дорогими мужскими духами. Терпкие и мужественные. Такое чувство, что у всех мужчин они один и те же. Сигаретами и ванилью.
Rambla de Lar- потрясающе красивое место. Порт, вода, канатная дорона, солнце, рыбы, парочки лежат тут и там. Огромное количество людей на мосту, но в то же время чувство гармонии и одиночества. Здесь все более умиротворенно. Спокойно. Красиво.
Занимательная фигура человека, который стоит на лодке и смотрит вверх. Вверх, в небо. С широко открытыми глазами наблюдает он за тем, что за облаками. Легкий бриз обдувает лицо, солнце нежно ласкает щеки.
Вот она какая, моя Барселона.

Woke up at 7. Unfuckingbelievale.
From nothing to do went to wake up Jordan.

I don't know about you, people, but if I go to sleep at 4 and someone wakes me up at 7, I am definitely bloody angry. Once I even broke my phone smashing it to the wall when people called and called and called. That is why I hesitated for a while to wake Jordan up. But then I thought he offered himself, came to his bed and shaked his hand a little bit. I was expecting any reaction, from "fuck you" and "go to hell" to "sorry, Jane, i want to sleep please". But he amazed me. So, Jordan opened his eyes, smiled to me, slowly hugged me and said "Good morning, Jane". Unbloodybelievable... I shyly offered to walk a bit,he smiled again and said he will be ready in 5. Can you believe that?

I think everyday should be started with hugs. They raise mood and give energy!
Also Danielito made my day writing a great reference like "She's the kind of person with whom you would enjoy being stuck in a lift for 8hrs. Why? Just look at her name. 'JANE - joyful and naturally enlightened'"
So they both totally made my day:)

While I was having my breakfast he came down with his backpack and belongings. I asked from the reception guy if I can leave my stuff, it cost me 1.2 euros:) as the system was automatic. But much better than 3,4 etc in the train station.

We walked a bit, then sat on the square and he wrote me a short story as a memory. An hour later i saw him off his bus and he went back to Prague by plane.

However, my day approached and I had to move forward.
So I cheated a bit with my ticket (the bus ticket for 1 day is 22 euros. too much, so I used it also the other day:=)Again hipping on and off. Visiting olympic stadium, parks, museums, stadiums,squares,beaches, trade enter looking like egg, Gaudi's basilica, doom and gothic places. OMG! Although it was quite expensive (16 euros if you take 1 day bus), visited Gaudi's house. That was something... Veera said later she didnt like it on my photos. And that is the thing about it- you can love it, you can dislike it, but you cannot ignore it, because it is simply too different. yes, here are many houses in gothic styles, fashionable houses,basilicas, but never I have seen a house where there are almost no straight lines. And yes, it is waste of space, it is dificult to design it, but I would realy love my own house to be like that!:)too much I want, I know. He didnt make only houses,but also furniture. Chairs, hard to move cuz they are made of solid wood,but fucking comfy ones!!Yes, you can also try and sit there:=) Then went to some famous food market and understood why it is famous. You can find everything there and it is simply awesome! again performers in La Rambla made me smile, especially the invisible man, who was insisting on me kissing him, so well...had to kiss him!:) (see photo)
After that went to the park Guel. A beautiful one, again some buldings were designed by Gaudi. Met a guy from Chile, Cristobal, who is working in the ship standing on the harbour and had to leave soon. But we anyway made nice photos together and chatted about some things.
Also had time to enjoy the real flamenko show, spanish songs and the play on spanish guitar. So much of passion!!!!! That was incredible...

Didnt want to spend nite in a hostel again, besides, there was a huge midsummer fest in the beach, so decided WHY NOT?

Went to hostel to take my stuff, a different guy from reception covered me wth compliments and allowed to leave a bag for 1 day more without payment:) which is always nice. I mean both compliments and free service:)

I took my bag with belongings and went to the beach. Good times! Lots of people, music, salutes and fireworks. Indians selling beer and some other stuff started to look at me suspiciously. I can understand why: everyone has been in company and I was alone, with my bag. So I spotted in the beach two young guys with huge backpacks like mine, and came to them. If my first words "Hello!are you guys gonn sleep here? if yes, can I sleep with you?" made them to be shocked, they were hiding it well:) As Devin immediately said "Sure, set up". What a coincidence, Devin and Dylan appeared to be CS members, who missed their train and had to spend night somewhere! Devin, a very handsome, not so talkative, calm young man who loves snowboarding and Dylan, really smiley guy 19-year old skateboarder. I left my bag to them sometimes to go to the huge number of bars and dancefloors or just to the sea. A big fest! We were sitting on my blanket, trying to dodge from salutes:) People are idiots, I swear! who will give petards to a child of 5-6 years? The girl almost burned herself by pointing petard on her own side and firing it. But some people are even more idiotic,m like a group of people (11-15), throing petards to each other! My God..
I've been foolish ( or can justify my stupidity by the fact that was the first time I have been sleeping on the beach). Hot and heat of morning was replaced by wind and cold of sand. I had only yellow cotton trousers, t-shirt and some think sweater from wind. So no matter how much sangria we drank from a pack, I started to feel chilly.
Kind Devin opened his standard 1-person sleeping bag as a blanket and we both used it. Dylan gave a piece of his sleeping bag as a pillow. OMG, I am really lucky I met those guys! Sleeping didnt work that well, I felt asleep may be close to 4 a.m, because fireworks and atmosphere was simply so beautiful and new to me. Sleeping back to back so it is not that cold with Devin was not that long, as at 6-19 Dylan woke me up to show that sun is gonna start rising. I woke up Devin as well and we enjoyed the magnificant view of sunrise on the sea. Went to the station to check timetables and to see the guys off. Again after just meeting them we had split.

By some chance all the nice people I met in Barelona had to leave soon:( That part was sad. Jordan, Frank, Cristobal, Devin and Dylan But I am very grateful to all of them, meeting them made my experience precious and my life full of memories.

The world is mine!