Sometimes to be lucky… you just need some luck. It is not so much that you can do in order to get it. It is rather the theory of probability in mathematics that can explain this phenomenon.
You just need to happen to go the right place, pass the right street or bump into the right people. If today you leave the office too early, then maybe you will miss the love of your life who left the office later than usual and therefore you will not happen to meet by chance.
Two weekends ago, the theory of probability was on my side.
On Friday, I went to an Irish pub called ‘Wild Geese’ where I met up with a girl from my office who had suggested to all Poles working with us to hang out in that pub on that day. We were the only ones to show up. She came over with a friend who used to work in marketing for private sector but hated it so much that she decided to apply for a prestigious diplomatic-consular course organized by the Polish Foreign Ministry and ended up working in Brussels at the Polish delegation by the UE where she deals with the Iran’s nuclear programme. She never regretted her decision and she finds her current job much more interesting and exciting. Her husband works in consulting and truly hates it. A friend that came over there with me also hates her job so we connected over the mutual, negative feelings we had for our professions. It was us – the unhappier ones trying to find our way in our confusions and her – the happier one who decided to go for something totally different and out-of-the-box. And she succeeded while we were failing.
No matter how sad it sounded it at least gave me the idea of how things could be handled.
Around eleven PM, we decided to leave. We said goodbye and everyone headed towards their cars. When I was about to get in I heard my name being said and then I saw two friends of mine standing and smiling to me. I was happy to see them. We talked a bit and later they suggested coming back to Wild Geese where they were heading too. I did not oppose and spontaneously accompanied them.
Le part deux of the night was even more amazing. We spoke about the escape from the convenient golden cages of social insurances, retirement plans and decent salaries – all paid in order to keep people doing the boring jobs. We thought of going to places like Goa, South-East Asia or at least to charming and lovely Mediterranean region. Out of sudden, she reminded herself about my blog and started praising my writing – both the writing and the language skills, the topics I write about and the thoughts and remarks I have. She said I should start doing that professionally. To make it even more meaningful, a few seconds later I bumped into another person who kept reading my blog and she also praised it saying I was writing in a smart and funny way while at the same time it was also very intriguing. I was speechless to receive so much flattery. I must have looked like a fifteen-year old, ugly and full of complexes girl who was just a subject of attention of the cutest guy in the school.
If I had not wrongly booked my plane tickets to Italy and thus if I had gone to Venice on that weekend (that was the plan), if I had not received the email from my colleague, if I had not left the pub at eleven PM only to bump into my friends and return there, that all would have never happened.
The next days were full of reunions with friends from different parts of the world who at that same time all happened to be in Brussels. It was wonderful and just made me realize that long-distance friendships were also possible.
On Saturday, my Polish friend, Aleksandra, invited me for a Portuguese dinner she was going to. It was organized by the Couch Surfing community and it involved different nationalities, different personalities – all sharing many things in common – being open-minded, with international experience, speaking a few languages and being extremely interesting, funny and smart. A fabulous mix I always adore. These people seemed much happier and reconciled with their lives and occupations as they looked like they had been enjoying it all.
If my friend, Aleksandra, had not been blown off by her friends who did not go to Amsterdam with her, if I had gone to Venice or decided to answer another invitation I would have never ended up in that place, enjoying the conversation, food and great people.
Even tough, we can never totally control the theory of probability and where it might take us I am sure that we still have a lot of room for manoeuvring and increasing our chances.
And thus we will live happily ever after.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
the theory of relativity
The bad season came unexpectedly along with the New Year of 2009. It showed me its nasty images and did not let enjoy my life in this city properly. Or maybe it was me who went to the DVD store and took the wrong CD with the wrong season. Was it my entire fault not to be able to enjoy my life as it deserves to be enjoyed? Did I make enough efforts to get the new season? Or maybe I had too much of a bad attitude?
Why can't we (or rather I) be happy the way we should be especially when we have few worries around? Are we too idealistic? Requiring? Neurotic? Unfair towards ourselves and our achievements?
If 10 years ago, someone had told me how my life would look like in 2009 I would probably not have believed them. It would have sounded to me like a never-attainable dream. A paradise. Living and working abroad. Having great parties and travels. Going out and spending time with wonderful people. Earning decent money and having promising perspectives for the future.
In 1999, if someone had said offered all that, I would have accepted it without a sign of hesitation or questioning. I would have taken it all with my eyes closed. I would have embraced it and thanked God for the rest of my life.
And now, that I have it all I am often not able to fully enjoy it and live it the way it should be lived. Is it because I am neurotic, over-demanding and always-complaining?
This all just shows that happiness is a very relative term. And I am not speaking about how it is perceived by various people because then we will obviously see it is very relative. But even us – we see it differently depending on what we currently have and what we still want to achieve. It is much more difficult to stop, look back and smile. Instead we just look forward and run with tired faces.
But on the other hand, maybe we should keep questioning what we have and make sure that what we have is what we really need. Do I really require too much when I say I want to like what I do? Or simply I did not try hard enough to be convinced it would be something for me? Does it take time to start liking it or you should know it right away? Should I give it more time? Should I be punished for not entirely enjoying it while other people from my country and of my age say I am extremely lucky to have this kind of life given the current economical situation? If I change it will it make me happier or will I find other aspects to complain about? Should I fight for something I am not sure I want to win? Maybe, once achieved I will love it. Or maybe I will want to toss it away and struggle to get something new.
I guess the bad season is not because I like something or not.
It is definitely because I do not have enough answers. Instead there are too many unsolved equations.
Why can't we (or rather I) be happy the way we should be especially when we have few worries around? Are we too idealistic? Requiring? Neurotic? Unfair towards ourselves and our achievements?
If 10 years ago, someone had told me how my life would look like in 2009 I would probably not have believed them. It would have sounded to me like a never-attainable dream. A paradise. Living and working abroad. Having great parties and travels. Going out and spending time with wonderful people. Earning decent money and having promising perspectives for the future.
In 1999, if someone had said offered all that, I would have accepted it without a sign of hesitation or questioning. I would have taken it all with my eyes closed. I would have embraced it and thanked God for the rest of my life.
And now, that I have it all I am often not able to fully enjoy it and live it the way it should be lived. Is it because I am neurotic, over-demanding and always-complaining?
This all just shows that happiness is a very relative term. And I am not speaking about how it is perceived by various people because then we will obviously see it is very relative. But even us – we see it differently depending on what we currently have and what we still want to achieve. It is much more difficult to stop, look back and smile. Instead we just look forward and run with tired faces.
But on the other hand, maybe we should keep questioning what we have and make sure that what we have is what we really need. Do I really require too much when I say I want to like what I do? Or simply I did not try hard enough to be convinced it would be something for me? Does it take time to start liking it or you should know it right away? Should I give it more time? Should I be punished for not entirely enjoying it while other people from my country and of my age say I am extremely lucky to have this kind of life given the current economical situation? If I change it will it make me happier or will I find other aspects to complain about? Should I fight for something I am not sure I want to win? Maybe, once achieved I will love it. Or maybe I will want to toss it away and struggle to get something new.
I guess the bad season is not because I like something or not.
It is definitely because I do not have enough answers. Instead there are too many unsolved equations.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Rabat for you, Rabat forever
Today, I got thrilled having received an email entitled 'Rabat dla Ciebie' which meant 'Rabat for you'. After getting back to a normal state preceded by a heat wave of excitement I read the email and then to my disappointment I realized it was not about the capital of Morocco. 'Rabat' in Polish means also 'a discount'. And I was just informed that the development of the large size photos now costs the same as the development of the small ones...
Damn it!
the eternal clash of the South and the North
On Saturday, on the Couch Surfing Portuguese night dinner, someone suggested an idea of Latin and Germanic brains. For some people it is easier to learn Latin languages (Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian etc) and for others Germanic ones (English, German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian etc).
Is that truth? It might seem like in my case. Even though it was not a problem for me to learn English, it was much more difficult to learn German. I did not like the fact that there were three genders (masculine, feminine and neutral) - I not only struggled to memorize the vocabulary but also the corresponding gender. Often unsuccessfully. Even if, the grammar was not so difficult (I hardly have problems with grammar in any language including my dear Polish) I had problems with learning vocabulary by heart - especially the verbs. None of these issues is the case for me while learning French. I do not confuse the genders too often and I guess it is not such a big case to memorize the words. I studied German for around eight years and now I cannot really speak it. Unlike French of which I have a conversational level after less than two years of studying (and although French is widely spoken in both Morocco and Belgium I still would mostly be part of Arabic/English/Flemish and less often French speaking groups). I also understand some Spanish and Italian although I never studied any of them. Is it just that they are easier or more similar to French? Are Germanic languages (i.e. Dutch or the Scandinavian ones) more difficult than the Latin ones? So what about the people who say they have Germanic brains?
Are we more likely to learn more easily only Germanic or only Latin tongues?
Is that truth? It might seem like in my case. Even though it was not a problem for me to learn English, it was much more difficult to learn German. I did not like the fact that there were three genders (masculine, feminine and neutral) - I not only struggled to memorize the vocabulary but also the corresponding gender. Often unsuccessfully. Even if, the grammar was not so difficult (I hardly have problems with grammar in any language including my dear Polish) I had problems with learning vocabulary by heart - especially the verbs. None of these issues is the case for me while learning French. I do not confuse the genders too often and I guess it is not such a big case to memorize the words. I studied German for around eight years and now I cannot really speak it. Unlike French of which I have a conversational level after less than two years of studying (and although French is widely spoken in both Morocco and Belgium I still would mostly be part of Arabic/English/Flemish and less often French speaking groups). I also understand some Spanish and Italian although I never studied any of them. Is it just that they are easier or more similar to French? Are Germanic languages (i.e. Dutch or the Scandinavian ones) more difficult than the Latin ones? So what about the people who say they have Germanic brains?
Are we more likely to learn more easily only Germanic or only Latin tongues?
Joseph Conrad
Orhan Pamuk, the Turkish writer from Istanbul, in his book about his home city really praised and enjoyed his childhood and whole life he had lived there. It was like a promised land to him. Even if it was not a heaven on Earth, it definitely was a special, magical and meaningful place and no other city or country in the whole world could be more important and close to him. In the same book he contradicted himself and the fact of him having strong roots in a certain place (Istanbul in his case) to writers like Vladimir Nabobkov or Joseph Conrad who travelled all their lives, spending years abroad and living there, hardly ever coming back to their home countries. Joseph Conrad, who grew up in Poland and whose native language was Polish, was a writer who wrote his novels in English - a tongue that he learnt in his twenties having already spoken fluent French. Most of his life after leaving Poland, he spent working as a sailor and later just living abroad and being a writer. He never returned to Poland for good.
As even the dumbest reader (not to insult anybody whatsoever) of this blog may guess I am rather a Conrad or Nabobkov than Pamuk type. I left my country at the age of twenty-three and even tough I was not planning on staying abroad permanently it did happen to me and probably I will never come back to Poland for good. Not only do I live abroad but I am rather the type who feels like living everywhere and thus settling down nowhere. Once while waiting in the queue to Mirano, I met a friend of my friend who initiated the standard interrogation with a freshly encountered Brussels' expat (me). He asked me for my name, my profession and for how much longer I was going to stay in the city. I answered 'I have been here for nearly five months and I will stay for another half a year. Then I will probably move to another country'. 'Oh, I understand' he replied 'you are this kind of a person' he continued meaning that I was not an expat who settles down but rather lives everywhere for a fixed period of time and then changes the place. I was unceremoniously put on a labeled shelf but on the other hand his response meant he had perfectly understood who I was. And that was the truth.
I have friends in so many countries and cities all over the world. I have visited quite a few places in Europe and Mediterranean region and as soon as I have the chance I will go everywhere in the world. I love being abroad but I guess I do not like the idea of settling down for good in one place. I live everywhere and nowhere in the end. I have friends everywhere but in the end will they be in one place with me once I need them badly? My family is always far from me (or it is me who is far from them?) and they do not really understand why I want to live abroad (but I might understand why they do not understand that), travel and live this kind of life. We keep in touch obviously but it is nothing really strong or profound. It is never enough time for me to really understand the culture I live in and plunge into it deeply because I tend to leave the countries pretty quickly. Do I learn enough about the politics, the famous people, the history, the well-known places? Maybe if I did so, I would understand the people and their actions more instead of complaining about their awkward behaviors. In the same time due to not living in Poland I keep getting further and further from the country and culture I grew up in. Once my friends and I laughed at a person who asked one of my frequent traveling friends 'oh boy! You travel so much. Don't you get confused?' We did make a lot of fun of it once we were told that. But it is not that funny sometimes. Isn't it sometimes confusing to live abroad? I.e. to be part of a discussion among five locals speaking their own language when you do not understand a single word of what they say? The worst thing for me about living abroad is when I start hating the country but on the other hand I know I do not want to return to Poland because it is not going to be better there and I do not want to go to another country either as I do not presume it would solve my problems. It happened to me in Morocco in the middle of my stay. I stopped liking it. However, I did not want to be in Poland or in any other country. I just felt trapped. No place for me where I could have been happy.
Have I become rootless? A true citizen of the world without a real home but still having it anywhere he moves in? Is it bad or good? Do I need to have roots and feel part of a place, city or a country? Or is it better to just feel a human being who can live anywhere? Do I need to define it? Why is it sometimes so amazing and wonderful and sometimes so confusing?
As I wrote in one of the previous posts - most of the times it is better than anything else. But sometimes it is not the most of the times.
As even the dumbest reader (not to insult anybody whatsoever) of this blog may guess I am rather a Conrad or Nabobkov than Pamuk type. I left my country at the age of twenty-three and even tough I was not planning on staying abroad permanently it did happen to me and probably I will never come back to Poland for good. Not only do I live abroad but I am rather the type who feels like living everywhere and thus settling down nowhere. Once while waiting in the queue to Mirano, I met a friend of my friend who initiated the standard interrogation with a freshly encountered Brussels' expat (me). He asked me for my name, my profession and for how much longer I was going to stay in the city. I answered 'I have been here for nearly five months and I will stay for another half a year. Then I will probably move to another country'. 'Oh, I understand' he replied 'you are this kind of a person' he continued meaning that I was not an expat who settles down but rather lives everywhere for a fixed period of time and then changes the place. I was unceremoniously put on a labeled shelf but on the other hand his response meant he had perfectly understood who I was. And that was the truth.
I have friends in so many countries and cities all over the world. I have visited quite a few places in Europe and Mediterranean region and as soon as I have the chance I will go everywhere in the world. I love being abroad but I guess I do not like the idea of settling down for good in one place. I live everywhere and nowhere in the end. I have friends everywhere but in the end will they be in one place with me once I need them badly? My family is always far from me (or it is me who is far from them?) and they do not really understand why I want to live abroad (but I might understand why they do not understand that), travel and live this kind of life. We keep in touch obviously but it is nothing really strong or profound. It is never enough time for me to really understand the culture I live in and plunge into it deeply because I tend to leave the countries pretty quickly. Do I learn enough about the politics, the famous people, the history, the well-known places? Maybe if I did so, I would understand the people and their actions more instead of complaining about their awkward behaviors. In the same time due to not living in Poland I keep getting further and further from the country and culture I grew up in. Once my friends and I laughed at a person who asked one of my frequent traveling friends 'oh boy! You travel so much. Don't you get confused?' We did make a lot of fun of it once we were told that. But it is not that funny sometimes. Isn't it sometimes confusing to live abroad? I.e. to be part of a discussion among five locals speaking their own language when you do not understand a single word of what they say? The worst thing for me about living abroad is when I start hating the country but on the other hand I know I do not want to return to Poland because it is not going to be better there and I do not want to go to another country either as I do not presume it would solve my problems. It happened to me in Morocco in the middle of my stay. I stopped liking it. However, I did not want to be in Poland or in any other country. I just felt trapped. No place for me where I could have been happy.
Have I become rootless? A true citizen of the world without a real home but still having it anywhere he moves in? Is it bad or good? Do I need to have roots and feel part of a place, city or a country? Or is it better to just feel a human being who can live anywhere? Do I need to define it? Why is it sometimes so amazing and wonderful and sometimes so confusing?
As I wrote in one of the previous posts - most of the times it is better than anything else. But sometimes it is not the most of the times.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
erase/rewind?
It has been a bumpy and rocky road with many ups and down recently. Probably they were mostly caused by me and not necessarily by the world surrounding me. Some people call it a mid-twenties crisis. The others say it is just the inability to live and appreciate what you have achieved and been blessed with in your life. And some other of them just think it is just what you deserved due to not having followed your dreams when you were younger and having chosen something convenient, predictable, stable and boring instead.
Quite possible that all of them are right. I do not know whether I made a mistake starting to study economics. It did make me who I am now and whom I know which is not too shabby whatsoever. But also, it is for sure not something that will make me do a job that I will be crazy about. And I think I need a little bit of the craziness. On the other hand, my course of studies allows me to do a job that provides me with money for doing things I love. I have quite a decent amount of days off and I am well paid which helps me travel, go out and save. But can't we have it all? To do what we like and earn money in the same time. Is it only the shitty jobs that are paid so good in order to attract people to do them? Will no one pay a sufficient money to a person who likes their job? Are there people who both adore their jobs and make enough money? Or are they like Yeti? You know they exist but they were never seen.
Quite possible that all of them are right. I do not know whether I made a mistake starting to study economics. It did make me who I am now and whom I know which is not too shabby whatsoever. But also, it is for sure not something that will make me do a job that I will be crazy about. And I think I need a little bit of the craziness. On the other hand, my course of studies allows me to do a job that provides me with money for doing things I love. I have quite a decent amount of days off and I am well paid which helps me travel, go out and save. But can't we have it all? To do what we like and earn money in the same time. Is it only the shitty jobs that are paid so good in order to attract people to do them? Will no one pay a sufficient money to a person who likes their job? Are there people who both adore their jobs and make enough money? Or are they like Yeti? You know they exist but they were never seen.
This is all not only black and white. It is a very risky territory. What I do now is not only boring and meaningless. I am saving money for the first time in my life. If I stay a couple of years I will get promoted quite quickly and will be able to make more money and e.g. buy an apartment. Changing it all? How should I know the new thing will be much more exciting especially if now I presume there are some drawbacks stopping me from quitting my current job and starting some crazier and less predictable like i.e. teaching English around the world. How do I know I will be a good teacher? I was a private math tutor back in Poland and it was not the easiest job in the world. How do I know I will easily find and employment not being a native speaker. It is very unstable in terms of incomes and they are rarely relatively low.
Speaking about the current job can I say that I have given it enough time to like and accept it? Maybe I still need some more weeks or months to be fully inducted and much more comfortable with it. Should I give up on things that easily and change them so immediately having realized I do not like them? Yes, it is good to be flexible and change the negative aspects of our lives. But shouldn't we sometimes wait a bit and let things adjust in our lives so that we are more convenient with them as time passes by? On the other hand, you always have to do what you truly like and what makes you enjoy it. On another hand, I am afraid that as a job is always something that you have to do you will never be able to enjoy fully as it is always a must. So will I ever like my job? Is it possible?
A job-hunt process is something that makes me work really hard and be very efficient but when there are problems or when I am rejected I am very upset and it gets me very down really easily. Last week, I started sending some inquiries about possible jobs in the same field and company I am in now but in different countries. After receiving a few negative replies (mostly due to lack of needs of new employees usually because of the economical crisis), I realized that 'here we go again'. I am again in this frustrating process of looking for a job. It will be very hard given the circumstances. I will suffer again. But in this case there will be no happy end. Even if I find a suitable job that fits my profile I will not be satisfied because this job is not something I am excited about or I want to do later. Don't you think it is really sick? Getting frustrated while looking for a job that you know it will not make you enjoy that and thus being later frustrated again once you start the work you even do not like? It is like being upset because you cannot have the thing that you not only do not need but even do not like. I felt like this last week. And it just got me very sad when I realized how fucked up that was...
I believe it is the first time in my life that I have such a multidimensional dilemma. There is so many options, possibilities and sets of solutions. So many questions and so few answers. And it is not the situation I deal with well. I need to have if not the full answers then at least clear options of the future. Even though I am not entirely sure what I will choose I need to have some paths I will later follow. I need to have a plan that will lead me there and once executed will make me achieve it. This is not the case right now. Plans change. Options come and go. No stability, no good road to follow. I know I should go after the voice of my heart. But I should not mute the voice of my bank account, health insurance and pension fund either. And both of them seem to say different things, don't they? Unless I do not hear well or I misinterpret them.
I am thinking a lot and I cannot stop that whatsoever. I am analyzing, asking questions, investigating, fitting different options, talking to people, attempting to learn from their mistakes and not to do mine anymore, creating different scenarios, calculating financial projections. And this drives me insane. It drives me crazy on a bumpy and rocky road with many ups and downs. It does not seem I can see the end of the road from here where I am now. But I know it does not mean the end is not somewhere there. I know this road a bit. I went through it a few consecutive years in the past. It always took slightly different turns but it would always end. And it was a good end. A happy end.
The end... (a happy one)
Friday, March 6, 2009
The truth is out there
One of the most amazing thing about having great friends in different locations all over the world is that they also have a lot of great friends in other locations all over the world. It often works out to have them shared with you. It happened to me a few times.
In December last year, I was introduced to the mother of my American-British-Belgian friend Noellie who lives in Morocco. Noellie's British mom, Jennifer, lives between Mozambique and Brussels. She is a great person who thanks to her skills, education and her two husbands - first the American working for CIA and the second Belgian working as UNDP Ambassador - managed to live her life all over the world - mostly in Africa. Although she is forty-something years more experienced than me and we are different we managed to find the common language and a lot of things that make us alike.
She was born in a loving and caring family somewhere in the countryside or suburbs deep in Wales. She spent her twenty-three years over there. Although her life was decent and good she always wondered how come she was born in that boring environment where everything was predictable, not interesting and simply dull. She did not feel she really belonged there. She even said that the stork bringing her to this world must have confused the directions and instead of ending up in some exotic destination it carried her to boring and predictable Britain. At the age of twenty-four she decided to leave the UK for good and she has not lived there permanently ever since.
I guess I can totally say my story is (or will be) pretty much similar. I was born in a decent family in this hardly exciting or interesting part of Poland. I was always excited about being abroad or at least in a different city - far from my hometown. Although I love my family I have been always wondering how it is possible that I am so different from most of the members of them. Where did I get my dreams, values and desires from? It does not look like it is genetics (no no I am not adopted - the physical resemblance is too obvious) and I do not know whether this is an example of someone else from real life or from TV.
The fact is that at the age of twenty-three I left my homeland and decided to live abroad. Back then it was just temporarily for one year but I guess that subconsciously I knew I would never return for good.
So far this is really great and despite my occasional outbreaks of neurotic nature I am loving it.
As I was told last night - it is never going to be perfect but most of the times it will be better than anything else.
In December last year, I was introduced to the mother of my American-British-Belgian friend Noellie who lives in Morocco. Noellie's British mom, Jennifer, lives between Mozambique and Brussels. She is a great person who thanks to her skills, education and her two husbands - first the American working for CIA and the second Belgian working as UNDP Ambassador - managed to live her life all over the world - mostly in Africa. Although she is forty-something years more experienced than me and we are different we managed to find the common language and a lot of things that make us alike.
She was born in a loving and caring family somewhere in the countryside or suburbs deep in Wales. She spent her twenty-three years over there. Although her life was decent and good she always wondered how come she was born in that boring environment where everything was predictable, not interesting and simply dull. She did not feel she really belonged there. She even said that the stork bringing her to this world must have confused the directions and instead of ending up in some exotic destination it carried her to boring and predictable Britain. At the age of twenty-four she decided to leave the UK for good and she has not lived there permanently ever since.
I guess I can totally say my story is (or will be) pretty much similar. I was born in a decent family in this hardly exciting or interesting part of Poland. I was always excited about being abroad or at least in a different city - far from my hometown. Although I love my family I have been always wondering how it is possible that I am so different from most of the members of them. Where did I get my dreams, values and desires from? It does not look like it is genetics (no no I am not adopted - the physical resemblance is too obvious) and I do not know whether this is an example of someone else from real life or from TV.
The fact is that at the age of twenty-three I left my homeland and decided to live abroad. Back then it was just temporarily for one year but I guess that subconsciously I knew I would never return for good.
So far this is really great and despite my occasional outbreaks of neurotic nature I am loving it.
As I was told last night - it is never going to be perfect but most of the times it will be better than anything else.
land down under (aka. Southern Turkey)
Having come to Istanbul for the third time in my life (and counting) I knew I could not stay only in the city for the whole 9 days. So with my habibi last Sunday morning, we decided to have a look at the flights to various destinations around the country. God bless Onur Air airlines. We found a 50 EUR per person, all included return ticket to Antalya in Southern Turkey and a few minutes later we booked the trip for Monday-Wednesday. A few minutes later I asked 'so where actually is it that we are going to?' Although I travel by planes a lot I have never managed to find that cheap flight just one day before its departure. The fact that it was the low season helped a lot.
We woke up Monday morning at 5.30 AM (for me it rather felt like the middle of the night) and went to Atatürk airport. Two trams, one flight, two buses and one minibus later we were enjoying the noon sun of Olympos - a small village by the Mediterranean where you can admire the old ruins of an ancient Roman city. Beautifully located by a stream, surrounded by the mountains on the West and the sea on the East it looks like a paradise. We explored the ruins, climbed the hills picturesquely overlooking the valley, the mountains, the beaches and the sea. Simply amazing. People were extremely nice and generous. We took a tree house as our hotel room and once when we realized that it was a bad idea to sleep in the freezing cold of the night and that the light did not work we were given a nice room with TV and bathroom. No extra costs. The next day we walked to the neighboring village of Çıralı and stayed in a hotel there. The price was pretty low and it included dinner and breakfast. Our breakfast was amazing - delicious eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers, bread, cheeses. We enjoyed that in the warmth of a morning sun while sitting at table on the beach and admiring the snowy peaks of the mountains and the turquoise blue of the Mediterranean. It was like a dream. The last night, we went to the forest of Chimaira where in the middle of a meadow located on the hills of the wood we could discover a never-extinguishing fires that apparently have been burning there for centuries. As it was a cold middle of the night and we were tired after walking in complete darkness through the hills of a forest, we laid down by the fire and fell asleep for a few minutes .
The last day, in order not to miss the plane from Antalya back to Istanbul we had to hitch-hike until the highway to Antalya to later catch a minibus to the city. We were given a ride by two guys driving a tractor and since there were no more free seats they carried us on the trailer. Getting a lift on a trailer driving through a gorgeous valley surrounded by the mountains? I cannot imagine a better adventure. After a quarter on the trailer, then another car, an hour on the minibus and twenty minutes on the urban bus we were in the downtown Antalya. We could not believe how beautiful the historical centre was. The ancient Roman walls and the old Turkish wooden houses mixed together and tightly packed between the narrow streets of the downtown - different centuries or even millenniums, two pretty far from each other cultures but one perfectly filling another. The quartier was situated on the hills just by the sea and one could see the mountains in the distance. We found an open air café near a garden - the memories of a similar place in Rabat (unforgettable les Oudayas) came in a flash. We wished we could stay there forever. We took advantages of the views and the ambiance as long as we could and later we grabbed a cab that drove us off to the airport.
We were back in Istanbul. I still keep insisting on the fact the city is rather ugly. But the country is definitely fabulous. It is magical.
We woke up Monday morning at 5.30 AM (for me it rather felt like the middle of the night) and went to Atatürk airport. Two trams, one flight, two buses and one minibus later we were enjoying the noon sun of Olympos - a small village by the Mediterranean where you can admire the old ruins of an ancient Roman city. Beautifully located by a stream, surrounded by the mountains on the West and the sea on the East it looks like a paradise. We explored the ruins, climbed the hills picturesquely overlooking the valley, the mountains, the beaches and the sea. Simply amazing. People were extremely nice and generous. We took a tree house as our hotel room and once when we realized that it was a bad idea to sleep in the freezing cold of the night and that the light did not work we were given a nice room with TV and bathroom. No extra costs. The next day we walked to the neighboring village of Çıralı and stayed in a hotel there. The price was pretty low and it included dinner and breakfast. Our breakfast was amazing - delicious eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers, bread, cheeses. We enjoyed that in the warmth of a morning sun while sitting at table on the beach and admiring the snowy peaks of the mountains and the turquoise blue of the Mediterranean. It was like a dream. The last night, we went to the forest of Chimaira where in the middle of a meadow located on the hills of the wood we could discover a never-extinguishing fires that apparently have been burning there for centuries. As it was a cold middle of the night and we were tired after walking in complete darkness through the hills of a forest, we laid down by the fire and fell asleep for a few minutes .
The last day, in order not to miss the plane from Antalya back to Istanbul we had to hitch-hike until the highway to Antalya to later catch a minibus to the city. We were given a ride by two guys driving a tractor and since there were no more free seats they carried us on the trailer. Getting a lift on a trailer driving through a gorgeous valley surrounded by the mountains? I cannot imagine a better adventure. After a quarter on the trailer, then another car, an hour on the minibus and twenty minutes on the urban bus we were in the downtown Antalya. We could not believe how beautiful the historical centre was. The ancient Roman walls and the old Turkish wooden houses mixed together and tightly packed between the narrow streets of the downtown - different centuries or even millenniums, two pretty far from each other cultures but one perfectly filling another. The quartier was situated on the hills just by the sea and one could see the mountains in the distance. We found an open air café near a garden - the memories of a similar place in Rabat (unforgettable les Oudayas) came in a flash. We wished we could stay there forever. We took advantages of the views and the ambiance as long as we could and later we grabbed a cab that drove us off to the airport.
We were back in Istanbul. I still keep insisting on the fact the city is rather ugly. But the country is definitely fabulous. It is magical.
in the ‘World’s Hippest City’
Here I am again, in -according to Lonely Planet and others but definitely not me- the World's Hippest City on the frontier of many different cultures, in the former capital of former empires, in the commercial and cultural center of the country, in the city built hundreds years ago and larger and more populated than Moscow or London, the only metropolis located on two continents - Istanbul.
And I am not really excited or astonished by the city. Ok, it has the great monuments like the Blue Mosque, the Grand Bazzare, Aya Sophia etc but still I find the rest of the city ugly. The architecture is a mix of old buildings from different centuries and a lot of 'once-upon-a-time new', concrete'n'glass'n'steel, shabby buildings mostly from the second half of the twentieth century. A mix I truly hate and that reminds me of what communism did to Poland and how it made cities like Warsaw, Gdansk or Lodz ugly.
I went to Istanbul for the first time in summer 2007 and back then I did not feel the vibe of the city. Maybe because I was coming from Morocco with whom I had fallen in love by that time. Luckily, there were places like the picturesque Princess Islands that made up for the rest of the huge metropolis. And I am sure that there are places I have not discovered yet and that I will surely fall in love with.
So clearly in my 'people versus places' never-ending dillemma Istanbul is losing as 'a place'. The people part makes up for it and it is not only about the hospitality and the politeness of the locals (which is for me considerably better than i.e. in Morocco).
Last night, we went for two house parties thrown by two different expats living in Istanbul and working as English teachers. I felt as if I were at home. Dozens of interesting individuals, mostly English native speakers, a few Europeans and some Turkish who traveled around the world or lived abroad and all ended up in Turkey. People for whom careers or money are not the supreme values. People who love traveling around the world and being more than some tourists. People who love learning languages, meeting new people, discovering new cultures and sites. People who like enjoying their lives, challenging it and who are sometimes slightly neurotic. People like me. Yesterday Istanbul -the city I am not too excited about- gave me it all and made me very happy. After a few glasses of unbeatable red and several people I had the pleasure to talk to, walking down the stairs of an old, funky, dark and spooky building on the last floor of which my friend's apartment with a magnificient view over the city is located, I praised my life, people in it, travels and all I love and happen to have.
Does it then deserve the ‘World’s Hippest City’ title?
And I am not really excited or astonished by the city. Ok, it has the great monuments like the Blue Mosque, the Grand Bazzare, Aya Sophia etc but still I find the rest of the city ugly. The architecture is a mix of old buildings from different centuries and a lot of 'once-upon-a-time new', concrete'n'glass'n'steel, shabby buildings mostly from the second half of the twentieth century. A mix I truly hate and that reminds me of what communism did to Poland and how it made cities like Warsaw, Gdansk or Lodz ugly.
I went to Istanbul for the first time in summer 2007 and back then I did not feel the vibe of the city. Maybe because I was coming from Morocco with whom I had fallen in love by that time. Luckily, there were places like the picturesque Princess Islands that made up for the rest of the huge metropolis. And I am sure that there are places I have not discovered yet and that I will surely fall in love with.
So clearly in my 'people versus places' never-ending dillemma Istanbul is losing as 'a place'. The people part makes up for it and it is not only about the hospitality and the politeness of the locals (which is for me considerably better than i.e. in Morocco).
Last night, we went for two house parties thrown by two different expats living in Istanbul and working as English teachers. I felt as if I were at home. Dozens of interesting individuals, mostly English native speakers, a few Europeans and some Turkish who traveled around the world or lived abroad and all ended up in Turkey. People for whom careers or money are not the supreme values. People who love traveling around the world and being more than some tourists. People who love learning languages, meeting new people, discovering new cultures and sites. People who like enjoying their lives, challenging it and who are sometimes slightly neurotic. People like me. Yesterday Istanbul -the city I am not too excited about- gave me it all and made me very happy. After a few glasses of unbeatable red and several people I had the pleasure to talk to, walking down the stairs of an old, funky, dark and spooky building on the last floor of which my friend's apartment with a magnificient view over the city is located, I praised my life, people in it, travels and all I love and happen to have.
Does it then deserve the ‘World’s Hippest City’ title?
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