Romania Calling

La Revedere Romania

2009-02-28T18:49:00.000-08:00

That's it. Last post of my blog. I'm back in Porto, back to life.. the real one. 6 months ago i was arriving in Cluj airport, now i'm at home writing in a computer which is not mine. I'm still with a lot of questions but the biggest one is: who am I now? For sure i'm different than when I left. For sure i don't have the same ambitions, the same dreams. For sure I don't have the same friends, i've a lot of new ones, and some old ones were lost.. but well, i guess that is normal. But Romania changed me, and i just can say: multumesc!

This last month was something beyond this planet. I was trying to leave every minute doing things i normally do in one hour. Every Timisoreana, every conversation, every hug, was like the last one. And well, in the end, there was a lot of last ones. I don't know why but this people liked us (me and Ricardo).. we had one week full of farewell parties and dinners. It was hard to say goodbye to Club A, to Universitate, to my faculty (!!!), to camera 5, my home, to the sicilian embassy (which is not just sicilian anymore), to Revenge, to the metro, to the dogs, to the colours of Bucharest (which is not that dark in the end), to the 66, to the cars in the sidewalks, to the non stop supermarket, to the cloudy sky, to the "buna diminata", the "poftim" and the "ce face?", to Obor, to the taxis, to the cantine, to Lipscani, to the chaos, to Chismigiu, to the mamaliga, to the real Bucuresti, my Bucuresti. Different than the one of the romanians, different than the one of the touristic guides, but for sure similiar to the one of all the lost Erasmus that one day fell down with parashutes in that place.

But besides this city, which I do love now, and I do say it's beautiful somehow, (even if people say i'm lying), there's a lot more that makes me want to take the next plane to Romania. This beautiful country filled me with memories. Cuz that's it, its so worth to go there, even for a few days. Just go there! Brasov, Sibiu, Cluj, the Carpathians are just some examples. Brasov, my first trip, it was the place where i saw the bears, the place where I started to know Javi, and the place where Sylvie was a queen. Sibiu was the first contact with the Italians, and i thank that city for that. Carpathians was my "lonely" trip, but the one where i got more in touch with the culture of the country side, and with the beauty of the its nature.
Cluj. It also passed sometime since the language course. My memories are so focused in Bucuresti now, that i almost forgot that rainy month of September. But now i'm starting to organize everything in my brain, and no one will take me those weeks of romanian, beer on the terraces, bizz and buzz and the good friends i made there.

But, most of all, thank you Romania for the people I met there.

Razvan, Romania
This is an exception. I knew this transylvania giant from before. Much before. And i knew him very well. Slovakia, Porto, Belgium.. our lives met each other, sometimes arranged, others a completely coincidence. He was the main reason who made me chose Cluj, not because he is handsome or smth (he is not, i think), but cuz of his character i was sure that place had to be smth worth to go.

Sylvie, Belgium
My first friend. My buddy. Since the first day till the last in Romania she was always there for me. All the soap operas, with us, with the others, they all had to pass trough our conversations. She helped me a lot. I hope i helped her too.

Margaux, France
My dancing queen. This "francesinha" (little french girl), made me change my opinion about french people. She always have a smile or a burp for you, anytime, just clap your hands and "voila".

Marguerite, France

The Robert Smith from Bordeaux. We proved in the end that shy people can do more than anyone else. You just need a bit of freedom and nice people around.

Giam Paolo and Mauro, Italy
The sardignian citizens. GP, The guy who wakes up at 8h in the morning to go to the mountaings with a bag and the knife and cut mushrooms. Fockin hell! Mauro, the only guy who is proud to say that Romania will be for ever on his face!

Pedro and Luis, Portugal
The portuguese "roomates" in Cluj. With them we were the perfect embassors of Portugal, in the parties, in the football.. just not in the classes.

Ricardo, Portugal
My mate, the guy who was always with me, since the begining to the end. We both had the same experiences.. well, we took differnet directions, but in the end we always filled the tank in the same gas station. And well, at least i will see him almost everyday, unfortunately, not the others.

Marina and Miahela, Romania
The two sisters who helped me more than anyone else to get trained to Bucharest. And if they witnessed this new life of mine, i also can say that i had the pleasure to see their lives growing, even if we just met half a dozen times.

Javier, Spain
My brother. My roomate. With this bastard i had the craziest stories of my Erasmus, people say i was there to take care of him, but what they don't realize is that it was him who took care of me, much more times.

Monika, Poland
My sister. My neighbour. The moon girl which gained my trust one day, the star of Club A, the vodka professional, the one that only a hug was enough to say hello.

Edyta, Poland
The other sister. The angel. Also the neighbour. One of my closest friends of all, but for sure the one I know less about. She's a box of surprises, and well, that's why i can't get rid of her.

Ralf, Germany
My crazy german roomate. With him i learned that you can do miracles with vegetables and that it's possible to be a fisherman and an heavy metal fan.

Fernando, Portugal
The inhabitant of Camera 8. A surprise. Quiet in the first months, but suddenly he revealed all his power. It's a pitty that i leave and i wont be able to see where this guy goes. The creator of one of the Erasmus musics "El belo cognito"

Tudor and Mircea, Romania
My coleagues from CFDP. Without them i coulnt have done anything for the faculty. They helped me with the courses, but most of all, they helped me to understand the treasures of romanian people.

Andrea and Alex, Romania
The ones who brough a romanian smile to our evenings, also amazing romanain food.. and tuica!

Benoit, France
The most peculiar human being living in Bucuresti. A guy wihtout phone, with a beloved serbian girlfriend and with the craziest dancing moves i've ever seen.

Baldo, Italy
Don Baldo. My roomate for one week in the Sicilian embassy. The night instructor of Bucuresti, the guy who never stops (just during the day) and still can get 10 in all the exams, including the language course.

Alessia, Italy
Dona Alessia. Also my flatmate for one week and the craziest girl Bucuresti has ever seen. Don't give her beer, she will give you troubles.. but nice troubles.

Nino, Italy
Don Nino. The calm guy with a killer look. If you have problems over the night, please contact him. Just be worried when he wants to throw you in the Dambovita.

Fanny, Belgium
One of the responsibles to make my english accent change for ever. A christmas gift, my night buddy for more than one month. Things got strange when she left. I was the second Pedro for her, but she will allways be the first for me.

Hector, Spain

The king of the night. Expect everything from him. This guy can steal a Dacia and dress an erotic dress in a club. The hermano from Madrid.

Barbara, Germany

A February aquisition. Short time to meet her, but enough to build a team and destroy (or try to..) some obstacles together.

Susanne, Germany
The jumping frog. We met in Sibiu. We didn't talk by then. For 2 months she tought i didn't like her, so, she was nice to everybody except me. One day in January she realized how wrong she was. And i realized how stupid i was not to talk with her before. But we're both happy that that day came.

Don't get mistaken, there's much more people who marked my erasmus. The ones above were kind of my family. For them I would cross the world.

So, I say now goodbye to my blog. It was quite hard sometimes to find the time to write it, but i kept on because a lof of people was asking for more. I was not expecting so many people to read it, and specially so many different people. My family, my friends here and in Romania even my faculty in Bucuresti (!!!). I just hope i didn't leave bad opinions on you, but anyway, all I wrote was true, and it showed the exact feeling i was having at the time.

And my feeling now that i'm in the most beautiful city in the world, with delicious food on the table, with good coffe on the terrace by the Douro, with warm weather which allows me to be all the night outside in the street, with friends and family coming to see me and welcome me back, is the feeling that i just left a whole life behind, and that life is still running, and i'm back in another life, which also ran during my absence. So i'm now stucked beetween two worlds, and all I wish is to go back.

Go back to the east, to that land over the Danube shores, that warmful country called Romania. And be with all of them again. And live everything again.

There will be always a Romania Calling. I wait..

La revedere!

A beautiful count down

2009-02-09T07:38:00.000-08:00

I'm quickly aproaching the end of my stage in Romania. I really don't know what to write about. Let's call this 6 months a final thesis of a degree in "how to survive in romania", and ill start with the final conclusions..

It's strange to read my blog now. All the posts are in 2008, and it looks like it was another life. Everything is so diferent now. My life turned completely upside down on the last two months. By this i don't mean that the first 4 months were just some walk on the desert. No, just read the posts, and you'll know what they meant to me. I will never forget September and Cluj and the amazing people i met there. I will never forget the trips i made, the things i saw, the people i went with. I will never forget the small dinners at the room with Monika and Edyta. It's just that what is perfect don't last forever. And well, some perfect things were over, others are still here with me, others came up.

I'm in love with Bucuresti now. Still not that attractive, it's a fact, but i finally managed how to know it. Now i know the best places to go every single night of the week, the best tea or coffe shop for a relaxing afternoon, the time tables of all the macdonald's in the city centre, the taxis to trust, the magic of piata universitate, all the metro stations of magistrala 1 and 2, the trams, the bus, the controllers and the 50 lei fee for not having a ticket. Still have some visits to pay this last 2 weeks: i want to go to the crazy casinos where you can eat and drink for free, the hospitals for disable children, the ceausescu patrimony (which ive tried to avoid but i cant leave this town without seeing it).

But what got me attached to this place was more than everything, the people i shared my days with. I've a family here. My next aim for the blog is to dedicate a post to all of them. It's going to be hard, they're are a few and there's so much to say about them..

Studying time.. Javi even the beer refused!

It's not funny arriving home at 6am and having a gas bottle in my bed..

Yes! Bacalhau, made by Ricardo! delicious...

Sun is back in Romania, it's time for some naps in the park and coffe on the terraces.

Party at Fanny's. We tasted the "balls of Liege". Nice balls!

The animals of Bucuresti in Laptaria

T-Shirt Party. Noroc!!
Babsi and Suzie (:

Te quiero Sergio!! lalalalala
Universitate

And yes, it's true. Erasmus does change your life.

I'm back!

2009-01-13T15:19:00.000-08:00

La multi ani my friends.

My last post was 1 month and 10 days ago. It's a shame, but the truth is luck was not by my side this last month. We lost the net in the residence, my computer was broken, and, adding some other bad things, i was never able to loose some time alone in front of the computer. Also this post wont be like the others.

So, let's try to summarize:

1- i can count 10 christmas dinners, in the room, restaurants, flats, everything. all of them very good.. with tuica, rabanadas, porto, french wine, aletria, roasted chicken, sarmele, kosonov, vodka, timisoreana, coffe, russian salade.. and 10 different families all the time.
2- christmas itself was pretty nice, i kind of had some bad time, i lost the computer in that day, i was sick, and i really did miss my family, but anyway, Cluj was there to support me.
3 - i did snowboard.. or maybe snowboard did me. and my ass.
4 - cold, -10 average. snow in bucharest!! it's nice, in the beggining.. not anymore.
5 - amazing new year's at the sicilian embassy and in the streets of bucharest.
6 - people leaving home.. so i had to meet other ppl. and i dont regret at all.
7 - people arriving from home, and everything starts again, this time it looks like we know them for years.
8 - bucuresti by night is everyday a surprise. i finally found some good places with alternative music but also some clubs with almost naked thin girls dancing in the counter, which was a bit discussing.
9 - kids still blowing rust and glue from bags in the streets, next to ultra modern things like the biggest outdoor screen in eastern europe.
10 - new doormen, who drink our drinks and eat our food, but in the end they clean the dishes.
11 - exams period on the air. still have a lot to comment about this.
12 - javi broke the ankle and he was with two sticks the last two weeks before christmas. amazing to see, specially for the party monster he is.
13 - i lived for a week in the sicilian place. by the end i was speaking italian and eating pasta by breakfast.

13 things to remember. 13 because it was a really bad luck period, but for sure the best till now. And it's just one month till i leave this... paradise.

La revedere!

Wild Beautiful Moldova

2008-12-04T05:44:00.000-08:00

Discover Sean Riley & The Slowriders!

Last weekend I was supposed to stay in Bucharest. But I didn't. Because of the elections there was no classes for everybody Friday and Monday, so there were big erasmus parties all the nights. But I got an invitation from Ralf to do a road trip to Moldova, a region in the northeast of Romania, and well, I didn't hesitate. We organize everything so suddenly that it was too quick for Javi so he decided to stay. We still went to this party at our italian friends dorm, where near 50 people joined in small living room. It was great but the next day we had to wake up at 9h so we left early.

The region that surrounds Bucharest is like an african desert. There's nothing but labour fields till the horizon. And some oil refinaries and trash camps from time totime. And it's like that till Bacau, the second city in Moldova, where my french friends from Cluj live.. Poor girls, it's a ugly city with nothing but buildings and horrible churches. Ralf told me that if you want to know the real Romania you have to do some kilometres on the road. And it's true. People from the country side make their lives on the road. Every 300 meters there's a tent or just a car selling wine, onions or honey. There's always people and dogs walking because side walks it's something not invented yet here. You always know when the police is around cuz the cars which come in the other direction warn you with the lights. There's old Dacias carrying furniture on the car, sometimes heavier than the car itself. There's churches, some beautiful, in wood, others being buit, made of concrete and with the domes in gold.. horrible! But above all, there's a lot of life in the road. I wanted to sleep but i couldn't cuz there was always something happening!

So, we payed a visit to Margaux and Marguerite, we got a relaxing tea with the rain outside the window where there were some groups of black crows which make the city even more sad. An hour of break and we drove to Piatra Neamt. It was like a deep breath of fresh air. I would call it a little Brasov. A cute city center and some mountains around with a "telegondola" connecting them. Still we didn'tget to Moldova to see that, we wanted the nature. But we had to sleep on the city, and yeah, it will be a night to remember too, this time not because of alcool or parties or whatever, but because of the Ciorba de Burta, a typical romanian soup made of guts!! Discussing. and the guy coned us, cuz he said it was a soup of beef!! But his english was not that good.. so he did a little big mistake. In theend we couldn't eat that thing. But at least we had a nice DVD playing on the tv of the restaurant: Cristian Rizescu. Crazy! Folk romanian music, guys and girls dancing in a circle where there was "Mamaliga" being cooked, and two guys singing in the center with "Vin Firt" in the hands.. Nice birthday gift to the family.. or not..

In the next day we went to Durau. A mountain resort in the Ceahlau National Park, where there's no one living besides the people working in the pensions
and the priests in the Monestery. And bears. In the way we had some amazing views which reminded me Açores, our islands in the Atlantic Ocean. Well, how
can I compare something in the middle of the sea with smth in the east of the most eastern country of European Union? It's easy when lakes and forest join together in this breathtaking valleys. Up the hill and we arrived in the village. And well, enough with travelling.. This is the place. I spent in Durau two days, relaxing, walking, climbing and specially, enjoying the still hidden treasuor of Romania: Its natural patrimony.

We came back in the 2nd of December, one day after the national day. 1st of December of 1918, the day when Moldova, Valachia and Transylvania joined together to create the place where 90 years later a portuguese little guy reached happiness: Romania. There was a huge parade in Bucharest, it should have been nice to see. Javi had his own celebration as you can see in the picture.. We also had the first football game since Cluj. Again Latins but this time against Romanians (and Ralf).. We were kicked in the ass but we had to be nice with the natives.

My bed..

We're out of internet in the residence because some stupid people stole the switches. So no internet till January (at least).

Anyway, I will survive. It's not difficult now. Not difficult at all.

Snowing in Romania

2008-11-25T07:21:00.000-08:00

Discover Bob Dylan!

Salut prietenei mei!

Another week, another thousand of histories to tell. And my memory is getting blocked with the cold weather so I'm very sorry, but i can't remember everything!

So, my buddy Sylvie was here for 2 days and well, we tried to visit the city but when the sun starts to go down at 16h30 is pratically impossible! Specially when we want to show her the crazy night of Bucharest. And yes we did show her. Nice dinner with Ricardo cooking, Ralf's pumpkin soup (yes, the mother of Wilson and Achmed ended up in our pot) and well, the usual, vodka, bere si vin sec. After that, we filled a bottle of Apa Plata, and Club A, here we go. And ok, even if the music sucks sometimes, if the door men and the bar tenders are not nice at all, and if it's always crowded like hell.. we love that place!

Sylvie and me.. What the hell am i doing here???

After Sylvie left, the week was pretty boring. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are normally days to rest here. We are too far to join the other Erasmus for a beer, so we just hang around the room or the portuguese room, we rest, we don't do anything.. till the weekend comes.. and weekend starts Wednesday night.. So, that evening we went to do Ice Skating!!! Yeaahh!! They convinced us to go there because they said there would be hot wine with cinemon, but in the end the wine house was closed so we went to the ice track cold and a bit scaried.. Cuz it was full of people and there was some really crazy ones, it was like the traffic of bucharest, but with skates. I was ok with the skates but it was worth to go there to see Fernando and Javier skating!! It was their first time and if in one side, Fernando was the whole time next to the wall, Javier just didn't care an he throwed himself to the adventure.. and eheh, just the check the video below! There was also the italian mafia and Hector another spanish bastard.. so imagine latin people on ice -> funny! even the dj (yes there was a dj and he had a micro) made fun of us!!

Ice Sakting crew

Some action with Javi..

And as revenge.. he made me post the next one..

Next day i went to Sibiu! We joined again with some people from the EILC: Razvan, Sylvie, Sabi, Pedro, Luís, Marguerite, Margaux, Ricardo.. and we brought people from bucharest and bacau. In the end we were more than 30 people, almost all of us in the same hostel, so imagine the caos. Specially if we have a "entertainer" called Javi. It was a beautiful weekend. Sibiu is so nice. Like Brasov, once a Saxon town and it remains a lot of building from those times. And it gains the double of the beauty when it gets covered by snow.. and well, it happened! I never saw so much snow in my life, and the kid spirit everyone has inside just came up on me and on the others. Snow balls, skating and slipering on the ice, sking with the ass, everything you've always wanted to do but you can't because we have too much sun in Portugal (...).

Pitesti, a big ugly city in the way to Sibiu. Dacia, the romanian car are produced here.

Sibiu..

A free blues concert in a cold night. Edinburgh.. i miss you.

I'm not a touristical guide so i let the pictures talk. Also to remember the train trip back.. The transport system in Romania works, but.. with some interesting details which make it easily recognizable. We took the train back, and after some hours the train had double the people than seats!! And everybody had a ticket! And some of these people who were standing up were 4 portuguese girls working in Bucuresti who actually invaded our cabin and even if they were from Lisbon we didn't dare to send them away. But we punished them playing buzz with.. Tuica!! In the end we were eleven in a cabin for six, but they left the train walking not that straight.

Me skying with the ass, in portuguese.. Sku!

Javier, the monster of the snow..

Sabi, Luís, Razvan and Javi

Piata Mare
Sunset in the Snow..

The portuguese intruders..

I'm now back in Bucharest with things to deal in Porto (!!!) so the trip for next weekend to Belgrade and Bosnia was canceled. So we'll spend some qualitity time here in the capital of Dacians. Tomorrow i'll see the concert of Tricky! It's amazing the number of concerts that take place here.. I'd never guess it before i came, but the truth is there's probably the same (or more..) cultural activity here than in Porto. No, Romania is not the end of Europe. It's just one of the doors.. like Portugal itself. We went to sibiu with this really nice group of italians so now we're organizing a big international evening and some erasmus parties this week. Finally there's something changing!

Discover Tricky!

A BMW.. and a horse! Streets of Bucharest.. always full of surprises..

I made some improvements in the university.. i had a surprise meeting with the 3 deans of my faculty in the monday after my arrival, and i was completely zombie, but it went well, there's finally a light on the tunnel!!

December is coming. With that the Christmas and after, the exams, and after.. home. So, i promise i will say "Carpe Diem" every single day from now on.

Say, ERASMUUUUS!

Pupici!

Este foarte frig!

2008-11-10T13:06:00.000-08:00

Discover Radiohead!

Ok, i'm getting crazy. I want to write smth about my last weeks in Bucuresti, but c'est impossible! It's like trying to resume your life in a book. Girls and Boys, pay attention, va rog: If you want to live life at 300 km/h with the craziest things happening to you every hour, please, come to Bucharest. Well, come and make sure you stay at the dormitories of Constructi faculty, that you have two crazy roommates with you, alcoholic girls as neigbours, a fridge and a stove. The city itself will do the rest!

Major events of last week:

Classes of Romanian: I had my first test in the faculty. I delivered a work and i got a hands shaking from the professor and a "felicitat" and after that, "ok guys, seat down, we have a test now!". I just wanted to leave the room.. but in the end it was quite easy, we just had to draw a wall and soil. For the civil mates, i had to explain the "método das fatias" de solos.

Visits from Portugal: Surfista, the president of BEST Porto came for a visit at my place with the president of Aveiro. It was really nice to have them around even if it was for a short time. I received them in my confortable floor and in the next day i packed them to Brasov to the hands of Sylvie (a extremely good touristic guide, reccomended by a lot of agencies). They came for the Presidents Meeting, i could envy them a lot but i think if id taken that chance i wouldnt be able to do anything here for the next month. And i do have a lot to do (:

Dynamo Kiev - Porto - my beautiful Porto finally gave me some happiness. I was so stressed with the game that when Lucho scored in the last minute i woke up the entire building with the screams! And well, javi was in the bed.. he almost peed on his pants again (like in Brasov with the bear..)

Edyta's Birthday - Our dear hyper-active polish friend had her birthday last friday We had two parties, of course. An improvised one in Camera Cinci where we roasted Achmed, and another one in Caru' cu Bere, a famous restaurant in Bucharest with typical food and music, and with their own beer. And the place is really beautiful. It looks like an italian church inside! So we got warmed up there and then we went to Club A.. which is slowly becoming the "place to go".

Happy birthday neighbour!

Caru cu Bere!

It's getting cold here.. a lot
Suie Paparude! Pentru ca inima ta moare.. no no no no no..

Long trip to back home..

Xano's Birthday - My friend from Avenida Rodrigues de Freitas who is also in Brasov in Erasmus came to the capital for his birthday and he did a big dinner, like the very old portuguese tradition. I think i met all the portuguese community of Bucharest in that night, other erasmus and "co-workers" of mine: Civil Engeneerings working here and getting rich all over this country. So, lots of food, "bebida à descrição", and in the end we paid the friendly ammount of 3000 lei for the dinner..

A new bunch of pumpkins is rising up here..

So, it was it. I'm starting to count the time i still have. Most of this people are staying till June and ill be leaving in 2 months.. I guess i will just have to deal with it and try to enjoy the double of them!

I'm working on it.. Sibiu, Shigishoara and the Balcans are getting closer!

La revedere!

I know a place -> Cluj Napoca

2008-11-08T07:20:00.000-08:00

Discover Bob Marley!

I know a place in the middle of Transylvania where we can carry on. I call that place home. Home is the place where you aren't alone, where you feel safe. And my home in Romania is called Cluj. And it's always good to be back home.

It all started with 8 hours in the train during the night, where sleeping was out of question. A crazy night in the accelerat with 14 litters of beer and vodKA! And "bizz and buzz" and "pim pam pum" and "police & thief" and socializing with the people in the train. By the time we got in Brasov where my buddy Sylvie went in, things were already about to explode.

We arrived in Cluj at 5h in the morning and it was the only 2 hours during the whole weekend where i missed Bucuresti. Everything was closed, we were incredibly tired and there was nowhere to go. We ended up in piata uniri throwing stones to the crows! After we showed the sights to the "tourists" from Bucuresti, a strange but beautiful tour at 8h in the morning..

And then it all started again. We met our wonderful french girls. Later on, the hungary bastard and the sardignian mafia. We had a crazy birthday dinner of Paolo in a hungarian restaurant where the rule was "take as much money as you can from this erasmus people, but be aware cuz they drink a lot.. and they want forks in the table". It was also Halloween night and well, we brought 3 nice friends from there. 3 pumpkins called Wilson, Achmed, and an other one who died during the night, let's call her "Ramira Junior". The others make it to Bucuresti but they were violently murdered by this Erasmus Talibans.

Saturday resting time in the hostel and preparing another night for Margaux and Mauro birthday. Sunday, la camine. We finally went back to the scenne of all the crimes. Paolo and Mauro cooked a big pot of pasta for us, we had a big lunch like during the EILC times and we finished it with a touchful "Aux Champs Elysees".

Then, we took again the train of hell, this time to sleep.. but once again, it was impossible. And god, how i wished not to have left Cluj when i arrived in Gara du Nord metro station in the middle of the morning rush hour.

It's a really short summary of the weekend, but today i'm definetely not in the mood to write, and it's much more easier to upload some pictures in facebook..

Pa! my friends!

Reaching Stability: 2 months in Romania!

2008-10-28T16:31:00.000-07:00

Discover The Cure!

I didn't want to pass this week without informing you, dear readers, that i'm starting to change my mind about Bucharest. Why? well, i guess it had to happen. The city has so much to offer, it was just impossible for me to assimilate everything in a couple of weeks. And it still is.

If you wake up early one morning and you try to know the city a little, if you don't wake up early one morning because you arrive home at 9ham from the night, if you know the impressive good hosters (some) romanians can be, if you start to share your problems with people like you, if you think that porto or brussels are not that far as it looks, if you take a crowded bus instead of the metro, if you start to study and work hard again cuz you know tomorrow there's a party or a trip next weekend, if you find in your 3 beds room a home, if all this things happen, you will finally feel good. And i do now.

It was the strangest week since i'm in Romania. I won't go further, let's just say hell passed trough me and it went back to its place (around lisbon..)But meanwhile everything happened around here.

Nights in Bucharest are crazy. And dangerous. Javi is a testemony of that and his ass too, after being kicked twice in Twice for stealing.. garbage! Anyway, we did two improvised parties in the room and we learned that we cant do any other again. The polish girls the same with their appartment. We also learned that the best place to go at night is Revenge, at 6h30 in the morning. We learned that starting to cook lunch/dinner at 18h with cachaça and timisoreana next to you gets the spanish people in bed at 20h. We finally learned that it's not the french or spanish who speak loud. After there's the germans, and in the top, the romanians! And the police knows it well..

Party in Camera Cinci

Spreading the religion among the natives..

My classes (or class) finally started. I still dont know about my other 3, but i will, one day. The first impression was great. The class is in romanian, Drumuri 2, the subjects are similar to some courses i had so the only problem is the language and the ammount of works i have to do. But my new coleagues are helping me a lot and the professor is quite a character. So, i feel actually happy to be back to school.

Cleaning day..

As you can see, i didnt make it to Budapest. But Budapest "made it" to me already, and she knows ill be back there for sure. And about my friends, ill pass long white nights studying Concrete with them next February so they arent in a rush to meet me for sure.

Just a little message to the family:

This thursday ill be back to the scenne of the crime. My other home, Cluj. It's the birthday of the Sardignians and of Margaux, the dancing queen, so we're joining all together again and we bring some new friends in the train. But this time we take it by night, we're not falling again in the same tramp.

La revedere!

Budapest?

2008-10-22T08:34:00.001-07:00

Next week i was supposed to meet my best friends of Porto in Budapest. I'm still fighting for it, but the burocracy around here is tough. I need my learning agreement ready till the end of this week and with that the scolarship wich will allow me to discover the world. To them, i dedicate the music above and the picture below.

Meus cabrões..

Brasov

2008-10-20T08:24:00.000-07:00

Discover Various Artists!

In the end of this weekend I thought I took a trip of some thousands of kms to France or Switzerland, but in fact I just travelled 150 km from Bucharest. I went to the beautiful Brasov. A city which doesn't belong to this country, or maybe it's the other way: Bucharest is maybe just an exception in Romania. Brasov is an impressive "little" town. I call it little because you really have the impression that you're in a big village altough there's 250.000 inhabitants there. The enormous mountains just absorb everything around, and it's hard to find the boarder beetween the nature and the civilization. A german city for some large decades, Brasov kept the same style after becoming a Romanian city. Cleaned and iluminated streets, not that much dogs, the same architecture all over the centre, gothic churches. Even the taxi drivers don't try to steal us as much as in Bucharest. Of course there's some details that reminds you where you are, but c'mon, i'm getting so used to those details that I almost need them to feel good.

The train. Me, Javier and Edyta.

So, we left Bucharest, me, Javi and Edyta, a polish girl we met some hours before and asked her "wanna come to brasov?" and there she was in the metro station waiting for us. 3 hours in the train, and we joined Sylvie, the native, and the French ladies, Margoux and Marguerite who came from the other side of the wold, Bacau, Moldova. Ricardo just joined us the next day. We went directly to the hostel, and for as much as i missed Sylvie i just had this will to kick her ass for the distance she made us walk with the bags!! I think 45 minutes walking and we could have just taken a bus and in 10 min we would be there. But i had pitty for her, because among other things, she is living with a romanian old lady who keeps talking about war, dead husbands and soap operas. So it was night, and because me and Javi were desperate with our situation in Bucharest, the french girls were at a suicidal point because of the insane Bacau, and because Sylvie was without seeing normal people for some days, well, we just got one of the craziest nights i can remember. We went to this stupid place called Tequilla, where we tought there will be tequilla in rolling carpets, and girls offering us tequilla all the time, but hell, NO, there was tequilla shots for an aburd price. But there was bowling there, so we promised we would steal a ball. We didn't. But we will. The music sucked but we had a nice time but the best was after, when we went to this little playground next to the hostel. We just decided to try all the toys, and well, one thing i'm sure, they're not made for old boys, specially Spanish ones. We arrive at the hostel at 7ham, when they were serving the breakfast.. but well, we just went directly to the bed.. El Toro Mecanico

The next day we were supposed to know the city "and all" but it started to rain a lot and we were tired so we just spent some quality time in the coffes and fast food restaurants waiting for Ricardo to come. Meanwhile Edyta leaves us in the middle of the day.. she had some affairs in Bucharest.. but it was strange to travel so many kms just to visit a city in the morning (plus, she didnt go out at night!). I think she was also "puking bucharest" and she needed some fresh air. Ricardo arrived at midnight.. because he asked someone in the train if the next station was Brasov, they said yes so he went out. He went to buy the ticket for the bus,nothing, he went to the bus stop, no bus stop, he went to the taxi station, they were asking a fortune to Piata Uniri. He wasn't in Brasov.. (eheheh) The thing was that he left the train in another city, far away from Brasov. Lesson of the day: don't believe in romanian girls in a train in the middle of the night and start to count the train stations!

Saturday the sun appeared and we finnaly could saw the city. And it felt so good to walk in the town and breathing the air of the mountain all the time. Yes, we also climbed the mountain (but with a suspended tram) and WOW, the views were amazing. I will let the pictures talk. But the best (or the worst) came at night: we went to see the bears!! The city is surrounded by mountains so the bears come down the hill at night to feed themselves in the trash containers of the neighbourhoods. So we went on this excursion organized by the hostel and we wait next to the containers for the bears to come. We spent 4 hours on this thing waiting for an animal to show up, we saw a fox and a cow, we were getting crazy.. So, when we were almost giving up, we saw a BEAR coming.. Javi was outside in the phone and we forgot him!! When I finally called him, he almost peed on his pants. He just had time to got inside the car and say some really bad words in spanish. In fact the bear was not that big, but c'mon it was a bear, and we spent the hours of waiting hearing about stories of bears killing stupid tourists (british mostly).. So we followed the bear with the car, Javi and Ricardo went walking, but it didnt last long cuz there are some stupid people who go there to annoy the animals, (they looked a lot like the portuguese emigrants in France who go in "vacances" to the country side of Portugal in the summer), and pictures with flash 1 m away of the animal with the car lights turned on and some romanian rap in the radio, so in the end police came, and the bear went away. It was a nice experience, but we got so tired that we couldn't enjoy the last night. I just wish long life to the bear. And long life to the people who live in Brasov.. cuz really, it's crazy.. i just think if i lived there and i arrive home late at night and alone and a fuckin bear shows up..

the MR BEAR

By the way, Javier had the story of the weekend.. It's impossible to reproduce it here.. it was about a chinese woman who woke him up in the morning cuz she was drying her hair in the room!!! "son of a shit, fuck on!" So he had a fight with her, with injuries in chinese, french, spanish and english. In the end the woman left the hostel and she was supposed to stay there for a couple of days..

The next day we said goodbye and we took the train back to Bucharest. And home sweet home. It was a really nice weekend. The most important thing was to meet again this beautiful people of Cluj. It was so good to be with them again, even if we were just a small group. And they loved Javi so it was perfect.

Felix, we found your house!

The dancing queen!

Xano, a neighbour of Porto.. small world!!

So, I'm back in Bucharest. It's not that bad now, i've nice neighbours, i've these two portuguese from Vila Real in front of my room, some funny romanian colleagues and the polish girls a few blocks from here. So, we're not alone in Carteirul Tei! But i'll be back in Cluj next week! Maybe Constanta this weekend.. Romania.. i'm conquering you! Want to conquer me?

Multumesc pentru atentie! La revedere!

Starting from the Zero

2008-10-10T13:24:00.000-07:00

Discover UNKLE!

That's it. A new town, new people, a new life is waiting for me. 2 weeks since i'm in Bucharest. More than time to write a post. As i was expecting, and as i've been told several times before i came, the first days in Erasmus (the EILC was in fantazia) are always terrible. And they get worse when you live far from everything, when your knowledge of romanian is very low, when your coordinator is called Laurentiu Sonia, when you get sick once a week, when you see other Erasmus having fun and you're still on hell.

Don't take this too serious, i'm just in a bad mood today. I had great days in these couple of weeks. Laurentiu is a really strange person. We still don't know what classes we have to take, we go to ghost meetings everyday and we stay hours waiting for him. But when he shows up everything looks fine, he wants to go to the farmacy with us, he steals the router of his son to give us. But hell! I'm not used to so slow buracracies, and guess what: i'm from Portugal! If these guys here could see how things work in Porto they would go to the Turda mine and they'd stay there their whole life!

I've done some interesting friends here, not with the rythm of Cluj of course, but i'm not in a rush. My roomates are 5 stars, there's these sardignian people (yeah.. i can't get rid of them!), and we even met a entire class of romanians learning portuguese. In fact i did a presentation about Portugal today, in very slow portuguese but except for the professor and me, nobody got the jokes about Lisbon.

I also realized that, even if in the end of the semester i will love my stay here, and i had lots of fun, i will never like this city. Bucharest is ugly. It doesn't have a mysthic. There's some nice buildings, with a surprising architecture, but the ammount of visual aberrations is so big that you just want to turn your eyes to the closest casino to get some colours in your mind. By night it could be nicer, cuz you don't see the trash but in fact you don't see anything! these guys here don't know what electricity is, and they think that the light of the thousands of cars is enough to light up the streets!! The centre is imponent, but when u remember what imponent things did to this country you prefer to look behind the buildings, and there you find beautiful things. The churches that Ceausescu decided to hide one day, the "caleas" paved with old stones, the theatres, the coffees and bars, a country behind another country.

I will leave you with some pictures now. La revedere!!

Welcome to the second largest building in the world after the Penthagon in Washington: Casa Popori, or Ceausescu Palace. Horror.

Views from the top of my building. Scaring.

Not that scaring in the end..

Salut Bucuresti

2008-10-03T09:11:00.000-07:00

Discover Gica Petrescu!

That's it. I'm at my final destination. I'm in the caotic Bucharest! Huge buildings, crazy traffic, people in a hurry, dogs, darkness.. But i feel good again. I'm in a nice neighbourhood. Far from the centre (20 min walking to the closest metro station) in a small campus, but it's very friendly and there's a lot of daily life going on. In the other hand Ricardo is at Politecnica, with thousands of students and bars. I'm still out of internet. I'm now in this kind of kindergarden with internet and there's a lot of hiper active kids running around me! I will let you with some pics, i don't have time to write that much!

Universitate Technica din Constructi din Bucuresti

Obor square and Ralf, one of my new roomates

My room

My new althar

A market close to me.. it's huge!! I spent the whole afternoon here, you can find everything here!

The river, close to Ricardo's place

Our ultra modern gas system! Engenerings versus Erasmus: everything can happen!

My other roomate, Javier de Valencia!

Me, my kitchen, our new stove and my coffe!

La revedere folks!

La Revedere dragul Cluj!

2008-10-01T08:15:00.002-07:00

Discover Belle and Sebastian!

I never thought I would feel the worst part of being in Erasmus so soon: The Goodbye. Just one month has gone since I left Porto and intensive is not enough to describe the fantastic time I had in Cluj. The main goal of writing this blog was being able to remember in the future all the great moments I passed in Romania, but it’s completely impossible. My dream was to describe every single minute I passed in “la camine”, in the school, in the scischa bar, in big apple, in Janis pub, in the supermarket, in piata uniri, in the kitchen. I’d like to have a camera in my head which would film all the month I had, and I wouldn’t mind to lose another month to see the tape.

So, I don’t write for a long time. Let’s try to update this. Last week was rainy, cold and nostalgic. It was also the week where we had to study for the exam (and believe it or not, I did study!). I learned more Romanian in two days than in the whole month! Thanks to my private teachers Mauro and Marguerite. Friday we had the exam and it was pretty ok! 2 hours written and an oral part which went well because my friend Mrs. Elena was there. I also forgot to mention that I hated our second teacher.. she was 1.50m high and terribly strict! After the exam we had the ending ceremony where they gave us the diplomas of the course. It was going well till they offered me as a gift a dictionary of Spanish-Romanian!! Really bad idea.. well, after that I got my revenge.. We were taking a group picture and I broke the main chair of the room.. which was probably some dozens years old. Not my fault, I just pushed the Turkish guys to wake them up from the Ramadan and they broke it!

That day was also Sylvie’s Birthday and a little farewell party we did in “Insomnia”. A perfect last night. Our task was to make Sylvie crying like a baby and she did it! We also had our little “awards ceremony”.. you can see the results below.

Saturday and Sunday were the worst days. People started to leave and we started to pack and try to have some moments together.. But nothing is the same when you know you won’t see most of these people again for a long time. People with whom you spent your daily life for 4 weeks, who were part of your “routine” and suddenly they’re gone. So, some tears, some warm hugs and dear Cluj, It’s over.

And “pentru ca” a image worth a 1000 words, some words also mean a single memory that I wanted to save here. It was for me, THE MOMENT of the course. For you, dear family and friends who are reading these, the following paragraph doesn’t mean anything, but for the “prietenei” I left in Cluj it means everything.

“It was a normal night in the second week. The weather was still nice, so why not going for a quick beer in big apple? Well, we rapidly learned that “quick” beer means a lot more that. One of the “timisoreanas” smoothly invited us for a mimics session after some “bizz and buzz” in chinese, this kind of pictionary we used to play when the conversations were gone.. So, I gave the word to J.Paolo and he had to mimic it and the others hat to guess. And so he starts. 1st He draws a clock with the hands in the wall, people guessed 8.00 clock! Bravo! 2nd he mimics “morning”. 3rd he pretended to walk with a bag in the hand. 4th he does these strange things with the hands which they thought were “killing something violently with a knife”. Time is over. Everybody says “ what the hell in the world are you trying to explain?? The answer was MUSHROOM.. Why? Because people in SARDIGNIA wake up at 8.00 in the morning, they walk with a smile in their faces to the mountain, they take the knife and they take the mushrooms to the bag!!! BUT, if you go at 9h00.. sorry my friend, there’s no mushrooms anymore, because they’re all cut!! Fockin hell!”

Like the song says.. Cluj will be always on my mind. Goodbye Razvan my crazy driver who makes me want to puke on your car. Goodbye Mauro and J.Paolo, may the power of “bere” be always with you and I hope u’ll succeed with the “chelneritzas”. Goodbye Margo and Marguerite, never thought French girls could be “fuarte bini” great. Goodbye Sylvie, my Belgian buddy. Goodbye Pedro and Luís, meus cabrões. Goodbye Nasti, Christian, Juan, Sabi, you fuckin half nationalist Hungarian bastard.

I just hope you all understand now what “Saudade” means.

Ok, I’m a bit nostalgic, I’m being a pussy, I know.. but I don’t care. Its not only because I really miss these people “and all”, it’s also because I’m in Bucharest already. Yeah.. 10 hours inside a train, the same time I spend to go to Portugal and come back. The same time to go to Canada or Brasil. 500 km in a train called “Accelerat”. Now I understand why it’s called like that: it’s always stopping so it has to accelerate a lot of times... Me and Ricardo arrived in Bucharest in the middle of the night and after an interesting game with taxi drivers (let’s just say I saved around 20€ with the game..) and some long phone calls with Marina and Mihaela, my new “Razvans”, I managed to get into the new dormitory. Well, ladies and gentleman, I’m in a hotel! If the one in Cluj was nice this is way better (and more expensive too..).Tv, at least 40m2, kitchen and a little room that I don’t know what’s for. I’ve two roommates, a Spanish guy, Javier, and a german, Raplf. They’re both nice people so I’m sure Ill have great time here. But I don’t even have the will to go and explore the city.. I’m closed in the room with a huge cold and I passed the evening exploring the map of Romania.. I suddenly had this huge will to get away from here and explore this beautiful country. But now I cannot, I have the faculty starting, I’m choosing my courses “and all”. By the way, the faculty looks a bit scarifying, I thought I will never say this, but I’ll miss FEUP. UTCB It’s like my old high school, it smells like it in fact. So, I won’t have internet for this week which is like taking me the food of the day. I’m actually sending this post from an internet caffe in the center.

Thank you for your attention!

P.S. for the Cluj people: start to think on getting your ass to BRASOV as soon as possible!

Birthday in Romania

2008-09-21T09:04:00.000-07:00

Discover Inner Circle!

Hello again! So, as you know Friday i celebrated my birthday far far away from my lovely city. I was kind of nostalgic during the day.. I'm used to have all my friends and family with me and also sunny and warm weather.. I didn't have any and then i started to receive all the phone calls, mails and sms, which just made me even more sad. But, guess what? i have friends here! They offered me a huge flag of Romania with messages and we had a really nice room party, with 20 people in less than 20 square meters. After we moved to the center, and well.. what happens in Cluj stays in Cluj (:

My buddies.. Razvan and Sylvie.

The natives, Fágot and Suja

Me, Janis, Luis, Ricardo and Pedro

Jean Paolo, the magician

Luis, Marguerit, Me, Margoux, Sylvie
My gift

Thank you guys!

Raining in Cluj

2008-09-21T07:31:00.000-07:00

Discover Andrew Bird!

A raining and cold week in the middle of September.. Something i'm not used to at all! So, as you can see in the last posts i was wearing t-shirts and sudenly im using my winter clothes which are not that much.. Anyway.. it just got some people sick (including me) but the mood is always up! We kept on with the national dinners everyday! We had carbonara, hungarian stew, french/arabic curry rice and i don't remember the rest! The last one was "Bacalhau à Brás" without the Bacalhau! We replaced it by Tuna. Well, it was pretty ok in the end (:

So, we had these painting session, where we painted religious figures in glass! well.. since i'm not an orthodox i asked the lady if i could change a little my figure.. So, instead of Jesus, i painted Pinto da Costa!!

My room became an art gallery! Respect!

Pinto da Costa

This is Jean Paolo figure.. He should have painted Maria, but according to the professor he painted his own face!!

Razvan giving some romanian explanations

Cooking the "Atum à Brás"

The dinners always take more than 1 hour to prepare, but in 10 minutes all the food is gone! we're animals, i think. Anyway.. the first think we ask in the morning to the others is: Who is cooking tonight?

Trip to Turda

2008-09-16T10:26:00.000-07:00

Discover Arcade Fire!

Hello my friends! This weekend we went on a trip to Turda Salt mines and the mountains around.. It's one of the biggest salt mines of the world (i didnt even know there was salt in places whitout sea!) It was impressive! kms of corridors of salt which end in enormous holes in the rock which were full of salt in the past centuries! Afterwards we went for a hiking along a river in beetween the mountains, beautiful views and believe me, if there's something that Romania has better than anywhere else it's his natural heritage.

This was a hole in the rock and the pictures were taken 13 floors from the bottom! You see the ppl in the ground? they go there and pass the day on the mines because of breathing problems, they say it's good for it. I should do the same.. or not.. that place is really creepy!

Sylvie, Luís, Marguerite, Pedro and Margo
The river
Huge cliffs along the way

Jean Paolo, or Felix dîn Fantazia
Corridors in the mines
Welcome to hell: the roads of Romania
People passing the day on the mines

Yeah, it was freezing that day.. i had to improvize

Ramona and Diana, the Erasmus Coordinators
Turkish and Italian Mafia

The kid in green crashed against one of our vans.. he got hurted and our driver (in blue) is yelling at him.. it was quite a scenne.
Ramona helping the village kid
Pierre, Pedro and me.. Nap time is sacred

A really nice day, tiring but it was worth to scape from the city. In fact we can find some of these places in less than 10 min from the city.

La Revedere!

A Morning in Cluj

2008-09-14T04:53:00.000-07:00

Discover The Velvet Underground!

For the ones who think Erasmus is just sleeping and partying at night, well, I’m sorry but you’re mistaken! A lot of things happen in the morning and I’ll try to show with this post a normal “diminata” in Pedro’s day.

8h30 Leaving the residence

We start to walk. Mornings are cold here but the air is fresh and the way to the school is pretty interesting as you’ll see in the next pics.

Dogs are friendly here and kind of funny.

Contradiction

Arriving at the school

Yeah..

The last day of Mrs Helena, she was really sweet even if she just spoke Romanian with us. Those flowers were bought in the cemetery in front. (don’t judge us please).

The class III

A nice parade was waiting for us after the classes.. the older girls were coming after.. but we missed them!

Lunch at the hungarian cantine.

"Cafea" after lunch

If you click in the photos you can see them in the original size.. but you probably know it..

Maybe one day i'll have the patience to describe mine afternoons or evenings..

That's all folks!

Buna Ziua!

2008-09-04T06:07:00.000-07:00

Razvan..

Cluj Main Church and electricity Cables

Huge traffic in the city but there's still some good places to escape

Latins vs Germans

Casa Ardeladesca

The Aveiro Guys

Tension Pre-Football

My althar

hey there my people!

Sorry for the delay on the writing but too much to do and not do in the last days! The language course has started.. new people have come.. a very tiring week but.. i survived trough the best way!

About the language course.. It's 4 hours every day starting at 9h am.. and they are completey right when they call it "intensive".. cuz it really is! We learned so many things till now that i need a whole week to memorize them. Eu sunt Pedro, eu sunt din Porto si im place pui! (im pedro, im from porto and i like chicken) -> some of the few words i can say till now and i dont even know how to put the acents (and they dont exist on my keyboard). But the classes are nice, we are 50 people divided in three groups and in the breaks we always meet for a coffee. My teacher is a sweet old lady who just speaks romanian, so no translation for everyone.. You can imagine now the brain storming we have every morning.. And you know how much i like to wake up early.

The rest, we had some relaxed afternoons in the terraces of the city, we went to the Museum of the Minerals or whatever wich was really boring till the Mineral woman told me that she loves Portugal, specially Porto! We have been cooking a "typical" dish from every country every dinner.. and we had two great dinners in a traditional transylvania restaurante "Casa Ardelanesca" which has amazing food and tuica (read tzuíca), a romanian drink. So we're friends from the house and im sure i found the place for my birthday. Saturday we played football Latins against German speaking people, and we beated their asses very naturally. Even if we had a hard night in the day before, and half of the team was injured..

About the group, i can say that portuguese rule, completely. We were the main responsibles to bring some mood to this people. We organized the EILC dinner among other little sessions, including biiz and buuz and other stupid games. It reminds me a lot the BEST events but with much more amount of freedom and maturity, which combined mean more fun. Basically my group is composed by 4 Portuguese, 2 french, 2 italian, 3 spanish, 2 germans, 1 hungarian, 1 belgian but i believe there will be much more in some days.

We're kind of having a quarentine situation here, there's like 5 people sick with stomach problems and head aches and no one knows why.. I think it's the water, but it can be the food.. It didnt reach yet the portuguese so its ok.

Romania lost yesterday agains Lituania here in Cluj for 3-0... it was kind of bad cuz im supporting them right now. I was watching the Red Bull Air Race trough the net today so dont worry, i still think of Portugal.. well, at least in Porto (:

Well, im loosing a lot of time with this post and i still have to study a lot for tomorrow! So have fun, behave and start to buy the flights till here!

La Revedere!

Hello Cluj, suja dai suja bini!

2008-08-31T04:31:00.000-07:00

Salu my friends. That's it. I'm here, i'm in Cluj, i'm in Romania! 3 days since i arrived and so many things happened already.. I'll try to resume everything.

So, Cluj is an old city, not well treated from the outside, with a dominating socialist/communist architecture. The buildings look the same all over the city: dark, 10 floors and materials not that well conserved. It was a bit shocking at the fist sight but i got used to it in the first day, i feel confortable and safe, and romanians are really good hosts and nice people.

So, we arrived in the ultra-huge airport of Cluj and Razvan, the Ursus was there to pick us. We stayed at his place. Interesting experience, we were able to try some romanian food, different, but approved (:

Friday we managed to get into the residence. Pretty nice by the way, rooms cleaned, internet, fridge and bathroom and 10 min from the center. I'm sharing a room with another portuguese from Aveiro. We have nice neighbours, a interesting mixture of nationalities! So our room became in the very first moment the living room of the residence. People come here to eat, take coffe, drink, smoke.. whatever. So today i left a sign in the door: it's the desintoxication day, nobody gets in!!

We had an hard first night, tasting hungarian drinks and drinking Ursus, the romanian beer, on the street which is ilegal, but we didnt know and we still dont know.. We ended up in a club and we had the first impression of the romanian night: once again, aproved!

So, tomorrow we're starting the language course. We don't have any idea about what we will do, so i can't say that much about it.. I just hope the mood will stay high like these last days.

My new home

Pedro (my roomate), Flo, Cristian, Sabi

Me, Ricardo and Sylvie (the only girl in the group till now)

Karting evening

Razvan and his romanian Dacia (quite an experience..)

I don't have nice pictures of the city, ill post them later, dont worry.

I'm surviving! YEAH

Leaving Porto

2008-08-24T10:38:00.000-07:00

Hi there my people.

Peço desculpa por escrever o blog em inglês.. mas devem perceber porque o faço (: quem não sabe, aprenda se querem saber o que o Pokas anda a fazer!

Here is the first post of my new blog.. Probably the saddest of all. Today I realized that I won't see the most beautiful city in the world for a long long time and with that all the things i'm used to. Why today? Well, Jessiquinha left to stinky Lisbon, and i'm here all alone.. with nothing but transylvania on the horizon. The next 3 days will be a bit crazy, i just have time to say goodbye to some friends, try to put all the things i need for 5 months in a 15kg bag, et voilá, Cluj-Napoca here comes the man.

I think i had a good farewell.. I had nice days with my friends in the festival, I had one of the most magic musical moments ever: Primal Scream (and vinho Santa Marta), I had Kuduro, I had francesinha, and specially, i had a fantastic holiday with Jess by my side..

So, in case i get lost, here is the program for the next weeks: I arrive thursday night in Cluj. Ill have Ricardo, a guy from FEUP as tripmate. We'll stay with Razvan, a good friend of mine (for the ones who know him.. wish me luck :P) and till the 27th of September ill be learning romanian!! Afterwards ill go to Bucharest for my Erasmus..

See you ppl! the next time i write.. ill be a DRACULA!!

Portinho da Arrábida - Setúbal

Boa Viagem Mafa :P