Tag: balkans

BALKAN FLEXPRESS

I would’ve called this post simply “Balkan Express” but then there’s another Balkan Express post on this blog already! Maybe you can play the track on repeat while reading this post.

In the beginning of October, Daphne and I got a Balkan Flexipass for travelling around the Balkans as a small end-of-EVS celebration and in order to take advantage of Sofia’s good position for travelling in the Haemus peninsula before leaving, or at least for the time being; it’s “for the time being” cause I’m certain I’m going there again soon, and not just to visit the friends I made there who now chose to stay. There’s something about this country… but that’s for another post coming soon.

Anyway, the Balkan Flexipass is a fantastic way of travelling in the Balkan countries: it’s something like InterRail but it’s only valid for… you guessed it, the Balkan countries, including Greece and Turkey, but not including Croatia for some reason. You can choose five, seven, ten or fifteen days of unlimited train travel within 30 days, which is how long the ticket is valid for. The cheapest 5-day ticket, the one we’d been abusing with Daphne to travel between Bulgaria and Greece last summer, comes for 56€ for youth <26–at which age apparently young people stop being young and no longer deserve discounts.

To reiterate: you can travel from Greece to Bulgaria and back with the five-day ticket twice (if you do it in the same month) and still have a day to spare–all for the price of what you’d normally pay for the bus just one-way. It’s an amazing deal and it’s not well-known, so I would strongly, strongly recommend you check it out. Even if you’re over 26, the price would still be about half of what you’d have to pay for taking the bus.

Note: the above links are for 1st class tickets, unlike the cheap tickets we got which were 2nd class. You can get the cheaper tickets at your country’s rail service’s international offices, e.g. OSE’s office at Sina 6 for Athenians. You can also have a look at this .pdf issued by BDZ (БДЖ, Bulgaria’s rail service) that has the complete price list which is the roughly the same across all countries. Note that the price list is in leva (2lv≃1€). Some useful translations: младеж = youth, възрастен = adult, Сеньор = senior, 2 класа = 2nd class

balkan_express

We set out on October 9th and returned back to Sofia on the 18th. We visited Varna, Bucharest, Timisoara and Belgrade along the way, spending two nights in each city apart from Timisoara, where we only stayed a single night, and another two nights on night trains; out of those seven nights spent in cities, we couchsurfed on four of them (props go to Nikolae and Georgii for their hospitality, thanks guys!) including the night we were hosted by Mela, a Romanian girl we got to meet in November last year in the youth exchange Reduce, Reuse, Recycle in Ommen, Netherlands. It feels so good getting to see people from youth exchanges again… It’s the only way to show that it really isn’t “goodbye”, but rather “see you soon”, the way we reassuringly like to tell ourselves. Still so many people around Europe I’d like to see again as soon as possible…

A small personal observation: nobody’s good at saying goodbyes, but everyone’s comfortable admitting to the fact. Maybe it’s a dying skill, lost in everyone but few in today’s liquid life, like cursive hand-writing or film photography.

I’d like to write a lengthy post about all the things we did and all of our experiences, not least as an opportunity for me to write them down and in this way reinforce my memories of them, but I suppose it would be counter-productive and nobody would read a long essay on my travels. Instead, here’s a small list with highlights:

Varna

  • The beautiful and super-long early-20th century-style beach park on the Black Sea coast (with a dolphinarium that made me sad by its mere existence). The lighthouse and the looong breakwater reminded reminded me of Mytilini; the high-rise residential buildings and the industrial port on the other side didn’t, though.
  • The giant falafel place (the falafels were giant, not the place) in the central square: 400g of goodness for 4lv.
  • YohoHostel–super decoration and cozy beds.
  • Jasmine Tea House, where we had some of the best vegetarian/vegan food ever. There’s a surprisingly large number of such locales in Bulgaria.
  • Our host Georgii, his zoo of a house (I mean that in as good a way as possible) and our discussions on the near future of humankind.
  • Want to force people to buy bus tickets? Just have ticket ladies on every bus!

Bucharest

Timisoara

Just spending the day with friendly and familiar faces was deeply enjoyable. That pizza though…

Belgrade

  • Amazing people! Everybody knew English, was happy to help and… gasp… they smiled at you!
  • Sun Hostel. Recommended! We have a 25% discount for the next time we stay them and for anybody we might be bringing along with us. What are you waiting for then?!
  • Such history, much fortress! wow!
  • The city felt a little bit like Athens, only prettier. Let’s face it: if Athens didn’t have Plaka and the area surrounding the Acropolis, it would be a bleak city indeed.
  • Be careful: everyday costs, eating and going out etc can feel deceptively cheap with all the prices in dinars and 120 dinars roughly equaling 1 euro. Beware, however: it’s no cheaper than Sofia. In some cases it’s even slightly more expensive.
  • Intergalactic Diner! We had dinner (veggie burgers and milkshakes) and breakfast there. Daphne absolutely fell in love with it.
  • Nikola Tesla Museum. Need I say more?
  • Putin visited Belgrade one of the days we were there and there was a big military parade with lots of fighter planes performing acrobatics etc. Everybody was so excited and watching it on TV. Putin’s very popular in Serbia.
  • Belgrade was hands-down my favourite stop in our little Balkan tour and I’m already planning to return for millions of tiny heart-warming reasons.

Finally

  • Each of us spent around 200€ for this trip–in my case less cause Sofia City Library paid for my Balkan Flexipass: the final destination of my ticket back was my home city, just like the EVS protocol says, so who cares how many stops there were in between? MANY thanks go to our hosts who fed us, gave us shelter, treated us well and helped us keep our budget low. They will probably never see this post…
  • If it wasn’t for Daphne, you wouldn’t be seeing most of the videos and the following beautiful photos from this trip. She bothers with pictorial documentation when I… *gasp again*… don’t feel like doing it so much anymore. But then, later, after the trip is over and our boots made for walking are lying on the familiar floor, I’m happy that the pictures are there. And I’m even moreso because they’re pretty to boot. So… Go Daphne!
  • Seriously, everything you know about the Balkans is wrong–even if you live here.
  • We did a qbdp episode about this (in Greek) but who knows when it’ll be out? When it’s ready (and it’s ready when it’s ready!) I’ll post a link over here.

 

 

GRAMATIK – BALKAN EXPRESS

Μην ξεχνάτε: τα τραίνα από Θεσσαλονίκη για Σόφια και Σκόπια/Βελιγράδι έχουν ξαναξεκινήσει εδώ και 3 μήνες με πολύ καλές τιμές, ειδικά αν κλείσετε από νωρίς. Ελπίζω μόνο να είστε πιο τυχεροί από μένα και να μη χρειαστεί να μείνετε στον σταθμό της Κουλάτα (στα Ελληνοβουλγαρικά σύνορα) περιμένοντας 2 ώρες για να έρθει άλλη μηχανή γιατί η πρώτη είχε χαλάσει! Δεν μπορώ να πω πάντως, τα εισιτήρια στη Σόφια μου τα έκδοσαν μηχανογραφημένα· στην Ελλάδα ήταν χειρόγραφα, για λόγους οι οποίοι είναι υπεράνω μου – το ίδιο και για τον θρυλικά εξυπηρετικό και φιλικό υπεύθυνο των διεθνών γραμμών στη Σίνα 6…

Toυλάχιστον ήμουν μόνος στο κουπέ για όλη τη διαδρομή. Και στην Κουλάτα είχε πελαργούς. Πολλούς.

Κάπως έτσι, αλλά πολλές φωλιές γύρω απ'το σταθμό, οι πελαργοί που μπορούσα να μετρήσω εκείνη τη στιγμή ήταν καμιά δεκαριά. Η φωτογραφία δεν είναι δική μου, την τσίμπησα από αυτό το άρθρο (Σύμμαχος των πελαργών η ΔΕΗ).
Κάπως έτσι, αλλά πολλές φωλιές γύρω απ’το σταθμό, οι πελαργοί που μπορούσα να μετρήσω εκείνη τη στιγμή ήταν καμιά δεκαριά. Η φωτογραφία δεν είναι δική μου, την τσίμπησα από αυτό το άρθρο (Σύμμαχος των πελαργών η ΔΕΗ).

BTW: είχα την απορία από που είναι ο Gramatik. Με τη βοήθεια της πανταχού παρούσας και τα πάντα πληρούσας Wikipedia, η απορία μου λύθηκε: Σλοβενία.

 

Three Months in Sofia

It’s been three months and three days (correction: one week by the time I got to actually finish writing this) since I first set my foot in Bulgaria for the first time. I tried writing something lengthy but it just didn’t come out right. My ability to write lengthy, journaly posts that might be of any interest to readers has become worse with time, especially during this year and the one past. Part of it may be that I started writing my morning pages last July, so the canvas for my thoughts put into words ceased to be The Dimension and became The Page.

I’m also suspecting that I have got more used to writing creatively on paper than doing so on a computer, exactly because the ritual of the morning pages allows me to write freely. Conversely, whenever I write a post, I feel restricted: by the context, the medium of the blog, by what I know I’ve said before, even by my readers’ expectations. I have also noticed a distinct difference in style between when I write longhand and when I type. I remember reading something about that in The Shallows and how Nietzsche also noticed he started writing differently, less eloquently perhaps, when he began using his typing ball. Maybe I should have my posts as scans. :O Anyway, I digress – which wouldn’t be a problem if this wasn’t a post!

So, let’s get to the point.

Sofia, Bulgaria
Sofia, Bulgaria

Things I thought back in January I would be doing now :

    • mainly reading books borrowed from the library;
    • practicing languages by playing games like Okami;
    • refining the Extended Tandem website for the Sofia City Library, my personal project idea for attracting readers;
    • meeting with my tandem partners for Spanish and German;
    • doing Memrise exercises every day for Bulgarian;
    • be able to have a basic conversation in Bulgarian;
    • cooking every day, or at least every two or three days;
    • continually improving my English conversation class workshop;
    • reading American magazines;
EVS dinner prepared by Hilal, Christina and Niina - Miro and Boyan's place
EVS dinner prepared by Hilal, Christina and Niina – Miro and Boyan’s place

What I’ve really been doing:

  • realising, not without a little embarassment, that us volunteers are being effectively paid more than actual library employees;
  • going out a lot – and I mean a lot, as in I-need-some-time-alone-guys! a lot – together with all the other volunteers we met in the on-arrival training a month ago;
  • due to above reason, not keeping in touch with Daphne as much as she deserves, but trying to keep it as real as possible all the same;
  • exchanging packages with Daphne filled with cookies, books and other goodies – positive aspect of doing your EVS close to home: the possibility of using the coach companies to send packages for dirt cheap;
  • saying yes to as many proposals as possible;
  • hosting multiple people pretty much every week, mainly volunteers who work in other cities in Bulgaria and come to visit (we’re hosting Christina, Niina and Hilal as I’m writing these lines – as I’m finishing up the post, my friend from Heterotopies Myrto took their place in Hostel Shar Planina 55);
  • abstaining from alcohol for fifteen days – my digestion system went completely crazy for that period of time, but I felt great (and rich!) – now I’m back to drinking as usual;
  • postponing/avoiding to find tandem partners;
  • failing to study Bulgarian almost at all and improving much slower than I would have liked, especially after our classes ended;
  • hardly playing any screen-based games at all;
  • playing Dixit with Rian – excellent game;
  • going on excursions;
  • made a Prezi together with Zanda for an education day in the German embassy about the library’s activities (click on the link if you’re okay with Pharrell William’s Happy playing in the background);
  • going running less often, but also trying to integrate bodyweight lifting in my makeshift fitness program, which includes changes in diet – discovering what vegetarian foods are rich in protein is a fun procedure all of its own;
  • shaved my head;
  • enjoying the amazing weather in Sofia – seriously, there was no winter this year;
  • saying dobre a lot;
  • eating ice cream from Confetti – to think I’d have to come to Sofia to try the best ice cream I can remember having;
  • reading much more than what I’m used to ^^J (you can see the number of book reviews I’ve written in the past few weeks), but no books from the library, apart from The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test;
  • watching Breaking Bad with Daphne (yes, through Skype/Steam direct connection!) extremely slowly – watching Battlestar Galactica slightly, but not significantly, faster – preferably with Bulgarian subtitles;
  • sucking at watching series;
  • started the Easy Readers workshop, which is looking more and more like it will end up like another Engish Conversation Group – many more people want to practice their spoken English than their reading skills, apparently;
  • I’m not reading American magazines, but I am trying to find new and exciting ways to use my Kindle.
Paula's Farewell '80s Party - Rasa, Niina, Zanda, Florian, Maria and Freddie Mercury
Paula’s Farewell ’80s Party – Rasa, Niina, Zanda, Florian, Maria and Freddie

What I’ll be doing soon:

  • weekly English classes/activities for refugee children and teens from Syria;
  • tandem(!!!) – actually I think I already found a Bulgarian guy who wants to learn Greek – perfect;
  • filling out my 100 Obekta passport – I’ll write something about that soon;
  • finding ways to make living together with three (usually more!) people sustainable in the long medium run;
  • making that library-centred Tandem website;
  • making some more qbdp episodes – it’s time;
  • spending lot of time outside – the good part of climate change, or just call it spring;
  • visiting more of the surrounding countries, including more places in Bulgaria – good thing we have lots of volunteers to host us all over;
  • that includes Greece, and I hope I’ll get at least some of the volunteers to join me!

This post is well overdue but at the same time I feel like I’m missing something crucial. Ah well, let’s post it anyway.

Spanish Reading Room in Sofia City Library, complete with siesta-ing Spaniard. Will this be what our remaining six months will look like? The answer depends more or less on our initiative; such is the nature of the EVS project...
Spanish Reading Room in Sofia City Library, complete with siesta-ing Spaniard. Will this be what our remaining six months will look like? The answer depends more or less on our initiative; such is the nature of the EVS project…

Ναι λοιπόν· είμαι ανθέλληνας

Plus*2/Minus*2 Summer Edition! Part 1

+++__-

Kalo mina. It is September already, isn’t it. I’ve been writing up the following post for almost a month now. Day by day, hour by hour even, more and more stuff is added to this list. I can’t keep up anymore! Originally this was intended to be a complete ++– of my summer highlights…  This is quickly becoming overwhelming, what with the summer not being over yet and bits and pieces of my life constanstly becoming potential highlights. I will post what I’d already written weeks now and see how it goes. Oh and I’ll start with the most recent ++, what took most of my time these days actually.

~

August.The cicadas are chirping, Taurus and Orion have just started to appear a few hours before dawn, summer is depressingly close to its end. Depressingly? This word is up for discussion. Yes, I do agree that summer is almost over and that that is generally considered a bad thing but no bad thing has ever come with no benefit; autumn is right around the corner and along with it comes everything that symbolises our hopes, plans and process of renewal. Everything flows, said Iraklitos (and the Book of Change).

Enough with this little introduction. What I want to share with this post is the good, the bad, the attrocious and the fantastic of this year’s summer, which (for good or bad, you decide in the end!) is over in a few weeks, at least theoretically (cause really, who knows till when the weather’s going to be happy this time around?) In short, I’m giving you another Plus*2/Minus*2. And this one is going to be loooong!

Flash, Grafistiki and September Exams ++

This year the comeback to Mytilini has come earlier than usual. I had long decided that this time I would stand 100%  ready for the upcoming exams. I would study a lot, do all my projects in time etc. August 21st was the day we returned to the island. Happy Rock Band 2, Mordread’s birthday and Alex’s nameday aside, it hasn’t been all that fun for me! First thing I wanted to do was complete my Flash/Grafistiki project. A couple of bucketfuls of tears of *insert feeling here* later (including joy, frustration, achievement and despair) and stinking my chair from sitting in it for tens of hours, I can proudly say that today, just in time too, I presented my work to Myrsini. And it was good! It has got to be one of my most advanced works to date. It being in Flash makes it even more impressive of course. I invite you all to have a look and tell me what you think:

www.hallografik.ws/oldstuff/grafistiki

This, of course, is only a sign of things to come. I can stand proud, can’t I??

Today was special in another way as well. I sat for another two subjects, namely Java and Image Editing. Too much effort put into the Flash Project, of course I didn’t have the time to study them properly. Yet I didn’t do all that badly. I think it’s been a successful day… But I REALLY WANNA PLAY SOME GAMES! I MISS THEM. And even though Alexandra is around and has helped me considerably with housework, cooking, cleaning, relaxing, keeping in touch with the real world etc… I do not think we’re spending our time together as we should be. I mean…

…nah, this is another highlight in its own right.

Salonica: City of Ghosts, by Mark Mazower ++

salonica_1

I finished reading this book in June. I must have mentioned it before, or maybe it was Mazower’s “The Balkans”, a short introduction to the regional history, especially during Ottoman times. “Salonica” is similar. It takes you from the creation of the city in ancient times to what it is today, focusing on its multicultural identity during Ottoman rule (1430-1912) and until the Second World War and the jewish holocaust which killed a significant part of the population.

Did you know that Thessaloniki was only founded after the death of Alexander the Great? Kassandros, the guy who got in charge of the province of Macedonia after Alexander’s death, named this newly founded town after his wife Thessaloniki, daughter of Philip II and thus Alexander’s sister. So why the statue of Alexander in the centre of the city? Why has the city been so closely connected to Macedonia and indeed Alexander?

Did you know that in the 16th century thousands of sephardites, jews that were pursued out of Spain, emigrated into Salonica? They remained the majority (!) of the city, with muslims coming second and christians (greek and slav speaking) third. These jews really considered Salonica their home, they spoke a strange dialect of spanish changed throughout the years from their contact with turkish and greek. During the Second World War most were killed by Nazi Germany and their plan to eradicate the world’s jews (along with other unwanted elements).

Did you know that Salonica became a greek city in 1912? The greek revolution may have happened in 1821 but before 1912 the modern greek state’s borders had not yet changed into the form we know them today. Salonica, along with most of the Eastern Aegean islands and later Thrace, were conquered in the First and Second Balkan Wars by the Greek Army. Salonica wasn’t a particularly greek city before that. As I said, greeks were the minority. However, within 10 short years and after the Population Exchange that made all the muslims leave the city, Greece used the poor immigrants from Asia Minor, some of which did not even speak greek, to effectively “hellenize” its newly conquered territories with christians. Descendants of Macedonians? I don’t think so.

The rest is, as they say, history. Leaving 400 years of (mostly) peaceful and tolerant coexistance behind, the greeks swiftly destroyed everything that would remind them of “the dark ages”. A lot of the historical city centre was burnt in the Great Fire of 1917, however most buildings that had survived did not make it into contemporary, metropolitan Salonica. The “neogreeks” of course have dug up any roman or byzantine (to be fair, Thessaloniki was an important byzantine town, with Ayios Dimitrios and everything…) building that is possible to find, at the same time trying to hush-hush, forget and destroy history, situations and buildings much more relevant to the Greece of today and not the Greece we would like to once have existed.

“Salonica: City of Ghosts” tells a story you’re not likely to hear. It tells of Salonica’s cosmopolitan days, of when it was a crossroads of cultures. A true multi-culti gem. It was a book that gave me a brand new perspective on matters with superb research and excellent, gripping writing. It made me want to visit Thessaloniki, even if the Thessaloniki it desribes is long part of the past…I recommend it to anyone who might want to study revisionist greek history but also the history of the Balkans or the Ottoman Empire.

Did you know that the White Tower was an Ottoman prison?

salonica_2

June Exams ++

I can say that I was quite satisfied with my exam results. I did not sit for many subjects. In fact, 2 of them I sacrificed in order to have time to go to Rodos in mid-June. For those I did sit for, however, I could not have gone better! Stefanos and me, together with the –let’s face it– minor contribution of Anna and Vasilis, worked on a Flash application during May and June that represents the various kinds of relationships students have with Ermou St. in Mytilini. This was for Cultural Representation II. It gave us a straight 10, for all its misgivings (I’ll make sure to upload it in the main site as soon as possible!) This project’s design along with some personal graphic designs scored me another 10 in the respective subject.

Last but not least, I got another 10 at perhaps my favourite subject last term: Cutural Industries and Digital Culture. Despina Catapoti was our mentor, a great person and teacher! She turned the subject I failed one year ago into a fresh, postmodern-counterculture-philosophical experience! I got a 10 for my answers to the inspired, open-ended test. But I give her a 10 as well for her very interesting, knowledgeable lectures and her special way with the students. I can only say that I cannot wait to learn beside her once more come Spring.

I got a 2.5 at Montage and that thanks to the… interesting video Garret and me made one day at the lighthouse. 😛 Otherwise I would have got a 0. I’ll be quietly sitting for this one soon.

Counting Sheep, by Paul Martin
++

counting_sheep

Picking up books on random, fascinating subjects as I sometimes do, this summer I got a book on sleep called “Counting Sheep”. Alexandra used to mistakenly call it “Science of Sleep”, like the movie. I thought it was funny mixing the two names up! On a side note, we still haven’t watched “Science of Sleep” in its entirety.

“Counting Sheep” is the ultimate book on this 1/3 of our lives when we “go comatose while hallucinating vividly”. REM sleep, which is the scientific term for dreams, actually occurs for just 25% of sleep in adults. The rest is NREM (non-rapid eye movement) sleep. This is the wiki on NREM, pretty interesting. NREM is vastly different from REM in many aspects, in fact brainwaves during this state are much more characteristic than the respective REM ones (which are, unsurprisingly, similar to our waking state ones). Our sleep can thus be divided into two distinct states which leads to the conclusion that we go through three unique cycles, not just two: waking state, NREM and REM. Each cycle of sleep roughly comprises 90 minutes, going through the 4 stages of NREM sleep and finishing with REM. A typical night’s sleep will consist of 5-6 cycles…

…I can’t stop! Here I am typing scientific stuff about sleep from the top of my head. I could go on. But “Counting Sheep” is not just excellent explaining how sleep works. It goes through all kinds of culture that has been created around sleep, beds, caffeine, dreams, lucidity, sleep disorders, it tells tales of horrible sleep-deprivation and resulting torture, it outlines how sleep works in animals (every single living being, even bacteria, display some kind of low-activity cycle — dolphins sleep one brain hemisphere at a time!) and perhaps most important of all, it definitely proves that sleep is not only important, it is also a luxury and a pleasure unsung for – nevermind the ridiculous numbers of relevant William Shakespeare quotes.

“Counting Sheep” makes you want to rush to your bed, hug your pillow, rub your feet under the quilt, hang a hammock from the trees outside your door or in case you have no trees plant a couple for this very purpose. It makes you cherish your only pure and unfiltered existence and not feel guilty about that couple of extra hours under the blanket. This book proves that the world would be a much, much better place if only politicians, drivers and nuclear reactor operators took their40 winks more seriously.  If you, like all too many of us these days, think that sleep is nothing but wasted time, you ought to make yourself a favour and read this!

Gytheio ++

Urk. Gytheio is supposedly the correct way of writing the greek town name in English. But you pronounce it “Yithio”!

Anyway, I went for 3 days and 2 nights to Gytheio to find Fanis and a couple of his friends who were camping there and stay with them. It was fantastic! I had only ever camped once in my life before (Bouka Beach Club! Savi, Tousis!) and it was great, not to mention 3 years ago. So I had a great, fantastic time camping again.

The beer was cheap, the friends’ friends I met there were pretty interesting and unique people (a 15-year-old bassoon-player rocker anime lover? A 17-year-old who was exactly like Garret in almost every way, except he liked One Piece and played the clarinet and was thus also musically inclined), everyone was relaxed but also cheerful and funny. I was at peace.

On the first night it was full moon. We made a fire on the beach, just like the second night. On the first one though we also went for a swimin the sea right in front of the fire. The moonlight was so bright and the sea so calm I could literally see the sandy bottom. But it wasn’t like looking at it under daylight. It was different, it was magic. I felt the sea different in spacial kind of way, as if I could really feel how deep it was or that I was actually floating in it at that point. It was truly something else.

Alina, another member of our charming little party, showed me her father’s camera. It was a Nikon F301 he’d had for almost 25 years! The sound of the shutter, the complete lack of electronics, the large viewfinder, the sturdy lens… It certainly didn’t take me a lot of messing around with it for me to realise that I NEEDED ONE OF THESE! So, oh what surprise, ever since I got back from Gytheio and that’s 11 days already, I’ve been hunting…

Camping is probably the best type of holiday. Not a care in the world, total relaxation, socialising, enjoying nature. Sleeping in a boiling tent just might be the highlight. I’m already looking forward to doing some more.

Deutsch ++

Dieser Sommer ich habe gedacht:”Ich hatte genug!” Danach habe ich mehr Deutsch studieren. Ich will  das Zertifikat in Januar bekommen. Ehrlich gesagt hoffe ich, dass ich nicht zu faul bin… Mama ist aber eine gute Lehrerin!

KTEL _-

Buses have become, or have always been, I’m not really sure, the main means of transportation for those who want to go from one greek city to another. But they are so bad. The stations are dirty, the drivers are rude, the schedule is seriously strange, and the bastards have made it so that you can’t find out when your bus is  leaving unless you call a high-cost helpline! They’ve even removed lists and schedules from the internet, at least from what I’ve seen.

Even more worrisome is the fact that there are no plans of expanding the train lines in any part of Greece. Actually, OSE announced during the summer that they are changing their routes so that only connections between the main cities are properly serviced. Where is the environmental planning? Where is ANY kind of planning at all? If you could go anywhere, anywhere at all, just by hopping on a bus, things would be different. If they weren’t so polluting or if the drivers were a bit more considerate about their clients music tastes, things would be different. But they aren’t. And as it is, people like me that object to owning a car have little choice. It’s depressing…

At least the tickets are relatively cheap. For now…

To be continued… with more amazing ++ ‘s and even juicier _- ‘s!

Plus*2/Minus*2

I’m reading a book written by a spectacularly honest frenchman titled “How to talk about books you haven’t read”. In this book, among many other things, he says that a lot of authors refer to books they might have skimmed through or even not read at all. He uses a system within his own book that puts a certain tag next to each book he refers to, ranging from. He also uses a rating system from ++ to — to express his opinion on the particular book.

In detail, ++ is extremely positive opinion, + is positive opinion. – and — are negative and extremely negative opinions respectively. I think this system is perfect for sharing your disposition to something without having to use a 1-10 or 1-100 system. I hate it when people ask me to rate a girl, game, movie, or just about anything from 1 to 10. What’s a 1? Even more importantly, what’s a 10? Can you rate anything with a 10 without having any doubts about whether anything will surpass it, ever? Everything in life is experiences, including all the above, and experiences are rating-proof! By the way, before any of you say it: Yes, since the YRS (Yummers Rating System) is a 1-10 deal, I have concluded that it too is incomplete and needs revision.

I like the ++ to – – so much that I’ll use just it to describe what’s going on in my life at the moment by how much I like it!

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Paradox Interactive. These guys are one of the best studio/publisher around. I’m seriously hooked with Europa Universalis III and Victoria. Hearts of Iron looks like a thing to check out soon (what am I saying, I already own two copies! I’m not going into detail with that, I want to forget…)

CouchSurfing. I just hosted an Italian guy, his name is Duan. 2 nights it was. I had almost forgot how nice and cozy hosting makes you feel, especially when it’s people you’d easily make friends with but will probably never appearin your life again.

SPACED!! After Hot Fuzz and Dawn of the Dead (I mean, um, a couple of years before those), comes Spaced. It’s awesome, pure awesome, and I recommend it to anyone who has a thing for cleverly stupid humour. Anger, Pain, Fear, Aggression…

Jose Saramago. This guy is quickly, and I mean quickly, becoming my favourite writer. Period. I couldn’t resist and gave ~100 euros to get 5 of his books together (along with the book I mentioned first and 1984). Which brings me to…

1984, by George Orwell. It shocked me. A masterpiece of 20th century literature. I may write something on it one day…

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Soon I’ll be translating and subbing eco films, and not for free! I am excited for what may be my first paid job.

The Balkans, by Mark Mazower. An excellent read on the real side of “European Turkey”.

I’m entering a Guitar Hero contest. Yay?!

I’m learning Japanese… And want to learn Turkish. I want to communicate with the world! Is it normal that I’m only learning the languages of the… “bad guys” (plus german)?

We dressed up as vampires with Alex. It had been so long since I had done something like that…

In January we made a little cut-out animation for uni. It’s not completely ready yet so don’t expect to have a look if you haven’t already! 😛 It did turn out well though…

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My money is running low much faster than would be desirable, even if we eat everyday at the Uni with Mario!

I still think I have no certain purpose or goals. That I’m not really good at anything but only mediocre in lots of things. Same applies to everything. Is this good or bad in the end?

Nationalistic idiots annoy me.

Pop songs that use Beethoven’s 9th also annoy me.

Waking up early to catch those pesky morning lectures is always a problem… So it is now!

No time for everyone that I would like to have more of in my life… You know who you are.

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Keeping my house clean is a nightmare.

Rain and cold. Cold and rain. And no central heating This pretty much sums up 2009’s weather up till now. And for the past week, it’s extreme rain and cold. Where’s summer? Where’s the sun?! I seriously don’t believe I’m uttering these words…

Every time it rains, my second room gets flooded. Argh! How can people be so stupid they mess up a balcony this much?

I hate the announcements in the ships. All of them. Lissos, Mytilini especially. I want to kick the (taped) announcers to death. Yes, that’s how much I hate them.