Ahojte! (oh and that means “hey ya” or something and as for the “ba” in post title, it means Bratislava, shortened)

Well, it’s been awhile again. It’s not that I didn’t have anything to say. It’s just that I’ve been too lazy to write anything. And I got the pictures last week from Jan (the another Finnish guy here) and due to the fact that the Internet connection can be really slow at times here, it took some time to upload the pictures too. But here we go:

So, first things first. Pictures will be in the next post as there are plenty of them and I didn’t want the post to become a novel or anything.

I got to say this… The weather! It’s friggin’ great! Coming from Finland with snow storming all over with like -10 degrees… And here it’s usually around +10 degrees. The past few days around +16. Just the way I like it to be in February :D

I finally got the public transportation card which is a huge deal here. I don’t really like getting like 14 SKK (about 50 cents) in coins everytime I want to go somewhere so instead I got this card for about 1700 SKK (about 60 euros). I was supposed to get the card for students, which would have been cheaper, but since I’m over 26, I can’t get it. So practically, I’m too old to be a student here :D

Second, the beer… Yummy! 27 SKK (about 90 cents [yea, 1 euro is about 30 SKK if you didn't figure it out just yet]) in the pub “downstairs”. I say downstairs since these two buildings are like together (Druzba 1 and Druzba 2) and I live in D2 and the pub is in D1. So to get there, here are the directions for your amusement:
- get out of the room and walk ~15 meters to the elevators
- go down 5 floors, get out of the elevator and walk 20 meters to door taking outside
- walk 100m and you’re in front of the pub

Sooooo… Pretty simple, ehh? :P

Then… Well I was sick the past few days so I didn’t go to school yesterday, but I did today as I had “Marketing”. The teacher didn’t show up so went to talk to the coordinator and asked if she knew where he was. She made a quick phone call and told us to go back in front of the classroom. And so it began, 30mins late but so what. He just gave us the briefing of our course and that’s it. As for the school in overall… We’re not really well informed about the changes in timetables/schedules nor are we told about class cancellations. So at least I’ve been a bit lost lately, but I’m sure it’ll be ok.

As for other matters, I attended to this guided Bratislava tour like 2 weeks ago (so you see how late I’m?) and it was just superb. We had this brief meeting at the main Comenius Uni building and some big shot told us about the school, classes, student life and how to behave. Then we got these backpacks that had some bread and drinks inside + quite a few books about Slovakia and Bratislava (really useful!). Then we headed off and hopped in to a bus that took us to around the city to Devin Castle. I really don’t know much about the place, but it’s cool from a Finnish point of view. I mean you don’t see that at least in the Northern-Finland :D

Then we had a brief look around the city a bit. Walking around the old city and checking out some of the really cool places. I don’t know about others, but somehow seeing a historical surrounding such as the old city in Ba… Wow! I mean sure there are buildings that are like made of windows practically and are very modern. But to walk down the old streets and seeing these old buildings around you, it’s remarkable to notice that unlike where I come from, the history down here goes so far that you actually start to feel like “erm, am I in Bratislava or are some medieval knights coming to beat me up soon?”. It feels so real and the feeling is so unreal that you just need to experience it yourself (at least the ones that have lived behind daddy’s wallet their whole youth).

What else… Just did my first big cleaning around the room while Cristian (my Brazilian roommate) was in school. Just wiped off some dust and organized the shelfs a bit. As since I came here, we’ve just been here and not really done too much to clean it up. So now the room actually looks like a place where someone could live in. Not that the room wasn’t acceptable before! :)

Am still pissed off about my leg. There are people every day playing football, basketball or something similar just next to us. My knee has swollen a bit since I came here, due to a lot of walking. Which reminds me… I did this long walk last Monday when I left school. I just walked from my school over to Aupark. So in total about 5km (rough guess). It was a good chance to look around the city and just navigate yourself through it. Since as you might imagine, the city is quite big for me, a guy coming from a 25000 inhabitant city. But the knee… I’ll survive.

Erm… Lets go back to drinking and beer. Beer in the gas station across the road. A can of half a liter with 10% alcohol (someone said that it’s not the alcohol percentage, but apparently it is) beer called Corgon, 22 SKK. So about 80 cents… As a Finn, this is friggin’ awesome! And in a pub, you don’t have to pay more than 30-40 SKK for a beer. That’s like 3 times cheaper what we pay for it in Rovaniemi on a regular night. So this is like a constant 1 euro beer night for me and Jan. Not that we’re drunks or anything! :) *whistles*
Also I will propably never forget, but 2 weeks ago I went to this club nearby, Casey. I was pretty drunk, but didn’t mind as I only had Jagermeister and Red Bull… One Jagermeister was about 100 SKK (4cl) and a 2dl Red Bull. So I mixed them always (not 1:1) and at the end, I had like 10+ Jagermeisters :D
And another good tip is to get a vodka (4cl) and mix it with something. One vodka costs 25 SKK which is really low and gets right to your head! :D
The most popular days for drinking and partying here are… Everyday! But basically the days when people go out to club or a pub are Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Sometimes Thursday as well, but the party is in Mlynska Dolina which is about 3km away from here. But basically if you feel like partying, just ask around and someone knows one :)

As for the food… There’s a diner attached to this whole complex, but to be honest, I don’t really like the food there. Though I’ve only been there once, but it was more like military food and then some. So I use this buffet next door every now and then to get some fried cheese with fries. Healthy? No, but does the trick for 100 SKK (with a Coca-Cola). In the city centre there’s this Europa Pub, which is really nice and you can get pasta, pizza etc from there for a reasonable price. Plus it has a pub called Slovak Pub attached to it which is a popular student pub.

As for the people here in Bratislava… I hate that I can’t speak Slovak and quite a few people here speak decent English. So communication problems occure every now and then, but nearly all exchange students I’ve met here, speak good English and are good giving advices. Plus I’ve made friends with some students who’ve been here since September and speak a bit Slovak.

In overall… I like it here so far. Sure there are some problem, but they are so small that don’t bother for too long. Such as standing in a crowded tram, bus transportation systems, problems with the school classes and some miscellaneous practical everyday issues. My school schedule for the week is really simple: 9,5 hours on Monday and an hour on Tuesday morning + Slovak course every Tuesday and Thursday at 6pm for like 5-6 weeks. The rest I’ve free :)

Now, I’m off to my 3rd Slovak class so I will post the pictures in my next post a bit later. Might “have to” take a few drinks today :)

Oh man… It’s been a week since my last update and it feels like ages. Not saying that my time here hasn’t been entertaining, but a week seems so wrong with all what’s been going on.

I got my prepaid last week, but I will only use it with the local people. So if you want to contact me from outside Slovakia, use the e-mail address or MSN found on “Contact” page.

Now first off… Went to school today as we had a meeting over there. The coordinator just wrote down the available courses which were not even close to what me and my teacher tutor had in mind. So I just raised my hand whenever she asked for who wanted to sign-up for the course. Eventually I got my courses together and now my schedule is rather… weird:
- Monday from 7:30 until 16:50
- Tuesday & Thursday: one hour

Soooooo. And that’s for 29 credits! That’s just wacko!

Anyway, I’m off to drink more, birthday tomorrow and school on Thursday, so this is the time. As it happens… Tuesdays are the student party days here :P

PS: The another Finnish student here is an Everton supporter :(

Yep, the sun is shining from a cloudless sky and there’s +6 degrees at the moment which is nice as when I woke up 5,5 hours ago, it was -3. So I like the weather really, today that is :)
Here’s another view from the balcony on a clear day. Now, that’s taken towards Austria, but I’m not sure whether it’s Austria over there at the hills just yet (I think it is) :)

As for the day, I’ve nothing planned really. Yesterday I was at my room all day doing nothing really. Which was okay as I didn’t sleep more than 4,5 hours the night before. So I went to bed a 10pm and slept for like 11 hours. Though since it’s Sunday, there’s not much to do now either. I went to grab a couple of paquettes earlier today so I could eat something. Those are just fantastic! Paprika flavoured ham, mozzarella cheese, lettuce and some dressing. Just great! :P

I also got the prepaid simcard yesterday though it has no credits left so I need to recharge it as soon as I know where and when I’ve someone who can help me a bit. Not being able to speak Slovak is a really big pain in the ass really. Only a few seem to be able to speak English so it’s like finding a new society for me. When I went to a nearby gas station to get those paquettes, I had to point at the product I wanted and then use my hands to say how many. But hey, that’s how I roll. I’m sure it’ll get easier later on.

I live in a room with three beds, although one of them is still free as the third person hasn’t arrive yet (if there’s a 3rd person). My roomie is a Brazilian guy who’s been here since September (if I recall it correctly) and has settled down really nicely from what I’ve interpreted. There are going to be like 90 people in this floor alone (10 floor building) and from what I’ve heard, there are like 40-50 people here now. And the funny thing is that I think they all are from either Portugal or Spain! So me alone here with Finnish and English skills, am quite lost when they start talking to eachother… Maybe I should start using Finnish or Swedish and talk to myself :)
Or perhaps I will learn Spanish at some point :D
For now I should really learn a few Slovak phrases and words to help myself around the city.

About school… I haven’t been there just yet as it’s on the other side of the city (almost) and I’ve had no business there yet. But from what my roomie told me (he also studies in the same Faculty), we’ve a meeting with the Faculty’s international relations manager (or something) on 12th of Feb and school is supposed to start about a week later. Sooooooo… I’ve about 2 weeks for myself now. Will prolly just drink through it… Naah, just kidding ;)

As for the day’s complaints… Apparently the Internet connection is shared here. A 10/10 connection shared with who knows how many people, is ridiculous. It slows down the Internet so much that I wasn’t even able to browse properly yesterday. In the morning it’s okay as everyone’s still sleeping so I’ve had my 2 mornings of control :)

Unlike so many other blogs, I will not start by saying something like “Welcome <cityname>” on my first blog post once I’ve arrived. Instead I will keep it simple and just tell you that I’ve arrived and it feels so unreal!

Okay, so the flights were ok. I’m not fond of travelling really so doing that for 10 hours straight was not the coolest things I’ve done.
First I got to a bus in Tornio and went to Oulu which was 2,5 hours. Not bad really, I had some stuff to read so it went by really quick. But I was 1,5 hours early for my flight, which later just had to be 10 mins late. It’s not bad though… I had a sandwich and a soda before departure. Then a one hour flight to Helsinki where I had an hour to catch the next flight. I planned to get something to eat, but due to a lot of people and crowded atmosphere I just had a sandwich again before getting to the plane going to Munich. About 1,5 hours later I arrived to Strauss something airport and I was really panicing as the flight was a bit late and I wasn’t sure if I was able to make it to the flight to Bratislava. So I had to look for a gate G82 and there were surely signs, but the stupid (or maybe it’s me) was that the signs were a bit misleading:
<- G81-G84
So I assumed it was on my left… But nooooooo! There were gates starting from like G31 and it went on and on. The hallway seemed endless so I walked and walked until I noticed that there is no G82 on the left side. So I went back to right side and at the end of this whole complex there were these steps that I had to go down and there it was.

So I got onto the flight in time which was around 40 mins late eventually. Got in and so the last phase of my travel to Ba (as in Bratislava… that’s how they all write it here). At the Ba airport a friend of mine was to meet me with her uncle who took us to my dormitory. A huge complex with two separate buildings. So after small chat I got the keys and went to my room. We had a couple of beers and headed downstairs to a pub and had a beer there as well before deciding to see a nightclub nearby (called Casey). I was supposed to have only a couple of drinks, but ended up having a few before heading back to get some sleep.

I had no idea what the time was when I woke up, but as soon as I did get on to my laptop, it was 9:45am. Played some poker and took a couple of pictures from the balcony as well as from my bed :D

So the first 3 pics are from my balcony. As you can see there’s a beachvolley field and basketball + tennis courts. Pretty nice if I had a leg to play with :(
4th picture is from my room and my bed. Don’t mind the chaos, I’m still settling in :D

Anyway… It’s been all good so far although I just had an e-mail this morning. They decided to want the 5 months rent at once with a 2 month worth deposit to go with it. I think that blows as it means over 500 euros at once and some of us are here with monthly income and it’s rather hard to get that kind of a money somewhere as the deadline to pay this is in 2 weeks. But then again… Once you pay it, you don’t have to worry about it anymore. But then again, how are you supposed to live the first one or two months with no extra income. Now there’s something to chew!

Anyway, I’ll surely have some more pictures once I get out. It’s raining at the moment. Which reminds me… THERE’S NO SNOW! Fucking yippee-ay-ee-kayee! :P

D out,
peace ,,\/,

I hate packing. I always seem to forget something and then make it okay by just saying to myself: “Well, what’s not with me, is supposedly not needed.”. I can imagine girls liking this since it’s like decorating to me, but somehow I just can’t find the thrill from it right now. Could be because of the 3 hours sleep I just had, but nevertheless… Uaah. Better get started. I better charge the camera battery as well.