Fighting through the mad swooning chaos of the city!

Arriving on the border station of Turkey I woke up half dreaming and still sleepy. We had to stand in line at the stamp-police office. I didn't know Belgians needed to buy a specific visum, since most countries just got a stamp and that was it. So when I finally made it to the officer in charge he told me I had to go around the corner and buy a visum. But the guy wasn't there, I think he'd gone home already cause no one came after a while... Anyway first they told me I'd just have to wait a few minutes cause he had gone to the toilet... yeah right. I waited a while and finally went to explain the situation to the woman in charge of he train and passengers, and some other people in the station... it was like no one knew where the guy was, but no one took it too seriously :s ...

Everyone by now was having tea or morning coffee wit some locals, I had met some people on the train and they were all very nice traveller-types, and now they were having coffee trying to speak German with the local tea drinkers. A lot of them seemed to have been truckers once upon a time, and tried to tell us about this. They had a lot of fun with this one Japanese kid that was on my train, they teased him with karate moves, strange folk..

I was relieved when the angry pisser finally showed up, and gave me a visa. But he sure had no problem showing me his anger and contempt... fuck him!!
We drove on and in a couple of hours we were approaching Istanbul, the suburbs were huge and strange, neat new houses next to dumps and ruins, lots and lots of people, jumping in and out of the open gates of moving banliyo trains. Made it to the main station and tried to get something to eat, lots of döner here, my god... So I tried one, but wasn't very pleased with it, felt guilty about the meat and it just wasn't very good. Nothing like the nice and full pitas we have back home with some form of dressing on it... I guess I still have to find the right place.
Then I called my couchsurfing hosts and told him I was coming to his place. I followed his directions and had to take a boat to the Asian part of this city. I managed to find the ferry terminals, and a nice man gave me a free token to get on a boat, but then gave me the wrong direction so I was on the wrong boat :D...



I got of the boat on the other side thinking I was in the right place, not finding the train station... So I asked some body and he practically threw me on one of the minibuses... the place was full of them. Anyway I asked the driver 'Kartal', and he nodded approvingly.
The people on the bus were friendly enough and one of them told me he was going to Kartal and he would show me where to get off, at least that's what I thought his signlanguage meant...
We had to get off in the middle of the highway though and get on another of these ridiculous minibuses, whose drivers seem like overhyped psychopaths, yelling and honking all the time, driving like madmen with a temper... and it's even worse this week because it's Ramadan, and they can't drink eat nor SMOKE all day!
I eventually made it to the Kartal train station, tired and bummed from all the chaos and madness.



I tried calling Fatih but didn't get lucky immediately, tried again and got through. He asked me to find a port nearby where he would pick me up. That too seemed harder than one would expect, in these wild infested streets, turns everywhere, and an incomprehensible grid :D awesome!!!
I guess I'm in the world third largest city, trying to manage and find my way around the back city!!!

Fatih is a very friendly and gentle guy, I later found out I was his first couchsurfer – you wouldn't say so-. He offered me some of his mom's fine cooking and I was sooo hungry, it was awesome :D.
Then we talked a bit about music and he showed me some of his stuff, he made loungy techno and ambient music, good stuff!
I went to bed not too late though because I was beat.
I woke up still tired and sleepy and left Fatihs place with him because he had to go to work.
In my still woozy mind I forgot to pay much attention on the bus stops and landmarks as to get back here when taking the bus... shit!!!



I took the bus and boat back into town, took a bunch of pictures, felt kind of sick, probably from getting my second hepatitis shot ad day or two earlier. And walked like a madman all over town, IO love walking. I didn't have too much of a good day though, felt kind of absent minded, because the city's just so chaotic, my bag was broken so I had to watch out that my camera and the such didn't fall out (this in a place that's famous for pickpockets), stupid piece of crap bag I got in Bosnia – I still paid too much- (check out the movie : the story of stuff, it's an online presentation about stuff... really good), anyway this sentence is getting way too long, and of course I had on my mind the email my supposed travel partner – to-be wrote me.
She said something about maybe not coming, even though she wanted to, but her parents were pressuring her to stay in school... I fully understand the crazy gamble it is to fly across the ocean to meet and travel with some strange Belgian guy whom you've known for a few days a year ago.
Only a few people in this world are mad enough to make choices like that... I guess I'm one of them.

I guess it's up to her.
Whatever!

I got back that evening on the bus and couldn't find my way back to Fatihs place, I found myself on the last stop of that busride, which is supposed to be close enough. I called him and he told me it was too hard to find and he'd pick me up, nice guy! I had a fey beers and he some joints and went to bed, feeling more sick and feverish than before...
Woke up with a heavy cold, and a sad feeling, said fuck it and had a big sandwich and a whole bunch of sugary drinks to get energy.



I walked and bummed like crazy travelling through this town. First I tried to get to the Syrian embassy, no help from these Turkish people though, they first had me run 4 times across the same roads to find a bus that wasn't really going that correct a direction, then the bus drivers who I'd kind of asked to drop me off where I needed to be, forgot! And I had to walk back a while!
Fuck this ridiculous public transportation, it's worthless!!! I decided to walk from there on! Found the place by my own strength and anger, got a bunch of pictures for a visa, then heard that I needed a letter of recommendation from my consulate, walked across town to the Belgian Embassy, where those fuckers told me in fucking FRENCH that the ministry in Belgium decided not to give any letters of recommendation out anymore outside of Belgium!! FUCK!!! You pay taxes all year so the government WOULD NOT help you once again... First they don't get a fucking government together, but do get paid, fuck up every chance at decent politics, let the fucking business world run the country and then fuck you over again when you're abroad and need their help. I guess the Belgian people should be starting to feel very let down by their leaders, sitting on their asses, not running the country AND GETTING PAID IN THE PROCESS. Good awesome! Fuck this.





So no visum for Syria, I walked back though to explain the situation, no luck, friendly people though, wanting to help me but not allowed without that stupid letter. Okay, no Syria, no travelling partner, no shit!!



oh yeah the greenpeace boat was in town, telling these poor people to quit coal...



Guess the best thing in life is to be independent, where one can choose who and for how long to deal with certain people, well I'm lucky and going to Africa! I'm just going to take some time by the ocean and then fly straight to SA and start working again, I'm looking forward to it, I wanna be on the other side of the hemisphere, seeing different stars at night and feeling close to nature, working hard and writing and reading! It'll rock!
Anyway I'll leave it with that for now, tonight I'm staying with another cs'er, more downtown, staying another day or two in this city and then going to Butterfly Valley, it'll be awesome...

talk to you soon, sweet peoples of the world! Xox

Steven

Bulgaria Rocks!!!

Hey goodies,

here we are again with a few reports and stories...

I spent the last days, having the best of times in Sofia, Bulgaria.
I arrived by the nighttrain I took from Belgrade, it took me another 20 euros and I'm starting to realise my money supply isn't endless. Especially after buying a computer... I will try to put it to more and better use though.
I arrived in Sofia early in the morning, it was fresh, even cold. Immediately I was struck with the lack of fanciness or luxury. It had a strong backwards communist feel to it, but I liked the air very much.
Although at first I found myself very much an outsider and getting noticed in the crowd. And I didn't speak the language or read the alphabet... Very estranging.
I pulled through and got myself a coffee, stuff was cheap here again, what did me good!

I walked direction town and checked my emails for the number and adress of the people I had contacted through couchsurfing. I got Elli on the phone and we agreed to meet at Hotel Pliska at 2 o'clock . I walked further downtown and really started enjoying the different atmosphere, the cheaper old European cars, the people and the coolness of fall.

Nikki and Elli


I met Nikki and Elli at the hotel Pliska that afternoon. They're 2 amazingly sweet and gentle people, a couchsurfers dream. They're both software programmers and they decided to work from home that friday afternoon, so I wouldn't have to be out in the cold the whole afternoon. The invited me to go with them to Nikki's mom's villa out in the country, close to the Serbian border. Ofcourse I agreed to such a wonderfull proposal.
I cooked for them that evening and we enjoyed a few beers and some warm conversation...

Nikki in the kitchen

I had one of the best sleeps in their couch I had had for a while and the morning was sunny and clear. We had a great breakfast Nikki cooked and packed to go out to the country with two good friends of theirs; Toni and Ivan.
Around noon time we left, picked up the keys at Nikki's moms and head out.
On the way out of the city we passed a junkyard settlement of gypsies, ironically with satelite dishes. Elli told me some striking stories about the gypsies, how they play the minority card way too often... and get away with it. They seem a special bunch!

streetview...

the gypsies of Sofia



We drove through some of the prettiest countryside and landscapes I've ever seen, and had to walk a while on a dirt road to get to the villa. The house was simple, small but nice. We lit the woodfire as soon as we entered and I discovered some real Bulgarian ingenuity (I don't know if we have this in Belgium, but I've never heard of it): a central heating system where the water for the pipes is heated on the woodstove... awesome!



We started with a salad and some great homemade rakija. A friend of Ivan made it, and his dad too... he told us some stories about it, how you could go blind from the bad stuff, and how they used to distill the good alcohol out of the denatured stuff you get from the pharmacies, haha, wild stuff!







Night came setting on and Ivan lit the barbecue outside and baked us some porkchops and onions in the fire, Nikki made another one of his awesome salads, and we hade a great dinner with rakija :D.

After dinner we passed the guitar and banjo, I played some country music. They played and sang all together, some of the most beautifull songs I'd heard live... bulgarian folkmusic mixed with some popsongs. It just struck me as beautifull cause I couldn't understand a word and so was very perceptive of the behaviour and tonalities in the music. And of course a lot less prejudiced then one would be towards his own culture ;).



After a few hours of playing talking, drinking and crochetting a hat for Elli ( one of my masterpieces I must say, the combinations of white and leftover colours worked really well..)
which she liked even more than I did, I went out with Nikki and Elli.

Toni and Ivan had gone to bed already and we walked out in the cold and dark night. It felt so gentle and peacefull though.
Nature here has nothing of the frustration and stress towards the human race as it has in our west.
Here there is still peace between man and nature, and you could feel it in the air...
We were so exalted under the stars and the moon, we started doing somersauls and saltos in the high grass, and it catched us soft as a pillow. Cheering and laughing like mad children we lay in the grass, ridiculing the strange behaviour of modern life, not understanding it from our beautifull viewpoint, high on that mountain, under the fading clouds, starlight and the moon.
Pressing our bellies to mother earth, hoping to grow back our umbellical cords and feel all the warmth and grounded nurturing she gives and gives and gives...
Some say nature is hostile, but she has her own ways, she's not hostile anymore than she is loving.
I guess she has her rules, and for those that are happy with what they have, and know her, she is a sweet as a loving mother. We create our own demons I reckon...

Anyways, it felt so good to be out there, not cold anymore at all... we rested and felt healthy.
And went to bed.... sweet dreams, under starlight and moonshine, rainbowhued visions of myth and story...

woke up hung over hahahaha :D
had coffee and some of the best tasting sheep yoghurt ever(yoghurt is supposed to have originated in bulgaria, because those bacteria are indigenous here and in the air), but had to visit the bathroom for some other purpose than excreting the useless... anyways.

the awesome banitsva or burek

a typical bulgarian childrens plate :D


Nikki showed me how to bake the local breakfast dish 'Banitsva', also known in the Yugos as Burek and probably every region has it's version of it... I love it and it's so cheap to buy in the bakeries... mmm nice stuff made of dough(millefeuille , or bladerdeeg in flemish, cheese, yoghurt and eggs.
If anyone wants me to post the recipe, just ask! Anyway it's great and it made me feel so much better!

a local flower

We went for a walk in the mountains and I got to take some really cool pictures of landscapes and old rustic houses, that were probably not used any more. The Bulgarian border police stopped us and asked for our passports, apparently there's a lot of smuggling and stuff around here, they were very nice though :D.
Then we headed back to town and had an easy evening and a movie.

NIkki and Elli

Ivan and the caterpillar





Tomorrow we're going into town, I really wanna see the town!
Okay, buddies that's all for tonight, take care and sweet dreaming, always!

Much love,
xxx


steven


some more pics:

Cigarette smuggling, chickin yells and watch your bag!!!

Ieps,


I find myself waking up on the train heading for Sofia. What a mess!
This train looks like it was ready for the junkyard back in the eighties... But what an amazing journey... People screaming, someone tapping the walls with a hammer, occasionally somebody peeping into our cabin to see if we're sleeping and if there's something to steal :p...


Either a cock or some retard imitating one(as my Holland friend so laconically put it), then miaaauws and all the such, getting stamps again from the Serbians, cigarette smuggling, asking me for my firestaff to get the smuggled cigarettes from within the ceiling of the train... Old school!
The Eastern European woman look as if they came straight out of the eighties.. lots and lots of cigarette smuggle fjuw...



The landscape is very beautiful though and it seems striking that this is EU territory. It's cold this morning and I'm getting close to Turkey, I look forward to it.
me :p

I spend my whole day yesterday hanging out with the Italian girl I met at the hostel. I had told the boss of the hostel how I played in the streets for some money, and he told me to go do it in Belgrade that it would be good weather that day and I would do good. Lisa asked me if she could join me with her poi. She was an amazing girl and very friendly, so why would I refuse..



We walked up to the mainstreet and started playing, and from the first seconds we hit it off well, good energy, fun times, and lots of banknotes came in... People seemed to like our act and who ever said a banjo and poi don't work well together :p.
After an hour or so of playing we counted the large number of bankbills in our hat and calculated how much it was worth; 4 or 5 euro something hahahaha... awesome!!
We had some good times meeting local people and chatting, I had some burek and then we continued on for another hour or so... then we got tired and had warm red wine... awesome.

It was really great to have somebody to hang with again, it makes travelling different more real and enjoyable. Though I must say I like to have my solo moments.
But these short and intense meetings with good deep conversation and healthy laughter, coming and going so fast, hello goodbye, same old, yet ever new... so special and unique, every time.

Anyway we went for another walk and a restaurant in the bohemian quarter, not expensive but I still regret it. Not the experience, it was cool being in a real restaurant again, but the food was so greasy, even the soup, it kept me up half of the night feeling sick, and then I had meat again too Ay. Own damn fault you say?

Anyway went to trainstation, got onto this crappy train, net a nice guy from Holland, student engineering, had girlfriend here, was here for school. Hung out on train and enjoyed the humorous situation on this nighttrain... what a ride!

Talk to ya'll soon..............x

steven

Belgrade: gypsies, hustlers and Rakija

Hey babes,

here I am in my serbian hostel making jokes with the owner and locals, and one girl from Italy that's staying here.
They're laughing with the southern dialects of this country, I laugh cause I don't understand a word of what they're saying. It's breakfast time.



I had a great sleep really, walked around Belgrade all morning yesterday. But it was too rainy andc I didn't feel like catching a cold so I bought myself a bottle of local rakija and went back to the hostel. Kind of hoping to meet up with some people and have a good chat. I did, ofcourse they all liked Rakija, they're Serbians :D...

the old castle on the hill.

lots of buildings like this around in the older neighbourhoods..

We spent all night slowly finishing the bottle, as the evening got older more and more people joined in and we had a blast. The old housekeeper/nightguard was a calm and gentle man and he let us have our drinks, they were all telling stories about Serbia and the government and the privatisation of government companies because the government was too broke to pay back it's loans...
The polish young guy next to me told us some stories about Poland in the 80's... and then they talked a while about Tito.

view from the mountain

The old man (Vladimir) told me a joke; 'you know in Serbia we have 5 seasons: spring, summer, fall, winter and WAR'. Straight to the point I guess...

Me and Boban, a local that lived at the hostel and was a self proclaimed salesman of everything and streetmusician, went out to the night supermarket to buy some food... He cooked it for me, this prepackaged serbian dish; a greasy goo of beans and separator meat.... a vegetarians dream.

From hostelbelgrade

Boban the king of Black Market and the hostels 'the big Man' - boss

We gulped it down and didn't make a fuss about it, than had some more beer and went to bed.
Oh and I did use the free internet well to skype call family and old friends, that was really healing too...
Now right now I just had breakfast and green tea and am sitting among the heavy smoking bunch again... oh my god the smoke last night in this little kitchen... crazy!!! sigarettes are very cheap here, and people smoke; old school!





snuck into a military meeting :p

Anyway, today I'm getting my act together and taking the nighttrain to Sofia, I hope to get a better sleep than on the one here from Sarajevo... The cops woke us up 5 times to stamp our passports, I have like 4 Croatian stamps now and 3 Serbians.... why? Don't ask me, I guess they like their stamps, I don't think the Bosnians have any yet though, otherwise I would have had more!
It's my own damn fault for being such a stamp collector :p...

bye all you lovers and loved ones out there
talk to you all soon

steven

and the beautifull lions of dawn ;) :

the night train to Belgrade

Our share of night to bear,
Our share of morning,
Our blank in bliss to fill,
Our blank in scorning.

Here a star, and there a star,
Some lose their way.
Here a mist, and there a mist,
Afterwards — day!
(Emily Dickinson)

I find myself riding a nighttrain to Belgrade tonight, I spent the whole afternoon working and writing and was later on joined by two new friends I had made and had come to hold quite dear.
Two sweet French art and film students, Clement and Pauline, they were a pretty pair, though not a real couple, I loved to imagine as if they were. Such a cute couple :p.




We had spent the last 2 days cooking and spending the evenings together, in the kitchen of their warm rented apartment.
Last night we were joined by a German couple that rented the second room of the place. They were hitchhikers too and turned out to be warm and friendly folk, though at first I must admit to have misinterpreted the girls humour as somewhat dry and pretentious. Anyway, I was wrong and after a few beers and strumming my heart for a few country songs on the banjo, I found myself to be low and nonsensical again towards these people that were obviously more aware than me. I have these bad moments when I can act like a jerk, mostly when something's not emotionally right, and yes I'm searching again... I guess

I feel myself purifying again, these last weeks on the road, are like a purgatory, a facing you straight in the face of reality, your weakness laid out in front of you... and where are you heading now?? that seemed to be my question right now... that old highway just keeps going on forever .


our little neighbourhood bakery that had really good local bread, open almost all night because of Ramadan... every night there is a big explosion fireworks to let people know they can eat again :p.

Anyway, I went to bed early, when the beer was through and I found myself a little unbearable again, I slept well and dreamed in soft warm visions of a woman who had loved me and I had said goodbye to, because it didn't feel right and I was still in love with someone else. Maybe it was her, I'm not sure, it might just have been a beautiful vision of being loved again, something I missed... but I woke up still feeling a residue of that dream love, and it did me real good.
We are all loved somehow, by someone...
Excuse me for laying out my inner world so clearly, it's a conscious choice I made, as to make for more human and interesting poetry/prose. It's what I wanna try to do, as I used to leave out a lot of the true experience.

Now today, I took it easy again, because the rain just discourages a person to be out for more than an hour or so. I spent my afternoon in the teahouse again where I have free wifi internet, and I worked some on my pictures and writings, setting up a nicer blog for anyone interested enough to read, this might even end up on there :p. I like writing on trains though... it's a good thing to do when it's too dark to gaze out of the window, something I love dearly too :D.

clement working in the coffeehouse

My day was kind of set within that warmth of love I had dreamed about, and that love shone on in the cosy moments sitting with friends and coffee, having a few tokes of cigarettes, and feeling how nice it is to have people to talk too you really like. Our goodbye was warm and soft, I hugged them.. and we agreed to keep in touch, somehow, somewhere... I'm very forgiving though to those that don't, I know how it goes...

Then I went for another meaty sandwich(I keep doing it and then regretting and blaming myself, a useless thing to do), and walked up to the tram station across the street. A sweet older lady saw me eating and asked if I was hungry, I could sense she wanted to talk... I smiled back and said yes, few minutes later I walked closer and started a conversation, she was called Merita and spoke decent English for a Sarajevan woman of her age. She was retired and on pension, as she called it, and just spent her time sitting in the busstation I guess looking over the nicest part of old town Sarajevo. She felt kind and she told me why she loved Sarajevo and how she was born there. Our conversation turned to language and how beautiful it is that you can translate it all the time, and do games with the meanings of words, it seems to be coming back to me a lot lately. I guess it's the universe giving me good advice about writing..

Anyways, I got to the train station and found that I didn't have enough money for the ticket. I had to run to a cash machine and quick because the train was in 20 minutes.

I made it and now I'm riding and writing and have to stay awake for a transfer I have to make in an hour or so. The battery of this computer seems to be doing good so far but I don't know if it's gonna stay up for another hour. I'm almost finished though with my report of tonight.
It strikes me though how good it feels to make new friends, and how emotionally cleansing good-byes can be, that's when the real stuff comes up, you know.
And it touched me how this old lady gave beauty to a regular old tram stop, loving her town and speaking soft meaningful words that rang in my heart and soul and spoke of a higher meaning in language and words. How holy life and word can be if one is filled with love and awe for them.
It's night now and Emmylou is singing in my ears, I love country. And I think it loves me too.
I really loved Sarajevo, I hope it will still be there when I get back.
Warm nights and soft dreams to all of you lovely beings out there x

Steven