Ramadan.

Today is the second day of Ramadan, I was not aware of this until i saw the big sign above the main street of Berat and talked to the women from the info office. What i don't know either is that i will make a very interesting and helpfull (relativ to last nights state of mind) experience about this today.

I get up at 7, visit the cities castle and old town, you have to climb up a steep road and even in the early morning it is tough. But it is worth it, in the early hours it is free :) and no one is in the small streets up here. Berat is definitely the city of thousand windows. I get a private tour into the building holding the phonographic museum witch opens at 9 only. The guard lets me in for a couple pictures and some very interested questions. Where are you from, what do you do, how long etc... the usual stuff :)

Back down i pay for my room, get a nice smile from the owner and head for the Internet cafe and then the bus station. I meet a young helpful men at the bus stop. I would have waited to more hour if it wasn't for him. I was already ion the 2 o'clock bus, the twelve o´clock bus only passes trough, does not stop in the station. I say this because i did not know it yet, but i will meet him again very soon!

As i get of in Vlore, i am full of doubts, it is 2pm, the heat along with some 18kilo on my back is barely stand able and i have no idea where to go or what to do. I head for what seems to be the old center. A couple statues with the date 1912... no idea what happened that year. An other on for a dude named Ismel who was born and died the same day... no idea who he is and no one around to tell me. At this time of the day in Albania, everyone sleeps somewhere. The shops close for a couple hours, the streets are deserted. I sit in a park quite close to some elders playing dominoes or cards. I sit a while and then walk through fresh water blown away by the wind from a big fountain...

And i decide to head for the beach. Get harassed by a first Taxi driver. The mood is not at its highest. What the fuck do i do here?? i am tired, i am sick of moving all the time. where are my friends? what the fuck do i do alone here, in this heat, with all the rare people i come across staring at me as if i was from mars... Big moment of questioning again, i should definitely head back to Belgrade soon and go rest in Istanbul. But still i want to see the sea and the beautiful beaches i was told about. So i walk...

At the next taxi station, i get harassed again, this time they want to convince me to go for a 20 euro room... And Destiny kicks in once more... Two young Albanians walk by and ask if i need translation. We start talking. They are students of the peace Corps i contacted a bit late and did not get an answer from! they speak very good English and speak with great admiration about their teachers. We dump the taxi guy and go for coffee. They will totally help me out of this situation, coffee with a lot of sugar gives me the initial boost and when Wilson tells me he knows a 10 euro room and the he could even host me, i am delighted and heve no more problems.

We move at Wilsons where i drop my stuff before going round town. He shows me the place he worked at, introduces me to his boss, to his friends. Explains that 1912 is the year of declaration of independence ad that Ismel is the dude who declared it and raised the flag! he bring me to the place it was raised where an old man shouts stuff and point at what i should take a picture of, it is the nicest picture i have from vlore i think...

We then head for what has to do with my introduction. Sorry i get carried away again and you have lots of shit to read :) We go to his mosque where after watching the evening prayer, i get to share the food with his community. Delicious lamb with slightly spicy potatoes, rice, salde and yogurt. Delicious! the best mean i had in a long time. And every one around is friendly, a little curious and welcoming. And right opposite to me sits the men who helped me out with the bus... A great experience which made me think a bit.

Although these are special times, because of the Ramadan, the hospitality of Muslim make me realize that it is very easy to be convinced into this religion. Unlike what is believed, they are not all extremist and leave you the freedom to practice the religion as you feel. I for my part think will never be a Muslim (or practice any other religion) because i am not desperately looking for answers, impossible explanation, spirituality or a community to belong to. I am a rational, got scientific education and am lucky enough to have all the friends to support me and all i need to live comfortably. None the less, i was very impressed and will try to make my point without further justification or side explanations. i believe the reason Islam is a raising religion in great cities like London, Paris or others is not the great job imams do to convince people into it. Rather it is the very warm, supportive, opened, not demanding, helping, respecting, tolerating community that it offers. This is all the capitalist society, specially in the anonymity of cities, does not give. It sometimes, if you are willing and lucky enough, gives enough money to survive or even to buy stuff (which might not be what you need). But it does not care for you, especially if you are an illegal immigrant, a homeless person or some sort of marginal. Maybe i understood this that way because i was myself desperate and lonely at the time i met Wilson and because he offered me, just like his friends offered him before, a home, food and someone to talk to (not about my problems but about life, religion, gay couples, tolerance, America and much more debatable subjects...)

I was long once again, got carried away in socio religious theories :) And don't get me wrong about it, I don't advocate religion. simply point out it fills a lack of communal sens in our society. Reactions are welcome!

Berat 2

Third day at Exit

This is the very awaited day of Gogol Bordelo, Manu Chao, Afrika bambaataa, Kruder and Dorfmeister, Kiril and more!! Unfortunatly i had no time to think about making some pictures let alone make them something correct... So i have few and not so good pictures of that day.

From here the the scene there is quite a distance and some 30.000 people...

The crowd was hudge and quite amazingly, after meeting Jeremies friends, we are joined, in the middle of this hudge crowd by Stephanie and later by Nicolas and his girlfriend Anna. The Gogol bordelo concert is scheduled a bit early but the crowd is allready warmed up and the concert is explosiv. Since me and Jeremie have absolutely no will to see Juliette and the licks, we leave the group, promise to meet around here, next to the projector for Manu Chao. We go wondering around and find some quit brutal metal concerts (i used to love this music but now except for bands like Nine inch nails, it only rarely makes an impression on me) and a couple stage changes. We stop at one of the and wait for the begining of Besh o Drom ... sounded a bit like Bezodrom and the amount of instruments on scene woke our couriosity :) It s a good surprise but after a few songs it all sounds the same.


We head for Manu Chao. Incredibly, we imidiatly find the 3 friends of Jeremie, Stephanie, Nicholas and Anna and making our way further to the front we come across Mina and Natasa!! We have tried to meet them all nighte yesterday and now we stop searching, we finaly find them!! in the middle of some 30.000 people! The concert is great, jumping around for 2 h, finaly get some real dancing action in this festival. Like always the crowd is too dense in the begining but looses up with time.

Tonight, for change, we get tired of the electronic music, Kruder and Dorfmeister are very disapointing to me but the little we saw from Kiril was fantastic! . We will get a little more sleep this night since it is "only" 5. This is the night were we are happy to sleep by the danube and not in the official camping where a tree branch will colaps due to that nights storm and kill a young macedonian.

Craiova

Walking around Craiova:

Gardens and Town hall (if i remember right)

Having fun with a camera and some fountain...

Something went wrong? first floor only...

In Craiova i meet Guillaume, my host from France and his friend Andrea from Italy. We grab a beer, talk about India and mostly the road to get there, over Iran. We then go to his place for dinner and later meet some friends of his to play PlayStation with a camera, something close to the Wii but you don't hold anything. The camera captures your motion and whoever is fastest in realizing some move like jumping around our waving a lot whith your hands wins. In the end you sweat a lot (especially in the middle of summer in an apartment) and look really stupid but you have a great time.

Looking stoopid? no, having fun!

This day i also made plans a little for the next days and asked an other couchsurfer in Brasov to host me. This is in the Carpatian mountains where i want to do a little bit of castle visiting (long time i didn't see a castle :) and some trekking. But before leaving Craiova, i will Andrei on his job. He is working for Terre des Hommes and we will do a toy delivery to some schools in poor, remote areas around Craiova. This allows them to organize summer activities for children there.

Toys : mini football, hockey etc...

After work, i meet a Friend of Andrei, Eduardo. We go for dinner and eat an Romanian specialty, Mici, some grilled mixed minced meat with spices. Delicious. Besides being an amazing man with amazing stories and mind which i cannot describe here, Eduardo seems to have met Erwan, a friend form Australia! Damn small world once again...

Off to Romania!

After 2 weeks in Belgrade, I decided to attend Exit on the long weekend in about 10 days and bought a ticket for all 4 days off this crazy festival and to explore a bit further east in the meanwhile.
So i start getting ready, laundering, posting, mailing and check my facebook profile. There big surprise checking my friend status updates, i read Cristina is getting ready for Romania!! This cant be possible, i quickly send an sms and ask her when and where she will be. What a surprise! We met in Sydney about 5 years ago and we didn't see each other for more than 2 years! She will be in Bucharest in the time i am in Romania so we can meet there!
Hitchhiking my way out of Belgrade is as in all big city not so easy. I get a tram out of town, wait long time before a get a ride with a dad and son for 30 km. The driving of the father is like his reflexes, very fast :) (don't worry mom, safety belts were available). I then wait for more than an hour, see the father and son drive past me again and about 20 buses stopping there... After so much waiting i decided to catch the next bus for the next town : Smederevo.

Smederevo

From there i walk a lot before finally jump on a driving bus where to driver drives with open doors and listens to loud rock music! I jump off at a crossing and catch an other ride with a auto mechanics / pumpman ( he had a huge pump in his truck ). And as the night is falling, i get a ride with a man from Kosovo going to meet his wife in a small town around Pozarevac. As he drops me, it is getting really dark and i decide to sleep somewhere around here.

Blurry sunset

Kalemedgan

The castle in Belgrade, nice and big, it is where i listened to a gypsy concert on the first night i got there, were i had very interesting discussions with Stevan, chilled on a sunny afternoon (with ice cream of course), watched the people go by (this is a local habit is seems) and made some crazy, unexpected, unlikely encounters...

The castle viewed from the park (once again, thank you Jeremie for the picture :)

The view from the castle on Belgrade's brides over the Sava River.

The Castle walls, and the view on the junction of Sava And Danube

The forbidden place where the very unlikely, very surprising, very happy encounter happened!

Meet George, the only guy you can meet in the middle of a national park at more than 2000m and then 3 weeks later in a park in Belgrade. While i did a straight line with two stops from the park to Belgrade, he did a whole tour of the east: Albania, Bulgaria and Romania!
How small is this world really?? How does this work?

On the road to Belgrade, you have to raft!

Next morning, our ways go different ways... Alain is going back south, going for Albania (check out his blog, its in the link list!) I m going north, to Belgrade!

Some of the most amazing story happened this day!! (13 June)

Out of the village.

I rapidly get a ride with a Belgian couple, on their way to rafting. They drop me on the bridge from where i look down and think i have to get closer to this beautiful clear water! So down i walk, drop my bag at the restaurant and after getting slightly lost, a dirt road gets me down to a small not so nice beach from where i decide to continue trough the jungle.

So i manage to get closer to the bridge, take some pictures, see some rapids and some rafts going down them... but i walked some hour in this jungle and dont want to turn around...

A bit further i find this nice bouldering rock, where are you Alain!

A lost boot by the Tara...

This is when the crazy stuff happened. As i was making my way up some snake infested, way too steep stones (ok i dramatised this a bit), i hear some yelling behind me... Its the Belgian driving down the river and making big signs! The tell me to get closer, I run down, jump from stone to stone and catch up with the raft. The raft main rower invites me on board, I jump in!

And their i am, i a raft on river Tara! With the two Belgian,

And Slavko, my saviour !

he is very nice and we exchange two three sentences. He proposes to take me down to the end and then drive me back to the bridge where he has his camp site! Of course i agree and as we get to the end of the raft tour, i offer him a glass of rakjia to celebrate this improbable encounter! I then share the Belgians meal, my first task of authentic local food, some smoked ham, fresh cheese, fresh tomatoes and lamb meat! Odlicno! Delicious!

We the drive back and i talk with the Belgian about the mountains, it turns out their are the ones who left us some bred and this ridiculous red bandanna they found on their way! what a small world!

And i soon realize the camp we are driving at, is the one recommended to us by the mad driver some days ago! I i also rapidly realize i m not going to Belgrade anymore...

And this is where i ll stay tonight, and my new friend!