The End....of Erasmus

My home for 10 months

Well well well, I guess this is it, the last post of my Erasmus experience. Although I've arrived in Madrid few days ago, it seems like it was yesterday when I left Ljubljana... I have been quite busy these days so I wasnt able to update the post.. well here is it..

Dinner with my Slovene friends, you are the best! 

All the goodbyes come obviously with a farewell party, and I wasnt going to be less, I threw mine two weeks before my departure, due to my heavy schedule of exams... if I remember well the date was Friday 17th..  anyway, what can I say about the party... all the people I care about came, and even some new faces were in the party, but it didn't matter, is never an ackward time to meet new friends, isn't it?
Few hours partying in the TV soba of the blok 14 gave quite a lot, tons of pictures, dozens of empty cans/bottles, people chitchatting and playing fussball.

Party in blok 14!! 

But the fun didnt last for long, even though I had the permission from our blok administrator, around 1am we got kicked out by security, (is it becasue I am black....?)
the reason was that we exceed the time and we were making noise and disturbing the neighbours... (c'mon, tyou cant hear any noise from outside, nor in the upperfloors, plus during the weekends there are barely people in the blok or in Rozna in general..)

Anyway, respecting the law, we decided to clear the room and drink outside the blok, which happend to be 'illegal' too, since few months ago the Office banned any type of meeting or socializing on the common areas... are u fucking kidding me? We were followed like if we were convicts or something, so we thought that if they banned us from socializing inside rozna, we could go to Yellow Trafica, which happend to be successful just for 1 hour or so.. the security guy (which we pay him the salary, only the Erasmus students pay for the weekend security) came again to send us away, far away...

It didnt come on the bad time at the end, it was around 2 something in the morning, so we decided to move to KMS, 'the club' (it 10 minutes walking from rozna).

What can I say about KMS, not the greatest club in town, but we always have a good time though.
I always say that if you do something, do it right, this means, so we went clubbing and we did it right, we didn't leave the club until they close down.. that's the way we do things.

In the follong weeks before my departure, I didnt do much really, studying for some exams, doing stuff for the last time..and obviously doing things for the first time in Lj ! liek going to the castle... haha. I should be ashamed of saying that, I just never found the right time to go... better late than never..

Ljubljana's Cstle

After dealing with the last days in town, it was time to say goodbye, a goodbye to my dear friends, Slovenes, Spanish, Greeks, Austrians, Frenchs,  Polish, Czechs, Slovaks, Motenegrins, etc.... you are all part of my Eramus, part of the Milo Experience, It would not have been the same without all of you.

Really thank you all for these amazing 10 months!

Altough I mentioned that it was time to say goodbye, it's really a see you later, I am sure we will run by each other eventually, some sooner and some years later.

For those who will be in Lj I will come to visit as often as I can, I left some important things back there, and I still haven't visited many places in Slovenia, like the caves... and who knows, maybe one day I will end up living there. We will see.

Ljubljana, I love you

I simply love you.



Some facts:

10 months
9 countries
Hundreds of new faces
Uncountable number of good moments.
1 story
1 reason

Day Trip to Trieste

Hello folks!!


After a busy week with exams and a frenetic Friday night celebrating my farewell party of the Erasmus, it was time to make another trip, which by the way was totally unexpected. These are the best ones!!

This time destination was Italy, to be more concrete, Trieste, very close North-East Italian city, bordering the beautiful country of Slovenia.

After sleeping just few hours of the partying, if you do go party, you do it well (until the place closes down)I received a called from a friend suggesting to go to Trieste (Trst in Slovene), and in the Erasmus the most common phrase used is 'why not'. So that's what I said, et voilà, after 1 hour ride or so we were walking by Italian soil. Before that we stopped in the border, to buy some stuff and near by buy some sweets, which my Slovene friend stated that it was the best sweets shop in Italy if not in the world.
Anyway, after all that, we arrive to Trieste city, which happened that my friend new pretty well, like the palm oh his hand. So we were able to do shortcuts, and park near Catello di Miramare for free.

Beautiful place, surrounded by a stunning park, with ponds full of fishes, little and not so little duckies and some turtles wondering around.

After walking for a couple of hours, 'our tour guide' took us to Trieste city, to see how was it, with all the amazing building and the dock.

He was explaining some a little bit the city's history, and sorry for not listening to you much, but I was just enjoying the views. A while later he took us to the best gelateria in town. And yes indeed, the ice cream was one of the best I have ever tasted... so creamy !!

Following the schedule, we end up looking at the Teatro Romano right before sitting on the docks and rest for a while.

Later on he decided to took us to Torri d'Europa to do chill out for a while.

Well I can't say much about the city really, as beautiful as it is, to be honest, I didn't expect anything from it, so I really end up having a great impression of the city.

I think this will be the one of the last trip I make on Erasmus, since I am leaving in 1 week already.. time passes so fast !


1 abrazo !

The weeks of the last time...

Hello folks!! 

Regarding the title many of you can have a hint of what this is about.

9 months ago I arrived for the very first time to the beautiful of Slovenia, very scared and excited at the same time. I still remember when I arrived to the airport of Ljubljana, I thought, WTF ! why the main airport of the country is so small? I just realized during my stay, going and coming back during holidays period that is actually that is the best think, maybe it doesn't have many facilities, but getting on the plane fast and fetching the luggage without waiting for long is really an advantage. I still remember when I first arrived to the city, I spend a couple of hours in the airport to catch the bus to the city, when I got to the bus station the city was foggy, cold, with not many people, I was regretting coming here, alone, knowing nobody at all, in a strange country, but here I am, a real surviver, like all the Erasmus around Europe...oops, I am getting side-tracked again.

As I was saying, I survived 9 months here, 9 months !! I had to learn how to put a washing machine, the drying machine, which was a total disaster btw, learned how to cook eatable food. I must say, after these time away from home, I can say I am totally independent at the end.

And end is what is this about, after all this time living here, meeting people from different parts of the world, partying with them, getting to know them and making great friends, is almost time to say goodbye.

I knew from the beginning that this day would come, well it's not the end yet, but in a couple of weeks it will be... 

During these remaining weeks I will have to do everything for the last time, at least for the last time as an Erasmus student. Every single restaurant I go it will be the last one with student coupons, every party I go it will be the last in Ljubljana with all the amazing people here whether they are locals or foreigners. I will miss all of these. The last time having a 'mesni burek' after Companeros, the last time going to the Mercator 24h to buy eggs at the last moment, the last time calling Metro taxi to bring us home at 5 in the morning, the last time...

I will probably not remember all the details of my Erasmus stay, but reading the blog will help me a lot. It will help to me remember why every day spent here, every person, every act,  which made me the person I am now.

To finish, not everything will be for the last time, it will not be the last time seeing my friends, wherever they will be in the future, I am sure we will run by each other. It won't be my last time in Ljubljana, I won't leave this city behind either, specially because of the people I know here. I have one hundred and one reasons to come back here, but one reason in concrete happens to be the most important one.

Well, I don't want to get emotional, it's not the right time yet.. so..

Mucho sexo y rock and roll !!

1 abrazo!!

Student Coupons, the Slovenian Marvelous food system

Hello folks ! 

This post is going to be dedicated to the government meal subsidies for the students, maybe for some of you it's not very interesting, but for me to remember in the future and for those who are coming to Slovenia to study I believe it's quite useful information.

As I was saying, the student coupon system consist basically on a subsidy from to the government to the student to purchase a meal in selected restaurant (the vast majority I can say).

How does the system work? Well you basically have to register with a Slovenian phone number in the SOU (Student Organization) to activate the food coupons. So when you go to the restaurant you have to call 1808 in your phone and validate the coupon on the machine. et voilá, cheap meals for everyone.

You can get as many coupons as school days are. which means basically 20 to 22 coupons per month. 

If you are not much a eating out person, don't worry, the student coupons can be stored up to  3 months.

The price of the meal with the student coupon cost up to 4.5 euros, that means if you are short of money one month you can basically eat for free, or for a couple of euros. Also the a full meal normally consist of one soup, salad, main dish and dessert.

After the jump you can see some pictures of what you can eat in my favorite restaurants in town.

Bistro Sumi, 2.88 euros (Faculty of Social Sciences)

Here you have the restaurant Sumi Bistro, located between the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Faculty of Administration in Bezigrad. 

You can choose two things among soup, salad and dessert. And then get the main dish. All for 2.88 euros

Appetizers and soup

One of my favorite restaurants the Mexican Joe Peñas, maybe is not the cheapest, but you eat quite well and during the evenings you get half price cocktails just for eating with student coupons. 

Full meal would be 3.88 euros and each cocktail with would be 3 euros average.

Main dish at Joe's, sea food salad.

Well this is not my favourite resturant or anything, but I went once and is not bad for 2.08 euros . You can get all the food like it is showed on the image.

You an choose the soup, mix your own salad (up to 200 gr.) and choose the main dish.

For dessert you can choose between the daily saldica or a yogurt. A bottle of mineral water is provided.

This restaurant is located next to the Maxi Market.

Carneola Pizza

And last but not least, Foculus restaurant ( I will upload more pictures in the following posts.)

It is said that this restaurant serves the best pizza in town, for me is not the best, but very very good.

With the student coupon you get a soup, a pizza or salad of your choice and an apple for dessert.

And all for 3.58

This place is amazing to have dinner specially if you are a large group of people coz is quite big.

All this restaurant accept student coupons, there are many other, that you can find on the website or simply ask other Slovenian students once you get here, it is better to discover yourself.

And obviously, they have regular menu for those who dont have student coupon.

1 abrazo a todos !

Some facts:

Price of meal with student coupon: between 0 and 4.5 euros 

For 2.68 you have a Chinese Buffet in the centre, near the Dragon Bridge

For 4.5 you have Spanish food, not comparable to Spain of course, but from time to time is fine, specially when all the jamón ibérico, queso manchego, lomo have run out already... 

There are veggie restaurant, for meat lovers, some gluten free, 

Indian restaurant, Chinese, Italian, Slovenian, Mexican, Spanish and so on. Plenty of time to try everything

And of course, for those who love fast food, you can eat in the McDonald's a full meal with salad and Sundae included for 2.08 euros, and also Kebap for less than 1 euro.

Majske Igre 2011

This is the result of a rough night...

Hello folks !

Sorry for bailing you out for almost two weeks, but I had some exams these past weeks, which I successfully passed, enjoying the amazing sunshine of Ljubljana, and of course partying a lot, but this time, not to regular clubs, but outdoor partying! And ladies and gentleman.. this is Majske Igre 2011 !

And what is this event consist of?  Apparently is a month event held every year by and for college students, sport competitions between several student dorms are held, party in these locations (see Bezigrad, Rozna Dolina, Mestni Log and so on.. ), huge parties in Tivoli Park and also some cultural events.

Cheerleaders in the football tournament break

I must say it's crazy ! If every day are parties already in the student dorms.. imagine the very same parties but with more people and louder music.. I believe that you never do parties in your home, and in this case, in your dorms surroundings.. but we don't really get to choose.. well the advantage is that if u really feel like partying you just only have to put on some street clothes and simply go outside of your own building...  If not.. you are fucked up ! At least until 1am ... that's when normally the music have to stop, at least the one from the mobile stage..

For example, two days ago there was a 'meeting' of drunk Slovenians singing acapella.. I must admit it was very nice... but not when you have to finish some paperworks...

Anyway, it is a good experience, evidently I didn't go out to all the parties organized, only to some of them.. for those people who really know me, I am not a party person, more like friends gathering and having a drink and chitchatting until the sun comes out... but from time to time one need some loud music!!

Live concert in Tivoli Park

Although this is a college event, it's free entry of course, so anyone is welcome, from tourist wondering in Ljubljana, high school students... and of course to the next generation of Erasmus students in the city. So take note, try to have everything prepared to rock the whole month!!

Nasvidenje !

1 abrazo enorme !

Rafting and day in Bled, it's all fun in Slovenia!

Bled train stop

Hello folks !


Hope u all had an amazing Easter holidays and not a rough start back with the routine, coz I know is hard, but I have some ways to minimize the holidays post-depression.
And this is .... going rafting !

Rania (a Greek girl working here fro AIESEC) thought that a nice way to farewell her before she goes back home, it was going rafting all of us, so she organized this amazing activity.

The D day was the 7th of May (Saturday), we gathered together at 9:15am in the train station, to go to Bled, where the people from the rafting company were waiting for us to take us to Sava River.
The trip itself from Ljublana to Lesce-Bled it takes just 40 minutes, but some part of the railway were under construction, so we had to take a bus from LJU to some village, and then take the train to Bled, so at the end we spent like 90 minutes.

Anyway, nearly 12 we were already in the starting point for rafting, we were like 13 people, 9 pseudo Slovenians (meaning exchange students in LJU) and 4 visitors from Austria, friends of Thanos. We had to get ready before starting the journey, including the neopren suit, helmets and life jackets. and this is the result... according to a friend of mine, we looked like Atomic Ants... I don't know if I should take it as a complement or what, but we looked funny either way  lol.

The Atomic Ants group

So, after we got ready, we jumped on the boats, and we started to pad, beautiful river, stunning landscape, it looked like a dream trip, and a very good one.
The finished our trip without any incidents... well without any big incidents... while acting like jerks in the boat, we got stuck in the middle of the river, so the monitor had to get off the boat to take us out of there, but he couldnt, so me and Thanos jumped off to help him, which was succesfull at the end, but... the flow drove the bopat down so we had to swim straight to the boat... and fuck, the water was freaking cold !! around 8 degrees or so .. imaginee... hopefully we got quickly to the boat...

Rafting in Sava River

Spicing up the journey, we also stoped for a while to climb a 5 meter high rock and made a free jump to the water, it wasn't high, but we did enjoy it tough... and again suffering from the coldness of the water.

After 2 hours ride, we finally made to the ending point, were a lady working for the rafting company was waiting for us with some blueberry schnapps to warm up the body.. delocious! Right after we just changed to our regular clothes and chill out for a bit before going to Bled.

Well what can I say about Bled that I haven't said before... beautiful as it is, but this time was slightly different, we got to enjoy the gorgeousness of the lake, it was so sunny that it made it really special, we had lunch in a pizzeria (which accepted student coupons) and take a walk around the lake.

Bled

Around 5pm some of us decided to go back to LJU, so the 4 people coming for Austria decided to drive us to the train station, so we end up being 7 people in 5 sit car... imagine the picture... well u have it here..

7 people, 1 car

The train back to LJU was direct, so we it took less time inbound trip, around 40 minutes.

After this amazing and exhausting day, we just went back home, to rest for a while, so we can go partying later that night.
I met with some Spanish to go to Nebotičnik and have a drink and later rock Orto bar.

Some 'extreme sport', tourism, relaxing, partying, as you can see, one can do everything within 24 for hours, at the expense of sacrifying some sleep of course..

1 abrazo enormee guys !


Key facts:

13 people
40 km to Bled from LJU (7 euros round trip ticket by train)
Rafting in Sava River(23 euros)
2 hours rafting
Orto Bar (rock music bar with free pool and foosball)

Spring Break Ljubljana

Gynkhana group picture! 

Hello folks !!

Here comes the next post, and this is the Spring Break held in Ljubljana, which was quite good, you will notice why.. 

Well first I have to say that the Spring Break is quite unsual compared to other European countries, mainly because here the week off is much later than in Spain for example, more or less the lenght is the same, but moved one week later. Here it started on the 23rd of April until the 2nd of May, which hava the following holidays, Easter Monday (25th), Independence Day(27th) and Labour Day (1st and 2nd of May)

Many Erasmus decided to go out for the week off, but for me I decided to stay in Ljubljana, actually I wanted to go to Pula (Croatia), but we saw the weatherforecast and I wasn't going to be good... 

Anyway, as I was saying, I stayed here for the whole week, so what did I do? well, basically sleep, party and to some extend.. study..

Lots of Erasmus didnt go anywhere either, so we mostly went out for coffee to the centre, lunch dinner, party in KMS, Metelkova, Ultima, you know, the few places open almost everyday.. 

But what did make special this week, was definately the celebration of Labour Day, the City Hall organized a bonfire and prepared a live concert in Rožnik , woww, I liked it so much ! despite of the walking up the hill to 'the pink church' which was btw quite exhausting and dangerous, there were no street lights, (is in the middel of the forest, so is quite understandable), an amazing experience afterall. 

The bann who was playing over there, Tabu, was very good, so sad I couldn't understand any of the lyrics, but we lived the moment like we really did.. and I also got the chance to catch a drumstick from the band !! what a present really !! 

Rožnik

the bonfiere

Tabu

Very nice group indeed! 

About other things I did this past week, we also made a picnic rigth outside of Rozna, as long as the sucky weather allowed us..

Picnic with tortilla de patas, ensalada campera and assorted snacks

during this week we also (well, the twins, Clara and Rocio) organized in their home a Gynkhana, with different tests, like looking for candies in a bowl full of flour, looking for the nutella buscuit blindfolded, and stuff like that. It may sound a little bit childish, but I had so much fun, I must admit

The Nutoka test

Well, this is pretty much my weekend off from college duties, lots of activities, parties and so much fun! 

I also met many  people this past week, which I wish I had met earlier, but well, you know what they say, 'better late, than never' .

1 abrazo enorme a todos !

Some facts:

11 days off
7 months living in Ljubljana
2 months to go
Amazing people
Tons of experienve lived and many to live
What else? 

Early Spring Break in Madrid

Madrid, Madrid

Hello folks! Knowing you are smart asses, it’s quite obvious what is this post going to be about, that’s right! One week off in my lovely home, Madrid. For those who were asking about the term early Spring break, the thing is that I took one week free to go back to Madrid and spend time with my family and friends, as well as to assist an interview for Deloitte, which by the way, I will know if I will get hired in a couple of weeks as a junior auditor.

I must say that this week in Madrid I was in a rush all the time, between preparing the job interview, getting the study exchange programme bureaucracy done, spending time with the family and meeting my friends, I barely had time to rest and simply chill out.

Tomando coffe en el Stur con el grupo Stur

Beside the stressed time in Madrid, I did really enjoy it! I got to see the renewed Río Manzanares with my cousins and their respectives partners, went to have some Tapas with my college mates, hang around with Susi and the Erasmus people in Templo Debod, having frozen yoghurt in the centre,  and so on. Indeed it was a busy week.

Haciendo el mongolo después de cenar

Al rico yogurlado

Sushi at home, made by my dad

Anyway, one week back in my town, it was about time to come back to Ljubljana, which has been my home for already 7 months, and which is going to be my home for the next 2 months, until my Erasmus finishes, Sounds kinda sad, but this is what it is…

Just to finish the post, once back in Ljubljana, it happened that I had some visitors from Graz, Elvis and her friend Javi. Sorry I couldn’t show you the city due to my classes, but at least we had some quality time having dinner and smoking some sisha. Hope you really enjoyed Ljubljana, and hope to see u soon! Maybe in 2 weeks!

1 abrazo a todos! 

It’s Portorož baby!!

Hey guys !! here comes the next post of my adventures in Erasmus, altough I might say, more than an adventure, this small trip is more a relax scape than a real adventure.

As I mentioned in the previous post, what can a person do in Slovenia when the sun is burning the skin in the middle of April.. that’s right, go to the Tivoli park and hang out, but what happens when the routine is boring one off.. the answer is… yeahh, let’s go to the beach !!

Luckily, one of the advatages of living in Slovenia is the travelling distance, normally for me, if I want to go to the seaside I have to drive 3 hours from Madrid to Alicante to enjoy the beach, but here in Slovenia, it’s just 40 minutes away from Ljubljana, isn’t that great ?

I must say the coastline is not comparable at all with the Spanish one.. .but still is quite good, different style, no sand beach, colder water, but just judge yourself, with this landscape, form time to time you don’t really worry about it, you just one to lay dow, relax and sunbathe a little bit.

So this was pretty much my Saturday 9th of April. We, (Me, Dani, Pedro and Primoz) went to Portoroz to escape from the busy life in the big city, we went quite early, by the time we arrived to Portoroz it was like 10:30 am, so the first thing we did was to park the car of course, and hit Cacao, have a nice ice-cream for breakfast and then sunbathe all morning long..

Once we got tired of laying down, we decided to walk around and enjoy the nice weather, when suddenly Primoz had he idea to take us to Lipica, famous for the beautiful Slovenian treasures, the white horses. 

After habg in out for a while, it was about time to have lunch, so the chosen placen was Jurman, Slovenian restaurant made for meat lovers.. 

Judge yourself!

For just 12 euros each we had like 600 grams with 3 different types of meat, and mashed potatoes, veggies, cheese roll and gnochis as side dish.. all very yummy.

So this is pretty much the Saturday I spent... 

1 abrazo enorme! 

Welcoming the Spring in Ljubljana

Greeting from the sunny Slovenia! 

Tivoli Park

Yes fellas, you have read rigth, sunny Ljubljana, we have been under degrees all week long, for almost 2 weeks... it's amazing !! I would have never imagined it could be that hot during end of March beginning of April. you know what they say, 'la primareva, la sangre altera', well, it does't really apply here 'literally', the sunshine really made people go out, the city is full of people in summery clothes to bear whit the heat, families taking evening walks in the parks with their little children, couples kissing under the trees, terraces are full of people having an ice-cream or a beer and even people hanging around in Tivoli park, is simply lovely. After suffering a -20 degrees winter, this is our reward, altough some Slovenians told me not to get too excited with the weather, because the rain season is about to come, so we have to enjoy the sun as much as we can.

Me, my bike and Tivoli Park

As I mentioned before, with this amazing weather, why don't just hang out and get some sunbathe in Tivoli Park, or just simply enjoy a picnic with your friends, or even play freesbie.

But only hanging out in Tivoli is a must, taking the bike and see the city around is also very gratificating, which I did, and it reminded myself that I barely have pictures of the city I am living in, so I decided to take the camera, and make lots of pictures, taking advantage of the sunny days.

Čopova ulica, (la calle Preciados para los madrileños) 

Ljubljianica River, ¿el Manzanares?

Or why not go with some Erasmus friends is go to the city centre, sit on a terrace and enjoy a cup of coffee (iced-cofee, beer or ice-cream also applies and they would be even a better choice), or go to Nebotičnik, one of the highest building in Ljubljana (12 floors), and hit the terrace/lounge on the top floor to enjoy the amazing views Ljubljana can give you, 

The Castle and surroundings

As you can see, these past weeks have been great, enjoying the sun, getting relaxed and tanned and of course meeting new people, more Erasmus and even more Slovenians, which one of them has showed me where can u get one of the best ice-creams in town, this is in Trubarjieva Street, where an Albanian makes amazing 'gelato' for just 1 euro each scoop. If you try, you will go back again for sure!

The Dragon Bridge, and the Castle on the back

What else can I tell you about these past weeks, lots of paperworks to do for university, some exams to study for, but managing all well to take some time out for swimming a little bit, and going out partying of course !

This week is going to be expected with more partying, (I want to welcome back Erika, a Hungarian Erasmus from the first semester, that came to LJU to visit us), more hanging out in Tivoli, more partying in Compañeros, and why not some barbecue or even going to the seaside during the weekend, if the weather keeps beinng sunny of course. We'll see.


1 abrazo !!