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 !!

Erasmus Road Trip: Krakow and Bratislava

Hey hey guys !! 

Well well, I guess u all know what am I going to write about after reading the heading of the post

yeahh babies, the trip to Krakow and Bratislava it is. 

For those who are not very keen on Geaography, Krakow is the second largest city in Poland and Bratislava is the major city and capital of Eslovakia.

It all started last week 17th of March, me, Alfonso, Barbara, Gloria and Tamara went by car from Ljubljana to Krakow, passing by Austria and Slovakia before reaching our destination. Some of you may ask, 'ohh it's a long trip'.. yes indeed, 4 countries in 10 hours, that's actually quite a lot, it's like crossing Spain from the very North to Andalucia.. 

Can't say anything really about the hours spent in the car.. the usual, we got prepared with lots of food, chocolate and a wide range of snack.. you know it's 10 hours and we are not going to stop in side ways restaurants that charge you 3 times more than usual for a single meal.. c'mon we are sutdents!

Anyway, around 6pm we arrived to Krakow! and hopefully it wasn't very difficult to find the hostel (in Warsawska Ul.) nor find a place to park.. apparently in Krakow you can park for free on the streets from 6pm until 10am... so it was totally perfect for us, We parked the car and we registered in the hostel, which by the way, was amazing! I totally recommend it to those who want to visit the city, it was only for 8 euros, 5 minutes walking distance from the old town, close to the train station.. all advantages I mnust say... plus, it's was almost brand new, all the furniture and stuff, they even had a playstation for guest! 

Right after we spent some quality time in the hostel, we went to search something for dinner, we end up in a Burrito restaurant next to the hostel, very nice food and cheap.. like 12 zlotys (3 euros), and later we went to walk around the city centre and check out the night views of Krakow. Later on we were looking for a place to hang out a bit and dance, after trying several places, we found this great bar called Carpe Diem II, a pretty regular bar, the best part it was that on the dancefloor there weren't many people, so we could order the dj all the songs we wanted.. lol

On Friday morning, we decided to wake up early enough to have breakfast (which was included in the hostel price) and head to Auschwitz (in Polish Oświęcim), the well know Concentration Camps during the WWII , for those who want to know a little bit of the place, it's a complex of 3 concentration camps (Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II-Birkenau and Auschwitz III-Monowitz) 90km away form Krakow. 

We only got to see the first two... I am not going to bother you with the history about it, u can check on internet, but a curiosity is that Auschwitz was a concentration camp for the political prisioners and a extremination camp just for Jewish... what the hell were the Nazis thinking... 'todos locos' .

About the museum-tour itself, it's free to get in and see everything, but if you want a guide explaining all the way around it's 28 zlotys (7 euros) for students and 40 zlotys (10 euros) for normal price. I totally recommend to get the guide, first because it can be in different languages (we got our in Spanish), and second beacuse the guide can tell you many more thing and lots of anecdotes that are not written on the explanation placards.  remark* (there are set times for the tour guides, we got the 12:20 one, and between the camps I and II there is a free bus connecting them, or u can also walk, it takes like 20 minutes..)

What can I say about place.. it's very interesting to see it, mainly for historial reasons, but it gets depressing for moments once you see all the pictures and what the people left in the camps... 

Anyway..  after spending half day there, around 4pm it was time to get back to Krakow... once there we went to look for some food and later meet with some Spanish Erasmus friends of Tamara and Barbara, they showed us a little bit more of the city, we visited the Jewish neighbourhood (where the Schindler List was filmed) and later on to a flat party. Very busy night I must say . 

We had to go to Bratislava on the Saturday noon, so I decided to wake fairly early to do some sightseeing during dayligth.. I don't know if I said it before, but Krakow is an amazing city, very beautiful, for me it was wonderful, because I barely expected anything on the forehand, I even tought it was going to be a horrible, once again, don't make judgments before you see something with yout own eyes.. 

Well, as I said before, by noon we packed everything and we began our jouerney to Bratislava, where Monika (a Slovak Erasmus in LJU for the first semester) was witing for us, we decided to meet her in the capital and to spend a couple of days with her because she's from Surani (1 hour away by train from Bratislava). 

After 6 hours of driving we finally got to the capital, this time it was a little bit more diffiult to find the hostel because it was in the middle of the busiest street in the city (restricted to traffic), so we parked near by, and walked to the hostel... Can't say anything about the hostel, a regular one, at least it was within walking distance of the old city. Anyway, after taking a shower and resting for a while, we went for dinner, and Monika as a good Slovak and tour guide, she took us to a typical Slovak restaurant with tasty food and great beers. I ordered Bryndzové halušky, delicious btw, (dumplings with goat-milk cheese and bacon). 

This is actually a different dish, dumpling filled with cheese.

Once we finished dinner, we went on some chit chatting time with more beers, until it was above time to get to a club or something. Looking for a place to party it was again a little bit more difficult, not because there weren't places, actually there were quite a wide selection, but the ones we saw were kinda posh or with music we mostly don't like, but luckyly, we found a bar (which I don't rememebr the name) in the old city, lots of people, and commercial music for all the likes and preferences.. 

On the next morning we went to to visit Bratislava, once again, don't judge a city before seeing it, many people told me that Bratislava is worthless seeing, just for a hop and a coffee. It is true that the city is small compared to Wester European capitals, but it doesn't mean is ugly or anything, actually is quite beautiful, Medieval style, just check out yourself.

Around 3pm we decided to finish being 'guiris' (Spanish slang for tourists) and get ready to hit back to LJU, 5 hours of trip were waiting for us, that's why we didn't want to leave late.. 

Some figures: 

5 people, 1 car, 1700 km of roads, 20 hours of driving, 2 visited cities, passing by 4 different countries (Slovenia, Autris, Slovakia and Poland)  tons of fun and an amazing experience. what else can I ask for?

I hope u guys enjoyed the blog, see you on the next one! 

1 abrazo a todos! 

Party in Ljubljana, hell yeahh !

Heey guys !

Haven't written any post for like 2 weeks, let's be honest, I am kinda lazy to do so, and quite busy.

Classes has started already couple of weeks ago, nothing special really, I haven't reduced the class load respect to the first semester, actually is the same, I have again 7 subjects, which 4 of them are really important for me to coz they are very difficult to pass in my home university, but this is not the point really.

What have I done lately? well, beside of going to class every single day and getting bored a usual, it's partying around ! I don't now if I mentioned before the places students can go partying in Ljubljana, so let's make the first one of plenty of them.

For me, this week of social life, ok lets say partying,  was reduced to 1 party during weekdays, (damn flu !) I was recovering from being sick, so the brightless idea is going out sick, altough I did go out for a while on Tuesday night coz it was the 'the Anual Rozna Dolina Costume Party'. Due to the Carnivals the students organization or something like that prepared a costume party for the cause. They put a big tent in in the football field for the people to stay drunked under security and warmness. A big success I must say, the pre tickets were totally sold out ne day before the official date, and later they were selling 200 extra tickets that were sold out in one hour also.. so imagine how crowded was it. I had my ticket, but I didn;t stay long, I just wanted to check out how was the party and stuff, I hang out for a little while with some friends and later I got back to my room. It could have been a real fun if I wasn't sick that day, but well, It was good to see people havinf fun tough.

Anyway, this is not what I want to focus on... and this is... partying in Companeros Club on Thursday nights! Every single Thursday there is Erasmus party in that club, so for us , Erasmus student it is almost a must to go there, full of exchange student under one roof, and of course local students.

As usual, before hitting the club, we gathered in the dorms to prepare our bodies a little bit, for students that mean, drinking before going to the club. But yesterday night was a little bit different, we had special Slovak drinks Monika brought us before she went back to Slovakia. And there were lots of alcohol for 8 people. Under normal circumstances having lots of drink is not a big deal, but when you have several bottles of white wine and a peer licquor of 50 degrees, it really matters..  (Thanks Monika for the drinks!)

What can I say about the warming up, very good, some chitchatting, playing pyramid, you know, fun stuff. Around 2am or so we decided that we were ready to gou out, so we called two taxis to hit the party (taxi here is really cheap, not like in Madrid). 'Metro Taxi? Dve Taxi Rozna Dolina, Yellow Trafika Prosim' is most wide said sentence during the nights...

About the club, nothing special really, there are better places to party, but the environment is quite good, the music is not bad either, but the best thing is that is close down at 5am, one of the latest in the city, that is really a plus. So as usual, after a long night dancing we packed the left overs of our bodies and hit back home at 5...

On the following post I will write about other party places like Orto Bar, Metelkova, K4 and so on!!

C'mon this is Erasmus and party is what is about !

1 abrazo guys!