New Year's Eve at Bucharest

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Dear Readers,
I hope you are all having a great time together with your family and friends! The holidays are always a time that first start being stressy because of Christmas shopping and university/school stuff, but then and up being a very relaxed time. Most of us are just hanging around - also because we cannot move anymore because we ate too much... No matter how homework or we have we have to be honest to ourselves - we do not do very much. I think that is quite okay though because we need some time to calm down and later our brain turn off.
I have some ideas about what I wanted to post that I will do that the following weeks. For today I wanted to let you know something different: Have you ever thought about spending New Year's Eve in a foreign country? I did and this year I finally made those dream real. Something just attracted me to go somewhere. It has been a very spontaneous dicision. I found a cheap flight to Bucharest and tought: "Bucharest? Hmm, never been there. Why not, sure people there know how to party and have a good time and I can visit yet another interesting country." (Making it seven countries visited in 2012) For all who are not that familiar with it: Yap, Romania that is the country were the Dracula stories were made up. (You might have heard of Vlad Tepes) Transilvania, and so on...
To Julia: Too bad you could not manage to join me you are really missing something!
On Saturday I could not get any sleep so thrilled and also worried I have been. After all this is also my first chouch surfing experience, same for my host he is doing that the first time too. (In case you are interested in ding that one day I we could talk about that.) Sunday I had to get up at four o'clock in the morning, get to the train station, get to Vienna...
At about 1 pm my plane landed in Bucharest a city two million people call there home! That is one of the trips did not plan in any way. I forgot that there is a different time zone (leading to missunderstandings with my host), did not inform myself about the currency (Romania is not in the Euro Zone), ... When I turned on my phone I recieved a text message from my host starting with "Hey Bro" telling my that he was waiting for me at the arrival area. We took the bus to get to center and had a nice chat. He is 24 year old Turk who started his master (comparative politics) here two months ago. He has a strange kind of humour but we get on very well with each other. I have to say at this point that I was really pleased having someone who knows a city that - to be honest - was not very appealing to me at first. Although, I love adventurous trips I did not feel secure or safe at all on the way to his apartment. I saw a lot of great building and villas. Big, with French/Italian looking architecture. The apartment buildings, however: Comminist buildings, all look the same, grey, brown, run-down. I, as a guy, would never ever - not even at day time - have set foot in that kind of area on my own.
Still, his apartment looks very nice! We had Turkish breakfast - at dinner time - and a lot of Cay! Orcun is great - we talked just about anything. The idea of becoming raped or killed slowly vanished from my mind - yap, I had that feelings. We went out to meet another couch surfer from. Ala, an Arap from France. Metro looks very nice. So clean, is it new? I felt like some of the Romanian people were looking at me. Do I feel look like a foreigner? Oh my God, do I look like a tourist? I felt so uncomfortable! We met at a Cafe. Had another cay. Chatted. Went to change money. The Christmas decoration looks stange, it is a bit too colourful but it works great here. It brings some colour to the all-grey buildings. Back to the apartment. Dinking cay again. Listening to world news (all English with Romanian subtitles), listened to music. I was so tired, but could not sleep.
After a shower we hit the road at about 10 pm. We went to the old town, looking for some clubs and bars. A mind-blowing experience! I started to like it hear. The buildings look very nice and there is one bar and one club after another. There is something for every taste! (Yeah Fiona, there are Irish Pubs too!) ;-) We enter a bar called "Il Bordello". Great place, nice music, I loved the decoration. The Romanian beer tastes great. Unfortunately the waitress was very slow and unfriendly. So we went after a while and took a taxi to HardRock Cafe. Were are the seat bealts? No seat bealts? I don't want to die here in a yellow cap. Are there no speed limits? The guy was driving much too fast! At least we could negotiate a good price.
The HardRock Cafe is a great place! Very comfy lighting and decoration. Orcun knows one of the girls working there, Christina. Such a lovable person. The waiters are great. They are hilarious and extremely friendly. We immediately made friends with them. Marius, Sergiu and Alexandru. Marius tought me some Romanian. Some dirty stuff, of course, that I will not write here.
I love it! Yes, I am drunk. I love that place. Bucharest turns out to be an interesting city for me. I love it. We went to bed at... uhm, I don't know. I think 3 am. We had some local food before that. I can't remember the name, but it was very cheap. Kind of kebap. Well, that's a lot for now. I think I will post some other stuff this week. Todays NYE and I will be shouting the count-down one hour before you. I wish you all a Happy New Year!
(I will add some photos...)

Added comment from Posterous:
I have to add something at this place: I really started to like that place! I have made friends with some nice people I will definitely meet again. I also realized that people were not looking at me because I was foreigner. That was just my imagination - it was me being worried - it was me going through the first stages of the culture shook theory! ;-)

NYE was great! It was kind of an underground party at an old warehouse with a water tower. It was for a good cause - the want to renovate the water tower for the community, because they don't have any cultural things in that neighborhood... They have some good ideas for that like making it to a library and such. It will be finished in March.

Hope you all had a good start in the new year!

Thanks for reading,

Alex

Now I know it's right!

Last Thursday night I had been wandering around at Jakominiplatz, the main square and the little streets around there together with Kathy. I have to admit that our final destination was the Molly Maloon's, but that is not so important now. As we were walking we glanced at all the beautiful light arrangement that decorate the streets. They look great and walking there is very romantic! Still, it felt not right to me. I was not in mood for a that romantic lights, nor did it feel like Christmas time has begun. It did not feel right to me at all! The same way it was not right to me that a lot of shops started selling Christmas stuff already beginning in October. (I don't want to say it, but maybe even September!)
Yesterday, however, something great happened to me – again. It happens every year. As I was driving with my car from my hometown to a nearby city, where I was invited to a Christmas party form the Red Cross team I work in, I heard a certain song on the radio. What happened then happens to me every year about that time: The song starts playing and exactly in that moment it gives me goose pimples!It spreads from my neck down the spine, to my arms and my thighs. The song is called "Wonderful Dream (Holidays Are Coming)" by Melanie Thornton.

In that very moment I know that Christmas time has begun for me. Not because it was December 1, but because I heard that romanticizing song. It changes something in my mind that makes me love that time so much. The romantic candle light in the living room, the smell of gingerbread, oranges and cinnamon and, yes, also the lights that decorate the streets. That song makes me feel that now I know it's right! Most of you will also know that it was originally created for the Coca-Cola Christmas campaign (the one with the trucks). The jingle was already used in 1996 and 2001 the song was created by Melanie Thornton and others. In that year the singer died in a plane crash.
Today, in the morning, in my hometown, as I woke up in my bed it also started snowing thick flakes and it kept snowing the whole day. On the radio they play Christmas songs all day and my Mum had decorated the house so lovely. This one goes to Kathy: Now you know I am no Grinch, I love Christmas, I adore it!