My first couchsurfing event

“Pancakes for lunch” I proposed on Tallinn Couchsurfing Activites page. I was curious to see who these travelers in Estonia at this time of year are and also wanted to make one little more chance for them to meet each other.

 I’m afraid my parents would not be overexcited to meet travelers in their own living room speaking in a language they do not understand, so I opted for a cosy, yet cheap, pancake restaurant in the old town.

I published the event and waited anxiously similar to a teenager after posting a Facebook status update hoping to be “liked”. Some half an hour later I got the first confirmation, a good relief. In the end we were four people in total. A Spanish chica recently moved to Tallinn to teach Spanish, an Aussi mate in a visa limbo waiting for Russian visa and a veteran Guatemalan chico with one year and six months of life and work experience in Estonia (in a youth hostel). 

As much as I had thoroughly enjoyed deep, meaningful conversations and discussions with my old term and very close friends in Estonia, it was also so fun for a moment to be back in the world of travel, right there in the Old Town of Tallinn, eating pancakes filled with mushrooms and blue cheese, and sharing travel stories and future aspirations.

We had fun, they had some useful information for each other, I was able to help them out with some few little questions and I know at least two of them met up again afterwards. Made me happy.

Winter in Estonia

On several occasions when waiting for the bus I was thinking to myself that this winter survival in Estonia is by far the most extreme thing I have done during the past 15 months. The continuing cold and deprivation of light.

 On my arrival back home I was greeted with -15⁰C. At 4PM it was as dark as night. Usually the moon should reflect from the snow and make the winter nights quite light, but it was cloudy. When changing planes in Finland I had gone out for 2 minutes. It was enough to develop a fever the same evening. Oh you poor tropical kid, the parents consoled me.

I was determined to take up the challenge. As soon as the fever was over in 2 days, I started sleeping with an open window. Warm blanket and a cold room is a great mix. I restarted an old habit of finishing each shower with a minute of screaming and hopping around under the cold water. At least one should make an effort. Nevertheless, try as I might, when having to wait for the bus 5 minutes, 10 minutes, I was:

1.       Daydreaming of the heat records happening in Australia as I’m freezing here;

2.       Repeating in a whisper “This is not normal, this is not normal, this is NOT normal….”

3.       Thinking to myself “Oh, let’s breathe through the belly and feel how the warm air on the inside reaches every last inch of my limbs”. 15 seconds later “I do not feel any warmth at all. This is not normal, this is NOT normal”.

4.       Imagining how I will defeat the cold when moving to live in Estonia by buying the warmest long thermal underwear that I saw in Sportland – meant for -25⁰C and cost 100 euros. Ha! F you very much, you cold, you! Oh you wanna blow some freezing air straight to my face – I’m gonna wear a bloody skiing mask!

Yeah, that’s a weird feeling to have the naked skin of your face open for the elements in -15⁰C. When visiting my friend Karen in Tartu, we went for a get-sober-walk the next day after a “something pink” party. It was a bright sunny day and beautiful. After 10 minutes I told her my face hurts. She told not to worry. Soon you get a mild cold damage and you no longer feel the pain. And it worked! 

Few days later something amazing happened. The temperature rose to - 5⁰C. As I was going to the bus station I was so pleased. How cozy and, dare I say, warm it is!

What's the time?

In Estonia it is not common to start up a conversation with a stranger without a specific need. You do not disturb the passenger on the bus sitting next to you or, god forbid, strangers you in rare cases need to share a dining table with. And I don’t say thinking that it is weird or unnice or anything like that. This is how it is and it is normal. As an exception, it’s normal to ask a way somewhere or what the time is (but now everyone has a phone/watch, so perhaps it would create suspicion).

Before I went travelling in October 2011 I was visiting Estonia in July. In the spirit of training a more open attitude to strangers I made myself a task to start up a conversation with whoever happens to sit next to me on the plane. Was pretty happy to see it was a handsome guy, behaving normally (including not starting to talk to me). I also remember he was reading some book or papers about a country that was in my travel list. So I was thinking to myself it’s a perfect way to strike up a conversation. But how do? How do you just start to talk to a stranger?? Will I not bother him??? Time was running up as we were well into the second half of the flight time (one does not fly so long from Belgium to Estonia anyhow). With great internal effort (but trying to look at ease) I did finally turn to him. And he did not look at me weird and seemed pleased to pass some time talking. I was over the moon with the mission complete.

While travelling for 14 months it somehow became quite easy to strike up a conversation. Usually or at least sometimes. You just have to.

Now I’m back so I don’t talk to strangers again. Unless a situation requires it. On Monday I went to a Buddhist centre in Tallinn. Well, I wanted to go, but I got lost in an unknown neighborhood with my phone battery dead. So I started to ask people for the way. There is something humble yet gratifying about it. You realize how you can’t manage without a help and that as you need help, most people really try to help you and do it happily as well. I felt a bit like I was travelling again. And as an extra bonus – people helping me were all Russians, but they were speaking Estonian fairly or very well, much better than I could manage in Russian. Respect.

Next day I was in Finland with my mum and my cousin and her daughter. As the only English speaker I had the responsibility of the guide. I don’t know how many tram drivers, people on the tram/metro stations and on the street I had to turn to that day. And they were all helpful. Only person who seemed a bit bothered and acted as in a rush was an older gentleman working in the Finnish tourist information point. There you go. 

At the end of the day I thought to myself: if I add up all the help and good I received today,  if and how does it match with the good deeds of my own?

It’s my last day

On Facebook I looked at a post a friend of mine had shared: http://www.buzzfeed.com/expresident/pictures-that-will-restore-your-faith-in-humanity

This is about actions of kindness done by people to strangers.

Earlier today I was explaining about the amazing amount of kindness, generosity and trust I experienced in Australia while couchsurfing. Now, looking at the slides on the web site above, I remembered vividly another different and unexpected generosity.

It was the morning of Dashain festival in Nepal. It’s a national holiday and most people stay home with families. This means that there are much fewer dining places open and one of my favorite local run diners – Newa Momo – was pretty packed. 

I had ordered my Newari breakfast and was getting a bit nervous with the waiting time, because at 9AM I was meeting Milan and Gao to go to spend Dashain with Milan’s family. So there I was looking at my watch and thinking if I will make it at all and wondering how do I always end up coming back to this place although the service is so slow. But I knew it’s because they make such great food. It’s a lovely family business, prices are cheap and you pay no government and service tax.

Anyhow, in walked a Spanish guy and as the tables were full, he joined me. We started a conversation: where do you come from, what you did here in Nepal, how much time you have left, the usual. Meanwhile we both got our meals and continued chatting away. As I was preparing to leave to meet my friends nearby, I took out my wallet to leave the money for the bill to the Spanish guy. (In that diner settling the bill takes also very long time). As I’m taking out the cash, the guy is like “No, no, no, it’s my last day here in Nepal, I will pay for you!”

Wow. What? I could not convince him otherwise. I was so surprised by the gesture – how come he would even think of doing something like that? There was no hidden agenda here. We had not been flirting or something like that. Just a typical tourist situation, where you end up sharing a dining table and make the best of it by talking to each other.

Isn’t it wonderful? It’s not the free meal itself that I’m happy about, but that there exist people like him, people who come to the idea of buying a meal to a total stranger for the occasion of the last day of holiday.

Sleeper with clean linens

Train ride from Gaya to New Delhi was supposed to be 15 hours, but was 18 hours.  This was only a good thing as I did not have to fear finding my way at 4AM. 

The ride itself was very comfortable. I had a sleeper, the bottom bunk. I could close the curtains and watch through the window until the sunset. It was good to have a laptop with me, so I could watch a movie until the battery died. I thought of reading, but there was no lamp in my little compartment. I decided the best course of action is sleeping. There were linens and all which I thoroughly checked with the torchlight of my mobile.  They were clean! Next ten hours were well spent. 

It was time for another sunrise and again I had to wonder what is the Indian red rising sun phenomenon about? As I approached New Delhi I realized how I am approaching the end of this vagabond period.