The blind.

Exactly one week ago on my way back home from a conference I experienced something I want to share with you:
"I went to the cashier at the train station in Nitra to buy my ticket home. While waiting in a line I noticed blind guy buying his ticket somewhere. I was observing how he is able to buy a ticket. It was the first time in my life I focused on every single move of his and listen to every single word cashier was telling him & vice versa. It will sound maybe funny but I was amazed. I tried to put myself into his shoes and imagine how I, as blind person, would deal with so easy situation - buying a ticket. Suddenly, while imagining it, it just became so complicated - I was full of questions - how would I get to train station? How would I know where to buy a ticket? How would I know how much money I'm giving to the cashier? How can I check if I have the right ticket? Can I trust the cashier she will give me exact change? How do I get into the right train? and many others... Despite of all my questions and concerns I would face, the blind guy looked so humble, smiling not thinking of any of those questions of mine...
So I approached the guy (he looked only few years older than me) and offered him my help as I thought he cannot find the exit in the train station (he was going around the hall). Stupid me! He was just looking for some wending machine to get some Sprite :) As there was nothing like that inside, I took him out and told him to wait, that I'm going to buy him some water. I brought him a water and we chatted a bit. I figured he was buying the ticket to Prague for the conference about barrier-free solutions. Another questions popped out in my head - how is he going to get there? Train, public transport, specific address... just imagine how would you get at some place if you cannot see anything?
Dear blind guy, thank you for this short talk, I'm very grateful for that. It showed me how much I should value small things in my life that I take usually for granted. Also it showed me that dreams and passion are in everyone of us and there is no reason to keep them inside but rather make them alive..."

Istanbul, a wave of life

It took me 16 months to come back to Istanbul, again for only couple of days. The purpose of my last visit was international Congress in August 2007. Now I'm coming back for smaller event where most of presidents of AIESEC countries from Central and Eastern Europe are meeting (around 20 people all together). Same as the last time I made sure I come to Istanbul couple days before the meeting starts, just to hang around the city and absorb the energy that is present in Istanbul, especially on Istiklal street. I have to say I love it here. Coming back was like coming home even I spent only few days in Istanbul before...
When we finally found MC office, we've been introduced to Rejep (originally from Turkmenistan but living with his brother in Istanbul for 4 years already), cool guy who is taking care of MCPs meeting. After that we had nice dinner and couple drinks in various places also with David(Hungary), Aigul(Russia), Barbara(Brazil), JuanCa(Colombia) and Mehmet(Turkey). It's amazing to experience different nationalities coming together to work on one goal. This is what people experience LIVE! in AIESEC and becomes normal after some time even the world is still facing different crisis mainly because of not understanding and being enough tolerant to other cultures.
On Saturday morning, after I woke up in the MC office which is extremely cool (many rooms, kitchen, shower, big meeting room, MCP has even own room) I got to know few people from Turkish MC that came to office on Saturday to work on their ATEMCO conference, which will happen in few days. I had a short talk with Duygu(VP TM) and great talk while drinking the coffee in the kitchen with Irem(VP OGX). We spoke about different cultures and countries and funny traveling stories of ours. Thanks Irem for the talk ;)

But what was that wave of life that hit me? Tons of people in the city - shopping, eating, drinking, celebrating, watching football, selling baked chestnuts on the street, 4 floors bars and restaurants, people eating outside and inside, diverse languages and colors of skins - that's what hit me like a wave full of life. Coming from country of 5 million people to the city of around 12 million and culture like Istanbul won't let you stay "cold" - energy just pops up in you and you're suddenly surfing on that wave...

My Copenhagen story

Vienna-Copenhagen | 1 h and 40' | 78 Euro - thanks to low cost airlines and fast flights I can share my warm-cold story from Copenhagen - The cold was for the weather ;)
Taking nap after arriving to Copenhagen was the best thing to do to recover from a tough week. My short nap was followed by a nice evening in a Moroccan coffee place where I got a beer, Carlsberg of course! Meeting my friends from EuroCo conference which happened 2 months ago in Slovakia was great. It brought my EuroCo memories back...
The thing I like the most here so far was the French brunch which took more than 4 hours! Amazing! :) Four hours of eating and talking, sharing the stories and our realities was absolutely amazing - 6 people with roots from Iraq, Algeria, France, Denmark, Slovakia, Bahrain and Syria (Lucie, Fatima, Khaled, Christina, Leila and me). After a long brunch, me and my full stomach went to Tivoli - huge garden with a lot of stands and roller coasters, beautiful buildings and everything lighted - pretty place, especially for daters ;)

I again met couple of my friends from EuroCo but also several interns from Colombia and Poland, but also Fernando from Bolivia, Prateek from India and Dora from Romania - they all work for AIESEC. I also got a glass of "glogg" - hot vine with rum and spices inside, the same as you get at the Christmas market in Bratislava.

I think Copenhagen is definitely a city worth visiting - beautiful old architecture, a lot of places to have fun, Tivoli garden, bicycles all around the city, a lot of statues, etc...
But there is only one reason I travelled to Copenhagen which I didn't mentioned in this post yet - of course it's the girl, my girl - thanks Leila for making my stay in Copenhagen an amazing one!

Non ducor, duco or Welcome in Sao Paulo

Capital of the state Sao Paulo | largest city in Brazil, first in South America by population | 4th biggest city in the world | 1.523 square km | 11.000.000 people - Bem vindo a Sampa {welcome in Sao Paulo}.
My first day in Sao Paulo was very cool. I spent the day with Hugo from Portugal, Betsy from Colombia and Odette from Puerto Rico. We were wondering around the city. We went to the big market place full of people and energy, small park in the city with the church on its side and the last destination was main avenue, where we found quiet street in parallel with the main avenue and had cold beer and nice food.
My general feelings about "Sampa" are very positive and I'm looking forward to experience another day in this energetic city ;)

Picture from Sao Paulo >>here<<

Going for coulorful experience

I'm sitting in the Vienna's airport and waiting for my flight to Madrid (Spain) where my journey won't stop. I'll take another flight which will take me to the green-yellow-blue country, for many of us known by hot weather, great football players and dancing culture. Yes, I'm on my way to Brazil! :)
Another traveling experience of my life is about to come. Last 4 years has been very "travelish" :) - visiting USA, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Macedonia, Amsterdam, Romania, Turkey and Egypt was and still is just part of my life.

I'm getting very excited about trip to Brazil, the part of the world I've never been to before.

Ibero-America... I'm ready to discover your beauties! :)

Craziness must go on!

Another crazy year in National Committee of AIESEC started already one month ago. July was again crazy, with no time to think about the things - month with fast decisions, month of extemporizations and great moments with new team, amazing 9 individuals I directly work with.
The feeling of having all this people around me make my every day. Life's running very fast (even faster than the deer:)), sometimes we don't even realize why we do the things we do. But having right people around us makes us to be sure about doing right things!

Music brings memories

So excited because I found this song randomly in my friend's laptop. This was the song of my summer in U.S. when I went there for WAT program in 2004. The song means a lot to me and makes my memories alive! Thanks Dio for having this song in your laptop ;)

Finger Eleven - One thing


Restless tonight Cause I wasted the light
Between both these times I drew a really thin line
It’s nothing I planned And not that I can
But you should be mine Across that line

[Chorus:]
If I traded it all If I gave it all away for one thing
Just for one thing If I sorted it out
If I knew all about this one thing
Wouldn’t that be something

I promise I might Not walk on by
Maybe next time But not this time

Even though I know I don’t want to know
Yeah I guess I know I just hate how it sounds

[Chorus x2]

Even though I know I don’t want to know
Yeah I guess I know I just hate how it sounds

Even though I know I don’t want to know
Yeah I guess I know I just hate how it sounds

[Chorus x3]