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radawz · 7 years

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The end of a chapter

Palma EVS – Part 22

May 29th - July 2nd

When I finished writing the last part of my blog about a month ago I still had a month of EVS ahead. Well, that isn't the case any more. So much so, that by now I completed my EVS and in less then a week I will be leaving Palma. But I won't get ahead of myself, it's time to summarize what happened in the last month.

Work stuff, visitors, discovering places on Mallorca, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Brussels and preparations for the future. Stick around for the details!

So, here we are. Last part of the blog. Probably. Let's start with what I did while I was still a volunteer at Acción Balear.

First of all the translation checks of multiple documents continued, then quickly ended. Similarly to the previous ones these were also related to the work camps that the organization coordinates. In case you are interested to participate in such activities, it's best to check out the Facebook page of Acción Balear. Also connected to work, I created this Tumblr page to be able to publish the last parts of the blog and also, because I just wanted to have it like this. It took a lot of work, plenty of hours, but it's done.

While in June I still did promote EVS project on the Facebook page, my main objectives were to update/remake my CV, make a good basic cover letter and to create my YouthPass (a summary about everything I achieved during my year of volunteering). I am actually very satisfied how all of those turned out. It was definitely a big help to have Maria Antonia and Xavi to check those as both of them have big experience with such things. Thanks to Maria Antonia I also managed to get in contact with people who also work – or used to work - for non-profit organizations. By doing so I was able get some advice about the possibilities of doing a job with similar tasks that I had as a volunteer. Other than that with Pier and the other flatmates we recorded some footage about our EVS experiences which will be part of a video once finished.

In June I had my final exam of my Spanish course and since then I received my certification too. I kinda miss the classes since they finished.

Luckily we had plenty of visitors at Palma Piso during the last month. Amongst them people were Tomas, a Polish volunteer I got to know during my visits to Alzira/Valencia. It was also great to have Inês in Palma after last seeing her in Madrid. After her EVS she stayed in Spain and started working.

Thanks to my leftover days-off I managed to get to a few places on Mallorca. I went to Port de Sóller to see more of it than I did that one time when I was there.

I also spent a day in and around Sant Elm.

When Inês was here I visited Es Trenc one more time after also going to Peguera for the first time.

With the flatmates and Antoine we went to see the performance of Malin and her circus group at Palma Arena. And just a few days later we celebrated the birthday of Antoine with a few pints. Although he is not living with us, he is still very much part of the Palma Piso family. With the group we also went to the 6th anniversary party of Sa Possessió.

Traveling played a bigger part of my EVS, then I expected when I started my adventure and towards the end of June I still had two countries to visit in the company of Malin, Steffie and Pier. The Netherlands and Belgium and to be specific: Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Brussels. While I could write a long paragraph about the trip, I don't feel like making this post crazy long, so I will just use pictures and keywords / short sentences to describe my experience.

Amsterdam: Bycicles, canals, more bycicles, narrow buildings, caracole stairs, sex museum, weed, space cake, Vondelpark, cheese, Resistance Museum, Anne Frank House, Utopia coffeshop, space muffin.

Rotterdam: Huge buildings, yellow bridge, greyness, animal statues, coffeshops, space muffin.

Brussels: Waffle, Belgian fries, beers, Atomium, European Parliament, Jubelpark.

Amsterdam was great, but due to all the hype I expected something even better than what I got. Rotterdam was forgettable, but their bunny and dog statues are cute. Brussels were a lot lot better than I expected, a city with a diverse population and a good vibe. I can't stress enough the importance of waffles, Belgian fries and beers.

As an EVS volunteer - and due to that being part of an Erasmus+ program - seeing the Erasmus statue in Rotterdam and visiting the European Parliament in Brussels was a very fitting way to end my European Voluntary Service.

Back in Palma we participated in the Orgull / Orgullo / Pride, which ended up being the goodbye / EVS ending party of Pier.

Next day, 29th of June was my last day in the office. The day after Pier left Palma to return to Italy and although he will return soon, we won't meet again before I leave the island. I'm sure we will see each other soon though, it's just a matter of when and where. Until then, take care dude, all the best to you and thank you for accompanying me during these 12 months!

Thank you to every single person who was part of my life during this year. Your support, love and even your sheer presence meant a lot to me and made this experience as awesome as it was. Of course it wasn't all fun, but first of all I never expected it to be like that and second of all I learned a lot from the negatives. It was a challenge and I completed it. A truly life-changing year that I desperately needed after struggling to find my way. I got so much more than I expected when I started my journey, including motivation and ideas for the future. Whatever happens following this, making the decision to do EVS was the best thing I could have done and it's an experience I will never forget.

And what's next? Not really sure, if I am being honest. It has been 360 days since I've arrived. Currently I'm still in Palma and will also be here for 6 more days, so I will complete the “year away”.

Shortly after I will travel to Bratislava, spend there 2 nights to discover the place, then return to Hungary. Then I will see what the future brings, I guess. I always like to have a plan and prefer to follow a certain routine, but the upcoming weeks will only bring changes and the big kind of changes are not my favorite things. No worries though, I will surely deal with all that is coming to my way. Let that new chapter of my life begin.

But with all that the blog ends here. I was considering making one more part after leaving, but I feel that's not gonna happen as I feel I told everything I wanted. In case I will ever start another blog, I will let you know on this page. Don't count on it though, because as much as I enjoyed keeping this blog, I doubt I will ever have such an eventful and fun year like the one I just experienced. Or will I...?

Thanks for reading, I hope this blog was at least slightly enjoyable, or interesting every now and then. Bye! :)

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radawz · 7 years

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Stockholm, plans for the future and nostalgia for the past

Palma EVS – Part 21

April 24th – May 28th

It was more than a month ago that I sat down to write my last post, but I'm back to finish what I started and to present another part of my EVS.

Next up: Another birthday to celebrate, my trip to Stockholm, a new coworker at Acción Balear, preaparations to go to Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Brussels and the return of the Mallorcan beach season.

Before May started there was still plenty to do. Other than some normal work stuff I continued my Spanish classes and my final exam is only a week from now. As time went on I started to like the class more and more, I feel like it brought back my motivation to learn the language and now I can actually see myself trying really hard to improve it even without classes or being in Spain. Learning the basics of Spanish were a big step. Shoutout to all the participants of the class who gave up midway through, having only 4-6 people in the class makes a big (positive) difference.

Our Austrian flatmate, Malin's birthday was also properly celebrated in April. Alles Gute zum Geburstag!

On the first of May I did close to nothing as it was International Workers' Day, but I did book my flight for a few day visit in Stockholm. A fitting celebration of the day I think. Thanks to Ryanair for the strangely cheap tickets!

Early in the month Lisa from France arrived to Palma to start her internship at Acción Balear, so for the remainder of our EVS we will have an extra coworker at the organization, which is always nice. The extra work of translation checks are not that great, but hopefully I will be able to survive it. After about a 100 pages I'm still alive, but let me tell you I'm not looking for more. Unfortunately it's inevitable.

During the week that Lisa arrived me and Pier found reasonably priced plane tickets to Amsterdam and ones to travel from Brussels back to Palma. So, the hunt for accommodations began. We soon had to realize that staying in Amsterdam in June is not cheap at all. It helped that two of our flatmates, Steffie and Malin decided to join us on our travel. At the end we will spend 3 days – switching accomodations during our stay - in the capital of Netherlands, then spend a night in Rotterdam before going to Brussles and spend 1 and a half days there before returning to Mallorca. It will also cost more than I expected, but hey, it will be a great one last travel before we say goodbye to each other and EVS. Having said that if anybody out there is willing to offer me a job starting in August I am more than willing to consider it to bring my bank balance to a normal level.

Only a few days after we sorted out the tickets to Amsterdam on Thursday it was time for me to switch Palma to Sweden for a long weekend.

I landed at Skavsta airport around 11 o'clock at night and a 80 minute long bus ride was ahead of me before reaching Stockholm. I was quite lucky with the weather, I believe the coldest it got during my stay was 0°C and during the day it was around 15°C. Not bad at all! It was still colder than Palma though, so it was quite refreshing, which I didn't mind at all. Just like when Pier and me went to Manchester the colder weather made me actually excited. Maybe I am crazy to be happy seeing my breath due to the cold, but that's how I felt. Same thing happened when we drove next to forest. It was a proper forest, with the kind of trees that I'm used to. None of that palm tree madness.

After arriving to Stockholm, finding my hostel, getting some sleep and getting ready for the day my Scandinavian adventure truly began. Having only two full days to discover the city before flying back on the morning of Sunday I had a plan how spend my time. I dedicated the first day to see eastern (Kungsholmen), southern (Södermalm) and middle parts (Gamla Stan). I spent most of the second full day in Östermalm and Djurgården except the night when I went to the center and even to Vasastan. Here is a map, if you want to check were these are located.

Places and things I saw:

Day 1: The City Hall, Rålambshovsparken, Långholmen, Monteliusvägen, the Old Town, the Royal Palace and Armoury, Riksdag, Skeppsholmen & Kastellholmen.

Day 2: Kungsträdgården, Vasa Museum, Skansen, Royal Djurgården, Blå Porten.

Pastries I tried: kanelbulle, kardemummabullar, sockerbullar, kanelbullar, vaniljbulle. Let me tell you all of these were brilliant, with vaniljbullar being my favourite.

As I was walking literally everywhere it's no wonder that my feet were ruined by the end of all. It was totally worth it though. Hopefully I will return to Sweden someday, because I had a great time and there are still so much left to see in Stockholm. I absolutely loved the different islands connected by bridges, the language which is more than charming, all the pastries, the late sunsets.

The negatives? The high prices for a pint of beer. One night I paid over 60 Swedish crowns for a beer, which is more than 6€. The difference is big between Spain and Sweden in this regard and huge between Sweden and Hungary. Even with that it was worth it.

Stockholm ended up as a great place for my first ever solo trip abroad. I still think that traveling with someone else is much nicer, but even alone it was a nice experience being between all those surprisingly tall Swedes.

After returning to Mallorca I also started trying out the different kinds of sweets I brought back from Sweden, including some things with salty liquorice (salmiak/salmiakki) and I am not a huge fan of those. For me eating salmiak is way too similar to accidentally swallowing some sea water. Luckily I did discover some amazing candies,the best 2 being the original Polly and Bilar Ahlgrens. Those ones I could eat all day, every day.

Back in Palma I got back to normal life. Work continued, Tottenham Hotspur played their last game at White Hart Lane, this season of the Premier League ended and the summer weather returned to the island of sun. So amongst other things we went to the beach twice this week. I also figured out a way to use all my lefover days-off of my EVS. Basically every single weekend will be a long weekend for me as Mondays I will be free from work and towards the very end I will have Thursdays too, when I don't have to work. All that free time should give me enough opportunities to enjoy the beaches of Mallorca before I leave Spain.

As I'm writing this post another week of my EVS is coming to its end, which is on one hand is a little sad knowing that the 8th of July is not so far from now, but on the other hand I had a pleasant surpe earlier today... As I was about to start typing these words I got a call from Ilona and Félix. Now you are probably wondering who are they. Well, they are 2 former EVS volunteers who first met during our on-arrival training, then visited us here in Palma. On the picture up top Ilona is the girl on the right in front of me, Félix is the guy on the left. Currently they are living in Ukrain and planning to move to France. European Voluntary Service is awesome! And I say that even though after our call I ended up in a nostalgic mood looking at pictures from the last 11 months. But all this is part of life.

Thanks for reading, I will be back with the next part sooner or later.

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radawz · 7 years

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The month of hooded weirdos and Easter

Palma EVS – Part 20

March 27th – April 23rd

Almost a whole month in this part to continue the blog and make the number of my posts 20. Seems like a very long time ago when I started writing my first post back in July of 2016. And no wonder, that was about 9 and half months ago.

Next up: planning my return to Hungary; finding very cool EVS projects one after the other; a few other work-related stuff; Easter with the traditional pastries in Mallorca and a surprising religious custom; one of the coolest bars in Palma and making lángos.

Due to the lack of photos taken by me during this period, enjoy the picture above which was created by Pier, my fellow Acción Balear EVS volunteer.

As you are getting closer and closer to the finishing date of your EVS, you try to think about the end of your time abroad less and less, but sometimes you don't have another choice. Around the middle of March Xavi and Maria Antonia reminded us, that it's the best if we start looking for a ticket to return home. After I saw my options I decided I will fly to Bratislava, Slovakia instead of traveling through Vienna or Budapest. Not only because it's a city I have never been to, but it was my cheapest option as well. So in July I will have the opportunity to discover the capital of our neighbours. (As an EVS volunteer you get a certain amount of money – depending on the distance between the countries - to go to the destination of your project and also for your travel to return. If you spend more than your limit, you have to pay for the extra costs.)

On the first Monday of April - as usual - I was looking for EVS opportunities that we can possibly promote with Acción Balear and I found some great vacancies. Doesn't sound exciting? Well, think again. After the ocean of projects in schools and kindergartens that are very common to come across, it is really refreshing to find some unique ones. In this case it was a mini brewery, a former ice-cream factory and an organization working on ship building. I'm lucky enough to be part of a great project, but I can't help but be a little jealous to think about the youngsters who will volunteer in one of these projects. And by the way there is nothing wrong with an EVS at a school / kindergarten, it's just not something I was looking for when I was applying for project and I had to go through hundreds of calls looking for candidates for projects working with youth. If you are looking for an EVS like that you are in luck, you can always find plenty of options!

Another work-related thing was the partner list I started working on. It's a simple table containing some information about organizations that we had some sort of collaboration with. By making it hopefully it will be easy to track previous interactions. It could be especially useful for the volunteer following us after we leave.

The same week I also had to make 2 international calls due to some lack of info. I just want to mention how much I love American English. I know... it's not the proper English, but it's just so easy to understand. A single call with someone in the US was enough to reinforce my future plans of doing a job, where I can use English all the time.

After all that work stuff let's move to the subject of Easter... The holiday in Palma was okay. Yes, just okay, the lack of the traditional Hungarian Easter food was difficult to handle. Thanks to Xavi, I got to know some traditional Mallorcan Easter pastries such as robiols con requesón, robiols con cabello de ángel, crespell. All of them were great and definitely helpful to survive Easter without the food I usually eat during this holiday. Xavi also brought home-made empanada to the office. And it was very tasty. Unlike the empanadas I got from bakeries they were not too dry and that makes a huge difference with this kind of pastry.

As you can clearly see food is very important to me when it comes Easter, but the holiday is not only about that. Obviously. But for someone like me, who is not religious it's difficult to care too much about the religious aspect of this time of the year. Luckily in Palma there is a tradition that will make you interested in something connected to religion even if you normally don't care about stuff like that. In lots of countries processions aren't unusual during Easter. In Palma and Spain in general you will also see them, but you might notice something...

Yeeeep. I know what you might be thinking, especially if you are from the US, but no need to worry, it's not the KKK. It's just a Spanish tradition of brotherhoods that have their origins in the Middle Age. It's also quite strange and creepy if you ask me. As far as I know during these processions their reason for wearing the hood is to hide their identity, because by participating they basically admit that they are sinners. Makes sense. Check out my post on Instagram for more hooded people.

During the holiday I also went to The Soho Bar and it immediately became one of my favourite places. Such a shame I only discovered it so late. It's a small bar, but what makes it special and worth to try is the option to play some retro video games. Pong, tetris and a few of older generation consoles with plenty of other games. If you are into gaming, you should go there for sure.

And to close off the blog let me return to eating, because without food there is no happiness. After my first attempt I decided to try to make a very typical Hungarian “fast food” again. It is a real symbol of summer holidays in my country and it's called lángos. Here you can find what's worth to know about it and even a recipe, so you can try to make it yourself. This delicious, salty, garlicky, cheesy fried dough thing with sour cream is one of the best things your mouth can ever touch. At least that's how I feel about it.

And with that you have arrived to the end of this part. See you next time!

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radawz · 7 years

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Las Fallas, Madrid and visitors

Palma EVS – Part 19

March 6th – March 26th

A new flatmate, the first beachday of the year, Las Fallas in Alzira & Valencia, discovering Madrid, some snow and having 2 visitors in Palma. That's the quick version, now let's see how I will go on and on about these stuff and my inevitable failure to keep it short.

After Antoine, a new volunteer arrived to Palma the previous week, Claire who is also a French volunteer came to Palma. Which is good, because she seems very nice. Unfortunately the situation also has a negative side, because I lost my private room after she moved into the flat. Not gonna lie, I absolutely fucking hate sharing a room and changing my morning habits due to that. But life goes on and as I'm still hoping I will get back my room before my EVS runs out I also try to look at the positives of this change.

The same week we celebrated Tatiana's birthday and went to the Fira del Ram funfair, then we went to to eat – and drink cheap beer – at 100 Montaditos. The next day we headed to Illetes to enjoy the nice weather on the beach.

The start of my next week was already about the traveling I was about to do. I went for some shopping and finished everything at work that I had to before leaving Palma. And on Thursday after a regular day at work in the afternoon we flew to Barcelona with Pier. As we were waiting for our bus we were wandering around the city. During this year I was in Barcelona plenty of times, but mainly just because it was often a stopping point while traveling somewhere else. This was probably the longest I spent in the city centre and although I saw some nice places and things I'm still not sure what all the hype is about Barcelona. Maybe spending a few days there would change my mind, but as of now my favourite thing about that city is the rubber duck store. I'm not even kidding. Go ahead and judge me for that.

After the ducks we spent some time at 100 Montaditos (going there will be a recurring thing later), then endured a 4 and a half hour bus ride to Valencia. After arriving and seeing some of the Las Fallas monuments on the streets – which take a long time to build and are burned on the last day of the celebration during Cremá - we met up with our buddy Ádám and Simona who we met during mid-term training. Both of them are volunteers from Madrid. Soon we took a train to Alzira where we were staying during the Fallas. There after seeing a nice falling star in the sky on our way to the apartment we met the rest of our good old group including our hosts Evelina, Lucia and Mert and also Ines who arrived the day before.

The next day we were waken by the sounds of despertá (“wake-up call”). Later, joined by other volunteers, Michael and Tomas we went to experience the mascletá (firecracker and firework display where the main thing is the sensation of the explosions) and see falleros and falleras. At night we headed to Valencia to see the fireworks from the bridge, meet with even more volunteers and spend the night in the center of Valencia which was full of people. Apparently the number of people in the Valencia metropolitan area, which is approximately 2 million jumps to 3 million thanks to all the visitors.

We spent the second day and night in Alzira and tried to see as much of the celebrations as possible. For example this day we managed to get to the front of the crowd during mascletá and it was even more awesome. Here and on the following pictures you can see how the streets of Alzira look like during this time of year. Also, the falla from Valencia's town hall square at the end.

After a long night, Sunday started a little slowly. Late awekening, my third mascletá than a few hours with most of the others in Valencia. In the afternoon Ádám, Ines and myself were taking a BlaBlaCar and Pier had to get to the port to be able to go back to Palma with a ferry so it was time to say goodbye to each other, which sucked as usual. The fact that most of the group will finish their EVS shortly and possibly leaves Spain after that made it even more difficult. I'm hoping it was just a goodbye until we see each other in a few months, because being part of our group is the best and most memorable part of my EVS. With them I could have fun in the middle of a desert.

During the long and a little sad ride I saw my second falling star and I knew exactly what to wish for. Obviously I can't let you all know what it was. In Madrid our first destination before going to Ádám's place was 100 Montaditos. (The post is not sponsored by them by the way. It should be though.)

On our first full day in Madrid after having lunch at 100 Montaditos and meeting Ines's friend, Israel we went to see the main sights. Puerta de Toledo, Plaza Mayor, KM “0”, Puerta del Sol. After that Simona who also got back to Madrid since then joined us and we continued our tour seeing Edifició Espana, the Royal Palace and enjoyed the sunset at Templo de Debod.

Israel and later Simona had to leave, but the 3 of us stayed there to talk and enjoy some green Mahou (yes, of course that's beer) for hours at Puerta del Sol.

On Wednesday Ines left Madrid to get back to Tarragona. Ádám and I went to el Retíro park and we checked out the lake and the Crystal Palace, then went to 100 Montaditos (again). Later that day Anita (another volunteer) – who we have also met in Valencia during the firework - arrived to Madrid so we had a Hungarian group of 3 in the capital.

On my next and last day in Madrid it was snowing for an hour or so, so I went for a walk, took a picture of the Statue of the Bear and the Strawberry Tree, my favourite statue ever and then had a bocadillo calamares, said goodbye to everybody including Beata and Agnese, other 2 volunteers and flatmates of Ádám.

Back in Palma I didn't have a lot of time to rest because my sister and her boyfriend who live in England came to visit for a few days, so naturally I was spending some time with them on Friday and Saturday to show them around the city. (Including having a lunch at 100 Montaditos.) Although I was – and still am - very exhausted after my 7 days in Valencia & Madrid it was great to see them here.

Thanks for coming guys and also thanks to all my previously mentioned EVS friends for being awesome and making my experience in Spain as great as it is. See you soon!

And for you there, thanks for reading. See you next time when I return with Part 20!

(Fun fact: 100 Montaditos were mentioned 6 times in this post. Well, to be precise it's 7 now, so I fully expect a "Free beer for life" gold card, or something like that.)

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radawz · 7 years

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Changes

Palma EVS – Part 18

February 20th – March 5th

After returning from Hungary I get straight back to work, I start my Spanish language course, we celebrate yet another birthday in the apartment, we get some cool hats, we have a nice dinner, we enjoy the Day of the Balearic Islands, a new EVS volunteer arrives to Palma and I start my undesirable move out of my room.

During my way back to Palma I had to spend the night of February 19th at the Vienna airport to catch my flight early in the morning. Luckily that specific Austrian airport is actually quite comfortable, which was helpful considering that I had to get back to work shortly after landing. So, after dropping my bag off in the piso, having breakfast and getting a coffee, I was ready to start one of longest days at the office. At least it felt like it without having a proper sleep.

The next day I started my Spanish language course, which takes places in a nearby school every Tuesday and Thursday from 5 to 7 in the afternoon. So far I quite enjoy it and it feels very helpful to improve my barely existing Spanish skills.

Later that week we celebrated Federica's birthday in the apartment by having some snacks, tiramisu with some guests over. It's 6 of us in the apartment, but recently it feels like we are celebrating birthdays every week.

At the weekend Cervecería Tramuntana – a pub I mentioned at least a hundred times in my posts – left me no choice, but to go there again as they were giving customers viking hats if they ordered a specific type of beer.

So with Malin we went there and later returned with 4 viking hats. It should have been more, but by the end they ran out of hats.

We started the next week with a dinner that I had no idea was happening until a few hours before it started. After getting home from the office the girls were already cooking and preparing stuff and that's how I found out we have program for that night. Tatiana and Federica might have told me about this, but I simply can't recall that. But at the end it was a fun night with some really nice people who work with Tati and Fede at Amadip. Amadip Esment Fundació is an organization that is working to improve the life quality and offer equal opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities and their families.

1st of March was the Day of the Balearic Islands and because it's a local public holiday we didn't have to work, but instead of celebrating I kinda spent all my day with things I had to get done. (Emails, writing the blog and some other boring stuff.)

On Thursday I met Antoine, a new volunteer who will volunteer at ALAS. As the offices of Acción Balear and ALAS about 20m away from each other Pier and me will probably see him quite often. The same day we finished working on our most recent newsletter that you can check out by CLICKING HERE.

On Friday we got some new stuff for the apartment, because soon there will be a new flatmate arriving to “Palma Piso”, but more about that a little bit later. Other than helping to bring all those stuff up to the apartment, later I also went to do some shopping in the city to prepare for the better weather.

The next day I went out with Kate and Emily to have a few drinks and celebrate Kate's birthday. (You can read about how we met in one of my previous posts.) I had an awesome time with the girls at Hogan's even though it was a little challanging at times due to the loud music. Still have a lot to improve on my “pub english”, but I will get there for sure.

After getting home late, a lot of sleep didn't really help not to be tired on Sunday and the fact that I had to start moving my stuff out of my room made me a little cranky. As I mentioned earlier we will have a new flatmate very soon and when we found that out 2 weeks ago we were also told that Pier and me would have to share his room from now on, possibly until the end of our EVS, which is at the end of June. You can't even imagine how annoyed that makes me. Privacy and having my own room is very important for me so losing that would be already bad, but what makes it even worse is that I will have significantly less space to use, I probably have to stop doing yoga – which I like to practice alone - for at least a while. You could say that sharing a room with Pier is not that bad and in some way I would agree. Luckily we get along well and we already had to share a room in the first few weeks here in Palma. But if I had to choose between sharing a room with him or having a separate room, guess what I would choose... Not an ideal situation. One apartment, 7 people, no separate room, I think it will be very difficult.

So this is one of those few times when I finish writing a post in a bad mood, but hopefully when I return with Part 19 I will be able to look back at the upcoming days with a positive attitude. We shall see.

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radawz · 7 years

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Visiting the motherland

Palma EVS – Part 17

January 30th – February 19th

After 3 weeks since my last post I'm back fully recharged, ready to share what happened with me recently. The subjects amongst other things: birthdays, Superbowl, a cancelled flight and most importantly, Hungary!

As January was coming to an end me and all of my flatmates had to take a placement test in order to start our Spanish courses in February. The only exception was Tatiana, who applied for a Catalan course instead. Later we found out that everybody got accepted to start courses on different levels, but more about this topic in the next part.

From the last week of the month me and Pier also had to get used to some changes, including the most significant difference: spending a little more time in the office. With longer workdays it's even more important to take a coffe-break. 99% of the time we go to a cafeteria called A&M - or “Gregorio's” as we call it - which is about 2 minutes from the office. Very friendly place and people, great food and coffee. Absolutely perfect for a quick break from work.

And if I am at the subject of work, then I quickly want to mention that we made a new newsletter with all the current projects promoted by Acción Balear including one of my personal favourite EVS project, a monkey sanctuary in England. In general it's nice to find projects you can promote, but when it's a project you would participate in with pleasure it gives you an extra satisfaction. It's one of the best parts of my EVS.

During the week we celebrated Pier's 27th birthday and I wish I could show you all the present he got from us, but I don't want to be in trouble, so I cannot do it. Instead here is a picture from the office:

On Sunday, the 5th of February took place the Superbowl, the big final of the american football league, the NFL's last game of the season. Although I rarely watch this sport, but about 7-8 years ago I started watching the final. The only problem with this is the different time zones as here in Europe the games start after midnight and took about 3,5-4 hours to finish. So obviously the negative consequence is that you have to turn up in school/work the next day without barely any sleep. Luckily this year it was totally worth it as the Superbowl produced the biggest ever comeback with a New England win after it looked like Atlanta will easily win it.

After a difficult Monday and some rest on Tuesday it was time to celebrate my birthday, the 25th. It was a nice celebration in the office, in the apartment and in Cervecería Tramuntana, one of my favourite places in Palma. No wonder I already mentioned that place multiple times in my posts. I fully expect some sort of sponsorship from them in the near future. That day I also realized that by now my flatmates know my taste pretty well, because I received lots of different beers and snacks from them. Thanks again chicas and Pier! :)

2 days later I had my flight to Vienna to get back to Hungary for a couple of days after being away for 7 months. My flight was in the morning, so I had to get up quite early to arrive to the airport. To give myself enough time to get ready I wake up at 5:30 only to notice a text message from the airline saying that my flight has been cancelled. Not the ideal way to start the day... It was a very annoying experience and due to this I ended up spending 2 less days in Hungary as planned, but at least I managed to rebook a flight 2 days later and it didn't completely mess up my plans.

2 days after my cancelled flight I was finally able to leave Mallorca and after about 10 hours of travelling I was back home. After 7 months in Palma I was having a great time being back in my home country . Not only I was spending time with my parents, my dog, my relatives and friends, but I was also able to eat some proper Hungarian food. Spanish and Hungarian cousine is quite different and the latter uses ingredients that are hard to find in Palma, so making a number of meals that I'm used to as a Hungarian is either very-very difficult or simply impossible.

Without going into great detail and boring you to death, here are a few examples of the things I was eating during my visit:

sour cream and horseradish with other things and on it's own(!),

traditional Easter food (a type of sweet bread called kalács with ham, boiled eggs and grated horseradish) as I won't be able to eat that druing the holiday away from Hungary,

lángos,

hatlapos,

kürtöskalács,

túrórudi.

As alcoholism is a major problem in Eastern Europe (luckily I'm not affected) it's hardly surprising that I was also enjoying some nice bevarages such as pálinka, a Hungarian fruit brandy and Slovakian Tatratea (a strong tea-based herbal liqueur), that I was trying for the first time. It tastes great, good job neighbours!

Although my birthplace Szombathely - the biggest city in the area - where I am from is not one of the hidden paradises of the Earth, but maybe from these pictures (and the main picture of the post on the top) you can see what's the vibe of the city around the end of winter:

And a bonus picture of my dog for finishing reading this post:

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radawz · 7 years

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Snow in Mallorca - A taste of real winter

Palma EVS – Part 16

January 16th – January 29th

As I promised last time, today I bring you one of the best stories of my EVS, then write about the San Sebastia celebrations, getting “promoted” at Acción Balear and some changes and challenges at work, a birthday and at the end: Correfoc. And if now you are wondering what Correfoc is, then you have another reason to stick around.

The 3rd full week of 2017 started just like any other: after a nice, relaxing weekend I went to the office in the morning and had a regular office day there. Nothing special at all. Then it was followed by a Tuesday. As I previously mentioned it multiple times in my posts almost every Tuesday Pier and I go to Universitat de les Illes Balears, the local university with out mentor and coworker Xavi. There we spend 3 hours and promote Erasmus+ and EVS to the people who are interested and after 1 pm we leave. That day it was so cold that it was actually snowing in Palma, but although that doesn't happen often here it wasn't anything crazy, the snow that fell down melted immediately. So up until this point the day was going as usual, but as we were leaving Xavi asked us whether we want to go to Carrefour and buy food and drinks for the upcoming San Sebastia festival or go to Valldemossa, which is a small, but beautiful little village up in the mountain of Tramuntana. For some reason I had to make the call and I decided that we should check out Valldemossa in the rare wintry weather. Well, this decision had some unexpected consequences...

After a car ride which took about 15 minutes we arrived to Valldemossa and I was facing decision number 2. I had to decide if we should go to a café and have some coca de patata with hot chocolate, or walk around the place a little. I have no idea why it was me who had to make the decision, but as it was up to me I decided to first go for a walk and then later go to the café. Because why not both, am I right?

So after parking the car we went for a walk. At this point it was snowing a lot heavier than before and due to the lower temperature up in the mountain the snow didn't melt anymore.

After taking some pictures and having a quick snow battle we eventually arrived to the café and tried the cocas and the hot chocolate. A delicious combination! It was perfect for that cold afternoon. After we finished there we went back to the car to return to Palma, but as we tried to leave the village we found ourselves in a line of cars unable to move forward. After waiting for a while we realized that the line is not moving at all, so we decided to park the car and go to a cafeteria and wait there. We had to stay there for hours, so we had plenty of time to talk, play games, take some pictures and make a snowangel. They also had time to – jokingly - blame me for getting us stuck there by making those 2 small decisions. Of course all the blaming made the situation even funnier for me. A few hours later the line finally started to move and slowly but surely we were on our way back to Palma. At the end of the day it was a great time as I was able to enjoy the first and most likely the only snow I will witness during this winter. This experience made me realize something that I already knew; winter is not really winter for me without some snow and cold weather.

Another memorable day that week was Thursday, when everybody from the apartment went to Torrada, which is a part of the San Sebastian celebrations. (Saint Sebastian is the patron of Palma de Mallorca.) It's basically a barbecue with plenty of grills placed on the streets, where the people of Palma can gather, eat and drink together. It's a very fun occasion, if you don't mind to smell like smoke by the end of it. After finishing our dinner, we joined in the celebration on the streets.

The following week, on Monday we celebrated Steffie's birthday in the apartment, and at work it was the week of changes. First of all I got more responsibilities as now I'm not just searching EVS projects and getting in contact with organizations, but also publish and share post about the available vacancies on the Acción Balear Facebook page after Pier and I became editors there.

Later that week I also found out that I won't have to go and promote Acción Balear at the university anymore. I'm completely okay with that, because due to my lack of Spanish (yeah, I still suck at it) and the fact that I can't really work there without internet those 3 hours were not my most productive ones of the week. From now on I will have more time to get some work done in the office.

And the third significant thing related to work is that I had my first Skype interview as a volunteer. Of course I had a couple of Skype interviews before when I had job interviews and calls due to applications for EVS projects, but this was the first time when I used it “professionally”. And it was actually pretty fun.

I ended the week by going to Correfoc with the others. It's a fire run on the streets of Palma and it's part of the San Sebastia celebrations. During this event you can see a group of individuals dressed as devils and tons of pyrotechnics being used to the sounds of drumming and if you feel like it you can can join in and dance under the sparks. It's a really awesome and pretty crazy experience, don't miss it if you have the chance to see one of these. Here you can watch a video of it.

And with all that another 2 weeks of my EVS experience have gone by. In the next part I will write about not one, but 2 birthdays and something very important that is only a week from now, but you will have to come back to find out more. See you next time!

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radawz · 7 years

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50%

Palma EVS – Part 15

January 3rd - January 15th

Back in Mallorca after New Year's Eve, seeing familiar faces after a long time, meeting some new people, celebrating Reyes Magos and my first 6 months of EVS. Also: work in the office, finally revisiting Cervecería Tramuntana and the not so sunny weather in Palma.

Although after our return it was already 2017, there were still things to celebrate:

Spurs beat Chelsea 2:0.

The 6th month anniversary of my arrival in Palma.

Los Reyes Magos.

I will skip any further explanation of the first one, because despite making me very-very happy it is completely irrelevant to my EVS.

What is very relevant to my volunteering experience is the second one. Maybe it wouldn't seem as important if I was doing a shorter voluntary service, but as it is 12 months long, completing the first half of it seemed like a big milestone. It is my first time to be away from home for a significant amount of time and it makes my quite proud that I'm doing absolutely fine after 6 months. Obviously I get all the help I need here from the people around me, but still, it makes me happy that I achieved this and the first 6 months gives me confidence for the upcoming other half year.

Probably my only slight regret is that I didn't go back to Hungary to spend Christmas with my family. That time of the year away from home is just not the same. But if I never try it, I would have never learned that, so it was an extra experience. Having said all that, I still haven't felt homesick, I just appreciate my family, friends and a few things I got so used to back home even more now. And that's about all the negative stuff I can write about, otherwise I'm living the most exciting and interesting part of my life so far. Let's hope it will continue like this, or it will get even better!

The start of 2017 wasn't only special because I reached the halfway point of my EVS, in Spain it also happened to be a holiday: Los Reyes Magos, or as you may know it, the Three Wise Men/Three Kings.

On the 5th of January I went to see the parade with Pier, Steffie and her friend from France, Mathilde. On the streets of Palma we met up with Sara, Joan and their friend Emily. We got to know Sara and Joan in September, thanks to our EVS friends from Alzira, who visited us back then. It took us 4 whole months to meet again, but at least this time we spent 2 nights celebrating together.

The second night we were joined by another friend of theirs, Kate and we tried Roscón de Reyes (Kings' cake), a traditional pastry cake of this holiday. That night we went to BLVD Maritimo Club and although the place was almost empty we still had a pretty good time with the group that also included the girls from the apartment.

The next week was mainly about work followed by some fun at the weekend. The work part included the Acción Balear newsletter, some work on the big guide that we are creating with Pier and my usual EVS project searching, which by now became a routine task for me. As it is a pretty big part of my EVS, let me explain what is that I'm doing exactly. It's basically hours and hours of looking at websites and Facebook groups/pages that publish volunteering opportunities. During this I'm looking for those projects that are available for youngsters who live in Spain. After finding a suitable EVS I get in contact with the organization and ask for their permission so we can publish the project. If the answer is positive and I have all the necessary information then the project gets on the Acción Balear Facebook page and in our newsletter.

After the workweek ended on Saturday we finally went back to Cerveceria Tramuntana. Although Pier and me both really liked this place back in the summer when we first tried it and we wanted to go there multiple times later, but somehow it didn't happen until that Saturday. This time we were joined by Malin and Steffie from the apartment. Great beer (I strongly recommend the Belgian Gulden Draak), nachos and some games in good company. Once again Tramuntana was fun, so we have to go back there again soon.

The rest of the weekend was quite uneventful, but on Sunday we had some hail and later a rainbow. Here is a picture of Palma when it's not sunny. Also rainbows are kinda cool, so why would I not show it to you all?

And with that we have arrived to the end of this post. See you next time, when I will bring you one of the best stories of my EVS about a day when 2 small choices changed everything.

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radawz · 7 years

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Winter Holidays

Palma EVS - Part 14

December 12th - January 2nd

A 2 day training in Palma, intercultural dinner in the apartment, Christmas away from home, beach day in December and New Year's Eve in Tarragona. These things and even more in the 14th part of my blog.

In the middle of December, after the mid-term training and the little vacation ended it was time to return to the office and do some work. But before we continued our routine schedule we had a short, 2 day training to participate in. It was about EVS and unlike the on-arrival and the mid-term training this time it wasn't only me and Pier going, but also the girls from the apartment, Maria Antonia and Xavi too. Another big difference was that it was in Spanish. If you have read my previous posts you know well that I'm not exactly the biggest fan of trainings. I do love meeting new people, having fun and visiting places I haven't been before, but the actual training part is something I can live without. And now let's add the fact that this was mainly in Spanish. At the end it was alright, I learned some things, but I was also relieved when the second day ended and I could return to the office the next day.

The week of Christmas didn't exactly bring the typical Mallorcan weather as it was raining quite heavily on Monday and Tuesday. Perfect weather to bake some cookies. Luckily soon it got better.

During the last 3 days before the 24th of December we had plenty of things to do. In the office I was searching EVS projects to promote in the next newsletter. In the apartment I had some cleaning to do, I made sure I have everything I want – including the most important stuff: chocolates, candies, etc. - for the holidays and I made cinnabuns. Just a little warning: in case you don't know what that is and being healthy is important for you, then it's probably better, if you immediately forget the word “cinnabun”. It's a cinnamon roll covered with cream cheese frosting and it's full of tons of sugar, butter and flour. It's amazing, one of the greatest thing you can have with your morning coffee, at the same time it couldn't be any more unhealthy.

On Christmas Eve I went for a walk in the city to took some pictures and write some messages to friends and family members back home.

Then I returned to the apartment to have dinner, I made some mulled wine and watched Home Alone. Because that's what Christmas is all about. Later we exchanged our Secret Santa gifts with Federica, Tatiana, Steffie, Pier (and without Malin, who went back to Austria to spend the holidays there).

The next day some of us had lunch on the rooftop, because after all the rain earlier that week we had lovely weather during these days with temperatures around 20 degrees. That also sparked the idea to go to the beach of Cala Mayor the next day and take a dip in the sea. Not a typical Christmas activity, but we couldn't resist it in such good weather. Obviously the water was not optimal, so we didn't spend more than 10 minutes in the sea, but it was actually a perfect day for winter sunbathing.

After Christmas ended we still had some work to do on the newsletter, so first we were working with that from home, then another day we went to the office to finish it. In our free time we visited the Royal Palace of Almudaina, which is right next to the Cathedral.

For the 31th of December Pier and me had tickets to fly to Barcelona in order to go to Tarragona from there. Unfortunately our plane was very early, so we had to spend the night at the airport. Not the best way to prepare for New Year's Eve, but we made the most of it.

The next day we eventually got to Tarragona, where we stayed in the house of Inês, Giacomo, Lina, and Anita. They are other EVS volunteers who all visited us in Palma before. During our vacation in September/October we have already been there, so this was our second time in Tarragona. Other than us they hosted other volunteers as well: Lucia and Mert from Alzira, Ádám from Madrid and Desi - who is also a volunteer - from Barcelona also celebrated the last day of the year with us. So we had a great group to enjoy the last hours of 2016 and the first few hours of 2017.

After spending basically the whole Sunday chatting, resting and relaxing we had still one day left in Tarragona. By Monday - other than the Tarragona gang - only Lucia, Pier and me left after the others returned to their cities, so while our hosts went to work we spent some time wandering around the city.

After we reunited in the house we spent a few more hours together before Pier and me left Tarragona to head back to Barcelona, spend the night at the airport there and fly back to Palma the next day.

And that pretty much sums up all that happened in the last 3 weeks. See you next time!

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radawz · 7 years

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3 weeks, 4 cities and 2 horrific creatures

Palma EVS - Part 13

November 21th – December 11th

3 weeks have passed since my last post and tons of stuff happened during that time. If you decide to stick around you can read about: life in the apartment without the girls, visiting Manchester and having a family meeting there, going to my mid-term training, visiting Granada & Málaga, getting sick by the end of the vacation and not one, but two evil creatures that caused nightmares to a lot of Hungarian children.

After Pier came back from his vacation in Tenerife we were 6 in the piso once again, but only for a very short time, because all 4 of the girls had their on-arrival training the following week. Since the arrival of the first 2 girls (Steffie and Malin) in the middle of September we got used to sharing the apartment with others, so living there only with Pier was sort of unusual. It was also very different from our first weeks in Palma, because back in July and August we were out in the city, discovering the place basically every day and that was not the case this time, when we spent our days in a very boring way. At least we had a good reason for it. And that reason: we were working a lot in the office to be ready with Acción Balear's brand new newsletter in time. I was creating some folders about EVS projects for it and Pier's job was to put the whole thing together and prepare it to be sent. At the end we finished in time, so our trip to Manchester was sort of a celebration.

We arrived there late in the evening of Thursday (24th of November). While for me the English end of fall weather was kind of refreshing and brought back some memories that wasn't really the case for Pier who clearly prefers the kind of fall/winter temperatures that we have in Palma.

On our first full day in the city we prepared ourselves for the day with an English breakfast before we headed to Old Trafford, the stadium of Manchester United. While we were waiting for the stadium tour we had some time to go and see the Christmas market in front of The Lowry. After we did that we also had a pint in a nearby pub and after spending there more time than we should have we managed to miss the start of our stadium tour, so the 2 of us were escorted through the hidden paths inside Old Trafford by a staff member to catch our group. Probably a lot more memorable start to a tour, where the best part is usually towards the end. By the way the tour was really cool as it was an opportunity to see a stadium that I'm seeing quite often when I watch football on TV. It's interesting that in reality the stadium feels a lot smaller than you would think when you picture a stadium with more than 75.000 seats. It also makes me really want to go London to see the stadium (White Hart Lane) of my favorite team before it gets knocked down.

After finishing with the tour we had enough time to visit the famous John Rylands Library, the People's History Museum and most of the Manchester Art Gallery as well. After it got dark we went to check out the Christmas market on Albert Square, then I tried my first proper fish & chips. After all that Pier and me improvised and went for a pub crawl, because that's obviously what you should do when you go to the UK and have some free time at night. We got beer, company and some advice from 3 girls on what places we should (London, Bristol) and should not (Blackpool) visit in the country next time. Let me know if you agree/disagree with all that.

The next day we met with my sister and her boyfriend, who are living near Wigan, but traveled to Manchester for a quick visit in the city and to have a mini family meeting. We spent some time shopping, I got a much needed new traveling bag and some early Christmas presents from my sis. Then we visited the National Football Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry. Saturday went by quickly and after saying goodbye to them, me and Pier rushed to the airport to end our short British trip and travel back to Palma.

Back in Spain we had a little time to rest, but due to the upcoming mid-term training that started on the 28th of November it was more about preparing for those days.

On Monday Pier and me left Palma in the morning and flew to Málaga in the company of our mentor, Xavi, who also participated in the training that was held in Mollina. Our meeting time was in the afternoon, when we finally met some familiar faces from the on-arrival training and some new people, who are also doing their EVS in Spain. After actually arriving to Mollina we were welcomed by the people who got there earlier, including some more friends.

The training itself was once again not really my cup of tea. I'm sure that discussing every single detail of our EVS process and analyzing how we can make the most of it is useful for some people but for me it's just too much talk about things that I don't feel I need to discuss. Maybe I'm just lucky not to have any problems with my voluntary service... To be fair there were some fun activities, our trainer María was great at her job and if I turn up well-rested and not having hangovers, then I might have enjoyed the whole thing more. Just like with the on-arrival training the best part of it all was the chance to get to know more volunteers and having fun together with others. So we did exactly that. We had 2 awesome nights in a local pub called Pepe Johns and we also had a nice time during the excursion to Antequera, that was part of the training.

The training lasted from Monday to Friday with the first and last days mainly used for traveling, so time flew by quickly and it was time to say goodbye to old and new friends. Luckily though we had some days to discover Granada and Málaga before we returned to continue our EVS in Palma. So we did that with our group of volunteers.

First we traveled to Granada, which is mainly famous for Alhambra, a beautiful fortress and palace. Being there was an interesting experience. Due to the hippie vibe of the city and all the tourists I had the feeling that I'm not even in Spain any more. And there was a major difference compared to Palma: the prices. If there is a problem with Mallorca, it's the relatively high prices for almost everything, so when you are a volunteer and you get to a place that's cheaper you will definitely notice it.

After 2 days in Granada we moved to Málaga, where amongst other things we witnessed the crazy Christmas lights show, we spent some time on the beach and went for a walk in the smaller part of the castle.

In general Málaga seemed like an okay place, but there is no way I would ever pick it over Palma and I fell I will be fine, if I never return there. Unfortunately by the end of the first day there I started to feel sick. Maybe I would have a more positive memory of Málaga if I manage to avoid fever, coughing and some other “good” stuff while I was there. But I didn't, so as much as I loved being around my EVS friends during the mid-term training and our short vacation after that, I didn't mind to return to Mallorca on Tuesday (December 6th).

But that day wasn't just another day. In Hungary - and a few other countries – it's the day of Santa Claus/Mikulás/Saint Nicholas. On this day – mainly kids – get a present from Mikulás if they have been good that year, or a rod/virgács from the Krampusz (the evil helper of Santa), if they have been naughty. Because every kid needs something to be terrified of. And if the Krampusz is not scary enough you can still try to scare them with the Mumus, which is described as a malicious ghost creature connected to darkness that represents your fears. Lovely, right? In Hungary we try to make sure that every child is emotionally scarred by the time they learn that the Eastern bunny doesn't exist.

Despite the threat of the Krampusz everybody loves Saint Nicholas Day. (Obviously, because everybody loves presents.) So to celebrate this holiday, I made sure to travel in style. As a reindeer. Surprisingly I didn't really notice people staring at me in the city, on the train, in the airport, on the plane, or on the bus back in Palma. But I guess wearing reindeer antlers makes you look more approachable, because first a girl asked me and Pier if she is taking the right train to the airport then continued to keep chatting with us, then later a British lady asked me to lift her bag on the conveyor belt during the security screening while she was telling us about London and her vacation in Spain. So if you want strangers to start talking to you, put on reindeer antlers, I guess. They are quite uncomfortable to wear on a plane though.

Back in Palma I spent all my time drinking tea, eating soup and sleeping before it was time to get back to work. Luckily I quickly recovered and I'm prefectly fine by now, but to find out how the story continues you will have to come back and read part 14, because this is where I end it now.

Thanks for reading and see you next time!

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radawz · 7 years

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Mood-boost

Palma EVS - Part 12

November 7th – November 20th

It's almost winter, Christmas music is already popping up in the shops and I have just spent a whole week living with 4 girls. Also: better mood, more work, more experiences, more food & cooking, a package from home and some upcoming events. So, let's get into it.

First of all: work stuff. The most important thing is that I finished making the PDFs about future EVS projects that we plan to include in the Acción Balear newsletter that we are planning to start from next month. And related to this topic there is something I realized in the past 2 weeks. And it is the fact that working from home isn't as great as it first sounds. At least that's how I feel about it. While in the office I find it easy to concentrate on work, at home it's a different story. Although it's not impossible to get some work done that way either, but the distractions make it challenging to stay focused for hours.

At the start of the week the 3 volunteers from Tarragona were still in Palma, which was really nice as they made those few days more fun than it would have been without them. And thanks to one of them (Giacomo) we had some proper pizza.

And with that after only a couple of sentences I already reached my blog's frequently recurring theme, which is food. So let's stay with this topic. Recently I made some fried bananas, chocolate – banana muffins and a Hungarian dish called rakott krumpli.

I also made some progress to control my very serious guacamole/nacho addiction. I know that doesn't sound like such a big deal, but trust me, if you would have gone through as much guac as I did since I came to Spain, you would change your mind. Luckily the situation is under control and I only need one or two avocados per week to be able to handle the withdrawal symptoms.

Of course life just love to give people new challenges, so it's not surprising that after the guacamole problem ended I ran into a video of this simple flatbread pizza recipe. It's not just easy to make, but also delicious. Give it a try, but be careful, otherwise you will end up living only eating this thing.

On Saturday Pier left Palma for a week to go and discover Tenerife with a few other EVS volunteers leaving me in the apartment with the 4 girls. Some of you would think that's a great thing, others would say it's the exact opposite. For me it wasn't a big deal, the biggest difference was that the place became a lot more quite without our extrovert Italian. And just to make it clear that's not a bad thing, he is just different in that aspect compared to me, who is more quiet and introverted. At the end I think we are lucky that we have at least this 4 girls : 2 guys ratio.

Mondays are not usually the days people are looking forward, but last week it was a day I couldn't wait to come, because Friday afternoon I got a notification about a package that arrived to the office. Unnfortunately I had to wait until the next week started to actually get it. Other than winter clothes and my new phone, I also received some candies, chocolate, biscuits, teas, spices and some more food. Including some Hungarian things that are nearly impossible to find in other countries.

During the rest of the week I spent a few hours walking around the city and I also went to some stores to look for new clothes in order to have everything necessary for the colder months.

So that was the recent past and now let's focus on the future. On Thursday afternoon me and Pier will go to Manchester to check out the place and after we return to Palma on Saturday we will have a whole day to get ready for the mid-term training that will start on November 28th. It will last until December 2nd, but we won't come back immediately, because we are organizing a few day trip in Andalucia with a few other volunteers. Busy days are coming. Should be interesting. :)

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radawz · 7 years

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Clouds over Mallorca

Palma EVS - Part 11

October 24th – November 6th

As I start to write this part, fall has already arrived to Palma and my 5th month here has also began. Things and life in general are not as exciting as they were in the first few months, the “honeymoon period” of my EVS is over by now. But luckily there are good things too. :)

So after that slightly negative introductory let me explain why the majority of October was my worst period since my EVS started. First of all: the weather. I have to admit, this is a strange reason, because while the hot summer temperatures are gone, but the weather in Palma is still significantly better than what I'm used to in Hungary at this time of the year. It's not about the lower temperatures, it's about what you can and mainly what you can't do (be outside all day long and go to the beach). And also, I like fall and especially winter, I don't mind when it's -10 degrees outside, I love snow and almost everything that comes with the colder months. I think my biggest problem is that here the transition between the seasons isn't as drastic and therefore less exciting than it is back home. Palm trees give a nice summer vibe to the city, but they are useless at creating an environment like this when fall arrives:

I'm still very curious how the holiday period will be in Spain, but if I'm honest, I doubt I will like it as much as I usually do. But maybe I'm wrong and different will be better in that case, we shall see.

And now you – the reader – probably think that I just got to the point where homesickness kicked in, but it's not really the case. Sure, I miss my family, my friends, my dog, my home and keeping contact with people only on Skype and Facebook is not ideal, but just as I was okay with that at the beginning, I am still fine with the whole situation. And of course I miss certain things from my country, but that's also not the reason why my mood in general isn't as good as usually.

And that brings me to the explanation why I'm currently not on top of the world. It's basically the fault of time. Yep, time. Time that already passed during my first months as a volunteer. Those times, when everything was new and shiny and interesting. Well, those days are over. And obviously there is still a whole lot to experience, learn and enjoy during my EVS, but that doesn't change the fact that I arrived to a period that I was hoping to avoid during these 12 months. The period when volunteers lose their excitement that is there at the start of the EVS adventure. Even before my project started I read about the changes in mood that volunteers usually experience. At the start and towards the end everything seems great and time flies as you enjoy the place and people around you. But the first stage usually ends after a while when you get used to everything and I think that is where I am now. And before you start to imagine me in a sad and depressive state, I can tell you that's not the case. I'm fine, but things did change so now I have to figure out a way to get back to a better stage.

Thankfully there are a couple of things that will help me with that. A package full of goodies are on it's way from Hungary, we currently have some friends from Tarragona visiting us, a trip to Manchester is coming up and our EVS mid-term training is happening 3 weeks from now, where me and Pier will reunite with a lot of those volunteers we got to know during our on-arrival training. Also, we already have plans to celebrate New Year's Eve in the company of our awesome EVS friends. Everything seems to be set up for a great November and December.

And to finish this post off in a different tone, here are some things to give you some insight to what I have been doing in the last few days: for work I have started to create PDFs like this, I did some baking to make "nutella snails". I spent Halloween and All Saints' Day doing nothing, but resting and watching movies, then a few days later I went to the barber shop with Pier for a much needed haircut. And to end the weekend we went to the Mallorca – Zaragoza game to witness this goal, before watching the first North London Derby of the season on Sunday.

And that's about it, so see you next time with a hopefully much more cheerful post! :)

Photo credit: Eric Kilby via Visualhunt.com / CC BY-SA

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radawz · 7 years

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Late summer, dinners and a football game

Palma EVS - Part 10

October 10th – October 23rd

Time is still flying in Mallorca, so once again down below you can read about the last 2 weeks of my EVS. Preparation for the colder months, 2 special dinners, summer-like days, translating for hours and my first time going to a Real Mallorca game.

For a few weeks now rain is fairly common in Palma, but somehow I managed to avoid buying an umbrella up until the second week of October. Luckily though when it is a rainy day, the weather is still very nice here, but more about that a little later...

Both Tuesdays of these 2 weeks we spent a few hours at the university, where we promote the activities of Acción Balear with Xavi. During these the students can come up to our desk and get some information about EVS and summer camps.

Thursday night we had a dinner in Bodega Bellver with the girls from the piso, Silvia (the tutor of Steffie and Malin who works at Naüm), 2 other volunteers from Naüm and Pier, of course. The Bodega is a nice little place, where you can try lots of different types of llonguets.

Only two days after the dinner with the girls, we had another dinner to attend. This time it was Chinese food and with Maria Antonia, her boyfriend, Xavi and everybody from the apartment as it was an Acción Balear cena. Once again, great food & company and a fun night.

October 17th, Monday could have been a regular day with some work and the usual stuff, but thanks to the weather (sunny, around 30 degrees) it was time to go to Illetas beach after lunch and enjoy one of the last, if not the last day of this year with such fantastic weather. (Picture up top.)

On Wednesday and Thursday me and Pier were working hard on translating multiple pages about the summer camps in Morocco that Acción Balear organizes. While Pier was doing the actual translating from Spanish to English, I was trying to create the English version that makes sense as a whole. It was a challenge, took us 2 workdays, but I feel like we succeeded at the end. Big thanks to our flatmate Tatiana, who helped us out with some translating as well!

The last thing that is worth to write about in this post is a football match on Sunday. Thanks to Silvia - who I previously mentioned - we (Steffie, our Brazilian friend Anna, Pier and myself) finally had the chance to go to a Mallorca game at the Son Moix stadium. It was against Alcorcon and without going into too much detail it was an entertaining one with two missed penalties (one from each team), a red card (Alcorcon) and another penalty that actually ended up as a goal for Mallorca.

That's all for now, so I will just stop writing before I make this post unnecessarily long like I usually do.

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radawz · 7 years

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Holiday!

Palma EVS - Part 9

September 26th – October 9th

I'm back with another 2 weeks in one part post, so there is the danger that this could end up pretty long. I will try to avoid that, but be prepared just in case. Topics: my work at Acción Balear; holiday in Tarragona and Valencia / Alzira, the arrival of fall and a very special visitor.

Pier and me started the last week of September with big challenge after Xavi and Maria Antonia asked us to create a presentation with Prezi about the organizations that Acción Balear cooperates with. As neither me or Pier had to use Prezi before, it took us a while to figure out what we want to make and how we can actually achieve that. At the end we were quite happy with the end product.

On Thuesday and Wednesday we were working from home as both Xavi and Maria Antonia were out of the office. Other than writing my blog, I also had to make 2 other PDFs with current EVS opportunities.

On Thursday our holiday finally begun and first we flew to Barcelona, then took a train to get to Tarragona. Our main reason to travel was to meet the other volunteers: Inês, Félix, Anita, Giacomo and Lina, who live there and Chrysa who was there visiting. It was also the week when the human-tower building competition, the “Concurs de Castells“ was held. It's a fantastic and crazy thing at the same time and I have huge respect for every participant, including Inês and Félix. Unfortunately I didn't see the main event of the competition - that took place after I left Tarragona - but at least I saw a human-tower during their practice.

I only spent 1,5 days in the city, but it was quite eventful and very memorable. Hungarian food for dinner thanks to Anita and her family; games; playa and fiesta of course.

While Pier was staying for another day, on Saturday morning I took a train to Valencia and from there I went to Alzira, where Lucia, Evelina and Mert – 3 other people from the on-arrival training - are doing their EVS. At the time Mert was in Tarragona with Pier and the others and the 2 of them only joined us a day later. Luckily even without them there were plenty of people to hang out with. Other than the 2 girls there was Yusuf, their new flatmate and his friend; Teo, who is working for the same organization as them and Michael, a guy from the UK, who just started his EVS. With them we went to discover Alzira. Later we also met Karolina and Tomasz, 2 other volunteers, who are also just starting their project.

During the weekend there was a fair/market taking place in Alzira, so – although a little late – but we went there to see the procession and have some tapas and cerveza.

Later in the evening we were joined by other friends of Lucia and Evelina and we went to experience the nightlife of the city. During the day I met so many new people, that I can't even recall everybody's name, but at least I can mention Pastor, the nicest Bolivian I have ever met. To be honest, he is the first Bolivian I met in my life, so he doesn't have competition to be the nicest so far. That being said, he is a very cool guy.

After a long first night in Alzira Sunday was all about relaxing and waiting for Pier and Mert to arrive. After traveling back from Tarragona they went to see the Valencia – Atletico Madrid game.

When they got back 6 of us climbed the local hill and tried the bar on the top.

Next day Karolina, Michael, Pier and me we went to Valencia, where Mert – who knows the city very well by now – guided us through the place. In one day we saw the Plaza de Toros, the Torres de Quart, the Cathedral, the Mercat and a good portion of the city. After Tomasz joined us, we went to eat something and later we also walked through the enormous park before heading back to Alzira.

On Tuesday Pier went to visit the world famous L'Oceanogràfic in Valencia. As I didn't really want to spend long-long hours there that day, I decided to take a train to Xátiva and climb up to the castle. (Picture up top.) The whole little excursion took about 4 hours, it was quite tiring and the hot weather made it a little more difficult, but it was well worth it. In the evening we went to a Japanese restaurant and I tried my first sushi. I never was a huge fan of fish and seafood in general and eating sushi didn't really change my mind, but the place was great, I had some delicious food and it was a great experience.

Pier and me spent the last day of our holiday with Evelina and Lucia in Valencia. For lunch we had paella. Despite living in Spain for 3 months, this was the first time I had paella. I know, I know, I'm the absolute worst. But looking at it from a different perspective, it was actually great that sushi, paella and later a drink called horchata were new to me, because trying those made an already great holiday even better. Another awesome part of the day was visiting Jardín Botánico, a lovely hidden garden full of plants and cats. Just make sure you avoid the cactuses, they can be dicks.

Unfortunately time flew by fast and we had to get to the Valencia airport, so it was time to say goodbye to the girls. This part always sucks, but unless you only find friends close to the place where you live during your EVS, it will be part of your experience.

When a few hours later we got back to Palma we finally met our new 2 roommates, Federica (Italy) and Tatiana (Russia). With them we are now 6 people in the piso, which means a big change from the time when we were only the 2 of us with Pier in the apartment.

As usual the first few days after returning to our normal lives were not exactly easy and the fact that now Spanish is the most commonly used language in our apartment made it even more difficult to get back to normal. And it's not because there is anything wrong with the new girls, or Spanish, it is just all the changes. Instead of being with people I am already friends with, now I'm getting familiar with new people and instead of speaking English all the time, now I mainly hear – and also try to speak – Spanish. It's a big difference and it really made me miss my one-week holiday. But as days go by, it gets easier and easier. Luckily now I'm pretty much “forced” to practice Spanish in conversations as it is the language that two of my roommates, Frederica and Steffie prefer to use. So after 3 months in Spain I finally feel that my Spanish is getting better.

On Friday we met Anna, a Brazilian girl who lives in Palma and thankfully she speaks perfect English. So English is still very much present in my life.

On Saturday (October 8th) with the girls we went to an end of summer fiesta at Sa Posessión. 2 weeks ago this party was actually postponed due to rain. And seeing the current weather in Palma (rain almost every day), it was about time to have some fun and accept that summer is indeed over. Having said that it normally is still 20-25 Celsius degrees here and if it is not cloudy, it's still very pleasant.

The week ended with a relaxing Sunday, when not a lot happened EXCEPT I finally had a visitor from home. :) One of my cousins was working in Mallorca for a couple of days and luckily he had some free time to meet up and chat a little bit. It was not only nice, because I met one of my relatives on the island, but also because I haven't met him for a long time.

That's pretty much all that happened during these last 2 weeks. See you next time!

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radawz · 7 years

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More visitors and things I do at Acción Balear

Palma EVS - Part 8

September 12th - September 25th

Another 2 weeks went by, so I'm back with everything that happened recently. More about our EVS visitors, the work in the office, Art Night in Palma and my first time promoting EVS with Acción Balear at the local university.

On Monday it was time for my first day back in work after my holiday. But before Pier and me got back to our desks to get some work done, we had to go with Malin, Steffie and Xavi to get our citizen cards. With that thing it's possible to take a bus ride and use the city bikes on a better price.

The next day all of our EVS guests who arrived on the 7th of September left Palma. But after we were getting used to our old work routine, on Wednesday it was once again time to welcome new people in the city.

On Thursday me and Pier visited Casal Petit with Maria Antonia. It's an organization that helps women to escape prostitution by offering them all sorts of help and a safe place. Their activities include classes for the women, help with job searching and preparation for a regular work life. Soon they will also host EVS volunteers.

Later we welcomed our last EVS guest. Another Ádám, from the same city I'm from, who went to the same high school as I did. And he was also in the same class as my sister (Shoutout to Csilla! :) ). Pretty crazy that we met here in Spain during our EVS. Small world.

After spending some time on the beach that day with the group, at night we went to check out Nit de l'Art (Art Night). Other than walking in the city and listening to some street music we visited an art exhibition and also we finally entered the Cathedral. It took Pier and me more than 2 months to finally achieve this goal, but we did it. Surprisingly the inside isn't as big as I expected by looking at the Cathedral from the outside. When you do that, it looks enormous, so you expect a huge inside too. That being said it is still very nice, even for someone like me, who has zero interest in religion.

The next day everyone from the last EVS group left, except Ádám. With him and my 3 flatmates we went to watch a game in the afternoon, then we went for a walk near the seaside. Before getting back to our flat, we went to get some pizzas from Palma Pizza, which is fairly close to our piso. And it was not only quite cheap, but also pretty good.

After midnight we said goodbye to Ádám, the last one of our EVS visitors (in September).

The next few days were all about work. Firstly – on Tuesday – we went to UIB (Universidad de les Illes Balears) with Xavi and Pier, where we had a table and 3 hours to promote volunteering. Basically during occasions like this any student can get information about EVS, Acción Balear and they can learn how to make the first steps in order to become an EVS volunteer.

During the week I was also creating PDFs (like this one) about EVS projects abroad that locals can apply for, if they are interested.

The last 3 days of the week were pretty uneventful, but for some reason I started to cook a lot of things. I made a spicy pasta dish, some arroz con leche and most importantly, pupusas. Pupusa is a traditional food from El Salvador and it's not only tasty, but also very simple to make, so even if you are not very experienced in the kitchen, you can give it a try.

And that's all for this week's post. Next week I will be away from Palma to discover a few places on the eastern coast of Spain, but I will be back to share my experiences with you all.

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radawz · 7 years

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Visitors

Palma EVS - Part 7

August 29th – September 11th

After an awesome holiday I'm back to write about my newest adventures. Here is Part 7 with the last days of summer, EVS guests from all over Europe who spend their voluntary services in various locations of Spain, road trips to the nicest beaches of Mallorca, a water battle and great memories. And pictures, obviously.

The days before our guests from the on-arrival training arrived were spent with work in the office and preparation (planning, cleaning, cooking, baking, etc.) at home. Then on Thursday after work, in the afternoon & in the evening it was finally time to welcome our first 2 guests.

On our first day as a group of 4 we rented a car and visited 3 great beaches on the southeast corner of Mallorca. /Cala Llombards, Cala Mondrago, Cala Agulla/

Next day we went to discover Tramuntana and the northwest coast of the island.

/Torre del Verger, Cala Banyalbufar, Valldemossa, Sa Calobra/

The day after the group grew even bigger and for 6 of us it was time for the Canamunt (red shirts) & Canavall (yellow shirts) water battle, so after a little shopping and a coffee break we went to the Canavall gathering point to meet the other yellows.

After getting completely soaked in water thanks to our small 6 person and the other huge group, the whole Canavall team started marching towards Parc de la Mar. Then on the square next to the Cathedral we lined up to fight Canamunt. The whole event – including the actual “battle” - was great fun and I would highly recommend it to everybody. (This battle was only the second time this event was organized, but hopefully the tradition will continue and they will organize it in the upcoming years as well.)

On Monday (September 5th) we were back in the car to make another road trip and see the northern part of Mallorca too.

/ Cap Formentor, Cala Formentor and the area of Alcúdia /

The next day other than visiting Mariola's Bakery and going to Bellver Castle we also went to eat something on the night of Ruta Martiana. For this occasion you can check out a bar called Lemon Tree, where other than trying some delicious tapas, you can also play games surrounded by a nice atmosphere.

Unfortunately on this evening it was also time to say goodbye to 2 EVS friends who were visiting us. As I mentioned it in my first post after the training in Alsasua ended this part just sucks. And I'm far from a very emotional person. But for some reason only 2 weeks spent together (and some extra conversations on Facebook) are more than enough to create strong bonds. Which means that seeing these people leave will be sad. And it only gets worse as more and more people leave Mallorca. Thankfully the new arrivals and the presence of the people who are still here make it easier. And of course there is always the option to travel and meet others away from Palma. But more about that next week. :)

On Wednesday Pier had to start working again as he only took off the first 2 days of this weeks. Me on the other hand was lucky enough to have a proper beach day on Illetes with 2 lovely ladies. Nice beaches, sunshine, girls and pizza. You can't really wish for anything better than that. Maybe cerveza.

On the next day I took the group on a little tour in the city, which mainly included the area of the Cathedral and a long walk along the sea, passing the Consolat del Mar and the Es Baluard museum.

After we got quite tired we met up with Pier in Skalop for lunch. We knew about this place for a long time, but up until that day we didn't try it. And that was probably a mistake. The prices are affordable, the food was great and the portions are huge. Great place. While the majority of the group stayed in the apartment after lunch, three of us spent the rest of my day with walking around the city center and shopping for this and that.

Sadly in the next 2 days 2 other volunteers left Palma and we also had the first proper rain in the city since my arrival. It took 67 days to see real rain here and not just a couple of drops of water. No wonder tourists love this place.

On Sunday, the last day of my holiday we went to Sa Calobra again with the other EVS volunteers and then later our 2 new flatmates, Steffie and Malin arrived. Both of them will volunteer at Projecte Socioeducatiu Naüm for a year and so far they seem very nice. With them and the 2 other girls, who will arrive later our life will get a lot more lively (and probably more challenging as well) in the piso.

Overall these few days with the others were amazing, we visited some beautiful parts of the island including fantastic beaches and some great sights. We had a great time together with some nice dinners and we tried a handful of bars and clubs during the night. (There is one in Palma called “Sabotage” and it is great, try it!)

But that is all I have for this post, see you next time!

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radawz · 7 years

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Sunrise pancake, sunset pizza

Palma EVS - Part 6

August 22nd – August 28th

Before going on a little vacation from the 5th of September till the 11the I'm here with the latest happenings. More about food, my Blog Guide, the sunrise in Palma, my first visit to a Spanish barber shop and a bit more. All that in part 6.

Monday morning is something that almost nobody is looking forward to after a nice weekend and that's usually the same with me, but the 22th of August was a little different. The reason? Pancakes! I love having something sweet for desayuno. It can be waffles, biscuits, cinnabon, a piece of cake, or the king of breakfasts, pancakes with maple syrup. In this instance I ate it with some banana and chocolate syrup, but that was more than enough to have a great start to my week.

The next day we had a meeting with the organization ALAS. Their main goal is to prevent new HIV infections and to take care of people who are affected by the virus. They offer psychosocial assistance, the possibility of rapid HIV tests and even legal advice. Other than that ALAS carries out awareness events and campaigns about HIV.

On Wednesday we finally returned to Cervecería Tramuntana for some nachos and beer. We also had a good discussion about our plans for the first 3 weeks of September, when we will welcome our new roommates and we will also have a few guests in Palma from our EVS on-arrival training that took place in Alsasua (Navarra). Very exciting stuff, even though it took a few hours to figure out everything for those days. Luckily now we have solid plan with lots of options to have a great time. :)

After an hour or so in Tramuntana, we headed to Cinema a la Fresca - that I have mentioned before – and watched a movie before going home.

The next day after long spending long hours working on it, I finally finished the Blog Guide that was my task for this month. Check out the link if you want to see how it looks like, but I bet it's a painfully boring read, unless you want to start an Acción Balear blog like this. In that case, I'm hoping it will be somewhat useful.

On Friday both Pier and me got a haircut in La Barberia Haircuts & Wines. (Shout-out for Xavi, for getting us appointments. Gracias!)

We were both very satisfied with the work of our barbers and the shop itself is really nice too. The option of getting gratis beer or coffee also helps their case when I judge them. Too bad it was a little early to have a beer. After we left the barbershop we went to the Cathedral to take pictures like this. Because why not?

The next day as the weekend started I got up early and to the beach on my own to see how the sunrise looks like in Palma. And as you can see on these bad quality pictures (thanks Windows Phone) up top and under this paragraph, it's quite nice. Definitely not as pretty as the sunrise in the city though.

And that is all I got for this post. During my days-off I will be busy having fun and relaxing in the company of some awesome people, but I will be back soon!

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