Irish language

The first question people ask me about my stay in Belfast is: Do you understand to people there? The answer still remains: Not yet. But it's getting better :).
The thing here is that Irish accent is really weird and hard to listen, especially when you've never heard it. There is very heartbreaking moment when you start to feel confident about your English because you read a lot or because you can watch movies and then you encounter Irish people. And you know all your effort for many years is for nothing :D. One of the first sentences you can hear here is in the shop and among international students it's really legendary. It is: Do you need a wee bag? The staff in shops always asks this. And it is so sad when you realize the meaning only after 3 weeks of listening to it. One would say it is quite simple sentence. But trust me. It is not! :D
Some of you probably don't know how the Irish accent sounds. My friend received beautiful message describing it perfectly. The message said:

Did you know that when you say "Whale Oil Beef Hooked" fast, it sounds like "We'll all be fucked" in an Irish accent?

Did you? I know now. Talking in University is quite fine. The university accent as I call it is understandable just after few days without bigger problems. But when you go outside of the university, there is enormous diversity of different accents. I found nice video where some of the basic Irish accents are nicely said. Still with not so strong accent. I also add a video with girl, which is speaking normal Belfastish. Especially the "This is ridiculous" sounds sooo familiar :D. When you talk to bus drivers or shop assistants, believe it or not, the accent is getting even much worse.

Another thing is local slang. I don't hear it much actually, but it is always handy to know what it means. Only the simple words as yes and no are not the way you would expect them to be. Or when you hear something like norn iron, it means Northern Ireland. And these words are kind of important to agree on something. So here I add a short vocabulary to survive in Belfast.

Aye - Yes

Nay, Naw - No

Wee - a little, something small (e.g. a wee bit)

It was great craic - It was fun

What's the craic? How's she cutting? - How are you?

It was a cracker - It was good

Deadly/Class - Awesome.

I'm wasted, steaming. - I'm drunk.

Banjaxed - Broken

Da - Father

Ma - Mother

Me - My (One of the most famous songs in Belfast is called Tell me ma)

Eejit - Idiot

Fiddle - Violin

Poke - Ice cream

Tae (pronunciation) - Tea

Tea - Dinner

Just to make this complete, everything is lovely and fockn' brilliant. People call you love even though they see you for the first time and everybody is their mate or fella. I really love the way they speak here. Everything is like singing and it is also not uncommon to hear here the scottish "r" so I don't feel so bad when I use the Czech one which is really similar.

Motto of the day: It's a great craic in Belfast!

Czech impact

In the time, when Czech hockey players are making a success in Hockey World Championship 2015, nobody cares about hockey here. I am a shame, but I am watching only the results of the matches and videos with Bob and Bobek, our 2 rabbit mascots. The Championship takes place in the Czech Republic this year. Prague - the capital city and Ostrava. Because today first friend is leaving back home and I am starting to desperately miss Czech food (especially normal bread), I started to think what is the Czech impact on world around and what other nations think about us.
Actually, I heard some things about Czechs here, mostly from international students, and they amused me and surprised me. For example lots of students is going during their trips around Europe to Prague and many people have already been there. I wasn't expecting it so much, but I was flattered when an American student told me "Oh come on, everybody wants to go to Prague." Who wouldn't, right?  Lots of people also make some trip around Poland and Czech Republic, getting to know Krakow and Prague mostly. And I am happy they enjoy Prague more. Or at least they tell me this, possibly only to make me proud of my country. Well, it's working :D.

Prague - see? You should come too :-P

Of course, often the talking concerns beer and alcohol. For example now I know for Asians it is really weird to drink so much and for Irish it is weird to drink during day or just to have a beer with lunch. Often nobody knows which beers are Czech, but a little reminder is enough to obtain such an amazing fact that there is a South Korean study "proving" Pilsner Urquell is the best beer to have with a chicken. Top of all, obviously Czech people are famous for drinking a lot, but Polish people are famous for being drunk a lot.

Pilsner Urquell - probably the most famous Czech beer

I am not trying to be offensive here towards Poland, I just say what I heard. There is really a lot of Polish people in Northern Ireland so it is not so hard to find Polish guys and shops here. Still it made me very happy when I discovered a small shop with Czech, Slovak and Hungarian stuff like cheese, sweets, our favourite lemonade Kofola and other things. Talking about food - we have a tradition with my friends that we cook food traditional for our country and every week somebody else is cooking. I cooked bramboráky s masovou směsí (something like potato pancakes with mixture of meat and vegetables) and my friends liked it and even were full. We also ate everything, that's always a good sign :-P.

Poster which firstly caught my eyes

Kofolaaaa!

Piskotyyyyy :D

Sometimes I also discover very interesting details somebody noticed in Czech Republic. For example my friend pharmacist was on a conference in Czech Republic and he found out that Czech pharmacies are very good and provide a high quality service in comparison with other countries. But for me the best finding is that my friend from Spain was with high school in Prague and his classmates were so inspired by the city that they named their band after metro station in Prague. So welcome Spanish experimental music band from Barcelona called "Opatov" :D.

Motto of the day (today as a short poem):

Don't know what to do in kitchen?

Drink Pilsner Urquell with a chicken!

Begging business and homeless life style

My sister has been visiting me during this weekend. We saw many things. We went on Cavehill with the most beautiful weather I experienced here so far and then we were in Titanic quarter and just around the city and I showed her a bit the epic pub culture with live music here in Belfast. Actually talking with her about what is here to see was really interesting for me too. And thanks to her I found out I have really lots of observations about beggars and homeless people around.

I think these are 2 very different groups of people. Beggars and homeless people. Beggars are having job - begging. They start around 9 in the morning and disappear around 4. On Friday they sometimes end a bit earlier, because weekend is coming. On weekend there are no beggars in the streets. Beggars are very pragmatic in choosing a place where to beg. You can meet them at the entrance to shop, next to ATMs, in front of important buildings... We have a new one in front of my faculty so I am meeting the guy twice a day at least. I am still resisting. He is smiling at people with his toothless smile and rattling few coins in a little bowl. When you are nice to them and answer at least or smile back but you don't give them any money, they are angry at you, waving arms above their heads and complaining. Sometimes pointing at your recently bought groceries and accusing you of being selfish. In case of beggars I am kind of racist, because they all are darker skinned and local people say they are all Romanians... Which I don't know, I didn't ask them. But the way they act is making me very angry.

Then there are half beggars. I saw only very few of them, but I think these are acting a bit different. They are not accusing and not just asking for money. They address you and sell some kind of a magazine. We have something similar in the Czech Republic. People with financial problems sell a magazine, which is actually quite interesting. We know about this kind of business and giving them money is supporting somebody who is trying to make money with actual work.

Homeless people are also pretty interesting. They are not of any race specifics and surprisingly of all the ages. From very young people of my age to old people. Girls, men, anybody. Interestingly, they have very nice and new looking sleeping bags often. Which I've never seen before. But it make some sense to have at least a good sleeping bag if you are living in the streets. Some of them even seem to have very nice clothes too. Especially the young homeless generation. To me it sometimes seem just like some crazy young guys camping in the streets instead of woods. Maybe it is only some weird living style for some of them.

Do you remember the homeless guy in library I was writing about at the beginning of my stay here? I was never talking to him because the smell around him makes me vomit. But my friend talked to him. His name is Cyril and obviously he read every book in the world, not only in this library. He is very smart and educated. And now he is much more outside around the Botanic Garden, leaving the library behind. Thanks God for my nose. When my friend was talking to him, Cyril invited him to his home and gave him address! And hold on. My friend checked the address on Google Maps. It is just a normal looking nice house. I think I don't understand anything anymore. Why he does not wash himself at least if he wants to live with students in the library or around Botanic Garden with his plastic bag, book and old clothes?

It is weird for me to see here all these people. Even though I would be sometimes wishing to help somebody, I am just confused from the big diversity of people who look in need here. So far I donnated 50p to a guy who needed it for "phone" or something. He sounded desperate. I met him in 15 minutes, a bit more drunk, still asking last 50p he needs and not remembering I already spoke with him. I am not helping again :D.

Motto of the day: Help people in need. People who are really in need.

Accommodation Adventure - part 3: Belfast City Council

Your favourite series is back! :-P
I was thinking whether I should continue writing about this topic or not because I got a little reminder that Q Flats, the company which is handling the houses in so clean way and they are also very nice to you when some problem occurs and obviously doesn't stick to many moral rules, so these guys, are reading my blog! Cheers, buddies ;).
The main point of my effort was all the time based on a simple law - every deposit taken according to a tenancy have to be protected in governmental scheme for deposit protection. Never mind the contract haven't been signed. When it's deposit, it's deposit.
When I was talking with my landlord, we agreed that if they have new tenant, I can get part of my deposit back. So I waited and then I asked how is it going and also whether they can at least send me information about protecting my deposit within the governmental scheme, because that's what they were supposed to do. Since then I received after few of mine reminders, that they won't send me my deposit back and that they "are sure that [they] are doing the right things". Surprisingly they didn't say anything about the deposit scheme information. And I was really interested in what is possibly a reason not to send few numbers if everything is alright. After all, they didn't have any reason not to protect my deposit.
Also I started to be annoyed with my landlord because in his email he was still reminding me to double-check the contract we signed. And I need to admit, it feels kind of funny and kind of frustrating to talk to a man, who even doesn't know that you didn't sign any contract together yet. And he still doesn't know even when you tell him many times. I started to think he has really some kind of delusion problems, also considering what he told me when I was meeting him at the green mold house.
So I wrote nice email to Belfast City Council, asking them to check if my deposit was protected or not. And guess what! They replied to me! They replied to me that they contacted my landlord and he told them my money was payed as a reservation fee and because I never started to live in a house, it never turned into a deposit. So it is not their concern anymore. This I consider quite an interesting philosophical question actually. How money, which were payed as deposit and always talked about as deposit, are suddenly not a deposit? If you know the answer, just let me know :D. Also I find interesting that one call and lame explanation is enough for them. So I asked the council for their philosophical ideology, which depicts this complex reservation/deposit issue.

And I waited...

I waited...

I waited...

...

Motto of the day: Deposit is not deposit. If deposit would be deposit, it would mean deposit is deposit. But deposit is not deposit, therefore it can't be handled as deposit. If anything should be handled as deposit, it would have to be deposit. But deposit is not deposit, therefore it is not handled as deposit. So "we will not give you back your deposit".

From Murals to the Wall aka Still Easter Break in Berlin

To be honest, Berlin as a city is often just ugly, smelly, dirty and with creepy people. A lot of them. Half of the houses in Berlin, especially out of the city center, is abandoned and loosing it's match with nature. But when I got used to all of these, I even started to like it because it creates very specific atmosphere. You feel that anything you do is still part of norm and it feels kind of free and safe, a bit hippie. I think this city had really painful history and life developed amazing diversity in ideologies, styles, expressing and just being in order to survive with mental health.

One of many abandoned factories in Berlin. Still beautiful.

Mauer Park. One of the places you don't know if it's dreadful or nice. And with looots of creepy people.

I have been to Berlin before and always I think a lot about the past times. Being in the city center is not possible without noticing the line on the ground marking position of the Berliner wall, the Jewish Memorial with very powerful atmosphere or Checkpoint Charlie. In a way it is strange to me. I am from postcomunist country and these places are very powerful to see. And it feels a bit more alive when you are biking along the East-Side Gallery, the longest remaining piece of the Berliner Wall where artists send their messages to the world and young kids are spraying there ugly tags because it is badass. Walls separating people. So Belfast and also so not Belfast.

Checkpoint Charlie, welcome to the West

It surprised me, how the Berliner Wall is low. You couldn't climb on it, probably even not with help. But in comparison with the Belfast walls it is just a tiny piece of fence. In Belfast the problem was preventing people from killing each other. I heard the Belfast walls were more act of protecting the communities than separating the people. In Berlin it was enough to prevent people from climbing over. It was the higher power which decided the people shouldn't talk to each other even though they would love to. When I see both those places, it just comes to my mind, what a stupid and frustrating idea it is to build walls between people and sadness takes place in my heart :(.

The wall in Belfast

The Wall in Berlin. See the TV tower from Alexander Platz?

TV tower in Alexander Platz with cathedral at Museum island

Berlin is not only about nazi stuff and the Wall. There are other amazing historical buildings too. The building of Reichstag is beautiful and majestic.You can even make a reservation and visit the building for free, take a lift up to the roof and make a tour with an audio guide which will tell you about history of the building and point at the most important things you can see around. It is a very good way how to start a stay in Berlin because it gives basic overview of main sites in the city center. That's why I've been there the last day of my stay :-P. And if you want to go around more, the Museum Island or just getting lost in the connected courts inside houses and all the little alleys are a great place to spend time too. The problem is that after 3 weeks I have too many things to write about that it is hard to talk about all of them. But if you want some advice where to go, write me ;).

Reichstag awaiting

Potsdamer Platz with crazy buildings

To sum up my stay, I think in a way I fell in love with Berlin. It is really amazing city with so much diversity and it will be great pleasure to come back again sometimes. As I am now experiencing more other countries and cities than Czech on long term bases, it is great to really feel how every place has something interesting and beautiful to offer and still it remains totally different from other places in the world.

Motto of the day: Anywhere abroad you will go, it wasn't a bad choice.

Parks and Rivers aka Easter Break in Berlin

One of the crazy advantages of studying at Queen's is that we have 3 weeks of Easter break without any lectures or duties. 3 weeks of nothing in 12 weeks long semester seems kind of funny to me but for Erasmus students it is amazing opportunity to travel a lot. So we do. One of the most favourite locations to travel is Scotland - Glasgow, Edinbourgh, Loch Ness and Northern Highlands. Other destinations to go are London of course or some circuit around Ireland. Some people are also heading back home to see their family or girl/boyfriend and some people are just crazy and go to Germany, US, Portugal and then back to Belfast. So I chose to combine travel and visit my close ones. I went to Berlin to see my boyfriend for whole 3 weeks. After all, it is half of my stay in Belfast and it is appropriate time for such a visit.

When the plane was landing in Berlin, I was surprised and thought something is wrong, because I saw just woods and lots of rivers and ponds. But it turned out to be really Berlin and it stayed like this for whole 3 weeks. There is just so many parks and the river Spree and other smaller rivers are just everywhere and it gives the city very dynamic/relaxed feeling. Amazing thing about parks is that nearly everywhere you go, you can go around river or under trees or just through forest. To describe Berlin - it is many smaller, cute and sometimes even countryside looking towns plus busy modern city center. Each of the little towns has totally different atmosphere. But even in the city center there is a giant park right next to Reichstag and Brandenburg Gate. So even if you would like to hide from nature, you can't.

The parks are huge. It is not so hard to feel like in the middle of nowhere in few meters from street. That means there is also lots of different spots and fun places. There is a mini zoo, football stadium, concert stadium, little lake, train circuits, building model park and some other interesting things only in the park close to our flat. I could walk in this park for whole 3 weeks and I would still have things to explore. I even made there few new friends - 3 lamas, woodpeckers, singing blackbirds, fox!!! Do you understand it? Fox in the capital... I still can't believe it. Oh, and I was running there! I can't believe this too. You can? I can't.

The park starting 200 m from our appartement from sky

If you start to be bored with walking and running in parks, there are still the rivers and ponds and lakes. It is possible to borrow different kinds of boats probably nearly everywhere in Berlin. With an engine, without engine, with paddles or steppers. We took kayak for beautiful 2 hours on a sunny day. If you stay out of the way of the big industrial boats, you can sail pretty far. So we visited
Köpenick, which is just beautiful and cute, with cosy atmosphere... Until you find out that there took place so called Köpenick blood week, described as one of the earliest great atrocities of the Nazi period in 1933 with 500 arrested, interrogated and tortured people. The cosiness of the place is making the feeling even much more scary. It's like looking at a baby serial killer. Well... History is sometimes strange to understand from nowadays perspective. Especially if you don't know much about it as me :).

Me looking like a professional sailor

To cheer you up - there is the strangest abandoned place I've ever heard about in Spreepark next to the river. A big ferris wheel visible from a big distance is preparing you to meet an old abandoned entertainment park. I have to admit I firstly did not see the wheel, so I was suddenly surprised by a dead dinosaur lying behind a fence. And there was more of them all together with other fair attractions, everything covered with grass, dirt and obviously not used. We even found it in a list of the most beautiful abandoned places in Germany (if you want to see some pictures, see number 2 on the list http://www.buzzfeed.com/awesomer/beautiful-berlin#.sf1ll3g0K)

Dead T-Rex under ferris wheel

In the same park I also met the greenest grass on planet Earth. All the place was smelling like an onion and it felt so strange. Have you ever smelled onions in a forest? My boyfriend said it is grass which is normally considered weed and they feed it to rabbits. Because I like onions, it was like claiming it is not poisonous and I gave it a try. Firstly I enjoyed the onion taste but after some time I started to feel something is not alright and rest of our walk I was spitting all around. I really don't understand what the rabbits like about this grass.

The greenest grass in woods ever. Isn't it just refreshing under the sleeping trees?

There is just lots of fun in Berlin and you even don't have to see the city itself. But if you would like to know a bit more about it, the next post should offer you some more information and my experience ;).

Motto of the day: Do not eat things which smell like onion, but are not onion.