Nanowrimo - Nearing The End

My head is sore today from writing or perhaps the change in weather which is slowly breaking down my immune system. The good news is that I have fulfilled my quota of words but the bad news is that if I keep going at this rate, I will finish on December 2nd.

I'm at 32,2116 words which I think is not bad at all and I still have some ideas to help me stretch out my story. That's the funny thing about my current writing. When I finish the 50,000 quote required to be a Nanowrimo winner, my first task will be to go back over my story again and begin the editing process where I will probably delete a good chunk of the work which took a great deal of effort to create.

I am enjoying being under pressure to write and sometimes I wonder if I could maintain this every day. The most satisfying thing is how quickly words build up when you maintain a regular writing practice. Doing this would be tough but think of all I would write. I guess this is what full-time writers do. They have their times for writing every day and their times for resting like any other job.

First things first, only another ten days to go and a little less than 18,000 words to write.

A Novel in One Month

November 1st. Today is the first day of Nanowrimo, an online writing project I have signed up to do for the second time. It means that every day of this month I have to write in order to reach the target of 50,000 words. It's a massive amount to write and I feel daunted by it to say the least but my plan is to take it one day at a time.

On the website they advise you to tell everyone you know that you are taking part in this which is why I am writing here. I want to exclaim loud and clear that in one month's time I will have a collection of 50,000 words. The logic behind this is that the more people you tell, the greater the feeling of failure if you don't complete the word count. The last time around I told students, friends and felt like walking up to strangers to tell them,  'Yes, I am taking part in Nanowrimo and I will write a novel / a large collection of words in one month.'

Right now, I have no idea if these words will form something coherent and interesting or not. That is the beauty of the project. Participants are encouraged to simply write and write without editing. This comes later. Now it's all about writing and filling blank pages with words.

On The Move / Initial Observations

Moving is always tough for me. It amazes me that people can move once a year or even more and not lose their minds. I guess I have mixed feelings about it. I admire and am confused by these people.

It's funny how often people look at me and think I'm one of these travellers who can't stay put in one place for too long. When I tell them it's not true, I usually get the feeling that they are not convinced.

Ireland 22 or so years and Poland for nearly 8 years and that's it. Okay so I have spent at least one month a year in Oxford for the last four years but that has been for work purposes and usually out of necessity.

Now it's Bratislava. It's not so different from Kraków in some ways but very different in others. Initial observations are that there are less small shops and markets to buy fruit and veg than in Kraków. This is a bit disappointing as I feel I am being forced to use Tesco a little too often. The architecture here has more remnants from the communist / socialist past whereas in Kraków, there have been many attempts to remove these traces of history. People are generally friendlier here and are willing to help if they can. In Kraków I often found people to be a mixed bag, sometimes friendly and sometimes they looked and behave as if they hated every human on Earth including themselves.

I'm digressing here though, although my heading has allowed for this. It's strange to move again. I'm starting from the bottom again but this time with experience of what it means to live in a totally different place and know no one. It's still weird and fitting in seems like a big task. I do have to remind myself that I haven't even been here one week and yet in some ways it feels like I've been here much longer.

How To Get Lost.

Trying to be clever, I have entitled this post 'Get Lost'. Why? Well, this is a rant about my bank called Getin Bank. Very clever, eh?

After listening to people for far too long expressing their fears that we will basically all be screwed when we retire because of the predicted pitiful pension funds, I decided to set up my own pension fund. My plan was to open a savings bank account and set up a monthly direct transfer of an affordable sum of money from one account to another, the second of which, I planned to not touch until retirement or in the case of a really, really, extreme, extreme situation, which does not include holidays, music gear or anything like that.

So, I went to the bank, where I was well assisted and returned home ready to begin this sensible operation, but when I logged in, I could not see this new account.

The next day, I went back to the bank and was informed that perhaps my online banking system needed to be updated. The guy told me he had done something to make it work but that I should go home and check it and return the next day if nothing had changed.

Guess what? I had to return the next day. This time I had to sign some forms in order to change my account to a more modern version that I was informed was much easier to use than the old one. It all sounded great so I returned home once again and logged into my new account ready to set up my pension savings scheme. When I logged in, I now saw that my account had become an empty corpse. My balance had been erased and there was no information that this account was alive and well except that which told me where it is I live.

Since then I have been in correspondance with my bank by email and have been informed on a daily basis that everything will be fixed soon. It has been over one week since I began, what I believed would be a very easy, straightforward process but instead of beginning a very mature and sensible scheme, I now have no money in my online account, no account number, no record of any transactions but at least I know where I live.

The Lost Weekend - From Krakow to ... Wrocław

The plan was simple - go from Kraków to Berlin to see two friends, one studying there and the other who was doing an album launch.

In the past there was a direct train from Kraków to Berlin but this has been replaced by a bus, which is better as it takes two hours less than the train used to take. An eight-hour journey still seemed to long, so my friend and I decided to get to Wrocław early in the morning and then hitch a ride into Germany. We thought that by getting there so early, we would have plenty of time to make it, and even if hitch-hiking proved to be ineffective, there would still be enough time to catch a train or a bus and make it to Berlin in the evening.

Everything started out fine. We took the bus at 7:40 in the morning and arrived in Wrocław at 9:20. Since my friend had never seen the city, we took a walk into the centre with the aim of taking a quick stroll around, take in the impressive Market Square and then get out of town and onto a road leading towards Germany.

We had a coffee, walked around a bit and then set about finding a way to get to the edge of town. Two girls at tourist information helped us out. It seemed unfortunate that a friend of one of the girls was actually driving to Berlin that day and could have given us a lift but it just wasn't to be. A little bit of bad luck but we didn't think too much of it.

Getting to the edge of town can be difficult but we managed to do it after a few setbacks. Then we had to find a suitable place to stand in the typical hitch-hiking pose with our sign and hope that a good soul would help us out. Despite waiting for three hours in pretty cold temperatures, breathing in car fumes, hoping that one of the hundreds if not thousands of cars that went past us, only one person stopped but she was going in the opposite direction.

With cold feet and hands and deflated hopes, we retreated into a shopping centre to think about another course of action. With the help of my friend's fiancee, we got the number of a guy from a car sharing website (www.blablacar.pl) who was going to Berlin. We called him and he said he was leaving at 5pm and was going to arrive in Berlin at 10pm. It was a bit late for us but seemed like the only option, so we agreed to go with him. A Thirty-minute delay became one hour. Add another half an hour onto that and our patience was running low. This guy was driving a bus but was not registered and was using a car pooling website to basically run an illegal service so we decided to scrap that plan and go back into the centre and check the train connections. We knew there was an early morning train thanks once again to my friend's fiancee but we had no idea how complicated it would be to buy a ticket for it. We could buy a ticket to the town across the border to Gorlitz but not from Kottbus to Berlin. We couldn't understand why. Surely in the European Union there is communication between train companies to allow for the smooth movement of people from country to country. Evidently not, judging by the problems we had at the train station. The cashier was very helpful and even phoned a colleague to try to get us a ticket. The major problem was that there was so little time between connections that there was no way we would have had time to buy the ticket and make the train. She did manage to work something out for us despite the overly-complicated system but it all seemed too complicate and expensive so we decided to get a hostel for the night and review our options.

The first hostel we went to had no free beds.  The people working there almost seemed surprised by this fact and it seemed that normally it was not a problem to book a bed for the night. For us, it was just another slap in the face. They did help us to find another hostel, which had two free beds, was wonderful and located above a nice bar in an interesting area in Wrocław.

Having checked in, I went online and found another guy from the car pooling agency who was leaving the next day and could take us. With this in mind, we went out and enjoyed a few drinks in Wrocław before going to bed knowing that the next day we would finally make it to Berlin.

At 5am, my alarm went off for some strange reason. I had set it for that time the previous day but not that night. I turned it off and got a text that our driver cancelled his trip and was not going to Berlin. I responded by writing 'szkoda' and he responded back. According to him, the reasons were beyond his control and he was really sorry but I was wondering what he was doing awake at 5am and found it hard to believe the reason was out of his control.

The next day, I got up early and did some more research but there was nothing affordable going to Berlin so we decided just to give up and accept that fate was against us. It was nice to spend time in Wrocław but we both felt defeated. We were having coffee when the driver called again and said he had changed his mind. Perhaps he was sober then and this had influenced his decision. I don't know but by then we had already booked a ticket back to Krakow and had given up on Berlin.

What came out of this whole trip are three main things:

1. that hitch-hiking is not so easy in Poland
2. car sharing has many flaws especially when people are so unreliable
3. sometimes it is better just to buy a ticket with the assurance that you will get to your destination

A New Idea - A Travel Community Blog

I have had this blog for some time now. In fact, the first post was way back in 2005.  A lot has happened since then and I guess I have recorded some of this in songs, some in stories and some here.

The point of this entry is to let you know that I have set up another blog that has nothing to do with my life, but the lives of others and especially the experiences that other people have had living in a different country.

It's called 'Home Is Where I Write'. I chose the name because I think we have have a number of different homes. Writing is also something that grounds me and gives me a sense of having a home. I can find a home in the words I use or the thoughts I would like to share.

Anyway, here's a link to the blog http://homeiswhereiwrite.wordpress.com/author/homeiswhereiwrite/

The idea is to share the experiences of others who have lived in another country. You can write a song, a poem, a rant, an article, share an anecdote ... the format is up to you.

There's not too much up there now but if you are interested, get in touch.