He or she, doesn't matter.

Today I saw the most amazing transsexual singer I've seen!

After a tough weekend I needed some piece of culture and luckily there was a festival in Rotterdam. I was wandering around and fallowing places what got my attention till I saw a small circus house with bunch of people around it. There was a big hairy guy dressed in a long green dress, long black gloves and make up was impressive as well but the most amazing thing was he's voice! He was singing some covers and song Mr.Brightside by The Killers what he was performing in his own way, totally got me. It wasn't a joke, he was true. The way he looked, moved, everything ... was real.

He looked like such a weirdo but he was so confident and so sure about who he is. And everybody loved him.

Respect.

Prinzessin Hans

Plan B.

Today is my first day of my vacation. And? All my plans are gone. I was planning to go around Holland with my bike BUT that was few weeks ago and I've discovered that I'm not the person who can plan smth, I just do as I feel at the moment (don't go travel with me ;)). And at the moment I totally don't feel like cycling in wind and rain, that's not fun at all. Hopefully I will pull myself together, the sun will shine and I'll be on a road with a thumb up :)

[will see what happens].

REMINDER: Enjoy while it's not too late.

Lenka left today. She was one of our volunteers. This morning I was looking how she's packing stuff, running around the house to check if nothing is forgotten, how she wanted to miss the buss. All these things we say to each other when we say goodbye - we gonna see each other soon, we gonna stay in touch, we will visit each other, more or less is bullshit. We just want to keep this time in our mind as a reality not as a dream.

That all made me think of something .. we don't appreciate things while they are around us but when they are gone - we miss them and THAN FINALLY we need them but it's  a little too late. I'm talking generally and I know this is nothing new but I hate this feeling. 

Do you appreciate things around you now at this moment? Don't let them go and enjoy every second out of them. I'm saying this to myself as a reminder. Sometimes we are so stuck into the flowing present that we stop wondering. Thanks to my b-day guests I realized that I've stopped wondering about Rotterdam somewhere around a moth ago and that sucks. I'll try to fix this.

Hipstamatic! exposition @Kunsthal museum.

gezellig

The vibe in the hostel is cool :) A lot of cool people are coming and going. Chilling on the terrace, playing guitar n foosball ... Nice. I still feel dizzy after the weekend. I wouldn't say that I was partying too crazy, I just had really bad sleep the whole week, like 3-4 hours per night, so yesterday my body said - soldza, now u gonna sleep for 24h! Yeah, sleeping too much isn't good as well.

Noa made me feel sad for a second, cause she told that our project is almost in the middle. And that made me realize that one day it's gonna end. Sad but true. So, I was thinking what to do next. I'm not sure if I'm ready to go back home cause there still are so many cool things on the world what to do and cool places what to see, yeah ... If u have any suggestions, feel free to suggest me ;)

So u would know, I'm gonna organize my b-day party here in Rotterdam on August 11 or 12, feel free to come and get crazy ;)

It was so funny, on Saturday night one guy came to me and said - hey, you're girl from hostel in Riga, you took us on the pub crawl there! Yeah, the world is so small ...

This week I'm planning to make first pub crawl here, will see how it goes cause one not so cool thing about Rdam is - cool bars are not so close to each other here.

Sleeping with 100 people and hard rock. Lily.

Good news buddies, our hostel got permit to be open during summer! We were ready to go and protest at the city hall but all sorted out before (actually that's a pity because I would like to go on a protest, well ...).
What is the biggest dorm you have ever seen? I was really surprised when I saw more than 100 beds in ONE ROOM!!! Glad I don't have to sleep there just work, otherwise it would be crazy!

I found one thing I'm really into now - BINGO! Every Monday here at Irish pub are bingo nights. It's not like bunch of old people are sitting around tables and guessing numbers, no. It's a crazy party where you can win bottle of Jameson (yummy!), bottle of Baileys, 5 free beers or 500 EUR! I'm going there every Monday till I will get that bottle of Jameson!

Yesterday I went to hard rock concert and I realized that I miss it. I used to were going to such a concerts pretty often but that I skipped few years. The feeling yesterday when sound was going through my body was awesome. And I want to learn to play drums one day, definitely.

P.S. And again I heard that I'm so similar to Lily in HIMYM! Score! Thx, Bram.

trying, failing and scoring.

I never thought that it's possible to change in 5 days.

Last week I was in On Arrival training in Belgium, Dilbeek for 5 days and 4 nights. Almost no sleep at all. This training let me realized a lot of stuff about myself. Getting in touch with 25 different people from all kind of countries with different experiences, different views of world and life, different temperaments was exactly that what I needed. I feel inspired and I don't want to miss this feeling.

People are interesting animals and life is an interesting thing what can be discovered only by trying, failing and scoring. 

Brussels

Catch the sun and enjoy.

According to local people I'm a real Roterrdamer now. And reason for that is that I've tried the typical Rotterdam food. It's called kapsalon. It's a perfect dish after a party. It has many layers - fries, meet, cheese, lettuce and there was something else. It looks like the person who came up with this recipe was really drunk after a party and he/she just putted all the tasty things together (sounds like me :)) and started to sell this stuff. Looks weird, tastes good. If we're talking about food ... Few days ago I introduced my friends with my awesome dish - Guactwix. It's guacamole sauce + chocolate Twix. 2 out of 10 likes this stuff. I haven't found those lucky 2  here but I'm not giving up!One day I'll become famous with this dish!

Kapsalon

Guactwix

Weather here is crazy. You never know what it's gonna be like the next day, so if you see sun from the morning and no big wind, and if you have a day off, you have to catch this chance and go somewhere. That is what I did few days ago. They even have came up with a new word for the weather in Rotterdam - grainy. That is gray + rainy, cause such a weather here is pretty often. I would say too often. 

Once I wanted to do a bike trip to Delft (small and cute city not far away from Rdam) but it was so windy that it was impossible to cycle and go against the wind is self murder. So, I took the train. Delft was SO cute city like small Amsterdam and full with students and cute guys. With a lot of small canals and bridges all over the Old city. Actually this was my first place where I took a tour with a guide. It was a boat tour through the Old town. And was cool to be on the other side - to feel as a tourist and to listen to the guide and imagining how I look in tourist eyes.

Delft

The sunny and warm day I was talking about, was few days ago and we made a bike trip to Kiderdijk. That is a place in countryside not really far away from Rdam with a lot of wind meals. To get there we had to take a water buss what was so awesome! I had a feeling that I'm flying on the water. And you can take a bike on a boat without paying extra money. It was too perfect to be true, of course after few meters we noticed that Sebastians bike tire is empty. But it was still fun - to chill out on the street while Sebastian is looking for bike stores in small villages, and he was lucky. County side here is nice but not so green as in Latvia, well ... here is not so many trees. And that remind me that I will miss Midsummer celebration this year :(

wind meals

empty tire

chilling on the street

Kiderdijk

Last week here was a festival - Dunya and surprisingly it was a sunny day cause usually every year it rains exactly on this day but this year (I think it's cause of us) it was nice. Here is a lot of festivals and the season is just starting but it's different here. On festivals here everyone is pretty sober (comparing to Latvias festivals and of course it's hard to get drunk from Heineken 0.2) and also they end up early. Like in Dunya festival the last band was playing at 20:20. I was wandering - why?! And there is a reason of course - crazy people and shooting. Some time ago people got crazy at festivals and started to shoot with guns on each other, usually it happened late, so that's why here is such a festival policy now. Scheisse!

crazy guy

Dunya festival.

Last week one of my Latvian friends came to visit me and it was so weird to speak in Latvian again. When I was saying something about the city I had to translate from English to Latvian in my head. Nice.

One thing I miss when I have hangover is kefīrs. If you want to send me something, you definitely can send me the big pack of kefīrs :)

P.S. I heard that it's an awesome weather in Latvia at the moment, almost +30. Enjoy the summer guys and have a swim for me as well!

Dag,

Your Soldža ;)