Life goes on....in a good manner

Saturday

The best thing about livin' here is the fact that I'm really living in paradise. The sun shines every day. I can go sailing every day. This damn great view from my apartement to the center of Rovinj! Okay, it's summer now...in the winter it will probably be a little boring here but hey, maybe possibly I won't be here that long. I still haven't got a work visa but for me I decided that I don't care as long as I can stay and don't run out of money ('cause I can't work).

A good reason for staying is also that my mom couldn't call me every day! In Germany I got bothered by her every day....with things I just didn't wanna hear. So welcome to the dragon-free zone! But I miss my sister. Right now I'm chatting with her on facebook. We're bitching about her ex boyfriend... apropos boyfriend, beeing here totally helped me getting over this guy I wrote the song for. That doesn't mean I completely forgot him, I still know he exists somewhere. Anyway he must be an idiot leaving me for a job in god knows where.... The song will be on YouTube soon (promise!). It's called '1^st Thought'. Maybe someday he -let's call him 'Mr. 17'- watches the video and thinks of me :)

This morning I found out Nina (the tennis coach) is back. Yesterday I wondered who moved in into the other room where the two volleyball coaches lived before. Nina and I get along perfectly! We were out in the city together today and had a lot of fun shopping! I'm the proud owner of two brand new handbags, Prada sunglasses (got the CSI Miami view now^^) and the new Britney Spears album 'Femme Fatale' now. Also I bought a new dress for the Springbreak festival. Wanna look good for David Guetta ;)

A few coffees afterwards Nina left to meet a friend and I went back to our apartment. Have a tough decision to make: Learning Croatian or playing guitar?

Sunday

I should try to earn money as a prophet! I knew that I wouldn't really learn Croatian and end up playing guitar! I knew it!!!

Anyway we had a totally interesting night at our apartment. My colleague Pavel and I were sleeping peacefully 'till a strange noise woke me up. Suddenly Nina burst into the room – screaming. What had happened? Thoughts about burglars and fire crossed my mind... Nina, still screaming with panic in her eyes forced me out of my bed. I should go into her room and get her things out. Why? Because she „saw“ a giant scorpion right beneath her bed! (The more often she told us about the scorpion later on, the bigger it got...) So I went in and got all her things out. When I lifted her travelling bag, a really small scorpion tried to escape into the dark.

Nina called a friend to pick her up (it was 01:15 am) and when he arrived he also didn't find a giant scorpion in this room. But Nina moved out again.

Monday

The week started chaotic! One of the boats lost its rudder, the boat we brought to the base on saturday wasn't ready yet and I was totally stressed.

Friday

The week went on like that – chaotic – and I was really happy when our guests said goodbye on friday.

Pavel left for a surfing competition and Steffen (my other colleague) didn't want to go out so I called Nina, who now lives in a nice little apartment near the center of Rovinj, to ask if she had any plans on going out. We met at the Havana bar and had Mojitos, later we had the idea of winning tons of money at the casino...unfortunately I lost 25 HKN first, but then we won and decided to spend the money on a good dinner some other night. Went to her apartment afterwards and there her friend invited us to a glass of really good red wine.

Saturday

I woke up in Nina's apartment (couldn't drive home after the wine)and left before anyone woke up. Back at our own apartment I had breakfast (I love this croatian cereals!) and then I drove back into the center to buy some running shoes! I need to get in shape again! Now all I need to do is getting myself motivated to go jogging every morning!

At the base we began with the preparations for the big Springbreak festival. I'm sooooo looking forward to it!

The Ocean....

...I could sit here, doing nothing more than watching the ocean forever! I love the ocean whether it is sunny with light winds or stormy with heavy rain. The ocean never disappoints me. It's just beautiful.It shows every shade of blue. So many fascinating creatures live in and with it. I see dolphins every now and then. A few days ago a moray swam in our little harbor. I didn't want to go swimming with it. Two years ago  one of it's colleagues scared me totally while I was diving at Pasman. Anyway I enjoyed watching it. If I'd stayed in Germany maybe I'd never got to see a moray. Or a dolphin. I've seen dolphins several times during my sailing trips, but they still fascinate me. They are curious, friendly and intelligent. I wonder what they may think about us?
A few days ago someone told me that on the island near our watersports base there was a dead giant squid. We had no wind for sailing and had to occupy our students somehow, so we took some kayaks and went to the island to search for the squid. Found it and since then I ask myself how it could've ended up there, because giant squids usually live in the deep sea and not in the adriatic I guess...
Do you get a clue on why I love the ocean that much? Things that fascinate us are more likely to be loved than things we're not fascinated by. It's not the things we're completely familiar with that wake our interest. It's always something that's different from what we already know. Same with men btw ;)

Enjoying the sunshine....

....and still lovin' it! Even though I already have a sunburn. Right now I'm sitting in a restaurant called 'Pastrik', having an ice cold beer and trying to pick something delicious from the menu.
The waiters are so damn nice, last time I went here (I think I told you...) I just couldn't go until I was so drunk that I could be happy that one of these nice guys brought me back home.

Yesterday the sailing instructor at the watersport station totally made me freak out. I'm soooooo glad that today is friday! That means I can avoid his presence for two days! Yay!

My menu: Cordon bleu. I had calamari fritti last time and grilled calamari the time before. I could live of calamari but hey, one should always try new things^^
Did I tell you that my flatmates normally eat spaghetti every day? The guy I share the room with changed to cevapcici so there's a bit of variety now... He is a pro surfer! Since I saw him windsurfing, I wanna learn it too! Maybe I get the chance later this summer...

Soooo....what else happened during the week? Sunshine....wind starts at 10 a.m. till 4 p.m. every day...Oh yes! I'm in love.... ;)

xoxo -Anni

I love sailing! ... and Rovinj...and springbreak is coming up!

Heeeeey, look at this view I'm enjoying every day here! Made the photo from my work place ;)
Today I went sailing with a bunch of beginners. Best weather conditions so far. Perfect wind! After a rainy sunday four of my colleagues and me spent in Pula yesterday (no, we had no fun...just rain, tons of coffee and McDonald's^^) this morning started sunny again. I went to the center to buy some vegetables (for some unknown reason my flatmates cook spaghetti every day) and found out that no one knows where to buy nautical charts in Rovinj. Our new sailing students arrived at 2 p.m. and we had a lot of fun sailing till 7 p.m.
Besides the sailing stuff I'm totally looking forward to the Springbreak Europe Festival (www.springbreakeurope.at) at the beginning of June! David Guetta will be there, R.I.O. and Culcha Candela. I'll organize tickets tomorrow. Anyone else going? I better not tell you about the last time I was out for partying/drinking/enjoying myself...that was saturday and my colleagues didn't wanna go out for dinner with me (...the spaghetti thing, you know...) so I went to the center alone, found a nice restaurant and drank beer all night with some Croatian guys. One of them had to take me home with my car 'cause I wasn't able to drive anymore...

 I'll have one last pivo (beer) now...
See ya,

xoxo -Anni

Rovinj!

Monday:

After another 4 hours car drive I finally found my destination – Rovinj!

Do you know how it feels like when you know you have to be somewhere and you know this 'somewhere' is somewhere nearby but you can't find it? When I passed the sign saying 'Rovinj' I felt totally lost!

I had no address of the sailing school I should start working at, just a vague hint where it might be and finding some place you have no address of in a city that's totally alien to you is definitely not easy! My Garmin was no help, it couldn't even find Ljubljana when I started yesterday morning in Villach. Eventually I found the sailing school between a hotel and a campsite.

My boss thought that I would arrive on monday and so I had no place to stay till this morning. I decided to stay at the campsite 'cause I was tired, hungry (I hadn't had breakfast) and not willing to search endlessly for an affordable hotel room. It should be mentioned that I love camping! Before I started my journey in Germany, I packed all my camping gear in case I'd need it, so I felt pretty comfortable in my tent ;)

After a delicious meal and ice cream (for less more than 10�!) I slept till I got woken up by the wind. It was hot and sunny before, suddenly the weather changed from 'Paradise' to 'Siberia'. 't was a cold night!

When I woke up this morning it was sunny again. The rain had gone and I was glad it did so I could stow a dry tent back into my car!

I moved into a nice apartement afterwards. The view from my balcony is just amazing! I can see the whole city of Rovinj!

Tuesday

The day started with a big disappointment! I went to the police station (remember, I called the consulate to ask for the work visa...) for my work visa and they told me that they don't give out visas for jobs like mine. Without a valid work visa I can't stay in Croatia longer than 3 month and (and that's the worse thing) I am not allowed to work here! I talked to my boss that we need to find a solution for this problem...we'll see what happens...

Until then I enjoy the sunny life here ;)

Wedneyday

...I can't really remember. Beer is cheap, I'm totally relaxed and everything feels like livin' in paradise. We (the other instructors (for sailing, surfing, tennis, beach volleyball and kayak) and me) had a barbecue this evening (a cheap one compared to the prices for meat, beer and vegetables in Germany). There was so much meat left, that we planned to have another barbecue tomorrow...

Thursday

Sunny life again. There was no wind (→ no sailing) and I drank coffee most of the day getting tanned and dreaming about naked men serving me chilled Mojitos ;)

Later on I saw a dolphin and took this as a good sign for my adventures as a sailing instructor in Croatia. Hopefully I'll be one (legally!) soon. There's a party at the beginning of june. David Guetta is coming and monday I told my croatian colleague that I wanted tickets but didn't get some. He said we'd manage but today he told me that he also couldn't get tickets anywhere.

We had another barbecue in the evening and two of my colleagues and me decided to go out tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it 'cause I always enjoy a good night out!

Friday

What a day! Starting sunny and with coffee again I'm still looking forward to the night out. Hey, it's friday! Like party-friday, like drinking beer, dancing, looking good and partying all night long!

I'll keep you informed about everything, I promise!

Xoxo -Anni

Long way to Villach, Couchsurfing and a lot of fun with the international students...

Finally after 11 hours of driving, several traffic jams and tons of coffee I eventually arrived in Villach/Carinthia/Austria yesterday. I'm staying with a nice girl from Lithuania who studies in Villach. Found her over the Couchsurfing network (couchsurfing.org) and we had a really good day today! Went to the Ossiacher See for some swimming. The water was still cold but I absolutely wanted to go swimming and the weather was just great! I was already tanned and now I have a sunburn on my back but we had soooooo much fun!

One of the other international students celebrated his birthday this evening and Indre (the girl I'm staying with) was invited and took me with her on that party, which took place outside at the Drau. We played Volleyball, had a campfire and later on Indre played guitar. Unfortunately I was so tired then that I couldn't play guitar any more and the singing...well...I'm not a good singer I guess even if I'm not tired ;)

I'll be leaving Villach very early tomorrow and heading for Rovinj. Hopefully I'll find it, 'cause my navigation system only works within the EU. Anyway I totally enjoyed my stay in Austria, meeting old and new friends and having fun!

Greetings,
Anni

Great sailing days, a new course and my sad departure

Back from the 'Nautical Educational Institute' as my lovely colleague would say and again in the chaos of my move to Croatia! The last two weeks have been as great as expected and according to that my departure was so sad but I couldn't stay any longer.
The new course which started one week ago was much better than the one before! We were again a team of three trainers but unlike last time we really were a team. My two new colleagues - a girl I shared my room with and the guy who's favorite saying was the nautical educational institute thing - and I got along perfectly. That made the whole training thing a lot easier! We took the folk boats instead of the Hanseaten Keel Dinghys this time and the weather conditions couldn't have been better.

At the end of the week we got more guests because a few seminars for trainers took place and suddenly I had lots of reasons to be jealous! The nice colleague turned into a nice ignoring me completely colleague and I can't help but think that this happened because one of my not so nice female colleagues stayed for the weekend and when she is somewhere around she does everything to exclude me from everything. I should've known that 'cause I know her for more than a year now and she did the same last year but last year I didn't care because I didn't like the guy she was after. Consequently I did not care what the last year guy thought about me but I liked the this year guy! Whatever she told him (and this girl talks bad about everyone who might stand in her way during her achieving personal goals) he stopped spending time with me. Damn, I hate her! As if that wasn't enough my ex boyfriend e-mailed me. I can't stand him and always feel completely bothered by his presence, may it be virtual or personal. So I found that as a good reason for me to get completely drunk again... not a good idea. Yesterday it took me the whole day to recover to my normal walking/talking/working condition, but things can only get better now that I'm back home (no beer/rum anywhere) and preparing to leave for Croatia on friday.

xoxo -Anni