An amazing weekend

This weekend I was celebrating my birthday, which was a few weeks back. The feelings afterward are a bit awkward. Like in all "best" parties I don't remember much of it :P

With my mothers help I have organized a small cottage inside the bath's in my hometown. The weather was perfect, the people in a good mood, their first experiences made them have a good mood, which lasted during those two days.

I missed most of the fun, while I organized the people, food, accommodation, payment... you can imagine. And in the evening, when the party started I pretty soon lost all the memories. I still remember giving everyone a sip of my birthday present - Danish alcohol (will find it's name) in the small happy birthday cup, which can contain around 1cl of fluids. Perfect way to share with everybody! So I did that, and though Anders told me it was a quite expensive bottle, I prefer using it that way. I'm sometimes the guy who waits for those "special moments", but the longer I live the more often it happened that the special moments just didn't seem to arrive. So I decided that to show the friends I care for my gratitude by giving a piece of the alcohol to them... Most probably it looked like a drunk guy wanting to make everyone else to drink and get wasted, but for me the thought was what counted.

With a lot of old and new friends around me, who one by one thank me for a great weekend I'm a bit sad that I don't remember much, but still think of joy, happiness and a lot of fun, when I remember that day.

PS: will need to get the receipt for the cherry soup :) I have a few photos, they will be added later on

PS2: The few photos were added, they capture very little of the whole atmosphere. Will need to learn to make pictures with a camera! http://picasaweb.google.com/hajdupeti/Bday2008

Bazant na Mlynoch 2008

And here it is again! Bazant na Mlynoch (see last years entry here!)

This years Bazant definitely better from the perspective of concerts. The finishing with Polemic and Horkyze Slyze made a terrific atmosphere (although miss wet T-shirt was a complete disappointment. It's called miss wet T-shirt because it is white, there is nothing below or above it and it is a t-shirt... and not a black fishing net like this year :( No real nudity, but at least some nice dancing... see yourself)

Anyway first bad to look at was Flavour United - Czech band played some kind of latino/reggae - they weren't excellent, the singer girl had a pretty good voice, while the black "rapper" was not understandable at all...

After a few meeting with friends, beers and uninteresting concerts later Polemic came on the scene. This was the time I understood I made a huge mistake coming there... in sandals. My confidence was empowered by the guys who brought bottles of beer and 40% alcohol in the crowd, which I was pretty sure would land below me. So after 5-6 songs I always moved in the back rows, where there was still dancing, but no more pogo. During Polemic it was fine, Horkyze Slyze even better. After the first 5 songs of the second band I was so afraid, that my legs are bleeding, that I went out of the crowd to watch in the dim light. I didn't see anything, calculated that drunk people are lucky + and believed it was just dirt and went back into the crowd, though further behind, so people won't jump on me.
What came next was also a bit surprising a huge dose of a "beer shower". Will remember this as an experience and not as a reason to take a long shower after the concert :P
All in all when after a huge concert and the feeling of proud for not being able to speak nor move my head the next day I went to my room, and examed my feet. It was perfectly healthy :) So I concluded, that there are a lot of thinks I'm afraid of, just because I'm not in daily touch with them, and went to sleep peacefully after going out again at 4:30am.

Looking forward for the next Bazant, hopefully with Vidiek! And more free time attractions like in 2004!

In The Waiting Line

I had a few experiences the last day which I was thinking about, while listening to the song In The Waiting Line from Zero 7 - good music for such activities.

I was talking to a person a few days ago, and she mentioned her interest in gypsy culture. I find this topic quite interesting, as I try to eliminate my prejudices if possible.

The gypsies at least in Slovakia (though I know about a few neighboring countries, too) are usually treated badly, and not without a reason. There are huge "ghettos" in Slovakia, in which only gypsies live, and if the social system tries to help them, then in most cases the help is abused. For example if they are given new flats, then in a few months they are usually looking like a waste dump. There are also quite often caught in the act of stealing. Bad behavior, violence, stealing a lot of children and not caring are the things most often come in people mind. Though there are exceptions of course people meet those more rarely. It is hard to get forward from such community, which also means, that there are only a very low percentage of them going into universities, if there are any (in the application form for the university there are most of the nationalities living in Slovakia including some which have lower then 1% of the population, but the gypsies are not listed - I didn't pay enough attention, sorry, false information) - in most studies the problems are related to their lack of education and the discrimination against them.
- All this information is subjective, and NOT based on my experience -

But I value the gypsy culture. It is still (though much less today) a part of the Hungarian culture. Gypsy music was a very important part of all the better restaurants in the country before the world wars and the growing popularity of the radio and recorded music. Until today I believe in the significance and beauty of their dulcimer and violin play, which underlines the regions folklore. Also they were moving traders and building special bricks, and other stuff only they knew how to produce. They were a part of the culture in a good way, too.

This second part always fills me with hope, that todays situation may change. Getting integrated into the culture (which must not mean, that they have adopted to the majorities culture, it can be that both cultures have changed to find a compromis).

Getting to the core of the post... The above situation is definitely not unique in Europe, or the world. At this point another TED presentation came in my mind, presented by the finance minister of Afghanistan, talking about the creating of a healthy economical system in a country where the basic conditions are missing. He asked the people in the audience to leave the clean world they are living in and start to think out solutions in a surronding, which works according to different rules. I think that the same principle should apply in this case to, as in many other. The people should stop looking at the situation in their won perspective and open up and be able to change if needed, not just wanting to change something...

But the will to change needs to be on both sides!