UK partying

Jak se paří v Liverpoolu? No, asi tak nějak jako v Reykjavíku :) Až jsem byla překvapená jak moc si je to tu podobné s Islandem.

Holky chodí po venku, při teplotě asi 9˚C jen v tričečku na ramínka a riflové minisukýnce, v šatech které by se hodily tak na ples, v elasťákách a šato-halence, a na nohách jen balerínky a nebo naopak zimní kozačky ruského stylu a bez ponožek, holé nohy, holé ruce a i jiné části těla. Tak taková je teď móda. Já jsem na sobě svetr a bundu a ještě mi byla zima. A při pohledu na ně ještě víc.

Kluci tak normálně, asi tak jak u nás. A že jsou pohlední a mají sexy britský přízvuk asi nemusím povídat :D

Skoro do každého klubu se musí platit vstupné, v průměru 3-4 libry a drinky jsou tu taky drahé... teda záleží co se pije a jestli zrovna není nějaká akce na určitý druh alkoholu.

Pořádně živo začíná být v klubech až po půlnoci a klub se zavírá v týdnu ve 2 ráno.

My jsme se vydali s našimi Erasmus kamarády do Relaxu. Vstupné 3 libry, drink zdarma (snaps, s příchutí pendreku... tak jak Opal na Islandu), vodka s redbullem za 2 libry, pivo kolem 1,50.

Byli jsme tam já, Tomáš, Angelika (Rakušanka studujíc ve Francii), Roenke (Němec), Julian a Christoph (Francouzi) a jejich tři známí Briti - Andrew, Jerry a James.

Ze začátku to vypadalo, že bude nuda, byli jsme tam kolem 11 a skoro ani živáčka. Ale pak se to pomalu začlo zaplňovat a večer se vydařil. Přijela tam v půběhu i nějaká delegace z Irska, protože tam bylo najednou všude zeleno ... musí se přece odlišit od zbytku. Takže zelené trika, zelené umělé vlasy, klobouky, čtyřlístky na tvářích...

Bar byl na dvě patra a na každém hráli jinou hudbu, což bylo super v tom, že když už mě jedna nudila prostě jsem jen sešla dolů a bylo.

A tady fotečka :)******
And how is the party life in Liverpool? Well, somewhat similar to Reykjavik :) I was actually quite surprised how similar life is here to the one in Iceland.

Girls are dressed up (in weather of 9C) only in tiny T-shirts, mini jean skirt, dress like for a ball, in trousers like for gym and tshirt-dress, having just ballerins on their feet or in opposite winter shoes in russian style, no socks, naked legs, arms, and other parts of the body. Yeah, that's the fashion here. I had sweater, jacket and was still cold. And when seeing those girls I was cold even more.

Boys are dressed normally, as like in CZ. And that they are handsome and have sexy british accent I do not have to even mention :D

Almost in every club you have to pay entrance fee, in average 3-4 pounds and drinks are also expensive ... well, actually depends if there is some promo action going on for specific type of alcohol.

The streets and pubs are starting to be alive after midnight and clubs close during the week at 2 a.m.

With our Erasmus friends we head to Relax. Entrance fee for 3 pounds, one shot for free (some snaps similar to Icelandic Opal), vodka with Redbull for 2 pounds, beer for around 1.50.

There were me, Tomas, Angelika (Austrian girl studying in France), Roenke (German), Julian and Christoph (France) and their three British friends Andrew, Jerry and James.

At the beginning it looked like it will be not much fun, we came there at 11p.m. and there was almost nobody. But then it started to fill up with people and the evening was fun at the end. There came also some "delegation" from Ireland as suddenly there was too much green around ... well they have to differenciate from the rest of people, wearing green T-shirts, green hair, hats, quarterfoil on faces etc.

Bar had two floors, on each they were playing different music which was cool as everyone could find songs he liked and if upstairs was boring just could easily go downstairs.

Another party picture (Pradee and me)

Southport Airshow, 22.9.

Minulou sobotu jsem se s Ganeshem (Nepál) rozhodla jet do Southportu na leteckou přehlídku, která se každoročně pořádá v tuto dobu a zároveň letos jako součást oslav 800stého výročí Liverpoolu. Vpodstatě celý Merseyside (oblast kolem řeky Mersey) je těmito oslavami ovlivněna.

Southport je asi 50minut vlakem od Liverpoolu, pěkné město přímo u moře. Přehlídka byla organizovaná na jedné z pláží. Vadilo mi ale, ze nebylo skoro kam si sednout a do písku to nešlo protože byl mokrý.

Naštěstí, i přeš škaredé počasí jsme viděli zajímavé akrobatické kousky, seskoky padákem, letadla, vrtulníky, helikoptéry, letadýlka na ovládač atd. Lidi úplně šíleli z "The Red Arrows", největší atrakce dne, která pak měla přehlídku na závěr. A byli fakt dobří.

Jukněte na fotky.

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Last Saturday me and Ganesh (Nepal) decided to go to Southport to see the Airshow which is organized every year at this time and is also part of celebrations of 800th birthday of Liverpool. Basicaly whole Merseyside (the area by Mersey river) is influenced by that.

Southport is about 50 mins by train from Liverpool, nice city just by the sea. Airshow was organized on one of the beaches. Just bad thing was that there as almost no place to sit down and sand was too wet to sit in.

Despite quite bad weather we saw really nice acrobatics with the small planes for remote control, planes used in war in Afghanistan, helicopters, parachutes etc. People were going crazy for The Red Arrows, the biggest attraction of the show which was performing at the end and was also the best.

There are few pics:


Southport

Airshow

Liverpool here I am!

Liverpool center from the sky

A zase nevydržím posedět delší dobu na jednom místě a jsem zase pryč. Tentokrát, po 4 dnech doma jsem se vydala na cestu do Liverpoolu, VB. Budu to po následující 4 měsíce studovat jako Sokrates/Erasmus student na Liverpool John Moores University (www.ljmu.ac.uk). Poslední semestr školy, tak si ho musím užít. V LS už mě čeká jen dopsat diplomka a státnice ...brrr... už teď z toho mám husí kůži.

Přijela jsem do Liverpoolu v pátek, 14.9., totálně unavená po noční cestě vlakem z Ivanovic do Krakova a pak ranním letu do Liverpoolu jsem usla kolem páté odpoledne a vzbudila se až druhý den v 7 ráno. Ubytovala jsem se v YHA hostelu na dvě noci, náhodou jsem se v sobotu seznámila s Katarínou ze Slovenska, která tu pracuje.

Během soboty a neděle jsme s Tomášem (od nás ze školy co tu je taky na Erasmus) oběhali byty, našli ubytování a ještě v neděli večer se nastěhovali. Bydlíme v domečku 5 minut vlakem od centra a pak odtud 5 min do školy, blízko řeky Mersey. Na kole snad 10-15 min z domu do školy, tak už se těším až si ho pořídím. V domě jsou 4 pokoje, jsme tu já, Tomáš, Pradi ze Sri Lanky a Ganesh z Nepálu/Číny. Máme společný obývák, kuchyň, kouplenu a dvorek, každý má svůj pokoj.

můj pokoj/my room

Liverpool je pěkné přístavní město se spoustou historických budov a kostelem snad na každém rohu :) Ještě se v centru trošku motám, je tu spousta malých uliček, ale už jsem našla Beatles street, Beatels museum, známé Albertovy doky... no mám celý týden na prozkoumání. Dneska jsme se dozvěděli, že máme ve středu zápis do studia a od pondělka začíná škola.

view over Albert's Docks to the city
Albert's DocksSt. George's Hall

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And again I cannot stay for a longer time at one place and I am again away. This time after 4 days of being at home I head towards Liverpool, UK. I will be studying here in upcoming 4 months as Socrates/Erasmus student at Liverpool John Moores University (www.ljmu.ac.uk). Last semester of university, so I have to really enjoy! In summer semester only finalizing diploma thesis and the final exam its waiting for me. I am already kind of scared of that.

I arrived to Liverpool on Friday, 14.9. Extreemly tired from travelling all night from Ivanovice to Krakow and in the morning flying to Liverpool I fall asleep at 5p.m. and woke up the next morning at 7. I was staying at YHA hostel for two nights. On Saturday I got to know Katarina from Slovakia who is working in Liverpool.

During Sat and Sun me and Tomas (one guy form my uni who is here for Erasmus too) were viewing the rooms around the city, found one and moved in on Sunday night. We are living in the house 5 mins by train from the city center plus 5 mins to university, situated near the river Mersey. By bike should be around 10-15 mins so I am looking forward to buy one soon. In the house there are 4 rooms, we are here me, Tomas, Pradi from Sri Lanka nad Ganesh from Nepal/China. We have together living room, kitchen, bathroom and small yard. Everyone has own room.

Liverpool is nice town situated by the sea and big river Mersey, with a lot of historical building and churches almost at every corner :) I am still a bit lost in the city center as there is a lot of small streets in here, but I already found Beatles street, Beatles museum, Albert docks... well, I have all week to see. Today we got to know that on Wednesday we have enrollment into studies and on Monday classes should start.

view over the river Mersey to the other side of the city

The King's Liverpool Regiment in one of the parks

Beatles everywhere ...

My last days in Afghanistan

Moje poslední dny v Afghánistánu byly plné shonu v práci i při nakupování dárků a balení, ale také jsem si užila hodně srandy se svými přáteli.

V úterý, 4.9., jsem byla pozvaná na večírek Afghanské Veterinární Asociace, jejímž ředitelem je tatínek jednoho mého kolegy, Waheedully Safi.

Ve čtvrtek, 6.9., jsme byli pozvaní do domu k Jamshedovi, kde jsme měli výbornou večeři, pak jsme hráli karty a další hry. Také jsem se seznámila s jeho sestrami, sestřenicemi, tetou, bratrovou manželkou a jejími dětmi a s Jamshedovou maminkou. Byly to fakt příjemné dámy, ale bohužel jsem si s nimi moc nepokecala protože bohužel opět a zase jsem nerozuměla Dari. U Jamsheda jsme přespali, ráno jsme posnídali a vyrazili na nakupování mých dárečků domů.

stánek s lokálním kořením/ stand with local spices

Na páteční oběd, 7.7., jsme byli pozvaní domů k jinému známému, Homayonovi. Zde jsem se opět seznámila s jeho familií - manželkou, sestrou, babičkou a maminkou a jeho dvěma malými dcerkami.

Homayonova dcerka/ Homayon's daughter

Po obědě jsme se vydali autem za město to oblasti nazvané "Kulaphusty", tzv. camping place pro Afghánce. Ta oblast je velmi pěkná, plno zeleně a nádherné jezero. Někteří chlapi tam plavali, po jezeře se proháněli lodě a šlapací lodičky/labutě. Tak jsem si na jednu taky nasedli. Užili jsme si fakt hodně srandy, zvláště když nás pak začli pronásledovat nějací kluci a šlíchat po nás vodu... taková malá vodní válka.

Kulaphusty

Jak jsme se vrátili do Kábulu, rychle jsem nakoupila a začla vařit večeři pro tyhle a další přátele, kteří přišli na moji bye-bye party. Jo, zase těstoviny a rajčatová omáčka,.. já vím, ale co, je to nejrychleji uvařené. A navíc, vařit pro 15 lidí byla moje první zkušenost. Také jsme měli nějaké ovoce a čaj, samozřejmě. A pak kolem 11, kdy všichni odešli, jsem si na chvíli lehla a pak začla balit všechny kufry. Ještě že v Káblu na letiště se moc nezajímají o váhovou toleranci a kufr byl jen transferován v Dubaji, jinak bych určitě platila přesváhu.

No, takže v 5 ráno v sobotu mě Homayon a Jamshed vyzvedli a zavezli na letiště. Nasnídali jsem se ještě předtím, než nás pustili přes bránu k odletové hale a na check-in.

Překvapivě nám kontrolovali asi 5x pas a letenku než jsme se dostali do čekací haly k letadlu. Naštěstí letadlo mělo jen 10 minut spoždění a za 2,5h jsme byli v Dubaji. Tam jsem musela strávit celou sobotu a v neděli ráno jsem odletěla směr Vídeň, kde už mě čekali naši a sestra aby mě odvezli domů. Jsem ráda, že jsem domal ale Afghánistán mi bude chybět.


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My last days in Afghanistan were full of rush at work and also with gift shopping and packing, but also I had a lot of fun with my friends.

On Tuesday, 4.9. I was attending an event organized by Afghan Veterianary Associantion whose president is father of my collegue from work, Wahedullah Safi.

On Thursday 6.9., we got invited to Jamshed's home where we had really nice dinner, after that played cards and other games. I also met up with his sisters, cousins, ants, brothers' wifes and her children and his mum. They are really nice ladies, unfortunately couldnt really chat too much at I dont know again Dari :s We stayed over night at the house, had breakfast in the morning and started to run around the town to do my gift shopping for the family.

tahle se mastí karty v Afghánistánu / the way we play cards in Afghanistan

For the lunch on Friday, 7.9. we got invited to another friend's house (Homayon) where I again met with his wife, his sister, mum and grandmum and his two little daughters. After lunch we took a car and went to "Kulaphusty", the "camping place" for Afghans just outside of Kabul. Place is really nice, very green and there is a beautiful lake. Some men were swimming in there, there were also boats going across and we took a small swan to paddle on the water. It was a lot of fun, especially when we started swan fights with some afghan boys, splashing water around ...

me and Homayon

swan attacking ...

After coming back home we did quick shopping and I cooked dinner for them and other friends who came for my bye-bye party. Yeah, again pasta and tomato sauce.. i know but it is the fastest food. Actually for the first time cooking for some 15 ppl or so. We had also some fruits and chai as usual and at around 11p.m. when everyone left I took a small nap to rest a bit and then started to pack my suitcase. Luckily they do not care about the weight allowance at the airport in Kabul and my suitcase got transfered in Dubai so I didnt have to care about the overweight, which I for sure had :).

Waheedullah Safi and me with the typical Afghan music instrument

So yeah, at 5 a.m. on Saturday Homayon and Jamshed picked me up and drove me to the airport, we had small breakfast before they allowed me to go through the gate to get to the departure hall and check in.

Suprizingly they have checked every one's passport and flight ticket at least five times before we were sitting in the waiting hall to get to the plane. Fortunately plane was late only 10 mins and we landed safely in Dubai after some 2,5 hrs. I had to spent all Saturday at the airport and next morning I took flight back to Vienna where my parents and sister were waiting for me to take me home. It was nice to be back home, though I am still missing my times in Afghanistan.

I had a really nice time there, thank you all my collegues, my friends, for making this time unique and nice! I will miss you!

Trip to Mazar-e Sharif , 31.8. - 2.9.

Konečně se můj vysněný výlet stal skutečností. Už od začátku mého pobytu v Afghánistánu jsem chtěla navštívit Mazar-e Sharif, město na severo-západě země.

Minulý víkend jsme se donutila Mika konečně jet. Jeli jsme přímou autobusovou linkou Kabul-Mazare. Autobus byl docela pohodlný (no,..stará německá karosa), cesta trvala kolem 8hodin. Vyjeli jsme v 5 ráno z Kábulu, v polovině cesty jsme se zastavili na tradiční afghánskou snídani ... no vpodstatě totéž co se jí na oběd ... rýže, maso, omáčka, chleba a čaj.

V Mazare nás měl na autobusovém nádraží čekat kamarád od Jamsheda. Ale ještě než ten dorazil, tak úplně náhodou kolem projížděl jeden kluk, které byl z Mazarské delegace na NATO/AIESEC konferneci. Byl tesně předtím odvézt rodiče na autobus do Kábulu, takže jak jel kolem tak nás uviděl, nasáčkoval do auta a odvezl k němu domů na čaj a ovoce. Jaká náhoda! Bohužel oba - já i Mike - jsme si mysleli že je to ten Jamshedův známý... no a nebyl. Ten chudák dorazil na nádraží, ale my už tam nebyli... takže byl docela zamtený.. no nakonec se všechno vysvětlilo a bylo to vpohodě.

Ten můj známý nám pomohl najít guesthouse, a na druhý den jsme se dohodli na sraz u Modré mešity - Modrá mešita je největší a asi jediná známá turistická atrakce z Mazare.

Takže v pátek jsme trochu pochodili po městě, podívat se k Modré mešitě, v sobotu jsme se sešli s naším známým u meštiy, strávili tam nějaký čas a pak jsme zavolali známému od Waheedully F., Yaqubovi a sešli se s ním v jeho práci. Yaqub a jeho dva kolegové pro nás připravili odpolední výlet to oblasti zvané Balkh.

Modrá mešita/Blue mosque

Balkh je velmi historická oblast, také je jedna z částí Afghánistánu, která byla zasažena nejvíc útoky mongolů, je tu obrovská hradba na ochranu, velmi stará mešita ve vesnici Balch a uprostřed polí stojí nejstarší mešita v celém Afghánistánu. Po průzkumu okolí nás pozval řidič do domu jeho bratra na domácí jogurt a caj.

ja a Mike na hradbách na ochranu proti Mongolům/
me and Mike sitting on the fence against Mongolians

hlídači nejstarší mešity/ the "watchers" of the oldest mosque

Večer jsme se ubytovali u Yaquba, vstávali jsme ve 3h ráno abysme stihli autobus zpět do Kábulu.

Tento výlet jsem si fakt užila, bylo to úplně super!


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Finally the dream trip became reality. I wanted to go to Mazar-e Sharif (city on the north west) since the beginning of my stay in Afghanistan.

Last weekend I forced Mike to finally go. We took a bus going directly from Kabul to Mazar. It was quite comfortable (well, old German karosa), the journy took around 8 hours. We started at 5 a.m. and in the middle of the way we stopped at one of the restaurants along the way for a typical afghan breakfast.. well basically the same as we would eat for lunch .. rice, meat, sauce, bread and tea.

In Mazar there was a friend of Jamshed suppose to pick us up at the bus station and help us to find some hostel. Luckily enough before his guy arrived someone else showed up - one of the guys from Mazar delegation at the NATO/AIESEC conference. He was passing by the road, as he was dropping of his parents for the bus to Kabul, he remebered me so stopped, load us to the car and took us to his house for tea and some fruits. What a coincedience! Unfortunately poor friend of Jamshed arrived to the place as unfortunately both me and Mike though that the other guy is friend of Jamshed .. so kind of confusion right from the beginning but that got sorted out.

Well anyhow this friend of mine helped us to find a guesthouse and we met the next day in the Blue mosque to walk around and chill out. Blue mosque is the biggest and i guess the only known tourist attraction in Mazar.

ja a můj známý z NATO/AIESEC konference /
my friend from NATO/AIESEC conference and me infront of the Blue Mosque

So on Friday we walked a bit around the city, went to see the Blue Mosque a litte, on Saturday we met up and were around the mosque for a while and then we got a contact from Waheedullah F. to his friend Yaqub. So we went to meet him to his work and Yaqub and his two collegues from work took us for the afternoon trip to the countryside, area called Balkh.

Balkh is one of the parts of Afghanistan which got attacked the most by Mongolians, there is a huge fence around the place, very old mosque in the village of Balch and in the middle of the fields the oldes mosque in the country.

nejstarší mešita v Afghánistánu/ the oldest mosque in Afghanistan

After such a nice programme we went to sleep to Yaqub´s place as we had to get up at 3 a.m. to catch the morning bus on Sunday back to Kabul.

It was very very nice trip! I enjoyed a lot.

Dalsi patecni vylet / another Friday's trip

Nazdarek a pardon za tak strasne dlouhe posty. ... fakt si uzivam psani o tom jake to tady je a co jsem prozila :) No, zkusim to zkratit.

24.8: zacal jako velmi liny den, vzbudila jsem se v 11 dopoledne, dala sprchu a sla do obchodu nakoupit neco k snidani :) Pak jsem se rozhodla, ze pokulizim cely dum, protoze bylo srasne napraseno a kocici chlupy taky vsude mozne.

Kolem 2h odpoledne mi volal kolega z prace, W. Safi, ze je nekde blizko v mesite a ze po motlitbe se za mnou zastavi na caj. Jasne, no problem :) Pak mi volal Naveed, kontrola jak se mam a jestli jsem vporadku protoze jsem byla celou noc sama. No a ze prijde brzo ... jo jasne, 1 hodina tady znamena 2, ale co uz. Pak mi volal Habib, Naveeduv znamy a muj zakaznik/kamarad jen tak jak se mam, co delam. Dik vsem za starost!

No, abych to zkratila, dopadlo to tak, ze Naveed prisel, koupil nejake sladkosti, ja jsem uvarila caj, pak prisel W.Safi a pak Habib. Ale dlouho jsem nepobyla, W.Safi se rozhodle me vzit na vylet po Kabulu.

Jeli jsme se podivat na Durlamanuv palac, ktery bohuzel byl znicen dekadamy valek (viz foto). Muselo to byt predtim nadherne misto.
Pak jsme jeli do domu, kde otec W. Safiho a take jeho tri bratranci pracuji. Pojedli jsme nejake ovoce (dva druhy melounu, broskve a hrozny) a take natrhali mandle ze stromu. Poprve v zivote jsem videla mandlovnik a jedla cerstve mandle primo ze stromu Chutnaji tisickrat lip nez ty z obchodu. No a pak jsme jeli do centra na veceri a domu.A zazvonil zvonec, konecne je postu konec :)


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Hello, sorry for making my post so long :s I just really enjoy about writing whastart did I experience :) Will try to keep this one short.

24.8. started as a very lazy day when I woke up at 11 a.m., got shower and went to buy some stuff for breakfast :) Then I decided to clean the house as it was very dusty inside and a lot of cat hair around.

Around 2 p.m. I received a phone call from colleague of mine, W.Safi that he is somewhere nearby at the mosque and that after his prayers he will stop by for chai. Sure, no probs :) Then I got another call, from Naveed, checking if I am alright as I was all night alone in the house. And he said he will come soon ... sure 1 hour means 2 hours in here, but no problem. Then I got another call, from Habib, friend of Naveed and customer/friend of mine how I am doing etc. Thanks to all for the care!

So shortly to say, it ended up that Naveed came, bough some sweets, I made a tea, then W.Safi came then Habib came. Not for long I stayed in the house as W.Safi decided to take me for siteseeing tour around Kabul.

We went to see Darulaman palace which was destroyed through the wars. It must have been really nice palace before. U can see on the pics.Then we went to the house of W.Safi's father where also his cousins are working. We ate some fruits and also cull some almonds from the tree. My first time I have ever seen almond tree and age fresh almonds driectly. After that we went for dinner to the city centre.

me, W. Safi and one of his cousins

And yeah, finally story over :)

Friday's trip - english

As I already announced before, on Friday 18th of August at 8.30 a.m. , me, Jamshed and a group of his university friends head for the trip outside of Kabul. Firstly Jamshed and his two friends picked me up at home and then we drove to student dormitories to pick up other guys... there we were of course waiting for one of the guys. Then we picked up a couple of two Indian doctors of age about 50 who are working in Indian clinic in Kabul. And finally hurray outside the city.

On the way to our final destination we stopped at one of the shops with food... and had some kind of breakfast. We ate "boloni" (french style pancakes), yogurt, feferoni sauce, drink refreshing yogurt drink with some spices in it.

Around 30kms from Kabul we drove outside the main road and head through the road in between the fields towards the gardens with grapevine. Family of one of the guys has a garden in there and lives about 10kms from there. So, in the garden we picked up some 4 different kinds of grapevine, washed it under the water from well and started eating them on the way back from gardens. They were very sweet and tasty.

From the gardens we drove to some small village, it is a green oasis in the middle of dry fields. It lies on the small hill, you get there by very zigzag road .. worse than our 3rd class roads. In the middle of the village there is something like a park with kiosk. We sat down on the carpet under one huge tree, bought coca-cola, water, juice, washed some more grapes and had a break.
After half an hour our host got a phonecall from his parents that the lunch is ready so that we should start moving to their village, Istalif. So, in like 20 mins by car we got to Hakmal' s family. They live in big, ground-floor house...something like a farm house. There is a well in the yard, a pile of dishes, cow and of course line with clothes. Toilet is typical afghan hole in the middle of the floor... and no waste pipes so everything goes through a small cradle over the yard to outside... Hakmal' s family has around 15 members, there are parents living with their children, two ants and their children and husbands. Hakmal, his brother and two cousins are working and living in Kabul and coming home for weekend (Thursday to Friday/Saturday).

We had a very warm welcome and as guest we, ladies (me and the Indian doctor, Narika), had an opportunity to have a lunch with all male part of the group, this is not usual for normal afghan families. Normally, woman are eating separately in different room. For lunch we had two kinds of rice, 3 kinds of meat, fries, yogurt, vegetables prepared/cooked in different ways, fuits, puding as a desert ... it was soooooo gooood food :)

After lunch me and Narika meet up with the female part of the house. Hakmal introduced us to his family - mother, aunt, two sisters and two cousins. We got tons of questions like were where are u from, what are u doing/studying, are u married, do u have children, when do u plan to get married, how do you like Afghanistan...? Most of the woman in Afghanistan see their future in having and taking care of husband and children, and work around the house. Husband' s role is to bring the money to the family and have enough to feed them all. All children in Hakmal' s family are going to school, at least to the primary one. Hakmal, his brother and cousins are studying at Kabul university, his younger sister plans to study at university as well, the second sister wants to stay at the house and take care of the family. Both our under 15. It was very pleasant meeting with his family and I had at least a chance to get to know the life in the villages and what people are like and think about. I was suprised that during whole time were all the women, incl. children, wearing headscarf. ... maybe because of Hakmal, but this shouldn't be as he is a part of the family. Ladies were trying to avoid being seen by any male participant of our trip, according to Afghan traditions foreign male shouldn't see the women. After our short meeting we head to their garden just next to house where already the male part was enjoying tea (chai) and sweets. In the garden they normally plant flowers, vegetables, fruit trees (pumpkin, pepperoni, tomatoes, paprika, grapevine, cucumbers, peach...). We spent there around an hour by drinking tea, eating sweets and talking jokes and translating them from Dari/Pashto to English and the other way around and making movie out of that on video camera.... was a lot of fun. Then we head to our way back.

On the way we stopped by another grapevine garden, everybody picked up grapevines and fit them into big plastic bag to have for home, we also stoped by stand with ceramics ... really nice handmade stuff, but I didn't have enough money with me to buy something. But Narika got some nice plate. And then tradaaaa back home to Kabul.

We arrived at around 5.30 p.m., in the centre Waheedullah Safi meet up with me, took me for an ice-cream and then to his parent's house to meet his family and have a dinner.

W. Safi and his family is not traditional Afghan. Both of his parents and sister can speak English (mum was studying in India and his dad is working with a lot of foreigners and traveling a lot thank to his job). Sister is studying at the university, i think electrical engineering, ...poor girl has unfortunately most of the books in Russian.

Living room/guest room is equipped almost as European - seating set, low table, TV, DVD player, clock on the wall. German style toilet in the house ..but typical afghan sleeping conditions - just a matrace and carpets on the floor, couple of pillows and covers.

Family is living with aunt and her children, also othen brother is coming to visit with his wife and kids from Pakistan... I had a nice chat with his family members, ate really nice dinner (similar to what we had for lunch), after dinner ate some fruits and drunk tea. And then went home. I got an offer to stay over night but I had to feed the cat (my baby :) and I just wanted to go to my place.

Nicely tired from all day tripping and after almost no sleep from the night before (when I was cooking a rice for mike at 2 a.m. and until 4 helping him to pack for the conference in Turkey) I fall asleep immediately as a baby :)