Visit to the faculty

Center of Ankara

I have been now 5 days in Ankara. My tutor have been helping me a lot with settling to the city. I went to the faculty to talk about what courses I can study in Ankara. The coordinator was not there so we ran in to one professor. The professor got extremely excited for seeing a Finnish person in the faculty. He started to talk about his travels to Scandinavian countries in Turkish and in French. He even invited me and my tutor Rabia to his office to have tea with him even we did not have common language. A bit later he wanted to present me to his whole class and I was there standing in front of 100 Turkish students without much idea what he was telling to the class. I do not know if anybody have looked that excited for seeing me as this professor.

Istanbul

With Beril in Istanbul

Bus of  Metro

On Sunday afternoon I arrived to Istanbul and my Turkish friend came to pick me up from the airport. Before going to Ankara we had some hours time to have look on Istanbul. We had a walk in the old town and tried some Turkish flavors. I had a only quick view on Istanbul so I have to return to see the city more.

In the midnight I had bus to Ankara. The journey took six hours from Istanbul to Ankara and it cost 16 euros. I had never been in such a luxury bus before. All the seats had private screen for watching TV, to use your USB-device or to use your cameras memory card. There were only 3 seats in row and plenty enough place for the legs. There was also a lady who offered drinks and snacks which were included to the bus ticket price.

Good bye Madrid

Plaza Cibeles

I Finished my internship in Madrid. Company was happy with me and I got good feedback from the bosses. As a result I have now in my CV a person who can recommend me. I found the internship useful and I am happy that I got relevant working experience.

Ending the internship means that tomorrow I am flying to my next destination which is Turkey. I will meet a friend in the airport and then spend rest of the day in Istanbul. At night I will take bus to Ankara where I have to find a place to live in. I have already few phone numbers of persons who can show free room in their flat.

After work

In Spain bosses have taken us to after work drinks once in a month. The company is small and we are less than ten in the office. I have been wondering that do bosses tend to take their employees to drinks also in Finland. As I have now only corporate working experience in Spain I do not know if bosses take their employees for after work drinks also in Finland.

Kapital

Finally I entered the famous nightclub Kapital near train station Atocha. ESN Madrid Organized there a welcome party for all the Erasmus students in Spain. The entrance was free until 1:30 and included also a free drink. As many most of the international people is used to go out earlier than Spanish the club was already after 00:30. Kapital is like a theater. There are seven floors and from all the floors you can see to the stage in the first floor. The place is big and you can easily lost your friends but I managed to find my friends after losing them. Though finding them took time.

Ice

In summer time Spanish have a habit to drink coffee with ice. Waitress brought a glass of coffee and also a glass with ice cubes if you wanted to drink your coffee with ice. When Spanish go out they always buy a bag of ice to put ice in their drinks. Usually I do not take ice because Spanish pass ice cube from hand to hand to your glass and I do not want anyone else to touch my food.

Hepatitis B vaccination

Yesterday second portion of hepatitis B was injected to me. First portion of the vaccine cost 50 euros in Finland. Here in Spain taking the second injection did not cost me anything because I managed to get a recipe. Without the recipe the vaccination would have cost something. In Spain hepatitis B is a basic vaccination and it is given to everybody.

Paella

Paella

I tasted some traditional flavors from Valencia. The most known food from Valencia is paella and they are also very proud of it. Almost everybody in Valencia says that they love it and want to make you taste paella. Paella is prepared in a big frying pan. When paella is eaten you do not take it to your own plate, Everybody just eats with their own fork or spoon straight from the frying pan. Other thing what I tasted was horchata. Horchata is a very sweet drink and it is consumed especially in the summer time. I liked paella very much but horchata is a bit too sweet in my opinion.

Valencia

New modern buildings in Valencia

The beach of Valencia

I had a nice weekend in Valencia. I played football after a long break in a hot and humid weather. I survived also without burning myself even I spent time in a swimming pool and in a beach. As you can see in the first picture there are many very modern attractions in Valencia but also in the city center you can find historic buildings. There used to go a river through Valencia but after it flooded and killed many people the river was decided to direct different way. Now the whole old river area is a nice recreation area with football fields, parks, playing grounds and the buildings in the first picture are also there.

Madrid has waken up

Madrid is now full of life as the most of the people have returned from the holidays and started working. A significant change could be seen on Monday this week. There is much more traffic, many businessmen in suits in the streets and more people everywhere.

This weekend I am going to Valencia so there will not be an update in the weekend.