The big metropolitan boy is alone in the city.

I am alone. Abandoned.
Nobody here but me.. out of the group of five I mean. One has gone to meet his girlfriend in Barcelona. Three are hanging about Vienna as this is written. Everyone left early this morning, and left me here alone.
It was agreed upon, however.. I have made the decision not to travel much this month. Why? Because I have to respect the impairs of my otherwise capable nature. I am not good at figuring out anything to do with numbers in my head. Maths, even simple maths, tend to confuse me. And here I am, in a foreign country with a foreign currency. I have gotten used to sensing my financing in the form of pounds. That is, understanding the amount of my base currency - ISK - in each pound - GBP. Confusing enough, but after a year at it my sense for it has gradually heightened.
Now, here.. in this lovely place.. I have to sense my base financial status, by filtering the local currency - SKK - through GBP back into ISK. It is enough to drive me mad..
So, as a result while I am trying to be careful with my money I have a hard time sensing where I stand accurately. Thus, I have decided to give it the first month before I start risking the cost of travel.
After the first month perhaps I will have gotten my head around my expenses.

While I am living in the centre of Europe I am going to use the opportunity and travel to such places as Austria (only 45 minutes by bus), Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Poland and Russia (hopefully.. it can be a bit complicated to arrange everything for that - one needs to be invited into the country apparently). My original wildest fantasy was also to go all the way over to Romania, but I have been warned not to go there from here. So, the time for that will come later I guess.

My landlord here complicated things for me even further last week when she asked for the rent money to be paid in Euros. For crying out loud... I tried dealing with that earlier today.. not completely successfully. I got less money than I need, even though I went into a bank and asked for all the help I could possibly ask for.
There is no real support for the mathematically impaired. We are alone in the world, with not a number to rely on.

Crosseyed and confused,
..kH

Valentine's Day.

Yesterday was Valentine's Day, as I am sure many were aware of. Was Valentine's Day not originally an American thing? I may be wrong.. but where and whatever its origins it has spread all over the world. It is a big thing in Slovakia, and according to one of my classmates it is an even bigger thing in Japan. I have witnessed it gradually creeping into the cultural environment of Iceland too.

Last night Bratislava was crowded with couples holding hands. Everywhere. To the left of me, to the right of me. Above me and below me. How lovely.. however, I didn't see even ONE gay couple walking down any street hand-to-hand. Made me.. sad. Only a little though. I recovered quickly. I'm a big metropolitan boy, and big metropolitan boys don't cry. So, ...
I got drunk instead - along with many others mind you! And we had a great time. It was supposed to be an anti-Valentine's party.. and it started out as such. By the end of the night some sort of a hazy romance had settled in though. Lovesickness. Fantasies. For some of us more real than for others..

...
I didn't expect it, when I woke up yesterday morning, that I would enjoy any sort of romance during the course of the day. Life has a cute way of sneaking up on you sometimes, and pleasantly surprising you. Usually when you least expect it, and I always wonder how life knows when you are least expectant..

I ended up enjoying a very romantic make-believe Valentine's morning through cyberspace. It was a lovely morning, breakfast in bed and all. Absolutely lovely! A cuddly sleep-in, including omelettes and fruit salad that we prepared together. Can't get much better than that.
On Valentine's night we went out to dinner, at a very nice restaurant that I recently discovered in Reykjavik. Delicious food and posh wine. Back home we foreplayed to amazing lengths, then devoured each other with insatiable appetites.. and then we slept in this morning, lazily cuddling past lunch and tea-time.

All in all, for me, a fantastic Valentine's day. And to enjoy the day like that, in different ways in different dimensions, is not commonly achieved.

Lovesickly/contently,
..kH