It's a sleepless night

It's a sleepless night, she's calling your name.

It's a lonely ride, I know you want her.

Again and again you are chasing a dream.

But Kostas my friend, it's not what it seems.

Just open your eyes, and listen to me.

Her kiss is her poison, forever inside you, wherever you go.

What a way to start 2018. Sitting at work, listening to my lovely late 80's tunes and writing weird blog posts like these.

However, I must admit that everything is rather well. I came back from my holiday vacations and I did not gain a single gram of weight while enjoying the delicious Greek food that I missed so dearly, especially seafood. Yum!

I have been a bit behind my training but that is also alright, my body needed a break and I need to recapture my motivation and start off strong once again. Last year was a landmark in my life and I have vowed to continue. 2018 is going to be my year. The year of the fox. Or scorpion, I just made it up, it sounds slightly poetical and corny. I like corn.

Sipping my tea, why can't you see, oh Johnny B. It is green with a little touch of honey to spice up the flavor a little. In the second screen, Bad Boys is playing on Netflix while I am taking my notes. I got upgraded to equipment manager you see and that means I have to go downstairs in the basement where everything is a big mess and try to shape things up. And that I will do.

The best thing about the basement is that nobody can disturb me and I can work in peace. And even better, I can put on the old fashioned cassette player that has some beautiful rock n' roll tunes from the 60's and 70's and the lyrics actually have some sort of meanings when you compare them to today's music.

I keep thinking about a few things that I want to buy for myself. One is a gaming computer, something that I have solely missed since 2010. The other thing is a beautiful OLED TV by LG that I am most likely going to get later in the year when the prices plummet once again "Insert evil laughter here". The last thing is a car, that would come in the end of 2018 or maybe early 2019. Nothing fancy, something to move me around without having to depend all the time on transport times and very expensive monthly travel tickets. I am looking at you SL Stockholm. Looking is an understatement, I am glaring.

I have a visitor next week. It has been a rough few days of communication between us due to some recently discussed events that have impacted the nature of our relationship severely. But in the end I believe it is the correct decision for both of us and unfortunately, no matter how much I would like it to work and would have moved mountains and the world to make it happen (as we tried) I cannot force anyone to do something that they do not want.

We would pretend, build our rocket ships and then fly them away, destination moon, destination unknown, destination limitless. Dogs, cats, names, activities. My friend once asked me if I was a masochist. Could it be that I secretly enjoy the pain, the failure and the emotions that come with it? Could I be Johnny B?

It's gonna be alright. We are going to have a fabulous time. And I am going to meet my best friends on Monday as well in Swedish class. Did I mention that I am starting again Russian next month to finish my diplomas? How about Finnish too? I guess I am a masochist. But then again, Johnny B, I thrive on pressure in a sadistic way.

How has your 2018 been so far? Don't be shy, leave a long awaited comment. Are you a Johnny B too? Or maybe you are just interested in my beautiful animal pictures in my Instagram. I am not going to spam my profile but my name there is kostasgoesabroad. Original I know.

This is going to be my year and I am going to fill in the last parts of my puzzle. The last few years have been some sort of a Jenga tower, always ready to fall when something happened and rocked the foundations. If you do not know what a Jenga tower is:

1) You are too young

2) You spend too much time on Instagram, Facebook or Phone

3) You are too young

4) You have never played some kind of boardgame

5) Meow (I just felt like adding a meow and wasted your time by making you read this whole sentence)

I will go back to being Johnny B now. But this time I will try to pay attention when the green light turns to green.

This all might sound grim or bleak or negative, but it is actually rather positive. If you are healthy, have a decent job, a home and someone to love, you have everything to be happy and successful. So look yourself in the mirror, set some goals for the year and reach them one by one. You are awesome.

Happy new year!

Pleb me I'm famous - Adventures in Uppsala

Monday 25 August 2014

 

You know when you have those really amazing days when everything goes great, then something occurs and you know it is going to end up in misery pain and agony yet you still do it only to regret it in the end?

Tipsy, slightly dizzy, with vomit leftovers in my mouth from my old friend Captain Morgan i just sat there in the freezing cold of the abyss in Stora Torget in Uppsala waiting for the first bus at 04:17 sharp.

Vomiting on the plants behind the bus station was not my proudest moment, but i promised to share all the moments with you, good and bad, so maybe you will get a lesson from this too.

But let's start from the beginning.

So i woke up casually, took my medicines and contacted Jim, a Greek friend from Thessaloniki. We went in one of the nations that had a pancake breakfast with coffee for 39 Kronor. You stood in the line, you got a ticket and they called your number. There i was eyeballing a cute German woman and we started socializing around. We met Raymon from Canada, Elizabeth from Germany (taking a master's and having two children with her, wow), Alice from Wonderland (well Australia), Esmee from Holland, Celine from Austria and well i made my move and asked the German girl her name, she was Anne from Berlin. Good times.

Alice, Raymon, Celine, Esmee.

So my number was 68 and the line was on 15. That meant i would eat in 512 hours so we went outside, sat on the wooden floor because all the tables were taken and talked a bit. I focused more on teasing Esmee and then with Anne a bit too.

Is Paok going to sign anyone new??

So Jim got us a table and we ninja'd some chairs (like 10) from the other tables and we sat down there, where more unknown people joined us! Harmeet from Hong Kong, a guy that was introduced as Bastian Schweinsteiger (Gregor), and two other people that kept talking about Mr. and Dr. Falafel. I guess the difference is just a PhD (derp xD).

Harmeet is half Indian too and he was pretty big and loud for an Asian, so i instantly liked him, he reminds me of Greece a lot. Good guy and we also shared a passion for football. He was amazed that i am a friend of Sokratis Papastathopoulos. We will play Fifa and real football soon. 

Finally the pancakes arrived and they were delicious, mine had pancake syrup but most preferred berries and ice cream.

We exchanged with most people Facebook pages, Jim left for Stockholm to pick up a packet that was sent from Greece and i went home with my trusty Gottsunda bus (number 7).

Back at home i just chatted a bit randomly and watched another episode of Psych (i find it hilarious) before i got dressed to go to the V-Dala Nation pub quiz about Sweden.

This town never ceases to amaze me.

I found it after asking around, got in the Nation and saw everyone sitting on a big long table with red covers. Most of the people i knew were there, so i took a seat at the end and we divided into groups of 4. I was with 3 people from Jordan, one woman and two men. The woman was incredibly beautiful and her name in Greek was Chara, but in her language that translates into sh$t.

10 questions, crap non-alcoholic reward.

The quiz spanned 15 minutes with 10 really hard questions about Sweden and Uppsala, like how many faculties does the university have or at what point water boils (spoiler, it's not 100 Celsius).

We got 3/10 like most of the teams so we left for Upplands Nation right at the corner in a big garden party. It was nice, we sat down and we went for beers with Kevin from Canada and Alice. She got some cherry beer, i got a local Uppsala lager and Kevin got one, then another, then a jug of beer.

We met more people, like Teresa from London, Amy from Canada, Ridhima from India/Australia and another loud Kevin :D I went with Kevin across the street and he got some Falafel and it was hilarious.

Let the Fallafel hit the floor.

Ridhima and the crazy cat dude!

Having fun at the table.

Attack of the zogglers.

Oh my god, what am i doing in Sweden?

 And this was Pleb. You can follow him in his own instagram page! He is so awesome and you can witness all of his greatness!

Nick Fury was outside.

So coming back in i saw a blonde angel next to the welcome desk, she started laughing at my ID photo. Her name is Vitalina from Russia and she is so funny and sweet. I invited her over to our table and we had a blast. We all stayed there until like 10pm and then two more girls i met and were about to adventurously shape my night dragged me to their house and then to Flogsta for a party in block 6, floor 4, apartment 4. Good stuff.

Oh don't we look extra cute together?

Here enters Nette from Finland and Lovisa from Sweden. Oh and their friend Leyla that works in a Greek restaurant that nobody speaks greek.

So we get bus 2, we go to Flogsta and we try to GPS our way to block 6. We got to number 15, we went through a fence, climber over some wood and a playground, Lovisa fell down, i powerlifted her up the fence, we made a circle and found our way with 2 asian people in the elevator. We pee'd in some unknown guy's toilet and we played a game i still don't get called "in my pants". We drunk crap and Cap Morgans, i lost the last bus and i was semi dizzy.

Amy's tongue win the day.

Raymon Nette and Lovisa.

So here i am dizzy with vomit coming through my throat, walking like a headless chicken down the road from Flogsta. It must have been like a 1 hour walk. The girls left me near the center and i went to the bus station. I just died there for a bit until i wanted to puke. Taxi's in front of me, the sound of their tired petrol engines echoing in my head like drums. So i went behind in the flowers and gave my best self. Don't go there.

I felt so heavy, my legs like a steel trap ready to swallow me in the endless abyss of the swedish night. It was so cold, i was tucked in my coat trying to breath heavily to exploit any inch of warmth i could get. I was hovering between a state of sleep and insomnia, trying to keep my eyes closed and waking up every 5 minutes watching the clock on my digital camera because i don't have a phone yet. Then an Indian dude came around at 3:30 and started playing Texas Hold'em.

I started to lose hope when i saw the time. The clock said 4:14. The bus was about to come. I felt a burning desire to get home. I knew i would make it. I felt the warmth of the bus penetrating my bones and my entire body. It was so good.

And then i overslept and lost the bus stop that i had to take. Cry me a river. But i told the driver and he was so kind that he let me get down in the middle of the street. Thank you strange guy. Tack.

When i walked through the door of my house, almost running with my last breath, i just crawled my way up the stairs in my cozy bed. And i died. The time was 5:02.

Learn from me. Don't lose your buses. Have a home. Have a bike. Have a phone.

Welcome in Uppsala.