Riga, Latvia

Saturday, January 23rd 2016, 09:40, Berlin-Schönefeld International Airport, 30 minutes prior to departure of Ryanair flight FR2599 to Riga, my roommate and I run into the terminal building, rushing through security as fast as humanly possible, only to arrive at the gate at the very minute they announced boarding for our flight. We took a few quick selfies and boarded the plane. For me it was unbelievable, what had just happened, I boarded the flight to my 30th country. At 18 years old, I have managed to tour the world enough to say that I have been to 30 countries (A map can be found here, and will be updated as my life goes on). It was also an honor to be able to do that with my dear roommate, because traveling in twos is always more fun.

Landing in Riga was pretty special, as we flew over the baltic sea and then approached the mainland where, of course, the runway was located. We got out of the plane, got bus tickets and made our way to downtown. As a little treat, I got us a Junior Suite in the city centre of Riga in a four-star wellness hotel, so we did stay in style, as far as the experience of the city goes. The whole day we spend walking around the city, whilst we spend the evening in the spa of the hotel, heating ourselves after the -10°C maximum temperature that day. Needless to say, the Soviet Winter hit us hard.

What I liked most about Riga is that the historic downtown differs so much from other cities around the globe, as I can't really compare it to Western Europe, because it looks nothing like Prague, Paris, Rome etc. However at the same time, it doesn't look anything like Moscow or Belgrade either, so it's not Eastern European either, which leaves me puzzled. I'd say it's a mix of both, as there are Catholic and Orthodox churches around town, and they're all really beautiful. Also, in the historic centre, you don't really see many scars of Riga's Soviet past, for that you have to take a stroll to the Latvian science academy, which looks like one of the Seven Sisters Skyscrapers in Moscow.

My roommate wanted to get the Soviet look (also we were freezing) so we got ourselves these hats with the fur on top. (In Russian they're called Ушенка) The funny thing though was that we believed that you can buy them in souvenir shops, whilst you can just get them at any random store (H&M, Reserved etc.) in any shopping mall. We completely forgot that what seems so special to us is completely normal to them, so we went ahead and pulled off the Latvian style.

As far as my knowledge of Latvia goes, it's not as Latvian as one would expect, according to statistics, around 45% of people in Latvia are ethnically Russian, almost half. Thus, Russian is widely spoken across the country, which was good for me, but I did get some stares when speaking Russian in Riga. In general, the country seems to be very culturally tied to Russia, despite its independence, just due to the sheer fact that so many Russians live there. Most of the times I'd ask whether a person at a counter was speaking English or Russian, they'd usually tell me both. They would say it in Russian though. Only one woman aggressively answered English, so I concluded that she was Latvian. My stay was unfortunately too short for me to find more about the situation in the region, but I will definitely do my research and my traveling in the future.

Photos:

City Centre of Riga

The Daugava River (completely frozen) 

Me on a huge Eastern style square

My roommate in Latvian winter wonderland 

Russian-Orthodox Church

Riga International Airport / Ryanair to Berlin

Catholic Church

Latvian Science Academy

Me with my Soviet-style fur hat before flying back to Germany

Can you find love online?

Dear readers,

Nowadays, we tend to shift everything that required us to do something or go somewhere into the online world of the internet. If you want to travel, you can book your flight, hotel etc. online, and you don't even need to go to the travel agent in order to book anything. The advantage is of course, that you can do everything yourself from the comfort of your own home, but sometimes you have no idea who sold you the trip, or who organised it for you. Same goes for books, clothes and basically all other products since Amazon's got you covered with basically everything. With the introduction of social media, we got a new handy tool for staying in touch with people. Our friends can be as far as we want and we will still have the option to message them for free, we are connected unlike ever before. Don't think that I am one of those who thinks that social media is making us anti-social, because I believe that it depends on the person if he/she uses social media so much, that it makes the person anti-social, in which case social media is not to blame, but the person who's misusing it. I mean, if a person is addicted to heroin, who would you blame? The addict or the substance? Think about it.

As activities such as shopping have moved online, so has dating also found it's way on the internet, with online-dating sites warming up the field, and then speed-dating apps (Tinder and co.) just taking over everything that we knew as dating and re-defining it in the modern era. Today you don't even have to leave the house to meet someone, you can just swipe right and hope to get the opportunity to talk. Some sites try to be more accurate by letting you create a more specific profile, I personally think these have the highest success potential in terms of actually finding something serious. In the end, it always depends on the person. There are different reasons for joining online-dating sites. For me personally it's just for the experience and then to see what may be, but others have different motives and that's fine as well. You might not find love nowadays, but finding sex has become so much easier. I would say that cheating has also become easier, but then again, if someone wants to cheat, they will do it, whether it's easy or not, because the intention is there.

As of now, I can't really say if online dating is really a good or a bad thing, and I think that one can't really properly just because nowadays everyone is on these sites, and no one uses real life meeting anymore. It's becoming increasingly difficult to date outside of the internet because our lifestyle has changed. Young people go out less, the number of social contacts a person has been steadily decreasing, and especially in developed countries, careers are put first. Society is focusing on cutting time wherever possible, and a result people are taking dating with them like everything else on a smartphone, so you only go out with people you think you're compatible with. It's a messed up system, but as it seems that's how it works.

The thing that bothers me the most about online dating is that some of the guys I've met online have lost all sense of manner. I have never been judged so quickly by a person in real life like I have been judged by people online. Since I don't have muscles, and since I don't like my body, I don't take off my shirt for pictures, and I refuse to do so, but apparently my body has become an important issue for most guys out there who want to date me. Looks have never mattered so much and if you don't nail that first online impression, you're screwed. We might be stuck with online-dating, yet we can rid ourselves of idiots who believe that they behave how they want to get what they want. After all, we are all human.
Having said all this, I hope that you can agree with some of the things I said, feel free to leave your opinion in the comments and until next time.
Sincerely Yours, Stefan.

2015: A year in Review

Dear readers,

what I can say, another year is over and a new one is about to begin. And whilst I'm celebrating the holidays with my family and friends in Belgrade, I am reviewing my year, which I personally consider to be the most eventful of years, I've had so far in my life.

When the year began, I told myself that each week, I would pick a song which I listened to that week the most and write it down into my planner. Since 2015 is now at its end, I took my planner and put all the songs into a playlist in chronologic order. You can find the playlist by clicking here!

There is something about being able to have a song a re-live a certain period your life, and by noting one down each week, I can really re-live my year just by listening to one playlist. I know I'm not thte first one to do this, but I do find it nice. In total 2015 was the most eventful of years due to reasons such as, but not limited to:
- flying on 31 flights, visiting 11 countries (raised my no. of visited countries from 27 to 29)
- graduating from the German School of Prague and starting my studies at the University of Potsdam
- moving out of Prague and in to Berlin, with the most amazing roommate ever.
- having 3 relationships, out of which all failed

That being said, I guess 2015 has had a lot of ups and downs, with the biggest downside being, that I haven't really written a single thing this year, most of my book projects etc. even finished ones are from 2014, I barely did anything in 2015 regarding that. I started this blog, leaving at least some forms of text behind, but it's not really what I want to do. I really hope that I will find more motivation to do so in 2016, that would be my one and only new year's resolution.

A few memorable stories from 2015:

Whilst in Budapest, I met a nice American guy and a nice Russian woman on Heroes Square, we took photos of each other, because each of us was traveling alone. The American and I actually spent the entire day together and even went for dinner together. A week later in Moscow the Russian woman did the same for me. I still have their contacts.

I went to Tunisia very spontaniously, booking my tickets with my mother only two days in advance, and that was only a week after the attack on Tunisia by terrorist. I wasn't scared at all, whilst the rest of the world was terrified. I actually got over a relationship there, and it was the calmest week of my year.

The best thing that can happen to you when you're getting older is when you can still re-discover your childhood, which I did on a field trip in Bulgaria when a friend of mine took me out of Sofia for a day and we went to Plovdiv. I fell in love with that city, and I would give anything to re-live that day. I have never behaved so childish and innocent in a day.

When I was on the Red Square in Moscow, I approached a woman, asking her to take a photo of me. She liked the way I look so we did a photo shoot.

Three days after moving to Berlin, I had my first official kiss with a guy there, is was at night underneath the stars in front of the German parliament. I hope he doesn't read this.

My best friend and I climed on the rooftop of my builing in Prague and sang our favourite songs together. Knowing that my move to Berlin separated us, we felt strong like never before by singing our hearts and feeling as if the world was ours by overlooking the skyline.

I entered 2015 in Ankara and fell asleep next to a guy whom I had a major crush on for months, and got to wake up next him to be the first real thing I saw in 2015 (he's straight, so I am praying that he doesn't read this). I will end 2015 in Belgrade, Serbia.

Speaking of Belgrade, I visited my hometown 9 times this year, compared to Zagreb (my secondary town of origin), which I visited once.

departnow.blogpost.de got 13 posts which I'm proud of, and a total more than 430 clicks, which isn't much, but it's something and I'm thankful for every reader! Especially on my post "the best job ever" which was the most read with over 60 hits!

Thank you for an amazing 2015, and let's hope for a nice 2016!

Love, Stefan

A fresh start

Dear Readers,
My name is Stefan Radaković, I am Serbian guy from Belgrade, Serbia with some of my roots in Croatia and Bosnia. I have a stepmother from Jordan and thus feel connected to that part of the world as well. I was born and raised in Prague, the Czech Republic, on August 7th 1997 and in June this year I finished the German School of Prague. I am a third culture kid (TCK) and I feel blessed that I got to 6 languages at age 16. Yet no matter how much I aspired in my childhood and how much I managed to grow up through my broad horizon, three months ago, on August 21st 2015, I had to make the first step towards adulthood, by moving out of my parents home and moving to Berlin, Germany. And I thought I might just sum up how it feels like to enjoy a fresh start.
At first I stayed with my aunt for two months and in the first month I was doing everything to find a flat. Long story short: a good friend of mine from Croatia found a flat for the two of us, and so we decided to move in together. She is now my roommate and since October 24th 2015, we have been living together happily. It’s interesting how in the end it all played out well, as I can remember fairly well that I was stressed all summer. The first period with my aunt was a nice kickstart into my new life, as I was still under adult protection for the first two months, and I had some time to get used to the city (even though I visited Berlin more than 20 times before that) before living there on my own with my roommate. I also can’t express in words how thankful I am to have a loving family member in Berlin, who is always willing to help me out when I am in need. I swear to God that I will do my best to give back to my aunt as much as I can and make her proud of me!
When I moved to my new apartment and entered it for the first time as a resident, I was shocked to realise that I just have entered my new home. I remember looking out of the window, admiring the view of the church and thinking to myself: „You will be seeing this every single morning from now on.“ After being done with my furniture and getting the place ready to roll, I finally got the experience of how it is to care about oneself: getting groceries every day, thinking about the laundry, considering cheap food options and so on. It’s usually the little details, which one doesn’t notice when living with their parents.
Next to moving out came also university, and even though I spend most of my time with a friend of mine from school there, I also got to know a handful of new people. You might not always like the people at your university at first, but give it a little time and you’ll see if you’ll stick to your group or not. Trust me, there are various people you can meet. Currently I study economics at the University of Potsdam, which for some reason counts as one of the most modern universities in Germany. They do live up to their reputation and so far I can say that it’s been interesting, thought I might write about that in further detail another time.
Berlin is a great city to live in as a student. With a population of 3.5 million and a very diverse mix of cultures, it is one of the biggest party cities in Europe. It also plays an important role in politics as the capital of Germany, which has become more and more relevant regarding recent news. Which is why I can say, that I am happy to live in such a thriving metropolis, especially after growing up in Prague for 18 years, which compared to Berlin, is a really peaceful and quiet town. For some reason I feel like I left Prague just at the right time as the political situation in the Czech Republic has worsened, but I feel like that’s a story for another time.
Today, November 21st 2015, marks 3 months in Berlin for me, and it has been a wild ride so far, and I hope that it won’t stop being this exciting and interesting. In the past three months I have made so many experiences, and already have so many memories to share, that I can barely sum it up in words, just how happy I am to have been granted this opportunity. To mark this event, I wanted to make this post.


The future of this blog:
Soon, I will start posting more, and I have decided to tackle more personal topics as well. I wanted to make this blog a travel blog, so I will try to write about places and trips as well, yet I feel like some topics which hit me on a personal basis might be more interesting to write about, and I could be more open about some issues. Not many people read this blog, but I want to give back to the ones who do, and the ones who share my posts.
Love, Stefan

When I first entered my flat (living room picture here) after the move.

The view out of the living room on the day of the move.

A little opinion on success

Dear readers,

What is the key to success? Many people will ask this question, and many people who did succeed in life will get asked this question. For some reason, even I got asked this question, even though my personal success is rather limited to minor issues regarding some projects I work for. I’m going to put my theory out in the open right now: There is no key to success, but there are keys to success, just like there isn’t only one nice apartment in a city, but multiple ones. Also we always must define what success is, because there are different ways to it.

To define it briefly, I would say succeeding in something, means accomplishing the task to fulfill a wish one once had, or to feel as if ones life is an accomplishment. Success can be divided into sections, as in most cases a person is successful in one part of life, but is not doing well in another. I usually make a five category division: family life, love life, social life, work and health. So far, I have barely encountered people, who are worry free in all categories.

I’m going to be honest with you here and allow me to say how I’m doing in my own five categories: 
1. I personally worry about family a lot, and I don’t feel like I’m contributing to it successfully.
2. I have given up on my love life, as so far, it’s proven me that it is in fact a waste of time.
3. My social life is successful. I have my closest friends whom I can count on, and a lot of people looking up to me. (Which is really nice, but it also puts pressure on me from time to time.)
4. Work has basically become my life. I spend most of my time working on some text, book, post, article, short-story and or scenario. If I’m not doing that, I am working on my life administration, and I’m preparing myself for university at the moment, in which I hope to do good.
5. I am in perfect physical health right now. My blood pressure gets problematic at times, but it doesn’t even harm me, so I am completely fine on that issue.

If I look at that base of my life, I can see how success, could be built, and where it could be built. I could work more, and be really successful in that category, but I might neglect other categories. I could start working on my family life, and try to keep contact with most of them, but the time it’ll cost me to get me anywhere will be longer, but the success might be more rewarding. I always try balancing my social life with my work, but what if one takes over the other, just to make itself better? Or what if I have to drop everything, in case my health gets worse? (God forbid that happens) All those aspects always leave me wondering about what success really is, and when I will be able to call myself successful? Do I have to be of a certain age to be successful? Not really, I mean I had success in school, by organizing multiple international projects. I was successful. Am I still? Maybe. Maybe not. It’s perspective I guess.

One final thought: Do I see this blog as successful, now after having it for half a year? I guess that depends. I posted much less, than I intended. I wanted to post more on cities around the world, I wanted to share much more travel stories, and I wanted to discuss many more social issues. And I keep telling myself to write more, but then I’m stopped by the thought, that not many people are reading this anyways, so why should I write something for the public? And that’s where I tell myself, that if I at least inspire and / or entertain one person, it’s worth writing the thing. Only about 5 - 10 % of what I write ever get’s to see the light of day, by being read by one other person than me (not incl. handwritten letters, which are always addressed at someone, about 80% are sent off). And only about 1 - 2 % of my written words get posted to the internet via some form of social media. I am trying to change those figures, but I keep on spending time writing way too private stuff, and addressing topics, which aren’t really interesting for your average blogger.

So, in the end, I guess only time can tell us, when we are successful and at what. My conclusion would be, that everyone is successful throughout life in different fields. It’s like playing basketball, you might have set your eye on throwing the ball into the basket, but you might score 2 points, instead of your intended 3 points. And you can’t always look at the ball and the basket, but you need to keep the entire field of players on your mind. Good luck on the field!



Love, Stefan

The best job ever!

Dear readers,

I know that I haven't posted in over a month, but I have been fairly busy with my summer, as I am preparing everything for my university. I will be moving from the Czech Republic to Germany, to study at the University of Potsdam. After a summer of traveling through various countries, I returned to the Czech Republic on August 19th. On August 20th, I went to my now former school to attend its very first MUN as a chair in service. With the teachers already at school preparing the coming school year, which then started on August 24th, I was approached by a former teacher of mine who was in charge of the class trip to Istanbul for the senior class (the 12th grade). He told me that Istanbul had to be cancelled due to safety measures, and that he would like to kindly ask for my help in the re-routing process. As the trip was supposed to start in 10 days, I was kind of nervous, thinking that I couldn't save the trip. But I did.

Fast forward to August 30th, at Prague Airport, I was actually the one who arrived first, because my re-routing was so successful, that I was deployed to be the tour guide of the group, as I was about to embark on my biggest project yet, a class trip with 35 people to Belgrade, Serbia. I've done that before, but I haven't really had a group this large, so I was about to embark on an interesting journey, where I didn't know myself what awaited me, and what I was supposed to do. To be honest, most of the programme was improvised on the spot, but I didn't tell that to the students. If I learned anything in life, it is that as long as you look like you know what you're doing, you can't cause any further disruption.

The trip went really well, we all got to Belgrade  without any complications, I showed them around and had an exiting programm for every day (or at least I hope it was exiting). This trip more than anything showed me the true beauty of work and especially the work I was doing. This spontaneous trip to Belgrade saved me to some extent. I loved what I was doing and I couldn't have asked for a better task. The class I got to work with includes some of my closest friends and good accquaintances, and I enjoyed every minute of the job. At least that's how I feel now, during the job I was really tired and exhausted and it was stressful. No matter how nice a school group might be, they are still a school group. No matter how tired or exhausted I got though, it was still worth it.

If anyone from that group is reading this, then I would like to take a moment to tell you, how much it meant to me, that I got the opportunity to spend those amazing 6 days with you in Belgrade, and how much it meant to me that all of you got to see my hometown and my homeland. I loved being your guide and I hope that in the future, I can be your guide again, if you chose to re-visit Serbia. You were one of the kindest groups I had, and one of the most appreciative tourists in Belgrade. You took the city as it was, and became part of it, which is what truly matters. You didn't just visit Belgrade, I really felt like you lived in Belgrade, and that you felt alive. And what made me feel alive and appreciated is your wonderful gift. The book with all of your impressions and thoughts. I was honored to know, that I have done a good job, and that you had fun during your class trip. I read it on the bus on my way home and shed a few tears of joy to be honest, because I knew it was worth it.

In the end, I kind of was your teacher, so I want to teach you something with this (I know, I'm kind of mean at times). So, if there's anything Belgrade has tought you it is, that the age old saying "looks don't matter" is really true. Belgrade can't over you beauty, it has been destroyed too often and can't rebuilt itself at the moment. It is a destroyed city, with a tragic history. And yet, the people of Belgrade are happy. What you experienced in Belgrade is a an experience, unlike any other. After my years of traveling, I only got to know few cities, that made you feel alive, as if you were a part of it. Belgrade is one them. If you had any prejudices about Belgrade before getting there, or after you saw the city for the first time, they were most likely gone after a few days. In Belgrade, the people live, they want to make the best of life. Sure, we all have worries, but we must not always overthink in life, sometimes we need to shut down. Unlike Prague, Belgrade can offer you so many cafés with an atmosphere where you get to feel calm, and where you get to be you. Only when you lose yourself in Belgrade, you will discover a new version of you, a version that feels alive.

I hope to see all of in Belgrade once, to discover, to feel and to enjoy this one of a kind city.
With the kindest of regards, Stefan.

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart." - Helen Keller

Sofia, Bulgaria

Dear readers,

I was really dying for a chance to write about my trip to Bulgaria, which occured from July 23rd 2015 to July 26th 2015. I visited a good Bulgarian friend of mine from school in his hometown Sofia, and I made Bulgaria the 29th country, I've ever visited. My friend showed me his hometown Sofia and took me for a trip to Plovdiv (which I will discuss in an upcoming blogpost). Today, I'd like to write about Sofia.

Sofia

When I arrived at Belgrade International Airport, saying goodbye to my grandma, and went to the Business Class lounge, I went through all of the things I've heard about Bulgaria, from my friends and family in Serbia. You see, whilst in Prague, barely anyone has an opinion about Bulgaria, in dumbed down Serbia, everyone seems to hate it, because of a war that happened in 1912, and because the two countries fought on different sides in World War II. However, the countries are both closely connected with each other culturally, both nations are slavic and speak two very similar slavic languages (even though history loving Serbs will call Bulgarians turkic, since there is an ethnic mix of Bulgaria), both nations are mostly christian-orthodox, both nations had fallen under the rule of communism, both nations were occupied by the ottoman-empire, both nations (along with Greece and Albania) want a part of Macedonia and both nations are more or less closely connected.

The Parliament

My favourite building: National Thetra Ivan Vazov

Historic Roman Baths

So how come they hate each other? Well, the answer does not lie in the present, but more in the past. Whilst Bulgarians got over their past with the Serbs and actually like them (people were always very kind to me, when they found out I was a Serb), Serbs have a different approach, due to their pride on their history, they still did not forgive Bulgaria. Thus, when I was in Sofia, I was a bit sceptic, because of all the rumours I've heard. Instead, I was surprised, by what I had found in this wonderful city.

Bulgarian Assembly

Art Gallery of Sofia

National Palace of Culture

Sofia is relatively small compared to other capital cities in Europe, however it's really nice in the core centre. The old part influenced by a mix of roman, slavic and islamic-oriental culture is really interesting. Also, it's nice to have a church, a mosque and a synagogue, just a few metres apart from each other. The centre is amazing, especially the huge chruches, which literally overwhelmed me by their majestic beauty. As an orthodox-christian, I haven't seen such beauty in a long time. I also found out, that the saint Sveta Petka, on whose values my grandmother raised me, was in fact Bulgarian. So in some sense, I did feel a connection to the country, and on top of that add that I was with a friend, who's a local, and I can tell, that I got to know the city.

Sofia Mosque

Aleksandr Nevski Cathedral

Russian Church

Chapel of Sveta Petka

The rest of Sofia is kind of nothing special, because it's mostly huge socialist high rise buildings, which were built during the communist rule over the city. My friend lives on the 17th floor on one of those, which gave me the opportunity to stare at the city at any given time, all the time. I did make use of that, because Sofia has a really beautiful skyline, as it is surrounded by mountains and gives you the feeling of being in a large city, but at the same time, it feels like you're in the middle of the mountains.

The view from my friends apartment: City Centre

The view from my friends apartment: Socialist residential areas

Sofia now is booming because of the EU. Everywhere you can see EU flags and "funded by the EU" signs. The EU helped expand the Sofia Metro, build a new airport, a new railway station and is working on basically everything infrastructure. Basically, since Bulgaria entered the EU, the EU has been paying for everything, which makes Sofia so much more modern, than I expected it. I can't wait to see how this city will develop in the next few years.

EU funded metro line 2

Can't wait to go again,
Stefan.

The Southern Park. Probably the most romantic place for long walks.