STEBO'S BLOG

The journey After midnight I was woken up by a German guard "Ausweis Bitte" so I gladly produced my Irish passport which he examined throughly flicking through all my stamps. He asked where I was going and I said "Schiedam" and he asked again but after repeating "Schiedam" twice Is said Amsterdam and he seemed much calmer. The train We were also joined by a very big German guy and our knees kept clashing. I tried desperately to sleep and as I noticed someone sleeping on then

Saying goodbye I rose at 08:00 and went down to a large round table where Max the Syrian American and some others were already seated. I helped myself to some Czech anti-hangover garlic soup - highly recommended! Then the usual scrambled eggs and fried mixed vegetables and various cheeses and breads. Brno Station I went back to my room to rest a bit before packing up and going to the reception where young Max and Syrian Max still had their language badges on, we just hung aro

Not all polyglots wear capes Hungover from the wine tasting, I still wanted to go to the Gaeilge table, which meant missing a second presentation from Richard Simcott. But I did proudly make it to the Gaeilge table. We had Anna from Poland, Marcel from Brazil, Heiner from Germany and a Chinese guy who was live streaming our talk all the way to Japan! We lasted 30 minutes before we ran out of things to say and I moved to the Serbian/Bosnian/Croatian tabel but also left that ta

Fitglots Being hungover, I was late for breakfast but it turned out to be a very good idea as we pushed together two tables and more and more of "us" just joined in and we talked about the good the bad and the strange during the gathering. Adrian #Fitglot #Gayglot I made my way to the university, which was about a km away and joined the German table again. I was speaking to a Polish man with C level and a Polish woman with B level german I was struggling with my Rotterdam lev

Chilling I was well rested, and headed down for breakfast then straight off to the university where I joined the language ice-breaker. We had to change seats every 3 minutes to find a new conversation partner. Of the many people there was a woman from New Zealand and a man from Mali, both of whom spoke to me in French. Euskara After the ice-breaker I went to the presentation on Euskara which was given in Italian. This is a language which has long interested me fore many reaso

I was ready! I was up bright and early and enjoyed the breakfast buffet. I decided for some reason to take absolutely all of my camera gear and my rucksack, so two rucksacks to the university for the gathering! The Croatian/Bosnian/Serbian Table I was a bit early as the talks and language table started at 09:00, so I just hung around the garden meeting people, I loved that. I made my way to the Turkish language table then the Serbian/Bosnian/Croatian table then I went back in

Cold breakfast I actually woke up too early, but I forced myself to sleep again until around 08:00. I returned to Fat Cat for breakfast, I ordered orange juice and cappuccino and a smoked salmon eggs Benedict which arrived very late and cold, but the gave me a free cappuccino and orange juice and even offered me "bucks fizz" but it was too early for alcohol. Praha Station I returned to my accommodation and read my book for a while before checking out and walking to the stat