Semester 15 Chapter XXVI: It’s Lotta Stripes, It’s Lotta Ink

Hello world, here we go again. Last week was back to the routine in the Czech Republic. Still riding the wave from the Netherlands a bit but coming to terms with the usual setup. On Monday, I managed to record a song I wrote during the travels. My bro actually made a beat for so after a really long time, we have a little collab going on. It’s quite likely we gonna do some final touches to the instrumental and properly mix it so I’m not gonna share it just yet. I am kinda happy with the way it sounds tho and it felt great being back on some rap shit. As it always does.

 

What else. On Monday, I also managed to hang out with my sister for a bit. I got to her spot and we had some dinner a friend of her made. She’s fresh off a breakup so she crashes there these days. She prepared vegan Mac & Cheese and she killed it. The “cheese” part was made of potatoes, carrots and yeast and it was tasty as hell. On Wednesday, I met up with my music bro, we parked it in Café Alfa and had a pretty nice long chat there.

 

Friday morning I was on my way to Prague and the rest of the day was basically needles and ink. We pretty much finished my head piece. One more sessions for some final touch ups, but it’s basically done. So yeah, huge shout out to my tattoo artist. She’s amazing. In the evening, we did some drinks and then I went to this techno thing which wasn’t really anything special. Only made me think of how cool that Rotterdam rave was couple weeks back. All good tho.

 

I spent most of Saturday with one of my day ones. And we took it everywhere. Walked around the whole city, talked a lot. With some people it’s nearly impossible to skip a beat. We’ve been doing shit like that since we were like 8. Super appreciative of that. The guy also noted that there might be a way to do a therapist training without a degree from psychology so I wanna have a look into that. I don’t have high hopes but if there’s really a way, I might consider setting up a new project for the next couple of years.

 

I got back to Brno just in time for Sunday lunch, had a call with my friend in The Hague and I’m about to walk to doggo and go to my dad’s partner’s bday party. So yeah, everything is going well, all is right with the world, things feel good. Hope y’all safe, healthy and shit is working out. One!

 

Highlights:

• Tattoos.
• Music.
• Prague.

Semester 15 Chapter XXV: Comedowns

Okay, we gotta start with Navalny. I do understand that we live in a complicated world. I despise Russian regime and Putin but I’m also not happy about the way we rule shit in the West. I feel we are governed by forces stronger than individual governments, I believe that, for the most part, human rights and democracy have become empty phrases and I also believe that West has no moral high ground when it comes to pretty much anything. Outsourcing damage and pain to third world countries doesn’t really count as solving a problem. Having said that, I consider Putin extraordinarily disgusting. He’s the type of person who would (and often does) send people of different ethnicity, sexual orientation or political opinion to death. I mean, most western leaders are fucking cynical or stupid (or mere puppets) but only very few are this evil as individuals. And it pains me that Navalny had to pay the ultimate price for speaking out, pointing out corruption and fearlessly encouraging others. This situation is extremely fucked up and although it might (and as we speak it actually does) spark some resistance, I can’t see Putin’s regime fall anytime soon. All I wanna say here is R.I.P. Navalny. You’re gone but you’re not forgotten. People see you, lour legacy is cemented and you are a fucking hero. And I really wish Putin would just drop dead already. You can talk about how global politics are not black and white and question different parties’ motivation but you can’t kill innocent people (that’s word to Israel too). It’s really as simple as that.

 

Sometimes getting back to blabbering about my life feels quite pointless but I’ve been doing this for such a long time, it also feels like something we just gotta do. So let’s get to it. Sitting on a bus back to Prague, I gotta say Amsterdam has been good to me once more. Got some 21 Savage in the headphones (I’m really feeling the vibe right now) and I’m super happy that I get to do this. All of it. Let’s start with the firsts. So for the first time, I got to ride around the city on a bike my friend lent me. That was yesterday (Saturday). I got to visit a concert over here as well. We went out to see Masego whom I’m vaguely familiar with. He’s pretty big, the venue was right by one of the major arenas over here, there were two dope supporting acts (both females with angel voices; I was particularly digging Tanerélle; gotta research her some more and y’all should too) and the main show was bomb. The guy had a god-level drum player and a guitarist/keys player in the back, his sax skills were proper and since he’s a really good vocalist (both singing and rap), the show was just a treat. I realized I hadn’t been to a show like that in ages. And it wasn’t too bad but man… Standing on your feet sober for couple of hours surrounded by some youngsters gets tiring. Not like crazy tiring but you can definitely feel that shit. I can do techno much better than this. I was super happy my friend invited me to this thing tho. What a way to spend a Thursday night.

 

Outside of that it’s been the same old. And good. Walks downtown, some good coffee, some good talks, good food, movies. I got to meet my friend’s bestie too who (not surprisingly) turns out to be a very lovely person. And she’s vegan. Oh, and since I had my running gear on me, I went running basically every day. So that’s another first in Amsterdam. And today, we did a trip to Haarlem. Typical Dutch town. Was giving me Delft vibes, very pretty.

Overall, it’s been a blast. Sometimes I feel if karma is real, I must be doing something right here and there. So yeah, shout out to my people over here, shout out to all the moments and situations that felt genuine, shout out to life. I wrote some lyrics on this journey too and I can’t wait to record that shit. Hope y’all fuckers are good and y’all safe, not losing your shit over the way things are out there. Love to everybody. One!

 

Highlights:

• Amsterdam.
• Music.
• Bikes.

Semester 15 Chapter XXIV: Breaking Limits

Hello world. This time from Amsterdam. It’s a sunny morning, I got a fresh cup of coffee in front of me and I’m listening to this new Kanye & Ty album. I’m pretty sure I should boycott this guy but curiosity won over and I just gotta know what it is about. I don’t really expect anything close to his prime tho.

 

Anyways… Back to this thing. Let my start by saying last week was fucking awesome. I didn’t really expect anything negative out of it but it still feels like it exceeded all the expectations. The hangouts were great, talks were deep, time flew by. Throughout the week, both me and my friend worked but we still managed to do a whole lot of cool stuff. On Monday, we went to a sauna. See, in The Hague, they have these cabins by the beach. No staff, you just get an entry code and you’re in. We went around 8pm and in total there were 6 people in it. It’s kinda funny that over my adult life I hadn’t been to a sauna at all and then within like 6 days I ended up going twice. Anyways, it was really good. Getting all warmed up, swimming in the cold sea, getting warmed up again. Felt super nice.

 

We also managed to check an Indonesian restaurant in the neighborhood. Food actually resembled the stuff I remember from my travels in the country. Except for prices; we’re in Netherlands after all. The whole week felt smooth tho. On top of that, I was on my regular runs (to the beach and back) and on Friday, I did this long walk to Oostduinpark up north. Just wandering around the town, getting lost in random areas.

 

Friday evening, we hopped on a tram and ended up in Rotterdam which marked my fist time over there. We did couple of drinks, got all set and then proceeded to this club for some techno. Once again, everything worked out perfectly, it was a great night and after they shut it down (around 7am), we roamed around some more and eventually grabbed an Uber back home. The rest of my stay was in the Hague was lazy, chilled and very very enjoyable.

 

Sunday around noon, I hopped on a bus and got my ass to Amsterdam. It’s pretty cool that at this point I’m somewhat familiar with things over here. Don’t need to check connections, don’t need to check maps and bus stops… It’s slowly becoming one of the places I know. Reunited with my friend over here, tool a walk downtown, had some beer (I still keep everything non-alcoholic btw), made some dinner back home and wrapped it up.

 

It’s shaping up to be a beautiful day, I feel good and I also feel grateful for getting to experience all of this. Sometimes things just fall in place and I really try not to take any of that for granted. So yeah, shout out to all my people! Sending love to everybody out there, too. Hope y’all well, keep it light, keep it positive and don’t entertain bullshit. And if you love somebody, tell them. One!

Highlights:

• The Hague.
• Rotterdam.
• Connections.

Semester 15 Chapter XXIII: Expansions

Hello world, it’s that time of the week again and we’re back with another issue of you favorite blog. It is what it is. At the moment, I’m chilling in The Hague once more, listening to some Lola Brooke, feeling good. Last week was pretty eventful tho so without further ado…

 

Monday after work, I met up with my sis and nephew and we spent the evening together. Chinese restaurant, a bar, good talks, easy vibes. The day after, I met up with a friend for a short hangout. Wednesday, I was on my way to Prague as another friend of mine had planned a celebration of his bday that day. Before getting to that, I met with one of my day ones and we ended up going to sauna. First of all, it was a great idea and super nice way to spend an evening. Realized I hadn’t been to sauna since I was like 8. We went to this old-school establishment with Soviet aesthetics downtown and I feel I might do this a bit more often. It felt real good. The celebration was fun too. Some of my favorite people, whole lotta tattoos in the room, ended getting a pretty epic shirt from one of the guys off his tattoo shop collection too... Me and the bday boy are both off alcohol and vegan so we took the opportunity to eat tons of good food as the others were sipping on their drinks.

 

I had a regular work day on Thursday but I managed to drop by at a piercing shop and switch my earstuds for some titanium earrings. Shit looks good. In the evening, I had another meet-up and I was keeping it social throughout Friday too. In the morning, I had some coffee with and old friend of mine who I worked with ages ago in a bar in Brno and who I ran into by accident. She’s basically my age, she’s on her second kid… Aging is fun. Felt great to catch up tho. In the evening I met up with my sauna plug once more and I spent the rest of the day with my tattoo bro.

 

At 11pm I was on a bus to The Hague. Since I booked the ticked long in advance, I could choose any seat on the bus. It’s this fancy double decker and these yellow buses made the second floor pretty neat. You got two rows in that motherfucker. One is double seats, the other single seats. Booked a single one right by the window in the front which meant tons of leg space, great view and nobody to rub shoulders with. The travel took around 14 hours but it wasn’t really that bad. Slept, listen to some music, had some snacks… I love when there’s an okay alternative to flying.

 

Got here around 1pm and since then it’s been nothing but good talks, cool hangouts, good food and roaming around. We stopped by at cafés, we went to a bar, we got out for a long walk around the beach by the dunes… And we talked a lot. Pretty cool way to spend time. Oh, I finally... I bought a joint here. In a shop, with a credit card and a receipt. Can cross that off my list.

It’s Monday now which means we’re back to work. Got about one more week over here before moving on to Amsterdam. Feels good to be back. Hope y’all good, hope y’all safe and your spirits are high. Sending love to everybody out there. One!

Highlights:

• Earrings.
• Prague.
• Hague.