La Dolce Vita! Vol.3

Hey There, Comrade!

I am continuing from the last time.

• 7 August::::

We woke up early this day, had our interesting breakfasts- that included cake, tea, cookie and a very hard bread. Italians call it breakfast, but we eat soft bread, olive, cheese, jam.. etc at mornings, not cake!! :))
After breakfast, we started to walk into mountains. We walked till noon, then we stopped in a building. It was told that this building was a school, but i think it wasn't like a school :)


*Me-Sinan-Beko while having a rest. I just love this pic, we all look so cool ;) *
We were so hungry, but they didn't give us foods, they sperated us into groups and gave us cooking materials- such as pasta, pot, plates, salt, fork, meat, gas cylinder and let us to cook our own food. There were Riccardo, Gabriel, Fausto (now i remember his name) and Andrea in my team. Well, i can't remember our team very well :$. Anyway, Riccardo cooked almost all the food and the others washed the dish :)) We enjoyed a lot during this activity. Pasta and beef was so delicious, even the ants liked beef more than we did!! :)

*Fausto-me-Andrea(orange boy), Riccardo (italian), Liliana, Juliana- while cooking and singing*
During lunch, i met a great Portugese, Joao!! We became close friends with him so quickly and went to bar on the hill after lunch. We were gonna drink beer, but we told our leader that we were gonna sit there and drink coffee. We went there; Beko , me and Sinan drank beer; but guess what Joao did! He drank coffee!!! I thought we all were gonna drink beer and lied to leaders, but he was honest, oh my gosh :))

*While we were 'beering' :) Sinan looks so cool :p *
After that we returned to our 'encampment', we seperated into some groups again and had given a paper to every group. There were questions about peace on this paper and i admit, it was sooo boring. There was a word in the paper that i couldn't understand. It was "bud". I asked to Luigi, he explained, but i couldn't understand. I blinked to Beko who was in another group, he told that he didn't understand that word either. He went upstairs of building and took his electronic-dictionary. There we looked the meaning, but we couldn't understand it. Then we looked at Sinan. There was a thick dictionary in Sinan's hand too and he was trying to find "bud". We looked at each other with question marks. After a few seconds, Hakan was coming towards to us with the giant dictionary with him. He looked at us and asked:
- Kids, do you know what does "bud" mean?

It was one of the funniest moments of the camp :)) Then i decided not to answer the question about "peace bud" :) .
After that peace-paper activity, we made a circle, sang a few songs. A few mins. later, Gisa came with a very sweet fairy costume on her :) We were gonna play a game, try to solve some password and reach the 'secret of peace'. There we seperated into groups again.

*Our great mountain group. Me-Joao-Juliana-Lorenzo-Liliana-Ricardo*
As i can remember, there were Silvia, Joao, Anrea in my group. They gave some papers to every group. One of the papers was a text which was written with a weird alphabet. I decided to solve that paper.

*Joao and me, he was helping me while i was trying to solve the password.*
So, i solved it after a short time, while running and walking after others :)) But i disappointed after solving it, cos it was nothing important. There it was writing sth. about happiness, friendship bla bla.... And it didn't help us to reach the secret. But anyway, we won it- even though we had to climb to a mountain for it ;)


*Me, on the top of mountain- sunset*

*While on the top of mountain. Juliana-Ricardo(pt)-Liliana-Andrea-me-Joao!!*
After a few hours on the top of mountain, we returned to our school. After dinner, sang some songs and slept.

• 9 August::::

When we woke up, it was still dark!! As usually we walked into mountains and went to a nursing home. We were gonna do a public-service. There were old women in a nursing home who were mostly alzheimer. We sang songs and danced with them. At first, it was a really difficult situation for me. Cos i had never been in kinda house before and didn't know what to do. So, i just did what others were doing ;) We enjoyed so much and while leaving there, people were looking at usnd smiling happily, it was worth to live that feeling!

After there, we walked kilometers and kilometers.... We finally reached our destination. A weird place with beds!! Yes! We didn't have to sleep in our sleeping bags there! :D Normal beds with soft pillows :) There we played another game with topography maps. I must say that, i admired that maps, cos they were so detailed-thought on them!! I wonder who made them!! :) In this game, we had to find golden button that were hidden in the rocks, stones, bushs.. My group could only find one- which was found by me :p . But it was not a competition anyway ;)

After that game, we turned back to our sleeping place. There, they wanted us to write peace messages to papers in order to read in Monte Cassino. My team wrote 3 messages that are stolen from Atatürk's quotes and some Turkish proverbs :) At night, we walked to Monte Cassino- a beautiful castle that has a tragic story. This Monte Cassino was raised down for 4 times and everytime they built it all over again! I saw pics of Monte Cassino before and after restorations. It was so touchy to see there.

The priest showed us some slides there and there we read our peace messages. Sinan was reading, Beko and me were holidng the papers. The funny moment was: Sinan read "Peace in the home, peace in the world" and Beko tore the paper with anger!!! It was a reflex action, but very funny :)) Reading messages about peace and after that tearing the paper angrily :D


*Peace-messages :)*
At the end of speech, we learned some traditional Italian dance. Beko called that dance- learning activity : Manastırda Dans. (means 'dance in monastery') It sounds so funny and mysterious in Turkish :)))
After 'Manastırda Dans', we returned to our place...

Next day, new adventures, new tastes....
Wait and see...

La Dolce Vita! Vol.2

Hey comrades!
Just today i recieved photos. Cos our leader (#%&*!!) didn't send us our photos, even though we asked for a thousand times. So, Beko went to Ankara and took photos from Sinan ;)

• 6 August::::

At morning, we woke up with excitement. Cos we were gonna meet our route members for the first time and we had nearly no idea about them.
We were gonna meet in Termini (Train Station) and Termini was 10 meter far away from our hotel :) We went there, we saw them for the first time. It is impossible to describe this feeling, you should experience it! I was so happy and excited. They were 'mostly' very helpful and friendly. Some guys (Riccardo and Dario) carried our bag! ;)

*When we were using our camp scarfs for different purposes :) *

*The only, but the coolest Turkish team of Roverway! Ohhh, how cool we are! I love this pic!*

Our route had 4 teams. Italian, Turkish and 2 Portugese. We met only Italians in Termini. Then we went somewhere, where were our opening ceremony was done, by train. There were a lot of scouts, whose opening ceremony was also in Rome. (Opening ceremony's places were different for whole of the camp)
Then we met our team members. 2 Portugese teams. One of them were from Famalicão, one was from Almeirim. Famalicão's leader was Silvia and she is only 21!!! Me and Beko just adore Silvia!!! (Today we talked a lot about her). She was exteremly helpful, funny and friendly!!
Almeirim's leader was Helder. He didn't speak much during the whole camp, but we understood that he is a good drinker ;)
I liked most of the Portugeses too, as name: Silvia, Joao(curly-boy), Daniel, Juliana, Liliana, Helder!!, etc... But, they were all nice people ;) One of them told Sinan that i don't talk to them much. That was unfortunately right. I didn't speak with them a lot, cos some of them didn't know English very well and i know almost nothing in Portugese :)
Anyway, the meeting day, we played games, sang songs...

*A scene from the cazy game. Dario- the guy that i donnow his name-Luigi-Daniel-Futre*


*From another crazy game. Guess who is the lying down fat guy? :p*

In the whole camp, the thing i didn't like much was, trying to sing Italian songs.. They were usually singing Italian songs and we couldn't understand. But when we weren't singing, we were told that we should be more active!!! Portugeses were able to understand theme of the song at least, but we not!!! It was not nice for us at first, but then we got used to.
I wanna tell you about a game that we played in first day, on the bus, while arriving our first destination. Federica put a number to every seat of bus. Then she gave everybody a few post-it's. We were gonna wrote a question to a number of seat we choose and stick the post-it to post-men(women) on the corridor of the bus. He/she was gonna deliver the post-it's to adress and then we were gonna wait for answer. It was a funny and creative game :)
After an hour or more, we arrived our 'school'. (We stayed at different schools every night of our route). At there, we played another game. We made a circle and learned our names by memorising one by one (The last one of circle was the unluckiest). They pronounced my name perfectly, i am still surprised!!! But they called Berkan: Berkam, Balgam (means pituitary in Turkish), Welcome!!!! :)))))) To Sinan: Simon. To Hakan: Acan :) We made fun of Beko during the camp, by calling him: Welcome Berkan :))
At evening, we walked to a kind of castle. There, we met some other Italian scouts, danced, singed etc. Every country sang a song of them. But they were slow songs. Guess what we did! We sang a very stupid and cheerful song with lyrics:
If you like scouting, if you wanna be a scout;
Clap youır hand!!
If you like scouting, if you wanna be a scout;
Snap your finger
If you like scouting, if you wanna be a scout;
Do this (dancing stupidly)
If you like scouting, if you wanna be a scout;
Shout 'scout!!!'
S-C-O-U-T!!!
Ok, i admit, it was a very stupid song comparing to others. We danced wrong and we sang wrong. After finising the song, nobody clapped us and we felt sooooo embarassed, so we ran away. Sinan and me hid in huge Beko's huge jacket!!! We couldn't look anybody's face; so we came back to our school secretly. Hakan thought we were wrong to do that.

*Beko and me, while hiding cos of embarrassment :)) *

*Still embarrassing... Find 5 interesting things on that photo.
1-Hakan's eyes are closed.
2-Beko is trying to make '2 more ears' behind him.
3-My other eye is still on the cap :)
4-The black-head is Beko! :) He was hiding as well.
5-There is FLY on my head!!!!!! :))))))

*While Italians were dancing with their traditional clothes*

*When we returned our school. We were still feeling ashamed, but able to look at other's face.. Btw, i look like that i escaped from jail!! :D*

That's it for today..
As i say always,
Later, more...

La Dolce Vita! Vol.1

I am finally writing the first part of my Italy / Roverway experience. In this post, there is my memories of going to Italy and Rome.

• 4 August::::

At the night of 4th August, we went to İstanbul by plane with Beko. When we arrived there, it was midnight and we had nothing to do for whole night. Then Beko and me saw an airport worker at the corner and went near him.

We - How can we find a restaurant to eat sth.?
He- It is far away. (Looks at us) Are you looking for a hotel?
Me- Oh, nooo!!
Beko- We are FRIENDS for 13 years!!

:)) After that, we went to a kiosk by metro!!! and bought beer, drank them in the airport while we were waiting for the morning.

*Beko and Me, while waiting in the airport in İstanbul*

• 5 August::::

At about 5 o'clock, we were gonna meet with Hakan (our leader) and Sinan. We were gonna see them for the first time, so we were extremly excited. We met in the airport. I talked Hakan before the camp, but i was seeing Sinan for the first time. He was so friendly.
At 6 o'clock, we got on our plane to Prag. (We changed 2 planes to go Rome). We arrived Prag, but we couldn't go outside, cos we didn't have visa.

*Turkish team and a Turk who lives in USA. At first, we thought he was a foreigner, but he is a Turk who speaks Turkish with accent. He was a very good person :) *

Czech workers of airport was extremly cold and unfriendly. I thought they were gonna kick us , just cos of we asked for help!

We flew Rome from Prag. We lost our mats in Rome Airport. Czech Airlines just sucks!!! Their planes are old and they don't care much about passenger's baggages. Airport of Rome was just so primitive and old! We waited for our mats for hours, so we lost time. At 15 pm we arrived our little hotel. After an hour, we started to visit ultimate parts of Rome; cos we didn't have much time. First we went to Vatican. I wore my 'special' t-shirt in Vatican. As you can see in the pic :)


I was so worried that they were not gonna let me come in, but i could go in :)
We had a very funny moment in Vatican. We were taking photos with priests. We saw 2 little nuns aged between 11-12 and asked them to take a photo together.

We- Can we take a photo together?
Nun- Take these buildings, they are more interesting.
Beko- BUT I WANT YOU!!!!

xD Oh my gosh, Beko!!! You made us "rezil-i rüsva" !!! (very embarassed)

After Vatican, we wanted to see Pisa Tower, but we couldn't find there in Rome map. So, we decided to ask a ticket office worker.

Me- Do you know where is Pisa tower? Cos we couldn't find it on the map.
Woman- No, i don't know.
Me- How come??!!!
Woman- Pisa tower is in the Toscana, NOT IN ROME!!!
Me- Lol, oh my gosh.. *blushed*

:D Then , of course we couldn't see Pisa. Till midnight, we saw Collesium and Trevi Fountain.

*Somewhere in Rome. I like this pic, cos it looks like a fashion-pose :))) *
*In the Trevi Fountain- we were trying to be crazy :) *

Hakan was asking for the way to everybody he could catch :)) It was embarassing for us at the beginning, but then we got used to.

*What a cool team we were ^^. Vatican behind us.*

At night, we ate pizza in a restaurant near Trevi Fountain. The salesclerk woman was nearly gonna kick us , just cos we asked for pizza's price for a few times. I guess she has some Czech origins ;)
After eating Pizza, we went to our little hotel. We stayed in one room. Well, we all Turks were actually only 4 :)) Hakan-Sinan-Berkan-İrem :) We had a good night. Next day, we were gonna meet our route members in Termini (train station) for the first time.....

Later, more...