It is not an urban legend, it is real!!

Just a couple of weeks ago me and another friend had a fantastic trip. We flew to Salzburg (Austria) and we hired a car overthere. We, spent the first night in the Mozart's city and the next morning driving we arrived to Bratislava (Slovakia) where we spent two days visiting the city. On the third day we woke up and had breakfast in Bratislava, we drove direction to Vienna (Austria) where we had lunch and when we decided tp go back to Bratislava arount 4 o'clock, we changed our mind and we went straight ahead to Budapest (Hungary). As that was my second time in that beautiful city I showed the city as much as possible to my friend and then we said ourselves, let's go for the last beer in Budapest and we go back to Bratislava. Well, then the only problem we had during the trip started:

We were walking thorugh one of the most important shopping streets and two girls stopped us and they said: "Hey guys, do you know any Irish pub around here?"

Obviously we didn't know anyone but we were looking for a pub as well. We explained it to them and they told us if we wanted to go for a drink together with them. Of course we thought "Jesus, today has to be our lucky day". Mmmm, what a lucky day...if that's luck I don't even want to know what's bad luck... Well, so we arranged to go together all 4 to have a drink. We were chatting though their English pretty poor (I mean even poorest than mine!). The two girls, I have to say that they were pretty good looking, were from Rumania. After a couple of minutes walking through the same street they said that they had heart of a pub beside where we were that could be a good one. As we didn't know anyone we agreed to go to that one they just mentioned.

I must say that from the very beginning I saw there was something strange. But I thought, well they are only two girls, let's play the game to see what happens, they can't be dangerous. I realised there was something rare because when they were talking I saw they were lying, for instance, they said it was their first day ever in Budapest and after a while, when I was talking to one of them I saw she knew a lot about the city. Well it doesn't matter now, there is nothing to do to change what happened.

As I said we went in to the pub. To get there, in that building, it was in the second floor and the only way was through a lift (something not really usual as you can see). From the very beginning they knew where we were going, once we were in a waitress came and told us to get a big table and sit down. All the time I was talking to one of the girls, I don't even remember the name, and my friend with the other one. After a while to be there, the waitress came to know what we wanted. I ordered a beer as it is what I normally drink in Ireland. Then she asked the same question to the girls. Pay attention what they ordered the first time: Three cocktails (two for them and one for my friend) 4 shots of whiskey or whatever and 2 drinks such as red bull. We didn't pay too much attention, simply we thought they might really be thirsty...

After those drinks they continued ordering a lot of more. Maybe they came straight ahead from the desert... Anyway, as I saw that everything was very strange, I just drunk my beer and a bit of the shot. The beer mainly because I had seen how the waitress had opened up the bottle just in front of me. From the beginning I thought it was a trick to put some drugs to our drinks and get all the money they could. After the story, we realised that we were very lucky because we had to return to Bratislava, if not... I don't know what had happened.
The end of the story. We continued chatting with the two girls, but (meanwhile and before I was trying to say to my friend that there was something strange but he didn't realised!!) we decided to go out from that bloody place. We asked for the bill and we found out what was the surpirse . In Euros (it was in the currency of Hungary) it was 400 Euros! Even in the most expensive hotel in the world, we probably hadn't had to pay that fortune. Obviously we complained and we wanted to know why it was so expensive if we were in Hungary, where everything was suposed to be so cheap! They told us that from the very beginning the prices where up on the table. Therefore the only option was to pay what we owed.

The two rumanians stated that they only had a little bit of money, we didn't have all the amount either. My friend and me were wondering what shall we do?. They pressure us, shooting: "You must pay what you owe", "If you don't have enough cash, there is an ATM beside that door!". I told to my friend that we only would pay what we had drunk. We knew that even though we had called the police, there was nothing to do. Probably they were linked. I told to my friend to go to get money from his credit card, but I told him to get it out in the street not in the ATM they had, I didn't want more surprises.

I don't know how he managed but he could get into the street (later we realised that the door entrance was locked!). After a minute, the waitress came to me in a hurry shoting: "Your friend has ran away!" "You have to pay me all the money" and she repeated it twice. I don't know why but I wasn't nervous, I just told her that everything was under control, that she shouldn't be worried. I was in that empty pub, sitting down with the two girls (which we didn't told them a word anymore) and I was oweing 400 Euros! You had to see the waitress, the girls and the other staff faces, they didn't know what to do!!!

Fortunately, my friend finally came back, we agreed to pay "only" our part, 25% each, so it meant 100 Euros each for a couple of drinks!!! We got see the door locked, but a gut from the staff opened it up for us, we ran away direction to the street so angry and with 100 Euros less each in our pockets.

After that we realised that we had been lucky. If we didn't have to sleep in Bratislava, it meant drive back to there for two hours. Their trick is to meet foreign guys in the street, bring them at the pub, we thing it is our lucky day and we get robbed as much money as they can.We lost 100 Euros each, but I am absolutely sure some other people, once they are drunk, have been robbed for amounts such as 2.000 Euros.

My advice, always whatch out when you travel, I also thought it would be an urband legend until the day it happened to me.

The Catalan referendum for self-goverment

Talking about the referendum we are going to hold tomorrow, I have to say that it is a complicated subject, even hardest to understand for a person from other countries.

I think this link of an article of the newspaper The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/spain/article/0,,1792096,00.html might be a bit useful to understand more regarding this mater. I'll try to explain you a bit. The issue is that thanks to the Catalan citizens we got our politicians to fight for more self-government for our region, Catalonia. It was after 30 years since we got the actual level of self-goverment. As it was after Franco's death, we couldn't ask for lots of power, and we got only a bit of what we wanted. For a lots of people it was bullshit, and we had to wait over 30 years to improve that big mistake in terms of government.

The Catalan Parliament has 5 parties. Four of them (the 5th is PP a nearly fascist party and represents only less than 10% of our popullation), on the last September 30th agreed for a new semi-Constitution for Catalonia, even though we still would keep belonging to our neighbours: Spain. For me it wasn't enough but it was a big, a huge step forward. The Catalan people had illusion, it was one of the times you could be proud of your politicians, in fact, strangely they were doing what they must do: defending the rights of the people they represent. But that illusion disappeared as the smoke of a cigarrette in a windy day.
A country is also made of betrayers, and in our history, it is one of our worst problems. Two of the main parties decided to stop working for Catalonia and together, hand by hand, with the 90% of the Catalan Parliament that had said yes to that rules. They betrayed our people and negotiated a different Estatut (like a Constitution but belonging to Spain): An Estatut that was cut by 65% less than what the Catalan Parliament had decided!!!! (The Spaniards are the worst doing this kind of business and if some Catalan politicians betray their own people, there is nothing to do)
It was still a good autonomy Constitution but 65% less than what we had already decided. Can you imagine, you elect a government this goverment choose something and after 3 months what you voted is for nothing, your opinion as a citizen is nule! Even tough the Spaniard president had said: "I'll accept the Estatut that will come from Catalonia" (sic).
One more lyer. Tomorrow there is the referendum. I live in Ireland and I couldn't travel to Catalonia, therefore I would not be able to vote as I am still waiting for the post, to vote by post (although today was the last day!!!!). I feel really cheated and if I could vote (tomorrow is going to be impossible) i would vote NO. The people who will say NO (like myself) is people who feel absolutely cheated by the Spaniards and by the majority of the Catalan politicans. If tomorrow the answer was NO (probably will be YES because they control ALL the medias) the message would be very clear: We have had more than enough. The next step is the independence, Catalonia is going to be the next country in Europe. Although if YES wins it is a really tiny step forward.
Thankfully everyday more and more Catalans realize that there is no future if we keep belonging to Spain. If we want to have the same rights as the other countries in Europe, we will have to become a new country in Europe. It is a mater of survival as a people.

My national team.

I am from Catalonia, it is an stateless nation that belongs to Spain and France as well. The Catalan national team can not play any official tournement. We normally play once or twice a year friendly games, we have played against Brazil, Argentina, and other national teams. As a Catalan, we do not have the chance to play for Catalonia, most of the Catalan people usually support all the national teams that play against Spain and France too.But this season Barça won the Champions league and the league of the Spaniards as well. So we were double lucky, now we only have to wait seeing Spain and France out. Let's keep the fingers and hope it will be soon!

Freedom

Three weeks ago we could see how the people from Montenegro gained their freedom. I would like to know when a referendum similar to that in Montenegro will be held in Northern Ireland, under the EU supervision, to decide on Irish unification. And of course the same for Scotland and Wales. I am a Catalan, and I hope that we will soon have our own referendum on independence, and likewise hope that we will regain our freedom, provided that France and Spain do not deprive us of our right to self-determination. Every nation must decide what they want for themselves. The sooner all the stateless nations become independent countries, so much the better for freedom and democracy in Europe. Anyway congratulations to the people of Montenegro. A good lesson of democracy that some EU states should learn.