Celebrating my birthday looking for notebooks in Slovakia
Ždiar, August 9, 2018
Today is my birthday. Happy birthday to me! 🎉
I’m a year older, but I believe that, as long as we welcome it with joy and optimism, it’s a good reason to be happy!
This has been the first birthday that I have spent away from home. Normally, I would celebrate in Chiclana de la Frontera (my hometown), Barcelona (where I live), or at the Leyendas del Rock festival, which always falls around this time. However, this year has been special because I spent it in Ždiar, a small village in the Tatras Mountains of Slovakia. It’s been a quiet day but at the same time very magical and unusual.
On a Quest for Notebooks in Slovakia
As I mentioned the other day, my friend Karolina and I had the idea of forming a musical duo and started practicing with some simple songs. We took it very seriously and concluded that, if we wanted to make progress, we needed some “professional materials.” Our first purchase had to be a notebook to jot down our songs and other relevant information for our project.
We searched Google for stores in Ždiar that sold notebooks or office supplies. Unfortunately, we didn’t find much except for a small shop where it LOOKED like they might have some. We decided to stroll through the village and check out the place to try our luck. However, despite searching the shelves, there wasn’t a trace of notebooks. We found it quite strange and asked the shopkeeper. She confirmed that they didn’t have any, not there or anywhere in Ždiar.
The closest place with office supplies was the Lidl in Kežmarok, about a half-hour away by motorcycle. We quickly returned to the hostel, grabbed the motorbike, and set off for this Slovak town. All for our precious notebooks! The safest bet would have been to go to Poprad, one of the larger cities, but this town was closer. We wanted to finish our shopping as quickly as possible to save time.
My Birthday: The Celebration
At the Lidl in Kežmarok, we also bought supplies to celebrate my birthday tonight. That is, candles, a tiramisu cake, champagne for toasting, and mini bottles of various herbal liqueurs typical of Slovakia for tasting. In the evening, we were on The Ginger Monkey’s terrace enjoying the darkness, the starry sky, and the refreshing mountain air. Of course, I blew out the candles on the cake and made my wish 🙂
Of course, before the celebration, we were doing our homework and practicing for our future.
I never thought I would spend my birthday this way—searching for notebooks across half of Slovakia and celebrating in a hostel in the mountains. However, I must admit it’s been a lot of fun, and I’ll surely remember it fondly. Here’s to what the next birthday has in store!
