I left Rabat on Wednesday 28th November. After suffering food poisoning I felt weak, I was pale and shaking when we went out in the morning, but although it was sunny it was significantly colder than during the previous days. My host accompanied me to the bus station and I went to Casablanca firstly, the journey there lasted only one hour but I had to wait there almost two hours until the bus to Essaouira arrived. The journey to Essaouira lasted 8 hours and it was around 10:30pm when we arrived, but I had to wait half an hour for my host. The following day we met his friends and walked around the city, it was sunny but windy, we drank tea at the fish market and in the evening my host and his flatmate cooked delicious spaghetti bolognese and then we watched two horror movies. The other day it was rainy and we spent all day at home watching horror movies, we saw 6 of them, my favorite was One missed call. We went to the internet cafe in the evening because I had to check my mail and I left Essaouira on Saturday afternoon. I took a bus to Agadir, however the journey wasn't great because the road leads in the mountains, narrow and curved, people were sick in the bus and one woman who sat across the aisle vomited in a plastic bag. I arrived in Agadir before sunset, my host picked me up at the bus station and we went to his home where we had dinner which his mother prepared for us and then we went to the same disco where we went in April. We danced, they didn't play my favorite kind of music but we stayed there a long time, we returned home after 3am. The other day we went for a walk to a beach, it was sunny but windy, but the weather was warmer than Essaouira. In the evening we danced and sung at my host's home and we recorded many videos.

I contacted my previous host in Marrakesh but he didn't answer on time, so I posted a message to the emergency couch group and I got two offers. I met one couchsurfer at the bus station, we went to his home where we drank tea and played a card game, but then I went to my host who lived very close in the student's area. He cooked chicked tajine for me. We went to the city on Tuesday but we stayed outside only two hours, it was sunny but a bit cold, only 15°C. I bought a good pancake with Nutella and banana for 20 dirhams on the way home. He prepared chicked tajine again in the evening and then I had to leave in the morning around 10am, I took a grand taxi and then a bus to the airport where I arrived too early, around 11:15am and my flight with Vueling airlines was around 13:45. I bought a cake and drank tea there, then I got on the plane and our flight was smooth, we arrived in Barcelona just on time to see the sunset from the plane. It took me two hours until I reached my host's place, he lived in Vallcarca. He cooked pasta for me, not only the first day but also the other days, he knew how to prepare pasta in many different ways. Once he prepared lasagna which was very tasty and next time he made salty pancakes. It was cold at his home because he didn't use the heating in winter. We went for a walk in the city center on Thursday and I met my cousin Jeremy for the lunch on Friday, we went to the restaurant Ciutat Comtal which was close to his work. We ordered many different kinds of tapas and I also ordered a hot chocolate cake. Then I went to Sagrada Familia but I decided not to go inside because there were many people waiting in the line.

I went to a park with my host on Saturday, I tried to eat opuntia which I found but it was a very bad idea because of the hundreds of small thorns that got stuck in my hands. I tried to remove them with needle later but it took several days until I got rid of them.
I met my cousin and his wife and son on Monday and I invited my host to join us. We went to another restaurant and we ordered many tapas again, this time I also had a sandwich with a little tartar beef steak and we had chicken, calmars, tortilla de patatas and eggplant with honey. I ordered an almond cake as a dessert. I left Barcelona on Tuesday afternoon when I took the flight with wizzair, when I left Barcelona the weather was good, 15°C and sunny, but when we arrived in Prague I was shocked to see snow from the plane and it was getting dark already around 4pm when we landed. However, I prefer winter here in Prague because although it is freezing and snowing sometimes I always heat my home to pleasant 25°C.

Gibraltar is an astonishing place - a big rock in the middle of the sea emerging out of nowhere. However, during my stay there I didn't go up the rock and the city is not very interesting, there are many shops, but nothing really worth visiting. I was pleased to see that most signs were in English. My host lived in the Governor's street, opposite of the London bar. I had to go up the hill and pull my suitcase, I am not a real backpacker because I find it more convenient to travel with a suitcase, although it is not suitable in all surroundings. My host was an alternative guy, he had dreadlocks and smoked weed and hashish. The house was furnished in an exotic style, I would say a mixture of African and South American. My host was originally from Colombia. I arrived in Gibraltar on Thursday 15th November, my host told me he would be going for a party on Saturday to Cadiz and come back on Sunday, but I could have stayed there as long as I wanted. However, I came to Gibraltar mainly to look for a job there and as I didn't hear from the personal agency I decided that it would be better to go to Morocco as soon as possible. I stayed at home on Thursday, the weather was cloudy and around 18°C. My host prepared lasagna with 4 different kinds of cheese and a bechamel sauce, it was delicious. He hosted also a Belgian guy Simon whose goal was to travel and live without money, he travelled Europe by hitch-hiking and practiced dumpster diving, most of the food he ate came from the garbage of supermarkets. He hoped to be hired on a cruise boat to South America but he hasn't been lucky yet. On Friday he prepared pizza for us and then we went for a walk to the port and visited his friends on a boat.

I had to get up around 9am on Saturday and go to La Linea to take the bus to Tarifa. When I arrived there it was 12:30 and the ferry to Tangier was leaving at 13:00. It was rainy, I had to run to the port and pull my suitcase, I made it on time but when I got there I was looking so wild and frantic that even the ticket seller had to calm me down that there was enough time left.
The journey by ferry took around 45 minutes and the ticket costed 34 Eur, but I had to wait for my host in the port in Tangier where I was a source of attention of taxi drivers and tour guides, I spoke with one of them in French and we waited until my host arrived. Then we went to drink some mint tea and in the evening we had dinner in a sea food restaurant. The following day we went to a market which was a bad idea because it was very muddy. Then we went to the cafe Hafa with a nice view on the Spanish coast.
I took a train on Monday to Fez where I arrived in the afternoon. My host picked me up at the train station and we went to his home and then to his work. His mother stayed with us and she cooked 3 times per day, in the morning she baked a Moroccan bread for me and then we ate either rice or couscous with sheep. I like sheep but it was difficult for me to eat it so often. My host used to go to work by motorbike, there was usually a dog sleeping on the sheet so each time when he took the motorbike he woke the dog up, but she just looked at us peacefully and then continued to sleep somewhere else.

The following day I met a couchsurfer with his friend and we visited the city. I didn't like Fez much because it is was dirty and crowded but the weather was good, around 22°C. We walked in medina and had a drink and cake in a cafe. I left to Meknes on Wednesday afternoon. Meknes was, in contrast to Fez, much better city, more neat and clean. My host showed me the city on Thursday, the weather was wonderful, sunny and warm, maybe even warmer than Fez. My host had to go to work so I walked alone to the Lahdim square, I saw many restaurants there offering tajine from 50 to 70 dirhams, but I decided that it was too expensive and went to medina nearby where I found chicken tajine for 15 dirhams. It was tasty and I shared it with a cat because it was too much food for me. In the evening I met my host and we walked around the city, then we took a taxi to his home and we played the card game called 'kdoub' with his flatmates.

I left Meknes on Friday 23rd November. One of the flatmates of my host accompanied me to the train station and I took a train to Rabat where I stayed 5 days. My host lived in Sale which is a neighbor city of Rabat. We had a great time visiting the city with his friends, going to Kasbah and medina and playing pool. However, the day before going to Essaouira I became sick because I ate too much food on the street and drank a lot of Moroccan tea, sugar cane and avocado juice, but I had to leave Rabat on 28th because I had already bought a bus ticket.

I arrived in Sevilla around midnight and my host picked me up by car. He lived with his mother who had an Alzheimer disease, he took care of her but every day in week she used to go to a center for old people and stayed there around 8 hours. My host took me to the city on Friday and showed me around. Firstly we visited a park with pigeons, it started to rain and it was raining heavily for at least half an hour. Then we went to Plaza d'Espagna where we took many photos and then we had a lunch in the tapas bar Santa Cruz, I ordered 'potaje' which is a chickpeas soup, then tortilla de patatas, calmars and eggplant with honey which was a strange combination and I didn't like it so much.

The following day I met a couchsurfer Antonio and his guest Laura, we met at Plaza Mayor in front of 'Setas', the wooden mushroom-like building. We went on the top on this building, but Antonio could speak only Spanish and Italian and although I mostly understood him I couldn't really speak with him. Laura was translating sometimes, we went for a walk in Sevilla and then my host  joined us in the Santa Cruz bar. This time I had mushrooms cooked on wine and calmars, it was late when we got there and there was no potaje left. In the evening I drank too much Bacardi with Coke and I couldn't go out anymore. On Sunday we went to a market and then I left to Cadiz. The following day I walked to the city, the weather was sunny but colder than Mallorca. Cadiz is not a big city, I walked in the narrow streets in the center and in the afternoon I met my host, he gave me a ride on the motorbike and showed me the most interesting places there. On Tuesday my host cooked pasta with salmon in the afternoon and I took a bus to El Puerto de Santa Maria which I met my new host at the train station. He was an American guy working for a military base. He had a big house and five great cats, one of them was mother and the others her kids, two of them were siamese with cream color and black face, ears and tail. We went to an English-Spanish meeting and the following day we played frisbee on the beach and we visited Jerez de la Frontera but it was already twilight when we got there. Then we had dinner in a restaurant in El Puerto, I had an octopus salad and musaka but it was too salty.

I left El Puerto on Thursday morning, I took a bus to Cadiz and another one to La Linea de la Concepcion where I crossed the borders and walked to my host's house in Gibraltar.

I arrived in Palma de Mallorca close to the midnight on November 1st. When I got off the plane it was around 15°C at the airport, I could smell conifer trees in the air and it was humid. When I tried to get a bus to S'Arenal where my host lived I found out that the bus stopped running on October 31st because it was the end of the season. I had to wait for another bus and change it, it took around one hour until I arrived at my host's place. He was an Algerian guy and he lived in an old house close to the beach. Most of my hosts in Spain and Morocco didn't have heating because they didn't consider it necessary in winter but in Mallorca it wasn't a big deal because it was still warm at the beginning of November. The day after my arrival we went to a beach with rocks and we quickly took a bath. In the evening we went to a German disco and Latino bar and we stayed out all night, we went to sleep at 6am.

Some days during my stay in Mallorca were sunny and warm with the temperature reaching up to 24°C and even the nights were warm, some other days were rainy with the temperature only around 17°C.
I was very happy to have left Scandinavia and enjoy the late summer again. However, the sea and beach were full of jellyfishes. My host told me that if we collected them we could get 20 Eur per kilo from laboratories, but most of them were already rotten. I thought that my host would be free to show me around Mallorca a bit but one of his colleagues fell ill unexpectedly and he had to work almost during all my stay there. I visited Palma de Mallorca several times by myself, one time I met a random guy who invited me to a restaurant for diner, we ordered paella with black rice and sea food.

I also met a Czech guy there at the mass in a cathedral and we went to a cake shop. One day I took a bus to Valldemossa in the mountains, it was a sunny day but it was cold there. Another day I took a bus to Port de Soller, it was rainy so I didn't enjoy it much. Then I took a bus to Soller where I found a bar near the bus station, they had tapas there for only 4 Eur, it was tasty.
My last day in Mallorca the weather was warm and sunny again, I was sorry that I had to leave. There were no jellyfishes in the sea and I went to the beach next to my host's house and I swam there. Then I found a tapas bar nearby and had a lunch there and in the evening I was watching sunset on the beach and then I went to the airport to take my flight with ryanair from Palma de Mallorca to Sevilla on November 8th.

I am back in Prague after 7 weeks of travelling and I am going to describe my last trip. I left Prague on October 24th, I took a bus to Berlin in the afternoon and I had to wait 2 hours there for another bus to Copenhagen. I could have also taken a direct bus from Prague to Copenhagen but it would be more expensive. The travel was good, just in the middle of the night we had to get up and take the ferry in Denmark. I went upstairs, it was windy there but the journey didn't take a long time, only half an hour. I arrived in Copenhagen in the morning and I met my host at the train station. My host was from Kenya, he was going to study so I took a bus to his flat and his flatmate let me in. The first day in Copenhagen I just slept, I was very tired. We visited the city on Friday and Saturday, the weather was sunny but cold, around 8°C. My host showed me tourist places and took me to Christiania, it was picturesque place but it was already twilight when we got there.

I had a good time in Copenhagen, my host used to cook for me and then we went to a party on Saturday and we played pool. On Sunday I met a couchsurfer from Hong Kong who I hosted in Prague 2 years ago and then I took a train to Malmo which is only 20km far away from Copenhagen. 

I spent in Malmo 4 days and the weather was much worse than in Copenhagen, it was not colder but cloudy and drizzle, only one day was sunny. My host was an Egyptian guy attempting to study PhD. in Sweden. During the sunny day we went to the castle, there was a museum which we visited and downstairs there was an aquarium and nocturnal animals. I am a big fan of horror movies so we watched them every evening on the computer. The day before I left Malmo it was Halloween and we went to a party, we danced but they played mostly R&B and Hip-Hop there which is not my favourite style of music. My last day in Malmo it was drizzling again, I was glad that I was leaving and I took a flight from Malmo to Palma de Mallorca in the evening with ryanair on November 1st.

I have been busy with my new travel recently and now I am writing from Meknes in Morocco. I don't have much time so I will give more details when I return to Prague. I left to Denmark the last week of October, then I spent some time in Sweden, then I took a flight to Mallorca in Spain, then to Sevilla and I travelled to Cadiz and Gibraltar. I returned to Spain to take a ferry from Tarifa to Tangier and then I visited Fez. I am already tired from this frenetic pace of travelling but I still have 3 weeks before I go back to Prague. I will try to meet my old friends in Morocco, I have already contacted them and they can host me again.

I have been hesitating a lot if I should comment on my negative reference on couchsurfing in my blog, mainly because it happened many years ago, but as I have been very active in CS during those years and I have met hundreds CSers so far I was asked many times what exactly happened and although I was trying to explain it with patience, it gets very annoying to give explanations on the same topic over and over again. Next time if someone asks me to explain the circumstances of my negative reference I will tell him just to read my blog. It happened a very long time ago but I will do my best to explain everything as precisely as possible.

I have already described my travels to France earlier in my blog. I went to France for the first time in summer 2002 when I was 19 and then I travelled there again in spring and summer both in 2003 and 2004. I was initially visiting my IRC friends who I met on the channels #Paris and #france. I joined couchsurfing in June 2004 and I wanted to visit Bretagne for the first time so I contacted a guy called Damien (his profile is easy to find because he uses the same nickname on CS). I still remember that it was Wednesday when I took a train from Lyon to Rennes and while looking to the calendar I believe that it must have been on July 21st 2004. I was initially looking for a place to stay in Rennes and I asked Damien to host me there, but he told me to come to Arzon because it was by the sea and it was a nice place to visit. While I agreed to go there I didn't find out before going to Bretagne where exactly Arzon was and I asked him to meet me in Rennes. I didn't know that these cities were 100 km far away from each other and it wasn't my intention to ask him to meet me so far away, but unfortunately he agreed with the meeting in Rennes and later blamed me for that. 

When we arrived in the camping I was staying in the tent of his friend Tibo who was a very kind guy and a great host. I would have enjoyed my stay in Arzon because it was a wonderful place, but the relations with Damien weren't good. Firstly, I am usually known as an evasive person and people who are too straightforward make me uncomfortable, but the main thing which I didn't like about him was the way he commented on my behaviour. He treated me like a spoiled child which made me feel so bad that I refused to speak with him. I was discussing the situation with my friends on the internet and they were trying to help me to find another accommodation in Bretagne but we didn't succeed. I was supposed to travel to Bordeaux on Friday 30th and I needed a place to stay till then. I got stuck in the camping and I couldn't leave. My friends told me that I was making a mistake to stay in the camping in this situation but I didn't want to listen to them. 

Then Tibo was supposed to have some friends arriving on Tuesday 27th. As I didn't bring my own tent, I discussed with a Spanish guy called Javier what I should do and he offered to lend me his tent. He also told me that nobody was checking tents during the night so I should try to put it there for free and hope that nobody would find out. I thought it was a great idea, but Damien didn't share my enthusiasm and became very angry instead. Tibo's friends didn't arrive that evening and I could stay there two nights longer. Then one of my IRC friends found someone in Nantes who could host me there for one night and I left Arzon on July 29th. 

Overall, I am willing to admit that it was mainly my fault what happened because I was solving the situation in an unfortunate and certainly inappropriate way but I don't believe that this guy is completely blameless either. For example he can say that I was stupid when I hadn't found out before going to Bretagne where Arzon was and how to get there, but he agreed with the meeting in Rennes although he knew it was 100 km far away. And then, if he had explicitly told me that I could stay in the camping for one week he must have counted on the possibility that I wouldn't be able to leave earlier. I was certainly behaving immaturely at the age of 21 but since that time I have already visited 70 people on 4 continents and I hosted 100 CSers and with most of them I managed to have a good conversation and spend pleasant time. 

I had to answer other questions regarding my reference, e.g. why I didn't leave a negative reference to his profile too and why I didn't delete my profile and create a new one when this reference was actually the first one. Initially I left him a negative reference too but when my friend sent him e-mail and asked him to delete the reference from my profile I could clearly understand from his answer that he would never admit sharing any part of fault and in this case I didn't want to fight with him for the rest of my life and I deleted the negative reference from his profile. I didn't delete my profile because I didn't suppose that I would be still hanging on CS 8 years later with 350 friends and now it is too late to think about it. 

It is very unlikely that I would ever manage to correct what I have done because if I tried I could make everything even worse, but although my stay wasn't finished in a good way I am really glad that I had an opportunity to visit Arzon and get to know Tibo and Javier and I will try to meet them again in the future.

I left to Bulgaria on August 12th with my friend Pavel. We bought a 2 week trip from a travel agency and we stayed in a room in the 3 star hotel Yunona in Sunny Beach. Our flight from Prague was very early in the morning, we had to be at the airport at 4am and the departure was at 6am. After arriving in Burgas we took a bus to our hotel and the journey took one hour although it was only 30 km far away. The first day it rained and it was relatively cold, only around 25°C. We had a lunch in the Chinese restaurant which was close to our hotel. The following day we travelled to Burgas and we bought a parasol there, we got it for 8.50 Leva which was advantageous comparing to renting it on the beach every day. We preferred Burgas to Sunny Beach because there were less tourists and the beach wasn't very crowded.

We were overall satisfied with the quality of our hotel and the cleaning service, but I didn't enjoy the breakfast which was included in the price of our trip. We were served the same food every day and the quality was mediocre, although several times the sausages were burned to the extent that they were inedible. We used to go to the restaurants for a dinner, they were usually not expensive and the food was tasty, but very oily. We went once to the restaurant Djanny which was probably the most popular because in the evening there were long queues and we went several times to the restaurant Troya. I enjoyed fruit cocktails in Sunny Beach, the price was around 5 Leva and I tried many of them, for example Sex on the beach, Tequila Sunrise or Pina Colada.
Before arriving in Bulgaria we planned visiting Istanbul because it was nearby, only 200 km far from Burgas, but when buying a ticket from the company Metro we were told that the journey would take 7 hours. My friend Pavel decided that he didn't want to join me during the trip and he stayed in Sunny Beach and I left to Istanbul alone on August 17th. The journey was long, we waited around one hour at the border and in Istanbul we got stuck in a traffic jam close to the bus station Esenler. Then I had to continue by metro and tram and finally I took a ferry to Uskudar where I arrived around 10.30pm. I met my host and we went for a dinner to a restaurant. My host had a very nice flat in a skyscraper in the modern part of Istanbul called Atesehir on the Asian side. The following day we visited the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia and Basilica Cistern.

We had a lunch in a local fast food. On Sunday my host was busy and I met a couchsurfer who I had met already in Prague weeks ago, we went to the Topkapi Palace and in the evening to Taksim where I ate some spicy mussels on the street and then we went to a bar where we met my host and later we joined him at a disco. We stayed out late and we got to a bed around 5am. The last day we took a ferry to the island close to Istanbul in the Marmara sea, there were no cars but many carriages. We had to pay 10 Liras to enter the beach, we took some photos and then in the evening we ordered home some Turkish pizza and watched the Koran movie Oldboy. In the morning I went to Esenler where I took a bus to Burgas. I went to a beach there and in the evening I returned to Sunny Beach and I went for a dinner with Pavel to a restaurant. During the remaining time in Bulgaria we visited Varna, Nessebar and Burgas again. There were not many things to visit in Varna but Nessebar was picturesque. We swam in the sea there and the waves were big. The last day in Sunny Beach we also swam in the sea and in the afternoon we took a bus to Burgas and finally we returned in Prague around 6pm on Sunday 26th August.

After the return from my African trip I spent a month in Prague. I hosted two couchsurfers during that time and I met many others but otherwise nothing interesting happened. I had to travel to Slovakia for the funeral of my great aunt who died on May 19th at the age of 88 and I got stuck there for 6 weeks because my grandmother broke her left arm during her trip to Poland. I hosted three couchsurfers in my father's flat and we had a good time. One of them was a Finnish girl travelling to Hungary with her dog Chart Polski for a competition which he won and he became an European champion. The second one was an Indian guy living in Australia and the third one was a Japanese guy cycling Europe by bike. We discovered a restaurant in Presov called La Cucaracha with tortillas for 4 Eur and I went there several times to order a vegetarian tortilla (but the chicken one was not bad either). Although it was cold at the end of May and the beginning of June the weather then became extremely hot for Slovakia, the temperature 35-37°C lasted several weeks. I met a couchsurfer from Presov and we used to go together to swim in the dam called Sigord.
I returned in Prague in July and I hosted six couchsurfers here since that time. I am planning to go to Turkey and Bulgaria next month. I haven't decided yet what I am going to do after, there are many possibilities under consideration.

I took a flight from Casablanca to Paris with Easyjet on April 4th. It costed only 80 Eur and the flight took around 3 hours. I arrived at the Charles de Gaulle airport in the evening and I had to take RER to the city center. I met my host at Porte d'Orléans. He had a nice flat furnished in a colorful African style. I spent 6 days in Paris and the weather wasn't good, most of the time it was cold and rainy. The day after my arrival we visited the Victor Hugo's house at Place des Vosges and on Friday we travelled to Etretat in Haute Normandie (Upper Normandy in English) where we took many photos of the wonderful white cliffs. 

The weather was better than in Paris, the sun was shining. Then we went to a restaurant where we ordered mussels, each of us got a full pot. I couldn't finish eating it although I put a lot of effort. 

On Saturday we went to Haute Normandie again, this time we visited Claude Monet's house and the Japanese garden in Giverny. I met my old IRC friends on Sunday near Bastille and we went to a bar and a restaurant. It was raining a lot during my last day in Paris I went to a tea room with my host and we were walking around Notre Dame and the Eiffel tower. 

I left Paris on Tuesday April 10th when I took a train to Luxembourg. When my host was taking me to a train station we got stuck in a traffic jam so I had to take the metro and I almost missed my train.The journey took 2 hours. I arrived in Luxembourg in the afternoon and I walked around the city and took photos. The city center is small so I saw all the important things within a few hours. 

My host was a Chinese PhD. student but he was not available to meet me until the late evening. It was around 11pm when we met at the train station and we took a train to Esch-sur-Alzette where he lived. I was tired after my trip so I didn't do much during the following 2 days, I just went for a walk in the afternoon. I met a Senegalese guy on Wednesday and we had a drink and shared my experiences about my African trip. On Thursday evening I watched an old Italian horror movie with my host and on Friday I left Esch in the afternoon and I took a train to Luxembourg. I left my luggage at the train station and I went to the Chocolate house where I bought a chocolate on a stick and hot milk. The chocolate melted in the milk and I drank it, it costed 4 Eur 10 cents. Luxembourg is a very expensive country. In the evening I took a Student Agency bus to Prague, the bus didn't arrive on time but it was quite empty so I had two seats for myself and I could sleep a bit during the night. I returned to Prague on April 14th around 6am after having spent 10 weeks on the road. 

I left Saint Louis on March 29th when I took a shared car to Rosso. This time the border crossing wasn't so peaceful as on the way to Senegal. Immediately after I got off the car in Rosso I was surrounded by the crowd of people who made me get in the taxi which took me to the border. There was a Senegalese guy travelling to Nouakchott who joined me and took care of my luggage because the people were very obtrusive. When we got in the room to get a stamp out of Senegal they held us in the room and released us only when I screamed at them and hit someone. Then we took a boat on the other side of the river where we found a shared car to Nouakchott.

We agreed with the driver that we would give him 4000 Ouguiya per person and he would take us home in Nouakchott, but when we arrived there he insisted that we should get out just when we entered Nouakchott or give him 300 Ouguiya more. While I was willing to pay him my friend refused and the driver took us to the police station where we spent around 20 minutes arguing which was quite ridiculous because 300 Ouguiya is equal to 75 Eurocents. Then we came to a settlement and paid him. I didn't have time to eat all day and I was weak but we went to my friend's house and we ate scrambled eggs there. In the evening I found a taxi which took me to Maison des artistes where I met Ridiaw and Papis and spent the last night in Nouakchott. 

The next day I found a truck driver who was going to Dakhla and we left Nouakchott in the evening. The journey took an entire day and we arrived in Dakhla on Saturday evening. I spent one night there and then I took a bus to Agadir on Sunday evening and I arrived there on Monday afternoon. I had a new host there because I didn't manage to reach the previous one. I was very exhausted after the journey but my host Nourry took me to the beach. It was so windy that day that it was impossible to swim. In the evening we went to a night club but we stayed there only an hour. On Tuesday I travelled to Casablanca where I stayed with Younes and on Wednesday April 4th I took a flight to Paris. 

I left Nouakchott on March 22nd early in the morning. A driver of the shared car came to pick me up at Maison des artistes at 5am and we travelled to Rosso. It took around 3 hours to get there. When we were arriving in the south of Mauritania the landscape started to change and it was no more a scorched desert but savannah with a lot of vegetation. I didn't see any baobab tree in Mauritania but in Senegal there were many of them.
When we arrived in Rosso it was surprisingly cold in the morning. I wore my jacket but I was shivering. We found a boat which took us on the other side of the river. The border was calm, I didn't experience any problem while crossing from Mauritania to Senegal (but when I was going back to Mauritania it was completely different, I will mention it later). I had my yellow fever vaccination but nobody wanted to see it, it was required only after I returned from Senegal to Mauritania. I found a shared car to Saint Louis and we had to wait until it was full. The journey took 3 or 4 hours although it was not far away. I called my host and his cousin came to pick me up. My host had a motorbike accident before I came and he spent most of the time lying in a bed but his cousin showed me around.

We took a taxi (which was literally a wreck) in the evening to the beach, but the taxi punctured a tyre immediately and we had to wait for another one. We watched a sunset on the beach and then we returned home. In the morning we took a bus together to Dakar where I met my other hosts. Daly was my CS host and Zinor was his a cousin of his wife. I spent the first day with Zinor, we took a boat to the Ngor island which is a paradise. 

There was a strong wind blowing in Dakar but the beach in Ngor was shielded. I swam in the sea which looked much better than in Mauritania, there were many fishes and urchins. Then we went to the Renaissance Monument. On Saturday I moved to Daly's family house and he showed me around and then we took a boat to Ile de Goree where we visited the House of slaves and I bought some souvenirs. 

Daly bought me a dried baobab fruit but it didn't taste well and it got stuck to the teeth very much. The other day it was the presidential election and we decided it wasn't safe to stay in Dakar so we went to visit the Pink Lake. I enjoyed bathing there a lot, it was like floating in the Dead sea. On Monday we went to a beach and on Tuesday I moved to Zinor and we visited the Pink Lake again. We didn't go to Gambia because we decided it wasn't worth for one day. On Wednesday I returned to Saint Louis where I stayed with my former host for one night. 

Now I am going to talk about the worst experience which I had in Mauritania. It happened only 2 days before my departure to Senegal. When I was staying in Maison des artistes our neighbor who lived opposite to the Maison had 2 dogs, one of them light brown and another one dark. Most of the time they just slept in front of the house in the sand and didn't pay much attention to the people. When I went to the dinner with Papis the dogs slept in front of the Maison des artistes and when we walked by the light brown dog lazily lifted his head and then put it down again and continued to rest.

The following day we woke up late in the morning and we around 10:30 am we went to a shop to buy something to eat. Papis was making tea on a gas bomb when we heard a very loud gunshot. I didn't know what happened and I thought at first that gas exploded, but then we looked out the window and saw the light brown dog lying on the road and his leg was twitching. Then we heard another shot and we though that the other dog was killed too, but as we learnt later he escaped and survived the slaughter. A soldier shot a dog of our neighbor. Then the dog was taken into the van and only a pool of blood remained on the road. We spoke to the owner of the dogs but she said she couldn't do anything about it. The van was parked nearby and I went there, shaking with anger, but when I arrived the van left. Then I went to the Maison des artistes where we cried in the kitchen. When Ridiaw came he asked me if I slept well and I said yes and I tried to avoid looking at him, but he turned my face to the light and saw the traces of tears. Although I initially enjoyed my stay in Maison des artistes after what I have seen I just wanted to get out of this terrbile country as soon as possible. 

The journey from Dakhla to Nouadhibou took around 8 hours even though those cities are not very far. My Mauritanian trip didn't start in the best way because I didn't have time to eat and drink all day and I was overheated in the car. By the time we arrived in Nouadhibou I was sick, but I managed to control myself and didn't throw up. My host was a French guy working there. He took me to a restaurant in the evening and we ordered a lot of seafood which was tasty although I couldn't eat much. On Tuesday and Wednesday my host took me to the sea at Cap Blanc and I had a big beach just for myself because the local people don't usually  swim there. I saw many shipwrecks there and also the train which was allegedly the longest one in the world. It was around 30°C in Nouadhibou during these days. We used to go to the restaurant every day for the lunch and dinner and we always ordered fish, shrimps, octopus and calmars. 

On Thursday morning I took a bus to Nouakchott where we arrived in the afternoon. It was 35°C there and I had to take a taxi to my host's house. He lived with his family and many friends used to visit him often. There was a restaurant in his house. The first 2 days I felt sick and I spent most of the time lying on the mattress in the living room but on Sunday I went to the embassy of Senegal and asked for the visa there. They refused to give me it at first, telling me they used to give it only to residents of Nouakchott. I finally had to bribe someone at the police station to give me the residence visa for 6 months in Nouakchott to be able to get visa to Senegal.

I stayed 8 days with my host and I spent a good time there although I didn't like this city at all. It was very hot at first and the sky was white due to the dust. The city was dirty and nothing to visit there. I went to the museum but it was small and not very interesting. The only good place in Nouakchott was a beach. 

The weather got colder after some days and it was only 25°C there and windy. The sky finally became blue. I couldn't stay with my host longer and I moved to Maison des artistes where I slept 6 days in an atelier. My companions were two guys, one of them was Ridiaw from Nouakchott and another one was Papis from Senegal. We used to go to the beach together and to a restaurant for a dinner. There were many mosquitoes in Nouakchott and I was bitten many times during the night, but there wasn't risk of malaria in Mauritania in contrary to Senegal. I studied French 5 years but I never spoke this language, only in Nouakchott I didn't have a choice because most people didn't know English.

I had to wait in Mauritania 2 weeks and half until I got my visa to Senegal which was much longer than I intended. 

At the end of February I continued my journey to Laayoune in Western Sahara which is an occupied territory by Morocco. There are two bus companies going there from Agadir, they are called CTM and Supratours. The journey from Agadir to Laayoune took around 12 hours and it was very cold in the bus. Someone lent me his jacket otherwise I would have been freezing all night. When I arrived in Laayoune I found this city not interesting at all, but in the evening it looked much better when the markets were open. My host gave me traditional clothes and I wore it during 3 days when I stayed there, but I found it difficult to wrap myself in it. The first day I tasted camel milk and then we ate also grilled camel meat in the restaurant.

The second day we went to a beach which was around 30 minutes by car from Laayoune but it was very windy there. My clothes were waving in the wind and we took a lot of pictures. 

Then my host found someone who had a jeep and took us to a place which looked like a desert and we had fun taking many photos. One wheel of the jeep got stuck in the sand and we had to dig it out.

After my trip to Laayoune I travelled to Dakhla which is much better city comparing to Laayoune, more interesting and lively. There are many people from Mauritania and Senegal and it resembles more real Africa. I met a couchsurfer there and he showed me the city. I drank a very good avocado juice there, it costed around 1 Euro. I had two hosts in Dakhla who shared a flat, but on Saturday they took me to their family house and we stayed in the cave at night by the beach where they killed a chicken and cooked it for dinner. There was a wonderful view on the sky with all the stars shining brightly. The following day I swam in the sea. 

When we returned to Dakhla we found a shared car which took me to Nouadhibou in Mauritania on March 5th.

 

I left Madrid on February 10th when I took a flight to Tangier. When I arrived there I found out that north of Morocco was cold in winter, only 12°C during the day and freezing during the night. Most of my hosts didn't have a heating so I was feeling very cold at night. I stayed in Tangier 3 days and I had a good time, my host took me to the cave and I wore some traditional clothes there and we went to the Cape Spartel where we had a nice view on the Spanish coast. 

We went also to a fish market and I ate a plate full of shrimps. I left Tangier on Monday and I went to Rabat by train. I met Younes in the train who lived in Spain but was originally from Casablanca and later he hosted me there. After arriving in Rabat I met two surfers who stayed with my host in Kasbah des Oudayas. Our host was an Italian guy and he was busy working, but I met other people from CS and we had fun. 

One of them took me to a trip to Sale which is very close to Rabat, just on the other bank of the river and we visited the old Medinah there. Another couchsurfer took me to Temara where he played a guitar with his friends and we were singing on the beach in the evening, but it was very cold there after sunset. I had to stay in Rabat 4 days because I had to wait for my visa to Mauritania. Then I took a train to Casablanca where I had two different hosts, the first one was from CS and another one Younes who I met in the train. Casablanca is not an interesting place for tourists, it is an economic capital but there weren't many places to visit, just the big mosque and the beach. 

When we went to a square with pigeons we were immediately surrounded by a tour guide and a woman doing a henna tattoo. The tour guide took many photos of us pigeons and the woman grabbed my hand and started doing tattoo because I wasn't fast enough to prevent her. It was overpriced and low quality, it was washed away within 3 days. Younes took me to a restaurant where I ate a very good lamb tajine. Then I travelled to Marrakech where I got a cold because it was only 18°C outside (although it was much warmer in the sun) and I was wearing a T-shirt and a skirt all day. The following day my host took me to the Ourika valley which was a beautiful place with its waterfalls, but I didn't feel good. 

We had tajine and I bought some necklaces there as souvenirs. After Marrakech I took a bus to Essaouira which is a small city but worth visiting. My host took me to the Jimmy Hendrix cafe in Diabat. 

Then I travelled to Agadir where the weather was warm enough to swim even though the water had only around 18°C. My host was studying English which was great because my other hosts didn't speak English well, they could speak mostly French. I wore a short skirt in Agadir and I got a lot of unwanted attention there, one guy accused me of not respecting their traditions. I found it surprising because he was a young guy and I thought they were more liberal in Morocco. 

After visiting Morocco I took a bus to Western Sahara where I spent approximately one week. 

After my trip to Indonesia the rest of the year 2011 wasn't really exciting. I worked a few months as a translator of software localization but then I was dismissed. I spent some time in Slovakia trying to figure out what to do with my father's flat, I rented it to some students who stayed there 8 months, but now it is for sale again.

In September 2011 I travelled to Uzhgorod in Ukraine where I visited a couchsurfer and his family but I stayed there only one night and then I returned to Slovakia. There are several things to visit in Uzhgorod including the castle and the museum. The weather there was good, sunny and around 25°C.

In December 2011 I travelled to Berlin where I spent 4 days and I had two different hosts. I went to a CS meeting with the first one where I met other couchsurfers from Berlin. I visited many places in Berlin but the weather was rainy and cold, just around 6°C. I visited also Pergamon museum.

I spent Christmas 2011 in Slovakia with my mother and grandmother, but as all my efforts to find another job failed, I decided to travel again at the end of January to Rome. I wasn't sure where I would go after visiting Rome, East Africa and South America were under the consideration too, but finally West Africa won. I bought a flight ticket from Rome to Lisbon and then to Madrid and finally to Tangier which is in the north of Morocco.

I arrived in Rome on January 27th and I immediately had to face a problem because there was a strike and I couldn't take a train from the airport to the city. I waited two hours until the train arrived. Then I met my host and we had a dinner in a pizzeria. He showed me the city center in Rome and we visited Colosseum and the Vatican city in the following days.

I stayed one week in Rome, I had a second host who hosted me unexpectedly for one night because we had a meeting late at night and I couldn't return to my first host due to the bad weather. My third host lived in Fiumicino. When I had to leave to Lisbon he took me to the airport in the morning. The weather in Italy was getting colder so I was lucky to go to to Portugal where it was sunny and warm. 

My host in Lisbon was a rich guy and had a very nice flat in the city center and a car Aston Martin. We went to some restaurants and a bar where they sang Fado music. I went to Sintra alone for one day and then I took a bus to Cabo da Roca, but it was twilight when I got there so I couldn't see much of it.

After my trip in Portugal I took a flight to Madrid and I stayed there only two days which was sufficient to visit the main tourist places there.My host was sick so he couldn't accompany me but I went to to visit the city by myself, I had a map so it was easy to go around. I always found people who were willing to take pictures of me. When I walked alone in the park I met an Estonian guy and we decided to go together to the museum Reina Sofia and in the evening we went to Prado because it was for free after 6pm. I didn't enjoy Reina Sofia much because I never liked modern art and I found the Picasso's Guernica quite depressive, but I saw a lot of interesting paintings in Prado, just the time was limited so I couldn't visit it as much as I would like to. I had a good time in Madrid but it was colder there than in Portugal.

I found a return ticket from Bali to Darwin for 230 Eur and I stayed there only 3 days. Although I knew it was a very short time to visit Australia I wanted to visit it very much. My host showed me Darwin the first day and we visited a couchsurfer from Africa who lived there. I liked the beach in Darwin and Nightcliff but it wasn't possible to swim in the sea because of the jellyfish and saltwater crocodiles. 

It was the birthday of my host that day and in the evening he made a party where I met some of his friends. The following day he took me to the Litchfield national park where I swam in the waterfalls. 

We wanted to go to the river Adelaide to see jumping and diving crocodiles but we didn't make it on time. In the afternoon I visited Darwin by myself because my host was tired and in the evening I went to the Mindill sunset beach market. I met my host there and we went to meditate to the Nightcliff where he fell asleep. My last day in Australia I went to the Waterfront beach where I spent some hours in the wave lagoon jumping on waves but I got a bad sunburn even though I put a lot of sunscreen with a strong factor. In the evening I met a couchsurfer who was around 60 years old and he took me to the restaurant where I ordered a crocodile burger with chips. He took me to his home where I met his guests and then my host came to pick me up and we went to the house of the African couchsurfers where I slept some hours and then my host took me to the airport.

I arrived to Bali early in the morning. I took a mototaxi for 60 000 rupiah to my host in the south of Bali (he was a cousin of our host from Singaraja) and my friend Sarka arrived there in the afternoon. My host's brother-in-law took me to the beach on a motorbike but the sea was shallow and hot. There were many algues and it was not suitable for swimming. The next day we went to the temple Tanah Lot where we had a lunch and we went shopping to the market. I bought a lot of gifts that day.

Our flight to Seoul was late at night and we arrived there early in the morning. We had only 4 hours time between our flights so there wasn't enough time to visit the city, we just stayed at the airport where we had a lunch and we bought postcards. Then we got in the plane. 

 I was very tired and I fell asleep immediately, but I woke up several times when they served food and I ate a spicy octopus. When we arrived in Prague it was around 5pm and my mother picked us up at the airport and took us home. It was difficult for me to adapt to the time in Prague and I used to wake up early in the morning for a few weeks. 

The first day at Bali we went shopping because our luggage was going to arrive some days later and then we went to the beach in Kuta. The beach wasn't really suitable for swimming because there were big waves but there were a lot of surfers. We went to a restaurant where we ate Nasi Goreng. I left to Jakarta the next day and I met a couchsurfer Andry at the airport. We took a bus to the city center where we visited the Monument National but due to the terrible traffic jam in Jakarta it took us a long time to get there. Then we went to a shopping center where we met a couchsurfer Dita. I was supposed to stay with another couchsurfer Arie but he didn't live close to the city center so I stayed with Andry for one night. We visited Jakarta in the evening and drank yasmine tea which is typical for Indonesia. The next day Andry took me to the old city, we rode a motorbike and then we took a bus. It was very hot and sultry. I found out that Jakarta wasn't a nice city and definitely not worth visiting due to the traffic jam and pollution. We went to the shopping centre again where I ate durian fruit for the first time. I didn't find the smell bad and it was tasty. We met my second host Arie and had a dinner together. Then Andry had to leave and I had a drink with Arie and we went to his home. He had many dogs there but they didn't bark at me. We watched the movie Hellraiser and then I went to sleep. I was bitten by mosquitos many times at night but I had an eucalyptus oil which made it heal very fast. The following day Arie brought me to the airport and I took my flight back to Bali. I was sitting next to the window and I had a wonderful view on the volcanoes on Java island. I arrived to Bali in the evening and I took a taxi to Ubud where I met my friend Sarka. I didn't meet our host that evening because it was late but me and Sarka went for a walk and to internet cafe.

The following day we met two tour guides in the morning and we visited the rice terrace together and then we separated. My tour guide took me on the motorbike to the temple with the holy water where I had a bath, then we visited a coffee plantation and volcano. We had a lunch in a restaurant and then we went to the monkey forest. I was scared of the monkeys so I tried to avoid them. It was already twilight when we left the forest and we bought an avocado juice and we rode to the rice fields. I found the avocado juice in Indonesia quite disgusting and I thought I would never drink it again, but I changed my mind during my trip in Morocco. Then we went to a bar with Sarka and our host where we listened to music and we played pool. We got home late at night. The following day our host Vica from the north of Bali arrived to Ubud and took us to Singaraja by car. We passed the temple called Ulun Danu on the lake Bratan on our way where we took many photos. It was in the mountains so it was only 20°C there. Then we visited waterfalls in the jungle close to Singaraja and I took a bath there. We arrived to the beach  in Singaraja during the sunset and I swam in the sea, it was great and the water was warm. Vica took us to his family home where we stayed with a lot of his relatives. We had to wake up at 5am and we went to the temple for the Hindu ceremony. Vica lent us traditional clothes and we wore them during the ceremony. We stayed in Singaraja 3 days and we had a good time there, we visited a black Kerobokan beach where we drank coconut milk and ate Nasi. In the evening we used to go to the market where we drank fruit cocktails. I usually drank a cocktail which was a mix of papaya and jackfruit. I ate much tropical fruit in Indonesia and I enjoyed it very much. After staying in Singaraja our paths split again. Sarka went to the east of Bali to the city called Amed and I took a flight to Darwin in the north of Australia. 

Our travel to Bali started early in the morning and we almost missed our plane. We arrived at the airport in Prague at 5:30am and our flight was departing at 7am, but the airport was crowded and they checked us in only a few minutes before departure. We had to change a plane twice, firstly in Amsterdam and then in Seoul. When we arrived in Amsterdam we visited the city but we had only 5 hours time. Then we almost missed our flight again because we arrived to the gate the last minute. I had a cold and I started to lose my voice during the flight. There was a Korean man sitting next to me, telling me that he lived in Uruguay but he was going to meet his daughter at the Incheon airport. When we were talking I found out that I had difficulties to speak and when we arrived at the airport I couldn't talk anymore. We arrived there at 7am Korean time (in Prague it was midnight) and we had 11 hours stopover between our flights so we decided to visit the city. It was raining heavily because of the monsoon season so my friend Sarka suggested to buy raincoats and I bought vitamins in the pharmacy but it didn't help me regain my voice so I could only whisper. We took a subway to the Gyeongbokgung palace which took us hour and half to get there. We arranged a meeting with couchsurfers there. There were two guys from USA and one from Denmark and we visited the museum next to the palace and then we went to the restaurant called Inn Dae Won. The food was too spicy for me so I could eat only rice and a potatoe pancake.

Then we went back to the airport and I was very tired. As soon as we got into the plane I fell asleep and I was sleeping very hard. The stewardess couldn't wake me up when she was serving food. Our flight to Bali took around 7 hours and we arrived there after midnight. When we got there we found out that our luggage was forgotten in Prague. A taxi driver waited for us in front of the airport and took us to our host in the south of Bali. We ate papaya and water melon which he offered us and we went to sleep very late.

Now I am coming to the topic which feels awkward to talk about. I planned firstly to skip it over and write about my trip to Indonesia where I travelled last year in June but I have to talk about it because it was a significant turning point in my life. 

The decision to travel to Indonesia was taken last year in April when my friend Sarka who travelled there with me made a suggestion to visit this country. I was reluctant at first because I thought it was not a good idea to spend money on travelling while I was not able to find a job, but my mother agreed to pay my trip and we bought flight tickets. 

It was Easter at the end of April 2011 and I travelled to Slovakia with my mother to visit my family there. It was the last time when I met my father. While I was there he looked healthy and I didn't have any premonition that anything bad would happen soon. He arranged going to the hockey championship with his girlfriend who invited him there and at the beginning of May they went there. While the weather in April was relatively warm then it got much colder and it was almost freezing at the beginning of May. My father drank cold beer at the stadium and this was probably when he became ill. He went to see a doctor who sent him to X-Ray which revealed that my father had pneumonia and he was taken to the hospital around May 10th. I was in Prague at that time but I used to call my grandmother who told me at first that he was going to be fine and then she told me that it was very serious. However, my grandmother is a neurotic person in general that's why I wasn't worried about my father so much. When I speak about my grandmother I mean a maternal grandmother, my paternal one died n November 2009 after a long illness.

My grandmother went to the hospital to visit my father on Friday May 20th just 3 days before he died. She went there with my father's best friend and his son who took her there by car. They all had an impression that my father was doing well because he seemed very excited and talkative. 

On Tuesday 24th May the phone was ringing in the morning around 9am and it woke me up. My apparently agitated grandmother asked me if my mother was at home but was unwilling to tell me what happened. I didn't want to ask her questions because it was obvious that she didn't want to tell me. I called to my mother who told me that my father died. I was shocked but we had leave to Slovakia immediately to arrange the funeral there. My father's relatives from USA came too. The funeral was emotive and mainly the song Ave Maria made me cry a lot. After the funeral we went to a restaurant for a feast. 

I wasn't sure if I still wanted to travel to Indonesia after what happened but finally I decided to go there because I didn't want to make my friend disappointed. We left to Indonesia on June 28th. 

My last day in Israel I took a bus to Bethlehem which is very close to Jerusalem. We crossed Palestinian borders, nobody checked passports while we were going there but on the way back they did. I was travelling alone until a guy from the Ivory Coast noticed me in the bus and offered to show me the city. His name was Alya and he was 5 years younger than me. He played football in Israel. We met his friend Raad who was originally from Bethlehem and we visited the city and then we went to Raad's house for a lunch. Raad's family was Christian. His mother cooked grape leaves stuffed with rice and fish. I was wondering if his mother didn't mind that he brought a stranger to his house for the lunch but he said it was no problem.

I took a taxi to Solomon's Pools after the lunch. It was getting much colder that day and I didn't bring any warm clothes with me so I was frozen when I returned to Bethlehem. Some people who waited with me at the bus stop made me worried when they told me that the border crossing we were going to was only for the Israeli residents and there was a chance that they wouldn't let me cross, but fortunately I passed without any problem. When I returned to Jerusalem I went to a sushi restaurant with my host. The following day he accompanied me to the bus station and I took a bus to Eilat. The journey took 5 hours and we were travelling along the Dead sea. I had to take another bus to the Taba border and then I took a taxi which took me to my hotel in Nuweiba for 40 USD. I returned to Egypt on Thursday around 5pm and I quickly took a bath in the sea. I stayed in Egypt till Sunday and I spent the last days there just relaxing on the beach and walking around with two Jordanian guys who stayed in the same hotel as me. The weather was warm but windy. We took a bus late at night to the Taba airport and we arrived to Prague on Monday morning.