UNFOLDING A FAIRYTALE AND EAST EUROPEAN PARTIES (part2)

I didn´t get much sleep that night. Something inside of me said that I wasn´t really done with Zilina yet. I was supposed to take off the next afternoon, and continue with my Great Plan. The Great Plan is something I love to map out, but something I rarely ever follow up with. This was not an exception. When the apartment came to life again, I said:

“I don´t wanna leave yet.”

“So stay,” was all they said, and I decided to stay.
The same night most people from Enjoy family was going to watch a soccer match, and soccer isn´t exactly my favourite sport. To watch sport in general, is not one of my favorite things to do. Fodo teamed up with me, and we agreed to share a bottle of wine and entertain each other instead of being entertained by a screen.

Then the days flew by, with laughter, good vibes and positivity. We spent laid-back evenings at the office, took some trips to fairytale looking castles, enjoyed Slovak food and drinks. I decided to treat them for some Norwegian rice pudding, as a thank you gesture for letting me crash there. Everyone except Fodo admired the Norwegian dish; he poured a glass of chocolate powder over the rice pudding and mixed it together. I stuck to the old traditional way with butter, cinnamon and sugar spread on top.

The weekend was coming up again, and the big topic was the DJ from London that was going to kick the club to life; Crystal Roxx. 

A friendly couple from Bratislava, Ada and Robo, came to spend the weekend in Zilina, and Majlo assured me that both of them spoke English, so I wouldn´t feel like an outsider. The truth was that I never felt lonely when they were going on about things in Slovak language; I rather focused on how much I actually could be a part of things, in addition to add more words to my Slovak vocabulary. I understood that I had to learn, versus them converting their whole normal scenario for me.

“Ready for a surprise?” Majlo was standing in the doorway with the car keys in his hand. He had mentioned the previous evening that he had a mission for me. We got in to the car and drove off to Enjoyclub. A bigger car was waiting for us there, with speakers attached to the roof. He gave me a green flag. I was familiar with the flag; he had been waiving with in on the dance floor we met during Uprising all night. Over the entire flag the word Enjoyclub was printed.

“We´re going on a little promotion drive,” he smiled.

The car took off with me and Majlo, beats from Crystal Roxx and the green flag out the window, supported by my hand. We drove through the narrow streets of Zilina and communist-like compounds, and felt the rising of the night coming in.

When Crystal Roxx got on stage and started to share her energy filled rhythms to the crowded dance floor, everyone went crazy. We were standing above the DJ stage on the VIP area, and I looked around me. Fodo was jumping up and down like he wanted to touch the sky; me and Ada were shaking it with huge smiles; Lemo was as usual on the chase to find a girl to fall in love with; Majlo was finding the groove with the best dancers of the club; Lado was moving around and up and down of happiness; and Robo kept on attempting to tell me a story about Slovak people and cabbage over the extremely loud music. We were standing on top of it all, and got to breathe in the entire setting.

The DJ had such a good time that she kept on playing one and a half hour longer than she was supposed to, and the entire dance floor were living up to her beats like tomorrow would never come.

I had been told that the best way to wrap up a night at Enjoyclub is on the street outside the entrance gate – inbetween the club itself and the biggest church in Zilina. When the music faded to silence this Saturday morning, we found ourselves on the stairs leading to the church in a large group of people that wasn´t entirely ready to go home yet. Some elder catholic people was already on their way to church, and we definitely created a huge contrast with our drunk smiles and loud conversations compared to  their peaceful morning walk.

Another weekend was gone, filled with adventures and enjoyment. I told Majlo that I was planning to continue my journey before the next weekend was coming up.

“Okay. Friday could be a good day to leave. On Wednesday we´ll take you to Banska Bystrica, for a last Goodbye-Marthey-Partey”, he replied with a big smile on his face.

They whole gang planned out a trip to Ministry of Fun, the largest nightclub in Slovakia. It was a two hour drive to get there, and we took off with two full cars from Zilina.

It was THE best nightclub I had ever been to. The dance floor was half the size of a soccer field, and the VIP lounge was a wide and long balcony going across the entire back of the big room. The lights were rapidly changing colors and shapes, and they were everywhere. We were bending over the balcony and felt the energy rising from the completely full dance floor downstairs, and moved out bodies like maniacs to leave all stress behind in the company of loud Eastern-European house music. The beats were streaming through our bodies until the lights went out around six in the morning, and we slowly found our way inbetween narrow streets in a sleeping city. We had a coffee at a 24 hour open casino, to manage to keep the energy a little bit longer – we had a full drive back to Zilina in front of us.

Before we parted ways in to the two cars and set off in the morning fog, I kissed each and every single one of them a friendly kiss to thank them for two awesome weeks. Enjoyfamily. They sure knew how to give other people a good time; how to enjoy life.

NORSK/NORWEGIAN:

Jeg sov dårlig den natta. Noe inni meg sa at jeg ville bli i Žilina lenger. Jeg skulle dra neste formiddag, og følge den store Planen min. Planen er noe jeg elsker å lage, men sjelden følger. Dette ble ikke noe unntak. På morgenen sa jeg:
"I don't wanna leave yet."
"So stay." fikk jeg i svar. 
Den samme kvelden skulle de fleste i Enjoy family se på fotballkamp, og fotball er ikke akkurat min favorittsport. Egentlig er ikke det å se på sport generelt noe jeg syns er underholdende. Foďo spilte på mitt lag, og vi ble enige om å dele en flaske vin og underholde hverandre i stedet.

De neste dagene raste forbi, med latter, glede og positivitet. Vi hadde humørfylte kvelder på kontoret, turer til diverse eventyrlige festninger, koste oss med god mat og drikke. Jeg

bestemte meg for å varte gjengen opp med grøt, som en takk for at jeg fikk kræsje der. Den norske retten falt i smak hos alle unntatt Foďo; han hev ett helt melkeglass sjokoladepulver over grøten og  rørte det sammen. Jeg holdt meg til den gode gamle varianten med kanel, sukker og smør. 

Helgen var om hjørnet, og det store samtaleemne var DJen fra London som skulle spille på Enjoy club fredags kveld. Crystal Roxx. Ett hyggelig kjærestepar fra Bratislava, Ada og Robo, kom for å overnatte hele helgen, og Majlo forsikret meg om at de snakket engelsk, så jeg kom ikke til å føle meg like ensom. Sannheten var den at jeg følte meg aldri ensom selv om mesteparten foregikk på slovakisk; jeg fokuserte heller på hvor mye jeg fikk ta del i, samt å plukke opp ord fra språket deres her og der. Jeg forsto at jeg måtte lære; versus å forvente at alle skulle bøye seg etter meg.

"Ready for a surprise?" Majlo sto I døråpningen med bilnøklene i hånda. Han hadde fortalt meg kvelden i forveien at han hadde ett oppdrag til meg. Vi hev oss i bilen og satte kursen mot Enjoy club. Der ventet en større bil med høyttalere festet til taket. Han rakte meg ett grønt flagg. Jeg kjente godt til flagget; Majlo hadde stått inni folkemengden under Uprising med det samme flagget den natten vi møttes. Over hele flagget var ordet Enjoyclub printet. 
"We're going on a little promotion drive," gliste han. 
Vi kjørte avgårde med Head Kandi på full guffe, og jeg holdt flagget stødig ut vinduet. Mens vi passerte Žilinas trange gater og kommunistiske boligblokker, ladet vi opp til kvelden.

Da Head Kandi kom på scenen under oss og spredte den energiske rytmen sin til folkene på gulvet, gikk alle berserk. Vi sto ovenfor DJ scenen på et VIP område, og Foďo hoppet opp og ned som aldri før; jeg og Ada danset med glis rundt munnen, Lemo var som vanlig på jakt etter noen å forelske seg I, Majlo fant grooven med de beste danserne på klubben, Laďo vimset rundt og hoppet nesten I taket av glede, og Robo prøvde å fortelle meg en historie om slovakere og kål over den høyt pumpende musikken. Vi sto på toppen av alt som skjedde, og pustet inn hele omgivelsen under oss. DJen hadde det så gøy at hun spilte halvannen time lenger enn hun fikk betalt for, og hele dansegulvet gikk amok til rytmene hun lekte seg med.

Jeg hadde blitt fortalt at den beste måten å runde av en natt på Enjoyclub er på gata utenfor – midt mellom klubben selv og Zilinas største kirke. Da musikken døde denne lørdags morgenen, satt vi en hel gjeng ved kirketrappen og pustet inn det siste mørket før soloppgang. Noen eldre katolikker begynte å bevege seg mot kirken, og vi utgjorde en stor kontrast som satt sørpefulle og fnisete foran dem.

Etter nok en eventyrlig helg fortalte jeg Majlo at jeg måtte begynne å tenke på og komme meg avgårde, helst før den kommende helgen.

“Okay. Friday could be a good day to leave. On Wednesday we´ll take you to Banska Bystrica, for a last Goodbye-Marthey-Partey,” spøkte han.

De planla en tur til Ministry of Fun, Slovakias største nattklubb. Det tok omtrent to timer å kjøre dit fra Zilina, og vi suste avgårde med to fulle biler.

Det var den beste nattklubben jeg noensinne har vært på. Dansegulvet var halvparten av en fotballbane, og VIP loungen strakk seg rundt lokalet som en balkong. Lysene var overalt, I alle slags farger og fasonger. Vi sto lent over balkongen og følte energien fra det stappfulle dansegulvet nedenfor, og ristet alt stress av oss til øst-Europeisk house musikk. Rytmene levde inni oss frem til lysene stoppet rundt klokka seks, og vi sjanglet oss gjennom den fredelige byen og inn på ett 24 timers åpent casino; en kaffe passet bra etter den lange natten.

Før laget skilte seg inn i to biler for å sette kursen mot Zilina i morgendisen, kysset jeg alle vennskapelig og takket dem for de to ukene jeg hadde surret rundt dem. Enjoyfamily. De visste absolutt hvordan de skulle få noen til å føle seg levende.

An empty Enjoyclub after business hours.