One-day trip to Luxembourg

So I'm back to my one-day trip to Luxembourg and what can I say, the thoughts and impressions are positive.

I landed in Lux. mid morning and took a bus to town. Bus no 16 to be exact. The bus stop is right in front of the airport, so that's very handy. As I was sitting in the bus, driving to town, I couldn't but notice how similar the landscape is to Estonia. The same trees, lots of pines, even the sky looked the same. I noticed some bright yellow advertisements attached to lamp-posts and to my great delight they read: Antiques fair! Yippeee!!! As Kristjan noted later, smirking: If they do antiques fairs there, the chances of you saving to buy a car are pretty slim :))) I think he knows me too well .....

My friend and colleague U met me at the bus stop near the office to give me the key, and you know, people, she looked really happy to see me. That further elevated my mood which wasn't too bad to begin with. 

It was raining, a soft drizzle, so I thought I'd go and take care of business first and then head to U's and chill out there. 

The bus took me to the railway station where all buses have their last stop. Right next to the railway station is the street with my apartment hotel. First of all, I didn't see the hotel at all because it didn't have a sign and the door was closed. After looking around and trying to figure out my next step, I saw a lady peeking out of the door and what do you know? It was the same lady, the owner of the hotel I had spoken to earlier on the phone. She let me in and we talked business. The hotel is really like an apartment building, it has no reception or anything of the sort, just a hall with post boxes, an elevator and stairs. People rent rooms there on a monthly basis but to all other intents and purposes, it's just a house of furnished studio flats. 

The feature that makes it so attractive - and popular! - is probably the low rent of the rooms. The location is good too, right smack in the middle of everything. And what's more, it's a new hotel, just 3 years. Meaning, it hasn't gone too shabby ... yet. The lady said that the people staying there mostly work for the EU institutions, and there's even one man from Estonia! 

I left the hotel happy, with a contract in my pocket and my heart light. It had been a real issue ... I mean, one needs a place where to stay! I just can't be expected to camp out under a tree (as we say here in Estonia). So that's settled now. No more looking at apartment ads until I'm there. Then I'll take it easy for some time, wait for the money to come in and then start looking for a real place of my own. 

Oh, and the best part is that I'll have internet immediately. I only have to plug my computer in and here I am ... connected to all my near and dear ones, not excluding my virtual family here at Multiply. 

Later when U and A (she's a trainee at the translation centre who stays with U) came from work it turned out that they had a little party planned. Agnes, who's a culinary genius, whipped up a dinner of oven potatoes, pork chops and salad. They had invited another colleague, K, whom I also know for 10 years from my last workplace. 

Actually, it's rather remarkable. Let me tell you how they all happened to be there, in Luxembourg. In 1997 I took a job at a new office called the Estonian Legal Translation Center. My father had just died and I realised that I would need something more substantial for a job than just translating freelance. Incidentally, the center was in the same building as my father's institute had been. And just a street away from the school where I had studied as a child. And my next workplace, the Ministry of Justice, is in the same street. Almost a half of the people working at the translation center were former schoolmates ... I mean, it's almost obvious we are looking at a soul group here.

So when Estonia joined the EU, the translation center was closed as its task - to prepare the EU legislation - was completed. The majority of the translators (with the exception of U, P, S and myself) immediately moved to either Brussels or Luxembourg. S and I went on to work for the Ministry of Justice. U soon came to second thoughts and also moved to Luxembourg. So did P. This summer, S - who had always scoffed at the very idea of moving out of the country - suddenly announced that she was going after all. What a surprise that was! 

And now, yours truly, the last of the Mohawks, is joining them as well. Karma, that's all I can say. I have tried to evade it long enough but now ... I have decided to embrace it. Be it karma, but I'll make dharma out of it. Get it? Lemons - lemonade! 

But seems it's not a matter of lemons, or if they are lemons, then they are sweet lemons. The people working there have, time and again, written me to tell that I should really lug my arse over there as they are having so much fun. The last time when I was there and we met with 2 other former colleagues and schoolmates for dinner, I again got the impression that they are deeply contented with their lives there. M and E are down-to-earth women, maybe not exactly the same type as myself, so there may have been some doubt left whether I would share their experience. 

But the woman who came to dinner at U's, K ... she's such a complete sweetheart, a bit melancholy, poetic, vulnerable and if she's loving the life there, then I guess it must be to my taste as well. We had a good talk and I had such a positive impression from what I heard and how I perceived her to be that now I can say that I'm convinced that it'll be all right. And, I hope, even more than all right. 

We talked and laughed late into the night ... and consumed considerable amounts of alcohol. But it was great. It was a very mellow, relaxed night. Perfect for easing all my doubts and fears!

So I'm back and the jitters are gone. I'm now looking forward to my adventure.

Oh! And I forgot: we are going to Scotland in autumn, U, K and I. We were there twice during the time we worked for the translation center and it stayed in our heart. And we never got to go to the islands ... so now we plan to do that. As well as take lessons of the Letzeburgisch (that's the language of Luxembourg) in town. A good plan of action, don't you think?