Hello guys I am writing back from my hometown in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. I have left London and lived in Linz, Austria for the last week for a culinary training in a cruise ship in Danube River.
It was a good experience and they even gave me a little diploma after finishing that training. Probably not worth much for future employment, but a nice thing to keep. I learned some stuff indeed as I had to cook different cuisines every day and that broadened my horizon quite a bit. As the cruise ship is going all around Europe from Amsterdam down to Bulgaria it offers different cuisines in the different countries.
Now I am back home after more than a year and it is a nice feeling. I have some time to spend with my friends and family and I even have some time to do nothing. Tell me what you want but having nothing to do sure feels nice every now and then. Especially after a very busy year with no holidays I definetely needed some proper time off.
Now I am waiting on the call from the cruise ship company to tell me what’s next. The a little bit annoying part is that these cruise ships depend on a lot of outside conditions. Depending on the volume of the river, the weather and whether the river is frozen at some parts or not is a little bit too much for my likings. It is a lot of unceirtanty and they cannot promise work to everyone as they don’t know how many ships are going to be sailing and when.
The one week paid training on the cruise ship was ceirtanly nice, but not been in control on when I am going to go is certainly not my cup of tea. That is why I have my plan of action – I am going to spend the next week to have more clarity over the departure date. After that I am going to take matter in my own hands – I am going to contact a friend of mine who is a recruiter for these companies and see how things are going staff-wise. If there is a position which suits me I am going to try and work one season on the sea.
In case there are no good positions available I am going to go back to the UK. The decision I am going to make though is would I go back in London or another city when I am currently inclined about something like Bristol or Reading. I have lived in North England, lived in London and I think it would be time to try South England and see how it is. I have heard a lot of good things about Bristol especially so even if I don’t go on one of those ships I am still pretty excited about my next move.
Whatever the future holds I like being in control and always have a plan and a backup plan in my hands.
That is my quick update about the latest part of my journey. Hope you had a good read and I am going to post more frequently now with more free time on my hands.
Wish you all the best and have a nice time.
The Coast of the Danube River in Linz