I have decided to learn the Cyrillic alphabet

I really hope that I will able to travel in the end of this year. Right now we are just struggling to pay the monthly bills and there is absolutely no money for travelling, but if I manage to get an extra job, I think that I might be able to travel in October. At least I hope so In Ukraine and Moldova they use the Cyrillic alphabet and my country uses the Latin alphabet. I would like to learn the Cytillic alphabet before I leave for Ukraine and Moldova because that would make it much easier to read the signs and use public transportation.

I really hope that I will be able to travel this year, but I am not sure yet. We spent a lot of money on the trip to Asia and at the moment we don't have any money to spend on travelling. I hope that I can get an extra job in June, July and August. If I earn extra money during the summer months I think that that we might be able to travel in October or November. I guess I will have to wait and see, because it is depends on the money that I am able to earn during the summer. I would love to hear about your trip when you return from Ukraine and Moldova I have learned French and Italian, but I don't speak Spanish at all. I would like to learn basic Spanish before we visit South America and Central America. Like you I came across the Cyrillic alphabet in Bulgaria. It was quite hard to walk around in Sofia. I had a map but the names on my map were written in the Latin alphabet and the names on the street signs were written in the Cyrillic alphabet so I wasn't able to use the map.

I loved hearing about your trip to Asia. I know the flight there was pricey and I hope it was fairly cheap once there. Good luck to you getting an extra summer job. I think October would be an excellent time for travel to the Ukraine and Moldova for you. I felt far more at home in Romania due to the language barrier, misunderstandings and getting lost in Bulgaria. I have come across similar problems with a map. In Estonia out of the city none of the streets had names. I was desperate to find the guest house and with some luck a local lady helped me and my son find it.

Yes, it the flight between Europe and Asia was expensive, but fortunately the accomodation, the food and the local transportation wasn't that expensive compared to my own country. We could buy food for a few dollars, and that definately isn't possible in my own country. I hope that I will be able to earn some extra money this year and get the chance to travel in October, that would be fantastic. I felt the same way when I was in Romania. I visited Bulgaria first and when I arrived in Romania it was a big relief to able to read the signs and use a map. I liked Bulgaria, but because of the different alphabet it was a challenge to walk around in Sofia. It is interesting that we also had the same experience in Estonia. I simply couldn't find the hostel where I had a reservation. At one point I thought that I had found it, but then I discovered that it was a school and not a hostel. I asked one of the teachers if he knew where the hostel was. He was very friendly and he helped me find the hostel.

I think that it is important to speak English if we want to travel. One of my friends only speaks Danish and he doesn't want to travel indepedently because he wouldn't be able to talk to the staff at the hotels, the waiters in the restaurant, the taxi drivers etc. At some places few locals speak English and sometimes we experience language problems even if we speak English, but I still think that it is important to speak English because without English you don't even have the chance to communite with the locals.

Yes, you're right. So, I'm effort to learn it as much as possible. I'll feel alone and lack of confidence if I don't know English.

The Korean alphabet looks very complicated to me, but I have never really tried to learn it. I like to watch Korean movies, and I am member of a movie club from my country. They have some movies from Korea, but there are relatively few movies to choose from. I have never really tried to download movies because my bad internet connection, but I would love to watch other Korean movies in the future. I have started learning the cyrillic alphabet because I think that it would be useful for me in the future when I am going to visit countries where the signs etc are written in the cyrillic alphabet. It is not especially easy, but I hope that I will manage to learn it.

A book where you can practive the different letters sounds like a good idea. It reminds me of the writing books we had in elementary school when we had to learn the Latin letters that we use in my local language. Today I just write, but at that time it was a challenge to learn each letter. Now I feel like I am learning to read and write again and I have decided to practice every day and learn a couple of letters per day. I have never tried to learn Greek, it looks difficult to me, but I guess I feel that way because I have never tried to learn it. When I was in a Thessaloniki I wished that I had been able to read Greek because I wasn't able to read any of the signs and I often got lost.

I was in Greece both before and after learning the alphabet. It was such a different feeling, even if I didn't knew more than a very basic Greek. Like I was from inside, more than just a tourist.