There’s a magnificent city near Zurich, okay Zurich itself is also very beautiful, but Lucerne is just a non describe available city. If you ever imagined the very first impression of Switzerland, that must be Lucerne, I’m pretty sure of it.
24th, October, 2013
I finally made my decision. I’m not going to Hamburg nor Czech republic, I’m heading to Zurich where I can meet my one of oldest friends, Verena. She and I have known a long time, approximately 5 years or even longer. We used to study in a spanish class in Malaga, it was a pretty short time and our spanish was completely limited, nevertheless being in there and studying in Malaga was brilliant.
I always knew Switzerland is a very expensive country when it comes to traveling through trains, eating out and dwelling expense, but not like this. Once I arrived in Basel and heading to Zurich right away, I was asked to pay almost 40-45 euros for a train transfer. Wow, unbelievable. It didn’t even take too long if I remember it right.
But good thing is that I’m going to meet her and spend a couple of days in her outstanding apartment. Running into old friends is always worth, no doubts.
As hard as it sounds, being left alone without wifi in Zurich central station was a source of anxiety. It was definitely my bad, I could have checked my e-mail or facebook account before my arrival. Okay, I have no choice. I asked to a local girl just next to me and luckily she let me use her phone and contact Verena.
And finally we made it. I can’t even describe how I felt like. I think it was kind of an accidental encounter, or something like that, I never expected to meet somebody I met in Spain in another countries, especially not in Switzerland.
Verena : Hello! Welcome to Zurich!
Me : Hello, Verena. It is nice but weird to see you here.
She immediately took me to her university where she’s adapting to. It was incredible how beautiful the campus is, so envious of the students studying and having a fun live over there. But she told me some unamusing ones too, like swiss people don’t really welcome germans just like the treatment turkish get in Germany, more or less, that made it harder for her to get a good apartment and then it took a while, she felt thankful for her current apartment, which is really a friendly student one.
Unfortunately Verena was working as a bar girl for Octoberfest and couldn’t adjust as much time as she wanted to. I get it, studying and working ass off is definitely a rough one, so that I just tried to explore by myself and spend some times with her and with her flat mates and also her family when they visited her.
Zurich was awesome, very clean, friendly people, well organized municipal administration and brilliant weather as well. I got a bit depressed by Berlin’s glooming weather, but apparently Zurich really liked me and wanted to welcome me according to Verena, just the week before I got there, it was raining all the time. 😀 Lucky!!
Not many people notice that Zurich is not Switzerland’s capital. Bern is. But Zurich is definitely the economic capital.
I love Zurich’s old town.
One other day, I made it to a flea market outside of the city with my friend Arno.
Oh, he is my another swiss friend who’s an expert of asian culture and languages. He visited Seoul in 2009 and lived in Japan for a pretty long time.
Me and Arno.
Cool to be here in Zurich.
Its awesome night view.
People waiting for iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C.
Verena got an 5S shortly thereafter.
My favorite pic.
Gosh, have you ever spent your birthday abroad with your friends? It’s pretty amazing, I strongly recommend it. I still feel so much thankful for making it so special. Being 23 in Zurich was awesome, not too old yet I hope.
@ My 23rd b-day party, not really a party but whatever.
Verena and her amazing friends celebrated my b-day. How do I describe this feeling? so amazing, great and thankful.
Verena, Julian from Berlin, Michael, Christian, Adina, Simon and some others that aren’t in the pic.
Some days later, Verena’s parents visited their daughter. Where they live in Germany isn’t really too far from Zurich, I think that’s why they visit her frequently. And they’re really nice people, warm, caring and generous. I really lucked out to be invited to their lunch and family gather. Her dad, Wilheim, mother Eva, Verena and I had lunch in the very center of Zurich.
Verena and Eva getting ready to eat 🙂
Never imagined eating such luxury food in Zurich.
So thankful for this.
While having lunch, we had a bunch of funny conversations that just crossed my mind, like the name of Hitler’s woman and how her surname got changed, the joy of drinking a beer while watching some interesting football games (not dumb or lame ones). Verena’s father, Wilheim is such a big fan of football, so he knows everything about football.
So happy to meet and get to know them.
Sorry guys for having been lazy somehow…As the autumn approached, I got a bit busy, had no time to write. But now I have a plenty of free times to write my thoughts.
Leipzig & Dresden
Leipzig is not so touristic at all, rather peaceful and a student friendly city I’d say. It’s only 2 hours away from Berlin, quite easy to get there and explore. I think it’s sufficient to explore the city within 2 days, or even one day if you move quickly.
Dresden on the other hand…a bit different, it’s way more beautiful than Leipzig and as it’s only an hour away from the czech border a big amount of tourists come by and explore the city. Someone described the city as “Germany’s venice” and I kinda agree with that.
What do I know about Leipzig?
1.Vietnamese immigrants – Germany is getting fuller of immigrants, erasmus students. Since Leipzig used to belong to East Germany and Vietnam was one of the brethren nations, so many immigrants came and still living there. I had vietnamese cuisine as soon as arriving in Leipzig station. Quite yummy and cheap.
2.The university – The german chancellor, Angela Merkel studied in the university of Leipzig, nevertheless not so many people know about this fact. And this university is fabulous, a perfect place to study I’d say.
3.World cup – I’m pretty sure all of you know that Germany was the world cup 2006 host, and surprisingly Leipzig was the only host city from east germany, not Dresden, but Leipzig.
Leipzig is worthy visiting.
My stay in Dresden wasn’t as fun as I expected it to be, I had a nightmare and got depressed all of a sudden, well, nightmares do that to me, they don’t happen frequently, but whenever happen I tend to suffer for a long time.
I think it explains everything.
Beautiful Dresden.
Guten tag, alles gut? Hey, I’m back. So overall I stayed in Europe’s most fantabulous capital for 3 weeks, way longer than what I expected. Traveling is more fun when there are no plans. And I met a lot of nice friends over there, I think my decision staying in Berlin for long was just because of my friends.
These are my guys. Aida on the left, a very energetic girl from Barcelona. Rasmus on the right, my beloved swedish. We had so much fun together talking, watching films, drinking out and sharing our thoughts about everything.
I think my first conversation with this friendly barcelonian girl was so funny, well, first encounters are inevitably awkward, I know it.
Aida – Hallo! Alles gut? (She thought I was able to speak german)
Me – Hola, que tal?
Aida – Wow, hablas español? genial!
And then we kept talking like for 20 minutes for nonstop, Rasmus never knew I speak spanish and it gave him another new impression of me, that’s what he told me at least.
Rasmus was doing his erasmus year in Berlin, in Europe studying abroad is a lot easier than here, they have a bunch of programs and many students want to explore many different countries. He studies international relations and languages, very smart guy with deeper knowledge, just like every swede I met before. Aida on the other hand was looking for a proper job in Berlin as it was quite formidable in Spain due to their economic crisis. So we were three of us, always drinking out, talking and sometimes making fun of each other. I miss those old times, really.
One day we went out for a drink near our flat which was their favorite. The barman was just incredible, so friendly and I totally loved his jokes.
The barman – It seems like all of you are not germans, where are you from?
(He started speaking german first of all, but it didn’t take a second to notice none of us were local berliners)
Aida – Ich komme aus Spanien, Rasmus aus Schweden, Julian aus Südkorea.
(Pity that I was always the only one not being able to speak decent german)
He checked Rasmus’s ID and then he made kind of funny nicknames for us.
The barman – You’re maria, because you are from Spain. You’re Magnusson (It really is Rasmus’s real surname, he thinks it’s sort of a family name from a fairy tale story.) And you’re Kim. (I really did giggle, well, I don’t like when these things happen to me in general, but it was soooo hilarious, remember who’s up there in North Korea and his family name. This barman thinks all koreans are Kim :D)
We made some interesting discussions about North Korea, so shameful that I had no idea about it, at least not as much as my friend expected, I think for europeans, North Korea is like a mysterious country, guys, you may always visit there, that’s a better way of exploring the world.
Berlin itself was so much awesome, but to me what counts is my friends. My stay never would have been fun without them, I don’t even want to imagine of being alone without these guys.
Watching Grey’s Anatomy with R.
“3:30 AM, still watching it, thank god we are still on vacation. I hope it never ends up.”
* According to my facebook *
Drinking out @Alexanderplatz.
Party
Partying is one part of European culture, well, actually the whole western culture, but partying in Berlin is more special, best of all drinking out is a lot cheaper than any other capitals, also great quality. Rasmus took me to kind of a party, well, not really like a crazy drinking party, more like “a chilling one.” I still feel thankful to him for taking me to this party, because the people out there were simply amazing. Very nice guys, a hugeeeeeeee pity that I didn’t speak german, so everyone else had to speak english at least for a while, well, we shared our thoughts, drunk a lot, smoked a lot… that’s what matters though.
Most of them were erasmus students, otherwise workers. German, Italian, Swedish, French, Belgian, English, Spanish and some others, very international I’d say. Great music, Vodkas, Wines, Beers, Whiskies and everything.
Money’s blown
Heartbreaking but I think it’s worth talking about. One other day Rasmus, Aida and I were heading to Alexanderplatz for a drink, if I remember it right, it was the day before my small trip to Leipzig and Dresden, we felt kind of exhausted, technically not me, but them, Rasmus from studying and some annoying document stuff, Aida from working and her crazy italian female boss, I was the only one with full of energy. Okay this is what happened to us. As I mentioned in one of previous posts, you always need to purchase a ticket in Berlin metro, they don’t ALWAYS check your ticket, but you may get caught by chance, so we never ever know if it’s our day or not. And guess what, we just got asked our tickets and had to pay bloody 40 euros for fines 😦 It was our fault not buying a ticket, we definitely must have purchased one, then it would have ended up with paying only minimum 1.5 to maximum 2.5 euros, but 40 euros! Seriously, we always got tickets every time before this and never had been asked… Jeez, we could drink a lot of beers with that cash. Well okay, money’s already blown, let’s live our life. That’s what we did, we were of course pissed off and angry for a while, but after some minutes we just got back to our normal condition.
I don’t think they would like these pics, but 😀
I wouldn’t want to imagine not being friends with you guys.
Rasmus drinking a green berliner kindl.
Eating out. Our favourite restaurant was only 10 mins away from our flat. Very nice one, I’d like to back to this place one day when I’m back in Berlin.
A typical “I’m in Berlin” photo 😀
Guys, Berlin is amazing, it’s much more than whatever you imagine. Awesome night views, outstanding city organization, worthy historical places, actually it’s brimful of interesting museums. As a history geek, I’d probably portrait as definitely one of the best cities in the world.
Europe’s most beautiful capital
Yes, this is what I think. I went to a load of european capitals and obviously hard which cities I liked the most, but Berlin has got a load of attractive aspects for a traveler like me, the city’s prices as well, I went to Munich, Stuttgart, Heidelberg and Cologne some years go before Berlin, and all those cities were so much costly, not a big surprise though, residing in southen germany requires you a lot of money, much more than Berlin.
A couple of interesting things regarding this city.
Döner – It’s actually kind of a Kebab, probably a german styled one. Very cheap and nice and easy to eat. Kebabs are very well loved and eaten in whole europe, but is loved exceptionally well in Berlin. Some people express Berlin as ‘The place of Döner’.
Crazy metro – Probably one of the hugest metros on the planet. I felt lost whenever I used it, totally. Even some berliners don’t know the right directions 😀 But very convenient, it runs 24 hours in all weekends, that makes Berlin’s nightlife much more fun. Be aware that it’s a free ride, but obviously we all need to buy a ticket. Checkers run quite frequently in the metro and if you get caught, 40 euros must be given as fines. Unfortunately I experienced that 😀 It hurt my ass so much but I learned how to be a better citizen.
International and multiracial – Definitely berlin is the biggest city in Germany and a lot of foreign nations living there, studying there and working there. Turkish make up the largest number of foreign nations in Germany, not only in Berlin, the whole german cities. I don’t think many people know this fact though, Berlin is as big as Paris, not a common knowledge but that’s what it is. Berlin is so multicultural, so its atmosphere may become as you wish, one day you want some turkish food, go to Kreuzberg which is like a small turkey being full of turkish restaurants, salons, markets and everything. You shall see more turkish people than germans.
Art everywhere – Not a common knowledge, but I felt this way. A lot of young talented artists working and expanding their talents in Berlin, especially near to Berlin east side gallery, probably one of the most loved places by tourists in Berlin.
Two different views – It’s easy to say and understand, if you go to the east part of Berlin, you may imagine how the atmosphere it used to be before the german unification. Alexanderplatz, for example belongs to east germany.
Berliner kindl – Every province in Germany has got its own distinctive local beers, Frankfurt with Apfelwein and Cologne with Kölsch. Berlin has some too, my favorite among all of them is definitely Berliner kindl, cheap and very tasty.
Terrible weather – Not only in Berlin, but probably the whole of Germany. Germans spend their summer vacation in warmer countries for some reason. One of my oldest friends from Berlin Klara had warned me about Berlin’s awful weather, but weathers don’t really matter to me, I mean not everything can be set as I want it to be.
Great nightlife – I’m not a club addict and I never want to be, but I know this one very well. Berlin is very well known for its amazing nightlife. A big number of famous DJs worldwide come to Berlin every year and every month. Berlin metro runs 24 hours in whole weekends for some reason.
Brandenburg Gate, the symbol of german unification. Full of tourists all the time.
Mengenlehreuhr (Set Theory Clock). Also quite famous.
A dark night in Berlin. The later, the more people.
A selfie @ Rasmus.
Berliner Döner. There are a looooooooooooooooot of great turkish restaurants in Berlin.
Rasmus and I went out every single night for a plate of chicken.
Holocaust-Mahnmal (Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe)
Visiting Auschwitz museum couldn’t serve to gratify my curiosity regarding jewish people.
Berlin’s jewish museum was awesome, full of interesting things.
For those who are eager to visit this place :
Jüdisches Museum Berlin
Lindenstraße 9-14, 10969 Berlin
http://www.jmberlin.de/main/EN/homepage-EN.php
East side gallery – my biggest favourite place in Berlin.
Evening out with Rasmus.
@ Alexanderplatz (Apparently we went to this place A LOT!)
I barely smoke, but…
Hi guys! Sorry for making you wait for yonks, not so sure how many of you have been reading my blog though, well, numbers don’t matter, what matters is that you guys enjoy reading my posts as much as I enjoy writing.
3rd, October, 2013
Life is a bitch sometimes, very very bitchy, especially some unexpected moments come out all of a sudden, unfortunately I had to face a very difficult situation upon leaving Dariusz’s flat. Here I spill.
I booked a train ticket departing from Gdansk central station to Berlin Hauptbahnhof even two days before and I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be late or whatever as I organized everything beforehand. But thanks to the local Gdansk bus that came late, I had to miss my train. It was no one’s fault, but the blinking bus driver’s. I felt so sorry for myself, Dariusz and also my friend Rasmus who had to bother himself waiting for me. To be frank I was more like pissed off than worried as I noticed planning a trip in advance doesn’t really work often.
Me – Dzien dobry, I just missed my train heading for Berlin. What can I do?
The lady in the station – Dzien dobry, I’m sorry that you missed the train. If you want to go to Germany, you could take a bus from Szczecin.
Me – Excuse me? I don’t want to use a bus, but a train. Let me reserve the same train please.
The lady in the station – I’m afraid there’s no train like that anymore unless you stay here and wait until the day after tomorrow. But we have some alternatives.
Me – Okay, what is it?
Hell, The only train I could get on goes to Szczecin first and then I will have to transfer to another train that goes to Berlin Ostbahnhof, I was totally okay with this, I mean I’m always used to getting into hot water rather than being a luxury tourist. But well, paying another train fare really distressed me.
And I met a very old polish lady on the train. Her english was limited as expected, I mean in Poland english is kind of a new language just like Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. German is better used over there, maybe also Russian. The lady spoke to me in german all the time, I barely understood and I expressed I don’t speak nor understand german but she just kept talking, ma’am, please stop, I can’t even dream of speaking german just like you.
Being left alone on the train for 5 hours could make you dope off, seriously, I thought I could handle it, but after all those exhausting situations I got extremely stressed and worn out. No wifi, no books, no people to talk to. I was just like “Get me in Berlin, just get me, I have no more wishes.”
As soon as arriving in Szczecin station, I had to dash as if being a marathoner, well, leastwise it worked. I was so freaking frightened since my next train leaves only 10 mins later after getting in the station. Probably god wanted to help me out. Berlin, why are you so difficult? :p No other cities were this hard to get in! Probably you don’t like me at all? I don’t know.
Polish lady – Guten tag! blablablabla. (She spoke in german and of course I didn’t understand a word.)
Me – Sorry, I don’t speak german.
Polish lady – Okay, we are three of us and Ich habe ein ticket and if you want, you may join us, so that we will pay less.
Apparently she mixed up everything she could. German with easy english words, english with basic german words, englman or gerglish or whatever you call it. If my memory doesn’t fail me, her name was Karolina, a polish woman working in Dresden, Germany. She told me that she visits her hometown quite often. Germany and Poland are geographically close, for instance it takes only an hour from Szczecin to Berlin.
I started to feel awkward, I mean I already visited Germany for two times before but never managed to go to its capital Berlin, I don’t really know why, maybe due to its location.
Berlin Ostbahnhof
Finally, after a 8 hour of waiting, I got in Berlin Ostbahnhof. It’s a big station, much much bigger than Gdansk’s, not even comparable I guess. That left me in a small quandary since I was without wifi and had to find my friend, Rasmus. I think it took like 20 mins at least, this smart guy found me in the platform, no idea how, he said he just got a feeling that I might be there. I like this guy for some reason 😀
Hallo Berlin ❤ It’s only an hour away, but the atmosphere is completely different Poland’s.
Life is full of mystery and new adventure, I’ve always been aware of this fact, even that time, but I never thought I would stay in this beautiful capital for a couple of weeks, I’m not a good planner, particularly when it comes to traveling around, but A COUPLE OF WEEKS, not A FEW DAYS! Please wait me until next time, I will tell you everything about my berlin adventure, it’s definitely worth looking forward!
Next step! Gdansk, It was actually a last minute decision as well, I was almost going to Wroclaw, another beautiful city in the south, but somehow a couple of unexpected things just had captivated my eyes.
Gdansk? Danzig?
Germans probably don’t easily recognize the name of the city since it’s “Danzig” in German, but in Polish, which is more important is “Gdansk”. Sorry for my ignorance guys, I wasn’t aware of that it’s also geographically close to Kaliningrad.
Night bus
I’m not a big fan of traveling in the night bus, well, no other choices, cheap, fast and convenient “Polski bus” accompanied me once again. Can you even imagine? 11 hours, Poland is a huge country, actually a lot huger than your imagination. Not to wonder though, Krakow is very near by the czech border on the contrary, Gdansk close to german border, technically more like to Szczecin. Well, as the final outcome it was awesome being on the bus although there were some old guys snoring as if the world getting closer to an end, obviously not their fault nevertheless, I don’t even notice whenever I snore, it just shows how much we human beings get tired sometimes.
Dariusz
I have a very old friend from Gdansk, actually one of the oldest ones of mine. Dariusz, Darek as his nick. Polish names have nicks for close friends and are obviously easier to pronounce and remember. Let’s have a look what I know 🙂
Dariusz – Darek (I don’t know why it’s Darek though, many polish male names end up with rek)
Mariusz – Marek (Same logic as Dariusz)
Katarzyna – Kasia (Catherine in english, Kathleen in both french and german, Caterina in italian)
Agnieszka – Aga (Agnes in english and german, very polish name I’d say)
Joanna – Asia (Quite funny because there was one polish girl from Wroclaw in my spanish class back then and when she gave us a brief introduction, she called “Asia” herself, and we all were like, then where is Europe, where is Oceania? Bad joke, but it’s somehow easy to remember.)
There are a lot more, Malgorzata (Gosia as nick, Margaret in English and German), Piotr (Polish version of Peter), Aleksander and Aleksandra (Ola), Bartosz (Bartek as its nick).
Darek was so kind to invite me to his fascinating apartment, very nice, very clean, actually a perfect place to stay, I got full of envy. He’s an interesting person to talk to, he’s got a japanese wife and what makes it more entertaining to hear is that they met while playing a game together, life is so mysterious, I feel that everywhere I go.
Me and Darek.
During my stay in Gdansk he tried to give me some useful polish lessons, though I barely remember. It’s wonderful when someone is proud of his/her home country, unlikely me. I’m the opposite, actually that’s one of the impressions I got from polish people I met. Not such a big nationalism but they are very proud of being polish citizens, so impressive how much they love their national flag.
If you’re ever visiting Poland, GO TO Gdansk! It’s way more beautiful than other cities in Poland, of course, my opinion.
Photographs don’t show everything how the city looks like, but somehow we can guess and make our decision.
So here’s another hilarious conversation, Darek and I were passing by a souvenir store and some traditional polish dolls stopped us, it wasn’t like I was going to purchase them or anything but at least I wanted to look them better by going near.
Lady “Hello! Welcome, how can I help you?”
Me “Dzien dobry!”
And guess what, her colleague and her started to laugh as their ass off 😀 I don’t know why, perhaps my polish was funny or funny seeing a foreign guy speaking polish, because well you know, it’s not so easy to see, more like “rare”.
Made some decent shots.
Best shot from Gdansk by far.
There are two small cities near by Gdansk, one called “Sopot” a very beautiful baltic sea and the other one “Gdynia”. Very easy to go and come back to Gdansk, only 20-30 mins by local train.
Zapraszamy do Sopotu (Welcome to Sopot)
Walking and walking and walking.
I visited the observatory and guess what, the guide was a real funny guy, he apparently had been collecting all the coins, Euro, Zloty, Japanese yen, American $, Canadian, Australian and in fact everything. I had no coins actually and I was being a jerk asking if card transaction is possible, obviously not.
The guy – Unfortunately we don’t provide card payment. But let me ask you a very interesting offer. Do you have some other cash, it doesn’t have to be zloty.
Me – Okay, let me see, I think these are what I have.
Yes, they were swedish Krona and danish Krone, completely useless in Poland, you couldn’t afford buying anything. But he accepted.
The guy – You’ve been traveling around, right? Thank you so much for these.
Me – Proszę. (you’re welcome)
A loaf of bread is better than the song of many birds. Dropped in this restaurant. As you probably may notice, “Restauracja” means restaurant, quite easy, huh?
Gdynia, peace and peace. the Baltic sea was awesome, very different to the Mediterranean I think.
Happiness is seeing the beautiful Baltic sea while sitting on a park bench.
Polish beers
Too pity that they’re not yet as well known as their beloved neighbor Czech Republic’s. But I really enjoyed polish beers. Tyskie in particular, very nice and cheap. Every day of my stay in Gdansk, Darek and I dropped in the supermarket and grabbed every kind of polish beer, the best one obviously “Tyskie” and the funniest named one “Strong”. Can you believe that? 😀 A beer named “Strong” and it was strong enough to be named strong.
My last day in Gdansk, A lot of beers (actually there were more, but not shown in the pic above) and chips. I was like “Oh tomorrow I’m going to Germany, and that should be two times more expensive than in Poland, let me enjoy.”
It’s much more fun when you have friends in the city you visit, I don’t know how to express my thankful heart towards Darek, my stay there would never have been as fun as it was without him. My polish is terrible but let me say this.
“Dziękuję bardzo”
Czesc! I will continue to spill out of my polish trip, I hope everything I write over here somehow helps your future trip or stay or whatsoever.
Polski bus
I think it’s impossible to discuss about traveling in Poland without this amazing bus company! It runs all around in Poland, Czech Republic, Germany and Slovakia as well, not so sure if there’s more, probably Lithuania as well, please check it out. Why is this amazing? Simple, just owing to very economic bus fares, still very thankful. If you’re ever planning a bus trip in Poland, don’t ever lose your chance to use it, cheap, but very convenient, they even provide a free wifi, a bit creepy though, but better than nothing at all.
This guy will accompany me next time I’m in Poland.
Have a look, you can’t even find any lovelier bus fares than this, Warsaw to Krakow, Krakow to Gdansk, I think I would have payed almost three times without Polski Bus.
Krakow
I think it’s frequently described as “Poland’s paris”, I kinda agree. Definitely the most loved city for tourists in Poland, much more than Warsaw for example despite being the capital city of Poland. Well, I think historical talks are very helpful to understand and get to know the city sometimes. Krakow was basically the only polish city that wasn’t destroyed by the germans just by virtue of its german owner, yes, very sad, but it’s a fact, that’s how Krakow has maintained its fantabulous city views.
Can’t I ever stop eating?
Well, some of you might think I’m just a foolish glutton, but I’m definitely not, well perhaps only when I’m traveling or being such a lazy bug, especially in Poland and Czech Republic. I just fell in love with polish food, 80% of their food are made of potatoes, not accurate, but that’s what I felt.
Met an aussie backpacker in the center of Krakow, he was moving all around eastern europe, it was actually his last day in Poland. We had some great talks together.
I love polish food 🙂
Overall I think Krakow is an interesting city, a load of good spots to visit, great food, nice people, its atmosphere is appreciably different Warsaw’s if you know what I mean, a lot brighter and lifeful.
Tragedy
Every single historical building has got its distinctive story, mainly not so well known.
What about this one? I will spill out.
Once upon a time there were two brothers, one day they began to build these tops and that’s where this heartbreaking tragedy came from. Upon the completion the older brother killed his little brother, just due to the fact that his own steeple wasn’t as high as his little brother’s. Human beings are doomed to be jealous, but hey, don’t ever envy your siblings.
@ some flea market, nothing interesting to purchase though, well let’s say like this. Nothing captivated my eyes.
Auschwitz
Definitely not a fun place to visit, but worthy, especially for someone like me, who’s eager to know nazi history. Auschwitz (Oświęcim in polish) is 70 km away from Krakow, very easy to get here from Krakow central station by mini bus or whatever you call it. That’s what I used, not costly at all, rather convenient and a good way to meet various people since it’s a very touristic place anyway.
Arbeit macht frei which means Working makes you free, how rubbish is this?
Everyone prayed for the victims before entering the depressing camp and so did I.
I think it’s an essential fact that nobody could deny, learning and knowing history matters more than anything else, don’t expect anything good for your future if you are not aware of your history.
Depressing, horrific, dreadful, appalling and sickening, I don’t know how to express this camp, our translator Aleksandra started to show her tears while explaining how many little children got murdered here, how heartbreaking…shortly two dutch girls started to cry, I mean I completely get their tears, a big amount of innocent people got killed by grotesque reasons, just for being born as jewish, gay, russian, roman and whatever.
People cherishing the victims, very devout moment.
I’m not very smart when it comes to politics and I don’t even want to be severely interested in them at all, but I know what the german government has been doing. They completely have conceded the big crime that their ancestors had committed, maybe not even forgivable and proceeding apologies to the victims and their descendants as well, unlikely some others.
Birkenau, “A horrible thriller movie” would be the most suitable word for this camp, even more subdued than Auschwitz.
God bless you, stay happy in the heaven, there’s nothing I can express my feeling.
If you have watched the old film “Schindler’s List” you may guess what I have been saying through this post, obviously, A film can not show everything but leastwise some parts of it and then we learn something from it.
On my way to Krakow, felt so weird, bizarrest feeling I that never had experienced, maybe I shouldn’t have gone to the camp, unfortunately it lasted a few more days and I got a flu afterwards, maybe my mentality wasn’t ready to get over it.
Dzien dobry, I finally got in Warsaw, Poland. Sweden was brilliant, so was Denmark, France and Italy, as perfect as the weather in Warsaw. I totally knew that I would face some communication problems in Poland and as expected it just happened to me, even in the airport and also on the street, but thank god, people are so friendly, they treated me very well and were willing to help me out despite the language limitation.
What did I know about this passionate country before my arrival? Not so much.
Saddest – Polish history was not a big pleasant to hear out, Warsaw, the capital was completely destroyed during the 2nd war by the germans, remember how many people got murdered by Nazi.
Volleyball – It is one of the most loved sports in Poland, quite surprisingly as popular as football, yeah, hard to believe it, but in Poland it’s possible. Many of my favorite volleyballers are from Poland by the way, to be quite frank, I didn’t even know where Poland is before getting interested in polish volleyball players.
Ki or Ka – Almost all polish names end up with Ki (for males) and Ka (for females), obviously there are some exceptional names though. For instance, Skowronski for a male and Skowronska for a female, easy-peasy, same role as russian (V and Va).
Red and white – Their flag is one of the easiest ones to draw, just red and white, again easy-peasy.
Beauty – The girls are well known as their amazing beauty and I’d probably agree on that. Quite funny how a friend of mine reacted on my poland trip. “Are you there for girls?”
I was such a lucky guy, my swedish friend Gustav told me that he would visit Warsaw and spend 3 days in the city, but hey, at the same period as mine, hence we decided to stay together at a small hotel, but I had no idea who he took to the hotel room, another friend of him! So we were 3 of us.
I think it may help you – if you’re looking for a sleeping spot in Warsaw, quite economic and convenient and also easy to find. As it’s mentioned above, they provide several language services, German and Russian are useful in Poland.
See, how international we are, Gustav, a very typical swedish guy (but not white blond or tall at all), Kanatvek or whatsoever his name is, a kazakh guy living in Sweden for a long time and me, so basically two asians and one nordic, pretty funny how we united.
Me “Priviyet, I think that’s the only russian I know.”
Kanatvek “I’m sure you know more than that, russian is pretty international, more than you could imagine.”
Me “Well, maybe then Spasivo(literally means thank you in an informal way).
Kanatvek “Bravo. Do you remember my surname? I told you five mins ago.”
I kinda got scared of him, he totally knew my poor memory, how the heck did you know, mister?
Me “Is it Evdokimov? Oh no, that’s actually my favorite russian surname, no idea whose name it is though.”
He started laughing as his ass off, I don’t know why, maybe the surname is ugly as hell, but no, I kinda like it quite much. He gave some useful russian lessons but I barely remember…
Kanatvek “Bla bla blablabla”
Me “Da”
Kanatvek “Bla bla blablabla”
Me “Da”
Kanatvek “Say something else, you’re boring me.”
Me “Niet”
First time trying a polish styled coffee, not very different I’d say.
Warsaw’s first impression, yeah, I expected you to ask me that, here’s my answers, hope it doesn’t disturb your future plans though.
Depressing – Not so surprising, Warsaw is not a bright city at all, perhaps my knowledge of polish history effected on it. But the old town is another story but in the meanwhile so unnatural as it was built newly after the destruction. My guys agree with me on this.
Cheap – Poland still insists their currency, it’s called “Złoty”, as cheap as czech koruna, you can’t even imagine how cheap it is especially compared to Swedish krona and danish krone.
Impressive metro – Very soviet style I’d say which means super exotic to me.
I know it looks quite gloomy…
Palace of Culture and Science (Palace Kultury i Nauki in polish language), definitely not a happy place for poles as Russia’s Stalin presented this in 1955, technically meaning of a strong friendship between the soviet union and Poland.
Eat better and pay less in Poland 🙂
Warsaw’s fantabulous old town, I was in love with this place.
And here’s another hilarious experience. My hair got a real mess, I couldn’t even dry my hair since it was severely damaged, nobody would have fixed it, although I tried to cut it off in Paris, so Gustav and I tried to visit a hair salon near by our hotel while Kanatvek was gone with his new friend Natasha. I didn’t expect the hairdresser to be able to speak english, but not this bad, she couldn’t even say a word, we were just stamping our feet. And surprise, another lady came out and she was an excellent english speaker as she studied and was raised in the U.K, thank god. Her name was Malwina, I think, not so sure, polish names aren’t easy to remember.
Malwina “What can we do for your hair? Do you want to cut it off?”
Me “That’s the last solution actually, I want to get some treatment on it, of course, if it’s possible.”
Then she tried to translate it into polish, and Kasia the hairdresser made a very funny face, I think she meant to say “why not? let me give a try.” so yeah, I went for it. You won’t want to know how many times Gustav warned me, I get him though, but I definitely wanted to try something new.
Gustav “My mother told me one shouldn’t try anything unknown in Poland and Czech Republic and definitely not in Russia.”
Me “What kind of a stereotype is that?”
Gustav “You will know it and you will thank me”
Too bad that still a big number of western europeans have a bad prejudice regarding eastern europeans, I completely get it, stereotypes exist everywhere and I experienced it everywhere I moved to…
As a result you know, I won over him and I convinced him to get his hair done as well 😀 So funny that he finally got seduced and colored his hair, actually it was one of the funniest moments during my trip, Gustav, the conservative guy with a very few views underwent changes, now who has to thank? me or you?
What kind of a humiliation is this? 😀 I used google translator in advance because Gustav and I were completely sure that hairdressers weren’t able to speak english, but Malwina proved we were wrong and this suckest translation totally embarrassed me, well, still, very funny experience.
Next stop, Italy, one of my beloved countries, it always has been like my first love, funny to describe this way, but that’s what it is. I went to Milan, Florence, Venice and Rome 4-5 years ago (definitely the most famous route for travelers…) and I’d have to say that all the cities were incredible, nice people, nice view, impressive historic sites.
I think many of you might agree with me on the cheap european flights like Easyjet, Vueling and stuff, AS VERY EXPECTED my flight from Bordeaux to Milan Malpensa was delayed for an hour hence I had to bother myself to sit in the airport doing nothing, the wifi was horrible.
C’est bon.
Don’t even get furious about delays, in Europe it’s completely normal.
Finally landed up in Milan Malpensa, embarrassed to say it but I just met a very attractive person that I’d follow, such a big pity that I couldn’t even talk, I mean giving a try wouldn’t have been so bad.
Jeez, I just missed my train to la stazione di Verona which was my destination. I hate when these things happen to me in a row, the ticket machine didn’t work for me, same as the ATM machine, I mean what’s going on here? Even the wifi was only available for those people who have got an italian usim.
Well just got in Verona and finally met up my couch host Simone, one of the friendliest guys I met during my trip, such an open minded person who explored all over the world, he’s got a very interesting flat in Chiampo which is like 30 minutes away from Verona, he likes inviting people and wants to make his flat like a small guesthouse, nice plan, isn’t it? He’s also an expert when it comes to couchsurfing, hence there was nothing I felt uncomfortable or anything.
I’m here in Verona finally!”
Piadina for our dinner, quite funny how I communicated with the lady in the piadina store.
Me “Buona sera signora, vorrei due piadine per favore.” (Good evening, I’d like 2 piadina please.)
The lady “Buona sera, wow, parli bene l’italiano! due piadine, okay, tre minuti, siediti!” (Good evening, wow, you speak well italian, 2 piadina, okay, 3 minutes, have a seat.)
Italian has been one of my favorite languages in total, very melodic, friendly and sometimes hilarious, well, you know, it’s more fun when you know the language, I’d have to improve my spoken italian though.
Fabulous Verona. A lot smaller than those that I visited last time in Italy, in the meanwhile very peaceful.
Io e Simone. It was a beautiful day, wasn’t it? 🙂
My favorite pics from Verona, Simone knows all the good spots in the city.
I really like this guy mostly because of his fascinating sense of humor, he’s so much fond of football and a strong supporter for Verona football team, there’s no way him supporting for la squadra di Vicenza which is kind of a rival of his team. One day we were watching a football game and Vicenza was definitely loosing the match and he all of a sudden got more passionate.
Me “Simone, do they really bother you?”
Simone “Of course, even if Verona loses, Vicenza shouldn’t win a match, for sure!”
I’ve been always aware of Italy’s massive regionalism, but this much? 😀 how interesting. I think it’s going to be wider if going further to the south, I mean it’s a very well known knowledge how the people from Milan and Rome or Naples or even Sicilli think of each other, almost the same as in Spain.
One night he took me to a beer party kind of, his friend works in a bar that holds an italian version of oktoberfest, it was a real fun talking to new people, mostly from Veneto region which Verona belongs to, here’s some views on the region and also the people.
Self-esteem : They love their city, especially when it comes to sports like their football team. I think it’s beautiful when people love what they have got and where they live.
Peace : At least much more peaceful than Milan and Venice that are always crowded, that’s probably where my preference comes from.
Romeo e Giulietta : It is believed that Romeo and Giulietta lived in Verona and their love was built in the city, one day I visited la casa di Giulietta once, it was a very touristic space, but obviously worth visiting.
Gelatto : I just love it, cheap but very very tasty.
Who’s the happiest man in the world now?
With Carlo, Elena and Riccardo. Riccardo and I took a small motor trip through a big mountain, it was just SUPER. Can’t wait to try it once again.
Verona-Bologna : What a big surprise, my train arrived on time, seriously, I expected it to be delayed for 30 minutes minimum, wow, a miracle seeing this.
Everything was in good order, had been such a great day before I faced a difficulty of finding my couch host Flavia, I was running around the station for 30 mins and apparently so was she. She eventually noticed me, so funny that both of us were just being worn out and sweating like hell.
Flavia and me just before my departure for Warsaw, Poland.
She is a philosophic girl, very respectful, nice to talk to, great english and ready to accept everything. We’ve got some common stuff like being eager to leave our own country and working abroad, she did an erasmus program in Belgium which she loved and now, this time (summer in 2015) she’s proceeding her master career in Barcelona, Spain. Even now we talk a lot on facebook and skype, she’s a great friend of mine.
I don’t frankly speaking remember anything specific from my Bologna trip, only Flavia and the tasty pizzas. We went to the student area that we could have some economic dinner together, quite impressive as Bologna is considered to be a student friendly city, maybe the most in Italy.
I wouldn’t be surprised if you get some kilos in Italy, the food over there are just amazing.
julianheyrman 