Leaving Amsterdam

I woke up to get to the buffet while breakfast was served. I liked the food there. It was much better than in many holiday resorts I’ve been to. I would say it was like at home. We checked out – I & Christian. Went for a short walk and sat down to have a drink and the last chat during our stay in Amsterdam. He is a cool guy. I hope he enjoys Europe. He invited me to the US, cause he lives in Maine, but I think it’s not probable Continue reading “Leaving Amsterdam”

Rainy Amsterdam

My eyes opened at 8am to be able comfortably eat the breakfast before they stopped to serve it. My Argentinian roommate – Nicolas – was there already, so we had a chat regarding our lives and our trips. Later my friend from the US joined us. We enjoyed the conversation while it was constantly raining outside. The real Amsterdam – I thought. My Argentinian friend was leaving to Brussels. I had a walk regardless of bad weather. The rain didn’t stop bicycle lovers. They were riding now with an umbrella in one hand. Wow! Dutch people have got excellent biking skills. Continue reading “Rainy Amsterdam”

Trip to Amsterdam, Holland

Amsterdam is a very popular city in Europe because of its vivid life. Here is a great mixture of people with various backgrounds living together. Amsterdam, but not only, is one of the most popular places where Polish people decide to work too. For a long time this place was on my list places to visit, but as its weather i similar to English I constantly postponed my trip in time.

Finally with a small help of my acquaintance, who I haven’t seen for about 7 years, I started to plan and organize the trip. She recommended me that place – she lives in Holland – and I made her promise that when I come we’ll try to meet. Now I’m on a plane to Brussels Charleroi from where I will get to Amsterdam.

After arrival I noticed many military people walking around and I was a bit lost in the place where all names of places were in a strangely written language. I went outside to get some fresh air and look around as it was a sunny day. When I tried to reenter the building I was told that only passengers are allowed to pass!! I was cut off of the information desk and Internet in some completely new place:/

Luckily I managed to convince the security guards with big arms to let me pass. I organized my trip by train and set off. First nice thing was that taxi drivers were collecting people and organizing group transport to the Charleroi train station which cost less than a bus ride 🙂

Kaunas, Lithuania – short trip

Lithuania is another country that I didn’t plan to go to. However there was an opportunity and in my opinion opportunities are to be used. My friend Samil needed to go to Kaunas to do some documents and offered me to go with him. I was reluctant to that idea as Lithuania in my imagination was nothing special, so I didn’t buy a ticket straight away with him and I wasn’t sure which day h is going.

One Monday afternoon I was walking through the city and I met him on his way back home. It was about 4pm in the afternoon, so he finished early that day. He said he is going to travel to Kaunas at 8pm and would be cool if I join him. I like to travel and see new places, see how people live in different countries, admire architecture, so it didn’t take long to convince me. I just needed to check my budget, before making final decision.

As I had some spare funds, the ticket have been bought and At 8pm we were travelling to Warsaw by train where was waiting for us bus to go directly to Kaunas. I didn’t sleep as I fancied to watch a movie.

We arrived in early hours of the day, so we had a walk. After that we went to the dormitory where lived friend of Samil, his ex roommate. We chilled there and went to do some bureaucracy work. Papers, photos, signatures and finally all has been done.

for a dinner we went to an Italian restaurant. We had a soup, I’ve forgotten its name, but it was a red tomato soup with pieces of chicken breast in it. I liked a lot pizza. Especially the dough which I tried for the first time prepared that way. I think it was Neapolitan way. It was thick and fluffy and tasty!

After some more of walking it was time to have a nap. When we woke up we went to the shopping centre which was the main place of amusement for local people. I tried some more of local food bought in the supermarket which was shown to me by my friend who studied in this city and it was time to go back.

It was only one day in Kaunas, but I liked it. The city is very simple and is located at the  confluence of the two largest Lithuanian rivers, the Nemunas and the Neris. It doesn’t have so many bridges. All buildings are build in old fashioned style, but they are well preserved and create pleasant environment. While there I felt like I traveled in time 🙂

Trip to Budapest. One of my dreams came true.

It was just before Easter when I realized I hadn’t planned nothing for Easter time and I know that in Siedlce is not much to do in that period of time. Everyone in Poland prepares food which will be eaten later with the family. There is always a lot o food. More than anyone is able to eat, but an Easter is a day when a big part of the family sits by a big table for few hours eating and very often drinking until the evening.

I wasn’t going to spend my day like that. As I had some spare time on hand I wanted to do something unusual. I asked my friend who is on Erasmus in Warsaw what is she going to do those days. She shared with me some of her ideas and as I liked the cost of travel to Budapest and as I’ve wanted to see that city since the day I rejected an opportunity to work there there wasn’t much to think about. I decided to buy my ticket regardless of that if my friend is going or not. I would be there 🙂

This time I traveled from Warsaw with company called PolskiBUS. It is very popular among Polish people. The bus took me directly from Warsaw to Budapest. Unfortunately the trip was very long which I expected. What I didn’t expect was an almost 2h delay and that there on’t be music or movies on board. Ecolines spoiled me. haha

I planned a very short stay there, so directly after my arrival I headed to some place with food and drinks 🙂 I arrived about 11pm, so the night had already started. I headed next to some clubs which were not far from the centre. They were a typical tourist attraction. The places were typically English. At least half of the people there were from England. It was ok and I stayed till the morning, but I’m sure somewhere in that city are places that have more locals than tourists. I will need to visit them next time.

Next day was to relax and see some of the city. I contacted with my friend Gabor who had an idea to go to baths which he discovered recently in his neighbourhood. I couldn’t say NO on my relax day. We spent there a couple of hours with some other friend of his. Thermal baths outdoors and indoors made magic to our bodies. In between we visited saunas. Finnish sauna and steam sauna were our favourites.

Thank’s to courtesy of Gabor I had an opportunity to have a tasty dinner in some local place. We went to his place to have some Palinka after that. It was a very good afternoon. There were still some sightseeing to do, so we headed to the centre and then on the other side of the river. Here in Budapest they have a Danube river separating the city in two. One side is called Buda and the other Pest. Actually it became a single city on 17th of November 1873 with the unification of Buda and Óbuda on the west bank, with Pest on the east bank.

From the hill we were able to see a beautiful panorama of the city. I was happy I arrived here and it was great that my friend had some time to spend with me. Thanks to that I was able to get to know more about the Budapest. It was good to see him too. Next place where we would be able to meet would be probably Ibiza.

My friend went to celebrate his name day with his girlfriend and I had few hours more to spend in the city. I loved it bridges too. I find it very relaxing to have a stroll through the bridge. There are 12 of them in Budapest with the most famous the Chain Bridge. I liked a lot Liberty Bridge.

Trip to Prague :) Have you ever been here?

Do you know the place called WrocÅ‚aw? It’s about time to get to know a little about Prague. It’s a capitol city of Czech Republic. I had never been interested in visiting Eastern European countries, but recently I changed my point of view. Those countries are beautiful and definitely worth visiting. Moreover, nowadays it’s very easy and cheap to get everywhere if planned wisely.

This time I traveled from Warsaw with Ecolines. It was the first time I used this carrier and I was extremely satisfied. Good service, quite comfortable and extra small screen with some movies and music.

I arrived to Prague in the morning. The bus station called Florenc was somewhere nearby the old town, so I decided to go on foot to explore as much as possible of the place. I walked past the Old Town which was a very beautiful part of the city. The big square in the middle of which was a big statue and around big and very old buildings. Each of them stunning and unique, obviously old, but in good condition.

Walking in the straight line I arrived to the Vltava river. The river separating the city is something unusual for me, maybe because of that I love to admire bridges. Prague have got few of them where the most famous is the Charles bridge. When I look at any bridge I love to admire its original shape,  its enormous size. Bridges are a big achievement of humanity and is a very useful invention. It connects two banks of the river providing a safe and short passage.

I took my time to admire a castle on the other side, a big park, buildings and of course bridges. The sky was blue that day with the Sun shining from above. The perfect day to take some pictures.

As I was still with my luggage I headed to my hostel to drop it off there and meet my friends. We arrived to this city to go to the club to listen to the DJ Andrea Oliva, but about that later 😉

Me and my few friends who arrived from Wroclaw with BlaBlaCar met up at our hostel located about 10min walk from the centre. The perfect place to be. We had a room only for four of us. Unfortunately one of our friends decided to come late and booked his accommodation in a different place, which wasn’t an obstacle to have a great fun together.

After having some delicious local food in a nearby restaurant we decided to go for a walk. We were taking pictures and having laugh. On the Charles Bridge which I mentioned before was a lot of tourist enjoying a walk and taking photos. We were no different. I don’t remember how it happened, but probably because of our photographic passion, we met 3 Russian girls passing by. It would had been only a short encounter if not our Ukrainian friend who started to have a chat in Russian with them. This way they accompanied us on our walk through the hill and the park. Finally they arranged to smoke shisha together just before we go to the club. This way we went back to the hostel, had some rest and after 8pm we went to meet up with 3 ladies. They took us to some fancy Russian place, one of them studies here, so knows Prague very well. We had few cocktails and smoked a lot of shisha. This way I was unable to speak with them in Russian as my had was too dizzy, so I just enjoyed nice music. We headed to the club where we stayed till the morning. Actually Ukrainian friend left early, because didn’t like the music and one other friend was kidnapped by some girl, so left few hours before the end of the party. He missed some great music, but like we got to know later h had a good time too.

The funniest part of all that weekend in Prague was of course a love story. One Russian fell for one my friend and an Ukrainian boy was talking all the time with the other one. We agreed to go out with them on Sat night, the next night. ok. If they like each other why not. Unfortunately it wasn’t so sweet as it could be. The third Russian started to fancy the Ukrainian boy, so the second one girl suddenly went home in a bad mood as the boy changed his object of interest. When finally when everything was sweet and cheesy he showed his wedding ring?! to apologize?! I don’t understand that behaviour till that moment as the second Russian got upset, angry, or who knows what else and decided to go home, so finally we stayed in the club, enjoying great electronic house music until the end, after being part of unnecessary affair disappointment :/

Overall Prague left on us a very good impression. We’ve seen many beautiful places, we tried some local food – I liked the sweet dough which was round, big and empty inside. I bought it filled with nutella. I loved it! Next time I have an opportunity to eat it I would definitely buy it. Go to Prague people, discover the city and have fun with people around you. Just don’t break women hearts if you’re married. I don’t recommend that.