Destination: paradise

In Israel the absolute must-see is Jaffa, located on the Mediterranean coastline. This city is nowadays a part of Tel-Aviv and is believed to be the oldest harbor in the world, which has been in use since the Bronze Age.

To get there I started my trip in the heart of Tel-Aviv, strolling around to see some areas of the city. Wandering, I saw the diversity of Tel-Aviv — the mixture of different buildings: charming and run-down, the mixture of different people: orthodox or religious Jewish, Arabs, Armenians and a lot of tourists from many countries. During the day the city didn’t seem so bustling, even though I could feel the atmosphere of it. However, my goal was to reach the beach.

Tel Aviv seen from Jaffa

Surfing in Munich

A few days ago I went to a cafeteria, where travelers can give speeches about their experiences in countries all over the world. That time there was a speech about Kurdistan. Three students went to see the eastern part of Turkey and northern of Iraq. Staying there they were moving mostly by hitch hiking and sleeping in private places. To organize an accommodation they had used CouchSurfing and it reminded me of my own story.

It took place last year. My friend and I were looking for a short trip to any country, where was sunny weather that time, just to relax by swimming in the ocean, getting sunbathe, and reading books. After two months (such perfect decision makers!) my friend found a trip organized by German travel agency to Cape Verde. It sounded so exotic for us. I had never thought about going there, but we found it as an excellent opportunity to visit that place for a very low cost. But before there were two problems to solve. Firstly, we had to get to Munich. Secondly, we had only two days for it.

Ochota

Just before 69th anniversary of Warsaw Uprising I went for a thematic walk with a guide to see some places connected with this war operation. The second walk in the same area was a few days later, but instead of Warsaw Uprising’s facts I learnt more about history of this part of Warsaw, which is called Ochota.

Ochota is one of Warsaw districts, located in the central part of the city. Its name means “willingness” in English. It comes from the name of the old inn.

Grójecka Street

Żoliborz already?

Before the unbelievable heat, near 40°C, got started I went for three thematic walks: in Żoliborz and Ochota, which are the districts of Warsaw. Żoliborz is the smallest district, and is located directly to the north of the city center, that’s why the title of the walk was “Is it still the New Town or Żoliborz already?”.

Warsaw is always under construction. Always!

In Góra Kalwaria

While I was writing about Sri Lanka a few interesting things happened: a couple of thematic walks in Warsaw, one day trip to my favorite village somewhere in the middle of Poland, and one short trip to a small town near Warsaw, where I could visit the Jewish cemetery again closed for everyone. So let me show you some photos from the last mentioned trip first.

With a group of people interested in Jewish culture I went to Góra Kalwaria, a small town located ca. 30 km southeast of Warsaw. The town was called Góra at the beginning, which means “mountain” in English. Then the name was changes into New Jerusalem, because the urban design was based on medieval maps of Jerusalem, but Jewish weren’t allowed to settle there that time. At the beginning of 19th century the ban on Jewish settlement was lifted, and Jews shortly became the predominant group in the town.

Lanka, Lanka - my love. Part III

Did you notice the fact that my story in two parts was telling only about 5 days of my trip to Sri Lanka? When I realized it I was also surprised that we had been having so many adventures for 5 days… and I didn’t wrote about every detail.

As I wrote in the second part, we got out of the bus in Dambulla, and – sick and tired – started looking for an accommodation recommended by Lonely Planet. It was the worst place where we had ever slept during our trip, but after 1 km walk with sick stomachs we weren’t fussy at all.

In this guest house there wasn’t even cold water to buy, so later we looked for a shop to get it. To our surprise just a few meters far there was another hotel, better one. We didn’t change hotels, but bought a trip to Huluru Eco Park, where we might see elephants, a thousand wild gorgeous elephants. So like I say: everything has its goal.

Lanka, Lanka - my love. Part II

If you remember the first part, the third day of the trip I had some problems with dizziness because of Lariam, then we walked in Horton Plains National Park and at the end we were driven to Haputale, a town in the area famous for lots of tea plantations and stunning views, which we could admire from a train, standing in open doors as locals. That day was one of the most memorable days. Even now I can visualize that day, particularly when I look at myself in a mirror – the visit in Horton Plains National Park has left signs on my body. I burnt my neck and arms in a shape of a T-shirt. Still, after two months, it is strongly visible and I look quite strange!

A train station

Lanka, Lanka - my love. Part I

May 2013 was my favorite month. I went to Sri Lanka, as a backpacker, for a trip of my life to check if it might be my way of traveling. At the beginning nothing indicated that I would be even glad or happy with it, but then so many things happened and after two months I am still in love with this island.

Sri Lanka had been on my mind for a very long time, but flight tickets used to be very expensive though, so it had stayed only there, in the field of dreams. To my surprise, in February Emirates airlines launching their flights in Poland started spectacularly with a great promotion. They offered tickets to many destinations in such a price that it would be a sin not to buy any. Especially to Sri Lanka. That's why I started looking for a good companion for my dream trip.

I really thought it would be easier to find a right person. Not only had that person been prone to take up such a challenge, I also wanted her or him to be nice, corresponding, inquiring, rather optimistic, creative, with a suitable number of days off and money for two week trip. After asking several people, not only with such features, I found the right person. Finally two Capricorns, as a great team, could start conquering the world.

I am in a... eh, whatever

In Polish slang there is an expression “być w czarnej dupie”, which in accurate translation means “to be in a black ass”. It doesn’t have any racist connotations. There are also different variants of it, with “dark” or “totally”. Moreover, this expression has different meanings, but one of it is that there is a lot of work to do, no time, and lots of backlogs. I am sorry for improper words, but the conclusion for such an introduction is that now I am in a… eh, whatever.

I have a long list of topics for notes and checking a schedule (yes, I am that crazy) during this week I was supposed to put a note about postcards. I wondered about Dubai cards or my new Sri Lanka postcards, which I received yesterday from my Lankan prince – they are so gorgeous that I can call him like that. Two of them are with elephants, lots of elephants, but I am tired of scanning anything. It is such a boring work… On the other hand, I am in a… eh, whatever, so it is time for fresh new photos with Polish nature. I took these photos last Saturday, again in that typical village, somewhere in the middle of Poland.

A spider's backside

Getting a visa

I started writing this post before my trip to Lvov, so the beginning looked like: "My last one day trip...", but now it should start: My second to last one day trip was around two months ago. I can’t call it a city break, it was just a stopover. In Dubai on my way back home from Sri Lanka. A whole story of getting there is more interesting than the city.

When I was buying tickets to Sri Lanka I had two options to choose: with longer or shorter stopover. Dubai had been my engineering dream to see, so I checked a possibility to get out from the airport between flights. I browsed few websites and I learnt that it is possible to buy a visa at the airport, which costs 25 euro. So I bought the tickets with one longer stopover on return and then I was waiting for my flight to Sri Lanka, being in 100% sure I would also visit Dubai. Aha, how much I had been wrong I learnt two days before the flight!

It is a prove - I really got there after trying thousand times!

Two stories in one

My first trip abroad, I went more consciously in a sense that I started dreaming about travelling, was a trip organized by a travel agency. I think that time I wasn’t ready not only for backpacking I wasn’t even aware about different possibilities of travelling, such as buying cheapest flights or booking hotels by yourself, or even planning the whole trip by yourself. I suppose I had to grow up to such ways of travelling. Anyway, during that trip from a travel agency which should be considered as boring I experienced two interesting stories, not so funny that time.

It was in 2008. My mother and I went to Sicily, to a small village near Trabia, around 20 km east of Palermo. It was the seven day trip only and we wanted to see as much as possible, not spending a lot of money on the other hand, so we bought two package tours: Lipari Islands (Aeolian Islands) and Unknown Sicily, leaving some money for a train to Palermo.

San Nicola d'Arena

A lazy day

Today I have been having such a lazy day. A main reason of this situation is in the photo below:

That one above

Crossing the border

About two weeks ago I bought a ticket to… Lviv (or Lvov). Visiting this city had been on my mind for a few years. It is located so close to Polish border, so one day I said to myself: enough, stop postponing. I found a great solution for not taking any day off, such as traveling the same way as to Bratislava, and I bought the ticket for Saturday evening with coming back in Monday morning.

The journey started at 7 pm. After many hours of driving and a long break in the Polish-Ukrainian border we were in Lviv at 5:30 am. local time. We were tired and sleepy, because our seats had not been so comfortable. Anyway, the first place we saw was truly beautiful: an old railway station.

Lviv Railway Station

S like Sri Lanka

I have three postcards from Sri Lanka. One is really old. It was sent in 1964. It shows a hotel in Dehiwala Mount-Lavinia, a town located a few kilometers to the south of Colombo. Surprisingly, the name of the hotel is… Mount-Lavinia and it still exists and works quite efficiently. The price for a night is about 100 euros, so it is not cheap.

 

Hotel Mount Lavinia

Unique Sunday

If I could I would travel all the time, but I can’t, so I try to learn about my world in a different way. By thematic walks with a guide. I usually go for that kind of walk once or twice a month. I learn about history of Warsaw, about its architecture and people who were living here. Every walk is unique. It tells about a different spot in a city, like particular cemetery or a style in the architecture. But the walk on last Sunday was one of the most special.

I went to Jewish cemetery on the right bank of Vistula river, which is closed for almost every one. Of course if you are stubborn, or a vandal, or you don’t respect sacred places, you are able to enter, but I am not… So when there was an opportunity to get a key and open the entry gate I agreed without any hesitation.

The main gate with a relief of praying Jews just before their execution

UNESCO World Heritage List

Wooden Tserkvas of the Carpathian Region in Poland and Ukraine are new cultural properties on UNESCO World Heritage List. World Heritage Committee extended this list during the 37th session of the World Heritage Committee held in the Kingdom of Cambodia, in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap-Angkor. I have never seen those orthodox churches, but I have the great postcards showing two of them, moreover I wasn’t even excited about the fact of extension, but this news was a start of my own list’s extension.

I browsed almost whole UNESCO World Heritage List, which consists 969 properties (cultural, natural and mixed) and thanks to it I added many places to my must-see list, in the same time checking what I have already seen.

Pespective after "Anil's Ghost"

In the past weekend I finished reading a book by Michael Ondaatje. He is an author of “the English Patient”, but what is more important to me, he was born in Sri Lanka. After coming back from this beautiful country I wanted to read something connected with it, so I borrowed “Anil’s Ghost”.

It is a very difficult book to read. At the beginning I could not get used to the idea of a plot construction. Furthermore, this book tells the history of a few people during Sri Lankan Civil War, so the topic is deeply moving. And more, the main character is a medical examiner and her job is told in details. Anyway, I found a few parts there which made me stop and think more. I wondered if they are facts or they are only the imagination of Michael Ondaatje, but they seem to be real.

Birthday party

Even I can see the keys to a new apartment on the horizon and I should rather choose tiles, floors etc., I really can’t survive without trips. So a few days ago I bought tickets to another unseen destination. It will be an one-day city break. And this reminds me of my birthday trip to Bratislava.

Just before Christmas there was kind of polskibus.com tickets’ sale and I had a thought that I didn’t want to spend my January birthday sitting in a front of the computer, doing my everyday quite boring job. So without any longer reflection I bought one ticket to Bratislava, because I had never been there before. A journey was supposed to start 6 or 7 pm. a day before birthday, so I was supposed to be really early morning in my favourite day of the year. And it happened like it had been planned.

Postcard collection

Sometimes I can’t find any ideas for a new note or I have them too many. It is due to a lack of concentration, tiredness, bad feelings or others, however, I found a quite good solution how to stick to my plan of putting notes on this blog twice a week: my postcard collection.

My first postcards are – frankly speaking – my father’s postcards. It is my heritage, even my father is still in a good shape. He used to collect them, so one of my oldest and most favourite Warsaw view is from 50’s, his youth time. When he gave me his collection, there were around 2000 of postcards. Now the number is doubled and is growing almost every day.

A list of postcards

Food Journey

I had the third gastroscopy a few days ago, the worst one – sometimes is better to know nothing what will happen soon… Anyway, with the empty stomach before the examination, dreaming about food and beverages, I came up with an idea for my next note: a food journey across my trips.

As far as I remember I always had the attitude that I live to eat, not eat to live, so tasting food is one of the most important thing in my life. I still can feel the smell, taste and my emotions towards some dishes. Therefore, let’s mention them.

Boarding Pass

Home town: Warsaw, Poland.

Where you live now: Still in Warsaw. I don’t know if this fact is sad or not. However, I still have been looking for enlightenment where my place to settle down is.

Warsaw, Poland, a view at the Royal Castle and Old Town