Polska in a nutshell

The last three weeks of my life have been jam-packed-out-of-your-mind CRAZY! In order to fully appreciate the beautiful spring weather, we got nearly 3 weeks for the spring holidays. Such a gift is clearly meant to be taken advantage of and there was no way I was planning on sitting around the whole time. So I got in touch with my friends from the summer and planned a trip of 3's. 3 weeks, 3 countries, 3 friends and... well that's about all the 3's there are actually :)

First trip of the break was a short-but-sweet 4 day trip to Poland to visit my friend Gosia. And when you don't have a million dollars just lying around in your change jar, you tend to look for the... economical travel opportunities. This meant that I was flying into Kraków although Gosia lived in Warsaw. However, she met me at the airport and we killed a couple hours wandering around the city centre before catching the train to Warsaw.

Now, you should know, the train ride to Warsaw takes 3 hours. And there were about 200 people waiting to get on the train. There was some serious duking it out over seats. Luckily we managed to snag a couple and didn't end up sitting on the floor. Phew!

Day 1 in Warsaw started with a delicious lunch of that oh-so-Polish dish: Perogies!

it's a perogie explosion!

There are so many different sorts to choose from. I tried ones filled with meat, potato & cheese, sauerkraut & mushrooms, and cottage cheese. That last one was a new combination since the dough is made from potatoes but it's served with a sweet yoghurt sauce.

On the way into the restaurant I was treated to a view of the Warsaw Palm Tree... erm, right. That's art for you folks :)

if I really concentrate I think I can hear the sea!

Unfortunately, Gosia had to work while I was there, so her friend Madga took me to the Warsaw Uprising Museum for the afternoon. The Poles tried to kick the Germans out of the city at the end of WWII and there is a super interesting museum dedicated to the event. It was one of the most interesting museums I've ever visited in terms of the way the information is presented. For the most part it's crazy interactive - below I'm wandering through a replica of a sewer system.

eep! Small spaces!

Later that night, Gosia and I took a walk around the old part of the city. I can't get enough of cities by night - they're always so beautiful when they're lit up. We stopped by a group of much-loved pubs to try honey beer (delicious by the way) and I'm not going to lie... they looked really dodgy. Bars on the windows, off the beaten tourist track... but quite cozy on the inside. There are about 15 little pubs and each one has it's own theme: luau, bowling alley, retro...

The next day I was given a tour of the old city by Patryk - another Bamberg-ian. Below you can see the old town square:

Interestingly enough, the "old" city was built in 1950. During the war, the city was completely flattened by bombs. I mean, there was nothing but rubble. Nothing. So from 1951-1953 they rebuilt the entire old city. Hows that for fast?!

tadaa...

This is the 'Mermaid of Warsaw' - the emblem of the city. Everyone say hello.

As we wandered along, we ran across a bench. A bench that played music! A bench that played Chopin's music!!

I was impressed.

Here is a shot of the Grave of the Unknown Soldier; a monument to all the men who fought, gave their lives for their country and weren't able to recieve a proper burial. May we never forget.

Things got much lighter after that. Patryk and I strolled through a park and at one point in time I very nearly jumped out of my skin. There I was calmly sauntering along and then... HOLY CRAP THERE'S A PEACOCK!!!

It was like 2 feet from me and ENORMOUS and tried to eat me. Ok, so that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I'm not much of a bird fan (I credit the bluejay who tried to scalp me when I was 10) and so it came as a bit of a shock. Granted they are bea-utiful birds!

Lunch came afterwards and in an attempt to soothe my still racing pulse, I thought I'd try some more traditional Polish cuisine. On the menu this time: Gołąbki. Cabbage leaves stuffed with rice and pork. Delicious.

Last stop of the tour was the Palace of Science and Culture - a gift to Poland from the Soviets while they controlled the city. It's not exactly loved by the Polish people, although the negativity has diminished over time.

Patryk and I went up to the 30th floor (114 m) to the viewing deck for a 360 degree, bird's eye view of Warsaw.

Wandering around the city again later that night, I was treated to a glimpse of the National Theatre all lit up:

Beautiful.

On Wednesday morning, I headed back to Kraków since I was flying back to Berlin that afternoon. I spent a little more time wandering around the city centre:

the Opera House

St. Mary's Basillica

(instead of church bells tolling the hour, they have a trumpeter who plays from the tower)

Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul

I also attempted to check out Wawel Castle, but there were about 10 hundred million people wandering about with stickers and rolls of tape preparing for some sort of race-dealie and I got fed up trying to push through them to find the entrance. Instead I went to the airport, took of my shoes and basked in the balmy weather until my flight an hour later.

And that was Poland. You are now 1/3 of the way through my holiday. Stay tuned for Vol. II

It's epic.

Lots of love,

Sandy

spring is sprung

the grass is riz,

I wonder where the flowers is...

right here!

*smiling*

I don't know if there's a flower that makes me smile more than a crocus. It's such a lovely burst of colour after a whole lot of bland.

*sigh of contentment*

~compliments of the crocuses in my backyard~

Happy Birthday to me...

and I'm having a grand old time:

although one could possibly assume that I have no idea what's going on, since I'm holding the sign upside-down, which might just indicate that I don't know how to read and therefore don't have a clue... but is smiling nonetheless.

joking!

I had a super birthday on Monday. It was my first one away from my family, and the first one I've celebrated out of the country to boot! It had it's rough moments - opening the cards from home brought tears to my eyes - but I still had a lovely day.

The weather co-operated quite nicely. I saw a beautiful sunrise as I was getting ready for work, and then it rained all day long. That might not seem like co-operation to you, but when you check out the picture below, you'll understand why.

Some of my friends came over for Kaffee und Kuchen and we sat in the sunroom - where the sound of the raindrops hitting the glass made my heart smile. I do believe that's one of my favourite sounds in the world.

I received some wonderful gifts - and the packaging was pretty spiffy as well. I even decided to incorporate some of it into my wardrobe (cheers to you Kristi!)

The postal service even hopped on board the birthday train and brought me cards from home on my exact birthday! I really enjoyed this one from one of my...sensitive... sisters. :) I laughed and laughed and laughed when I saw it. And there's nothing quite like laughter to make you happy.

It was a super day and I felt lots of love from everyone around me and those across the ocean. Thanks for making my special day absolutely spiff-tastic!

Love,

Sandy

Bobbing along, bobbing along...

the bottom of the beautiful, briiiiiny sea...

and briny it certainly was. On Saturday my friends and I headed over to the...erm, lovely... town of Soltau for a day at the Therme Spa. I'm only joking, Soltau was actually quite nice, but the weather was awful and I made the mistake of wearing a t-shirt when it was not even close to being warm enough for that. And it's hard to really like a place when you're freezing your royal tail off.

However, the Therme Spa more than made up for any chilly-ness I experience. It was 3 hours of straight up relaxation. Brilliant.

Beth, Ian and Megan

The complex here is huge - they've got indoor swimming pools, outdoor swimming pools, a sauna garden, fitness centre, salt pools, waterslide, jumping platforms, massage lounge, cafe, bar... it just goes on and on... And we more than made the most of it!

Or at least, we made the most of the salt pools. Except for a brief jaunt over to the jumping towers (where the 5m tower was closed :( and I had to make to with the 3m one) we spent most of the day soaking in the salt. It was soooo relaxing - minus the part where you went underwater and your eyes burned when you re-opened them. They had a big pool that was 36 degrees, a hot tub, a hot bubbly tub, an indoor/outdoor pool and a steam room. I'm pretty sure I maxed out my yearly salt allowance in less than 3 hours.

The steam room was my favourite - it's like you were on the seaside and in a rainforest at the same time. Super super humid and steamy (makes sense... it is called a steam room after all) and salty too. Fantastic for the respiratory system.

Once we got out of the pools and washed all the salt off we headed over to the local Brauhaus - aka brewery :). That was quite possibly the best decision of the day because I was UNBELIEVABLY dehydrated from hanging out in a warm salt pool for 3 hours. So the thought of a nice cold beer was absolutely exquisite. Plus the food was delicious!

Megan and Beth looking all excited to pose for a picture...

while really thinking: "get it over with... I'm dying of thirst!!"

Myself and Ian looking mightily refreshed - our picture was taken after the first sip!

Here's a nice shot of the... um... machines where they make beer:

But beer and schnitzel wasn't nearly enough to satisfy the demands of the stomach after a day at the spa. Next stop: ice cream!!

Nothing like a large portion of sugar to counteract the healing effects of the spa.

Then I stopped a fight:

sorta...

And after this oh-so-strenuous day of floating in a salt pool, melting in a steam room, devouring schnitzel, savouring beer and topping it all off with ice cream - I slept like a log. Zzzz

I'm still not sure that I've totally recovered...

Cheers,

Sandy

Hamburg

Guten Morgen my wonderful friends :) I hope you're all in fabulous health and full of smiles. Last weekend I went up to Hamburg to visit my friend Karla, and it's time to share the fun!

First stop of the weekend: the Alster. It's one of the rivers that flow through Hamburg, and! it actually froze this year, so we thought we'd check and see if skating there was possible. It wasn't. There was so much snow there, you couldn't even see the ice! So instead of skating, we wandered around with the hundreds of other people there.

However, we had brought our skates with us, and it seemed a little silly to carry them around all day and not skate, so we headed to a nearby outdoor rink. Unfortunately it was ridiculously crowed and the line didn't seem to be moving. So we opted to find yet another rink to skate on. It was a lot of fun when we actually got out onto the ice, but I had one teensy tiny itty bitty problem...

You see, in European sizes I wear a woman's 41 (that's a woman's 10 back home). But the skates we'd borrowed for me were a men's 43... Needless to say, they were HUGE! But better too big, than too small. I still had fun.

I also really enjoyed the people skating around in costumes - it was Carnival in Cologne last weekend and the people just love to dress up. I think my favourite was the super tough looking hockey player that was skating around in a pink tutu. :)

Hamburg is also a harbour town. I'm fairly sure it's one of the biggest ports in Germany - or at least very important in the shipping world over here. I must admit, I was not expecting the harbour to be pretty - all those giant metal containers, ships, cranes... But when we walked by after the sun had set, it was really pretty. Take a look yourself:

Karla and I also checked out the tunnel running under the Elbe (another river in Hamburg). Here we are right in the middle - 21 meters under the surface of the river.

I just thought this was really pretty.

The next day we went to check out city hall - I 'd been told it's one of the prettiest around. And I agree. It vaguely reminded me of our parliament buildings back home in Ottawa.

It was a short trip, but a fun one :)

Sandy

Kroonis and Lattes and ice, oh my!

I don't know about you, but when my friend Maria mentioned that we could do a day trip in Tallinn, Estonia, I had to pull out a map to figure out where on earth it was. Estonia was one of the countries that used to belong to the Soviet Union and lies on the coast waaay up there in the north.

And after we found sweet ferry tickets, day 3 of my trip to Finland was spent outside of Finland :)

As members of my family well know, I don't do so well with ships. I blame Titanic. We went on a cruise in the Caribbean and I was afraid of hitting an iceberg and sinking. Ok, not really really... but kinda. In any case, the thought of a 2 hour ship ride through the ice was enough to cause mild panic. As you can clearly see:

Eeep! Ice!

Here's a nice shot of Maria and her island in the background. We're just heading out of the Helsinki harbour - I think we were the only 2 people on the whole ship to step foot outdoors :)

We had to change money before reaching Estonia - they're not part of the EU. Even at the end of the day though, neither Maria or I had any clue how to pronounce the name of their currency: the Krooni. 1 dollar is approximately 11 Kroonis, for those of you who are interested in those things :)

Maria standing by the entrance to the old part of town.

Thumb-wrestling with an Estonian. I won :)

We spent forever trying to find this stupid lookout point... and it was freezing cold that day - super blustery. We did manage to find a lookout, even if it wasn't the lookout and got a nice picture of the two of us, compliments of the German tourists we ran into.

Maria said, "look cold":
I think I look more like I'm in pain than anything else... not far from the truth actually. The wind cut like a knife!

After a while, us two hardy, hearty northerners succumbed to our blue lips and chattering teeth and found a café to warm up in (ok, so I'm exaggerating a little bit... but we were cold!). There were only 2 other gentlemen when we walked in, and they had already received their drinks. I walked up to the counter to order my café latte and then grabbed a table for the two of us. My coffee took forever to come out and I couldn't help but wonder why. I mean, it's not a hard drink - just coffee and hot foamy milk. When our waiter set my drink down on the table I immediately understood what took so long. He'd added a work of art to the top!

Prettiest coffee I've ever had the pleasure of drinking :)

I like this picture... gives you a real feel for how cold it was.

This picture too - Maria's braving the elements on the way back to the ship. We'd overheard in the café that there was a storm brewing, and neither one of us felt like being outside in it.

Both of us were a little worried that the ride back might be a little bumpy, due to the bad weather conditions, but we were pleasantly surprised. The ride back was smoother than the one over. Although I don't know that you ever grow to like the sound of ice sliding on past the hull of the ship...

Lovely chatting with y'all

Sandy

A little trip to Suomi

-70? No biggie, it is Finland after all. (Suomi is the Finnish name for Finland)

That's right, I've seen a little bit more of the world. The last weekend in January I flew up north for a super exciting visit in Finland with my friend Maria.

Now, I never would have thought it, but there's a time difference between Berlin and Helsinki. At first I was extremely confused by the fact that my flight there took 3 hours and the flight back only lasted one. I put it down to getting confused by the 24-hour clock. Eventually the light went on...

I must say, my arrival in Helsinki was less than exciting. I mean, my previous trips have been rather intense. Security people checking and re-checking your passport and visa, almost being denied entry because you don't have the address you're staying at for the night (Thanks England), no smiles to be seen for miles... All followed by the deep sigh of relief when the stamp finally hits your passport... But in Helsinki - nothing. There weren't even people in the booths! I must say, I was actually a little disappointed, I wanted another stamp in my passport :( But I quickly got over it. I mean, I was in Finland!!

I was picked up at the airport by Maria and we bussed into town. I have never been so entertained by someone asking for a bus ticket in my life! Finnish sounds SO cool!! After a quick stop to drop of my bags at her place, we headed back into town for a stroll.

Here I am in front of the National Theatre - enjoying the balmy evening. It never got much colder than -8 the whole time I was there! Thank goodness! I might be a Canadian, but that doesn't mean I like it when it's super cold outside.

Next Maria and I wandered past some of the University of Helsinki buildings to check out the Helsinki Cathedral (Tuomiokirkko - Finnish is a ridiculous, but fasicnating language!). It's this beautiful, white building that sits on top of a hill overlooking a huge square. Very, very pretty.

Now, a trip to Finland just wouldn't be complete without sampling some traditional Finnish food. First on the menu: Reindeer. I know... a little weird. But as you can see below - I'm quite enjoying it. What you won't come across until a little further down the page is the canned reindeer. Yes, you heard right. You can buy reindeer In. A. Can. Eew.

But the smoked reindeer here tasted really good. Salty-like.

Right, so the pictures here are a little out of order, but my genius blog won't let me move them around. Anyways, on day 2, Maria and I wandered over to this really cool looking statue. It's a memorial for the Finnish composer Gean Sibelius.

Back to day 1 below - after our stop at the white cathedral on a hill we wandered down past one of the harbours in Finland and through the pedestrian zone.

To the left of the picture was the big ship that makes the trip to Stockholm, Sweden. The bottommost windows, also in the left-hand corner of the picture are of the main market house. Unfortunately it was closed everytime we walked by.

Aha. Here we go. Below you will be graced with my overwhelmingly positive reaction to canned reindeer.

I repeat. Eew.

Now, I believe I mentioned before that Maria actually lives on a little island in Finland. On Saturday morning before bussing over the bridge and into town, we stopped by her beach. Not too much sand to be seen, but beautiful nonetheless.

I felt like I was at the top of the world. Finland totally has this stark, barren, absolutely gorgeous feel to it.

Maria looking fabulous standing in front of the Orthodox Cathedral.

Now, this might not look like such an interesting picture, and to be honest it's not. But I couldn't resist putting it in because the top of the blue can shows the words: Enemmän positiivista susmalaisuutta. Which roughly translates to: More positive Finnishness! Hilarious.

And a trip to a foreign country just isn't completely without trying some of the local dishes. As a result I ate reindeer, salmon soup (which was DELICIOUS I might add), meatballs and mashed potatoes and the two dishes below.

In the rear is some sort of cheese (which reminded me of cheese curds - it had that squeaky cheese thing going on) topped with cloudberry jam. Cloudberries grow way up north, we're talking Yukon/Northwest Territories north, in swampy regions. They remind me of orange raspberries. Which is then a little awkward as you're eating what looks like raspberries that have been exposed to radioactive material. But, despite all appearances, it was really tasty.

The box of dark brown sludge was a different story. It's a dish that you can only find in Finland in the months leading up to Easter. It's basically sweet rye bread dough that hasn't been fully cooked. Normally you eat it with whipped cream and lots of sugar.

I had an absolutely fabulous time in Finland. Never, ever in a million years did I think that I would travel to Finland. But I got the chance and I'm so excited that it happened. I am so thankful for all the opportunities this year is giving me... It's actually really overwhelming sometimes.

Next post: day trip in Tallinn, Estonia

Moi moi, (that's bye in Finnish. Hi is Moi)

Sandy