Mini Europe Tour-Part 2

When we arrived in Prague it was really warm there, we took the metro from the train station to our hostel, so we didn't get to see Prague yet. Our hostel this time was quite a distance from the center, but it was one of the cheapest that time, that's what you get when you don't book earlier i guess, not many options. This was a huge one, they have like a whole building to them, the previous ones that I been to only had a floor as the hostel. We arrived around 12pm but the check in time is at 3pm, and we didn't want to miss the check in time, because we wanted to grab two beds next to each other. And also we were exhausted after the overnight train trip, and we badly needed a nap. So we just wandered around the hostel, had our lunch at a rather expensive restaurant, it was one of the very few restaurants we could find near to our hostel. After checking in, we went up to the room, unfortunately there were only left 1 bed near the door and another 1 at the corner. I took the corner 1, the bed above me looks like it's occupied, but we found out the next day that it was free. We took a nap and started exploring Prague. We decided to take a tram instead this time to the center. The view all the way there passing the river was amazing. After getting off the tram we just wandered around finding places with our map, almost at every corner we saw beautiful old gothic style building, they were absolutely gorgeous. Along the way, we saw a very crowded spot, we went check it out, there were bout 10 Mediterranean food stalls, the food looked really good, so we tried one of the stalls, it was rather expensive, but the food was good. After walking around, we decided to go home, but we were both still hungry so we went to the Vietnamese grocery shop near our hostel and got some really cheap bagetas. They have many Vietnamese stores, mostly selling grocery, some selling clothes. But the things they sell are cheap and they open till bout 10-11pm.

On the second day, we changed our money at the metro station and went to the center. When we arrive there, we walked a little, then we passed by a money exchange place, and the rate was ok, I had enough money for the day so I didn't want to change at first, but Ray told me it will be more convenient to change it so we don't have to find for a money exchange the next day( you don't have to worry bout that actually, there are money exchange every corner in Prague). I took out my 50Euros and exchanged the money, the rate I saw was 22.2 something like that. After i changed it it was much less, I thought I counted wrongly, but then it was really much less, then i looked up to the board displaying the rates then i noticed on the right, lesser than 200 Euro-18.0. How careless can i be? But this is the first time I have seen such rules, they don't have this thing in Poland, or anywhere else that I've been to. And not every money exchange have that rule, the one in the metro station didn't. So, lesson learnt, always check if they have any traps like this before changing your money!

View from the tower

We walked around the center and came to the clock tower. We notice there was a crowd gathering at a part of the tower all of them looking upwards. We also joined in then according to Ray there was a guy who came out and blow the trumpet, after he is done, he waved to the crowd and everyone clapped. I could only hear the music, but the sun was too bright, I couldn't open my eyes. We decided to go up the tower, the view from there was really pretty, you could see almost everything. Just before we were about to leave, the trumpet guy did his show again, this time, i got a view from the other side, as we were standing just behind him when he was blowing. As he waved, the crowd clapped again. Seeing all those people down there clapping, feels really cool. We continued seeing other places and by evening, we reached the famous Charles bridge. It was breath taking standing on the bridge taking in all the view. When we started to walk the sun was setting, by the time we reached the other end of the bridge it was dark but the view was better, the lights from the buildings and bridges, the cool breeze. Nothing could be better. At night before going back, I bought my dinner, bageta, from the Vietnamese store again, but Ray wanted to try a Chinese restaurant that he saw on the way back. We walked to the shop and the food was pretty good, and the Chinese girl was very friendly. We kind of felt at home there. Travelling could make you miss home a little, but the things we got from travelling is definitely worth everything.

The next day we walked to the metro station and bought a ticket to the center. Before using the metro we need to validate our ticket first in the orange box just before the escalator. Ray validated his and went before me, I validated mine and went after Ray. Ray stepped on the escalator and just a few steps away from the escalator a skinny guy probably in his mid 40s cut his way in front of me, I just let him pass, he stepped on the escalator, and Im sure you girls now bout my OCD with escalators, I must see one flight crossing before stepping on it, so Im always stepping on the second flight after the person in front of me. As I was waiting for the second flight, the guy in front turn his head sideways and when he noticed that I didn't take the flight right behind him he started backing up. I felt so weird that this grown up guy was playing with the escalator, I thought he was really drunk or something, and he just keep backing up and up. The person behind me was standing so close to me, I knew I just had to step on the escalator, hoping he will stop backing up and don't slam into me. After I got on, he stopped. The person who was behind me got on the one right after me. I was a little annoyed, i mean if you r really in a rush, just go to the left side. And I was thinking bout the weird drunk guy backing up. Busy thinking, I suddenly felt a slight movement of my top on the right side near my waist. I was wearing a loose top, at first I thought its the wind but i just looked down anyway. I noticed a black thing pulling away very fast from my bag to the back, I turned and looked behind, a very skinny also probably mid 40s lady wearing a black leather jacket was standing right behind me. She tried to make a straight face and look somewhere else, but I finally realized what was going on. I quickly turned my head in front trying to search for Ray. Just then the lady said something to the guy in front of me. he turned his head sideways to me again then turned back front. I didn't know what else they were going to do, I was really scared, but I know i was only few steps to the ground. As soon as i got off from the escalator I rushed to Ray, told him someone tried to steal from me, but when we turned to look both of them were already taking the escalator up again. I knew she didn't mange to take anything, cause I always have the zipper opening of my bag in front where i can see it, and my bag is not that easy to open. But i just sat down and made sure everything was still there. I was so angry but I just let it pass, didn't want it to spoil my day in Prague.

Beautiful rays of light through the windows

We went to the castle, and again I was mesmerized with the beautiful buildings there. The St.Vitus cathedral was amazing. They have this beautiful colourful glass that makes a picture on every window in the church. When the sunlight shines through the glass, it makes beautiful colourful rays of light inside the church. After the castle we went to the Charles bridge, this time Ray wanted to paddle a boat on the river. I was very reluctant, I was afraid of drowning and all, you know me. We rented a boat for an hour. As we paddled it felt amazing, right in the middle of the river, the sun setting before you, birds flying, ducks swimming near the river bank. As we passed the bridge from underneath, Ray whistled and the sound echoed. There were a few other boats nearby, some were the paddling kind, some were the rowing kind. Some of them had drank champagne while paddling. Most of them were couples, but we also saw some with 3 or 4 people in a boat. It was really beautiful. If you girls have the time, you must do this, trust me, you wont regret it. As we were paddling i turned and told Ray that I think Prague is the most beautiful city I have been, even more than Venice, which has always been my number 1. I thought Ray wouldn't agree so much because he has seen much more places than me. But surprisingly, he said he thought the same too. After we got off the boat, we heard fireworks very near us, so we stand and looked at the fireworks beside the river. It was the perfect ending to a great day. Overall, Prague was amazing, there's so many things to see and I had a great time there.

View from the boat

Mini Europe Tour-Part 1

How lazy can i be? Its been more than a year since i wrote anything here. Anyway, i was very motivated to write this because you girls told me that you want to have a Europe tour and after having this very mini Central-Europe tour myself, i felt like I have so many things to share with you, and if I wait till summer to go back and tell you girls, i probably will forget most of it, so now that I'm back in Warsaw with my laptop and a rather high internet speed (which i totally appreciate after the tour, you don't always get internet access when travelling and even if you do, there's a time limit or a place limit or its too slow), sitting down only in my underclothes in front of my laptop using the internet is a luxury that i appreciate very much now. 

Ok, so the thing bout travelling especially to countries in which their currency is Euro is you need to plan ahead, you don't really need to plan every single details, but at least have a rough sketch of where you wanna go, the route in which u wanna travel and if you know that you are gonna travel lets say more than 4 or 5 countries, please get a pass, check out the interail website. The biggest mistake i did was i didn't plan ahead, i only knew which countries i want to visit (my initial plan was few cities in Germany, Amsterdam, Brussels, Luxembourg and Switzerland) but i didn't plan my route and i just assumed it will be ok not to get a pass and just buy the train tickets as i travel. BIG mistake. My first destination was Berlin, i bought a reasonably priced ticket bout 160rm one way(please note that when i use ticket, i mean train ticket unless otherwise stated). It was a direct train bout 6 hours with seat reservation. In some trains it is possible not to make a seat reservation, but in others it is required. Making a seat reservations means a little extra money. And if you don't make a reservation, especially if you are travelling in  the peak period (i think around June to August) there might be a possibility that you don't have a seat. Which means if you are fast enough you can grab one of those fold up seats on the corridor(you don't get to sit much because when people pass by, which they do a lot, to go to toilet and the officer will pass by to check tickets, and the food trolley will pass buy to sell food etc, you need to stand up and let them pass). If you don't even get that seat, you just have to stand and hopefully someone gets off and you can take his/her place. Fortunately, probably because the other places i went this time wasn't very popular and its September, i had a seat even though i didn't make a reservation. But last winter when i went to Gdansk the train was packed and i had to sit on the corridor, uncomfortable and cold but bearable. Just the day before going to Berlin, i went online and check for hostels available in hostelworld.com there were only very few options left, and we immediately book it. Booking through hostelworld you need to pay a 10% deposit to hostelworld. So if you wanna save that money, you could try looking for the hostel's own website and book through that. But not every hostel has their own website, so I had to book through hostelworld. But booking through hostelworld is quite ok cause after the booking they will send you and email attached with tips for travelling in the city that we booked, for example where to find cheap food, what to see, things like that. So, not really that bad and after the visit they will ask your review bout the hostel so if you feel like there's something other people should know before they book the hostel, you could share with others by commenting there. But if you can save that money, why not? A night in hostels on average is bout 10 Euro per person( this price is for rather last minute booking, I don't know how are the prices will be if you book it earlier, i assume you could get it for a lot cheaper). So if you book for 2 nights, you will be giving hostelworld 2 Euros. And you have to pay the hostel the 20Euros when you arrive, some hostels only accept cash, so read the description properly, if they didn't write anything bout payment, email them or call them or just get ready with your cash. 

Arriving at Berlin about 12 plus in the afternoon, the city looked very modern and the train station was huge and looked almost like an airport. As soon as we got off, we went to the tourist information center to get our Berlin Welcome card, it was 16.90 Euro per person for 2 days. This is for transport and discounts in some attractions. If you want to see the museums, you could also buy the Welcome Card+ Musueminsel card, i don't know the price, but with that you will get free entry into museums. I didn't get the Musuem card, but my student ID will give me half price for the museums if I went. After getting the card, we went looking for our hostel. It was raining and quite cold. We were a little lost and a very nice guy stopped and asked us if we need help and gave us directions. When we arrived there, the guy in charge was very friendly and after checking in gave us a map and briefly told us where the attractions are. We left our luggage and went out. It was still raining and cold and the streets were rather empty, it was a real put off. We couldn't see many places and the price of the food in restaurants were really expensive so we just had our lunch in the currywurst stand, its a hotdog stand, 3 Euro for 1 hotdog. And before going back to our hostel we bought some bread and water. The only fun thing that day was visiting Madame Tussaud, we had a great time there playing the wax figures. They had a wax of Hitler but there was a sign before it saying that they do not encourage us to take photos or pose with the figure in respect to other guests. Some of the waxes looked alive but some weren't that good. Overall, we had fun despite the shitty weather. I was quite depressed by the time i went back to the hostel, missing home and my room with private space. I stayed in a 13bed room, so you don't really have your own space, except your bed, but its visible to everyone. So i just had to get use to the chit chat,people walking pass your bed, the door opening and closing, people staring at you etc when you are sleeping. And I also had to get used to people in their underclothes, guys and girls just change their clothes in front of everybody. Not something I was used to at first, but I was pretty numb near the end. When i went back, all the other people were  just getting ready to go out, Berlin is a party place. I wasn't in the mood and mainly because i didn't pack any clothes for a night out, I just went to sleep. 

The second day was much better, it wasn't raining so we saw many things, one of the must see i think is the Berliner Dom, very pretty. We were too late, so we couldn't go to the musuems, it closes at 6pm. But we did do a rather childish thing, visiting the Aqua Dom. There were so many pretty fishes. I even got to touch a starfish, under supervision of the worker there of course. It was the size of my palm and its skin felt rough. Childish but I loved it there. There was an elevator ride in the opposite building. It was a few stories high fish tank and the elevator was in the middle of the tank so we could see fishes swimming around us, it was pretty awesome. 

After Berlin we wanted to go to Amsterdam, so we went to ask the price of the train ticket in the train station, it was almost 100Euro per person! A pass is only 300 plus Euro and you can go up to 30 countries. We discussed about it and decided we need to completely change our plan because all the countries we wanted to go uses Euro and the tickets between them will be very pricey. So we decided to go to Poznan, a city in Poland, just to give a break on our wallet. We spent 2 nights there, the city wasn't bad, rather peaceful. The hostel that we stayed in was the best one we been in this whole trip, the name is Hostel Quadro, great location, nice people,clean,comfortable and affordable. They also had PS2, Ray was very happy with that. We were planning to visit Wroclaw, another city in Poland after that but all the hostels were booked, so we bout our tickets to Prague instead. The Intercity officer was very helpful and helped us find the cheapest way possible to get there. Our train was at 1am on the third night, so we spent half of the day wandering around the city and the other half in the train station. The indoor part of the station closes at 12am so we had to wait outside, it was cold, after bout an hour, we hopped on the train. We changed train at the Wroclaw station and continue our journey again.

When we reach the border of Czech we were supposed to buy a separate ticket from the ticket officer to Prague. Assuming that they will accept Euros on an international train, i didn't have any Czech crown with me. When the officer came, speaking in Czech, he showed me with his calculator the price, it was bout 300 plus crowns(15 Euro) and i gave him my 100Euro bill, he shook his head and said, "no Euro, no Euro, only Czech koruna". I thought we will be kicked off the train or something. The officer then waved his hand at me, gesturing me to follow him, all the time speaking in Czech. I didn't know what was going on, but i just followed him. We went to the next wagon and he started  speaking to the passengers, then i realize that he was going to ask them if they have any change for Euro. The wagon was filled with drunk young Polish guys singing the national anthem with Polish flags on their shoulders, some waving the flag( there was a football match in Czech they were going to support the Polish team) . The officer could barely be heard among all the chaos, those who heard it, just shake their head, no one wanted to or had any change. Then one of the drunk guys stopped the singing and tried to listen, then he asked his bunch of friends, one of them took out few Euro coins and asked if its enough, obviously it wasn't. they asked me how much I am changing for, when i showed them my 100 Euro bill, they went 'woah' pretty funny sight. Then I noticed I had a 10 Euro bill and three 10 zloty bills. I took them out and asked if its enough, one of the guys then paid the officer my tickets in crown and he took the 10 Euro and 30 zloty from me. I was so grateful that a stranger was willing to change money with me. I said thank you to him and went back to my seat, i didn't really know the currency then, but after I found out later, and as I counted the money i gave him wasn't really enough. Probably bout 7 zloty less. I felt bad but very grateful and thankful to meet that person. Even though i know that he probably was too drunk to realize but I was still very grateful. And lesson learnt, always have the currency of the country you r going to in cash!    

Its been quite sometime since i typed so many words at a go, a little tiring, and im sure its really long for you to read too, so just this for now, more on Prague, Kutna Hora, Brno, Bratislava and Budapest on my next post.    

Bought a Carmen 2day

Im not sure if u guys noticed, but march and april are packed with birthdays! there were 6 birthdays starting from 12th of March till the last 1, mine, on the 2nd of April, and all 5 of them are my close friends, so of course we celebrated. At the beggining it was great, i was excited, baking cakes, thinking of ideas 2 celebrate, but after the 3rd or 4th, it started to get tiring, and by the time it was my birthday, all i wanted was to rest. i had enough of birthday cakes and celebrations. But, it was the last day of school, and we were going 2 have a week of holidays for Easter, so how can i not celebrate? ;) So we went out for dinner, and then back 2 my place, and we went out for some drinks. it was almost 11pm, with a little rain and finally, after checking out 4 other pubs, which were all packed, we had a place in the 5th one. we had a few drinks and chatted for a while, and went back home at around 3am. so, that was my 21st birthday. pretty simple, but still love it and all the presents i got!

Its Easter holiday, which is the last holiday i will have till summer break, which means the last time that i can relax before finals and everything. its thursday 2day, and after hibernating at home since saturday, (I finished season 1 and 2 of "Lie To Me", all together 23 episodes and also many many episodes of CSI.. kinda scary when i think about it.) i finally decided to get out and see the world. we went 2 check out a house just a few street down my place. my friend, ting, is planning 2 move here, which is great! so i have a place 2 go if i argue with ray, and when i buy my guitar, i can go 2 his house and learn it with him. we bought him a blue guitar for his birthday, and he's learning pretty fast. wanna get mine soon... after checking out the house, we went to this nursery just opposite and check out the flowers there, they were so pretty and cheap. i was walking and looking at the names, and i saw one with the name 'Carmen', its red and pretty, so i bought it and another pretty blue 1. i know it seems a little creepy, but i hope u dont mind bu. hehe... and dont worry, i will take very good care of my Carmen. ;)

Update :)

Its been 3 months back 2 poland, not many things happened... but just a quick update, especially for you, miss carmen...
I moved to a new place, a pretty apartment in a very nice neighbourhood. Its quite pricey and not the best location, but i LOVE it anyway. Its so much more comfortable living in my own place, compared 2 living in a super tiny room with another person in the dorm... almost ZERO privacy.... none of that now.. im living with ray and tingting, and things have been going great so far.

One of the thing i can't get used to is still the POGODA( weather in polish)!!! its getting colder... and it snowed last month! totally weird... but now is getting a little hot again, but there's really really strong wind outside now, i can hear the door making weird sound... scary... hope it doesn't fall or anything... anyway, all this weird change of weather really got 2 me, and i got sick few weeks ago, and recovered but few days after that ray got sick and i was taking care of him for a day, and i got sick AGAIN! i was having very high fever that didnt seem 2 go down, running nose and sore throat. I was so tired and all the news bout the virus made me had some thoughts... so i went 2 see a doc, fortunately, everything was fine, it was just a normal flu, had some vit C and paracetamol and i was feeling much better after a few days. Thank God!

On the 8th of November was our first year anniversary... we had plans before that, but both of us were so sick that time, we had 2 cancel it. :( hope we have the chance 2 make up for it this coming christmas break.

Abi will be going 2 uk for an interview, and after that she will be coming here and spending the holidays with me! YEAH!!!! first visit from my family... sweet... Can't wait... :)

thats all i can update for now, will be having exams next week and the week after, but after that will have more time for more update. till then... ciao!

love at first sight

Love at first sight... I never believed in it...

Some might say that's because i had never experienced it before... its true, i never did fall in love with someone I met for the first time.

I believe in liking someone at the first sight, crush at the first sight, lust at the first sight... but, love at the first sight? i think people are just confused about what they feel...

love, for me, is something built after a period of time, not something we feel in a split second.
how can u say ' he/she is the one' after having a conversation for just a few hours? i would never say that...

that's just me...

the truth is, no matter how much im objecting to the idea of love at the first sight, a part of me is actually envious towards whoever who had felt it before. I never let my feelings run free, constantly controlling myself, my feelings , my thoughts... just because im too afraid of being hurt... can u imagine, i never even tried riding a bicycle because i was too afraid of falling down and hurting myself...

I always thought that life would be so much easier if we just go by the flow, don't take any risks, go by the safest way... but life itself taught me otherwise...

To the guy who thinks that he had fall in love with the girl he saw in Starbucks,
the girl who thinks that the guy she met 2 days ago might be 'the one' ,
Go ahead and love all u want, whoever u want, which ever way u want, as long as it keeps u happy.

(This is specially for someone that means the world to me... this is for you... love you always.)