I suppose two weeks is long enough for you all to properly digest how creepy it is to have a stranger break into your house to pee, so let's all slowly exhale and move on with things.
Uni started last week. This semester I'm doing Polish studies - literature, art, history and language. So far all the classes seem pretty interesting. The art history class is particularly awesome. We've gone on a couple of 'field trips', wandering around the city looking at the old buildings and monuments. There's a tonne of neo-Gothic architecture around in Krakow, apparently.
Also, I've got my timetable nicely sorted so that I only have three days of classes - Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, meaning I have 4 day weekends. Awesome. I'm hoping to use these mini-breaks to travel.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Sunday, February 28, 2010
a short story
Hey, want to know something creepy? Of course you do! So on Friday, Magda (my flatmate, rememeber?) and I went to a cafe to use their wireless and then browsed some of the local second hand stores, scoring a bundle of goodies between us. We were probably gone a few hours.
We got home and the door was locked, just as we had left it. However, someone had been in our a apartment. A male someone, judging by the urine left all over the toilet seat (all occupants of our flat are ladies and as our other flatmate Justina had already left to go to her parents for the weekend that morning and the bathroom had been clean when we left, all signs pointed to an intruder).
A search under the beds and in the cupboards revealed that whoever had left the urine was no longer in our little flat, but I found it very creepy. We still don't know who it was.
We got home and the door was locked, just as we had left it. However, someone had been in our a apartment. A male someone, judging by the urine left all over the toilet seat (all occupants of our flat are ladies and as our other flatmate Justina had already left to go to her parents for the weekend that morning and the bathroom had been clean when we left, all signs pointed to an intruder).
A search under the beds and in the cupboards revealed that whoever had left the urine was no longer in our little flat, but I found it very creepy. We still don't know who it was.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
served chilled.
Skipping the weather talk I'm so tempted to start with (it's cold, yada yada, could be colder, yada yada, hey look a bird!, yada yada) and going to straight for the good stuff. Except there's not really much to report.
Classes hypothetically start this week but really start next week, so I still haven't met anyone. Orientation starts next week, I'll probably go to a couple of events. New friends would be nice.
As of this morning I'm a registered student at the Jagiellonian University. In my ID photo I look eerily like Mum. Well, I guess it's not that eerie, given how closely related we are and all, but still. I find it odd since I never really thought we looked that much alike.
Random things found during my walks through the city:
I think this is either a public sculpture or an underground war machine... maybe both.
A sad little snowman with no eyes and only one arm.
I found this neat little teahouse and had the most spectacular pot of chai tea that I have ever had the pleasure of ingesting. It was rich and spicy and just perfect.
The teahouse was pretty neat looking too. There were fish tanks everywhere and parts of the wall were thatched and textured and just awesome.
Yesterday I went with my flatmate Magda and her friend Agnes to a couple of pubs in the city. One was underground in a space that for hundreds of years and until only recentlyish was used for food storage during the winter. It was a very nifty space, even if the pub itself wasn't particularly special.
I've found four or five op shops in the streets around my apartment, and have been having a blast digging through them for treasure. Yesterday I found a dirndl! I don't know if I want me to have it or if I'll send it home to a friend.
Classes hypothetically start this week but really start next week, so I still haven't met anyone. Orientation starts next week, I'll probably go to a couple of events. New friends would be nice.
As of this morning I'm a registered student at the Jagiellonian University. In my ID photo I look eerily like Mum. Well, I guess it's not that eerie, given how closely related we are and all, but still. I find it odd since I never really thought we looked that much alike.
Random things found during my walks through the city:
I think this is either a public sculpture or an underground war machine... maybe both.
A sad little snowman with no eyes and only one arm.
I found this neat little teahouse and had the most spectacular pot of chai tea that I have ever had the pleasure of ingesting. It was rich and spicy and just perfect.
The teahouse was pretty neat looking too. There were fish tanks everywhere and parts of the wall were thatched and textured and just awesome.
Yesterday I went with my flatmate Magda and her friend Agnes to a couple of pubs in the city. One was underground in a space that for hundreds of years and until only recentlyish was used for food storage during the winter. It was a very nifty space, even if the pub itself wasn't particularly special.
I've found four or five op shops in the streets around my apartment, and have been having a blast digging through them for treasure. Yesterday I found a dirndl! I don't know if I want me to have it or if I'll send it home to a friend.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
working my voodoo magic
I am using the black arts to bring this old travel blog back from the dead, for the evil purpose of keeping people updated on my latest adventure - a year in Poland on student exchange.
I arrived late on the evening of February 11 after a fairly horrific 40ish hours travel time, that included 12 hours trapped in Frankfurt airport, a flight cancelled due to snow, and getting into a fight with some German jerk who thought I'd just let him shove in front of me in queue.
Anyway, Poland has been interesting so far. My first morning at the lovely Good Bye Lenin hostel I woke to the following view:
"Imperialist enemies tempt you with coca-cola."
This is one of the walls in the kitchen/basement/pub of the hostel - I got a kick out of it.
But I couldn't stay in the hostel forever, so last Thursday I moved into an apartment in Kazimierz, about 15 minutes walk south from the city centre. I have my own room, and am sharing with a couple of Polish students, two girls both in their twenties.
My new room - home sweet home.
Aside from finding a place to live, I haven't done anything too exciting yet. Most days I go walking around Krakow, getting to know the sites and the layout of the city. I've finally tried pierogi, and every day I learn a few more words of Polish.
The city is made up of a combination of gorgeous old buildings, and slightly less-gorgeous buildings from the soviet-era. I took this on my way to the big mall. It's a pretty good example of what the streets look like here. Lots of big buildings, with shops on the bottom level and apartments above. I now live above a convenience store, and I've discovered at least 3 op shops within a block or two of my apartment.
I took this in the planty, which is a ring of grass and trees that encircles the city centre. It makes for a lovely walk, and I anticipate that once the snow has melted will make an ideal spot to have a picnic and read a book.
This church is in Rynek Główny, the main square in the city centre. There are lots of old churches scattered throughout the city, and nuns galore. I see them on the tram, in the supermarket, walking down the street. It's very strange, coming from such a godless land as I do.
And just for fun, one of me dressed in my winter finest on one of my rambles through the city. Fun fact: every time I go into a warm building after being outside, my glasses fog up completely and I can't see a thing. Good times.
I arrived late on the evening of February 11 after a fairly horrific 40ish hours travel time, that included 12 hours trapped in Frankfurt airport, a flight cancelled due to snow, and getting into a fight with some German jerk who thought I'd just let him shove in front of me in queue.
Anyway, Poland has been interesting so far. My first morning at the lovely Good Bye Lenin hostel I woke to the following view:
"Imperialist enemies tempt you with coca-cola."
This is one of the walls in the kitchen/basement/pub of the hostel - I got a kick out of it.
But I couldn't stay in the hostel forever, so last Thursday I moved into an apartment in Kazimierz, about 15 minutes walk south from the city centre. I have my own room, and am sharing with a couple of Polish students, two girls both in their twenties.
My new room - home sweet home.
Aside from finding a place to live, I haven't done anything too exciting yet. Most days I go walking around Krakow, getting to know the sites and the layout of the city. I've finally tried pierogi, and every day I learn a few more words of Polish.
The city is made up of a combination of gorgeous old buildings, and slightly less-gorgeous buildings from the soviet-era. I took this on my way to the big mall. It's a pretty good example of what the streets look like here. Lots of big buildings, with shops on the bottom level and apartments above. I now live above a convenience store, and I've discovered at least 3 op shops within a block or two of my apartment.
I took this in the planty, which is a ring of grass and trees that encircles the city centre. It makes for a lovely walk, and I anticipate that once the snow has melted will make an ideal spot to have a picnic and read a book.
This church is in Rynek Główny, the main square in the city centre. There are lots of old churches scattered throughout the city, and nuns galore. I see them on the tram, in the supermarket, walking down the street. It's very strange, coming from such a godless land as I do.
And just for fun, one of me dressed in my winter finest on one of my rambles through the city. Fun fact: every time I go into a warm building after being outside, my glasses fog up completely and I can't see a thing. Good times.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
poutine ahoy!
I don't remember what has happened since I last updated!
Um. We went on a picnic at Mont Royal, it was a really long and beautiful walk to the top of the little mountain. The others mocked my fear of squirrels dropping out of the trees to try to steal our food, but allowed the move from a table to the grass away from the trees. Later we visited the cross on the peak. At night the cross lights up and can be seen across the city.
Another night we went and saw David O'Doherty perform as part of the Just For Laughs comedy festival. That was Thursday, I think, because on Friday Jason and I stayed here in Longueiul. There is some knd of festival happening in the main street here. We danced to Cuban music and browsed markets and ate seafood in a nice cafe. Pretty much it was just a nice, low-key date, just the two of us, while Claire, Dane and Maddy went and saw a band in the city.
During summer in Montreal, fireworks are let off the Jacques-Cartier bridge twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturday nights. We'd been going to go see them on Wednesday, but they were rained out and we ended up spending the evening in a karaoke bar in the gay district instead. Last night was our last opportunity to see the fireworks before we leave for New York, so we went down to the Old Port and watched the fireworks. They played classical music along with the fireworks, to heighten the experience, except all the music was movie scores, which made it kind of hilarious. The fireworks are also themed. Last nights were China themed, which meant lots of Olympic-ring inspired fireworks. After we went for poutine with a Montrealer friend of Maddy's who knows all the good places.
On Sundays there is percussion in the Mont-Royal park, which we had been planning to attend today, but we woke up to pouring rain so that's off and instead we are sitting around Anik's house in Longueiul watching CNN.
Next stop: New York!
Um. We went on a picnic at Mont Royal, it was a really long and beautiful walk to the top of the little mountain. The others mocked my fear of squirrels dropping out of the trees to try to steal our food, but allowed the move from a table to the grass away from the trees. Later we visited the cross on the peak. At night the cross lights up and can be seen across the city.
Another night we went and saw David O'Doherty perform as part of the Just For Laughs comedy festival. That was Thursday, I think, because on Friday Jason and I stayed here in Longueiul. There is some knd of festival happening in the main street here. We danced to Cuban music and browsed markets and ate seafood in a nice cafe. Pretty much it was just a nice, low-key date, just the two of us, while Claire, Dane and Maddy went and saw a band in the city.
During summer in Montreal, fireworks are let off the Jacques-Cartier bridge twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturday nights. We'd been going to go see them on Wednesday, but they were rained out and we ended up spending the evening in a karaoke bar in the gay district instead. Last night was our last opportunity to see the fireworks before we leave for New York, so we went down to the Old Port and watched the fireworks. They played classical music along with the fireworks, to heighten the experience, except all the music was movie scores, which made it kind of hilarious. The fireworks are also themed. Last nights were China themed, which meant lots of Olympic-ring inspired fireworks. After we went for poutine with a Montrealer friend of Maddy's who knows all the good places.
On Sundays there is percussion in the Mont-Royal park, which we had been planning to attend today, but we woke up to pouring rain so that's off and instead we are sitting around Anik's house in Longueiul watching CNN.
Next stop: New York!
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
so meet us there, if you wanna change the world with us
We are in Canada! The night we arrived we stayed at the fanciest hotel I've ever stayed in. It was for my birthday, one night only. Jason had a birthday surprise for me: he took me to the Old Port area of Montreal and we walked along the docks (going through customs took 2 hours so we didn't have enough time to do much there, but just walking was lovely), then we went to a very posh Italian restaurant that Jay had chosen because it had a reputation for excellent risotto (my favourite). We got back to the hotel and found they'd left a slice of cake and chocolates for us. Whether it was because it was my birthday, or because they knew it was our honeymoon, is uncertain, but either way they were delicious and rich and nom nom nom.
On Sunday we checked out of the hotel, put our bags in lockers at the train station and wandered around Old Montreal. We went to a museum and saw a couple of exhibitions, one of how the evolution of women's clothing is linked to social change, one of modern Inuit sculpture, one of portraits of Montrealers from the last few hundred years. We also stopped for poutine and beer at Peel Pub before heading down to the Grand Bibliotheque where we met up with Maddy and Dane and Claire.
Maddy, having contacts all over the world, had managed to wangle it so we're crashing on the floor at the home of a family friend while we're in Montreal, which is very generous of the friend, and nicely budget-friendly for us.
I thought it would cooler in Canada, being so far north and all, but it is 33 today. We've fallen into the routine of sleeping most of the morning away and going out in the later afternoon when it's cooler.
Last night we went for poutine in the Latin Quarter. Today's plan is op-shopping and a picnic at Mont Royal. Tomorrow, who knows. It's weird to think in a few weeks I'll be back in Australia, wearing scarves and coats to keep out the cold. I like summer.
On Sunday we checked out of the hotel, put our bags in lockers at the train station and wandered around Old Montreal. We went to a museum and saw a couple of exhibitions, one of how the evolution of women's clothing is linked to social change, one of modern Inuit sculpture, one of portraits of Montrealers from the last few hundred years. We also stopped for poutine and beer at Peel Pub before heading down to the Grand Bibliotheque where we met up with Maddy and Dane and Claire.
Maddy, having contacts all over the world, had managed to wangle it so we're crashing on the floor at the home of a family friend while we're in Montreal, which is very generous of the friend, and nicely budget-friendly for us.
I thought it would cooler in Canada, being so far north and all, but it is 33 today. We've fallen into the routine of sleeping most of the morning away and going out in the later afternoon when it's cooler.
Last night we went for poutine in the Latin Quarter. Today's plan is op-shopping and a picnic at Mont Royal. Tomorrow, who knows. It's weird to think in a few weeks I'll be back in Australia, wearing scarves and coats to keep out the cold. I like summer.
Friday, July 4, 2008
maybe WE don't believe in YOU.
It's 4th of July, and I'm in Roswell. We're here for the UFO festival, though, unfortunately, the most exciting part of it is tomorrow (the alien parade!), which is the day we fly out to Montreal.
Tomorrow is also my birthday. Jason has some kind of suprise planned for the evening and has been sneaking around arranging things. I tried to guess what it was, but the only thing I could weasel out of him was that it's somewhere between roller skating and McDonalds. What does that even MEAN?
The last time I updated we were in Flagstaff trying to work out how to get to the Grand Canyon. Well, we got there, and it was amazing. We did a walk around the rim (only a tiny way, of course, that thing is huge!) but didn't go down into it at all because Jason was scared. We saw squirrels and condors and deer and a raccoon but no mountain lions.
Flagstaff was a fantastic town too, I should add. It has this laid-back, hippiy kind of vibe to it, and the bead shop there was fantastic. While we were wandering around looking for somewhere to get dinner on our last night there, we stumbled across a parade of locals who were marching to show their support for two young men who were beaten up the previous weekend during the Flagstaff mardi gras.
Our journey from Phoenix to El Paso was one of the most miserable experiences of my life. The over night bus broke down and we spent seven hours waiting for another, plus a couple of the passangers got drunk and abusive and were arrested. There's more, but I cried so much during the trip that I don't really feel like bringing up memories of it again incase I cry some more.
We've given up on the Greyhound. We're not riding it again, EVER. I won't give the full list of terrible things that have happened on the Greyhound, but let's just say there hasn't been a single bustrip without incident. We caught a TAXI from El Paso to Roswell. The driver gave us a good deal though, and the trip was so easy and relaxing.
Yesterday was our first full day here in Roswell. The UFO fest has begun, but it's mostly panels of UFOlogists and authors giving talks so far. If the buses are running today, we'll head back into town to attend a few and maybe buy one of the obnoxious souvenir t-shirts from one of the millions of tourist-oriented stores on Main St.
Tomorrow is also my birthday. Jason has some kind of suprise planned for the evening and has been sneaking around arranging things. I tried to guess what it was, but the only thing I could weasel out of him was that it's somewhere between roller skating and McDonalds. What does that even MEAN?
The last time I updated we were in Flagstaff trying to work out how to get to the Grand Canyon. Well, we got there, and it was amazing. We did a walk around the rim (only a tiny way, of course, that thing is huge!) but didn't go down into it at all because Jason was scared. We saw squirrels and condors and deer and a raccoon but no mountain lions.
Flagstaff was a fantastic town too, I should add. It has this laid-back, hippiy kind of vibe to it, and the bead shop there was fantastic. While we were wandering around looking for somewhere to get dinner on our last night there, we stumbled across a parade of locals who were marching to show their support for two young men who were beaten up the previous weekend during the Flagstaff mardi gras.
Our journey from Phoenix to El Paso was one of the most miserable experiences of my life. The over night bus broke down and we spent seven hours waiting for another, plus a couple of the passangers got drunk and abusive and were arrested. There's more, but I cried so much during the trip that I don't really feel like bringing up memories of it again incase I cry some more.
We've given up on the Greyhound. We're not riding it again, EVER. I won't give the full list of terrible things that have happened on the Greyhound, but let's just say there hasn't been a single bustrip without incident. We caught a TAXI from El Paso to Roswell. The driver gave us a good deal though, and the trip was so easy and relaxing.
Yesterday was our first full day here in Roswell. The UFO fest has begun, but it's mostly panels of UFOlogists and authors giving talks so far. If the buses are running today, we'll head back into town to attend a few and maybe buy one of the obnoxious souvenir t-shirts from one of the millions of tourist-oriented stores on Main St.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
