Warsaw, Poland

Chapter 3

 

Leaving Dresden to Warsaw via Prague wasn’t too bad. 

 

Janis took me to the Hauptbahnhof in the Neu Stadt, there was supposed to be a train to Prague yet it wasn’t there.  I freaked out.  The train officer said the train to Prague would stop over in the Hauptbahnhof in Alt Stadt.  People asked me to take a taxi - taxi in Germany?  Taxies are notoriously expensive in Hong Kong, I didn’t think I wanted to bet on my luck or in this case… my wallet - so I opted for the S-Bahn.  I was all sweating when I was on the train, it took 5 minutes to Alt Stadt, wasn’t it?  How come it took so long!  The bugs were eating my guts.  I ran after I got off the S-Bahn in Alt Stadt, ha, believe me or not, there was a delay to Prague so the train was still in the platform!  I was almost in a rapture, I flew to the ticket office yelling for a ticket on the train.  The lady immediately proceed to buy a ticket to Prague for me on the ticketing machine… but, it only showed the tickets to the next train.  Damn it.  I ran.  I hopped on the train, no delay, I couldn’t afford it.  My connection train to Warsaw was no joke.

 

I couldn’t believe my luck, but then, lucky has always been my middle name - haha, yes, we Asians have all kind of names! - so I settled myself down neatly on the train, and started talking to the couple sitting opposite to me.

 

Stopped by Prague

 

I wasn’t disappointed in Prague because I had no expectation.  It reminded me of Salzburg, but it turned out to be so very different.  I stayed there for just 2 hours, lying on the grass daydreaming then I was off to my Warsaw!  The officers in the train station in Prague were terribly unhelpful and rude, deduct two marks.

 

Warsaw

 

Finally!  After several hours on the night train, I arrived Warsaw at around 6 in the morning.  The hostel I booked was not far from the train station, 10 minutes walk.  I had sobered up and was breathing in the nice communism air in Warsaw - I was ready for some adventures!

 

Funny that I had to call the hostel manager to open the door for me at 7am in the morning.  I felt bad for doing this but why didn’t they just install a bell or something?  Ivan, the hostel manager, doesn’t even live in the hostel.  I had to laugh when I told him I had no money to pay - all Euros - but he was really nice and said I could pay whenever I had the money!  Aw, death to capitalists!

 

 

 

This was how my room looked: bright, big and a balcony included!

 

That day I got a room mate - Thomas.  He’s from Germany and was travelling by car.  He had stayed in Warsaw for a few days and was leaving Warsaw the day after, so he suggested we see the city together for a day.  I had no concrete plan for the day and thought it would be nice to have someone who knew the city (and the rules) to guide me.  Then we set off after I smelled nice and looked fresh after a shower!

 

Thom took me to the old town.  He thought it was the nicest part in the city - which was true.  The sun was burning on my skin, but it was a lot worse for Thom, he got several shades of red on him.  At first I worried about spending a day with a complete stranger, but it turned out Thom was good company, we never ran out of things to say.  I guess it was because he was curious about my culture and things and I was interested in his stories.  The first thing we did after we stepped in the old town: found a nice restaurant and had a delicious lunch! 

 

 

We had a stroll in one of the parks there - they’ve got a few HUGE parks, they were sooo huge!

 

 

 

And then we wandered around the city, aimlessly, talking.  You can see my friend there in the picture below :) 

 

 

 

Warsaw was so cheap!  The city itself was beautiful, people stared at me, at us, they probably don’t see a Caucasian with an Asian girl every day.  I liked the Warsawers, they were so helpful, so nice and enthusiastic.  The way people dressed reminded me of the old movies I watched on TV of people in communism era.  They didn’t look very… modern.  This I noticed too: girls wore heavy make-up with bright red lips, that was very communism - I am not being mean or critical, that’s the way they made me feel.  Their skins were not very good, but they were very warm and so willingly pointed out the directions for me whenever I needed them, and they always tried to speak English with me, which was great.

 

 

 

I went back to the old town the next day after Thom left.  It was so beautiful, I couldn’t leave without going back once again.

 

 

I took all the time in the world sitting somewhere in the old town, daydreamed and wrote postcards to my friends.  And I had ice-creams.

 

Warsaw suffered greatly back in the world wars and afterwards.  I went to the scariest museum in my life, Pawiek Museum; went to the Jewish cemetery - hundreds of thousands tombs - on my own talking to the workers; visited a once-palace-now-a-museum without understanding much - all was in Polish; stumbled my way to Marii Curie’s museum; enjoyed the aimless walks ended in finding the river Elbe and went to the Tomb of Unknown Soldiers which was under construction.

 

     

 

Apart from the regular sightseeing spots I wanted to see in Warsaw, I was also ready to partake in the gay parade.  In the end I changed my mind and left Warsaw the day which the parade was supposed to take place.  I didn’t have enough time for Krakow and I felt too lonely to stay in Warsaw.

 

 

 

Warsaw is amazing because new and modern as well as old and ancient co-exist in the city in harmony.  Warsaw is mysterious because… I couldn’t understand a word of the language!  Warsaw also made me think, after all the Jewish places I visited.  In the end I was invited to a party by our hostel manager before I left :)

 

 

The road back to the hostel.  I became familiar with the banks there, haha, I had to change money every day when I was there: to pay the hostel, buy food and enjoy myself :p  Warsaw surprised me and in return, I fell in love with her.  I know I will go back, only next time I won’t be there alone.

 

Dresden

Chapter 2

 

Dresden was a very beautiful city!  It’s known as “Florence on the Elbe”.  I explored the city by bike - you can borrow it for free from the hostel I stayed in.  The main problem that I had with the old bike was that, it wasn’t designed for a small Asian like me, it was slightly taller for my size!  Though it was old, I had a great time riding it, going everywhere I wanted - I sort of felt like I was a whirlwind :)

 

 

 

90% of Dresden was destroyed back in the World War II, the restoration started in 1950s by the communist regime.  It was a bit disappointing to see the Frauenkirche (picture on the right) looking as good as new, other than that, everything was quite to my taste - serene, beautiful and old.  Picture on the left is the Hofkirche, one of the landmarks in Dresden (I didn’t get in when I was there though, it’s a pity!).

 

 

 

There was too much to see and feel in Dresen.  The weather was wonderfully sunny, I went up to one of the museums in Zwinger overlooking the city.

 

 

 

Inside the Zwinger - you should note that the Galerie is closed on Mondays - it was not as huge as I imagined it to be, it didn’t even look very much like a castle, but well, I learned to enjoy myself.  Besides, Jonas (the friend whom I bumped into in the tram when I first arrived) and I spent a good afternoon lost ourselves in all those great paintings.  I felt very artistic :)

 

Here is a pictures of myself lost in the city… and was writing my friend an email (you can even see my old bike there!).

 

 

There was so much going on in Dresden, with all the construction work and those muscular young construction workers!  Wah!  It was all so lively!  (Actually, there were so many galleries and exhibitions too)

 

 

 

I rode and rode and rode on.  There I was, sitting by the River Elbe, enjoying the beautiful view, listening to the singing of birds, staring at the amazingly blue skies, looking at the casual passers-by and writing postcards to my friends.  Everything was just perfect.

 

 

 

Watched the World Cup (Spain vs Holland) with a Spanish guy and his mother sitting in a beautiful restaurant (you can even see it in the picture below) , had a lot of good food (not so expensive!) and a beer.  It was a bit weird because all the time I supported Holland but I couldn’t cheer for them with the Spanish sitting next to me, haha, I dozed off in the end because of jetlag.

 

 

At the beginning I thought Dresden was a bit boring, and couldn’t enjoy it much.  Everything was old, the styles were more or less the same and I was feeling very lonely.  Even my butt was hurting from riding the bike.  However, after staying there for 3 days and saw more of the city, I fell in love with it.  I think it is a very nice city to settle in if you love art and enjoy the quietness.  (It wasn’t quiet where I stayed, there were so many pubs and bars!)  Dresden has everything.  It is one of the German cities which you just have to see and spend a good afternoon strolling the beautiful Elbe river bank.

Europe trip 2010

Chapter 1

 

I was off to Europe again in July for 3 weeks.  At the beginning I journeyed alone, then my best friend Yan joined me.  I’ve seen a few more places, met and talked to some very interesting people, learned so much about Europe history and of course, took so many beautiful pictures!

 

Anyway, I will lift the veil now and show you what I saw.

 

 

 

The Schonefeld airport in Berlin was quite small, unfortunately.  I had, however, successfully managed to find my way to the Berlin Hauptbahnhof for my train to my first stop - Dresden.  I saved my yoghurt on the flight, and only swallowed it when I found the train to the Berlin city centre!

 

 

 

I was showered in the beautiful Berlin sunshine.  The weather was so awfully nice!  I had an hour or two walking around the Hauptbahnhof, I wrote my first journey entry sitting under the bridge shade, overlooking the beautiful River Spree.

 

A good start!

 

 

…or not.  I wouldn’t say my short train ride from Berlin to Dresden wasn’t eventful.  First, silly me forgot to bring the credit card which I used to buy my train tickets, so I had to buy a new ticket (and holy cow, I bought a few tickets using that credit card!); and second, the air-con on the train was kaputt!  Now that was very unforgiveable!  Those nice people who shared the little compartment with me on the train were really nice, they thought I could speak German - well, I sort of do, but it just wasn’t so good as expected - so they kept talking in German to me, haha, to my surprise I understood them quite well!  The picture was a good one :)  We had to fan ourselves!  It was too damn hot!  Even I was sweating!

 

Things got weirder.

 

After I arrived Dresden looking quite as un-beautiful as one can be (well, that’s how you’re gonna look after 13 hours on a plane), I bumped into my friend on the tram to my hostel.  Now, that was a very curious thing.  This German friend I had never met before, he’s a friend’s friend, whom I supposed to meet only afterwards.  I was sitting there when he got up the train, we were staring at each other, he basically just came up and asked me “Are you Joey????!!” and I was dumbfounded.  How small is Dresden!  How amazing is this world!  (Until now I still cannot explain why he could just recognise me as we had never met before, may be it was very obviously that I look like… a Joey!)  Anyway, he was leaving town at that time, so we were to meet later on.

 

 

My hostel overlooking a beautiful European-style building.

 

So finally I was there in Dresden, alone!  I managed it!  This was the first time I travelled alone to so far away, alone.  It was wonderful experience, I fell in love with it only afterwards - I didn’t enjoy it so much at the beginning, this I have to admit.

In Nostalgia

More than once, my brain brought me back to Europe.  All the never-forgotten memories wander in my heart and again and again I am there.

 

Here are some really exclusive pictures I’ve never shown anyone.  Looking at them really makes me smile.  Christmas is coming, may I wish you all a joyous Christmas.

 

To my beloved Po and Yan, here are the forgotten ones.  May our friendship last forever.  All the memories shared, no one can ever replace you.

 

ICH LIEBE EUCH!

 

Right outside the Schönbruun in Wien.

 

The crazy strong wind in Alkmaar.

 

Wandering around in Venice.

 

Just arriving Innsbruck.

 

I remember I was in a sulky mood therefore you were too.

 

Making really stupid faces in the ruin site in Rome.

 

Some moves in my beloved Füssen.

 

 

Outside mini Europe and inside McDonald’s in Brussels.

 

Meeting Mathias for the first time at mama & papa’s.

 

The cold and lonely time in Rothenburg o.b der Tauber.

 

Po posing in the hostel in Nürnberg.

 

Amazed at the fake sakura in Frankfurt am Main.

 

On the festive Queensday in Amsterdam.

 

 

Went insane for a while in Köln.

 

A sunny day in Düsseldorf.

 

Eating bananas in München.

 

Hiking up to the fortress in front of the alps in Salzburg.

 

Didn’t know what to pose in Brugge.

 

Taking really beautiful pictures in Zaase Schans.

 

It was my all the time favourite of the favourites in Keukenhof.

 

We grew up together, let us grow old together. 

 

I am really looking forward to meeting you again, Po and going to eastern Europe together!  Together we’re invincible!