Crazy Five Days at Home

Today I can finally tell you about all the things that have happened to me in the last 5 days, since I've come to Ukraine. It's been a short time, but really full of events - some of them really unexpected!

1. The way back home was already crazy enough! :) I flew to Budapest, then took a train to Záhony (the border station in Hungary) and thought I'd wait 1.5 hour for a train to Chop (the border station in Ukraine) and then spend the whole night waiting for the train to Lviv there. But my plan was too European! In Ukraine things are much more spontaneous. ;) In Záhony an Ukrainian taxi driver came to me and started convincing me to use his services.

- I'll take you to Chop for 5 euros!

- Well, it's a good price, but it won't help me - I'll have to wait for my train until the morning anyway. So I'll better take the train to Chop.

- But maybe you can catch the earlier train to Lviv?

- It departs from Chop in 8 minutes, at 23:10, so I don't think so... But... Do you think we could make it to Uzhgorod before 23:50? 

Uzhgorod is the next station after Chop. Ukrainian trains are quite slow, so even though I obviously couldn't catch this one in Chop, we got to Uzhgorod much quicker than it did. I paid just 10 euro for this crazy international illegal taxi service and went to the ticket office at the Uzhgorod railway station just to learn that there were no tickets left to Lviv! I should have guessed that, it's hard to get them on Sunday evening! I still had 10 minutes until the departure, so I came to the 3rd class carriage and decided to solve this problem Ukrainian way. We have an expression: "їхати зайцем", which means "to travel as a bunny" literally. It stands for travelling without a ticket. ;)

- Will you take one "bunny" to Lviv?

- Sure!

That wasn't hard at all. ;) For 2.5 euro I was on a night train to Lviv and didn't have to spend the night at a railway station. I just realize I'm probably not the best person to fight or criticize corruption in Ukraine, am I? :D Just to justify myself, I can tell you that I only give bribes in extraordinary situations like this one.

2. I'm going to visit Iceland in less than a week, even though I thought it wouldn't be possible in the next several years. Not until I start earning good money or until low-cost airlines conquer Iceland! ;) I was going to meet a close friend of mine, who lives in Iceland, during a trip to Sweden to Denmark. Due to some problems, he unfortunately wouldn't be able to come. First I thought we should just cancel this trip and do it later... But then he would lose his plane tickets, there's no way to get a refund. So he came up with a idea which seemed completely crazy to me in the beginning - to change the dates of flights and the passenger's name (which is allowed for a fee) and then I could come to Reykjavik. First I didn't want to agree and I still feel very uncomfortable about it, because I wouldn't be able to afford this flight at the moment. But I realize it's better than just losing the ticket and even though I feel upset that we can't follow our original plan, I think I should just enjoy what the "fate" gives me! :) I remember that I've wanted to travel to Iceland since I was in primary school and my dad told me about an amazing island country in Northern Europe with few people, but full of mountains, volcanos and geysers. I really wanted to see it, but I thought I would never actually have a chance... Of course, I don't think we'll be able to travel all around Iceland, because my friend will have to work for most of the time. But even if I only get to see Reykjavik, it's still so much more than I could dream of! Oh yes, I wished for a year full of adventures, didn't I? :)

3. I've had a job interview and it went well, so I've started working for a translation agency in Lviv! For now I'll work remotely, even though they wanted me to work in the office, because I still have one semester of my studies left... and because I like the idea of working from home more, at least for now. ;) I don't expect much from this job, but it'll surely be a very useful experience. So far the only problem I can see is that I get to work only for about a hour a day, because I don't get enough requests from them. But I've calculated that if I only worked for 4 hours a day 20 days a month, it would be more than enough to live a comfortable life here (of course what is comfortable for me could be very humble for someone else!) and to save money for traveling. So I'll see how it goes and maybe I'll try to cooperate with more agencies later. Of course, at the moment I still can't work legally in Ukraine, so it's unofficial, but this could also be solved soon...

4. It's possible that I'll be able to get Ukrainian citizenship in May-June! Today I've been to the immigration office to ask which more papers should I bring to get my permanent residence permit, but it turned out that in my case it'll be much quicker and easier to get the citizenship. It seems that I've been entitled to get it since I was born (as my granny comes from Ukraine), I just wasn't aware of it. When and if I get it, I may have a small problem with my double citizenship, so I might need lawyer's help, but I think it's worth trying. I probably won't sound like a big patriot of Ukraine, but let's be realistic: it would be quite stupid of me to renounce EU citizenship under current circumstances here in Ukraine. Still, I'd be happy to have an Ukrainian passport. I know it's just a piece of paper, which doesn't define who I am, but symbolically that would mean that I have some kind of connection with this country forever and that I wouldn't have to explain why I feel Ukrainian anymore. So keep fingers crossed for my double citizenship! ;)

5. I've been having weird family issues, which are causing me a lot of stress and I don't know, whether I should even go to Poland tomorrow, but I think I will anyway. I just hope it won't be too stressful. The funny thing is that I've just been to Poland yesterday! I went to Przemyśl again to buy medicines for my landlady and to withdraw money, because for some reason nowadays the exchange rate is much better when I use an exchange point instead of withdrawing money in Ukraine. As I had to pay for the next semester of my studies, it made quite a huge difference, which means that I'm allowed to travel more! ;)

6. I've received a pile of mail! :D Yes, usually we talk about our piles of mail growing, but this time I can say that I've received one, because it suddenly went from 1 letter to 13! ;) I could see that coming, because a lot of letters were delayed during the Christmas/New Year period and I didn't manage to receive them before leaving Ukraine. Of course, now I feel overwhelmed with the amount of mail I have, because I can't write back to all the letters quickly. :( But I'll do my best! Actually, I've been trying to think of an logical explaination to a phenomenon, which many of my penpals have already experience: sometimes we have no letters at all and sometimes we have... what I have now! ;) The only explaination that comes to my mind is that usually a huge pile of mail grows (or arrives) during a period, when we're not really able to write a lot of letters (as we're busy, traveling etc.). This means that during this period of time our penpals don't receive letters from us. So when we finally manage to catch up with our mail, we find our mailboxes starving for at least a few weeks! Do you think that makes sense? But well, I think that instead of creating a new theory of hungry and overweight mailboxes, I should just show you what I've received this week (on Monday and Wednesday)! :)

From Antonina in Ukraine

This letter came from my friend Antonina from Vinnytsia region. The strange thing is that she's sent it in December, but the cancellation says "20th January". Yes, our postal service had some delay during the holiday period!

From Anastasia in Ukraine

One more Ukrainian letter - this time from Anastasia in Chernihiv. She gave birth to a baby boy on 1st January, but found time to write me a letter nevertheless! :)

From Taši in Slovenia

This is one of the letters I was most worried about. Taši sent it in the beginning of December, so at the time I left Ukraine it already had been traveling for a month! Unfortunately, the letter got wet somewhere on the way, so I can't read some parts, but at least it's not lost. I love the special stamps Taši used - they show her and her husband. :)

From Marina in Russia

Marina's envelopes are always amazing and this one isn't an exception! I wish I was so creative! :) I love her chatty letters and I hope that mail between Russia and Ukraine won't ever stop arriving, no matter how complicated is the political situation.

From Mihaela in Romania

Mihaela sent a very nice answer to my intro, which was actually a continuation of our fascinating dialogue on Interpals. :) I'm so glad we've switched to snail mail!

From Katharina in Germany

Katharina has also answered my intro, which I've sent a couple of months ago. I'd like to answer her letter as soon as possible, but I know she'll be moving abroad soon, so I should probably wait for her to tell me the new address. Oh, can you see the train stamp? :D

From Sandra in Germany

One more letter from Germany - from my friend Sandra, who always writes long and thought-provoking ones. She's also sent me some samples of washi tapes, so I'll try to use them for my future letters! ;) Believe it or not, it's the first time I actually have washi tape in my hands!

From Olga in Belarus

This letter comes from my dear Olga, whom I've already met for several times and with whom I'm going to travel more this year! ;)

From Essi in Finland

And this one comes from my Finnish friend Essi, who's been missing slow Ukrainian night trains! :) She has partly written her letter during her holiday in France in Switzerland, and enclosed a yummy Swiss chocolate! :)

From Jennifer in UK

This lovely intro came from Jennifer in the UK. She was supposed to write me a letter as a part of the random exchange, but we agreed that we'd actually try to become penpals and I have a very good feeling about this correspondence already! I just hope she won't mind me being a bit slow now... 

From Bahanur in Turkey

A letter from my dear Bahanur, with whom I can discuss all the most controversial topics and whom I really hope to meet this year, before she moves halfway around the world away!

From Brigitta in Hungary

All the other letters came on Monday, but this one arrived two days later. :) It's from Brigitta, my Hungarian friend who has already hosted me twice - and each time she saw me being sick! Yes, I feel slightly embarassed about it. But I'm so happy that she keeps on answering my letters nevertheless! She has also used beautiful stamps, which are quite hard to get in Hungary, believe me!

A card from Martina in Slovenia

I've also received two Christmas cards, which didn't make it on time due to the snail mail working like a real snail. ;) This beautiful handmade one is from Martina.

A card and bookmark from Kathrin in Germany

And this one is from Kathrin! She's also made a lovely bookmark with my name, which I'm really thankful for! :)

Postcards from Tündi

These 3 postcards were sent by my dear Tündi during her trip to the Netherlands in Germany! :) The very funny thing is that I've been to all the places which you can see on these cards... And I went to Maastricht just 4 days after Tündi, which we both didn't realize! :)

From Chelsea in the USA

Last but not least, Chelsea from the USA sent me a big postcard showing the places she's been to in 2014. :) Chelsea is a friend, whom I've met thanks to Couchsurfing back in 2010, when she was traveling in Ukraine. It's so nice of her that she still remembers about me, even though several years have passed! 

I think you'll understand why I haven't been able to write much in the last days with all those things happening at the same time. I've only managed to send a small package for Antonina and her little daughter.

For Antonina in Ukraine

Now I'm working on my letter to Stav and I really hope that soon I'll be able to announce a lot of outgoing mail! I really feel bad each time my answers are delayed, but I hope not to disappoint my penpals. Tomorrow I'm most likely leaving Ukraine again and will be back on 15th or 16th February. And of course I'll keep you updated about my crazy journeys! :)

Benelux 2015: I've seen something in Belgium too!

Each time I visit my dad in Belgium, we end up spending more time traveling to other countries than within Belgium itself. Perhaps it's caused by my love for crossing the borders (even if they're already non-existent in EU) and visiting different countries. :) Moreover, I've already visited the vast majority of Belgium's tourist destinations. Another thing is that I may be confusing them all in my head due to my dad's habit of visiting several places within one day, which I've already mentioned a few days ago. :) As a result, I don't really get excited about going anywhere in Belgium anymore, but I have a good news: next time I'll be traveling to this country with a friend, who has never been to Western Europe! I know she'll be excited - actually she already is! - and that will let me get a fresh glimpse of Belgium as well! :) Because, in fact, Belgium is a beautiful country full of precious historic and cultural heritage. I shouldn't value it less just because I've been there for so many times.

And it's still possible to find places in Belgium, which would be new for me. For example, one Sunday afternoon my dad decided we should go to Lier. It's only about 50 km away from Brussels, but he also hadn't been there before.

St. Gummarus church in Lier

I'd say that Lier is a typical old Flemish town - rather small, but full of historic sights. The first object to draw our attention as soon as we arrived in the town was the huge St. Gummarus church. Looking at it, I started wondering, whether there've ever been enough people in Lier to fill it totally? Especially that there are quite a few other churches in the town. But I suppose that in the Middle Ages nobody would calculate, whether such an enormous church was necessary. The bigger church you've built - the bigger your love for God and your chances for salvation, that's how it probably worked. Thanks to it, nowadays we can see such impressive churches in most of Western European countries. Eastern Europeans weren't just rich enough and therefore had to build slightly smaller ones. ;)

The town hall and Belfry in Lier

Belgium is a great country for those, who are into visiting the objects from UNESCO World Heritage List. You can find them in nearly each old Belgian town. For instance, Lier has two of them: the Belfry and the Beguinage. The belfries served as watchtowers and alarm bell towers. There are 33 of them in Belgium (and some more in France) inscribed on the UNESCO list, so it takes time to see them all. :) Most of them are connected to a bigger building, such as a town hall (like in Lier) or church, but there are also some standalone ones.

The Béguinage in Lier

As for the Béguinages, they're small neighbourhoods of small houses, which served as communities for religious women, who were either single or widows and wanted to serve God without becoming nuns. Living in such a community guaranteed them quite a high level of personal indepenence, which was hard to achieve for women in those times. The Lier Béguinage was founded in 1th century, but most of houses come from 17th and 18th century. And there are 13 Flemish Béguinages on the UNESCO list, so yes, there's much to see in Belgium!

The Cathedral in Antwerp

Our another Belgian trip was to Antwerp - the country's second biggest city. I had been there before, but that was a long time ago, so I couldn't remember much. Speaking of big churches, the Antwerp Cathedral of Our Lady is so huge that it's even hard to take a photo of it! Only one of its towers has ever been completed (and is a UNESCO site as a Belfry - the other one in Antwerp is the town hall), but it's over 100 m high! I don't think I'd ever like to climb it - 52 m in Zwolle were more than enough! :)

Me and Het Steen

There's also a castle in Antwerp (and I love castles!) called Het Steen, which means "The Stone" in Dutch. It's quite a logical name for a castle, don't you think so? :) The castle was built to control the banks of Scheldt river, later served as a prison and nowadays it's some kind of a cultural centre. To be honest, I'd still like to come back to Antwerpen to visit the Jewish quarter, which I've never seen. Well, I think I'll have such a chance in a few months. ;)

My dad lives just next to Brussels, but we barely ever go sightseeing there. I'd lie if I said that I've seen everything in Belgium's capital - for instance I've never been to the famous Atomium. But my love for capital cities is so great that it's best to mantain it as a long-distance relationship! ;) This time we only went to the centre of Brussels for a couple of hours and have visited the German bookshop. There were two soldiers standing just next to it, but I guess in fact they were protecting some government building. The Belgian government had to take such measures because of the high risk of terrorist attacks, which you've probably heard of... I've even received some messages from my friends asking whether I was fine while I was in Belgium, but I should be honest with you: after spending a year listening to the news about the war in my country, my brain started filtering them and ignoring most of them. It doesn't mean that I don't care about what's going on in West Europe - I think the situation is really threatening and I'm not even sure whether it's possible to find any solution at this point. I just didn't want it to spoil my mood - for the same reason I rarely read Ukrainian news. 

German books :)

But back to the German bookshop, it's a really lovely place! Its owner comes from Germany, but has been living in Belgium and running the shop together with his wife since 1981. First I got scared when he started talking to me and asking what I was interested in, because "I can't speak German!!!", but after a while I realized that I could understand him perfectly well and I was even able to answer his question. :) We've had some interesting discussion about politics and the situation in Ukraine and he's helped me to choose books that might be interesting for me. One is about the global process of migrations from rural areas to the cities and the other one is about the economical and political transformations in Central and Eastern Europe. I've started reading the first one and I can understand it fairly well, although I think I should read with a dictionary if I want to improve my vocabulary in German. I'm also very thankful to my dad, who believes in me more than I do myself and who managed to encourage me to read in German. :) 

Last but not least, I've sent some letters from Belgium:

For Katalin in Slovakia

One to Katalin in Slovakia, written in 3 languages. Well, mostly in English, but I've used some poor Hungarian and even poorer Slovak. ;) She has already received it!

For Natasha in England

An intro letter for Natasha in England, who wanted to become my penpal after reading my interview on Penpal of The Week blog. I hope she's also received it by now. :) Yeah, I had to use boring white envelopes, because the ones I've taken from Ukraine weren't big enough for the postcards that I wanted to send. There was also an intro letter for Kim in Belgium (sent from Belgium!), who also found me through that interview, but I didn't manage to take a photo of it before the post office clerk took it away. ;) 

Tomorrow I'll finally be able to write about all the crazy things that have happened to me this week! For example, did you know that I've been to Poland today? :D But that's the least interesting one of all my news. :)

Benelux 2015: Small but Beautiful? Luxembourg!

I'm afraid that with the amount of events that have been happening in my life this winter, I'll always be behind with my blog, but I still believe I'll catch up one day - perhaps when the new semester begins! ;) Today I'd like to tell you about my favourite Western European countries (out of those that I've been to, of course!): Luxembourg.

Esch-sur-Sûre

You may ask: why exactly Luxembourg? It's not a very famous country. But I've loved it since the first time I went there in 2005. That very first trip was only to the capital city (also named Luxembourg), but I could already feel that there was something special about this country, making it different than its neighbours. Perhaps it's due to it's small size and population (less than 550 thousands of people), which means it's not as urbanized as Belgium or the Netherlands. Contrary to quite a widespread misconception, Luxembourg isn't that small and it doesn't consist of just one city. There are many more small towns, villages and about 100 castles! I've already been to Luxembourg for several times, but there's always something new to see and I love it! I also like it that driving through Luxembourg is much more pleasant than through other West European countries: there are few motorways, so for most of the time your ride small roads with few cars and are able to watch wonderful landscapes. Luxembourg is a montanous country, even if the mountains are rather small and should probably be called hills. ;)

This time me and my dad went on a trip to three Luxembourgish towns with castles that we haven't been to before. Yet I should tell you that Luxembourgish towns are just like Luxembourgish mountains - some of them have less than 300 inhabitants! ;)

Me at Esch-sur-Sûre castle

Our first stop was in Esch-sur-Sûre, a town with 314 inhabitants! And no, it's not a village. :) It's a real town with a real post office, which works... 1 hour a day! :D It's located at a beautiful meander of Sûre river and surrounded by hills. The 10th century castle stands on one of them. Nowadays it's a ruin (but I really love castle ruins!) and is open to visitors for free.

As you may have noticed, the name of the town is in French. But, in fact, the linguistic situation in Luxembourg is quite complicated. So complicated that even I can't fully understand it. ;) They have 1 national language: Luxembourgish (considered as a dialect of German by some linguists), and two official languages: French and German. Most of people (at least those, who were born in Luxembourg - there are also a lot of immigrants) speak Luxembourgish among each other, but it's mostly a spoken language. As for writing, they use French (higher class) or German (middle or lower class). At least that's what Wikipedia says. :D I could hear people speaking all 3 languages and I think that living in such a multilingual society is a big advantage!

Bourscheid castle

Our next stop was in Bourscheid castle, which is a bit away from the town with the same name. The castle is also a ruin, but a really huge and well-preserved one. It was first mentioned in 1095, although it's believed to be older. Of course, the whole castle wasn't built at once - some parts of it come from the 18th century. In this castle we had to pay the entrance fee and got an audio guide in English... Which was so boring that we ended up just walking around the castle the way we wanted and pretending that we've listened to everything! ;) So perhaps we've skipped some historic details, but we have our own impressions and I think it matters more. Do you also get bored with audio guides? I usually read a bit about the place before going there and more after coming back. I always prefer to read than to listen. The biggest sightseeing torture I can think of was visiting one castle in Belgium a couple of years ago, in which we had both audio guide and a human guide and we were in a group, so we couldn't run away... ;) But that's a completely different story!

Me in Bourscheid.

The last and biggest town that we've visited was Clervaux. It has more than 1000 inhabitants and a post office with normal working hours. There's also a castle, which is used both as the town hall and a museum, which unfortunately was closed. But we also went for a walk to the Clervaux abbey, which is located on a hill, so we had to fight our laziness a bit and could feel proud of ourselves. :)

Clervaux castle and church

Last but not least, I went to a bookshop in Clervaux and got myself a philosophic magazine in German (I think they have about the same amount of books and magazines both in German and French, but almost nothing in Luxembourgish), because I wanted to start reading in this language, but didn't feel brave enough to buy a book. Yet when I started reading and realized that I could understand philosophic articles without a dictionary, I suddenly felt much better! :) I ended up buying some German books, but that was already in Belgium, so I'll tell you about it next time! :) And I really hope to come back to Luxembourg this year. There's still so much to see and experience in this tiny, yet amazing country!

Benelux 2015: Snowy Maastricht

There've been a lot of unbelievable - and mostly positive - things going on here since I've come back home yesterday, but you'll have to wait a bit for this lazy blogger to tell you all her news! ;) Today I'll take you on a short virtual trip to Maastricht, a beautiful city in the very South-East on the Netherlands.

That was the day before my departure that the winter came to Belgium - finally everything was covered with snow! Of course, Belgium isn't the same as Israel, so a bit of snow doesn't paralyse the whole country, but it still makes traveling a bit more complicated. Snow is quite rare in Belgium and so many drivers don't even have the winter tyres, which leads to an increase in the number of car accident. Still, my dad decided that we should try to go to Maastricht and just drive carefully. That's how I went to the Netherlands for the 3rd time in just 10 days! :)

The Meuse river in Maastricht.

Maastricht might be the oldest city of the Netherlands, although they have a dispute with Nijmegen, which got the status of town earlier, even if the settlement of Maastricht was older. You know, it's probably a bit like with the "geographic centres of Europe" - there are at least 5 of them and I've seen 2! ;) But no matter if Maastricht is indeed the oldest city, or "only" the 2nd oldest, it's definitely a wonderful place full of fascinating historic sights. And, even from my ignorant point of view, it looks quite different than other Dutch cities. Probably it's due to it's location in Limburg region, which is just next to the borders with Belgium and Germany and has been ruled by several countries at different points in history. Have you ever heard of the Limburgish language? I found out about its existence just one day before our trip to Maastricht! It has the status of a regional language in Limburg province and you can indeed see bilingual street names in Maastricht.

Another church turned into a bookshop.

One of my favourite places in Maastricht was the Dominicanen Bookshop located in a 700-years old former church. It's quite similar to the one in Zwolle - it also consists of the bookshop itself and a café, but I think the one in Maastricht is more stunning and also better planned. I wonder, whether there are more church-bookshops in the Netherlands? I should check it one day. Coming back to the topic, which I've started in my previous blog entry, it's an interesting issue: what should be we do about the empty churches, while there are less and less relgious people in West European countries? I'm not going to write about the reasons of decrease in religiousness, which would be an even more controversial issue, but the fact is that it costs a lot to mantain those enormous medieval churches and that there are few people left, who'd come to the services each Sunday. There are also not enough priests and, as a result, many churches have to be closed. This isn't exactly the case with the Dominican Church in Maastricht, which was closed over 200 years ago, but there are many other churches, which used to serve their original purpose until recently. So is it acceptable to run a business in a former church? From my point of view it is, because we have to be realistic and accept the fact that our society has changed. And I think a bookshop is one of those options, which are easiest to take even for those people, who are against the secularisation. After all, books can also help people to develop spiritually. I'm a bit more sceptical when it comes to turning churches into pubs (my dad has told me about such case in Belgium). It doesn't offend me, but I think it might still hurt the feelings of the religious people. And although I'm very liberal, I think that hurting people should be avoided, whenever it's possible. Moreover, I think that old churches still have a special atmosphere, which is just perfect for contemplation and meditation, but not neccesarily for partying. Therefore I really admire this idea of using former churches as beautiful and unusual bookshops! My dad has even been able to buy some books there. :) And me? Unfortunately I can't speak Dutch yet. ;)

Next to the Basilica of Saint Servatius.

But of course, not all the churches in Maastricht have been turned into bookshops. ;) This Catholic basilica has existed for almost 1500 years, although the current structure, which is partly in Romanesque and partly in Gothic style, was built between 11th and 12th century. Sometimes it saddens me a bit when I read how people would destroy very ancient churches to buy bigger and newer "versions" from time to time, but well, they had no idea about protection of historic heritage back in the Middle Ages. ;)

At the market square.

Maastricht also has a very nice market square and of course they sell my dad's favourite "Dutch sushi" there - I think he had 2 this time! ;) I still didn't dare to taste it, but I've tried crab meat for the first time - at least it was cooked and not raw! ;) After those gastronomic experiments we went for a walk along the old city walls...

The city walls

I loved this part of old Maastricht, as there were very few people and it felt just very cosy. The snow made my impressions even better! The gray sky (which is unfortunately typical for this part of Europe in the winter) is so much easier to stand, when you have some snow under your feet! :) Surely, that's nothing compared to those mountains of snow which I've seen in Odessa on 1st January, but as for the Netherlands and Belgium that was real winter! :) I'm glad I was able to experience it before flying back home. And tomorrow I'll tell you about my favourite country of Benelux. Yes, that small one! ;)

Benelux 2015: Meeting my Friend Tessa

Just two days after my previous trip to the Netherlands I went there again to meet my Dutch penpal Tessa. We had planned it much earlier that it would be nice to meet up once I come to Belgium to visit my dad and had chosen the date much in advance... But you know, there's always some difference between the plans and reality! ;) On the day when we were originally supposed to meet I was still in bed fighting the Israeli-Hungarian-Belgian virus. Then we chose another day, but suddenly the train tickets became much more expensive! Fortunately, my stepmum was very helpful: she called the Belgian railways and managed to convince them to sell me the tickets at a reasonable price. Training is quite an expensive activity in West Europe - getting from Belgium to the Netherlands costed almost as much as a flight to Israel! But that wouldn't prevent me from meeting a friend in any case! :) 

To be honest, I also didn't realize that Zwolle was actually quite far away from the Belgian border. It took me 4 hours to get there and I had to change trains in Rotterdam. I was afraid I'd miss my connection or wake up in Amsterdam, but fortunately everything went fine and Tessa was waiting for me at the Zwolle railway station! :) I know it may sound strange, but I still find myself feeling quite nervous before meeting a penpal for the first time, even if we get along just perfectly through letters. I guess it's because I sometimes feel embarassed with myself and as far as I seem to be a serious a deep thinking person in my letters, I think I may be a bit crazy and overenthusiastic in the "real life". My friends, who have met me in person say it's not true, but I can't help feeling self-conscious anyway. I guess Tessa could see that I was a bit nervous, so she gave me a hug and I immediately felt a bit more relaxed. :)

A canal and defence tower in Zwolle.

From the railway station we walked to the center of Zwolle. It's not a very big city, so soon we were already in the historic part, which is surrounded by canals and still has some fortifications left. As I've mentioned in my previous blog entry, I'm a bit ignorant and therefore most of Dutch cities and towns look similar to me, but I could see that most of Zwolle's historic sights were older than those, which I've seen in Gouda and Delft. Still, to be completely honest, we didn't spend so much time sightseeing. :)

The bookshop in a former church.

Our first longer stop was in Zwolle's nicest book store, which is located in a former church. Seeing a church being used in such an unconventional way may be surprising to an East European person like me, but actually like this idea. And I've actually visited one more book store like that in the Netherlands a few days later, but I'll tell you about it - as well as about my personal views on the problem of empty churches and their usage - the next time. Apart from buying books and postcards, you can also have a tea or coffee in this old church - and so we did. :) That was a great chance to relax and to finally talk to each other without using the pen and paper. To me it didn't feel like talking to Tessa for the first time though - it felt rather like a continuation of our letters and I really hope she felt the same. Later we decided to eat some sandwiches and so we had another excuse to spend more time talking and being lazy. :) But finally we had to see more of Zwolle...

View from the tower.

... And so we climbed the tower of one of the old churches! The tower was over 50 m high and that was quite a big challenge for a clumsy person like me, who doesn't ever do any sports! :D I was joking that this tower must have been designed to make people more religious: even if you're an atheist, you'll end up saying "Oh my God!" for a few times while climbing it! ;) But it was worth it - the views were really rewarding! When we went downstairs, we got small pictures of the church stamped with the date when we went there - 20th January 2015. So at least we have evidence that we've actually managed to climb it! :)

Again a canal :)

The bridge over a canal in Zwolle was one of my favourite places in the whole city. It looked really beautiful with the old houses and fortifications on both sides, as well as with some ships. Finally I had the feeling that I've done enough sightseeing and so we could walk to Tessa's place without any guilty conscience! ;)

My letter to Erin in the USA.

On the way I've found a mailbox and posted my letter to Erin, who's actually mine and Tessa's mutual penpal. :) I just hope she won't be too confusing when she receives a letter from an Ukrainian penpal sent from the Netherlands while she was visiting her father in Belgium. :D

Then I had a really nice time and Tessa'a and her brother's place - we discussed some interesting topics and ate yummy pancakes! At first I was surprised to see that Dutch pancakes were cooked with gouda cheese inside, but this way they taste even better! Sadly, I was only able to eat one pancake, which was probably caused by the fact that I had eaten too much gouda cheese in the kitchen! :D (Yes, apart from lemons, I can also steal cheese sometimes!) ;)

Tessa and me :)

Unfortunately, soon it was time to travel back to Belgium. I had the temptation to take the very last train, but if I missed my connection in Rotterdam, I'd have to spend the whole night waiting for the next train there, so I decided not to risk. Tessa took me to the railway station and it was the time to say goodbye, but I really hope we'll meet again: maybe in the Netherlands again, maybe in Belgium, Poland or even Ukraine? :) I don't really mind as long as we're able to spend some time together again! To me this day in Zwolle was an absolutely positive experience... and I still hope my behaviour wasn't too crazy! ;)

A typical Dutch train.

What I really like about Dutch trains is that they have the same colours as the Ukrainian flag! I realize it must be just a coincidence, but what a nice one! ;) The way back to Belgium took 4 hours as well and then I managed to get lost at the Brussels-South railway station and couldn't find my dad, who was waiting for me at one of the entrances. That's so much my style! ;) But that was an amazing experience of Friendship and Training nevertheless! :)

Benelux 2015: Windmills and Cheese.

Today has been a snowy day in Belgium, which is quite a rare event over here, but finally it feels a bit like winter! :) Tomorrow I'm already flying back to Budapest (and then trying to get to Ukraine before midnight), but as you can see I'm quite behind with my blog. ;) But I'll surely catch up and try not to bore my readers to death will all the travel stories! :D

I've been in Belgium for the last 10 days, but in fact my trips to Belgium always include short visits to other countries. Over here "going abroad" has a completely different meaning and feeling than in Ukraine. First of all, Belgium is a small country, so if you keep on driving from Brussels for about 2 hours in any direction, you'll most likely already be abroad. Then there are no borders as such, because it's the Schengen zone, so a trip abroad doesn't feel like a huge event. Each time I come here, I travel together with my dad both to places in Belgium and in the neighboring countries. This time we've visited The Netherlands and Luxembourg, therefore I've decided to call this journey "Benelux 2015". :) 

And I'll start with The Netherlands, because I've been there for... 3 times within the last week! I went there twice with my dad and once I went Training on my own to meet my Dutch friend Tessa. :) Yet today I'm going to tell you about 3 places which I've visited with my dad last Saturday: Kinderdijk, Gouda and Delft.

Windmills in Kinderdijk

What can I say about Kinderdijk? It's just amazing and it's probably one of the most beautiful places in The Netherlands! The village is known for 19 old windmills, most of which were built in the 18th century and which were used to keep the water out of the polder. Windmills and polders - that's so stereotypically Dutch! :) The windmills and their reflections in the water looked just stunning in the morning sun. The museum is unfortunately closed during the winter season, but just having a walk there was worth traveling all the way! 

Me and windmills! :)

In my mind The Netherlands are a highly urbanized city, so it was really refreshing and interesting to see some small villages with old houses and more windmills on the way. Once we even had to take a local ferry, because there was no bridge between the villages on opposite banks of Lek river. Some half an hour later we were already in Gouda, which is obviously the home town of the famous cheese. :) 

One of the old streets in Gouda.

To be honest, I felt a bit overwhelmed in the town center, as there was quite a big market with cheese, fish and other traditional Dutch stuff and I can feel really sociophobic in such places... :/ In the end I didn't even try the local Gouda cheese... But I enjoyed walking down the old streets and visiting the Gouda cathedral, which is famous for old stain glass windows and is also known as the longest church in The Netherlands. 

Inside the Gouda cathedral.

After the lunch we went to another old town named Delft, which is located between The Hague and Rotterdam. It's known for the beautiful canals in the historic center and for the blue pottery. I have to write something very ignorant from time to time ;), so I'll admit that most of Dutch towns look similar to me. Of course, there's something special about each of them, but most of them share a similar architecture style and therefore I tend to mix them up in my head. If you asked me, which Dutch cities and towns I've visited in the last 10 years, I probably wouldn't be able to name all of them. Well, maybe it's because it's usually my dad who plans the trips and he often tries to visit several places in one day, but I feel totally ignorant nevertheless!

The town hall in Delft.

I think I'll remember Delft as one of the typical Dutch towns, but I must tell it's a really special one and it felt much more cozy than Gouda, even if both towns are of a similar size. We had a lovely time walking along the canals and my dad had his favorite "Dutch sushi"! :D Are you wondering what it could be? ;) Well, it's raw herring with onion and my dad really loves it, while I doubt I'd ever dare to try it! Then we tried to go to a coffee shop (isn't it nice when you can go to such place with your own father?) ;), but unfortunately - or maybe fortunately for both of us - it was closed. :)

One of the canals in Delft.

Then it was time to go back to Belgium, but luckily I already knew that I'd come back to The Netherlands in just two days to meet my friend. :) But I'm going to write about my international Training next time. Of course that'll only happen in case I survive tomorrow's flight, because I still can't help being a bit nervous about it. Hopefully on Monday I'll be already at home with a lot of received mail and ready to share more travel experiences! :)

My Israeli adventure, Part 4: Saying Goodbye (But hopefully not forever!)

Unfortunately, each journey comes to an end one day. I've been on some trips in my life, which felt too long or exhausting, but usually it's been the other way - I felt like I'd like to see an experience more. This time wasn't an exception. The 5 days passed by very quickly and I didn't even notice how the day of my flight back to Budapest came. Some part of me felt slightly disappointed about not having seen everything that I wanted (especially the Dead Sea), but on the other hand, isn't that good to have a serious reason to come back? Now that the flights aren't really expensive anymore, traveling to Israel doesn't feel like a "once in a lifetime" experience. In fact, that would be quite sad to leave a country with the feeling that I've seen everything and there's nothing new to explore. I've had this feeling after my last trip to Moldova in October, because I've indeed been to almost all the places which could be of any interest to a tourist there. Still, if I want to find a reason to come back, I will do it. :) And so I believe, I'm actually convinced, that I'll come to Israel again. And who knows, maybe it would even happen this year? But I'm terrible at planning more than a month in advance, so I'll think of it when the autumn is closer. :)

The last day of my stay in Israel was really sunny (finally!) and so we decided to go to Netanya, which is a town closest to my friend's village and which has some nice beaches.

Netanya also has some palm trees!

It's quite a modern town and, according to my friend, has a bad reputation, but I found it nice nevertheless. And eventually I was able to swim in the Mediterranean Sea without the risk of drowning in huge waves! I think from the perspective of Israeli people swimming in January must look weird or extreme, but it's all relative. I might find it slightly amusing how Israelis think it's cold when the temperature falls under +10 degrees, but I bet they'd have even more fun watching me not being able to go outside during the Israeli summer, because to me +30 degrees are already too much! ;) Anyway, the temperature of water in Netanya in January is just a couple of degrees lower than it usually is in the Baltic Sea in Poland during the summer season. So no, I'm not going to claim that I've done ice-swimming this year, but I might still do it when I come back to Ukraine! ;)

Swimming in January is so extreme! :P

After having a walk in the center on Netanya, drinking a yummy coffee in the local mall and buying some souvenirs, it was time to go back to the village and get ready for my flight. In fact, that day I also found time to steal a lemon from my friend's garden (and she was watching me while I was committing this terrible crime!) and to take a photo of myself with an orange tree! :D

Look! Real oranges! :D

I've also tried to learn some Hebrew during my stay in Israel. I actually started revising everything that I had forgotten since taking some Hebrew classes in 2005 a few weeks before my journey, but of course it wasn't enough to learn a difficult language like this one. Or maybe I shouldn't say it's difficult? According to my friend, it's very logical and I can believe her, because Hebrew is a language that was revived after many centuries of being used only for prayers. Therefore it shouldn't have as many exceptions from the grammar rules as some languages have, if they've gone through all the stages of natural development. I still think that the hardest thing about Hebrew is the writing system. Just learning the Hebrew alphabet is not a problem at all, you can do it in one day (and then spend another day learning the cursive version)! :) The thing is that in Hebrew they don't write the vowels (there are diacritic signs called niqqud used to indicate them, but you won't find them in normal books and newspapers), so if I see a new word and try to guess its pronunciation, in most cases my guess will be wrong. You can also have two different letters, which stand for the same sound, for example both ת and ט stand for [t] sound. Then one letter can stand for two different sounds, for example ב can be both [b] and [v]. It makes the whole thing quite complicated, but I still want to learn. Of course, I feel guilty of starting to learn too many languages at once, because I realize it's not exactly what you'd call a productive learning process, but as long as I'm doing it for pleasure it can't be a totally wasted time. I didn't dare to buy a "serious" Hebrew book for foreigners, because I don't know how far I'll actually go in learning this language and I want to finish the one I have from Poland first. Still, my friend's brother has made a really funny small book with all the words that I've learnt in Israel, that was so cute! :)

I always start with learning the most important words! ;)

Speaking of books in Hebrew, I had a bit of a culture shock! :D I obviously knew that Hebrew is written from right to left. But somehow I didn't realize that you start reading a book from what seems to be the end to me! ;) First I thought that my friend and her brother were making fun of me, but later it turned out that all the books in Hebrew actually start from the other side. Yes, I'm a bit stupid! :D

Unfortunately, I haven't written a lot of letters this month, but I've managed to send one from Israel. It was to Theodore in the USA, who's my partner in the random letter swap. It was the first time I took part in such event and, to be honest, I found it quite hard to write a random intro without asking too many questions. But I hope he'll like this letter nevertheless.

Letter for Theodore in the USA

I've also sent quite a few postcards from Israel, which was a wonderful chance to practise writing the names of countries in Hebrew! :) I hope my penpals will receive them soon!

Some of the postcards I've sent from Israel.

I've also received a lovely letter from my dear Stav, but I wasn't allowed to read it until I boarded my plane back to Budapest. The temptation was high, especially while I was waiting at the airport, but I promised, so I waited! ;) Her letter really helped me to go through another flight without experiencing a strong fear. As you may have noticed, even on the envelope she's mentioned me having stolen her lemon... ;) So think twice before inviting me to come to any "exotic" country - your lemons, oranges and palm trees won't be safe anymore! ;)

A lovely letter from Stav.

We landed in Budapest about 1 am, because the flight was delayed, but it didn't matter much, as I had to sleep at the airport anyway. It was as uncomfortable as you may imagine, I managed to sleep until the morning and there were many more people doing the same thing. :) The bad thing is that I've caught some virus and felt really sick, but I'm not even surprised, because it often happens to me while I'm traveling. ;)

Early morning at Budapest airport.

The next day I went to visit my Hungarian friend Brigitta, who lives some 70 km away from Budapest and we played some game, which was very similar to Scrabble. In Hungarian. Yeah, it's very funny to play it in a language that you barely can speak! :D But we had a lovely time and I was happy to meet her again. On 14th January I flew to Belgium and that's where I still am, but that'll be the topic of the next boring blog entries. ;) 

I still find it hard to believe that I've actually been to Israel, although the photos of me and the palm trees show that it must be true! :) It was a really special experience for me, I think it's the furthest out of my comfort zone that I've ever been! But I hope this year, as well as the next years to come, will be full of such lovely adventures! :)