Back Home... And ready for future adventures :)

Even a person like me, who's totally crazy about traveling, feels like coming back home once in a while. Discovering new lands is fascinating, but I believe we need to have a place to call our home if we really want to enjoy traveling. Who knows, maybe there are vagabonds, who enjoy just moving from one place to another and not having any permanent place to come back to. But I need to relax (and spend a whole week behaving like a total hermit) from time to time. 

Home... I'm not even sure what it means. The place where I'm living now is temporary and I'm still not sure, whether I'd like to have my own flat exactly in this city. For now my home is where my mailbox is! ;) But I also feel that Ukraine is my home and I'm glad that in less than 3 months from now I should officialy be recognised as a citizen of this country. Later I might have some legal trouble concerning keeping 2 citizenships (I want to keep the Polish, so I'm able to travel around Europe without visas), but later will be later, right? Now I'm just looking forward to the day when I'll get the document saying that I'm officially Ukrainian. To be honest, I don't think the national identity depends on your passport. You are who you feel you are, your country is the country you identify with the most. But there are some reasons why I still find it important to have the Ukrainian citizenship and not just the permanent residence permit, which would give me basically almost the same rights. I don't want people to question my national identity based on my passport. I realise they can still say that I'm Polish based on my birthplace and the fact that I don't want to renounce my previous citizenship. And I have no bad feelings about it. But if I'm Polish then I'll also be equally Ukrainian, right? :) The second reason is a sad one... With the war going on, I can't be sure what the future would bring me. I hope that my area will stay safe just as it is now. But in case things go really messed up and I'd be forced to leave the country, I want to be officially Ukrainian. If I go abroad now, I'm technically Polish only and have no connection to Ukraine. That hurts, because I want to have this connection not only while I'm here. As you can see, I've applied for the citizenship mostly for emotional reasons, rather than for practical ones. I've even had the immigration officers asking me, why wouldn't I take the permanent residence permit. But I'm doing what I feel is right for me at the moment. It's better to regret what you've done than what you haven't done, right? 

My way back to Lviv from Iceland was long and I stopped at my grandfather's place in Northern Poland for a few days before continuing my journey. He was really glad to see me and kept on telling me long stories from his life ;) I also managed to write two letters in Poland and sent them just minutes before crossing the Ukrainian border. The one for Essi has arrived in just 2 days, so this time it was worth sending it from Poland :) The one for Bahanur is still traveling, but I hope this time we'll be more lucky than the previous time when I sent a letter to her from Poland and it got returned to me.

For Essi in Finland and Bahanur in Turkey

When I got back to Lviv, I immediately went to the main post office to check my mailbox and, of course, I've found a lot of letters there. They also kept on coming during the whole week! So yes, I feel a bit overwhelmed with mail and "guilty" of having taken the interview for Penpal of The Week website, which led to a sudden increase in the number of my penpals, but I'm really trying to do my best and I never regret giving chances to new friendships. Having 12 years of experience in the penpalling world I must realise that not all of my penpals will become my close friends and stay in my life for a long time. But as I find myself in costant need of meaningful communication, meeting new people through letters can be very refreshing. The first incoming letter of February didn't actually go through the mail system ;)

From Søren in Iceland

Søren gave me his letter just before I left Iceland and I've read it on my way back home. :) The mysterious Greenlandic word on the envelope means "See you"... and I really want to believe that we'll have a chance to meet again.

From Tündi in England

The longest letter came from my "extreme" friend Tündi, of course! :) She's a crazy traveler just like me, so she's also sent me a lot of postcards from England, Hungary, Germany and Belgium! :)

From Jennifer in England

There've been more letters from UK in my mailbox! :) Jennifer has answered my letter (which I've sent from Poland in the beginning of February) very quickly and here's another great mail from her!

From Tasha in England

Tasha is one of my new penpals, whom I've met thanks to my interview. I wrote her an intro while I was in Belgium and she sent me first a card from London and then a letter. But as I was away for quite a long time, both pieces of mail from Tasha reached me the same day. :)

From Hannah in England

This beautiful envelope contains a lovely intro from Hannah, who also lives in England and has also found me through my interview. :)

From Kim in Belgium

Then there've been two letters from Belgium :) It's interesting, because until recently I had no Belgian friends and then, after my interview, I got messages from two Belgian girls. Kim has answered my intro, which was sent from... Belgium.

From Arjen in Belgium

One more piece of Belgian mail came from Arjen, a girl with one of the most beautiful handwritings I've ever seen (you can't really see it on the envelope, but reading the letter was a pleasure, because it was both pretty and interesting!).

From Nikki in the USA

And one more girl, who decided to become my penpal after reading my interview was Nikki. I'm currently answering her intro :) Oh yes, I've been flooded with letters, but I'm glad about having given chances to 5 new friendships, because they all seem to be promising!

From Taši in Slovenia

Taši has also received a letter from me, while I was in Poland, and has sent me another nice and long letter very quickly. :)

From Bahanur in Turkey

A new letter from Bahanur, who's one of my closest penpals and the best person to discuss most controversial topics with! She has also sent me a really nice notebook, which I'll definitely use for writing one of my letters :)

From Kathrin in Germany

This pretty envelope came from Kathrin in Germany :) Apart from a wonderful letter, she has also sent me pictures from medieval festivals, in which she's been participating together with her husband. That was really interesting to see!

From Antonina in Ukraine

I've also received from one of my "oldest" (by the time of our correspondence) and most regular penpals - Antonina. She's one of my friends, whom I really admire, because she's able to keep her positive attitude to life despite all the problems. I hope that this year I'll finally be able to see her in person. :)

From Vita in Ukraine

And one more Ukrainian letter from Vita. The story of us becoming penpals is quite complicated, but I hope our correspondence will be long-lasting, because I really need more like-minded people here in Ukraine :)

From Sandra in Germany

Last but not least, I've received a card from Sandra, which she has sent from her holidays in Bavarian Forest. And now I'm waiting for her letter :)

I've also been able to send some letters from Ukraine. I' like to explain that now I'm forced to use some standard stamps due to our currency's devaluation and the postage for international mail growing each day :( It's just not possible to send letters with just special stamps anymore, because the envelopes aren't big enough :( I'm sorry about that! So here's my outgoing mail:

For Marina in Russia

For Brigitta in Hungary

For Antonina in Ukraine

Oh yes, that's a lot of mail! :) You may laugh at me, but I feel kind of ashamed when I have to share such a huge amount of letters with you and admit that I'm behind with my pile of mail. But I'll catch up, because I'm back to my normal life now. Studying, working and writing letters! :) I really need a normal schedule sometimes and that's what I need at the moment. The only thing that bothers me and spoils my mood currently are my family issues... But they're not anything new to me and I'm really thankful to my friends for supporting me, even if they're far away...

Soon I'll start traveling again, but no, this time I'm not going abroad for several weeks and won't find a huge pile of mail waiting for me when I come back. :) My Czech friend has decided spontaneously to come for a few days to Ukraine and I'm looking forward to meeting her on Thursday! It'll happen in just 3 days from now, but we don't even know where will we travel to. No plans, no worries! ;) But you can be sure I'll tell you about our Training adventures. :)

Unexpected Iceland: The Worst and Best Ways to See Iceland

To be honest, the last day of my stay in Iceland was the best one - and also the one which finally made me believe that it's indeed an amazingly beautiful country, which I had doubted in the previous days due to terrible weather. But before discovering the true beauty of Iceland, we had to go through one of the biggest touristic disasters in my life :D

One evening we decided to go on an organised tour called "Northern Lights Mystery". I'm not at all fond of any kinds of organised tourism, but in Iceland you don't have much choice, because you can't really rely on the public buses, which can only take you to some towns, but not to the most beautiful places. So either you have/rent a car, or you go on such an organised tour. I felt a bit sceptical, but decided to give it a try. We were in a big bus full of foreign tourists with a guide who was talking nonsense (Icelandic is very similar to English? Oh really?...), but it all wouldn't have been that bad, if there hadn't been more than 10 buses going all together to one parking some 50 km out of Reykjavík. I bet there must be more parkings in the middle of nowhere in a country like Iceland, but apparently they believe that tourists enjoy traveling in a huge crowd. Well, maybe some of them do, but I definitely don't... So the whole crowd was standing on the parking in freezing wind trying to see something on the sky ;) There was something slightly green and let's believe that those were indeed the Northern Lights and not some unusual cloud. But it didn't look like what you can see on postcards at all. Of course, they always warn the tourists that there's no guarantee of seeing the Lights, so it's not their fault. But the whole thing looked quite ridiculous... ;) Then we were taken to the nearest village and told that we might buy some hot drinks... But then imagine people from all those buses rushing to that local shop/café :D We just stayed in the bus. Later we went to one more parking to hunt the Northern Lights, but both me and Søren were asleep, so we're not even quite sure how many stops there were afterwards :D

The next day we were supposed to go on a similat trip to see the Gullfoss waterfall, but you can imagine how I felt about the idea... Fortunately, we found a better solution: to rent a car! It's really great that, unlike me, Søren can drive a car :)

Yes, there are mountains!

We took the Ring Road towards Selfoss and then I could see it clearly that there actually were some mountains. :) The landscapes were so wonderful that I've taken a lot of photos from the car, which I actually never do, as I find it quite silly. But finally I could see what Iceland is really like - outside of the capital city and without rain! Everything was just white and blue. Only from time to time we could see some tiny villages.

On the way to Geysir

After driving for some 50 kms on the Ring Road, we had to take road 35, which actually leads into the interior of Iceland, but is easily accessible only until Gullfoss, which is one of the most popular tourist attractions. Fortunately, it was already afternoon, so we couldn't see a lot of tourists buses on the way ;) (Yes, now I'm very prejudiced towards organised tourism in Iceland). After one more hour of driving we reached our first destination...

in Geysir

It was Geysir, which is famous for geysers, as you may have guessed ;) The original Great Geysir, which gave the name to periodically spouting hot springs, isn't really active anymore, but in the past it could hurl water for up to 70-80 meters in the air! Nowadays the most active one is Strokkur, which hurls water for 30 meters "only" and errupts every several minutes, but that was enough for me to freak out... It's so easy to scare me, you know :D And yes, now I can perfectly understand why the hot water in Iceland smells so bad. It smells of geysers! :P It's not the lovliest smell ever, but it's certainly worth coming there to see this natural phenomenon.

I was afraid this one would errupt too :D

It was already sunset, but we decided to go to Gullfoss, which is located just 10 km away from Geysir nevertheless. It was almost completely dark when we came there, but it added some mysterious feeling to the process of visiting the great waterfall. First we could only hear it, but not see it :) We walked down the stairs, I fell on the snow while trying to take pictures, and then finally we could see Gullfoss. If you use your imagination, maybe you can also see the waterfall on the next picture! :D

This wonderful quality!

Of course, I wish I could see it in daylight too, but I was glad to come there when nobody else was around, it's so much easier to enjoy the amazing nature this way. Then it was time to drive back to Reykjavík. Actually, on the way back we've seen much more Northern Lights than during that lame tour! they still didn't look the way they do on postcards, but this time I had no doubts that that was it. The only sad thing was that the next morning I already had to fly back to Poland through Denmark and Sweden... Just hours after starting to discover the real beauty of Iceland. But who knows, maybe I'd have a chance to come there again and see more? A month ago the idea of traveling to Iceland sounded too unrealistic to me, but yet it happened in the most unexpected way. And if you've done something once, you can also do it twice, it's the first time which is always the hardest :) I'd love to see more of the Icelandic nature. Still, I think it's a pity they don't have railways and I believe they should certainly build some, but I doubt Icelandic president and prime minister will listen to me ;) It's a country, where almost everyone is used to having a car and so maybe they don't feel the need to have trains... But trainless life is very sad, isn't it? In any case, Iceland is definitely a country, which is worth visiting, even if I had doubts in the first days of my stay there. I'm really thankful to Søren for making this whole journey possible and I hope we'll meet again... in whichever country!

Unexpected Iceland: Reykjavík and Selfoss

I was supposed to update my blog again yesterday, but apart from being lazy I was also quite busy with all kinds of paperwork, so I'm writing today. :) Yes, the fight between me and my laziness continues, but I still think that would be a pity to give up on blogging now. I still believe that sharing my travel experiences here is a wonderful way to avoiding writing boring travel reports in my letters! Isn't that a serious reason to keep on writing?! ;)

During my stay in Iceland I lived in Reykjavík at Søren's place, so obviously I've seen something in the capital city. As I've mentioned in the previous entry, Reykjavík is actually quite big, even if it has relatively small population. If you can spend almost an hour traveling by bus within the city, it can't be small. It consists of many neighbourhoods, which have some long Icelandic names, but other than that they're known by their postal codes (which are only 3 digits long in Iceland). So, for instance, the central part of the city is 101 and I stayed in 109.

Sometimes you can see the sea and mountains in Reykjavík

This is one of the nicest things you can see in Reykjavík, at least from my point of view, because the city itself isn't really exciting. Well, maybe I'm just too picky, because in reality there are a lot of tourists from all around the world and they seem to be enjoying it. But it's also not that you can always see this beautiul view - for most of the time there was fog or it was snowing, so I couldn't see anything. :) Sometimes there would be really nice and sunny weather in Reykjavík 109, but terrible in the centre! Fortunately, I managed to take these photos the day before leaving Iceland, so I actually have a proof that you can see some of amazing Icelandic capital without leaving the capital city. :)

Locals on one of the main streets

After my short visit to Sweden I've developed my communication with geese skills and I had more chances to practise in Reykjavík. ;) Yes, you can often see them walking slowly around the city centre. But I'm even more lazy than they are, so I've spent most of my time either at Søren's work or at the post office instead of discovering all that Reykjavík has to offer. :) But at least I've managed to write and send two letters from Iceland (both have already arrived, because the Icelandic postal service is surprisingly fast):

For Olga in Belarus

For Sandra in Germany

What I enjoyed much more than trying to force myself to walk around the capital, were our afternoon trips. One of them was to Selfoss, which is a nice town some 50 km away from Reykjavík by the famous Ring Road. Once again, I was surprised to see that a town with population of slightly above 6000 can have so may different kinds of businesses. In Ukraine such a town would have had a few grocery shops and some poor café :D But I guess that as for Icelandic standards Selfoss isn't a small town at all and can even be considered some kind of regional centre of Southern Iceland.

Selfie with the bridge over Ölfusá river :D

We arrived to Selfoss about 17:30, so it was already getting dark. For this reason the photos from there look a bit gloomy (again according to my mum) ;), but I liked this place nevertheless. Actually, it wa funny how we started looking for a big mountain, which was supposed to be visible from Selfoss. We even started doubting, whether it wa the same Selfoss - who knows, maybe there are two towns with the same name? :D But it was the same town. Once again, it was just the fog, snow and rain to blame. Yet if you look very carefully at the next photo, you might see the mountain in the background.

There is a mountain. Really.

Still can't see it? So you'll just have to believe me that it really is there. ;) A couple of days later we drove through the same area while the weather was much better and could see it clearly - but I'm not going to tell you about it today. ;) While walking along the river and through the fields, I was trying to imagine, whether I could actually live in this country. I think I would find it hard, because although there is something charming about the darkness and the warm lights of houses in the middle of cold, white space, I'm afraid it could have a negative impact on my mental well-being in the longer run. I've talked to some foreigners, who have been living in Iceland for many years and they mostly complained about the lack of sunlight, not even about the temperatures, which really rarely get extreme. And of course, lack of trains would also be a huge problem for me! ;) But still, Iceland is a wonderful country, which I'd like to come back to at some point.

Houses in Selfoss

We ended up getting totally wet because of the rain again and went for a pizza while waiting for a bus back to Reykjavík. It was a really lovely evening despite the weather :) But the greatest adventures were only yet to come... ;) I'll tell you about them soon!

Unexpected Iceland: Crazy Walking and Swimming :)

It's been quite a while since I've written anything on my blog, because I've been tired and lazy (mostly lazy, let's admit that), but don't worry, I'm not abandoning it yet! ;) I just need some time to relax after the most adventurous winter I've ever had in my life. And of course to share my adventures with you. :)

I took the flight from Copenhagen to Keflavík on 6th February. Until the last minute I was worried that something would go wrong and so I wouldn't eventually fly to Iceland, especially after I tried to do self check-in at the airport and saw my name written as "Kseniamahanna", while in reality it's Ksenia Marianna. Fortunately, they didn't pay much attention to such tiny details, Kseniamahanna has become my new nickname, and I was finally flying to Iceland :) The island looked so beautiful from air that I even forgot to be scared of landing!

A few minutes before the landing

When we landed in Keflavík, we couldn't get out from the aircraft, because there had been a problem with electricity supply at the airport. The perspective of spending 5 days in the plane didn't sound like fun, but luckily the problem was solved after some 15 minutes! ;) Iceland welcomed me with a very strong wind and snow. I took a bus to Reykjavík and after some 50 minutes I was already in world's northernmost capital city. And, as it usually happens to me while visiting faraway countries, I still couldn't believe I really was in Iceland :)

Even when I finally met Søren and we went to have a lunch together, I still had the feeling that I must be dreaming and so I'd wake up in a while! But apparently it was reality, because the next morning I woke up and I was still in Reykjavík. :) Unfortunately, Søren had to work - that was the reason why we couldn't stick to our original plan of meeting in Sweden and Denmark - but we'd go on some trips or do crazy activities every afternoon and evening. :) The first adventure was a walk to Hafnarfjörður, which is a town located some 15 km away from the capital.

On the way to Hafnarfjörður

The road was actually much more busy than I had expected. In fact, Reykjavík also looks much bigger than cities of similar size in Ukraine in Poland. As the whole capital region of Iceland (which includes Reykjavík, Hafnarfjörður and a few more towns, which have names too difficult for me to remember) ;) has just about 200 thousands of inhabitants, so I expected to see a really calm and sleepy place, while in reality it's quite a busy city! It must have something to do with the fact that in Iceland almost everyone has a car, so the traffic is high. You see, it's a very poor country with no railways at all! :( After spending 5 days in Iceland I realised that you can't really do much there without a car, but I'll tell you more about it in my next blog entries. So we walked down quite a busy road through two other towns, but as soon as it was possible, we'd just walk closer to the sea, where I could see the black volcanic rocks. My mum saw the pictures on FB and said that it looks a bit like moon landscape. ;) Well, indeed, it does. But there's something unusual and tranquil about it.

In Hafnarfjörður

When we came to Hafnarfjörður it was already dark and we were completely wet after walking for more than 2 hours in the rain, but it was still such a great experience! And I didn't even feel tired after walking 15 km, but we decided to take a bus back home nevertheless. Then came my lovely experience with hot water in Iceland! :D You see, they have hot water for free, because the country is full of geothermal sources. Great, right? But the hot water stinks like... Okay, I won't write it here, because some of you might be eating while reading my blog. ;) Anyway, I ended up taking cold shower and even washing my hair in cold water for this reason. But you know, cold water isn't really a problem for me... ;)

Søren and me being crazy :D

The next day we went ice-swimming! On 1st January, when I decided not to swim in the ice cold sea while I was already sick, I promised myself I'd still do it this winter. But could I imagine that I'd do it in Iceland?! Never! :) There's just one beach in Reykjavík, because in all the other places the sea is just too deep and dangerous to swim. It takes quite a long while to walk there from the nearest bus stop and we had to walk against a storm wind, so I must admit I had some doubts whether we'd actually dare to do it! ;) But we promised ourselves and told some other people about our plans, so I'm afraid we had no choice! ;) In fact, the temperature of water in Iceland is higher than in Ukraine at this time of the year. That was quite surprising to me, because just the name of the country: "Iceland" already sounds quite freezing! ;) But in reality it has quite a moderate climate and the sea was +5 degrees warm. :)

I'm crazy and I love it!

Then we wore white robes on top of our jackets and were ready to head to Kleppur - Iceland's biggest mental hospital! ;) Actually, we walked like this almost to the city centre! I think it's really precious to have a Friend, with whom you can do the most insane things without the need to hide your quirky nature! :) With such person even a gloomy and windy day can turn intro a great and funny adventure :) We didn't go to Blue Lagoon or any other fancy place like that, but I bet it wouldn't have been even 1% as fun as swimming in the ocean in such a terrible weather! I'll tell you more about our next adventures tomorrow! (If I'm not as lazy as I've been lately!) ;)

A short visit to Malmö

The 5th of February started one of the biggest adventures in my life. At least so far, because I can't know what else my life would surprise me with! :D What has been going on this year is really unbelievable and it makes me think that once you leave your comfort zone, there's really no way back to it!

The original plan was quite different. I was supposed to fly to Malmö on 7th February and spend a few days with my friend Søren in both Sweden and Denmark. But as he couldn't get days off from work, the plans had to be changed. It really took him a while to convince me to come to Iceland instead, but fortunately he managed. Now I realise it would have been a huge pity if we had just cancelled the whole trip... Søren changed his flights in such way that I could use them for flying from Copenhagen to Reykjavik and back, while I changed the date of my flight to Malmö to 5th February, so I'd have a bit more time. Still, I had to decide, whether I'd like to spend one day in Sweden or in Denmark, because I couldn't really do both. Just to explain you why I'd fly to Sweden and then from Denmark and why it's not as insane as it sounds: Malmö and Copenhagen are located very close to each other, it takes only about half an hour by train, which passes through the Øresund strait by the bridge and tunnel, which were open in 2000.

The main train station in Malmö

As for the airports, the main one, used by people from both countries, is located in Copenhagen. The Malmö airport, located some 25 kms East from the city, is smaller and used mostly by the low-cost airlines. The funny thing is that even from Malmö it's easier and quicker to get to the Copenhagen airport than to the Malmö one. ;) I had to go to both of them in any case, but I decided to spend a day in Sweden, because I had never been to this country before. And if I went just to the airport, I'd be confused whether I should put Sweden on the list of countries I've been to or not. Sounds like a very serious reason, doesn't it? :D But in fact I was just curious to see a completely new place. :) To be completely fair, I should admit that Copenhagen would probably also feel like a brand new place to me, because the only time I've been there was 19 years ago and I obviously can't remember much. But I really hope I'll be able to go there together with my friend, when he'll finally be able to take a short holiday.

The Malmö castle

As I'm really interested in castles, one of the places that I really wanted to see in Malmö was the Malmöhus, which was built in the 16th century and historically it was one of the main strongholds of... Denmark. Nowadays it's a museum, which I didn't have a chance to visit, because I didn't have enough time.

Almost like in the Netherlands:)

Next to the castle there's a very nice park and a windmill, which reminded me of my recent trip to Kinderdijk.:) I don't know, what was its function, but it looked really beautiful. One more similarity between the Netherlands and Sweden that I've noticed were the bikes. They're just everywhere in Malmö and, just like in Dutch cities, you have to be careful not to get run over by one. :)

The town hall

The historic centre of Malmö isn't really huge, but it has some nice old buildings, including the town hall, which is city's one of most popular landmarks. The Scandinavian architecture style is quite different from what I've seen in different West European countries and it felt quite "heavy", in lack of a better word, to me, but it was interesting nevertheless. I was afraid that 2.5 hours (and that's how much time I had before meeting my couchsurfing host) wouldn't be enough for sightseeing. But in fact I managed to see all the main sights, to send some postcards and even to fight the Swedish cash mashines. :D Yes, it took me some time to realise that in Sweden you should put your card into the cash mashine "upside down" - until then I thought that they didn't like my Polish card and that I wouldn't be able to withdraw money. I'm a very smart East European tourist, what else can I say! ;)

Communicating with Swedish geese! ;)

Finally at 4 pm I met Anna, my host. She turned out to be a very nice girl (just as the vast majority of couchsurfers!) and we quickly found the common language. We went on a walk to the park, where I managed to find the common language with local geese as well! :D They were not really happy with me bothering them, but one of them started looking at me very curiously, so perhaps we established some special connection! ;)

At the seaside

We also went to the beach for a short while and I could see this famous bridge from a distance (you can also see it on this photo if you look very carefully). Anna lives in Sweden, but works in Denmark, which turns out to be quite a common thing to do in this region. The borders in Europe are really not what they used to be. :) I could see Denmark from a distance and some part of me wanted to go there as well, but I knew I couldn't do that if I wanted to spend some days in Iceland. But I believe I'll be able to visit Copenhagen again too, maybe even in the near future. :)

For Anastasia in Ukraine

Although my stay in Sweden was rather short, I even managed to send one letter from there. It was partly written on the flight from Katowice to Malmö, where I've lost my fountain pen, so I had to continue writing with an usual one. But I guess the fact that I'm able to write letters while flying shows that I've nearly got rid ofmy aviaphobia thanks to extensive flying this winter.:) I really feel sorry for Anastasia,because she'll have to decipher the most terrible version of my handwriting, but I can't do anything about myself being absent-minded and losing stuff all the time... I hope at least she'll be happy to receive a letter sent from abroad.:)

Sea Training!

The next morning I've done the International Oversea Training together with Anna and I came directly to the Copenhagen airport, so I didn't have a chance to get lost. I waited about 4 hours for my flight (I know I come to the airports a bit too early...) and then a much bigger adventure started!:) But that I'm going to tell you about the next time. ;)

What happens when I go to Poland?

What happens when I go to Poland? I turn into a zombie! :D

I'm such a nice zombie!

Okay, I'm just kidding. But sometimes doing stupid things is the best way of coping with difficult emotions. This wonderful photo was taken yesterday by my mum after we bought those funny teeth candies. ;) It took me quite a long time to decide, whether I should go to Poland or not (or, to be more precise, should I go just to the Katowice airport when the time of my flight comes, or whether I should go a bit earlier and visit my relatives) and I made the decision in the last minute, which is typical for me. I decided to go just in order not to regret not going later. I realise it's probably not the best motivation - ideally I should just feel like coming here, just like most of my groupmates, who have come to Lviv to study, feel happy whenever they can go to their hometown. A few years ago I'd still feel guilty because of not having such feelings, but things just are the way they are and I have to accept it. I don't ever go to my hometown (Wrocław) anymore, unless it's because of some paperwork, because I don't have any relatives living there anymore. Therefore I usually come to Opole, which is the hometown of my mum and where she's been living with my grandfather lately. It's been difficult. We've had some really emotional conversations, which weren't easy for any of us, but perhaps we needed them. I don't know, whether that's going to change anything or not, but it's good to know that at least we're able to discuss certain issues. I must admit that my mum has been trying to be nice for me. Maybe it's just me, who's not appreciating it as much as I should?

A book, paper and envelopes from my Mum.

She knows how much I'm into penpalling, so she's bought me 250 colourful sheets and 200 envelopes, as well as a book of a Polish writer, who's very much into East Europe and Central Asia and who has signed this book for me. I'm really thankful, although at the same time I get distressed, as fitting it all into my small WizzAir luggage (this airline only lets you take a small backpack on board for free) is a bit of a challenge. And I wouldn't like to hurt her by leaving anything here. Our relationship is very complicated, but sometimes I think that one of the main problems is basically a very simple one: we have completely different ways of expressing our feelings and, as a result, we both feel there's something missing. 

Another reason why I felt quite nervous about coming to Poland is that yesterday there was a court trial for official separation between my grandparents. They've been living separately for almost 2 years, but the thing is that somehow my grandfather didn't receive a letter from court (I don't know how it's possible) and I was supposed not to tell him anything... And I hate lying, I can't really do that. Yesterday I've met my grandmother only for 15 minutes in the court, she looked quite overwhelmed by the whole situation, but I really hope we're going to spend some more time together today. I'll take a train to Kluczbork, the town where she lives with my grandaunt, in a couple of hours.

For Stav in Israel.

On a more positive note, I've been taking a lot of effort to catch up with my huge pile of mail. :) I've written a long letter for my dear Stav in Israel partly in Ukraine, but mostly on a Polish train from Przemyśl to Opole. That was a very effective Training session! ;)

For Mihaela in Romania

In Opole I've started using the envelopes that I have from my mum and I've decided to answer my new penpals first, because I believe new friendships require regularity to develop. This envelope went to Mihaela from Romania, who's totally new to penpalling, but has written me a really lovely letter. :)

For Taši in Slovenia

This letter went to Taši in Slovenia and I hope it'll reach her before her birthday! :) In case you've been wondering why I'm posting the pictures of my letters without stamps now, I'll explain you: once I give my letters to the lady at the post office in Poland, I never get to see them again! ;) And I don't have any Polish stamps with me.

For Jennifer in UK

Finally, I've answered Jennifer's (who's also known as Hunter) great intro letter and this envelope will start traveling today. I still have 8 letters left to answer, but I believe I'll manage not to delay my answers too much, because I've been in a very productive writing mood, as you can see above. :)

Tomorrow I'll start a great journey again and I'll be even more of a zombie, because I'll have to spend the night on a train, bus and then the Katowice airport, so I won't really get to sleep anywhere. But I'm really excited about the adventure, which is about to begin! Hopefully I'll survive both the flight and my aviaphobia (I'm not sure which one of them is actually more dangerous) and will be able to share my experiences with you! ;)