Poland, a bit of Germany, and a lot of mail!

You can imagine, how lazy I have been, if I tell you it has taken me 2 weeks to upload the pictures from my latest trip to my FB! But I knew I had to do it before I start traveling again, otherwise they'd stay on my camera forever. But let me tell you about this secret trip a bit ;) Why do I call it a secret trip? Because almost nobody knew that I went to Poland, I just wasn't in the right mood to post anything and felt powerless for most of the time. Still, that was great to meet Søren and hopefully I managed to show him some nice places in the country of my origin. And one place in Germany :) We were traveling together between 10th and 17th of April and then I stayed in Poland for two more days with my mum.

On the beach in Gdańsk

One interesting thing that I've noticed while uploading my photos yesterday is that basically they're all from Gdańsk and from Görlitz/Zgorzelec, although we've visited many more places. As far as it's kind of understandable that I haven't taken a lot of pictures in the towns, where my relatives live, as I've been there for hundreds of time, lack of pictures from places like Warsaw is a bit weird. Probably they just weren't inspiring enough to make me look for my camera in my bag! :P I'm generally not the biggest fan of Poland, you know? ;)

Gdańsk

But I must admit I really loved Gdańsk. I had been there before, but that was ages ago, so I couldn't really remember much and therefore it felt like visiting a completely new place. I've noticed that I can actually have a very positive attitude to those places in Poland that aren't related to any negative events from my past. I'm glad about it, because it would be a pity to feel bad towards the whole country, whose passport I still have and which I'm going to keep, even if just for practical reasons. An even bigger surprise was that I actually liked the Baltic Sea, which I used to hate as a child, because the seaside holidays were always too long and way too boring. But going there for a couple of days in April felt completely different! We obviously went swimming and perhaps have already became famous, because there was someone taking a video of us :D

Gdańsk

To Søren Gdańsk looked a bit like Copenhagen. To me it looked more like some German city (which actually is partly true if you consider Gdańsk's history), but in any case it's a truly beautiful place. We also went to Sopot, which is a famous Polish seaside resort just next to Gdańsk, but, to be completely honest and direct, it just looked kitsch to me. I hope I haven't offended any Polish people, if they're reading my blog ;)

Later we spent 2 days with my grandfather, who lives just a bit more than 100 km away from Gdańsk and who was celebrating his 85th birthday. Well, in fact he wasn't celebrating - I'm just like him in this matter ;) But we had a really nice time together and I'm glad I could be there on his special day.

View from the railway bridge in Görlitz/Zgorzelec

The next stop during our trip was supposed to be Wrocław, the city where I was born (but I don't call it my home city), but I'm a totally disorganized (or you can call it spontaneous!) ;) person also when it comes to traveling, so we changed our plans in the last minute and went to Görlitz/Zgorzelec, which is a town at the Polish-German border. The bigger part of it, including the historic center, is in Germany and is called Görlitz. The Polish part, which is smaller and has two totally demolished railway stations, is called Zgorzelec. Normal people can cross the border through a pedestrian bridge in the town center, but we're far from being normal people, so we decided to run to Germany through the railway bridge! :D I don't know, whether it's actually allowed or not, but we felt almost like illegal immigrants and I was afraid that a train would suddenly come ;) Oh yes, why do things the normal way, if you can get so many extra emotions instead?!

On the normal, boring bridge

But, as you can see, we've also been on the pedestrian bridge and have even taken a border photo ;) I've always had a really soft spot for borders and therefore I also have good childhood memories from this place. I went there for the first time with my dad back in 2002, when there was still an actual border crossing. Nowadays the border is obviously open, but it still looks a bit like a boundary between the East and West.

Görlitz

Apart from being an international town, Görlitz is also just a very nice and historic place, so I think it was the right decision to go there instead of Wrocław. Of course, we might have seen much more of Poland if I only hadn't been so lazy and tired all the time, but there always should be some reason to come back right? And I'm glad that we actually also had a lot of time for long conversations, which are much more important than sightseeing.

We've also spent two days in Opole with my mother and the other grandpa and then we've done something really scary... or exciting... It all depends on your attitude ;)

Ryanaring!

Yeah, flying! Believe it or not, nowadays the domestic flights in Poland are cheaper than trains or buses, so we've taken them twice: first from Warsaw to Gdańsk and then from Wrocław to Warsaw. We've also taken my mum on the 2nd flight with us, because she's always very excited about taking a plane and it's great when you can please someone so much for just 2 euros! :D And for me... it was the cheapest aviaphobia therapy ever! :D During the first flight I got scared of the landing. During the 2nd one I thought we were falling, because the descend started right after we reached the right altitude. Nevermind, that the whole flight was supposed to last 30 minutes, I thought we were going to crash anyway... I wonder, if I'll ever get rid of this stupid aviaphobia totally?

I got back to Ukraine on 20th April at night, just hours before my first exam, which is just usual for me ;) I fortunately feel better now, although there are still a lot of things making me feel nervous and insecure... But at least now I can see some light and my thoughts are much brighter. This has also had a positive effect on my letter writing, but let's start with the incoming mail:

From Brigitta in Hungary

A lovely letter from my Hungarian friend Brigitta :) She's one of those amazing and precious people, who keep on writing to me despite having seen me in real life! I think this time I'll have to write her a page in Hungarian... ;)

From Bahanur in Turkey

My previous letter to Bahanur got lost, but she was kind enough to write me a great extra letter in a wonderful handmade envelope! One thing I know for sure is that I'll never send her a letter from Poland again ;) The Ukrainian postal service may be slower, but seems to be more reliable and has prettier stamps! :D

From Jennifer in UK

Finally, a really cool letter came from Jennifer today and will (probably) be the last piece of my incoming mail in April, unless I find something unexpected in my mailbox tomorrow :)

And here comes the outgoing mail:

For Tessa in the Netherlands

This letter to Tessa started traveling on Sunday. Or on Monday. But I did what I could to send it out before 15:00 on Sunday ;)

For Tündi in UK

An extreme letter for my extreme penpal Tündi started traveling on Tuesday :) I managed to type 30 pages for her within just 2 days, I wish I was writing my MA thesis so quickly! ;)

For Maude in France

Today I've been writing very effectively (in the office... that's what happens, when I don't get enough work) and have sent two letters. The first one goes to Maude in France :)

For Anastasia in Ukraine

And the 2nd one goes to Anastasia in Ukraine, so I've had some linguistic diversity, which is very important in translator's work! :P Okay, just kidding. But I really enjoy writing in the office, and I don't even know why. As you can see, I've sent more letters than I've received, so let's keep on believing in the legend... One day I'll catch up! I promise! ;)

I'm alright. It's just a big mess in my head.

Oh well, it's been almost a month since I've written anything here. Some of you might be wondering whether I'm still alive, because I've almost totally disappeared from the internet in the last weeks... Don't worry, I'm fine. It's just one of those periods, when I have such a big mess in my head that I prefer to withdraw myself from any social activities (including online ones) and wait until my mood changes. I've even had a 19 days long period of writing no letters at all, which is a big shame, not just because it's difinitely not the best way to cope with a huge pile of mail, but also because writing is a perfect way of dealing with bad thoughts, a form of self-therapy. But instead of writing I just waited and here I am - finally after 3 weeks I feel better and am able to write letters everyday. Therefore I'm also ready to write a blog entry, even if I'm not sure, what should I start with.

There've been some things going on in my life. I'm currently in the middle of my exam period, which is obviously stressful, but that's fine - at least I have something to keep myself busy with. Things at my job are fine, although sometimes I get paranoid about possibly losing it because of my preference to work remotely. But that's not my biggest fear - in any case, the current job is a good experience and I can always search for something else. I've also spent one week in Poland with Søren, my dear friend, who lives in Iceland. But I'm going to write about the trip to Poland next time... Now I'd like to go back to beginning if April, when I "disappeared" and stopped writing any letters.

In the Kamiani Mohyly reserve

I went on another trip to Eastern Ukraine, this time to a very remote place called "Kamiani Mohyly" (which translates as "Stone Graves", although I don't think there are any graves) ;) Nowadays it's a natural reserve of very old mountains in the middle of a steppe. Getting there was a bit complicated, but I enjoyed the trip nevertheless. Once again I've been able to walk on empty roads, hearing just the wind and it felt so great! I've met the director of the reserve, who called an inspector and asked him to show me around. Therefore I've been able to walk even in those places, which are normally forbidden for tourists and to learn much about the history of the place. That's the advantage of coming totally out of touristic season and telling that you've come from the other end of the country just to see this place! ;)

Old mountains in the steppe

Now you may be wondering, what went wrong. Well, actually everything was just fine. The only problem was that I had to spend the night in Mariupol - and I actually felt good about it, because I still love this city, even after the war experience that I had there last summer. I believe it's more or less safe to come there nowadays, even if sometimes you can hear some disturbing sounds at night. I still felt very comfortable there, especially when I was able to look at the Sea of Azov at night.

My favourite sea ever ;)

The only problem was in my head. I had a ticket back to Kyiv for Sunday (and then I was supposed to take a train from Kyiv to Lviv, of course), but suddenly I didn't feel like coming back... So I'd change the ticket everyday. First Sunday to Monday, then Monday to Tuesday, finally Tuesday to Wednesday. I couldn't stay any longer, because I had to make it to Poland on Friday and the distance is really huge. So I finally left on Wednesday and arrived to Kyiv next morning just to realize that there were no tickets to Lviv! I had forgotten that the Ukrainian Easter was coming (as you can easily tell, I'm not really into celebrating all the traditional holidays)! I spent 2 hours refreshing the website of Ukrainian railways every 15 seconds to catch the moment, when someone would return any ticket to Lviv. Luckily, I managed, and I was in Lviv on Friday at 5:00 am, so I could still easily take a bus to Warsaw at 11:00. So, as you can see, nothing bad happened. But I was just so angry with myself because of my irresponsibilty and all the mess that I've made. I know it'll sound lame, but I was kind of pretending that the trip to Poland wasn't coming and that I didn't have to go anywhere... Perhaps it was some way of escaping the pressure, staying as long as I could in a place that I love, but it left me feeling totally unstable. I suppose I shouldn't be writing all this stuff on a blog, but it's better if my penpals know. I'm alright and nothing bad has happened to me. Just to use my favourite Russian saying "everyone has some cockroaches in their head" ;) And so my "cockroaches" have been having a huge party lately, that's it :)

It might be that I haven't published photos of sent/received mail in the last days of March, but I hope you won't mind if I only share April's mail with you now. All the letters that I've sent in March should have arrived a long time ago :) So, first, incoming mail:

From Taši in Slovenia

This letter comes from my Slovene friend Taši. She has used lovely self-designed stamps as usually! :)

From Hannah in UK

A nice 2nd letter from my new English penpal Hannah.

From Bine in Germany

A lovely intro from Bine! One of those cases when I just couldn't say no to a new friendship... ;)

From Antonina in Ukraine

My Ukrainian friend Antonina has sent me a really great letter, as always!

From Anastasia in Ukraine

And one more Ukrainian letter from Anastasia, who's one of my "oldest" penpals - we've been writing to each other for 5 years!

I've also been lucky to receive postcards from very "rare" countries thanks to my dear penpals, who love traveling as much as I do ;)

Cards from Oman sent by Tündi

My extreme (she knows what I mean) ;) friend Tündi has sent me two great postcards from her trip to Oman! I actually didn't expect to receive written and stamped postcards from there, because I know that this country has quite an unreliable postal service, but I'm really thankful to Tündi for giving it a try!

A card from Laos sent by Essi

And my Finnish friend Essi has sent me this great postcard from Laos during her big Asia trip! :) Do I have to tell you that those are first pieces of mail from both Oman and Laos that I've ever received?! :D

Now my outgoing mail. I've been quite an active writer this week!

For Bahanur in Turkey

A letter for Bahanur in Turkey, which took 3 weeks to be completed, because I started writing it before the break. I hope it won't be too chaotic.

For Kathrin in Germany

A late answer to Kathrin in Germany... I hope she'll like it nevertheless. Yeah, the envelope got a bit wet due to the post office lady putting additional stamps on it in a not exactly neat way. But I hope the letter itself is dry ;)

For Olga in Belarus

A letter for my Belarusian friend, with whom I'm certainly going to travel this year ;)

For Antonina in Ukraine

And finally a letter to Antonina in Ukraine, which should reach her soon.

At the moment I'm working on a letter to Tessa in the Netherlands and generally feel quite motivated to write, so wait for more mail updates from me soon ;) Well, unless I do something stupid again and my "cockroaches" make a big disco :D