The first part of my trip to Poland was really nice :) Surprisingly enough, I survived the 6 hours long bus ride from Lviv to Lublin. Of course, I'd rather go by train, but in lack on railway to Lublin, that wasn't the worst option either. Most of the passengers were actually smugglers and I was simply amazed with their creativity when it comes to places, where you might hide cigarettes on a bus! Not that I support such actions, but that was just ridiculous. Finally I came to Lublin and waited for my friend Olga, who arrived some 3 hours later by train (yes, she was more lucky) ;)
November probably isn't the best time for traveling, because it gets dark very early - it was already totally dark by the time we got to the city centre. But old towns look charming at night as well, so we spent several hours sightseeing, visiting local cafe's and sending postcards :) I really like it that each big city in Poland has a post office, which works 24/7. So in case you don't know what to do on a sleepless Sunday night, you can always go there and send some postcards ;) At the same time I wish stamps were a bit cheaper in Poland, but well... you can't have everything!
Finally, about 11:30 pm, we met our couchsurfing hosts, who work till late, so we had to wait for them in the city centre trying very hard not to fall asleep while drinking ginger tea :) We were hosted by a very nice gay couple from Lublin - Rafał and Radek, who live quite close to the city centre together with their two guinea pigs :) They really did their best to make us feel comfortable at their place and I loved our evening discussions about politics, LGBT issues and many other interesting issues. I got so carried away with those conversations that we went to sleep about 2:30 am on Saturday and then we had big problems getting up at 6:30 ;) We soon realised that sometimes we have to change our plans a bit, so we don't end up becoming zombies by Sunday evening :) Still, we managed to go on a trip to Zamość, which is a very beautiful town closer to the Ukrainian border. It was designed and built as an ideal Renaissance town and so its centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
I had only been to Zamość once a few years ago and that was in a hurry, so I've discovered quite a few new places for myself this time. We also met up with Ania, my former neighbour (we used to live close to each other until 2009, when I was still in Wrocław, but now she lives in Zamość and I live in Lviv), so she showed us a bit more of her town. We were very lucky with the weather - it was very sunny and it was about 20 degrees, which is quite unusual for November! But when we came back to Lublin, it was rainy and cold again, even though the distance between the two towns isn't more than 80 kms.
On Sunday we wanted to go to another beautiful town in the vicinity of Lublin, called Kazimierz Dolny. I've been there twice and I believe it's really worth visiting, but we had to give up on this part of our plans, as we were simply unable to get up! And traveling should be a pleasure rather than a torture, right? :) Instead, we went on a walk in Lublin together with our hosts, they showed us some nice, old yards, which you're not very likely to find as a tourist. I know this statement may sound slightly odd, but I like it that not everything is renovated in the centre of Lublin yet. I realise that you have to make renovations sometimes if you want to prevent the ruination of old buildings, but I like it when old houses actually look old. Yet I'm sure things will change in Lublin in a few years, so I'll just keep those photos, on which it still looks very East European :) I'll upload my pictures from Lublin to Facebook later, when I come back home (and when I'm not too lazy) :)
Last but not least, here's a little snail mail update :) Olga brought her lovely letter with her (I love it, when letters can be delivered in such a special way!) and so I should be able to answer it in a few days. Yesterday I spent 7 hours traveling by train (yay, finally some Training!) :) from Lublin to Opole and I've nearly finished my letter for my Israeli friend Stav. Now I'm already in Opole with my mum and gradfather, I'm also going to visit my grandmother this week. I'll keep you updated :)
No comments:
Post a Comment