I fly back from Poland to Glasgow Prestwick 10 days ago and the flight is completely full - but really how few people are on that flight? And how many people do I actually speak to? - just 1 - the Polish guy sitting next to me (who happens to live in Stockholm) and has just married the pretty lady at the window seat. So what are the chances that I will meet this very couple when I am in Edinburgh tonight?
Because I just did - as I am heading for my train at Haymarket station, I bump into them. So we went for a drink together - me, Monica and Adam, which at least starts to balance out all the Ewas (Eves) I'd met in Poland.
He's 62 and she's 34. They met on the internet and fell in love (or does that have anything to do with his bank balance?). I suppose he does have his own hair and teeth (and I reckon only one of these is purchased).
But the downside of drinking 3 malts is doing it on top of 3 wines (I'd already had enough!) and then getting on the wrong train to Glasgow wasn't one of my best moves. Should have read the bit about the train to QUEEN STREET.
Well, at least the conversation with my new Polish friends, the girl at the taxi rank and the taxi driver almost made up for the conference presenters who either stated the bloody obvious or were in some parallel universe that I had no desire to visit. Oh joy, I'm going back tomorrow.
Saturday, 10 July 2010
Tuesday, 29 June 2010
Breakfast
At breakfast, the hotel restaurant was filled with fit, young men with large biceps outnumbering the rest of the guests. They are all tennis players in the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour about to take place this week.
I sat in the outside area next to the river and listened to the church bells again. Church bells have been a big theme of this trip, waking me up at 6am in Cieszyn and here they are either striking on the hour or playing a tune at random times in between. From where I was sitting I could see at least eight spires so I'm not sure if they have some rota system to ensure there isn't a clash.
Home soon!
I sat in the outside area next to the river and listened to the church bells again. Church bells have been a big theme of this trip, waking me up at 6am in Cieszyn and here they are either striking on the hour or playing a tune at random times in between. From where I was sitting I could see at least eight spires so I'm not sure if they have some rota system to ensure there isn't a clash.
Home soon!
Monday, 28 June 2010
Last Full Day here
I've been bitten again in various places - don't know whether this is the same beast that bit me in Cieszyn or whether my fondness for green places means I've attracted another one(s). Big red fiery itchy lumps on my ankles, legs, torso, back and one on my face! Its not pleasant and I really need some antihistamine!
Took it easy today with a more relaxed walk to a large shopping mall with seat stops on the islands and a detour through an indoor market (where many greengrocers and florists seemed to compete for trade - they all sold the same stuff). The large shopping mall was like any other - shops I didn't even want to look at. Found another park behind the shopping centre where a huge round builidng called the Raclawicka Panorama. It was closed on Mondays so I'm still none the wiser to what went on inside it. The National Museum also looked shut or perhaps just uninviting so I took a riverside walk to the Old Town for coffee in a charming Cafe at the Cathedral. Charming because, once again, its coffee and cake- nothing else served. And the cake served is enormous.
Back to the Botanic Garden to keep under the shade although I was acutely aware of the small insects that were crawling over me and wondered if it was one of their relations who had feasted on me yesterday. And generally, I'm itching and feel I could take off the top layers of my skin. Also bookless,so I'm fidgety and unsettled. I have one book on Japanese Literature but its too heavy (in weight and in content).
After a cool shower and the addition of antihistamine gell, I had my last meal in the Main Square at a 'traditional Polish' restaurant. The bread basket was served with a dish (and not that small) of lard. I thought that it perhaps hid some type of potted hough under it but no, it was lard (with a very tiny amount of meat through it). This had already been served up on Friday at the Castle and is a delicacy here. It kind of turned my stomach to see so much of it.
That's it - the last post. Tomorrow morning, I'll be heading to the airport and then home.
Took it easy today with a more relaxed walk to a large shopping mall with seat stops on the islands and a detour through an indoor market (where many greengrocers and florists seemed to compete for trade - they all sold the same stuff). The large shopping mall was like any other - shops I didn't even want to look at. Found another park behind the shopping centre where a huge round builidng called the Raclawicka Panorama. It was closed on Mondays so I'm still none the wiser to what went on inside it. The National Museum also looked shut or perhaps just uninviting so I took a riverside walk to the Old Town for coffee in a charming Cafe at the Cathedral. Charming because, once again, its coffee and cake- nothing else served. And the cake served is enormous.
Back to the Botanic Garden to keep under the shade although I was acutely aware of the small insects that were crawling over me and wondered if it was one of their relations who had feasted on me yesterday. And generally, I'm itching and feel I could take off the top layers of my skin. Also bookless,so I'm fidgety and unsettled. I have one book on Japanese Literature but its too heavy (in weight and in content).
After a cool shower and the addition of antihistamine gell, I had my last meal in the Main Square at a 'traditional Polish' restaurant. The bread basket was served with a dish (and not that small) of lard. I thought that it perhaps hid some type of potted hough under it but no, it was lard (with a very tiny amount of meat through it). This had already been served up on Friday at the Castle and is a delicacy here. It kind of turned my stomach to see so much of it.
That's it - the last post. Tomorrow morning, I'll be heading to the airport and then home.
Sunday, 27 June 2010
Wroclaw by Foot
Left the hotel shortly after 9 to take photos as I didn't carry my camera yesterday. I'm beginning to understand how to island hop via all the different bridges to the other side of the Odra. Still evidence of all the sandbags that they had in May when the river rose to worrying levels.
Found the botanic garden again and just stayed there for hours, wandering round, sitting watching the families and reading the end of my third book (which was even worse than the second one). It was really a lovely garden and made me wonder if my flowers have been watered at home or will I come back and find them all dried up in the sun there?
I loved the garden so much, I might go back tomorrow and just sit in the sunshine again (with my Factor 50 on). Its nice and peaceful and so different from the main square which is full of people in street cafes.
I visited the main square again for a while but the heat was pretty intense so I headed back to my room - in fact I didn't get back till nearly 5 so I'd done a lot of walking.
There's a concert on one of the islands tonight, Suzanne Vega, but the music is fairly muffled through the double glazing and I can't see anything from here.
I'm just staying in tonight and watching a film on my laptop. I'm getting fed up with eating out and I'd quite like something really simple like scrambled egg on toast for my dinner. Even if I had to make it myself and do the washing up.
Found the botanic garden again and just stayed there for hours, wandering round, sitting watching the families and reading the end of my third book (which was even worse than the second one). It was really a lovely garden and made me wonder if my flowers have been watered at home or will I come back and find them all dried up in the sun there?
I loved the garden so much, I might go back tomorrow and just sit in the sunshine again (with my Factor 50 on). Its nice and peaceful and so different from the main square which is full of people in street cafes.
I visited the main square again for a while but the heat was pretty intense so I headed back to my room - in fact I didn't get back till nearly 5 so I'd done a lot of walking.
There's a concert on one of the islands tonight, Suzanne Vega, but the music is fairly muffled through the double glazing and I can't see anything from here.
I'm just staying in tonight and watching a film on my laptop. I'm getting fed up with eating out and I'd quite like something really simple like scrambled egg on toast for my dinner. Even if I had to make it myself and do the washing up.
Saturday, 26 June 2010
Wroclaw - Car, Train, Taxi
Several of us had breakfast together before leaving Cieszyn and finally the sun is out and there's blue skies again! Ewa drove me to Katowice and we arrived at the station with 3 minutes till the train departed. It was better to rush and catch this rather than wait 2 hours till the next service.
In the compartment for 8 passengers, a woman in a cheap red tartan jacket, black jeans and very scuffed shoes sat at the window. She was painfully thin and when she stood up to reach for something from the shelf, her legs were virtually parallel lines each just a little wider than French bagette sticks. She looked in her 40s but quite worn out, with bags under her eyes and black dyed hair severely scraped back. A roll of grey toilet paper fell out of her bag onto the seat, and I wondered why this was necessary. An old book sat in front of her on a small shelf. It was brown, cloth bound and when she opened it the pages were very faded at the edges and had probably never been white. It was Lew Tolstoj, although I couldn't make out the title. When she put her glasses on to read she looked less poor and fragile and more old fashioned, stereotype of a librarian.
Two children sat beside me, the younger one, a boy, at the window and a girl. It was difficult to guess the girl's age as her brown and black striped t-shirt and jeans, made her look like a tiny teenager. She may have been about 9 but really petite. They read, drew in exercise books and ate interesting looking bagels or pretzels. One of these seemed huge in the hands of the girl, about 7 inches in diameter but she managed to eat it completely.
It seemed they were travelling to Wroclaw with their grandfather who sat opposite me, doing word puzzles obsessively, turning the pages and filling in one after the other and rarely speaking to the children, just once when the boy wanted to go to the toilet. He was uncannily like Geppetto with his white hair, tanned skin and moustache. Looking again at the children, I realised they both had flat faces with little pointed and the girl's hair was cut like Coraline. I started to wonder if Geppetto had made then from wood and they had come alive.
Wroclaw is on the River Odra (or Oder) with several canals and islands just beside the hotel. There seems to be a maze of bridges to cross via these islands to the other side where the Old Town is. I got a little lost across these bridges, both old and new, ending up near the Cathedral and a botanic garden. I back tracked and tried to follow my map and signs for the Square.Many people were out and about for the evening enjoying the sunshine. I passed tango dancers, jazz musicians, outdoor beer halls till I found the square and had a meal in an outdoor cafe, people watching. A group of fire dancers and jugglers performed in front of the cafe, i had a front row seat and worried about my eyebrows getting singed.
Walk back over the islands which, now its getting dark, are now full of hundreds of young people sitting in groups, drinking and talking. The atmosphere seems quite pleasant though and not at all threatening.
This hotel is luxurious compared to my room in Cieszyn but I'm not that impressed. I think I prefer the cosiness of the Castle Hotel where there was no hotel reception, no TV and grey toilet paper (sometimes!).
In the compartment for 8 passengers, a woman in a cheap red tartan jacket, black jeans and very scuffed shoes sat at the window. She was painfully thin and when she stood up to reach for something from the shelf, her legs were virtually parallel lines each just a little wider than French bagette sticks. She looked in her 40s but quite worn out, with bags under her eyes and black dyed hair severely scraped back. A roll of grey toilet paper fell out of her bag onto the seat, and I wondered why this was necessary. An old book sat in front of her on a small shelf. It was brown, cloth bound and when she opened it the pages were very faded at the edges and had probably never been white. It was Lew Tolstoj, although I couldn't make out the title. When she put her glasses on to read she looked less poor and fragile and more old fashioned, stereotype of a librarian.
Two children sat beside me, the younger one, a boy, at the window and a girl. It was difficult to guess the girl's age as her brown and black striped t-shirt and jeans, made her look like a tiny teenager. She may have been about 9 but really petite. They read, drew in exercise books and ate interesting looking bagels or pretzels. One of these seemed huge in the hands of the girl, about 7 inches in diameter but she managed to eat it completely.
It seemed they were travelling to Wroclaw with their grandfather who sat opposite me, doing word puzzles obsessively, turning the pages and filling in one after the other and rarely speaking to the children, just once when the boy wanted to go to the toilet. He was uncannily like Geppetto with his white hair, tanned skin and moustache. Looking again at the children, I realised they both had flat faces with little pointed and the girl's hair was cut like Coraline. I started to wonder if Geppetto had made then from wood and they had come alive.
Wroclaw is on the River Odra (or Oder) with several canals and islands just beside the hotel. There seems to be a maze of bridges to cross via these islands to the other side where the Old Town is. I got a little lost across these bridges, both old and new, ending up near the Cathedral and a botanic garden. I back tracked and tried to follow my map and signs for the Square.Many people were out and about for the evening enjoying the sunshine. I passed tango dancers, jazz musicians, outdoor beer halls till I found the square and had a meal in an outdoor cafe, people watching. A group of fire dancers and jugglers performed in front of the cafe, i had a front row seat and worried about my eyebrows getting singed.
Walk back over the islands which, now its getting dark, are now full of hundreds of young people sitting in groups, drinking and talking. The atmosphere seems quite pleasant though and not at all threatening.
This hotel is luxurious compared to my room in Cieszyn but I'm not that impressed. I think I prefer the cosiness of the Castle Hotel where there was no hotel reception, no TV and grey toilet paper (sometimes!).
Friday, 25 June 2010
Friday night - Workshops finished!
After 2 busy weeks, the workshops finished. There was a showing of all the work from this week and the local brewery (Brackie) supplied the beer. Various other drinks were offered including vodka.
Later we ventured across the border again to Orlitsa bar in Cesky Tesin with Dan, Jan, Sofie and Karol, and Sebastian (the events manager at the Castle). Late night (early morning) return to the hotel - about half 3. Sebastian was on good form again.
Later we ventured across the border again to Orlitsa bar in Cesky Tesin with Dan, Jan, Sofie and Karol, and Sebastian (the events manager at the Castle). Late night (early morning) return to the hotel - about half 3. Sebastian was on good form again.
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
Heart Salami for Breakfast
Isn't this great? - a fatty. meaty sausage shaped like a heart for breakfast. The irony is that eating it probably adds more fat to your meaty heart.
At least they also serve vegetables, salad and fruit along with it.
At least they also serve vegetables, salad and fruit along with it.
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