Continental #8 - Prelude and NL, part I - Amsterdam

Sprinkly colourful stuff on soft ice cream is all you need sometimes

It's the beginning of the Christmas season here, I'm gradually recovering from a surprisingly bad cold, and it's been a little over a month since the travels here happened. Since most people don't read this anyway - I don't think - I'll be a bit more forthright than I usually am here. I think this trip was the beginning of an end for me; I found that I derived less joy from the things that had once been my main source of delight, and overall the experience somehow paled in comparison to the ones I'd had before. Admittedly this may have been because of other things as well. It was an eventful year, and I probably let certain circumstances during this year colour my experiences more than they should have. It was also a year of transience for me; however as I look back on what I lost, and all that I gained, and the roads that were taken and the cul de sacs that certain paths led to, I can say that all in all, I don't regret a single thing.

I've just finished sorting out the NL part of my photos and much to my surprise I can't fit them all into one single entry after all, like I did for Budapest. Same person, different times and different cities. Only I and someone who is no longer in my life will know what I am referring to here but Sarajevo, Budapest, Prague, and now Amsterdam. And no more. And no less.
One glaring, character flaw of mine that I've come to realise over the past year or two is that I tend towards the greener grass, even if it isn't. I longed for Europe in Asia; now that I'm in Europe I long for Asia. I missed UKI in Europe; but here I look at the Continent and yearn for that. How will I ever be content, like this, if I'm always chasing the horizon? I really will have to do something about this.

On my way to Ams; at this point, I was still hopeful

This is the Amsterdam underground. For some people, it's just another world; for others, it's their entire existence. What does it feel like to put all your eggs in one basket? I don't think I will come here ever again for as long as I live. Or maybe I will. Who can tell.

Turkish kebab, dear lord, as if I haven't had enough of these already. I will always associate them with this year.

And this is the part where I finally emerged a little from the underground and managed to get some sightseeing done. Not as much as I would have liked to, but good enough, I suppose.

Warszawa, part I - Prelude and Dream Hostel

Let's look at my itinerary for the day:

Vilnius to Warsaw. 06:30-13:55, 12.60 EUR via lux express, 12.60 EUR, already paid.
Check in to hostel – Dream Hostel Warsaw, address Warsaw, Krakowskie Przedmieście Str. 55.
By Bus line:
Take a bus No 175 (128) and in 40 min. time you will arrive to the Hostel. When you pass the roundabout with the fake palmtree that means you are close to us, bus will turn left to the Nowy Swiat street. Get off the bus at the final station Pl. Pilsudskiego, the hostel is about 250 m. from bus station. You should turn right to Trebacka street, go straight, then turn left towards Old Town, number 55 is building on the left side of the street. And you are at DREAM Hostel!
OR,
Buy a time ticket, 3.40 PLN. When travelling by metro, you should validate the ticket at the entrance gate before entering the platform, or in the validating machine available next to the lift.
-        take the metro from Warszawa Centrum, to Ratusz Arsenał (M1 line, direction Młociny – 3 min journey), then walk 15 mins
#150 PLN payable upon arrival.

Ah, Warszawa of my heart! Too long have I waited before finally beholding you in person.

We were on my favourite lux express, but still, whoa - that was an 8 hour journey and by the end of it all I was relieved to be off. This was a very nice hostel, located right in the heart of the Stare Miasto - the Old Town - but I had a bit of trouble getting there. For once, my amazing navigational skills failed me, and I ended up doing a lot of wandering around in the wrong direction, climbing several hills and then going into a highway tunnel. After about an hour of increasingly disgruntled walking around, I finally found the hostel. Good thing it was so nice, because after that rather disastrous walking around and getting lost, I would not have had the patience for a crappy hostel.

Anyway, this was probably one of the poshest hostels I've ever been in. Certainly the nicest hostel of this trip by far. It was brand new and the bunks were wood, and all of them had a night light and multiple power sockets and curtains, and I spent some time just walking around my room saying "noice."

Well, this, and I'll talk a bit more about down and out in Warszawa in my next entry.

And the first thing I noticed was the soft ice creams. HELLO OLD FRIEND.

YES THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT

My lovely Dream Hostel

One of these in every hostel

Part VIII - Last few in Gdansk and and the airport as my hotel

Just witnessed our World Cup hosts being wiped off by Germany like bugs on a windshield. Whew. That was a match and a half..and it’s not even over yet. Emotions running high. Neymar and Silva are sorely missed.

(A/N: 0:7. This is surreal.)

(A/N: Half an hour later. Germany’s in the finals, 1:7. Am looking forward to seeing all the bad memes tomorrow morning when I wake up.)

Watching Germany hammering Brazil to bits was one huge emotional rollercoaster, accompanied by the whooping shouts of the other spectators in the halls, and my roomie’s quips on the horrified/elated expressions of the audience in the arena. Oh gosh golly. Will attempt to focus on the task at hand.

As mentioned in the previous entry, I took the 15:28 bus back to Gdansk central station. And what do you know, they have wind turbines here, exactly the same as the ones in Scandinavia.

When I got back to the city centre, walked around ul. Dluga for a bit, and bought some of their soft ice cones - which are the best I’ve ever tasted in my life. This country never fails to surprise me, and I am of the staunch opinion that one’s life is not complete if one has not tasted a Polish ice cream.

 YUM! I didn’t take a picture of the ice cream since my hands were too full, so had to make to with the big plastic uneatable one outside the shop.

The ice creams are incredibly cheap as always, 5 zloty for a medium sized one and 6.5 for a large one.

Found a fairly nice place to have dinner, and these are some of the best potatoes I’ve ever had in my life.

Took bus no 210 from Gdansk Glowny to the airport after dinner, which cost 1.50 zloty (again, LOVE the cheap transport) and took around 40 minutes. My flight back to London was at 6am the next day, and I figured that I’d just kip in the airport, since the timing was just too bad. I don’t like being outside after a certain hour.

I’ve never actually had to wait in an airport overnight for a flight, and for a first timer, this one wasn’t half bad, and I do see myself doing this again in the near future. Gdansk airport was very nice, and the wireless was free, although negligible, and not provided by the airport itself, but by one of its shops/sponsors/clients. You just have to keep clicking till you find one that works for you - in this case, ING. I found a seat next to a power outlet, and used my tablet for about four hours whilst waiting for it to charge.

I have a love-hate relationship with these flight announcement boards - I’m always hurrying to some boarding gate or terminal when I’m looking at them, but when I see the names of all these cities and destinations, just waiting for me, my heart floats away.

The lights in the airport began to darken, and since it was 12, I decided to get some sleep. I found a VERY comfortable spot in a coffee shop.

The sofa was made out of plush white leather and it was one of the most comfortable surfaces I’ve ever had the pleasure of lying on. I actually managed to get in about 4 hours of real sleep here (a lot more than I did when I was flying to Copenhagen), complete with my earplugs and eye mask.

No one told me that Poland could get this cold in July though, and I woke up at about 4, shivering. When I got on the flight at 6, my breath formed a white mist. That's how cold it was. 
The airport had begun to fill up at this point, since the check-in desks were opening. I looked up, and saw that my flight was ready for check in, so I bade adieu to my freezing sofa and went off.

Goodbye, Gdansk airport!

And that was pretty much it - I got on the flight at 6, arrived back in London after two hours, took a shuttle back to central London, and was back in my room before 10am, safe and sound.

Poland’s probably my favourite country so far. Sometimes it’s so hard to judge places, because they’re so different, but if I’m going to go with the “feel-good” factor per se here, then Poland takes the crown and cherry. Everything about it was just so right, from the food and the people and the scenery to the transport and the hostel. You name it, they nailed it. Poland completely and utterly surpassed my wildest expectations, and I highly recommend this lovely, severely underrated country to the intrepid explorer. I know I’m certainly going back.

Abject apologies if this entry comes across as somewhat vague - am still reeling in the aftermath of Germany’s resounding victory, and for some reason I’ve been feeling really lethargic recently. That coffee earlier on in the evening worked, but not as well as I hoped. Am probably experiencing post-holiday, pre-dissertation blues. I want to go back to the Continent ASAP.

Will be moving my old stuff over during the next few days/weeks, but it’s really time to focus on my dissertation, so will have to hold off Europe entries for the time being. Do expect to see posts on England, though, since I plan on visiting Stonehenge and Warwick Castle in the next month or so, at the very least! And now, if you will excuse me, am off to read some biting reviews of the Brazilian side’s crushing defeat. They’re going to be talking about this one for years to come. The funny thing is that these pundits probably can’t kick a ball to save their lives, but that’s okay, because they build their happiness money on the torment of others Brazilians.