voyage, voyage!
So I’m back, in one piece, not hurt (almost xD). I’ve recovered from the coming back travel, so I’m writing the post everyone must be waiting for (oh, the modesty!). Unfortunately my dad became ill after the travel so he decided to stay home what practically cut me off the net and computer for days. But, anyway. Somewhere in Spain I realized it’d be better to write everything down in case I forgot about something. I’m warning, it’s gonna be long so be prepared!
Mission: Bon voyage!
Description: Visit 3 European countries, take photos and make notes about the travel.
Reward: Lots of goodies, nice memories and having fun.
We were to leave home before 2 p.m. and obviously did so after 4 p.m. My dad borrowed a GPS from his boss so in Wrocław, when we reached our destination (we spent a night at parents’ friends’ place), we were very amused to hear that we were led by… Krzysztof Hołowczyc! xDD From now on, tenderly called Krzysio helped us getting through the whole Europe. Sometimes he was getting lost on the air and spoke nonsense, but generally life would’ve been hard without him.
We got to our camping in France just before the deadline time, 3 minutes before the gates closing. It was freezing and we were to spend one night in a tent. So the situation from Scotland (putting all warm blouses, sweaters, 2 pairs of socks and a hood and a scarf on head) repeated, but somehow we managed to survive. In the morning we set off and with Krzysio’s help we got to Spain.
SPAIN
There, our ‘pilot’ Steve told us what is what and where and when. The camping was in Costa Brava, situated on a hill between Platja d’Aro and San Antoni, so we had to climb a bit before getting to our place. And there was a little bridge above the road and many many steps down to get to the beach.
On the first day going to the beach I slipped on a metal ‘manhoe’ or whatever the squared thing was on the road and I bashed my knee on asphalt. A man from the camping’s cleaning staff tried to tell me in Spanish and sign language where the ‘medico’ was. xD Lifeguard bandaged my leg and I was trying to be brave. xD Unfortunately that was it if it’s about me swimming in the warm sea (or ocean later) ‘coz for the next days my knee was sipping, leaking, hurting and generally doing nasty things. It just didn’t want to dry despite the heat so I could have only sunbathe. For the first days we were just loafing about on the beach, we went to Platja d’Aro, where were many little shops with different stuff, for instance funny ‘panatlones’, bags, rings, necklaces, clothes, souvenirs etc. I even found somewhere on the main street a shop with discounted goods and bought a nice ‘sweater’. On Monday evening we went for a flamenco show. There were 4 girls dancing and… I think it was ‘my’ lifeguard! xD The show was 1,5h long, they were changing costumes every 2-3 dance, they were even dancing with fans and for the very end they dropped in a few people from the public and after that the camping’s restaurant staff for the dance. xD I liked the show a lot. :) On Wednesday we went to San Antoni for a market that was taking place that day. We thought we’d buy some local fruits but they were selling only clothes, CDs, towels, bags etc. xD In the end I bought trousers and my mom treated me to a jacket for incoming fall. And now a comment, if you ever happen to be on such market-wear some swimming suit as there are no places to get changed, the only thing you can do is a ‘striptease’ on the middle of path between stalls. xD;;
Next day we finally went to Barcelona. Getting there was pretty easy but finding a parking place-nightmare! Somehow we ended near the place my dad had been staying last time, so he more or less knew where we were. Walking down the streets, getting lost in metro labyrinths, finding out where we were and where we wanted to be took us lot of time. But even though we managed to see quite a lot. First Gaudi’s park, to which long escalator on a street (!) took us up. There was the world’s longest bench, done by Gaudi of course. This is also a place where lots of minor sellers lays out their stuff, mainly jewellery. As trading in this place is illegal whenever they hear guards whistle, puff, 10 seconds later the merchandise is hidden and the sellers mix with crowd and pretend to be tourists. xD I saw it myself, those hurried moves of putting everything to sports bags and anxious look whether the guard is behind the corner already or not. xD
It started to be unbearably hot and the closest metro entrance was closed so we had to take a walk looking for the next one. Therefore totally by accident we found one of Gaudi’s building and had a yummy coffee nearby (mine with vanilla ice cream <3). Next we found being-always-under-construction-Sagrada Familia. Looking at it from far above you can see it’s towers over the city, but from closest perspective you lose the feeling.
Then we decided to see Triumphal Arc and on the way we found a big place with mangas and gadgets and european’n’american comixes in the basement. We spent there at least half an hour and I couldn’t decide whether to take a bag or a wallet with Death Note, but being short of pocket money I'd got I took the wallet. They also had some jrock CDs for 15 euro but as it was just the first week I didn’t buy any. Although they tempted. And now I regret. _O_ On the other side of the street I found a Chinese shop with comixes, magazines, music CDs and movies DVD, but being unable to decipher anything I got only a teddy bear phone strap. xD After that we got to Parc de la Ciutadella (dunno what it means but sounds… funny xD), a huge park where lots of people were jogging and even more just resting on grass and noone had anything against it, no ‘no trespassing’ or ‘keep off the grass’ signs. Lovely! It’d be wonderful to have one park like that over here. There was even a tap-dance lesson taking place in an arbour! xD
It was already a bit late so we headed to La Rambla, a long promenade between two streets very crowded with tourists and sellers. We even found there a market that was about to close, with fishes, sweets, nuts and fresh juice.
Then we took a metro to Placa Espanya, from where we took a walk to Magic Fountain. In the evenings there were taking place over half an hour shows, and the main actors were: the fountain, colorful lights, and in the end-music. The fountain was changing it’s shapes to look like a mist, firestorm or a delicate chandelier upside down. When it was almost over the music began, it was something classical, Strauss, waltz or other Swan Lake. In the middle of the show everyone was soaking wet, but noone really cared, it was really magnificent.
And when we were sitting in metro to the car some Spanish girls got on that clapping and doing other weird thing were ‘playing music’ on their bodies! I must say Spain is great, just a bit too hot, too crowdy and chaotic in streets arrangement for me. xD What I also noticed is that for the whole sunny days the windows are covered with special curtains or shutters and on the mid-day hours everything is closed for the siesta time. Oh, there are hundreds of vespas and other motors/motorcycles, every 3-4 vehicle is vespa. There are even special parkings for them. Well, the streets in Spain, even the main once, are very tight and full of cars, so it’s much easier to but in with a vespa at a crossroad. I even saw old ladies with slippers on feet and their grandchildren in front driving them! xDD
Little digression about the neighbours we had. Every time we were leaving or coming back, they would play cards. For the whole week. xD And when they started to pack they just took drawers out, turned ‘em upside down above plastic bags and then put the bags to their car. Well, there are many ways you can pack your things.. xDD On Sunday we set off to France. Krzysio, trying to be nice, led us the ‘shorter’ way by some ribbon-ish road around mountains, and we were full (we had to empty the fridge) so you can imagine our faces, hehe. We also drove through some non turistic villages, and they had one thing in common: they stinked. xP I advice against going to one of them.
FRANCE
The camping was near La Rougemont village. The caravan itself was a bit bigger than the one we had in Spain, but mobile-homes where put much tighter, so we were actually surrounded by them from every side. Spain wins there 1:0 as there we had a view for the sea far away behind trees. But oh well, we were only for 3 days.
On the second day after loafing around the swimming pool I decided to buy 15 minutes on the net to check what was going on in the big world. Well, 15 minutes is very short, and taking under consideration French keypad, where all the letters and punctuation sings were mixed up-massacre! I kept on pushing wrong keys and swearing. xD The first thing to be checked was mail box obviously and after deleting spam and allegro offerts I found a thanking-mail from the Plastic Tree contest. I thought “Ah right, they’ve probably sent the same mail to everybody thanking for taking part in the contest and inviting for the concert.” But just for formality I decided to read it. And there, shock, they were congratulating me again! But keeee? xDD What did they mean by congratulating.me.again?? Were they sure? Was it really me it was about? xDD What a surprise indeed! I won a free ticket for Plastic Tree concert in Pozań! Whoa! Now it’d be good to download their newest album, it’d be shame to not know it! xDDDDD
After this revelations we went for a trip and when we got lost we got to a vineyard. My parents tasted some wines and bought at least 4 bottles. xD
Then we finally found Ceret, a little town with small, tight streets on which there were tables of near cafes.
And when we were coming back, voila! A stall with fruits and vegetables by the road, a place my mom always wanted to do little shopping. All in all, very nice day. At this point I had already run out off books to read, although I had 2 and my mom next 3. Pff, I should have taken Trilogy with me! xDD
Next day we left warm south and headed to north, that welcomed us with chill and rain. On the way we visited Carcasone, where its fortress is said to be the oldest one in Europe, being 800 years old or something. At the beginning I thought they’d be just some next ruins like many others, but it turned out that behind the walls there was a pretty big medieval village, now changed a bit for tourists needs. There were many shops with souvenirs, dolls, swords, jewellery, sweets (olives in chocolate! bleh! xD), ‘medieval’ clothes and bags, creperies or inquisition and torture museum! xD
As we were in a bit of hurry we visited what we could have and ate for a one pancake (I chose the one with chestnut and it was… sweet xD). We got to the camping after 10 p.m. They hadn’t even known we were coming! They had to think fast but as it was the end of season we got a nice, large caravan, almost by the ocean.
It was very loud because of the waves and extremely windy. Actually, except for going to the ocean in the mornings (low tide, lots of seaweeds and low waves) and evenings (high tide, water reaching 50-60 meters in the land, huge 2-3 m high waves, and even being by the coast, far away from the center of events, you could get wet till your belly. The good thing is the water was really warm) there wasn’t much to do. So playing cards and getting bored stiff (no books to read and my headphones broke down!) I was counting hours till we got to Paris. ‘Our’ exits from the highway near Paris were obviously closed, so once again Krzysio saved the day.
It turned out that the first day after we’d come was the first Sunday of month, so most of the museums offered free entrance. My wonderful dad decided he’d visit the whole Luwr in an hour (!), the same with Musee D’Orsay, then a quick round to the Triumphal Arc and Eiffel Tower before 6 p.m. as he didn’t want to spent money for RERs and metro every day. We tried to get this stupid idea out of his head, but nevertheless we had to shorten our stay at Luwr from 6 to 3,5h. The collections of Luwr are giant, so obviously although I really wanted to, I didn’t see them all. Like Venus of Milo, as I kept on getting lost and didn’t know which room I was in and the reality didn’t agree to me to what I saw on a map I got. So the theories about my great sense of orientation can be put into fairytales. ;P I managed to see lots of Monet, Renoir, van Gogh, Rubens, some Egyptian findings and Rome copies, Nike of Samothrace, and finally, when I thought I won’t find it and reach it (I made no breaks to see as much as possible) Mona Lisa! She even had her own wall, but was surrounded by so many people and forest of hands with cameras it was hard to see anything. Pity.
Then we crossed Seine river to Musee D’Orsay. The queue was long and meandering but was going pretty fast. Inside we rushed for the last floor as after certain hour they wouldn’t have let us in and it was already late. There was impressionists gallery, with some paintings of Cezanne and Gaugin, but I don’t really like these two. They had even some Rodin’s sculptures, which on photos always seemed to be… prettier for me. xD But he’s got his own museum somewhere in Paris so the best sculptures are probably there. It was almost 5:30 p.m., the hour of leaving, so I just looked at some art-nouveau furniture. Oh, it’d be great to have a bed or at least a desk from this era!
When I left the museum I sat by a figure of rhinoceros where we were to met, when suddenly a group of some Spanish or Italian guys (I guess they were some students by their age) asked me to have a picture with two of them! xD And I was just about to unpack my smelly cheese sandwich! xDD The one who was taking the pictures was laughing all the time and repeating “L’amour, l’amour!” xDD Well, just a nice accent for the day. ;) When my family members finally gathered in one place we got back to Luwr’s gardens to rest a bit by a fountain. And there I realized I lost my red scarf I got as a birthday gift from my sister! I must have lost it in Musee D’Orsay, as I remember having it inside and not having it with the Spanish-Italian guys. But it was already too late to go back and next day was Monday meaning-the museum is closed. Well, we took a walk down the Champs d’Elysee to get to Arch of Triumph. Actually we were looking for a metro entrance but failed to find any. xD So we walked and walked, passing by opened shops (on Sunday!) until we reached our destination. There we decided we were tired like hell and got a RER (very fast train) to get back. My legs hurt at least as much as on the memorable day in Berlin!
Next day my dad decided to stay and rest and we started from Cite island on Seine, where the famous Notre Dame cathedral is. Gothic architecture surely does make impression! Although comparing its photos with other, more decorated cathedrals Notre Dame looks rather blank, but seeing in with your own eyes you just can’t say that. Wouldn’t it be nice to flight a bit higher to the gargoyles, hah! The inside was also enormously huge. Seeing churches in Poland, even if they were large they were so full of gold and plush you lost the feeling of the hugeness. Not there though. The ceiling was up to the sky!
We wanted to visit St Chapell as well to see its wonderful walls made of stained glass, but the queue and high price discouraged us. We decided to find an ice cream shop that’s been existing since XIX century, and only chocolate flavours it was said to have at least 8! They say that current owner makes such big profit that he can close the shop for holiday. And, obviously, when we got there it was closed. Because it was Monday. Fortunately there was it’s ‘department’ nearby so we could choose what we wanted. And you know what? Now I can honestly say Polish ice cream sucks. >_> All those Algida, Scheller, Zielona Budka and so on, they are nothing comparing to what they sell in France. Chocolate flavour is chocolate and vanilla is vanilla, not some mix of creamy and lack of spice. Yummy, I tell you! After that we went to Les Halles. We thought there’d be just some bigger bazaar, but once again we were wrong, we got out of metro in the center of huge shopping centre! xD Here all my pocket money ended definitely, I even had to use my card, although I was a bit afraid it wouldn’t work. I even barged in some French version of our Empik store so after long searching I found a little section of books in English. And there, waiting just for me, a new Prachett’s book Making money! xDD Another one to my collection and at least I wasn’t doomed to boredom anymore.
After all the fruitful shopping (although I didn’t find a yellow turtle-neck blouse I’d been looking for for months now) I decided to find Harajuku, a shop that is somehow connected with Mana’s Mois-Meme-Moite. So we got on some semi-asian district with Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnam and Taiwan bars and restaurants. Somewhere there I saw a small Japanese shop, so I had to take a look what was inside. ;) It was full of fans, kimono, brushes, inks and so on, and it was run by a very nice Japanese girl. Whenever I looked at or touched some little things that were interesting me I could hear her saying “Oh, kawaii, kawaii!” xDDD She also noticed my mukku’s badge and was surprised to hear I’m Polish. Many things were tempting me, especially bags (70e T^T) but with my having no money I borrowed some from my mom and got out with a cute strap. xD Oh, and the girl was so happy and cheerful when I said a simple ‘arigatou’, haha! xDDD Finally I got to the Harajuku. I hoped to buy some fancy trousers, but prices like.. 100e and more were knocking me off my feet. There the salesman was French, also very nice, but he concluded at the very beginning we were from Poland. They must have pilgrimages from Poland quite often! xDD He was asking me questions like do I like visual kei and so on. Once again mukku badge become useful. xD He was also surprised like the Japanese girl and asked how many people is interested in j music. Then he started to make a ‘good salesman’ and offering things, like “How can I help you”, “How about a bracelet Gackt had” and so on and so on so it made me feel guilty if I hadn’t bought anything xD Plus I wanted to get anyway something so I went out richer in MUCC’s Gokusai limited A edition, yay!
After all those Asian sensations we felt to be very hungry (it was evening already!) so we found a nice creperie place for pancakes with maple syrup and a bowl of ice cream! Since I remember I’ve always wanted to try the syrup, had it seen in all those family American movies. xD Well, it was sweet, nothing more to add. xD Oh, funny thing was that on the toilet’s door they encouraged to leave a comment about the place and pancakes, and they’d even left markers to do that. ;) It was getting really late so we got to our RER station to go home. Somehow the train did not stop only at our station, making us really confused and waiting for half an hour to go back one train stop. Oh, talking about metro and RER, there are huge, at least three level labyrinths under Paris, they’re labeled but anyway you can easily get lost in there. >_> And the stations are totally not-pretty (maybe except for the old art-nouveau entrances), the ones in Barcelona looked better, cleaner and.. smelt nicer. I guess the metro in Warsaw do well comparing to the Paris one. And noone actually cares to obey traffic regulations. Pedestrians and cyclists don’t bother to look whether it’s green or red light. The green light just eventually informs the drivers who’s got right of way. The drivers blow the horn, pedestrians stick out their tongues and everyone is happy.
What was I, ah right, on Tuesday we started with Pompidou. That’s a huge building with walls of glass where you can see all the pipes in different colors saying what is inside of them. But obviously knowing our luck it was closed because it was Tuesday. Right.
We took a metro to Lafayette Gallery (and then I noticed I’d lost the teddy bear strap I’d got in Barcelona T_T) situated in a XIXc building. The building itself from the inside was really beautiful and full of lights but the prices were from cosmos so despite 7 floors we left after half an hour.
We found Pigalle Place, no chestnut being sold ;P and then we climbed up Montmartre with lots of shops with souvenirs and paintings. I went with my sister to Dali’s museum. He had some interesting works but the rest wasn’t as amusing as I’d hoped.
On the way to Sacre Ceur basilica we went across a small square with at least 50 artists making portrays of passers-by. They also asked us to pose, but them being Poles pretending not to be Poles and us being in hurry we refused.
Then we went to Cite de Science where, according to what I’d managed to found in those little minutes I had on the net, should be a manga/jmusic store. We got there after 5p.m. and they were actually slowly closing but the place seemed to be rather something like ‘from fun to science’ for youngsters. So now I’m starting to think if what I’d found wasn’t some kind of a big convention taking there place with a very longlasting homepage. O_o I dunno, it was hard to read, even babelfish was helpless. xD
Reassuming, not that good day, lots of walking with little effect. On the third day we finally went to see Eiffel Tower. At first we decided we won’t go upstairs (the queue and prices!) but my dad, being very generous hah, said that we can’t be in Paris and not be on the top of Eiffel Tower and sponsored the tickets. As every queue in Paris this was also very long but rather fast and soon we were in an elevator/coach that took us up to the second floor, there a queue for the third, elevator again up to the very top and that was it! From there Paris seemed to be so flat like a big pancake, just with some skyscrapers of La Defense in the background.
We separated from our parents there and went to Musee D’Orsay to the lost and found place. Well, by the time we got there my scarf must have found a new owner as they didn’t have it. :( We got to Bon Marche which turned out to be another shopping centre ‘for the rich’ so we didn’t even bother to check what’s inside. We went down very long Boulevard St Michelle, which is said to be the most popular among students with it’s bars and shops, we got somehow to the ‘china town’ again end at 6 o’clock met with parents. In numerous small streets waiters “garsons” were inviting people to their bars and restaurants and as my mum badly wanted to try mussels went in to one of them. The garson that was waiting at the table didn’t even listen to my dad, who was using English only and talked to my mum, whose French was not that bad, and from time to time to us when we managed to understand something. xD I chose something rather normal, and so that noone said I chickened out, tried one mussel. Disgusting! Smells, is soft and has some long thingies inside; as I didn’t want to know what it was made of I had to close my eyes… Never again! There was a couple from Finland sitting next to us and after they’d offered to take us a picture they started a conversation, mainly with my dad. What was a surprise ‘coz he’s not very talkative, and later he told us the Fins are usually even less. xD But the guy talked and talked and it was hard to stop him or say something although we’d already paid the bill some time ago. xD But we finally said goodbye and came back through jammed Paris to the camping. (Paris drivers are very nervous and impatient, if you are a millisecond late with moving after the light had turned green they start to blow the horn at you, as if it could help you. _O_) On the way to the car we found a (closed already T^T) shop with beautiful umbrellas! If it was opened I’m afraid I would have bought one.. xD;;
Next day, on our way to Luxemburg we visited Versailles. Yes, the very same Versailles it took me weeks to draw. xD. Entrance to the gardens was free so we didn’t have to stay in any queue (yay! xD). The garden itself was placed at the very beginning, further there was rather something you could call a park. The trees were arranged into rooms and lines, bushes cut into geometric forms, , there were little fountains and a big cross-shaped pond in the center. You could rent a bike there or jog along the pond, there was even place for stalls with ice creams, who would think! After over an hour we had to get going, and I didn’t even manage to get to one of third of the pond. xD
LUXEMBURG
Luxemburg was our last stop. The weather was rather bad: chill, moist and rainy. Pages in my books started to wave! Accompanied by more rain and wind we visited the capital city, which was, obviously, Luxemburg. xD We passed the time on sightseeing the old town with maaany shops, shopping (I was terrified I could’ve heard I’ve no money left xD), getting wet, looking for my sister whose mobile had run out of battery, heroic finding her out, more shopping xDD and general water squelching in our shoes. Sometimes the rain was so heavy I was afraid to get the camera out, therefore there are hardly any photos from that place.
The city itself is a bigger ‘small’ town with rather modern buildings on the suburbs. The main languages are French and German, but they also have their own language so I’ve no idea how the people in there communicate with each other. I was a witness by myself when a shop assistant said something in French to girls that were buying something and they had no clue what she’d wanted from them. xD Luxemburg as a country is a pretty place full of mountains-hills terrain. Sometimes I saw houses that had been built into a rock wall. And it’s all green with forests and grass eaten by dozens of cows and horses. :)
We had to go to sleep just when we got back as we were to leave for Poland very early. My dad decided to make 1500 km in one day! He had to speed up to make the plan realistic and it didn’t really bother me abroad, where I got used to driving with 120-140km/h. But in Poland I was terrified, I wouldn’t be if not for Polish roads full of holes and some insane driver, who twice cut in on our way when we tried to overtake him and there were cars arriving from the front. >_> Somewhere near the border we found a nice place to eat, with a home-made ‘peasant’ food. Even the menu was written in the peasant way. xD Everything was delicious but as we had already spent there over 50 minutes we were late and finally got home around 1:20 a.m. on Monday. Before we unpacked, washed, hugged the cats and went to sleep I was already almost 4 in the morning! But as they say, east or west home’s the best. xD
I think Nitka lost her weight, but only a bit, Franek on the other hand looks a bit plumper. xD And Nitka is so happy to see me that she hardly ever lets go of my hands and when she notices I’m not around she starts to look for me, meowing and crying to give her a hug or ten. Which is a bit annoying as it’s been days since I’m at home and that’s the other reason it took so long to write this post. xD
And these are my loot I brought:
Oh, and I got “The Devil” yesterday! Thank you girls! ^o^ (agian xD) How about the Resurrection in Poznań? xD I’ve already got addicted to the song yuke uploaded and even bought DVDs to give them back. xD And I hope the postcards made just on time. xD
Mission completed!
Now I can quietly read all the posts of yours I’ve missed.. xD
Mission: Bon voyage!
Description: Visit 3 European countries, take photos and make notes about the travel.
Reward: Lots of goodies, nice memories and having fun.
We were to leave home before 2 p.m. and obviously did so after 4 p.m. My dad borrowed a GPS from his boss so in Wrocław, when we reached our destination (we spent a night at parents’ friends’ place), we were very amused to hear that we were led by… Krzysztof Hołowczyc! xDD From now on, tenderly called Krzysio helped us getting through the whole Europe. Sometimes he was getting lost on the air and spoke nonsense, but generally life would’ve been hard without him.
We got to our camping in France just before the deadline time, 3 minutes before the gates closing. It was freezing and we were to spend one night in a tent. So the situation from Scotland (putting all warm blouses, sweaters, 2 pairs of socks and a hood and a scarf on head) repeated, but somehow we managed to survive. In the morning we set off and with Krzysio’s help we got to Spain.
SPAIN
There, our ‘pilot’ Steve told us what is what and where and when. The camping was in Costa Brava, situated on a hill between Platja d’Aro and San Antoni, so we had to climb a bit before getting to our place. And there was a little bridge above the road and many many steps down to get to the beach.
On the first day going to the beach I slipped on a metal ‘manhoe’ or whatever the squared thing was on the road and I bashed my knee on asphalt. A man from the camping’s cleaning staff tried to tell me in Spanish and sign language where the ‘medico’ was. xD Lifeguard bandaged my leg and I was trying to be brave. xD Unfortunately that was it if it’s about me swimming in the warm sea (or ocean later) ‘coz for the next days my knee was sipping, leaking, hurting and generally doing nasty things. It just didn’t want to dry despite the heat so I could have only sunbathe. For the first days we were just loafing about on the beach, we went to Platja d’Aro, where were many little shops with different stuff, for instance funny ‘panatlones’, bags, rings, necklaces, clothes, souvenirs etc. I even found somewhere on the main street a shop with discounted goods and bought a nice ‘sweater’. On Monday evening we went for a flamenco show. There were 4 girls dancing and… I think it was ‘my’ lifeguard! xD The show was 1,5h long, they were changing costumes every 2-3 dance, they were even dancing with fans and for the very end they dropped in a few people from the public and after that the camping’s restaurant staff for the dance. xD I liked the show a lot. :) On Wednesday we went to San Antoni for a market that was taking place that day. We thought we’d buy some local fruits but they were selling only clothes, CDs, towels, bags etc. xD In the end I bought trousers and my mom treated me to a jacket for incoming fall. And now a comment, if you ever happen to be on such market-wear some swimming suit as there are no places to get changed, the only thing you can do is a ‘striptease’ on the middle of path between stalls. xD;;
Next day we finally went to Barcelona. Getting there was pretty easy but finding a parking place-nightmare! Somehow we ended near the place my dad had been staying last time, so he more or less knew where we were. Walking down the streets, getting lost in metro labyrinths, finding out where we were and where we wanted to be took us lot of time. But even though we managed to see quite a lot. First Gaudi’s park, to which long escalator on a street (!) took us up. There was the world’s longest bench, done by Gaudi of course. This is also a place where lots of minor sellers lays out their stuff, mainly jewellery. As trading in this place is illegal whenever they hear guards whistle, puff, 10 seconds later the merchandise is hidden and the sellers mix with crowd and pretend to be tourists. xD I saw it myself, those hurried moves of putting everything to sports bags and anxious look whether the guard is behind the corner already or not. xD
It started to be unbearably hot and the closest metro entrance was closed so we had to take a walk looking for the next one. Therefore totally by accident we found one of Gaudi’s building and had a yummy coffee nearby (mine with vanilla ice cream <3). Next we found being-always-under-construction-Sagrada Familia. Looking at it from far above you can see it’s towers over the city, but from closest perspective you lose the feeling.
Then we decided to see Triumphal Arc and on the way we found a big place with mangas and gadgets and european’n’american comixes in the basement. We spent there at least half an hour and I couldn’t decide whether to take a bag or a wallet with Death Note, but being short of pocket money I'd got I took the wallet. They also had some jrock CDs for 15 euro but as it was just the first week I didn’t buy any. Although they tempted. And now I regret. _O_ On the other side of the street I found a Chinese shop with comixes, magazines, music CDs and movies DVD, but being unable to decipher anything I got only a teddy bear phone strap. xD After that we got to Parc de la Ciutadella (dunno what it means but sounds… funny xD), a huge park where lots of people were jogging and even more just resting on grass and noone had anything against it, no ‘no trespassing’ or ‘keep off the grass’ signs. Lovely! It’d be wonderful to have one park like that over here. There was even a tap-dance lesson taking place in an arbour! xD
It was already a bit late so we headed to La Rambla, a long promenade between two streets very crowded with tourists and sellers. We even found there a market that was about to close, with fishes, sweets, nuts and fresh juice.
Then we took a metro to Placa Espanya, from where we took a walk to Magic Fountain. In the evenings there were taking place over half an hour shows, and the main actors were: the fountain, colorful lights, and in the end-music. The fountain was changing it’s shapes to look like a mist, firestorm or a delicate chandelier upside down. When it was almost over the music began, it was something classical, Strauss, waltz or other Swan Lake. In the middle of the show everyone was soaking wet, but noone really cared, it was really magnificent.
And when we were sitting in metro to the car some Spanish girls got on that clapping and doing other weird thing were ‘playing music’ on their bodies! I must say Spain is great, just a bit too hot, too crowdy and chaotic in streets arrangement for me. xD What I also noticed is that for the whole sunny days the windows are covered with special curtains or shutters and on the mid-day hours everything is closed for the siesta time. Oh, there are hundreds of vespas and other motors/motorcycles, every 3-4 vehicle is vespa. There are even special parkings for them. Well, the streets in Spain, even the main once, are very tight and full of cars, so it’s much easier to but in with a vespa at a crossroad. I even saw old ladies with slippers on feet and their grandchildren in front driving them! xDD
Little digression about the neighbours we had. Every time we were leaving or coming back, they would play cards. For the whole week. xD And when they started to pack they just took drawers out, turned ‘em upside down above plastic bags and then put the bags to their car. Well, there are many ways you can pack your things.. xDD On Sunday we set off to France. Krzysio, trying to be nice, led us the ‘shorter’ way by some ribbon-ish road around mountains, and we were full (we had to empty the fridge) so you can imagine our faces, hehe. We also drove through some non turistic villages, and they had one thing in common: they stinked. xP I advice against going to one of them.
FRANCE
The camping was near La Rougemont village. The caravan itself was a bit bigger than the one we had in Spain, but mobile-homes where put much tighter, so we were actually surrounded by them from every side. Spain wins there 1:0 as there we had a view for the sea far away behind trees. But oh well, we were only for 3 days.
On the second day after loafing around the swimming pool I decided to buy 15 minutes on the net to check what was going on in the big world. Well, 15 minutes is very short, and taking under consideration French keypad, where all the letters and punctuation sings were mixed up-massacre! I kept on pushing wrong keys and swearing. xD The first thing to be checked was mail box obviously and after deleting spam and allegro offerts I found a thanking-mail from the Plastic Tree contest. I thought “Ah right, they’ve probably sent the same mail to everybody thanking for taking part in the contest and inviting for the concert.” But just for formality I decided to read it. And there, shock, they were congratulating me again! But keeee? xDD What did they mean by congratulating.me.again?? Were they sure? Was it really me it was about? xDD What a surprise indeed! I won a free ticket for Plastic Tree concert in Pozań! Whoa! Now it’d be good to download their newest album, it’d be shame to not know it! xDDDDD
After this revelations we went for a trip and when we got lost we got to a vineyard. My parents tasted some wines and bought at least 4 bottles. xD
Then we finally found Ceret, a little town with small, tight streets on which there were tables of near cafes.
And when we were coming back, voila! A stall with fruits and vegetables by the road, a place my mom always wanted to do little shopping. All in all, very nice day. At this point I had already run out off books to read, although I had 2 and my mom next 3. Pff, I should have taken Trilogy with me! xDD
Next day we left warm south and headed to north, that welcomed us with chill and rain. On the way we visited Carcasone, where its fortress is said to be the oldest one in Europe, being 800 years old or something. At the beginning I thought they’d be just some next ruins like many others, but it turned out that behind the walls there was a pretty big medieval village, now changed a bit for tourists needs. There were many shops with souvenirs, dolls, swords, jewellery, sweets (olives in chocolate! bleh! xD), ‘medieval’ clothes and bags, creperies or inquisition and torture museum! xD
As we were in a bit of hurry we visited what we could have and ate for a one pancake (I chose the one with chestnut and it was… sweet xD). We got to the camping after 10 p.m. They hadn’t even known we were coming! They had to think fast but as it was the end of season we got a nice, large caravan, almost by the ocean.
It was very loud because of the waves and extremely windy. Actually, except for going to the ocean in the mornings (low tide, lots of seaweeds and low waves) and evenings (high tide, water reaching 50-60 meters in the land, huge 2-3 m high waves, and even being by the coast, far away from the center of events, you could get wet till your belly. The good thing is the water was really warm) there wasn’t much to do. So playing cards and getting bored stiff (no books to read and my headphones broke down!) I was counting hours till we got to Paris. ‘Our’ exits from the highway near Paris were obviously closed, so once again Krzysio saved the day.
It turned out that the first day after we’d come was the first Sunday of month, so most of the museums offered free entrance. My wonderful dad decided he’d visit the whole Luwr in an hour (!), the same with Musee D’Orsay, then a quick round to the Triumphal Arc and Eiffel Tower before 6 p.m. as he didn’t want to spent money for RERs and metro every day. We tried to get this stupid idea out of his head, but nevertheless we had to shorten our stay at Luwr from 6 to 3,5h. The collections of Luwr are giant, so obviously although I really wanted to, I didn’t see them all. Like Venus of Milo, as I kept on getting lost and didn’t know which room I was in and the reality didn’t agree to me to what I saw on a map I got. So the theories about my great sense of orientation can be put into fairytales. ;P I managed to see lots of Monet, Renoir, van Gogh, Rubens, some Egyptian findings and Rome copies, Nike of Samothrace, and finally, when I thought I won’t find it and reach it (I made no breaks to see as much as possible) Mona Lisa! She even had her own wall, but was surrounded by so many people and forest of hands with cameras it was hard to see anything. Pity.
Then we crossed Seine river to Musee D’Orsay. The queue was long and meandering but was going pretty fast. Inside we rushed for the last floor as after certain hour they wouldn’t have let us in and it was already late. There was impressionists gallery, with some paintings of Cezanne and Gaugin, but I don’t really like these two. They had even some Rodin’s sculptures, which on photos always seemed to be… prettier for me. xD But he’s got his own museum somewhere in Paris so the best sculptures are probably there. It was almost 5:30 p.m., the hour of leaving, so I just looked at some art-nouveau furniture. Oh, it’d be great to have a bed or at least a desk from this era!
When I left the museum I sat by a figure of rhinoceros where we were to met, when suddenly a group of some Spanish or Italian guys (I guess they were some students by their age) asked me to have a picture with two of them! xD And I was just about to unpack my smelly cheese sandwich! xDD The one who was taking the pictures was laughing all the time and repeating “L’amour, l’amour!” xDD Well, just a nice accent for the day. ;) When my family members finally gathered in one place we got back to Luwr’s gardens to rest a bit by a fountain. And there I realized I lost my red scarf I got as a birthday gift from my sister! I must have lost it in Musee D’Orsay, as I remember having it inside and not having it with the Spanish-Italian guys. But it was already too late to go back and next day was Monday meaning-the museum is closed. Well, we took a walk down the Champs d’Elysee to get to Arch of Triumph. Actually we were looking for a metro entrance but failed to find any. xD So we walked and walked, passing by opened shops (on Sunday!) until we reached our destination. There we decided we were tired like hell and got a RER (very fast train) to get back. My legs hurt at least as much as on the memorable day in Berlin!
Next day my dad decided to stay and rest and we started from Cite island on Seine, where the famous Notre Dame cathedral is. Gothic architecture surely does make impression! Although comparing its photos with other, more decorated cathedrals Notre Dame looks rather blank, but seeing in with your own eyes you just can’t say that. Wouldn’t it be nice to flight a bit higher to the gargoyles, hah! The inside was also enormously huge. Seeing churches in Poland, even if they were large they were so full of gold and plush you lost the feeling of the hugeness. Not there though. The ceiling was up to the sky!
We wanted to visit St Chapell as well to see its wonderful walls made of stained glass, but the queue and high price discouraged us. We decided to find an ice cream shop that’s been existing since XIX century, and only chocolate flavours it was said to have at least 8! They say that current owner makes such big profit that he can close the shop for holiday. And, obviously, when we got there it was closed. Because it was Monday. Fortunately there was it’s ‘department’ nearby so we could choose what we wanted. And you know what? Now I can honestly say Polish ice cream sucks. >_> All those Algida, Scheller, Zielona Budka and so on, they are nothing comparing to what they sell in France. Chocolate flavour is chocolate and vanilla is vanilla, not some mix of creamy and lack of spice. Yummy, I tell you! After that we went to Les Halles. We thought there’d be just some bigger bazaar, but once again we were wrong, we got out of metro in the center of huge shopping centre! xD Here all my pocket money ended definitely, I even had to use my card, although I was a bit afraid it wouldn’t work. I even barged in some French version of our Empik store so after long searching I found a little section of books in English. And there, waiting just for me, a new Prachett’s book Making money! xDD Another one to my collection and at least I wasn’t doomed to boredom anymore.
After all the fruitful shopping (although I didn’t find a yellow turtle-neck blouse I’d been looking for for months now) I decided to find Harajuku, a shop that is somehow connected with Mana’s Mois-Meme-Moite. So we got on some semi-asian district with Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnam and Taiwan bars and restaurants. Somewhere there I saw a small Japanese shop, so I had to take a look what was inside. ;) It was full of fans, kimono, brushes, inks and so on, and it was run by a very nice Japanese girl. Whenever I looked at or touched some little things that were interesting me I could hear her saying “Oh, kawaii, kawaii!” xDDD She also noticed my mukku’s badge and was surprised to hear I’m Polish. Many things were tempting me, especially bags (70e T^T) but with my having no money I borrowed some from my mom and got out with a cute strap. xD Oh, and the girl was so happy and cheerful when I said a simple ‘arigatou’, haha! xDDD Finally I got to the Harajuku. I hoped to buy some fancy trousers, but prices like.. 100e and more were knocking me off my feet. There the salesman was French, also very nice, but he concluded at the very beginning we were from Poland. They must have pilgrimages from Poland quite often! xDD He was asking me questions like do I like visual kei and so on. Once again mukku badge become useful. xD He was also surprised like the Japanese girl and asked how many people is interested in j music. Then he started to make a ‘good salesman’ and offering things, like “How can I help you”, “How about a bracelet Gackt had” and so on and so on so it made me feel guilty if I hadn’t bought anything xD Plus I wanted to get anyway something so I went out richer in MUCC’s Gokusai limited A edition, yay!
After all those Asian sensations we felt to be very hungry (it was evening already!) so we found a nice creperie place for pancakes with maple syrup and a bowl of ice cream! Since I remember I’ve always wanted to try the syrup, had it seen in all those family American movies. xD Well, it was sweet, nothing more to add. xD Oh, funny thing was that on the toilet’s door they encouraged to leave a comment about the place and pancakes, and they’d even left markers to do that. ;) It was getting really late so we got to our RER station to go home. Somehow the train did not stop only at our station, making us really confused and waiting for half an hour to go back one train stop. Oh, talking about metro and RER, there are huge, at least three level labyrinths under Paris, they’re labeled but anyway you can easily get lost in there. >_> And the stations are totally not-pretty (maybe except for the old art-nouveau entrances), the ones in Barcelona looked better, cleaner and.. smelt nicer. I guess the metro in Warsaw do well comparing to the Paris one. And noone actually cares to obey traffic regulations. Pedestrians and cyclists don’t bother to look whether it’s green or red light. The green light just eventually informs the drivers who’s got right of way. The drivers blow the horn, pedestrians stick out their tongues and everyone is happy.
What was I, ah right, on Tuesday we started with Pompidou. That’s a huge building with walls of glass where you can see all the pipes in different colors saying what is inside of them. But obviously knowing our luck it was closed because it was Tuesday. Right.
We took a metro to Lafayette Gallery (and then I noticed I’d lost the teddy bear strap I’d got in Barcelona T_T) situated in a XIXc building. The building itself from the inside was really beautiful and full of lights but the prices were from cosmos so despite 7 floors we left after half an hour.
We found Pigalle Place, no chestnut being sold ;P and then we climbed up Montmartre with lots of shops with souvenirs and paintings. I went with my sister to Dali’s museum. He had some interesting works but the rest wasn’t as amusing as I’d hoped.
On the way to Sacre Ceur basilica we went across a small square with at least 50 artists making portrays of passers-by. They also asked us to pose, but them being Poles pretending not to be Poles and us being in hurry we refused.
Then we went to Cite de Science where, according to what I’d managed to found in those little minutes I had on the net, should be a manga/jmusic store. We got there after 5p.m. and they were actually slowly closing but the place seemed to be rather something like ‘from fun to science’ for youngsters. So now I’m starting to think if what I’d found wasn’t some kind of a big convention taking there place with a very longlasting homepage. O_o I dunno, it was hard to read, even babelfish was helpless. xD
Reassuming, not that good day, lots of walking with little effect. On the third day we finally went to see Eiffel Tower. At first we decided we won’t go upstairs (the queue and prices!) but my dad, being very generous hah, said that we can’t be in Paris and not be on the top of Eiffel Tower and sponsored the tickets. As every queue in Paris this was also very long but rather fast and soon we were in an elevator/coach that took us up to the second floor, there a queue for the third, elevator again up to the very top and that was it! From there Paris seemed to be so flat like a big pancake, just with some skyscrapers of La Defense in the background.
We separated from our parents there and went to Musee D’Orsay to the lost and found place. Well, by the time we got there my scarf must have found a new owner as they didn’t have it. :( We got to Bon Marche which turned out to be another shopping centre ‘for the rich’ so we didn’t even bother to check what’s inside. We went down very long Boulevard St Michelle, which is said to be the most popular among students with it’s bars and shops, we got somehow to the ‘china town’ again end at 6 o’clock met with parents. In numerous small streets waiters “garsons” were inviting people to their bars and restaurants and as my mum badly wanted to try mussels went in to one of them. The garson that was waiting at the table didn’t even listen to my dad, who was using English only and talked to my mum, whose French was not that bad, and from time to time to us when we managed to understand something. xD I chose something rather normal, and so that noone said I chickened out, tried one mussel. Disgusting! Smells, is soft and has some long thingies inside; as I didn’t want to know what it was made of I had to close my eyes… Never again! There was a couple from Finland sitting next to us and after they’d offered to take us a picture they started a conversation, mainly with my dad. What was a surprise ‘coz he’s not very talkative, and later he told us the Fins are usually even less. xD But the guy talked and talked and it was hard to stop him or say something although we’d already paid the bill some time ago. xD But we finally said goodbye and came back through jammed Paris to the camping. (Paris drivers are very nervous and impatient, if you are a millisecond late with moving after the light had turned green they start to blow the horn at you, as if it could help you. _O_) On the way to the car we found a (closed already T^T) shop with beautiful umbrellas! If it was opened I’m afraid I would have bought one.. xD;;
Next day, on our way to Luxemburg we visited Versailles. Yes, the very same Versailles it took me weeks to draw. xD. Entrance to the gardens was free so we didn’t have to stay in any queue (yay! xD). The garden itself was placed at the very beginning, further there was rather something you could call a park. The trees were arranged into rooms and lines, bushes cut into geometric forms, , there were little fountains and a big cross-shaped pond in the center. You could rent a bike there or jog along the pond, there was even place for stalls with ice creams, who would think! After over an hour we had to get going, and I didn’t even manage to get to one of third of the pond. xD
LUXEMBURG
Luxemburg was our last stop. The weather was rather bad: chill, moist and rainy. Pages in my books started to wave! Accompanied by more rain and wind we visited the capital city, which was, obviously, Luxemburg. xD We passed the time on sightseeing the old town with maaany shops, shopping (I was terrified I could’ve heard I’ve no money left xD), getting wet, looking for my sister whose mobile had run out of battery, heroic finding her out, more shopping xDD and general water squelching in our shoes. Sometimes the rain was so heavy I was afraid to get the camera out, therefore there are hardly any photos from that place.
The city itself is a bigger ‘small’ town with rather modern buildings on the suburbs. The main languages are French and German, but they also have their own language so I’ve no idea how the people in there communicate with each other. I was a witness by myself when a shop assistant said something in French to girls that were buying something and they had no clue what she’d wanted from them. xD Luxemburg as a country is a pretty place full of mountains-hills terrain. Sometimes I saw houses that had been built into a rock wall. And it’s all green with forests and grass eaten by dozens of cows and horses. :)
We had to go to sleep just when we got back as we were to leave for Poland very early. My dad decided to make 1500 km in one day! He had to speed up to make the plan realistic and it didn’t really bother me abroad, where I got used to driving with 120-140km/h. But in Poland I was terrified, I wouldn’t be if not for Polish roads full of holes and some insane driver, who twice cut in on our way when we tried to overtake him and there were cars arriving from the front. >_> Somewhere near the border we found a nice place to eat, with a home-made ‘peasant’ food. Even the menu was written in the peasant way. xD Everything was delicious but as we had already spent there over 50 minutes we were late and finally got home around 1:20 a.m. on Monday. Before we unpacked, washed, hugged the cats and went to sleep I was already almost 4 in the morning! But as they say, east or west home’s the best. xD
I think Nitka lost her weight, but only a bit, Franek on the other hand looks a bit plumper. xD And Nitka is so happy to see me that she hardly ever lets go of my hands and when she notices I’m not around she starts to look for me, meowing and crying to give her a hug or ten. Which is a bit annoying as it’s been days since I’m at home and that’s the other reason it took so long to write this post. xD
And these are my loot I brought:
Oh, and I got “The Devil” yesterday! Thank you girls! ^o^ (agian xD) How about the Resurrection in Poznań? xD I’ve already got addicted to the song yuke uploaded and even bought DVDs to give them back. xD And I hope the postcards made just on time. xD
Mission completed!
Now I can quietly read all the posts of yours I’ve missed.. xD