Saturday, June 24, 2006

Livin' la vida loca ....

I woke up this morning to the sound of my phone ringing.... I didn't take the call because I don't talk to people on the phone when I am still half asleep. Whoever that was, they had to call back or I would do that. Later.

Overwhelming joy to be in my own apartment again! To wake up in my own enormous 4 poster bed, to open my eyes and see familiar things around me (for once!!).... To prepare my own coffee the way I like it and organise my day as I consider appropriate. Sometimes I just realise with astonishment that it takes so little to make one happy or .... at least just pleased. And vice - versa, unfortunately.

Yesterday was a crazy day... I spent exactly 7 (seven!) hours travelling from Poznan to my apartment in Brussels (this including time spent waiting for planes, time spent in taxi's, etc.). I had to fly from Poznan to Warsaw and from Warsaw to Brussels, both flights being delayed. When I finally got to my place last night (around midnight), I was utterly knackered and completely annoyed by a way too chatty taxi driver who kept bugging me for the entire journey in his stupid taxi. Until I just said "look, sir, I am very tired and just want to get home!". And he finally got it.... I will write in length about taxi drivers soon.

I might have been very tired and upset yesterday but now, on second thoughts, I simply feel that it was all worth it! I am home again (even if only for the week-end as I am off to Poland again very early on Monday) and looking forward to a great week-end. On top of everything, hey, the holiday is so close!!

I am in a hurry to finish and publish this post as the City is awaiting me....

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Wawel Royal Castle ....

Krakow ...

Our week-end in Krakow started on Friday evening in a nice little Brasilian pub - restaurant where the food was good but the service was crappy. And when I say crappy, I can support that with good evidence: our starters came at the end, when we had already almost finished our main courses, the main courses themselves took a long time to be brought to the table, etc. The main offence was that, when I ordered my Irish coffee at the end of the meal, the girl just stared at me in total amazement and simply declared that she did not know what that was or how to prepare it... And I simply stared back at her in amazement myself... All I succeeded was to get a regular coffee and some Baileys which I had to mix myself ... The concoction was not just potable but also reasonably good though ... Useful to remember!!

Krakow was a very very nice surprise for me. I had heard that it was supposed to be a beautiful city but so I heard about Sankt Petersburg, for example, and it proved to be a terrible disappointment .... This time all expectations were met and even exceeded....

It's a green city, the buildings are old but beautifully preserved, people are relaxed and happy looking. We were spared the sight of the horrible Stalinist buildings which are on display in Warsaw all over the place.

Despite the late start, on Saturday we succeeded to visit the famous Wawel Royal Castle which is really impressive on the outside but a bit disappointing on the inside. But who cares about that when you get to descend to the Dragon's den - which is basically a small cave - and enjoy the coolness inside after enduring the heat outside...

Oh ... I am ashamed to mention that the day started with a (short!) visit to some clothes shops in the city centre... The visit ended with my buying a nice business white shirt from United Colours .... There are some moments when I don't give two straws about castles, museums, cathedrals, etc., I am just happy with being left alone to shop, shop, shop - clothes, shoes, jewelry. Terribly vain, eh?? Tut, tut!

The day ended with a good meal in another restaurant and a pleasant walk to our hotels ....

Arrival in Krakow ....

Our flight from Warsaw to Krakow was delayed by approximately 1 hour on Friday afternoon. This gave us the "opportunity"of waiting in an absolutely packed waiting room in Warsaw domestic airport and to watch the second part of the match Argentina vs Montenegro ... Amazing game!!

I do not remember much of the flight itself because, as soon as we stepped onto the plane and I was politely told by the steward that I was to switch off my iPod during take off, I fell in a deep sleep which lasted almost until we landed. Probably the awful heat in the plane was also to blame for that and, of course, my very short night sleep the night before.... Anyway, I have a reputation of being able to sleep anywhere - car, train, plane, etc. so this was just to enhance it.

One hour and a few not so serious turbulences later we happily landed in Krakow, jumped in a taxi and headed for our hotel. I have to admit that the Polish are really nice and helpful people, more than willing to please tourists. Thus (sic!) the taxi driver kept pointing at various attractions and giving us details about them in a broken English. The coolness in the taxi was more than welcome and James Blunt on the radio was more than we girls could have wanted or indeed hoped for!

And so our week-end in Krakow began ...

Thursday, June 15, 2006

On the run ...

Some people are terrified at the thought of non-stop travelling ... I am not! I could not live without it, it's in my blood, I must have been a nomad in another life....

Hotel rooms do not make me sick, nor do airplanes .... I can adjust to any situation and make the most of everything. Which are good qualities, some without which one could not survive under the circumstances.

I am aware of the fact that my friends cannot understand me (they don't even try, oh dear!!), thinking I am totally nuts but ... everybody is entitled to live their lives as they consider it fit.

In a Marriott hotel room in Warsaw now... Will fly to Krakow tomorrow for the week-end.

I will write about Krakow next week. We all have great expectations!!!

Have a great week-end guys!

On relationships

I have been thinking about relationships and our difficulty of getting in and out of one.

Looking around me, I see people who, after having craved for a long lasting, true relationship, when they finally land one, become unhappy and start finding faults with it. There are other people who are reluctant to end a relationship as they are afraid of being alone, dying miserable and being devoured by their pets because there would be nobody to check on them from time to time. Is it possible to fake entire relationships and why can we not be true at least to ourselves.

I also wonder if we are still able to desperately, crazily fall in love, as we were at 15, without constantly trying to measure our and our partner's involvement.

There are also people who collect affairs as I collect shoes, just for the sake of pleasing their ego and adding one more name on the list. I wonder if these people are really capable of loving anybody or is it just a facade. I wonder if it's really self-flattering to collect broken hearts...

In the end everybody wants somebody to grow old with and is ready to make compromises for it... But compromises are good only when in moderate quantities!

With sun in my eyes, somewhere in Switzerland...