Skopje!

Last year we had the opportunity to visit beautiful Skopje as part of our Balkan tour that later on continued to Albania and Montenegro. I feel that Skopje was surprisingly perfect for our needs at the time. It was early August 2018 when we started our travel from Wroclaw to Skopje. The most cheapest way was to take a bus to Budapest and fly to Skopje from there. After arriving to Skopje we were already in love with the city. The first afternoon we spend having lunch and coffee in the restaurants next to the river tasting local foods, wondering in the city and taking pictures of all possible statutes. In the central square the old meets modern technology in interesting and beautiful way. Skopje has to offer many different sides as we were spending the evening in the old town bazaar and Skopje Fortress listening to mosque near by.

Even though Skopje is a capital city, nature is still close. The second day, we decided to have a trip to Matka Canyon. We took a bus from the main station as a two way ticket. The bus was very full of tourists and locals and there was no air conditioning with the temperature over 35 degrees. We were already tired when the bus finally got to its destination. From the bus stop, it was still quite a walk to the actual canyon. At the canyon there are boat trips offered but we wanted to have a hike and ended up going further than any of the boat tours. The views were awesome! The nature and the canyon were so beautiful. We did not quite realize for how much we were actually walking and we started to get tired. We had plenty of water when we started but in the end we had almost nothing. Finally when we got back to the point where the canyon starts and the boat tours are offered we decided that we are too tired to get back to the bus stop and decided to take a taxi back to the city. Wonderful day! After the trip we had cevapi dinner in the old bazaar followed by some rakija and ice cream for dessert.

The next day was our last in Skopje. We decided to have breakfast with the locals and headed to the city for some burek with local youghurt. This day was all about relaxing and taking it easy, wondering the streets of the old bazaar and stopping for some tea at least few times. Skopje surprised me, I really fell in love with this city!

To see and feel Skopje even better, we created a video about our amazing trip:

-Camilla

5 reasons why I fell in love with Sarajevo!

This years holiday brought us to beautiful Sarajevo, the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina. I had never before visited Bosnia and Herzegovina, but I must say I fell in love with the whole country. The picture perfect views started already before crossing the boarder from Serbia, the boarder river between these two countries in the mountains was amazing. The trip from the boarder to Sarajevo took a long time as the bus was driving small mountain roads, it was a perfect opportunity to see the countryside of Bosnia and Herzegovina as it differs a lot from the capital. Here are 5 reasons why I fell in love with Sarajevo!

1. Diversity
It has been said that Sarajevo is like European Jerusalem because of the city's diverse ethnic and religious makeup. By diversity I also mean many different kind of places to visit and see as a tourist. First walking in the old town bazaar, visiting mosque and ending up to Franz Ferdinand museum.

The Sebilj is a pseudo-Ottoman-style wooden fountain (sebil) in the centre of Baščaršija square in Sarajevo built by Mehmed Pasha Kukavica in 1753.

2. Bosnian coffee
We both fell in love with Bosnian coffee! We found a nice small coffee shop just next to the  Gazi Husrev-beg mosque. We were citing outside in the sun enjoying the coffee and seeing how the locals were spending their time, how the owner of the coffee shop was running orders to the mosque yard and the nearby inhabitants. We found a Bosnian coffee set to take home as a souvenir, now I'm able to have the great taste at home, only the atmosphere is missing.

Bosnian coffee

3. History
Sarajevo's history is diverse and bloody. From Ottoman city to assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria starting the first World War to the  longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare, during the Bosnian War as part of the breakup of Yugoslavia. The history of Sarajevo and of Bosnia and Herzegovina is visible in the city by the architecture, the city is a mosaic of different times. Gallery 11/07/95 was breath taking experience, I truly recommend visiting and taking the audio guide!

Gallery 11/07/95

4. Food
Wondering on the old town bazaar area and having so many possible places you would like to eat in. Cevapi is my new love! I think that in the end I had already eaten so much that it was enough for the rest of the week. Cevapi is meat formed into finger size sausages served with somun bread, oninon and kaymak.  All prices in the Bosnia and Herzegovina were very low, one cevapi costed around 5 euros for a portion. 

First night eating cevapi

5. Atmosphere
I enjoyed the atmosphere cause I felt I am not in hurry to go anywhere, I was able to sit down, enjoy the coffee, cevapi and relax. The coffee shops and restaurants were full of locals enjoying their life. The locals were staying up late drinking coffee and smoking shisha, nobody was in the hurry to bed. 

-Camilla

Budapest!

A while ago, me and my boyfriend decided to have a last minute trip to Budapest for a weekend. We booked the tickets on Thursday evening/night and the bus left already on Friday evening. We just really wanted to go somewhere and see new things and enjoy the summer. I think almost everyone has felt the urge just to travel and explore something new, to have a break from the everyday life. Even when the travel was quite long and exhausting by bus, it was totally worth it! 

We arrived to Budapest in Saturday morning ready to explore the city. We started our sightseeing from the Hősök tere (Heroes' Square) and continued walking in the city park crossing Vajdahunyad Castle with many different kind of architecture styles. After a while in the park we decided to continue to the center of the city for breakfast. On the way we saw the Hungarian Parliament Building. Our breakfast place was unbelievable, the atmosphere was so great!  The place was called Liberte Budapest Restaurant & Grand Cafe, we were sitting in the terrace drinking cafe and listening to live music they played by a guitar and a violin. 

After the breakfast we walked in the center in the Liberty Square and to the St. Stephen's Basilica. Soon after that it started raining a bit even when the morning had been really beautiful. We decided to visit a museum while it was raining, we took the old metro line and came to the House of Terror museum. The museum shows the fascist and communist regimes in Hungary. After the museum visit the rain was gone and as we were close to our hotel we decided to refresh a bit.

We had dinner in this Hungarian restaurant called Tüköry Étterem that my boyfriend found before from TripAdvisor. The restaurant was recommended mostly by the locals and the prices were quite cheap. We ordered traditional Hungarian food, as a plate for 2. The plate was so huge that we probably ate half of it in reality. Place to recommend!

In the evening we went to see the Buda castle on the other side of Tonava. We climbed to the castle and enjoyed the view to the city. From the other side of the castle hill we were able to see the beautiful sunset. It started to be late and we were tired of walking for the whole day, it was time to check out this bar that my boyfriend found online before. The place is called Szimpla, the setting of the bar is very unique and we wanted to visit it as we hadn't seen anything like that before. The place was quite crowded so we stayed there only for a while to look around and see all the weird rooms. Afterwords we ended up in car themed pub, there were quite many pubs that had a special theme that was visible in the decor.

Normally I'm very good with directions and maps. This time when we were trying to find a way from the center to our hotel, we took a wrong bus that went to completely wrong direction. We ended up walking to our hotel, that was our adventure!

The next day was reserved for relaxing. We went to the Széchenyi thermal bath in the city park and enjoyed the baths and the good weather. Széchenyi is the largest medicinal bath in Europe and the temperatures of the baths went up to 38°C. Sunday was also the the day our bus was leaving back to Wroclaw. Even when our holiday was very short, I enjoyed every minute of it and would do it again anytime. Maybe I fell in love with Budapest!

-Camilla

Surprise visit to Finland!

In the end of March I visited Finland. It was only a trip for a weekend but still I am more than happy that I was able to make it. The trip was a surprise for my family as only my sister was aware that I'm coming. I could not sleep well for a couple of nights before the trip as I was just thinking how everybody will react seeing me in Finland. This was the first time that nobody was picking me up from Turku ( as nobody knew ;)) so I needed to take a train. Trains are very expensive in Finland but luckily I was able to find good tickets. As I arrived to Tampere my sister picked me up from the station and it was time to surprise everybody else! The surprise was successful as nobody had even thought that there would be possibility that I could be in Finland. Happy reunion with family!

There were few things I wanted to do while in Finland (except spending time with family), enjoying the nature and eating wings plus some other real Finnish food. Luckily I was able to do all that. The weather was beautiful for the whole trip so that it was easy to spend time outside. We went to a lake in our town and enjoyed the nature and sweet-bun-on-a-stick. Sweet-bun-on-a-stick is like the traditional Finnish sweet bun but it is baked on campfire. It is great snack while hiking or spending time in the nature. Specially when I do not like Finnish sausages that are just full of flour. On Sunday I had the opportunity to go to my favorite restaurant in Tampere, Hook with by brother. Hook is known for their wings and their decor is just awesome with all the pirate things.  

Before the trip it was hard to think what to bring with me. At the time it was already relatively warm in Poland and I was just using my Converse shoes, however for Finland I needed to take my winter boots that were in the closet already. I also took my winter jacket. It was good to have it in Finland but when coming back to Poland I was way too hot. It can be said that the spring is officially in Poland! Terrace season is open and flowers blossom. Today +23 degrees ;)

-Camilla

Trip to Ukraine!

My squad for the trip! 

Last weekend, the last weekend of February was the first weekend this year that I was able to relax. January and February were full of studying and working. My boyfriend had a dancing competition with his partner in Ukraine and I decided to go with them. We had a nice small group going to Lviv. The competition was on Saturday and we wanted to stay for Sunday as well to go sightseeing. Saturday was a great start for the weekend as my favorite dancing pair won the competition! ;) After the competition we went for dinner to this amazing meat restaurant. The theme of the restaurant was torture but the food was nothing like torture, it was delicious! After the dinner we decided to stay in the city center for drinks.

Lviv is something very different from Poland or Wroclaw. Everything seemed to be old: buildings, cars, everything. The roads were in such a bad condition that I felt like jumping and hitting my head in the bus. Nobody was speaking English in there, I tried to communicate in English, Polish and showing by gestures and then I got understood. I wouldn't have survived without knowing any Polish. However, I really enjoyed the city. It was something different from the places I have visited before.

On Sunday we were walking around the city. We ended up eating in a restaurant that was very nationalist, we needed to say some password in the door before getting in (Ukraine first or something like that), people were singing nationalistic songs and the decor was Ukrainian military oriented.

On the way back from Ukraine we spent 6,5 hours in the Ukraine-Polish border. The bus was full of people, there were no extra places and the air was very bad. It was interesting to see what everybody needed to do to get in to the area of the European Union.

I came sick during our trip, so this week has been mostly resting. I wanted to go out so bad and enjoy the beautiful spring weather. I hope next week will also be as sunny and warm!

-Camilla

Trip to Stockholm! Part 1

We had a family gathering in Stockholm for this weekend. We traveled to Stockholm from Poland and my family from Finland. It was great to see my family and have a small vacation at the same time with the people that I love. It is so important for me to see my family and just know that they are always there for me, willing to travel just to spend a couple of days with me. (Crying a bit now...)

But yea, our travel to Sweden didn't start in the perfect manner. Our flight was leaving from Katowice early in the morning. We bought tickets to the train just day before and there were no seats anymore. We also bought bus tickets from the train station to the airport. When we got to the Wroclaw train station, we noticed that the train is 35 minutes late. We were supposed to hop in to the bus just 30 minutes after the train was supposed to arrive. We got to the train and luckily we got seats so that I was able to sleep a bit. Eventually the train was 40 minutes late and we missed the only bus to the airport. We checked from the web that taxi would cost 160zl..... Way too much.... We got an idea and for the first time we used Uber. That costed only 89zl (a lot but not as much as the taxi....) We got to the airport on time just with one experience more. The Uber car was brand new and clean, the driver was driving very well compared to some carzy taxi drivers in Poland, it was a good experince and I can see myself using Uber again sometime.

Our flight was on time and we landed to Skavasta (still 80min bus drive to Stockholm city). In the city my family came to the bus station and the family weekend was ready to start, everybody at the same time at the same place!

Just days before we arrived to Stockholm there was a huge snow chaos. Some flights were cancelled and it was almost impossible to move by any transportation. I'm happy that this didn't influence our trip and the situation was already under control. In the old town we saw that the road was closed for a while as the workers were cleaning the roofs of the buildings and pushing the snow to the ground. The snow is so heavy for the buildings and also if it would fall on its own it could be very dangerous for the people walking down on the street.

We all have visited Stockholm many times before. It is quite common to take a ferry from Finland to Sweden and stay in the city at least for one day. There were still things we haven't done before when it comes to sight seeing. In my next post I will write about the things we did and saw, with some tips and my favorites!

-Camilla

Summer!

Finally I could say that summer started for me! On Wednesday I had my last exam at the Uni and now I'm free to go to Finland! Yay! My travel will start today with the train to Gdansk. I hope I will be able to sit in the train as all the seats were already fully booked. It would be awful start, 6 hours in the train with all my luggage without a place to sit! Crossing my fingers and hoping for the best... After the train, I will still need to spend the night in Gdansk as the flight will leave early on the next morning. And then finally I will be in Finland!!!

Edit: I upgraded my ticket to first class so I got a seat in the train! :D 

Quality time before leaving :)

I will get to Finland in perfect time as in Friday there is Juhannus (mid-summer) and I will be able to enjoy the Finnish summer, sauna, lake and summer cottage. I will tell you later more about Juhannus and add some pictures how we celebrated it!

It got extremely hot here, but I know I will miss this kind of weather in Finland! 

I still want to say good bye for the summer for all my friends from Poland (specially for those I was not able to do that in person!!). I hope everybody will have perfect summer! This has been amazing school year, I have got so many great new friends and had so much fun with the old friends too! I can not believe I have already been in Poland for two years. Time flies so fast that I'm not able to follow.

While telling best wishes for the summer to my friends in Poland, I can not wait to see my family and friends in Finland! Now it is only matter of days that I will be able to meet everybody! For the first week I'm planning to stay in the summer cottage enjoying the nature and beauty of Finland, call me after that and lets meet! :)

-Camilla