Jakarta, day 1

Yeah, I know I’m skipping like the entire Singapore stay, but I just can’t bothered right not to recap everything that’s happened thus far. But don’t worry, I have at least written stuff down in my log so that I will be able to remember it at a later time (or more likely, be reminded of what I’ve forgotten), and hopefully write a post about it then.

Yesterday was a very interesting day. I arrived in Jakarta a little to nine in the morning, and immigration was the most dreary (and costly, 25 USD for Visa on Arrival) thus far. It took about an hour and a half to get into the country, and then just as long to wait for the bus and go with it into town. Something I immidiately noticed that I didn’t miss in Singapore, was people trying to hawk you their transportation services, or just hawk something in general. Though people did at least show me in the right direction when I said I wanted to take the bus! Anyhow, a fairly slow and uneventful bus ride later, I arrive at Gambir station only to realize that I’ve forgotten to write down my host’s number that I was supposed to text upon arrival. So I go off searching for internet, and thankfully enough find a cafe inside the station with wifi (which didn’t work for me for some reason) and two computers that I could use. My host arrived a little later, and together we drove around central Jakarta for a bit showing me what few things that there apparently are to see (according to my host at least), including the national monument (like a huge stone torch more or less) which had such a long queue (I haven’t seen a queue like that since the Eiffel Tower) that we just didn’t bother and went for lunch instead in one of the numerous malls (seriously, shopping really is the favorite past-time of Asians, because I have never seen so many malls since I came to Bangkok/Singapore/Jakarta), in this case like the most central and largest one here.

Food was really good (continuing my food experience of having something new every meal since I arrived), but by this time the sleepless night at the airport was taking its toll on me and I was more or less falling asleep as we sat by the table. So we went to my host’s apartment and after a cold shower (no hot water, so much like in Bangkok, but it was still amazingly cold for being 30+ degrees outdoors) I slept for two-three hours before it was time to meet up with the Indonesian girl from CouchSurfing who wanted to join me for the hike to Gunung Gede national park. We were to meet at the same mall that me and my host (Anton) had lunch in, and I was sent there on a motorbike. I have to say, that was the scariest and most near-death experience I have yet had since arriving in Southeast Asia. Zig-zagging through insane traffic (at least at bad as Bangkok, if not actually even a little worse) with millimeters on either side to the countless cars, trucks, buses and other motor bikes and nothing but a small metal rail behind my back to hold on to was petrifying yet strangely exhilarating.

I managed to find the right place though, and we (Kety and I) both reached the conclusion that we knew more or less nothing about if and where you can sleep in or around the national park, or if and where you can eat, so we will simply leave today at 15 for the park, in order to find out as much as possible about it, and then dealing with the situation then and there. Later my Indonesian friend Hanny (whom I know from CouchSurfing since some 8 months back, and who was in fact the main reason I came to this place) joined us together with one of her own friends (who apparently is learning Swedish and wants to come here), and it was really great meeting this person (i.e. Hanny) who regularly is just typing on the other side of the computer screen. It was a really nice evening anyhow, and Hanny’s friend Didi was kind enough do drive me back to my Anton’s apartment (who was out meeting some friends of his own), which I never ever would have found without being driven there. I had a hard enough time finding the right apartment in the building complex once I’d actually been dropped off here. I actually forgot to get a map of Jakarta on the airport, and now I realize this was a huge mistake, as I am more or less completely blind when it comes to getting around. Add to this an in general non-English-speaking population, and you realize how this is an issue. But, I’ve got instructions on how to get to the train station from which we will go to Bogor (town near Gunung Gede), so hopefully this will be fine. I’m really grateful Kety is joining me for the hike though, as I most likely would not have bee able to go otherwise due to the language barrier.

Alright, time to head off for some brunch, and then it’s off to the train station (hopefully not getting lost, but I’m going early in case I do). Wish me luck for the hike! Internet access will likely be patchy, so don’t expect any updates until Thursday.

Bangkok, day 3

I’ve been writing this continuously in my phone for two days soon, and it covers my third day in Bangkok, so enjoy it in all its unedited crudeness (day two will hopefully follow in the coming days, including Singapore adventures)!

“Okay, this is just stupid. We’ve been stuck in a traffic jam for a looong time, and it doesn’t look like it’s gonna get better any time soon. So I’m just sitting in a non-airconditioned bus dying slowly from all the air pollution. I would’ve walked since it would have been quicker, but Ploy’s friend apparently has stomach issues today, and doesn’t have the energy. Nuch was great yesterday though when it came to walking, I seem to have converted her!

Day started with going to university with Nuch at 10 (who had class at 11), where we ate breakfast (something omelet-like). I then continued according to plan to Golden Mountain (which was closed yesterday evening when we got there) with non-airconditioned bus 47.

Golden mountain was really impressive itself and also offered a superb view of the city. I then walked to the statue of King Rama V (I think), several times on the way being approached by “friendly” tuk-tuk drivers trying to rip me off, one even having the decency of calling me idiot when I declined his offer. It turned out however that (God it’s impossoble to write on a moving bus, though I guess I should be thankful it’s moving at all) Nuch had to go to an appointment in the afternoon, so she couldn’t meet me at the statue at 13 as agreed, but instead sent a mutual friend from the conference in Poland (Ploy), who also brought a friend of her own.

Together we went to the largest building in the world made from golden teak (the king who built it 100 years ago sure must’ve liked teak), which was part of a fairly large collection of buildings, each one a museum in itself requiring you to take off your shows and lock your bag, camera and everything in a locker.

Then went by tuk-tuk to a temple, which was very nice (prefer that to mansion, though most temples look the same), and then most aweful bus ride of my life so far, namely by non-AC bus in rush hour. We didn’t move for like ever, and it took 2 hours to get to the place where we were going to meet Nuch (shopping mall some way from the centre), where we had to wait and failed to use karaoke in the meanwhile. Went to restaurant where Nuch joined, then karaoke (special coins needed), then went with Nuch around market, and home via subway/night bazaar/king statue/silom road/taxi (no bus). Home around eleven, pack and stuff, up at 5.30 today (alarm no ring – Shanghai flashback), bus no arrive so had to take taxi.

On public transport in this city: since it’s impossible to actually predict when a bus will arrive due to frequent traffic jams, they simply don’t have any timetables, and thus you have no choice but to wait and hope for best.

Actually a bit nervous about cheap Asian flight, will simply have to wait and see. Also feels stupid to pay 4 times regular prices at airport for food. Really like all the random food stalls on street in Bangkok. Have felt like home thanks to Nuch.”

So that’s it. All written in the phone as a memory aid to myself mostly, and thus only key words on occasion, but I figure it’s better than nothing at all.

And now, goodnight!

Bangkok, day 2

Wow, this has been such a busy day that I can hardly remember everything, but I’m sure it will come to me as I write, because that’s what usually happens. So expect another monster post, and for all you whiners out there, the main reason I write this is really for myself and not for you, so you can whine all you want, ’cause I don’t care!

We’ve more or less…

So, after roughly an hour of typing, this is all that is left because Thai internet crapped itself. Current state of mind: hate. Going to bed now.

Bangkok, day 1

Hey, whaddaya know, I actually got some time this evening to blog! My host (not through CouchSurfing, but a Thai friend from the BUP conference I attended in Rogow) has been so extremely kind and caring that I’m nigh stunned, and at a complete loss as to how I can ever repay this service. She has offered me her room to sleep in for three nights while she herself will sleep at a friend’s next-door, which not only gives me some time to wind down on my own, but to also write this.

So, beginning briefly (psh, me? Brief? Yeah, right) with the flight, issues started before we even left the runway, as apparently the airplane’s auxiliary power supply unit had stopped working (this did not strike me as confidence-inspiring), so they had to manually start each engine one by one (four of them in total), and then fix some more “minor” technical problems before we were off half an hour or so delayed (they did however still manage to land right on time, so kudos for that).

In-flight food was as aweful and tasteless as ever (if not worse), and I have to say that I really prefer Swiss (which I used to fly to and from Shanghai in 2007) to SAS when it comes to long-haul flights. I may have deliberately forgotten how bad the food was (and thus now consider it better than SAS’), but the entertainment system was miles better as you could actually start and stop music/series/movies whenever you felt like, something which was not possible on SAS where they simply played movies over and over on a dedicated channel, resulting in that you had no idea when a movie actually ended or started, and thus simply gave up on it rather quickly. Despite this, I still managed to fight quite a lot with the user interface trying to get it to do what I wanted (miserably failing a lot of the time), and I can report that it would definitely have a lot to gain from a remake by an interaction designer.

Apart from the technically troubled start, the entertainment system battles, and accidentally smacking the glasses off my Danish sleeping seat neighbour while acrobatically trying to climb (and obviously failing – needless to say, I didn’t try it again on the way back) over him (me sitting by the window and him being between me and the toilet and the freedom of stretching my legs), the flight was pleasantly uneventful and even rather smooth, with only the occasional turbulence.

Heck, even immigration and baggage reclaim was very uneventful and smooth, and my Thai friend even managed to find me at the airport after a short call! So, first impressions of Bangkok, in order of magnitude: extremely kind people (at least my host, but she’s left me so postitively inspired that I’m more than willing to generalize the entire Thai population according to this), humid, warm, chaotic traffic. Actually, that last one is a bit of an understatement, because if it hadn’t been for Nuch (the name of my friend here), then I most likely would’ve gotten hit by a car/motorcycle/moped/bus/truck/whatever-strange-contraption-rolling-on-two-or-more-wheels-they’ve-managed-to-come-up-with the first thing that happened upon getting out of the taxi.

I’m serious though, only during this short afternoon of going (on the awesomest bus-like-thing I’ve ever ridden) for dinner (a taste sensation beyond this world, and that’s not saying everything was awesomely good (though some definitely was, while other things were edible at the very least), but simply that it’s so much different to what you get at home (including “Thai food”)) and walking back I managed to almost get run over more times than I can remember, saved every time at the last second by Nuch. Crossing a street here really makes you feel alive! Just too bad the pollution makes you feel even deader, but I’m still loving it though, even if I’m wishing for just a breath of fresh air while walking these streets, full of life in a way that can possibly be likened to Malmo during the festival week, if you just replace most of the people with vehicles instead.

Oh, and on the way back we walked past Nuch’s old university and the building where the student activities were organised, and found a group of Thai girls practicing Thai dance! I’m sure it has a very specific name in Thai, but however much I wish I could speak this language (or even try to memorize a phrase, much less pronounce it), it remains a sequence of incomprehensible sounds that flow into my ears like background music. Anyhow, the girls thought I should join them instead of just taking pictures, and far be it from me to back down on a challenge, so danced I did (photographic proof exists)! It was really fun (no comment on how well and/or ridiculously I performed) and we were invited to the performance they were rehearsing for, due Wednesday! Random encounters, how you have to love them!

Seriously though, I’m not quite sure how I would’ve survived without Nuch’s help, both language- and traffic-wise. Probably a lot more adventurously (if at all), but I think I prefer this slightly smoother start of my backpacking trip – I will no doubt have to deal with plenty of traffic and language barriers on my own later as well.

Last remark: buying flight tickets for next destination when arriving on the airport turned out to be a bad idea, as it is both considerably more expensive and more bothersome than doing it online ahead of time. So much for being impulsive. I’ve got my flight ticket for Singapore and Jakarta now though, and almost managed to get one for Padang (Sumatra) when Lion Air (banned in European Airspace due to safety concerns – I hope they don’t crash with me in it) decided to spit on my visa card and refused to cooperate. So I’ll just wait with that and will try again tomorrow.

Toodles!

Adventure! (Warning, monster post: recommended reading in small doses to stay sane)

Since the last couple of days got so filled with activities that I didn’t get any time to write, this will most likely be a monstrously long post – but bear with me, and you shall be rewarded duly (with even more text! yay!)… Okay, maybe not so long after all because I’ve more or less forgotten everything that happened before the trip home. But alright, here goes.

After another very tired breakfast everyone headed out to Lodz on Friday morning. Before the buses showed up the organisers decided to try and count everyone to make sure all 81 students were there, which was considerably harder than one might first think. Several tries and failures later they actually managed to reach the number 81 by making us all go, like a flock of sheep, between two counting students. The buses were late, but eventually we were off to Lodz where the first stop was the Technical University. Together with some local Lodz students we held and participated in The Baltic Debate, which was a modified version of an Oxford Debate so that it would accomodate more than 100 students. This was quite the experiment, but I have to say that it went really well and was just as fun and interesting!

A short pro/con milk debate warmed us up for the real topic on nuclear power. At heart I’m really more pro than against (at least instead of fossile fuels until we can utilise sustainable and renewable energy to replace it), but had managed to put myself on the con team (“con team” sort of gives bad associations in my head, but never mind) through some accident, which made it even more interesting as it became sort of a role play as well. Our team won anyhow (obviously, since they had my brilliant intellect on their side), much thanks to the student who hijacked my computer some days back and who later became elected as the new student representative for BUP as well – very well earned I have to say! Good speaker and slightly mad (just like me! Though I’m slightly less frantic and a bit more boring when speaking) – awesome combo.

Anyhow (hey, it’s all coming back to me when I start writing, I think I’ll manage to produce quite the monster of a post after all), following the lunch once the debate was over, the next stop was the Public Higher School of Film (the study place of famous Polish directors such as Kieslowski and Polanski) where, after some initial confusion (such as everyone being forced to enter and leave the bus twice for some strange reason (we suspected a conspiracy)) we were all placed in a really cool old cinema where some old and new movies produced by students of the school were shown. I have to say, they were really good, and all of them had something in them that made them well worth watching. “Kurwa” will in my mind forever be associated with an animated fly – laughed my ass off.

The bus then drove us all to Manufaktura, a huge shopping/entertainment center that also houses a textile museum that I didn’t visit. We got about two hours of free time, most of which was spent taking a lot of photos with some other students, as well as exploring Manufaktura. Then followed the infamous one-hour march that took us to the restaurant where dinner was to be had, but by this time I was so friggin’ hungry that my stomach just hurt and couldn’t eat nearly as much as I otherwise would’ve >.< Oh, and after seeing the regular main course I temporarily became vegetarian since that option was quite a lot better. It was a nice evening though, with lots of socialising and even celebrations and cake since one of the organising people had his birthday that day. Evening finished with a bus ride back home around 23, and once I'd caught up with the internet a little the time was already around 2 am, so yet another night of too little sleep. See a pattern?

Saturday, the last and final day of the conference, begun with lectures by two german professors (one on Green Power which was quite good actually, and one on biodiversity which way heavy with statistics and thus unfortunately rather uninteresting), then panel debate and lunch, followed by a visit to the arboretum (I went on the Polish-speaking tour and understood about as many of the nature-related words and names of different kinds of trees as I thought I wood – that is, very few) and another lecture (analysis of the COP15 meeting in Copenhagen, also quite interesting). We finished off the afternoon with practical issues like electing the new student representative for the BUP board, as well as some other things.

We also had to deal with how to actually get home the following day, seeing as all flights to and from Sweden were cancelled, so everyone from Sweden, Denmark and Finland got together and discussed the alternatives. The Uppsala delegation (mainly consisting of organisers, including the BUP network manager who is just about the most amazingly kind and awesome woman I have ever met) had been thinking of renting a bus to take them back home through Denmark, but that turned out to be too expensive and in the end it was decided that I, together with the 5 Danes that I took responsibility for getting home safely (since I can actually speak Polish), were to take the train from Warsaw to Swinoujscie and then the Ferry to Copenhagen, while the Swedish and Finnish delegations would take the train to Gdansk – where they actually had to stay a night extra ’cause the ferry was full – and then the ferry from there (most other delegations weren't actually dependent upon flight to get home, and could thus actually travel as planned). This resulted in that we had to take the bus to Warsaw at 6 am to be sure to catch our train, which made some of us consider simply staying up all night instead of sleeping. Most of the evening and night was then spent partying, including bonfire, bigos, beer and socialising. The green power german professor even played guitar and was really cool (and that's probably the first time I call someone over 50 cool, though, in all honesty, Sean Connery is over 70 and about as cool as one can be)!

It was an awesome fun party anyhow, and around 3 am I realised it was probably better to really do stay awake the entire night, so I simply showered and started packing, and then went to make sure everyone were up and getting prepared to leave around 5.30 (which was needed). Amazingly enough, we actually got away at 6.00 as planned (after some rather grumpy remarks from me and a slightly dictatorial behaviour – l've started seeing a pattern in my mood in early mornings following all-nighters, last time was the 24-hour case competition Uppdrag24 where I acted rather simiarly; I think it was pretty beneficial both times though), and arrived at Warszawa Zachodnia a full two hours before the train was going to leave. On the way to the station the Danes got the brilliant (note the irony, though to be honest it wasn’t really a bad idea, it just felt annoying (which was further enhanced by lack of sleep) to change all the plans and I had a feeling it wouldn’t work) idea to try and get a taxi to drive us all the way to Denmark.

Several telephone calls later this turned out to by a very expensive way of travel (approximately 1500 euro or so), so in the end we called and booked cabins for the ferry (which we hadn’t been sure we’d get places on, and the next one didn’t leave until Tuesday) and then purchased the train tickets (I have to say, the train ticket office at Warszawa Zachodnia is very well hidden) according to the original plan. While waiting for the train to arrive, a few of the Danes had their first experience with Polish fast food. More on Polish fast food later, let’s just leave it now knowing that it was not the best gastronomical experience they had experienced (and I can’t say that my so called gulasch was much better).

The train was, in accordance with typical Polish customs, late, but thankfully enough only 10 minutes or so. Then began the 6,5 hour ride to Szczecin Dabie (which some of you may remember from my last visit in Poland as the miserable place where I was stuck for two hours due to the first train being terribly late). It started off with watching Shutter Island (I tried really hard to not fall asleep, but I did fade out a couple of times), and the remaining 4,5 hours were spent mostly sleeping – as a result the ride went by fairly quickly (at least according to me). As it were, Szczecin Dabie would not play nice with me this time either. Upon asking the ticket office lady (and I have to say, Polish sense of service is basically non-existant, and a majority of the time they just make you feel like a nuisance (not to mention that they’re straight out rude on occasion)) which platform the train would leave from she said something about our tickets not being valid for that train, but I decided hope that she was simply wrong and if not then I would take that battle with the conductor.

Naturally, she wasn’t wrong. Apparently, our ticket wasn’t valid for the slow-train we had to take, but only for direct trains from Warsaw to Swinoujscie; there’s a big problem with this though, namely that direct trains to Swinoujscie from Warsaw only leave once per day, and that’s at 23 in the evening. The one at fault was thus the ticket lady in Warsaw who’d messed something up, but that didn’t change anything, and in accordance with Polish bureaucracy we were forced to purchase new tickets for the ride from Szczecin Dabie to Swinoujscie (even though there was an awesomely kind old lady and man who supported our case against the conductor, and the lady even wanted to pay for the new tickets (we obviously didn’t let her, but it was a really moving gesture)). The conductor was still somewhat helpful though and made it so that we could hand in our invalid tickets in Swinoujscie and get a little money back from the part of the ticket that we didn’t use (an amazing 3,33 zloty out of roughly 45 per ticket!).

Once in Swinoujscie it was about time to have dinner, and since we didn’t have enough time to go over to the actual town of Swinoujscie, we had to stay at the harbour and train station side that only has some “bars” to choose from when it comes to food. Now, there’s something you have to understand about Polish fast food. First of all, the most common place to buy it is in (as mentioned) so called “bars”, which most of the time are private non-chain establishments that range from horrible to okay in standard. Secondly, they all serve the same stuff – hamburgers, pizzas, kebab, french fries (or frytki as they’re called in Polish) and all that schtuff. Thirdly, they all taste pretty much the same (= rather bad). Lastly, they consist of about 50 percent cabbage and 20 percent ketchup and mayonnaise (cabbage part is not true for pizza and fries, but ketchup and mayonnaise unfortunately is), with the remaining 30 percent being what you’d actually expect from a hamburger in for example Sweden. Now I’ve been in Poland enough times to be used to this, but apparently not enough times to remember it (not to mention that I tend to stay away from fast food joints to begin with), thus we sat down at one of the bars and ordered kebabs, pizza, hamburger and fries (we didn’t really have much of a choice anyway). Having experienced something similar earlier that day didn’t really make it any better for the ones who’d eaten “breakfast” in Warsaw, and as a result a lot of laughter about the absurdity of it all, as well as whining, ensued. It seems to have been quite a trauma to be honest; I’m not sure they’ll ever really recover fully.

Wow, 2000 words and counting. This is a friggin’ essay. Told you it’d be long. Best to finish it off then: the 12 hour ferry ride home went well, and while the cabins were pretty expensive, it was easily worth it just for the bed. I slept like a rock, and at 8 we arrived as scheduled in Copenhagen, leaving only a simple train ride home from Österport. Total travelling time: 28 hours. It was an ardous trip, and on occasion I felt like I was travelling with 5 children, but I have to say that it was immensely much fun and I actually prefer it to flying (doing it alone wouldn’t have been nearly as fun). I still hear Danish voices in my head though, and annoyingly enough I don’t know what some of them are saying.

All in all (speaking of the entire trip and not just the return one), it was an amazing experience and the only thing I regret is going back home to Sweden and everyday life. I already miss everyone back there and it feels really empty without them. But such is life, and I’ll just have to attend more BUP conferences in the future!

In Rogów 2

I’ll keep it pretty short today, mainly because I’m too tired to bother writing anything longer. It’s been a long, from time to time rather boring, but overall interesting day full of lectures, discussions and debates. Not that much more to say to be honest – except that I’ve been hungry like hell because it’s way too long between meal times. And tired, which is not really going to improve since breakfast is at 7.30 tomorrow due to the trip to Lodz. Should be a good day though.

In completely unrelated news, I just had to share this piece of news in Swedish, mainly because I feel completely shocked that America said it: http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.310795/piratkopiering-paverkar-ekonomin-positivt

I might also be stranded here because of the Volcano eruption on Iceland, but hopefully the winds will have turned until Sunday – we’ll just have to see. Until next time!

In Rogów! (Also known as “in the middle of nowhere”)

The instructions were for everyone on the course to meet up at the central station in Warsaw at 13 and be shipped off by bus from there, so around 11-12 I said goodbye to my awesome hosts (seriously, CouchSurfing really is made of win) and headed into the huge 30-storey building right across from where I stayed, called Palac Kultury (Culture Palace in English, in case you didn’t catch that). Basically it’s a really big and tall building (highest in Warsaw and possibly Poland, don’t quite remember) from the 50′s that was built by the Soviets as a gift to the Polish people (in all honesty, it’s surprisingly similar to the Fudan university skyscraper in Shanghai, only older. And a bit more Soviet). It had a great view though, and included in the price was an exhibition on nature, ecology and all that, which was pretty good.

At the station I couldn’t actually find anyone initially, but after a walk around the building all of a sudden like 10 people had showed up where there were none before, and an hour or so later we headed off in the buses. Trip took like 2,5 hours but went by surprisingly quickly thanks to the nice company. Lots of new people to get to know after all! On a side note, I think one of the most ironic parts thus far is that out of 5 students from Finland, none are actually Finish. Four Africans and a girl from Latin America.

I consumed the buns and apple I’d purchased earlier during the day on the bus here, but since dinner wasn’t until 19.30 I still managed to get voraciously hungry once again and felt like I was verge of starvation. Somehow I survived the introductory lecture though (and the lecture was more or less what you’d expect of an introductory lecture), and dinner was actually quite good – something thai-like. Once fed, things were a lot better and I settled myself in the common room (more like a classroom to be honest… okay, it IS a classroom) where they’ve hooked up wifi – yay! Better food and wifi – things are already considerably better than Slubice! I’m sort of missing the kitchens we had in Slubice though, since they were great for socialising in small and medium groups; here it’s just rooms along a big corridor (on a few different floors) and seemingly no kitchen at all. I’m sharing a room with a Latvian guy who seems nice enough, only issue is that his English unfortunately is rather poor to say the least, so I’m having serious communication issues; no huge problem though.

Had my computer hijacked for half an hour as well by another student who didn’t bring her laptop so I went for a walk in the meanwhile, and I can verify that this place really is in the middle of nowhere. There are like two small streets that meet in a T-junction, each street bordered by typical Polish rural houses (and everyone seems to have a guard dog). Points of interest? Three: Where we’re staying, a small store right across the street, and a pub (seemingly closed). I guess they really don’t want us to be distracted from the conference. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I believe I saw a party in someone’s room on the way here.

Sightseeing Warsaw (not that exiting)

Today was basically spent from 10 to 22 on foot through Warsaw (okay, from 17 it was actually more by car). After an hour of searching for a good place to eat breakfast (I didn’t feel like eating some sloppy fast food) I eventually settled for a loaf of freshly baked bread from a café on Nowy Swiat (one of the main streets and thus rather expensive). While feeding on that I walked about the city centre a bit trying to orient myself in daylight this time, basically killing off time until 12 when I was going to meet a friend (among other things by indeliberately ticking a police officer off by sitting on a park bench in the wrong way). On the way to the meeting point I actually walked along the same way that the body of the first wife was going to be transported – a road literally bordered by a loads of people (there were even people on the roofs of multi-storey buildings) – and saw the car with the coffing “whizzing” past. Once I’d rendevoued with a friend at a nearby metro station we headed off to Lasienki – a famous park with a small palace a couple of kilometers to the south.

Turns out that 1) Warsaw is bigger than it appears on the map, 2) we got lost twice on the way there, 3) they’ve managed to hide the palace itself very well because it took a damn near two more trials and errors before we managed to find the building. The park was pretty though and filled with squirrels (I think by now everyone knows how much I adore the little animals simply because they’re so insanely cute) and peacocks – all very busy with their mating season. As a result half my camera is full of pictures of squirrels (no, they’re not bonking) and the other half is filled with peacocks showing off their plumes.

Once we’d filled our quota of squirrels and peacocks we headed back up towards the city and into the old town. The presidential palace wasn’t quite as crammed with people as yesterday evening, but as compensation there was a line stretching from the palace to the statue of Sigismund III Vasa, some 500+ meters or so, just to see the coffin of the president. All I can say is that here in Poland the plane crash is roughly on the same level as the death of Diana was in Great Britain. There’s even talk of that the president and his wife are going to be buried in the Wawel castle in Kraków, together with some of the greatest Polish kings through history; something which according to me, and many other Poles, is just absurd. The only thing that makes me hope that that will be the case is that it means it won’t be happening in Warsaw, meaning I can hopefully go home just like normal on Sunday (which is the same day as the burial). Otherwise I’m thinking I risk being a) severely delayed to the airport because of traffic jams, and b) severely delayed at the airport because apparently Obama is coming to attend the ceremony, and we all know what happens with the airborn traffic (and traffic in general for that matter) that is not Airforce 1 when the president is arriving.

Anyhow, after a stroll through the old town (and a coffee/tea break at another expensive café at Nowy Swiat – we didn’t really have much of a choice since it started raining rather heavily) we got picked up by my friend’s soon-to-be-husband and went by car to a chinese/vietnamese student restaurant with cheap and good food. Since I hadn’t eaten since 11 (it was now 18) I was, to say the least, voraciously hungry, and literally ate food for three people. This did however also result in a feeling of oh-I’m-pretty-sure-I’m-gonna-explode-if-I-so-much-as-look-at-another-piece-of-food-before-tomorrow, and I’m still totally full (six hours later). Continuing from the restaurant we headed to a palace on the outskirts of Warsaw whose name I can never remember, but that was unfortunately not only closed but being renovated as well (which included the garden), so we settled for some tea/coffee/banana split at a nearby café, and finished off at my friend’s home by watching photos from their Japan trip. All in all, a very nice day (though I have to say that Warsaw really isn’t that much of a city actually worth visiting as a tourist), and tomorrow at 13 I am to be at the central station to be shipped off by bus to Rogów where the student conference (on the topic of biodiversity and ecosystems (I know, it has so much to do with my field of study right?) organized by the Baltic University Programme) that I’m attending (as you may or may not know) is being held. Alright, time to end this and head to bed. I’ll try to write more in Rogów (there’s supposed to be internet access there at least, as opposed to Slubice).

Oh, and I just noticed that on the 7th of April I had no less than 79 views on this blog. Wtf? Regularly that number is around 3-5 views (not surprising considering my updating frequency). Last time I had an anomaly like that Christina had been browsing through my entire blog history – who’s to blame this time? =P

Well, I’m trying at least

So, here’s a quick post just to try and at least keep this as the travel blog to which it has been reduced. I’m currently in Warsaw, Poland, CouchSurfing with an awesome host in the middle of the city centre in one of the very few buildings that actually survived the bombings of World War II. I haven’t noticed any myself, but I’m told there are still bullet holes in the walls, so I guess I’ll have to look for them tomorrow.

Anyhow, just to keep it short: the flight went alright (as can be expected when flying with a low-cost airline; WizzAir sure beats RyanAir at least), and after some initial confusion as to from where the heck the bus to the city left, I managed to meet up with my host in the city centre. We then had dinner and headed out together with one of my host’s flat mates to see the Presidential Palace which was completely crammed with people mourning the president and everyone else who died in the plane crash in Smolensk. Insanely many lights (whoever’s selling those is making a fortune), flags, TV-station reporters, and people everywhere. By this time we’d been joined by a friend of the flat mate, and after dropping off my host at the apartment (who has a test tomorrow morning) we went on a quest to find an open store selling Gazeta Wyborcza (news paper), a copy of which the flat mate just had to have. After 5 stores, half an hour and lots of walking we eventually found one and headed to a bar which turned out to be closed (not much of a bar to be closed at 23). We then lost the flat mate’s friend and continued on our own to an open bar not far from the apartment, had a beer each, chatted, and then headed back. Overall, a terribly nice evening that I definitely wouldn’t have had experienced without CouchSurfing; I’m loving this community more and more (heck I’m even getting free wifi here). Will hopefully be able to post something in the coming week as well, perhaps actually explaining the reason for my trip here. Until then!

Some final whining remarks

So, gonna try and wrap it all up a bit, and I seriously suspect I’m not gonna have the energy to keep blogging for a while after this. I guess this blog is simply turning into a travel blog, and since I won’t be out travelling for a while, I guess it’ll be idle for some time again (hopefully not more than perhaps half a year though).  Anyhow, I can report that travelling by train in Poland and Germany is about as reliable as a drunk leprechaun waving a pot of gold in front of you, promising you’ll get it if you jump off a cliff. Out of 9 train rides during my entire trip, only 4 were on time, out of which the first and last one were between Malmö-Copenhagen and Ystad-Malmö, leaving a total of 2 out of 7 train rides on time not counting Sweden. In total, the time they were delayed accumulates to roughly 1,5 hours. And that’s not counting the 2,5 hours that I had to sit and wait at Szczecin Dabie as a result of the outwards train from Poznan being 30 minutes late and thus causing me to miss my connecting train to Swinoujscie.

For your information, if you happen to have 2,5 hours of your time over and don’t know what to do with it, for the love of whatever higher entity there may be, DO NOT spend it in Szczecin Dabie. It is, quite frankly, a cesspool of a hole in the middle of nowhere. Without any chairs to sit on. And crappy weather.

Also, I would just like to take the opportunity of making a slight remark of the fact that not a single train during the trip – in fact, not even the cabin on the ferry – had any electric outlets that could be used for e.g. charging a laptop battery. Nor any internet possibilities. Which sucks pretty friggin’ badly. ‘Cause there’s no way a laptop battery is gonna last for 5 hours (effective train riding time Poznan-Swinoujscie), not to mention 8 hours (actual time getting from Poznan to Swinoujscie). So there are two option here: 1) Decrease travelling time (by, among other things, increasing reliability), or 2) Get me some electric outlets! Or, of course, preferrably both. EU, you know what to do. Oh, and some actual information about the trains that are late would be very appreciated as well.