A perspective on the world

Before I got the opportunity to travel and meet different people I wouldn't say I was a cultured person. Culture for me involved lounging by the pool in Gran Canaria for a week and going home with a great tan. It wasn't until I started my university course in Languages that I began truly thinking about the world. Despite living in Madrid as a teenager and meeting many young people of the same age,  I had never thought about differences between nationalities and their respective cultures. Sure, I knew some stereotypes and firmly believed them to be true, thankfully I was proven wrong with most of them! 

During my university course, I got to spend two fantastic years abroad: one in Granada in southern Spain and one in Aix-en-Provence in southern France. During this time, I met a whole load of people who were nothing like me. They had different backgrounds, different interests, different sexualities and different religions. And they became some of my best friends. Friends with who I regularly stay in touch and meet up with abroad on a yearly basis. Friends who I also have lots in common with despite little differences. 

Why am I posting this? Well lately my perspective on this beautiful world has changed as I have became more educated and unfortunately older (age is not my friend!). Although I'm fully aware of the tragedies happening around me, I'm not a big fan of reading news as anytime you read it is full of horrific stories of murder, disease, poverty and war to include a few. When something I read is upsetting, it stays on my mind for weeks after. Why does it upset me so much? Because often there is not much I can do to help these people. Something that is still on my mind is the missing Nigerian schoolchildren -why has there not been much coverage of this? Why are other countries not intervening to help? 

About a year ago, I signed up to a well-known human rights organisation. And I am often sent emails by them to complete petitions which I do without blinking. I share it on my social media pages to make my friends aware of it and from time to time donate money. What is preoccupying my mind at the moment is this: is this all I can really do to help? 

My 10 Favourite Destinations: Number 10

Hey/hola/salut!

To start off my blog, I'm going to do a countdown of my 10 favourite places to visit over the coming weeks ending with my favourite destination.

At number 10, we have......

Poland! Technically the picture is of Krakow. However I like Kraków as much as I liked Warsaw so I am including them as a joint entry. I went to Poland in December 2008 as part of a crazy plan to learn Polish in Kraków. I had begun learning Polish at a University night course and was fed up with my job so went off to Poland for 3 weeks to a language centre. I wanted to meet people from different countries and make friends for life.  Turned out it was a quiet time of year and there only were 3 of us at the language centre studying Polish - who knew?! I liked Krakow because it had a friendly warm atmosphere despite the cold, it was easy to get around knowing little Polish and had lots to do and visit.

I wanted to make the most of my time there so whilst in Kraków I visited the Wieliczka Salt Mines and Auschwitz. I had never been to a Salt Mine before and throughly enjoyed it. Apparently being in the saline chambers is very good for your health, so I made sure I inhaled plenty of salty air!

I also visited Zakopane, a town about two hours from Kraków, situated at the base of some spectacular mountains called the Tatras. I went with a tour company which was weird as it was like a taxi with 3 other people I didn't know. Although I am a keen traveller, extreme sports scare the life out of me so I didn't go skiing and instead spent my time at the shops. I did however take the funicular up he mountains and the views from up there were spectacular. Take a look for yourself:

I really loved Zakopane and would like to return and spend more time there. Next on my list was Auschwitz and that was totally different to my other experiences in Poland but very worthwhile. You can't imagine the scale of it until you are there in person and see the famous train track. I didn't want to take too many photos whilst there because it felt sort of morbid taking photos where many people suffered. What (especially) broke my heart was seeing the amount of human hair in one of the displays, the terrible and cramped accommodation and the pictures of some of the prisoners. It was a very cold day and snowy, but it made you realize what sort of conditions the prisoners had to endure.
I managed to buy a book written by Tadeusz Sobolewicz, an Auschwitz prisoner who survived the Holocaust. It was also signed by him and his prisoner number was 23053. 

My last trip during my time there was to Warsaw, a 5 hour train journey from Krakow. I didn't know anyone there so it was a bit of a crazy idea to spend a whole weekend there myself. For those who don't know me, I'm a little anxious about going places myself. But the first day I left my hotel early and armed with a map started exploring the areas near my hotel. The transport system looked far too tricky to comprehend so I walked a fair bit. Without knowing, I was actually walking in the complete opposite direction to the centre and ended up at a beautiful park called Lazienki Park. The photo below is of Pałac Prezydencki which I happened to stumble upon. Sometimes it's not always worth following the map as I would have never have seen it otherwise. It was a lovely snowy day and I really enjoyed the tranquillity of the park and took my time walking through it.

I set back towards the centre, enjoying the walk and the sights. My favourite part of Warsaw is the Old Town Market Place with all the lovely coloured houses. It looks lovely when it is snowing, which luckily for me it was. I loved Warsaw because I could happily walk about myself and take my time to look at things, it looked very pretty in the snow and there are so many things to visit there. In a weekend I didn't even see half of it. The only thing I didn't like was that the Tourist Office is away near the Market Square and by the time I had reached there, I had seen half of Warsaw anyway.

That concludes a very busy 3 weeks in Poland, a crazy but unforgettable experience. If you have any tips on other places to visit in Poland or any questions about the places I visited please leave a comment.

Nikki