Torun

Today I would like to recommend U to visit Torun, the city in central Poland, in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship. Torun counts about 200 thousand of inhabitants but for me this number is exaggerated. Many students live there without a permanent registration and precisely because the population of Torun pretends to be higher. This medium-sized city is the capital of voivodeship but to be honest it has to divide responsabilties related with ordinance with a city of Bydgoszcz, where is located a seat of voivode. However, the political affairs are not a case of my note.

Torun is one of the most interesting Polish cities due to its monumental Old Town and the history. Torun setteled in 1230 by Teutonic Knights was an active member of commercial confederation of cities around the Baltic 'Hanza'. In 1454 was officially incorporated to Poland.

After the downfall of communism in Poland, Torun started to be visited by many tourists, encouraged by its beautiful monuments and delicious ginger breads producted by a local factory. Undoubtedly, the city is also well-known by the name of Kopernik, who was born in Torun in 1473.

What is worth to sightsee? The main point of the visit should become a walk through the Old Town, where are situated six Churches, the monument of Kopernik and the old town hall. U cannot ommit Dwor Artusa and the tenement in which lived Kopernik. Near the Old Town flows Vistula by the river of which U can have a rest, sitting on the one of many benches located in embankment.

Torun is also the cultural center of voivodeship. Every year there take place many festivals and cultural events related with theatre, cinema and music.

Reszel, the place worth to return.

There is one another place where I can always feel like home. The place which brings me memories from childhood when I was spending only single holidays and feast day in this small town.
Reszel is situated in Warmia, historical region in northen Poland. It counts about 5.000 inhabitants who lead a calm life in a place full of monuments, which have been an eyewitness of historical events from its foundation in 1241. Reszel was founded by the Bartian tribe of Old Prussians, then after a few years it was conquered by German crusades. As many towns and cities located in Warmia and Masuria, Reszel can boast about several Gothic monuments which have become so brilliant attraction that this small town is visited by thousands of people, especially during spring and summer. The main highlight is a Gothic castle built in fourteenth century, which is well-known by the event taken place in 1811 when a witch called Barbara Zdunk was burnt at the stake. It was the last time when this type of penalty was applied in Europe. The building also worth to admire is a The Gothic St Peter and Paul's Church which interior is full of monuments, paintings with enormous organs situated in the choir.

This town means a lot to me. Many members of my family live there and also my mother comes from Reszel. I spent there a lot of moments from my childhood, having only good memories from this period. I can say that it is my small paradise which I can surely call my real home town.

The UEFA Champions League

Today evening is an important time for us. At 20:45 in Juventus Stadium is taking place a very significant event for every single fan of football. In 9th of December  a city of Turin is becoming the capital of European football. More than 40 thousand of people is participating in presumably one of the most attractive sport event this year.  

The two opponents of the evening do not have to be presented for the wide audience because of very famous mark the clubs have been earning for years.

The first sport team is Juventus Turin which is also well-known as 'Vecchia Signora' or players from 'Vecchia Signora'. Juventus Football Club S.p.A. was founded in 1897 and from that time remains one of the most titled football club in Italy. Due to many years of success, full of victories on the national and international pitches, this club has started to be epitome of 'Italianness' which can be definied as a simbol of the Italian national pride. The numbers cannot speak but it is essential to emphasize that Juventus Turin was the gold medalist of Italian Serie A 30 times, the silver 21 times and the third 12 times. It triumphed in the mentioned UEFA Champions League 2 times, the last time in 1996.

In the history of Juve there were also bad moments related with a corrupion, relegation and  repossession of all the titles won in the years 2004-2006.

The most talented players who played or are playing in 'Vecchia Signora' are Gianluigi Buffon, Fabio Cannavaro, Alessandro Del Piero, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Liliam Thuram and Patrick Vieria.

The Juventus Turin is famous as a club which employs many native players who are also squad members of Italian national team.  

The second team which is pretending to win this match is Atletico Madrid. The Spanish football club founded in 1903 also remains a team with long-term traditions and success, though its budget is 2.5 times lower than the funds of Juve. 'Los Colchoneros'  play their matches in  Vicente Calderón Stadium, a capacity of which is just a bit bigger than this of Juventus Stadium. Atletico Madrid rapresents an attractive kind of football which is full of fast counterattacks, pressing and characterised by a great precision during set pieces. Although Atletico is not the most titled Spanish football club, it was able to win 10 times a gold medal in 'La Liga' and in 'Copa del Rei', taking also the first place in 'Supercopa Espania' 4 times. 

Atletico Madrid is considerated as a club which scoutmaster can find a nearly unknown player, making him a football star by hard-working and promoting self-confidence. The players of Atletico form a close family based on trust and cooperation. Year by year this team is making a progress both in the national games and in international.        

The most talented player of Atletico Madrid was Luis Aragones who scored 173 goals during his career. Other notable players are Sergio Agüero, Diego Costa, Diego Forlan, Radamel Falcao, Fernando Torres and Jorge Resurrección. 

Who will be winner this evening? I do not know but hope to see a good match with many impressive goals.

Memories from childhood

This autumn time when we are feeling quite overwhelmed by the weather and the lack of sun, return to our memories from the past.

My childhood was very happy. I grew up in a small town nearby Koszalin, in northen Poland. Many people there knew one another what made this place very familiar. The children were going to one school, participating in its life also after lessons. It was not even one teacher that I could dislike.
I loved my quarter and my own room in our middle-size appartment on the first floor. My parents gave me all their love, teaching me how to be honest and diligent. They also made my life carefree and satisfying. When we moved out from this little town, my life was totally changed. I had to go to another school in a big city, feeling solitude and a lack of acceptance. My friends were staying in our small paradise and from that time we were not in touch. It took me more than a year to get used to a new situation. I found new friends but not as valuable as the previous ones. One day in July 2004, about 3 weeks after the move, we adopted a small dog which had been wandering round our residential area. Alf became my the best friend and we passed all holidays that year together.

One year after we bought another dog, a puppy one, which taught me how to take care of a small creature, making it an obedient animal.

    My friends let me down many times but animals gave a new sense to my life. I decided to help those which were lonely and hurt as I had been in the past. I became a volunteer in an animal shelter, which made me satisfied with the small things we could do for the others.

The winter is coming so remember about animals in need which would like to feel happy even once. Thank You :)

Cinema time!

The last Wednesday afternoon we decided to go to the cinema. That day in Multikino people who are users of Orange telecommunications operator could buy one ticket for two so we took the opportunity very quickly.

There were many movies to choose due to this fact we had difficulty in making our final decision. That time the cinema offered a few cartoons, one science-fiction, one thriller and two commedy movies. As I detest science fiction and as we are not children, our options decreased. Initially, we intended to watch a movie of family Stuhr called 'Citizen' but having read the viewers' reviewes, we finally chose a french commedy 'Qu'est-ce qu'on a fait au Bon Dieu?'.

I cannot remember when I have been laughting so much watching the movie. 

The action of the film takes place in Paris and in a small town when live the parents of brides. You may asked brides? It means that there were organised one big wedding for a few couples? 

Not exactly but if you think this way, you are near the right answer. 

The parents Verneuil have four daughters (oh, irony of fate). Three of them are just got married but not in a Catholic confession as the parents intended (especially mother, an ardent Catholic). First one married an Arabian, the second a Jew and the third a Chinese. You can consider what is wrong in mixed marriage? For the first sight nothing. The women have a satisfied job and in the same time fulfil themselves in bringing up children. 

However, one element disturbs the life of these married couples, that is the father Verneuil and more clearly his attitude to sons-in-law. For sure dad is a racist who likes making causting comments about Jewish religious traditions, always well-organised Chinese and no-pork eating Arabians. The opinions of conservative French always collide with those liberal ideas of young immigrants which always create funny situations and gags. 

The father does not lose his hope to have a French son-in-law because of his maiden daughter who intends to marry a Catholic but it turns out not to be so easy...

For me this movie jeers stereotypes related with people of various nations who live in France and also in another foreign country. Shows that not everything which is different must be worse or dangerous for us. I recommend this movie for those of You who would like to spend time watching a movie which presents our racial antipathy in a satirical way.

     

One-day sightseeing in Berlin

This is a time to describe my recent trip to one of European capitals.
As You can guess, the opportuniyu hunters do not sleep so we decided to visit Berlin to sightseeing the main attractions in about 9 hours, spending the least amount of money we can.

Of course we chose to travel by the red bus with the busline You probably know quite well.
The return ticket for one person costs 40 PLN. The journey from Poznan to Berlin would take 4 hours but we arrived after 3 hours and a quarter.

Berlin is one of the biggest capital of Europe but having a city map, we could plan our trip carefully. The bus station is situated on the suburbs but the underground and public transport in general can take you to the extremely remote places. One-day ticket for all means of transport costs 6,70 Euro which turns out to be expensive, underlining the fact there are reductions only for children below 14 year-old. Students can receive a reduction if they have an EURO26 Card.

We started our trip from sightseeing the Olympiastadio that was built to host athletes during the Olympic Games in 1916 which finally did not take place. Berlin organised the Olympiad in 1936. Now on the Olympiastadio plays one of the football team from Bundesliga, Hertha Berlin.
The stadium made a great impression on us because of its size.

Despite of not having slept so much time the previous night, we decided to visit as many places as we could. Taking the underground, we reached the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche. The church is situated near the district Charlottenburg and it is considered to be very characteristic point of Berlin due to its Neoromanesque architecture.  

In the same quarter we could admire the building of Bahnhof Zoo. In the past the regional Railway Station was the main communication point of the East Berlin and in the same time the place always occupated by young drug addicts. One of them Christiane F. described a story of her live spent on the Bahnhof Zoo published in a book called <<Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo>> which turned out to be a great success.

There is one place which cannot be missed during sightseeing the city of Berlin. It is obviously Brandenburger Tor which is a timeless symbol of the capital. In which consists the importance of the Brandenburg Gate? This monument was built to commemorate the person of Frederick the Great and also the power of Kingdom of Prussia. After the demolition of the Berlin Wall, the Brandenburger Tor symbolises the unity of German people.

  

There are many more monuments which represents the real power and history of Berlin for example Reichstag or Bundestag, Berliner Dum or the Berliner Fernsehturm. However, it was not my intention to present them all. I was about to encourage You to visit this great city inhabited by the diversified society, really polite and multilingual people.

The last photo presents the piece of the Berlin Wall but not a part very colorful and admired by many tourists.

A trip to Prague

Dear readers,

I would like to share with you my experience related with a sightseeing trip to Prague.
I visited Prague once in September and I spent there 4 days.
Why Prague? The idea was born when one of Polish bus lines started to sell a new quota of cheap tickets. I bought two for me and my boyfriend. The price for them was really low but I do not remember it excatly.
The trip by bus took about 13 hours spent basically on sleeping and eating chocolate :).

Our hostel was situated in Žižkov, the quarter of Prague which name derives from Hussite leader called Jan Žižka. It was far away from the Old Town but the pubblic transport in Prague is fully developed so there was not any problem with communication in the city.

Prague is the biggest city od Czech Republic so the sightseeing should be planned carefully.

Our first day we spent on visiting the Old Town which is rich in catedrals, fountains, theatres and climatic cafes.

 

The second day we decided to sightsee Hradčany which is the royal district of Prague with an enorme castle and St Vitus Cathedral which made a great impression on us not less as the Charles Bridge. The whole zone is situated on the other side of river Weltawa and also on acclivity.

The last two days we planned to spend on sightseeing those places which are not very crowded and presented in many guidebooks as Vyšehrad from which we could admire the view over the whole city. We also tried to discover interesting places in Žižkov as the monument of Jan Žižka and Žižkovský vysílač that is the transmitter tower, 'inheritance' from the Communist Regime.

I consider that it is worth to see Prague because it is the capital with interesting history and can offer a great deal of attractions and the best beer I have ever drunk.