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Adventure: The Metropolitan City of Wroclaw, Poland

By Adventures, Friends & Family, Thinking, TravelNo Comments

I recently visited Wroclaw in Poland with my brother and his friends for his stag do and his birthday. It was the first time I had met many of my brother’s friends and they are a great bunch of lads. In this post I’ll be discussing my experience of being in Wroclaw.

The first thing to write is that the architecture is aesthetically pleasing. There are many buildings with a Georgian style and many churches that are exquisitely designed. Here is an example of one such church:

Wroclaw-0-2019

A Church in Wroclaw, Poland.

Here are two photos of fountains I took:

Wroclaw-1-2019

Fountain (1).
Wroclaw-2-2019

Fountain (2).

Wroclaw is vibrant, youthful and has an upbeat feel. It is a clean city, only being let down by graffiti that is everywhere. There are plenty of places to eat and drink, with some even having English menus upon request. The cost of living is cheap with roughly 10 slotty (about £2) buying a double vodka and diet coke. I did have difficulties getting zero sugar drinks in a number of places, which was a bit of an issue with me being diabetic.

The only Polish word I managed to learn was Kawa, which means coffee. The main square is huge and has flower market stalls that appear to be open 24/7. I found myself listening to Polish conversations as I walked around and appreciating the beautiful sound of the language. Some Polish spoke English exceptionally well whereas others didn’t speak any English at all. I found the Google Translate App really useful.

Without doubt it is people that make a city. All appeared happy, content and liberal. Polish people had less inhibitions when it came to dancing than we English have. Polish people will quite happily bump into anyone in their way in pubs and clubs. This is normal to the Polish, but being British I found it a little rude.

As Poland is known for being Roman Catholic and as such conservative when it comes to gay people and their rights. I decided to test the waters with a Polish man who I had been talking to and getting on with whilst smoking a cigarette. I came out and asked his views on gay people. He said:

“I don’t care, I don’t give a fuck. That’s your choice. We’re all just friends here.”

He described himself as not being religious, male, heterosexual and was in his mid twenties.

Overall Wroclaw is a beautiful city, with wonderful people and a place that I will be visiting again.

Take care,

Antony

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Thursday 31 October 2019

Day Trip: Liverpool

By Adventures, Friends & Family, Happiness & JoyNo Comments

(A photo of one of the famous
Liver Birds.) 		One weekend a few weeks ago on a gorgeous, bright sunny day Chrys, Simon, two of Chrys’ visiting foreign friends and I went for a day trip to Liverpool. I’ve not been to Liverpool in years and don’t know the city well. So we were really lucky to have a proper scouser in Chrys. We couldn’t have asked for a better guide to show us around her lovely city.

One of Chrys foreign friends has a love of architecture and photography and Liverpool is full of beautiful architecture. The foreign friend pointed out many grand architectural features at high points on the buildings. I’m not normally one to notice architecture, so her pointing it made me notice the detailed carvings in the stone.

Here’s a man holding a torch which is an example of the architecture I’m talking about along with a fountain that caught my eye (click on any of the photos on this blog post to see a full size image):



Next Chrys showed us where The Beatles started off at The Cavern Club:

Opposite The Cavern Club is ‘Liverpool Wall Of Fame’ (photo right). It’s got a gold disk for every liverpudlian whose had a Number 1 Single in the charts.

As I was taking in the graffiti people from seemingly all over the world had written, I noticed this:

It was a statement somebody had written that read:
“Everyone and everything in this universe is interconnected
Stay true to your heart and you’ll see the signs
Follow the signs to uncover your destiny”

I was shocked to see something so deep written. It reminded me to keep listening to my heart and to keep an eye out for signs from the universe in my daily life.

Chrys treated us to a cruise on the ferry across the Mersey. The sun was hot but it was cooled by the breeze. As the ferry sailed along I found the combination of the sunshine, breeze and movement very relaxing. I got to see the fantastic Liverpool skyline and found the history of the Mersey, Liverpool and the docks coming over the tannoy really interesting.

We did a full circle on the ferry getting off where we’d started. Then we decided to walk along the Mersey on the way to the docks.


(Waiting to get on the ferry.)

Along the Mersey front we saw these:


There was some debate as to whether they were sheep, dogs or some other animal. They reminded me of The CowParade in Manchester (see CowParade Gallery for photos). Simon explained to me that these pieces of art work had at one time been dotted around Liverpool like the CowParade. I was pleased that Liverpool had kept these and displayed them on the Mersey front.

We approached the docks with the various bars, shops and resturants. I really wanted to get a photo of the dry docks, but unfortunately they were carrying out work on them. So here’s a photo of a “wet” dock:

After having a look around a few shops, we decided to head to a traditional pub as Chrys and Simon wanted to show the rest of us the immaculate toilets. Before jumping in the taxi I saw this yellow submarine and just had to take a photo:

We reached the pub and all enjoyed a drink before realising just how late it was, just after six. Chrys’ two foreign friends had really enjoyed themselves and informed us that as a thank you they would cook tea when we get home to Chrys’. Chrys wanted to show them one last place on route to the train station, the Catholic Church:



(Above Left: The Catholic Church, Right: Architecture on the Catholic Church.)

Apparently Jesus goes home at six, back to Chrys’ cellar as does the Catholic priests as the Church was closed. So we didn’t get to see the inside which is apparently beautiful. We headed back to Chrys’ on the train.

When we arrived at Chrys’ Simon got the fire going, Chrys and I made the garden look pretty with candles and Chrys’ two foreign friends got busy in the kitchen. I started to flag at this point as I’d only had about three hours sleep the night before. By the time we all sat down to eat my stomach was churning due to tiredness and I wasn’t able to eat anything. But it smelt delicious and I thanked them for their culinary efforts after I explained why I wasn’t eating. We said our goodbyes and I headed for home.

It was a wonderful day and I’d just like to thank Chrys, Simon and Chrys’ two foreign friends for a great day trip.

Blog soon,

Antony



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Thursday 30 August 2012
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