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Tag: holiday
In times when travel opportunities are risky and limited, I appreciate each memory from my past travels even more. I love to explore new places, I find it enriching, even when it’s just a short, one day trip somewhere not too far from home. One of my fairly recent trips was one to Cracow, about a year ago now. I went there hoping to document it on the blog and took dozens of photos, but then life got busy and I never actually got round to posting the trip. Until now, that is.
I’ve recently spent 2 weeks in Croatia on a miraculous family holiday. Miraculous, because we booked it in November last year and after the pandemic started for good, I doubted it would go ahead. Luckily, I was able to see my family for the first time after 6 months and spent a fortnight in a small Croatian village, away from the crowds, which was certainly safer than living a normal life in London.
One of my favourite things to do on the beach is collecting seashells. I’d get bored to death if I was to just sunbathe for hours and I don’t particularly enjoy swimming in the sea, but walking on the shore or in the shallow water, looking for seashells and live sea creatures can keep me busy for days. Yet again I came back home with heavy bags of seashells, and I immediately proceeded to clean them.
One of my favourite things about London are the parks. When you look at Google Maps, they may seem like small patches of grass, compared to the size of the city. In reality though, London is so big that what looks like a small green dot on the map can in fact be a pretty big park. I’ve been to many of them and I definitely plan to continue exploring London parks, so I thought I’d share those adventures here. Today I’m taking you to a not so popular West Ham Park.
Even though it’s summer and most days are warm to even hot, I never have enough of high, almost tropical temperatures. The forecast for Wednesday last week was relatively poor (only around 20°C, with possible showers?!), so because summer decided not to come to me that day, I thought I’d go and chase it myself. In the city where I used to study (just a 25-minute train ride from my town), there are indoor tropical gardens – or, as we call it, a palm house (palm trees don’t normally grow here in this climate). I believe it’s a similar place to more popular Kew Gardens in London, though I’m yet to visit those, so I can only guess.
Continue reading “Indoor Gardens – Palm House – Palmiarnia, Gliwice, Poland”
Happy Valentine’s Day! To all of those celebrating the holiday with your partners – I hope you have an amazing time. And if you’re one of those spending the day on your own (just like me! high five!) – I’ve got something for you! A list of interesting facts about Valentine’s Day. So treat yourself with some sweets, maybe a warm cup of delicious tea as well, sit comfortably, and – hopefully – enjoy this quick little read.
Continue reading “15 Interesting Facts About Valentine’s Day”
Today – the 2nd of February – marks the official end of Christmas in my country’s culture, tightly connected to religious aspect of Christmas (you can read more about our traditions here). This day makes a perfect occasion for my big Christmas-released project to be released for the first time. I’ve gathered all of my Christmas recipes, craft and gift ideas and inspirations that have already been published on this blog, added those that are still yet to be published (that’s right, I didn’t manage to post all of my Christmas adventures in December and had to schedule some for 2019) and arranged them all into a festive book. It took a lot of work, but it’s finally ready and available to download right now, for free, for everyone!
I know, I know. Most of you are probably thinking: ‘Saying goodbye to Christmas now? It’s February!’. Well, in Polish tradition (which originates from catholic traditions), we’re allowed to keep all Christmas decorations and Christmas trees for over a month after the actual holiday, until February 2nd! Pretty cool, isn’t it? Having that lovely Christmas spirit at home for such a long time 🙂
Saying that I’m not a great fan of winter would be a huge understatement – I need to wear a jumper in over 20 C (I’m always cold), so when the temperature drops to around 0 C I just wish I could bury myself in my bed and hibernate until April-May. I shouldn’t complain about it too much now though, this winter has been exceptionally merciful in terms of temperatures so far. But besides the cold, the thing I dislike the most about winter is the lack of daylight. I get up early – my alarm goes off at 5:30 Monday to Friday – so I can watch the sunrise from the window in my office at work, and by the time I get home in the afternoon it’s already getting dark again. It puts me in that sad, tired mood, and despite having the same daily schedule in December and July I can’t help the feeling that in winter I get by far less quality time for myself.
Anyway, it’s past winter solstice now, and days are becoming longer and longer, which I’m extremely happy about. After booking an apartment for my family holiday (we’re going to Croatia in June – can’t wait for that!) I started reminiscing summer times. Looking at my old photos from holidays gave me that ticklish, warm feeling inside and I almost forgot that it’s January. Ah… feels great!
Around 4 months until spring, a bit less than 6 until my holidays. Let the countdowns begin! 😀
Alphe's Corner 