Smaczna Herbata

Herbata Miódowa:

Herbata czarna, 10ml soku pomaranczowego, sok cytryny, i miód.

Bardzo smaczna :-)

Packing

Well, I've started to pack. I have put all items of clothing that are not going to be worn between now and Thursday and that are not drying in my bathroom into my suitcase. I've also filled my box that I intend to entrust (perhaps unwisely) to the postal service, in an attempt to reduce my luggage mass. I still feel that my suitcase will be grossly overweight, and with my random guess performed by looking at my half-filled suitcase I'm predicting the total weight to come to 25kg. According to Sky Europe's website, they charge an extra 5 Euro for each extra kilogram, so I'm hoping that they either don't enforce it too much or that the person on the check-in desk is in a friendly and generous mood.

Dzisiaj byłem w domu rodziców mojej przyjaciólki bo chciałem mówić do widzenia, i teraz masz coś że muszę dawać do mojej przyjaciólki. Czy mam racje? Gramatika polska jest bardzo trudna i nie znam bardzo dobrze deklinacja polska. Jeszcze są trzy dni w Polsce przed lecę do Paryża i potem osiemnaście dni przed lecę do Australii. Dla ludzie w Australii, do zobaczenia wkrótce.

Quasar Klub

Yes, that is the name of a pub in Gliwice. The address is ulica Górnych Wałów 30 for those who are interested. It's near the t-junction with ulica Zygmunta Starego. It used to be called "B-Free" but isn't anymore, obviously.

Anyway, I went there last night to have a small goodbye evening with some friends. I took my camera but forgot to take photos until we were leaving, so that explains why Asia and Łukasz are wearing coats and scarves:


I supplied the box of TimTam Balls. They were left here courtesy of mum, as a Christmas present. They are delicious, obviously, because they are TimTams. Asia's husband's name is also Łukasz, but not the one in the photo. It's a common name.

This next photo is of me and Ania (another common name). There were four or five attempts at this photo, and this is the best result:


Quasar Klub is actually a nice, but small place. It would be advisable to arrive early, or at least have one of your party arrive early so as to claim an alcove with couches, which look like they'd be a great place to have a night at the pub because they're private, and comfy. We managed to procure a couch at the end of the hall, but it was a long straight couch which made communication a little awkward because it was hard to sit facing everyone else.

One week

Well, I now have one week left. I need to be organised and ready, waiting for the bus to the airport at Kraków-Balice in about one week and three hours.

Jestem w Bielsku-Bialej

I currently in Bielsko-Biala, writing this post from Nicola's computer (Komputer Nicoli). I have quite a few photos from the town, but they're all on my camera and will have to wait until I'm at home to be downloaded.

I went to a restaurant last night for dinner with Nicola and some of her friends. The food was delicious, and well-presented, so of course I took photos of some of the meals. :-)

The twin-town of Bielsko and Biala is smallish. The population is slightly less than Gliwice's, but it seems a little bigger, either because I know Gliwice better or because Bielsko-Biala is not so close to Katowice and other surrounding towns that it appears dwarfed by them. Perhaps a bit of both.

The name of the town comes from the names of two separate towns, Bielsko and Biala, which were/are separated by the Biala river. The river once formed part of the border between Austria and Poland, and Bielsko was in Austria while Biala was in Poland. Now they're both in Poland, and connected by a few bridges.

The town has a much nicer setting than Gliwice because it is next to the mountains, and from many places in the city you can see the snow-covered peaks, whereas Gliwice is flat, in a very flat area, so there isn't anything interesting to look at in the distance.

Ostatni weekend byłem w Pszczynie

I haven't had time to write for a few days, or a week it seems. Last Saturday I went to Pszczyna, a town to the south-east of Gliwice. The town is extremely small, but it is known in these parts because it has a palace and huge park, both of which are worth visiting. I could tell that the place is accustomed to tourists because all of the signs in the park showing either directions or explaining various objects were written in Polish, English and German.

To approach the town from the train station, I had to walk through this tree-lined footpath in the middle of the street. I liked it. I felt it was a sort of natural equivalent of a red carpet, which is the sort of treatment to which I feel I'm entitled.



The palace was nice, but I visited at a bad time because the main facade and one of the sides were covered with extensive scaffolding due to current renovations. The scaffolding was in turn covered with advertisements, which was a shame. I could tell that it would be an impressive palace otherwise, and the two sides that were unadorned with this crap were nice.




The park in front of the palace contains a few old artifacts from the days when the palace contained dukes and things. There's an old teahouse, and icehouse (used to store ice, presumably unnecessary in winter), a gardner's cottage and a grave/tomb to the family of one of the duke's. The graves are probably more impressive in summer, or at least more visible. The memorial is mostly visible, but the individual gravestones are currently hibernating under about a kilometre of snow. These buildings were all constructed at least 100 years ago, mostly during the 19th century, but perhaps even in the late 18th century. I have photos of the explanations of each object, but I can't be bothered reading them now just to find the dates.

The gardner's cottage:


The teahouse:


The icehouse:


The grave/tomb/memorial thing, with the graves that you can't see:


Pszczyna is a nice town, it seemed friendly and relaxed, but very small. The population is only about 26,000 and it's so small that McDonald's doesn't regard it as big enough to warrant a restaurant. I know on one hand that's good, because it means that there isn't a McDonald's but on the other hand, it really means that the town must be very small.

I grew a dork

I was given one of those little rubbery figures that grows up to 600% larger if you sit it in water for a couple of days. I have the "dork", which I have decided to name "Mark" because I think Mark is a good name for a dork. Maybe it's one of those name association things.
Anyway, because I have a digital camera, I decided to document the growth of Mark:
This first photo was taken at 11:46am on the 8th of Feb. before I put Mark into the bottle of water:


The second picture was taken just a few moments later (also at 11:46am on the 8/02), immediately after Mark was dropped into the bottle:


This next image shows some evidence of growth, taken at 6:21am on the 9th of Feb. It's obvious that Mark has grown quite a bit larger, and after only roughly 18hours and 40 minutes:


And now for the final picture, taken on the 10th of February at 1:38pm. That was yesterday, and Mark has remained the same size since then, which makes sense as the packaging says that 48hours is sufficient for full growth. Unlike the previous picture, Mark can no longer lie down on the bottom of the bottle because he has outgrown it:

Jeszcze ras byłem na lodowisku

I went ice-skating again this afternoon. It was fun, I enjoyed it but it's at the end of the school holidays at the moment so there were quite a few people there unfortunately and I had to be careful not to run over or into anyone. I didn't fall over once, which is more than I can say for many of the other people who were there. My łyżwy (skates) were size 46 and I was issued with locker number 131. There isn't any significance to those numbers, just a little bit of trivia.

Byłem w Browarach Tyskich

Last Saturday, I went to the Tyskie Brewery to visit their museum and go on the their brewery tour, both of which have recently been renovated and revamped. The tour was interesting, and they've obviously pumped a large amount of money into the museum. At the end of the tour, which is free and only available to people who are over the age of 18, they give you a free Tyskie beer. It's a nice touch, but obviously a shameless marketing ploy, though you know this in advance and take part by choice, so it's acceptable. Does anyone know if Australian breweries give free taste samples (ie a sample of 500mL)?

Here are some photos from the Brewery:

Spot the odd one out

The British navy launched a new warship today (probably as a sign of impending world peace) called HMS Daring. It slid into the River Clyde, throwing much confetti into the surrounding environment, which apparently doesn't fall under the category of 'littering'. Possibly because it was blue, red and white, and therefore patriotic litter. Anyway, the navy have ordered six ships in this style, called HMS Daring, Dauntless, Diamond, Defender, Dragon, and Duncan. I appreciate the alliteration there, but do you think perhaps they just couldn't think of anything decent for the last one? Duncan? Having to stand/float/kill next to others with impressive names like Daring and Dragon must do quite a lot to deflate the ship's ego.

In other news, I noticed that my previous post, which contained the pun that many readers, especially Mark, found absolutely hilarious, was my 111th post. Quite a fitting post number for mentioning the 360th visitation. 111 is a prime number, and a sexy prime at that!