Parachuting, great experience!

Have you ever thought of flying?
Well I hadn't done it until last week when I realised that I was jumping from an aeroplane...
Yes, jumping from an aeroplane.

Altitude:2500m
Place:Krakow
Day:7th June 2009
Organiser: ESN UE Krakow

Group of 20 participants and a lots of adrenaline during the free falling...
That's what summarising I can say.

This can't be better explained than doing it, really, it was impressive... :)

"Getting ready"

"Got ya!"

"From American movie..."

"Me just flying"

"Alex and me with our instructor"

"Group picture"

Thank you ESN for making this possible. And Special thanks to Renia and Pawel who were the ones who organised it. Keep going guys!

I really encorage you to do it as soon as possible.
Life there is only one.

Keep tuned!
Fer

Warszawa

Finally, and after several months living in Poland, I faced the capital, Warszawa. The city which suffered so much exactly 60 years ago, when after the uprising of the Warsaw's people in 1944 the nazi occupation decided to eliminate absolutely every building in there. So we are now talking about one brand-new city, but keeping the style and architectural line it had in the past thanks to Bottarello.

The first thing I realised is that Warsaw is big, pretty big. So forget about going on foot from one part to another if you don't have so much time to spend, because probably you'll spend it walking and getting tired. Since many important places to visit are really separated it gives to the city...

Thanks to the cousins of Olga, we could leave our backpacks in the dormitory and start sightseeing Warsaw having as first choice the Palace of science and culture, the old communist style building, giving as a present by the soviets. The interest part of the building is its height. 115m which allow you to have a very good view of the whole Warsaw, of course, after paying 15/20PLN for the reduced/normal ticket. We are in the capital, life is not for free...

Detail “The palace of Culture”

Detail “View of Warsaw from the Palace of Culture”

After a nice talk with Adam and Kamila eating in a vegetarian restaurant (which very nice enchilada!), we went to the Uprising museum of Warsaw, where you may see how the Polish population stood up and started to fight against the German occupation. A complete collection of media is placed there, which is really worth it to see if the topic interests you a bit.

Another place, or I maybe should say icon, in Warsaw is "the palm", placed in one central round about where you're always passing by when moving from east-west or north-south parts of the city is needed. I guess you are thinking the same I did, a palm doesn't really fit in an Eastern-Europe country, but it's there. Globalisation... :)

Detail “The palm”

Museum of Katyn (Muzeum Katynskie)
Unfortunately, after going pretty far from city centre, and from the place we were sleeping, the museum was closed and we could only took some pictures from the outside :(

Łazienki park
This was one of the parts that I liked the most. Maybe because in Krakow there is no such a park and I really missed it, but I felt so good walking in this park. Many people, trees, flowers, even animals.

Detail “Hungry Squirrel”

The Lazienki park was a place where the king had his own summer palace, nowadays called palace on the water.

Detail ”Palace on the water”

And it has another building called white house really worth seeing.

During all these moments, we’ve been travelling by bus, tram or metro, seeing all the big streets that Warsaw has all over itself.

Detail “Long streets in Warsaw”

Actually the trip was a bit fast as lightning, going at 6:10 on Saturday in the morning and coming back on Sunday at 17:10…
But I think that I really enjoyed the trip. And one of the main reasons was that I had been reading about Warsaw in my lovely Lonely planet and we had the organized plan as well as very good guides who took care of us in the big city of Warsaw. Thank you guys!

I would also like to thank Olga, without you we hadn’t been in Warsaw and I could write these words as I’m doing.
I have to say that her improvements in Spanish are becoming bigger and bigger… ;)

And last but not least, I’d like to say welcome to the blog world to Alejandro, my roommate here in Krakow. Who is becoming a professional photographer since he bought a DSLR camera.
I have no doubt he will be a good one! Go Alex go! :)

Detail “The professional in Łazienki park”

You can read him here: http://aleromar.blogspot.com

I guess he’ll prepare some surprises for us as well. So, enjoy reading!

More pictures can be seen here:
http://picasaweb.google.es/f.martin.85/Warszawa25th26thApril09#

Thanks everybody who is following me. I really appreciate it!

Warm greetings from Krakow.

Weekend in Kyiv!

Old Soviet union, cruel WWII fights, not lucky 26 of April 1986 in Chernobyl, old Polish city L'viv, huge Dnipro river, currency called hryvnias, big and green city Kyiv and lovely people who greet saying privet! Can you guess in which country I've been recently? I guess it's easy with such an information written...
Ukraine host me during last days and I wanted to talk about it.

Starting from Katowice and this beautiful sunset, all was going on normally. Bus to Katowice airport, checking in, and waiting for my Wizzair plane.


Once in Kyiv, no problem occured since AEGEE exists!! :)
Olga picked me up and since that time, everything was prepared, lovely and in time!
Thank you Olguita!It was great!



When Kyiv people told me that the city I was sightseeing in that moment was one of the greenest of Europe I was very surprised, but you only need a few hours getting yourself lost in the city centre to feel the green in your own body. And if you have the opportunity of visiting it in Spring, don't hesitate!
Here I upload a very good proof of it.


Souvenirs have a place and a proper name. Andriyivs’ky, where you can buy typical Ukrainian clothes, Easter eggs, handmade plates, wooden boxes, and hanging decorations to bring good luck to your home :)

I hope mum and sister will like what I got there for them! :)

Orthodox churches are spread all around Kyiv, and you can recognize them since they have a peculiar shape from the outside. Here you can see one of the most famous ones just next to the street I’ve mentioned before. It’s really nice to see it, and even more if you have good weather like I had!



If the WWII is a topic you like, don't miss the museum located on the top of one of the seven hills of the city.
You'd see some of the battles in Ukraine well explained, and the power that the soviet union had in that time. Thank you Irina for the well explained tour!!

I also want to thank Choranova who had to get up early for me not to get lost in Kyiv!
thank you Ola!



воля is the word you can appreciate watching the national emblem,
which means liberty. Another thing that I know thanks to AEGEE Kyiv people!

http://www.aegee.kiev.ua/

http://aegeekyiv.blogspot.com/

http://aegee.kiev.ua/Press.aspx

I also have to say that they are working so hard in AGORA preparations and since Magusa one has finished, all of you should be thinking of coming to Fall Agora Kyiv 2009 ;)

In the picture, one of the brave guys in AEGEE Kyiv board. Keep going Petya! :)

Summarizing, I have to say that I really liked Kyiv.
And I only have one word to the fantastic people from AEGEE who took care of me:
Спасибо!

More interesting pictures: http://picasaweb.google.es/f.martin.85/Kyiv16thApr09#

Also have I been in Bratislava!

The journeys in Bratislava started with not knowing where we were... We stopped under a big bridge with a strange tower in the middle and it was completely dark at 19:30.
Nokia has improved a lot in these last years in issues of mobile phones including lots of features, and N95 8GB from Alex took us out of our problem and guide us (with GPS connection) to the hostel place, where after several minutes, we could get the bedroom, have a shower and get ready for knowing Bratislava nightlife.
We decided to go to Slovak pub, in ul. Obchodná (shops street) http://www.slovakpub.sk/eng/, where many students go there for having lunch, dinner or a warm chat drinking slovak beer.
The prices didn't disappoint us. You could drink a beer (0,5L) for less than 1€ (0,83€ cts),and have a typical Slovak meal for less than 5€.
Halusky, pierogi and many more dishes were in the menu and I don't regret to have tasted them as it won't disappoint you as well if you try them.

After more than one beer, we went out the lovely Slovak pub and decided to go to the city centre, to look for bars, pubs and any clue of nightlife. What a big disappointment when we didn't find any dance floor, any place where we fit in...
This night was the first step of our whole image of Bratislava...

Next day, Saturday morning, we had an appointment with Beata, member of AEGEE-Bratislava, friend of my flatmate Aga, and in a few hours of cultural guide. After a coffee and a piece of cake, we came accross her in the hostel and we started to walk and chat, watching attentive all we could.
Our interest was mainly focused on the strange tower on the middle of the Danubio, that seemed like a UFO and actually is called UFO.
We had to pay kind of 3€ for getting in, but it was really worth it because of the views and good weather that accompanied us during the whole day.
Here you see some of the marvelous views of whole old centre of Bratislava.



This evening, we met Matej, a Slovak friend of mine who was studying in Oviedo 2 years ago. He had dinner with us and with many members of AEGEE-Bratislava.


The next day we had to leave the room before 11:00 am, and during the checking out we started to talk with a group of Finnish girls who were in the same situation as us, it was the last day for them in Bratislava.
We all joined in a big group and decided to go to the castle after taking a coffee.
The castle was closed, so we couldn't get into, but once again, we had a beautiful views from the top of the hill where the castle is placed.

Slovak pub was our election to have lunch and to try the famous Halusky per less than 4€.Strauss and his "On the beautiful blue Danube" aslo accompained us after the lunch.


Unfortunately, this place was the last one where we saw our new Finnish friends, having to say goodbye, but wondering when we will meet again.
We all think that soon, Vienna is not so far from Krakow is it? :)

Hence, wed already seen more or less the majority of the important things in Bratislava, but Medieval weapon's and pharmacy museums were unknown for us.
The first one offered, appart from the many swords, helmets, knifes and rifles of the middle ages, an spectacular view of Bratislava during sunset, the perfect hour for photographers!


After the complete sightseeing guided tour thanks to Beata and Matej, this last one invited us to come to his place and watch some episodes of a funny serial called: "The big bang theory"


That was more or less our history in Bratislava. We would like to thank Beata and AEGEE girls for guiding us and for giving us advice.
As well we want to thank Matej, for his hospitality and always good mood.
Thank you...

I was in Vienna!

Not having rest so much after the las trip to Wroclaw, Andy told us in Tuesday that we had the tickets for going to Vienna and Bratislava, and just after going to World Press Photo,

http://www.worldpressphoto.org/
Krakow

(Entrance 5PLN)

and before entering the cinema (James Bond, Quantum of Solace)

he showed me the branch of tickets.
Finally, they were 240 PLN for going to Vienna and for returning from Bratislava. Not so cheap as I expected...

During the trip to Vienna, while we occupied to seats each (Andy, Artur, Francesco, Alex and me), we were talking from 21:15 to, more or less, one hour later, before I fell asleep.The trip was kind of long one until 5:00am.
Once being in Vienna, we had no idea where to go neither how to get our hostel
http://www.meininger-hostels.com/ and this was our first mistake that ended up in spending ours first 4€ each one for taking a taxi to get the place.

Hence, our trip started to get colour having a main place, maps and staff who informed us where to go and what to do.
One of the best things that happened to us was that the guy from the reception allowed us to enter the bedroom that night, not having paid for it. Of course, after 8-hour trip we were kind of tired and we took the opportunity of sleeping 3 hour before departing to the city center.
Going to the center and discover what Vienna had for us was the next thing we did, after having breakfast and taking our cameras.
We chose the 48h-10€ ticket for the next two days.
As the weather was not so good and we had read that tram no.1 had a kind of circled way where you could see most of the important buildings of the whole city, we got on it and "sight-saw" the city.
When we thought that the tour was over, I got off the tram which such a bad luck that the tram left when I was outside.
Here I am running after the tram...


My friends kindly got off the tram in the next stop and waited for me, after that we just walked having some problems to find the closest metro station.Even with problems our destiny was clear: Donaustadt, a little "island", where the UN building is placed.

Nothing more was actually so interesting there apart from the big Danube flowing under our wet shoes.
Coming back to our steps, we took a look around the Parliament, the City hall and the University, where a book market was taking place.
I have to admit that I really liked the infrastructure in there and I wouldn't mind to study there for a period of time, as my current flatmate Anita is going to do next semester...
Even with a nice building, we couldn't find a good place for eating, we decided to leave and take some hotdogs (aprox. 3,40€ each). It was no the best option but when you are hungry...
With something in the stomach, our clothes a bit wet and our hands frozen, we looked for a coffee place, without knowing that we would have to pay 3,30€ for a chocolate and 3,40€ for a typical "Melange" coffee.

Nevertheless it gave us strength for taking the map and point out a new place for visiting, the Schönbrunn Schloss (castle) and the gardens around it. Unfortunately, the sun wasn't with us for much longer and we couldn't appreciate the castle so well, deciding to find a warm place for staying the next couple of hours.
Moreover, we realized that we had a shopping centre close to our place, so got that way after having no direction and were surrounding the beautiful city centre,
After all, we seemed a bit tired and decided to get the hostel, rest an clarify things before our next step...
No choice had we we all fell asleep, we think, due to the long trip, the few hours slept and the long and exhausting day in the capital of culture in Europe, Vienna.
So, our next, already mentioned, step was taking a shower next day and get ready for a new day of sightseeing.
This one we visited the Museum of natural history, the national library and finally the Rathaus, where a free guided tour (in German) took place.
Afterwards, and like in every moment, we were hungry. A new member of the group was with us, a German girl friend of Andy (from Australia) who is studying in Vienna at the moment. And she knew a place for eating with "student" prices.
I think 6€ for a dish of fish, a drink and an apple is not a student price but we realised that we were in one of the most expensive cities in Europe...
The eaten fish was valid for resisting the next ours until we departed to Bratislava.
In these, more or less, 3 hours, we met a new place, a kids park.


It was near the Ernst-Happel stadium, where if I remember well, Spain defeated Germany 1-0 in the football Eurocup. Yes! we are European champions finally!


Next action was taking our rack-sacks and taking the bus (at 18:30) to Bratislava, where new language, people, prices and traditions were waiting for us...

AEGEE NetWork Meeting Wroclaw 7th-10th of November 2008.

What could I say that you, AEGEE members don't know about a Network Meeting. This time was a bit different for me because my lovely Spain was not the framework where the NWM was taking place.
It was in a unexpected beautiful, small and lovely city called Wroclaw.
We were about 100 participants, 80% polish and 20% foreign people.

Aga, who always thinks in people more than in herself, had the idea of pay a group ticket for saving some money. It would be a 40PLN return ticket, but finally we spent 47.5PLN and I finally don't know if it was worth it...
We spent 5h train trip until arriving there.

The sleeping place was an old hospital full of empty bedrooms calling us and our mattresses for being a bit more vivid.
Pizzas and coke was waiting for us, so the NWM no started so bad.

About the NWM I can say that it was a typical AEGEE event: Meeting a lot of people, sleeping few hours per night, attending workshops, sightseeing and partying. A very concentrated schedule for 3 days event.
But I have to say that It is possible to do all these things.And I would add that everyone has to experience this situation.
In fact, 2 of my Spanish mates in Krakow,Alex and Alberto (aka Toni), came, with maybe not so much interest in attending the planning proposed, and more focused on knowing the city and the nightlife, but both of them participated, asked questions and showed intered in their own way about waht was going on in the NWM.



So, I kindly recommend whoever reads this blog that maybe an AEGEE event like this one could open a bit your eyes and open as well some doors to societies, experiences and even laboral world.

For further information: www.aegee.org

well, for finishing this small post, have to say something about the return trip. It was a bit more tiring and I'll explain you why. Young people were on the train making our trip a bit uncomfortable having to stand in the corridor during more or les 3h and a half.
A party was taking place in Katowice (city in the middle of Wroclaw and Krakow) and it seemed that nobody wanted to miss it...

We didn't care about that party and just wanted to arrive our place, willing to rest due to the 4days intensive event we enjoyed...

Zakopane

Where would you go if you where in Poland and you would like to hike, to climb, to do winter sports, and to enjoy a beutiful place and views.
Yes, the answer is Zakopane. A small place almost in the middle of Poland and Slovakia, in the south of Poland.

On friday (31st November'08) afternoon, more or less at 16:30, Alex and me said to each other, why not to go to Zakopane this weekend?
and the answer was inmediate, a heavy YES was ejected from our throats.
In less than 5 minutes we knew the buses timetables and we got throught the accomodation place by phone, being sure that we had places for sleeping.
The place was: Dom turisty. And we paid 26 zloty (7.5€) per night and per person, in a five-person room.

The information about the bus companies and the accomodation place was given by my guide of Poland. The Lonely planet one. (25€)

Seriously, it is worth it to have such a nice guide or another similar. A lot of useful information is written there.

When we arrived, we got the dormitory quickly, and just after leaving the backpacks in the room, we went out to a pub called vavavoom. It was quite quiet and all the people
were sitting down.

After that we went to another pub, we paid 10PLN and we stayed there for not so long. The next day we would be hiking early.

Next morning, the alarm-clock started ringing at 9:00, we got dressed and we went to information office. Just in the way, we met a south Korean girl who was
willing to go to the mountains and she was returning back from the closed info office. All-Saints-day was not such a good day for sightseeing in Poland...
She asked us for joining us and we of course agreed. Her name was Narae and she came from Prague.

We were a bit hungry, so we decided to have something to eat. The only place that was open was, unfortunately, McDonald's. I renegate to have breakfast there and
I decided to take a smoked sheep-cheese for 8PLN. This one was accompaining me the whole hiking way until 14:30, when I defeated it.

With something in the stomach, we read the lonely planet, and took the few streets that separated us from the mountains.

Walking by these paths was quite nice. Lots of leaves on the ground, a small stream of water by our side all the time, and little waterfalls


We got the top of one of the mountains in more or less one hour and a half.
The wind was so strong that we even had to lay on the ground for not being thrown away by it.
But getting there was worth it. The view was wonderful and we saw Zakopane while we were on high.


Coming back to the town we found a place for eating typical polish food. As the one I took: Pierogi with meat.
At 15.30 the sun was already hiding down and there was nobody on he streets. So we decided to take some pictures at night.


When we went to McDonald's again to have something to eat, what a surprise... three spanish guys, one spanish girl and a french guy were sitting just next to us.
We met them and decided to go to their hostel and have some drinks. Was a nice time...

It's really a place to go if you are close.
Don't hesitate in asking me anything if you are over here!
www.discoverzakopane.com

Greetings!