oh yes...

my semester is approaching it's end... I bought my trainticket yesterday - will be back in vienna on the 26th ;(

But anyhow, it wouldn't have any sense to stay longer as most of the people already left! It is kind of a weird and sad experience to stay without the people, who surrounded you one whole semester!

but on the other hand this recently resulted in an interesting new dynamik: now people from different groups are mixing up to go out together!

on tuesday I was (definitely for the last time...) in hybrydy with completely other people than usual:


so to draw some kind of conclusions from this wonderful semester:

1. it is always MARVELLOUS to meet new people from different countries - but it is really hard to let them go!

2. I definitely progressed in french - but I'm not so sure if this is also the case for my polish skills... :)

3. everybody who looked at me as if I was mad, when I said, that I'll go to warszawa, is ABSOLUTELY WRONG! it was definitely the BEST choice I could have made

4. even though we were trying hard (check out the link "240 reasons to warszawa" in my linklist), we didn't reach the level of russian students concerning drinking wódka (now check out "wódka") - you DEFINITELY have to watch these two movies on youtube!

5. my instant messages on msn, skype and facebook will soon have the same nostalgic style, as those of the people who already left... saying "I miss you all" or "I want my erasmus life in warsaw back"

WARSZAWA, I'LL COME BACK!!!

24.5. - 18:30 - stokłosy (warszawa, polska)

an austrian girl was witnessed in her appartment, where she lives together with a polish girl, preparing a certain dish from vorarlberg, which she later named as "kässpätzle". Other people from austria, germany, russia, france and poland were also seen at the scene of crime.



for further picture-informations about this dish, please follow this link:
http://static.twoday.net/lanya/images/Ka-sspa-tzle-1.jpg

27.5. - 16:00 - łazienki-parc (warszawa, polska)

every sunday in the most beautiful parc of warszawa - the łazienki park - the best known polish componists is celebrated with a free open-air concert. everybody is invited to relax in the parc and just listen to his master-pieces played live on the piano.



which componist??
you don't know??
even though his name sounds so polish: frédéric chopin (fryderyk szopen)

28.5. - 17:00 - warszawa (polska)

erni, a girl, who was recently often witnessed in copenhagen, was seen in warszawa:
she didn't only enjoy a huge wiener schnitzel (further descriptions under this link: http://static.twoday.net/lanya/images/070402-01-Sznycel-1.jpg) and national dishes - pierogis -



but also a sightseeing tour and a great party:

29.5. - evening - sabinki-tandoor-hybrydy-enklava (warszawa, polska)

a group of foreign students was witnessed in the student dormitory 'sabinki', near the 'sgh', celebrating the birthday of a certain austrian girl named kerstin.



the group then went on to an indian restaurant and were later catched celebrating in the 'hybrydy' and 'enklava' till the early morning...
for some ending with a coffee in the already above mentioned appartment...



1.6. - evening - marszałkowska street-boat on vistula (warszawa, polska)

when talking of partying foreign students, the most important news-flash is from this very day. after a warming up - including male striptease and a dance-show - in an appartment in marszałkowska street



this big group of foreign students went on to a boat on the vistula near the old town to celebrate the announced 'good-bye party'.



however, one should know, that the 'good-bye' in the title was only an alibi for another great party, as many of the students claimed not to leave before other parties...

more informations and PICTURES can be found under http://lanya.myphotoalbum.com

the esn (erasmus student network) promised us already in the beginning of our semester that we will have an "international picnic" in May and that these picnics had always been great fun...

but in fact IT WAS EVEN GREATER FUN THAN THEY PROMISED US!!!



and even though our only aim was to lie around in the sun and to do nothing, the esn-people managed to motivate us to join their funny games like
"put your finger into the neck of a beerbottle and run around it 10 times without lifting it"
"make a pyramid of 7 people with only 5 hands or feet on the ground"
"match the city-names to a polish map"
or the typical "ball-into-basket" (an altered version of the 'pétanque' - but even though in a group were nearly only frenchies (yes, exactly: except of me), we were not doing so well in this game... ne me demandez pas pourquoi!)

and of course: last but not least!
the "finish a beer-can as fast as you can"-game



As you can see on the photos (I have more photos under "my photos" in the linklist) the weather was on our side as well!
so the best conditions for barbecue, beer (warm unfortunately...) and fun!!



By the way: It's really not fair that just now, when the weather ist getting so great and one can only think of summer, swimming, barbecues, fun, doing nothing, ... - we have to start to concentrate at least a bit more on the university...

this is maybe my motto for this semester!

it seems like it's not enough that I'm already away from my homecountry...

so,
last weekend we were heading towards STOCKHOLM - making use of the very cheap flights from Warszawa!
even though bad weather was anounced we had really sunny weekend (don't believe this photo - it's tricky!)!



we just explored the city by following the little points marking "tourist attraction" on the map as we didn't have any other guide.
really, this city is amazingly beautiful:



the baltic capitals were sweet but a bit too small, helsinki was nice as well, but I wouldn't have said "yes, I could imagine to live here".
but stockholm this definitely a city where I could imagine to live!

even though we became a bit afraid of the sooo fashionable people here (unfortunately the fashion is horrible at the moment which - what is even more horrible - is no obstacle for the people to follow it blindly)

we felt that underdressed beside the poshy girls queuing for the nightclubs in the evening that we finally preferred to take just a beer in an unfashionable irish pub and not to go further. another reason for this was as well that we had to be fit for the next day because...


being only girls (me, Laura, Kerstin and Ulli)

there was only one possible thing to pass the saturday with: SHOPPING!!!

and stockholm is definitely the place to do shopping (there have to be some shops so that the people find new fashionable clothes...)

so, my advice: go to stockholm! the city and the shopping opportunities are really worth the trip!

as I told you recently, I went to 2 baltic states and helsinki during the spring break!

voilà, our little (klein aber fein) travel-group:

me, Mathej (slowenian), Thibault (french), Kerstin (austrian), Marc (austrian), Isabell (german) and Ulli (austrian)

we stayed more or less 2 days in each city which allowed us to visit the city centers on the first day and to go somewhere out of the town on the second day, as the cities aren't that big!

I joined the others, who had visited vilnius and it's surroundings during the weekend, in Riga on monday.



nice old town with nice nightlife!
even though the sun was shining, it was quite cold - compared to the warm spring temperatures in warszawa...



after a long walk in the city center on tuesday we went to jurmala - THE beach in the baltic states - on wednesday.
not only the weather - slightly raining (I even saw a bit of snow...) - but also the renovation works (due to the fact, that the peak season didn't start yet) and the fact, that there were hardly any people, made that the place appear quite freaky...
(the jump-photo above was made on the beach of jurmala)

on thursday we moved on to tallinn by bus.

like riga, tallinn is also a nice little town with a beautiful old town.



as usual we were walking around in the town, looking at all sights, buying (much too expensive) postcards, entering every souvenir-shop and making plenty of photos... as tourists should ;)



on friday we wanted to go to keila-joa, but as we weren't able to read the guide properly ("wer lesen kann ist klar im vorteil", isabell would say) we went to keila (not keila-joa) by train. and as we didn't want to continue further by bus to keila-joa, we eventually went to paldiski - a place described with the nice words "welcome to the hell" in our lonely-planet guide...
in this city was a marine station in soviet times. also the fact that radioactive waste is stored somewhere on paldiskis coastline, didn't give us a real comfortable feeling...



but it was nice to see more than just the rich city centers of the capitals. but even though there are only many huge apartment houses and many children the city (city??) appears quite empty and ghosty...

on saturday at the unhealthy time of 7:00 we went by ferry to helsinki and left the baltic states.

coming from these newly rich little cities into a big western european capital was a huge change...

we were lucky that thibaults friend pauline - a girl from his school in rheims passing her erasmus-semester in helsinki - let us all sleep in her appartment for 2 nights! amazing! merci encore une fois!


we ended our first day after sightseeing and walking around in the 'lux', a far too expensive nightclub - but everything in helsinki is far too expensive (a beer in the supermarket: € 2,60, a zucchini: € 2,50!!). and as we all were already quite dead, we didn't party that much anymore...
on sunday - the last day of our journey - we took a ferry to go to the little island suommenlinna on the coastline of helsinki, where we visited the fortress.

facit: the trip was worth it even though really exhausting... sometimes people need doors to close behind them and we definitely missed some doors from one time to another...

Hallo silke!
Ich hoff du hast viel spass in warschau-und trinkst nicht zu viel alkohol.....hahaha
wenn du wieder nach wien kommst gehen wir ordentlich party machen.
Mfg jan

As I will leave warszawa tomorrow (don't worry: I'll be back!) to the baltic states (riga-tallinn-helsinki), I'll give you some stuff to read, as I don't want any complaints about me not writing enough for you anymore!

markus, who now is in dublin for his exchange semester, came over to visit me (thanks ryanair) last weekend!


now I really know this town: we were walking around for hours and hours - visiting the old town, new town, the łazienkipark and other not-to-miss-sights! of course we also went to my beloved café 'karma' at the plac zbawiciela (those who faithfully read my blog know what I'm talking about)
and of course, we went to my preferred club: the 'monobar'!


he was really amazed of my appartment here ("a palace" - compared to his dormroom in dublin): so, to get you an idea of my "palace" here is a panoramaview of my room...

click here to get a bigger image:
http://static.twoday.net/lanya/images/Zimmer.jpg


oh, by the way:
even if it's already more than a month ago: I was in the opera... w operze waszawskiego, to see Otello.
and to make somebody (спасибо снова, мнша) really happy, I'll put this nice picture here:

so many people don't stop asking me about UNIVERSITY!
(nobody of you ever heard, that an exchange semester is primary NOT for learning but for achieving "social skills" - whatever this means??? (by the way: to write something abstract like these words always looks nice on CVs...))

here, the prove, I still know where my university is - doesn't it look nice?? just as attractive as the WU in vienna...


and just to tell you another funny detail about this nice university: they don't let you do any copies by yourself... really!! they must believe that we are not able to push the print-button or whatever...
so, they have these really kseros (copy shops) in the university where you have to queue to get one silly page copied...

As I already got complaints that my last report was already 2 (!!!) weeks old, I'll get you up-dated!
(just to defend myself: this blog has the subtitle "silke's exchange semester in WARSZAWA" - so I didn't want to talk about my one week stay in vienna!)

spring is getting stronger and stronger (and my skin browner and browner) and my desire to have a bike grew stronger and stronger as well.
yes, a bike!
and moreover, sylwia - my really nice roommate who came back from london last week - didn't stop telling me, that it was sooo nice to go by bike (and didn't stop making me envious...)

so, plan A was set:
sunday - really early in the morning - stadium dziesieciolecia (also known as "russian markets")


(just to explain the photo: all around the stadium - at the top - you can see little stands where people are selling stuff)

my second tandem partner (beside michał) natalia came with me to prevent me from the tourist-trap, as my polish is still not on a negotiating-level! she was the only one under many who took the challenge to stand up so early, so dziekuję!



result: sunglasses, cd, amber-stuff - BUT NO BIKES!!...

so, plan B: sunday - still quite early in the morning - bazar staroci na kole



at this really nice flea-market you could buy ANYTHING you want...
from shoelaces to driving-licences
and BIKES of course!

so I finally found this marvellous bike who was definitely made only for me! you know why?? when you ask the question "whose bike is this" ("o kogo należy ten rower?") the answer - in my case - in polish would be "Silky", as they even decline names...
(for everybody who knows better: yes, you're right: names from abroad - like mine - aren't declined... but the polish language (represented by natalia) will make an exception so that I can claim what I just wrote above)
AND NOW LOOK AT THIS:



And just to complete the day, I took out my nice bike for a ride in the las kabiecki (something like the wienerwald in vienna) a big forest area in the south of warzawa - I never enjoyed living in the south of the city more!
together with sylwia and friends of hers, we were riding in this park and taking a rest in the sun!
zajebisty dzień!