evaanna's VirtualTourist Home Page
| Page Views: 28,124 | Here and there by evaanna - last update: Jul 1, 2009  |
St John's Night on the Krutynia | Girls holding their wreathes |
On 23 June we joined the celebrations of St John's Night in the village of Krutyn in Mazury. The bonfire with the children singing and then the girls dropping their wreathes on the river was organised by the teachers and children of the local school. Everybody was welcome and guests were even taken for a boat ride on the Krutynia River. More pictures of the celebrations can be found on my Poland page (Customs tip). I have now started updating my Mazury page where there are even more of them. I am going to make a separate page for Ketrzyn with Wolf's Lair, i.e. Hitler's bunkers at nearby Gierloz, as I don't want to spoil my Mazury page with all the gloom of that place. |
| Three friendly ladies in the village of Nowa Biala |
|  | A stone's throw from the Tatras After many years of holidays taken in other parts of Poland or abroad, last year we returned to the Tatra Mountains. This time we concentrated on the mountain villages in the area, demanding little serious walking but abounding in interesting architecture and offering great views of the Tatras. We found a nice place to stay in Jurgow near the recently reopened border crossing with Slovakia to be able to make trips on both sides of the border. We took lots of photographs and I have added new pictures and tips to my Bukowina Tatrzanska, Kezmarok and Vysoke Tatry pages and have written three new Chocholow, Jurgów and Zdiar in Slovakia pages. Another place we revisited during that stay was Niedzica - a village only 40 km away from Zakopane with a stunning 14th century castle high up on a rock. |
A spring day in the midst of winter Winter was grey and dark here with very little sunshine and a lot of snow lately so a clear sunny Saturday in early February was very welcome. And what place would be better to visit at a time when there is a lot of mud, snow and ice in the country than the Warsaw Old Town? I would be happy to do a whole page on this charming place but VT does not provide a format for this so I have just been adding tips and pictures to my Warsaw page and may do a travelogue, using the remaining pictures.
If you have been to Warsaw before or are planning to visit it soon, have a look at the colourful barrel organ in my general tips or at Miodowa St, one of the few streets listed as a whole (Things to Do tips, p.3) or see the new Old Town Hall in Plac Teatralny (Theatre Square) and find out what is fake about it. I have added quite a few pictures to the other tips on the area of the Old Town too so it may be worth clicking on them to bring back memories of the place. Hope you enjoy my tips and pictures and come to explore Warsaw sometime soon. | | | Lunch break in Old Town Market Square |
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| St Anne's church - a marvel of architecture |
| | Vilnius revisited In September we revisited Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, a city steeped in history, so full of historical monuments that two days are definitely not enough to see them all. So we will have to go back, but now I was able to extend my page, adding a number of tips and travelogues. Enjoy them. And I think I can now understand why my grandparents loved that city. You simply can't help loving it. |
The colours of Ireland I have wanted to visit Ireland ever since I fell in love with its music as a student years ago. I have seen some postcards of its beautiful landscapes but could only dream of going there. And yet in 2007 my dream actually came true thanks to Katherine (Ekaterinburg), my VT friend, and her husband Denis, whom I would like to thank for their wonderful hospitality and all the fun we had together. It took me weeks to describe all the places I visited and there would have been even more of them be it not for the rainy weather, which spoilt my trip to the Ring of Kerry. I hope to go back there some day, but, if not, perhaps I will at least be able to see the great views I have heard so much about on the pages of other VTers. In the meantime, I have now completed my pages on Cork, Kinsale, County Kerry and County Cork, see how lovely they are. In fact, Ireland seems to be unrivalled for fantastic scenery wherever you go so you can see more of it on my pages. The sun did shine sometimes for me too... And the Irish people I met were all incredibly kind and helpful. I simply loved their great sense of humour and open-heartedness. And now I come to realise why so much of the world is grey: all the colours have gone to Ireland! | | |
| Alan and Lin in their living-room |
| | England sweet England In late July 2006 I came back from a wonderful holiday in the heart of England. My VT friend Alan (alancollins) and his wife Lin had invited me to spend a fortnight with their family, which includes their sweet dog Kezzie. I very much enjoyed staying in their beautiful house, talking to them till late at night or just sitting on the porch looking at their charming garden, with the birds flying here and there, the bumblebees feeding on the flowers and the frogs croaking in the pond. It would have been even nicer be it not for the stiflingly hot weather, which would not leave us even for a day, but nobody could help that. I would have seen very little with the heat wave on so I owe it to Alan and his air-conditioned car that I was able to do so much sightseeing. He drove me to many wonderful places around Banbury: Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwick, Broughton Castle, the charming Cotswold villages and showed so much patience which no one but a VT-er could have had while I took the photos. Thank you, Alan and Lin for the fabulous holiday. I hope to be able to repay your kindness and hospitality when you come to Poland.
For more pictures, see my album. |
Oxford again Thanks to Alan and his wife I was also able to re-visit my old friend Barbara, who in turn drove me around Oxford on one of those hot days so I was able to take many more pictures of this beautiful city. I have added them, together with new tips, to my Oxford page. | | | Barbara in the garden of St Mary's |
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| | Just two days and two VT meetings in Cardiff To make my happiness complete, one day Alan kindly offered to drive me to Cardiff to see another of my VT friends, Shane (uglyscot), whom I had never met before. The three of us held a lovely, if not long, VT meeting and another one on the following day, when Alan came to collect me. Just imagine - two trips from Banbury to Cardiff on two consecutive days! Isn't he wonderful?
I would also like to thank Shane and her daughter for their warm hospitality and driving me to the centre of Cardiff and the beach on Barry Island on the second day.
I took nearly 300 photos, most of which have now been put on VT. My Oxford page has grown considerably and quite a few pages have been added. Banbury, the Rollright Stones and the wonderful Cotswold villages of Wroxton, Hanwell, Broadway, Deddington, Chipping Campden, Hook Norton (with Great Tew included) and Bloxham now have their own pages and tips. See how beautiful these villages are, with their thatched honey-coloured stone cottages overgrown with creepers. I have also written a page on Broughton Castle with its gorgeous gardens, Shakespeare's hometown Stratford-upon-Avon and the historic town of Warwick. Hope you enjoy my new pages no less than I enjoyed writing them. |
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 Comments for evaanna | | | | |
JLBG Fri Jul 3, 2009 05:07 UTC
Thank you Ewa for visiting my El Jadida page! I always enjoy these out of the beaten path places ! | Pawtuxet Wed Jul 1, 2009 12:12 UTC
Ewa.. Great cover photo...must investigate your other pages. thank you for your visit to my new Zakopane page. think you have found the best little villages in that area. | Trekki Mon Jun 29, 2009 06:14 UTC
Good morning dear Ewa :-)) Haha, yes, we and our kilometre long words and names... I realised this only through VT :-) morning smiles and hugs from tropical land... | Dester Sun Jun 28, 2009 10:05 UTC
I am feeling better most every day Ewa, thank you. I always enjoy your pages, next best thing as being there. |
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