Summer Adventures, or How I Spent This Summer

Hey, everyone!

I decided to diversify the blog with a story about my adventures this summer. Most articles are for those who are planning a trip to a particular place and want to find out, what to see there. But, not everyone has the opportunity to travel frequently or travel at all, so here are my adventures for those who want to just dream and have fun reading.

In fact, you can start traveling too. You do not need huge amounts of money and other countries are not as terrible and dangerous as they say in the news. When people ask me where I get the money for trips, I refer to an article about how to travel cheaply, and I say that everyone has their own priorities and values. Someone is spending money on games on the PS3, someone is running for the new iPhone, although he cannot afford it. I travel.

In general, this summer was quite boring. For a particular reason, I had to stay in Poznań for the whole summer (a city in Poland where I study). I was working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. This work did not bother me, I like what I’m doing (including my two sites), but I just cannot sit at home, I need to meet someone.

Despite the fact that I worked a lot, the summer is long, and I had enough time to travel.

Amsterdam

In early June, I flew to Amsterdam, where I met friends from Minsk. We spent a few days there. Amsterdam is one of my favorite cities. It would be so even without the main reasons why tourists visit it — Red Lights District and coffeeshops. You just see how the locals enjoy their life. Even the area where our first hostel was located, which for the most part was inhabited by Arabs and Poles of the working class, was a perfect place to live.

Not mentioning the areas near the city center (there are lots of tourists in the very center). Cozy cafes, boats, canals … There is no such economic inequality of the population as in Russia or India. All workers, clerks and businessmen are on par riding their cheap bicycles to work.

Also, In Amsterdam, a huge number of start-ups is being invented. Once I found an application to find work only in Dutch start-ups. I found a job, flew to Amsterdam before starting my studies in Paris, talked to the owner and agreed on the terms. Unfortunately, in the end, it didn’t work out. But nonetheless… the opportunities are huge.

Returning to this summer, the studies were finishing about a week after Amsterdam. I was preparing about 3 hours for the only exam, and passed it without problems. My bachelor thesis, perhaps, took me about 15-20 hours during the whole semester. Therefore, I was not particularly burdened with studies.

Warsaw

A couple of times I went to my friends in Warsaw for a weekend. I do not really like this city, but why not to come for friends. Once, I woke up on Saturday, I realized that there was no work for that day, I found the nearest train to Warsaw in an hour, got dressed, had a shower, cooked breakfast, took my bag with laptop and went to Warsaw. After so many times in this city, I think it’s worth to tell about interesting and less famous places in this city (will do it soon).

Festival

In early July, the Open’er music festival was held near Gdynia (in the north of Poland). I only knew 1-2 bands, and the tickets were very expensive, so I decided not to go there. But, it turned out that my cousin with her boyfriend bought tickets to the festival, but he could not go, because he was sick. So, suddenly, the day before the festival, I got the tickets. The same evening I met some friends, offered to go to one of them, and he agreed.

On the first day, I was alone, but at the hostel I quickly got to know the guys with whom I went to the place, where the festival was held. The next day, I met my friend, whose girlfriend was at the festival. As a result, we slept in the car of her friend, and they — in tents. Read more about the adventures at the festival and what is worth visiting in Gdynia.

Also spontaneously, my former classmate suggested going to another music festival in Poland, about 30 km from the Belarusian border, where mostly Belarusian bands performed. Naturally, I agreed. Even the trip there was an adventure. 8 hours on the train, including 3 hours on the floor in the corridor – I never thought that Poland is so big. I liked the festival itself, perhaps not less than the first one. The weather was better and there were no schoolchildren.

I also planned to go to the sea (in Poland) to a friend I worked with in States. But, the weather there was very unpredictable, and the remaining apartments and rooms in the hotels cost a lot of money, so I changed my mind.

Adventures in My Town

Having got bored at the dormitory, I moved to a hostel in the city center. I changed four of them during a week. I always wanted to live in the heart of the city. Just leaving the building, you’re in the center.

During this time, I went to one bar several times, aimed at local and foreign students. It was originally not made to come with someone and sit with a beer, but come alone and get to know others. There were various interesting events organized there, including stories-presentations of travelers, language exchange and much more.

Once, there were almost no people, only two barmaids, a guy I knew, and I. No one else came, so one of the girls heated up the food she took with her, and invited us to sit at the table. It turned out that we are all of the same age, and were sitting as we came to somebody’s home. It was fun.

Trip to Germany

Finally, having the opportunity to go abroad, I went to Berlin. It was like this: I needed to bring documents for master degree (a lot of papers, although I stayed at the same university with the same specialization), I did not know how long it would take, but on the way to the university, I checked the most convenient way to get to Berlin, and in which hostel to stay. When the affairs at the university were over, on the way to my hostel, I booked a Blablacar trip on my phone (it was a very unusual Pole who was telling all the way that the Polish government is a clan of Ukrainian Jews, and Belarus and Russia are excellent countries), and a hostel in the district of Charlotterburg.

Instead of planned 3-4 days, the stay in Berlin lasted almost 2 weeks. In the end, my former classmate I went to the second festival with came to Berlin too. Once again quickly checking at the sights of the city, we spent more time on getting to know the culture and life of locals through events in the Couchsurfing app. I don’t want to repeat, read about my adventures and advices on places to visit in Berlin in my articles.

After Berlin, we went to Leipzig, and then Dresden. Interesting cities, very different from the capital. During the German trip, I met about 100 new people from almost all continents. Most of all, of course, Germans, but also lots of Brazilians and Australians. From there, with two transfers, we reached Minsk at the end of August.

That’s how boring I spent the summer. Subscribe to me on social media to keep track of my updates. Have a nice day!

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