EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - 22-23/08/2009

I was dreaming about going to Edinburgh and Scotland. This summer my dream came true.

I went there with my boyfriend. We set off on 21st August in the afternoon. We went to Manchester where we had dinner and then we drove to Bolton where we stayed for a night in a beautiful place called Mercure Last Drop Village Hotel & Spa which was located in the suburbs. It was such a perfect place to stay. In the morning we had breakfast at the hotel and then set off for Edinburgh.

I enjoyed driving a lot because I could admire beautiful landscapes. Well, I was surprised to see great landscapes also in England e.g. close to the Lake District. When we reached Scotland it was better and better. The landscapes were breathtaking.

When we arrived at Edinburgh we parked the car and went straight to the Edinburgh Castle. It is located so high, which is amazing. The weather was great and we spent a lot of time in the castle which is different from the one in Warwick. I enjoyed the views from the castle. At that moment Edinburgh reminded me of Prague (because of the castle) and Melbourne (because of the sea I could see from the castle).

After visiting the castle we walked along the Royal Mile. At least we tried to walk as the streets were crowded with people and street performers (almost one next to the another one). I like this kind of atmosphere and the street performers were fantastic. We somehow managed to get to the Arthur's Seat, which is a mountain close to the Scottish Parliament and the Holyrood Palace which is the residence of British queen in Scotland.

Then we had some pasta for dinner. It was very difficult to find a place to eat as there were so many tourists everywhere.

After eating we went to the Calton Hill from which there were great views of Edinburgh.
It was getting colder and we were walking back to the car park passing a beautiful fountain in front of the castle and having some fun with a street performer.

We drove to Glasgow where we stayed at Ibis for a night. OMG and there was a street taken from San Francisco. I still cannot understand how it was possible for a car to stand and not move on the street which was almost vertical.

Next day we came back to Edinburgh and walked along the Royal Mile to the Arthur's Seat. The weather was not too good and so we decided to come back.

I enjoyed my visit to Edinburgh and I hope it will be possible to go to Scotland for longer next time.

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Coventry, Warwick, Leamington Spa, England

COVENTRY

Coventry is located in West Midlands, not far away from Birmingham. 

At the end of the 19th century Coventry became a centre of bicycle manufacture and in the 20th century it was the major centre of the British motor industry. That is why it is worth visiting Coventry Transport Museum, which has got a rich collection of bicycles, cars and buses. 

Coventry's historic St Michael's Cathedral, built in the 14th century, was severely bombed during the second World War by Germans. Nowadays you can visit the ruins of the cathedral which are quite impressive. A new cathedral was built next to the old one. 

Coventry is also famous for Lady Godiva, the wife of Earl of Mercia, who lived in the 11th century. According to the legend she rode a horse naked through the city in order to reduce tax imposed on the local people. There is the Statue of Lady Godiva in the city centre next to Primark. Apart from that a music festival known as Godiva Festival is held annually in the War Memorial Park.

During my stay in Coventry I enjoyed visiting Lady Herbert's Garden which is located close to the Pool Meadow, bus station.

Not far away from Coventry there is a nice place Coombe Abbey where you can relax, have a picnic and commune with nature.

WARWICK 

Warwick is famous for its medieval Castle, which was built in 1068 by William the Conqueror. The castle is worth visiting with lots of activities for children.

LEAMINGTON SPA

Leamington Spa is another interesting place in West Midlands. It is a small spa town with a nice park opposite the Royal Pump Room, white buildings and my favourite tunnel - the perfect place for a photoshoot. 

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HONG KONG - LONDON 03/03/2009

I arrived at Hong Kong at 6:30 and I had some time before I had to board once again. I took off at 8am and arrived at London at 1:30pm.

Welcome back to Europe. I came back to Poland on 7th March spending some time in England.

I miss Australia a lot. It was the trip of a lifetime. I had fantastic three weeks in Australia and it is amazing that in such a short time I was able to visit so many places. It is also great that everything happened as I planned so my itinerary worked so well. Fortunately no flights or trips were cancelled and step by step I could move on and experience this wonderful Down Under.

Some people may say that I am crazy to go so far away or to spend so much money. Well, it took me many years to save money for the trip, but if I only could I would do this again. I do not regret it. I love travelling, especially to the places which I am fascinated by.

I MISS YOU A U S T R A L I A

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MELBOURNE 02/03/2009

I woke up early, packed my stuff and checked out. I left my luggage in a special locker for 8 hours and I went out to the Deveroli's to eat omelette. It was very tasty. Maybe not as much as the one in Kuranda, but still. After breakfast I bought a long hippie dress. Cool. Back in time.

Then I went to the beach. I had a photoshoot with the Australian flag. Then I discovered a fantastic place which you can see below. Isn't that pretty?

I  had ice coffee at Europa cake shop. Then I came back to the beach and spent there the rest of the time before we coming to the hostel and taking my luggage. At 7pm I had a bus to the airport and it was time to say goodbye to Australia. The last visit to Subway, then I bought some stuff including a mug with a kangaroo and Twilight to read.

Boarding was delayed 30 minutes and we took off at 00:30. GOOD BYE AUSTRALIA!

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MELBOURNE 01/03/2009

I was not in a hurry so I left the hotel quite late. I went to the Deveroli's dreaming about eating omelette, but it was too late to serve breakfast so I had lunch instead.

I was walking along Esplanada where there were a lot of stalls with paintings and handicraft products. I bought a painting with 12 Apostles. Well, it was more like a photo that's why I liked it so much.

Then I went to Acland Street and as I was able to find a place to sit in the Polish cake shop Europa I had coffee and cakes.

Later I decided to go to a different market, but when I reached the place everything was closed. When I came back I visited different parts of St Kilda.

It was a very lazy day.

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CAIRNS - MELBOURNE 28/02/2009

I woke up in the morning and took some pictures in my "rainforest" hotel. I met a Swiss who was on the same cruise as me yesterday and he was a bit angry because his trip was cancelled. It happened to him the second time in Cairns. Well, it only shows how lucky I was that I managed to go on the trips I planned and that nothing was cancelled. Thanks God.

I ordered a mini bus at 10am and went to the airport. My flight to Melbourne was at 12.30. I arrived at Melbourne at 5pm. It took me a lot of time to collect my luggage.

There was no bus to St Kilda. Besides it is a bit complicated to get to St Kilda from the airport. However, there was a woman who wanted to get to St Kilda, too. We both took one taxi and that is how I saved some money. The woman was talking to the taxi driver and they had a nice conversation. I was able to find out about interesting facts and things.

When I reached X Base Backpackers, I checked in and went out to eat something. I went to the restaurant Deveroli's and had garlic bread and nachos for starter and then I had pasta. I was full, but food was really delicious.

At night there was a party downstairs and I could not sleep. I will say it once again: I love St Kilda, but I do not recommend X Base Backpackers if you are not a party person.

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GREAT BARRIER REEF 27/02/2009

Early in the morning the bus took me to the harbour in Cairns. I boarded the ship Reef Experience. I had to take our shoes off, take equipment for diving, fill in some papers and pay for the cruise. I even had breakfast while sailing to the Great Barrier Reef. The crew was talking about the Great Barrier Reef, snorkelling and diving.

I got seasick and it was a real nightmare. It happened to me the first time in my life and I hope it will never happen again. I will spare you the details, but believe me it was a horrible experience.

Then there was the first time when people could go snorkelling or diving. Well, I cannot swim at all, but I decided to try and not to regret later that I did not do it. It was hard mainly because of my cold sore as salt water made my lips very painful. I had to give up. But still I had a great time. After the first stop there was lunch - smorgasbord. I risked and ate it, but everything was fine.

We sailed a bit to stop for the second time for snorkelling and diving. Later we were sailing back to the harbour in Cairns. It was great to lie on the top of the ship with wind in my hair. The only problem was that the weather was getting worse and it even rained a bit.

During the cruise I met two Polish girls. In the evening I went to the restaurant Cock&Bull where I had a great dinner or supper as you prefer. I had kangaroo steaks, chips and salad. There was a lot of food and the atmosphere was really nice with some karaoke of Australian country songs.

When I was going back to the hotel I bought a delicious chocolate: Cadbury Old Jamaica with rum and raisins. Yummy.

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KURANDA 26/02/2009

In the morning I had breakfast. Then the bus arrived at 7:25 to take me to the railway station. The trip I booked yesterday included a bus drive to the railway station and back, tickets for the train and for the cable car.

At 8:50 I took this historic train to Kuranda. It was a very old and slow train. I could listen about Kuranda throughout the whole ride.

During the ride there was one stop and we could leave the train for about 5 minutes. We could admire the Barron Falls. When we heard the "bell" we had to hop on the train.

When I reached the station in Kuranda I took a free shuttle bus to the centre of Kuranda. Well, Kuranda is a very small town, if it is a town, but I love the place so much. It is one of the best places in Australia.

First I ate Spanish omelette, which was so delicious. Yummy. Then I bought tickets to all three Kuranda attractions, which cost $39 per person.

The first one was the Butterfly Sanctuary. As a name indicates there are a lot of butterflies flying over your head. The place itself is not too big, but it is a really nice place. I liked a blue butterfly but it was so difficult to take a picture of it.

Then I went to the Kuranda Heritage Market where there was the entrance to the Birdworld. There were a lot of birds, mainly crazy parrots. I had a lot of fun with them. I managed to take there my favourite photo of a parrot which at the beginning did not want to be taken a photo of. Fortunately she trusted me and I was able to take a great photo. You can see it below.

From the Birdworld I went to the Kuranda Koala Gardens where you can meet not only koalas, but also crocodiles, wallabies, kangaroos and snakes. There was almost nobody, which was so fantastic. Kangaroos seemed to be much nicer there than those in Sydney.

What was the best part of the trip was the opportunity of cuddling a koala and having a picture with it. WOW. It cost only $15 and the experience was amazing. They brought the biggest koala I have ever seen. They instructed me what to do with my hands and then gave the koala. WOW. What a great fun it was. It did not last too long. They took the pictures and used my camera to take additional pictures, too. I miss the moment. It was great. I have to say that I enjoyed every moment there in Kuranda and the staff was so nice there.

When I left the Kuranda Koala Gardens I bought some earrings in the market. Unfortunately I lost one gorgeous violet Aboriginal earring when I came back to England. If I had known I would have bought the second pair. :-)

I took the bus back to the train station. This time I did not take the train, but a cable car to get back. There was a  ticket on my surname at the cashier. It was possible to stop few times while going down and walk a bit. When I came back I still had some time to drink coffee and eat a cake. Then the driver came and took me to the hotel. At the hotel I booked a trip to the Great Barrier Reef for the following day with the company Reef Experience for $145 per person.

I loved this day and Kuranda experience was something I will never forget. I found out about the place on the internet while preparing for the trip and it is so fantastic that I had an opportunity to visit it.

Well, I had a dinner/supper at the hotel - a grill. You could buy meat in the bar and grill yourself. I drank Pina Colada. The barman made too much and gave me everything. Ha ha ha.

It was a great day!

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ALICE SPRINGS - CAIRNS 25/02/2009

In the morning I brought breakfast from the reception which I had ordered two days ago. After breakfast I checked out, but I left my luggage at the reception and went to the swimming pool. I enjoyed staying in Heavitree Gap a lot. If I could go to Alice Springs once again I would stay in the same place.

Around 1pm I ordered the taxi, which was a bit too early, but well this is what I did. There was almost nobody at this small airport. The airport itself is really beautiful with Aborigianl carpets and it is very cosy. I had lunch at the airport. Can you believe that there was internet on my laptop? And where? In Outback. That's amazing!:)

The plane to Cairns was very small and maybe half of it was occupied by passengers. I flew with Quantas and there was food as always:-) I love Quantas.

I arrived at Carins before 7pm. It was dark outside and so humid. The air was so different. After collecting luggage I called the hotel and soon there was a bus which came to take me. Isn't it great? I was taken to the Bohemia Resort. Well, there were few houses located in a beautiful place full of palm trees and other plants. The place was beautiful, but the service at the reception was not nice at all. There was also a small swimming pool and a grill with a bar.

When I left the luggage I went to the nearest petrol station and bought something to eat. After coming back to the hotel I booked a trip to Kuranda for the following day.

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ULURU / KATA TJUTA / ALICE SPRINGS 24/02/2009

I was waken up by Ruth at 4:30am. There was not too much time to get ready, but we managed to have breakfast. Then we drove to the place where we could see the beginning of the sunset, but we did not spend there too much time because then we went to another place. There were a lot of other people observing Uluru when the sun was rising. It was a great view, but the mountain did not change as much as I thought it would. Uluru was orange.

After the sunset we drove to the car park and we went on a walk around Uluru. Brave Ruth stayed on the bus sleeping and gaining energy. The walk lasted 2 hours 30 minutes. It is possible to climb Uluru, but in fact it seldom happens because Aborigines do not permit it too often. They say that it is because of the weather and heat. I think that if they do not want people to climb they should resign from this opportunity. Personally I did not want to climb. I respect Aborigines and it is great that they give this opportunity to walk around Uluru. However, there are signs asking the toursist not to take pictures in particular places because those places are sacred for them.

Walking around Uluru was great because Uluru has got many different faces and colours and looks different in many places. There are pictures on the rocks showing how Aborigines comunicated with one another.

Flies are present there all the time. I still remember taking pictures there when my hands were almost black full of flies. They live there so you must get used to them. That's it.

After finishing this fantastic walk we drove another 30 minutes to get to another Aboriginal mounatin Kata Tjuta, which is also called the Olgas. Aboriginal name Kata Tjuta means "many heads". We walked around the Valley of the Winds. It was a pleasant walk with silence all around. It is amazing because even in the Kings Canyon there were people from other trips but it felt like we were alone and we could easily commune with nature. It is great that there are still places like that.

We came back to the Ayers Rock Resort where we had a fast lunch. After the lunch we were divided into two groups. Those who stayed with Ruth went to Adelaide and those who were coming back to Alice Springs, like me, joined Ben's bus.

Ben's bus was GREAT because the air conditioning was out of order! It was so hard to imagine how to travel on the bus with such heat. Well, it was not so bad. It was not a luxurious travel, but we were able to survive:-) All windows were opened and there was wind so it was quite nice. The only problem was lack of water. I wanted something cold to drink. The only water I had was hot and I had to drink it. I was dreaming so much about cold water!!!! I was thinking only about water, but there was no water in the Outback. After two hours of drive we turned left to the petrol station. Oh my God everybody was so excited that finally we could drink something cold. I drank cold Ice Tea in one swallow. It was what I wanted. The last time I was so thirsty was in Rome when the temperature was around 40 degrees.

Coming back to the bus was not bad at all after drinking something cold. It took us another two hours to get to Alice Springs. I was a bit surprised because I thought it would last longer. I left the bus first. It was a fantastic trip and I have got so many great memories.

I LOVE OUTBACK

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ALICE SPRINGS - KINGS CANYON 23/02/2009

It was a short night. Before 5am the bus came to take me on a two-day trip to Uluru. The driver of the bus was an Englishwoman - Ruth. She has lived in Australia for 7 years and has worked as a tour guide in Alice Springs for a year. She seemed to be a crazy Aussie, not an Englishwoman, but maybe she found her place in the world. Ruth was our driver and a tour guide and till the end she had a lot of energy, which was amazing.

Ruth collected other participants of the trip, which took some time, especially because two young British people overslept and they were late. Apart from me there were people from Holland, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, the UK and Canada.

Before we set off we went to the office and paid for the sleeping bags and bought water (=ice). We set off around 6am and the whole time we were driving on a motorway with one lane only. It is possible to meet another car every 30 minutes more or less so the view of another car is really fantastic and there was always a lot of joy from the side of both drivers. The motorway is really long and when you realise that it is in the wilds so it is even more amazing that they decided to build it.

During our drive Ruth called each one of us to sit next to her and tell others about yourself, which was great becasue we could know something more about other people travelling with us.

Around 12 we stopped for lunch. Food was in a trailer so we had to cut bread, meat and vegetables by ourselves to make sandwiches. It was also the first meeting with flies. :-)



After lunch we drove a while and then stopped in front of the Kings Canyon. I decided to take the longer walk together with Ruth and majority of people. It was boiling hot and I was a bit weak because of my sore cold, but I did not want to resign from something that would rather not happen again. The walk lasted over three hours. The beginning of it was the hardest part because we had to climb up a bit, but after that it was not so bad. I really enjoyed the walk, even though Ruth was walking so fast that I was breathless, especially because I wanted to take pictures all the time. It was very important to drink water all the time and Ruth said that she would not take anyone if someone did not have 2 litres of water. The colours all around were amazing, nature unspoiled with withered trees.

The only thing which I did not like there was flies. You have to get used to them or otherwise you will spoil the pleasure of the trip. It was great when the wind was present as it was the only moment flies did not attack you, but there were not too many moments like that.

Anyway I enjoyed the walk a lot. After leaving Kings Canyon we drove quite a long time to get to Uluru. We reached the Ayers Rock Resort in the evening before the sunset. We could admire the sunset from the place where we could see both Uluru and Kata Tjuta, but the sunset was not the best.

We came back to the camping which consisted of small houses which looked like big tents, inside them there were two beds. We also had a kitchen to share where Ruth was preparing the supper. She did not want any help. I still do not know where did she take the energy from:-) For the supper we had some meat like kangaroo steaks, sausages and beef. There were also vegetables. When everybody ate and cleaned, we could have a shower in a place which was not far away from our camping. It was risky because you could read there about the possibility of meeting snails or lizards. Fortunately I did not meet any of them.

Instead of sleeping in a tent I decided to take a swag and sleep outside on the ground under the starry sky. I did not think about snails or other great creatures. All I wanted was to sleep there. Oh by the way there were no flies at night. How great! It was the best night in Australia. I slept so well maybe because I was tired after the whole day or maybe because there was fresh air throughout the whole night. It was just amazing to spend the night there. I fell asleep quite soon and woke up very early fresh and ready for another day.

Maybe not everybody knows what SWAG is. I did not know the word before mainly because it is connected with Australia. Maybe you have heard the song Waltzing Matilda which is about a swagman (a tramp) travelling with a swag which is a kind of bundle on which he slept. He called the swag Matilda. By the way the swagman was chased by the police because he stole a sheep and as he did not want to be caught he decided to commit a suicide and jumped into the lake Billabong and died. Have you heard about the brand Billabong? I think that maybe it has to do with this story. Who knows. I may always be wrong. :-)

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SYDNEY - ALICE SPRINGS 22/02/2009

In the morning I took the shuttle bus which I had booked earlier and went to the airport. I had breakfast at the airport and then a flight to Alice Springs. When I was getting closer to the Alice I could see red soil, which was amazing. It was hot when I left the plane, but it was not as bad as I had thought it could be there. I waited a bit for a taxi and after few minutes a white taxi with air conditioning took me to my hotel which was called Heavitree Gap. The drive took us up to 10 minutes. The Heavitree Gap was close to Alice Springs. There were few buildings with rooms. My building was called Acacia. On two sides of the place there were red rocks and in the middle of the resort there was a swimming pool. There was silence all around and I loved the place from the very beginning. My room was big with a bathroom and a balcony from which I had a view over the red mountain.

After checking-in I did not have time to enjoy the place. I had to go to the town. Few days earlier I had booked online a trip to Uluru and I had some problems with booking it and still when I was leaving Sydney I was not sure whether I would go on the trip or not. I had to check my e-mails. There was no internet at the place I stayed so I had to go to the town. In front of the reception there were two phones. If you wanted to order a taxi you just had to pick up one of them, not even dial the number and soon after it you could hear the voice. Just amazing. I waited for a taxi up to 10 minutes. When the taxi driver arrived I told him to take me to the internet cafe. To our relief there was a confirmation of my trip. Hurrah!

I did shopping at the supermarket. It was the first supermarket I came across in Australia. I know it may sound amazing. I do not want to say that there are no supermarkets in Sydney or Melbourne, but we did not find them in the city centres there.

Then I wanted to eat something and I had a small problem with it. There were not too many places I could eat. In one of them it was forbidden to enter the place in flip flops or hats. Wow. No flip flops in such a hot town? I was shocked. Besides it was lazy Sunday in this small town, but I found a nice place with a great atmosphere. I had lasagna, which was not so bad. I liked the place a lot. After a busy morning and afternoon I could finally slow down, just sit and relax with silence on this lazy summer Sunday. Do nothing. It was the perfect place to write a book with a cup of flat coffee next to the laptop:-) No more dreaming.

I took a taxi back to the hotel and...................I started having some doubts about the place which the driver was supposed to pick me from the next day. I stayed in Heavitree Gap which was a part of Aurora Hotels, but it was not the Aurora Hotel itself and this is what I wrote in the e-mail. My sixth sense made me go to the receptionist who only confirmed that these are two different places. She let me call the organiser of the trip. I was worried because I was not sure if anyone answers the phone because it was Sunday, but I was lucky. It was good  that I called them because otherwise they would not find me the next day and I would not go on the trip.

What a day it was! I had a short walk around the hotel on the dry cracked soil where the river Todd was supposed to flow, but there was NO sign of it at all. Then I went to the tavern where a guy told me to take my hat from the table. It is forbidden there, but why? I have no idea, but "when in Rome do as Romans do".

When I was going to the hotel I passed some Aborigines who were poor and barefoot. :-(

Then I made a salad and had a nice supper on the balcony with the starry sky above me. It is amazing but there was always starry sky there in the heart of Australia. I loved the place a lot. There was this gorgeous starry sky, silence all around except a fantastic "orchestra" in the grass, hot air and once again I thought it would be great to stay there for a while and start writing a book. A real paradise.

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