Open House London - Saturday

As the title suggests, I'll report on Open House London 2012 which took place a few weeks ago, at one of September's weekends. A lot of architecturally interesting buildings, which are mostly inaccessible for ordinary people, are opened to public during those two days.


The very first place I headed for was the Lloyd's building in the financial district called the City of London. Lloyd's is a head office of British insurance market. While sightseeing, I could have visited two floors with offices which seemed to be left by workers a couple of minutes ago :D

Parę tygodni temu wzięłam udział w akcji 'Open House London', która miała miejsce w jeden z wrze- śniowych weekendów. Podczas tych dwóch dni, najciekawsze architektonicznie budynki, na co dzień najczęściej niedostępne dla zwykłych ludzi, są udostępniane zwiedzającym.

Pierwszym miejscem, do którego dotarłam był budynek Lloyd's, będący siedzibą brytyjskiego rynku ubezpieczeń, znajdujący się nieprzypadkowo w dzielnicy finansowej. Podczas zwiedzania, dotarłam na dwa piętra biurowe, które wyglądały jakby pracownicy dopiero co wyszli :D

I wish I could be so messy/Chciałabym móc posiadać taki bałagan w pracy

Dimensions time! Although Lloyd's of London has been an insurer for over 320 years, the building is 26 years old and it's company's 8th headquarters. The building is 88 metres tall and has 14 floors. Sightseers were taken to the 11th floor where there is a very stylish, 18th century dining room. Even though, I couldn't have gone to the 14th floor, the skyline from the 11 floor was also stunning.
Take a look!

Ok, czas na liczby! Chociaż Lloyd's ubezpiecza już od ponad 320 lat, to obecna siedziba, od 26 lat, jest jego ósmą. Budynek ma 88 metrów, co daje 14 pięter. Zwiedzający najwyżej zostali zabrani na 11 piętro, gdzie znajduje się stylowa, osiemnastowieczna jadalnia. Niestety, nie wolno mi było dotrzeć na ostatnie piętro, jednak widok z 11 piętra na panoramę Londynu był równie efektowny.
Spójrzcie!

A half of the queue to Lloyd's/Połowa kolejki do Lloyd'sa

Then, I rushed to the Bank of England but the queue was soooooo long so I decided to go to the next place on my list - the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The Office is responsible for promoting the UK's interests around the world. Sadly, because of being government department, it was forbidden to take photos in the most interesting places because of safety reasons :(

Po Lloyd'sie przyszła kolej na odwiedzenie Banku Anglii, jednak tamtejsza kolejka była bardziej niż długa, więc ruszyłam do Biuro Spraw Zagranicznych oraz Wspólnoty. Zadaniem biura jest promowanie interesów brytyjskich na świecie. No i niestety, ale biuro jest budynkiem rządowym, wciąż używanym, dlatego nie można było robić zdjęć w najciekawszych miejscach z powodów bezpieczeństwa :(

Wenlock and Mandeville also poped in for some sightseeing/
Wenlock i Mandeville również wpadli na odrobinę zwiedzania

The last place to visit was Channel 4 headquarters. Both Lloyd's building and the Foreign Office and Commonwealth were prepared very well for sightseeing - they had leaflets for everybody with useful information, posters with more information about something in many nooks of the building and there were a lot of people ready to answer curious people's questions. However, Channel 4 seems to be the most interesting place but it was the most boring one. They showed us some conference rooms and a 'cinema' in which they watch their newest productions. And that's all. A bit disappointing.

Ostatnim miejscem, które chciałam zobaczyć była siedziba Channel 4, czyli kanału 4. Zarówno Lloyd's i Biuro Spraw Zagranicznych były świetnie przygotowane do akcji, wyszli na przeciw potrzeb zwiedzających - ulotki, plakaty na każdym kroku z większą ilością informacji, a także wiele osób z obsługi, gotowych do rozmowy z ciekawskimi. Zaś Channel 4, wydawałoby się, że najciekawsze miejsce, było najnudniejsze - pokazali nam ich sale konferencyjne i 'kino', w którym oglądają ich najnowsze produkcje. I to wszystko. Małe rozczarowanie.

Cheerio,
Karolina x

London Borough of Lewisham

My dream/goal for my year in London is to visit every borough of London. I started off in the Borough of Lewisham which is in a close proximity to the one I live in. The Horniman Museum and Gardens in Forest Hill is a very nice place to visit. The museum was established by Mr Horniman whose father was the owner of a profitable tea business. Because he was well-to-do, he could fulfill his fondness for collecting by travelling around the world. Around the museum, there is a big garden with a nice skyline of London and enormous musical instruments which make real sounds.

Moim marzeniem na rok w Londynie jest odwiedzenie każdej z gmin miasta. Mój plan zaczęłam wypełniać od gminy Lewisham, która sąsiaduje z tą, w której mieszkam. Fajnym miejscem do zobaczenia jest Museum i Ogrody Hornimana w Forest Hill. Museum zostało założone przez pana  Hornimana, którego ojciec był właścicielem dochodowej firmy herbacianej. To właśnie dzięki majątkowi ojca, Horniman-syn mógł rozwinąć swoją pasję kolekcjonowania i podróżować po świecie. Wokół muzeum znajduje się dość ogród z widokiem na centrum, a także ogromnymi instrumentami.

There are various exhibitions in the museum - collections of natural history, anthropology and musical instruments exhibits. However, the display I enjoyed the most is a temporary exhibition connected with clothes worn by citizens of London nowadays. More details on the leaflet below.

W muzeum jest parę różnych wystaw - historii naturalnej, antropologiczna, czy instrumentów muzycznych. Jednakże, wystawa, która najbardziej mi przypadła do gustu, to była tymczasowa wystawa związana z ubraniami ówczesnych mieszkańców Londynu. Więcej informacji na ulotce.

 

>The exhibition consisted of a random outfit in a cabinet, a description of a person who's clothes we can see and a short interview and a film about his/her wardrobe. Below you can see a part connected with a woman from Poland.

Na wystawę przypadała gablotka z wyrywkowym ubiorem, opisem osoby, która użyczyła swoje ubrania na wystawę a także krótki wywiad i film na temat zawartości szafy danej osoby. Na zdjęciu poniżej znajduje się gablotka Polki, mieszkającej w Londynie.

Except Londoners' clothes, there are some other things connected with clothing from different parts of the world. The things below are typical African combs.

Oprócz ubrań Londyńczyków, wystawa obejmowała też inne rzeczy z kategorii ubiór/wygląd, pochodzące z różnych części świata, dlatego też poniżej widzimy typowe afrykańskie grzebienie.

Horniman Museum and Gardens
100 London Road
Forest Hill,
London
SE23 3PQ 

After a long but pleasant visit to the museum, I went to Lewisham to try traditional English breakfast over there. I found a restaurant earlier in which you pay £6 and create your own traditional breakfast from 20 different components in the menu. I've chosen the following food: 1 - beans; 2 - mushrooms; 3 - bacon; 4 - hash browns; 5 - sausage; 6 - poached egg; 7 - fried egg; 8 - tea with milk; 9 - toast. To be honest, I was very excited while eating that meal because of my interest in British culture. I must say that it wasn't that bad, I really liked beans which were sweet and properly prepared.

Po długiej, acz interesującej wizycie w muzeum, wybrałam się do Lewisham na tradycyjne angielskie śniadanie! :D Wcześniej już znalazłam restauracę, która takowe śniadanie serwuje za 6 funtów i wygląda to tak, że spośród 20 części składowych wymienionych w menu, komponuje się własne śniadanie. Wybrałam: 1 - fasolka; 2 - pieczarki; 3 - bekon; 4 - hash browns, czyli coś jak placki ziemiaczane; 5 - parówka; 6 - jajko w koszulce; 7 - jajko sadzone; 8 - herbata z mlekiem; 9 - tost. Nie ukrywam, że byłam mega podekscytowana tym śniadaniem z racji mitów krążących po świecie - to śniadanie wcale nie jest takie złe.

Maggie's Cafe and Restaurant
322 Lewisham Road
Lewisham London
SE13 7PA

The last place in that borough I visited Blackheath which has not only a very large grassy field but also quite small but very atmospheric village.

Ostatnim miejscem na liście było Blackheath, które nie jest jedynie ogromnym trawiastym polem, ale też małą, ale nastrojową dzielnicą.

In Blackheath, I found a tiny bakery there called Boulangerie Jade with a lovely confectionery. I decided to have a "Moulin Rouge" - a cake with light raspberry mousse and a madeleine sponge which was very very delicious - I was afraid that the mouse would be too sweet so that's a big advantage of that cake.

W Blackheath znalazłam małą cukiernię Boulangerie Jade z przepięknymi wyrobami. Zdecydowałam się na "Moulin Rouge" czyli ciastko z lekką pianką malinową na magdalenkowym biszkopcie, które było przepyszne. Zaraz po kupieniu zaczęłam żałować wyboru, myśląc, że pianka będzie mdła i zbyt słodka, ale moje obawy okazały się nieprawdziwe, na szczęście! :D

Boulangerie Jade
44 Tranquil Vale 
Blackheath, London
SE3 0BD

Cheerio,
Karolina :)

Welcome to London!

Hello! I haven't blogged for a very long time because it's been a time of big changes in my life! I've moved in to London last week, on 10th of September. :D After I finished high school, I didn't really know what I want to study so I decided to have a gap year as an au-pair working in London.
And I am! Here! In London. :D
This blog becomes a way of sharing my experiences with family, friends in homeland so posts about my life here will be written in Polish too.

I'd like to start my London-series with my very first thoughts, remarks about life in here:

1. If you ask people around the world about typical English weather, they would say "rain all the time, loads of rain". I am happily amazed because I'm here for 9 days and it have rained once, at night! I realize that it may be different in the next months, yes, but the theory with loads of rain here is demolished.

2. I've heard of that many foreigners here complain about annoying two taps, one for hot water and second one for cold water, on the sinks in British houses. However, those two taps aren't in every house, really. It depends on hosts if they see them comfortable or not - I live in a place with one tap and I'm alive! :P

3. A lack of stray dogs. I have just seen one dog without an owner so for a person who is afraid of dogs, that place is heaven, whereas there are a lot of stray dogs on Polish streets, especially in the area where I've lived in.

4. Londoners try to commit suicide many times
a day, daily. Have you seen how they cross the street? Huh, that's brave! However, if you want to cross the street here, you must be brave and cross it in every place because looking for any traffic lights can last forever.

Neighbourhood/Okolica:

Cheerio,
Karolina :)

Witajcie! Wiem, nie pisałam nic od wieków, ale to wszystko dlatego, że w moim życiu nastąpiły ogromne zmiany - w zeszłym tygodniu, 10 września, przeprowadziłam się do Londynu, taak! :D Po skończeniu liceum, nie umiałam się tak mega, mega zdecydować, co chciałabym studiować, dlatego też wybrałam rok przerwy w Londynie jako au pair. No i jestem, właśnie tam :D Mój blog teraz będzie pewnym pośrednikiem w moim kontakcie z rodziną
i znajomymi, dlatego też posty będą dwujęzyczne.

Serię moich londyńskich postów, chcę rozpocząć od takich pierwszych obserwacji na temat życia tutaj:

1. Gdyby zapytać obcokrajowców o angielską pogodę, to z pewnością wspomnieliby coś o hektolitrach deszczu, płynących z tutejszych chmur. Jednak odkąd tutaj jestem, padało jeden jedyny raz i to w nocy. Wiem, wiem, że moje obecne przemyślenia ulegną zmianie po kilku ulewach.

2. Słyszałam, że dla wielu osób przyjeżdżających do Wielkiej Brytanii, trochę kłopotem, trochę urozmaiceniem, stają się dwa krany - jeden z zimną, drugi z ciepłą wodą - przy umywalkach. Jednakże, takie krany na prawdę nie są w każdym domu, zależą tylko i wyłącznie od właścicieli. Ja, na przykład, mieszkam w miejscu z jednym kranem :P

3. Brak bezpańskich psów zauważyłam dość szybko, a dla osoby bojącej się tych słodkich zwierząt jest to wybawienie, gdyż w Polsce jest mnóstwo błąkających się samotnie po ulicach psów, również w okolicy, gdzie mieszkałam.

4. Mieszkańcy Londynu próbują popełnić samobójstwo każdego dnia i czynią to wręcz obsesyjnie! Aby przejść przez ulicę, trzeba zabrać ze sobą worek odwagi i rzucać się dzielnie pod koła samochodów, bo chęć znalezienia przejścia dla pieszych ze światłami może zakończyć się fiaskiem.


 

Città del Vaticano

Summer seems to be a season of pilgrimages. It's right time to connect something for soul (a prayer) and body (a recreation in more tourist places). One of my friends decided to do so and went for a pilgrimage to Italy. She spent time in cultural parts of Rome but also in religious Vatican City where she saw St. Peter's Basilica which you can see on the postcard below. It's a very important church for Roman Catholics because it's somehow connected with Pope's head office which is located in Vatican City.

Look below, even the stamp is Vatican. That postcard is quite special because it comes from the smallest country (in terms of size) in the world.

Cheerio,
Karolina xx

Foodie in Poznań

I want to confess that I adore exploring new tastes, food. It also happened in Poznań where I tried loads of delicious food, some of them were even home made! :D But don't delight too quickly, I will introduce my "food star" later!

such pomps are in Poznań at every turn which is veeery helpful during sunny, hot days:

very refreshing water with a few pieces of watermelon and loads of ice

 we decided to bake such cookies from puff pasty and fresh raspberries:

those waffles are also our home made creation in one of the evenings :D

 it wasn't my first meal in Asian restaurant so I know something about
"eastern tastes" and I really think that the quality and taste of that dish was amazing!

we also bumped into a salads bar where I had really tasty and quite unusual
(because of combination of eggs, beetroots, sweetcorn and smoked chicken) salad

Ladies and gentlemen - rogal świętomarciński (Saint Martin's croissant). It's a local, traditional croissant made of white poppy, baked on 11 November, on St. Martin's Day. However, the croissants are probably only eaten by local people in November, they're available in some bakeries. There are a lot of tourists who come to Poznań during entire year and want to try them (even me).

Now it's time to move on. I'm taking you on a market square in Poznań. I've already showed you the town hall here. Now it's time to present lovely, charming tenement houses around:

there were always some people playing with that splashing water or chilling themselves: 

Those very colourful tenement houses on the left are as narrow as one-colour-area. They were built in 16th century and were possessed by poorer merchants. In those arcades, they had their stalls where fish, candles, torches and salt were being sold. Unfortunately, they were destroyed during II World War but rebuilt in Renaissance style.

So, that's all about my trip to Poznań! I hope you enjoyed the views and  maybe will visit this city one day :) it's totally worth-seeing :)
Cheerio,
Karolina xx

Next part of holidays adventures!

Wow! Last time I posted something was 10 days ago - lazy me! I'm going to show you next part of places I saw during my stay in Poznań. At the beginning I should mention that I was already in Poznań in 2010 so some places I saw this year I also saw during my first trip to Poznań. And again, I'm writing "we" because I was there with my friends.
However, I also visited places I haven't seen before. Ostrów Tumski is one of such places. It is an island located almost in the city centre on which the Cathedral is located. The Cathedral is a place where first rulers of Poland were buried. Moreover, it was probably a place where first ruler of Poland was christened and Poland became Christian country.

view on the Cathedral from the bridge:

there are a lot of padlocks on that bridge which are padlocked by
loving couples as a sign of love which will last forever:

 a view on the Cathedral:

 there is a colourful and eye-catching poster in front of the Cathedral
on which you can read about christening of Poland in 966:

 

What's more, there is a QR code (that is a very nice idea showing that
history is not only a boring visit in a museum) on every of those columns
which you can decode and learn something more about history of Poland:

Now we're moving to a part of Poznań I already saw in the past. Firstly, we bumped into Stary Marych - a monument of a radio play character who is a symbol of a local slang:

look how calm park alleys can be during blazing hot days:

We poped into that park for a while to check if my favourite fountain is working. Last time I was there, it wasn't lauched [you can check it here] so this time a man with umbrella has a meaning! :D

In Poznań, there is one of the oldest zoos in Poland. I like that zoo because of having ring-tailed lemurs which this time were hidden in their shelter. Anyway, we had a chance to meet this charming alpaca which really enjoyed a conversation with us:

 random streets and lovely tenement houses in Poznań
(some shots were taken while walking so they have...extraordinary perspective)

We've seen it! We've seen it! It may be considered almost as a historical bus! It's a brand of bus of my parents' youth. It was called "cucumber" because of sleek, round shape:

Cheerio,
Karolina x

Joyfulness straight from Singapore!

Today's post can be described as almost live report! :D Well, I've opened a postbox today and saw something special inside. At the beginning of December 2011, I found Singapore Philatelic Museum's action which I joined. To be honest, I was waiting for a reply till February, then with a shade of disappointment I forgot about that action...until today when I've found a reply in my postbox! :D By the way, it's my first postcard from Singapore and it's so unique! :)

Cheerio,
Karolina x