February 7th, 2010 by Zofia
“Everything is Going to be Alright” by Martin Creed – displayed on the outside of the Tate Britain
These are comforting words that I think everyone needs to hear every now and again! I know they brought me comfort yesterday when I looked up and saw them!
January 17th, 2010 by Zofia
At the beginning of May there is a long weekend in the UK and deciding to make use of it I booked myself some train tickets to visit my friend Kirsty in Edinburgh. It is a 5 hour train ride across the UK to get to Edinburgh so armed with food supplies, my iPod, and my book I settled in to my seat on the Friday afternoon and off we went. Five hours later, after passing fields full of rapeseed flowers, sheep, and horses, random people dancing on the platform at Newcastle Station, hills out one window and the sea out the other as we neared Edinburgh, I had finished my book and I was in Edinburgh!
I was greeted at the station by the smiling face of my friend and off we walked towards her flat which was to be my home base for the three days I was visiting. We cooked some food and had a chilled out evening catching up on each others news.
Saturday morning I woke up early and started reading a new book while I waited to hear my friend wake up in the next room. Eventually we got ourselves up and running for the day and finally left the house at about 11:30am. I suggested we started the day with an activity that Kirsty had not done yet which I thought would be a good way to get an overall picture of Edinburgh – a Bus Tour. Starting near the train station and the Scott Monument the tour wound its way around the city taking in the Castle, the Scottish Parliament building, the Palace of Holyroodhouse and the large hill called Arthur’s Seat. The bus tour was one of these ‘hop on, hop off’ tour buses so we did a complete loop first to get a feel for what was around (and with the headsets on, get a bit of Edinburgh history), and then decided to go a bit further and hop off near the castle and start exploring the city on foot.
I found the tourists in Edinburgh quite easy to spot – mostly because they often felt a need to make themselves look ridiculous wearing souvenir items such as Scottish tartan pompom hats with red wigs attached (see photo below)
I did enjoy going into the souvenir shops and seeing what random things I could pick up to send back to my family in NZ but I could not bring myself to buy one of these crazy hats, they are just too mental!
Up at Edinburgh castle I wandered around the outside but decided I didn’t really want to go into the castle interior, I thought my money could be more wisely spent than seeing the inside of yet another historic building, I suppose I just wasn’t in the mood for it on this trip. So I took in the view as the castle is on top of a high hill and looks out over most of Edinburgh and across to the seaside suburb of Leith.
After the castle we walked down a road called the Royal Mile which led us to the Scottish parliament buildings and the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Where we sat down in a park and soaked up the sun and just relaxed. Eventually it started to feel cold and when we looked at the time it was after 6pm! We had a wander around the outside of the Our Dynamic Earth building which is very impressive (especially with Arthur’s Seat as it’s backdrop), and then we went in search of dinner, coming across a lovely little Mexican place on the Royal Mile. We then ended up going to the pub for a drink and then back to the flat for dessert and a DVD, a good end to a good day.
Sunday was an even slower day than Saturday, we didn’t leave the house until 1pm!! Today we decided to visit the seaside so we walked down to Leith and explored the area around there. We went to a large shopping mall called Ocean Terminal which is where the Royal Yacht Britannia is moored so we had a look at the outside of that as well. It was so windy down here by the water and I loved it!! There is something quite refreshing about a wind loaded with sea salt that really wakes you up and clears your head! I could have spent all afternoon just staring out to the choppy water and getting blown-away by the wind but it got too cold so we went in search of a warm place to have fish and chips for late lunch early dinner. We found a cute little jazz-themed pub and had a delicious meal. We then made our way back to the flat for a quiet night in with a couple of DVDs.
Monday was my last day in Edinburgh and Kirsty had to work in the morning. So I got up when she did and sorted my bags out to get ready to leave. I then went for a walk around town and found a nice cafe to have some breakfast in along the Royal Mile, where I sat in a window seat and just enjoyed watching the world go by.
I loved how hilly Edinburgh is, I had forgotten what hills were like because London is just so flat and having come from Wellington which is a very hilly city as well there is just something nice about a hilly landscape. I was however unprepared for the pain in my leg muscles after all the hill walking, which was a sure sign that I was completely out of practice and clearly have spent too much time in FLAT London!
Kirsty finished work at 1pm and we met up for lunch and then headed towards the train station for my journey back to London. I had a really relaxing time in Edinburgh and really enjoyed catching up with my friend. All in all a great long weekend.
January 17th, 2010 by Zofia
Yeasterday I met up with Rosie, Guy, and Jack and we headed to North London to the Business Design Centre to go to the London Art Fair. At the art fair dealer galleries present themselves and their artists to the buying public under one roof. It normally costs £15 to enter the fair but through Rosie’s art-world connections we had complementary passes to enter. The London Art Fair is all about Modern British and Contemporary art, both established and emerging artists, and prices ranging from a few hundred pounds to a few hundred thousand pounds. Everything you saw was available to purchase the the galleries use the fair as an opportunity to network and to bring in more new clients whether they be seasoned or first time art buyers.
As I was in no position to even contemplate buying even the cheapest of works I just enjoyed the experience of seeing what the different galleries had to offer and seeing how many of the galleries I recognised the names of and how many I had never come across before. There were big-named artists whose worked popped up in multiple galleries – for example Bridget Riley prints and paintings were a very common sight. It was also great to see so many emerging artists sitting alongside so many established artists, and the art dealers who were pushing these names onto the visitors to the fair with just as much enthusiasm as for the artists you might actually have heard of.
The first thing that struck me upon entering the art fair was the building itself and how it was arranged. Spread out over three floors and divided into little gallery spaces for each gallery with lights shining down on each space, all sitting under an impressive Victorian-styled arched ceiling reminiscent of many old train stations here in London. Another interesting observation was the sheer number of people walking around. The fair had been open for three days already before we visited and it still had another two days to go and there were people everywhere actively engaging with the artworks, the dealers and with each other. There were also an awful lot of red dots next to pictures, which, for those of you who don’t know, indicate that the work has been sold, so it would seem that people were spending their money and getting themselves some very nice works indeed.
Since I wasn’t spending I felt like I could just soak up the environment and take the opportunity to observe those around me. It is always interesting to hear what people are talking about as they walk around:
A Picasso? 7 grand?! That’s nothing!
Overheard a man with a very posh English accent saying this to a couple of other people he was standing with.
At least we know she’s full of milk…
Overheard a man saying this to the woman he was with as they walked by me pushing a grizzly sounding baby in a pram.
Maybe one of these days I might be able to afford to buy at art fairs like this but until then I will continue to enjoy the experience of attending as a keen art lover and observer of everyone else who is buying 
We have had snow in London recently. London looks rather magical in the snow. I like it.
What I don’t like, is the ice that is left behind when the temperatures drop below zero and the snow stops falling…
January 3rd, 2010 by Zofia
Two weeks after arriving back from Krakow, my friend Shanika and I decided to make the trip to Dublin for the Easter holiday. So on Saturday morning we flew out from Stansted airport and landed in Dublin, Ireland at 09:30. Once getting off the airport bus on O’Connel Street (one of the main streets in town) we went in search of our hostel so we could put our bags down and start exploring Dublin. We were staying at Abigails Hostel which had been recommended by another friend but locating this hostel proved to be our first challenge – we walked right past it and continued walking for a further 15 minutes before we felt like we must surely have gone too far and should turn around and see what we missed! It turned out that the hostel just had very subtle street-front advertising.
Our next step was to book ourselves onto an afternoon bus tour which we had read about in a flyer we picked up at the airport. The tour would take us out to Malahide Castle and the North Coast in a 3 hour round trip – great, my first afternoon in Dublin and I was going to be seeing historic buildings and also the Irish seaside! We had a few hours before that bus trip so it was time to get our bearings and explore the local area. One of the most striking features of the city was the river Liffey which was so clean looking considering it cuts through the centre of town – so different from the Thames in London!
We didn’t want to get too far away from where our bus pick up point was so we spent our time around O’Connell Street. This street is very wide with a huge pedestrianised strip running right down the centre of the street which is just as wide as the footpaths on either side of the street. Along the length of this centre strip were many statues to a whole bunch of people I have never heard of before and can only assume were at some point in time famous residents of Dublin. I really loved the statues I saw in Dublin (and there were a great many!) for their expressiveness. They all had funny poses or funny expressions on their faces – they never looked too sad, always happy which sends out such a positive vibe to the city I think. For example the statue of Jim Larkin with his arms flung overhead is so expressive it just makes me want to throw my arms up and shout out a big hello!
Also dominating the view down this centre strip is The Spire – a giant stainless steel knitting needle in the centre of the street. Standing 120m high, the official name of this sculpture is “Monument of Light” – the top section lights up at night to provide a sort of beacon in the night sky across the city. Built in 2003 as part of a regeneration of O’Connell street, the Spire of Dublin stands on the former site of Nelson’s Pillar which had been destroyed by an IRA bomb in 1966.
After some lunch it was time for our bus tour north of Dublin. We had a wonderful Irish driver who told us many tales about the area and even sang us a couple of traditional Irish songs (and then apologised for his bad singing – which wasn’t bad at all actually). He kept us well entertained until we arrived at our first stop, Malahide Castle. This castle is one of the oldest and most historic castles in Ireland with some parts of the castle dating back to 1185 when the Talbot Family took possession of the land. It remained in the possession of this family until 1975 when Rose Talbot sold it to the Irish State to fund inheritance taxes. The views from inside the castle out to the grounds of the castle were impressive, I imagine that in the summer time this must be a great place to spend a sunny afternoon.
On the way out to Malahide we passed a very old stone church which had a miniture replica church alongside it that our bus driver told us was for the leprechauns – yes we are in Ireland, “to be sure, to be sure”.
After Malahide Castle it was off along the coast back towards Dublin. We passed through the fishing town of Howth, and passed by the Royal Dublin Golf Club and North Bull Island Bird Sanctuary. The highlight of the journey back to Dublin was when we stopped up on the summit of Howth Head to take in the view across Dublin Bay which was beautiful.
We finished off a lovely Saturday in Dublin with a beer in the famous pub area of town known as Temple Bar.
The next day was Easter Sunday. I had done some research before we came and discovered that most attractions were closed on Good Friday but were open on Easter Sunday which was good news for us. I was hoping to get to a Catholic church for Easter Sunday mass but unfortunately by the time we found one the service was just coming to an end. So we continued to wander around, eventually heading to the Guinness Storehouse, the 7-floor visitor experience dedicated to the history and making of this famous Irish beer.
For those that know me well they will know I am not really a beer drinker, but during the Guinness experience I think I discovered a beer I actually like the taste of! They say Guinness is an acquired taste and I would say I prefer the flavour of Guinness to most other beers I have tried!
The Storehouse is really interesting as it takes you through the whole beer-making process from the selection of ingredients to the international distribution of the finished product. And being true beer geeks, the people who designed the experience created the whole inner storehouse in the shape of a giant pint glass which if filled would hold 14.3 million pints!
Upon arriving at the Storehouse Shanika and I bumped into two Spanish guys who had been on our bus tour the day before – it’s a small world after all. We said hello to one another when we arrived and then saw them again on the final level – the Gravity Bar – where we all enjoyed our complementary pint of Guinness and the panoramic views of Dublin.
After the Guinness Storehouse Shanika and I went to Dublin Castle for a tour of the State Rooms and the Undercroft and got to hear about the interesting history of Ireland and it’s connection to England.
From there we continued on our exploration of the city, relishing every new piece of public sculpture we came across – especially the particularly charismatic representation of Oscar Wilde found in Merrion Square. Made of different coloured marble it shows a chilled out Oscar lounging on a rock with this kind of “How you doin’?” smirk on his face.
The statue of Molly Malone would have to have been one of the most popular tourist spots in the city. It was almost impossible to get a clean shot of this statue without some tourist posing in front of it, and there was always a queue of eager people waiting for their turn to pose with her and her wheelbarrow. All I knew about Molly Malone was that there is a pub in my hometown with the same name but as it turns out, Molly Malone is the name of a famous Irish song set in Dublin, a song that our friendly tour bus driver the day before had sung for us!
At the end of O’Connell Street is the O’Connell Monument which Shanika and I took a couple of silly photos in front of. The funniest part was when Shanika became the object of interest for some Eastern European travellers who wanted to have their photo taken with the ‘dark skinned’ girl. This was so surreal, neither of us Kiwi girls ever thought that stuff like that still happened but apparently Shainka’s Sri Lankan heritage made her ‘exotic’ in Dublin! Needless to say we made excuses to get out of there before the photo could be taken, CRAZY!
There were also many monuments to various hardships seen in the city over the centuries. The most powerful was one dedicated to those who suffered through the infamous Irish Potato Famine. The figures are so frail and desperate looking, even the dog looks terrible, it is so tragic. But it is a beautiful monument to behold, as you walk in between each of the figures you can really get a complete sense of each of them and it really moves you with their struggle to survive.
To finish our Easter Sunday Shanika and I found another pub in Temple Bar where we had dinner upstairs and then went downstairs to listen to these two Irish guys playing guitars and singing great songs to sing and dance to. We sang and danced until they finished their set a couple of hours later and then danced to the band that followed after them. I haven’t had that much fun in a long time and it was even better knowing that our hostel was literally around the corner so there wasn’t a long trip home afterwards!
Monday was our final day in Dublin and the weather was starting to turn bad on this day so we timed our trip really well. Our fist stop of the day was Christ Church Cathedral. This Church of Ireland cathedral has a history going back to c1030 and is very impressive both inside and out. It also has a really interesting crypt which contains a lot of information about the history of the cathedral.
Continuing on the church theme our next stop was St Patrick’s Cathedral, dedicated to the patron saint of Ireland. It is said that St Patrick baptised converts to Christianity at a well that once existed in the park on the grounds of the current cathedral. The first church of St Patrick was built here in the 5th century and the one we visited was built in the 13th century. This cathedral has an illustrious history including being the site for the first performance in Dublin of Handel’s Messiah in 1742 and having the writer Jonathan Swift as it’s Dean from 1713-45. There is a lot to see in the interior of this church and it is worth the visit.
Our final destination before leaving Dublin was Trinity College. We had the most charismatic young student of the college as our guide who took us on a tour of the area giving us an interesting history of the University and it’s buildings and famous former students. This young man has such passion and enthusiasm for his university they really should pay him more for the excellent job he did on the tour.
We finished the tour outside the Trinity College Old Library which is the home of the famous Book of Kells. The exhibition you walk through before finally seeing the Book of Kells (or 2 of the 4 chapters they have on display at any one time) prepares you to have a better understanding / appreciation for the book you see at the end of it all. On the next floor up is the Long Room which is the historic library, and as a person who loves a good library this one definitely impressed! The best part was the discovery that the books are not arranged in this library by author or title or any modern library filing system but are instead arranged by book size – the largest books being found on the bottom shelves and the smallest at the top!! That must be fun when a student wants to look at a particular book from the historic collection which is what is housed here!
To sum up my Easter weekend I thought I would finish with a list of things I liked about Dublin:
I have definitely put Dublin on my list of places I would like to visit again some time.
January 2nd, 2010 by Zofia
Travel Tip #1: When trying to stay awake with your friends before your 2am trip to the airport for your holiday, do not under any circumstances watch a film like Mamma Mia unless you want to spend the whole trip with random Abba songs in your head! This was a lesson learned the hard way during a 4-day holiday to Krakow – just when I thought I had got the songs out of my head one of my other friends would start humming another song from the film and the vicious cycle of having a catchy song stuck in my head would start all over again!
Finally I was making a trip to the Polish city of Krakow, a town that I had wanted to visit since I was a small child learning about my family origins. I don’t specifically have family from the town of Krakow, but it was a town that always sounded so interesting that I wanted to see it before I saw other Polish towns. To make the experience even better I was travelling with three of my friends – Rosie, Shanika and Rachel – and was looking forward to the four of us taking Krakow by storm.
Travelling in March I was surprised when I looked out the window of the plane just before we landed to see Krakow completely white with snow. I had expected it to be cold but I was not at all prepared for just how cold it ended up being! I very quickly got used to wearing tights under my jeans, two pairs of socks at the same time and also at least 4 tops, all finished off with a scarf, a woollen hat, some leather gloves and my woollen coat – and I was still cold when I was outside!
After making our way into the old town we found our hostel – the Flamingo Hostel which was on a street just off the old town square, a perfect location. After we settled in and layered up a bit more the four of us ventured out in search of some lunch and some relaxed exploration of the local area. My first impressions were great, the buildings were so different to anywhere else I had been, so old and full of character. The Old Town Square was so pretty, on one corner stands St Mary’s Basilica which has a tower where a trumpet sounds on the hour every hour to commemmorate a medieval trumpeter shot while sounding an alarm. In the centre of the square is the Cloth Hall, built in the 14th century it is the first shopping centre built in Poland which these days contains a souvenir market .
The wonderful thing about the Old Town in Krakow is that it is completely closed to traffic, there are no cars driving around that you have to be aware of, the only transportation I could see was a horse and carriage, and in this snowy weather it had a magic effect of making the place seem even more surreal a place to be.
On this first afternoon in Krakow we also explored the outside of the Barbican, and Wawel Castle and then made our way to the base of the castle, by the Vistula River, where we encountered the fire-breathing Smok Wawelski standing in front of his lair. The excitement at finally seeing the site of a story I had grown up hearing about was unbelievable. The only thing that really disappointed me was discovering that the dragon’s lair itself was not open in March (but would be open in April!) so I was not able to actually go into the lair.
Travel Tip #2: Many tourist attractions in Krakow are closed in the Month of March. It is always a good idea to plan ahead and make sure the things you want to see in a place are open during the period of time you plan to visit that place.
Since we had not gone to bed the night before in order to make our early morning flight from London to Krakow we were all feeling rather exhausted by the early evening and as such we were all sound asleep in our hostel room by 10pm.
The following morning Shanika and Rachel were up very early to join a bus tour out to Auschwitz but Rosie and I were not going with them so we enjoyed a much desired sleep-in and finally got up for the day after 9am. I had purposefully chosen not to go to Auschwitz for the simple reason that I am fully aware of the horrors that took place during the war here and had no desire to be in such a grim place. Instead, Rosie and I took the opportunity to do something the other two were not interested in doing – visiting a couple of art galleries, in particular, the Princes Czartoryski Museum which houses one of only 3 Leonardo Da Vinci paintings outside of Italy, The Lady with the Ermine. The painting hangs in a room all on its own, dramatically lit and protected behind glass, it is a beautiful painting that I was so pleased to be able to see.
After the museums, and a hot chocolate break, Rosie and I made our way to the Basilica of St Francis to see the Art Nouveau stained glass windows designed by the artist Stanislaw Wyspianski. Lit by the wintry grey light outside these windows were stunning.
We then met up with Rachel and Shanika who had returned from Auschwitz and proceeded to the Jewish quarter of Krakow called Kazimeirz. This place used to be an independent town but is now a suburb of Krakow. This part of town has a completely different feel to the Old Town and there are reminders of the predominantly Jewish history of this area on many of the buildings. It would have been nice to have spent a bit more time exploring this part of town, I particularly wanted to visit the Ethnographic Museum, but we ran out of time.
On the way back to the Old Town we came across a hidden gem of a store which sells wooden carvings of all sorts of things – angels, dragons, elephants, and so on. The man running the shop was the perfect salesperson and all four of us walked out the door with at least one item each.
On the advice of the person behind the front desk back at our hostel we headed out that evening to a restaurant called U Babci Maliny where we had our first Pierogi of the trip (and definitely not the last!). I was so excited about this dish as I had not had pierogi for a very long time, and I wasn’t disappointed, they were delicious!!! For those that don’t know, pierogi are a kind of dumpling, usually filled with potato, cheese, cabbage, onion, or meat and are served either boiled or fried. The restaurant itself was very kitch, it was like an old fashioned dining room below ground and came complete with a man in a tuxedo playing music on a grand piano. All in all it was a great end to a lovely day.
On our third day in Krakow we went back to Wawel Castle, this time it was to actually go inside the castle grounds and building. Wawel Castle is unbelievably huge. A very impressive place with an equally impressive history. To enter the Royal Rooms and State Apartments we had to put on some bright blue plastic shoe covers which was rather amusing but since we all had to wear them it wasn’t so weird. The tour of the castle really opened my eyes to the difficult history of Poland. Due to it’s location it has been invaded over the centuries by many different people, and as a result, Wawel Castle contains basically no original furnishings inside due to looting with each invasion. I found this to be incredibly sad, to have such an impressive building so empty of it’s original treasures.
After the castle experience we went into Wawel Cathedral which houses the relics of St Stanislaw, the patron saint of Poland. This visit was followed by more pierogi for lunch – YUM!
After lunch we got on a tour bus and headed to the Wieliczka Salt Mines. Located just outside of Krakow the salt mines have been in operation for over 700 years and only ceased production in 1996! The mines go so deep that you could fit the Eiffel Tower inside and it would not surface! The tour available to the public goes to a depth of 135m (not even half as deep as it is possible to go) and covers about 2km of the 300km of mine! This place is incredible, everything, and I mean everything in there is made out of salt – from the chandeliers to the floor. The flooring looks like marble tiles but on closer inspection it is polished salt, if you shine a torch on the floor you can see the light shine through the floor which is a give-away that it is made of salt.
There are chambers carved into chapels, chambers with statues and furniture carved out of salt, chambers with Salt Lakes, and the penultimate chamber is the St Kinga Chapel which measures 54m by 18m and 12m high. This was created by one man over the course of 30 years (beginning in 1895) and then completed by his brother. This chapel is still used for the occasional mass or concert and the occasional wedding – I definitely think it would make a great wedding venue, 135m below ground!
While down below ground I also got the opportunity to ‘work’ in the mine. Our tour guide was explaining the lift mechanism to us for moving rock salt between different levels of the mine and grabbed some of us to make the lift move. In return for turning the wheel and making the lift move I received my very own lump of rock salt from the mine, well worth it I say
Our final morning in Krakow was spent walking around the Old Town again soaking up the relaxed vibe of the town one final time. We also headed to the Collegium Maius, the oldest surviving university building in Poland (from the 15th-century), which has a replica 14th-century clock that chimes at 11am with a cast of characters rolling along as well.
One final reflection on Krakow was how proud it is that Pope John Paul II came from here. At Wawel Castle there is a statue of him outside the Cathedral, there are pictures of him everywhere in the town, and at the Franciscan Monastery there is a giant picture of the Pope waving from a window above the entrance way. It was from this window that he would often stand and wave to people when he was visiting Krakow.
So much of Krakow felt so familiar to me yet it was all new and exciting to discover. It also made me proud to be half Polish and be able to say that this beautiful town was part of my cultural heritage. I look forward to many more trips back here and to other parts of Poland.