To all students who will decide to study at University of Economics in Katowice - and especially to my Taiwanese friend - Tina, can't wait to see you in Kato :D

I am a travelling geek, so I can tell, that you can go to every place in Europe from Katowice, literally – everywhere. During winter everyone should take the opportunity to visit Polish mountains: Zakopane – to feel the real atmosphere of Polish small, mountain city. Szczyrk – very close and convenient to go skiing. Actually there are too many places in Poland to introduce now, so… so far I’ll write something about “convenient travelling in Europe”.

So… take a chance and go abroad – FOR EXAMPLE you can buy a cheap bus tickets from Katowice to Vienna, and if you want to do the round trip – you can go first to Vienna (by PolskiBus) than from Vienna to Budapest and back to Vienna (by Orange Ways bus) than from Vienna to Prague  (by Student Agency Bus) and for example from Prague to Berlin (also by Student Agency Bus). From Berlin you can also take PolskiBus for example to Poznań or Łódź and visit one of those cities – and then take a train back to Katowice. If you want to do the one day stop between Katowice and Vienna, you can get off in Bratislava – capital city of Slovakia. Bratislava is only one hour away from Vienna. So no worries, there is always a bus goes to Vienna  – and one day of travelling in Bratislava is enough.

And remember to check Wizzair and Ryanair – cheap airlines. Both of those carriers fly from Katowice, and also Ryanair flies from Kraków.

Some useful links:

Ryanair - http://www.ryanair.com/en

Wizzair - http://wizzair.com/en-GB/Search

Polski Bus - http://www.polskibus.com/en

Orange Ways - http://www.orangeways.com/en

Student Agency Bus - http://www.studentagencybus.com/en 

Berlin

Berlin - they always laugh so much :D

Prague

Bratislava

Prague

Budapest

Budapest

Vienna

Vienna

Funny book

To everyone, who likes to laugh very loud and have a good mood every day: I’ve just read a book “Xenophobe’s guide to the Poles” by Ewa Lipniacka. This is such a funny book, written in English by a polish writer, who apparently has a great taste of humor. To everyone, Russians, Ukrainians, and to all English speaking people, I can truly recommend it. Really, it’s like describing Poles a little bit in a hilarious, sometimes grotesque way. I just love it :D

Ohhh btw I borrowed it from my Taiwanese friend. 

Russian FB-fun page – Это интересно

Today as I opened my FB, I found this: 

“Как радоваться жизни. 27 радостей жизни.”

How to be happy in everyday life. 27 joys of our life:

1. Go to bed with fresh new sheets.
2. Sneeze 3 or more times in a row.
3. To stir your feet in the water.

4. Slip but not fall.
5. Feel the sand between your toes

6. Get the SMS, you were waiting for.
7. Waking up after a very realistic nightmare and realize that it was just a dream.

8. Bite off a pie / bun / eclair on the side where the filling.
9. Sit on the couch after all day spending on our feet.
10. Tear the protective layer from the screen out of our brand new electronic devises.
11. When people you don’t know congratulates you.
12. Unexpectedly find the money you stashed away long time ago.
13. When the cold bed, you’ve just hid into, finally gets warm.
14. Accidentally enter correctly your old and long-forgotten password.

15. Fridge full of delicacies that are left after the holidays.
16. Just to score to the trash bin from a distance.
17. To know that in the book, which you like a lot, there are still a lot of unread pages.
18. Flip the pillow to the cool side
19. Cry oneself laughing.
20. Put on something, you’ve just bought.
21. Wake up an hour before the alarm, realize that you have plenty of time to sleep and fall asleep again.  

22. Accidentally feel somewhere smell from your childhood.

23. Again and again listen to a song that you recently liked.
24. Fell crawled from the music you’ve just heard.

25. When you manage to squeeze out the last bit of toothpaste from a tube.

26. Sort out the box with the toys from your childhood.
27. Lie down in a bed and listen to the sound of heavy rain drops, drumming on the window. 

The end of semester!!

Today is officially the last day at NTU. Finally!!!!!! On Friday we finished all presentations, exams and other stuff and today I uploaded my very last papers. And finally I’m done. Now I can really focus on travelling and exploring more places of Taiwan. 

What I think is that I will take my camera and stars to shoot some photos and small videos inside the campus. It’s stunning. So many flowers, lakes, trees and animals – especially sparrows and squirrels, which are slinking to your side and begging for a food. And of course everyone feeds them, so those little evil, fat squirrels are so spoiled, but still cute. Why evil? Cause it stole my waffle, right from my hand. 

Library at NTU

my bike - students use bikes as "in campus" transportation

Go VISIT Ukraine! ! !

After my presentation in Chinese (so proud of my Chinese now :P – people understood me!), my classmates made a huge eyes and said “wooow, it’s such a beautiful country” – and yes, indeed it is. My German classmates asked if it’s dangerous – well if you travel alone, probably it could be. But the point is, nobody even imagined that Ukraine has mountains, sees, so many forests, fields, meadows, river. And suddenly me… presenting pictures about Crimea, Kiev, Carpathian Mountains, Lvov. They were so enthusiastic, asked me questions for ex. “How do Tatar people look like” or “Why do we have so many Greeks in Donieck”. I suddenly felt do proud of my country, but then I realized something, that just broke my mood down. People, who have time, money and any other ability to travel, they just avoid Ukraine – they go to Russia, and that’s all they need to know about Russian people, Orthodox churches, vodka, bears, snow, Putin… They underestimate Ukraine, but also Poland or Belorussia. The German girl, who actually just came back from a trip from Laos told me that she had never planned to go to countries like Ukraine. As if there is a huge, dark spot, a gap on the map – we have France -> Germany ->  …? -> Russia. As I travel a lot, I think that Ukraine is amazing. Even me, being Ukrainian, I love travel in Ukraine. So I hope people’s approach to Eastern Europe will change. At least I’ll try to advertise Ukraine. 

Belov pictures from Lviv:

Finals in Taiwan at NTU

This is actually halfway, so I can't wait until I'm done with all that stuff. It is not easy to study abroad, but I love it and I do enjoy it as much as probably possible. I have to prepare a presentation - my final presentation - for my Chinese course. And as we can chose a free topic, I choose "presentation about Ukraine". I found so many beautiful pictures. There are so many places where I've never been. So for sure I'll visit Odessa, Kamieniec Podolski, Cheresoneus, national parks... Ukraine is extremely beautiful. I am very proud that I can present in front of all international group information about my country. The heritage that we have is amazing and to be honest it is so worth to go travelling to Ukraine. But first I need to pass all exams, presentations, write all papers, assignments...

Belov pictures from Kiev:

Travelling in Asia part one c.d.n. – Philippines

As we could not figure out any cheap flights to Malaysia or Singapur, I actually found a flight to Hong Kong, so I look forward. My trip will take place in July and I still have time to check, what should I definitely see in HK. Me and other exchange students have already been to Philippines, so think there is a time to put some pictures, as it is a special place.

Approaching Clark Airport

about 35 degree - still in Clark Airp.

Then almost 3 hours in a bus from Clarc to Manila

Typical Philippines bus

Cebu - our first day