Elizabeth Takes Poland

Hello, all! Once again, apologies for the more sporadic posts. School has really picked up as we near exams, and it's nice to spend free time with Eli, I suppose. This weekend we got to spend a lot of free time/all the time together, because we went to Romania! We flew to Bucharest on Friday and flew back to Warsaw today, Monday. On Saturday, we made the trek to Bran Castle aka Vlad the Impaler's Castle aka Dracula's Castle. We had to take a 2.75 hour train to Brasov, a medium sized town that includes a mall with some cheap eats. From Brasov, we made our way by bus to Bran, which was another 45-60 minutes due to some road work along the way. Although this meant that our total travel time was ~7 hours, I think Eli and I would both argue that it was completely worth it (despite the hour on a bus that shook so much I thought my brain would turn to mush). We got to experience the beautiful Transylvanian countryside both on our way their and once we arrived in Bran. One ...

So, Eli has been here for one week. You may be asking yourself, so what have you done? Anything exciting? New? Culturally significant? Well, if you know us, you would already know the answer to that. We have been napping, studying, and eating. The true trifecta. Unfortunately, the first two are not truly picture worthy, so I shall share the times we have eaten. We began our extensive test of Polish cuisine at a traditional Milk Bar (Bar Mleczny). A remnant of the Soviet occupation, Milk Bars are known for inexpensive, traditional Polish food. Of course, these places are not known for a high level of service or a wide variety of offerings. We were not disappointed and got to have the full Polish Milk Bar experience. Alas, they did not have bigos, flaki, or barszcz that day, so Eli settled on a big slab of meat with mashed potatoes and "salad" aka a sort of sauerkraut and meat pierogi (meat pierogi traditionally are half pork and half beef). I had spinach pierogi and...

Hello all! I apologize for going off the grid for two weeks, but I'm back! Macy arrived in Warsaw on April 27 for a fun weekend visit. We had a good time seeing all of the main tourist-y sites and enjoying the greenery in the city. She left on April 30, and then I left for Vilnius, Lithuania on May 2. This was my first true solo trip of the semester (and perhaps the only one), and I really enjoyed the freedom to make my own decisions and not feel pressured to do anything from eating out for every meal to going to sites I don't care about. Also, Riga and Vilnius are fairly small (as compared to Paris or London), so I was really able to see the main sites in one day and then just enjoy the city the second. I also took a day trip to Sigulda, Latvia, which was beautiful! Taking the train from Riga to Sigulda is the easiest way to be able to enter Gauja National Park. I took a cable car across the river valley to the opposite mountain. Then got to walk down a billion woo...

The path few weeks have seen an immense change in my surroundings. The snow melted away, and green began peaking out as the temperature inched up. Now, I walk through the parks of Warsaw, and I am struck by how lush and green my surroundings are when just a few weeks earlier they were still a barren. Spring is such an easy season to celebrate, because of the obvious physical changes, which are followed by a bettered mood and greater appreciation for the surrounding environment. I have never so highly anticipated spring as when I was walking in 14 degree temperatures. I don't think I've ever been able to truly appreciate this first season change of the year before, because in Atlanta winter flirts with fall and spring throughout the season, and the only concrete signal of the advent of spring is the stifling pollen. However, now I can officially say I am pumped to look out of my windows and see green buds on the trees and flowers sprouting out of the traffic median. Wi...

Hello, all! As of today, I have officially been in Poland for two months! And ya, still having a pretty rad time. For those of you that don't know, there are five identified stages of studying abroad (kind of like grief, just sayin'): excitement, disorientation, loneliness, homesickness, and acceptance. I kind of experienced excitement and disorientation at the same time, so that was pretty efficient of me. I also generally like being alone, and being somewhere where you only have like three friends makes that pretty easy, so it hasn't been a huge problem. As for homesickness, technology is so advanced that it hasn't really been a problem. So I guess I'm at the super exciting acceptance stage. This isn't to say that there haven't been hard moments or waves of loneliness or a general haze of disorientation, but all in all I would say I'm doing pretty ok. However , I do greatly miss some things. A sort of homesickness if you will. Brownies I litera...

This Saturday, I visited Wrocław with a friend. That's right. I have a friend that wants to do things with me. You could call that a success in itself. A few weeks ago, I was researching easy trips from Warsaw and came across Wrocław. At the time the only thing I knew about it was that there were 300+ dwarf statues around the city. I was sold. My friend has a class in the same room I do, but the lecture period before my class. So, essentially I see him every Wednesday when he leaves class. That week he asked me what my next travel plans were, and I mentioned that I was thinking about Wrocław, and he asked if he could join. And, thus the trip was born. We ended up deciding to only spend a day there and leave Warsaw around 6am for the 4 hour bus ride and leave Wrocław at 11pm for a 5 hour bus ride (the bus stopped in Łódź, which for some reason added a whole extra hour). Essentially, we went into the trip knowing it would be an incredibly long day, but we were b...