Amarante - study trip

During the semester I've spent on Erasmus in Portugal, one of the classes that I've attended was Planeamento e Gestão de Projectos Turisticos (Planning and Managing Tourism Products).
The main task was to create our own business plans but meanwhile we had a chance to learn how one of the already existing Tourism Products really works.

"Welcome who comes for good"

Right at the begging of the semester the professor told us to keep one day of May free for a study trip. The place where we were supposed to go to was Casa da Calçada in Amarante.

Daniela Patricia Natalina Nuno Angela

Armando Simon Nelson

Amarante is famous for São Gonçalo who had unique abilities of miraculous healing. The most significant pieces of architecture in the city - the chapel and the former monastery were named after him.

The hotel which our professor was so eager to show us, turned out to be a very luxurious one with rich history of the building and its surroundings. My Portuguese classmates told me that the uniqueness of this place is even greater because of its history. Once upon a time, one Portuguese guy, who came back from France, brought the new techniques of wine production and became successful together with the whole wide Douro region. He was considered to be very poor before so his achievement is considered to be very spectacular. After one century or so, the family decided to keep the legend alive and developed a tourism product based on the vineyard and it's renovated buildings. That's how the yellow hotel of Casa da Calçada was born. According to the hotel's representative who gave a speech about this story, the moral is, that everybody may reach for the stars.

Casa da Calçada is a good example of a boutique hotel, which means it's not only luxurious but also has an intimate, magical atmosphere and rich history. Hotels of this kind are also known as design hotels and include extraordinary cuisine, stylish furnishings, as well as additional, unique facilities.

After seeing a couple of rooms, watching a movie about boutique hotels, listening and discussing the topic, we also met a person who is some kind of Big Fish for Portuguese Tourism. He told us that the most important is the idea and if we come up with a good one, we should keep it and protect it. At least that's how I understood it in Portuguese.

We've drank our glasses of juice which had the same color as the hotel's walls and some of us went to have churro, which originated in Spain. It's a kind of pastry with different fillings - we all chose chocolate. Delicious!

On the way back, Simon's car was fully packed with people - Patricia, Armando, Nelson and me. Guys told me that the road between Amarante and Vila Real is one of the most dangerous ones in Portugal. Beware!

All of the pictures in this post were taken with Nelson's camera. I'm glad I was finally able to make this post. By chance, I've found all of the pictures sent by Nelson to the mailbox, which I hardly ever check. Better late than never, as we say in Poland.

Kyiv - golden leaves and golden domes

Autumn is the time of falling leaves and rainy days that are getting shorter one by one but not only. It's also time of the Autumn AEGEE Agora, where 700 AEGEE members from all around Europe meet. This year we met in Kiev, which is one of the oldest eastern European cities.

The Agora took place in the buildings of Kiev Polytechnic Institute, including its gyms and a canteen.

Before the Agora started we had the whooole Thursday free to hang around the city. On that day, Cigdem, Sveta, Magda and I went to see the place that Kiev is the most famous for - the Pechersk Lavra.

After leaving the metro at the Arsenalna station we kept on asking people on the street, which is the right way to get to the nearby Pechersk Lavra. The funny thing was that before even asking a question, people were answering "I don't know". Obviously, we didn't try it in English but in Russian. As soon as,Sveta got discouraged, I've tried few more times and one man finally answered our simple question. We took a nice walk along the Dnieper river and finally found what we were looking for!

Pechersk Lavra, also known as the Monastery of the Caves, shines above Kiev with it's golden domes and bright colors. Its beginnings reach the early XIth century when the first cave monastery was founded. In the XVIIth century first constructions representing the Ukrainian baroque were brought up and remain there as the symbols of Kiev until now.

The other day, Joanna, Magda and I skipped the plenary to visit the oldest part of the city. While getting a bit lost we came across some more or less fascinating things and places.

Finally, we've found ourselves in the middle of the Bohdan Chmielnicki square (sorry for the Polish spelling of his name but "Khmelnytsky" doesn't appeal to me!) located just between Sofiys’kyi sobor and Mikhaylovsky zlatoverkhy monastyr.

Sofiys’kyi sobor was not only named after but also designed to rival the Hagia Sofia of Istanbul - Saint Sophia/Holy Wisdom Cathedral. It belongs to the Seven Wonders of the Ukraine, together with the Pechersk Lavra.

Mikhaylovsky zlatoverkhy monastyr or simply St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery, is actually a reconstruction of the cathedral complex demolished by the Soviet authorities in the 1930's. Sad but true.

Last but not least, place which I wanted to visit in Kiev was the Andriyivs’kyi uzviz (eng. St Andrew's descent), a pretty long street going down around the hill. This street is also known as the Montmartre of Kiev because of its artistic character. The place is usually full of street painters and what's more, by the street may be found its own museum - "One Street Museum" and Mikhail Bulgakov's house.

On the last evening we had a nice surprise. There was a huge concert in the Maidan Nezalezhnosti (eng. Independence Square) - main square of Kiev, because of the upcoming elections. The whole square was filled with music and blue and yellow Ukrainian flags.

Even though I'm not a smoker, for me the smell of Kiev is the smell of the Kiss cigarettes... usually it's the smell of apples but eventually of strawberries.

Tabemono (jap. food)

All of the meals I had in Japan were quite a big adventure. In most of the cases I didn't know what the thing I was looking at consist of. What's more, all of the names were written with kanjis, which I wasn't able to decipher. Even though, on the first day I've told Daniel that KFC and so on will be allowed after the first week, during the rest of my stay I didn't feel like giving up amazing Japanese restaurants for occidental junk food. I'm not going to present here Japanese cuisine theoretically but practically from my subjective point of view.

Kyoku no Fukushimakensan momo jamu & kuriimu pan (jap. Delicious peach jam produced in Fukushima prefecture & cream bread) is a kind of peach jam flavoured donut, which I've picked for my first breakfast in Japan. Extremely artificial and funny looking!

Matcha aisu kurīmu (jap. green tea ice-cream) was on my top 10 list of things to try in Japan. It turned out that those ice-cream don't taste exactly like the green tea but much more sweet. Obviously the color is so strong that after a while of eating my pinky tongue turned into green.
The funny thing about Japanese vocabulary, as you see above, is that they convert typical English words in the way that still sounds familiar.

Daifuku (jap. great luck) might be considered a typical Japanese sweet. It's a kind of cake made of glutinous rice and filled usually with very sweet red bean filling. Those little cakes are usually covered with corn starch to make them less sticky.
For the first time, I've tired daifuku on the train from Kyoto and I thought that was a kind of green tea flavoured jelly. I loved the green part but I couldn't bear the sweetness of red beans. I took some daifuku to Poland and my family said that it was very funny to touch it - it's very soft outside but the filling makes it hard inside. In reality, what it reminds me of the most is Turkish Lokum.

Bentō is a take away meal, always packed in a box. It always includes rice, meat and some vegetables. One of the features of good Japanese mother is ability of preparing awesome looking bentō for her child. I've picked the one below at Himeji train station but I didn't have a chance to eat it immediately. After 1,5h Daniel was sure that it was not eatable anymore but it turned out to be still fresh and tasty.

Sakura Ebi (jap. cherry blossom shrimp) is a tiny shrimp typical for Shizuoka Prefecture. Daniel made me eat some of them in one of Shizuoka's sushi restaurants.
Unforgettable but terrible experience!!!

Black sepia spaghetti was probably the weirdest dish in Japan for me, even though it's not Japanese but Italian! I've seen it for the first time in my life. Before Daniel started his meal I asked him with disguise: 'Are you really going to eat this?'
Melon soda/Melon Fanta - absolutely love it!

Gyōza are the Japanese equivalent of Polish pierogi.

Udon a type of thick noodles served with a vegetable soup. This was the meal that I used to order most often. It is always served warm and in big portions so there is no risk of being hungry after eating. Udon should be grabbed with sticks and the soup is usually eaten afterwards with a spoon or drank as if it was a cup.
When I order a soup in Poland I usually say the name of soup, for example Tomato Soup and I don't care much if it is served with rice or noodles. Meanwhile, Japanese soups are actually more about noodles than about the liquid that is around them. The other popular Japanese noodles are ramen and soba.

Shokudo at the Nagoya University is a place where Daniel eats most of his daily meals. I envy him! Before ordering the dish, students are not only able to choose among many dishes but they can also see them in 'real' plastic version! On that day, I've picked fish and aubergine tempura with rice and miso soup.
Tempura is a name for deep fried battered meats or vegetables. It is believed to have been brought to Japan by Portuguese missionaries. What a pity that they have introduced tempura to Japanese but seem to have forgotten about it in their homeland.

KitKat is probably world's most famous chocolate bar. For me Japan seemed to be a KitKat paradise because they have so many different kinds of it. I had no idea what flavour should I actually expect, while buying each box. I loved those sweet surprises!

Despite of being scared of dying of hunger in Japan I'm still alive and I really miss most of the food I ate there. I'll be back soon!

(This is one of over 30 posts, which I accidentally deleted one day in January. Luckily, I was able to recover them thanks to the backup done by DanielSan! It's a pity that the comments are gone but someting is better than nothing.)

Toulouse or to loose?

Vila Real, April 15th, 2009

There is a city called the Pink City. It's hard to say if its closer to the Mediterranean Sea or to the Pyrenees Mountains but for sure it's located by the river Garonne and Canal du Midi, that was created to make a short-cut between the sea and the Atlantic. The city I'm writing about is mainly famous for the aerospace industry - Airbus factory. What really shows how modern the Pink City is, are metro trains without drivers. If someone told me that 'all roads lead to Rome' I would have to disagree. My experiences proved that all roads lead to Toulouse!

Rue du Taur

The Capitole de Toulouse

My adventure with Toulouse started in 2007 when, thanks to AEGEE Summer University in Istanbul, I met Florian who is studying there. It wasn't hard for him to convince me to come to France - I've only visited Lyon till then. After few days in Paris we took a train and after 6 or 8 hours arrived to the Pink City.

Florian by the Canal du Midi

Me in front of
the Abattoirs - contemporary art museum
(by Ze Mario)

As it is not a very big city, after a few days I knew names of most of the streets and my new Portuguese friends, who were doing Erasmus there - Ze Mario and Ze Pedro- said that even when I'll be gone to Poland they will call me to ask how to get to some place.

Ze Mario in The Georges Labit Museum

It wasn't more than a year when another friend of mine, Kasia, announced me that she is moving to Toulouse together with her boyfriend Daniel. They've been living there happily together with their new cat since February and they seem to enjoy it.

Daniel&Kasia

...and the same fountain in one of my pictures.

It wasn't the last time when the city suddenly showed up in my daily routine. Last summer, during the Summer University that I've organised, it turned out that Simon from the UK did his Erasmus in Toulouse for a year! Unfortunately, he didn't share my enthusiasm about the Pink City because he was there a while ago...

The Saint-Sernin basilica

The Saint-Etienne cathedral

And here I am, in Portugal, going out with my flatmates and their new friend Piotr who came here from Poland by car. Every person hearing this would ask: Have you made any stops on your way? The answer was absolutely unbelievable: Yes, I did... In Salzburg and... in Toulouse!

I'm not writing this post to praise how great Toulouse is - although it is - but to show how small the world is ...and also because my toulousian friends are visiting this blog most often.

Qui ne saute pas n'est pas Toulouse!

(eng. Who doesn't jump is not from Toulouse!)

This is a sentence that the crowd usually screams during big parties, rugby games or concerts that are taking place in Toulouse...

Warsaw, October 14th, 2009

Here I am, 6 months after writing all the stuff above and never publishing it. It's been snowing behind the window for the entire day. It doesn't resemble the sunny days I've spent in Toulouse or those in Vila Real, which I used to waste in front of the computer screen but it's a perfect day for this post to see the daylight!

Kasia and Coral@AEGEE-Toulouse LTC

 
Special thanks to Coral, Kasia and Flo!
How I wish, how I wish I was in Toulouse with you last weekend :))