Close to my heart...

This time I started with photos:) Any ideas where they could have been taken? Nature in all of them...Can't be a city? Indeed it is! That is Supraśl, the small city in the north-east Poland. Of course there are many worth-seeing buildings always presented on postcards. However when I think how Supraśl looks like, it is the nature that immediately comes to my mind. I love that it is soooooo REAL:) It isn't organized, planned, it is just natural. Intensive colours during spring and summer, sooooo blue sky and sooooo blue grass...This is what I remember from long walks with my very good friend:)

And obviously my friend is the most important reason why this place is so close to my heart! It's well-known truth that places are not just about how they look like but mainly about the people who are there:) And she's been always in love with this city. It's like her magic world which I also fell in love with:) I always feel sentiment bringing back pictures of all the nature that can calm you during long walks...

I also feel sentiment when I think about her room... Drinking the most delicious tea in the world, eating cake and having long coversations about everything and never feeling like going home:) I wish I could show the pictures of her room... That's the unusual, charming and warm place as well! Just entering for the first time, you could see that the person who lives there must be very special, interesting and with really good taste! This place perfectly reflects her personality and has its soul... Great soul :)

The boy in the striped pyjamas

Definitely hard movie... I needed few attepts to finish, especially before the final scene...  Definitely it is really good, story told in a perfect way, actors performing at high level, very convincing. Watching I could really feel the whole situations. I could really believe the story... Probably that's the reason I needed few breaks.

Such movies can pefectly give a picture of the history from the human point of view. The friendship between little German and Jew. "We are not supposed to be friends. We are supposed to be enemies." Bruno cannot understand this. Why? What is the reason? He feels incredibly guilty, when he denied being litlle Jew's friend. He cries and tries to meet him again and play as they did before. He wants to apologize and still be friend. He is a good boy who wants to explore the world. Things that he observes, hears... they make him undermine the authority of his father. Should he be proud of him? Is he really a good man? So many questions in his head which will be never answered...

And the wife of the soldier who was promoted... How is it possible that for such a long time she didn't know what he really does? How is it possible that for such a long time she was proud of him? Happy wife? Life of lies? Probably these are the questions she ask herself when she finds out the truth... What does she feel to him then? In the movie she didn't put her feelings into words, but the way she behaves, acts toward him suggest that must be disgust, hatred. What does she do when little Bruno died? It wasn't showed in the movie... but it seems quite obvious...

Very sad story... However it's definitely worth seeing...

I wrote about many things and I forgot about the most important! How could I miss my HOMECITY for four months?!!!

Time for RENNES of course :) The city is very, nice. It is not big, but with a lot of charm, really cosy and friendly. I remember my first days when I was walking with map in hand, looking for some places, asking people and trying not to get lost. I smile when I think about this. Right now I could walk with closed eyes:). Just four months but so many memories connected with so many places...

My school- Ecole Superieure de Commerce 

Still my school, but inside- the main street :)

Opera

This is quite characteristic design in Rennes.

One of many street that I loved walking through...

And another street :)

Château de la Loire

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teaux_de_la_Loire

This trip has very high value for me:) I have really good memories not only because I have seen how amazing the castles in France are, but also because the way the whole trip looked like. I have never done something like this, completely opposite to the way I used to travel. Book hostels in advance, take a train? Not at all! :)


The plan was to hitchhike for five days :) And actually, to my surprise it worked really well. I can't hide that at the beginning I had a lot of doubts... So many times I heard bad stories, what may happen when you stop cars... Anyway, SOMEHOW my friend managed to convince me and right now I am really grateful to her. I am sure that was best way (even though a bit risky...) to experience French culture. 


We met soooooo many interesting personalities. We had sooooooo many opportunities to speek French (next benefit=> improving French:D). Besides, I was surprised how easy it was to stop cars. Sometimes just few seconds! LIKE IT :) Nearly every time, our drivers took us even further than they were going, just to help us. I was positively surprised how helpful and open people can be. And I must admit, we have many good and also funny stories to tell about the people that we met:) 


Besides, we never knew where exactly we would spend a night. Therefore on the one hand uncertainty was our main companion there. Pas de problem :) Pure fun and excitement! Thanks to this trip I realized how much fun you can have, not planning EVERYTHING, just knowing where you want to get and doing everything spontaneously. We looked for hostels when we already got to the planned city in the late afternoon. From tourists information points we took phone numbers and adresses to hostels and luckily earlier or later we found a place to sleep :) 


Below I put photos of the castles that we saw. There are two that made the biggest impression on me. The first one was in Villandry. I loved it mainly because of the garden. It was really amazing! You could see that there is a lot of effort and "heart" put to make it absolutely incredible :) I could spend there the whole day, just admiring its beauty :) The second one was in Chambord. It was the last place we went to and it was really big WOW:) The architecture is absolutely breathtaking. Anyway,  we heard the same from many people we met on the way. It was like the main castle that HAS TO BE SEEN :)

Angers:

Saumur:

                                 Langeais:

Chatonier:

Azay-Le-Rideau:






Villandry:

Chenonceau:






Chaumont:





Ambois:





Chambord:

Saturday shopping

Instead of sleeping long hours on Saturday morning, there is something more interesting to do in Rennes:) Let's have a walk to the city centre and see, taste and maybe buy some of premium quality French products!

A range ofthem is really big: sea food, meat, bread, cheese, wine, honey and many others. Unfortunately they are more expensive than in regular shops, but that's the price of better quality. It must be true if so many people go there every week!

Anyway, it is worth going there also to experience a little bit more of "French culture":)

Enjoy the photos!

There is no love sincerer than the love of food :)

Maybe this sounds like cliche... Yes yes millions of people say the same, but anyway I am going to write this: What immediately comes to my mind when I think about France? Obviously (!!!) croissants,  cheese and wine :)

Still when I see French croissants (now unfortunately just on pictures...) I feel like tasting them... Living in France, so many times I couldn't resist, especially that boulangeries are nearly everywhere. Indeed, they are very tempting... :)

For four months I was a big fan of French cheese. What I have noticed, each morning my kitchen was empty, or some of French students just came for a glass of milk, juice, fruit. I know it is so unFrench to eat big breakfast... In this aspect I couldn't adapt. Maybe a cultural difference? I've been always used to eating solid breakfast to have energy for the whole day. (That's a good explanation, right? :)) To be honest, the first question that I always ask myself when I wake up is: What am I going to eat for breakfast? This is the first pleasure I give myself each day :) 

But coming back to French cheese, I will never forget my boyfriend's face when he saw my breakfast... Taking bread, "smelly" cheese and vegetables, I could read the question from his face: "Are you going to eat this?" Yes, he was shocked, because as a French representative he was fine just with yoghurt in the morning:) Until the end of my stay, me and my "smelly cheese" we were one of our jokes :)

Last but not least... WINE obviously :) I will never forget what a big choice was there! And I really loved tasting it. Now I know why French people are so proud of their wine :)

“Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.”

This "smart sentence" perfectly reflects what I feel right now towards my stay in France. I spend there four months as an exchange student in Rennes. Seriously, I left this country with tears in my eyes. I can say without any doubt: That was amazing time! Even though at the beginning I was getting mad when the buses were cancelled because of strikes and dealing with huge beaurocracy (for example sending few times the same documents to the same institution... Indeed, this can be iritating), I really love this country :) These months passed definitely too fast and I wish I could go back there again... I am sure I will do it. There is still something left for me. I didn't have enough time to visit the south of the country. France is obviously too big for such a short period of time. Anyway, I didn't waste my days there. These are few places that I visited:

Saint-Malo
The castle above is amazing! In the afternoon, after the outflow, water disappears and it is possible to reach the castle, just walking there. For the first time in my life I have seen something like this.

La Rochelle
I loved this town. It is very small, but sooooo charming! Perfect place for a peacuful weekend there :)

Bordeaux
Big city with the soul:) I loved its architecture, even though so many similar buildings in the city make it easier to get lost there... Anyway we managed :)

Paris- of course!
This is a "must"in France:) However, to be honest, being there for the first time few years ago, I didn't really fall in love with this city. Maybe it was too big for me at that time? Anyway, this year, going there for the third time in my life, seriously I started having positive feeling to Paris :) I guess that's the influence of travelling to many places and now it comes easier to "find myself" in large cities.:) I LIKE IT :)

Lille
I spend there just few hours on a way from Brussels to Rennes, waiting fior my train, so I didn't have a lot of time to explore the city. However, what I noticed, Lille has a beatiful market square, architecture and in general it gives impression of very harmonious place.