Every journey has its own beginning. This one has started a long before we hit the road or even started packing. People begin their journeys with different outruns – very long or almost no existing ones. For example, if their trip is spontaneous, like “OMG, I am leaving in two days, I still didn’t talk with my boss, and I need to buy some euros!” then they don’t have much time for preparations.
We have been planning, though. Well ok, that was mostly my job. Why? Because I was the one who was going to be a tourist, a newcomer (not that new, but still), a gaijin. After all, it was my boyfriend’s homeland that we were about to visit. That pre-trip lasted for a few months. One of the reasons of that state was that we didn’t know if we are actually going to fly there. Why is that, you may ask? Those who have read my previous Japanese series (which for now is only in Polish, sorry) know that last time we were staying at my boyfriend brother’s apartment. This year our apartment situation was a bit different, though. Brother (from now on I will refer to him simply as “Brother”) decided to, as he was tired of crowded Tokyo, change his job and place of living. As he already had a new job and was preparing to move away to a smaller town (Matsumoto), we didn’t know when and if we would have a place to stay there.
Happily for us, as he had a 1,5 month break between jobs, he decided to go for a trip abroad and wait with moving till he comes back. For us it meant that we would have a locators-free apartment for ourselves in may, in Tokyo. YAY! Let’s go then!
We decided to go to Japan with Finn Air. There was a promo-time and flights from Europe to Asia were cheaper. Obviously we made our final decision like an hour before the deadline so we were buying our tickets in a bit of a hurry. As a result we had some problems with the payment. You know, different time zones, Japanese credit card used in Poland to pay in Finland - in the middle of the night. It couldn’t go right. Finn Air's customer service though, turned out to be very helpful so we got all of that fixed just in few hours. So YAY! Now we have become owners of the plane tickets to Japan.
So I made a MS Word document, uploaded it to my Google drive so we could have modified it wherever we have been and started planning. The schedule wasn't very tight and it was rather elastic. We didn't want to just run from place to place, but to enjoy our holiday in peace.
As days were passing by and stress was growing (I am not a big fan of flying) it was about the time to start packing. I will write about it in different article though. Our real journey has started at first day of May (btw, it’s a national holiday in Poland). We needed to move to Warsaw as we had a flight from there. We used Polski Bus (Polish Bus), which is quite comfortable. There was a problem though. Toilet was broken. It happens. But one of our co-passengers was highly unsatisfied with that. He was cursing and repeating that “what the f*ck I am going to do now? My bladder is sick! F*cking f*ck!” etc.. So great to hear that. Like the whole bus needed to know.
Anyway, Polski Bus stops at bus stop called Młociny. This is also the first stop for some trams and you can use metro from there too. We arrived a bit earlier then expected so we were quite happy. Before we started next part of our trip we had a small break for cigarette, coffee, buying tickets, putting one more clothes (it was surprisingly cold and rainy) and then we were ready to go. We went down to the metro platform (I don't remember if the escalator was broken or if there was no escalator at all) and waited. After a while we have arrived to a centre of Warsaw.
The last part of that day’s trip was to get from our current at the moment location to the hostel where we were suppose to spend one night. We had flight on the next day.
The road to the hostel was a bit bumpy. Pavements in Warsaw are not very tourists-friendly, I must say. Especially such tourists who has suitcases on wheels.
We have been planning, though. Well ok, that was mostly my job. Why? Because I was the one who was going to be a tourist, a newcomer (not that new, but still), a gaijin. After all, it was my boyfriend’s homeland that we were about to visit. That pre-trip lasted for a few months. One of the reasons of that state was that we didn’t know if we are actually going to fly there. Why is that, you may ask? Those who have read my previous Japanese series (which for now is only in Polish, sorry) know that last time we were staying at my boyfriend brother’s apartment. This year our apartment situation was a bit different, though. Brother (from now on I will refer to him simply as “Brother”) decided to, as he was tired of crowded Tokyo, change his job and place of living. As he already had a new job and was preparing to move away to a smaller town (Matsumoto), we didn’t know when and if we would have a place to stay there.
Happily for us, as he had a 1,5 month break between jobs, he decided to go for a trip abroad and wait with moving till he comes back. For us it meant that we would have a locators-free apartment for ourselves in may, in Tokyo. YAY! Let’s go then!
We decided to go to Japan with Finn Air. There was a promo-time and flights from Europe to Asia were cheaper. Obviously we made our final decision like an hour before the deadline so we were buying our tickets in a bit of a hurry. As a result we had some problems with the payment. You know, different time zones, Japanese credit card used in Poland to pay in Finland - in the middle of the night. It couldn’t go right. Finn Air's customer service though, turned out to be very helpful so we got all of that fixed just in few hours. So YAY! Now we have become owners of the plane tickets to Japan.
So I made a MS Word document, uploaded it to my Google drive so we could have modified it wherever we have been and started planning. The schedule wasn't very tight and it was rather elastic. We didn't want to just run from place to place, but to enjoy our holiday in peace.
As days were passing by and stress was growing (I am not a big fan of flying) it was about the time to start packing. I will write about it in different article though. Our real journey has started at first day of May (btw, it’s a national holiday in Poland). We needed to move to Warsaw as we had a flight from there. We used Polski Bus (Polish Bus), which is quite comfortable. There was a problem though. Toilet was broken. It happens. But one of our co-passengers was highly unsatisfied with that. He was cursing and repeating that “what the f*ck I am going to do now? My bladder is sick! F*cking f*ck!” etc.. So great to hear that. Like the whole bus needed to know.
Anyway, Polski Bus stops at bus stop called Młociny. This is also the first stop for some trams and you can use metro from there too. We arrived a bit earlier then expected so we were quite happy. Before we started next part of our trip we had a small break for cigarette, coffee, buying tickets, putting one more clothes (it was surprisingly cold and rainy) and then we were ready to go. We went down to the metro platform (I don't remember if the escalator was broken or if there was no escalator at all) and waited. After a while we have arrived to a centre of Warsaw.
The last part of that day’s trip was to get from our current at the moment location to the hostel where we were suppose to spend one night. We had flight on the next day.
The road to the hostel was a bit bumpy. Pavements in Warsaw are not very tourists-friendly, I must say. Especially such tourists who has suitcases on wheels.
We've found this hostel on booking.com. [no, this post is not sponsored] and it's a place that I can recommend to you guys:
Chill Out Hostel
Address: Poznańska 7/7, 00-680 Warszawa
Telephone: 22 409 98 81
It's nice, close to the centre (metro, busses, train etc.), nice staff, comfortable rooms and a very nice kitchen. :)
Next day has welcomed us with a very nice and sunny weather. I woke up around five, took some photos, drank coffee, took shower and ate breakfast. Without a big rush we left our hostel and started the next part of a trip. We took a bus to airport (175 from centre).
After a short flight, visit in Helsinki, Finland, where we were changing planes, and then food, nap and two movies, we landed in Narita, Tokyo, Japan. :)
to be continued
New posts almost every Thursday!
New "photos of the week" every Monday!
PS Hey! If you have spotted any mistakes in my writing please let me know! I am still learning English so I would appreciate it! Thanks! :)
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