Exotic Christmas in Curaçao

When we booked our tickets to Curaçao, I needed to check first where it is exactly located! Well, Curaçao is a small island justabove Venezuela. So I'm going for the second time this year to Carribean :)

Until 2010 Curaçao was part of the netherland Antilles, and after its disolution it became a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The official language is Dutch, but Spanish and English are also very popular. Curaçao has also its local dialect Papiamentu, which is a mix of these three langauges, as well as of some Portugues.

The biggest higlight of Curaçao is the very well preserved colonial city centre of its capital - Willemstad, which is also our destination.

The Historic Area of Willemstad with its unique architecture is a UNESCO World heritage Site. It was established by the Dutch in the 17th century, and it developed continuously over the following centuries. Punda is the oldest part of the city, and the three other historic urban districts - Otrobanda, Pietermaai and Scharloo date from the 18th century. The architecture of Punda was reminds mostly of the Dutch design, whereas the other areas were influenced also by Carribean style.
What attracts the most attention are very colourful buildings. Until early nineteenth century the predominant colour of all the buildings was white, however as of 1817 white was prohibited, and red, yellow, green and blue started to appear in Willemstad. Approximately 90% of buildings within the historic are belong to private owners.

Apatr from historic centre, main attractions of Curaçao are of course beaches. The island is also an excellent spot for scuba diving, and apparently surfing.

Direct flights from Europe to Curaçao depart only from Amsterdam, and so we also flew from Amsterdam Schipchol. We bought some last minute offer, comprising flight and hotel. We left Europe on 23 December, just in time to spend Christmas in an exotic way in Curaçao :) It was the second time in my life that I did not spend this day in Poland, and I have to admit I missed a bit this beautiful atmosphere and Polish traditional food. Here though I could enjoy some great seafood what compensated a bit the fact that it wasn't the Polish Christmas.

Our hotel was located just on the beach, but also very close to the city centre. It was rather an oldish building, however with private beach and swimming pool, what made our stay very pleasant on hot sunny days :)

After spending our mornings on the beach or swimming pool, we were usually heading to the city centre, not only for sightseeing, but also for food - as meals were not included in our package. While getting to Punda, we were crossing the Queen Emma Bridge. It's a pontoon bridge, which opens up several times per day in order to allow passage to the ships and boats.

Ships... Nearly every day the port of Curaçao was hosting a huge liner and every day the city was flooded with the tourists who stopped in Curaçao during their cruise in the Carribean. The city's casinos and expensive shops were all theirs!

Influences of its fomer ruler are visible not only in the architecture reminding us Amsterdam, in Dutch language heard on the streets, but also the local currency - guilder. We also met several Dutch people who decided to come to the island and open their business. Well, weather is definitly much better here than in Holland ;-)

But while walking on the streets of Willemstad, I also found some Polish influences and a shop of a very famous Polish brand ;)

Local street art

Chilling out in Soma Bay (Egypt)

One summer day, during a spontaneous meeting with my friend, we spontaneously decided that it would be good to go together somewhere where we could practice watersports: 

me - diving, and her: windsurfing. Shortly after another friend decided spontaneusly to join us :)

As we were planning this trip somehow in autumn, the choice was easy: Egypt. It's easily accessible from Europe, it's relatively cheap, there's still very warm even in late autumn and last but not least - it offers amazing possibilities for diving, windsurfing and kitesurfing.

Despite the fact that travels to Egypt are not recommended by most of the EU countries, all travel agencies offer trips to this country - starting from 500 euros. Our search was quite limited as we wanted not only to dive (what is possible in all resorts located on the Red Sea), but also practice windsurfing or kitesurfing. We decided to go to Soma Bay - a coastal resort, 45 km south of Hurghada with a variety of nearby diving sites, as well as prevailing winds which are perfect for windsurfing and kitesurfing.

A few days before our trip to Egypt, a Russian plane flying from Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg crashed. Assumptions that it was a bomb smuggled by jihadists from ISIS were not very comforting. Nevertheless we decided to go. We concluded that the security measures would be now at its high, and we would stay only in the resort. To my big regret I had to postpone to unknown future visiting of Egypt - Cairo, Luxor, Alexandria etc. In current situation it would not be the very wise. One day I will come back - Insh'allah.

On the day of our departure, while we wanted to check-in, it turned out that other tourists were not afraid to fly to Egypt either - the flight was overbooked and there was no more place on the board for us!! Luckily, thanks to EU Regulation 261/2004, we were not left behind. The carrier had to offer us an alternative flight + compensation of 600 euro (as we were supposed to fly over 3500 km). The alternative flight wasn't direct - but via Istanbul, but while checking in to this flight, it turned out that we fly business!! With these conditions, we easily accepted that our flight to Hurghada will take a bit longer than initially planned :)

We enjoyed a lot the amazing Turkish Airlines Business Lounge at the Istanbul Airport - not only great food (including my beloved baklava and thirteen kinds of olives!!), unlimited alcohol, relaxing atmosphere, but also a possibility to play golf!! :)

We arrived to Hurghada at 3 AM. Just before we reached the border guards at their counters, several men shouting names of their (and tourists') travel agencies surrounded us. It turned out that they were selling visas. Sometimes they increase prices, and sometimes they manage to sell those more expensive visas to us. And so they did manage to sell it to us ;-) Normally a visa costs 25 $, we paid slightly more. A rescue arrived unexpectedly from a man working for our travel agency who made the other guy return us the differen, and then he brought us outside the airport, where his colleague picked us up - luckily the transfer to the hotel was included in the trip. There are only a few hotels in Soma Bay, we stayed in Movenpick Resort Soma Bay.

 

 
The hotel itself was very pleasant. Located at the seaside (though a walk from the hotel to the beach was taking a few minutes), but also with a big swimming pool for those who don't like to walk too much. It offered several activities - such as SPA (where we were frequent guests :)), salsa classes, diving centre, and windsurfing/kitesurfing school.

There was also a Bedouine Tent with two lovely Rasta Bedouins, where it was possible to chill out with a cup of tea and a shisha.

But my main goal during this trip was diving - I was really looking forward to my first underwater experience in Egypt!! I paid 160 euro for a package of 5 dives (including equipment). After my last year's dives in amazing Flores (Indonesia), I was a bit spoiled, nevertheless I was still enjoying a lot diving in the Red Sea, though marine life was definitely poorer. Some spots were better, some other were worse, but  the coral reefs were really beautiful. The highlight was definitely a spectacular Panorama Reef - a huge coral formation, dropping to over 100 meters (I went down to 35 meters).

When I was not diving, I was enjoying the beach, the sun and 30 degrees :)

Ultimate Ukrainian experience - 12h by overnight train. Check!!

At first a bit anxious and afraid, as you never know what to expect in the overnight train in any country, and whether it will be safe, in the end I did not really have a choice. The train was the best option to get to Lviv, and there were only overnight trains. I decided to buy the most expensive ticket for the first time sleeper, which costed me around 15 euros.

Train station in Odesa

When I entered the train, I loved it immediately! Very cosy, with a carpet, and very nice compartments comprising two beds with clean bedsheets. Every carriage had its own "guardian" who was available for any kind of problem, or simply to serve a tea :)

We left after 6PM, and the journey took 12h. I spent it sleeping, and was well rested when the train arrived to Lviv shortly after 6AM. It was my second experience with a train in Ukraine, and the only thing I can say is that I highly recommend trains as a mean of transport in Ukraine - clean, comfortable and safe :)

Decadent Odes(s)a*

Next stop in Ukraine was Odesa, third most populous city of Ukraine located at the shore of the Black Sea.

The city was founded by Catherine the Great in 1794, however it was inhabited since ancient times, and remainings of old settlements - from Ancient Greece through Great Duchy of Lithuania and Ottoman Empire - were found by archeologists. In the past it was Russia's Empire trade, intellectual and artistic center and its main port.

Because of the fact that Crimea was annexed by Russia, Ukrainians lost their usual holiday destination and thus this year they (peacefully) "invaded" Odesa. It could result in problems in finding accomodation in Odesa, neverthelles I decided to risk and not to book anything in advance. I did not book the train ticket either, what almost made my trip to Odesa impossible, as there were huge queues at the train station. In the end, realizing that I had a very little time left to the departure, I started explaining (in Polish) that my train to Odesa will leave very soon, and whether I could buy my ticket without waiting. People were very nice and they let me do it. The Intercity train was very comfortable, and after seven hours, at 23:30 I arrived to Odesa.

According to my "great" plan I was supposed to look for accomodation as usually - on spot. Very stupidly though I did not take into consideration that I will be doing it after midnight and I will be doing it in August - thus very high season, and moreover with Ukraine deprived Crimea - thus with bigger than usually number of tourists. With GPS on my phone I found the city centre (around 20-30 minutes walk from the station) and I started to look for some hotel. After several failures (too expensive hotel or no free rooms) I eventually found a hotel - which was full, however whose staff recommended me another hotel in which they booked a room for me.

And while walking to this hotel the most unexpected situation, which of course I did not expect, happened. At 1AM, in the middle of the street I looked at some familiar face and asked:
-Eamonn??
To which I heard:
-Natalia??
Yes, there in Odesa, in the middle of the night, on another side of Europe I met a good friend from Brussels. We agreed to meet the next day, and I continued my walk to my hotel.

The next morning I started to visit the city. Despite the fact that Odesa is relatively young - only 200 years - it is very impressive. Still, there's not much to visit, but it's rather a city to wander along, admire the beautiful architecture and get lost. And so I was just wandering on its beautiful streets, discovering Odesa's hidden gems.

And indeed on the Deribasivs'ka street - one of Odesa's main streets - I saw some of Odesa's beautiful Art Nouveau buildings and an stunning commercial passage, with some amazing sculptures.

But the most famous part of Odesa and its best known symbol are the monumental Potyomkinski Skhody (Potemkin Stairs), which are considered leading from the Catherine Square to the Port. They have 192 steps, and are 132 m long and 27 m high. Interestingly in every era of their existence they had different names: the Boulevard steps, the Giant Staircase and the Richelieu steps, and they received their current names after the Soviet movie "te Battleship Potemkin".

Number two of Odesa symbols is Odesa National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet, which was called by some "the best opera in the world" and is a must see and a must do while in the city.

So indeed I decided to go to the opera in the evening. Luckily on that day they were displaying an Ukrainian opera - Zaporozhets za Dunayem (A Zaporozhian Beyond the Danube). Luckily, because it's more difficult to see it outside Ukraine. I bought my ticket in advance. After I met Eamonn, he also wanted to join me. It was though pretty late, and since there were huge queues (people were queuing for different opera though), we understood it was rather unlikely to buy a ticket before the start of opera. But in my very broken Ukrainian, which was rather loud Polish, I managed to convince the lady who was checking tickets to let us in ;-) we paid the amount of the ticket to her colleague, and watched the opera from the first class lodge :-)

During the break we just couldn't not to try champagne and caviar :-)

But Odesa is also one of the most famous spots on the Ukrainian nightlife map. Probably I wouldn't go on my own to a night club, but luckily I was there with friends, so after a very satisfying and very Ukrainian dinner at the restaurant Kumanets, we were ready for the pleasures of the night! And for that we chose the most popular night club - Ibiza. Also on that night this wonderful open air venue was very busy and full of guests.

The following day I continued wandering around and discovering amazing Odesa.

Adam Mickiewicz was here :-)

so was Pushkin ;-)

A monument of Catherine the Great on the Catherine Square

 Odesa City Hall

The Ukrainian crisis of 2014 did not avoid Odesa - which is a very pro-Russian and Rusophone city - suffered. In the clashes between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian protesters 48 people died and 250 were injured.

*Odesa in Ukrainian, Odessa in Russian