my polish haircut

I am so excited. I had my very own polish haircut today.
So today was the day after Slot art festival ended, and so I was able to wrangle down Gosia, sarah my sisters’ friend, and have her cut my hair. Gosia has a great reputation for cutting amazing funky haircuts, something I love about polish people.

My favourite thing about Slot was looking at all the different people walking around. There was so much different fashions, and the haircuts.. so cool. I loved all the guy’s hair, it wasn’t just your average joe cut which pretty much every guy has in Australia, Polish guys have crazy, unique cuts which are so rad.. Also girls fringes are so rad in Poland. Lots of short short ones, jaggard ones, uneven ones, curved ones.. All different types.

But enough of them, I am one of them now… as I have my own. What was the best was I just sat down and knew what she wanted to do and did it.. I didn’t have to think about it at all. I love hairdressers who can do that well.

Its kinda a side mullet, short on one side, and longer on the other. Ahh ill let the photo speak for itself.

I’m now in Krakow, and finally with internet connection again. It was so hard to go 6 days without it, how sad is that. I’m also gonna be able to get some washing done here too. I’m so excited, I haven’t done real washing since Amsterdam (I have done hand washing) which was 3 countries ago.. so excited to have CLEAN clothes again.

a catch up -updated version

So am now in Poland at SLOT Art Festival.. and I just realised how much has happened since I last wrote a blog. It has been a week and I have explored two countries. Before I get into SLOT I will bring It back to where I left off.. Berlin.

So Berlin was a crazy time, and was great time of history and education, or even ‘historical education’. It was a big run and jump trip, and was only really there a day and a half, but it was real fun. We arrived in Berlin and after me beginning to miss the winter cool of Australia (with the great heat of Kobenhavn), we got a lovely thunderstorm to welcome us in. It was beautiful to walk in the rain and rug up. The next day we set out to do Berlin, and we did it well. We got the train into the city and went exploring for a bit, and found a free city walking tour. The tour was great and the guy leading it had heaps of knowledge and stories to share. It took 4 hours and we saw so many of the big places of Berlin. It was pretty cool seeing the Jewish Memorial and walking through it. The guy was telling us about the different interpretations of the memorial. It is made of the big blocks all the same length and width but all different heights. He was saying some people see it as the coffins of the Jew’s, who died in the Holocaust, others the soldiers marching, or the trucks. But there is one interpretation that is the one I liked, this saw the blocks as representing the Jewish ghettos and houses. As you walk through you are so disillusioned as to what is going on around your, it is so hard to walk around. The ground moves down and back up and very uneven, and the blocks grown is size as you move towards the centre. Walking around you never know what is around the next corner, and many times I was shocked that someone bumped into me as I tried to turn a corner. This is to show the feeling many of the Jews would have felt during the Nazi reign as they tried to hide and avoid being sent to the concentration camps. It was a very powerful memorial.

We also got to see parts of the Berlin Wall, classic dominating Nazi architecture, cheakpoint Charlie, and all the other big Berlin attractions. The craziest thing about our time in Berlin was it coincided with the opening of the new American Embassy, which was also on 4th July weekend. There was a massive street party celebrating all things American, with flags, balloons, and food stalls everywhere. The craziest thing was the vote for Obama balloons, all in the centre of Berlin. Quite a strange experience. My other favourite thing about Berlin was visiting the Parliament house. The architecture in Berlin is amazing. Everything has a meaning and an interpretation, they are not just buildings..

That night was real cool as I got to call my family on skype. It was so awesome to catch up with them and hear stories from home. Then next day we got ready to get the train again, this time to Wroclaw, Poland. Wroclaw was ment to be a one night stay but ended up being 3.. we stayed at a backpakers that is student housing in the uni semester and had only been open 3 nights before we arrived. it was a real missing to find the place, (took us 2 1/2 hours) and we finally arrived at 11.30pm. Esther was having stomach pains from eating too much gluten.. so we didnt take the train to krakow, but stayed another night.. We spent the day kinda exploring the city and kinda just shopping cause it was raining. We had and amazing adventure trying to cook dinner with a small fry pan, 1 plate and 2 x knife and fork. Was a great meal because of the challange. The next day we went to the train station to head to lubiez for slot art festival. Its crazy how God works things.

Ok, so one of our crazy must be God, experiences.
So we are heading to the train station to get our train at 9:15 due to many little things we missed that one by 30mins or so but we find out the next train is in 2 1/2 hours.. so we sit around, play cards, read, decide on lunch and eat it an generally pass the time till the train. The train arrives and we are just about to get on and i ask the ticket guy if its the right one.. he said no and to go to another platform (all in polish..) so we ran back to the ticket place to see who was right.. and they said we leave in 1 1/2 hours.. i was so angry cause i did not want to wait at the train station any longer, i was over it and the confusion of poland. but there was nothing i could do, it was completly out of my control so i had to just wait. we got on the old train an finally left wroclaw..

We arrived in Wolow, and Esther heard some guy talking in polish who said ‘Slot Art Festival’ and a whole big group of people with dreads and funky clothes carrying packs, and tents followed him. We decided to follow as well and found a bus station, and got on a bus to Lubiez. It was kinda fun not to have to think but just follow the crowd. On the bus we were wondering what we were going to do when we arrived, and how we would find Justin and Anna (friends from our church in Australia who’s band was playing at Slot). We had no idea the amount of people who were going to be at the festival, apparently 6 thousand, and if God wasn’t looking after us we wouldn’t have found them. But the way things work out our bus pulls up, and Justin, Anna and the kids are there walking right past the door. How amazing is that! From there we were able to register and met some of their team their. As we were standing their I noticed a girl I had seen in my sisters pictures from when she did the course with Stieger. I introduced myself and she was like ‘baby, I see it now, you look just like sarah!’ It was so lovely to see people who knew sarah, and the best ting was Gosia (the lady) was the person in charge of accommodation for international guests and was able to make a call to allow us to sleep in the same house as Justin and Anna. So amazing!

So we had found our friends, and had a bed to sleep on.. We were ready for the 5 days ahead for Slot..

So today is the last day of SLOT Fest and I have been here for 5 days and really enjoying it. For all those who don’t know what Slot is I’ll fill you in. Slot is a 5 day art festival in Poland, which draws heaps of people (mostly from Poland) to come together to learn new skills, just be a community, and experience art in its many forms. I was amazed on the first night walking around and seeing so many forms of art being presented. There was a djembe circle with people learning to play, next to a big group of people learning to twirl poi, some kids dancing all crazy, and others just chilling in the sun playing guitar. Inside you have people painting in many ways, with spatulas, water paints painting bodies, finger painting to music, etc. next to people making things from wire, or cardboard. People learning a dance, to juggle, do patchwork, make dreads, learn languages, and much much more. At night there is bands playing with 5 or so stages with reggae, doof doof dance music, acoustic stuff, little bands, and the main stage. At the end of the night (midnight), while the dance party continues you can watch some arthouse film in a big cathedral. Oh yeah minor detail, the whole festival is set in an amazing big building/castle which was once a palace turned into a monastery and now being restored, which adds so much to the atmosphere. I can’t describe it, its beautiful, and damaged, and so empty, yet full of the people. The people are a awesome mix, its about half and half Christian to non-Christian, and everyone is artsy in some way. It must be 1 in 5 has dreadlocks, and everyone has alternative clothes, and the hair oh the hair in Poland. Its so beautiful to walk around and see this amazing mix of people all free, being artsy and learning lots. I am so excited as tomorrow one of my sister’s polish friends is going to cut my hair, all polish style.

Now that is where I am, and I have been kinda involved but not heaps. I have done workshops to learn how to make flowers from wire and crape paper, stained glass style things from puff paints, Gregorian chanting, and done some painting. I’ve also been to a few seminars or lectures on different things. I have wanted to do more but the language barrier stops me doing some activities. We have also been hanging out with all the Stieger people on and off, which has been really cool. Stieger is a Christian organization, who also have a band called No Longer Music, which present the gospel to people in a very unconventional way. My sister did a course with them and knows a few of the people here so when they found out I was her little sister everyone was like.. “aww hello.. sarah’s sister, we love sarah, you are so cute, you look like sarah, we like you” ect. and been very cool. Justin and Anna (a couple from my church back home) are also in the band, so we have been hanging out with them which has been great. They got us a room in the house they are in, which is some random polish family who have rented the room to us. They speak very little English and we speak even less Polish so it is a challenge, but fun.

The festival has been a challenge as nearly everything is in Polish, something I didn’t think about before I came. But in spite of this it has grown me a lot. We went to a worship service (mini church) the other day and it was all in Polish, (except a few sentences translated). It was a real challenge to try and worship God without words or understanding of the language sung, and made you find another level. It is so easy to just sing songs to God, and go through the motions but to try and connect without words was amazing.

I have seen some great European bands at this festival. One stand out Polish band was ‘Pink Freud’ a three piece jazz experimental band with one guy on drums, one on bass, and the other on trumpet but using a distortion pedal and creating loops. I loved it! Yeah many other fun bands but ill tell you about that another time.

I love Poland. The food is so great, we have had quite a bit of perogi which is like pasta with potato and cheese in side it. Like ravioli but potato inside. They also do some amazing things with cabbage, and potato. In Lubiez, where the festival is, the tap water is not good, and so you have to buy bottled water to drink. Doing this has defiantly increased my appreciation of water. When you have to buy it, even when its only like 1.50 zl (the polish currency) which is AUD75c for 1.5L, you still value it a lot more.

Today we are resting, and tomorrow we will hit the road again. It has been good to settle in one spot for 5 nights but also I miss moving. If I feel this now I wonder how I will be back in Australia. I only have 10 days till I leave to go back to London, so we have a crazy few days planned to get us to Greece to chill a few days and then I will fly to London. It is quite sad this trip is nearly over but still 5 more countries to go to, so the fat lady aint singing yet.

I will load this when I get internet, it is weird going 5 days without internet too.
Love Kim

Danish Danish's

So I am on the train again, this time heading to Berlin. We just drove onto a ferry and rode across the ocean and now in Germany. Quite strange really. I also just ate traditional Danish Danish’s! Very yumm.

We had a great time in Kobenhavn, although it began as a bit of a challenge for me. The first part of our time was full or complications, searching for a place that was closed down, stuggle to find an ATM, bus drivers who don’t understand what we were asking, and issues getting into the backpackers we wanted to stay at. The country also has a very high standard of living so everything was quite expensive.

It was a real challenge for me to push through all these issues and I was so tired from not much sleep on the overnight train prior, but once I did I found a great city behind all that. We stayed in a great location, kinda like the fortitude valley of Kobenhavn, with cool shops and cafes everywhere. The backpackers was eco-friendly, with organic food, and eco-cleaning products, very cool. It was run by Vegans who I think were also straight edge, so you were not allowed to drink alcohol or use drugs there. This created a real nice atmosphere to stay in.

What is so cool about Denmark is that they really support their country. Walking the streets you don’t find lots of big department stores, you find little local shops selling quality and products from Denmark. Chairs made in the country, hand made toys, lots of little shops with random artsy stuff. They also have lots of windmills everywhere, and rely on renewable energies quite a bit. I love this.

We were going to go to Sweden but there is festivals happening all over Scandinavia and we hadn’t booked ahead so there are no vacancies on trains to Sweden, Norway or Finland for 4 days. Instead we are going to Germany and see what we can find there. And then head over to Poland. It was pretty amazing today, the alarm didn’t go off but we woke up with just the amount to time to pack up, and just as we got outside the bus was there. Even the train we are on was fully booked except for 2 seats in first class (the tickets we had), and once we had paid our reservation we went to use our left over money up for food and had pretty much the exact amount for a sandwich and bananas. God has defiantly been preparing the way, and it is so cool. Its crazy to think all this travel we have done is FREE! We do have to pay some reservation fees for some trips, but not nearly as much as we would without the pass. I feel very blessed to have this opportunity to do this trip.

Im so excited about Poland.. SLOT Fest will be so amazing.

Enough now, the last blog was too long already.. Hope your all well. Thanks for all the updates I got on your lives too.

Kim

a moving blog..

So at the moment I don't know where I am.. I am writing this on a train and will load it when I arrive in Kobenhaven (Denmark). I got on the train 4 hours ago in Amsterdam (Holland) and last time I saw we were going through Germany.

So me and Esther are on our first night train, and decided to go the cheapest option and take the seats, so will try sleeping here, and if a horrible idea, next time will take the bed option. The train is massive, we are one end, and the food cart is at the other so we walked 15 carriages to find some dinner. But trains are still so much better than planes, as a lot more room, (though no movies -unless the power on this laptop holds out) and not nearly as cramped.. Defiantly the best way to travel.

So far this adventure has been lots of fun. I have been through England, France (only stopped for a meal break in two cities), Belgium, and Holland, (and I guess now Germany as we travel through). The plan at the moment is to do Denmark, Sweden, Germany, then Poland for Slot Fest, and the rest is quite open at the moment, but that's the next week and a half covered.

Last time I updated I was just leaving England and I feel like I have done, seen, experienced and eaten so much. A great claim I can make is we had breakfast in England, lunch in France and dinner in Belgium. How great is that..

In Belgium we stayed in Brugges, (.. ok.. so spelling of cities is so confusing in Europe cause there is the English version, the countries version and even other countries version.. depends where you are and who your talking to.. so you kinda gotta just think broad when you are looking for your city on a map) at a nice backpackers. We had some bad luck and found the place had a group of 18 Irish school children all about 12 years old. They were in both the rooms surrounding ours, so we had them yelling and screaming all night till 1.30am the managers threatened them, and they quietened down till their teachers woke them up to leave at 7am.. so not much sleep on our behalf. An eventful start to our time in Brugges. We explored a bit of Belgium, got some chocolate, saw Michelangelos Madonna and child, found some flea markets, and walked lots.. We then head to Amsterdam.

Steph is a dutch girl who lived with Esthers family when she did her Uni placement in Australia, we was our host for Amsterdam and a lovely one at that. I didn't know much about Amsterdam, except what everyone else knows, Sex and Marijuana. This city was so much more than that. We had 3 days there, and had so much fun. In Amsterdam bikes rule the place, when your riding along the road cars stop for bikes. If a car hits a bike, the person in the car pays for all damages and expenses. While we were in Amsterdam, we got around on bikes. This started of very fun, and dangerous as we were riding Stephs bikes, and she is 6 foot and we are not. So the bikes were too big and we couldn't comprehend the rules, so I would stop for a car or pedestrian, and it would nearly cause a crash. I soon learnt.. on a bike you stop for no one.. well maybe a red light but even that's debateable. The other thing about bikes in Amstrdam is ther are kinda cool. I mean to ride a bike people don't wear helmets or lycra.. so people are riding bikes in high heels, and skirts, and business clothes, whatever they normally wear and there is NO dorky helmets.. You can even double up/or 'dink' and its not illegal, so one day were heading home with 3 people and 2 bikes and I was on the back, It felt so weird, as if I was in Australia I would have been doing 2 illegal things. On the last day though we were so good, and only one minor accident involving a stack and esthers knee, but we came away smiling.

The bikes were probably the highlight of Amsterdam for me, and enabled us to see a lot of the city. Another thing that was really cool was one of Steph's friends from church had a boat and took us around the canals of Amsterdam, we went right into the city and around the place. Other great things were visiting the YWAM 24/7 prayer house in the red light district, the Van Gogh art museum, and some great markets.

So we have now just stopped at the train station in Cologne (Germany). That brings me up to where I am now.. heading to Denmark, I am very excited as I love Scandinavia and am finally going to visit.

Now I have updated you on me.. send me an email/facebook message and let me know whats happening in your life, I cant promise a quick reply but one will come.. I am starting to miss news from home and what's happening in everyone else's lives. I wish you could all be here experiencing this with me..

I think travel can become a very selfish time, where you are always thinking of what your doing and want to do.. So distract me from those thoughts, and tell me what's happening in your world.

Love Kim

a new companion

so.. im now in dover, england, her at esther's mums counsins sons girlfriends house.. pretty rad huh..

so the last few days have been very fun. after leaving my uncle and aunty's house, i met up with Esther in London. This has been great fun, and we make a pretty good team.. I was kinda nervous at first as i have never actually hung out with esther before, well us one on one, so committing to spend the next 4 weeks with someone backpacking was kinda strange.. but its been great so far.. With the exception of her not drinking beer and much coffee we are very similar and want to do similar things.. so i am very excited to finally begin this adventure with my new companion..

the start of our time begain with a lovely picnic in hyde park in the city with andrew one of esthers mates from brisbane who is also travelling the world at the moment.. After a bit of fun cruising the city we head back to Croxley to Esther's mum's cousin Heather's house. Heather is an amazing lady with an amazing house. There is so many nick nacks and random stuff everywhere it was so fun, and she was a great host, and had lots of great stories to tell.

The next day we had a late breakfast of porriage and cooked rhubarb. so yumm.. then we had a great picnic lunch in the backyard.. after a lazy morning we head into the city and raced to the ethiopian consulate to pick up esthers visa before it closed, we were 10 mins late but we still got it.. after more treking around the city, and photos at trafalga square, we set out to find tickets to a broadway show.. Its funny here cause the exchange rate is double.. like 1 Pound is $2.. so you think something is good, and actually its freakin expensive.. We found some cheap tickets for the Lion King. Cheyne Grace met up with us for the show, and it was amazing. It was funny to think we just found a place, picked up some tickets and a few hours later we in there watching it.. the show was fantastic and we had great seats.. the music was so great.. i cant describe it.. yeah.. it was super...

today we cooked heather breakfast to thank her for all she did, and tried to plan what me and esther will be doing. we have a rough idea now, and should be in Amsterdam this weekend with esties mate steph.. Heather drove us 2 hours to her son's place (where we are now), as he lived in Dover, where you catch the ferry or train over to france.. After long chats, and a bit of fun on the Wii, they all head to bed, and here i am writing this..

tomorrow, we catch  the ferry over to calais (france), and they the train to belgium.. where we will spend the night.. it doesn't seem real at all.. but i guess it will in the morning..

my eurail adventure begins tomorrow.. aggghhh.. so exciting

the mother land

so im here in england.. my mother land..

it has been alot of fun travelling around oxford and abingdon with my uncle and aunty and seeing the places my parents grew up. We went to a shop my mum worked in for years, and the police station my dad worked for.

its also been great to see places my grandma used to live. She passed away 3 years ago, and due to the distance i dont think i ever really processed it. I was never very close to my grandma, but it has been great to come here and i guess finally say goodbye.

I am spending this time just refreshing before i meet up with esther in london tomorrow, and then scoot on over to france..

\its bizaar to actually be here, but im trying to take it all in..

photos coming soon.

love kim

an hour early..

so i am in dubai.. and i had my watch set an hour early.

I was all ready and packed to head to the airport and what do i find out.. we arnt leaving for an hour.. this is kinda bad, as it gives me time to think.. and i dont want to do that yet as i have 8hrs plus on a plane ahead of me to think all i like..

Today has been a great day. I arrived in Dubai yesterday afternoon, and after an emotional leave from afghanistan. The security leaving is very intense but kinda all show. I went through 6ish cheakpoints, being frisked, having my bags cheaked, scanned, etc etc. untill i was finally on the plane. The funniest thing was as you walk along the tarmac to the plane you have to go over to the pile of luggage on the ground and point out your bag for them to put inside the plane.. Afghanistan is an amazingly bizaar country.

My day today has been one of relaxing and catching up on the internet. I spent the morning chilling and loading photos on facebook of some of our afghan adventures. I watch some DVD's with Julie then we went to the beach.. This wasnt any ordinary beach... today i was im the Arab Gulf.. how cool is that! actually the water was pretty warm, but it was a strange experience. The water was so dense from all the salt, and you floated so easy. I was so flat aswell, with no waves at all. It was beautiful..

then we came home and i watched Becoming Jane -the movie. Julie loves all those movies and BBC tv shows set in the Jane Austen era, and it was a lovely way to chill the evening away. It was after this as went to finish packing that i realised i was an hour ahead of myself, and the revelation that in the morning i will be in London.

I did hit a bit of culture shock this afternoon, as i felt very uncomfortable being outside in shorts and my bikini. Very afghan un-appropriate. and also forgot to put on my seatbelt, something you never wear in afghanistan, i have also found myself constantly bringing up stories from afghanistan, and the afghan culture..

That nation has definatly stolen a piece of my heart.. and i love it..