Krakow, Poland!

I had the opportunity to visit the magnificent city called Krakow in Poland. It used to be the capital city of Poland but now stands as the tourism capital. There are many lovely sites to see in Krakow including a castle, cathedrals, a salt mine (a train ride away from the city) and much more. To get an idea of what to expect in this beautiful city, see the pictures below :)

Below is a statue that stands in memory of the soldiers who fought in the Battle of Grunwald 

This is the Barbican Gate which is the main city gate of Krakow. It used to be connected to the city walls and Florian gate but now stands alone.

Polish painter, Jan Matejki seated in a frame

 Florian Gate

Below are some paintings by a famous Polish artist named Jan Matejki.

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 Below is a statue of a well known poet called Adam Mickiewicz. Behind it is Rynek Glowny inside which are mini markets full of interesting things to buy.

Some delicious Polish soup below.

The dragon that exhales fire every few minutes throughout the day. Amazing :)

The beautiful Wawel Castle is below. It's bordered by the Vistula River

 The man on the horse is Tadeusz Kosciuszko and you will be pleased to find many such statues of him in many other cities in Poland.

Below are some photos overlooking the city of Krakow from the Sigisimund Bell tower in Wawel castle.

Wawel castle

Wieliczka salt mine is a couple of minutes away from Krakow by train. The mine is 135 meters underground and we went down several flights of stairs to access it. There are many interesting things to see and buy from soaps, lamps, statues and jewelery all made of salt!

I highly recommend visiting this remarkable city in the South of Poland! Cheers to Krakow :)

Be sure of what you want :)

As women, we are conditioned to always want to be what men want.
We watch movies, read magazines and novels, hear  music and encounter people that continuously tell us that we have to have a man to make us complete. The question that follows is usually, how do we get this man, what do we have to be, do and look like?

The media tells us all these things that men want but is any of it true? They say men like women who are mysterious, have a nice body, are hard to get, a lady in the street but a freak in the bed, beautiful, good at this, wear this and dont wear that, the list is endless! Can any woman ever be all these things? Are we even supposed to?

The answer is absolutely not. We are asking the wrong questions here. It doesn't matter to you what a man wants, what matters is what do YOU want. I often dated men without even asking myself this question. I would enter relationships not knowing what kind of man, relationship, treatment and result i wanted! What was I doing you might ask?

Well I was busy trying to be the kind of woman the man wanted. The problem with this is that I didn't even know if that man was the kind of man I would want. Often times, he wasn't and I would find myself trying to either compromise or change him to be who i wanted and it ALWAYS failed. Why? Because once I started trying to change him, I ceased to be what he wanted! Do you see how twisted it all is?

Before even considering dating, you have to know what you want in :

1. The MAN
The answer to this question should never be a physical attribute of the person, ie, it shouldn't be his appearance, financial status, and so forth. The character is what you should establish. Things such as honesty, presence, reliability and reverence for God.

2. The RELATIONSHIP
Do you seek a one on one relationship or multi-partner? Secretive or public? 12 years in the girlfriend-zone or marriage?

3. The TREATMENT
Establish whether or not you can tolerate certain types of treatment from your future partner. Are you okay with being cheated on or slapped every so often? Do you mind getting a call once a week or messages that get responded days later?

4. The END RESULT
What is the goal of the relationship? Are you looking for someone to chat with here and there? Someone to keep you company at school or work? Someone to build a family with? Someone to get married to? If your goal is to get married one day, you might need to leave the marriage things for marriage. Cleaning, cooking, living with and being intimate with him will not push him to marry you. As they say 'why pay for what you can download for free'.

Answering these questions will help you to narrow down the men that can or can not give you these things. It isn't difficult to tell a man's intentions during your first few conversations. Take your time, ask the right questions and be sure before you get into relationships so that you avoid unnecessary mistakes and bad decisions. <3

Dental cleaning day!

As part of my job application, I had to visit the dentist and ask him to fill in a form stating the condition of my teeth. There was a question about recommended treatment and below it, a question about whether the treatment had been carried out or not.

Growing up, I didn't like my teeth at all. Whenever I smiled or laughed, you could see my bright pink gums and I didn't like that. I also used to think about getting braces to make them less gappy but I never did. Needless to say, my teeth have now actually grown on me. I like my them alot now because I think they suit the rest of my features pretty well. It's quite common for African ladies to have spaced out teeth, often with a gap in the middle of the two front teeth. So now I consider my teeth as something to be proud of.

So, about the dentist visit.. The dentist said my teeth were perfectly fine. He however decided to write on the form that he recommended my teeth to be professionally cleaned to remove some (very little, trust me) plaque. Because he wrote it on the form, I had to do it.

I had creeped myself out watching youtube videos about the process so as soon as I arrived, I let the dentist know I knew he was trying to rip my teeth apart. He laughed it off but I was still a bit nervous.

It was quite costly and he was done in about 5 minutes. He used a thin metal pipe instrument through which pressurized cold water came out. He also used this instrument to scrape the surface of my teeth and in between the tooth and gum as well. There was some bleeding and discomfort but it certainly wasn't painful. Thanks alot for the scare Youtube :)

Vaccinations!

Today I got 5 vaccines and it was fun, really, it was!

I thought I had a 4pm appointment and when my friend invited me to meet her in Hasselt, I decided to take everything I needed for my appointment with me. I knew I had written the time on a piece of paper but the only paper I could find had 10am written! Convinced that I had lost the right paper with the right time, I decided to call the hospital and find out what time my appointment was. Haha, the paper was right! I started praying that I would get another appointment cause usually one has to wait at least 7 days, and I didnt want that! Praise be to God, the sweet lady over the phone said the 4pm slot was free! Haha, look at God!

So I went ahead and got 4 injections, the last one being the most painful. This injection is on my right arm and its still quite painful, 5 hours later. I cant sleep on my right side like I usually do. The doctor said the pain will go away by tomorrow but I'll have a fever from the yellow fever vaccine for a day or two. My sweet friend, Christie, who's training to be a nurse gave me some tips to beat the fever, most importantly to stay super hydrated. I'll have to return to the doctor in a month to get second dosages of some of the vaccines but for now I'm good.

I'm also going to get my teeth cleaned tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes ;) !

Hasselt, Belgium!

This is a beautiful city near Holland. It's 30 minutes away from the shopping city of Maastricht and the two cities looked quite similar to me. Hasselt is the capital of Limburg which is the Dutch speaking part of Belgium. The people here are very friendly and helpful. Everytime I've asked someone for directions they would escort me all the way even if it went completely out of their way. Its a city full of cyclers and I just got my bike today so I'm glad to be part of the crew!

The main attractions here are the shopping street Demerstraat, a beautiful cathedral and the Demer river which runs along part of Limburg.

Brussels, Belgium!

I grew up wondering about this beautiful city. My family lived here in the 90s and I was born here but we moved back to Zimbabwe when I was 4 years old. I love my home country but I was always curious about this little land where I was said to have been born. I remember reading books and learning French for this sole purpose, to get closer to Belgium. I said a prayer that went something like this "Oh Lord, please let me visit Belgium one day!" God being faithful, He answered my prayer!

I was studying in Poland and I got the opportunity to do an exchange program in any European country of my choice. Belgium was my first choice (Croatia and Germany were second and third). I am now studying in Hasselt which is 30 minutes from Holland. I will do a separate post about Hasselt, but for now I will talk about Brussels, the capital city of Belgium.

It is very multicultural and I was quite pleased to see that. It is predominantly French speaking and I had the opportunity to practise the little French I learnt throughout high school and part of university. I have to say though, spoken French is very different from text book/school French. The pronunciation and phrases may confuse you. For example, I asked someone for directions and he told me "Tout droit" which I thought meant 'continue on the right', but actually means 'straight ahead'. It might be wise to carry a dictionary with you :)

I love the food here! Their bakeries have the tastiest treats like croissants filled with chocolate and or custards and beautiful chocolate bread. Belgium is of course the country of chocolate, fries and waffles, but can we talk about the waffles for a bit? Here you'll find the softest inside and crunchiest outside waffles you can imagine. You also have to try the bicky burger, its so tasty. Belgian chocolate is often imported so I found that I had tasted a lot of the chocolate I see here. My current favourite is Cote d'Or Lait which has a smoked flavour to it. They often eat their fries with a beef stew made with beer which they call Stoovlees. You also have to try their mussels! ohh just eat it all, you have to!

The shopping places here are plentiful. Brussels doesn't have the large shopping malls that are typical in some countries. Instead it has streets and streets filled with all the big brand shops from Louis Vuitton, Prada and Marc Jacobs to the common Zara and H&M brands. Its a pleasure to walk down these streets and take in the atmosphere. There's also an African area called Matonge, which is full of African markets, restaurants, nightclubs as well as hair salons.

Brussels itself has a lot of historical places. Its not a huge city so you can go around most of it in about 5 days. I recommend taking the bus because you won't see much on the metro or train. There are plenty of outdoor cafes and restaurants when its sunny. Make sure you take a rain jacket or umbrella because the weather changes a lot throughout the day.

Have you visited Brussels or any other city in Belgium? Please let me know what you thought of the experience :) !