Polish wedding.

Five things that you should know before going to a Polish wedding:

Cinco coisas que deves saber antes de ires a um casamento Polaco:

1 – Prepare to dance.

If you are a non-dancing person, that has to change in a Polish wedding if you don't want to be seated alone in the table. The dancing part is as important as the drinking or the eating moments. When the band is playing, there is no food served, so dancing or drinking are the options to consider, and they work toghether. A reasonable amount of vodka makes you a better dancer, a reasonable amount of dancing makes you be able to drink more vodka. These two activities (and eating) when well managed are the secret to still stand when the party ends :).

1 – Prepara-te para dançar. 

Se não és um grande dançarino, isso vai mudar num casamento polaco. Isto se não quiseres ficar sentado sozinho na mesa. A dança é tão importante como a bebida ou a comida. Quando a banda toca, não há comida a ser servida, por isso dançar ou beber são as opções a considerar e elas complementam-se. Uma considerável quantidade de vodka faz de ti um melhor bailarino e um pézinho de dança aumenta-te a capacidade para ingerir mais vodka. Estas duas atividades – juntamente com a comida – quando doseadas nas proporções certas são o segredo para ainda te aguentares em pé no fim da festa :)

2 – Prepare to drink.

As stated in first point, drinking is an important thing about the polish wedding. If in Portugal the wine is on the table, in Poland there is vodka. Yes, with the meal. And there are a lot of reasons to drink: because of the newly married couple, because of the month of your birth, because the song says so, because you are seated next to someone, because you are a foreigner... well, because there is vodka on the table... As vodka is not enough, there is a special drink typical of weddings called bimber. This one is not recommended for soft stomachs, as it might have 70% of alcohol. There is even a special table where this drink is served, a kind of sanctuary to it and to polish 100 ways to prepare pig meat.

WARNING: Even though the big amout of alcohol, bimber might taste really good, so it should be drinked with the possible moderation. The reasons to drink bimber are quite the same as the ones to drink vodka so... dance a lot and you'll be okey!
2 – Prepara-te para beber.
Como já foi dito no primeiro ponto, beber faz parte do casamento polaco. Se em Portugal há vinho na mesa, na Polónia há vodka. Sim, com a refeição. E acreditem, há inúmeras razões para beber: em honra dos noivos, por causa do mês em que nasceste, porque a canção diz que sim, porque te sentaste ao lado de alguém, porque és estrangeiro... enfim... porque há vodka na mesa. Como a vodka não chega, há uma bebida tradicional típica dos casamentos chamada Bimber, não recomendada para estômagos fracos. O Bimber pode ter 70% de álcool – coisa pouca. Há mesmo uma mesa especial onde é servido. Uma espécie de santuário ao bimber e às mil maneiras que os polacos têm de preparar carne de porco. ATENÇÃO: Apesar da elevada quantidade de álcool que contém, o bimber pode saber muito bem, por isso deve ser bebido com a moderação possível, tendo em conta que as razões para o beber são quase as mesmas do que para beber vodka. Por isso... Dança muito e hás-de ficar bem!

3 – Prepare to eat.

This is not a surprise for a portuguese - to eat a lot on a wedding, but in Poland it is quite different specially because of the kind of food served. Prepare to eat all kinds of meat in all kinds of recipes: soups, starters, main dishes, snacks... Most of these dishes have a lot of fat that is important to get energy to drink and to dance, as in a cicle of life :)
3 – Prepara-te para comer.

Não é uma surpresa para um português – comer muito num casamento. Mas na Polónia é um bocado diferente por causa da comida sercida. Prepara-te para comer carne em todos os tipos de receita: sopas, entradas, pratos principais, petiscos... A maioria destes pratos têm doses consideráveis de gordura que é importante para adquirires energia para dançar e, por conseguinte, para beber, como num ciclo da vida :)

4 – Prepare to enter contests.

Dancing contests, hability contests, strenght contests... You might face any of these adventures, or all... All depends on the wedding where you are. Usually the reward is a bottle of vodka, so at the time when these games are happening you feel like you'd do anything to get it. To add to this, if you are single, there is also the throwing of the veil – in case of girls, and the throwing of the tie or bowtie, if you are a guy. Also this usually envolves a game to decide the lucky one.

4 – Prepara-te para entrar em competições.

 Concursos de dança, de perícia, de força... Podes vir a encontrar qualquer um destes desafios, ou todos. Tudo depende do casamento em questão. Normalmente a recompensa para o vencedor é uma garrafa de vodka, algo que, na fase do casamento em que estes jogos se realiza, sentes que é a melhor recompensa que podes ter e que vais fazer tudo para consegui-la. Para além destes jogos, se fores solteiro/a, há ainda o atirar do véu, no caso das raparigas, ou do laço ou da gravata, no caso dos rapazes. Também a decisão do sortudo implica uma competição/jogo. 

5 – Prepare to sing

At least to try. For sure in the end of a Polish wedding you'll have “sto lat” in your memory – if everything went good with the drinking, and eating and dancing, and you're still conscious and standing. This polish song, is sang as well in birthdays and it means 100 years. During the night you'll listen to this as many times that when you notice you are also trying to follow. But this is not the only song. The drinking songs are really catchy, and the easiest to remember. “Na levo, na pravo, v guri e dú!” :)
5- Prepara-te para cantar
 Ou pelo menos tentar. Por certo, no fim de um casamento polaco tens na cabeça as palavras “sto lat”, com a melodia à mistura – isto se tudo correu bem com a bebida, a comida e a dança e ainda te manténs consciente e de pé. Esta canção é cantada também em aniversários e significa 100 anos. Durante a noite vais ouvi-la tantas vezes que quando dás por ti, estás a tentar seguir a letra. Mas não é a única canção que vais guardar na memória. As canções para beber são muito orelhudas e fáceis de lembrar. “Na levo, na pravo, v guri e dú!”

Zima w Portugalii.

Inspiracja do powstania tego posta jest zdanie wypowiedziane przez dziewczyny z Polski w Faro: "najcieplejszym miejscem w moim mieszkaniu jest balkon". Ja sama niejednokrotnie powiedziałam:" idę na dwór się ogrzać". I własnie dzisiaj z takiego powodu wybrałam się na długi spacer w Faro. W mieszkaniu założenie dwóch bluz i butów typu emu oraz okrycie się kocem nie wystarczyło.
Wiem, w Warszawie jest -7 stopni, pada śnieg i zamarzają pociągi. A w Faro + 15 świeci słonce i tylko czasami pada deszcz i wieje. Myślicie "nie dobijaj nas"... Ale teraz wyobraźcie sobie brak ogrzewania w swoich domach i ze jak wracacie do nich nie ma opcji żeby od razu ściągnąć buty i kurtkę... No własnie. Dla Portugalczyków zima to czas przejściowy, takie o 4 miesiące, które jakoś trzeba przetrwać miedzy jednym upalnym latem a następnym. Instalowanie ogrzewania, kupowanie grzejników nie opłaca się skoro przez  pozostałe 8 miesięcy nie będą one potrzebne. Portugalczycy martwią się bardziej o to, ze będzie im za gorąco i są w stanie wydać dużo pieniędzy na klimatyzacje czy kupno wentylatorów. Bo przecież jak to Nuno mówi: jak jest ci zimno to możesz coś na siebie założyć a jak jest ci za gorąco to nawet jak będziesz nago będzie ci wciąż gorąco. I własnie dlatego gotowanie i jedzenie w kurtkach, to codzienność.
Nuno pochodzi z Monchique - najwyżej położonego miasteczka w regionie Algarve. Monchique, biorąc pod uwagę warunki metrologiczne w tym regionie, jest jak Suwałki w Polsce - biegun zimna. Zdarzały się tu opady śniegu co na południu Portugalii jest abstrakcja. Wyobraźcie sobie moje zdziwienie, kiedy spędzając weekend w domu rodziców Nuno, ubrana już we wszystkie cieple ubrania jakie miałam w tym dwie pary rękawiczek i czapkę - będąc W DOMU!- zauważyłam, ze mimo tego zimna - termometr wskazywał 3 stopnie - drzwi pozostawały otwarte, bo ważniejsze jest świeże powietrze. Zapytałam wtedy Nuno czy gdyby spadł śnieg drzwi nadal zostawiliby otwarte, powiedział, ze pewnie tak. Ale taki maja zwyczaj na wsi i już.
Oczywiście narzekam bo taka natura Polaków i mimo, ze każdego ranka walczę żeby wyjść z cieplutkiego łózka to i tak ciesze się ze nie muszę zamarzać w PKP. Polsko... "sorry, mamy taki klimat...." i zapraszamy do Portugalii :)

22.01.2014 - Faro.

28.02.2013 - Monchique.

London Day 3

The sun hadn't start to melt the ice on the street when we left the hostel for the third day in London, a day with ambitious plans. Our guide suggested us a visit to Portobello Road, so that was our first destiny. It's difficult to calculate the lenght of Portobello Road Market on a saturday morning – for us it seemed to have at least two quilometers, but the fact of being really difficult to move on the overcroweded streets might have influenced our perception.
Portobello Road Market is a paradise for collectors. Antiques, rare random items, design pieces, everything is there. It's difficult not to find something that seems like an interesting purchase. Nuno started to negotiate some old cameras, but no deal made. The only deal in Portobello Road was a demand from our starving bellies – the typical brownie. We ate, it was so awesome that we bought more for later, feeling that we wouldn't eat anything better ever!
From Portobello Market we went to Camden on the other side of the city. Nuno had been there befire, but every time in Camden Market is a new experience. Again the croweded streets were there, but Camden is less variable than Portobello Road, that has a specific day when the market is “mounted” on the street.
For the ones that were never in Camden, the best option is to see the pictures published with this post, because it's difficult to explain or to compare to something that we know. The shops – tattoo, shoes, comic books, watches, clothes, and so on and so on - all with decoration outside, the “alternative” environment everywhere, the restaurant's area... everything deserves a second look because everything there is original almost reaching the weird.We ate chinese food, bought amazing new camera scarf and blouse for Martyna and a watch for Nuno, entered the underground and headed up towards the center of London to take some missing pictures in our portfolio, and to visit Buckingham Palace. To get there, we went through St. James Park where the squirrels take almost all the attention from the tourists. Picture in front of Buckingham Palace? Check. Visit to Downing Street? Check. :) - Time to go to see the best view to the city of London from London Eye at best time – sunset. After some wait in the line we got to the giant wheel that is like a 40 minutes visit to the city of London, something that – and only focusing on main points – doesn't take less than one week. To add to the stunishing view, there is all the information about what we see in the horizon in this tablets. London Eye is expensive? Yes! But it is tottally worth it, and as we said in beggining, the best time is in sunset time. In 40 minutes, the sun hides, the night falls, and it is possible to see London at night, our last night there...