At the beginning of my first blog post, I would like to write shortly about myself. But before I wish you could read it with this song – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnXHk7dfLSU (in the loop :). My name is Khumara and I come from the City of Winds (Baku) of the Land of Fire (Azerbaijan). When I decided to join the ESC project I was working as a teacher. To be honest, in that period, I wanted to come out of my shell, to see, to feel, to taste absolutely different flavors. In my whole life, I tried to create my own story getting inspired by different ones.
When I learned about getting a chance for participating in this program, it gave me a magic stick for realizing my wishes. Then I started to get more deep information about the city where I would spend some months of my life.
After coming to Poland, I come across a tale in every detail, every city I visit, every park or square I go to, every statue I see. Firstly, today I want to start with Warsaw. Because my story starts with this town too.
The legend of Warsaw is based on mermaids. The Warsaw Mermaids. These two siblings’ tale starts in the Baltic Sea. The girls, tired of living in water and looked for different places, embark on a journey. Then they decided to separate their ways in two different directions. One of them went to Copenhagen, another to Gdańsk. The Mermaid, who selected Gdańsk, encountered danger when she was in the Vistula river. She was rescued by a man. After this incident, she decided to protect Warsaw. The life of this Mermaid impacted me and then I decided to follow her way. You see I had a list of places to visit.
- The Vistula river
- Gdańsk
- The Baltic Sea
So my travel map was ready. Let’s look at where this girl traveled.
The story of Mermaid, which starts in the Baltic Sea, ends up in Warsaw. In this way, I decided to follow her steps from Warsaw to the Baltic Sea. Of course, firstly, my visit had to be the Vistula river where there is a mermaid statue which is the largest of the Warsaw mermaid statues. It is located in the Swietokrzyski Bridge. The name of this statue is the Syrenka Mermaid of Warsaw. I walked there in one of the winter mornings with a cold and grey mood. For a long time, I watched this symbol of a creature while sitting on the riverbank while dreaming the whole legend in my mind. Right in this place, the siren has faced danger. At that moment, I felt the power of the woman. The woman standing against all odds. The woman fighting, protecting, chasing her dreams.
The effect of this feeling took me to my next destination – Gdańsk. Technically, I want to mention that we went to Gdańsk by bus (Flixbus) which is one of the cheapest transportation. The total price of 2 ways was 14 Euro. The distance was around for 6 hours. We had booked a room in the hostel in advance. Related to the season, the price of that hostel was cheaper. Moon Hostel – 20 Euro for one person for 2 nights. The hostel is located near the river and the view of our room was amazing. We could see the Motława river from the window directly. Generally what I liked is that the city center has many branches of the river. The time of our visit was the Christmas period. So in that season, the whole city was in the Christmas mood. Decoration, lighting, also Christmas Market has made the atmosphere like a fairytale.
After feeling the spirit of the Gdansk, I followed Syrenka’s steps to my third destination – the Baltic Sea. It was cozy to visit Gdynia for taking half a day. We went to Gdynia by train for an hour. When we got off the train we saw the first snow in Poland and took a photo for immortalizing the moment.
Our purpose was just to see the Baltic Sea. And the happiness of seeing the sea with the feeling of peace of white snow amused us like children. I will never forget that we cuddled each other tightly and started to jump when we arrived at the sea finally. Finally, I was where Siren was born.
Do you want to remember my little story again? The girl lived in the Land of Fire and wants to see the Baltic Sea and its mermaids. Here is that girl:
I looked for some signs of a mermaid but just could find some beautiful stones.
Would like to say thanks to all of my friends who didn’t leave me alone during my journey.
So this is not the end. Hope we will meet in the next footsteps…