It has been a while since my last post here. Although I wasn’t very active on the blog lots of things have happened in this one year and I hope to catch up on that. At the beginning I start with October which has been pretty productive when it comes to the places I’ve visited. Enjoy!Belfast
My first stop on the way to North America was the capital city of Northern Ireland – Belfast. Just a few years ago the city wasn’t the safest destination because of Troubles. Conflict between Catholics and Protestants began in the late 1960s and lasted until the 1990s. Today Belfast attracts tourists with its still visible history and also opened in 2012 the Titanic Belfast Museum. It is standing on the site where the luxury liner was built and first launched.
New York
Frank Sinatra sang “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere”. Since 2010 population of the Big Apple has climbed 5.5 % and reached a record of over 8.6 million people who want to follow their American Dream. New York City is the place which from one side intimidates and overwhelms and from the other side it fascinates with diversity. It’s loud, smelly and overcrowded but also offers lots of opportunities and it’s considered by many to be the fashion capital of the World. The time I’ve spent there seems to be not enough to fully understand New York City. It gave me just foretaste of what the city has to offer and with what kind of problems and struggles NYC goes through on a daily basis.
Vancouver
Vancouver has the highest population density in Canada. About 613 490 (2016) people live on the area three times smaller than Krakow. It’s because of the beautiful location. It’s hard to find another place which has the mountains and the ocean as close as Vancouver does. It attracts people who love outdoor activities and appreciate contact with nature. Vancouver is growing very fast, aspiring at the same time to be the greenest city in the World by 2020. The main goal of this project is to make walking, cycling, and public transit preferred transportation options, reduce solid waste per capita going to landfill or incinerator by 40 per cent and provide incomparable access to green spaces.
Seattle
Seattle is located almost three hours south of Vancouver and it is the largest city in Washington State. Vancouver and Seattle are included in to the most expensive cities in the World when it comes to real estate. Emerald city, the nickname given by the locals of Seattle, is home to some of the largest companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Boeing. Also in Seattle in 1971 was established the first Starbucks store, you still can have your favourite coffee there. The most recognized building in Seattle is the Space Needle. The tower was built in 1960s for the Wold’s Fair. It stands at 184 m tall and offers beautiful 360° views of downtown. If the sky is clear even Mount Rainier is visible. It is the highest mountain in Washington State. I was there for a beautiful autumn sunset.
Vancouver Island
The largest island on the West Coast of North America is Vancouver Island where is located the capital of BC – Victoria. Even though Victoria is the largest city on the Island time here slows down a bit. Similar like the whole Island does. Transportation to Vancouver Island is provided by ferries, some of which were built in our Gdańsk Shipyard! The island is famous for beautiful parks like the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve or Strathcona Provincial Park. Cowichan Valley is perfect for wine lovers and the coast for surfing. I’ve also had a chance to find out what kind of feeling it is to catch my first wave.
London
The last stop of my trip was London. It has one of the largest polish communities, in London live approx 250 thousand polish people. Even my tour guide was a Pole. He came around 10 years ago and decided to stay longer. The city of red telephone boxes and Double-decker buses is known as the most multicultural cities in the World. It is estimated that 38% of people live in London was born outside of the UK.
During 3 weeks I flew around 20 thousand km on 5 different flights. I spent around 25 hours in the air, plus the hours I spent waiting for the flights.
Have you ever been in any of the cities above? What have you liked the most?
Greetings
