Weird tastes

I have thought about discussing this issue after reading a post about Vegemite on Travel by postcards and letters blog. I sometimes send Polish sweets or typical (and 'sendable') foods to my penpals. And sometimes they do it for me as well:) Usually they're delicious things:9 But few times I got some bizzare sweets that didn't taste like sweets to me at all and truth is I couldn't even eat them. Like it happened for example in case of Finnish candies Salmiakki, which is a black salty! licorice. I gave it to my family and friends and everyone reacted the same way. They made shocked expressions, spilled it out, and one friend even cursed me:P Salmiakki is definitely not something for Polish tongues. However bad I found it, I thought it was interesting to try and I had fun seeing reactions of my friends to it:P The other weird sweet was some Mexican candy which name I can't remember unfortunatelly and it contained sugar, salt and chili. For me it was really shocking mix. And as I always share foods I get with my family, I gave half to my mum. I tasted it first so I already knew that it might be worth to observe her reaction:P Like me, she expected to feel sweet taste and made big eyes when she felt something elseXD

I am always afraid to tell to a penpal I didn't like the taste of what they had sent me because I wouldn't want them to think I'm rude. But even though I find something 'inedible', I am still always very happy that my penpal sent it to me and I had a chance to try something typical from foreign country. After all different nations have different tastes and sometimes even the same products taste differently in different countries as the producers must fit them to the market. Personally, I wouldn't get offended at all if my penpal wrote me they didn't like the taste of some food from me, especially if it's not a sweet candy which flavour you can consider 'universal'. I don't think it's rude and it wouldn't be a reason for me to stop sending different stuff.

Do you tell your penpals if you didn't like the taste of something from them? Would you be offended if you heard something like that from your penpal?

Boca doce

Sometimes I get somethink to eat or drink from my penpals together with a letter. I like sending some items from my country too:) Yesterday I got a letter and inside the envelope I found...

 

...Boca Doce (sweet mouth:)), a pudding from Portugal, vanilla taste.

I prepared it straight after reading the letterXD

It's good and much thicker than Polish puddings.

Have a nice day:)

Fragnant stamps

These stamps show the European Bison. It is considered our national animal. The European Bison is the biggest mammal living in the wild in Europe. It was almost extinct. After the 1st World War only several dozen of them survived and only in the zoos. In 1923 Poland went out with the initiative to restore the species. All living nowadays European Bisons originate only from 12 individuals. The biggest number of European Bisons live of course in Poland.

Now about the stamps. What is special about them - when you rub them they smell of forest:) They were issued in 2011 and this year they won International Awards for Philatelic Art.

Mail shopping

I had such a nice day today! I met a friend and we went for sushi, then for hot chocolate and then to the cinema:) In the meantime we bumped into a new bookstore with cheap books:D I even bought one for 9 zł (around 2 EUR) but we didn't have much time so I will yet come back there;)

Before we met I went into another bookstore and for the first time ever I found deco tapes in Poland!:D I was so excited about it. I bought 5 but I think I'll go back for the rest available designs soon:P

 

I also bought cute muffin stamps. It's not easy to get those in my country either so I got even more excited to find those:D I actually saw them before but I thought they're stickers and the price seemed too high for stickers to me:P

I bought etiquetts for school notebooks which I'll use as address labels and put on envelopes.

And some stickers.

I also bought a book so I got 2 new ones today... it's too hard to fight my addiction.

Couple of days ago I went to the supermarket in hope to find some stationery as 2 weeks ago was the beginning of new school year and on this occasion there's always some new stuff. But it was already too late and the choice wasn't big:( I couldn't go before the beginning of school as I planned because I had a twisted leg. But anyway I chose something from the leftovers and I think I can't complain:)

I hope you had a lovely Friday as well:)

Snail eating strawberry om nom nom

Do you check statistics of your blog? Under the traffic sources you can see search keywords someone wrote in google and in result bumped into your blog. Sometimes I find totally unrelated to my blog, funny search kewords which makes me laugh. I checked today and someone found my blog by googling

Snail eating strawberry om nom nom

I was quite astonished by itXD It's so cute but how come did google relate it to my blog?:P

Do you have some funny search keywords in your statistics?

A postcard from... Częstochowa, Poland

I looked around my postcard collection and I found this one. I got it 12 years ago from my school mates. It shows a pilgrimage to the most holy city in Poland - Częstochowa. It takes place once a year in summer.

Been there, done that... Kazimierz Dolny, Poland

As I didn't have vacation this year, I only had a chance to go somewhere in my own country. In May I took my mum for one day to a lovely town which is called Kazimierz Dolny. The history of it dates back to 11th century and it is considered one of the most beautiful little towns of Poland.

In the middle of the town there is a market square with a historic well in the middle.

The view of the town from the hill in front of a sanctuary.

In the town there are few old granaries. Nowadays they serve as hotels or museums.

The town is famous of rooster shaped breadrolls. If by any chance one day you step your foot in Kazimierz Dolny don't forget to try one:)

Round stamps

As you know, this year Poland together with Ukraine was organizing European Football Championships. On this occasion Polish post office issued stamps and I of course bought them :D

I really like those round ones with a ball and flags of both countries:)

There are also stamps with the stadiums in Gdańsk, Poznań, Warsaw and Wrocław.
 

I actually wish there were more stamps in shapes other than square:P

Do you have some non square stamps in your country?

Writing crisis

 I can't believe it's already been half a year since my last post O.o

I had some health issues and little time, not only for blogging but also for writing letters. From a regular writer I became a really awful penpal that took months to write back :S Thankfully all my penpals understood my situation and forgave me. How could I not love them, huh? :)

So, I come back with a problem that I call writing crisis.

 After the 'bad' period in my life when I really had no energy to write letters, my health got better again, my language courses ended for summertime and I've had enough time for myself again - and therefore enough time to write letters. All letters from my penpals were on my side. All were lovely and interesting. I had lots to tell my friends after my such long 'absence'. But I still couldn't grab a pen and sit at my desk. I went out a lot and started reading more books again instead. I think I just needed to spend time outside with people and enjoy the summer. I didn't feel like writing. And I felt bad with it. It lasted for some 2 months I think. Then I had little accident and was stuck at home for 2 weeks. I caught up with all my letters and sending back ALL replies freed me from my 'inner pressure' that I felt about unreplied for too long time letters and from writing crisis.

It was my second crisis in my penpalling 'career'. The previous one was caused with stress and lack of time when writing my thesis. It took me a while to come back to writing regularly after defence as well. I had lots of time again then but had some blockade for writing letters and it also passed when I caught up with all. I suddenly felt lighter and the happiness to reply next letters came back. I feel the same way now and I am pretty sure I will be back my-old-fast-replying-self now:) Until next writing crisis which hopefully won't happen to me again!

Have you ever had writing crisis? How do you feel and deal with it?