Food allergies while traveling

I have just come back from Japan. I have allergy to and intolerance of milk products. Mostly when I travel it is not a problem to communicate my issue in restaurants or hotels but there are places where English is not very common. 

What have I learnt during my trip in Japan is that our allergies don't have to limit our food experience during our holidays and for sure they should't limit our traveling destination choices. 

What I did and what totally worked for me in Japan is that I had dozen of small cards with written in English and Japanese that I am allergic to dairy products. Whenever I had a doubt if the dish I want is fried on butter or has milk in it and people wouldn't be very fluent in English I would just show them my card and point on a dish of my interest.

It worked perfectly. I kept them in my bag, wallet and most of my pockets so that they were always handy.

If you do not want to make such a cards yourself there are web pages where one can print them from, for example those I took to Japan are from justhungry.com.

In Japan there are places where you can easily communicate in English as from my experience very often English skills are quite basic and as it is just enough for simple practical touristic issues (like directions, shopping, etc.) I wouldn't recommend to rely on it when it comes to allergies. 

Such  cards will work in any country that English is not a first or a second language. 

I highly recommend to each time you travel print them and keep them handy. Maybe you won't need it but maybe it will save your mood each time you in a restaurant.

 Happy Holidays ;)

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Niedawno byłam w Japonii. Mam alergię na i nietolerancję produktów mlecznych. Przeważnie podczas podróży nie mam problemów by powiadomić w restauracji czy w hotelu  o moim problemie, ale są miejsca, w których angielski nie jest powszechny.

Podczas mojej podróży po Japonii przekonałam się że nasze alergie nie koniecznie muszą nas ograniczać.

Miałem kilkanaście małych karteczek z napisanym w języku angielskim i japońskim, że jestem uczulona na produkty mleczne. Ilekroć miałam wątpliwości, czy dane danie smażone było na maśle lub na mleku i ludzie nie byli za bardzo biegli w języku angielskim to pokazywałam im moją karteczkę i wskazywałam na danie.

To działało idealnie. Trzymałam karteczki w mojej torbie, portfelu i większość moich kieszeni, tak aby zawsze były pod ręką.

Istnieją strony internetowe, gdzie można je wydrukować na przykład moje które miałam w Japonii są z justhungry.com.

W Japonii są miejsca, gdzie język angielski wystarczy, ale nie wszędzie. Jeśli chodzi o alergie to lepiej być pewnym ze zostało się prawidłowo zrozumianym.

Wydaje mi się że takie karteczki będą działać w każdym kraju gdzie angielski nie jest pierwszym lub drugim językiem.


 Udanych Wakacji ;)

one day in traditional Japanese kimono

While traveling in Japan I have visited Kyoto. Kyoto is a fantastic city with infectious cultural vibe. People even from Japan go there to experience Japanese traditions. One way of letting oneself immerse completely in the culture is of course to wear traditional clothes, in this case it is of course a kimono.

I have rented kimono for a whole day and got a bit of makeup and hairstyle done to create a coherent look.
I wasn't alone. Kyoto is a city filled with people wearing kimonos. It was a great experience and brought me closer to people around me.
I am glad I did it.

Kimono is still worn to special occasions like weddings, birthdays, etc.

April wrap up

Book

Mitosis (1.5 in Reckoners series) by Brandon Sanderson - I loved this novella but it was way to short for my liking. Anyway, fight of humans against Epics started with Steelheart (1.0 in Reckoners series). This time David and Reckoners are fighting Mitosis, and eating Chicago hot-dogs. As in previous book there was action and good sense of humor. However, this book is just a teaser of what is going to happen in Firefight (2.0 in Reckoners series). 

The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion- very good and funny book. I would start first from Rosie Project which is very funny comedy about very calculated, organized and not emotionally driven guy that has to realize that he fallen in love. Rosie effect is a continuation of his relationship struggle but with new project BUD - baby under development. I recommend it to anyone who is expecting a baby, but I would especially recommend it to nerds like me who has no logical thinking problems but find social interactions challenging or unnecessary (to smaller or bigger extend) ;)

Movie

Duff - this movie is very overrated. It is funny enough but really not my cup of tea. But then again, maybe I am just too old ;)

Is this really the only movie I saw this month?! I guess I had been busy with life stuff ;)

Life Event

Photo taken by tmx studio.

I've got married and I am having the best time of my life! I am infinitely happy! Wedding party went very well and guests seemed to have a lot of fun.

Travel

I have visited Poland since my wedding took place there. I have done a little road trip and train trip to see as much as possible with my guests. Before wedding we visited Gdansk the capital of amber, and the Malbork castle from year 1406. 

Then we went to Szczecin where my wedding was organized. I haven't done much of sightseeing because I had to take care of my look. My nails, skin and so on needed a bit of extra care from specialist to assure that I will look my best during the wedding day ;)

After celebration we took a night train to Krakow, which is beautiful city with a lot of monuments and history. I highly recommend following restaurants: Pod Aniolami, Wesele, and Starka (here you need to order some vodka shots because they have many different homemade flavors) food and atmosphere is just fantastic in those places. It wasn't my first time in Krakow but those restaurants are on my must visit list each time since I tried it last summer ;)

I have also gone to Auschwitz, and Birkenau (near Krakow) to reflect on human race. I think everyone should see it and understand how unacceptably cruel was what happened there. There is no words that can describe it. You walk around thinking how to describe and then it becomes obvious why one of the prisoners who survived invented a new word to describe it - holocaust. It was an important experience for me because when we discussed it during history lessons at school I think I was too young to understand it as something that really happened, that happened not so long ago. On cruelty in ancient times we can look as believe that humans have changed since then, but can we really claim it with something that happened 70 years ago?

Near Krakow there is also an old salt mine Wieliczka. The salt exploration on this territory started already 3000 years BC. At the turn of XII and XII centuries AC they began to drill deeper wells. It is a nice and very impressive place to visit. There is also a Saint Kinga's of Poland Chapel which is the worlds biggest underground temple. It is 101 meters (331 feet) below the surface.

Inspiration

Emmy Noether - I do not want to write a lot. I am just mentioning her because for some reason I have always assumed  that a man invented the Noether’s theorem, which you come across all the time in physics. I was wrong and the truth blew my mind. Emmy was  an extraordinary lady and I am so happy I got to know a bit about her and her mathematical contributions to science.

Video/Music

Started as a Baby by Jon Lajoie - this rap song made it very difficult for me to stay quiet in silent zone in train I was taking form Copenhagen to Odense. This is just too funny. But if you weren't a baby you wouldn't understand. Thus, it is only for those that started as a baby ;)

November Favorites

November has passed so fast that I almost haven't realized it was there. I am glad for that because if one do not make oneself very busy it is easy to get autumn blues.

MOVIE

I was waiting for this movie longer than sane people should wait for any movie... I saw it twice in theaters and I absolutely loved it!

I am of course talking about INTERSTELLAR.

Movie is full of physics, feelings and psychology.
It beautifully shows a sacrifice that great explorers must make to discover the unknown. Breathtaking.

And who cares that in the end they break a bit of laws of nature :p

BOOK

I was only reading science stuff this month... 
And I am not sure if I would recommend books I was reading to anyone...

Maybe let me put it that way:
if you ever would decide to get to know Supersymmetry (beautiful theory in physics, that tries to explain more than the Standard Model does) then do not start from "Supersymmetry and supergravity" by Wess and Bagger. It is a classic but unless you are math oriented it will be a nightmare to go through. 
I have decided to start from "Supersymmetry DeMYSTiFieD" by Patrick Labelle. It is much more useful that Quantum Field Theory from the same DeMYSTiFieD series, but I do not find it perfect...
Anyway...
Supersymmetry is worth the struggle but the struggle is definitely there ;P

MAKE-UP

Definitely a blush and eye-shadow from Body Shop that since I bought them I wear whenever I go out.
The Blush - 01 all-in-one cheek color shade: macaroon - my first blush in very long time and I like how it makes me look healthy and fresh. Not that I mind looking pale and sick but it is a nice change when going out :)
The Eyeshadow - 01 eye color shade: copper!
A very sweet shop assistant recommended it for my skin tone and I think he was right.
I wanted something that you can put on eye lids and it looks good without any effort.
My make up skills are very poor and making something like a smokey eye surpass them ...

Anyway, I think this eye shadow is very beautiful, it is easy to put on with basic brush and it adds a bit of glam to a natural look. Thank you Body Shop for releasing me from learning advanced make-up tricks that I would rarely use ;)

EVENT

I went with a surprise visit to my parents, because my mum had birthday!
I took a train.
I had a half a day in Berlin thanks to that trip. 

I took a long walk ... a bit longer than expected... to have a cup of coffee with a friend and then continued to my hometown Szczecin.

It was a perfect family time.
 It loaded my batteries with extra energy that still helps me to survive those grey, cold and windy fall days.

...

One day when I went out for a walk I smelled winter in the wind.
There is this bite in the air that one cannot ignore.
The winter has arrived!

Happy December everyone :)

Arriving to USA

It was long trip... I had to leave my apartment around 11 to take a bus to the train station. Got tickets and had to wait 40min. Vagon at with I had seat reservation never arrived so I had to find another place. Train was filled with people but it was a pleasant trip. Weather was beautiful! Sunny day made views from windows very entertaining. 

My first flight was to London. Heathrow is a huge airport and even there was an hour and 20 min between flights I had be in a hurry. Long walking distances and also necessity of taking an airport train consumed a lot of time and once I reached the gate the plane was already boarding.

I was sitting next to my mom who I gave a window seat, since it was her first time flying to USA. It was great to sit next to her because she really enjoyed everything! It reminded me of myself first time in plane. Weather was great so until we got to Atlantic sea there was a lot to look at. It is very cool to look how temperature drops with altitude and once a plane reaches the height proper for a flight like this, you realize you fly with 500km/h 12000 meters above the sea and temperature behind the window is -49C... And you can see that the path is smoothly curved which make sence because our planet is a sphere not flat...! Small things that one learn in primary school but they always great once realized in practice :)

 I was flying first time to USA with British airlines and I have to say that plane was neat and tv screens were quite good, nice choice of new movies and actually microwaved food they always served at planes was nice enough which is not always a case on other airlines. Sandwiches they served were also good. All in all it was pleasant flight.

Customs service went very smooth. We took a taxi to our hotel on Manhattan - taxi driver was a nice guy but it was a very expensive ride.

We arrived at 11pm but remember there is 6 hour difference. The moment we got to our hotel from theater on the other side if the street we heard happy people screaming and it occurred that Danzel Washington just finished a show and was giving autographs :)) we haven't seen him though but still fun to realized that we are in New York the city that never sleeps and Hollywood stars are part of theater plays :))

We left luggage in our room, got free breakfast and free wifi too, because we got smaller room than we agreed on... And we gonna get proper one on Sunday :)

And then we went out to see Time Square lights ... And see this kitch and crazy huge commercials all over the place. It was midnight and streets were crowded... It is my third time in New York and I am always surprised how crowed it is and dirty too unfortunately. But it is a city that never sleeps mist of shops were open. 

After a short stroll we went back to hotel and slept very well :))

Good morning on Sunday! Good morning New York!

Sorry for all the typos but I am writing from my phone ;)

hopping on a train to Kuala Lumpur

For some reason I find myself very often going somewhere spontaneously. This time I decided to join a friend on his trip to Kuala Lumpur (KL). I've packed within an hour, put my hair up and run down to a taxi.

My ultimate best sandals ever were an obvious choice (honestly I have no idea what I am going to do if they fall apart?!), and some comfort clothes for sitting in the train and, as it occurred later, watching a movie in theater (The Man of Thai Chi - I liked it, but I would recommend it only to those that can appreciate martial arts) and getting a beer in a pub with a life music.
btw. It was my first and last beer in Malaysia.

I also met two new great friends that night, and one of them would help me not once when I got into trouble in KL. A life lesson is: stay tuned good people are around you!

Nasi Biryani (India).

In front of Pavilion.