ENG | PL Have you ever thought about what it would be like to live on a cruise ship? Seeing exotic places, smelling that sea air, and walking on deck at sunset every day? Well, welcome to my life – at least some of the time. I am what is known as a “Wife On Board” or sometimes referred to as a Designated-Travel-Companion. My husband is an engineering officer onboard a cruise ship and I live onboard with him while he is at work. This is what my life is like as a cruise ship officer’s wife.

ENG | PL Long winter evenings with a warm blanket and tea are a great time to catch up on reading books. I wouldn’t be myself if the books that I choose wouldn’t be relevant to travelling at least to some extent … Now, during a pandemic, getting into the fantasy world of literature is one of the ways of moving to beautiful places. They can walk you along the charming Italian streets, making you feel like the protagonists. What about having a coffee in Manhattan or taking a trip around the world stopping in the smallest villages of the world? Allow yourself to be carried away by the magic of the books’ world – unlike electronic devices, it won’t run out of battery, doesn’t need Wi-Fi and you can easily take it everywhere, even to the swimming pool. What can I recommend this time? Books set in the picturesque Italy in their background, because who wouldn’t like to bask on the sand in its marvelous corners, taste their wonderful dishes, or lose themselves in its beauty!

ENG | PL If you’re reading this – then congratulations! You made it through the tough year of 2020. A year immersed in a global pandemic, disastrous fires, explosions and all the bad things we have never seen coming. But we’re not to talk about them – like every year, we would like to summarize what 2020 meant to us, travel bloggers, travel-wise & blog-wise. Many things got cancelled, postponed, forgotten – but many other opportunities, challenges and victories have surfaced on our blog & travel front, and we’re going to tell you all about it! So no matter whether you are here with us since the beginning of Lenas, or you just joined us recently – keep reading to see what has happened in our 2020.

ENG | PL Christmas is a magical time – not only because of the gifts or the first star in the sky. Celebrating Christmas has always been a special moment in our lives – family gatherings, a supper shared with our loved ones, caroling & breaking a wafer are the elements dominating our Polish homes. Decorating the tree? Absolutely! 12 dishes on the table? Of course! But let’s move to other countries and check what do christmas traditions around the world look like!

ENG | PL Yes, you read it right: I lived in a hotel for a full month! I basically made it my home and even arranged my shelves with nice decorations (I’m kidding, I used shoes for it), but what’s the most important thing about this was that I have learned some secrets that hotels are trying to hide and that we don’t even realize! Some of them are really surprising and makes me realize that it’s super worth knowing what’s going on in a hotel before & after you leave. Sit tight because revealing these shocking hotel secrets will change the way you perceive hotels from now on!

ENG | PL The current situation regarding the coronavirus pandemic influence on travel is very dynamic – no wonder that 2 of my flights with the same airline within 3 weeks looked very different. While in my humble opinion, some of the airlines & airports are managing the whole situation in a somewhat organized manner, some of the procedures or rules that are being implemented do not really make sense. During these past months, I didn’t want to risk travelling with different airlines, so when I really needed to travel – I chose my trusted national line LOT Polish Airlines. In this post, I will be focusing on the rules that have been incorporated at the airports of HAM (Hamburg), WAW (Warsaw) and LUZ (Lublin) specifically and flying during pandemic with LOT, since this is the only airline I trusted during these hard times. I want to share my personal, honest and true opinion of how flying during pandemic was for me, and also point some light at whether it is safe or not. The itinerary I boarded on was LUZ (Lublin) – WAW (Warsaw) – HAM (Hamburg).

ENG | PL Moving to a different country for the first time is a big deal. No matter how much do you think you want to leave your country and how ready you think you are, there are some things worth knowing before you make the move. I moved to Italy to live there when I was 19 years old. It was an easy decision -> the dream of living in this wonderful country hasn’t been leaving my head since a very young age. It was “my place to be”, a destination where I felt I belong, where I was sure my final home is. It was with a great excitement and determination that as soon as I graduated, I made the big move.

As it turned out, it’s not that easy. I left Italy after 1 year of living there for a lot of different reasons that you can read about in the post -> I lived in Italy for a year. Why did I come back?
But in this post, I want to share with you some things I wish I knew before actually moving to a different country, but only realized afterwards.

ENG | PL How to get somewhere for free? How to avoid the entrance check? Maybe there’s a way around it? How to get a drink without paying for it? Honestly? This kind of behavior is very visible and regular cruisers really hate it. Explanations like “because I want to save money on it” are not accurate… because if that is so, a luxury cruise ship is not for you! Dear first time cruisers… let me show you why I see you from a mile away.

ENG | PL Historical monuments are epic, let’s agree on that. They have a whole story behind them, adding up to their touristic value & making people obsess over visiting them. As a result, there are millions of people visiting the most famous monuments, cities like Rome or Venice, making it impossible to see the architectural gems in peace. But what majority of the people don’t know is that.. these characteristic landscapes most of the time have their “twins”, which are very similar if not the same, while some of them have their literal rip offs! Check out this post to discover 95 replicas of famous landmarks.

ENG | PL Today’s post is going to be quite different from what you can usually see on our blog. I think most of us who travel at some point ask themselves a question of how does a foreigner actually see our own country. Well, I asked myself the same. Not long ago, my boyfriend have visited Poland for the first time and I took this opportunity to hold a conversation about things he noticed here. To my surprise, most of the things he mentioned are not something we even realize about our own country. To add more clarity to his point of view, let me add that he has been living in Germany for the past years and is originally from Ghana. Curious how does Poland look from a foreigner’s point of view? Keep reading.