Visiting Japan is definitely a unique experience. With my wife, we went there directly from the trip to Sri Lanka in July 2016. We have been travelling between numerous cities for 10 days. First we rode between Tokyo and Kobe by the famous bullet train Shinkansen. Then we spent one night in an historical Ryokan with hot springs in the Arima Onsen area located behind the Mount Rokko. We also visited two old capital cities Kyoto and Nara. Finally we had a chance to see Mount Fuji hidden behind the clouds from a Shinkansen car’s side window on our way back to Tokyo.
Tag: Travelmattic
Gdynia, Poland
Sea Towers
Port of Gdynia
Port of Gdynia
Bulwar Nadmorski
Orłowo Cliff
Barcelona, Spain
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka is an island country in South Asia near south-east India. It was known from the beginning of British colonial rule until 1972 as Ceylon. It’s still more recognizable in Poland by its old name because of the popularity of Ceylon tea. However this country has much more to offer, it is not limited to the picturesque tea hills. There is majestic wild life with mighty elephants in the lead. The country has sandy beaches overgrown with paradise palm trees that perfectly match with bright sunny warm days. We stayed at the west coast of the island in July last year. The sea temperature was high at that time, but it was less suitable for swimming because there were high tides and strong currents.
The Valley of Palaces and Gardens
There is a big valley in Silesia region surrounding Jelenia Góra city. In the 19th century, the lovely landscape attracted the Prussian high nobility, which built magnificent palaces, manors and parks. The enormous number of stately homes turned the valley into one of the most important garden landscapes in the Middle Europe. This is where well-known European families: the Habsburgs, Hohenzollerns, Schaffgotschs, Czartoryski or Radzivills built their residences. Some of those monumental buildings have survived till this day. They have been recently restored and made available to the tourists, giving a unique opportunity to travel back in time. This includes palaces in Łomnica, Wojanów, Pakoszów or Karpniki which I visited in the past week with unspeakable pleasure.
Dubrovnik, Croatia
At Automattic we are encouraged to consider a team switch from time to time. Team switches help to bring fresh perspective to different projects the company is working on and provide opportunities to learn new skills. I decided to take advantage of this chance and joined team Amber in the middle of October. The timing could not be better, only a few days later I was invited to join my new team mates in Dubrovnik to work on get.blog – domain name registrar for .blog domains.
Sal, Cape Verde
Cape Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country spanning an archipelago of 10 volcanic islands in the central Atlantic Ocean. Sal is home to some of the best beaches in Cape Verde, and Santa Maria is where you’ll find clean white sands stretching off to the horizon in either direction. The island is 35 km long by 12 km wide, so you can explore it even during one day. It’s name translated from Portuguese means literally salt and comes from the mines at Pedra de Lume.
Automattic Grand Meetup 2016
Automattic gets the whole company together once a year for seven days so that employees can meet in person, work on projects, take classes and hang out together. It’s extremely important because we all work from home on a daily basis and see each other mostly online. Last year I had a lot of fun at the Grand Meetup in Park City, Utah and this year it felt even better to be around almost 500 Automatticians in Whistler, British Columbia.
London, United Kingdom
They say all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Therefore, I also found some time to do some sightseeing while attending the Advanced TDD workshop. London is the capital city of England with the population over 8 million and it’s one of the leading tourist destinations in the world. It has so many attractions that I would probably have to spend there a couple of weeks to see only the most popular ones. Luckily, my childhood friend volunteered to take me on a city tour. Łukasz has spent the last 12 years in the United Kingdom, so we don’t see each other too often. Even so, we had a really great time recalling old times while we were exploring this metropolis.
Lisbon, Portugal
Travelling is a one of the greatest benefits of working for a distributed company. It has been only 10 months since I joined Automattic, but I already have been on a business travel in four different locations. First I was attending WordCamp Polska conference in Kraków. Then I had company meetup in Park City, Utah. Soon after I had my team’s get together in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Finally I had my second team meetup in Lisbon, Portugal during the first week of March.