Wesołych Swiąt: Merry Christmas and A Year of Połnocny Irlandczyk w Polsce

Wesołych Swiąt: A Year of Połnocny Irlandczyk w Polsce

Merry Christmas everyone. Wesołych Swiąt!

Today is exactly one year since I started this new site. As 2017 comes to an end, I find it hard to believe my new project, Połnocny Irlandczyk w Polsce, is a year old and has gone from strength to strength. But in all honesty, this website and decision to promote Poland is a complete accident. I didn’t plan or expect this. I started Połnocny Irlandczyk w Polsce while having a morning cappuccino in the Green Caffe Nero on Ulica Marszalkowska in Warszawa on 22nd December 2016. The website now has 139 articles on it, a recovering Instagram feed, a new Facebook page and following of 2,000 fans and I have appeared on multiple other websites promoting Poland to the world including:

I am featured in the newspaper and website of Dziennik Baltycki after my recent stories on Gdańsk.
I am featured on the Biskupiec Website after my visit to this town.
I am featured on Ex Pat Focus as an ex patriot now living in Poland.
I am featured as a foreigner living in Poland for the excellent website, Careers in Poland.
I am interviewed on International Radio Poznań with Maciej about my travels and coming to live in Poland. The interview can also be downloaded here.

I am featured in the local newspaper and website in Kociewie Region of Poland because of my time as a tourist in Starogard Gdanski.
My story on backpacking in Tczew is featured on the local Tczew news site.
My articles on Poland appear on Culture Trip.
My entire media list.

Yes I have a history of coming back to Poland a few times down the years (since my first visit in 2005) but when I arrived back here in July 2016, I had ZERO intention of staying. I was actually here to meet two travel “friends”, do some reviews in the Pomorskie region (which included Westerplatte, Hostel Cycle On and Eat Polska in Gdynia), and also visit Kaliningrad. I was supposed to stay for maximum 10 days! It is thanks to God that I stayed longer and have this new life. It was all about fate.

Originally two of my travel friends (and tourists) had invited me to Gdańsk way back in 2014, and i promised to visit them one day (as I do with almost everyone I become friends with on my journey) and write about the Pomorskie region. Yet for my love of travel I continued to explore Asia and Africa and avoided Gdańsk until 2016. The weirdest thing for me is that those two friends (who later proved to be nasty “fake friends” and liars) were the initial reason I returned in 2016. But they were not the reason why I stayed. I surprised myself with this project and my decision to stay.

I suffered a mid life depression in 2016 as you may have read. After splitting from my long term Hong Kongese princess Panny Yu after 5 years, I was lost ( we split in late 2015). I tried to surround myself with nice honest people. This was when I made a mistake. I chose those friends wrongly, they lied to me and took advantage of my kindness (free meals, gifts and travel tips). They gained free days out, meals, even presents and travel advice all for their own selfish gain or ulterior motives. I had to work out which friends were liars and which were not. It was tough. In the end I ended up not trusting anyone. I blocked and deleted many “friends ” from my life, lost some real friends because of the lies of the nasty fake friends. Around the same time, I closed the door on my once popular “Don’t Stop Living” blog and I withdrew from the public eye, it was reported in the national newspaper that the Polish Police had filed a missing report about me. The Police were searching Poland while I was backpacking in Herzegovina. One of the culprits even lied to my parents and to the police. They still haven’t been caught or charged. And I’d let them off if they could simply admit their lies, fraud and just apologise to me!! It doesn’t take much to admit you lied and apologise!! I pray daily for that apology.

During that time, I was suicidal every second of every day. Luckily I had a few real friends (non liars) in Poland and at my lowest point, on the verge of death, I was invited to dinner and drinks in Warszawa. Depression continued and I wasted hundreds of dollars on psychologists, psychiatrists and medication. Nothing helped. The nasty people I met had got what they wanted. Their lies should have caused my suicide. But I’m still here and I thank God for that. I found solace on my trips to Pelplin and Częstochowa. It saved my life and so did this blog.

But just two months into the new project, this website was hacked in February 2017 and blocked by the assholes at Bluehost (who still owe me a few $hundred dollars) I sunk into another deep depression. After 10 days it was back online and I had transferred to a better host and I was back to travel writing. Around the same time, a wannabe “Guru God” who thinks he is the coolest guy on the planet continued to stalk myself, my friends and tried to poach my lying travel friends, even contacting my Mum and Lee Adams, claiming he was a friend of mine. I had already blocked the said nasty GuruGod in October 2016 and yet he still persisted. But alas, I am still alive. I survive.

Things haven’t improved though. I’m still depressed every day and it’s a huge fight. Nothing except an admission from “nasty ” will really help me now. But I have tried not to let nasty’s lies affect my tourist trails.In 2017 I backpacked my way to every Province in Poland, meeting many new and interesting people and being surprised by many sights I saw. I will try and write a reflective end of year post soon.

I just wanted to share this with you as the blog reaches its anniversary and to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

Wesołych Swiąt!!