B1 · Finding your flow
Polly's weekly adventures and real-world stories.
- Cina gătită de un vulcan On a green island in the Azores, cooks lower a pot into a hot hole in the ground and let the earth slowly... Audio
- Castelul în care regele aproape că nu a locuit A Bavarian king built a fairy-tale castle on an alpine crag, slept there only a handful of nights, and left... Audio
- Mersul pe fundul mării Twice a day the North Sea pulls back for kilometres, and people walk barefoot across the bare seabed before... Audio
- De ce ți se închide telefonul pe frig Your phone shows forty percent battery, then dies in the snow. The battery is not empty. It is cold, and... Audio
- Orașul care a redescoperit un râu For fifty years, Seoul hid a river under an elevated highway. Then the city tore the highway down, and the... Audio
- La zece kilometri înălțime Passenger planes cruise about ten kilometres above the ground. That number is not random: it is where the... Audio
- Ultimul tren In Tokyo, the trains stop around midnight. Tomas learns this five minutes too late, and discovers where the... Audio
- Oamenii preistorici au prosperat în pădurea tropicală Scientists once thought ancient humans avoided rainforests. New evidence from West Africa says they thrived... Audio
- De ce mierea veche de trei mii de ani încă se poate mânca Honey jars from Egyptian tombs three thousand years old are still edible. The chemistry behind a food that... Audio
- Meciul de tenis care a durat trei zile The longest tennis match ever played: Isner vs. Mahut, Wimbledon 2010, eleven hours, three days, a final... Audio
- Caracatița care a forțat încuietoarea An octopus called Inky escaped his aquarium tank at night through a drain pipe, and what it reveals about... Audio
- Cursa în care brânza câștigă mereu Once a year in England, people chase a wheel of cheese down a dangerously steep hill, and the cheese almost... Audio
- Două animale complet noi, fiecare de mărimea unei unghii Scientists in Montenegro just described two snail species new to science, found on limestone cliffs in a... Audio
- Ziua în care un gândac real a stricat un calculator In nineteen forty-seven, engineers found an actual moth stuck inside a giant computer, taped it into their... Audio
- Creveta cu un soare în clește A small ocean shrimp snaps its claw so fast that it creates a flash of heat nearly as hot as the surface of... Audio
- Casa împărțită între două țări In a small town on the Belgian-Dutch border, some houses sit in two countries at once, and the front door... Audio
- Armata care a pierdut în fața păsărilor In nineteen thirty-two the Australian military was sent against emus eating the wheat crop in Western... Audio
- Cimpanzeii au accente A new study of more than eleven thousand recorded calls found that young chimpanzees in different parts of... Audio
- Internetul este sub apă Almost all international internet traffic travels along cables lying on the sea floor, which break... Audio
- Animalul care face cuburi Wombats are the only known animal to produce cube shaped droppings, and the corners are formed by uneven... Audio
- Orașul care trăiește într-o singură clădire Almost every resident of Whittier, Alaska lives inside a single fourteen storey building reached through a... Audio
- Această pasăre doarme în timp ce zboară Frigatebirds stay in the air for days over open ocean, and researchers put recorders on their heads to find... Audio
- Prânzul pe care îl mănâncă o țară întreagă In the Dominican Republic the main meal lands at midday, it is almost always the same three things, and the... Audio
- Harta ta ar fi greșită până la prânz Satellite clocks tick faster than clocks on the ground, and if nobody corrected for it your phone would... Audio
- Strălucești. Nimeni nu poate vedea asta. Human skin gives off a faint light all day long, and a Japanese team photographed it in a sealed dark room. Audio
- Acest albastru există într-un singur loc A stony beach in the Dominican southwest, one pebble that is blue all the way through, and the single... Audio
- O cafenea, două țări In one small town, the border between Belgium and the Netherlands runs straight through streets, houses and... Audio
- Mesajele tale călătoresc sub apă Almost everything you send across an ocean travels through cables lying on the sea floor, not through... Audio
- Plaja care strălucește albastru noaptea On some warm coasts, the sea lights up electric blue when you touch it. The light comes from billions of... Audio
- Hotelul care se mișcă în timp ce dormi On a European night train, you fall asleep in one country and wake up in another, with the Alps outside... Audio
- Un braț care simte gustul Octopus suckers contain special receptors that let an arm taste whatever it touches, even in total darkness. Audio
- Cel mai mare premiu din istoria atletismului A brand new athletics championship this month paid its winners more than the sport has ever offered before. Audio
- Cum înveți un calculator să vorbească balenește Researchers are using artificial intelligence to search for real structure inside the clicking patterns of... Audio
- Bătaia lentă de inimă a copacilor Laser scans at night revealed that trees pulse gently every few hours, possibly pumping water through their... Audio
- Flori la ora trei dimineața At three in the morning, Bangkok's biggest flower market is more awake than midday, and it never really... Audio
- Cercul și barca de dimineață The Ring of Brodgar at dusk, then the small practical business of leaving an island, done in four sentences... Audio
- Orzul de nouăzeci de zile In a bar in Kirkwall, a flat dark bannock turns out to be the reason the islands were farmable at all. Audio
- Adunarea de pe stânci Grey seals are hauling out on the low rocks before the pupping season, and the questions Polly has been... Audio
- Construit din ce aveau On Lamb Holm, two army huts hold a chapel that prisoners of war made out of scrap, and the only honest... Audio
- Satul de sub furtună At the Bay of Skaill, a guide with a carrying voice explains a village that a storm returned to the light... Audio
- Scaunul de lângă foc A guesthouse above the harbour, an argument about what counts as a quiet room, and a chair whose whole... Audio
- Sosește barca Polly lands at Stromness off the morning boat and works out, one question at a time, how a place with no... Audio
- Zece mii de sportivi, o singură seară de deschidere The 2026 Asian Games, hosted jointly by Aichi and Nagoya, Japan, bring together roughly ten thousand... Audio
- Banca ce acceptă doar brânză An Italian bank keeps a vault holding more than half a million wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano, accepted as... Audio
- Procentul bateriei tale este o presupunere A phone's battery percentage is not a direct measurement, but an estimate calculated from voltage and... Audio
- Plaja asta e făcută din gunoi A sparkling beach in Northern California is made entirely of old dumped glass, smoothed into colorful... Audio
- Nicăieri nu există etajul patru In much of East Asia, elevators skip the number four entirely, because it sounds exactly like the word for... Audio
- Ceața se închide în urma ei On her last afternoon, Polly flies high over the island one more time before fog rolls in and hides it... Audio
- Un sat legat la un vulcan Polly finds the same underground heat that cooked lunch also fills a giant public pool and warms homes,... Audio
- Cina îngropată în zori Polly watches a cook lower sealed pots into holes heated only by the volcano below, where dinner cooks for... Audio
- Un crater, două culori Polly finds one huge old crater holding two lakes side by side, one blue and one green, joined underneath... Audio
- Pasărea dată pierdută de două ori Polly searches an old laurel forest for the priolo, a tiny grey and pink bird found only here, once thought... Audio
- Ultimele două grădini din Europa Polly finds one of only two working tea plantations left in Europe, started after disease wiped out the... Audio
- Nouă insule, trei plăci Polly arrives over São Miguel, the largest of the nine Azores islands, and learns that three tectonic... Audio
- Polly ia autobuzul Polly boards the bus downtown for the first time, with a patient capybara at the wheel and one nervous... Audio
- Polly întreabă de drum Polly gets lost looking for the library and learns that asking is faster than wandering. Audio
- Polly comandă o cafea Polly finds a corner cafe, orders a coffee with milk, discovers churros, and stays for a while by the window. Audio
- Polly la piață Berta shows Polly the neighborhood market. Polly asks about an unfamiliar fruit, buys apples, and learns... Audio
- Polly cunoaște pe cineva Polly arrives on a new street, meets Berta the bear over the garden fence, and they agree to meet again at... Audio
- Vladivostok Polly arrives in Vladivostok at the end of the 9,289-kilometre Trans-Siberian, stretches her wings, and... Audio
- Amurul Polly reaches Khabarovsk on the sixth day of the Trans-Siberian, sees the Amur River bordering China, and... Audio
- Lacul Baikal Polly spends the fifth day of the Trans-Siberian running along Lake Baikal, the deepest and oldest lake on... Audio
- Fusuri Orar Polly explores the dining car on the fourth day, learning that the whole train runs on Moscow time across... Audio
- Traversând Uralul Polly crosses the Ural Mountains, the dividing line between Europe and Asia, on the third day of the... Audio
- Pădurile de Mesteacăn Polly wakes up on the second morning of the Trans-Siberian, watching the birch forests of European Russia.... Audio
- Gara Iaroslavski Polly boards the Rossiya at Moscow's Yaroslavsky Station to begin the 9,289-kilometre, seven-day... Audio
- Adio, Paste Polly says goodbye to Pasta the octopus and flies out of Naples toward her next destination. Audio
- Editorul Propriu Polly learns that octopuses edit their own RNA in real time, building a brain that is different in each... Audio
- Pizza și Prânzul Lung Polly has the long Italian lunch with Chiara at a Neapolitan pizzeria, learning the protected rules of... Audio
- Pielea care vede Polly watches Pasta find food under a coloured plate even though octopuses are colour-blind through their... Audio
- Corpul care gândește Polly watches Pasta solve a maze with two arms working independently. She learns that two thirds of an... Audio
- Borcanul Polly watches Pasta open a screw-top jar to catch a crab, learning that octopus arms taste what they touch... Audio
- Golful Napoli Polly arrives in Naples and is welcomed into the world's oldest marine biology institute, where she meets a... Audio
- Plecând din Vale Polly says goodbye to Ranger Tomas and flies west out of Yosemite, watching a peregrine hunt swifts on her... Audio
- Calea Lactee deasupra Glacier Point Polly watches sunset from Glacier Point and stays for the Milky Way, looking through a park astronomer's... Audio
- Half Dome Polly rides thermals up the 1,500-metre north face of Half Dome with a flock of swifts, reaches the summit,... Audio
- Șoimul Plonjant Polly tries to copy a peregrine falcon's dive from El Capitan, learning how the falcon's third eyelid and... Audio
- Sequoia Polly visits Mariposa Grove and perches on the Grizzly Giant, a giant sequoia nearly 3,000 years old,... Audio
- Călătorind cu Rangerul Tomas Polly spends a morning in Ranger Tomas's truck, learning how he tracks bear feeding in wildflower meadows... Audio
- Deasupra Văii Polly arrives at Yosemite Valley from the air, takes in its U-shaped glacial geology, watches climbers on... Audio
- Duminica cu Paella An adult granddaughter visits home and finds her grandfather hasn't forgotten anything yet. Audio
- Cana Goală First day at a new office, a small lesson about asking before assuming. Audio
- Numărul Patruzeci și Șapte A small injury, an old magazine, and a waiting room that teaches patience. Audio
- Trenul spre Granada An overheard phone call on the train turns a long trip into a kind of company. Audio
- Librăria Greșită A simple coffee order leads to a strange conversation about a bookshop that doesn't exist anymore. Audio
- Pierdută în Lisabona A wrong turn on a steep street becomes the best part of the trip. Audio
- Camera 304 Are o Priveliște A late check-in turns into a small gift when the hotel runs out of rooms on the lower floors. Audio
- O Masă pentru Unul A traveler eats alone in Madrid and discovers the waiter is the real star of the meal. Audio
- O Masă pentru Una A traveler eats alone in Madrid and discovers the waiter is the real star of the meal. Audio