duas janelas - two windows - dwa okna

Pamukkale - the Cotton Castle

2011-05-29T12:04:00.004+02:00

The Cotton Castle has nothing to do with any kingdom. It is a breathtaking natural wonder, which looks like frozen waterfalls but in reality is a white cliff covered with white minerals, left by the flowing down, hot water from an underground spring. This process has been running unstoppably for over 14000 years. Around the 2nd century BC, the ancient city of Hierapolis developed right above the cliff, making Pamukkale an ancient spa.

Ever since people discovered Pamukkale, they bathe in the natural pools, especially in the summertime. Nature didn't seem to be bothered by this fact and the terraces remained in almost untouched condition until the last century, when some modern hotels were built nearby and negatively affected the spring's natural processes.

As soon as Pamukkale was enrolled on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1988, the hotels were closed but it was already too late. A couple of years was enough to destroy a huge part of the natural masterpiece.

I've seen the cotton castle two times. For the first time, I went to Pamukkale about 10 years ago with my parents. We were asked to take off our shoes, when entering the terraces. It was very painful for me to walk barefoot there. The day was very hot, the sky was extremely blue and the terraced pools were filled with water and people. There were soooo many of those pools within eyes reach. Also, I still have on my mind, what some local Turkish people told me, that it's not as beautiful as they remember it used to be.

The second time I went there was last month. As it was late April, the temperature was bearable. I must say, that I was impressed by the new arrangements made around the entire area such as wooden paths. It surely protects those of the terraces that are left. However, the visitors are still allowed to step on them and bathe and do whatever they want in the selected areas. This time, I decided to keep my shoes on and not to participate in this act of destroyment, as I had my chance to take a few steps there before.

When I sat on one of the benches, I suddenly heard two older gentleman from Poland admiring the view few meters away from me. It sounded as if one of them was in Pamukkale in the 1960's and his impressions were just like mine from late 1990's, that there were hundreds of people bathing in the healing water.
I didn't notice when it got very late, I had to skip the ancient ruins and hurry not to miss my bus.

Paper Cherry Blossom

2011-03-29T17:49:00.004+02:00

I've been waiting for spring so impatiently this year, that I decided to make a cherry blossom branch of crêpe paper. It was awfully time consuming but I made it!

My graduation day

2011-03-26T19:54:00.006+01:00

Photos from my graduation day taken by Renata

Game over.

Not-so-secret garden

2011-03-04T11:07:00.012+01:00

I finally made myself develop a film from Fujifilm waterproof single use camera which had been waiting in my fridge for almost 4 years with an expiry date Nov 2007. These were the first underwater pics I ever took so I didn't expect great results. Just to experiment. I'm happy that even though the quality turned out to be very poor, the colors are brilliant anyway. Here they are, treasures of the Red Sea's Far Garden coral reef!

In April 2007, I tried snorkelling for the first time and it was literally speaking:
B-R-E-A-T-H-T-A-K-I-N-G! Without any hesitation I can also say that it was the most beautiful experience and thing that I've ever seen.

Alternative Christmas presents

2010-12-24T12:01:00.003+01:00

At the beginning of November, Ze Mario - a friend from Portugal, gave me an idea of participating in boardgamegeek.com Christmas presents exchange. I had some doubts at first, coz I never liked this kind of events in my early school years. However, I realized that this time the participants won't be kids but grownups.
The rules of the exchange were simple: sign up by filling the application form, choose those countries from the list that you're willing ship your gifts to and wait patiently until the 14th of November to have your target assigned.

And so I became Secret Santa of one extremely friendly guy from Illinois, USA.
Right from the beginning, I kept on sending him funny-christmassy messages without revealing who I really was. I decided to order a game from his wish list at Amazon, which was a perfect solution to make the shipping procedure easier for me. In one of the messages, he told me that he is a huge zombie fan, so I also decided to send him a very cool Polish card game about zombies together with a Christmas card. Even though he got the main package before the 6th of December, another surprise arrived from Poland just before the Christmas Eve.
Meanwhile, I didn't hear from my Santa for over one week since the exchange begun. I thought I had reasons to worry. I couldn't be more wrong! My personal Secret Santa turned out to be very generous by picking awesome presents from my wish list.

This might sound corny: I didn't expect the giving part to be as fun as it turned out to be. Giving, can not only be as fun as receiving but even better!

Warsaw - unusual tradition

2010-11-01T17:07:00.003+01:00

Each year, on the 1st of November, most of the Polish families go to the cemeteries to put the lights and flowers on their family's graves. And so All Saints Day is considered to be a rather serious and melancholic holiday than a joyful one.
However, the city of Warsaw has one tradition, which is really odd and nobody really knows where did it come from. This phenomenon is related to pańska skórka, a kind of candy sold, next to the candles and flowers, at the entrances of Warsaw's cemeteries.

It is white and pink, not really hard but also not soft at all, cut into pieces of 2cmX2cm size, incredibly sweet and terribly sticky. It isn't possible to chew it or to swallow quickly. The only option is to wait until it melts in one's mouth, what may take a couple of minutes. It is unknown why is it sold just at the cemetaries during in one particular time of the year.
Even though I don't consider myself as a fan of this candy, I swear that each year I buy at least one... because it really feels like a tradition and obligation!

Good Morning Thailand

2010-10-27T10:10:00.002+02:00

Travel stories might be contagious and so my crazy about Thailand friend effectively keeps on convincing me to go to her favourite place on Earth. Just received a funny message from her:

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thailand/travel-tips-and-articles/76133?affil=fb-fan#
and you are even there in the gallery :P

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Lao-tzu, Chinese philosopher

Souvenir from Paris

2010-09-19T11:56:00.005+02:00

I got this picture from Paris one day in August. My friend, who knows how crazy I am about great photo spots, visited a friend, who lives in an apartment with such a stunning view.

Window view as a souvenir?
Just perfect!

MIM - shut up and listen!

2010-08-29T10:16:00.007+02:00

The MIM, Musical Instruments Museum of Brussels is my personal no. 1 among the museums I've been to so far! I'll try to explain why is it so...
First of all, I might be asked: what if somebody doesn't feel like entering the museum?
Well, I have great news! The museum's building, located on the Mont des Arts, is worth admiring even just from the outside. This XIXth century former department store is a magnificent example of the art nouveau style. Its neoclassical surrounding makes it look even more outstanding. But that's not enough! What would you say about getting into the building, picking up a free access ticket to the restaurant and having a coffee on the 5th - roof floor? Just imagine that view over the city.

In case somebody actually decides to check out the MIM's exhibition, just after paying the 5 euro admission fee (students - 4 euro, on Wednesdays free!) is given a pair of huge headphones, which dependently on the instrument, that the particular person is looking at, play the right piece of music. For example, in the picture below, Daniel is standing in front of the window that presents a couple of traditional Mexican instruments, on the spot which enables him to hear the Mexican music. By the way, this part was our favourite.

In comparison with the Traditional Musical Instruments Museum in Szydłowiec (Poland), I really appreciate this great collection of musical instruments from all around the world and the way how interactively presented they are. I believe that it would be even better if the visitors were given a chance to play the instruments, as they do in its Japanese equivalent in Hamamatsu. Anyway, if they get really inspired, they might get their own instruments in the museum's shop full of various musical stuff.

Bruges sweet Bruges

2010-08-05T16:41:00.002+02:00

A couple of years ago, somebody told me that his favourite place among all places he visited is Belgian Bruges. It kept me very curious for a while until now. On the first Monday of July, I had a chance to see it by myself and indeed, Bruges is simply gorgeous!

As all gorgeous places it has all the necessary cheesy things such as: beautiful old houses with their windows ornamented from the outside and decorated from the inside, a church with a tower, little bridges above narrow canals, candy stores and boats! All this stuff makes the stay in Bruges very fairytalish.

I was a bit disappointed that even though it was Monday, there was quite a lot of tourists. However, in every crowded place there is always a hidden courtyard that gives a feeling of being in a secret garden and we managed to find it there as well!

Bruges is too good to be true... that's why God created tourists!

Fushimi Inari - among red gates

2010-07-30T13:32:00.011+02:00

Some people say that you haven't been to Japan if you didn't see Kyoto and that's what makes almost every tourist go there. Unfortunately, I don't completely agree with this statement, because among all the people who visit Kyoto, most of them misses the best part, which in my opinion is Fushimi Inari Shrine.
It was previously mentioned in my former posts about differences between shrines and temples, as well as in the one about places, which appeared in the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha". However, I like it so much that I decided to create additional post.

The main reason for skipping this amazing place by many tourists is probably its odd location in the southern part of Kyoto. In reality, the whole complex is located just next to the Inari train station (5 minutes away from Kyoto), what makes it really easy to find the Shrine's main gate in a minute just after leaving the train.
Another reason why tourists may decide to skip it is the fact, that the entrance is free. I guess a lot of people may think, after reading such thing in their guide books, that if they don't need to pay for something, then it's not worth much. And in this case they are absolutely wrong!

There is a couple of quite impressive buildings behind the entrance gates of the shrine but the place is famous for something else.
It is famous for its numerous torii - red gates with enscripted names of people, who donated them after acheiving a business success. Yes, indeed, finding out about this disappointed me as well. These mysterious Japanese letters are nothing else but names of people, their companies and such things.

Anyway, the amount of torii corridors and rows surrounding the Inari mountain is unbelievable! Right after passing through the first torii tunnel there are even more of them and so on, enough for a 2 hour long walk.

The spaces between torii tunnels are filled with various kinds of places for giving prayers. One of them might be lighting a candle, a common thing among the worlds biggest religions.

Another way of praying in Shinto religion's shrine is writing it down on a special piece of wood called ema. Each person cam write their own prayer and hang up among the rest of them. In Fushimi Inari Shrine, those wooden plaques resemble foxes, which are the symbols of Inari's spirit.

And then there is another torii tunnel...

And plenty of little shrines...

And another shrine with foxes inside...

And so on.

One of the attractions of the walk among the Inari shrines is a lovely lake with beautiful cherry and plum trees around it, which bloomed when I was there.

In the middle of the pathway, even though the whole mountain belongs to the shrine, people may stop in an old restaurant run by the same family owners for for over a century. On the opposite side of the path there is a house were the last four generations of that family used to live. It is said in the guidebooks that the restaurants near the trail serve a unique dish - Kitsune Udon (Fox Udon), which is a noodle soup with pieces of fried tofu in it.

A big advantage of the place's size is that the crowds of visitors are not really visible. What is more, the amount of shrines in the area of Inari mountain is so huge, that I don't think anybody can get bored there. After taking each step there is always something new to look at.

The way back depends on the next place to go. If you choose the platform in the picture, it will take you back to Kyoto. If you choose the one from which I took the picture, then you'll get to Nara in one hour or so, just like we did.

Kyoto and Nara - analog pictures

2010-07-30T03:55:00.000+02:00

KYOTO

Fushimi Inari Shrine - tunnels of red torii, beautiful nature of the Inari mountain and one of the few houses on the pathway.

NARA
...and its deers

Bosphorus ferry cruise

2010-07-20T20:21:00.008+02:00

From Europe to Asia for lunch and back.

Memoirs of a Geisha

2010-06-16T22:13:00.012+02:00

As a teenage girl, I have borrowed one book from my classmate and never gave it back.
There are books which we start reading before even owning them, books which we start reading a couple of hours or days after buying them and books which are constantly waiting on our bookshelves to be read.

The book which I borrowed in high school used to be one of them.
Last summer, while packing for my trip to Japan, I remembered that book and thought that it was high time to find out what is hidden on the pages of "Memoirs of a Geisha" by Arthur Golden. It turned out to be a perfect idea! During the long hours spent in the trains, my thoughts weren't really there but long before I was even born, many many years ago in Kyoto. Not only, the book was interesting and pleasant to read but also, resolved my numerous doubts concerning Geisha's life.
After coming back to Poland I wanted to watch the movie based on the book as soon as possible. When I finally did, it didn't disappoint me. The movie was mysterious and filled with all kinds of Japanese beauty just like the book. I was glad to recognize some places which I have been to, while the other ones were making me wonder if it really was Kyoto. I decided to check where some of the places were the movie was shot were located and I've made a small research. I found out that, unfortunately, most of the scenes weren't shot in Japan but in various places in California, USA. They are well described here (scroll down to the middle of the page):
http://www.helloziyi.us/Movies/memoirs-gallery.htm

However, there are still some significant sights of Kyoto, which appeared in the movie and couldn't be replaced by any of the great American inventions.
Here they come!

Kiyomizudera Temple

The view of Kiyomizudera's pagoda (Pure Water Temple) appears in "Memoirs of a Geisha" many times, mainly to announce changes of the seasons but at the beginning of the movie as well.

I'm a bit suspicious about its presence in the movie and believe that the creators took just one photo of the view and changed the colors of the sky and the background by the use of their great American inventions, while preparing the final version of the film.
Anyway, it was a good idea to use it so many times. I love this view!

Fushimi Inari Shrine

I might be wrong but in my opinion, the scene when little Chio is running happily among the countless torii (red gates) is one of the most characteristic and unforgettable scenes of the movie.

Last spring, Daniel and I went there on a daily trip and both agreed that it's one of the best sights of Kyoto. Not only the shrine itself is a bit different from all the rest, but it is also a kind of a hiking trail in natural surrounding.

I'm almost sure that Chio picked the right tunnel! And so did I!

To learn more about Fushimi Inari Shrine check out my post:
http://duasjanelas.blogspot.com/2010/07/fushimi-inari-among-red-gates.html

Green Board Games

2010-06-13T16:18:00.003+02:00

Thanks to my cousin Ela and her friend Ania, recently I had a chance to play two board games, which were completely new to me. Funny coincidence was that they were both mostly green.

Shear Panic /pol. Owczy Pęd/
When Ela told me about this game for the first time, I told her that I've seen some friends of mine playing it once and I didn't like it too much. Ela was quite suprised coz I was not enthusiastic about it at all. Next time we met, she told me about this game once again, about how lovely the figures are... and I asked: "What figures???". It turned out that when she told me about Shear Panic for the first time, I confused it with a different game which also has sheeps as main characters.
After seeing those adorable sheeps, I can't be critical about this game anymore. They're just too pretty!

My own summary of this game is: cute chess, and that is more or less what it is about - the board is similar to chess and strategy plays the main role. The difference is that Shear Panic is a game up to 4 players or 4 groups of players. I believe that its difficulty level depends on the players.
What else can I say? Niiiccceeeeeee!

Keltis
The other game we played that night was Keltis. The game is based on cards mainly but also on the board which includes some stones, magic diamonds and shamrocks. Players have different colors of shamrocks - mine was white- and their aim in the game is to collect as many cards in the right order as possible, what enables them to collect many magic diamonds which are being converted into points at the end of the game.

It is perfect to play with people who get scared when the see regular cards. In reality, Keltis is a very friendly looking card game.

Both of those games are perfectly adjusted to the needs of the XXIst century customer. Classic stuff in new layouts... and that's what everybody loves!

Stylish Evil Eye

2010-06-01T13:27:00.010+02:00

Every culture has its own traditions and superstitions. One of the things that all Mediterranean countries have in common is the amulet, most commonly called the Evil Eye. The superstition about this amulet is that it is supposed to protect a person who has it, from envious and jealous people.

Before, I used to think that those blue shaped things sold in the bazaars and souvenir shops are just things for tourists. What a surprise it was discovering, after I made friends in Turkey, that the Evil Eye is an amulet, a symbol that is really present in their daily lives.
Since then I've been finding it where only it was possible: necklaces, bracelets and rings for both - boys and girls, tea glasses, tablecloths, carpets, door, bags and so on, but it still was not the end.

One sunny Monday afternoon by the Bosphorus, while I was having a tea with my long time no see friend, her sister called to tell that she just left the beautician and that she is coming to join us. As soon as she showed up, it turned out that she just had her manicure and pedicure done and there wouldn't be anything special about it, if not two little details - one on her fingernail and the other one on her toe nail. These were nothing else than the Evil Eyes!

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of crazy colors nail painting but in this case I really loved to see how the elegance nicely matched with a bit of extravagance.

Hello! Yellow?

2010-05-28T19:56:00.001+02:00

Listen to the song "Yellow" by Coldplay

Carpet stories

2010-05-27T21:25:00.004+02:00

If carpets could speak, they would tell us fascinating stories. Not only about flying, but even better ones, about lying in one place for years.

Mother's Day

2010-05-26T19:43:00.002+02:00

When is Mother's Day in your country?

In Poland it is always on the 26th of May, which is not accidentally today.
Two weeks ago I've been to Istanbul, where one afternoon, my friend's aunt served a piece of cake after lunch and mentioned that it was left after Mother's Day. I asked immediately when do they celebrate it in Turkey and she told me that it's always the 2nd Sunday of May.

It reminded me, that in previous year, while I was in Portugal, it was even different - the 1st Sunday of May.
Because of my curiosity, I've made a small research (about the countries that are tagged on my blog) and it turned out that most of them celebrates Mother's Day on the same day as Turkey, for example Japan, Czech Republic, Ukraine or Belgium. Also, Spain celebrates it on the same day as Portugal but France is a bit odd and delays until the last Sunday of May.

The conclusion should be that, if someone travels too often and pays attention to local holidays, then that person's Mum, may start thinking that her child became crazy, if she was given wishes and presents over few times in May!

Afternoon in Nişantaşı's Theater

2010-05-24T13:26:00.020+02:00

On the 9th of May, together with almost 30 out of 200 conference participants, I had a chance to watch a performance in one of the theaters of Istanbul. As it was one of European Universities Theatre Festival's event, the actors were from Marmara University Ada Dance Theatre Troupe. When we got on the bus, which was supposed to take us to the theatre, I was sure that we were going to the Asian side of Istanbul, where the Marmara University campus is located. I discovered very soon that we were not going to cross the bridge... but before I became really disappointed, it turned out that the theater that we were heading to was in Nişantaşı!

Nişantaşı is the quater of Istanbul, about which I've read before in Orhan Pamuk's books. This place is well known for art nouveau buildings, famous people living there and the most expensive shopping area in Turkey. It really doesn't feel like Istanbul there, rather like Madrid.

When our bus stopped near the theatre, we still had a lot of free time before the performance started. We walked for a while along the streets, one of them was full of ladies selling flowers. Meanwhile, I've stepped into Nişantaşı's shopping mall called City's and by chance, checked my mailbox on the computer in the main hall. How is it that people living in rich districts get internet for free even though they probably don't need it and people in average and poor districts have to pay for internet cafes?

Few minutes before 17:30 the performance entitled "Sections", was about to start in the theater called RÜŞTÜ UZEL STAGE. I was waiting in the main hall, chatting with some friends and eating pistachio chocolate, which is an important fact coz we don't have such invention in Poland! The other people waiting just like we did, were Turkish families - mostly women with children.
As soon as we entered the theater room, it was visible that more than 2/3 of seats was empty. Due to this fact, I was lucky enough to have a seat in the 2nd row.

The performance begun as it is shown in the picture above. Actually, there were many more hands moving under the curtain... I have few more pictures (none of them was taken by me) but it really doesn't make sense to publish them here. Instead of that I will write about my favourite part.
The performance was divided into sections, as the title suggests and there was no need to know Turkish language. There were parts about media, books, music, education, love, rape and few other... The most unforgettable scene for me was about Music. So, in that moment there were many actors on the stage and I can't really remember what was happening with one exception:
There was a tall, thin and long haired girl sitting on the chair. The guy standing behind her started acting as if he was a musician playing on a cello that the girl was pretending to be. The guy was holding the girl's hair straight up as if it was a fingerboard. He was also pretending to be holding a bow and playing, while she was moving her legs and hands in the air, in the rhythm of the music. This episode took a couple of minutes and was so expressive and energetic that I still can't believe it was real!!

Parts of the Cello :)

While writing this post I've found an official website of the Theater Troupe that performed:
http://www.danstiyatrosu.com
And what is even more, I've found a video, which is a kind of trailer and luckily the cello part also appears for a second:
http://www.danstiyatrosu.com/1videoeng.html
Also, the entire soundtrack was AMAZING but the only song I was able to recognize was:
Working Class Hero by Ozzy Osbourne

And here is the group picture that we took with the actors.
Can you see my happy face? :)

House in Istanbul

2010-05-18T10:10:00.004+02:00

A house where My Friend lives in Istanbul, is a typical house of a Turkish family living in the big city. A multifloor building on the street filled with clothing and grocery shops mostly, in the district in the European side, that is not in the city center, but seems to be, when you take into account all the people and cars passing by.

One of the grocery shops in Istanbul

My Friend's family owned the land, where their house stands now, a long time before anybody settled in that area. Finally, around 30 years ago or so, My Friend's grandfather and the rest of his family decided to build up their new house.

The building that they raised has over 4 floors, a lovely iron door at the entrance, which My Friend's uncle made by himself, a huge mirror and 8 post boxes just in the entrance hall and typical round stairs. From the outside it is painted white and from the inside, the staircase is pink. Each apartment is owned by different branch of My Friend's family. And so My Friend's family lives on the 2nd floor, her cousin and his parents live just above and so on... Still, they all lock their door.

View at the random houses of Istanbul from the Bosphorus shore.

I really admire this kind of tradition in Turkish families of living close to each other. In my country, families live like that only if they really have to.

Turkish tea in the Ottoman cemetery

2010-05-15T18:47:00.003+02:00

On the 6th of May I got on the plane that took me directly to Istanbul.
During the flight I kept on reading "The Flea Palace" by Elif Şafak, a book which I bought few days before. I remember well, that one of the chapters was about Turkish housewives being obsessed with cleaning their homes and the other chapter was about cemeteries. The author was trying to explain how different is Istanbul from other cities in this matter. While most of the cities of rich cultural heritage, have huge cemeteries isolated from the rest of the city, Istanbul has lots of cemeteries of different capacity simply everywhere. It was also underlined that as the tombs and graves are everywhere, people got used to their presence. Obviously, I thought that Mrs Şafak was a bit exageratting.

Inside the Tomb of Suleiman the Magnificent

As soon as the plane landed, I collected my luggage and met Sena in the arrivals hall. First, we wanted to xray our stuff coz we confused the airport's entrance with exit. Secondly, we got on the metro, where a friendly guy suggested to exchange the seats with me, so that I could sit next to Sena. It didn't take long until we arrived in Sena's neighbourhood and then at her home. Her Mum was very friendly and welcomed me with various kinds of food that have not tried before, including börek and artichoke. And then the telephone rang. The person calling was Özkan, who was trying to set up the meeting point with us. It turned out we were going to meet next to the çemberlitaş tram stop, in a Turkish tea house located just in the middle of the Ottoman cemetery!!!

The place was nice and cozy, the owner turned out to be a friend of Sena's family. I've seen it before in some of Sena's pictures. After closing, the owner gave us a ride home, which for me, was like a night city tour around Istanbul. I had a chance to see the Sultanahmet Mosque, the old city walls and the Boshphorus shore from a different prespective. I almost forgot, there was 6 of us in the car - the driver, 3 girls in the back and... 2 guys on the front seat!

International Day of the Book

2010-04-23T17:38:00.014+02:00

The 23rd of April was chosen by UNESCO for the

World Book and Copyright Day.

The holiday originated in Catalonia-Spain, where each customer who bought a book on St George's Day, received a rose as an additional gift.
The other sources inform, that it was a medieval kind of Valentine's day. On that day men were giving roses to their women, and since the beginnings of the XXth century women started giving them books instead.

A great coincidence is the fact, that the 23rd of April is also a date of such anniversaries as birthday of Shakespeare and Nabokov, or death of Cervantes and... Shakespeare as well.

Different countries celebrate it in many different ways. The most common one is probably making discounts like the one in Polish Empik (the most famous commercial chain selling books, press and media in Poland) - buy 3 books for the price of 2. Fnac, that originated in France and spreaded around the Western Europe, offers 10% discounts in its Spanish stores too. What is more, Portuguese Fnac announced its one month long, annual holiday "Festa do livro" that includes discounts up to 40% or books of the week.

A guide to recognizing Shrines and Temples

2010-04-14T19:25:00.039+02:00

The two main religions practiced in Japan are Shinto and Buddhism. Most of the Japanese people don't identify themselves with one particular religion and participate in all kinds of rituals. The presence of those coexisting religions is visible in every Japanese city, town, village, district or even street. The places for practising Shinto are Shrines, while Buddhist rituals take place in Buddhist temples and are easy to distinguish just like a church and a mosque.

Shinto is a religion that originated in Japan in ancient times. Its main beliefs consider the spirits called kami, to be present in such elements of nature as stones, mountains, trees, waterfalls. The most famous object of this kind is the Fuji mountain. Shinto traditions are usually cultivated in shrines when it comes to blessing children, weddings or success in business.

Buddhism, which has its beginnings in India, was brought to Japan from China and Korea around the 6th century. Japanese people, usually meditate or pray in Buddhist temples. What is more, funeral ceremonies in Japan are held mostly in Buddhist temples.

The main features of Shinto shrines:

* overload of red color, which expels demons and illnesses

* most often, small shrines are collected in a big complex

* torii - one large red gate, usually followed by many more similar gates

* komainu - a couple of dogs or lions by the entrance gate

* temizuya - ablution place at the entrance for washing mouth and hands

* kami - statues representing particular spirits and holy animals

* ema- wooden plaques with people's prayers hanging on the wall

The main features of Buddhist temples in Japan:

* larger than shrines

* always containing a statue of Buddha and a place to burn incense or candles

* paper lanterns and paper decoration at the entrance

* a pagoda - a kind of reliquary for storing sacred elements

* zen garden

* nearby cemetery

Things that shrines and temples in Japan have in common:

* omikuji - small fortune telling papers, tied over tree branches after reading to make the fortune come true (if good) or to avert it (if bad).

The most recognizable shrines and temples of Japan:

Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto, famous for the countless torii - red gates, that cover the hiking trails of the mountain InariSan.

Todaiji ("Great Eastern Temple") in Nara, the world's largest wooden building. Reconstructed in 1692 is only two thirds of the original temple's size.

Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion) is a Buddhist Zen temple in Kyoto.

My Easter Holidays in Japan

2010-04-04T12:02:00.008+02:00

My Easter Holidays 2010 were the 3rd that I've spent outside Poland.
Each of those 3 times I was missing the part of my family that was not with me but on the other hand it was also great experience to try and discover new things.

This year, I've spent Easter Sunday with Daniel at hanami, which is a Japanese kind of spring picnic and it's main aim is to admire the Sakura - Cherry Blossom. At the time of Sakura, Japanese people gather in the parks, bring loads of food and drinks, blankets, music instruments, cameras and enjoy their hanamis.

Probably, the most spectacular and enjoyable parts of Easter Holidays in Poland are egg painting and Easter bunny's presents. And that's a part of things that appeared on that day.
Accidentally, just before going to the Meijo Kohen park in Nagoya, we got toys from gashapon machines - vending machines distributing toys in plastic balls, capsules. As soon as we got them we thought that it's a funny Easter coincidence that they resemble eggs.

We waited with opening them until getting to the park. It turned out that Daniel's capsule was hiding stickers with different kinds of beetles (not the Beatles!), while my toy was a kind of keyring, which after pushing the button sounds more less like "Ai shiteruyo baby" (jap. "I love you baby").
In the park, we did egg painting. Actually Daniel did most of the job but my cherry blossom egg pattern also wasn't bad. I should mention here, that originally the eggs that I bought were called Onsen Eggs and we didn't realize what does it mean. After making a small research I discovered that there is a special recipe for Onsen Tamago - Hot Spring Eg g.

During our Easter Hanami we've tried some new food.
The most interesting looking one, was a roll with some green tea dough on the top of it. It was rather sweet and tasted great with chocolate bunny.

Another thing was Strawberry Pocky. To describe it I should use a comparison with something that exists in Poland and usually goes with a beer as a snack - słone paluszki (pol. salt fingers/sticks). Both of them, Polish salty and Japanese sweet version, are sticks made of crunchy dough. Japanese ones, are covered with different flavours such as: chocolate, banana, strawberry and many more. Yummmyyy!!!
By the way, did you notice unbelievable Japanese packaging??? The box contains 12 sticks and each 3 of them are wrapped separately!

Last but not least, Takoyaki - the dish which was worth waiting in a queue for a while. As you may see, or not, it is baked and round shaped, served few pieces in a little wooden boat. Each of those round pieces contains butter, dough, vegetables, mayonnaise and a piece of octopus. The most funny part of it are the flakes called aonori, which cover the dish from the top. You may believe or not but, as long as the dish is warm, the flakes are moving. It gives an impression as if your dish was alive!

If you'd like to find out how do the Easter celebrations in Japan look like, check out Daniel San's last year post about his visit in Japanese and Korean churches.

Sakura Matsuri at Koshoji Temple

2010-04-01T04:03:00.002+02:00

As spring in Japan is the time of cherry blossom, most of the temples organise Sakura Matsuri - spring festival, which lasts for a few days.

One morning, at the end of March I went to the Koshoji temple nearby Daniel's flat. The Koshoji buddhist temple isn't widely known so it is really calm during working days. The temple is located on the hills of Yagoto district of Nagoya, surrounded by a forest. It was founded in XVIIth century and one of its most impressive building is 5-storey pagoda.

At the end of March it helds the Sakura Matsuri. It was a very nice cultural event to attend, especially for a foreign person like me.

Not only most of the people present there was dressed in traditional Japanese wears, but also they were performing many different celebrations such as the tea ceremony.

It was also great to watch the Japanese ladies dancing, singing and playing shamisen. What I liked the most, was music spreading all around the temple's surroundings.

At the night time, the temple and trees in its surrounding have very nice illumination. There are even special pink lights for the Sakura trees.

Flea Market in Osu Kannon

2010-03-28T13:44:00.002+02:00

Osu Kannon area in Nagoya is full of contrasts, named after the Osu Kannon temple nowadays, it reminds more of a shopping district than a sacred place. On the 18th and 28th of each month, a flea market is being held in front of the Osu Kanonn temple. Last weekend Daniel and I hanged around it for a while.

From what I`ve noticed, people are divided into those that like, or actually know how to do shopping in flea markets, and into those who would never buy anything there. At least that`s how it is in Europe. It might also seem that all flea markets in the world are very similar. The things that can be found there are the same kind of stuff - clothes, furniture, electronics, toys, paintings, coins, records, military stuff. Maybe it is not just me but I think that except a shopping place, they can be also treated as a great interactive museums.

In European flea markets, seeing pieces of armor from the II World War reminds me of people who were brave, who were fighting and who, in most of the cases, died because of that. However, when I saw a Japanese samurai helmet or a wig that probably belonged to some geisha a long long time ago, it made me stop thinking about samurais and geishas as of fairytale characters.

And so the things that used to present a great value, are unwanted and very often not only nobody wants them, but also nobody finds them usefull anymore. Flea markets do not show the fake history as it usually is in case of films, books or museums. They show it as it really was, remind about how everything passes and prove that one day even somebody`s most favorite tea cup will become nobody`s favorite.

Magic photo booth

2010-03-26T11:41:00.021+01:00

What can be magical in taking a picture in a photo booth? Probably, most of people realized the fun of such booths after watching the famous film about adventures of a Parisian girl named Amélie Poulain, who was finding, taking, displaying or ripping into pieces such photos from the street photo booths.

Movie shots from Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain

Meanwhile, in the 1990`s a newly invented phenomenon - purikura - appeared in Japan. Literally, purikura means "printing club" and came out from shortening the japanese words "purinto kurabu". Nowadays, Japanese teenagers are crazy about taking pictures of themselves and their best friends in a bit different photo booths than those widely known all around the world.

What`s the difference between classic photo booth and purikura?

1) Classic photo booth`s capacity is officially 1 person, practically up to 4. In case of purikura booths it`s even up to 10 people!
2) Classic photo booth is much smaller, while purikura booths have 2 sections - one for taking pictures and the other one for editing them.
3) Pictures taken in purikura booth can be edited - starting from choosing the intensity of colors and the colors of the background ending with adding images, texts and other crazy stuff to them.
4) Purikura booths have an option of sending pictures to the customers` own mail accounts.
5) The aim of creating classic photo booths was rather serious - possibility of taking quick pictures for official documents, while the aim of doing purikura is simply fun.
6) One payment in classic photo booth includes 4-6 pictures, while in purikura it can be up to 60.
7) Prints from purikura have different shapes, sizes and sometimes they are even stickers. Classic ones don`t have any of those options.
8) The prices are similar.

How does purikura work?

Step 1
Find purikura booth - search for it in big shops or shopping centers.

Step 2
Make sure there are no people taking photos inside, then enter the booth.

Step 3
Put all the bags, jackets and the rest of unnecessary stuff on the left side of the booth.
Step 4
Make sure that you know where the camera is hehe
Step5
Insert coins - usually 400 yen (4$).

Step 6
As soon as you insert the coins, you will be asked to choose some kind of settings for your photos on the touchscreen. I suggest to make sure what will you be asked to choose before entering the booth, it should be printed on the outside walls.
In our case, Daniel and I had to choose between pastel or vivid and cute or beautiful. We`ve chosen vivid and cute. Later on it turned out that as the first one refers to colors, the second one refers to the so called "faces", that your supposed to make to the camera.

Step 7
Make a couple of "faces", as displayed on the screen.

Step 8
Edit your pictures on the separate screen.

Two people can edit different pictures in the same time! It is possible to add text, pictures, funny backgrounds or even eyelashes or ribbons.
And by the way, this part needs to be paid separately.

Step 9
Wait for the prints. The blue light informs that pictures are being printed.

Step 10
Pick up your pictures - usually 2 prints!
The pink light informs that the pictures are ready.

Step 11
Enjoy admiring your funny pics.
You can also cut them out immediately, there are always some scissors nearby.

For sure purikura is not magic but it is kind of magical...

Place from outer space

2010-03-25T15:44:00.016+01:00

Manga Kissa can be simply translated from Japanese into English as Comic Cafe, so a place where people go to read manga (japanese comic) and have a coffee. In reality, it is much more than anybody who have not been there could ever imagine!

Before, I`ve heard about manga kissa from Daniel San who is a big fan of manga. I was sure that it must be some kind of library with soft drinks and icecream for free and additionally with a computer access. It turned out to be partly true. There were many bookshelves but not only...

After entering a rather large supermarket size building, Daniel and I stopped at the reception. The first awesome thing was that, while boys need to pay 399 yen to enter, for girls it is just 100 yen (1$) per hour. We have asked for a place with 2 seats - the other possibilities were single seat room or 3-seat room. Each of such rooms is very small but equipped with computer and internet access , TV, headphones for each person and lamps.

Among all those goods, my personal no. 1 is unlimited access to soft and hot drinks, as well as icecream. I should mention here, that average price of coffee in Japan is 250 yen so receiving as much coffee as somebody wants after paying 100 yen (in case od girls) is unbelievable! What is more, it is also possible to buy some food in vending machines, such as instant noodles, for a relatively low price.

Last but not least, additional surprises are access to showers and each guests` own safe for valuables.

It is still not enough to say that, Manga Kissa is a mix of internet cafe, a very cool library (if somebody knows how to read in Japanese) and a spot where even a person who missed their last train home or a desperate budget traveller can find a place to rest or even sleep - showers included! To such European girl as me, it gives a feeling of a café from an outer space.

Sakura in the rain

2010-03-24T15:20:00.004+01:00

Cherry blossom, in Japanese called Sakura, is a symbol of spring somehow and a perfect reason for celebrating all around Japan.

This year in Nagoya, the first cherry trees` flowers, showed up 1 day before my arrival to Japan, on the 18th of March. For comparison, first flowers in Tokyo appeared 4 days later, on the 22nd.
Special sakura forecasts infom about each regions best time for admiring those flowers. It didn`t start in Nagoya yet... but it already looks beautiful. Even in the rain!

Everything for 100 yen

2010-03-22T10:59:00.002+01:00

Have you ever visited the so called "1 pound" shop in England?
If you did, you surely liked it, but most of the stuff there seemed to be pretty useless. At least that is what I thought about it.

Japan has something very similar but also much different in the same time - 100 yen (hyaku-yen) shops, while right now, 100 yen is worth, more or less, 1$.

The best thing about "100 yen" shops, is that you can buy there EVERYTHING!
Obviously, the quality of products is not the finest but it does not really matter if you can buy those things for such a low price.

During my recent visit to 100 yen shop, Daniel San got me a book (for kids) to practice katakana writing - one of the japanese alphabets. I used to hate such excercise books when I was a 7 year old little girl but now it`s so much fun!

"100 yen" shop shown in the above pictures is located in Nagoya,
between Irinaka and Yagoto metro stations.

A very long flight

2010-03-20T10:00:00.005+01:00

On Friday morning, I left home and took a bus to the Warsaw airport and that is where I started my second trip to Japan. I was going to take 3 flights:
Warsaw-Paris, Paris-Narita(Tokyo) and Narita-Chubu(Nagoya).

Firstly, at the check-in, it turned out that I can not receive the boarding pass for the last flight so it made me a bit upset. I was not sure how confusing the Tokyo airport might turn out be. Anyway, after waiting a while I got on the plane that took me to the city of lights. As it was daytime, there were not many lights on but that was not the point, right?
I was looking forward to get to the terminal E of CDG airport coz it is a great place to take some cool pics. Even though the light, due to the weather was not perfect, I have managed to take few cool shots.

I was aware that I will spend over 12 next hours sitting on the plane so I kept on walking around the terminal wherever it was possible. What surprised me the most, was the row of very comfy chairs with a perfect view for watching planes taking off. And even better thing, was that no other passenger seemed to have noticed the existence of such relaxing place.

But that was not the end of the whole surprise... When I looked a bit down, I noticed another row of such chairs, this time black ones.
It seems that even airport terminals might have some worth visiting spots!

Proud of my great discovery I got on the JAL plane with a full smile.
Inside this giant machine, the person sitting next to me turned out to be a very friendly Japanese man coming back from his business trip. He told me that I was the first Polish person he ever met and kept on asking me questions about the country and for my reasons of going to Japan. At the end of the flight he asked if he can take a picture of me, so I agreed but maybe it was not the best idea coz nobody can resemble themselves in the picture after such a long flight hehe
Meanwhile, the flight attendant turned out to be Spanish and told me that the truth is, that he does not speak Japanese. He knows just the basics, so if any Japanese passenger asked him any question, he would be completely lost!

After landing at Narita airport, I had to pick up my luggage and do another check-in at the domestic flights. In the airport shop, I bought a box of soy sauce flavored Kit-Kat, that is a limited edition distributed just in Tokyo. Also, in the same shop, Japanese people who just got back from their journeys, were filling their stomachs with ramen that they probably missed a lot.
I arrived at Nagoya airport with a slight delay just before the sunset, but Daniel San was waiting for me very patiently.

One... two... three days in Poznan!

2010-02-21T19:38:00.013+01:00

One February weekend, when the snow was about to start melting on the streets, I went to visit my cousins - Ela and Ula - in Poznan.

Not many things have changed since we've seen each other during Christmas but entirely new were 2 board games that Ela bought few days before I got there. The 1st one - Power Grid - was the game which I already knew from the board games night in Porto and which I liked and kept on talking about so much that Ela didn't hesitate while ordering it. As Ela's set contained 4 different boards/maps, we've tried them all - Benelux, USA, Germany and Central Europe. I'm still looking forward to play on different maps that were published, such as Iberian Peninsula, Brazil, Nordic Countries or Italy.

Meanwhile, we also had to eat something so we did shopping in a nearby shop where we found something that totally surprised me - pasteis de nata - my favourite portuguese pastry!

The process of baking them is extremely simple (actually the Polish translation on the box says that the proper temperature is 275*C, while in English, German and Portuguese it says 250*C haha), the price is similar to those in Portuguese bakeries and what is the most important, they are as tasty as they should be!

If you were following my blog carefully during the last year, you should already know where the best Pasteis de Nata are being served - in Belem, close to Lisbon.

The 2nd board game was The Fury of Dracula - 2 players were vampire hunters trying to catch the 3rd player - Dracula, who was hiding and running away from them around Europe. At first the rules were very confusing for me. After Ela and Ula were Draculas in each game, it was my turn and we started kidding that probably I will ask them where should I hide my Dracula from them. It turned out that I was much better as the Dracula than I expected and I'm looking forward to play it again, even though I didn't like the game at the beginning.

How to make it YZY not ZYZ?

2010-02-19T08:09:00.005+01:00

Does it sometimes happen to you that somehow instead of "yzyzyz", which you are typing,
the thing that is coming out is opposite - "zyzyzy"? And that's also one of those times, when you're getting totally mad, while you are trying to ":)" you aren't able to do so coz you get this "Ł=" .

Here is the cure (which is exactly the same as the source) for this terrible disease:
press CTRL +SHIFT once in the same time

Yzy, isn't it? ;)

P.S. I'm sure that this tip is useful for the users of Windows XP in Polish. No idea about the rest ;)

Fat Thursday

2010-02-11T20:10:00.008+01:00

If I were to choose the sweetest Polish tradition, it would be today's holiday - the Fat Thursday (Tłusty Czwartek). In Christian tradition, the Fat Thursday is the last chance to eat as much as possible before the 40day lent followed by Easter holidays. On the last Thursday of Carnival, each Pole has to eat at least one pączek, which is a kind of a donut with random fillings. The most classical one has rose jelly filling inside and is being covered with sweet glaze sprinkled with pieces of dried orange.
This time I had 2 pączki - regular one with jelly rose filling and the other one with advocat and powdered sugar on the top.

1 pączek (pon-check)

2 pączki (ponch-ki)

The best place to try pączki in Warsaw is "Cukiernia Pawłowicz " at 13 Chmielna street, where they serve them fresh and still hot!
Can you imagine something better than such a sweet donut covered in a paper bag warming up your hands and mouth when it's snowing all around you? I don't think so!

Wetlina - to hike or not to hike?

2010-02-06T12:15:00.004+01:00

This year, was the first time I've ever made all the long way to the Bieszczady in winter time.
The main reason of this trip was collecting some sources for my master thesis. Somehow I also wanted to take at least one nice hike. Choosing the hiking route was simple, I've picked probably the least risky one - Polonina Wetlinska, where I could stop for a while in the only mountain shelter in the Bieszczady located in the higher mountain parts - Chatka Puchatka (the Pooh's Hut).

Obviously, before starting the hike I didn't forget to call the Bieszczady Mountain Rescue Volunteers (tel. +48 603-449-516) to ask about the weather conditions. The snow layer wasn't very thick and it wasn't windy at all, what made the hike even better. Luckily, there were 4 guys clearing the trail in front of me, so I didn't need to worry too much about falling into some hidden cave.
As the air was very transparent, due to the inversion, the Tatra mountains located over 200 km away were visible (look at top left in the pic below)!

The hike started at 9:30 from Przełęcz Wyżne and ended at 16:00 in Chata Wędrowca (the Wanderer's Hut) - the best place to eat in Wetlina.

It's important to mention that access to the Bieszczady, especially to Wetlina, is really bad in winter. If not some friendly local people I wouldn't have a chance to get to the starting point of the trail. Last but not least, I did all the hike with my Mum who keeps on saying "It was my last hike!" after every hike we do.

The Polonina Wetlinska view from the Wetlina village.

Brussels - very sweet

2010-01-17T17:14:00.013+01:00

Just when I got to the city center of Brussels on Sunday afternoon, I went straight ahead to take the following picture. I couldn't take it 2 nights before and so I've planned to come back there. I know, I know, not very spontaneous! On the way back, I unexpectedly came across one AEGEE girl, which was quite a nice suprise.

XXIst century - such an old building and such a new advertisement

Before departing back to Poland, I was suppoused to see my Belgian friend Sabrina. Before getting to the meeting point I got myself some frites to eat, while waiting at the Grote Markt . It turned out to be a typical habit of having a quick lunch in Brussels.

Eating frites at the Grote Markt

Sabrina is a very talkative person, what results with socialising with strangers easily or even bringing some of them with her. This time it was an Itallian girl who needed help with booking a hostel. After solving the problem and giving Sabrina's sister phone number to the girl, we hanged around the streets for a while. We came across the most famous Brussels' sculpture - Manneken Pis (A Peeing Boy), Royal Galleries of Saint Hubert - XIXth century shopping arcades, the Bouchers street with fancy restaurants, tried Belgian truffles and chocolates in a Chocolaterie. I brought some of those Belgian specialties to Poland but I think, they tasted better in Brussels.

Colorful copies of Manneken Pis in the chocolate shop window

Manneken Pis shaped flavoured chocolates - apple, mint, orange

When you don't see a friend for a long time, many things may change and sometimes even too many... This time Sabrina shared with me her experiences about studying in Istanbul and stories about the family that hosts her there.

Sweets, biscuits, chocolates, strangers and Sabrina

When Sabrina left, not to miss her train, Klaudia took me over and leaded to a romantic place. At least that's what she promised it to be like. The place turned out to be a few storey garage that has amazing views in all directions of Brussels. It reminded us of a movie Reality Bites, that we used to be crazy about as teenagers. The first scenes of it, take place on such roof and people are also taking pictures of themselves there.

Brussels just after sunset

As I still had some time to caught the bus, we stopped at Häagen-Dazs and Klaudia ordered those posh ice-cream for us in French. Obviously, as it usually happens, they didn't have the flavour she picked, so it took a while to decide about the other one.

Do you know that feeling, when just before the goodbye it doesn't feel as if it was a goodbye and you don't feel like going home? That was it.

Brussels - don't leave me

2010-01-16T21:12:00.009+01:00

After quite a long delay I arrived in Belgium exactly at 9:00pm. As soon as I got to the Charleroi airport's building I walked as fast as I could to the bus tickets selling office, where it turned out that the bus to Brussels leaves in 1 minute! I was praying for a boy, who was just in front of me in the queue, to find the freaking 2 euro coin, pay it to the cash-desk lady and let me buy my ticket! As I consider myself a quite lucky person in general, I was reeeaally lucky this time! When I got on the bus it was about to leave and I took the last seat left. 45 minutes later I got off next to the Bruxelles-Midi station where my high-school friend Klaudia was supposed to meet me. The drop off place of Charleroi airport's shuttle buses is kind of weird and actually doesn't seem to be what it is at all. At the end we met each other nearby the Tourist office.
It may sound boring but to me it was a big deal to make it right on time!

Klaudia is doing Erasmus in Brussels (she gave up Santander for Brussels) so she has many different impressions of this city, which she started telling me about right away, including story about amazing Belgian second-hand shops and how she found her lovely red bag, with a small sock hidden inside it, in one of them.
Meanwhile, just when we got on the train, 2 Irish guys interrupted us and asked if we spoke English - as we were speaking Polish, not French like every other person around, it was quite probable that we might also know the most useful language in the world. The guys told us a story of their friend who is married to a Polish girl (what Klaudia ostentatiously commented "how typical!") and they were very proud of themselves because they knew 2 polish words: "hello" (Polish: cześć) and the polish equivalent to the English F-word. They also informed us that the 2nd word is being constantly repeated by their friend and his wife... And finally the time came for us to leave the train at the Bourse station!

The Grote Markt's (Main Square's) area was exactly as it is usually thought to be on Friday evening in every large size city. Nevertheless, we didn't have problems with finding Rue de la Violette and Goupil Le Fol, the bar where board members of AEGEE Culture Working Group were supposed to be waiting for me.

Goupil Le Fol is a bit eccentric, 3-storey bar filled with old furniture, pictures and different kinds of vintage things including sewing machine. When I got there my friends were having this bar's specialty - fruit wine. Before ordering I've tried a bit of cherry, strawberry and raspberry... and finally decided to order the last one. What I found really cute was the sentence 'Ne me quitte pas...' (French: 'Don't leave me...') printed on each glass. If I had to recommend a similar bar in Warsaw, it would be W Oparach Absurdu (Polish: In the Fumes of Absurd).

CWG board members who made all the long ways to meet Brussels:
Michele, me, Michael, Anya & Olimpia

After 2 glasses of the fruit wine I was desperately looking forward to going to sleep or at least eating some Belgian Frites...
My 2nd wish came true and we all headed to the most famous place to eat frites in Brussels, which is FRITLAND at Rue Henri Maus, across the street from the Bourse. As the portions were quite big, I shared mine with Anya. Despite a wide variety of sauces, we decided to make it the most authentic and ate our frites with the mayonnaise sauce. The other sauces I've tried during following days were garlic and Andalusian. I guess it won't be a fas paux if I say there were all exquisite!

Later on, we've tried to find some famous party place with very poor results and so decided to take a night bus to the CD House, which is a kind of home of all AEGEE members. Even though, we didn't go to sleep before 6am, I was already awake at 9am and did breakfast shopping before we officially started the board meeting around 11:30. We had long, fruitful brainstorming in the basement until 4pm, when we needed a break. We also took the opportunity of doing shopping for the evening dinner that we were supposed to prepare for over 18 people. After very long discussions in the middle of Lidl, we decided to cook a huge pot of rice with vegetables, mushrooms and fried chicken.

It's been a well done teamwork that was continued by trying drinks mostly from all around Europe but also from Beyond Europe.

Sunday morning was spent on applying changes to the CWG budget. Around noon, Anya had to leave to catch the bus to the airport and I've joined her on the way to the city center...

(I deeply apologise,
all photos that appear in this post
were not taken by me.)

Mazury - winter tale

2010-01-02T19:20:00.004+01:00

Results of taking winter pictures with Olympus Trip 35.
My 2nd roll of film with it - expired Fuji Superia 400, 1/200.

Mazury - family place

2010-01-01T12:14:00.005+01:00

Mazury is the polish great lakes district, located in the northeast of the country.
Last summer I've stayed there quite a long time but somehow the blog post got lost in time and never got published. I've spent the recent New Year's Eve in the Mazury as well, so now I have a great opportunity to show how different its landscape is when it comes to compare summer and winter.

My new hobby - pouring water out of the boat.

Daniel hesitating if he should step on the frozen lake.

Four hand rowing!
Ula with Łukasz's support.

No chance to swim or to use the boat.
The ice layer was around 20-30 cm thick.

Auschwitz

2009-12-29T21:42:00.011+01:00

It took me some time of hesitation (exactly 2 months) whether I should make this post or not...
I suppose everybody knows what used to be hidden under the name Auschwitz.
I've been to that place for the first time as a 13 year old girl. I remember that it was a very hot and sunny day. The area of the former concentration camp was filled with people, not much older than me at that time, wearing blue and white hoodies. All of them were Jewish teenagers from different countries, who made all the way to Poland to participate in the March of the Living, which takes place in Auschwitz every year. Despite of the young age, most of them seemed to be aware of the tragic history of the place. They were moving from one building to another and discovering over and over again what happened there not such a long time ago, putting candles in some places in memory of the victims, crying...
In the afternoon, people who gathered in Auchwitz marched all together to Birkenau, another former concentration camp, located few kilometers away. When everybody got there, it was finally possible to notice with one sight how many people were really there. A lot. Before the sunset, many speeches took place... The aim of all of them was to make all those young people remember what happened there during the World War II.

Last year, I met a girl, living in the opposite side of Europe, who visited Auschwitz during her trip to Poland few years ago. She told me that she doesn't understand making this whole big fuss over visiting the Museum of Auschwitz (yes, nowadays it is called a museum) and that she didn't feel anything at all there. For her, it wasn't shocking, terrifying or even sad visiting those buildings, rooms or showers/gas chambers where people were dying.

Lately, it happened to me to visit Auschwitz once again after 10 years. This time, it wasn't sunny. It was cloudy, cold and everything was covered with snow. It was also crowded, I believe it's always crowded there, but with many different kinds of tourists: Polish, Chinese, German, Russian, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Dutch, French, British, American, Jewish, Catholic, Buddhist and so on... Each huge, medium or even tiny group had their own guide who seemed to be doing their best while telling all of the unbelievable stories.

I don't want to point at any specific group that I've mentioned (although I could), however, I started asking myself a question: Does everybody have to visit Auschwitz during their trip to Cracow/Poland/Middle-Eastern Europe? And does it really make people remember about the World War II crimes?
I have a sad feeling that for many people it's just a tick on their list of places to visit, not a place where they learn something. Nobody should consider going to Auschwitz as a trip to the museum. It is not a touristic sight. It is a very important lesson.

I've found this worth reading article after writing my post:
"The lesson I learnt at Auschwitz"
British Prime Minister - Gordon Brown

Olympus Trip 35

2009-12-28T13:34:00.003+01:00

Let me introduce you a new member of my family - Olympus Trip 35 - made in Japan. As its name suggests, it loves travelling. A trip from Japan to Poland in Daniel's hand luggage wasn't a big deal for it and arrived at my home 2 days before Christmas.

Trying to be more serious, Olympus Trip 35 is a camera introduced for the first time in the late 60's and includes all that is necessary for street photography. The camera that I own was produced in 1978 and below are the prooves, pictures taken by Daniel and me, of the fact that it works reaaaallllyyy good!

Olympus Trip 35 - street photography camera
Vintage Camera Museum

Christmas - how to not get bored

2009-12-27T09:20:00.006+01:00

Christmas 2009 passed without getting bored thanks to the board games!

Just before the Christmas Eve dinner, together with Ela, Ula and Daniel, we've played the game called Shogun, which I was looking forward to since last January.
Generally speaking, Shogun is about scoring the biggest number of points by possessing as many prefectures of Japan as possible, fighting with enemies, making rice supplies so that people won't die of hunger in winter, building castles, temples and Noh theatres.

While playing we all had different strategies, but the ones of Ula and Daniel deserve to be described here. Ula's aim was buying loads of rice, while Daniel's main objective was making Nagoya a powerful city with a beautiful castle and attacking all his neighbours without caring about rice supplies. It's also worth mentioning that each player represented different famous shogun, for example I had a card of Ieyasu Tokugawa. Shogun is probably my no. 1 board game of all we've played.

Another 2 board games were this year's presents from Santa Claus - I've received Ticket to Ride - Europe and Ela got Small World.

Ticket to Ride - Europe is all about constructing railways around Europe's map from 1912. At first, the rules seem to be a bit complicated but it is a truly family game and each of my family members played it at least once during Christmas and enjoyed it.

Concerning Small World, it is a board game about possessing lands and scoring points for that by the use of supernatural powers - the players are representing different creatures - dwarfs, tritons, elves, giants and so on. Personally, I'm not a big fan of monsters and fairytale creatures, however, my second impression on Small World was much better than the first one.

Another game we've tried playing 2 times was Mystery of the Abbey, which I already knew before. In my opinion Mystery is a very interesting game and what makes it even more cool is being based on the book "The Name of Rose" by Umberto Eco. At the beginning each player receives a bunch of cards with names of different monks, while one of the cards remains hidden.
During the game the players are trying to find out which of the monks is the murderer, for example by asking questions to other players. The necessary thing during the game is taking notes about the facts that are already known.
In our case, Daniel didn't take any notes and then kept on refusing to answer questions (yes, it is allowed) or he gave Ela and me some fake answers, which finally lead to getting lost in our investigations. When we've played Mystery of the Abbey for the 2nd time, Daniel was trying to cheat, but luckily, thanks to the special card, Ula got a possibility to exchange cards with him.
Obviously it was annoying to have such a rebel player among us but in the 2nd game somehow it made it more funny and interesting.

Except the board games we've also played 2 games that might be considered as card games. The first game MahJong, is a kind of an Asian equivalent to European cards, was brought to us by Japanese Santa Claus. As I've attended a workshop dedicated to this game few days before Christmas, I already knew what is it all about and after watching 2 videos on youtube we were ready to play. Well, I still need to learn more about MahJong so I'll explain the rules of the game some other time.

Last but definitely not least game was the one widely known as Bohnanza, in Poland named Fasolki (pol. beans). The aim of the game is exchanging cards in all possible ways with other players to be able to plant as many beans as possible and receive the coins for that. There are few kinds of beans, in polish version of the game they are named in polish so I recommend the foreigners eager to learn polish to play Fasolki at least once to learn few useful words. In our case, the winner of the game was Daniel - the only non-Polish speaker.

Amarante - study trip

2009-11-30T19:20:00.004+01:00

During the semester I've spent on Erasmus in Portugal, one of the classes that I've attended was Planeamento e Gestão de Projectos Turisticos (Planning and Managing Tourism Products).
The main task was to create our own business plans but meanwhile we had a chance to learn how one of the already existing Tourism Products really works.

"Welcome who comes for good"

Right at the begging of the semester the professor told us to keep one day of May free for a study trip. The place where we were supposed to go to was Casa da Calçada in Amarante.

Daniela Patricia Natalina Nuno Angela

Armando Simon Nelson

Amarante is famous for São Gonçalo who had unique abilities of miraculous healing. The most significant pieces of architecture in the city - the chapel and the former monastery were named after him.

The hotel which our professor was so eager to show us, turned out to be a very luxurious one with rich history of the building and its surroundings. My Portuguese classmates told me that the uniqueness of this place is even greater because of its history. Once upon a time, one Portuguese guy, who came back from France, brought the new techniques of wine production and became successful together with the whole wide Douro region. He was considered to be very poor before so his achievement is considered to be very spectacular. After one century or so, the family decided to keep the legend alive and developed a tourism product based on the vineyard and it's renovated buildings. That's how the yellow hotel of Casa da Calçada was born. According to the hotel's representative who gave a speech about this story, the moral is, that everybody may reach for the stars.

Casa da Calçada is a good example of a boutique hotel, which means it's not only luxurious but also has an intimate, magical atmosphere and rich history. Hotels of this kind are also known as design hotels and include extraordinary cuisine, stylish furnishings, as well as additional, unique facilities.

After seeing a couple of rooms, watching a movie about boutique hotels, listening and discussing the topic, we also met a person who is some kind of Big Fish for Portuguese Tourism. He told us that the most important is the idea and if we come up with a good one, we should keep it and protect it. At least that's how I understood it in Portuguese.

We've drank our glasses of juice which had the same color as the hotel's walls and some of us went to have churro, which originated in Spain. It's a kind of pastry with different fillings - we all chose chocolate. Delicious!

On the way back, Simon's car was fully packed with people - Patricia, Armando, Nelson and me. Guys told me that the road between Amarante and Vila Real is one of the most dangerous ones in Portugal. Beware!

All of the pictures in this post were taken with Nelson's camera. I'm glad I was finally able to make this post. By chance, I've found all of the pictures sent by Nelson to the mailbox, which I hardly ever check. Better late than never, as we say in Poland.

Kyiv - golden leaves and golden domes

2009-10-26T18:11:00.016+01:00

Autumn is the time of falling leaves and rainy days that are getting shorter one by one but not only. It's also time of the Autumn AEGEE Agora, where 700 AEGEE members from all around Europe meet. This year we met in Kiev, which is one of the oldest eastern European cities.

The Agora took place in the buildings of Kiev Polytechnic Institute, including its gyms and a canteen.

Before the Agora started we had the whooole Thursday free to hang around the city. On that day, Cigdem, Sveta, Magda and I went to see the place that Kiev is the most famous for - the Pechersk Lavra.

After leaving the metro at the Arsenalna station we kept on asking people on the street, which is the right way to get to the nearby Pechersk Lavra. The funny thing was that before even asking a question, people were answering "I don't know". Obviously, we didn't try it in English but in Russian. As soon as,Sveta got discouraged, I've tried few more times and one man finally answered our simple question. We took a nice walk along the Dnieper river and finally found what we were looking for!

Pechersk Lavra, also known as the Monastery of the Caves, shines above Kiev with it's golden domes and bright colors. Its beginnings reach the early XIth century when the first cave monastery was founded. In the XVIIth century first constructions representing the Ukrainian baroque were brought up and remain there as the symbols of Kiev until now.

The other day, Joanna, Magda and I skipped the plenary to visit the oldest part of the city. While getting a bit lost we came across some more or less fascinating things and places.

Finally, we've found ourselves in the middle of the Bohdan Chmielnicki square (sorry for the Polish spelling of his name but "Khmelnytsky" doesn't appeal to me!) located just between Sofiys’kyi sobor and Mikhaylovsky zlatoverkhy monastyr.

Sofiys’kyi sobor was not only named after but also designed to rival the Hagia Sofia of Istanbul - Saint Sophia/Holy Wisdom Cathedral. It belongs to the Seven Wonders of the Ukraine, together with the Pechersk Lavra.

Mikhaylovsky zlatoverkhy monastyr or simply St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery, is actually a reconstruction of the cathedral complex demolished by the Soviet authorities in the 1930's. Sad but true.

Last but not least, place which I wanted to visit in Kiev was the Andriyivs’kyi uzviz (eng. St Andrew's descent), a pretty long street going down around the hill. This street is also known as the Montmartre of Kiev because of its artistic character. The place is usually full of street painters and what's more, by the street may be found its own museum - "One Street Museum" and Mikhail Bulgakov's house.

On the last evening we had a nice surprise. There was a huge concert in the Maidan Nezalezhnosti (eng. Independence Square) - main square of Kiev, because of the upcoming elections. The whole square was filled with music and blue and yellow Ukrainian flags.

Even though I'm not a smoker, for me the smell of Kiev is the smell of the Kiss cigarettes... usually it's the smell of apples but eventually of strawberries.

Tabemono (jap. food)

2009-10-16T19:59:00.006+02:00

All of the meals I had in Japan were quite a big adventure. In most of the cases I didn't know what the thing I was looking at consist of. What's more, all of the names were written with kanjis, which I wasn't able to decipher. Even though, on the first day I've told Daniel that KFC and so on will be allowed after the first week, during the rest of my stay I didn't feel like giving up amazing Japanese restaurants for occidental junk food. I'm not going to present here Japanese cuisine theoretically but practically from my subjective point of view.

Kyoku no Fukushimakensan momo jamu & kuriimu pan (jap. Delicious peach jam produced in Fukushima prefecture & cream bread) is a kind of peach jam flavoured donut, which I've picked for my first breakfast in Japan. Extremely artificial and funny looking!

Matcha aisu kurīmu (jap. green tea ice-cream) was on my top 10 list of things to try in Japan. It turned out that those ice-cream don't taste exactly like the green tea but much more sweet. Obviously the color is so strong that after a while of eating my pinky tongue turned into green.
The funny thing about Japanese vocabulary, as you see above, is that they convert typical English words in the way that still sounds familiar.

Daifuku (jap. great luck) might be considered a typical Japanese sweet. It's a kind of cake made of glutinous rice and filled usually with very sweet red bean filling. Those little cakes are usually covered with corn starch to make them less sticky.
For the first time, I've tired daifuku on the train from Kyoto and I thought that was a kind of green tea flavoured jelly. I loved the green part but I couldn't bear the sweetness of red beans. I took some daifuku to Poland and my family said that it was very funny to touch it - it's very soft outside but the filling makes it hard inside. In reality, what it reminds me of the most is Turkish Lokum.

Bentō is a take away meal, always packed in a box. It always includes rice, meat and some vegetables. One of the features of good Japanese mother is ability of preparing awesome looking bentō for her child. I've picked the one below at Himeji train station but I didn't have a chance to eat it immediately. After 1,5h Daniel was sure that it was not eatable anymore but it turned out to be still fresh and tasty.

Sakura Ebi (jap. cherry blossom shrimp) is a tiny shrimp typical for Shizuoka Prefecture. Daniel made me eat some of them in one of Shizuoka's sushi restaurants.
Unforgettable but terrible experience!!!

Black sepia spaghetti was probably the weirdest dish in Japan for me, even though it's not Japanese but Italian! I've seen it for the first time in my life. Before Daniel started his meal I asked him with disguise: 'Are you really going to eat this?'
Melon soda/Melon Fanta - absolutely love it!

Gyōza are the Japanese equivalent of Polish pierogi.

Udon a type of thick noodles served with a vegetable soup. This was the meal that I used to order most often. It is always served warm and in big portions so there is no risk of being hungry after eating. Udon should be grabbed with sticks and the soup is usually eaten afterwards with a spoon or drank as if it was a cup.
When I order a soup in Poland I usually say the name of soup, for example Tomato Soup and I don't care much if it is served with rice or noodles. Meanwhile, Japanese soups are actually more about noodles than about the liquid that is around them. The other popular Japanese noodles are ramen and soba.

Shokudo at the Nagoya University is a place where Daniel eats most of his daily meals. I envy him! Before ordering the dish, students are not only able to choose among many dishes but they can also see them in 'real' plastic version! On that day, I've picked fish and aubergine tempura with rice and miso soup.
Tempura is a name for deep fried battered meats or vegetables. It is believed to have been brought to Japan by Portuguese missionaries. What a pity that they have introduced tempura to Japanese but seem to have forgotten about it in their homeland.

KitKat is probably world's most famous chocolate bar. For me Japan seemed to be a KitKat paradise because they have so many different kinds of it. I had no idea what flavour should I actually expect, while buying each box. I loved those sweet surprises!

Despite of being scared of dying of hunger in Japan I'm still alive and I really miss most of the food I ate there. I'll be back soon!

(This is one of over 30 posts, which I accidentally deleted one day in January. Luckily, I was able to recover them thanks to the backup done by DanielSan! It's a pity that the comments are gone but someting is better than nothing.)

Toulouse or to loose?

2009-10-14T23:58:00.011+02:00

Vila Real, April 15th, 2009

There is a city called the Pink City. It's hard to say if its closer to the Mediterranean Sea or to the Pyrenees Mountains but for sure it's located by the river Garonne and Canal du Midi, that was created to make a short-cut between the sea and the Atlantic. The city I'm writing about is mainly famous for the aerospace industry - Airbus factory. What really shows how modern the Pink City is, are metro trains without drivers. If someone told me that 'all roads lead to Rome' I would have to disagree. My experiences proved that all roads lead to Toulouse!

Rue du Taur

The Capitole de Toulouse

My adventure with Toulouse started in 2007 when, thanks to AEGEE Summer University in Istanbul, I met Florian who is studying there. It wasn't hard for him to convince me to come to France - I've only visited Lyon till then. After few days in Paris we took a train and after 6 or 8 hours arrived to the Pink City.

Florian by the Canal du Midi

Me in front of
the Abattoirs - contemporary art museum
(by Ze Mario)

As it is not a very big city, after a few days I knew names of most of the streets and my new Portuguese friends, who were doing Erasmus there - Ze Mario and Ze Pedro- said that even when I'll be gone to Poland they will call me to ask how to get to some place.

Ze Mario in The Georges Labit Museum

It wasn't more than a year when another friend of mine, Kasia, announced me that she is moving to Toulouse together with her boyfriend Daniel. They've been living there happily together with their new cat since February and they seem to enjoy it.

Daniel&Kasia

...and the same fountain in one of my pictures.

It wasn't the last time when the city suddenly showed up in my daily routine. Last summer, during the Summer University that I've organised, it turned out that Simon from the UK did his Erasmus in Toulouse for a year! Unfortunately, he didn't share my enthusiasm about the Pink City because he was there a while ago...

The Saint-Sernin basilica

The Saint-Etienne cathedral

And here I am, in Portugal, going out with my flatmates and their new friend Piotr who came here from Poland by car. Every person hearing this would ask: Have you made any stops on your way? The answer was absolutely unbelievable: Yes, I did... In Salzburg and... in Toulouse!

I'm not writing this post to praise how great Toulouse is - although it is - but to show how small the world is ...and also because my toulousian friends are visiting this blog most often.

Qui ne saute pas n'est pas Toulouse!

(eng. Who doesn't jump is not from Toulouse!)

This is a sentence that the crowd usually screams during big parties, rugby games or concerts that are taking place in Toulouse...

Warsaw, October 14th, 2009

Here I am, 6 months after writing all the stuff above and never publishing it. It's been snowing behind the window for the entire day. It doesn't resemble the sunny days I've spent in Toulouse or those in Vila Real, which I used to waste in front of the computer screen but it's a perfect day for this post to see the daylight!

Kasia and Coral@AEGEE-Toulouse LTC

Special thanks to Coral, Kasia and Flo!
How I wish, how I wish I was in Toulouse with you last weekend :))

Himeji - conquering unconquered castle

2009-10-09T19:51:00.004+02:00

According to many different sources, Himeji Castle is the best of the best Japanese castles. It is said to be so spectacular mainly because it was never destroyed and survived in its original form. The early beginnings of the castle reach the XVth century, however it was completed and remained unchanged since the XVIIth century. What's more, it was never conquered and in 1945 the bomb was dropped into the castle but miraculously didn't explode!

The most famous resident of the castle was Princess Sen (jap. Senhime). The princess was born in Tokugawa clan in XVIIth century. At her age of 7 the family arranged her marriage with Toyotomi Hideyori, to protect clan's from each other. Since then the couple lived in the Osaka castle but Tokugawa Ieyasu, Sen's grandfather decided to invade the castle anyway. Hideyori had to commit seppuku. Princess Sen was promised to the man who will rescue her before the castle's downfall. Poor guy got the burn while saving her and she refused to marry him because of that. One year didn't pass when she married handsome Honda Tadatoki with whom she lived happily in Himeji castle. They had 2 children, a boy and a girl. Unfortunately, Princess Sen lost her family before the age of 25. She cut her hair short, became a Buddhist nun and moved to Edo (modern Tokyo).

There is a legend about Honda's and Sen's love. He promised to give her anything she will ask for. Princess requested to make her live forever, so that she will be able to love him forever. Honda asked one witch he knew to find a solution. The witch checked out ancient Book of Death and prayed for immortal pear to appear. Honda and Princess Sen shared the pear as a sign of eternal love. However, the couple forgot to ask for eternal youth and since then they were getting older and older until they turned into arguing mouths, that will keep going on like that until the end of time.

While living in Himeji castle, Princess Sen used to spend most of the time on prayers in the temple and in her dressing rooms. Nowadays, Sen's dressing room is open for visitors in Himeji castle and there is even a doll that was based on a painting of Princess Sen. The scene includes ashtray with all smoking kit. Most of Sen's duties were simply enjoying her life in Himeji castle!

Every Japanese castle's main part is donjon- main tower, connected with surrounding buildings. One of the tricks to surprise the enemy was that 2nd and 3rd floor of donjon are actually one floor and seem to be separated just from the outside. Himeji castle is made of wood and covered with white plaster, mainly to protect the structure. The white color of the castle is the reason why is it commonly called White Heron castle.

Characteristic feature of Japanese castles are kinshachi, somehow considered to be equivalent of European gargoyles. Those lovely fish not only symbolised feudal lords authority, but also were used as fire prevention. In this case, it really worked out!

Another famous legend of Himeji castle is a ghost story. Once the servant named Okiku found out about one guy's evil plan to kill the lord of the castle. She saved the lord but the evil guy discovered that it was her fault that he didn't succeed. He took a revenge on her stealing purposely one of the treasure dishes. The girl was tortured to death on the charge of missing dish. Since then the ghost appears in the castle... from time to time.

While leaving the castle I've noticed a bunch of people gardening around. I guess it's worth to mention that the best time to see Himeji, just like any other place in Japan is the month of April, which is the time of cherry blossom. It's also good to know that the castle is going to be partly restored from now on until 2014.

(This is one of over 30 posts, which I accidentally deleted one day in January. Luckily, I was able to recover them thanks to the backup done by DanielSan! It's a pity that the comments are gone but someting is better than nothing.)

Tokyo - under my umbrella

2009-09-27T20:37:00.002+02:00

Life would be really boring if there were no surprises related to the weather forecast. Thanks to the Typhoon Krovanh (which is a Cambodian word for a kind of tree) visiting Tokyo turned out to be a kind of extreme sport. After arriving from Kawaguchiko, Daniel and I were full of hope for a better weather. Well, actually I was looking for the sun, while Daniel was complaining how dirty, smelly and nasty the capital of Japan is when you compare it to Nagoya. In those more or less optimistic moods, we've reached a building of the Tokyo City Hall, which has 2 towers and 48 floors. We've picked the North Tower to see the panoramic view of Tokyo in the fog, so the elevator took us to the 45th floor. The other cool things about that building were 2 great tourist information offices - the 1st one had all the information concerning every region of Japan and the 2nd one was devoted to Tokyo only. What's more, it was the day of elections - we were in the right place in the right time.

Our hostel was located in Asakusa, which was considered to be the main entertainment district of Tokyo in the past. Probably, its most characteristic monument used to be Senso-ji the Buddhist temple. Right now, I would rather say that it's much more difficult not to notice the advertisement of Asahi beer, which is supposed to look like a giant drop of beer but it also resembles a golden piece of sh...

On Sunday morning, when it started raining even more heavily, Daniel and I made a deal - what is more popular in Japan: Starbucks or Mister Donut. Luckily, in that moment MrD won (even though I was in favour of *$ and we had a morning coffee with super tasty green tea donuts! Later it turned out that there are more *$ around the city but since then I'm always in favour of MrD!

How is it possible, that in the city where every person recycles garbage, almost every person rides a bicycle or metro instead of a car, everything is surrounded by huge advertisements filled with power consuming lights???

I have to confess, in my opinion Tokyo is a really strange place. I'm able to understand why did they put a robot called Gundam on an artificial island - this robot is something very important for Japanese culture and people all over Japan are mad about him. On the days when the tyhpoons are not expected, the robot even moves and does all those things that make him a true robot. Meanwhile, I can't find any reasonable explanation for the rest of crazy stuff.

What I mean by "crazy stuff" is a copy, erected in the year 2000, of the Statue of Liberty that has been standing in the middle of the New York Harbour starting from over 100 years before I was born until now. It also seems that it's not the only replica of the statue in Japan. The situation gets even more weird when the most famous bridge of Tokyo - the Rainbow Bridge - partly disappears in the fog and pretends to be the Brooklyn Bridge. In one of the movies Woody Allen said that "the true New Yorker secretly believes that anyone living anywhere else than New York must be kidding". The Statue of Liberty in Tokyo is a good Japanese joke then!

This post was not based on the pictures that I took in Tokyo, but on the pictures of me taken in Tokyo by DanielSan. Hey! It's my blog, I also want to appear here from time to time... :)

(This is one of over 30 posts, which I accidentally deleted one day in January. Luckily, I was able to recover them thanks to the backup done by DanielSan! It's a pity that the comments are gone but someting is better than nothing.)

Iga - nothing rhymes with Ninja

2009-09-26T20:06:00.001+02:00

The city of Iga is located 2 hours away from Kyoto by car or train. My first thought after getting out of the train station there was that we left the train in the wrong town. After a few seconds a couple of signs proved that it really was the place we were looking for - the city famous for Ninja.

As the city is isolated by the mountains, it gave perfect location for numerous schools of Ninjutsu martial art in the past. It is said that art of Ninjutsu came to Japan from China through Korea and is not that much about the strength of a person, but it's the way of using intellectual solutions to fight - manipulation or parapsychology.

The river Hattori, which crosses Iga, was named after Hattori Hanzo, who lived in the XVIth century and is considered to be one of the most awesome ninjas ever. He started his trainings at the age of 8 and managed to posses more skills than any other ninja in history and what is even more, the legend says that he had supernatural powers such as ability of predicting things. It seems that the name Hattori was not accidentally given by Quentin Tarantino to the sword smith, who is one of the Kill Bill movie characters.

Iga fits perfectly to the vision of the stereotypical Japanese town that was being created in my mind for the last 23 years. It has all those typical wooden houses with tatamis on the floor, gardens with trees that look like huge bonsais and crowds of children wearing typical uniforms.

The main tourist attractions of Iga are the castle, the house of Matsuo Basho (world's most famous haiku poet) and the Ninja Museum. Being honest, I've never paid too much attention to the stories about Ninja, except the Ninja Turtles cartoon, so I didn't know what should I expect from the museum.
The first part of the museum was a Ninja's house. Probably, during the presentation of the revolving walls, trick door, underground passage, lookout place or secret compartments for hiding weapon, I was amused not less than the children standing next to me. What was even more impressive, the person showing us all those "magical" things was passing through the secret door really fast.

Second part of the museum was an exhibition presenting everything that is known about Ninja lifestyle, Ninjutsu techniques or genealogy. Last but not least, we've watched a demonstration of weapons and some ninja tricks, which was kind of scary, especially when "one of the Ninja guys" threw 3 shurikens in the same time. Unfortunately, all of the presentations were given in Japanese but anyway, I understood the part about not taking pictures with flash, while Daniel thought it's not allowed to take pictures at all. Practice makes the master!

I'm glad I've taken pictures of EVERY SINGLE THING in the museum, because I don't think there is any easily available book about the Ninja topic in Europe. If anyone is eager to learn more about Ninja, let me know!

(This is one of over 30 posts, which I accidentally deleted one day in January. Luckily, I was able to recover them thanks to the backup done by DanielSan! It's a pity that the comments are gone but someting is better than nothing.)

21st century Manga

2009-09-20T14:27:00.023+02:00

Among all things that Japan has and the rest of the world doesn't, on the first place I should put enormously huge manga shops. Well, European cities have some comic shops, for example the one that I've been to in Bilbao but I wouldn't compare them to the Japanese ones.
While visiting manga shops around all of the cities I've seen in Japan, I was trying to find the one which I could read without reading haha! What I mean is that they were all in Japanese so I was looking for something that would catch my interest by its pictures. And I've found it!

My personal number 1 is the manga entitled "Saint Oniisan" (eng. "Saint Young Men") by Hikaru Nakamura! The story is about two guys renting a flat in a big city, dealing with daily problems and travelling. Quite boring, huh? Rather not, if those guys are Buddha and Jesus, if the city they are living in is Tokyo and if it the whole world is seen from their point of view!

The manga which I'm describing here does not only consist of jokes and funny situations but also encourages social and philosophical reflections. Even though, both characters represent completely different life attitudes, they seem to be very good friends . Some of the dialogues might be controversial, however, I don't think anybody could call them offensive. I believe that everybody would appreciate this manga in their own way but for sure they would!

Below I've selected a few of my favourite cut outs. They were translated from Japanese into English, so remember to read them from right to left (and click to enlarge) !

Check out
http://www.onemanga.com/Saint_Young_Men/
to find more!

Sushi - Around the Tables in 80 Seconds

2009-09-15T20:45:00.003+02:00

Japanese culture wouldn't be as it is without sushi!

No wonder why not only it looks special, but also is being served in different that typical conditions. Opposite to the most of the restaurants all around the world, those which serve sushi are equipped more unusually. During my stay in Japan I've visited 3 kaiten-zushi restaurants, which are places where sushi goes around the restaurant on a special moving belt (a smaller version of the belt from which you pick up your luggage at the airport). The one that I liked the most was located in the Nagoya's neighbourhood of Makinohara and I went there with Daniel on bikes. Here I start the story about how different it was from all the other restaurants I knew before...

It doesn't matter if you come to kaiten-zushi alone or with a group of people. There is a place for everybody. The room full of tables includes both kinds of places.

Normally the second step would be ordering but actually the food passes next to you even without being ordered. I was a bit shocked when I didn't even sit down yet and Daniel already picked few plates with sushi!

Every table has its own computer, which is used for ordering things that you'd like to eat but you can't wait for them any longer to appear on the belt. Thanks to the picture menu you don't really need to read Japanese.

The difference between ordered and not-ordered sushi is simple. Few seconds before the requested sushi arrives, the computer makes a funny sound and soon after that you see your dish arriving on the red bowl. Red bowl means that if you didn't order the particular plate, you shouldn't take it. The rest of plates that was not ordered is simply going round until somebody picks it or until it's not fresh anymore and automatically thrown away.

Important part of having a good meal is also having something to drink. Each table has its own box filled with green tea and what's even more, a tap with hot water. The cup can be refilled as many times as needed. And by the way! One wise man told me once that the way a person holds chopsticks means a lot. The biggest difference is between samurais, who used to hold chopsticks at the end and poor people who grabbed them close to the food. On the day when I've learned it I was a samurai but in the picture below I'm probably representing the middle class.

As soon as the bellies are full, the next step is to officially count the number of plates by throwing them into the special hole in the table.

The surprise comes when the number of plates is registered in the computer. Each 5 plates counts as a one chance to win a toy. The toys are located above the computer and the whole thing about the competition is simply a very strange computer game. I keep on saying that the game is unfair... because I've lost! Anyway, Daniel has more luck in this kind of things, so I hope he will keep on winning toys for me.

Would you like some saromon nigiri? (There is no letter L in Japanese.)
One plate costs only 100Yen! (~1$)

(This is one of over 30 posts, which I accidentally deleted one day in January. Luckily, I was able to recover them thanks to the backup done by DanielSan! It's a pity that the comments are gone but someting is better than nothing.)

My latest discovery concerning kaiten sushi explains why in some places sushi is served on 2 different colors of plates. The reason for that is content of wasabi in some pieces of sushi.
Not only, wasabi changes the taste of the dish but also, has great antibacterial abilities and so it may prevent food poisoning. Unfortunately, Japanese cuisinse that includes raw fish is a potential source of bacteria.

(update from the 23rd of April, 2010)

Lost in Karaoke

2009-09-05T09:23:00.005+02:00

Have you seen the movie "Lost in Translation"?
I used to think that singing in the karaoke room, which appeared in that movie must be amazing... and it really is! We've checked it out with Daniel in Tokyo, while the typhoon was passing by the city.

Before going to Tokyo we made sure, which karaoke place appears in the movie. It turned out to be Karaoke Kan - a popular karaoke chain in Japan, with a characteristic blue and red neon sign. The Karaoke where the movie was shot is located in Shibuya (30-8 Utawgawacho), not far from the Shibuya station. It's supposed to be open from 11am until 6am, so anytime is perfect to go there. In case the room 601 would be taken, another one where the movie was shot is 602.
At first we went to Shibuya's Karaoke Kan the night before but then, we thought that the best time to go there is just before dusk because we will have a chance to be there at both - day and night. It was raining cats and dogs all day, so the plan turned out to be perfect. The same guy, as the day before, welcomed us at the entrance and we followed him to the cash desk. As Daniel was speaking Japanese to him, I had no idea what were they saying. I just reminded Daniel, which was the room number from the movie that we wanted to go to so much. Of course Daniel had to do it his own way and asked for the room with a window! The guy looked at us with a strange face, most probably because it's a huge room and we were just 2 people but well, whatevever, there were no other customers. We got the receipt and went up to the 6th floor, ordered first free drinks (Daniel: strawberry shake, me: greeeen melon soda) and kept on singing and taking photos for 2 hours in a row. I was a bit annoyed by not a very wide selection of non-japanese songs but as I've found my favourite - "Ironic" by Alanis Morissette, the rest didn't matter afterall. One of the songs, which Daniel sang, was "More than this" - the song sang by Bill Murray in "Lost in Translation". For sure, this was the part of the trip to Tokyo, which I liked the most.

I have completely forgotten to write about a funny couple that we met at the Shibuya crossing after leaving the metro station. As it was heavily raining and we didn't have umbrellas (first one got stollen at the hostel and the other one got broken in Odaiba - Tokyo's artificial island - by the typhoon), a couple from Singapoure owning 2 umbrellas stopped next to us, asked where do we want to go and offered help with walking in the rain. I found it very friendly but Daniel thought that it was suspicious. Anyway, I still regret we didn't invite them to go to karaoke with us.

First week in Japan

2009-08-27T20:56:00.006+02:00

The trip with Japanese Airlines was even more pleasant than I expected. After waiting 3 hours at CDG airport it turned out that I was upgraded from Economy to Business class. The person sitting right next to me was a Japanese man, who lives in Warsaw. Obviously we've exchanged the visit cards. While having not only an interesting trip companion, but also a lot of space for legs and TV with option of watching any movie I wanted at any time those 12 hours of trip did not matter at all! The main airport of Nagoya is located on an island so it was quite a strange feeling to have water all around while landing. As soon as I gave back all the forbidden products to the customs officer, I went directly to the arrivals hall where my dear Daniel-San was waiting for me.
My first impression of Japan is that it reminds me of Disneyland, where everybody is nice (except foreigners who are the black characters), the city is clean, the food looks strange but tastes good and the whole surrounding is very colorful. On the 21st of August , arrival's day, afternoon I've discovered that in Japan there are so called '100 yen' shops, tried real udon soup, found out that it's almost impossible to pay with credit card anywhere in Japan and met Cesar who is Daniel's Panamian friend from the Japanese classes.

Saturday was the day of exploring such areas of Nagoya as Osu Kannon, Sakae and Nagoya Dome. We started from Osu Kannon where the bazaar mixes with temples.

Sakae turned out to be Nagoya's downtown with skyscrapers, expensive shops and entertainment.

The place that I was most looking forward to visit on that day was Nagoya Dome, which is the field of Nagoya's most famous baseball team - The Dragons.

Sunday was a day of discovering Kyoto. I couldn't wait to see Geisha-style dressed girls.

On Monday we went check out the Himeji castle the most famous one of Japan.

As one of the best ways of discovering cities is by bike, on Tuesday we borrowed a second bike from Cesar and went on a very long ride around Nagoya.

Wednesday was a day of visiting Iga, where the Ninja's village is located.

I'm having great time and it would be pointless to waste it on writing posts every day.
I've written this one for my friends who are looking forward to any news from me! I'll create more posts with detailed descriptions of my Japanese adventures after I get back to Poland.

(This is one of over 30 posts, which I accidentally deleted one day in January. Luckily, I was able to recover them thanks to the backup done by DanielSan! It's a pity that the comments are gone but someting is better than nothing.)

Kultowe Dobranocki - not only for children

2009-08-11T20:00:00.010+02:00

Dobranocki (or Wieczorynki) are nothing else than Good-night stories.
They've been displayed on Polish TV since 1950s. Every night, exactly at 19:00, when most of the children is waiting in front of TV, a Good-night story begins and lasts until 19:20-19:25. It's been like that since not only me, but also my parents remember. There is no such person in Poland who never watched "Miś Uszatek", which is one of the most famous Polish animated TV series and became famous even in Japan!

Miś Uszatek in front of the Palace of Culture - Warsaw's most characteristic monument from the communist times

The other famous Good-night stories of my parents' childhood are: "Jacek i Agatka" and "Bolek i Lolek". I've never seen a single episode of the first one, however the second one was about two brothers - the tall one and the short one - named Bolek and Lolek.

Extremely old bar of soap for children packed in the paper with Jacek's and Agatka's images

My personal favourites, as far as I remember, were probably: "Maya the Bee" and "Gummi Bears". Unfortunately, usually I wasn't able to watch "Winnie the Pooh" on Sundays coz it was my bathing time!

The front window of the shop (view from Jana Pawla II street)

During one rainy afternoon, I've discovered an incredible place in Warsaw! It's hard to say if it's rather a kind of shop or an extraordinary museum. Somehow it's both! "Kultowe* Dobranocki" is how it is called. Getting there is like becoming one of the Good-night stories' characters. At first it gives an impression of a gadget shop - on the first floor there is a plenty of toys, clothes or cards of which the themes are Maya the Bee, Bolek and Lolek (Poland), Smurfs (Belgium), Koziołek Matołek (Poland), Krtek (Czech Rep.) and so on... However, the staircase in the back of the shop leads to the 2nd floor full of the stuff from old times! Even if you find things for sale on the 2nd floor, they will be really unique - such as postcards more than 20 year old!

Me and the Czech guy - Krtek

"Kultowe Dobranocki" can be found at this address:
Ogrodowa 1a street, Warsaw
(entrance from the back of the building)

* "kultowy", obviously a Polish word, is usually used to describe cultural achievements (book, movie, piece of music) that are well known and appreciated

Bieszczady Mountains - where heart's compass turns

2009-08-07T21:04:00.005+02:00

South-Eastern Poland - it takes ages to get there from anywhere... From Warsaw it takes 9 hours by bus.

When the sun starts raising nobody should really take pictures, especially from the bus, but how to resist?

As soon as Kulaszne's newly rebuilt Eastern Orthodox Church appears behind the horizon with its bright colors, there is no doubt that the time of arrival is close.

After getting off the bus, the best thing to do in any village, is heading to the shop behind the bus stop and buying chilly kefir and fresh drożdżówka.

Batteries recharged! There is always a new place to go so having a small hike around is not a bad idea...

... nor is socialising with the locals! Making dreams come true is a great thing and this girl had a dream: to have veeeryy long hair.

Good news! Even though the old church in Komańcza, was destroyed by fire in September 2006 (I've taken pictures of it exactly one month before!), the reconstruction seems to be going pretty well.

Last year's drawings that Daniel left in one of Siekerezada's books are still there and surprisingly the owners have covered it with tape so they won't get damaged!

I keep on missing the Bieszczady constantly since 2003 and return whenever I can.
Can somebody take a picture of this what Portuguese call "saudade" and Turkish "hüzün"?

Beatriz in Poland

2009-07-25T00:42:00.002+02:00

After meeting and sharing the bunk-bed at Summer Unviersity in Istanbul, seeing each other during Madrid's SU and the Agora in Aachen, Bea finally came to Poland! One of these days Asia, Beatriz and I were hanging around the Ujazdowski Park.

Mushroom Hunting

2009-07-23T09:35:00.000+02:00

One of the most common weekend activities in Poland, next to fishing is grzybobranie (eng. mushroom hunting). That's what I did yesterday with my family nearby Rogoźno.
At this time of the year the mushroom that may be found most easily in the forests of Poland is the one called kurka (eng. chanterelle).

Over 10 years ago my family and I visited my father's friend, who used to live in the middle of nowhere in Southern part of Sweden. As soon as we go into the Swedish forest it turned out that Swedes hardly ever do mushroom hunting so it seemed to me a mushroom paradise to us. However, when we got back to our host's house and started preparing our hunts on the pan, he came down and told us that, according to Swedish people, all of the mushrooms were poisonous except the yellow ones - chanterelles. Obviously, we ate all of them and nobody got sick. I guess it was a perfect example of a cultural difference.

If you ever come across a red mushroom in a Polish forest, then it must be muchomor. Don't even try to pick it up! It's one of those that you really shouldn't eat.

What's new in Warsaw?

2009-07-16T00:37:00.002+02:00

Last Sunday, I met my childhood friend Tomcio. Before that I told him to surprise me with showing something that was not in Warsaw before I went for Erasmus.
We met in the most common place, next to the statue of Charles de Gaulle or as somebody would rather prefer, in front of the Palm. Tomcio asked me: Did you know that we have Starbucks in Warsaw since April? He must have noticed disappointment on my face and added quickly: Don't worry I have another thing as well! I was just checking your reaction! After walking all the way along the Royal Route to the Old Town, it turned out that the surprise was as I expected, truly adequate to Tomcio's profession, which is HISTORY.

The place which he wanted to show me were newly renovated Arkady Kubickiego (eng. Kubicki's Arcades). Actually, it's one of the lower parts of the Royal Castle that is located between the Castle and its gardens.

The story of the arcades is that even though they were designed and party built in the XIXth century, they were never really completed. After the November Uprising they were taken over by Russian army that converted it into a horse stable and since the end of the IInd World War they had fallen into ruin. In the middle of 90's somebody came up with an idea of renovating them. I'm looking forward to see what will be in the interiors in the future. Perhaps restaurants or galleries wouldn't be a bad idea.

(the picture was taken from Flickr)

3days in 3city

2009-07-11T15:33:00.009+02:00

Tricity and is a kind of agglomeration at the Polish seaside, which consists of 3 cities: Gdańsk, Sopot and Gdynia.
As soon as I came back to Poland I decided to make a trip there to meet Kasia and Daniel. On the day of my arrival to Gdynia, Kasia and Daniel were coming back from Toruń, medieval Polish city famous for birthplace of Nicolaus Copernicus and pierniki (eng. gingerbread). The type of pierniki that Kasia and I are holding in the picture is called Katarzynki (eng. Catherines).

Even though it was getting pretty late, we've spent some time in the bar by the beach. I liked the place very much especially because of the good company and sea shanties in the background.

Smile, you're in Gdynia
(don't worry, rhinoceros didn't get hurt)

The next day begun with the trip to Gdańsk. This city was founded by Polish kings around Xth century but soon afterwards taken over by Prussia and Germany to be returned to Poland after the II World War. It belonged to the Hanseatic League for centuries. Therefore its architecture is a bit different in comparison to other Polish cities. For example, it has a lot of Dutch-style tall buildings.

The only leaflets we had from the Tourist Office were in Spanish, so sometimes translations of the names of places were hilarious. The pictures below present the most characteristic monuments.

Golden Gate - entrance to the old part of the city

Medieval port Crane (the black wooden building) and Dutch-style houses by the Motława river

Timber framing houses

While seeing this guy selling self-painted kanjis with "Your name in Japanese", I came up with an idea of earning money in Japan! I could do the same as him but "Your name in Polish" - Haruki Murakami could be Henryk Murakowski or Yoko Ono could be Jolka Onowicz.

Our evening plan was watching a movie in the open air cinema at the Sopot Pier, which is, by the way, the longest pier in Europe! In Sopot, I had a chance to see a Crooked House, which wasn't there 8 years ago when I've visited this place for the last time. I still can't believe my eyes when I look at the picture below! Extraordinary, isn't it?

Have you ever heared of ZORBING? No? Well, here it comes! The idea of it is that a person gets inside the transparent ball and keeps rolling. I've seen it for the first time in the mountains a couple of years ago and it looked kind of scary but doing this activity in the sea must be much more pleasant.

Last but not least, turn on your imagination coz I'm not allowed to publish the pictures. While waiting for the movie, Kasia and Daniel suggested playing a game with camera's self-timer. The idea of it is that you turn on self-timer and in the last seconds before taking a shot one of the people says what kind of stupid face everybody should do. Our favourite ones were: "PIGS" and "SMOKING NARGILA". Try it at home! You won't regret!

At the end of the day it turned out that to watch the movie in the open air ORANGE cinema for free we should pay the entance fee to the pier, so as a sign of protest we decided not to go there.
The power is ours!

First day of the rest of my life.

2009-07-03T22:42:00.012+02:00

Once upon a time... - usually fairy tales in English start with these words. Meanwhile, in my mother-tongue, the most common beginning is: Za górami, za lasami..., which literally means: Behind the mountains, behind the forests....

Five months ago I went to Portugal for my Erasmus at the University of Behind the Mountains (Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro) and a true fairy tale begun. There were times when it felt as if we were characters of "The Snow Queen" - Iva and I used to call our flat "Ice Castle", or as if we were princesses from "The 101 Nights", while being surrounded by people speaking so many different languages. However, for most of the time it was rather like "Around the World in 80 days" but in this case "Around Portugal in 150 days". Every day was different, just like different were sunsets behind the ranges of Alvão and Marão mountains with windmills at their tops. I've been watching those sunsets from my window or from the kitchen window almost every evening while my friends were rolling cigarettes next to me.

It seems to be the end of desperate looking for a rainbow in the sky, spontaneous walks to Espontânea on Fridays and Saturdays, drinking Turkish coffee and fortune telling too late to fall asleep afterwards, giving missed calls to the numbers, which since we all left Portugal nobody will ever answer again.

Perhaps one day, we will have a coffee together again, in the shopping center of as dreamy name as Dolce Vita, while being served by the waiter that looks like Rocky Balboa.

Don't ever tell anybody anything.
If you do, you start missing everybody.
J.D. Salinger - "The Catcher in the Rye"

Evora - city in yellow frames

2009-06-21T12:15:00.000+02:00

I've reached Evora in Alentejo (literally meaning 'beyond the river Tagus') on Sunday at lunch time. It wasn't really that easy coz firstly, there were some problems with metro and I've almost missed the bus and then the trip was over one hour longer because of the bicycle marathon on the Vasco da Gama bridge. After leaving the freezing air-conditioned bus the heat surrounded me. For a while I felt as if I was being followed by Japanese girls but I've lost them in the toilet. As soon as I left the bus station in Evora I started moving towards the historical center. The general atmosphere of the city reminded me a mixture of Greek villages, films with Mexican landscapes in the background and stories of Don Kichot.

What I loved the most about the city appearance were yellow frames around the windows and doors, which is very typical for Alentejo, Southern Portugal.

After having a coffee (in a yellow cup) in one of the cafes a lady holding a bunch of papers printed with wikipedia stuff, obviously a tourist, asked me if I can help her to find the way to one of the churches. As soon as I've looked at her papers I've noticed they were all in Hebrew. What a surprise it was for the lady when I not anwsered to her in Hebrew but also managed to read what was written on her papers. After a while she also helped me to find the Chapel of Skulls. It was quite nice to speak the language I didn't use at all after 4 years of studying it.

The most impressing piece of architecture in Evora is its cathedral with lovely rose windows.

As to me it is a perfect example of the UNESCO site, all kinds of styles mix here: megalithic, roman, gothic, reinessance temples.

If I had more space in my luggage probably I would buy something made of cork. Cork forests are common in Portugal and due to that this country makes 50% of cork products worldwide.

Alentejo region is also famous for the red wines, which are well known for combining quality with affordability.

On Sunday afternoon Evora was extremely peaceful and quiet. That was what I was glad to experience after crowded Lisbon. The surroundings were very pleasant and half of the day was enough to see all of the attractions and also the festival of local products.

(This is one of over 30 posts, which I accidentally deleted one day in January. Luckily, I was able to recover them thanks to the backup done by DanielSan! It's a pity that the comments are gone...)

Bairro Alto - yellow tram and brazilian drinks

2009-06-20T00:57:00.006+02:00

One evening in Lisbon, Carolina's friends Isabel and To (short form from "Antonio") invited us for dinner. The first surprise of the dinner was that it was suppoused to be on their apartment's terrace on the last floor of the building. So the main dish was planned to be Bacalhau à Brás followed by Caipiroska. What a surprise it was to find out that it is possible to prepare Bacalhau à Brás without bacalhau. It turned out that Isabel is a vegetarian and she usually use leek as a substitute of fish. It was second time when somebody proved me in Portugal that vegetarian cuisine can be as delicious as meat dishes.

Meanwhile, To prepared caipiroskas with black vodka. Try it at home children.

As it was Friday night, Carolina, Isabel, To and Rui decided to show me the most legendary district of Lisbon by night - Bairro Alto. Few days before I went there with Iva and it was completely empty and actually seemed to be quite boring. It was another surprise that this time it was full of people having fun and enjoying the biggest glasses of Mojito I've ever seen. Some of the bars seemed to be quite normal but other ones had really interesting interiors, for example one had green walls and furniture in Japanese style. However, most of the bars had just a few tables inside to encourage people to socialize with the whole surrounding, I suppose.

While having our drinks To was pointing at some people from time to time and telling me what kind of Portuguese celebrity are they.

Bad thing is that the bar-owners are told by the police to close at 2:00am so we moved to some less crowded streets of Bairro Alto passing nearby Rua da Bica, which was so full of people that it was impossible to pass. I went back to that place on the next day... and they were all gone. All of them. Just the yellow Bica was still there on the top of the street as always since 1892.

Every place on Earth has its own mysteries. For me, the biggest mystery of Lisbon are those two little sandals that I've noticed in the middle of the sidewalk somewhere in Bairro Alto.

Hanging around the city at night guarantees seeing things that are impossible to be seen in daylight. One of them is the bakery in Chiado... but it's another story.

Oh well, I don't feel like making additional post about Chiado and Baixa - very touristic and commercial districts of Lisbon.
One night in the middle of the week, Iva and I were exploring the city center. As I mentioned before, Bairro Alto was a deserted place that night so we went down to the main street of Baixa - Rua Augusta. The main pedestrian of the city was quite empty as well... However, suddenly some strange guy appeared in front of us, holding a small package in his hand and whispering "marijuana? marijuana?". Few steps after passing him, the next guy appeared offering us roses. It was too many unexpected offers for that night so Iva commented it: "First they tried to sell us drugs, then thought we're lesbians... what will be next?".
Next thing was the MANGO shop with a bag, which was perfect for Iva's new shoes. Unfortunately, it was the middle of the night and Iva never came back again to buy it.

Fado - the sound of Portugal

2009-06-19T22:00:00.000+02:00

Every region of the world has its own sound. The most authentic sound of Portugal is fado, which literally means "destiny". The roots of fado reach early XIXth century, when Portuguese sailors were expressing, with very poetical lyrics, how much they miss their families by singing fado. It is "saudade" (nostalgic, melancholic missing) that is the main topic of fado songs. The typical musical instrument of fado is the Portuguese guitar (12 strings) - guitarra portuguesa/guitarra de fado. It is very often accompanied by the Spanish guitar - violão.
The lyrics referring to "saudade" sang by a fado singer (always dressed black) matched together with the guitar sound result with very emotional pieces of music, which appeal to the listeners.

The best place in Portugal to discover fado is Alfama - Lisbon's oldest district. That is where people gather at night and where cosy restaurants sound of fado.

Whenever I heard a story of how somebody got to the place where the fado was played, it's never been easy to get there just from the street. In every story, there was always a friend of a friend whose friend told another friend that a friend... and so on... In my case, the chain was a bit shorter. It started from my Portuguese friend - Carolina - who originated in the North of Portugal and moved to Lisbon few years ago. Carolina asked her friends, who weren't native Lisbonians as well, if they knew any fado place worth recommending. Luckily, they knew - Mesa de Frades at Rua dos Remédios 139 in Alfama.

As I googled the restaurant (of course I could have done it before, but what for? to miss all the fun?), it turned out to be one of the top fado houses in Lisbon where some of the best Fado singers perform. It is necessary to make a reservation before coming there - the place is very small. Mesa de Frades is also known for its famous guests such as Mariza - one of the most famous modern fado singers or Pedro Almodovar - the Spanish movie director.

I've found a very old picture of Lisbonians listening to fado in front of Mesa de Frades. For sure the atmosphere of the place has changed a lot, since such tourists as me, started showing up there.

One of the kings of Portugal was in love with beautiful Dona Rosa, so he decided to build a palace for her in Alfama - Palacio da Dona Rosa, which obviously included a chapel. The actual restaurant Mesa de Frades is arranged in the former chapel of Dona Rosa and the old blue tiles are still on the interior walls.

On the Friday evening of June, Carolina and I took our seats by one of Mesa de Frades' tables. I've ordered a dish that, as Carolina told me, was the specialty of the place - massada de cherne. The fado musicians were supposed to show up in 1 hour... And that's all I can tell here. The rest - experience it yourself!
You can check out Mesa de Frades or simply try your luck on the streets of Alfama. Who knows whom can you meet and where they can take you... There are still fado places hidden from tourists where not many have been to.

Sintra - a true fairytale

2009-06-19T12:07:00.003+02:00

One of the most famous Portuguese UNESCO sites is Sintra. I had a pleasure to visit it for the second time, but this time luckily it was much less crowded than at the begining of May. This taken out from the fairy tale town is full of marvelous palaces and castles surrounded by incredibly green hills.

After taking a few first steps in Sintra, appears Palacio Nacional with its most characteristic feature kitchen chimneys. Unfortunately, the entrance fees and everything in general in Sintra is sooo #%&*$ expensive that I didn't expect such a high prices in my wildest nightmares.

To take a better look at Sintra I've climbed the hill of the Moorish Castle. The views from there are spectacular. Even the ocean shows up nearby. Castelo dos Mouros' origins reach the IXth century. Even though its ruined, some parts of a mosque remained.

The most famous palace of Sintra is Palacio da Pena. It was bult in the middle of XIXth century and at first sight seems to be a completely chaotic mixture of all possible styles and colors. The guy who had a wish to build it must have been crazy or constantly stonned. These days, the ticket to enter doesn't cost 6,5 Euro as guide books inform, but 11 Euro. However, it's something totally different from any other buildings and seeing it was an unforgetable experience.

Interior isn't very shocking but exterior surprises with strange towers and scary sculptures behind every corner. Obviously it was not allowed to take pictures inside but the most funny thing were black sculptures of Moors holding chandeliers.

The palace that I liked the most was Monserrate Palace full of impressing details. It is still being restored but I believe that afterwards it will become a true architectural pearl.

Lord Byron said:
"I must just observe that the village of Sintra in Estremadura is the most beautiful in the world."

And last but not least important fact is that, I wouldn't see all those places without Iva and her family! It's very useful to have a car to move around Sintra.

(This is one of over 30 posts, which I accidentally deleted one day in January. Luckily, I was able to recover them thanks to the backup done by DanielSan! It's a pity that the comments are gone...)

Antiga Confeitaria de Belém

2009-06-18T12:00:00.000+02:00

Iva and I had a dream: to eat Pastel de Belém for breakfast! We decided to make it come true in the morning after arriving to Lisbon. Tram number 15 took us from the city center to Belém...

Pastel de Nata a.k.a. Pastel de Belém is the most typical Portuguese pastry. It is a kind of egg tart and tastes the best served while still warm. The most famous and delicious ones are produced by Antiga Confeitaria in Belém.

Once upon a time... at the beginning of the XIXth Century, in Belém, next to the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos there was a sugar cane refinery linked to a small general store. As a result of the revolution of 1820, all monasteries in Portugal were shut down. Afterwards, someone from the monastery in Beleém offered sweet pastries for sale in the shop, which quickly became known as 'Pasteis de Belém'. As the area was attractive for visitors because of the monastery and the Torre de Belém , also the delicious pastries originated in the monastery became more popular.
In 1837, baking of 'Pasteis de Belém' begun following ancient 'secret recipe' from the monastery. Passed on and known only to the master confectioners. This recipe remained unchanged until the present time.

Iva and I keep on saying that the best thing about Portugal are coffee and cakes. Trying Pasteis de Belém was more important cultural experience for us then seeing the rest of local tourist attractions. Pasteis just taken out from the oven, sprinkled with cinnamon powder were a delicious breakfast!

Luckily on the next day I came back there with Carolina for an afternoon coffee...

(This is one of over 30 posts, which I accidentally deleted one day in January. Luckily, I was able to recover them thanks to the backup done by DanielSan! It's a pity that the comments are gone...)

Corpus Christi in Vila Real

2009-06-11T02:50:00.000+02:00

Second weekend of June was a, so called, "long weekend" for everybody thanks to the Corpus Christi holiday that took place on Thursday.
Typical thing about this holiday are processions. In Poland, the processions take place in the morning and everybody treat it very seriously and try to look and behave very elegant. In Portugal it looked more like an evening street parade where firefighters and friends were making a lot of noise with their drums and trumpets.

Meanwhile the community of Vila Real gathered in front of the church as if it was a picnic. In Poland everything is closed during such holidays, in Portugal every supermarket is open just like it was during Easter.

To seize the day, Sena and Filipe called me in the afternoon and we took a ride to Alvão.

It gave us a lesson that my beloved waterfall is hidden in the shadow in the afternoon.

Instead of swimming we went on admiring the views.

In the faraway background - Vila Real.

Braga - sun, stairs, Romans and bacalhau

2009-05-31T20:07:00.006+02:00

As I've been to Braga before I will not get deep into details concerning it. However, this time it was totally different due to the extremely sunny weather and the Braga Romana festival.

Going to the church of Good Jesus of the Mountain was obligatory. We were not cheating, we didn't take the funicular so while going up we came across crowds of Polish seniors going down.

Can you see the resemblance between Kasia's skirt and all the flowers behind her?

Finally at the top! "Let's eat ice-cream and sit in the shadow." It turned out that behind the church there is a great park with pounds, boats and stuff. Really cool on such a hot day.

The plan was to experience some Portuguese cuisine at lunch time. We went to the restaurant I've been to before with Sara and ordered "bacalhau com natas". Portuguese people have 1001 or more recipies for how to prepare bacalhau - codfish. They love this kind of fish sooo much that, as I was told, they don't have it anymore in their ocean area so they have to import it from Scandinavia.

We've visited every single place that could be interesting for tourist according to the very nice map from the Tourist Information. As to me, the building below was one of the nicest.

In the afternoon we were in serious need of things to drink, shower or anything that has something to do with water.

The fountain can be refreshing but not for too long...

... after finding the supermarket and making supplies we were full of energy again!

On that day the whole city was filled with market stands - Mercado Braga Romana is a kind of fair with market/bazaar with art&crafts, food and so on based on the motives from the roman times. The guy below might have been even more thirsty than we were....

This time, I've faced more touristic side of Braga but it was fun!