Deicing Xmas

As christmas is just a few days away I am sure many of you are doing some last minute shopping and those of you who like me live away from family travel back 'home'. Now it seems that - at least in Western and Central Europe - this journey might be seriously affected if not interrupted by the severe winter and snow storms we have been experiencing over the last few days. The two largest European airports, London and Frankfurt, were forced to shut down flight operations for some time  earlier this week disrupting not only local, but equally international air travel - bringing back memories of the day-long closure of European air space during April this year.

 The latest message on the Lufthansa website reads:

Walled

Is there anything, anyone

That can touch you

 

For more than a moment

Is there anything, anyone

That will help you

Being able to love?

Shopping Mall

Side entrance of one of the malls here in Wrocław.

  

... at minus twenty °C!

Not in shopping mood ...

Memonji

From Science To Fiction

Do you remember the movie Star Wars The Phantom Menace (Episode I)? If you do you probably also remember Natalie Portman portraying one of the main characters Queen Amidala. But do you also remember that Queen Amidala traveled incognito disguised as Padmé and that the 'other queen' was just a decoy queen?

Long story short: this decoy queen was played by the then 16 year-old and by now best paid Hollywood actress Keira Knightley.

Much Ado About Nothing (Much)

No matter which news channel or web page you turn to the publishing of internal and partly classified cables from and to U.S.diplomatic missions by the website Wikileaks has been occupying the headlines for the last 10 days or so. Wikileak's founder Julian Assange - now in British custody over alleged sexual harassment charges in Sweden - has since been labeled both 'high tech terrorist' (by e.g. U.S. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell) as well as modern 'hero who should be awarded the Nobel Peace Price' (Russian news agency RIA Novosti quoting the Kremlin).

Top Of The Chocs

Today I am continuing my series of chocolate reviews (see here and here) with a - at least to me - rather new discovery. During one of my most recent trips to Berlin I visited the chocolaterie of my choice and pampered myself with both old time favourites as well as new interesting delights.

Having tasted their 70% Toscano Black I hold the small chocolate manufacturer Amedei in very high esteem and hence did not hesitate to try out one of their blended chocolates called "9".

Wrocław Impressions

Being back from Norway I had some friends from G. coming over for the weekend. While taking a walk through the inner city we realised that it was in fact way too cold to be outside and quickly sought the cosiness of a nice downtown restaurant for a late lunch ;)

Nevertheless I still managed to take a few pictures:

Oslo in 18 Hours

Just returned from a super short trip to Oslo where Gilly Mellowbridge and I attended the farewell concert of a-ha. As we had only a few hours between arrival and the beginning of the show we used them to take a quick stroll through the city, to the harbour as well as to grab a bite.

Here a few pictures I managed to click:

View of the city from our hotel room

Welcome White Winter!

Now it's obvious (although the calendar might not make it official until in three weeks): winter has started! 

Have just taken these pictures with my phone camera while taking a walk in a park today afternoon.

Politics, Weather & Personal News

India's parliament is locked in a stalemate with parliamentary business impossible to conduct due to the oppositions insistence on (and the governemnt's reluctance to agree to) an official probe into one of the country's largest corruption scandals.

In the wake of the upcoming publication of confidential US documents the website Wikileaks has been unavailable for some time now (check out their Twitter account for latest updates)

The two Koreas continue to exchange not only unpleasantries, but also several rounds of fire. Whether the heated atmosphere is a prequel to another round of talks or seriously bringing us back to an armed conflict in the region remains to be seen.

With the beginning of advent winter has finally made it to Central Europe bringing us a first glimpse of snow. It's high time for your host to get a warmer coat!

Finally, on a more personal note, am excited of leaving to Norway in a few days to attend the farewell concert of the favourite band of my childhood, a-ha,  live in Oslo.

Nevertheless a good start into the new week ... from
Memonji

Traveller's Note

 

"Love's a train ride.

It's more important to be at the right time at the right place

Than to have a ticket."

 

Just read by ...

Memonji

Swiss Surprise

Readers of my old entries from 2007 will remember my first chocolate post in which I promised to publish regular reviews of interesting and taste-worthy delicacies from the chocolate world. 

With a few years delay I have now decided to continue this series and would like to draw your attention to a chocolate which origins have surprised me as I have been a big and loyal fan of chocolates from Belgium, France as well as Italy and Läderach's Hazelnut chocolate is Swiss.

PRL*

If I remember correctly so far I've mainly (or even exclusively) posted pictures of the nice and beautiful places here in Wroclaw. Naturally (like in any other city), there are also the less lovely areas featuring architectual crimes like the one pictures below. In fact, I had passed this building quite a few times already in the past, but realised just a few days ago that it would make a nice retro-, PRL-style picture.

  

Reassuring his readers of the beauty of historic Wroclaw ...

Memonji

*PRL = Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa (People's Republic of Poland) which was the official name of communist Poland from 1952-1990

Celluloid Wisdom

10 movie/tv quotes which have the potential of saying more than just the sum of their words (in no particular order):

Lost Treasures

oThe below image depicts what is left from what used to be the hangout for the city's HARIBO junkies. A couple of months ago the place closed down and by now has entirely disappeared leaving us with practically no alternative as even large supermarket chains like TESCO and Carrefour keep only a very limited range of our favourite sweets.

 

'Love ain't here anymore'

11. November

Apart from the fact that today is Independence Day in Poland as well as Karneval season kick-off day in some parts of Germany (Cologne being the carnival capital) there's not much to report. 

Not leaving without adding a b/w picture of Wroclaw ...

Memonji

 

Somewhere in town 

Amazing Discoveries

Two days of non-posting is more than enough thinks your host and is resuming publishing today with a variety of topics:

1.) First and foremost 'Happy Diwali' to all of my Hindu readers who celebrate the victory of  good over evil at this important religious festival also known as the festival of lights. While being in India during the last few weeks I could witness a similar shopping craze and a busy preparatory mood like we have coming our way in a few weeks from now before christmas.

Hot Sugar, Baby!

With great pleasure I have taken notice of a new CoffeeHeaven in the Renoma shopping mall right across my apartment. Not that it was really necessary as I already have two CoffeeHeaven outlets within a few minutes walking distance, but nevertheless it's nice to have more places to choose from, isn't it?

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

As this blog had been lingering in inactivity for quite a while until I started to post again a few weeks ago I guess quite a few of my readers have not participated in filling out my online Johari window. In case you are of of those who haven't, please take a few minutes and complete this little exercise. You can also create one for yourself afterwards.

Nasze Miasto

Coming back from Bombay to Wroclaw was in fact leaving as well as coming back home.

Having had amazingly beautiful weather last weekend I took a stroll alongside the river close to the university on Sunday evening where I took this picture.

One more place called 'home' ... for
Memonji

Joey's - Part II *

Read this if you have missed the first part.

Fell asleep in front of the screen with my head resting comfortably on the keyboard. Now I need a coffee. And a smoke. And her.

Joey's - Part I *

Surfing through the infinities of cyberspace I lost my way. She was sitting in front of Joey's Deli at 217th Main, 160th Cross, smoking,  humming some long forgotten tune when I turned around the corner and spotted her.

Bye Bye Bombay!

My India trip is about to come to an end as I'm flying back home to Poland tonight. I've had - as always - a fantastic time with my family, absolutely delicious food and for the first time I am returning home with quite an amount of pictures. At times it still feels a bit odd to photograph things or people everyone around here considers ordinary, but yet are very unique and special to the Western eye.

Gateway to India - one of Mumbai's major sights

Green Oasis!

Today we've been to two of the very few green as well as calm spots of the city: Hanging Gardens and Kamla Nehru Park. Both of these parks on Malabar Hill (the highest point of the city centre) are a close and welcome getaway from the hectic life of the city and have been equally loved by the old as well as the young.

Hanging Gardens has been set up at the end of the 19th centure and is mostly known for it's hedges that are carved into various animals.

Hanging Gardens

Abandoned 'Ship'

My Dear Readers,

I've just returned home and as I am virtually falling asleep as I write this it will be a rather short post. The below picture was taken at a main road in Powai, North Mumbai.

Rikshaw Wreckage

Touring Mumbai

As already mentioned in my previous post we've done quite a tour around the city yesterday and I thought I'd give you a short overview of the places we've been to. In order to to give you also a bit of a geographical perspective I've create a map with the major places we visited.

View Mumbai Tour in a larger map

Coffee!

Most of my readers from Poland will know that I am a big fan of CoffeeHeaven, a Polish coffeehouse chain which has become very popular across Eastern Europe in the last few years (more on this most probably in a future post once I'll be back in Poland).

Bollywood Record

Unimaginable: in February 2010 the movie "Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge" (English: The Big Hearted Will Take the Bride), also commonly known as DDLJ, has set a record of being played for 750 weeks CONTINUOUSLY in a cinema in Mumbai (having a daily show!).

Starring Bollywood superstars Shahrukh Khan and Kajol it has been one of the most successful as well as biggest Bollywood productions ever - and this inspite or rather because being a typical Bollywood movie.

Still playing for more than 15 years now ...

Choose 'N ..?

Am down with fever, a bit of a cold and overall not feeling very well today, so am leaving you with another single snapshot from the streets of Mumbai.

???

Hopes to be better soon
Memonji

New vs.Old

Colonial Bombay, predominantly observable and comparatively well maintained in the Fort area features typical British architecture of the era with beautiful town houses, villas, multi-storey buildings with elaborate wooden balconies and ornaments as well as unique monumental structures like the old Victoria Terminus railway station now called Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus (C.S.T.), a UNESCO world heritage site.

C.S.T. railway station

Leave Me Alone!

As already mentioned in one of my tweets some time ago privacy seems to be very difficult to maintain over here. Or as a friend has very pointedly framed it: "Here in India the concept of privacy is basically non-existent."

The reasons for this are many: first and foremeost - especially in the cities - it is the constant space constraint. Grandparents, parents, children and sometimes even children's children sharing a single apartment (room, hut, whatever little space is available) is very common. Furthermore the closely knit family concept, children (in the absence of an adequate social security system) being responsible for the caretaking of their parents and finally the very open community culture with it's dynamic impact on society have established an environment which is very adverse to individualism and personal freedom.

 

Happy Dashera!

Today is Dashera, the tenth day of Navratri, one of the biggest religious festivals in India.

The whole country has been decorated and I'm taking this opportunity to publish another themed series, this time featuring flower garlands which are seen everywhere around the city today. But have a look yourself ...

Street vendors selling flower garlands

Food & Shopping

It didn't look like any significant shopping would actually happen today.

In the morning I went to one of the book stores where I have been buying picture post cards since the last 20+ years only to find out that they had one shelf of cards from Mumbai and 12 shelfs full of cards from other places in India. To make it worse not only were the pictures on the Mumbai cards taken in the 70s, they were also lousy :(

Random Pictures II

As planned I managed to get up a bit earlier than usual and capture some more random stuff in and around South Mumbai. I've realised that the title of this (and the other equally titled previous) post is indeed adequate as there is absolutely no order or theme of any sort in these photo collections. What I'll probably should do once I return is organise the pics in categories and re-publish them.

Until then you'll have to live with this rather 'chaotic' way of posting ;)

Towels anyone?

---

Fluke Shot

Despite being out and around quite a bit I didn't get a chance to shoot many pictures today. Nevertheless, while sitting in my cab home I managed to capture the below with my mobile phone. And yes, this is also downtown Mumbai ;)

Will try to get up a bit earlier tomorrow and hopefully will be able to report a higher success rate in my next post.

Not promising, however ... 

Memonji 

A Night Out - Part II

Read this if you have missed the first part.

Staring into the void her sudden disappearance had left me with I recalled us shortly stopping at the riverside: She jumped on a small wall and decided sit on it with her back facing the river and me facing her.

Street Pics

Some more shots from the streets of Mumbai plus a special mini-series on Mumbai cabs.

Another colourful truck

Drowning (Not Singing!) in the Rain

Suddenly, last night at 1am, the monsoon was back with all it's might to remind us that it will only retreat whenever it wants and not when our calendar demand it to do so.


It continued pouring the entire night, as well as the whole day today turning the streets into rivers, making the sidewalk disappear in mud and the disguising the bazaars and markets as strangers covered under a veil of plastic.

Time 4 Snax!

Traditional roadside snacks made out of a mixture of puffed rice, peanuts, cornflakes, onions, tomatoes, green chillies, lemon juice and various chutneys.



'Yummy' .. judges
Memonji

More Pictures

As promised here more pictures all taken today.



Mumbai Central Railway Station

After Work

Glad to have finally reached he slammed the door of his new Suzuki and walked towards the entrance. A tough day at the office with his boss assigning him just another special task to be completed "if possible by the end of tomorrow" was over. He recalled his last performance appraisal discussion and remembered the importance of having a healthy work/life-balance when he suddenly saw her sleeping on the sidewalk - a piece of a cardboard box folded as her pillow.


"She can't be older than eight." he told himself and tried to wake her up as gently as possible

The New Face of Mumbai

Mumbai in the making: the newly built residential twin towers Imperial Heights.

Price per square foot(!)range around 1000Euro/1400USD/4000PLN ...



Shot today at dusk by
Memonji

Queen's Necklace

Here at the natural bay is where I regularly spent my evenings in Mumbai. Sitting at the seaside enjoying either the sunset or the pleasant breeze from the Arabian Sea late at night can be very soothing.


As the illuminated streetlights alongside the 3km long promenade look like pearls on a string the road is also referred to as Queen's Necklace.

Just returning from there
Memonji

Random Pictures I

Just a few pics of what I've seen walking through the streets around one of the major commercial areas of the city today ...





Crawford Market - a large in- and outdoor market hall which used to be the main fruit, vegetable, fish and meat bazaar. Now it has mainly imported grocery products, but some of the older stalls have remained. Some years ago we used to live just around the corner.

Calendar Updates

Here as promised the post I wrote on the flight WRO-MUC:

As the upcoming few entries will primarily be about my time here in India, let's quickly recap a few of the more or less important updates from around the world:

September 29
The Polish government is preparing a framework for the adoption of the Euro (yes, while joining the EU in 2004, joining the Schengen zone in 2008 we still continue to earn as well as pay in Zloty instead of Euro).


Ordinary folks are not very keen on adapting the Euro any time soon as this is believed to increase the cost of living significantly, however some inofficial information has leaked that 2015 is a likely target.

Departure

Finally dates have been fixed, flights booked and - almost - all preparations completed, so that I'll be able to push off to India tomorrow evening.

I'll have a one night stopover in Munich before my onward flight leaves on Monday morning getting me into Mumbai at 23h local time (19.30h CET). The idea is to use this blog as a travel log and hence I'll try to write, post pictures as well as tweet updates regularly. Having said this there are various things that need to be sorted out before that's actually possible: need to organise a mobile internet connection (so far we don't have access at home) as well as get my Indian mobile phone up and running again (my PL number remains active, so you guys in Poland can continue texting to that number to stay in touch).

The temperature for the next few days has been forecasted to range between a minimum of 25°C/76°F and a maximum of 35°C/95°F, humidity around 60% (which is quite pleasant for Mumbai) and the probability of precipitation varying between 10% and 70%, monsoon eventually departing during October.

What a welcome change compared to the falling temperatures and rainy autumn days here in Poland :)

Packing his bags ...
Memonji

Evening Walk

Just returned from an intentional evening walk in the rain. The first, but definitely not the last one of this sort.

'Summer's gone'

Unexpected

When you can't change things anymore you gotta leave.

And sometimes you see that leaving itself has changed it all.

realised ...
Memonji

Greetings from Poznan!

Testing the phone-to-blog feature... let's hope it works ;)

A Night Out - Part I

We turned left, a little bit off the beaten track away from the park towards the river. After she climbed over the fence I realised that her shadow got caught in between the posts while she had already run ahead - not noticing and busy with tackling her hair that got entangled in the breeze.