Macarons and Lightning, very, very frightening (and tasty too!)
Posted: July 13, 2012 Filed under: Warsaw | Tags: 10th floor, apartment block, art, bakery, bang, biscuit, Blackcurrant, Bohemian Rhapsody, cake, centre, chocolate, city, complex, Cooking, flash, Food, formation, gooey, green, Home, huge, le roy & louis, light, lightning, lightning strikes, louis, Macaron, macarons, macaroon, macaroons, music, photo, photography, pistachio, posh, queen, restaurants, roy, rumble, sakura, sencha, shopping mall, squidgy, stall, storm, strobe, sweet, taste, tasty, tea, the great tea scape, three shots, thunder, travel, treat, vacation, vista, whole sky, yummy, zlote terasy 3 Comments
Try reading that title to the tune of Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen….
So, Marta had never had Macarons/Macaroons before, and we came across this little stall in a shopping centre that was selling them, so I decided to get some as a little treat. Previously she thought they were some sort of wafer with a flavoured centre, but despite my attempts to explain them I couldn’t quite describe them properly. I guess you really do just need to taste them to find out. These ones from the company Le Roy & Louis (maybe an attempt at ‘poshing up’ the name Leroy?!?!) were pretty good, nice amount of crunch on the outside with a good squidgy centre. The Pistachio and the Chocolate were the best, the other two (Raspberry and Blackcurrant) were also good, but I think the Pistachio and Chocolate are a bit more classic. We munched them down with gusto when we got home, alongside a nice cup of Sencha Sakura tea.
That night there was the most spectacular thunderstorm, I have literally never seen or heard anything like it before. The amount of lightning strikes was just amazing, the whole sky was lighting up like a strobe in a smokey nightclub. It was just amazing. We went to the top floor of the apartment block, 10 stories up and watched the three storm formations circle around us. Despite the number (literally hundreds) of strikes it is surprisingly hard to take a photograph of the lightning. It took me the best part of 700 photos to get just three shots of the lightning, and only one of those was really something special. They are all below.
Enjoy!
China pops in on Chopin
Posted: July 4, 2012 Filed under: Warsaw | Tags: 9 - 11, Africa, Asia, avenue, beautiful, china, chinese, Chinese characters, Chopin, city, dark, darkness, dragon, drink, Food, Hong Kong, July, June, lantern, lazienki, night, palace, parade, park, photo, photography, Poland, royal, stylized, tea, time, travel, Warsaw 2 Comments
Park Lazienki, the Royal Park is currently hosting a little bit of China along one of it’s avenues. Two long rows of beautiful red Chinese lanterns line the path way and cross a little bridge where some (rather stylized) Chinese characters sit. The lanterns are really beautiful, with so many different designs it’s impossible to count. During June they were lit up between 9 and 11 every night, but now we are in July they are just being lit up on a Friday Saturday and Sunday night, but it is worth a visit, and to wander around the whole park at night is quite beautiful experience. There are pretty much no other lights in the park apart from the lanterns, so it is very very dark if you are still there by 11. It does make for a really nice evening out though. The second to last image is probably the best for demonstrating how beautiful some of these lanterns are.
Day 51, Warsaw, February 29th 2012
Posted: March 1, 2012 Filed under: Warsaw | Tags: alcohol, Ania, bar, bar stools, bohemian, booze, bread, cafe, centrum, charlotte, cheap, chill, chilled, church, circle, city, Croissant, disco ball, drink, drinking, eating, Food, fresh, happening, heineken, hip, hipster, hunched, kruzca, lemongrass, little trip, Marta, mokotowska, Nowy Świat Street, ogrody, old town, orange peel, out, pierogi, pretty park, prickly pear, roundabout, salad, sencha, sencha tea, stool, sunny, sunshine, tables and chairs, tasty salad, tea, teapot, the great tea scape, thegreateascape, thegreatteascape, things to do in warsaw, travel, traveling, waiter, waitress, walking, warm, Warsaw, wax, weather, window, young, zloty Leave a comment
Tea 51: Green Sencha with Prickly Pear, Orange Peel & Lemongrass, Ogrody, Old Town Warsaw
What a difference a day makes! Today was the most gloriously sunny and beautiful day, all of yesterday’s snow had melted away and it was genuinely warm! Today was a day filled with cafes.
The day started with a little trip around town with Ania, for her to do some errands and things like that. We went into the old town, where Ania needed to do some photocopying for her teaching job. whist she did that I explored the little cobbled streets and old buildings and this pretty park with the sun shining down, the back of a grand looking church towering over from the top of the hill. After about 20minutes Ania returned and we decided to go to this cafe called Ogrody, meaning garden in Polish apparently. The cafe is clean and modern with a nice chilled out atmosphere, in the summer time they apparently have tables and chairs out on the little square on which the cafe sits. I had a really tasty salad and a pot of Green Sencha tea with Prickly Pear and Orange Peel and Lemongrass. It was very good, fresh leaves in the pot smelt sweet and fruity whilst the tea itself was delicate and smooth. After a while sitting there enjoying the sunshine we headed back into the old town, then Ania decided we should go back into the city centre to find another place that she enjoys.
We took a bus and then waited for a tram from Centrum which took us to the pretty little roundabout with the white church. There we found another cafe that Ania really likes. Called Charlotte it is another fairly modern place, full of young professionals and mothers-to-be. The staff are all about 12 years old with surfer-waxed hair or bohemian looks in their eyes. The place is very nice though, the bread is all baked fresh, you can see the bakers working away behind the counter, flour filling the air, sun rays pouring through it from the huge windows. We sat in one of the windows, on some bar stools and watched as traffic and people milled about outside, people sitting on the terrace in the sunshine with their coffee and cigarettes. The cafe has all of those classic cafe sounds, spoons clinking the edge of the cups as the sugar is poured in, people chatting and laughing, tearing their bread or crunching their croissant. The sun was warm on our faces, the disbelief at the gloriousness of the day compared to yesterday still the main topic of conversation. We sat there for a while, also stirring our coffee or crunching our croissant. I took some photos of people through the window, of the zebra-crossing which was empty one second and the next being jam packed with people trying to cross the road.
After a while Ania had to head home so I took her to the tram stop and saw her off, then I went to wander around in the sunshine before I met up with Marta. It is mad how much more stuff you notice when you aren’t hunched over yourself trying to keep warm. A straight back means you can look up at all the amazing sculptures that sit atop of all the buildings, staring down at all of the people below. I literally just walked up and down the streets, enjoying the sunshine and noticing things that I hadn’t before. Then it was time to go and meet Marta, she resigned from her job today so wanted to go for a drink after work.
We met at her office and then walked into the centre, taking an elongated route, along Kruzca for a bit, then down onto Mokotowska and along for a while, staring in shop windows and some beautiful entrance halls to tenement apartments. We then got onto Nowy Swiat, walked along a bit and turned off, behind the street is a little area of bars and a few boutique shops. Mostly bars though, all decorated in different styles but more or less doing the same thing. We picked one filled with a mix-match of old furniture and dark decor. We ordered a pitcher of beer for a bargain happy-hour price of 15Zloty, about £3! We sat, drank, chatted for a couple of hours or so and then we left, walked along past the Sheraton Hotel, Parliament buildings, the embassy buildings, and that area of town then I dropped Marta off at her friends apartment, where she was heading for more drinks, and I took the tram home, ate a good helping of the leftovers from yesterdays soup and some Pierogi, then sat for a while doing worky things and went to bed!
Day 37, Riga – Kaunas via Vilnius, February 15th 2012
Posted: February 15, 2012 Filed under: Kaunas, Riga | Tags: advertising, board, brandy, bus, bus window, car, central, central train station, chocolate, chocolate shop, city, coach, drink, ecolines, emils gustavs, entertainment choice, eurolines, flat, Food, hoarding, hot, hot chocolate, Kaunas, Latvia, liquid chocolate, liquor, lithuania, pasta, photography, riga, salmon, shop, snow, tea, Tea house, Today, train station, travel, traveling, view, Vilnius 5 Comments
Tea 37: Not tea, hot chocolate, Emils Gustavs Chocolate Shop, Riga
Today was a travel day, 1040 – 1645 on a bus. Riga to Kaunas in Lithuania. This bus was probably the nicest one so far, good leg room, good temperature, though a dubbed version of Fast and the Furious Five was maybe not the ideal ‘in coach entertainment’ choice!
I left the apartment in Riga earlier than I really needed to, but this was because I was determined to leave Riga on a high note. And, at long last it worked! I managed to track down the illusive Emil and the holy chocolate grail! This made me exceedingly happy. The perfect treat for 9:30am? A cup of the gorgeous hot liquid chocolate. This small but perfectly formed little cup provided me with a much needed and much appreciated chocolate high. This hot chocolate was literally just melted chocolate in a cup, even those little bits that are left in the cup you see began to turn back into solid chocolate. It was simply wonderful, only cost 1 lat and the lady that served me did so with a lovely smile and a warm bit of broken English conversation. It was a great ending to a strange few days in Riga. Thank goodness! The little shop is in the central train station, and there is even a tea shop too, I think I probably should have just hung out there the whole time I was in Riga!
I got to the bus station, waited a little while then hoped onto the bus, a double decker beast of a thing, but as I said, nice and comfy. The journey didn’t feel too long either, we made a small stop somewhere, then another short stop in Vilnius, which looked, from the bus window, a bit like Riga… Then I arrived at Kaunas. I went into the bus station to ask about buses for the next leg of my trip, received friendly and efficient service and then waited for my next host, Lina. She arrived a little after 5pm and after a quick pop to the supermarket we headed to her flat, which she shares with her husband. The flat is lovely, on the top of a hill only a few minutes from the bus station and it has the most wonderful view of the city, I will try to get a photo of it in the coming days. We sat and chatted, ate a little, drank a bit of brandy, which I actually enjoyed even though I didn’t think that it was my sort of drink. Then one of Lina’s friends arrived, we ate some dinner, a bit more chat and now it is time to sleep…
Goodnight.
Tea 34, Riga, February 12th 2012
Posted: February 12, 2012 Filed under: Riga | Tags: arm chair, art, bandstand, Baroque, bitter flavour, cake, ceremony, city, consul, consulate, delicate taste, derive, drink, duck, Flavor, Food, freedom, gallery, glass windows, green tea, liberty, milk oolong, monument, museum, oolong, park, pearl, photography, riga, sculpture, steep, Steeping, tea, Tea house, town, traditional, two different places, walking 2 Comments
Tea 34: Milk Oolong, Aspara Tea House, Riga
I started to like Riga a little more today. I went into the city centre, by foot once again, and headed straight for Aspara Tea House. This was one of the ones I hadn’t managed to find yesterday, I think it is because the internet seems to think it is in two different places, but today I picked the right one! The Tea House is a circular building, with glass windows all around, almost as though it is built on an old bandstand or something similar. There are two floors, the upper is a full circle with loads of cushions and a view out over the park in which the tea house sits. I chose to sit downstairs though, in a comfy arm chair. I ordered a Milk Oolong tea. This doesn’t involve any milk for any of you who are wondering. The tea leaves come in a pearl form which then unravel with the addition of water. This was served to me in a semi-traditional style, with kettle / thermos, teapot, fair cup and drinking cup. The tea can be steeped between 5 and 7 times, with moderate increases in the steeping time with each new round. The waitress told me to leave the second steep for around 1 minute, which I considered much too long, so I left the second steep for just about 40 seconds, this was still too long, in my opinion. The first steep gave a refreshing, smooth and delicate taste, and yes, sort of milky, creamy sensation. The second steep, which was far too long gave a much deeper, more bitter flavour, with far too many tannins attacking the sides of my tongue. The flavour had become much dirtier, almost alcoholic in it’s sensation, with the flavour flooding the front of my mouth. The third steep was better, this time I gave the tea only 25 seconds. This was still a little long, but the flavour was much better, the smoothness and milky sensation returning though still a slight tang. The flavour of the tea improved a lot as it cooled, becoming sweeter and more fragrant. The fourth steep was for 25 seconds once more, this time the flavour was much more balanced, the dustiness and bitterness was totally gone now and there was much more clarity in the flavour. The tea hadn’t become more delicate, but purer in flavour and fragrance. Steep 5 and the colour had become beautifully golden now, the flavour was deeper, at the base of the tongue and the sweetness had begun to dissipate. Steep 6, the final steep and the tea finished with a flourish, the floral notes in the tea coming out, super refreshing and clear in flavour. The tea had seemed to come alive. That’s why I decided to stop it there, there’s such a thing as too much of a good thing…
A couple of hours had passed now so I got up and went wandering through the lovely, peaceful parks. The city was sleepier today, less people and traffic, the snow was falling again, covering up the brown-grey piles of old snow and ice, making it a little prettier. I wandered past the congress building, various consulates, that line the Kronvalda Parks. People walked their dogs, a guy had his girlfriend filming his snowy Parkour tricks. Ducks splashed around in the few bits of unfrozen river. The city felt a lot more inviting today. I kept wandering like this, around the North-East of the city centre, past museums, official buildings, shopping malls for a good long while. Then I met up with my host for more walking. This time much farther North, along Brivibas Bulvaris. The architecture along this road is pretty amazing, huge Gothic and Baroque style buildings lining the streets. Busts and faces staring out at you from the Facades.
We found ourselves on Miera Street, another one I had failed to find yesterday. There is a nice mixture of traditional wooden houses and the more Baroque styled stone built buildings. Miera apparently means ‘peace’, and we found this small, beautiful cafe there with the same name. At number 9 Miera Street this little cafe is beautiful, with French music playing gently throughout the cafe, handmade hats, candles and teapots in the window. I had a really, really good Chili Latte, with a beautiful syrupy decoration on the top. We sat there and warmed up for a while, the chili doing the perfect job, then we decided it was dark and getting colder so we are both home. More couchsurfers have arrived so the flat is getting full, but it is good to meet some more people.
Day 32 & 33, Pärnu – Riga & Jelgava, February 10th / 11th 2012
Posted: February 11, 2012 Filed under: Jelgava, Parnu, Riga | Tags: busy, cafe, cake, city, cobbles, derive, festival, food drink, ice, Jelgava, Latvia, liberty monument, map, old town, Pärnu, photography, pie, pocket watch, reclining, riga, riga city centre, riga latvia, sculpture, seahorse, shop, Skype, Statue of Liberty, street, tartu, tea, tea selection, train, wander 1 Comment
Tea 33: Green tea with Ginger and Lemon, Silva, Jelgava.
(Tea 32: Estonian Herbal tea, Liis & Ivo’s Apartment, Pärnu)
Many apologies for a two day in one day blog… I feel genuinely guilty. Yesterday was another travel day, and so I didn’t get chance to take many photos or to document my tea, but needless to say it was another lovely Estonian Herbal tea, brewed to perfection by my wonderful Pärnu hosts. I took the bus from Pärnu to my current location, Riga, Latvia. The bus was luxury compared to the bus from Tartu to Pärnu, a good few inches of leg room beyond my knee caps, and a comfortable seat, and even some sporadic internet access. I arrived in Riga, met my new host and we went to her apartment to the East of Riga city centre. After a sit down and a little bit of relaxation we headed into Riga, myself, my host Kristine, and her flatmate Linda. We wandered around for a while, showing me a few of the sites, mostly around the old town and the Latvia Statue of Liberty / Liberty monument. We then stopped in a cafe for a coffee and a small but glorious slice of nutty, praline type cake. VERY good stuff! I had a coffee instead of a tea, mostly because I needed a caffeine boost, but also because their tea selection wasn’t up to much, doubt me if you will, but a cup of ‘Hot Love‘ tea certainly wasn’t my, well, cup of tea! We then headed back to the apartment, got some food and I went to bed.
So, day 33. Today I woke up around 9 and spent the morning Skype-ing family and doing internet stuff. By lunchtime I had finished catching up with modern life stuff and headed into the city centre. The weather was still cold, but not as bad as it has been, probably helped by being in a massively busy, bustling and somewhat polluted city. I wandered to central station then up towards the north-east of the city, just to wander around streets and get my bearings mostly but also in search of tea. Unfortunately this search was a little fruitless. I had had some suggestions but had forgotten their names and was hoping that they would jump out at me, but, today, they did not. Fingers crossed for tomorrow…
After a wander around this district, with it’s pretty little parks offering some peace from the traffic-filled streets, I went back towards the old town. More wandering around these cobbled, higgledy piggledy streets, souvenir shops and tourist trapping restaurants. Then I got a call from Linda, to meet her at central station. I headed there and met up with her and her boyfriend and we hopped on a train to a little town called Jelgava. There we met up with Kristine. The plan was to visit the Ice Sculpture Festival. This is an annual event, apparently run in tandem with a Sand Sculpture Festival in the summer months. Before we got there though we went for a tea and a bit of cake to warm up and give us a bit of energy. The weather in Jelgava was palpably colder than in Riga and it didn’t take long for us all to cool down much too much. We stopped in a little cafe / restaurant called Silva. I had a lovely cup of Green tea with fresh lemon and ginger, not an amazing tea but a great cold weather tea. I also had some kind of layered cake that tasted a little bit like a mild lemon meringue pie. Warmed up once more we headed for the festival ground. In the site are loads of ice sculptures that have been created by many different people from all over the world. There had been a judging contest and the winning one was this huge spire of ice with a figure reclining half way up the spire. It was very impressive, they all were. The time and effort stuff like that must take is unimaginable. It has to be a full time careers for some of these guys who have honed their skills so well. Seahorses, pocket watches, an amazing Chinese New Year Dragon, an Owl, a Dinosaur Skeleton, all things imaginable, and not. Wandering around we took in all we could with the cold biting heavily at our toes, a short but sweet firework display and then we decided to head back towards home. We stopped off in Silva once more to warm up and then made for the train station. We hopped on the train, got back into Riga, and the rest, as they say, is history, or the future…
P.S. You get extra pictures today to make up for the lack of yesterday’s posting…
A Travel and Tea Diary 