Potatoes, Cabbages, Blue Jays and Mosquitos
Posted: July 11, 2012 Filed under: Warsaw | Tags: beer, bite, bitten, blue jay, botanic garden, bridge, Cabbage, cards, drink, field, flowers, Food, holiday home, hut, kill, mosquito, park, Park Kultury, people, photo, photography, potato, potatoes, scotland, splat, summer, swimming pool, tea, Texas, the great tea scape, travel, vacation, vampire, volleyball, Warsaw, West Nile virus, Wheat 1 Comment
So at the weekend we decided to escape the city a little, and ventured south on the bus to the Park Kultury, a bit of forest and fields and holiday ‘huts’. The sun was shining hard as it has been for the last week or two, but the bus was nicely air-conditioned (apparently if the drivers don’t have it switched on they are getting fined). We arrived at it was as though the whole of Warsaw had descended on the place. There were men, women and children everywhere, all fairly scantily clad burning nicely in the midday sun.
We arrived and took a little walk through the park, then to the forest area where there were far less people. However it soon became apparent why people might not be populating the more covered areas, MOSQUITOS! The Polish ones are MASSIVE!!! And they are incessant! You’d think living in Scotland for the past 6 years would of hardened me against midges and all thing Vampiric, but these guys are a whole different class! And, what was worse, the so-called ‘repellant’ we had bought with us (thinking ourselves to be very clever) actually seemed to be ATTRACTING the bloomin’ things! They buzzed around my head like some sort of tiny version of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre! We escaped as quickly as we could, Mosquitos in hot pursuit. We finally made it out the other side and fended off the last few brave enough to head out into the heat of the daylight.
Walking trying hard to resist the urge to scratch the various parts of our bodies, we were treated to some lovely views of long strips of land, all planted up with different crops, from Cabbages and Wheat to a lovely field of Potatoes. We managed to ‘liberate’ a few from the edges of the field to take home and cook, just to see what they were like. Then we headed back to the main part of the park, where the number of bodies to mosquitos lowered our chances of being bitten. We sat in the sunshine for a while, watching people of all shapes and sizes stroll around the park, playing volleyball, chess or cards and drinking over priced beer. We stayed until the temperature lowered enough to bring the Mosquitos back out, and then we headed back to the bus and homewards.
Day 30, Tartu – Pärnu, February 8th 2012
Posted: February 9, 2012 Filed under: Parnu | Tags: apple, bus, chocolate pancakes, cold, cramped bus, dense forest, dinner party, drink, energy, energy fields, estonia, field, film, Food, garden, information exchange, Latvia, leg room, lemon balm, lovely, matrix, meliss, memory, orchard, Pärnu, photography, riga, snow, Sweet Potato, Tallinn, tartu, tea, the living matrix, ticket, toastie, vegetarian, winter Leave a comment
Tea 30: Meliss (Lemon Balm), Liis & Ivo’s loft, Parnu
Two belated posts in a row… oops. Yesterday was another travel day mostly. I spent the morning packing and relaxing on the sofa in Tartu, trying to gather a bit of energy back. A huge breakfast of chocolate pancakes and toastie sandwiches was made for me so that was really good. So after a little bit of zombifying in front of the TV I went down to Tartu bus station bought my ticket for Parnu and left. The bus was really full and possibly the least leg room I have ever experienced. Luckily the bus had quite an early stop and a large chunk of the people got off at that first stop, so that was a bit better, but i still had my legs stuck out into the aisle, wedged between my rucksack and the armrest. Traveling by bus shows you just how much of Estonia is covered by thick dense forest. 60% apparentely, it’s no wonder they burn so much of it to heat their homes. But I am assured it is all sustainably done. Arriving in Parnu at about 5:30pm, I was met at the bus station by Liis, who is kindly putting me up for two nights before I make for the border and into Latvia.
We went straight away to her husband’s car and the three of us drove, picked a fourth person up, and headed out into the countryside, to one of their friends houses. I had been kindly invited to join their dinner party. A weekly occurance they pick a ‘theme’, or vegetable, that will be cooked into as many different options as possible. Last night was one of my favourites, Sweet Potato. We had it as salad, baked, and ‘caramelised’ crisp/chip style. It was good food, and followed by a documentary film, The Living Matrix. Basically this is about energy fields that may, or may not, exist around the human body, and how holistic medicine can engage with these fields to heal. It was very interesting, though the characters and scientists were all quite extreme and intense, which can be a little off putting for some people. If you are into, or just curious about the ideas of holistic medication, healing, acupuncture, the placebo effect, and such things it is worth a look.
We all left after the film, and headed to Liis and Ivo’s apartment, which is a roof space apartment near the centre of Parnu. They keep insisting it is unfinished, but it is a really lovely space, nice decor, nice environment, really lovely. I am certainly jealous, it is one of those places you always wish you could live in, and the decor you always strive for but never feel you achieve. I’m pretty sure these two have achieved it. It is really lovely, especially the ‘rocket stove’, which I am currently sitting on typing this. We drank tea, ate apples from Liis’ Gran’s Garden, and chatted for a while about what I am ‘planning’ and where the two of them have travelled and what their plans are. They seem very happy here.
So, no Parnu photos yet, but here are some more of Tartu, including the rather dazed looking face of the pig sculpture that stands outside of the Tartu meat market…
A Travel and Tea Diary 