Graveyards and Abandoned Hospitals.
Posted: July 5, 2012 Filed under: Warsaw | Tags: abandoned, afternoon, art, artists, Asia, asian, bombilla, boutique, cabinet, children, chinese, community, Cooking, couchsurfers, couchsurfing, cure, Death Star, drink, evening, Food, grave, graveyard, halt, Home, hospital, itchy, jerozolimskie, jew, jewish, jewish graveyard, lemon, Lifestyle Choices, little rice, lovin hut, Loving Hut, mate, mosquito, omega, oxygen, photo, photography, ping pong, ping pong balls, Poland, prevent, repellent, stop, stop the itch, studios, szpital, Table tennis, tea, teriyaki, thai, thegreateascape, tlen, tomb, toothpaste, travel, vacation, vegan, Veganism, vietnamese, Warsaw 2 Comments
Another roasting hot day was met with gusto as we headed out into the city centre. We had arranged to meet up with two couchsurfers who were visiting Warsaw for a few days and were looking for good, vegan food. I recommended the brilliant Lovin’ Hut on Jana Pawla II, and they kindly invited us to join then for a spot of lunch. The food has never disappointed me there, and it still hasn’t, though I did have to have a second choice because the first was sold out (quick tip, get there early if you want to a chance to sample something from the whole menu). This time I had ‘Teriyaki Island”, and it was very very good as usual, the soy dressing is really well done, and their little rice piles perfect for the size of dish. I would recommend this place to absolutely anyone, no matter what your diet or eating preference, even the strictest carnivore can’t fail to be impressed or satisfied here!
After lunch we went our separate ways and Marta and I headed to the Jewish Graveyard, to see it in the sunlight, and hopefully to cool down. The place was really beautiful in the sunshine and the trees made the light dappled and beautiful, as well as making the temperature bearable. The biggest problem however was the abundance of hungry mosquitos, baying for our blood. But we just about survived, though the next day my legs looked like someone had filled them with pink ping pong balls! (toothpaste and lemon seem to be doing the trick at keeping the itching down a bit though)
We jumped on a tram, intending to head straight home, but stopped off in the city centre and ended up inside the old children’s hospital on Jerozolimskie, ‘Szpital Omega’. This is slowly being turned into artist’s studios and there is access to the building thanks to a tiny boutique that has opened up on the 3rd floor. The whole building is pretty accessible if you don’t mind the piles of rubble lying around and we had a good old snoop throughout the place, which has got some creepy stuff still kicking about. The picture above is of the old oxygen cabinet, and there are some more photos below, which gives you a bit of an idea of how cool it is to explore this place, before it all gets neatened up.
Tired and sleepy we headed back home to enjoy the cool flat and some nice cups of tea. I have, at long last, got myself a bag of normal green Mate, which is very very welcome at all times of the day and a good change from the roasted one that I have been drinking lately. I do wish I had brought my Bombilla from home though, the ones in Warsaw are all rather expensive. That’s exoticism in Poland for you!
A really amazing tombstone, possibly my favorite!
Day 113 & 114, Cologne, May 2nd – 3rd 2012
Posted: May 4, 2012 Filed under: Cologne | Tags: 2012, art, asparagus, bechamel, beer, belgium, bicycle, brusseler platz, carp, chocolate, cologne, contemporary art, cosima von bonin, culture, cut! cut! cut!, dance, design, diary, duck, fish, gallery, Germany, glass, green tea, henrik olesen, hiroshima, hiroshima nagasaki, ice cream, japan, Jean-Michel Othoniel, karsten greve, kolsh, lemongrass, London, Museum Ludwig, nagasaki, noodles, pak choi, park, pistachio, pond, potato, prize, Regina, Regina Saskatchewan, sculpture, space, surreal, tea, travel, traveling, vegan, wolfgang hahn, work, yves klien, Yvonne Rainer Leave a comment
Tea 114: Sweet Chai, Hallmackenreuther, Brüsseler Platz, Cologne.
Day 113. My first day in Cologne, and quite a easy going one. Usually my first day in a place is spent having a short explore around the local area to get my bearings. I had a wander to the park just around the corner, the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Park. There were people jogging and walking dogs as well as a few rabbits hopping around munching on the damp grass. The air was heavy with misty rain filled clouds, but luckily it didn’t rain. I wandered part way towards the city centre and then back again, to the park first, where I decided to feed the ducks in the strange big square pond, with water that is a strange shade of turquoise (I later found out that I’m apparently not supposed to feed that ducks here, but luckily no one stopped me), there are carp in the water too, so despite it’s colour it must be capable of sustaining some life, although apparently a few years ago they had to totally refill the thing because the water had gone toxic and was killing the ducks.
Walking past the flat and along the little high-street. Then back to the flat I met with Regina as she had finished her first day back at work. We went and did some food shopping at the asian supermarket. We had thought about cooking this prawn, fennel, pasta dish (with fake prawns as Regina is a vegan), but we couldn’t find the fake prawns anywhere so that recipe quickly changed into a Pak Choi, Green Tea Noodles, lemongrass and tofu invented dish, which turned out to be very very good, if I do say so myself.
After eating we spent some time unpacking boxes from Regina’s basement, most of her stuff is still down there as she has only just got back from traveling around for the past year.
Day 114. Today I wandered further into the city centre. I found a few galleries, most rather commercial, but one quite nice space called Galerie Karsten Greve. This is a big space with about 4 levels, and very, very clean and tidy. The work on show at the minute is by Jean-Michel Othoniel. Glass sculptural hanging pieces. They are clean and sleek, but I’m not sure of the artists intent with them, I got the impression they are simply meant to be pretty objects.
After that I wandered back towards the flat, via a bicycle / sports shop. Then Regina arrived home from work again and we decided to head out to buy a few things and then went for ice cream at this good italian ice cream parlour near the city centre. I had a scoop of chocolate and a scoop of Pistachio, delicious!
Then we wandered to the ‘Belgian Quarter’. To a little square with a church called Brüsseler Platz, and we stopped at a cafe called Hallmackenreuther, and I had the above tea, a Sweet Chai, with fennel and liquorice and cardamom. It was good, though not amazing, possibly because I had wanted a different one, that they didn’t have, oh well.
We went home after that and cooked a traditionally German Asparagus dish. The asparagus is the same plant as I am used to, but they dont allow it to grow out of the ground and turn green, so it is yellowy-white in colour. We made a vegan bechamel sauce and potatoes to go with it, and it was very tasty.
After dinner we met up with Regina’s work mate in town and went to a gallery called ‘Museum Ludwig‘. This houses a large collection of modern art work, some huge names, and therefore a very expensive collection. Currently there is a sort of retrospective of the work of Yvonne Rainer. There is so much there that it’s impossible to do it all in a day, let alone two hours. This day was a special day where people who live in Cologne can get into the galleries for free, and due to the time we arrived I managed to get in for half price too! There is also Cosima Von Bonin’s CUT! CUT! CUT!, a show that has toured around and grown, and is now in its ‘final resting place’, at Museum Ludwig. I’m not too sure what I really think about this show though. I’m going to reserve opinion on that one for the minute.
There is also Henrik Olesen on show. Who’s work ‘Mr Knife and Mrs Fork’ has won the Wolfgang Hahn Prize 2012. I actually saw this work for the first time a few years ago, when it was installed in a much rougher space in London. It was good to see it again, and quite strange to see it in a much cleaner and ‘official’ situation, with clean floors, and weirdly carpeted walls. The whole piece was set up exactly the same, except for the space and the way you enter the space. It was a kind of surreal experience to see it again!
After the museum we headed to a bar, a traditional Cologne pub where we drank Kolsh, the Cologne beer that comes in short 200ml glasses and is refilled until you signal by putting a beer mat on top of your glass. It is light and smooth, and pretty good.
After a couple of those we headed for a snack and then home!
Day 50, Warsaw, February 28th 2012
Posted: February 29, 2012 Filed under: Warsaw | Tags: alone, art, bicycle, broccoli, Bryan Adams, crow, drink, drinking, ducks, eating, Food, food spot, gate, generous, Jana Pawla, lemon grass, Loving Hut, mansion, me time, Moby, monument, moving, museum, Natalie Portman, park, photography, pierogi, Poland, prawn noodles, return, snow, soldiers, soup, tea, the great tea scape, thegreatteascape, travel, unfrozen water, vegan, vegetarian, Warsaw, winter, wintry weather, world war 2, ww2, wwii, zen Leave a comment
Tea 50: Yunnan Green Oolong, the Apartment, Warsaw.
50 days! A half centrury and what happens….
Winter returned today! The snow was falling fast and fairly heavy, giving a good coating to all the freshly ice free paths and roads. It was almost as though the first lot of snow had not disappeared at all! I wrapped up warm and left the apartment. The chill was back in the air, making me fear the worst for the next couple of weeks. I hope that the winter is not coming back and that that was just winter’s last laugh before spring kicks in. I took the tram again today, heading for Jana Pawla II street once more, in search of this vegan restaurant I had seen the other day.
Making it there I wandered up Jana Pawla for a while to work up a bit of an appetite, then wandered back down to the restaurant. The place is called the Loving Hut, an asian food spot, with all sorts of exciting looking things on the menu. I went for the soup that you can see below, though I have forgotten what it is called. But it was great, filled with Tofu, Broccoli, Beans, Celery, Lemon Grass, a fake prawn, noodles, loads of things. It was spicy and coconutty, rich and lovely. I sat and ate it up, flicking bits of soup all over the table, it was really good, especially with the cold wintry weather going on out of the window. I also learned that Natalie Portman, Moby, Tobey Macguire and Bryan Adams are all vegan!
Food eaten, which took me quite a while as the portion was hugely generous, I wrapped up again and went out into the wind blustered snow. I walked down Jana Pawla II then turned left onto Solidarnosci and walked to this little area just on the outskirts of the old town, wandering around a little park, that used to be part of the grounds to a grand old mansion, which still sits at the opposite end of the park. Ducks were desperately looking for unfrozen water to wash in, crows were diving about in the snow playing with sticks and rocks, for what purpose I don’t know, but I do think they were just playing in the snow, one kept diving into it and rolling around!
More wandering, more looking in bike shops and I decided I was getting far too cold, so I went back into the centre, bought some food to cook for dinner and then headed home. Back home I cooked a Beetroot soup and some Pierogi for Ania and I, Marta was at Yoga class. We sat and ate and chatted for a while, then watched an awful film, then went to sleep. A short, snowy day today.
Day 36, Riga, February 14th 2012
Posted: February 14, 2012 Filed under: Riga | Tags: art, berga bazars, cafe, central, chocolate, drink, Food, Hare-Krishna, International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Latvian Academy of Sciences, market, new town, old town, Rama, riga, Robert Breer, tea, vegan, vegetable, vegetarian, Yvonne Rainer Leave a comment
Tea 36: Lemo Mate and Apple Ginger Explosion!, Kristine’s apartment, Riga
Happy Valentine’s Day!
So, today I decided I would have an indulgent day and go get myself something tasty to eat, no matter what the cost. I had read about this little Hare-Krishna run vegetarian cafe so decided to seek it out. Walking into the new part of town, North West from the apartment, the snow still falling and the hundreds of cars quickly turning it into dark brown slush, but the weather was much warmer today, I only needed one hat and one pair of gloves on for the first time in a couple of weeks! Even now the temperature is only around -2’C! Glorious!
I walked up into the new part of the city. New meaning ‘not medieval’, still pretty old though. Rama, the cafe-restaurant is on Krišjāņa Barona iela, a busy-ish shopping street, but one of the more attractive ones, probably caused by the Romanticism of Tramlines and wires… I kicked my boots free of snow and walked up the little staircase to the front door, inside and another door leads to the cafe, whilst a small shop and what looked to be a room for worship were through other doorways. Before I had even got my hands on the door handle to the cafe an elderly man, wearing a plastic apron, so I presume someone who worked there, and one of the Hare-Krishna followers began to mutter something in Latvian whilst referencing my boots and the wet floor. I apologised that I could not understand him, he then muttered something about my ‘being sorry’ in English and disappeared up a staircase. It seems I can’t even get a break in the Hare-Krishna community of Riga! Oh well… I went into the cafe, a friendly man who was behind me and had witnessed the little altercation, let me through the door with an encouraging smile. The food in the place was good. It is served by weight, and there are loads of options, all are indian inspired. I had some rice with some marinated and grilled vegetables, as well as a lovely potato vegetable fried thing. It was very nice and reasonably good value for money. If you go make sure your boots are pristine, not even a good hard knock on the steps outside will do!
After that lovely meal, just what my body had been asking for, I wandered the streets a little while, going around the new town, around the little shops of Berga Bazārs (not little locally owned shops as I had imagined, but more upper-class boutique places). I had hoped to find Enihls Gustavs Chocolate shop there, but it would seem my guidebook is already a little behind the times, and unfortunately the shop is no longer there (there is one in the Central Train Station though, I am told). I wandered down into the old town, got myself a cup of coffee in a little ice cream parlour. The coffee was good, certainly sorting my energy levels out, and then I decided to go to the Central Market. These four huge arched buildings, that look like aircraft hangers, are located opposite the coach station and adjacent to the train station. There are various stalls outside of the buildings, selling everything from handicrafts and leather to fruit and flowers. Inside the buildings is everything you could imagine in a food market, meat, cheese, cake, bread, tea, chocolate, sweets. Its a pretty cool place, lots of atmosphere and life. I just spent a while looking around the place, didn’t buy anything, not even cake today! I’ve decided to start a bit of a health kick and try to eat a bit of a better diet, as much as possible. Traveling isn’t ideal for gourmet dining though!
After that I headed back towards home, through little side streets and an artsy warehouse district with bars, a concert hall, a gallery called ‘kim?’ and restaurants. The gallery is currently showing an installation by american artist Nick Mauss, if you are around on the 24th of February the artist Karl Holmqvist will be presenting his new reading series A WORD TEXT VORTEX. There will also be a compilation of films, video and audio selected by Nick Mauss, presented at the cinema K. Suns (amongst them films by Yvonne Rainer, Robert Breer, Nina Könnemann and Megan Sullivan)
After that little bit I made sure I went home via Stalin’s Birthday Cake, the Latvian Academy of Sciences building, so that I could get a photo before I leave for Lithuania tomorrow. That said, tomorrow involves around 6 hours of travel, so a decent, or in fact existent, posting tomorrow is a slim possibility.
A Travel and Tea Diary 