Thursday, April 08, 2010

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Easter Weekend

Warsaw, Poland.


Last year on the Good Friday, I had landed in Frankfurt on the way to Montevideo. I had a 14 hour halt at frankfurt, from 8:30 in the morning to 10:30 at night. Though I was equipped with the transit visa to spend my day at Frankfurt, seeing whatever I could, there is really no charm, atleast for me to roam around a place all on my own. Nevertheless, something is better than nothing and hence set out on foot to enjoy the beautiful city. Once I reached into the city, I was treated with a rude shock. The entire city was dead. There wasnt a single soul outside. It just took a couple of minutes to then realise that due to Good Friday, everything is closed. 


This year, I am here in Warsaw, and kind of facing similar situation. Here except the public transportation, everything else is closed. Thanks to Preethi, she warned me to buy all my provisions in advance and thankfully I could. But the weekend was different. Since everything here is closed, I assumed there wouldnt be any life at all over the weekend. But no, on the sunday, when I boarded the train, the train was as full as a normal day. When we reached the Lazienki Park, it was indeed a festival. The place was flooded with people, which is not really a normal sight here. Apparently , everyone takes a nice long walk after the lunch on Easter, and what better place than this park. 





From Warsaw_04Apr2010



The Chopin Statue:
This is one of the highlights of the park. 



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These Benches  here  , play Music. Apart from the music, wherever they are located, the significance of the place around it will also be mentioned, and this time, in English also :). So you would always find people standing  next to it, rather then sitting on it and reading about the location and also enjoying the beautiful music.





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A close up view of the Chopin Statue



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Lazienki Palace, Also known as Palace on Water



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The amphitheatre in the Park



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Somemore peacocks

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The endless walks ...



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The Cathedral in Old Town,on the Royal Route





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The Royal Route



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Again, one more of the Chopin Musical Benches along the Royal Route



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Information of the Buildings along side.



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The President's Palace



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This place is apparently a restaurants, where you get limited things for small price. Hence quite a frequented haunt by the locals here, especially by the end of days work.



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Hotel Bristol. The most expensive hotel in Warsaw, again on the Royal Route.





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The Square where once Pope John Paul II addressed the gathering. 



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The Eternal flame in the rememberence of soldiers who laid their lives for the country. The Guard is there alawys and standing still. Here you can see the change of Guards.





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As old as 972.



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The fountain behind this place.



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The Warsaw University



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This Canon is also inside the University. IT was used in many fights and had travelled to many places before coming back to its oroginal place :)
Preethi and Wiktor had translated the stuff for me.





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The University Library



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The walls decorated with scriptures in various old languages



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And this is Sanskrit





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Can you decode this ?



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The pictures that follow are from the University Library. Its one of a kind and done very differently. 
From the glasses, one can see the inside of the library.





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This duck was acting funny...



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Sounds Familiar?



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On the Roof top





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The view of the Palace from the roof top



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We climb further up..





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View of the River along side..



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The watch tower..



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The insides of Library, [ Taken through the glass panes, hence not clear]



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The Library Structure





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The outside of building once again..



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One of the roads near the University Library, where car rallies are held.





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The Art Theatre





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This Eyewitness Guide, lent to me was very very helpful. It has all the details of the history and the significance of the places.

Monday, April 05, 2010

People around you

Its amazing how you meet different people and how they help you. I had two different experiences in the two non-english speaking countries that I have been. Last one was Uruguay and now in Poland. I wouldnt want to mention of India here, just to get the perspective right.
In Montevideo, in the meditation center, I ended up meeting with many people and since I was from India, they had a lot of respect for me. It was a great feeling. They even took me to a near by place. I remember it very clearly, and 4 of us went in a nice Honda Civic, to Piriya Polis. A neighbouring town of Montevideo. The interesting part of that was , I hadnt met any of them before and with all full faith I went along with them as if we knew each other for ages. It was only because we are part of the same greater family. One brother from Brazil, One from Uruguay, One from Paraguay and finally me from India. It was such a pleasure going with all of them and learning so many new things. I am sometimes amazed how these things happen.

Now here in Warsaw, I ended up meeting a friend, well, not a friend until I met her. Only link was that we are from the same college and we had never met there. Its only because of social networking site that we got to know each other and now she makes sure that I see all the right places, gives me all the directions to go to important places. How can I ever repay back .

Its simply beautiful experiences like these that makes one feel good have a positive frame of mind ...
Thanks a lot for everything

Friday, April 02, 2010