S like Sri Lanka

I have three postcards from Sri Lanka. One is really old. It was sent in 1964. It shows a hotel in Dehiwala Mount-Lavinia, a town located a few kilometers to the south of Colombo. Surprisingly, the name of the hotel is… Mount-Lavinia and it still exists and works quite efficiently. The price for a night is about 100 euros, so it is not cheap.

 

Hotel Mount Lavinia

Unique Sunday

If I could I would travel all the time, but I can’t, so I try to learn about my world in a different way. By thematic walks with a guide. I usually go for that kind of walk once or twice a month. I learn about history of Warsaw, about its architecture and people who were living here. Every walk is unique. It tells about a different spot in a city, like particular cemetery or a style in the architecture. But the walk on last Sunday was one of the most special.

I went to Jewish cemetery on the right bank of Vistula river, which is closed for almost every one. Of course if you are stubborn, or a vandal, or you don’t respect sacred places, you are able to enter, but I am not… So when there was an opportunity to get a key and open the entry gate I agreed without any hesitation.

The main gate with a relief of praying Jews just before their execution

UNESCO World Heritage List

Wooden Tserkvas of the Carpathian Region in Poland and Ukraine are new cultural properties on UNESCO World Heritage List. World Heritage Committee extended this list during the 37th session of the World Heritage Committee held in the Kingdom of Cambodia, in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap-Angkor. I have never seen those orthodox churches, but I have the great postcards showing two of them, moreover I wasn’t even excited about the fact of extension, but this news was a start of my own list’s extension.

I browsed almost whole UNESCO World Heritage List, which consists 969 properties (cultural, natural and mixed) and thanks to it I added many places to my must-see list, in the same time checking what I have already seen.

Pespective after "Anil's Ghost"

In the past weekend I finished reading a book by Michael Ondaatje. He is an author of “the English Patient”, but what is more important to me, he was born in Sri Lanka. After coming back from this beautiful country I wanted to read something connected with it, so I borrowed “Anil’s Ghost”.

It is a very difficult book to read. At the beginning I could not get used to the idea of a plot construction. Furthermore, this book tells the history of a few people during Sri Lankan Civil War, so the topic is deeply moving. And more, the main character is a medical examiner and her job is told in details. Anyway, I found a few parts there which made me stop and think more. I wondered if they are facts or they are only the imagination of Michael Ondaatje, but they seem to be real.

Birthday party

Even I can see the keys to a new apartment on the horizon and I should rather choose tiles, floors etc., I really can’t survive without trips. So a few days ago I bought tickets to another unseen destination. It will be an one-day city break. And this reminds me of my birthday trip to Bratislava.

Just before Christmas there was kind of polskibus.com tickets’ sale and I had a thought that I didn’t want to spend my January birthday sitting in a front of the computer, doing my everyday quite boring job. So without any longer reflection I bought one ticket to Bratislava, because I had never been there before. A journey was supposed to start 6 or 7 pm. a day before birthday, so I was supposed to be really early morning in my favourite day of the year. And it happened like it had been planned.

Postcard collection

Sometimes I can’t find any ideas for a new note or I have them too many. It is due to a lack of concentration, tiredness, bad feelings or others, however, I found a quite good solution how to stick to my plan of putting notes on this blog twice a week: my postcard collection.

My first postcards are – frankly speaking – my father’s postcards. It is my heritage, even my father is still in a good shape. He used to collect them, so one of my oldest and most favourite Warsaw view is from 50’s, his youth time. When he gave me his collection, there were around 2000 of postcards. Now the number is doubled and is growing almost every day.

A list of postcards

Food Journey

I had the third gastroscopy a few days ago, the worst one – sometimes is better to know nothing what will happen soon… Anyway, with the empty stomach before the examination, dreaming about food and beverages, I came up with an idea for my next note: a food journey across my trips.

As far as I remember I always had the attitude that I live to eat, not eat to live, so tasting food is one of the most important thing in my life. I still can feel the smell, taste and my emotions towards some dishes. Therefore, let’s mention them.

Boarding Pass

Home town: Warsaw, Poland.

Where you live now: Still in Warsaw. I don’t know if this fact is sad or not. However, I still have been looking for enlightenment where my place to settle down is.

Warsaw, Poland, a view at the Royal Castle and Old Town