Popping into Poznan

Just a couple of days in Poznan, so begins the tricky decision if what to have for lunch, went for soup in a bowl of bread, which seems popular here. After that, it was over to the Enigma museum which highlights Polish mathematicians work during WWII. Lots of examples of cryptotograpy such as Caesar cypher. Some videos which shoed how one of guy thinking as mathematician, rather than an engineer, worked out formulas to discover working of Enigma. There was only 3x10^120 different possible combinations (number of atoms in the universe is 3x10^80). Quite a few hands on examples to play with, such as invisible ink, or scroll wheels with alphabets. Another exhbit had morse code, sending & receiving by pressing a button short or long. In reality it would be connecting/disconnecting thousands of miles of cables reaching across the Atlantic.

Another city square similar to Wroclaw, but with less gnomes and more fountains, one at each corner. This one is of Aquaman Neptune. It's a mix of European and Polish food in the restaurants with plent of the usual pizza, pasta, burger alongside local grub. Had a nice duck meal at one of the restaurants overlooking the square while a musican played an electic violin with a looper pedal. They had a sesonal asparagus menu, in case you want starter, soup & main of aspargus!

A famous landmark is the Poznan goats who come out of a clock tower and butt heads everyday at 12:00, except for when I was here as they were broken. Still opposite that is another top ranked attraction, the croissant museum! This is good just because of the two presenters having the gift of the gab: Grabs a volunteer, gives her an apron and hat and gets her to roll out the dough. "How long will it take? 5 minutes, okay. You are having fun and I'm getting paid, you keep rolling I'll get myself a coffee." 

Next day there was just time to check out the Poznan Art Museum which seemed to be undergoing rennovations, so quite a few exhibits closed. They did however have one called "Ultra Avant Garde" which was...different! Then off to the airport and fly back home to Edinburgh a succesful Baltic trip completed!

Wroclaw: Dwarf City

Onto Wroclaw which strangely enough is full of dwarves, adapted to specific situations. E.g. withdrawing money from a tiny ATM outside the bank. Or a dwarf with a guitar as a nod to the almost 8000 guitarist that descend annually for the Guitar World Record

I had a bit of laundry to do with meant a bit of a walk outside the centre to SqeedQueen. Lukcily there was a nearby Cat Cafe to pass the time when waiting for the laundry. Here there was a half a dozen cats, either lounging around or chasing toys. They were mostly quite podgy so well fed!

Wroclaw has a large pedestrianed town square, and in the centre of the square the old town hall buildings, yet another smaller square off the main. These are lined with cafes & bars, it was lively but not having when I was there. In the smaller square there is a staircase descending into a bomb shelter which now houses the small MovieGate museum. Here there is a bunch of movie props and costumes, bit of a weird setting but worth a nosy round!

Later I had some borsch with over baked pierogis at on eof the restaurants lining the square, nice to be able to dine al fresco and watch the world go by. The borsch is lovely and warming, but it's 23C and sunny!

 A pleasant walk was round the edge of the old town, in a sliver of park beside the canal. This route envelopes 3/4 of the old town. Quite a few non-dawrf sculpture dotted around town. A giant chair near my hotel for instance. A cluster of farmyard animals down a quiet lane. Outside a theatre a crocodile with a helium balloon tied round it's jaws dragging it up into the sky!

Lost in Lodz

Losz is acutally pronounced more like Wootch but that doesn't work with my title!

I wandered south to a district called Księży Młyn, which was home to a lot of old textile bulidings during the instustrial era. Nowadays they are being revamped as cafes, restaraunts and galleries housed in these distinctive large, red brick buildings. Spotting a promo, I had a nice 'business' lunch from a set menu. As I was paying, the guy noticed my accent, turns out he worked at a deli in Edinburgh which I'd been to,  sometimes it's a small world!

Strolling back through the park, saw the unexpected sights of a red squirell, didn't know they lived here. Also in the park was a botanic glass house (this one was open). It wasn't too humid, around 50% in the main section, and lower in an adjoined desert section. Another unexpected surprise was the fish tanks which seems to house huge fish, the heat must make them grow faster!

Lodz was apparently the Polish Holywood, back in the day, hence the existence of the Cinema museum. This showcased the old move making scene with lots of cameras, props and costumes. Maps of Lodz show an explosion of cinemas, now mostly gone. Near the end a mocked up video store showed the glory days of VHS rentals, with 80/90s blockbusters, split into sections such as Sportowe, Fantastyka, Historyczne and Godzilla.

I jumped on the bus, but it veered off were I was epecting it to go, so hit the top button and ended up back at the train station where I had initially arrived. Deja vu. Back in the centre of town, a statue stands on a tall column, cosily wearing a t-shirt. This feels like the equivalent of a statue with a traffic cone on his head.

Nosing down a side street, there is a rather strange sight of an ordinary residential building which has been jazzed up by an artist. They have placed crazed mirror over the entire surface causing it to gline and shimmer in the sunlight.

 The main street with runs through Lodz is the very long and semi-pedianstrised Piotrkowska Street, the heart of the city. I'd popped into a fancy looking bar for a drink, regretting it when I saw their prices :) exiting later, the sun had set, and the street was rather lively. The majority of cafes are licensed and affiilated with a specific brand of beer displayed on the overhanging sun shades e.g. Tyskie, Książęce, Żywiec. So mostly pointing at the menu as trying to pronounce them wasn't very successful! One of the more unusual bars is Ministerstwo Śledzia i Wódki which serves up herring & vodka. Further down when things seem to be thinning out, there is OFF another cluster of bars/restaurants. There were putting up some large metal flamingos there for some reason! Even had a fresh flower vending machine.

Next day it was time for some breakfast, ended up in a trendy cafe, where they seemed to be doing a morning photoshoot for the instagram crowd, then there is me making the place look untidy. I went to visit the Art Museum but was greeted by a notice that it Saturday was the Night Of The Museum and opening hours were now 18:00-00:00. Went for dinner at a Polish restaurant, had Bigos which is a kind of stew with smoked sausage & bacon accompanies by some hefty bread with something like hummus.

Had another go at the museum, and it was very popular and busy (maybe cos it was all free!). In between popped into a large mall, Manufaktura, near the top of Piotrkowsk. Large area outside it for community events, seemed to have some sort of powerlifting competion, as guys standing on either side of a barbell competed for reps. 

 

 

 

 

Warsaw it again

 After a long 6 hour bus journey (I was expecting 7 hours, but there is a 1 hour time difference) I arrived in Warsaw. Approaching the bridge to cross the Vistul, traffic grinds to a halt. Now entering Warsaw propert with it's 1.8m inhabitants, so a sprawling metropolis.

I had a quick look around the old town, trying to remember where I had been when I firsted visited Warsaw back in 2017. I stayed in a similar area as last time, which helped somewhat to orient myself. Handy to the old town, university.  

I had a spot of dinner with some port that had been minced and reworked into a patty, cabbage, beetroot, potatoes. After I polish-ed that off, I wandered along Nowy Swiat (New World) which had a relaxed atmosphere, well on a Tuesday evening. Might well be different late on the weekend! There is a collection of cafes/pubs/restaurants. At one a guy with a guitar was doing good work with a looper, to play rythmn and solos at the same time. Opposite there is a popular standing bar, with tables but no chairs, where patrons imbibe Ukranian cherry liquor (I had assumed it was Polish!), because that's the only thing they sell. Also nearby was a geeky arcade bar, where you could play old Capcom beat 'em ups. Best one was Cadillacs and Dinosaurs!

Next day, it was time to do laundry, the excitement! Popped into cafe, and get subjected to Wet Wet Wet. Back into the old town, a lot of museums are acutally free on certain days, so I revisted the Royal Palace, which is full of ostentatious golden rooms that like most of the old town was rebuilt after WWII.

Further out I checked out the National Museum. Some interestingly weird religious medieval wood carvings, some of which are kinda gruesome. Such as 'Christ in Distress' covered in hives. In other sections there was 19th century art which was good, then old masters which wasn't so great as bowls of fruit and portraits of old men. Back to Old Town for a few snaps as it's very picturesque at dusk.

Next morning, I went to the fancy Cafe Bristol for breakfast at this historic cafe that's been around for over 100 years. Bit pricier than most places, but I got a dragonfly picture on my latte!

Just nearby in the History Meeting House was a good photo exhibition about Warsaw in it's post WWII rebuilding phase. Showing how the builders would have a scoreboard about who put up the most bricks!

Elsewhere, I found out that the Uni rooftop garden is open to the public, so can have a wander up there and good views near the river. 

I'd bought a ticket to the Copernicus Science Centre as last time I was here, it was sold out. While it was decent, it was abosultely rammed with people, not sure it was worth a seven year wait! Next door was the modern art museum, which had a single exhibit feature Ukranian Folk Art by (checks google) Maria Prymachenko, who had a quite distinct style of vivid animal drawings

Another point of interest was the Melt Museum (everything gets called a museum here), which had some weird AI art. One section used a camera to redraw you in realtime as a cyborg, which is very useful.

Kaunas

 I took a short train to Kaunas, just over an hour. Got coffee & cake with my 1st class ticket (€13). In the centre of the new town in Kaunas there are large wide streets on a grid. Liberty Boulevard runs down the middle, an impressive mile long pedestranised tree lined street through the centre of town, lined with pubs, restaurants and shops.

At the Art Museum 'Woman in Yellow' was the exhibit, seems like a famous painting, as what interesting was the amount of artists who had done their own version of it.

A decidely odder museum around the corner, enter the Devil Museum. Just the place to see a bombast of devils! Mostly carved from wood and painted, there is a suprising variety. On one floors, there are 'devils' from around the world, though taking a few liberties at times, such as the trolls from Scandinavia. It has orginated from a private collector and grew from there, devilish different.

Also nearby was the large War Museum, which houses all sort of rifles & guns, proceeding from basic bored wood rifles, up to semi-automatic machine guns. An unusual exhibit was a crashed plane, Lituanica which crashed en route to Kaunas.

 At a more contempary art galler, there was short exhibit, Black Hole, in which you entered a pitch black room and guided yourself only by a handrail. Ultimately you zig zag back to the start and emerge back into the light. Upstairs, as part of a large exhibit, dealing with senses other than sight, was a similar idea but this time artificial 'vines' dangle down, and you brush against something like crinkely tinsel. On another floor some strikingly vivid, geometric art.

Another day and down to the old town, some grand old churches around the town square. The Kaunas Castle stands as a tower fortress, nearby old building seem to be being transformed into stylish flats. Just down, through the park is the confluence of the two main rivers flowing through Kaunas, Nemunas and Neris. On Mondays, a lot of things are shut, but I visited the Botanical Gardens which, aside from the glasshouses was open, and it was a beautiful sunny day. Lots of rhododendrons, peonies and tulips. Even got into the butterfly house, which was many cocoons evenly placed dangling from a perch. Plenty of actual large butterflies fluttering around also, one escaped, but the staff quickly managed to scoop it back up and take it home. 

Valking in Vilnius

Arriving in Vilnius, fast growing city in the Baltics, seems to be in an era of building and rebuilding. Bus stopped briefly at a large shiny mall, Panorama, before heading to the main station which is closer to the old town. 

I soon headed down to the main city square and the Cathedral. Inside the cavernous area various rooms set off to the side, one holding a reliquary, others host paintings. But it's the main hulking nave with high ceiling that has tourists gawping.

Onto the the Palace of Dukes, like most museum and galleries in the Baltics you are directed to leave your jacket in the coatroom before entering. This has 4 paths through the museum. Path 1 begins back in time with archeological interests, with the underlying foundations on display, this meanders through many rooms as it's a big complex building. After about 45 minutes or so, I finish Path 1 and realise I might not have much time for other paths as they close in an hour or so. Path 2 is similary long, but leading through amazing grand reconstructed rooms with artworks, very swish! At one point the path leads up 6 floors to a viewpoint and then back down. With half an hour to go, it looked like Path 3 was closed, as quite often they don't let entry to museum with less than an hour to go, however the security guard let me through telling me to be quick (he obviously wanted to go home!). Path 3 & 4 were quite a bit shorter, covering weaponry and honours/medals. Got jacket from cloakroom and out before they closed. Baltics are on a fairly similar Latitude as Scotland (albeit 2 hours forward), so stays light late. Time for a walk up the Castle Tower hill, winding path round 3/4 of the hill to get to the ascent path. Went I puffed my way to the top, could see the funicular rail for the easy route to the top. Still not actually that high, probably about same as Calton Hill in Edinbugh, a good viewpoint across the city. Vilnius seems to be a bit of a hodgepodge of architecture from different eras. Walking between the hotel to the old town, go through new shopfronts, but also some dilapidated building with chunks of plaster missing, alongside the ever present roadworks with orange coats digging up the streets.

Another museum, The Old Arsenal. What was Wenger thinking sending Walcott on that early? No, no that Arsenal, but lots of old weaponry, just popped in here, as it was on my way to the Applied Art museum, which had a sign outside advertising Chagal, Picasso & Ernst. However, it was more pottery and textiles, with most of actually made by other artists, but using them as inspiration.

Next up with the Former KGB Detention House, set in a rather grim building, it highlights life behind the Iron Curtain and the contradictions to everyday life. Various rooms go through home life, working, party meetings etc. This was well laid out with good boards in English:  

Somone once said that Brezhnev-era society could be best understood through the myth of Sisyphius: People would keep rolling the boulder uphill, despite the meaninglessness of the act of rolling, the boulder, and ever the top of the hill itself, whic no one believed existed anyway. In truth, boulder-rollers in the late Soviet period cuold at least ironically paraphrase the words uetter by Josef Stalin in the 1935: "Life has become better! And happier, too!"

Next day, it was onto the Museum of Illusions, which has some nice optical illusions and holograms. Seen quite a few of them before, but a couple of new ones, such as a Tie Fighter etched into a record. Also a clever display with feathers being moved in slow motion, some magic with strobe lights I think. Ther was a touch illusion that was supposed to make wire feel like velvet, didn't seem to work with me, maybe I need new hands!

On the way to the House of Histories, I briefly stopped into the Lithuanian independence museum, about the people that helped reclaim independence, not much for the causal tourist here, skippable!

Couple of exhibits, one about Lithunian emmigrating abroad, also the flow of people (and money!) back into the country in the post-Soviet era. The other exhibits was somewhat bizarre about conspiracy theories with Moon Landings, 5G, Coronavirus & JFK all making appearances.

Another day, visited the Radvila Palace Art which one wing classical Western Art and the main wing has Modern Art. Pick of the bunch was a weird video installation with a big cinema screen in the dark. You could lie on a lounger and watch the short movie which, as far as I could tell, was about a mermaid swimming near a nuclear plant. Like a lot of these big government museum, there has hardly anybody else there! Maybe it's still low season, or a coach full of tourists pulls up to swamp the place.

Finally before my pass rans out goto the new MO Modern Art museum, another exhibition about conspiracy theories, what is going on here? On the plus side, I didn't bump into Vilnius born Hannibal Lecter. Listened to some live music as walked past Lucille Blues Bar, the guitarist/singer was certainly into it, in this tiny bar.

Return to Riga

 All roads lead to....Riga. Well they do when I want to go from Tartu to Vilnius in Lithuania, it's certainly the most straightforward way. As the bus gets towards Riga, sirens are heard, we stop and on the opposite side of the road a large convoy of low lift lorries carrying tanks and supplies are heading to the border.

 I head to the excellent Lido which has branches dotted throughout Latvia, it's a grab a plate and point sort of place, then the cashier just adds it all up and charges you. A lot of locals and tourists eat here, you won't go hungry and it's cheap, unless you keep heaping food on your plate!

Zuzeum aims to fill void due to lack of national mordern art museum. Bit hit and miss for me, think there is usually another exhibit also but changing over.

Also headed to the very large Riga central market, which houses all sort knick knacks and fresh food, the fish hall smelling of smoked fish. I had Solyanka soup in an edible bowl, it was more moulded dough than bread, bit plasticy!

For something different I headed back across the Daugava, and in the middle of an industrial area found the large old building that now houses Drifta Halle. I went for a spin on an electric drift trike, take a while to get used to it. Let's just say I don't think I'll be appearing in The Fast & The Furious anytime soon.

Tartu 2024

 Tartu is the European Capital of Culture in 2024. I'd like to say I carefully planned my route and had my finger on the pulse, but it was more a case of browsing though Google Maps and working out a way to loop back from Tallinn.

Tartu University was founded back in 1632, so it's been around a while. Heading up the hill (Toomemägi) from the town square leads to the University of Tartu Museum, now situated in the prominently located Cathedral building. Stretched out over 7 floors, plenty to see. A large pendulum dangles down the spiral staircase, gently oscillating over a map of the world. Favourite room was the Morgenstern Library, as soon as you enter the musty waft of old books hit you square in the face, smells like history!

Combined ticket also grants access to the Observatory Tower on the same hill, with plenty of old telescopes. Highlights how more design was used in the past, rather than just being purely functional, they were ornate with carved wood and brash polishings. Also included was the small Univeristy Art Museum, but that was mostly just plaster-cast replication of sculptures, although it did have a temporary exhibit with some weird VR experiences.

Next day visited the garguantan Estonian National Museum on the outskirts of town. This giant wedge building blends into an old military runway (Raadi), looks unreal. Inside a variety of permanent exhibitions, one focusing on language, another on national history, stretching back in time as you move through it. During life behind the iron counter it showed some ingenuity, such as a homemade lawnmower. Another section was about environment: "In 1982 a large quantity of aircraft fuel was leaked into Lake Raadi. To elminate the pollution, the lake was lit on fire." Hmm, well I guess that's one solution. 

Refueled and rested at the cafe with the daily special, pork with cheese sauce, roasted potatoes and salad, tasty!

Some temporary exhibits with Surrealist painting was weird as you would expect. Another focused on nightlife, then yet another on Bling, which kinda seem like an Estonian Burning Man festival. One clever bit of tech is that all the info boards besides the exhibits used e-ink screens and a tap of your ticket turned it from Estonian to English (or whatever lanaguage is encoded in your ticket), very neat!

Just outside the museum in an upside down house, which is popular with the selfie crew.

Back in town, chaos and pandemonium awaits at AHHAA Science Centre, where nearly everything is interactive. Full of hyperactive dafties, and that's just the adults. There are chairs with pulleys and ropes attached to a pillar, which you can try and pull yourself up. One without a pulley which is impossible! On one side a mini water park with plastic balls flying along tracks and waterspouts. Favourite was a sort of pendulum which the more you pull down, the more it pulls you up. So you hold onto a metal bar and get pulled a few feet back up into the air. 

Headed to a different area for dinner at Aparaat which was a small complex of restaurants/bars, wasn't that busy, but food was more than decent. Finally I found some live music in a big barn with the 'Rockin Lady & Her Rivertown Boys' playing a bit of rockabilly complete with a guy twanging a big double bass.