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Copyright chhavi sachdev

#throwback to this day 2018, at the covered Central market in Riga, a UNESCO world heritage site and also Europe’s largest bazaar. The market is made of 5 repurposed zeppelin hangars — there are only four more in the world — and was finished in 1930 at the same riverside site where an open produce market has existed since the mid 16th century. We loved it. We browsed through clothes, purses, a meat section, household stuff, flowers, a very meaty food court, cheeses, and much produce. We finally bought cherries and plums, but not much else, eventually finding a bistro in the style of a Polish “bar mleczny” with the most amazing rye bread and kotlety close by after working up quite an appetite.

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The 860ish year-old Dhakeshwari Temple whose goddess lends her name to the capital city of Bangladesh on the delta of some 700 estuaries. The temple architecture is, of course, not that old — it’s been torn down, rebuilt, repaired many hundred times but it’s famous for two things. (more…)

The Ahar cenotaphs. I learned the word “cenotaph” when I was 14. It means a “monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere” — a place holder for veneration, if you will.
I don’t think the folks who put together that dictionary ever dreamed of the way they’re done in Rajasthan, over acres and acres of land. The yellow stone Bada Bagh outside Jaisalmer might be the most famous, but near the old Pratap Nagar railway station in Udaipur is a huge tract of Chhatris in white.

Sadly, the grounds are unkempt and some structures are in disrepair (plus the caretaker is more than happy to take a bribe to break the posted rules.) Still, it’s serene and rather imposing in the early morning and I’m glad to have visited.

#blog #wp #udaipur #History #incredibleIndia #Rajasthan #wecouldberoyals

#throwback to our trip to Vilnius and some fun things we did there. I loved this brilliant sculpture (top right) – an abstract portrait of 16th century Polish queen Barbara Radziwiłł, Grand Duchess of Lithuania – by Vladas Vildžiūnas, from 1979.

It’s on what translates as German Street and one side had to be completely rebuilt after the bombing in WWII.

I loved Vilnius more than I’d expected to. We’d planned only two days and 1 night here and we really lucked out. The location of our B&B was fabulous, the city was easy to navigate and I loved that the “old” town was a living city – I mean the university is smack in the  middle of it (like Krakow) and it was teaming with students and locals, not just tourists like Riga or Tallinn old town were.

Plus there was Užupis, the cheeky artists’ republic with their lovely constitution that affords respect to cats and humans alike. On our first evening there in the square of the Cathedral, we saw dozens of hot air balloons go past. And I just adored the sculpture of Grand Duke Gediminas. (Of course, we also found the lucky star and did little turns while making a wish.) Later we walked up the Hill of Three Crosses in Kalnai Park – it was a good climb and the wooden path kept disappearing down corners, a little stairway to … well, toward heaven.

#sculpture #publicart #europe #Lithuania #Vilnius #summertime #summer2018 #blog #wp #rainy #showers #cloudy #summerholiday
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On the walls of the Jami Masjid, Ahmedabad

“Yes, I’m up. I am. I’m awake. Really.”
I worked really late last night and the kitties patiently kept me company. Tigger in his usual spot, sprawled on my desk, some part of him behind the screen, Zizi napping in my closet. Or so I thought.
When I finished, Tigger struggled to snap out of his snoozey state; he sat up even, but kept falling back asleep.
Meanwhile, Zizi had not been wasting time napping. She had assiduously shredded all the toilet paper in my bathroom. She likes to perch on the toilet seat lid, balancing on her one hind leg and her tail, and use her front paws to shred maniacally.
Looking mega sheepish, the culprit darted away and hid under the sofa, so I didn’t get a photo of her in action. I did laugh as much as I was annoyed with her.
I thought I’d spare you the view of the loo. Let’s just say it looks like a sci fi film set. There is toilet paper in three rooms. I let it be, she can play with it, but the loo is now totally out of bounds to her. Grr.
#blog Shared via Instagram http://ift.tt/1Poisgl and IFFT

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I usually try to do two international trips every year, one in Asia, one elsewhere, but this year has been remarkably poor – both moneywise and healthwise, so I’d only done short trips within India (Assam, Goa, Delhi, Jaipur) until August, when I went to Portugal. And of course, I’d timed my Schengen visa application really tight. I had wanted to wait until some funds hit my bank account and realized quite late that VFS can take up to 15 working days to process it since it’s forwarded to Goa! Grrr.

So I ended up totally scrambling and getting to the visa centre a bit earlier than I’d planned.
The good thing was I have most of my documents scanned and digitized and I had already bought travel insurance that covered me through September of this year. (I buy it online and you can find several options with companies like ICICI Lombard). (more…)

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