Polska ...and lastly...

Weight ins before and after the restaurant...love it... you know you got a good deal if you crack 4 kg

Doda icecream...hmm...not sure

Spew sinks ...brilliant...no more mess

Cute pillows...personal joke

pestki on the train...hmm...not bad...

Beer on the train...love it

Zakopane

Zakopane, is one of my top 3 destinations in the world... I am sure that some of my friends living in Poland will say that it is too touristy... but those tourists are all Polish so for an Aussie pole the place seems genuine...
... Zakopane has that perfect mix of outdoor and indoor culture... Hiking in the Tatras is the most spectacular experience, the tracks can be very challenging but they are also very well maintained, the views are unparalleled and, save Morksie Oko, there is not that many people on the tracks... and get this, it is socially acceptable to be sipping your beer as you hike...
As for the indoor culture, where else in the world will you find a restaurant where the staff:
will force feed you beer (and by that i mean literally holding the pint for you),
they will shout at you if you order coffee as "it is not a coffee shop so your options are beer or tea(with Spirytus 90% alcohol)"
if they see your underwear they will cut it off and hang it off the ceiling
...
and at the end of the night refuse to take money from men...because as they say "baby placa" (sheilas pay)
Now how can you not love this place
:)

Wroclaw

Ania and I found some WW2 memorabilia at our uncles place, forgive the German helmet but these are the (re)claimed lands which Hitler decided to name Festung Breslau/Fortress Wroclaw

... I have to be honest i dont really remember this photo other than its taken after a big drinking night in Wroclaw ...

And this is our unlces place... has to be one of the most chilled out places we visited...
(FYI Ania is drinking honey and milk boiled with garlic - yum... )

Polska - 1st week or so....

I arrived in PL on thursday to a very nice and warm day, but it was very short after that rain moved in.. now the interesting thing about the rain here is that it last for a short time, as opposed to our Aussie rain which last for days at a time.
But anyway, the 1st two days were spent catching up with mates and relos in Wawa which is to say we ate too much and drank to match the eating....
...on day 3 Piotr picked us up and we made our way to Siedlce for Michals wedding...
I wont go into the detail of the wedding here... it deserves an entry of its own (which i may or may not ever write)... but it really was a blast and lived up to the expectations of dancing till the sun came up...
(The photos from the wedding are on FB so i wont attach them here... the below is from my phone)

The wedding party is finished ...It is 5 am... we have arrived back at the grooms house and decided to have one more beer...
It definatelly did not help some of the other guys but the groom was standing strong the whole night ...

This is about 8 hour later starting the "fix up party" - poprawiny...

And our gracious host...the father of the groom - Stefan


..And my travel buddies Ania and Jeremy...

Burn

Short of breath...taste of blood in the mouth...a lead weight on my chest...
no funny tingling or pains in my left arm... thank god - i am not having a heart attack...

I had my 1st run today after a considerable break during which i substituted running with drinking and exercise with eating predominantly meat and carbs...(ohh.. i love Poland :)

It`s been a week back and only today did i muster enough motivation to go for a run. I have been suffering jetlag since i arrived back so i blame it on that. Although i read that exercise will actually help the body get back into it... I was impressed with myself though... sure it was only 5km to start off with but i managed not to have to stop and ran 5m15s Ks.
Its only 3 and a bit months to the Sydney running festival so i better get my ass into gear if i want ot run the 1/2 again.

...ohh and why am i writing... well on the trip to Poland i met someone who motivated me to start developing the unappreciated right side of my brain... and i liked it...
I will write a little about the trip on later posts...once the information becomse declassified ;)

for now peace out...

Singapore

Raffles Hotel

Merlion and Singapore skyline

Chinatown in preparation for Chinese NY

Goa - this place rocks

Divemasters in action....


This place has to be the ultimate destination in india...from what we saw so far...Goa is so different to the india we saw up north...
our days here were spent diving and night scootering and discovering the local villages and chilling on the beach.

Mumbai

India Gate

Local cuisine at the Independence day Food Fair

Shekawati and Bikaner (Rajasthan)

Sitting at a Centopath in Shekawati

Outskirts of the Thar Desert

Bikaner Camel Fair

Rat Temple in Deshnok

India part 2 = Agra and Jaipur

...comfortable with the whole India thing (ie. crowds/smells/crowds) after Delhi we arrived in Agra - home of the Taj Mahal - and were again out of our depths. Agra was an industrial city until the government realised that the smog was damaging the Taj and so they started closing a lot of the factories...less factories less work...less work more poverty... now the major business in Agra is tourism which means that there is loads of people hustling you at every turn...

But it did not take away from the beauty of the place which again really showed of how advanced the Mughal dynasty was...

we are now in Jaipur - the capital of Rajasthan - and we have completed our day of sightseeing. Jaipur is going through some major revamps - I guess the foreign investors have discovered the beauty of this place and are trying to capitalise on it...

anyways...here is some more photos...enjoy

(Photo of Humayan's Tomb)

After making our connecting flight from Singapore to Delhi with moments to spare we were over come with relief to see that our luggage had also made it to Delhi on the same flight.
Arrive in the wee hours of Sunday morning we were greeted by freezing temperatures and quiet Delhi streets.... Until..... Come sunrise and we stepped outside to start day one of sightseeing.

(Bahai Temple)

We though we would ease into the Delhi hustle and bustle by heading into Old Delhi... which for those that know Delhi, isn't the smartest move. Old Delhi is the poorer, denser (population wise) part of Delhi. The streets are jam packed with people going about their daily lives... cutting hair, cooking, eating, washing, and trading... let's not forget bugging the tourists sending us on wild goose chases.
Delhi is BUSY.. and very in your face! Theres more rickshaws here than people in Sydney and traffic chaos is everything you've heard and seen plus more.... As your traversing the streets or footpaths you need to continuously be on the look out for people, rickshaws, bikes and taxis coming from every direction.... having said that we have not seen any accidents yet which is a miracle. And yes the streets are full of animals mostly dogs and cows.. but we have spotted an elephant!


Attractions are many with beautiful monuments which unfortunately are not well maintained, the palaces and forts would easily rival anything Europe has to offer if only for some investment.

One more thing to note is the food which is unlike any Indian dishes in Australia... Indian food is extremely good.. spicy but not in the hot sense and the flavors are plentiful.

Drawing to an end on our Delhi visit we head to Agra tomorrow morning... til next time