Poland: Warsaw

Warsaw (Warszawa, in polish) is the capital of Poland and also its largest city. We took a Ryanair flight to Warsaw Modlin Airport, arrived there in the evening and hired a car to take us into the city. The drive itself was a great sightseeing already, as the driver passed through all the beautiful illuminated buildings and monuments.

We were positively surprised with the beauty of Warsaw, as well as the architecture diversity condensed in just one place: there you find medieval buildings, neo classic, communist ones, others that were bombed by the war and abandoned ever since and really modern sky scrapers. They have some really big blocks there and it takes half an hour to walk through 3 blocks! The streets are very wide and comparing to London, they’re pretty quiet and you find not so many people out walk around.

                                               

Palace of Culture and Science

Presidential Palace

Great Theater

Barbican castle

    

               St. Mary's Church in Warsaw New Town

Old Town Market Place

Royal Castle

                                     National Stadium                       University of Warsaw Library 

Located by the calm Wisła River and where the famous composer Chopin grew up and studied, this city has a really nice atmosphere and welcoming residents as well. As night, you have the impression you’re living in a black and white film, where the side streets have not enough light and no people passing by.

Probably the most typical thing you’ll find to eat is the famous Pierogi, dumplings first boiled, then they are baked or fried usually in butter, stuffed with potato filling, sauerkraut, meat, cheese, etc. Delicious and a great value for money, as the polish złoty (zł) is cheaper than pounds!!

We were actually quite impressed with how many people spoke English and it was pretty easy to communicate with the residents. Believe me, polish is impossible to understand! The only disappointment we had was with the hop on hop off bus, it basically just played some classical music and when there was any explanation, it was only to say that Germans bombed here or there.

We had a lot of fun, but I guess one day is enough to experience Warsaw. Our next stop, Polish wedding in Ostrołęka!!! But as this was a good friends wedding we will not disclose any details beside huge amounts of food and vodka!

UK: Salisbury

Salisbury is a cathedral city in Wiltshire dating back the year 1220, only a few kilometres away from the famous Stonehenge. After visiting the Stones, we were already hungry and decided to go to Salisbury to grab something to eat and of course, take a look in the famous town – as we were only a few kilometres away.

We parked the car close to the city centre and went walking until we reached the Market Place, with some brick Georgian façade houses (which are said to conceal medieval constructions) and many small coffee houses. 

Walking a little bit out of the centre, the Salisbury Cathedral catches the eye. It’s an idyllic place; the cathedral seems to rest in a nice lawn area in front of a small river where a couple of ducks were calmly swimming.  

The enormous cathedral was built in the early 13^th century in early English style of Gothic architecture, with pointed lancet windows. Its spire is the tallest in England. The Chapter House is the home of one of the four surviving original Magna Carta sealed by King John in 1215. It was written in abbreviated Medieval Latin and it set down for the first time the relationship between the King and his subjects and their rights. The Magna Carta had a major influence in the democratic world and it was a source of inspiration for documents such as the U.S. Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 

Magna Carta

From what I have heard about it, I expected more of this small town, so I’m not sure if it’s a place worth a visit that much, unless you’re in the neighbourhood and wants to see the huge cathedral with the Magna Carta. Sven and I had some weird thing to eat and I think it might have also contributed to our not-so-well opinion about it!!

Sunny Brazil: Recife + Olinda

As we were in Porto de Galinhas for one week, we decided to make a tour to get to know Recife and Olinda in the same day, since it takes only one hour of driving to arrive there. We booked the visit with a travel agent and they picked us up at the Resort and took us there, together with a full van. 

Recife is the capital of the Brazilian state called Pernambuco, and it's the most important city in the northeast region. Its name comes from the Portuguese word arrecife, which in English means reef, they form a big barrier of sandstone rock that extends throughout the cost, forming natural pools. 

Our first stop in Recife was at the famous beach called Praia da Boa Viagem. It seems to be one of the most sought after places to live, as there were many nice high buildings facing the ocean, where flats must cost a fortune. The ocean level was high and we couldn't see the famous reefs.

Praia da Boa Viagem

It's highly recommended that people don't swim or surf at the Boa Viagem 

beach (after the reefs), as there were many cases of shark attacks in the past.

The next stop was at the city center, where we walked a little bit and saw some old buildings from the earlier times. Recife was founded in 1537 by the Portuguese and it's one of the oldest cities in Brazil. It remained Portuguese until Brazil's Independence, except from 1630 to 1650, when the dutch colonized a part of the Brazilian northeast, which brought lots of prosperity for it. 

In Pernambuco, they have a sort of traditional dance called frevo which is normally associated to Carnival and it's characterized by the extremelly fast rhythm and the dancers hold a small umbrella. You can see more about frevo on this video bellow:

source: BandFolia

Our tourist guide took us then to the former prison that today works as a culture house with shops everywhere where they sell all kinds of hand made stuff.

These weird dressed characters are a reference to the cangaceiros, people belonging to the Cangaço, a form of reaction against the domination of the land owners and the government, when many men and women decided to become bandits, roaming the hinterlands of the Brazilian Northeast region in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, seeking for money, food and revenge.

As the last stop in Recife, our tour guide took us to the Instituto Ricardo Brennand, a sort of museum/art gallery/collection place. Basically, Brennand got an antique pocket knife as gift from his uncle when he was a child and he loved it so much that he started to collect similar objects and after many years, he turned into a big collector. He is a very successful business man and got really rich. As he was fascinated with European history (like me, he was also a castle freak), he decided to build two castles and put all of his collection there, such as paintings, armory, sculptures, documents, etc. At some point he opened it to the public.

                              Pinacoteca                 Exhibition of the Fouquet Trial with 

                                                           wax dolls representing each character

                                                      Castelo São João                               Armour

OLINDA:

Recife has its origins closely connected to the ones of its neighbour, Olinda. Olinda has nearly 500 years of History and is one of the best-preserved colonial cities in Brazil. In the first 100 years of Brazil, it was one of the richest cities in the country. The Dutch occupied it for 24 years, adding to the already rich culture, mixture of Portuguese, black and Indian elements. When the Dutch left, the neighbour city of Recife took the role of commercial and political center. The proximity with Recife kept Olinda in constant cultural, political and intellectual movement; on the other hand, the signals of progress (skyscrapers, shopping centers, wide avenues) preferred to establish in Recife, allowing Olinda to grow at their own pace. The city culture is expressed in every house, street and church. It was declared World Heritage by UNESCO, and changes in the architecture are very restrict. Few cities in Brazil open so much space to the musicians, dancers, handcrafters as Olinda is. 

Olinda in the near back and Recife in the far back  ;)

                                                       Oh Linda!!

I hope you enjoyed reading this post and all the others about Brazil. Brazil is a beautiful country, with so many different things to see and do, so alive, so welcoming. I hope I was able to make you feel like travelling to that sunny country on your next vacations!!