Friday, March 19, 2021

Volendam is the  picturesque Dutch fishing and cheese village. Volendam is village that hat dam (barrier built along Holland to hold back sea water), Vollendam, which literally meant something like 'Filled dam'. It is a well known for its old fishing boats and the traditional clothing still worn by some residents.
Traditional windmill




Harbor of Volendam




Demonstrations of cheese and clog making









Volendam-Netherlands

Monday, February 15, 2021








Bali

Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Wroslaw. Vroslav. Wroklav. Vroklas. Wroclaw
First thing you want to know about Wroclaw is how to pronounce it correctly hahahaha! So it’s Vrafthslav I think.
Second thing you would do is breaking the stereotype of Polish people that was created in our head where we would have thought that vodka flows on streets, poor economy and non-friendly people but this city Wroclaw will clear all that off.
City Center, Chruch
Coloured Buildings in City center




Salsa Pose near Old town near Odra River

11 things about Wroclaw:

1. Touch the head of the drunk Gnome Franik who has a guitar in his hand
2. Touch the heads of three disabled Gnomes near MarketSquare
3. Touch the head of the Italian Gnome who is near Italian restaurants
4. Touch the head of professor Gnome which will give you luck yo study there haha
5. You know what! Touch all the 300 gnomes and get good luck. Take selfies and make collages.
6. Do a dance near the Tumski Bridge or you can just put a lock in that bridge amongst 1000s of other locks for your true love.
7. Sky Tower where you can see the whole city. You can take an Uber to this as it’s very cheap.
8. Walk around Odra river and go around the Mini island. Have an icecream in your hand — may be take two scopes coz it’s f*cking cheap. (1 pound)
9. Old town has nice paths to walk. It has an amazing cathedral and you can also take tuktuk tour coz it’s again f*cking cheap (4 pounds)









10. Try the round Polish donuts, Try the yum yum Pierogies, Try more icecreams (Lody), Try the bread — these are all cheap.
11. Touch the heads of gnomes. I know it’s the same point but these are really cute and everywhere. :P
Wroclaw is such a wonderful city for me. I came here for a salsa dance weekend and a wee bit sightseeing. Loved my airBnb host, Loved the tram service, Loved all the positive vibes, Loved the affordable food and uber drives, Loved all the gnomes hunting and Loved the Polish culture.

Some things to note:

•Everyone follows road rules here WoWoWoWoW. That’s because you get fined if you jay-walk it seems.
•Shopping, Eating, Accommodation is cheap compared to other euro cities.
•Lost my jacket unfortunately inside a Posh restaurant. So be careful around beggars who look like brown children walking around city centre.
•Remember that Sunday malls/shops are closed but restaurants and zabkas are open. Better check this
•As the Poland is more orthodox or catholic, you can see many nuns around and that’s why most the polish foks to be married at young age.
•Yes they speak bit English here and there! Most of the working or young adults do speak.


 

Wroclaw | Pandari Jain Kumar

Friday, August 31, 2018

Smoo Cave is a natural sea cave located near the northern most village, Durness in Sctoland. Smoo cave entrance is very impressive with a big valley and wooden bridge. 


Smoocave has an 100ft outer chamber and a wooden walkways to connect inner chamber where the Allt Smoo burn falls from a gap in the roof. In summer geological boat tours are available to see inside caves. Tour lasts around 2ominutes and it costs £6. 

Allt Smoo burn falls are more than 80ft high and water falls from a gap in the roof. When stream (depends on rains at high ground) is high, smoo falls look impressive for eye with natural light falls on water from the slit on the roof.

Allt Smoo burn falls

Geological boat tours will take you deep in to the cave. Guide will take you in a small rubber boat explaining 4000years old cave inhabitation and he took some sandstones used to bring the fire. Boat trip is very small takes you near falls and to cross the flooded part and  to cross the small rock arch. After boat trip we walk roughly 50ft and cave tunnel ends aburptly where you can see funny looking wall. At the end of tunnel there is a another small pool. Tour guide said that at present they are doing archlogical exploration of another tunnel connects this pool and outside chamber.   


Smoo Cave-Durness

Sunday, July 8, 2018

Turkey, the country that connects Europe to Asia, is a beautiful place with a wide variety of landscapes. It is huge compared to many European countries. In this trip of 8 days, we covered the region of Cappadocia in the Asian territory and Istanbul in the Europe.  The first leg of journey was from Edinburgh, catching the direct flight to Istanbul, followed by a domestic flight to Kayseri. From Kayseri, we traveled to Göreme for our accommodation.

The landscape in this region is dominated by volcanic rocks. The soft nature of these rocks made it possible for humans to carve homes within them. Even though, no one is allowed to live there currently, it is beautiful to visit, and one of the popular ones is Goreme open air museum.



Doing road trip around this area takes us to many beautiful places such as Pigeon valley.



Another famous to-do in this area is the hot air-balloon. But due to high wind, we could not get the opportunity.

The next leg of our journey was to Istanbul. Famous since many centuries as Constantinople, the modern day Istanbul is like none other big cities. Even though, it belongs to Europe, the culture and traditions are so Asian!

Blue Mosque



Hagia sophia



Bosphorous 



Grand Bazaar



deserves a visit.

The road side roasted corn and chestnut are so delicious.



 

Another best part, food is very cheap compared to UK. People are very friendly and honest, atleast outside the business areas. Try Turkish tea and coffee without a miss, and ofcourse the famous turkish delights and Baklava.



Turkey