When Brezhnev kissed Honecker: Berlin Wall East Side Gallery [Photo Essay]

Berlin’s East Side Gallery, the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall, is adorned with some of the most famous pieces of graffiti and murals. Below are some of my favourites..

Tips for visiting/photographing the wall: It is a very popular tourist spot. So, to get images which don’t have people in it, try visiting early in the morning – I think I went around 8 am – and barely a single soul was in sight. Also, morning might be a better idea than evenings because of the direct sunlight that falls on the murals – it makes the colours look much more alive and vibrant.

p.s. Of course, if you visit it during a more popular time, you might get an interesting shot of a couple kissing right in front of the famous Brezhnev-Honecker kiss mural. Maybe that’s worth a try too. 🙂

 

Photo Essay: Pompeii

Pompeii needs no introduction.

So,here we go..!!

The Forum

Statue of Apollo, in the Temple of Apollo, with Mt Vesuvius in the background

A narrow street in the maze that is Pompeii

Murals on the walls of a villa in Pompeii

Decorations on the walls of public baths in Pompeii

More beautiful murals (and a stray dog enjoying a nice siesta on a hot afternoon)

The eerily small bed in a ‘brothel’ in the ancient town of Pompeii

Erotic art on the walls of the ‘brothel’ in Pompeii – these were supposed to just provide new ideas to the ‘clients’

The impressive theatre of Pompeii

Temple of Isis

You can read here for some info about the famous excavated city and my previous post about hiking to Vesuvius will give you the basic information about how to get there (it is the same route as Ercolano, but a couple of stops further).

Monday morning spice: Food in Naples

Reviving an old section today – Monday morning spice – some photos to cheer you up on a dreary Monday morning. And thought, what better way to bring back a section which has ‘spice’ in it’s name than to talk about food! And that too food in Italy!

With absolutely no doubt about it, the top rank goes to… Pizza!!

You thought Italy was famous for it’s pizza? You’re right, but within Italy, Napoli is especially famous for it. And it’s not the typical pizza you’d fine which is baked in electric oven and has a hundred different type of toppings. The ‘real’ Italian pizza is cooked in smouldering embers of a clay oven. There are two main types – Margherita and Marinara (or, to be precise, pizza napoletana margherita and pizza napoletana marinara). These are very basic, very tasty and quite inexpensive (just 3-5 Euros for a full-size pizza). You can get ones with different type of toppings added to them, but they don’t really need any toppings. If you really want to mix it up a bit, get the margherita with double mozzarella – it’s yummy! 🙂

Travel tip: Only go for a pizzerie which has a sign outside which says ‘Vera‘ pizza – this indicates it will present to you authentic clay-oven baked pizzas.

And that’s how a REAL pizza is made! At Da Michele restaurant.

p.s. The pizzas in Napoli were so tasty, I don’t have a single photograph of them – I gobbled them up so fast! 😀

Continuing with the pizza theme, Neapolitans love cheese. Here’s a dish called ‘Braciola al ra gu’ which is essentially meat with cheese stuffed inside it. Luxury.

Okay. even meat has cheese stuffed inside it. Yum.

And to cap it all off, I also tried Risotto. This was at the unfortunately pricey restaurant called Locanda del Grifo (although pizzas were quiet cheap at just €4). This is Risotto fiori di Zucca, which was nice and tasty. Not mindblowing though.

Risotto fiori di Zucca

Italian food. I miss it. I am feeling very hungry now. I better go get a full English breakfast! 😉

Where to find art in Stockholm?

T-centralen, Solna centrum, Kungstradgarden, Akalla.. wait a second! Aren’t these the names of some metro stations in Stockholm? Yup! You’re right! And you’ll find some great artwork at all these and many more metro stations in Stockholm! See below for a few samples..

Men-at-work at T-Centralen metro station.

Cave-like bright red ceiling at Solna Centrum with spruce forests on the walls.

Roman sculptures simply strewn around at Kunstradgarden! As if it's just another everyday thing!

You see this while riding the escalator at Kungstradgarden.

At the Akalla metro station (at the end of blue line).

 

The visitsweden website tells that 90 of the 100 metro stations feature artwork, making the Stockholm metro system an impressive 110 kilometres long art gallery featuring works of hundreds of artists. The best thing about the artwork in the metro stations of Stockholm is the huge variety of styles and types. When I travelled (sort-of randomly0 through the metro stations, I found everything from Greek-roman styled sculptures to caves and forests to piano keys and even a stuffed moose!

I would definitely recommend visiting the Stockholm metro stations, a living breathing museum without any opening or closing hours or crowds of tourists.

~~~~~~~~~~

Traveller’s tip: If you are in a hurry, I would suggest buying a ticket for blue line and riding till Akalla at the end of the line. While on the way back, check out Solna centrum, then T-Centralen and finally Kungstradgarden. The metro ticket is valid for about an hour after it’s first stamped – so, you should be able to visit all these metro stations with just one ticket!

Travel photos: it’s reigning cats and dogs

I never had pets at home. So, as a kid, I never got used to being friendly to animals. Especially dogs. I used to be quiet afraid of dogs. Especially since the time, when I was in 6th grade, that big bad hog-sized dog chased me and my poha-jalebi (a popular snack in central India). You know, pet dogs in India are not very friendly. In fact, not friendly at all. I don’t know why though. Anyway, I was always very apprehensive about petting a dog, even a seemingly-nice one.

However, over the years, I’ve come in contact with quiet a few animal-lovers. Starting from my sis, who always loved dogs (and somehow dogs didn’t mind her either) to Tripta who not only loves animals but also acted in TV serials with dogs of Calcutta police (wow!!) to Chandni whose goal in life is to be as good a person as her dog already thinks she is, and to probably many more friends who I can’t recall immediately, and to almost every dog-owner I’ve seen in UK – whose dogs seems to be nice and chilled out in life and do not show any intention of nipping at your heels and stealing your evening snacks.

So, slowly, I’ve also grown fond of pet animals.. although I don’t think I’ve reached a level where I could actually own one but definitely don’t mind photographing some cute ones when I come across them on my travels. Here are a few of my favourites..

A cute cat sitting on a ledge at the viewing point at Sant Juan station (I presume, she took the funicular to the top) near Monteserrat

A cat at the model Spanish Village of Poble Espanyol, Barcelona

Zwartbles sheep at farms next to 'Fairy Glen', near Betws-y-coed, Wales

This fellow kept looking out to the sea. I wonder who he was waiting for.

Have you come across any animals, who looked at you with longing eyes as if inviting you to pet them, on your travels? 🙂