Blog Ani i Radka
It’s not that often when world wide stars visit Szczecin to give concerts, so whenever it occurs, we try to participate because it seems like a big deal for our city. This time it was Sinéad O’Connor who is a brilliant singer to me. I love her songs but most of all, I love her voice.
Here is my favourite song of her (it’s a pity she didn’t perform it) and a couple of photos from the concert:
I dedicate this poem to Radek, it pictures our today’s activity pretty accurately, as we went to see a rose garden very close to our apartment in Szczecin. The weather was perfect and the sun falling on the petals made the colours vivid and beautiful. It feels like first days of summer in Poland.
The garden seemed not yet in its full bloom, nevertheless, it was very pretty. Roses are indeed royal species, it’s no wonder that Antoine de Saint-Exupéry chose this particular flower to be the love of le Petit Prince.
We strolled around the garden (it’s not particularly big), sat down on the bench, enjoyed the sun, smell and colours and had a look on a small posters’ display arranged in the park. There will be a French music concert here later this week, perhaps we will come again if time permits.
Today we had a marvellous occasion to go an a real sleigh ride with real horses. Such sleigh rides are very popular in south of Poland. In the north – where we live, it’s rather unusual to have such rides with real horses. For us it was the first time and I really liked it. Horses are awesome! The weather was fine – cold enough to keep the snow and not freezing to the bones. A stud farm was situated in the outskirts of Szczecin where snow was pretty much intact. Before we started the ride we had had some time to get acquainted with the animals.
All in all there were 2 horses, 12 people, 1 big sledge and 5 little ones. The best fun was at the back, on the little ones. I liked the sound of bells ringing (they were hung on the horses neck – felt like Christmas!). And the ride was real fun!
We had exceptional fun when someone fell off and had to run fast to catch the others 🙂
After an hour of amusement and laughter we came back to the stud to warm up a bit by the fire, grab a sausage to eat and drink warm tea with a slight addition of rhum or cherry brandy.
Szczecin is experiencing winter return so Radek took the opportunity to take some winter photos in the daylight.
All the photos were taken in our City Park (Kasprowicza). There are a couple of must-photo spots, like the lovers bridge (I’m not sure if that’s the official name, but I like to call it like that), ducks, amphitheatre etc.
Kasprowicza park is a very important place in Szczecin. It’s actually full of live at every season. In summer there are concerts in the amphitheatre, in autumn people stroll under the extremely colourful leavesm in winter people go ice-skating, ski running, sledging, snow ball fighting etc, and in spring the place is swarmed by flowers and walkers admiring them.
Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity is by no means the most heart warming festivity in Poland. Every year huge amount of charity money (this year around 10 000 000 EUR) is collected all over the world. All of that thanks to one person – Jurek Owsiak.
I really like that day of the year – it was particularly important for me when I was a child. I remember how all the fuss about the event made my spirit elevated, I really could see the cause for all of that. Now it’s the same, maybe without this unlimited, childlike trust in everything.
Anyway, each year Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity is accompanied by events all over the world. We had one in Szczecin as well.
Except for stage attractions (hard music concerts and charity auctions) there was a snow park (I perceive the name a bit over the top as it comprised only of one snowboard ramp – and even that was not really splendid as such) and an ice skating rink. There were also ice sculptures, an exhibition of army vehicles and first aid stands prepared by emergency rescuers.
We also took the occasion to shoot a few Szczecin-at-night photos. Our cathedral looked very pretty at night, with the lanterns put at its entrance. Maybe we don’t have the most spectacular old town in the world, but at least what we have is pretty.
Merry Christmas to everyone!
We try to profit from the surrounding Christmas atmosphere as much as possible. Personally, I love all the hustle and bustle at this time of the year. I love „Last Christmas” by Wham, plastic Santa Clauses in shop windows, all the lights in the streets and Christmas advertisements (although this year there is another leitmotive in TV – the end of the world that is supposed to happen 21/12/2012).
Szczecin is not best known for Christmas markets, in fact I think it’s the first time ever we have something organised. Anyway, I saw a reindeer photo on FB and it was obvious to me that I must go there!
I must admit that Ducal Castle in Szczecin is the perfect choice of a place for such an event. In general, it’s a pretty place but it became even better with all the stalls around. Ginger bread, self brewed beer, mulled wine and pottery – these were the most frequent goodies sold on the market. We bought something for us to – a ginger bread hut that will decorate our Christmas table.
What was the best for me were the animals. Except for the before mentioned reindeer (who were cute but rather motionless and jaded) there was a crib installed. The crib was extraordinary. Maria had nails painted blue and Joseph had an ugly wig. They were both drinking mulled wine. But the animals were awesome.
It was very cold and the event was getting to an end so we didn’t stay very long. Since we had two occasions to celebrate, we went to a sushi restaurant to enjoy the Friday evening and celebrate our successes.
Winter is a graceful moment for taking pictures. The multitude of glimmering street lights, Christmas instalations and white snow make a decent photo set. Even cold weather doesn’t put us off from going outdoor for a walk.
All the photos were taken in Kasprowicza Park vicinity in two days time. First day it was snowing so badly that all the pictures got blurry and gloomy but I like them anyway. The second day it stopped snowing and Radek could play with a camera a bit – doing collages of our griffin monument (griffin is the emblem of Szczecin) or funky Christmas tree photos.
This year the autumn is one of the prettiest I have ever seen in Poland. It almost never rains, the sun is shining through the colourful leaves, people are happy when the weather is so fine. A perfect training for Radek’s new camera. That is why we went for a short walk to take some pictures of the nature.
We set off in the morning, when the afternight fog was still lurking close to the ground.
After a while we reached the bridge, a well known place by all lovers and marriages, but also the residence of the ducks, swans and many other species of birds that I’m unable to name. At some moment the birds were frightened away by some sudden noise and lifted from the (so far) undisturbed surface of the water.
After a while the view became clearer and the colours more vivid. Our park (named after Helena Majdaniec, „the twist quenn”) is a very nice place to stroll around in all seasons.
As every year, we celebrated our wedding anniversary together with the closest family.
4 years ago:
Now:
