Bucharest Parks -Bordei Park

Althought I had presented negative opinions on Bucharest in my previous blog entry, I must admit that it has a nice side also: the parks.Bucharest has several parks in it where people can recreate.The wiki entry says that there are 11.

I've only been to one of them,I 'guess' its name is Bordei from the list above.It was a small but nice,green park.

MN@R - National Museum of Art of Romania

National Museum of Art of Romania is a huge building localed on Calea Victoriei. The museum is in fact consisted of two separate buildings, one is Gallery of European Arts and other is Gallery of Romanian Art.

I first visited European Arts section and surprised to see masters as Rembradt, Anton van Dyck, Rubens,Jan van Eyck, Pieter Bruegel the Younger....they were also rooms for Italian masters,French,German and Spanish Schools which included a few El Greco pieces.

Then I advanced to Romanian arts section which consisted of several medieval Romanian pieces including orhodox icons, treasuries , clothes used in rituals ....the museum also inclused modern Romanian paiting artists.

Back In Bucharest

After one year,I am in Bucharest one more time.Not much has changed in Bucharest, even the huge artificial Christmas tree in Piata Universate is the same.

Bucharest is a still gray,depressive city, exteriors buildings are not taken care of, most are old,ruined, gray, dirty....Even in the most expensive streets.

But in the streets you can see many luxory cars, I guess the tax rate on cars is low so people can affort nice cars and relatively wealth people can affort very nice cars.There are more X5 on streets than Moscow.

Yes,I always tend to compare Bucharest to Moscow since they are both capitals of ex-communist states.I think the situation is better in Moscow in terms of houses, yes they are also in bad condition but Bucharest is worse. In terms of cars on the streets, you can still see very old, ruined,Lada or Jiguli or Volga, Bucharest sceene is much better.

photos by my good-old P1i.

Hong Kong

Last week I was in Hong Kong for 4 days. I was there to attend Sibos2009 event.

Hong Kong has a terrible weather, humidity is too high, during my visit tempature was always above 30 and Humidity was %95 sometimes!

All buidings, event the smallest groceries shop have strong air conditioners which make interiors fairly cold but when you step outside a building a hot and thick weather just slaps on your face, it was terrible.

I also witnessed a typhoon, in fact I was inside so i did not witness anything literally.But there were typhoon alerts everywhere and also all TVs were mentioning about it. The day when typhoon occured when I got into my room I found a note from hotel management saying something like : There is a typhoon alert but there is not much to worry typhoons occur frequently in Hong Kong and they pass away just stay away from your window and keep your windows closed :)

I stayed at JW Mariott Hotel which I can mention with good impressions.The service quality was nice , staff was kind and helpful. It was near Admirality metro station which is the central place in Hong Kong island.


About the Hong Kong city...hmm...I did not like the city very much, there is not much to talk about, every where is full of skyscapers and they are build very close which makes them even boring. Even in very central districs there are ruined places and small dirty shops just a few steps from those tall buildings.


I should say that Hong Kong people are generally kind, willing to help and know to smile[none of these apply for Russians but I still like Russia better:)]

Also few words for Sibos organization...it was very well managed, Hong Kongers know how to do this stuff. There were people to assist the attending people everywhere, in many of central places. There were Sibos desks in many of the big events.Even there was a special passport check station at the HK International airport for people attending Sibos when entering the country.6 stars over 5!

Pera'dan Beyoglu'na

This book is one of the unknown treasures.The book tells the story of buildings[houses,hotels,state buildings] including the history, achitectural properties, famous peoples lived there once....on the Tunel-Taksim path
The author is so succesfull that the book is very fun and fluent to read.

Same author also as another book,Son Istasyon Venedik where he tells his interrail memoirs but unfortunately I could not find it anywhere...

Dolmabahce,This is how a palace is meant to be

After my disappointing tour on Topkapi Palace, I went to Dolbabahce to see a real palace as all my friends suggested.

This time I was happy to see an impressing palace.You could feel that a powerful and rich empire passed throught this building.

The room out great leader Ataturk passed away was still full of sadness after all years.Tears came down my eyes.

Maiden's Tower

I attended a sunday-brunch at Maiden's Tower.The restored building was nice such as the view from the tower.Inside was a nice breakfast with live violin.

Two Books By Buket Uzuner

After I read interrail memories of Buket Uzuner,Bir Siyah Sacli Kadinin Gezi Notlari,I decided to buy the two other travel books which the author has written.I just had time to complete the series after a year break.

One is New York Sehir Rehberi that gives authors memories during her one year visit in New York



And the other one is Bir Sehir Romantiginin Gunlugu,is again her various memories this time in several cities.





Both books can not be exactly categories as travel books as her previus book Bir Siyah Sacli Kadinin Gezi Notlari because all there books do not concantre on where to see,stay,eat information as traditional travel books do but most emphasis is on people she met and her shared moments with her.

Topkapi Palace, what a disappointment

For years I have listened to stories of what a fabulous place is Topkapi Palace.It shows all the richness, power of the great Ottoman Empire.

Bull Shit!

The palace was far from being impressive yet empty.Yes empty, the Harem was a total disappointment.The empty walls painted with cheap white color showed nothing.

The only remarkable section of the palace was the Holy Relics section that contained rod of Moses,hand of St. John the Baptist and swords of prophet Mohammad.

A weekend @ Buyukada

We went to Buyukada via boat from Maltepe port.The return path was the same ,from Buyukada to Maltepe directly.We were so happy yo learn that 3 boats everyday to each direction.

We stayed in a small and old pension which had very uncomfortable beds.

We got to the island Friday evening,ate fish as it is a tradition,made a small tour on foot and went to sleep.Next morning we went to the famous Aya Yorgi [St.George] church on top of the hill.

We spent out saturday going to and returning back to the chuch. Next day we started seaching for Trotsky's house. I had the exact adresss with street name and number but i still had trouble finding it.And I could not make it if i did not saw the photos prior to the trip.It is a shame that there is no single sign and the people around never heard of it.It is also a great shame that the house is in terrible condition.

Cheap Plane Tickets

While interrailing I was in search of cheap airline companies,
here is a list:

www.easyjet.com
www.ryanair.com
www.berlinair.com
www.germanwings.com
www.hlx.com
www.vueling.com
www.myair.com
www.corendon.com.tr

Few words on Bucharest

Bucharest, the capital city of a European Union member state, Romania. Nothing much to mention about, it is a small city.City is still covered with the dust and gray shared of communist regime.There are nice and historic buildings but all in bad conditions.All the exreriors are dirty and gray.



This year they host the largest christmast tree of Europe in the Unirea Square. Also a statue of Ataturk is present in one of the squares.

More Moscow Clubs

I have written reviews about Moscow clubs in the previous blog entries but after my visit to Bucharest I realised and remembered how great the nightlife was in Moscow so decided to add more club revies.

Club XIII: Class place with strict face control.The club is localed in a nice bouilding.Nice music, nice athmosphere.
Zona: This 4floored club hs 2 entrances with one 300RUB fee and other called VIP entrance where you pay 600RUB and get a ticket valid for the VIP floor inside.Difference concept and music on all floors,the 3rd floor is a chill out cafe and to access 4th floor you need to go on the VIP lift where you need to show your VIP ticket.
Opera: I did not like the music but the place was big and people were nice.
Bourgeois Cafe: This nice cafe turns to a club after 12 on Friday and Saturdays.
Aero-Cafe : Small place with nice music.

Bucharest Nightlife

On my first weekend at Bucharest I had a chance to visit a few Bucharest clubs.Generally Bucharest clubs can not be compared to the ones in Moscow,in terms of fun,people,quality....
As far as I can see there is no face control in the clubs which is a bad thing....
God bless Moscow! Below I give little info about each club i visited and the prices.Note that 1USD~2.4LEI,or you can think like 1LEI=0.5YTL

Twice: I have been here on a Wednesday night, there were few people and nearly no one was dancnig,music was not bad.This is a cheap club with 5LEI entrance fee and you pay 8 LEI for whisky-redbull.
Club-A: The worst club i have ever ever seen.The place was soo small but they let everyone who as willing to pay 5LEI cover inside.The place was extemely overcrowed and you could not even move!.Everywhere was full of smoke.I could only stay there one hour and left.
Bamboo: After I left Club-A,I jumped to a taxi and asked for The Office club but the driver suggested that Bamboo was better,and he was right.Bambook at least look like the ones in Moscow.Place was big and classy, people looked nicer than the ones in the two other clubs that i mentioned above.The dancers were good.People were having fun...Nice place, bit expensive,30LEI cover and whisky-redbull is 35LEI.
The Office: Nice place,nice music,not bad.But one can not compare to a club in Moscow.20LEI enrance fee and you pay 30LEI for whisky-redbull.
Downtown: Dancers are good,50LEI for cover but you get a ticket which buys you 50LIE drink from the bar.Nice music.

5th time in Moscow

At last,on my 5th visit to Moscow, I had a chance to visit Kremlin.

Those were the days

It's been more than a year since I interrailed.Nice to look at pics,I wish I can do it again.

Back in Russia

This time Moscow was sunny (at least in the first few days).On my previous visits I got the idea that Moscow was a gray city,now I realized that it is a green and beautiful city.This time i had time to visit Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts which has Rembrandt,Durer,Peter Bruegel the Elder and many more.Too bad that the explanations under the paintings were in Russian and the audioguide covered only a few.After the visit my friends said that most of those Russian explanations were stating that the art piece was in fact a copy :)

Just opposite the museum there exists a huge chuch named 'Christ the Saviour'

Amasra

Here are the photos taken from my bedroom's window at Amasra

Book Review: Bir Siyah Sacli Kadinin Gezi Notlari

Title: Bir Siyah Sacli Kadinin Gezi Notlari
Writer: ABuket Uzuner
Year: 1989(1st edition),2004(14th edition)
Pages: 116

Although the books title is 'travel notes' the book is not on cities or places but people Buket Uzuner has met during her several visits to several countries.She was a university student in Norway when she performed her first travel with interrail.She met several people from several nationalities and colors.Nice to read.I bought it from Dost Kitapevi Ankara but it is available on ideefixe.
I am planning to read her two other journey books since I liked this one.
New York Sehir Rehberi and Bir Sehir Romantiginin Gunlugu.

After one week in Justiniano Wish

We spent the first week of July at Justiniano Wish Side.We booked the hotel from touristica which I liked the quality.But the same does not apply for justiniano, although the rooms were nice and pool was big there were few animations shows. In fact the animation team and the DJ were disastorous.The food quality was also low. I do not recommend Justiniano to anyone.God bless Magic Life!.