Ponto de Vista

#throwback to this day last year, at the covered Central market in Riga, a UNESCO world heritage site and also Europe’s largest bazaar. The market is made of 5 repurposed zeppelin hangars — there are only four more in the world — and was finished in 1930 at the same riverside site where an open produce market has existed since the mid 16th century. We loved it. We browsed through clothes, purses, a meat section, household stuff, flowers, a very meaty food court, cheeses, and much produce. We finally bought cherries and plums, but not much else, eventually finding a bistro in the style of a Polish “bar mleczny” with the most amazing rye bread and kotlety close by after working up quite an appetite.

#throwback #europe #summer #summerholiday #2018 #historical #blog #wp #nostalgia #sunnydays #worldtravelpics #worlderlust #wander #worldheritagesite via Instagram https://ift.tt/2k3l0Kt

Treasure from a jewel. This vase was a gift from a very special person the year I moved back to India. I was trying to adjust to being in migraine-inducing Delhi after 12 years of living away, coping with a toxic, soul-sucking job that had sounded amazing in the interview, one I gave up my entire trajectory, security, and lifestyle for only to find they’d handed my designation to someone else. What kept me going through the feeling of, “Did I give up my life for this?” was the family I lived with, a family I sort of borrowed from another family-friend. I moved in with my oldest friend’s mausi, who, with her husband, daughter, husband’s two nieces and nephew, 3 dogs and their house help became my scaffolding, my anchor, my shelter.
I would try to make my presence less of a burden by trying to bring cakes and things for the motley crew from the market and would also get myself flowers to brighten up my space.
I don’t see them a much as I should (ugh, Delhi!) but I still count them in my blessings and am grateful for them every day!
This vase harks back to that time … and yes, I still buy myself flowers.
#throwback #love #family #chosenfamily #friendslikefamily #blessed #flower #blog #wp via Instagram https://ift.tt/2JsL8H9

#throwback to our trip to Vilnius and some fun things we did there. I loved this brilliant sculpture (top right) – an abstract portrait of 16th century Polish queen Barbara Radziwiłł, Grand Duchess of Lithuania – by Vladas Vildžiūnas, from 1979.

It’s on what translates as German Street and one side had to be completely rebuilt after the bombing in WWII.

I loved Vilnius more than I’d expected to. We’d planned only two days and 1 night here and we really lucked out. The location of our B&B was fabulous, the city was easy to navigate and I loved that the “old” town was a living city – I mean the university is smack in the  middle of it (like Krakow) and it was teaming with students and locals, not just tourists like Riga or Tallinn old town were.

Plus there was Užupis, the cheeky artists’ republic with their lovely constitution that affords respect to cats and humans alike. On our first evening there in the square of the Cathedral, we saw dozens of hot air balloons go past. And I just adored the sculpture of Grand Duke Gediminas. (Of course, we also found the lucky star and did little turns while making a wish.) Later we walked up the Hill of Three Crosses in Kalnai Park – it was a good climb and the wooden path kept disappearing down corners, a little stairway to … well, toward heaven.

#sculpture #publicart #europe #Lithuania #Vilnius #summertime #summer2018 #blog #wp #rainy #showers #cloudy #summerholiday
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Look at that wicked smile!
Team AKA Meaty Glide running amok in Udaipur (well, slowly, because these are narrow streets in the old city after all). #rickshawrun #rickshawrun2018 #bloed via Instagram https://ift.tt/2JE7Ond and IFFT

#throwback Google has helpfully reminded me that we were in Vik, Iceland, on this day four years ago, on (more…)

The prettiest drink (of many) I had this past week. Cinnamon old fashioned at Kaama.
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And this would be my first 1GB hard drive. 😂😂😂 Consider please: it’s 8″ tall, 6″ wide & 2″ across (a 64 GB phone is roughly a sixth the size?) and you can now get microSD cards that hold 128GB.
The first computer I (co-)bought was had an 8GB hard drive and my boyfriend at the time and I marveled at it. What on earth could we even put on there? We had mp3’s, word documents and excel sheets. We weren’t gamers (and anyway, games came on CDs and we had TWO, count ’em, two optical drives. I ripped so many cd’s and made so many mix’tapes’ 😀
My next computer — with which I used this drive — was an iBook 12″ laptop. 64GB hard disk? I can’t recall at all.Such a huge boost from the windows 3.1 desktop and CRT monitor I used when I first got to the US in 1995.
Do you remember your first external hard drive? Please share in the comments 🙂
#tbt #throwback #technology #progress #chipset #shrink #thankful #blog Shared via Instagram http://ift.tt/2iSuKlk and IFFT

Sunrise over yavapai point. It was hailing and my fingers nearly froze off trying to get a few photos. Touch screens in the cold make me miss having old fashioned cameras with shutter buttons! #blog

A post shared by chhavi sachdev (@chhavi_sachdev) on Nov 17, 2016 at 9:36am PST

The fog and the snow clouds dispersed pretty quickly and after we warmed up a bit we decided to drive up to Desert view (above) and then Moran point (below). (more…)

For 27 years, I’ve made pilgrimages to Berlin to visit family. My mother’s sister moved there in 1964 and her children and now grandchildren were all born there. Since I can remember, Berlin has never been a tourist destination, more a homestay, sometimes a stopover. When I lived in Poland I went numerous times and when I moved to the US, I tried to break my homeward journey there. And still, when I visit Europe, (more…)

#throwback – Wat Intharawihan in Bangkok. Google has helpfully reminded me I was here two years ago today 🙂 My camera wasn’t up to the task of getting all 32 gilded metres in one photograph so I focused on the feet, with offerings of flowers placed on them.

The temple used to be called the Vegetable Temple (more…)