Tłusty czwartek - Fat Thursday in Warsaw

I have been in Warsaw before only in 1990. Long time indeed. And this February, I came to Warsaw just at the time of Fat Thursday - February 19.



Polish people have this wonderful tradition of Tłusty czwartek - Fat Thursday, the last thursday before the Easter lent.



Poles line up in huge queues to the confectionaries - for special kind of donuts - which are being made and sold only on this day.



I mean, queues are huge!



And the donuts are great indeed! Very tasty, with rose jam inside, and orange dried peel topping. There is a traditional belief, that you can eat as many donuts as you wish on the Fat Thursday, and God will not punish you for the sin of gluttony.

Ist der Winter schon vorbei?

Lady Bug on my balcony


Birdhouse waiting for the family to return from warmer climates


A neighborhood that will soon go lively again


Dogs may bark loudly


but the energy of nature will prevail


and new life will be born


because Spring is here again.

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In case you need some music to the photos above, I suggest the following track.
Enjoy!

Winter has arrived

Hardcore foto-aparat fans, this is the exact same view with my previous post, with some snow spilled on top!


I was starting to get really jealous by seeing all previous snowy posts from my fellow contributors but hey, I ain't jealous any more!


Because today I woke up to this view.


I know this is definitely not the typical picture a non-Greek has about my country


but I guess winter has reached its final destination... Greece!

Україна-Кокаїна (Ukraine-Cocaine)

Life is full of contradictions. People always want something they don't have at the moment. In drizzling slurpy winter they dream of summer sunshine. In hot and sweaty summer they think of fairy snowy winter. Modern ways of living allows people to go from summer to winter and vice verca in a matter of airplane ticket. This happend to us as well.




This time Egypt amazed me with local residents / vendors / entertainers, who, after getting answer to the question "Where are you from", started shouting "Ahh, Україна-Кокаїна!" ("Ukraine-Cocaine"). Nobody would probably tell who taught them this. And I never heard this phrase outside of Egypt.

At the breakfast:




Dolphin following the divers' boat:




Current affairs on Al Jazeera:




Jetty on the coral reef after the sunset:




Colors:




Eat, drink, enjoy.




View of Cyprus from the airplane on the way back:



Notice the fine curvature of our tiny planet.

Fighting Winter Depression (Random Pictures of Kyiv)

When you have no energy for active resistance to the winter depression, lack of sun and vitamin D, you may end up drinking or daydreaming. I browsed through the old, not so recent pictures taken on random wanderings around my home city.




The famous pedestrian bridge, leading to the Trukhaniv island, a huge unpopulated, wooded island in the middle of the Dnieper river (and in the middle of the city), great place to have open air parties in summer.



This is how one of the lakes on that island look like:



Just an old car near where I live:



Old and new in the summer:



One of the domes of the ancient Kievo-Pechersk Lavra, the famous Caves Monastery:



Green grass in one of the central parks:



Just a nice old courtyard: