Poznan - Fara

Embarrassingly, during the five years that I lived in Poznan, I never visited the Fara Church. It is one of the most beautiful baroque churches in Poland. It was built in the second half of 17th century and it features a 16th-century crucifix and the Virgin Mary, as well as magnificent baroque ornamentation.

During this year's visit to Poland I finally repaired my mistake and went there together with Anil and Agnieszka. It was definitely worth a visit, and I would strongly recommend it to anybody. BTW On Saturdays at 12:30 pm there are free pipe organ concerts.


Beautiful mural at the ceiling:

The main altar:

Pipe organs:

The Fara is located at the end of the short Swiętosławska Street, located at the south-eastern corner of the Old Market Square:

Poznan - Old Town Hall's Goats

Every day at noon Poznan's Old Town Hall goats (Poznanskie koziolki) butt each other's heads to the entertainment of tourists and locals alike. I decided that also Anil should experience the spectacle, so on our second day in Poznan we went to Old Market Square.

I was very surprised that despite the cold there were several hundred people waiting in front of the Town Hall for the goats to make the appearance. At noon the clock struck twelve times and immediately afterward two goats appeared and started butting each other, also twelve times. At the same time a trumpeter started playing a traditional bugle call.

According to a legend the goats were added to the Town Hall's clock due to an unfortunate cooking incident. A cook, while preparing a banquet for some local dignitaries, burnt a roast deer and tried to cover up for his mistake by stealing two goats from a nearby meadow. The goats managed to escape and ran up the town hall tower, where they began to butt each other. They were so loud that they attracted attention of both townspeople and dignitaries waiting for their dinner. Luckily, the dignitaries found the goats so entertaining that they decided not only to pardon them and the cook, but also decided that two mechanical goats should be incorporated into the new Town Hall's clock.


The Old Market Square's Town Hall in Poznan was originally built in the late 13th century, but it was rebuilt in mannerist style by Giovanni Battista di Quadro in the middle of 16th century:

The mechanical goats:

The tower's trumpeter:

Prozerpina Fountain in front of Old Town Hall, a popular meeting point:

Winter in Poland

I love winter in Poland. It's true that it can be pretty cold, but at the same time it's very beautiful, especially when there is lots of snow:

Poland, India, California

Posts about our Indian wedding ceremony have been appearing here for the last two months and a lot has been happening in our lives during this time.

First, we visited my family and friends in Poland, where beautiful Polish winter with lots of snow and sun awaited us. Even though we had only 8 days there, I wanted to show a little piece of Poland to Anil, so together with him and my parents we went to Torun, Gniezno and Biskupin.

Directly from Poland we flew to India to visit Anil's family and warm up our bodies in Indian summer heat. We were very busy there meeting hundreds of relatives and running some errands for Anil's parents, so we only managed to go on one two day trip to a Tiger Reserve. Nonetheless, I plan to have several posts about India, as it is such immensely fascinating country.

After two weeks there we came back to our home, the Bay Area, which welcomed us with rains... It is a miracle that neither of us got sick from all these sudden weather changes. Needless to say, since we came back to SF we already managed to go on many hikes, we took several road trips, and we participated in a few interesting events. My plan is to first post about all these events/hikes/trips before I start posting about Peru.


Here is a list of upcoming posts:

Posts about Poland:

1. Winter in Poland
2. Poznan - Old Town Hall's Goats
3. Poznan - Fara
4. Torun by Day and Night
5. Biskupin in Snow
6. Baroque Church in Gasawa
7. Gniezno - Poland Was Born Here
8. Church in My Hometown

Posts about India:

1. On the Road in India
2. Shopping Malls
3. Art Galleries in Hyderabad
4. Life in India
5. Family Photos in India
6. Cooking Classes with Indian Mother in Law
7. Thoughts on Photography
8. Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve
9. Satyanarayan Puja

Posts about California:

1. SF Marina
2. SF Giants Studium
3. Third Street Bridge
4. Ano Nuevo SP - Elephant Seal Guided Walk
5. Swanton Berry Farm
6. Pinnacles NM - Bear Gulch Area
7. Pinnacles NM - East to West Loop Hike
8. Golden Gate Bridge - Fort Baker Hike
9. Generator Mural
10. Radio Habana Social Club
11. Trapeze Artists
12. Clarion Alley Mural Project
13. Little Giant Loop - Mt Diablo SP
14. Golden Gate Bridge by Night
15. Big Wheel Race 2011
16. Jacks Peak County Park
17. Asilomar Coast Trail
18. Soberanes Canyon in Garrapata State Park
19. McWay Falls in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park
20. My Very First Art Show
21. Magic Bus
22. Montara Lighthouse and Beach
23. Lab Retreat
24. Yosemite Valley
25. Yosemite NP - Nevada Falls Hike
26. Yosemite NP - Wapama Falls Hike in Hetch Hetchy Valley
27. My Art in Sacramento Crocker Art Museum
28. Violin Performance at Sacramento Crocker Art Museum
29. Crater Lake NP
30. Lava Beds NM

My Indian Wedding - Happy 1st Anniversary to Us!

Today is our 1st Wedding Anniversary. I just can not believe that a whole year past since we embarked on this wonderful journey together. It definitely was a right decision and we make a very good team. I foresee many many happy years ahead of us... :)

We celebrated our anniversary yesterday, on Sunday, by first going to a magic performance at The Marrakech Magic Theater and afterward for dinner to Aicha, a Moroccan restaurant.

The magic performance was awesome and I would strongly recommend it! The Magician, Peter Morrison, was very entertaining and skillful. He performed many tricks that we were not able to figure out. Additionally, he tried to involve all members of the audience in his tricks, and for various parts of the performance he was selecting different people (including both Anil and I!) to help him.

After the show we went to Aicha, which according to yelp should be the best Moroccan restaurant in the Bay Area. It was my first visit ever to a Moroccan restaurant, so I can not compare it to other restaurants belonging to this category, but both Anil and I definitely thought that food at Aicha was great. It was also inexpensive - a 4 course prix fixe was only $23/person. It is also nice that they let you bring your own wine and do not charge you a corkage fee.

Later, after coming back home, we shared a piece of our wedding cake that was waiting for us in the freezer for the past year. With the cake we drunk my favorite dessert wine, Donnafugate Ben Rye Passito di Pantelleria, toasting to many more happy anniversaries together. Cheers!


This post concludes "My Indian Wedding" post series.


At the magic performance:

Our wedding cake and wedding rings:

Here is a complete list of all posts relating to our last year's wedding:

1. Why We Decided to Get Married
2. Invitations
3. Website
4. Wedding Location
5. About Us
6. About the Groom
7. About the Bride
8. Our Families in Photos
9. Gifts/Donations
10. Guestbook
11. Formalities at the City Hall
12. Menu
13. Decorations
14. Dresses
15. Bridal Make Up & Hairstyle
16. Bridal Mehindi
17. Pandit/Priest
18. Hindu Wedding
19. Evening before the Wedding
20. Morning of the Wedding
21. Ganapathy Pooja
22. Kankana Dhaarana
23. Kanya Daanam
24. Muhurtam
25. Mangalya Dharanam
26. Pradhaana Homam
27. Laaja Homam
28. Saptapadi
29. Aashirvaadam
30. Blessings at the Temple
31. Reception & Photosession
32. Cake
33. Visit at the Vineyard
34. Bollywood Party
35. Happy 1st Anniversary to Us!

My Indian Wedding - Bollywood Party

The last attraction that we planned for our wedding day was a visit to Bollyweird Street Fair that was taking place on that day in San Francisco. We thought that it would be a shame to miss Bollywood-themed dancing party that, by coincidence, happened to be taking place on our wedding day!

So directly from the vineyard we drove to downtown SF and joined the fair. We stayed there almost till 8 pm as for 7:40 pm the attempt to break the world’s record for the Largest Bollywood Dance was supposed to take place. Unfortunately, I think by that time both the participants and organizers of the fair were completely drunk/stoned, and no breaking of the world record happened. Some people tried to dance here and there, but by no means it was a synchronized dance. It was a pity as I was really hoping to be able to say: "And on my wedding day I participated in breaking of the world's record in the largest Bollywood Dance!" That would be a pretty awesome story to tell to my grandkids...

Since the street fair was a bit disappointing, we decided to go to the nearby pub for a few more drinks. We stayed there till around 11 pm, when we finally were ready to go back home. It was a long day for Anil and me, as we woke up at 5 am. We were really looking forward to go home and rest, but the fate decided that we deserve yet another adventure.

When we came back to our rental car it would not open! Luckily, CityCarShare is an awesome company and they solved our problem within half an hour. After I called them and explained the problem, they sent to us somebody "who would break into the car". Initially I thought that I must have misunderstood them, but the person they sent actually did break into the car! It took him less than 5 minutes to open the car and then another couple of minutes to jump-start it and charge it. As we learned, the reason we could not open the car was that we left the key in the ignition, which caused draining of the battery (we rented a hybrid). And even though it was clearly our fault, CityCarShare did not charge us a single buck! Still, I'm mostly grateful that they solved our problem within a half an hour, even though I called them close to midnight on Sunday night. That I call an excellent customer service.

This adventure also officially concluded our wedding day. After 19h of fun and excitement we were back at home, happily married :)


Anil and I at Bollyweird Street Fair:

At the pub:

My Indian Wedding - Visit at the Vineyard

Anil and I decided to make our wedding a full day event. We expected that the reception in Livermore would be over by around 3-4 pm and we thought it would be nice to have some more fun afterward. The obvious choice was to go for a wine tasting to one of the nearby vineyards.

Around a month before our wedding we ventured to Livermore Valley to find a vineyard that could host around 30-40 people. (We assumed that a majority of our guests would not have time to join us.) We picked Charles R Vineyards as it had decent wines, friendly owners, scenic surroundings and nice outdoor seating area.

As planned, we went there immediately after the reception. By then the weather got much better: it was warm and sunny, even though the day started with pouring rain. Sadly, not too many of our guests decided to go with us to the vineyard. But maybe it was for the best, as finally, for the first time during our wedding day, we got to talk a bit more with these of our friends who decided to join us.

My friend Lev, who also happens to be a wine connoisseur, picked several bottles of excellent wines for all of us to share, and was also kind enough to pick up the bill. (Thank you!!!) The wine, the sun and the lovely company made this little side trip very enjoyable and let us relax a bit - a claim that probably not many married couples can make about their wedding day :)


Livermore Valley:

Charles R Vineyards:

At the vineyard, with our great friends:

Enjoying the wine and a bit of sun:

Further examinations of my henna design:

My Indian Wedding - Cake

As I mentioned before, we were not too keen on having a wedding cake. It just did not seem to make any sense to pay >$1,000 for a cake! (In the US, average price of a piece of the wedding cake is around $15. So a cake for 100 people will cost ~$1,500.) I considered buying a "regular" big cake, but it proved to be difficult as our wedding cake had to be made without eggs.

So in the end we surrendered to the will of our uncle, as well as several of our guests who also expressed the opinion that a wedding cake is a must, and we decided to order a cake from an Indian bakery (mithai). Our uncle was overjoyed with our decision and immediately took us to "Passage to India", located in Mountain View.

We tasted several types of eggless cakes there, and decided to go with a three-layer cake in which every layer would have a different flavor. The flavors we picked were strawberry, mango and pineapple. Upon the recommendation of our uncle, we decided to keep the top layer of our cake in a freezer till our first wedding anniversary. I'm definitely looking forward to eating it in a few days :)

I was positively surprised how tasty our wedding cake was, as usually I find wedding cakes too sweet and too creamy. Many of our guests liked the cake too, and one of my friends even said that it was the best cake she ever had. So the big thanks should go to our uncle for convincing us to get a cake, for recommending a place to buy it from, and also for paying for it!


Anil and the uncle in front of the bakery:

The uncle and auntie tasting cakes:

Our wedding cake:

The bride and the groom cutting the first slice of the cake:

Indian tradition calls for the groom and bride to feed each other sweets. Our guests were encouraging me to feed Anil a really big piece of the cake:

I decided to spare the cake (and Anil) and feed him just a little bit:

Once everybody got their piece of cake, the time came for toasts. I think the first one was by Gautam, Anil's older brother:

Then came Tadhg's turn:

And afterward ours:

I should also mention that throughout the reception we had live entertainment provided by kids of our guests :)

My Indian Wedding - Reception & Photosession

After we came back from the Temple, both Anil and I changed into more comfortable outfits. Apparently that was a sign for our guests that it was time to take photos of and with us. We did not plan to have a photosession, but I'm glad that we did. It definitely makes for a nice memory to be able to look at all those great photos that we have with almost all guests that attended our wedding ceremony.

The groom and the bride:


The groom on the elephant, the bride on the groom :)


Congratulations and wishes from our uncle and his family:


An official photo with the uncle's family:

In the photo below we are together with Neeta, Gautam, Aditi and Ram:


And here are photos with our other guests:

While our photosession was still in progress, some of our guest got hungry and started enjoying the food. If you are curious to see what was on the menu, check out my previous post dedicated to that subject.



It was also a very nice surprise to see that my friend Alessio, who was our semi-official photographer, took pictures of all tables with our guests: