a day of parks

or the haphazard pursuit of parks. i approach this post with a long string of sighs. why, you ask? because i was on another rant after several setbacks that were not only avoidable but so unnecessary. let me regale you with my tales of...wonder...

we started out by getting a little breakfast at a chain (but cute) cafe called Lakonic (i think) and i noticed it also has an old photo of that same arcade:

here's the rest of the interior with a bringing us some coffees:

next we walked through that great park up on the hill hidden behind all the apartment buildings. that silvery thing is a huge slide like a flume that n would love:

from up on another hill could be seen a round house, almost like the one in chestnut park but this one was an actual cafe (not a neglected random structure that is sometimes a nursery class, sometimes a taiko drumming location, an occasional polling site, or the houser of a disgustingly flithy often out-of-order constantly vandalized toilet. and on rainy days, unhomed people sometimes shelter under the disintegrating awning). no this round house even has round steps and offers happy things like ice cream and teas that can be eaten or sipped at tables arranged around the building or taken a few steps to enjoy on a park bench (with its own trash receptacle faithfully awaiting any discarded wrappers) or upon vast meadowy lawns sprawling as far as the eye can see...

heres a sign advertising the local wildlife and i swear i have not seen a single squirrel. they must keep to themselves or they are invisible because not one has harassed us since we deplaned. ok i did see one in poznan, but just one. it scampered past us at the rozarium and only after i remarked on the dearth of squirrels as if to let me know they do have a presence in this country, albeit a shy one, as squirrels really ought to be:

here's another one of the round house and its round steps:

next we decided to promenade along the river to see what all the fuss was about. we were just getting into it when we were abruptly stopped by some construction that hasn't been clearly marked so had to retrace steps and ascend back to street level but here's are a couple of not very good examples of that walkway:

the next item on the agenda was to go out to a further point by way of tram but the transit maps are difficult to navigate. the website is impossible to blow up to a size that's readable and the posted ones at the tram stops are equally miniscule, posted very high up in the walls of the kiosks and behind smeared glass rendering them virtually useless. in fact an older man, with a cane no less, went to look at the map after A unsuccessfully scrutinized it and you will not believe what he was using to read it: a magnifying glass that he brought with him!!!

the mildly bad result was we got on the wrong tram and ended up circling the city center. so we hopped off where we had gotten on and tried another one, this time heading to the botanical garden. one bright spot was i could charge my phone as we went along, what a concept. who ever heard of such a thing?! only a place with parks, benches and umbrellaed trash receptacles would think of something so outlandish:

oh yeah, they don't do roundup here. or mowing. or weed whacking. or edging (and possibly not even leaf blowing?!) the result isnt outrageous botanical chaos...no its more of a lush meadow effect. imagine that:

the botanical gardens were nice enough but by the time we were allowed entry i was seething and couldn't enjoy them very much so we didn't stay very long. to make a long story short, the entry apparatus was fully automated and so badly planned (aside from the fact that it didnt involve actual human ticket takers, etc) and extremely cumbersome with long lines and confusing instructions (even for the natives). i was hoping to start out at the cafe but it was also festooned with long lines, as were the bathrooms, all of them, which had run out of paper...i guess it (the little indignities) all began to accumulate and i kept comparing this experience to the botanical gardens in poznan and i just kind of lost it. so we sat on a bench and watched everyone wander about aimlessly through all the little carefully manicured nooks and crannies:

i took a couple pics of plants on our way out like this little corner of hostas for s and j:

especially this one:

A found a hidden little family cafe a few stops out of town and away from the botanical garden, where incidentally, the most interesting plants were the weeds just outside the turnstiles and along the sidewalk on the way back to the trams... anyways here's the food we ate -- a roasted cauliflower with an egg with hollandaise sauce and a potato kugel-like layered rectangle. the other dish was a pasta with intense mushroom sauce tinged with a truffle essence... and an apple cakish dessert with vanilla ice cream because this place is called uner the apple tree:

we checked out this huge park behind the restaurant where countless families with little kids and dogs galore were frolicking away. we sat on a bench in the sun and talked to r until it started to get cold and then headed back into town:

here's another view of how the green spaces here are "maintained":

and another ludicrous jack:

we stopped at the literary cafe, book-book, for a cup of tea (with bourbon), a glass of wine and a dish of four different spreads for a snack before going back to the apartment. a found a tram that literally took us door to door (i don't know how he figured that out it was like a magic trick) and here i am now blogging all of my kvetching to you :) oh yes, even this last tram had an outlet that i couldn't help sampling: