I'm happy. I live where I want to live.
Showing posts with label places. Show all posts
Showing posts with label places. Show all posts
04 June 2013
04 April 2012
St. Petersburg
All the charm of northern Baltic city.
Walking in the chilly air, sometimes under snow and rain, less frequently under sunshine - bright, but not warm.
Looking on all the ice covering rivers and canals - I think I have never seen so much ice before (not counting the ice in Baltic sea last May).
Getting really tired of being cold, starting to doubt that the spring will ever come.
Not using the Internet for 10 days (almost; I did check my iStock balance and weather forecast, and wrote one blog post).
Shopping (as you've probably understood, weather was not very suitable for outdoor activities).
Doing indoor photoshoots.
Drinking hot tea all the time.
Eating out (we call it a gastronomic tour).
Crocheting a little. A couple of days before returning to Moscow I started another warm scarf. If it's still weather appropriate, why not?
Feeling like home.
Walking in the chilly air, sometimes under snow and rain, less frequently under sunshine - bright, but not warm.
Looking on all the ice covering rivers and canals - I think I have never seen so much ice before (not counting the ice in Baltic sea last May).
Not using the Internet for 10 days (almost; I did check my iStock balance and weather forecast, and wrote one blog post).
Shopping (as you've probably understood, weather was not very suitable for outdoor activities).
Doing indoor photoshoots.
Drinking hot tea all the time.
Eating out (we call it a gastronomic tour).
Crocheting a little. A couple of days before returning to Moscow I started another warm scarf. If it's still weather appropriate, why not?
Feeling like home.
25 January 2012
2011 Travel
I was suddenly overtaken by herd instinct and decided, like many other bloggers, to make Year End Post. In fact, January is almost over, but better late then never!
I will be specific and talk only about travelling here, because it's the part of my life that was the most successful and eventful in 2011. Nights in trains from Minsk to Moscow and back (that doesn't count as travelling, but moving from one point to another is one of my favorite parts of every journey), roadtrips with husband and friends, eleven take-offs and (luckily) eleven landings - many kilometers covered during past year, as I not only moved from Belarus to Russia, but visited 6 countries:
- Ukraine (January)
- Lithuania (July)
- France (December)
- Thailand (December and first week of 2012)
All possible kinds of transport were used:
- by train to Lviv
- by bus to Riga and then boat to Stockholm
- by car to Krakow
- by car and ferry to Nida
- by plane to Paris and Ko Samui. And to top it off, we used motorbikes while we were in Thailand.
Not everything was bright: bad weather chased us troughout the year. In Lviv it was cold, but OK, it was January. Then in Stockholm it was extraordinary cold for the beginning of May, and rainy. Then it rained in Nida, sea was cold and we couldn't swim. In Paris it was quite warm for December, but it rained too, especially on the day when we decided to visit Disneyland. Even Thailand gave us 3 (out of 10) days of tropical rain during dry season! But I can say that in most cases our impressions were not affected by weather (not counting the enormous quantity of red-nose-photos).
I love that every set of photos has its own color palette, and the colors associate with the place in my mind.
I definitely will make a plan on travelling for the nearest future and post it later.
I will be specific and talk only about travelling here, because it's the part of my life that was the most successful and eventful in 2011. Nights in trains from Minsk to Moscow and back (that doesn't count as travelling, but moving from one point to another is one of my favorite parts of every journey), roadtrips with husband and friends, eleven take-offs and (luckily) eleven landings - many kilometers covered during past year, as I not only moved from Belarus to Russia, but visited 6 countries:
- Ukraine (January)
- Sweden (May)
- Poland (May)- Lithuania (July)
- France (December)
- Thailand (December and first week of 2012)
All possible kinds of transport were used:
- by train to Lviv
- by bus to Riga and then boat to Stockholm
- by car to Krakow
- by car and ferry to Nida
- by plane to Paris and Ko Samui. And to top it off, we used motorbikes while we were in Thailand.
Not everything was bright: bad weather chased us troughout the year. In Lviv it was cold, but OK, it was January. Then in Stockholm it was extraordinary cold for the beginning of May, and rainy. Then it rained in Nida, sea was cold and we couldn't swim. In Paris it was quite warm for December, but it rained too, especially on the day when we decided to visit Disneyland. Even Thailand gave us 3 (out of 10) days of tropical rain during dry season! But I can say that in most cases our impressions were not affected by weather (not counting the enormous quantity of red-nose-photos).
I love that every set of photos has its own color palette, and the colors associate with the place in my mind.
I definitely will make a plan on travelling for the nearest future and post it later.
22 December 2011
Christmas in Paris
Shop windows, lights and streets - all things beautiful, festive and funny - for the right mood these days. And don't forget the French wine!
08 July 2011
Stockholm, jag älskar dig. Part four - Just water
Stockholm is a sequence of beautiful water views, a city of islands and bridges, where salt water of Baltic sea meets sweet water of Mälaren lake.
No more words, only pictures.
23 June 2011
Stockholm, jag älskar dig. Part three
Singing
There were more than one best moment.
- When Swedish conductor Karin taught us pronunciation and tried to make us reproduce necessary expression: "Men ut av alla... du... kärast mig är" - because prior to that moment we had been singing tender love song as a march =)
- When we sang Swedish folk songs together with kids at Music Gymnasium. It was really fun!
- And, of course, rehearsal at wonderful Sofia kyrkan: in its acoustics our voices sounded so heavenly (despite high notes gave the ringing in my ears).
Places
We visited 3 museums, although only one of them is the museum in full meaning of this word.
Vasa - the museum of Epic Fail: the 17th century ship had drowned during its first voyage, then was lifted, restored and now successfully contributes money to Swedish economics.
Skansen - open-air museum of authentic architecture and fauna.
Fotografiska - not a museum at all, just an excellent photo exhibition.
A real museum is its shop: sooo much to look at, everything at completely unaffordable prices. There I drooled over Anton Corbijn's In Control and many other books and albums.
Stadhuset (City hall) - most popular way to look at Gamla Stan (Old town) from above. Usually tourists shoot from the tower photos like these (I wasn't an exception):
Gröna lund - amusement park which we hadn't visited, just looked at it from outside. But, as it has 80 meter free-fall ride, I plan to visit it next time :)
Next time, huh... Damn I want to live there!
21 June 2011
Stockholm, jag älskar dig. Part two
Weather
We arrived by boat, and all I can say - we were really, really COLD.
We didn't get to see all the spectacular beauty of skärgarden (Stockholm archipelago), cause it was covered with a thick layer of fog. And it was SNOWING! On the 3rd of MAY! Probably, I have never taken such gray and cheerless photos:
Situation with the weather changed in three days, and it changed drastically. It looked like evil joke - sun came out in the end of our stay. However, I couldn't feel offended.
Accomodation
On arrival to Interhostel, we were shocked to get the rooms approximately the size of our boat cabins. They didn't have windows either!
The place was indeed international. All rooms were occupied, the kitchen was always crowded.
But, the hostel was clean, had free Internet, tea&coffee, and, more important, was located right in the city center. So, after all I can recommend it as the cheapest accomodation in Stockholm (which, as we all know, is a very expensive city). By the way, all the staff comes from Russia and Belarus.
People
So nice and polite. But could it be the other way in highly developed, social-oriented country?
And, for all the tall-and-blond-guy lovers out there: the guys are really tall and blond, although, to my regret, I don't have photo evidence of that fact. However, overall height of the population is not that giant as I had expected. It's just few certain ones that stand out :)
Almost everyone has at least one (considering amount of clothes at the moment) tattoo.
I liked very much the relaxed, casual style of Stockholm girls and women. You don't see them wearing high heels, but if you do, of course she's Russian (and you meet Russian speaking people very often in the streets).
to be continued...
We arrived by boat, and all I can say - we were really, really COLD.
We didn't get to see all the spectacular beauty of skärgarden (Stockholm archipelago), cause it was covered with a thick layer of fog. And it was SNOWING! On the 3rd of MAY! Probably, I have never taken such gray and cheerless photos:
Situation with the weather changed in three days, and it changed drastically. It looked like evil joke - sun came out in the end of our stay. However, I couldn't feel offended.
Accomodation
On arrival to Interhostel, we were shocked to get the rooms approximately the size of our boat cabins. They didn't have windows either!
The place was indeed international. All rooms were occupied, the kitchen was always crowded.
But, the hostel was clean, had free Internet, tea&coffee, and, more important, was located right in the city center. So, after all I can recommend it as the cheapest accomodation in Stockholm (which, as we all know, is a very expensive city). By the way, all the staff comes from Russia and Belarus.
People
So nice and polite. But could it be the other way in highly developed, social-oriented country?
And, for all the tall-and-blond-guy lovers out there: the guys are really tall and blond, although, to my regret, I don't have photo evidence of that fact. However, overall height of the population is not that giant as I had expected. It's just few certain ones that stand out :)
Almost everyone has at least one (considering amount of clothes at the moment) tattoo.
I liked very much the relaxed, casual style of Stockholm girls and women. You don't see them wearing high heels, but if you do, of course she's Russian (and you meet Russian speaking people very often in the streets).
to be continued...
05 June 2011
Stockholm, jag älskar dig. Part one - Intro
It was impossible for me not to fall in love with this city, and it happened so easily.
Important remark - we came there not as just tourists, but as culture bearers of our country. There was a negative side to it - we had much less time for sightseeing than we wanted. But cultural exchange, in my opinion, was quite successful, and of course gave us a great experience.
Nordic character of the city shows in pictures. Spring looks more like autumn there.
Weather might not be the best, but the atmosphere was incredibly warm anyway.
I started to learn Swedish before the journey. My knowledge was enough to find out, for example, that the name of the street on the picture below is Big New Street - very appropriate:
to be continued...
Important remark - we came there not as just tourists, but as culture bearers of our country. There was a negative side to it - we had much less time for sightseeing than we wanted. But cultural exchange, in my opinion, was quite successful, and of course gave us a great experience.
Nordic character of the city shows in pictures. Spring looks more like autumn there.
Weather might not be the best, but the atmosphere was incredibly warm anyway.
I started to learn Swedish before the journey. My knowledge was enough to find out, for example, that the name of the street on the picture below is Big New Street - very appropriate:
to be continued...
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