Summer travels 3: Brasov

 A Soviet style restaurant car.

One of the few pictures I took in Oradea, on the border. 

 Strada Sfor, one of the narrowest streets in Europe.

We didn't really know what to expect from Romania and didn't realise how surreal it was before we left. From the train windows we saw people travelling on horse carriages, idyllic country houses in the middle of endless fields and villages with poorly built huts that don't probably have running water or central heating. But they had satellite antennas, though. Anyway Brasov was a beautiful place and we felt like home in the lovely Rolling stone hostel. We saw one of those famous Dracula castles and climbed on the hills surrounding the town.

These foolish things

One nice thing is finding a blog that's been there for a while, so that there's lots and lots to read at once.

Another one is finishing a book. The one in the pictures is Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. It left me a bit confused but I do recommend it - I hardly ever finish books I don't like somehow.

It is also nice to "find" some record you haven't been listening for a while. Like Islands by King Crimson. Good music for falls.

The card with oh so fine Mrs. Bear is from Ikea.

This evening we'll go to a concert to listen to some tango!

Summer Travels 2: Krakow

 Fried cheese on the market square.

The wall of Kazimierz, the Jewish ghetto.

The Jewish cemetery. 

Paintings by Filip Kalkowski. 

Krakow was just as beautiful as I remembered but something was missing. There was no trace of that melancholy and decadence I've always loved about Poland. Except in our hostel room, wich looked like a mixture of a wooden country cottage and a storage for old furniture, mistakenly ended up in a wrong dimension inside a city house on a peaceful square.

Summer Travels 1: Poznan

The beautiful city of Poznán was the very first waypoint of our journey. With the help of our lovely local guide we found some very cool places. One of them was Kontenerart (last four pictures), a gathering place for people interested in music, art, design, architecture... We sipped some beer on the artificial beach and watched the little dog playing with her frisbee. 

Pictures of old paintings are from an exhibition of some Italian masters - I'm sorry I don't have the names. Love those dark backgrounds once again! 

Cool street art is something I took note of throughout our trip. It would be nice to see something like this in Finland too.

The Birds of Suomenlinna

A day in August. It was rainy and chilly but everything looked so good - all the colours, birds and people. Little frogs were hopping around our feet. I had just been to the exhibition of Helene Schjerfbeck and met a good friend after a while. I like these pictures very much.

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Today was the first day in ages I painted. It felt like... It is the most essential thing.

Alive and kicking

Hello there! It's September and I've kissed the summer goodbye. It was a warm and exciting one for me - was in Poland, Romania and Hungary and even got to spend a weekend at our dear summer cottage, picking mushrooms and berries. 

I've got so many pictures and so many news it's hard to decide where to start. These pics I took yesterday. A new cardigan - an official sign of autumn. Love that tile red colour! Went to fix up our studio with my dear colleagues around 3 pm - found myself dancing with them at 3 am. Oh well.