DICE central in Stockholm

The big glass building is the home of gaming industry milestones such as Minecraft and the Battlefield series. The DICE central in Stockholm is quite a magnificent spot in the downtown area.

PS: Little birdie in the foreground is a tiny duck "sailing" on a piece of ice in mid-February

To Stockholm and back + few weeks of nothing

Sorry for not being active much these weeks. It's been quite silent around here. Dark and gloomy skies for months, constant bad weather going from severe snowfalls to slush on the streets, nothing much to be done other that being home watching something and playing games. 

I did my best to take a break from the internet, and frankly it's been refreshing. 

During that time, here are the highlights:

This is what's been ruining every glitch of inspiration we might get. Completely impossible to get nice long exposures without light pollution carried by clouds to smudge half the photo.

We went on a short family cruise to Stockholm and back, no getting off the ship [and thank gods for that], only sailing. It felt great because of the family group and the slight change in the everyday life.

this is how daytime has been for a while now

I was traveling light, with only a backpack, so these photos were taken by Kalle.

Note: For photos from Stockholm, click here.

Currently, we're in Pori, since it's ski vacation week. We're keeping the place warm and working on some home projects. Sun showed up today, so I have some interior shots to share later on. 

I also applied for a International Business Bachelor program at Turku University of Applied Sciences, fingers crossed for the exam on April!

I'm also planning of putting some posts on a queue, so that I don't get behind again [like with the past few Video Sundays that are finally posted, only backdated].

Violeta

Turku - Vaasa - Umeå

 Yep, trip to Sweden again. This time no dirty, gloomy Stockholm, as we're taking things up to the north. I've never been this far up, so I'm very excited to get on the road on Friday and then cross thr Gulf of Bothnia with a ferry.

See you after the weekend!

Violeta

Valkyrie to be

Stockholm harbour. 

Most adorable small human being I've seen in my life. 

She can kick your ass with viking force, I'm telling you!

More of Stockholm, and more, and more.

Violeta

Stockholm travel note II

At Gamla Stan, close to the Royal Palace.

We're back! 

Now, after we finally got enough sleep, here's the second Stockholm experience.

[once again, it's not the best trip I've had, so I'll try to describe things, that you most probably won't see in the brochures, but also good sides]

Passing through the Turku archipelago

The sailing this time was much better. We managed to get more sleep, there weren't as many people on a drinking cruise this time, so the ship was calm. Also, since the White nights are approaching, we were able to see more of the Turku archipelago and from Stockholm's islands. 

Breakfast on Silja line, passing through Stockholm archipelago

 What left us really bad impression from that part was a huge group of Korean tourists. They acted rude the entire time by overtaking the lines during breakfast, boarding and unboarding. Their behaviour was as if someone is racing with them to the food, like it's going to end, or like the ship is going to sail away before they get to the terminal.

And somehow the bad impressions always leave a deeper mark on the memories.

Moving on.

Arriving in Stockholm

 As I said before, Stockholm looks much prettier early in the morning, when everyone's still asleep and the streets are empty.

You really get to enjoy the architecture, get cool shots, and maybe interract with some of the "locals".

This morning was particulary cloudy, but later on the day became very sunny and warm.

Now, as you see on the bottom shot, that's why Stockholm is much better without the people.

One of the main streets of Stockholm

Even though this trip was better than the previous, I still stay beside my past comment about Stockholm, the high immigration levels there, and how it looks like the Orient and the far East are slowly taking over its Scandinavian cultural image.

For most people it's the natural outcome of globalization, but for me, as a person who highly appreciates the diversity of cultures, this type of  "colonization" is extremely repulsive. 

I'm not saying this in a nazi way, so don't get me wrong, I'm an immigrant here too. I just want to see Swedes and Swedish culture when I go to Sweden. If I feel like exploring the Orient, I'll go to Turkey and appreciate it there at its best. 

Stitching "patches" of your own different culture onto another country's image will only make it lose it. And honestly, I don't want another America in Europe.

If you want to get my opinion better, feel free to check out part one. 

For extra photos, check here.

If any questions or other opinions, write a comment.

More photos to come, so stay tuned.

Violeta

Stockholm part II

Here's the thing. Me and Kalle are going to Stockholm again. 

Ship leaves tomorrow, and we'll be back on Saturday.

Expectations are for a better trip, since we got quite disappointed from the previous. [read the travel note here]

See you next week!

Violeta

Streets of Stockholm

Violeta

Stockholm travel note

Before I begin the story, note that me and Kalle were extremely sleepy during the whole day, because of noisy drunk people on the ship. Also, the weather we caught was very unpleasant - with wind, and rain. However, we've discussed several times our trip, and what each of us was impressed and  repulsed of. We also agreed to definitely repeat that trip when the weather is better and more welcomming.

Now, Stockholm was among the places I dreamed to live in someday, but only until I actually went there. 

Don't get me wrong - it's an amazingly beautiful city with its authentic architecture. What I really enjoyed was walking around the city center and in Gamla Stan, with all the small stores and cafes, where the hot chocolate and sweet strawberry gelly pie are to die for.

Also, we visited the Stockholm Museum of Photography ,where apparently "art" was equal to black and white photos. The people in there were mostly hipsters, staring at blurry squares on the walls, trying to feel what was said in the description of the piece would make someone feel. If that's art - it's not my type of spoon.

What I really missed about it is the actual Swedish culture in the atmosphere. I know it's a very international capital, but it was a bit too much for me. Without being racist or discriminative, I could see more Japanesse tourists on the streets, Indian and Middle Eastern staff in the service sector, Finns and Russians in the stores, than actual Swedes. Also, in the restaurants and on the streets the music I could hear was some very unpleasant to me mixture between Greek and Turkish melodies. 

So now, I can't really tell anything about the people in that part of Sweden, because I couldn't get to see them [except that apparently they don't mind wearing very dirty Pikachu jumpsuits and bunny-hats in the middle of a fancy shopping center]. 

sleepy and cold

In conclusion - maybe I had too high expectations, so I got disappointed in the end, maybe I got used to Finland and its standards too much, but what I saw from Stockholm, in overall, didn't impress me.

Also, there are many more photos, but editing takes a while, so make sure to keep an eye to the blog.

Violeta

Boatride on a rainy day

People here just don't care if it's raining or not. They go on a boat and enjoy it.

Violeta.

Streets von Dutch II

Oldehoofsterkerkhof in the background.

First part.

Violeta.

Streets von Dutch

As a continuation to items von Dutch, the series that follow are with street shots. 

First one:

- Central place of Leeuwarden

Here's the story behind it. The photo was taken at 6 p.m during the week, and the thing about this hour is, once it's marked by the bells from the nearby cathedral, everything closes within the next 10 to 15 minutes. The stores close, the cafes take their tables in, the people go home. Exception is only Thursday when, for some reason, everything works till 8 p.m.

Second part.

Violeta.

Items von Dutch

- map of Leeuwarden

- cooking book for students [free gift from a Rabobank]

- Grolsch glass-pad

- unknown, but awesome tea package

- water bottle cap

- chip for free drink in a Ouwe Stoep pub on Pub street, Leeuwarden

I was thinking of how to show you the daily life here, without tons of crappy quality photos and this is what came up to my mind.
I don't use the map now, because I already know most of the city, but it was very helpful in my first week here. The cooking book has some nice recipes that I use and it gives me extra knowledge in Dutch language. Grolsch is a quite awesome Dutch beer [thanks Robin, for the recommendation]. The cap is there, because of the pro-green life in the Netherlands. The chip is something that was new to me in here - in almost all clubs and pubs you're required to buy these chips from automats in order to get drinks, the bars simply don't work with money. I got that free-drink one during the Pub Crawl in the Study Start week. And I don't know from what this tea is made of, but it's awesome. I'm drinking so much tea here, because of the bad windy rainy weather.

I'll do my best to update more often,  but I'm stuck under assignments, so be patient.


PS: next series - streets von Dutch

Violeta.

Brussels Trip - Day 2/3

Hi again.
I just got to the last hotel, where I'll be staying and there's finally free wi-fi, so I can catch up with updates.
I don't have much time, because it's after midnight after a long day and I'll have to wake up at 5 a.m before the flight, so I'll post photos tomorrow, when I get back home and recieve all the files from the other people.

- a t-shirt I bought from Brussels and no, I don't have blond highlights, it's some reflection from the lamps.

See you tomorrow.

------

EDIT: So, I'm finally at home in Bulgaria. I recharged myself with a good amount of quality sleep and now I'm ready to post some photos, as promised.

Almost all of this second day passed in the European Parliament, so most of the photos are from there. We had several meetings and presentations, we also visited two sessions during which the deputies talked about the situation in Libya. We also gave away cards with the Bulgarian alphabet, because of 24th May which is the official day of the Cyrillic alphabet.

- infront of the European Parliament

- the European Parliament itself, a panoram shot built from 7 photos

- with some Tibetian monk who was touring Brussels

- insite the European Parliament, such an incredible building

- meeting with Kristian Vigenin [you can find more info about the trip on his website aswell]

- you can see me on the left, I'm the only one with a white t-shirt.

- with my roommate Galina [don't be fooled, she's much older than me]

- the EESC, where we met with Zoltan Krasznai.

- in the end, we got eco-bags, full of books, brochures and small gifts from the EP.

On our way to the hotel where we spent the night before the flight:

- as a person who lives in a country that's still far from the Western European eco - ideas, I was quite impressed by this guy in a suit, who was riding a bike. It's impossible to see something like this here

- and another photo from the streets of Brussels

-------

In overall, the trip was awesome. Even though we had some troubles in the beginning, I remained fascinated by the life there. I'm glad I was able to go to Brussels and a huge thanks to the organizators. The trip was made as a replacement to my prom and I'm happy it happened that way.

That's all. Hopefully you enjoyed the posts from my trip and the short stories between them.

Violeta.

Brussels Trip - Day 1

Hey guys!
Sorry for the missed update yesterday. Apparently the wi-fi at the airport in Brussels and in our hotel wasn't free and I decided not to pay 10 euros for just an hour. Still this entry will be posted backdated.

So here's what happened yesterday.
The flight was delayed with 4 hours, but in the end everything was okay. It was my first time on a plane, so I was really excited. Flying was awesome, though the landing was probably not the best thing for my insides.

Because of the delay, we skipped some of our meetings in the morning so we only had a panoramic tour in Brussels and dinner in the center - Grand Place.

Now the photos:


- my ticket


- the plane


- the BEST seat

I have tons of photos of the sky above the clouds, but here's a way cooler video of the plane going up:

- the wall of the Museum of Paleonthology

 

 

 

 

- Grand Place

That's for now.
Another update coming up.

PS: Almost all photos from the streets of Brussels are taken from the bus, which is why there are blurred parts on some photos.

Violeta.