Since the last few weeks and especially this week the traffic from Belgium has surpassed the one from Romania (I’d really like to know why) maybe it’s a good time for this post.
So ever since I watched the movie I had this big urge to visit Belgium’s best preserved medieval town. It wasn’t that the movie tried to make a big impression of it (in fact if you follow the dialogues it’s the other way around), however the directing and soundtrack made sure it stayed in your head forever. So since I didn’t have many options on flights returning from Iceland I had to get a Wizz Air (btw I will never ever fly this airline again) from Bruxelles 2 days after I arrived in Koln. And my best option was to spend these days in this town that I always wanted to visit.
Bruges was beautiful. Peaceful, old, romantic in some way but commercial in another.A lot of chocolate in different shapes and sizes some of theme really obscene :). It even had the swans like the movie said. And Alcoves. That was the right word.. Alcoves?
Ok, I removed the teaser post on the reason of being too “fitos” 🙂 . So, here starts the photo series from my 8 days trip to Iceland. The most beautiful, wildest and natural place I have ever seen. No word can describe the feeling of being there, witness to something probably very similar to what the world looked like millions of years ago. But I’ll come back to writing another time.
Here is lake Jökulsárlón, the biggest glacial lake in Iceland, a recent one that came with the fast melting of the Vatnajökull glacier, and still growing in size. The ice comes sliding from the mountains (you can see the river of ice in the first picture, in the background), onto the lake and then the ocean. One of the most beautiful sights on earth, especially on sunset. Like I said, the sun didn’t actually set, being a polar day, it just went a little bit under the horizon.
She was posing for someone else. I felt a bit jealous that her black silhouette outlined with light was someone elses for the taking. But it doesn’t matter. Only from where I was standing she blended perfectly with the stairs and light, like a shadowless black ghost floating in a surreal scene.
It’s maybe because of how quickly modernization takes over the old ways that we seem to find fascination in the little remains of what once was. One of the things that I loved about Lisbon was how well preserved the old town is, with all the little shops, restaurants, crafts. The young (at least the wealthy ones) have longed moved to modern parts of the city and all that was left is an untouched town that is the same now as it was 50-100 years ago. This little barbershop I found was a good subject, and the old barber insisted that I come in and take photos. So I did. There were not many tourists in that part anyway (thankfully) so it was a joy to watch.
In other news, from now on my photos will have a new source, the canon EOS 5d Mk2 and the replacement lens for the Tamron, the canon 24-105 f4 L. It was about time went fullframe, and the manual HD video mode made the final advantage. I will never ever forget my first dslr, the 300d, the one that showed me how much I like to take photos 🙂
I start the year in Amsterdam. Maybe a sign of what was to come. I come back in Bucharest only to soon find myself in the wreck of what was 10 seconds ago my car. I drive insanely and my insanity almost lost someone’s life, even so I left a friend with a multiple hand fracture. No car insurance, no inspiration to lie to the police that there were no victims. I lose my license, I lose my car and for some reasons in that crash I fell that I lost a lot more than that. From there it’s all s rollercoaster. For a second I lose my sanity, I lose everything. I run away, finding myself each day in a different place. I wake up in a hotel room in Rome; I have no idea how I got there and not even bother to wonder. No plans, no purpose, only trying to fight off my own demons that consume me. I enjoy, I see and admire each of the beautiful things that my road has to offer me. I see old friends, I dig up ghosts of the past, I manipulate and dose my emotions to find the balance that I seek so much. And for the time being, it seems to work. Drugs, 100 GB of photos, 400 kilometers of walking, 10 hours of flight, 5 hours of sleep a night, 2 hours of sleep a day in strange places, thousands of beautiful things seen. Each day a new town, each week a new country, and for now the hotel room is my home. Eventually I come back. Work. I go to Sofia in delegation. I come back. I leave to Portugal. I come back but in 7 days I’m back in Barcelona.
I never really believed in him. I heard a lot of stories from Barcelona about him, but never really seen him. I started to believe he was just a myth, a modern Yeti, a figment of some very disturbed people imaginations. But then one day there he was, right in front of me. The world stood still and as he walked in the middle of the crowd. Faces froze with fear and amazement as he made his way through the streets in broad daylight.
…Europe’s final meters of land. Right there in the first photo, I’m standing above them, in the westernmost place, Cabo da Roca, Portugal. It kind of feels strange being there where the old continent ends
And not far from there but far from the tourist’s track is praia da ursa, one of the most beautiful places in all Portugal and also one of the most inaccessible. Google earth tourism seems fun until you find out just how difficult it is to get to a certain point that looked good on a photo. And praia da ursa is one of those places. On the old road that leads there there’s a sign that said “danger, unsecured beach. For emergency call 112”. But the fact is there is no signal down there, is standing below a few hundred meters of rock, very hard to climb. In fact the beach is mostly deserted, in the middle of the season the only people there were a couple having innocent, beautiful sex. And no, I’m not showing you the photos 😀 .
and sometimes there are these moments between night and day when the city becomes one of the most surreal and beautiful image one can imagine..
Barcelona
I think I’m going to switch to English from now on, no point in having half the visitors from outside the country and not understand one word. Besides, this may keep my parents from reading something perhaps compromising 🙂 . Comments are welcomed in any language.
Anyway, some photos from Rome. Rome was the first of the 3 major cities I stayed in last month (a lot of other small ones). In my opinion it’s not the nicest place on earth (good for photos nevertheless), however it has some stunning nearby towns that you won’t find anywhere else.
The color photos in another post.
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