Where Are You, Olga?

KEX Hostel

noreply@blogger.com (Olga) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:01:00 +0000

I can say it plain and simple - this is my favourite hostel. To date. It really doesn't seem like I will be finding a better one any time soon. And believe me, I had a chance to sleep in many hostels. I'm telling you, KEX hostel is perfect :) - or very close to it.

When I first started to look for a place to stay in Reykjavik for our group of 8 restless Iceland explorers the fact that attracted and intrigued me most about KEX was that this hostel is housed in an old biscuit factory ('kex' means a cookie in Icelandic) - which overlooks Reykjavik's waterfront. The place looked good so we booked it. And then, one brisk June morning after a landing on a lava field, we found ourselves in Reykjavik at 3AM with the sun high up in the sky. And we entered KEX...

The hostel opened last April and it offers you something I could even call 'a better home away from yours' :) A very cool, stylish and cosy place, it is almost entirely furnished with hip secondhand furniture, which what it seems was very carefully selected and matched to create a spacious but comfy and relaxing retro environment for people staying over or just dropping by for a drink in their amazing bar.

I will stop talking now and let you see by yourselves. And if you are in Reykjavik - don't miss a chance to stay in KEX, it's totally worth it :)

tourist info desk

the bar

the reading meeting room

my favourite detail

the elevator...

... with some elevator music

the 1950s barber shop

photos by Olga and Arek except for the top one

In Pursuit Of Passions

noreply@blogger.com (Olga) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:27:00 +0000

photo from google

So I watched 'Julie and Julia' today for the first time - what an amazingly positive film about people pursuing their passions! Really great stuff - I can't stop smiling. No, I really can't :). So here is a smily picture for you too today.

image by Arek

P.S. And I will cook something really delicious tomorrow :)

O·V·E·R·T·H·I·N·K·I·N·G

noreply@blogger.com (Olga) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 19:13:00 +0000

I think I'm THINKING really too much these days. 'Thinking' and 'too much' are probably not your best combination of phrases, yet this is exactly the feeling I'm currently having about myself.

And I hate the fact that you kind of realize this, but can't do much about it anyway.

Do you have any good recipes on how not to overthink things? :)

image via my Tumblr

You Me Bum Bum Train

noreply@blogger.com (Olga) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:37:00 +0000

An experience...

image via Bum Bum Train

... a collection of strange experiences - which question and redefine reality.

... like passing through different lifetimes all in one and being reincarnated
... like having a multiple personality disorder
... like being in a dream and having no control of what is happening in front of you
... completely disorientating - physically and geographically
... feeling incredibly real ... yet somewhat magical
... you find yourself doing things you'd never dreamed yourself doing before
... you might be living your greatest fears or on the contrary feel extremely important
... you find yourself surprised with coming up with the things you say and your reactions
... a grand game of make-believe.

It probably can be best described like going down the rabbit hole.

..and the hardest thing of all is not being able to tell anyone about it! As all the participants had to sign non-disclosure agreements. Seriously.
The above is I guess what you call being involved in interactive theatre :). Check out You Me Bum Bum Train show in London. I'm looking forward to buying tickets for their summer show.

Что день грядущий мне готовит..?

noreply@blogger.com (Olga) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 12:04:00 +0000

images via my Tumblr

The Nutcracker

noreply@blogger.com (Olga) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:16:00 +0000

We went to see The Royal Ballet's Nutcracker last week. The ballet is truly like a winter fairy tale - with lots of snow and magic. The decorations were created taking into consideration the play of light and shadow and they change very dynamically during the performance - which really makes it a very special experience.

Here is my favourite moment from the ballet - after the clock strikes midnight magic happens and everything is moving. I was amazed at how quickly things changed on the stage. You could see the Christmas tree increase 3 times in size - and that all just happened out of the blue without any visible human help.

Obviously the music was incredible too. Almost every piece of the ballet was very familiar and hence it felt so beautifully comfortable to be the lucky viewer of this performance. Here are some pictures from the theatre, unfortunately we couldn't shoot during the performance:

photos by Olga and Arek except for the top one

SLEEP

noreply@blogger.com (Olga) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 22:35:00 +0000

Every day I'm going to bed after 2am and every morning at 7 I promise myself this won't happen again. ...Do you know the feeling?

image via Tumblr

Year 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Olga) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 01:14:00 +0000

I hope 2012 is being very good to all of you so far!

Here is an attempt to recap what 2011 was like - maybe a little late, but why not? :) Now that I think of it - 2011 was truly a year of change and lots of exciting moments, revelations and accomplishments. And you have no idea how much your comments and visiting my blog mean to me. Thank you for encouraging me last year! Here are some highlights from 2011 which you may recall and also some which I didn't really post about.

SO... LAST YEAR I:

1. ...celebrated Christmas and New Year in India. Definitely an unforgettable experience - having a proper New Year's Eve party in a tropical palm grove with proper Christmas lights, mojitos, a swimming pool and freshly opened coconuts :)

2. ...had a chance to see elephants and leopards in the wild and even live among them in the jungle in Sri Lanka where we went straight after New Year's celebrations.

3. ...went to Maldives - my dream destination of many years :). The biggest highlight was diving about 25 metres deep and seeing 2 stingrays 'flying' by like birds. Seeing sharks completely uninterested in you was pretty awesome too.

4. ...lay awake through my knee surgery. I was curious to experience this. It kind of gave me things to think about through the painful days afterwards.

5. ...reinvented my Tumblr.

6. ...spent Easter back at home in Belarus, which is lovely in spring..

6. ...discovered Berlin as a true city for young people, young artists and art appreciators.

7. ...went all around Iceland by car with a group of 7 friends. Seeing whales, bathing in termal spas surrounded by lava fields and going in a boat on a glacier lake full of icebergs are just 3 tiny reasons to visit this amazing island - there are many more!

8. ...visited Athens, but most importantly spent a 'pre-honeymoon' on Greek islands, which I'm yet to post more about, I promise! Those Milos beaches accesible only from water, Santorini volcano and non-stop parties on Mykonos are great highlights of the Cyklades.

9. ...got married! Which was the most emotional day of my life.

10. ...moved from Gdansk to London to live and found a new job.

11. ...celebrated my pet's birthday :)))) Ralph is 4!

12. ...celebrated Halloween - haha, this is the influence of living in the UK :)

13. ...celebrated my birthday for the first time in 7 years ;). (actually celebrated lots of other great things as well)

14. ...went to see Tchaikovsky's 'The Sleeping Beauty' performed by Royal Ballet. Totally amazing!

15. ...had the most beautiful Christmas tree of all times!

16. ... and finally switched from PC to Mac :))).

The year 2011 was a pretty amazing year for me. Hopefully 2012 turns out somewhat similar! Have a really exciting year ahead!

photos by Olga and Arek except for the top and the bottom ones

... Missing Winter

noreply@blogger.com (Olga) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:24:00 +0000

I never thought I would actually say this... But, I miss Eastern Europe's proper cold and snowy winters... 'Proper' as winters from my childhood - with lots of crisp snow, -20 and lots of sun and glitter all around. It almost seems these days that those winters were a fairy tale made up by my imagination. I guess I miss winter so much because this wasn't a particular snowy Christmas in most parts of Europe - apart of course from the countries where it usually snows (like Bulgaria ;)).. and our last winter was very short too and mostly tropical - as we spent most of it in India. And here in London one does not even feel cold and doesn't need any proper winter clothes - I could literally survive walking in my ballerinas and a raincoat all winter long. And... you might not believe it, but the trees are in bloom here now - I can see one right in front of my window...

So I am giving up and posting this couple of snowy pictures from 2 years back from Belarus where I very much wish I could be right now enjoying some sun and snow. Hope you would enjoy them too :). Have a good winter!

photos by Olga

Ok, I Thought I Won't Do Resolutions This Year :)

noreply@blogger.com (Olga) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 01:20:00 +0000

But :) When I saw these I quite liked them because I haven't felt particularly creative last year. It's hard to stay creative while your work has very little to do with creativity. And the amount of time I spend at work - although luckily now it is 1 hr a day less than in Gdansk :) - is still too long and leaves me lazy and inspirationless at times.

Oh, and my other resolution is of course to blog more. I've really missed it and was lousy at it in 2011 :(. How come that 24hrs a day is never enough for me??

via Loose Threads

Favourite Day of The Year

noreply@blogger.com (Olga) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 00:56:00 +0000

Happy 2012, everyone! Do not let your dreams be dreams!
I wish you lots of LOVE - beautiful and simple!

photos from Tumblr

¤ ¤ ¤ З Калядами! ¤ Merry Christmas! ¤ С наступающим! ¤ Wesołych Świąt! ¤ God Jul! ¤ Feliz Navidad! ¤ ¤ ¤

noreply@blogger.com (Olga) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 10:33:00 +0000

Have a happy, warm and cosy Christmas with your friends and family! Wouldn't you agree it is a good time to actually follow a couple of family traditions, cook something really really good and spend some time just lazing around in your pyjamas, having winter style coffees, watching movies or just reading beside your Christmas tree. Make some time for that. Have good fun!

photos by Arek

Ёлки 2 :)

noreply@blogger.com (Olga) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 22:42:00 +0000

This is officially my favourite comedy of 2011 :) Totally brilliant! :D

Sorry - Russian only, I hope it will be translated into English soon.

A Bit of Culture

noreply@blogger.com (Olga) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 14:40:00 +0000

My dear friend Ti came to visit us for a couple of days and we spent what one could call a very cultural weekend together :)

We started our weekend on Friday night with a dinner at a Chinese buffet in China town which looked bright and colourful even in the pouring rain.

Due to Ti's efforts of getting up at 6am to queue in the cold wind with other hundreds of people in front of The National Gallery - all willing to get tickets which were long before bought out and sold on the internet for up to 350 pounds - we managed to visit Leonardo da Vinci exhibition. The exhibition - the first of its kind anywhere in the world - is the most complete display of Leonardo’s rare surviving paintings ever held.

Next on our agenda was Windsor castle, which is quite an impressive architectural structure and holds a very big collection of art belonging to the British Royal Family. Windsor is a very pleasant town to spend a day in - it has a small cosy centre with little shops and nice cafes. As it appears that tickets to Windsor Castle are valid for the whole year, we'll definitely come back to both the town and the Castle some time in spring.

Below are the pictures of some of my favourite Windsor Castle rooms. I was also curious to learn that the tradition of putting up a Christmas tree was brought over to the Royal Family from Germany and it was Queen Victoria who made this a wide-spread tradition across the country and probably all Europe by letting a picture of the Royal Family around Christmas tree being published in a newspaper in 1848.

The King's Bed Chamber

The Crimson Drawing Room

The Green Drawing Room

Our journey that day ended with a visit to an Indian restaurant on Brick Lane by which we again incorporated a whole new bit of a different culture into our weekend :).

Next day we were pretty tired after the previous trip and as it was too hard to get up early, we decided to take it easy and after breakfast at home we headed to one of the biggest bookshops in London - right next to Charing Cross and Trafalgar square, where we spent good couple of hours and I bought a couple of books I'm looking forward to be inspired by very soon.

It was easy to take a walk straight to Westminster from Trafalgar - we were lucky to be passing by Royal Mews at exactly 4PM to be able to see the daily Queen's Lifeguards and Horses inspection. Straight after to warm ourselves up and sit down we dropped by St Stephens Tavern - a very traditional pub just opposite The Houses of Parliament - for some afternoon tea and a quick snack.

I was truly taken by surprise with my Baked Potato dish - which turned up to be very tasty - as I have previously never been a fan of this typically British dish.

images by Arek, Olga and TI except for those from Windsor Castle, Chinatown and Brick Lane

The last highlight of the weekend was the organ recital at Westminster Abbey we visited, which was also one of the not many reasons you would normally be let inside the Abbey as these days it is closed for visitors more often than not.

Everyone Is In London!

noreply@blogger.com (Olga) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 21:35:00 +0000

39 degrees of body temperature, strangely strong literary cravings, magic autumn lights, crispy colours and colds, China buffet in China Town, boat trip at sunset, sexy voice... and almost no voice at all, the Big Smoke, yet another reunion with old friends, foggy Sunday, enjoyment of work and 'planment' of b-day ...

... and too much paperpaperpaperworkworkwork to do. But that's next week..

This week I'm going back to Gdansk for a long weekend, which is going to be so much fun!! Overexcited :) Envy me!

this superb image is by Arek

Artsy Post Tonight

noreply@blogger.com (Olga) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 21:49:00 +0000

A couple of pretty great things for tonight I wanted to share with you, guys..

.......First of all let's see if you enjoy this multicoloured blurrrinesss:

Untitled from yeji on Vimeo

Secondly, here are my current 2 favourite things from Tate Modern - these amazing hand crafted and hand painted ceramic sunflower seeds by the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, who was detained by Chinese authorities this year and spent several months under arrest for political reasons.

images via Google

And this floating gauzy red staircase by the Korean artist Do Ho Suh.

image by Arek

Actually, another interesting work by Ai Weiwei is the one below. The caption to this self-portrait of him, called 草泥马挡中央 or "grass mud horse covering the middle" sounds almost the same in Chinese as 肏你妈党中央, "Fuck you, the Communist party central committee". Grass mud horse or 'Cao Ní Ma' is a Chinese Internet meme widely used as a form of symbolic defiance of the widespread Internet censorship in China. The 'horse' is actually what he is holding in his hand.

image via Google

Do also check out this Atlantida-esque underwater exhibition by Jason deCaires Taylor, it is very impressive - especially with all the algae on top of the sculptures, which created some sort of art of their own.

image from underwatersculpture

Lastly, I'm dying to go to this musical here in London based on the movie also called Backbeat, which was my favourite movie when I was a kid.

Let me know what you are up to these days and if you know about any other interesting things going on close to you around the world :)... G'night..

I Often Think Of You. Imagine. Come On...

noreply@blogger.com (Olga) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 23:45:00 +0000

A story from today.........................................................................................

check out the story on my Tumblr

British Weather

noreply@blogger.com (Olga) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 00:17:00 +0000

Do you think weather can be photographed?

images by Arek

This ^^ Weekend..

noreply@blogger.com (Olga) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 23:17:00 +0000

You know those moments when the light is so good that you just can't pass by without taking a photo. These are the only occasions we actually notice the light. This time it was so soft and warm and foggy.. almost inexistent.

images by Olga

PENETRATING, PROVOCATIVE and Somewhat BLURRY

noreply@blogger.com (Olga) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 00:19:00 +0000

Sharing some of my recent sunny and blurry London impressions... I liked the way autumn colours came out on the blurry pics I took. Also, I'm currently having a big blurrrrr of experiences here in London. With so many things going on, one needs to really choose what to do here and life is happening very fast (this apparently is with exception of getting an internet connection, which took us almost a month, hence all my lack of posting!). But the choice of what to do for fun (and where to fly cheap!) is tough and seems to be almost endless :)

Some of the things which happened to me over last month which I enjoyed most are The Alternative London Tours, textile field in V&A, Tate Modern - over and over again :), Greenwhich market and probably Inamo restaurant, where (good Japanese) food is being projected on your table before ordering and each table has a touch pad to order. Also, if you are yet not sure whether ice cream is sexy - check-out The Icecreamists - the SCREAM of ice cream (they even serve human milk ice cream - if you fancy trying that :)). If not, they serve their other delicious vice creams in black cones and martini glasses.

The Icecreamists

Oh, and I almost forgot! By pure luck our friends and us ended up in the House of Commons watching this very debate on a referendum on the UK leaving the EU - live. After this I surprisingly concluded that politics is kind of exciting :). For less exciting debates in the UK Parliament check out this site.

If you are interested in some more fun to do in London do check out this great book and this site!

Hope you all are having a good autumn!

V&A textile field

Inamo restaurant

all images by Olga & Arek except for those of Inamo, Icecreamists and V&A

Summer Athens

noreply@blogger.com (Olga) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 20:03:00 +0000

While I'm still trying to learn my ways around London, here are some glimpses of hot summer Athens. Greece turned out to be expectedly and unexpectedly amazing! More photos of the white & aquamarine Greek islands to come soon.

all images by Olga & Arek

Summer Berlining

noreply@blogger.com (Olga) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 21:05:00 +0000

For me going to Berlin is like to going to a modern art museum. Only calling it a 'museum' would definitely be a wrong thing to do, as it's much more dynamic than that. You can literally see art happening on the street - right in front of your eyes. Everywhere. I swear! :) See for yourself.

What things one can do in Berlin?

Inhale the history, walk under the lindens, stay in a funky urban industrial style hostel, eat the best kebab in Berlin (and probably the world :P) - with lemon juice, crumbled cheese, mixed fresh and grilled vegetables and fresh mint! (I know the address). Make stupid faces and take a real photo of yourself in an old FOTO AUTOMAT - your pics will come in a series of 4 and the best thing of all? they are developed the old way and you gotta wait some 5 mins until they dry off!

Roam the streets and imagine who could live behind those weirdly painted and decorated walls in those funky Eastern Germany style blocks. Tired? buy yourself a weißbier and drink it on one of the numerous beaches created on the banks of the Spree. (You can take a nap there too).

Pay attention to details:

Go visit one of the numerous markets where vintage, hip and simply junk things are sold.

Absorb the street art and watch people creating it:

Contemplate The Wall:

...and leave your own mark on it :)

Pick your favourite graffitti style and point out those you haven't seen before to your friends:

Help support Tacheles art center - a huge (9000 square meter) building on Oranienburger Straße in Mitte. Impressive colorful graffiti-style murals are painted on the exterior walls, and modern art sculptures are featured inside. In April 2011 the owner scheduled an eviction, but it was not carried out. Instead, on the next day, the gastronomy and cinema left the building peacefully in return for a payment of 1 Million Euros from an anonymous source. Eighty artists vowed to stay inside with their ateliers and metal workshops. One week later, the sequestrator ordered an almost 3 m tall wall to be built, separating the Oranienburger Straße from the building's courtyard. The future concept for the building remains undecided.

Go see some well known historical places made look modern - Check point Charlie:

Go party and get to know some new cool people:

In the end you can just pretend being a normal tourist and have some good currywurst ;). Whatever your style is, I'm sure you would enjoy Berlin.

all images by Olga & Arek

Ready :)

noreply@blogger.com (Olga) — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 16:18:00 +0000

So I think I'm now ready to tell you about my summer adventures and share some photos. Here comes a little preview..

images by Olga

Back To Cool

noreply@blogger.com (Olga) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 22:41:00 +0000

It's always weird to come back after a long silence - it's like discovering a completely new territory all over again... even though I do realize this is my good old blog :) - it's still a little strange to write all this. Well - if this is a valid excuse for not writing too much (or rather at all..) - I've been busy this summer. Summers are usually busiest for me - not much time to blog at all :(. But I also truly believe you need to have the right state of mind in order to produce anything meaningful to publish on your blog - and also the right weather to do so. For me the colder - the better it seems ;).

If I think of it, before my last post on this blog I was still happily living in Gdansk, happily unmarried, happily working for the same company for the Xth year... And then the time came to change it all, so now it's 'good bye happy Gdansk' - 'hello happy London'. Actually I need to see whether London is happy. I'm curious.

Then we also got married this summer. I can tell you one thing: the person who never wanted to marry, cried of emotion on her wedding day. It was a great day and a great feeling :).

I also needed to find another job... and though I still haven't decided about which one to take, looking for a job was a very refreshing and rewarding experience. I learned one needs to go through this experience once in a couple of years - the adrenaline makes you suddenly more agile and motivated to learn something totally new. And you realize how many opportunities you were missing while working comfortably at the same place! And then probably the best part is when you get these job offers and you have that feeling that finally it's you who is getting to choose, instead of being chosen. There is also the pain of making that choice involved of course, but hey, who has ever complained of having options?

Apart from all these boring things I still have loads of travel- (and not only) photos to share - from Berlin, Athens, Greek islands, etc. Can't wait to do that. I think I need a blogging vacation - read: vacation when I can just blog!

Well, enough about me. I wanted to thank you all - for dropping by and saying 'hello' and sharing comments, thoughts and for your e-mails. I wish I was more responsive - most of my blogging time was consumed by job search - but it was great to hear from you!

Recently I can't get enough of this blog - you definitely need to check it out - just go inside the posts - as more images are hidden there. This blog is written by a Russian roofer. You could define 'roofing' as a sort of industrial tourism where illegal climbing of roofs, bridges, metro, towers and other constructions is involved. This blog is a chronicle of him climbing the famous and infamous roofs and taking all of these breathtaking pictures - being and not being caught. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Russian speakers - don't mind the word on the last pic :)

all images by Raskalov. Cities photographed: Saint Peter's, Minsk, Vyborg and Moscow

My Bouquet...

noreply@blogger.com (Olga) — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 20:45:00 +0000

The bouquet was so beautiful, it made me hold my breath when I saw it... When I started imagining it - it just consisted of white eustomas and blue hortensias, then somehow it transposed to greenish and pistachio colours and finally ended up with pale pinks... It turned out much better than I had ever imagined. I think I could treat myself to such a bouquet once in a while out of pure pleasure :)

all images by Arek