Landing landscapes

One of my favorite parts about travelling by plane is the landing. I love being able to have an increasingly closer look at the landscape below- whether it's composed of fields, lakes, ships, roads or buildings- and watch it come closer and closer, and yeah, bigger and bigger.

That's why I always hope for daylight and no rain at landing whenever I'm on a flight heading back home. Daylight and dry weather seem like two rather simple things but nonetheless they both happen to be rather scarce during Icelandic winter days. This Christmas flight I was in luck though. The sky was clear and the ground was covered in beautiful snow, creating a mix of sea, black shore and white fields.

Then I landed, walked out of the airport and was welcomed, if welcomed is the right word, with the near chronic +10 m/sec wind of my hometown, something I had completely forgotten about in all the excitement of finally going home. 

I let the cold wind annoy me for a  few seconds until I realized that I had actually missed it. Not much, no, I'm not that crazy. But a bit. To me the wind is an unmistakable part of home. Coming home during the winter wouldn't be the same without hearing the wind howling outside your window at least once while falling asleep, grateful for a warm cozy bed.

I'm pretty sure I'd think differently if I had to deal with it all year round. At least I have no recollection of loving it when I went through near daily battles with the wind over the control of car doors and flying hats. Once I even had to fight the wind over flying money, and I remember very well that while I was running into my neighbors' yard trying to collect my money from their trees and bushes there was absolutely no love for the wind in my heart. 

But I guess that's one of the perks of living abroad and only visiting home a couple of times a year; I can say that I like the wind... and actually get away with it.

xx

E

Street beauty

I love street art.

There's something about the ability to take plain, dull walls and bring them to life that I just find fascinating. Especially if it includes portraits.

El Mac is one of my favorite artists. I find his talent to be ridiculously amazing, especially as I can hardly draw a normal circle on a piece of paper with a pencil, let alone create gigantic portraits on buildings with spray cans. 

Dia de Muertos en Pomuch- Campeche
(this one just blows my mind)

Pandora- Los Angeles

Southwest Goddess- Phoenix

He has collaborated with Retna who does the backgrounds, the results are breathtaking.
Here are some examples.

Skid Row (Blessed are the Meek)- Los Angeles

Ave Maria- Salt Lake City

RVCA Headquarters- Costa Mesa

The Knight- Los Angeles

Young Scribe- Miami

Yes! Yes! Yes!

People who make the world a more beautiful place with their talent make me happy.
So, thank you :)

You can see more of El Mac's work here.

Walks

What a beautiful city!

I've lived in several beautiful places but Stockholm seems to be in a category of its own. 

(my tiny Gothenburg heart is squeaking while I type this... no worries, I still love you GBG)

Large green areas, beautiful buildings and  great waters=  lovely large city with nature visible all around.

I guess I'm a sucker for the easy access waterfront, it´s absolutely everywhere and I love it!

I'm looking forward to more weekend walks this autumn!

xx

E

Oslo in a day

Yesterday I went on a day trip to Oslo with some good friends. 

I love how easy it is to go on cheap little trips here by simply jumping on the bus or the train (something that is not really an option on the good old North-Atlantic island).

Great people, great weather, great city.

xx

E

Göteborgs Kulturkalas

The Gothenburg culture festival took place this weekend which meant loads of people all over town, a bunch of concerts and tempting food options.

Break dancing champions bringing it in at the end of their show

This girl had awesome hula skills and was bouncing off four pieces at a time. Given that my record is probably spinning a single one of those for ten seconds, I was very impressed.

12 more days in this lovely city and then I´m off to a Stockholm adventure for the next few months. 

I guess that means I better start packing.

xx

E

Sweet Summer

The Swedish weather keeps rockin it this summer which means there have been a few trips to the beach.

It's hard to believe that the same place that was mostly cold, rainy and windy at the same time last year has now had almost an entire summer with +20°c weather.

Pale skinned me is even starting to get a tiny hint of a tan.

Lovely life!

x

E

Krakow street art

I love beautiful street art. It brings life and color to otherwise boring plain walls.

Krakow had some beautiful pieces and I'm pretty sure we would have seen a lot more of it I we had spent more time outside of the city center.

I am in love with this one. Whoever made this, you've got some awesome talent!

I saw this bunny at couple of spots around the city and I'm pretty sure there's more of them. After all, bunnies reproduce quite quickly, right?

This one has some impressive details.  People with this kind of talent absolutely amaze me.

It's a wonderful different side of Krakow

xx

E

Reading days

Since wrapping up school work I've been reading, and that pretty much non-stop.

Books together with comfy pillows, tea and chocolate never fails

xx
E

London Zoo

The ZSL London Zoo was among the places we visited in London

This spot quickly became one of my all time favorite spots for photography. I love photographing the animals because nothing quite beats the beauty and the colors of mother nature.

It is a bit saddening though to walk through the zoo and see how many of these beautiful animals are either endangered or have hit a level of vulnerability. It's a little bit more uplifting though to know that these animals are carefully cared by professionals, and to find out that places such as the London Zoo actively run conservation programs all over the world to conserve the species and their habitats.

Here are some of the pictures we took during our visit.

I wanna go back!

xx

E