Christchurch

To renew my car’s Warrant of Fitness, which proves it complies with safety regulations, I had to leave it one day at the garage. I spent that day in Christchurch, a city I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to see otherwise.

Sunrise in Budapest

After our escape to the wilderness, we were back in Budapest for a few days. Then I would have to fly back to Finland, but in the meantime I had things to do… the first one being to see the sun rise over the city. This time, the second day in a row, I couldn’t enlist Marci, so I woke up alone, tried not to wake up the cat who had elected to share my bed, and ran for the bus. I drowsed the whole way to Széll Kálmán tér, but then I energized myself and started to climb the Castle Hill.

City of darkness

In April, a few weeks after this Norwegian escape, I went to Paris. While the main point of this visit was to meet friends from another life, I also had time on my own to explore known and less known places. At dawn or even before, at sunset and after, or during the day, I enjoyed the city at every possible time of day.

Tallinn, pearl of the Baltic

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This was one of the few sunny week-ends of these past weeks. On Saturday, a freezing walk in the forest didn’t yield the expected results in terms of photography, as there were very few birds around (some Blackbirds (Turdus merula) and a Great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major)), and I was too cold to stop and take my time. I walked, blinded by the rays of sun reflecting on the frozen ground. Behind the trees, I spotted a herd of Roe deers (Capreolus capreolus).

On Sunday morning, I was in the bus when I saw the horizon turn a deep orange, beyond the city. I met Patrick in the tram to the harbour, a curious coincidence that made us laugh since I had told him on the phone that we would meet “inside”… the ferry terminal, of course. So we met a bit earlier than expected, on our way to the harbour. I got a really smart smartphone this autumn only, and it was my first opportunity to use a digital ticket. So I scanned my phone, and it worked. Aah, technology…

An ode to Grenoble

Grenoble is not a beautiful city. Partially destroyed during World War 2, it has few historical sights, and many ugly buildings. Sure, new constructions look very nice, but the beauty of Grenoble lies somewhere else.

Helsinki by night

I’ve always found long-exposure photography fascinating. This smooth look this technique gives to water, especially waterfalls, is truly spellbinding, and the possibility to shoot light trails from cars’s lights is very exciting.

I don’t own a Neutral Density filter, so my experiments are limited to night time. Not a problem for me, there are many possibilities to explore before investing in new equipment. That day, I left the apartment at 11, in quest for interesting scenes. I wanted to capture a tram on Bulevardi; of course there wasn’t enough light for freezing it in movement, so I settled for some light trails, my very first!

Wonders of Aarhus

When I discovered that Sólstafir was to give a single concert in Denmark this autumn, and that this would not be in Copenhagen, I was very disappointed. True, I had seen them in Helsinki last year, but this performance was not associated with kind memories: the acoustic had been awful all evening long, and the audience quite disrepectful, so since then I had longed for their come-back. I vaguely envisioned traveling to Aarhus for this concert, but it was on Monday, so I forgot about this idea… until the day I discovered that week 42 was a week of holiday at DTU. All of a sudden, this trip became really feasible! Therefore, before going on a bike expedition to south-west Jutland, I spent a afternoon and an evening in Aarhus. Follow the guide!

Now imagine a rider carrying another backpack…