I heart Toronto

My Hipstamatic love letter to Toronto. I will go back as soon as possible.

Snow

The first snow fell down today. I sat in front of the window, drank coffee and watched our Budapest photos over and over again.

Green balconies

Balconies in Budapest, taken with a Diana camera. I usually try to avoid things such as traffic signs which can date the image but this time I wanted the sign to be in the picture.

Magic hour

In Budapest the last hour before the sunset is amazing. Everything gleams golden, the buildings, the river, mountains, the warm air. (I love that particular hour in many other countries too.)

When watching these photos it's hard to believe that it's already autumn! My vacation just started! I'm afraid of the winter. Soon all I can think about is "Brrrr. Cold. F*ck." or "I NEED SOME SUNSHINE." or "Why do I stay in Finland in a first place?" I guess this winter I should concentrate on good things such as staying in bed, reading, listening to music and drinking ginger tea. But at first I'm going to enjoy the autumn, rubber boots, sweaters and yellow and red leaves.

Pedal Cars

Pedal cars in Sziget, Budapest. Taken with Smena Symbol, bought from flea market in Budapest.

Today I'm 27. It's been a good day.

Balloons in Budapest

We are back from hot Budapest with two new cameras and a lot of photos which I'm going to show you one by one in long winter days. The blue thing is on again so no more text today. I just hope that my hand will feel better one day.

And a little rain never hurt no one

So my holiday finally started and so started the raining. But I have my books and I have my records, and in a week we are off to, if not to the mountains, but to at least to mount Gellért in Budapest.



It's been seven years since my last visit to Budapest, I have forgotten a lot. It will be nice to visit the same places which bring back the memories and to find some new ones to remember too. I haven't planned anything special, but I know our program will include eating, resting, walking, culture, more eating and then some walking and maybe some shopping. We will miss the WAMP design market, but I found this article from The New York Times. It has many great tips in it.



The photos in this post are few years old. Only the first image is taken with a digital camera, and the last one was taken with a Pingo. (I still prefer film.) I have some new pictures to show as well, but I was too lazy to scan the negatives or search for some recently taken digital photos. And the headline is from a Tom Waits song. (I still adore him.)

Quick visit to Tampere or I ♥ Helsinki

Laura from Murmansk behind a pint of beer

My meds worked their magic, migraine is gone, so we paid a quick visit to Tampere with two great bands, Murmansk and Mesmer. It's sometimes good to see other, unfamiliar, towns in Finland to realise how much I love my own, after all. It's small, sometimes boring, grey, but it's my hometown.

On the road

Our mid summer. Three different places, Porvoo, Fiskars, Vääksy.


Porvoo. I've never seen a town this empty! We walked around for a while, had some coffee and drove back home.


Vääksy. It was raining so much and because of that my back hurt like hell all night long but I met lots of nice new people and some old ones too.




Fiskars. A rare glimpse of miss Pigeon and better weather.



It was nice having a car for a while. We don't have our own, I don't even have a driver's license, so when we get to loan a car, we try to make most of it, go to places where it would be difficult to go with public transport. For these rare moments spent in a car, there should be proper music for driving: Iggy Pop - Lust For Life - Chad VanGaalen - Bare Feet On Wet Griptape - Chainsmoker - Drop Test - PJ Harvey - Good Fortune - Anssi 8000 & Maria Stereo - I Feel Like Surfing- (one for the night) m83 - Kim & Jessie

Where I first met Tunng

Rough Trade, Notting Hill, London

I was very tired after walking around London. I had already bought several albums, had decided not to buy more, just to wait for my boyfriend to finish his shopping so we could move on. Then the shop assistant made me change my mind. She played something that won my heart over immediately. She played Tunng album "Good Arrows".

Back home I've listened the album over and over again. It suits with the most of my moods, with spring and summer, with autumn, with winter, with blankets and a cup of tea.

Since it's been raining for almost two weeks...

... here's some camera phone pictures from the last summer.