Oslo | September 2016

You would be surprised, but I actually - really! - planned it this time. I had the airport checked, bus tickets booked, accomodation - very kindly - provided by amazing Marianne, who head-organised the event that I was going to. I also had a clever system to check in 23 kilograms of luggage on a Ryanair flight, even though I only paid for 15. I even managed to fit a bottle of Belarusian vodka into these 23 kilograms; it was wrapped in my jeans and sweaters and towels, and its wholesomeness was my sole preoccupation during the flight. So, upon landing in Oslo Rygge, I went straight to my hold luggage, checked the bottle, cuddled it back into my jeans, pushed the bag out of the airport, boarded a bus, went to Oslo, put the bag into a locker, all neat and organised and nice, and, free from the luggage and vodka, set off to the city.

As it turned out later, the only thing that I wasn't prepared for was me catching a cold (again), so the next four hours that I've spent in Oslo was the only time I had to see the city during this trip; I was busy at the EYP event for the next four days and after that, even though I still had two days till my departure flight (from Rygge), I've mainly stayed lying on the sofa at Marianne's place. These four hours were marvellous, though. I have a thing for the sea, coming from a landlocked country, and Oslofjord smelt of the sea, and glittered and shined in the sun, and there was way more sun than I expected from Norway in September too. So I climbed Oslo's Opera House and looked at Oslofjord, and took a long walk around the docks, looking at Oslofjord, and had turned my back to Oslo's City Hall so I can linger next to the water for a bit more.

It was windy, and sunny, and there were seagulls casually circling around; a very, very big cruise ship was docked nearby and then, all of a sudden, gave out three disastrously roaring horn blows and parted. Seagulls around me freaked out and took off; I took off too, and, giving up on trying to find something decent and cheap to eat, went to the first McDonalds on my way and felt very content, despite just paying a small fortune for my cheeseburger.

(Btw, if you were interested in the fate of the vodka bottle - it arrived safe and sound to our farewell evening, when it was drunk alongside lots of other stuff and it was good, just as the farewell evening was good, and just as the Oslo was purely and undeniably beautiful and captivating).

Cruise ship chilling in the harbour and casually reflecting Akershus Fortress in its windows

Still outside of the fortress - chairs (?)

Oslo Opera House

Docks

Oslo Opera House, the roof

Oslo Opera House, the roof

Oslo Opera House, the roof

Manchester | London | Buxton | Oxford | People - August 2016

I did it the wrong way again - I bought plane tickets first, and planned the trip second. Or was it the right way all along? As I was faced with a frightening prospective of doing nothing and living nowhere in England for two whole weeks, I've started filling the days quite randomly and chaotically by writing to friends, booking random hostels, figuring out who can host me where, trying to fit together what seemed to be unfittable; a day before my deparure I've booked return tickets to Oxford too - solely cause I felt a bit adventurous, and that usually passes within an hour or so.


And so it went - I was feeling adventurous one day and really under the weather the other one; the days were rainy now and sunny in a moment; I was waking up at midday one day and at 5 in the morning - the next one. I did some studying (there is a summer medical school in Manchester that I really wanted to attend, and that I did attend in the end) and I did some sightseeing, as well as I did some wondering around and listening to music, and watching Olympic Games on giant outside screens in the City of London. I took four buses, couple of trains, found my way around in Manchester in the middle of the night, made a habit out of "I can totally walk the distance" when in London - and being terribly late ever so often. And I moved and changed and ran and then I was at the airport and the direct plane back to Belarus was ready for boarding.
That's how it goes.


When on the board at last I fell asleep, and in my sleep I was walking Manchester streets in the northern quarters, and going up the English hills in a car, and standing on the Millenium bridge (Tate Modern that it leads to always brings me in a state of deep awe), and sitting on the stairs on the Trafalgar square. The voices of thousands, and moist air, and scents of millions of take away coffees were washing over me; I felt at ease and very acutely alive. It has been 4 years since I've last made a big UK trip, and it has been 4 years since I've last been in London, and there I was, and nothing changed - I was so deeply in love with it it was both reassuring and heartbreaking.

Then I woke up, reassured and heartbroken and very, very much full of hope.

Manchester - bricks, beers, German techno, university buildings

Kita who did make it to UK IN THE END <3

Around midnight next to my hostel; amazing place it was! The highlight of the evening was people trying to persuade me to go to some imfamous "Soup Kitchen", offering me some generic drugs, talking with me about Hurts and catcalling me on the streets. 

Same streets in the morning light; too early for those that went to Soup Kitchen, I suppose!

Buxton - water, conservatories, orchestra playing Les Miserables tunes

London - The City Where the Universe Conversges On Itself

Millenium Bridge <3

Oxford - sandy colours and afternoon teas

Albania | May 2016

On a less serious note: http://balkanist.net/how-to-write-about-the-balkans/ - I don't want to be repetitive, so I'll just leave it here and save the words.

On a more serious words - the beauty is in details; in people that smile at you regardless of how ignorant you are of their language; in that moment when you spot sea from afar and your heart misses a beat; in endless narrow roads and rectangles of fields, in rolls of hay inside empty houses that face passing cars. In wires crisscrossing the sky (I'm really into wires).
Anyways, thanks for a very warm welcome, Albania. Was my pleasure <3

This one is here cause it made me just a tiny bit nostalgic of Minsk. Tiny bit.

A skyline to kill for

In a way its allways about people you share the experience with. Woah, that was very lucky of me.