Things I Like in London: Lunch at Barbican

For me, London works like this: I see something for the first time and I hate it. I see it again and think to myself - well, it's not that bad. Third time is a charm and I fall deeply in love. 

It took some time before I fell in love with Barbican. I first saw it on a sunny Saturday morning and wasn't at all impressed by the Brutalist architecture. Being raised up in post-communist Bulgaria makes massive concrete buildings a little less exciting, I guess. Besides - gloomy London is grey enough. 

Barbican Centre is, for starters, a lot of concrete in one place. Cold, monochromatic and out of place - at least that's what my first impression of it was. I surely needed time to find the beauty of it. 

Somehow I didn't feel like Europe's largest performing arts centre should look like this. It took me some time to get used to it and start to see that it actually has character. It is distinctive. And yes, it is out of place in the middle of London, but in a good way. Not such a bad place after the second visit, that's for sure. 

With multiple performing arts venues, galleries and theatres side by side, the Barbican is the essence of the "big idea" architecture. That's what makes it magnificent. It pulls you in like a labyrinth and you become an explorer, discovering what's down this hallway, what's up these stairs, what's around the corner or hiding behind that column. I only visited one exhibition (robot snakes are a little less terrifying than real ones - although I don't want to meet either anytime soon) and couldn't get lost inside - but I'm sure that finding your way through numerous galleries and halls would be even 

more exciting. 

Barbican's a good place for art. And theatre. And films. And music. And lectures. But let me tell you what it's really great for: lunch. I fell in love with Barbican... at lunchtime. 

It only took a nice lunch from the nearby food market to make me realise that, after all, Barbican is actually nice. It's not at all cold if you eat a warm buckwheat crepe there. It's not monochromatic if you walk around the place in your multi-coloured kicks. It is definitely out of place, but - after all, I am too.

Hundertwasserhaus

Hundertwasserhaus is the most popular residential building in Vienna. It was built after the unusual concept of Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser and has become one of the expressionist landmarks of Vienna.

Hundertwasser's views about art and architecture have sometimes been dismissed as "unserious kitsch". He acted against the conventional boring architecture of his time. For him, the reason of human misery was the sterile, grey, monotonous architecture. Hundertwasser believed that straight lines and right angles were "godless" and propagated a type of architecture in harmony with nature, with bright colours and whimsical shapes.

The Hundertwasserhaus is designed with undulating lines and lots of colours. The original plan was the building to have uneven floors, but for practical reasons this was never implemented. The roof is covered with earth and grass and large trees grow from inside the rooms, their limbs extending from some of the windows. Colourful solid pillars support the building and numerous stucco figures and ceramic mosaics decorate it. Hundertwasser did the design of the residential building free of charge, declaring that the investment was worth it to "prevent something ugly from going up in its place".

"A person in a rented apartment must be able to lean out of his window and scrape off the masonry within arm's reach. And he must be allowed to take a long brush and paint everything outside within arm's reach. So that it will be visible from afar to everyone in the street that someone lives there who is different from the imprisoned, enslaved, standardized man who lives next door."

Karlskirche

The St. Charles Church in Vienna (better known here as Karlkirche) is said to be one of the most outstanding baroque church structures in the world.

The construction of the building began in 1716 and took 21 years to finish. After the death of the primary architect, J.B. Fischer, his son completed everything using partially altered plans. The ambitious design of the Karlkirche combines architectural elements from three different cultures. There are elements from ancient Greece (the columned portico), ancient Rome (the two Trajanesque columns) and contemporary Viennese Baroque (the dome). This is the reason the design of the church is always regarded as something of an architectural curiosity and was never imitated by any other architect.

The interior of the church is much more conventional than the exterior, but is still impressive, with High Baroque decoration. The vault frescoes depict St. Charles Borromeo begging the Holy Trinity to end the plague in Vienna. The large round glass window high above the main altar symbolizes God's love and absolution.

The green copper dome of Karlskirche rises 72 meters high and a special lift in the church can take you to the very top. I don't like such improvements, since I prefer old buildings to keep their original appeal, but I guess building an elevator was the only way for people to have a close look at the beautiful ceiling paintings. The depiction of the little children looking at the grey bird is actually the highest painting, just at the center of the dome.

Arsenal

The Arsenal is a former military complex in Vienna that is now the largest military history museum in Austria.

To be honest, I am not fascinated by military history. Guns that have been used hundreds of years ago, original uniforms and hot-air ballons used by spies are all very well... but are not exactly my type of thing.

What really fascinated me was the Arsenal itself. The beautiful building is more than 150 years old and it is still preserved in its original form. It has breathtaking interior! Amazing ceiling art.

Huge paintings in neoclassicism and baroque, showing epic battles and famous emperors. It is so majestic that you can hardly believe it was made by humans.

P.S. All of the pictures above are taken with my new Nikkor Lens 10-24mm. I've wanted wide angle lens for such a long time and this Christmas my dream came true. I am so happy with the results! I love taking pictures of architecture and probably that's why me and my new buddy are inseparable. What do you think? Do you like wide angle photography?

~

Naturhistorisches Museum

After four whole months spent in Vienna, we finally found time to visit one of the museums here. I love when I can see and touch pieces of human history and I really loved the Natural History Museum. I was able to see some great pieces and, more importantly, I could understand almost every word of the guide that walked us through the place. (She was speaking in German).

What makes this museum one of the most important ones in the world is not only the fact, that it has a rich collection of more than 30 million objects, but the beautiful building that it's situated in. A real work of art.

We saw authentic bones of dinosaurs and prehistoric animals, fallen meteor pieces, gemstones and oh so much more.

My favourite piece was the statuette of Venus of Willendorf. It was displayed separately in a special dark room and looked amazing. I don't know, there is just something very special about, don't you think? By the way, did you know that it was discovered here, in Austria?

The most precious piece (not historically though) in the museum is this flower bouquet made entirely out of different gemstones. The Empress of Austria, Maria Theresa, gave it as a present for the name day of her husband. Wouldn't you love a present like that? :)

~

Schönbrunn park

What is a better way to spend a sunny day at a former royal park, feeding ducks and squirrels and walking around beautiful flower gardens?

Schönbrunn Park literally means "beautiful spring park" and I can only imagine how it would look like in spring. There are several flower gardens, an orangery, the oldest zoo in the world (which we didn't visit, but made friends with a couple of wild ducks and a very friendly squirrel) and a maze.

It's a wonderful place for picnics - too bad we discovered it on the last sunny day of October. Next time we go there we will be better prepared. And we promised to bring more nuts.

~

Back in Vienna!

When I was in Vienna for the first time I knew I wanted to come back. I fell in love with this city the moment I saw it. So I made a promise, to Vienna and to myself, that someday I would be back.

Well, I did keep my promise. It's been more than a week since me and my boy arrived and we are beyond happy. We both enrolled at a local University and now we are trying to find a decent place to live. It's been hard, since we barely know German, but it is also thrilling to know you're making a dream come true. We will attend a German language course first and we are so eager to start! But until then, we have a thousand other things to do, so we keep ourselves busy.

Only thing missing right now is Dexter, who is staying with my parents in Bulgaria. I miss him so much and I can't wait for us to finally settle and take him here with us. But... one step at a time, they say.

So, I don't think I will be able to post regularly this month, but I'll do my best. Do check from time to time to learn a new German word, ha! Have a wonderful rest of the week and never be scared to start from scratch. It feels delightful!

Bis bald!

~

Praha

After visiting Germany, the Czech Republic was a must. It was way too close not to pay it a visit.

It wasn't easy getting there, though. We spent a couple of hours trying to find a parking spot and a place to stay. I wasn't feeling very well and I was this close to staying in the room for the rest of the day. But I couldn't. I knew I would feel sorry for the rest of my life for being in Prague and not seeing the famous Orloj, so I got over myself. I grabbed my camera and one little map of the city, and, leaning on my boy for support, we went treasure hunting.

Prague was just my kind of city. We only took a tour round Staromestske - the Old Town Square, but I loved every single detail. Long narrow streets, colourful renaissance buildings and beautiful gothic churches. And yes - I tasted the famous Czech beer. And although I don't like beer at all, I really enjoyed a cold glass of Pilsner Urquell.

We saw the great astronomical clock, attended an open Alfons Mucha exhibition and got to the top of the clock tower and I almost forgot I wasn't feeling well. I left Prague with severe cold and had the most unpleasant flight back home.

It was absolutely worth it.

~

Little bits of Germany

Hallo to everyone from Germany!

That trip was unexpected and definitely not well planned (I wish I had packed more warm clothes!) but I am enjoying every minute of it. I am basically driving from town to town so I don't have enough time for sightseeing or taking pictures, but it still feels good to explore new places and meet native people.

I have only been in small peaceful towns so far and I am really looking forward to visiting one of the bigger cities to get the full picture of Germany. What really makes it special here are the people. Everyone is so kind, so helpful and nice, that all I want to do is talk talk talk. I only wish my German was better...

~

Etar

"Etar" is a very beautiful architectural ethnographic complex in Bulgaria and also, one of my favourite places on Earth. It was some kind of a ritual for me and my family to visit it once a year and it brings the sweetest memories now.

"Etar" is a place full of workshops, where craftsmen are manufacturing different products before your eyes (pottery-making workshop, cutlery, coppersmithery, bakery) and thus you can observe the ancient technology and original instruments that have been used in the past. Lazar was pretty amused by hand-made (and super sharp) knives and I... well... I just couldn't wait to taste my favourite sugar flowers again!

Have a wonderful day!

xxx

Back from Rousse

I spent lovely couple of days in my hometown. Although Rousse isn't the same without my favourite soulmates (oh!), it was still fun. I met some friends, visited the local fair, spent some quality time with my mom and dad and managed to visit most of my favourite places.

What did you do this weekend?

Hello, Tbilisi! Pt.2

I am finally back in Bulgaria, cuddling with my dog (I missed Dexter so much!) and looking at all the beautiful pictures from our little trip to Georgia. Here are some of my favourites, as I promised to show you. Now we can say you've been there with me :)

from top to bottom: 1.Tbilisi from above. 2. Sameba Belfry 3. I asked every Georgian I could... and still can't find what this is! haha! 4. Gates of Sameba 5. Sameba Cathedral 6. Bells of Jvari Monastery 7. Jvari fort 8. Bridge of Peace 9.Tbilisi at night (view from the Bridge of Peace) 10. Residence of the Georgian President (view from the Bridge of Peace)