Photo Diary: Rome

Welcome to yet another photo travel diary! This time we will visit Rome and I will share some photos from this trip I made with my mom a few weeks ago. This time I won’t add any text or explanations but just let the images tell you the story of our trip. Be prepared for too many photos of old buildings but also some sides of Rome you won’t see as often in travel diaries. Enjoy!

And there was some photos from my Rome trip. If you look at the closely, you can clearly see in what part of the trip my mum left back home and I was left behind alone to Rome. (I will give you tip: street art is my passion!) Have you ever visited Rome or do you maybe recognize any of the places seen in my photos? Like always all comments are more than welcome!

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With love,

Lost Viivi

Photo Diary: First Time In Bremen

Hello all fellow travelers (and random friends and family)! I am again back with Photo Diary series because I am just too lazy to start writing that real travel diary of my trip. No worries, I will get there eventually. Because I don’t have anything else ready, here is collection of photos from my recent trip to Bremen with random thoughts. And yes, this Bremen diary is named my first time there because I will definitely return to this pretty city.

Bremen was interesting destination for me because maybe for the first time in my life I had decided to travel to destination that didn’t seem very interesting for me after doing some research on the internet. Bremen seemed colorless city with a few pricey attractions. Oh how wrong was I… It took me only one walk through the city from city center to my hostel to realize that in fact Bremen is one of the most colorful cities I have seen in my life.

I was lucky because during my stay in Bremen it was sunny and hot. Good change after Finland’s long and unusually cold spring. I literally left Finland after it had been snowing and wasn’t ready for this heatwave. But I can’t complain. It was green and fresh everywhere. Colorful flowers and a lot of birds. The park and its idyllic river circling around Bremen become quickly my favorite thing in this modern city. Perfect place to relax after long touristy day around Bremen.

One thing I love about traveling is meeting amazing new people. Bremen didn’t disappoint me here. I got new friends in hostel. Someone even accidentally made me breakfast even if I hadn’t paid for it. So, I basically ate secretly under the table while talking with them. A little bit of action for my holiday and well free breakfast.

This cafe was like straight from my dreams. Pastel colors, pretty cupcakes and clerk that didn’t fit in at all. He was dressed in black and seemed too rock for the girlish dream cafe. What would be more perfect combination? So, if you happen to be visiting Bremen i recommend Coockies Cupcakes.

This photo is again from the park I mentioned earlier. It gave me a little bit of the Netherlands vibe even if i have never visited that country. Interesting things was that for some reason I didn’t see this windmill in any Bremen guide I read before leaving for my trip. Why is that?

And then I want to speak about the amazing cool area I fell in love with that later one revealed to be the famous area for drugs and prostitution. Well, at day time it was cool to visit (??). East side of the older city centre and artistic Schnoor is situated this area full of small alleys, unknown galleries and colorful street art. Basically everything I love.

Like you can see from the photo above this area was almost empty at day time. I was wondering why I didn’t see any tourists like in everywhere else but all travel destinations have these ‘secret’ places where you never meet other travelers. Then on my last evening/night in Bremen we went to eat with group from my hostel. We returned quite late trough this area and one of us told that this area was famous from its nightlife. And more specifically nightlife full of drugs and prostitution. So, not place to for nice evening walk alone but definitely place to check out during day.

In contrast to that area full of graffiti Bremen has its well-known old town. Fountains, statues and shops full of souvenirs of Bremen Town Musicians.

This photo is from the huge market from old town. It may not be very clear but in the right bottom corner you can see man doing huge bubbles. He was there every day with his dogs and bowl of soap. Cool job, am I right?

Germany and Finland have one thing in common and it is beer. Unfortunately I have never liked alcoholic drinks so I couldn’t test any of these terrace restaurants serving huge selection of different beers.

This photo is from Schnoor. One of the interesting areas in Bremen. Small alleys, galleries, cafes and shops full of handicrafts. Surprisingly I didn’t like it that much. It was highly recommended everywhere on internet but it just didn’t have charming enough feeling for me. A little bit boring place.

Somehow my travels are always full of odd meetings with too friendly birds. Even in Bremen I got almost attacked by badass ducks who were just too interested about my snacks.

And this was my Bremen photo diary. I think my photo editing skills are radically decreasing but at least I am trying. So, have you ever visited Bremen? Or some other place in Germany? Like always all comments are more than welcome.

Oh right, I would also remind you to follow my FACEBOOK page to get notification of my new posts and some extra photos and stories! I would be forever thankful. Or if you want to see more photos follow my depressingly inactive INSTAGRAM.

With love,

Lost Viivi 

Photo Diary: Cherry Blossoms in Stockholm

Cherry blossoms are usually seen as Japanese thing but suprisingly you can see these beautiful pinkish flowers even in cold northern countries like Sweden. During our day trip to Stockholm a few weeks ago the most important thing we wanted to do was to see the popular cherry blossoms on Kungsträdgården.

Earlier today, I asked my sister if sharing post full of cherry blossom photo would be okay. She said no… Apparently this is boring idea. So, here is post full of only cherry blossom photos I took in Stockholm! I am always been kind of rebel and not so good at listening others’ opinions. I hope you enjoy.

We were scared that there wouldn’t be any cherry blossoms left because it was cold day in Stockholm (and it was even snowing at one point). Luckily for us half of the trees were still blossoming and we got to see these beautiful flowers.

We weren’t the only one who had came to central Stockholm to see cherry blossoms. Under the trees everyone from families to excited tourists were taking photos and admiring pink flowers.

Here I am looking totally lost and awkward like usually. But hey, we traveled to Stockholm to see these trees so at least I can share one photo of me with them.

I have to say that seeing a few cherry blossoms in Stockholm made me want to travel back to Japan. Maybe next spring? I love pink and pretty things so seeing even more cherry blossoms would be like a dream. Now I just have to plan this trip, right?

Have you ever seen cherry blossoms? Or what are your favorite beautiful travel spots? Feel free to comment anything like always.

With these cherry blossom photos from Stockholm it is good to start spring. It is snowing today in Finland but my summer holiday started yesterday. Because I don’t have school anymore before autumn I will have more time to write this blog. So, wait for better post next Wednesday! I will come up with something interesting.

With love,

Viivi Severina

Photo Diary: Rainy Day

Time for new Saturday post (that I have published on Sunday because I am hopeless blogger…)! This time I have new photo diary for you from my day trip in rainy day. As traveler even bad weather can’t prevent me from having fun day in city. I hope you enjoy these a few photos I took!

I started my day trip from Tampere where I walked alone in early morning hours. Nowadays I can’t visit as often here because I live somewhere else but it is always nice to return and look around.

Finland is often seen as dark country of shy people. However we have colorful art and people who are brave enough to try surprising artsy things without warning. This is one example. When I first arrived to Helsinki I walked past this box (that is pink in this photo) and it was grey and boring. Second time I saw it about a hour later and there was sign saying that anyone was welcome to paint. And third time it was already pink while many people were still painting it.

Senate square is one of my favorite photography places in Finland. And I think many tourists agree with me.

Trams! I am so excited because Tampere is going to have its own trams soon.

Because my sister is vegetarian I have tasted many different vegetarian dishes on the last few years. However for some reason cauliflower hamburgers have become one of my favorite foods. If you ever have change to taste I totally recommend!

Finnish architecture is interesting! I don’t have anything else to say about this photo.

We have soon municipal elections in Finland and that’s why there is promotions, people sharing flyers and other happening in every city. In Helsinki it was even bigger thing than in other places. In this photo you can see some campaign posters.

 

I hope you enjoyed this small photo diary with rainy images. Have you ever explored around city in rain?

With love,

Viivi Severina

Photo Diary: Street Wanderer in Stockholm

So, I know this post is late but for once I have a good reason! I spent Saturday-Sunday night in death trap some may call cruise ship without internet. (I may have some Titanic traumas, but who doesn’t?) But now I am here and like usually let’s start with photo diary because I am too lazy to write anything. I will publish those full Stockholm and Gdansk travel diaries later on but today I am going to share some photos from my first three days in Stockholm, Sweden.

For me one of the most important aspects of city is its collection of street art. In my scale Stockholm is quite high. You can find graffiti from the most funniest places. One daring and pretty place I fell in love with was Norra Järnvägsbron bridge. These masterpieces may not be the most imaginative or elaborate but the colors get along perfectly with pastel colored old town seen in the distance.

Story of this photo? Well, I may have walked to the wrong direction seen these buildings and walked a few kilometers more to the wrong direction just because why not. It wasn’t the most touristy area so trying to take nice photo to share with you got me a few wondering glances from the locals.

Things I love to photograph: sky, reflections, colors and icy water. Stockholm was like heaven for me…

After going to blogging seminar earlier this year I have started to actively search for spots to take photos in. Apparently the best way of learning is to take million photos and fail miserably. Any good tips for beginner? This photo is me trying to practice straight lines going from the corners towards the center. It should make travel photo interesting to look at but I am not so sure if it works… But at least the locals had fun time watching me to take too many photos of empty bridge on place no tourist should be.

readers who have been here for some time know that I have never ending love for old towns. Stockholm’s Gamla Stan is one of the originals old towns I found and fell in love with. All those small alleys, colorful buildings and cute little shops. How could I not walk here for hours and be on total tourist mode with my camera?

I used my whole first day alone in Stockholm just walking around and taking in the city. I have been there several times but this was my first solo trip to Sweden. (No, I don’t get bored to visiting Sweden over and over again even if you wondered that in my last post!) I love traveling with my friends and family but going alone gives you different perspective of the city. You have time to look at things and visit places you wouldn’t have with other people.

So this odd photo is me being totally lost and not panicking at all.Okay maybe a little panicking because sun was setting and I had walked three kilometers to the wrong direction. Don’t even ask how that is possible… I have good sense of direction but I am even better at getting lost.

 

Even after visiting Stockholm several times I have never before seen the changing of the guards. This time I was lucky because they were just starting and marching around the castle when I happened to be there. As first time experience this was quite nice because there wasn’t so many people.

And so we are at the last photo. Have you ever been to Stockholm? Or maybe you are planning trip to there? Any comments and your memories are always welcome.
I hope you are having amazing day!

With love,

Viivi Severina