In front of the City Hall of Hanover, February 2012 

There is a German custom: when a man turns 30 and is not married yet, his friends take him to the local town hall and they throw trash on the stairs in front of the building. The poor guy has to sweep the stairs till a virgin walks by and releases him by a kiss...

These flowers are divas of history of art. Many Dutch lost their heads for them. 

Dutch masters were painting tulips in voluptuous still lifes as objects of luxury to certify the wealth of the merchant rank in the 16th and 17th century.

However, who really lost his head to the tulips is a painter who did exclusively local landscapes. Water, earth, plenty of sky, mostly grey and dull, a small boat on a horizon. Jan van Goyen speculated constantly with tulip bulbs and lost money on risky transactions permanently. He was painting quickly to earn  money for new bulb stocks. He was selling his works cheap and did not invest a lot in paint. 

Grey and dull landscapes of Holland were economically the most convenient: thin paint, no extravagant colors. He even left in some paintings white spots pretending to be clouds. Jan van Goyen was short of money all his life and his tulip stock addiction made him creative. Most museums have at least one painting of Jan van Goyen. Wherever you are, go visit your local museum and check whether they have a van Goyen. And then try to get as close to the picture as you can and find the thinnest spot of paint. 

Schleswig, Landesgartenschau 2008

A freaky sheep. North Friesland, Tönning, 2010

A day with my friend Peter on the Kiel Fjord. Summer 2009

"You know, I am worried. They really do fight too much these days."

Hanover, March 2012

A married childless woman frequently thinks "what if we had a baby?". What kind of joy it would be and what kind of responsibility?! Questions over questions. You ask yourself what would you have to give up and what would you gain of life quality. Well, let me tell you something, if having a child feels anything close to duties when having your husband sick at home and having to take care of him, then the sunny sides of having a baby should be really immense to cover for that. Otherwise human kind will die! Feeling for all wives of husbands with a cold right now

Cracow, 2010

Porto, 2011

This is more or less how a sick 35 year old husband seems.

Coimbra is a student dominated city. Students do not only drink and study, at the intersection of both, they express their opinion. Here my favorite graffiti samples. Coimbra, 2011

Der Platz, Berlin 2009

One pier, one day, two hours. March 15th, 2012 in Kiel

Happy green St. Patrick's to every one! Hannover 2011

Spring! Kiel, 2011

Kalifornien. There is a small village on the coast of Schleswig-Holstein called Kalifornien. When you follow the beach in the eastern direction you reach Brasilien. Both places are on purpose named after the US state and the latin american country. The reason was in first case the beauty of the beach, in the second case a ship from Brazil run ashore near the coast. For a long period of time people were finding colonial goods flushed on the shore. If you are by car, make sure to have your GPS. You will not be able to follow the signs guiding you to the villages. As soon as signs are being installed they are being stolen. The mayors do not want to pay anymore for signs  that land as decoration in students' rooms in Kiel or being taken home by tourists spending their holidays in California, Kreis Plön. 2007

Kiel, here I come! 2007

Definitely worth seeing. I also recommend to live there for a while. A nice combination between Dutch mentality and relaxed southern atmosphere. Good for Carnival, good for going out, good for drinking beer and wine, good for sight seeing. Great University. Maastricht, late Summer 2005

Between the ship from which the picture was taken and the Hallig you see there is a sunken medieval city. One day (January 16, 1362) a storm came and took the land away. The whole city just disappeared under the North Sea. The existence of the city has been thought a legend for a very long time.  However, locals kept on finding objects and spots in the Wadden Sea throughout the past decades. Nowadays, there is a solid scientific evidence for the existence of a prosperous center of trade which is covered by tons of mud. The name of the place was Rundholt. North Friesland. My favorite kind of muddness. 2010.

Kryski, Modlnica 2004. An official name in Polish language is always the same. You cannot be baptized instead of Maria, Marie, Marry, Meike, Maike or whatever. Maria is Maria. Names come from the Bible, from catholic saints and many names have an ancient slavic origin, such as Zdzislaw, Przemyslaw. The last ones are hard to pronounce for foreigners. Each name in Polish can and will have many many diminutive forms. Which can also cause problems to foreigners to recognize the person mentioned. Like for example Joanna: Asia, Aska, Asienka, Asiunia, Joasia, Joaska and some more forms. You use these forms for the same person. The form you decide to pick can be dependent on the relationship you have with the Joanna - parents will call her differently then her friends from school. Your mood can change the name you call her. Anyway, the catholic calendar has names attached to each day and each year the cyclic order is the same. Every day some people will have their name's day. Name's day is being celebrated almost as much as birthday. And today it is Krystyna's name's day, a popular name in Poland. I happen to have two important Kryska's in my life, so I need to make calls today. Happy Name's Day to Kryski!

Polish Furry: a girl selling furs in Zakopane, 2007

The incredible light of Scheveningen, 2004

March 2009 in Cracow: two typical elements of Rynek - pigeons and flower stands.

March 2010 in Surendorf, Baltic Sea: the weather in the North of Germany is still windy and dull.

March 2011, Kiel: spring is undeniable.

Cologne, March 10th, 2011. Köln Ehrenfeld is one of these city districts in Germany which are densely populated by migrants and become all of a sudden very chic as soon as students, alternative subcultures, young academics and small creative companies discover their charm. Here you see the weekly market on Neptunplatz. In the back ground: a very expensive wellness and sport center Neptunbad.

Sjors and Meike stunning over the sunset. Rotterdam, 2010. Happy Birthday, Meike! 

A village church in Subcarpathian Region, South-East of Poland, 2006. These churches are architectonical mixture of western christian and orthodox way of building. They were multifunctional as well and served for both catholic and orthodox community of the village for sacral purposes.

Because it is Women's Day! Kiel - Warsaw - Sopot 2010