It’s hard to stop in the whirlwind of events and thoughts, but I want to make a small list of things I’m missing already from my Munich life.

• mvv.de which at any time of the day tells you how to get places and is so accurate I still think it’s magic. We don’t have anything like that here. I’m thinking I should leave the house 20 min earlier just to be on the safe side and catch that bus.
• Dallmayr – the lovely chocolate treats.. mmm…
• Cycling. Miss it… A lot… Can’t. Do. It. In. Ukraine. I guess that was one of the “living in Europe, riding around on a low-frame bike with a basket in front, with flowers and baguettes in it, having a dress on and a straw hat” kind of dream. I lived it. Done.
• I also honestly miss online banking when everything is easy. And online shopping when everyone ships to your country, your money is already in Euros, no converting fees, delivery delays and “sorry, Ukraine-where? I don’t  think we ship there – is that in the United States at all?” (over-exaggerating here, but it’s close to reality)
• I also miss Yohannes’ studio and all those wonderful bead stores. Apparently we have the same thing here, but it’s expensive :-(
• And those little places I love – the Asian across the street from the office, Dolce Vita (cheers, ladies), Ice cream Parlor at Turkenstrasse, that Greek place and all good-quality Japanese restaurants. Awww.. But the most I miss Le Pain Quotidien, though I found this new French bakery in Kiev – they have sandwiches equally good, no lemonade just yet.

• The main thing that makes my heart sigh are the greatest people I met and were lucky to be friends with. I really, really miss you guys.

But I’ll be back! Some day. I mean I have to ride a bike in my summer dress and stuff it with baguettes from Le Pain, and see you all once again, right? RIGHT?

There’s so much I can write about Rock im Park, so much… But I’ll round it up to 5 tips I figured out can save your festival experience.

1) Buy tickets in advance – 130Eur pre-sale instead of 170Eur – makes 40 Euros or 10 beers on site.

2) Unless you’re the rock-star with a spirit, find a way not to camp. Camping gets dirty.

Really dirty. Naturally it’s your own responsibility to clean up after yourself, but well… Let’s say not all the rock stars with spirit care :-)

I did Couch Surfing with a wonderful girl and it made my festival as enjoyable as it could – thank you Tina!

3) Check the weather forecast and plan for the opposite. It said sun AND rain this time, so I took water-proof shoes (kind of) and a rain jacket – they won’t let your umbrella in, absolutely no chance. For hot weather take shorts and bikini tops (if you’re a girl, shorts for guys, skirt is also an option – looks awesome). Nobody cares what you’re wearing, honestly, but it’s the best outfit for +30 and the straight sun. Also, no dark clothes. The look on the left is WRONG. No, the glasses and the hat are a must, but no black! I had a reason for jeans, but the shirt was a mistake. Only white. Better with no shirt on, just the bikini top.

Also if you have to carry a bag, think twice. Boys do it great, somehow they never need a bag – how do they do that? But a small bag is ok, over the shoulder one works – you can always feel safe with it, even in a crowd.

And shoes. Well, the most comfortable you have and the least expensive so you don’t cry over a beer spill or worse ;-)

4) Have the line up with you – you don’t want to miss your favorite band. There were three stages this time and I lost my print-out on the first day so I always had to ask the guys “so what time are…” and “what stage is…”

5) Be yourself. Don’t do anything if you’re not comfortable with it. Have earplugs if it’s loud for you – you won’t look less rock-ish or anything, but you’ll be able to hear the next morning ;-) Those festivals are the Notgiveadamnia, nobody cares, everyone is enjoying and celebrating life.

And now pictures, pictures, pictures (thank you Marianna and Boris!)

Main stage

Muse performing. I forgot to say that they don’t let you in with big cameras. If you’d like to take pictures have a small camera or your cell phone with those pixels – yeah!

This was so smart – the survival kit with the tape as a strap. Quite a lot of people were carrying juice cartons like that. Oh, right, forgot to mention – they don’t let you in with cans or bottles, only paper cartons like that. Though I don’t think there’s actually juice in those ;-)

For the headliners it gets crowded – if you want to get to the fan zone, get there for the previous performer – they may just close the barrier for entrance.

If you keep your eyes wide open and sometimes off the stage you can see the stars. Literally, we saw Kate Nash watching 30 Seconds to Mars this close. And then you can post those paparazzi pictures in your blog and be all “Oh my God, Oh my God, I saw Kate Nash!!!”

(she’s the girl on the right, by the way. Wait a second, is she actually wearing different socks?)

Once we went to see the interview of Alice in Chains and there was a trampoline right next to the lounge they were in. And then one of them said “Screw the interview I want to see 50 people on this thing jumping”. The banknote was passed to the guard. Everyone was hesitating if it’s for real and we were already jumping ;-) Yours truly bought another “I love” t-shirt. Again.

Thank you guys for the fantastic experience! It wouldn’t have been the same without you!

And somehow I have mostly pictures of concrete buildings that look very soviet. I don’t know. I’m Ukrainian. Concrete building don’t shine their authenticity to me. Well, I won’t try to form any prejudice here, just the facts.

You won’t read much about Bucharest in travel blogs neither there’s much online in general. It was my first trip ever with no research beforehand. I just came. Wrong! Have I read anything about Bucharest I would have probably gone out exploring rather then staying home scared for the whole day till the locals rescued me.

Bucharest is a very big, spacious city. Huge buildings which remind me of “Khrushevki” in Kiev. Actually if you take Kiev, leave out old the ancient beautiful sights, take a bit of greenery out as well, rewind it 50 years and add some depression in the air, you’ll get the Romanian capital. Oh, and wires. Everywhere – the sky is black with hanging wires. I’ve never seen anything like that before.

Again, I don’t want to sound rude – I don’t have anything against Bucharest. It’s pure facts here. Like this one:

What do you think that could be?

No, not a nest on a stick, and no, it’s not a giant Shashlik left-over. That’s something called a Pyramid of Victory. I’m serious:

We also saw the police show-off

It was Europe day by the way

All in all it was nice. Bucharest has something Mediterranean about it – the lazy spanish-like gardens, a little shabby, very warm and loud. Everything is cheap, hairdressers are good, taxis is the main means of getting around (the public transportation stops running at 11pm). An amazing flea market. A big expat community and great friendly people.

I actually don’t know why I’m listing those things here – is anyone likely to go to Brighton any time soon? No? Well, then I’m wasting my time :-)

So there were:

The Open Studios on the beach front facing the sea.

Basically different artists sit together and work in variable techniques (enameling, pottery, paperwork, glass jewelry) and you can come in, take a look and buy something you like. We did.

Then there’s the best shoe store on Earth – softest leather from Brazil (?), as Vogue said “Whilst in Brighton North Laines a visit to Yoma Boutique is a must! A treasure trove of the most stylish shoes, bags, and clothes. Not to be missed!”. They said it.

And the Appendage store with handmade goods (36 Kensington Gardens). If you’re into handmade you’ll get out of there with dozens ideas to note down.

And last but not least the Cream Tea:

with their best cakes cut so perfectly that it still makes me wonder – what kind of knife do you need to cut a blueberry like that?

Thank you and until next post – cheers!

See?
In the next post I’ll show you some places we’ve been to with links or addresses. This time I will try to share the great sunny Friday downtown Brighton.

I don’t know if they had a special occasion or if it was pre-May-the-1st day, but the streets were jolly and generally festive.

The main sight of this town is the Royal Pavilion, built for then Prince Regent, looks rather weird – such an Indian look for the British seaside. I don’t know more, the website does.

Well, until the next post, enjoy the pictures here :-)

*and yes, I have this mania f taking pictures of my feet – what do they call it?

There were 3 things that will stay in my heart and I want to carve them in stone here share:

• Antropologie store on Regent’s street. It’s something special – like a treasury with carefully selected pieces. They even have a green wall with live flowers.

• Hand dryers in Tate Modern (also spotted at Gatwick airport).



• Going to plays in London. We’ve seen “Women beware women” at the National
  
  and Psy Circus at the Peacock Theatre.

It was the most inspiring long weekend I’ve had. You can see some pictures here if you like. An extra applause to Le Pain Quotidien – pastries worth dying for.

Yours truly adores London:

(press play for a full impression)

There is so much said and written about Camden that I will most probably not be original at all. Probably the only thing I could share here is a tip that saved my budget a big one – HAVE A LIST. Not only it’ll prevent unplanned buys but also will keep your eye sharp. I was hoping to get quite  a few things during the UK trip and I must say it was a great success! Everything you might want IS there, it’s just a matter of how hard you’re looking for it.

Along with my quest I had a very inspiring conversation with a local silversmith and guess what? She loved my ring (the first silver ring I ever made, some pictures of it here).

If you’re there with your camera, don’t try to sneak-pic – most of the sellers don’t like it. I always asked. Most of them said no.

I honestly don’t know what else to say here – it’s something you have to see yourself I guess.

P.S. Girls, lacy dresses, polka-doted thighs, hats, fake Ray-Bans and Oxford shoes are totally taking over this summer ;-)

This post will be different – no story, only pictures and a list of things to do.

• Würzburg is a beautiful town with a great number of students. Of things I enjoyed the most were the castle, the boat ride to Veitshöchheim, wine cellar, bars and student gatherings and the spirit of the town itself. Würzburg is 3 hours by train from Munich and you can use the Bavarian ticket there – good deal! I’ve seen many hotels and hostels, but even a one-day trip can fit the most sightseeing.
• Fortress Marienberg is the landmark – you’ll see it from if not everywhere in Würzburg, you should climb upstairs – there’s the best panorama you can get (the top picture). And it’s beautiful at night.

• Alte Mainbrücke is simply beautiful! I came across some great pictures of it on Flickr.

• Take a boat to Veitshöchheim (oh I just love that almost every German town has it’s own website in English – my whole country doesn’t have any). It will be like in a toy town – amazing feeling, like you jumped back to the times of kings.

• And of course the wine cellar Bürgerspital (how great – they’re also online – I don’t have to do a thing – just to link and show-off my pictures :-)

If you take a tour they show you most of the rooms, different kinds of production and explain the whole process of wine making. The packing station of theirs was  love at first sight – I found my dream job!

• The main city transport are buses and trams – you can’t get lost there. Just walk around and enjoy the sunny day.

Cheers!

So I’ve been to Bucharest last week and had to initially depart to Munich on Monday morning. Well, not so fast, thought “here insert the correct one – The Guy above, Mother Nature, Evil Eyjafjallajökull”. The volcano sneezed once again and the news were looking bad. It was Sunday morning.

So naturally I started panicking – I know way too many people who were stuck in all various places and boy, I didn’t want to be stuck in Romania. No offense, it would have been better have I been legal there. Yep, I had no visa (who would have thought I’d need a visa there – apparently the residence permit allows to travel Schengen, but not EU – so dumb). It was pure luck and major misunderstanding they let me in. So the idea of being stuck and being arrested at the same time was too much to bear.

When I got to the airport on Sunday afternoon it was already very depressing – Italy was closed and you could feel this mood of doors (read: airports) shutting one by one. At the Lufthansa counter they offered to re-book me for a 5pm flight with some enormous re-booking fee. If I haven’t had the cash I’d end up in a better situation that I am now, but it happened how it happened. I booked the flight and started waiting. And when it was time to announce the boarding, they said this:

So with no definite explanation we were all put in a bus and being driven back to the main area of the airport. Hi Lufthansa, we’re back to what we started – could you please re-book me again? Now I wish it was all that fast and easy as it may sound. You should add a couple of hours waiting time to each step, constant phone calls home and lots of effort not to loose your mind. By the time I reached the counter, Salzburg and Stuttgart were closed as well. No chance to get anywhere in Germany that day. So I asked “Could you book me to Kiev through Vienna then?”. I don’t know why, don’t ask, it just felt as a reasonable thing to do – Germany was slowly but surely shutting down, I was super low on cash, knowing the last shut-down it all could have lasted for days and I couldn’t stay in Romania, no no. The counter guy couldn’t figure out such reasoning that fast so he just booked me. For 5 am the following morning.

3 am, back to the airport. Now here I have to say something about bad luck in the most ironic way. There IS such thing. It’s frustrating and makes you happy at the same time. Guess what? Munich re-opened! Everything was miraculously back to normal! In just one night.

So I got back to Munich by the initial schedule, BUT with no money left, 2 sleepless nights, 3 chances of being imprisoned (that’s how many times I had to pass passport control), shaky hands till Tuesday and the phone bill I’m scared to look at.

The moral of this story – well, I still can’t figure it out. Honestly, I don’t know what I have to learn here. Would be very grateful if someone could help me out.

And if you have the similar experience, let’s please talk about it.

(the good news is that that’s all for the sad part – lot’s of new sunny posts coming up, so stay tuned)