Stay In A Hostel... Feel At Home!

Image by HostelWolrd

In continuation of our China trip story today's post is devoted to the next stop we made in in Xi'an and about Xiangzimen hostel we stayed in.

Image by HostelWolrd

It is said that the brother of the Song dynasty Emperor, Zhao Kuang Yin used to reside here in this very building, which has over 200 years of history, and for this reason has been especially preserved in Ming dynasty style by the Xi'an government. It is the only building of its type in the whole of northwest China, and is divided into two main parts: the front 'siheyuan' with it's open-air courtyards and exquisite masonry, and the back with wooden panelling recreated in traditional ancient style.

Image by HostelWolrd

The charming atmosphere, great traditional interior designs and friendly staff will instantly make you feel at home.

Image by HostelWolrd

This is how the entry to our room looked like:

Image by Olga

And this is the dining and recreation area:

Image by Arek

And I honestly couldn't stop taking pictures of all the traditional decorations surrounding us!

Image by Olga

Image by Olga

Image by Olga

Tradizioni Culinarie Continued

Although the Mediterranean food is awesomely great I think I just can't miss out the drinks part... Although most coffee in Italy comes from South America, Italy is the first country to come to mind when you mention coffee. Although the beans are grown elsewhere, Italy is considered the home of coffee and is where many of the beans are roasted, where the espresso machines are made and where making the perfect espresso, cappuccino or latte has been elevated to a high artform.

Image by Olga

But along with coffee it is definitely worth to mention some other drinks very typical of the region. The absolute favourite I tried is called Spritz! It is a typical Veneto drink, tasty, bittersweet and wonderfully refreshing! Here is a quick recipe in case you feel you wanna try it out (I especially recommend it to all campari lovers!):

1/3 prosecco, /3 campari, 1/3 soda
Stir with ice in an old fashioned glass. Decoration: a slice of orange and a big olive.

Image by Olga

You can find a lot of sparkling wines from the family of prosecco in Venice, and along with Spritz another very popular cocktail is Bellini, which is also sold ready - in bottles. The recipe can be found here.

Image by Olga

One of the interesting experiences is bying 'vino sfuso' or 'bulk wine'. This basically means that you go to the wine shop with your own bottle and purchase wine by liter - the variety depends on the shop - usually these are local wines of course - and the quality is very good!

Image by Olga

Finally it would be totally improper not to mention Limonchello - lemon liqueur mainly produced in Southern Italy. It is bright yellow in color, sweet and lemony, but not sour since it contains no lemon juice.

Image by Olga

Tradizioni Culinarie

Image by Olga

Mediterranean region countries are very well known for their culinary traditions. And definitely there is a reason for this.

Image by Olga

The ingredients are fresh, the variety is incredible the food CULTure has a very very long history.

Image by Arek

Image by Arek

The people are proud of these traditions and pass them on from generation to generation.

Image by Olga

Image by Olga

They do a lot of cooking at home and make a lot things themselves - even bread and pasta!

Image by Arek

Image by Olga

One of the indispensable meals of the day is a substantial breakfast...

Image by Olga

And of course one can enjoy lots of fresh fruit!

Image by Olga

Long Shelf Life

It is amazing how painting a wooden piece of furniture can give it a huge makeover effect. You basically get a totally new piece instead! Sometimes it is not easy to get the courage to start painting as you might be afraid that you can make things even worse. Still I think the result is totally worth the risk! And even if you don't get it right the first time you will definitely do the second - it is very easy to repaint the piece with a totally different colour! Here is my experiment with our old wooden bookshelf I previously didn't quite like (here is the before picture).

Image by Olga

This was my first attempt at it and I think I was lucky to get it right. I covered the shelf with 2 layers of white (on the outside) and red (on the inside) acrylic paint and used a stencil to decorate it. The stencil's shape is my favourite design that is used decoratively as well as symbolically - lily or Fleur-de-lis. You can also find this symbol in this post. The symbol has many meanings, historically used to represent royalty, and in that sense to signify perfection, light, and life (this doesn't have much to do with the shelf itself though.. :))

Image by Olga

I'm quite satisfied with the whole painting experience and with the result - it was great to give the old bookshelf a second life! I like how it both stands out from and matches the red walls of our living room.

Image by Olga

Has Anyone Seen A Tree Here?..

I took a little break from posting about my trees... I needed one. And you probably needed it as well :) But here they are back again - the two new ones for today - and only one more to go - I propose you to guess which movement the last tree is going to represent.

Image by Olga

Expressionists, sought to depict their emotions and responses, which objects and reality arouse in them. They completely gave in to their negative emotions and accomplished their aim through distortion, exaggeration, primitivism, and fantasy - through the vivid, violent, and dynamic application of color. Expressionism is one of the main currents of art in the later 19th and the 20th centuries. One of the most famous works of expressionism is most probably Edvard Munch's The Scream... But here is another very interesting work of Expressionism by Emil Nolde - Masks Still Life.

Image by Google

Today's second tree refers to Post-Impressionism - the art of clear colours and shining light, the art of joy of life and rest from trouble!

Image by Olga

One of the founders of this movement is Henri Matisse. The primary element of post-impressionists' creation is the emotional experience and feeling and the main means - colour, paint and hues! The below work by Matisse is called La Musique.

Image by Google

Flower Power

Image by Hipforums

I came across these great photos from Ibiza from 1977 by accident and they seemed so colourful and groovy that I couldn't help mentioning them here.

Image by Hipforums

I like the way how light and colour interact in photos from the 70s and the 80s taken with those old cameras - they are simply amazing! Many photographers attepmt to obtain this effect in their works nowadays - which is not that easy. These old photos seem to have so much detail to them and for some reason they always give you this unexplainable warm feeling when you look through the pages of old photo albums. The reason again could be the warmer subdued colours...

Images by Hipforums

Ibiza attained global fame as a place for fun and freedom in the 1960s thanks to hippie movement and its acceptance by the local population of the island. Several Hippie colonies remain on the island today. I'm saving modern Ibiza pictures I took when I was on the island for the future posts and meanwhile here are some more of the hip flower power photos:

Image by Google

Image by Google

PURSuE Happiness

Image by Olga

I think every person at some point of time in his or her life collects something. There are so many things, which can possibly be collected - starting from good old stamps and coins, ending with... coat hangers or doll faces... Collecting definitely brings positive emotions and - often, but not always - develops the knowledge or skills - or at least this is what collectors like to think ;)

Image by Olga

These wonderful purses were photographed by me in Venice and they all are produced locally. I found a great variety of colours, shapes and sizes - all too beautiful to be true! It was really hard for me to resist the temptation of buying many of these sweet little things at the local leather shop...

Image by Olga

Image by Olga

My collection is not very big as I started it not long ago plus I only buy purses for everyday use... But I can still say that I already have several rather cute items :) For some reason I think purses are charming - they are so small, a bit old fashioned yet exquisite... just like this one:

Image by Olga

I came to thinking that one good way to collect things without actually storing them would be just to photograph them. Then you can have a collection of something and it won't take up any space at all :). It also has a practical side of not having to spend too much on your collections - plus you could collect pretty much anything!

What is Paris For You?

Élise: [in French] You're all alone here? What do you do all day?
Pierre: [in French] Watch other people live. Wonder who they are, where they go... They become heroes of my little stories.

Image by Google

The movie Paris is a wonderfully complex study of both the city and its people on several very well chosen story threads interwoven with each other. The director - Cedric Klapisch has done something marvelous here - a bittersweet film full of ideas and humanity, yet one that somehow enables us to engage with and care for so many complex characters without ever having to resort to stereotypes. It's a great achievement – and a glorious movie about the city to which many of us return in our dreams - Paris.

Images by Google, Collage by Olga

Klapisch wisely elects to concentrate on building strong characters. He succeeds in creating simple, believable story lines for them. So what's the real link between them? They are fallible, restless, tentative, longing... in other words, they are human. It is interesting that the movie ends much like it began. A lot is left unresolved, much like real life. No Hollywood ending here but I could certainly have followed those characters for another good couple of hours...

A great movie has to have a great soundtrack - and Paris is not an exception. Many pieces of music from the movie are combined in its trailer - enjoy!


Video via You Tube

and the fun part :):

Video via You Tube

Paris is quite an extraordinary tale that deserves a far wider audience than it is likely to get. Overall the film is a shining example of what makes French cinema one of the best in the world. This is definitely a movie to watch over and over again.

Spring Is In Full Swing!

Image by Arek

I love spring! It is my favourite season of the year (late spring that is :)) It is great to see the trees in bloom or putting on the colour of fresh leaves and flowers of all colours imaginable around you... - you simply can not take your eyes off!

Image by Olga

Although the most beautiful days of spring are already behind us (I guess for many of you it already feels like summer) - here are some pictures of the English gardens we took while our May break in the UK last year.

Image by Arek

We went camping near a tiny village called Lyndon (Leicestershire) and the village turned out to be so beautiful in its full spring bloom - we ended up taking walks there every day and I couldn't stop taking pictures.

Image by Arek

Image by Olga

Lyndon has literally got no more than 4 streets, but everything you see around you - every house and every garden - is just stunning..! We passed by this little ancient church with a cemetery..

Image by Arek

Image by Olga

And a local pub...

Image by Olga

Image by Olga

I couldn't be more amazed at how beautifully the English arrange their gardens - it is such a great tradition! I think it is impossible to look at something like this and remain indifferent...

Image by Olga

Image by Olga

Inspired by China

Continuing yesterday's topic - here is what I came up with right after we got back home from our trip to China:

Image by Olga

When I travel I always end up leaving some of the old tickets, maps, brochures, leaflets and cards (It's just impossible to throw them away!)- so it is always easy to put them up together afterwards. The Chinese board turned out to be pretty packed with stuff - like China with people, great places to visit and stay, historical heritage and of course impressions!