Post-road trip update

As you may have noticed, posts around here have been getting few, far in between and not very wordy, but work, traveling and other project have been keeping me quite busy lately.

It’s not all bad news though. Most recently, I went on a whirlwind-kind of a road trip, which started out in Sofia and ended in Montpellier, with stopovers in Ljubljana (to see the twins), Venice, Bologna, Florence and Pisa, followed by day trips to Cannes, St. Tropez and Carcassonne (which I’ve posted about before). Not surprisingly, most of these places were absolutely splitting at the seams with exciting grounds to stand on and I’ll be gradually posting some of the photos I took along the way, so be sure to check back here in the next few days and click on the links as they get activated.

Rainy Venice | Venice, Italy

Of course, it rained in Venice, which somehow added to the feeling that the city was a film or theater set rather than a real place. The upside, though, was that the rain seemed to slightly subdue the manic crowds of tourists. For a few brief minutes, we got the Piazza San Marco all to ourselves and only had to share it with the pigeons.

The snow beneath my feet | Risoul/Guillestre, the Alps, France

Hands on a hard body | Montpellier, France

The things we do for love | Ax-les-Thermes, Pyrénées, France

Not just a game | Carcassonne, France

… even thought the tiles are sometimes just as haphazardly arranged as in the game.

Lines @ the Musée Fabre | Montpellier, France

Woohoo for (virtual & archival) snow

The option to get some virtual snow here on wordpress (woohoo!) coincides perfectly with Sofia’s first real snowfall this winter (double woohoo!!!).

I love the novelty and purity of every winter’s first snow, and the silence it brings with it for the hours and sometimes even days after it sticks to the ground and accumulates. There really is something magical about it (kind of like seeing the sea for the first time each year)… until it gets cleared and/or turns into brown slush…

This time, though, I’m not in Sofia to witness all that. I’m now in Montpellier and it hardly ever – if at all – snows here (during all of last winter, it only snowed once, for less then an hour and the lace-like snow that stuck to the ground disappeared in even less time than that), which – apart from days like today, is actually good news, as the novelty of new snow wears off pretty quickly, making space for months of unappealing cold and annoying trudging through slush.

The photos above are from the archives, which you can go and check out if you’re not able to enjoy real snow today: one is a post about snow and marriage; the second is from when snow covered the ground on the leap day of February 29 this year, which is when miracles are said to happen; and the third is from the artificial snow in a mall in Dubai.

Happy first snow to everyone, whether it is virtual or real!

Slavka’s Over-arching: West Coast Love | California and Oregon, USA

My lovely and inspiring friend Slavka is not only my constant and gracious host in Barcelona but she’s also a great teller of stories and – I’m happy to say, she’s become a kind of regular contributor to this blog.

Her latest installment of photos is from her trip around the West Coast of the US this summer and it’s a true feast for the senses, if I ever saw one. Thank you, Slavi! :)

Ornithology-obsessed, lovely Sacramento airport.

Good morning, San Francisco!: white fire escape flirting in white nightgown. Marie’s apartment building.

Pavement patchwork love: Ocean Beach, San Diego

The chasing game: Pacific waves in San Francisco and Oregon.

B(L)EACHED DAYS: The white sun of South California

Hollywood Blvd Walk of Fame: Superman Love and an unsung Yellow Superhero

No Dumping: Prosaic Reminders in LA and Poetic Ones in SF.

1920′s San Francisco: Madame Marie plasters her name all over a property that she was denied legal ownership of, out of fear it’ll turn into a brothel.

***This post is the fourth and final one from a week-long series of photos from around the world, sent by friends and family, and part of The Ground beneath their feet series.***

Mayon swims in the ocean, cilmbs mango trees and walks on “jamblons” | Réunion, France / Africa

Last May, Mayon sent me a few photos from Réunion Island, which – as I learned when I met her, is located in the Indian Ocean, off the East coast of Madagascar (but is actually a part of France). The images and her comments are really making me want to go there….

“Here, we’re in “winter” (like 22 degrees in the night), and it’s still hot, and we’re still going to the beach, yeah !!!! Like always I would say! At Saint Leu, Reunion Island! White & Black sand!”

“Toma&Me on a mango tree at Manirou!”

“Toma, the twins, & me! And.. lots of ‘jamblons’ on the ground ;-) Maniron, Reunion Island!”

… so, Réunion has now been added to my long list of places to visit.

***This post is the third from a week-long series of friends’ photos from around the world and part of The Ground beneath their feet series.***