in 2012 we will..
spend more time with:
and with:
In 2012 we will travel accross the seas to distant countries
Spend time with each other and with our families & friends
In 2012 we will enjoy our new home and look forward to having guests sleeping over and sharing pancake for breakfast :)
(le mont blanc au fond)
finally they met each other for real (not behind a dator webcam)
A glorious 2012 to everyone!!!!
A week-end in Beograd
2 years ago were we in Gdansk for my birthday, and last summer in Spain for Marzia birthday.
This year my birthday was serbian.
This time the trip was not about discovering a beautiful city, but travelling in the present history. I talk about the wars of our times. I did not really realise that the war in Yougoslavian was happening about 15 years ago and that Belgrade was still bombarded 1999.
People in Belgrade was very friendly and despite the barrer of the language (few speaks english and none of us speak serbian)
A city of contrast between old, new, rebuilt, concrete wall, ..
We found the marketplace the first morning, and even the coffee sailor "KAFA". Sorry, but I didn't understand their coffee, maybe someone knows? they cooked the coffee and the water together and that's it. Don't drink the bottom (marzia did and it was really pasty and not tasty at all). Is that a kind of turquish coffee? or what?
After this sunny breakfast at the marketplace we kept going toward the city center.
The "Bohemian district" as they call it, is actually no more than a pedestrian street
I have read somewhere that people refere this "bohemian street" to Montmartre in Paris ; well, I think you can't compare this 50meter street to Montmartre even if Amelie was here in the walls.
After this first walk in Belgrade, we felt like.. hungry! We wanted to try the ? No, it is not a question, it is the name of this serbian restaurant
The guy at the youth hostel told us that before this restaurant was called after the church beside. Then the church did not like this and ask the owner of the restaurant to change the name of his place. The owner got pissed and decide to re-baptise his restaurant "?"
I actually ate exactly the same thing than in Gdansk, a fried chicken with a form of BIG saussage. It was not better than in Poland.. I should have followed Marzia's intuition instead..:
Marzia took a kind of porc stew served in a bread:
We had now plenty of energy to continue our visit. We decided to go to the castle and spend the afternoon there.
The castle is surround by a big parc, view toward the Danube, the Sava (the other river) and the city
We bought this bag 2€ at the marketplace to get rid of our jackets and fleeze in the morning, indeed we had way to much clothes compared to the serbian weather.. On the picture: Marzia trying to start a new fashion by carrying the handbag on her back..
How could I forgot my climbing shoes in Stockholm.. noooooooooo
Marzia and the marketplace bag climbing as well!!
On the way back to the city, we stopped by a coffe down the "bohemian" street. We were not the only one that appreciated to take a rest in this coffee after a long day walk in Belgrad..
This seems very confortable.., however we asked for a table and shared the banquet with a regular customer
He did not dare talk to us, but slept the whole time we where there.
3 days in Belgrade was enough to feel disconnected from our routines. We had time to see a lot, eat some food and got a preview of the serbian night life. We did not meet much tourists at all, did not hear a word of english nor french nor italian in the streets! It was hard to find a nice postcard. We had to read the cyrilic alphabet to link our map with the street's names. We improved our sign talk communication. I did not know what to expect about Belgrad before going there. I liked that it was different from the "beautiful and touristic cities", I liked this positif feeling of a city that reborns slowly.
The church of Saint Sava at night
Hip hip hip.. Arholma!!
My mum was here last week and we decide to celebrate (a month later) her birthday in the northern archipelago: ARHOLMA!! hurra hurra hurra!
To get there, we took first the metro, then the bus..
.. and another bus..
.. and finaly a boat!
the best part of the journey was on the boat
After a short promenade.. and with help of the road signs..
we arrived at the youth hostel!
A friendly old house with a big garden and cosy rooms
We walked around the island (maybe 4km long for 2km wide)
Arholma Nord:
Arholma East:
all of us took a swim from this jetty after the sauna at night!!
We found some chanterelle on the northern part of the island
We made good food: cannelloni with musheroom, ricotta, parmeggiano and mozzarella!
ça, c'est fait!
The day after, breakfast in the sun and in the morning fresh air!
We had time to take a walk to the "båk" which is not a lighthouse but a:
Basicaly, we spent the week-end walking, eating, swimming and looking at the swedish nature
A nice happy birthday to my mum!!!
Stockholm by night!
just a few shot from yesterday night,
on the way to the old town, the city hall:
Sitting on the wooden dock, looking at the metro crossing from Gamla Stan to Södermalm
Slussen by night
An afternoon down the hill
Both this week-end and the one before had been sweet and unordinary warm for a late september time.
Which mean that we still could do that:
brrr ..! 17° maybe?
and enjoy the sunny day down the hill where we are now living!!
Take a walk to Vintervinkenträgård, a nice summer place for coffee..
.. or more:
tartine chèvre & tapenade
Saussages and potatoes:
At this place they grow vegetables and herbs, under the summer time they play live music, and sometimes on the sunday there is a small producters market.
Food is simple and good.
Even the way to the..
"toilet" is nicely presented!
Alpha Blondy!!
Time flyes and we forgot to tell you about the reggae festival we have been a couple of weeks ago for celebrating our friend Magnus' birthday.
Alpha Blondy and others artists was playing this night on Skeppsholmen (the island with the youth hostel on the boat for the ones who has been staying there). Alpha Blondy is an artist from Côte d'Ivoire quiete famous in France but not that much in Sweden; can it be because some of his song are in french (but also in english, dioula, arabic, ..)?
First we meet our friends and took a swim on the quiet part of the island! probably not the cleanest water of the city, but whatever..!
Then enjoying the summer evening we took an aperitif along the water.
Then the festival and the good/weird african food and the nice music and the great happy birthday evening!!!
New place, no furnitures & good feelings
Home sweet home!!
At our place you barely can sit,
But at our place you can draw on the walls!
At our place you will find no table,
but a bunch of pancakes on sunday morning!!
No TV, no radio but live music concert
Sitting by the water at the end of the day while drinking a warm tea..
Welcome!!
A new page to be turned..
"Before", Nathalie's room looked like..
and Patrik's room looked like:
On a saturday morning we booked a truck that looked like:
Before:
And after:
Let's go!! Let's drive on the page's slice!!
Mission accomplished!
Thank you guys!!!
Tjena, tjabba, hallå!!!
Vadför är du så blå?
"Salut, coucou, hello!!! Pourquoi es-tu si bleu?"
After 2 weeks in France, we flew to the swedish west coast and jumped into the swedish summer!!
and improved swimming-suit way of life!
On our way we found big blocks of red granit
Maqurill on the beach and shrimps att the evening with a glass of french "veilles vignes"
Assortiment of cheese from Grenoble
With Patrik and his mum Eva, we visited the coast by the sea while paddling 3 days in the Koster archipelago, a swedish national parc. It was so closed to the norwegian border that 9 boats of 10 had a norwegian flag. Sweden is cheap for norvegian people, and it is very common that they come down here for holidays!
in this part of Bohuslan, it is not red granit anymore but gneiss. It is a friable white roche with black lines of vulcanics roch; those black lines had been drawn by the devil fourch, says the legend.
The first evening, we shared the island with..
But how did they get here?
a. with a kayak like everyone else
b. by swimming (they burned their swimming-suit to keep the secret)
c. using a catapult
Time to go to bed after a fantastic kayak day!
At breakfast, the sun is still shinning, happiness!
Kayak, sun, swimming, kayak, sun, swimming, kayak..
The second evening the gaz bottle was empty.. let's cook the thaï stew over a fire then!
Yumi yumi!!
Nb: on the left side of the picture the bread that burned Patrik's finger!! It tooks it time to cook but it was definitly a good idea of the chef!!!
and one more sunset just for us
Back to the land from the kayak trip we kept jump into the water everyday,
we also visited a nice port Lykesil where a regate for women sailor was going on.
"La cerise sur le gateau" for the last day: Stångehuvud
Holidays is soon off, time to go back to Stockholm..
Thanks for a fantastic week i Bohuslan!!
Grenoble
A week in Grenoble: listening to some concert at Cabaret Frappé, eating good cheese and weird ice creams, enjoying the fresh air of Biviers and playing with the kids, training for slakeline and improving the trampoline, helping in the potager and tasting the strawberries, party in the city ..
.. meeting old friends as we last met yesterday,
.. up to La Bastille by the walking pathe
Patrikùz! ça va?
