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I'm back from a most most most amazing german (and a tiny bit italian) adventure.
These are some of the landscapes that have formed my temporary homeland.

I know photographing landscapes is always a tricky thing, because the pictures never come close to the real experience, and especially with those beautiful green fields and perfect blue skies, it often felt almost too cliché to capture. I usually tend to be a bit sceptical towards postcards and think they are just made up, but how have I been proven wrong! The views I've seen have been even more beautiful than postcards.

So, with the pictures not being that interesting, see this as a sneakpeak into the posts to come. A scenery-sketch like they do in the beginning of movies and books. Fly over the landscape in your mind and then slowly zoom in on one of the houses because there is a naked person sitting on a wooden chair in the kitchen, whipping up some cream.

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What I enjoyed the most on summerholidays with my parents as a kid, was simply driving from one place to another. Long carrides of sleeping, reading, listening to music or simply staring out the window at the passing landscape.

This summer (and most resent summers), I've been having those same kind of rides, but instead of my family's car, I've let myself get transported and lulled into sleep by trains and busses and trams. Traveling back and forth between homes. Not completely by choice though.. I tend to forget stuff all the time and then I have to get back again. But I try to not be too annoyed by myself and just enjoy that I've finished two and a half books in two days.
Plus, it is a good practice in a way. In a bit more than a week, I'll make a 9(!)-hour traindrive to the south of Germany for a holiday filled with cheese, wurst, beer, mountains, lakes, sheep, germans, biking - and hiking-adventures and peace love and happiness. (ha!) I'm super excited.


ps. I also got a tumblr. I dont know why. Because I'm a modern girl!

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The best thing about Amsterdam is that every cafe has its own housecat. You know how some people always play with their phones while they wait for somebody to finish their peeing, or wait for them to show up or to stop calling with their mum or something.. Well I dont have a smartphone, but I do have a big love for cats, and so in those situations in Amsterdam cafes, I can never really be bored.
The best thing about my room is that I can see a very big part of the sky and that this part of the sky fills itself with balloons on summer nights. They get me very excited.
The best thing about this weather is that you can wear woolen socks and sweaters, but also floaty pants and cheap shoes and no need for a coat.
The best thing about today is that in 2 days I'll have holidays and they will be filled with all the best things in life, I think.

(the worst thing about this scanner is that it gives this awful stripe.. and the worst thing about me is that I'm too lazy and impatient to scan them all in again on another scanner..)

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Fridaynight is pizzanight in Eindhoven. There is a magical place, also known as the backyard of the pizzaguy. Here you can enjoy a night with wonderful, crazy people and orange beers. And on top of that, you can also make your very own pizza, which is always the best pizza you ever tasted.
There are ladies with dresses made from beercans, little girls who make you stoned whales from paper, cats who cant be fed and chickens who eat the leftover pizza. There is a collection of garden gnomes on the roof and a red button which you can press if you dont like the current song (but dont press it when rammstein is playing, because then you'll be in trouble).

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Making patterens and missing my Hamburg. The sounds and smells of the harbour, the cold salty wind prickling your face, the beers and bretzels and the foreign chatter. I try not to think of it too much, because you should try to be happy where you are, but sometimes the missing is just there all of a sudden.

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Working, escaping, working, escaping. I spend a lot of time staring at my screen, staring out of trainwindows and staring up at windows of houses. The staring up should be kept to a minimum though, because I keep crashing into people / cars / lampposts.
Do you know how sometimes you spend so much time thinking in a certain way, that your brain adapts to this and uses it for other things as well? When I was doing my math-exams a couple of years ago, Everything I saw and heard was instantly made into some kind of graph or formula by my head. Right now I work on patterns inspired by windows and houses, so my mind is now kindly highlighting interesting parts, counting elements and drawing lines over everything I see..

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I wish I was a fisherman, tumblin' on the seas
far away from dry land, and it's bitter memories
casatin' out my sweet line, with abandonment and love
no ceiling bearin' down on me, save the starry sky above

This song kept playing in my head, as I walked by the water with a fisherman by my side.
The version of Pan I Am is my favourite and reminds me of a night years ago, where they played a show in the smallest venue, for a handful of people, so impressive and so full of energy that it is still on my list of best shows ever in the world. 2008 was not the worst year of my life. Memories of this music go hand in hand with Vrederick's photos for some reason. And it turns out, he is not just a cool photographer, but also a very cool person in general.

1. Schepen onder de kust voor anker, Willem van de Velde (II), ca. 1660
2. Een schip in volle zee bij vliegende storm, bekend als 'De windstoot', Willem van de Velde (II), ca. 1680