Estonian Winter + Books

Some photos of winter in Estonia:

Park in Tallinn

Doors freeze from inside at minus 25 Celsius

Macedonian flag brings a bit of sunshine to Tallinn

Trees apparently

Slowly freezing sea

Keila Waterfall in Winter

Frozen river

Forest in winter from helicopter

Official opening of an English language bookshop in old town in Tallinn. Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves on the right, me in a scarf on the left. Too much wine on empty stomach - eyes staring somewhere.

Picture taken by Scott Abel

Bookstore

Bookstore 2

couple of pictures estonia vs england

It is minus 30 Celsius  in Tallinn this week.

Tallinn, Estonia

Tallinn, Estonia

 It is plus ten in Birmingham

Birmingham, UK

Birmingham, UK

Birmingham, New Street

Birmingham, New Street

London, Hyde Park

Tallinn, Lasnamäe

Boyd Rice

Boyd Rice, a well-known musician and a provocateur from the underground, also an artist, photographer, writer, etc... As well a friend of Charles Mason and Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey. Follower of satanism and admirer of totalitarianism. Below are presented some of his most famous works:

One of my favorites, Boyd Rice and Death in June:

Many discredit him as a fascist and just a bad person, others see him as someone who follows same footsteps as John Cage; all of that could be right, but let's wait and time will show...

Week in Tallinn

Maria Minerva playing in Sõprus Cinema in Tallinn, Estonia.

Apparently she left her homeland to play in London instead. 

Preparing for film premiere in the same cinema as Maria Minerva was playing in the night before:

 

Premiere of three short films that my friends, with my help, shot/produced in the same cinema:

Me on the left. I had to give a little explanatory speech about the short films and what our company does and what our new projects are.  My speech was a little too short and messy since I did not prepare much and still was "tired" after Maria Minerva's party the night before...

The main star of the night, Lena Kudryavtseva

And finally, we decided to attend amateur Fashion show in one of universities in Tallinn:

All of clothes were designed by fashion students. I made a lot of photos but most of them were blurry...

Birmingham, London, demonstrations

Birmingham, UK

 

 London

London

UK, like some other Western European countries enjoyed some protests against Congolese election results; apparently they had two presidents elected at the same time, and now the country is a brink of another civil war. Demonstrators expressed their unhappiness with how UK government deals with this this issue. I am not sure if they want sanctions against Congo or repeat of Libyan scenario, but let's see what happens next. Some people in Belgium, during similar demonstration, died. I think no one got hurt in UK...

 Trafalgar Square, London

Hotel I was staying in London... Joking.

Still looks nice..

London seems like a nice place to live in, so I will try to move there as soon as possible. As I found out (after like two months of living here) Birmingham is considered as one of the worst places to live in England, at least that's what Brits told me when I was visiting Estonia. Interesting that no one told me this here in UK. Well, at least now I know. But it's not as bad as its reputation I guess, but lack of parks and greenery does make this place a bit depressing. 

The only park in Birmingham city center. Or the only one I remember now. And it's way too small anyway. Please, residents of Birmingham, have a demonstration for creating more parks in your hometown. From another side, there's a saying in Russian "в чужой монастырь со своим уставом не лезь", rough translation would be "don't go to another monastery with own rules". Who am I to tell you what to do, I am just a passer-by. Haha

 

 

ZzZzZz

Time to make this blog useful. Since I arrived to UK I am having trouble waking up in the morning. In the end I loose half of a day for nothing, and then look out of a window and all my motivation for going out of the house vanishes into nothing.

Suggest some techniques/tips for waking up early! (or going to bed earlier).

UK

OK, my fourth country this year (after Estonia, Czech Republic and France): United Kingdom.

UK greeted me with showers and freezing wind, as was expected. Just like at home...

I decided to settle in Birmingham, the second largest city in the UK, that has around 4 million residents taking into account its suburbs.

Bullring, one of the largest shopping centres in Europe:

My neighbourhood:

Occupy Birmingham...

...aka 99%:

Ducks on on of the channels of Birmingham enjoying pleasant British weather:

And same ducks flying south:

I didn't have enough time (or just became lazy) to look for new alternative venues/events, but I promise to upload some footage very soon.

One good thing is that you can still hear Balkan music on some streets here, just like in France...

Another good thing is that I missed some roughness in France (probably same as in Estonia), and even in general England seems like one of the most dangerous countries I've been to; more than Uzbekistan, Russia, Kazakhstan, whatever... Or maybe I don't know it well enough yet...