Hiking through villages in the south of Germany

Posted on April 10, 2020 by Eirians under life

It’s easy to forget that I’m in Germany. Sure, the city centre has some classical architecture and I’m saying “Danke” to people in the store, but all in all things are pretty similar. The neighbourhood I’m living in could just as well be located in my home city in Sweden. At least kind of.

I guess what I’m saying is: I’m getting used to this, so when we drove an hour away from the city, out into the “fränkische schweiz”, with idyllic little villages resting in the valleys between tall mountains, I felt like I stepped into a fairytale. Driving to something like that from Sweden would be a “this is what we’re doing this summer” kinda thing, but now it was just a friday excursion. Beautiful beautiful beautiful, to bring some more breath and peace into our lives.

And even if you’re in your home country, wherever you are, there’s probably something cool nearby. Get out, whenever you can. I mean, stick to places where there’s no people of course – but fortunately nature has a lot of space.

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Notes from my phone in the evening:
– Let’s bring this air into the city. I breathe in here and breathe out amongst the dirty street corners. Sun and moon over empty streets. I bring with me a song of birds and waters. It’s awakening in here too, even amongst graffiti and grey.

October (already)

Posted on October 4, 2017 by Eirians under life

(Yesterday, borrowing my roommates car.)

I’ve had too many days

In these last few days

To write about all of them.

I was thinking about it a few weeks ago, when we went to Walmart in the middle of the night to buy things for a friend’s birthday. That’s crazy! It was an adventure, such a day, such a whole day and night to write about. Maybe I’m too excited, or actually I don’t care if I’m too excited, joy belongs to the people too excited. But then the next day something new happened, and I never did write.

My life feels full of those days lately.

(And that’s good. I document things that are rare.)

Kenya Art Journal 10/13

Posted on October 11, 2016 by Eirians under Artwork

A few journal pages at the same time, because now we come to where I didn’t put as much effort into every page. But we still have a beautiful painting by my friend Tami, and some more stories from our time in the desert.

Zambia Travel Diary – Day 12

Posted on December 14, 2015 by Eirians under Zambia travel diary

2015.19.21 11.16 I don’t feel a lot about leaving. I don’t know why. Maybe because I’m so inspired for the rest of my life to continue, inspiration usually comes after travel, but maybe because I’ve been here so long, it has already managed to sink in.

15.30 This is not sad, because this is not going home, it’s travelling to yet another place and then you go somewhere else from there.

16.04 I’ve never been interested in finding myself, I think while on the bathroom at Lusaka airport. If I was, I think airports would be a good place to look.

Anyway.

I read about bicycling in the magazine on the plane, and while sitting here it makes me want to be on a bike instead, inhaling fresh air, seeing bright colours and feeling my muscles work. I want to travel by my own strength. Maybe not far, but at least a walk through the woods when I get home.

20.50 At the airport in Addis Ababa. It’s a good one. If I were to travel the world I think I’d like it here. It’s not too big, but not small enough to not feel international. People of different cultures everywhere, the most beautiful Ethiopian scarves in the gift shops and a prayer room at the end of the corridor. The cafés are crowded as well, and they remind me of how the streets outside might be (not as if I know that) with traditional coffee making and people laughing.

Also they have these chairs everywhere that you can lean back in so they become almost like beds. When we finally found an unoccupied one (and now we found two more) I left my bags there and went to look around. I must have looked a bit strange. With no luggage, taking really slow steps and just walking around looking with a blank expression and soul far away in some way, while still being very present, maybe the deepest form of present, because I’m aware that I am. And maybe the least deep form. Then again, no one was probably looking at me.

I’ve been living in that good place in my head ever since I saw The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and it changed me in the way good art does. It was beautiful, and inspiring, and maybe actually the sort of thing you should watch before you travel, and I knew of it because of a song from the soundtrack that my dance group danced to once. In the movie they played it during the credits and I just leaned back and listened to it while the lights of Addis Ababa closed in underneath our wings. White lights from buildings and yellow from the vein-like streets. Yes.

Zambia Travel Diary – Intro

Posted on September 23, 2015 by Eirians under Zambia travel diary

2015.09.22 I’m writing this on an airplane that has just entered Swedish airspace on my way home from Zambia, Africa, where I’ve spent the past three weeks without any internet or TV. What does one do on those evenings in a land where the sun consistently sets between 18-19 and you can’t walk out by yourself in the darkness? Not a question my generation is great at answering (though still can answer better than many people freakin’ think). So I read a lot and as a natural consequence wrote a lot and it turned into some sort of travel diary, and during the next month or so I’ll be publishing it here, every now and then. You’ll be able to find it under the tag Zambia travel diary (if you were to lose it) and I really hope you enjoy!

Sneak peek:

I don’t know if I’ve told you but..

Posted on August 26, 2015 by Eirians under life, travel

I’m going to Zambia!! In a week actually, and now I’m feeling slightly stressed out because I have a ton of things to do. Also I feel like I have to take some time just longing for it since I love longing for stuff and that’s not something I can do later. Three weeks I’m gonna be away for and probably without any internet connection at all, so radio silence will probably occur for most of September. On the other hand I think I’ll have some pretty nice pictures and stories to share when I come back :))) (Wow, I think I’ve never used smileys on this blog before, is this the start of a new era??.) (No.)

Some images of my attempt at packing and the sky and stuff.

The Swedish north

Posted on December 26, 2014 by Eirians under life

An autumn post about two months late. We headed up to the north on vacation and I never got around to photobombing you with it so here we go, irrelevance is my motto and a christmas post seemed a bit unoriginal. But I do hope, nonetheless, that you’re having an amazing christmas!

reindeers road swedish north sweden fjällen