163/365: The last bike trip

163/365: The last bike trip, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

June 12th

The twins had mentioned something about leaving, but no one took them seriously until they started packing. This was their last weekend at my place, and so we decided to take One Last Bike Trip. Basia was missing as she is in the USA studying and doing research for her new film, but everyone else was there: the twins, Asia (whom I have no pictures of), ManiaKovalsky, Maciek, and me.

We got horribly lost along the way and never made it to the forest or the pond we'd expected to find, but it was wonderful at 55 km total.

162/365: Keyboard

162/365: Keyboard, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

June 11th

This is a bad photograph of a really good keyboard, brought to you by 'oh-shit-it's-11:59'

161/365: Window

161/365: Window, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

June 10th

The window of a house near where I work.

160/365: Bean plant

160/365: Bean plant, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

June 9th

You knew this would happen- I got home, had to go back to work, and have no time for interesting photos. Sorry. And I had to finish off the roll of film, too...

159/365: Wizzair

159/365: Wizzair, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

Going home.

The trick was not to fly into Amsterdam Schiphol, but to Eindhoven instead. It's much cheaper,even including the train and bus ride you need to get to Amsterdam itself.

I'm glad I shot this picture on film (bad film, too). If it had been digital, the colours would have been more real, but also more boring.

This is not my plane, by the way, I think this one was going to England. But I flew Wizzair, too.


And as a bonus, here is the last photo I took in Amsterdam:

158/365: A Weekend in Amsterdam

158/365: A Weekend in Amsterdam, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

June 7th

Shooting Amsterdam on expired film in a dirty camera results in pictures that make me very sentimental- they resemble the bad quality prints on puzzle boxes, postcards and youth magazines from the eighties. They seem to recall a time when there was no geotagging, no free sharing of terabites of images across the globe- you may have had the one high-contrast, off-colour photograph in your sparsely illustrated encyclopaedia, and that was all you knew. You had to imagine the rest.

157/365: Fiets

157/365: Fiets, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

June 6th

...is Dutch for 'bicycle'.

156/365: Bicycles in Amsterdam

156/365: Bicycles in Amsterdam, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

June 5th

Hello, Amsterdam. I only came for the Phosphorescent concert, but how can one resist the bicycles?

155/365: The cemetery

155/365: The cemetery, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

June 4th

This cemetery is what we see from my current workplace's windows. Why is this black and white, and film besides? Well, I was leaving for Warsaw and then Amsterdam directly from work that night, and didn't want to take my heavy 40D . The film camera I have is a Rebel T2, so nothing fancy, and most of the film I have is expired. I love the look of film, but I can't afford it, not with the amount of photos I take.


I've shot this cemetery before...

154/365: Jan in the forest

154/365: Jan in the forest, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

June 3rd

Remember Łowicz? I went there three years ago to take pictures of the Corpus Christi procession. Since I am working with quite a few foreigners this year, I managed to convince a few of them to a half-bike trip that Thursday; meaning we would take a train to Skierniewice, bike to Łowicz through the Bolimowska primeval forest, then return the same way. 

We ended up with about 60 km total, riding easy and stopping where and when we pleased. It was a wonderful break from the daily heat and turmoil of our workplace.

The procession and holiday itself is a Catholic thing and I will direct you to the Wikipedia entry for more information (one of my photos illustrates it), but interesting for the non-religious types too because of the traditional folk costumes the people of the region wear. I'm not even sure any of my group were into religion and they all enjoyed themselves. 

I think they liked how quaint it all was- the ragged train ride, the deep forest, the pastoral countryside and finally the colourful display of folklore. Poland may not be the most modern country in the world, but I see that as one of its great assets.

153/365: The wildforest window

153/365: The wildforest window, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

June 2nd

Elusive and uncommon, the wild window of Eastern Europe inhabits forests close to cities with a high rate of litterbugs.

152/365:New shoes, best shoes

152/365:New shoes, best shoes, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

June 1st

Another day when I had no chance to take a photo outside, so a good opportunity to celebrate my new shoes. They deserve celebrating. They're awesome.

151/365: Happy Macbook Revisited

151/365: Happy Macbook Revisited, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 31st

Now with a gazillion more stickers.

150/365: Little book fair

150/365: Little book fair, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 30th

A small outdoor book fair on the Mariensztat square in Warsaw.

149/365: Laundry

149/365: Laundry, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 29th

Walking around the neighbourhood.

148/365:Used to be flowers

148/365:Used to be flowers, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 28th

I always take too long to throw out dead flowers. They get so interesting when they wilt.

147/365: Zdrowie forest

147/365: Zdrowie forest, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 27th

"Zdrowie" means health, and it sure keeps me sane to bike this way every day, to work and back.

146/365: Bean plant!

146/365: Bean plant!, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 26th

And sweet pea, and something else the name of which I forgot.

145/365: Welcome, moonlight.

145/365: Welcome, moonlight., originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 25th

It's spring, and the windows can stay wide open all day and all night.

144/365: Bean plant

144/365: Bean plant, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 24th

Outside it is raining, inside I have a watering can for my bean plant.

143/365: Just christened

143/365: Just christened, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 23rd

My grand-niece and now god-daughter Maja, and her mum.

142/365: Linlen and her ship

142/365: Linlen and her ship, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 22nd

I went a little crazy with the glitter and glue gun, but she liked her parting gift.

I ATEN'T DEAD

Why is it so hard?, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

Hiatus will last until Monday. I got a new job, I went abroad, I switched to film for a while, and it's ninety-five* degrees outside, so if you care you will wait.

* see me pander to the US friends I have by using Fahrenheit. Contrary to popular belief, Poland is not actually frozen over all year. If you don't believe me you're welcome to come here and die of heat stroke.