My trip through Scandinavia and some parts of the Baltic countries has been great mainly because of the nature but I also had a good time in some (big) cities.
Oslo, Norway
I wasn’t so much attracted to the city centre, maybe because I was quite interested in the activist and artistic spaces in town. I met some interesting people in Blitz and Hausmania. I didn t really got in touch with the Vestbredden collective – the oldest squat in Scandinavia, but based on the facade from the building it seems an interesting place for me as well.
The self government of the collectives in these places is more or less what is applied within an art project in the Slottsparken. Its local children who were asked to draw and design the sculptures and installation that were later put in the park by artists. The result is this colorful imaginative world of friendly creatures.
Other parks all over the city were bathing in beautiful warm colors because autumn was kicking in at that time.
Stockholm, Sweden
Stockholm was very pleasant to ride the bicycle in. Off course there is always room for improvement but for me -who used to live and commute in Brussels – the infrastructure for cycling was quite a relief. There were also quite some other cyclist every where in the streets, cars were for sure present as well, but their presence didn t seem to be overwhelming like in the capital of Belgium and Europe.
The old historical center was nice to wander around. I found many other (smaller) Scandinavian cities that I visited earlier were lacking a bit a historical center and therefor all looked a bit the same.
Stockholm is despite it s friendly appearance a metropole that comes with the usual dose of social injustice. This became very clear and very personal when I met a clearly upset and under influence guy on a square in Stockholm. I tried to comfort him a bit by offering a listening a ear and some human warmth. Other people in the streets were clearly not so constructive and found it necessary to warn the police about the man and his a bit unconventional behavior. He was yelling a bit to everybody and to nobody at the same time, but for me not with an aggression but more out of frustration with his situation. What seemed at first two very human acting police officers ( who introduced themselves to the men with their first names and a handshake ) quickly turned into the usual uniformed robots that eventually arrested the man. A few minutes later another guy who know the arrested man came to me and provided me with some background. The emotional contrast between him and his buddy couldn’t be bigger as you can see in these pictures.
Gdansk, Poland
Upon arrival in Gdansk, Poland – where I went to visit a friend that I met traveling – autumn seemed to have been replaced by an Indian summer again. Perfect for a jump in the sea at the beach of Sopot.
Gdanks has a nice historical center with here and there some modern architectural touches outside of that center
The shipyard of Gdansk was the historical scene of the struggle of the dockworkers for their right to organise in workers union, their strike led to the creation of the Solidarnosc union that later also challenged the dictatorial socialist regimes in the sovjet influenced world. There is a great permanent exposition in the European museum of solidarity in Gdansk that tells the story in a very vivant and interesting way.
The sovjet era also left its traces in the popular neighbourhoods in the outskirts of town were these long appartement blocks were build in the 70. The name Falowiec can be translated to waves, the wave shaped architecture was to prevent from seeing the building in its whole. The one on the photo below is 850 meters long and is considered as the longest residential building of Europe.
Close by in the Zaspa neighbourhood the grey side walls of the appartement blocks were brought to live during a local street art festival which resulted in these beautiful murals.
I loved Gdansk and someone in Gdanks loves Jan 😉
Kaunas, Lithuania
A bit of street art in Kaunas
Vilnius, Lithuania
In the old town of Vilnius there is a district called Užupis – the other side of the river – where habitants declared there own constitution. Art seems to florish well in this part of town.
A bit of street art in Vilnius
