positive varsovie vibes

I am so so sorry for leaving you with no decent posts for so long! May & June will hopefully be the last months of my year three, so once the summer comes I will be here for good. Soon (in June) this blog will turn two years old, which makes me proud and excited to think what else will come my way. Photography has become so important, I don't want to ever let go of it! Today I am taking you with my photographs to sunny Warsaw, where I spent last May break, having been asked by my new flatmate to visit her for a few days. Beware, this post is a photo masterpost! I decided to show you most of the shots I took on that weekend. Featuring also pictures from the gorgoues Wilanów palace-gardens complex, leaving out only the ones took with Kodak Portra 400, since it was my first time with that film and I think it deserves a separate post about its performance and my opinion :) So read more, enjoy! Also, I have finally hit the 1k mark on Instagram, thank you everyone for following me and if you want to do so - check @cadds

few snaps for a better saturday

Today I feel like a worn out shoe. Yesterday I came back from Warsaw, where I spent two days of my spring break. I took a lot of photographs, that you will see next week. I met some amazing and inspiring people, even a Polish super model which I adore, a meeting that left me shaking from excitement. I could go on and on about that trip and how amazing I felt photographing that city and new places I had never explored before, but there will surely be time for that in the next post. Lately, I have been living in my fake empire, with some events that made me very stressed and unhappy. I regret nothing. I just want to go on living, not standing in anyone's way, but I refuse, I really refuse to be blamed for all of it. Do you ever feel like you are a good person, but that it has its end?

I want to keep going even though it gets tough. I admire people with skills, people who are deeply in love with what they do. I love seeing how their eyes lighten up, when they are talking about things they love. And when they say that they hope they would go on doing something forever. I never felt such love towards anything. No matter how bad it sounds, at least I don't feel like I have missed any chances. 

Coffee and little sweet treats are what I love, truly.
I bought myself new blue sneakers, which turned out to be super comfortable and perfect for the strolls we are taking nowadays, somehow bored with our old routes.

the family growing

I finally made another step towards my own analogue collection, buying a new lens - Canon 135mm FD f/3.5. At first I opted between 85mm-100mm, but found out that 85mm goes for some enormous amount of money and that's why I settled for a much cheaper alternative, a little bigger 135mm. These are the first photographs that I have taken with it. I love it when I buy something that is so much different that what I have shot with so far. Firstly, the distance. To get my focus right I need at least 1.5m between my subject and I. Works great with portraits, when I don't intimidate my models by putting my camera right into their faces. That's how I imagined the portrait taking from now on. 

What's most embarassing... I still don't quite know how to attach it. It's big, it's heavy, and it has some weird attach-technology which I haven't solved yet and when I use it, it requires a few tries. It makes me feel more like a pro though. And with the external lamp attached too - it looks pretty great, I must say. I treat it like my biggest treasure, and carry it around every day. I feel like it's perfect for stalking people in the park. It's not your regular telephoto lens, but I surely see its potential in that field.

5 little things.

Enjoy the little things, for some day you will look back and realize they were the big things.

Tuesday might not be my most favourite day of the week, but as any other day anyone should be able to find at least 5 little things to love, enjoy about that certain date.

1// Today we can celebrate our 4 months together, which (frankly speaking) I would call more of a 11 months period of time, but since we're keeping it official at this point, 4 months it is. I feel like I have known you for so long, 4 months is simply nothing compared to that. It doesn't do us any justice.

Dzisiaj mijają nam cztery miesiące, chociaż szczerze nazwałabym te cztery - jedenastoma. Czując, że znam Cię już tak długo, że cztery miesiące to po prostu niesprawiedliwe określenie.

2// This time I managed to get all Christmas gifts on time and today being December 9th I could even start wrapping them all already... I won't though. I just have to leave it for the last moment. 

Tym razem wszystkie prezenty świąteczne dotarły na czas i w zasadzie już dzisiaj, czyli dziewiątego, mogłabym zacząć je pakować... czego nie zamierzam robić, bo wypada zostawić cokolwiek na ostatnią chwilę.

3// Last night I finally bought Canon AE-1 Program, which I had longed for for such a long time! All thanks to super nice pair from Hungary, whom I had found on Etsy. (Click for their Etsy store) I was offered a 20% discount all because I wrote them an email on the 6th, asking whether I could bargain over the price. Pure luck!

Wczoraj w nocy nareszcie kupiłam wymarzonego Canona AE-1 Program, którego chciałam mieć w swojej kolekcji już od dawna. Wszystko dzięki przemiłej parze z Węgier, których znalazłam na Etsy (tutaj), a którzy dali mi 20% rabatu (i lampę w prezencie) tylko dlatego, że napisałam do nich akurat szóstego grudnia, bo chciałam się potargować odnośnie ceny. Czyste szczęście!

4// Today we are starting to look for a new flat, which is for me both scary and exciting. But I will make a different post all about that matter. Just keep your fingers crossed for me please! :)

Dzisiaj zaczynamy szukać nowego mieszkania, co jest dla mnie zarówno straszne jak i ekscytujące. Powinien być osobny post na ten temat, ale trzymajcie proszę kciuki, by wszystko się udało!

5// Tuesday evenings mean also naps, which with my fucked up sleeping schedule are real gems. After this post is up online, I will make myself cozy, wrapped in my new Home&You blanket and try to sleep for at least two hours before going back to university life and Pharmacology.

Wtorkowe wieczory oznaczają też drzemki, które przy tak poplątanym rozkładzie snu są prawdziwą perełką! Kiedy już wstawię post, otulę się kocykiem z Home&You i przynajmniej dwie godziny pośpię, bo potem trzeba wracać do życia i farmakologii.

Weekly links: Stephanie & her Instagram thoughts // Betsy's Golden Vlog 

brrr!

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We got a few days of lovely wintery weather, but then the snow melted and we are back to this pre-winter state, even though it's already so close to Christmas. I adore how film captures snowflakes. I can see the potential winter brings. Scholarship in, I can finally order some more film and set my eyes on new goals. I would love to take more portraits. Most people can't handle me focusing for too long, we have to work on that. :) Take care, loves!

Shadow passes, light remains.

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I fall little behind with everything as the winter is approaching this city and makes itself cosy. Snow makes me go lazy. Blue skies, white snow, bed and the happy hipster playlist. Waiting for the Christmas break to come, which will happen in 3 weeks. We've almost made it. I'm both motivated to exit my comfort zone and wanting to just lay back and watch life go by. Quite a weird combination. I'm meeting so many new people these days, I truly start to believe it could all be worth something. That perhaps uni years are what they call the time of my life. I'm in the middle of it, so maybe it's about time I found real joy in where I am.

Danube, opera and house of terror.

 

The Banks of Danube hold one of the most beautiful memorial sights we have seen in Budapest. It honors the Jews who were killed by fascist Arrow Cross militiamen in Budapest during World War II. They were ordered to take off their shoes, and were shot at the edge of the water so that their bodies fell into the river and were carried away. It represents their shoes left behind on the bank. Look, contemplate, photograph.

Ferrania Solaris 200

Opera and its surroundings is a beautiful spot both at night and during the day. On one of the mornings we took a stroll down the Hajos street, crossing streets of Lazar, Ó and Zichy. Budapest is excellent for little strolls in the sun, admiring the architecture and deciding where to eat.

Fuji Superia 400

 

House of Terror, located at Andrassy street is a well developed memorial for crimes of both Nazi and Communist parties during World War II. It's situated in the walls of a huge building which was the headquarters of both aforementioned organizations. In the cellar the killings were executed. Touching piece of history, a must see. I would recommend getting an audio-guide in English, because we did not, and unfortunately most of the exhibition was in Hungarian.

You know how they always show you the pictures of the victims. One of the last rooms included the photographs of the killers. Astonishingly dreadful experience to be looking into the eyes of murderers and their proteges.

Fuji Pro 400H & Fuji Superia 400 

Liberty Square.

Fuji Superia 200

delicious times in Budapest.

Every time I am travelling, my love for Italian cuisine blossoms. Maybe it is because some pasta is always a safe choice, therefore perhaps I am boring like that. I am so happy that we managed to get away for a little dinner on our first day. "Most" bistro was an accidental found, and only after our return to Poland we actually realized that this place is pretty popular in Budapest. Three course meal for a pretty fair price and the most delicious gazpacho ever. Now I am pretty motivated to finally do a proper gazpacho by myself. Maybe the other meals were nothing too fancy, but I found the amount of food to be perfectly measured to meet my needs at that point. Ferrania Solaris really suprised me and produced some cool, warm colored tones. Too bad I don't seem to be able to find it anywhere online :(
 

We of course made a stop at Starbucks and had a big frappe with whipped cream topping, totally and overwhelmingly sweet. We made stops for coffees and drinks, finding some unique places where the service level varied from nice to awful.

Ferrania Solaris 200

Fuji Pro 400H expired

Another stop that deserved a couple of photographs was Gelateria Lavanda close to St Stephen's basilica. As we visited it on the first day, I was still in the "let's save as much as I can, so I do not end up starving" mode which always leaves me with 50% of my money on the last day of the trip, so my order included only a nice freezing cold coffee.

Fuji Superia 200

And of course, I couldn't forget about our little breakfast at Muvesz, with coffee, orange juice and omelettes with bacon and cheese. Sorry for totally blurring those pictures :)

Fuji Pro 400H

the essence of Budapest

First of all, three days in Budapest are not sufficient, and this is what we all felt when we had to depart. I'd say our pace was pretty fair, spending about 12 hours exploring the city each day, yet we did not manage to see everything we were supposed to. It was all about choosing what we wanted to see the most.

umami tales

Umami /uːˈmɑːmi/, a savory taste, is one of the five basic tastes (together with sweet, sour, bitter and salty).

A loanword from the Japanese (うま味?), umami can be translated as "pleasant savory taste". This particular writing was chosen by Professor Kikunae Ikeda from umai (うまい) "delicious" and mi (味) "taste". The kanji 旨味 are used for a more general sense of a food as delicious.

Not being anything close to a cook, I have always looked at Katie's Randomly Delicious series and considered it a great idea. We often eat in the city, which is pricey and probably not the best idea, yet I just love doing so. My menu often includes sushi, in all forms, lots of pasta, desserts at Bella Vita and good old pizza. Generally, I am a lover of Italian and Japanese cuisine. Quite a mix, but I wouldn't trade them for anything else. On the other hand I love anything that goes with coffee, therefore lunches, brunches and regular breakfasts.

I rarely prepare something at home, but little sandwiches with salmon, arugula and cream cheese quickly became my favourite, after I tried them in one of those local lunch type coffee houses. Everything might be going in the right direction though because yesterday I found a cooking pal in my friend P, with whom we made our first meat patties. And this is how we're going to make it through the next three years. I would love to be cooking with my A, but we are never in the kitchen at the same time, so that might pose an issue :)

learn how to appear on my blog here.

Student life makes you quite familiar with toast bread. Actually, after two years it becomes your best friend. And I more than adore when I get served pancakes with some maple syrup. It's more than delicious and extremely sweet.