Antonio Gaudi's design

 Here are some chimneys on one of the houses he designed. The house is called Casa Mila, or La Pedrera. On the last picture you can see his most famous structure (still unfinished).

Inside the Sagrada Familia

 Have you ever wandered what Sagrada Familia looks like inside? I myself have seen many pictures from the outside, but none inside. So I didn't know what to expect. Anyway, I did go in and I saw. Here is a few pictures from that visit (if you ever wandered what it looks like inside).

By the way, the entry is not so simple. It is a church, but not just like any church, you have to buy a ticket for twenty something euro to get in and a queue is a few days. When you finally are about to enter, you have an airport-like security check, with taking the belt out of your trousers included.

London in the 1980s

 These were the times when one could see punks with a green Mohican, or cigarette adverts (silk with a plaster on it is an advert for 'silk cut' cigarettes and golden edges for 'Benson and hedges'). In those days a telephone was an apparatus that people had at home and a call overseas cost an arm and a leg, so a company that provided cheaper connections advertised it like cigarettes. There was no Banksy but there was Rob, who left his quickly drawn heads in prominent places in the centre of London, always on temporary surfaces. And of course the lone protester who seemed to be always somewhere on one of the central streets of the West End.  

Jan Malik

 Not long ago Jan Malik died in Cracow. He was a real artist who wasn't worried about exhibitions or selling his stuff, he just carved it and hanged on the wall in his room. He never tried to sell his sculptures. Sometimes one could persuade to do so, but even then he parted with his sculptures with difficulty, as if they were his children. I have seen the wall in his room because he happened to be a family friend and I sometimes paid a visit. I once tried to make a few photos of several sculptures but the pictures didn't come out well. However, my brother Przemek on another occasion succeeded.

Ukrainian icons in Cracow

 They are icons painted by Jerzy Nowosielski, one of the best known Polish painters of the 20th century, in an Orthodox church in Cracow. He was of Ukrainian origin, of Orthodox denomination, and so among other things he painted icons. What is interesting is that I was told that for a long time his icons weren't treated as icons. I was told (in the very Cracow Orthodox church) that painting an icon is a prayer, the painter should start with eyes, the icon is supposed to look at you, whereas in Nowosielski's icons one can hardly see eyes at all. But then he became famous and now some of his icons can be seen in that church.

 

 

Fires in Valencia

In Valencia the coming of spring is greeted by burning of figures made of papier-maché. The custom is called fallas (pronounced fayas)  and it apparently is pretty fiery. Some of the figures can be seen at any time, because the best are always saved from the flames and sent to the Museo Fallero. This is where these pictures are from. 

Stained glass in the Franciscan church in Cracow

 Anyone interested in stained glass who visits Cracow should see the Franciscan church in that city. The curch itself is late Gothic but the windows date from the end of the 19th century and are one of the best examples of art nouveau windows anywhere. They were designed by Stanislaw Wyspianski, the best known art nouveau artist in Poland. His window over the western door representing God the Father in the act of creation is certainly impressive.