July’s retrospective

July was truly kinda crazy – I’ve galloped across Europe, deeply fried my skin under the sun, attended a conference, visited friends and was whole week on the actual boat!

All started in London – until I went abroad.

Lavender fields

Visiting Lavender fields and eating lavender ice-cream not far away from London – is a good idea for a week-end.

At work

At the job: I was doing hedging tab spike really intense trying to tie the scraps all together than I start the vacation.

Art therapy and sketching session

Enjoying six musical 🎤

To influence Simão’s British education. He did pass the exam and got the ILR!

Taylor Tomlinson consert 😎

Seeing her life was so cool! I even got the T-shirt!

Printing my own stickers

I made two stickers for the hall of fame of women in Computer Science.
One with Ada Lovelace saying “I code like a Lady” and an other with Grace Hopper, saying “Don’t ask for permission – ask for forgiveness”.

Traveling to Europe

As getting European visa was time consuming and costly and I have granted just one entry, I’ve decided to make my best from this trip. Go everywhere! Scratch every itch! Make it count!

Portugal Sintra

I got my chance to sketch everything my eye fall into. Funny enough working from Sintra for the half of the day was not so hard – I worked on the train, in the cafe, and while on the bus. All the waiting time was spent really productively.

Do you think it’s fun to sketch out the people?

The mason’s initiation well

This place has some crazy magic energy. I imagine being naked holding a candle going down the stairs in the well surrounded by your mason brothers… definitely was something.

12 hour layover in Switzerland

…was not been in vain. Ayrin met me at the airport, we went to real ice cave on the top of the mountain! We also used vatrushki to go down the snow hill!

Europython – my love

I couldn’t express all the fullness of emotions what I felt going to Europython. First of all – I wanted to go for so long! I dreamed of going to conference. Next of all – I dreamed of being a speaker at the conference. I wasn’t a speaker at this one yet, but I felt like it’s a step in the right direction – and now I know more how to become one.

I found my way of getting most of the conference by making art notes of the speeches I’ve listened to. I’ve shared my notes with the speakers and most of them their grateful.

Prague Hotel EuroPython Spa: I went to get head and foot massage, acquire an oil smell – I really felt like a queen there 🙂

Austria

After Prague me and Simao went to Vienna, Austria to Simão’s friends: and Claudio and Kasha. We explored Vienna, went through the gardens and small cafes and enjoyed friend’s company at night. Leaving the Austria we stopped by the salt mines.

Go to the salt mines, enjoy the mountains view, lick the salt!

Briefly Visited München

We went to München just for a few hours to meet Jonas, Mona and their kids! It was nice to introduce my boyfriend to my old friends.

Overnight European train 😛

Our train was horrendous. It had three (!) levels of bunk beds, one on top of the other, no space for the luggage and a smelly loo. Going in the night to the toilet was a brave expedition, because you will for sure step on someone’s bags. My pillow was the size of my hand. The only redeeming factor was the included breakfast which consisted of small bun of bread and coffee water mixture.

Venice – just beautiful

Venice is the city I absolutely shall return again! It was magical! Water was everywhere. I felt like a fish in the sea. I felt so much at home.

We took a water taxi around the town and slowly walked through the beautiful streets. It was just one day, surely should return.

Milano – sexy and rainy

Milano’s greeted us with huge railway station which was like ancient temple of gods. You felt so much small. It had huge colones. Was my favorite place in the whole of Milano, next to the retro trains and pistachio paste coffee.

Amalfi coast boat starting with Naples

Naples was kinda dirty and filled with a dangerous atmosphere 🔫

My boyfriend took me almost all the way to the boat, where soon I met the captain Nushia

My first day at the sea was not easy.

5 hours of sea sickness culminating with

throwing up🤮 on the boat!

In addition I learned that while I was sitting on the nose of the ship trying to escape seasickness, I not only got wet and cold, I got seriously sunburnt.

I got burned by the sun so scary, my skin so red that it looked like I have burnt in a satanic ritual 👹

Other side of being on the boat – you almost never alone. As someone who likes her alone time, this was challenging to cope with. To more extraverted people I seem like an outsider, not spending so much time in a group as everyone else. For me – just a way to not get crazy.

I’ve listen to audiobooks, and sketched – sketched a lot!

I’ve sketched islands, houses, the sea – everything around me seemed just out of ordinary beautiful.

I’ve sketched on the island.

I’ve sketched on the boat.

Sketching is not about getting the subject perfectly, on the opposite, it’s about practicing.

Most advantages of traveling on a boat – you get views that you never get anywhere else.

Most disadvantage is that you might not able to fully enjoy it due to seasickness.

Eventually I stepped out of the boat to explore Amalfi on my own. Amalfi is a dream city for an artist, because they have a paper factory! Real, medível paper factory!

Back then, they made paper of old cotton clothes. They soaked it for days until it fell apart and fished out a piece, pressed it in shape and let it dry. What gets made is ideal for watercolor paper.

Later, they made technology better by harnessing the power of water mill, which used hammers to help clothes fall apart quicker.

Factory is not active anymore, now it’s a museum where you can try your hand at making the paper.

I spent a lot of time in the shop getting some colorful inks to try out on the paper made there.

Later in the town I met some artists selling their prints! I chatted with them happily and offered my postcards ❤️