roofs of sofia & streets of paris.

1.
photos by bistra boshnakova
of places loved by me too.

nostalgia comes as synaesthesia. i could smell the ink of the pages of my preferred magazine where these were published. in my mind's eye i also hold the touch of sofiiski smog and rain against my skin.

in the front plane you see the university of sofia. rumour has it that one of the domes hosts a full standing mamooth skeleton. the second done is the archaeology department library. and the third dome is the indoors climbing wall where i go bright and early to strain arms and legs, and listen to climbery tales. there's a little window you can climb out of and walk on the roofs, but now it's blocked by iron bars.

i started exploring roofs in the middle of a serious english exam for a serious certificate. it was held in the building of виас (the architecture institute). marina and i wondered around in the break, we found ourselves on the easily accessable roof with a gorgeous view over sofia. then the security guards made us come down and finish our exams. marina now studies architecture and i know nothing else of her.
the picture above is hilton, i think. hotels are useful because they're generally too polite to stop people from roaming aimlessly on their top-floors looking out of windows, unlike educational institutions.

the last picture is the structural opposite of the view you get if you lean unsafely out of the window of our living room. my street looks the same mosaic of sun-kissed bare bricks and yellows, alternating with greys. looking south, you can see the snowy top of vitosha mountain. looking north you should theoretically spot the fumes comming out of tall chimneys in the area of zaharna fabrika ('sugar factory') near the central station.

2.

streets of paris, populated by
the 2-D souls created by ernest pignon-ernest

i think i fell in love with the streets of paris a. because it's easy and b. because i didn't have any friends for a long time there, so i befriended my camera, my map, the musea and the pavements and went on long long walks. i think many other people do the same and leave their signatures here and there on the walls, so i collected them with my camera, and watched them change, like a letter addressed in the writing.

they say telephone boots are disappearing with the advent of the mobile phone, so they will survive only in photos and archaeologist's books.

and defenestrated - a cool street photography / city art blog i found randomly.