The sun shines in Toledo all day long

She said I was unable to understand what was so beautiful about the skies of Spain, the rundown buildings of Spanish cities and most importantly the men and women who always seem to be madly in love and not afraid of showing their emotions in the bustling streets of Madrid. I visited Spain last month for the first time and I attended a seminar in a small city of Toledo, that was an half hour away from Madrid by high-speed train. Perhaps it was her who wanted me to see Toledo in this period; they celebrated Corpus Christi and fireworks exploded in the blue ocean of the heavens; children painted their faces with Spanish yellow and red; concerts were held in the main square of the city and everyone smiled, laughed and looked happy; streets were blocked for the parade and people stood on each side of the street, the smallest ones trying to see as much as possible; I drank in the castle with people who I had known only for six hours and still I felt like I had known them forever; huge cathedrals rose out of nowhere and the city seemed to be a manifesto of Christianity; liters of Sangria were bought, spilled and drank; the truth about Spain was revealed.

My stay in Toledo included every-night drinking in a parking lot of the cattle; climbing up terribly hills in order to get to the city (and later on to find out that there were escalators to the city); sharing secrets; finding out that Spain was nearly as beautiful as she had been telling me.

Yet there seemed to be something missing constantly -

my love who was in Croatia.

To Spanish Kiss

You took my hand and saidToday we will go to Spain and kiss in Spanish.

Oh God, but I don't know how to kiss in Spanish!I panicked, walked in a circle, I felt as if the bridgethat connects my heart to yours was crumbling,nothing made sense, I should be happyyou will take me to Spainand you will me show
the world.

You touched my left cheek, my eyes dwelling in chaos,your fingers moved to my left ear, gently massaging.
We know how to Spanish kiss more than anyone else in the world.
And then you kissed me.
The world trembled.

Old buildings greeted us wherever we talked hand in handpeople to lesser extent, but as always you said that these
grey, wine-stained walls have seen more than any human being could ever imagine.

It was like we were back in the 1950s,yellowish tinted sky with a hint of explosion.
Beautiful, I uttered in your arms.

You suddenly stood up, ran ahead of me but not away from me.As suddenly you had stood up, you also stopped running.You turned around, now looking at me and smiling.
Now the city is beautiful.

I looked at you and thought to myself,I will always be love with this manwho will always be in love with me.
And I ceased wondering why and just enjoyed.

The Croatian paradise

Rovinj is the European equivalent to Zanzibar, the paradise on the Earth. Run-down windows, decaying walls, speechless windows and streets in which cars are unable to fit now & tomorrow. The town is bursting with joy and laughter and things simply feel good in this city. Cafes sprinkled around the Stari Grad (old town), homemade ice cream with a selection of pistachio and yoghurt and whatever your mind can think of. Italian tourists speaking their own language and the Croatian is tuned down from place to place as they have lost their position as an overwhelming majority in this part of the country. You take the hand of you loved one in secret, because someone could still you & scream something at you, yell, mock, attack, but you are too much in love with the serenity, with the silent words craved in the air for centuries and and most importantly you are too much in love with a person who is everything to your mind & heart & soul. Rovinj holds you tightly & 

everything is alright once again.

They want to be something

-- wandering, lingering.

Once you were not much to look at.

Today you are beautiful.

Take a coffee in this street

-- watch them wandering, lingering

while you sip your coffee & smoke a cigarette.

It goes on & on,

never ends.

And it all is so old, you think.

I think I fell in love with the windows

-- they have told me more than you could ever

said even if you read aloud the dictionary to me.

We all linger, wander.

But we live, too.

When it was warm in Helsinki

I wish to learn to be everywhere all the time; to be here in Helsinki while my fingers make love to my fiancé's soft skin; study in the Netherlands while I kiss the dust of Sahara under the exploding sky; my heart desires to be here and there and even though they say nothing is impossible, people meet their limits in one way or another. I came to Helsinki last week for the first time in six months & at first I was afraid, no idea where I had arrived, left behind my love in Croatia, entered unknown and now after four days I'm bitterly disappointed that I am unable to stay in the city longer than just a week. No matter what I ever say, Helsinki & her people will always be my home, this is the city where I was raised; where I witnessed my first snowflakes, sunshine, birds and hawks; where everything for me began. Helsinki is a city that never expects anything back, she keeps giving and giving and after awhile you are bored of everything new you receive -- only when you leave and new ceases, you begin to appreciate the moments once again.

My current visit to Helsinki was the shortest in the history; I came here last Thursday and I most probably will leave day after tomorrow which makes me very sad. This is my city; I never imagined that I would actually leave the Nordic (sometimes mistakenly also Scandinavian) Queen for good. Funnily enough I never miss the city when I am away; however, whenever I come and visit Helsinki it gets harder and harder to leave it. Especially as it seems that my visits are getting just shorter and shorter; at this pace, it will soon become a stranger to me.

HELSINKI 2008; AUTUMN.

I like to disco I like to party I like to groove, but more importantly I like to

all the things mentioned above with Helsinki.

The bay of Toolo said that Helsinki is a poor dancer;

he told a lie so only he would have a glimpse to disco-moves in Heaven.

Autumn told me that the bay and she had been lovers once, but when

Helsinki danced with the leaves, it all was over after that

-- they both fell for the city.

I take trams in the city.

I take buses in the city.

I take metros in the city.

I take walks in the city.

And when I do things mentioned above

I am more and more in love with Helsinki.

The Bay of Toolo, autumn and I watch Helsinki constantly, non-stop.

And she watches us, always with love.

And we all are happy.

New York in Europe

Socialism screaming in the streets; Cyrillic alphabets making love with the letters from the Latin world and no one knows their place anymore. A café called Supermarket that used to a supermarket in its earlier versions is booming with beautiful people. Bohemian crowd mingles and eats proportions of ice cream and chocolate brownies (both served with strawberries, pistachio, marzipan, chocolate pieces, rum, white chocolate and raspberries) that could compete with its American counterparts. The city is dreamy and it is most definitely nothing like Paris, it is more like a New York but socialist, more demanding and outstanding, tolerating to the point that it becomes intolerant. Gay (and straight and bisexual and things that I am unable to put in a box) people lining for parties hours and hours, a beer for less than a euro and girls making out as if there is no tomorrow. An apartment transformed into a hostel; one room is modified into a double, another into a dormitory with four beds; and there is no one else than you & the person who you love, the whole apartment (including kitchen, bathroom, dormitory) is yours because reception (that is in the kitchen) works only for twelve hours, starting at eight am. Famous Belgrade winds freezing your ankles, elbows and toes, they wish you Merry February and you decide at that very moment, that when spring comes you will come again to the socialist New York where Cyrillic alphabets make love with the Latin letters.

In Belgrade I met Marija & Zeljko; people that I had seen last February in Strasbourg and that was the first and only time I saw them. We had known each other only for one week, but it felt like we had never been apart from each other; gossiping and exchanging stories and remembering times that happened so long time ago. I met Jelena, Hristina and Maya and these people I met two weeks ago in Osijek when they took part in a training and we connected so well that I had to come and see them in Belgrade and it was wonderful to realize that in a week you can establish friendships that will last longer than the ones that you have been building for years. I met more and more people and suddenly I came to realize I knew more people in Belgrade than I do in my current home town; Belgrade offers you friends on a silver platter; she has people from all backgrounds and worlds, it merges a mixture of things together as Cape Town and Amsterdam does and suddenly you have a cosmopolitan where gay-bashing happens in one corner and in the another you see a young black man kissing a white girl. You are safe; and you are unsafe; and things are certainly more exciting.

Belgrade along with Amsterdam, Cape Town, New Delhi and Montreal is one of those cities that I have already visited, but will visit many times more in the future again.