I have better pictures of the city hall in Levoca, my hometown than this. But the cool thing about this one is that I shot it after living in Germany for a year and Canada for two. With a camera I bought with my first paycheque I earned while living in Canada. A dream I always had was to own a camera. I grew up in this amazing place and loved all the nooks and crannies. I wish I had the ability to photograph when I was little. I don’t want to brag, well maybe a little, but the place I come from is what you imagine when someone tells you a fairytale. An intriguing, deep, spectacular kind of a fairytale. You don’t need to believe me! UNESCO seems to think that Levoca is quite the place!

This is the city hall, rebuilt, relatively new renaissance kind of a building, in medieval times thought of as very modern. I love that! My predecessors were quite modern and in step with the time! It was a royal town after all with a lot of business going through it. First shopping mall? Yup, it had that too! How could you not grow up to be a dreamer when you come from a place like that? Art on every step, history in every stone. And look at this, this building is not anything special, just another building on the main square! I felt the need to capture it, even in bad weather to show to my friends in Canada, where I came from. I love it when people ask me with hesitation and uncertainty if they may be offending me by going there, about my childhood in socialist country. And I love telling them about how amazing it was! How much history we were steeped in and my school projects that related to what was around me and I learned even more about the history of my town than I thought was possible and fascinated my classmates and my teachers while at it. Our education and the depth of it. The Summer camps we went to at no cost to my parents. I loved that my parents didn’t have the stress of paying for our school books, dentist, healthcare. From the point of view of a child, there was no better life. And even when I experienced the revolution, I thought it was so incredible to see all these people in the streets fighting for something. I don’t think I was entirely sure what, I had never experienced any other reality, but the socialist kind before. But seeing people so passionate and excited about something felt right, we were making changes, big political changes. We questioned, we learned, we were hungry for knowledge. We weren’t some sheltered kids that only cared about their toys and tv shows! Maybe that was the biggest downfall of socialism, too much education for it’s citizens. So I got the long end of the stick, my parents not so much!

I love the history I grew up with. The hundreds of years of peole’s past, the underground passages between the houses in my town, layers of paint, frescos hidden for decades. My grandmother’s old furniture and the paintings my grandfather made. Names of places created in other languages, which relate to who at the time ruled the town. Royal seal, conspiracy, beheading swords, religious mecca. This all was a part of my world as I knew it once. Biggest ruin of a castle in Europe around the corner, small replica of the church in Lourdes, France. Even well on the top of a mountain. The single town in Europe with fully intact wall surrounding it still. Famous artist with unknown origin with a shop in town creating wood sculptures for all of the area as well as the largest gothic altar in the world all out of carved and painted wood, standing at 18.2 meters. Books written about the town and it’s families. I can keep going on, but I would just be bragging. That’s my home, my past, me.

Built in 1550 after a massive fire that destroyed the town, which was largely built out of wood. This was my home for about 15 years. The building to the right, is a cinema. I saw every movie that came out.

And this is the entrance to the building ont he other side of my house. So nicely renovated, it’s a bank.

The idea was that after two years of working as a nanny I would be able to apply and get a permanent resident status. Had anyone told me that I would have to wait for the working permit to begin with for two years and another five before I did become a permanent resident, I think I would have thought twice about committing seven years of my life to being a nanny, getting paid less than minimum wage for a majority of the time and not be able to focus on the things I knew I really wanted to do.

We used to live on the main square of a small town. The main landmark on the square is this incredible gothic church that has not stopped being renovated as long as I can remember. The tower has a bell that rings four times every hour. Sometimes you knew what time it was if you just listened, sometimes we’d step out onto our balcony and look at the clock to check the time. I love the sound of the church bells.

My house used to have one of these. Then we moved and someone stole the door handle. The keys were huge, medieval. Looking back it feels like I was growing up in some fairytale.

Lea, my Canadian mom and one of my best friends ever has her birthday today. I thought it would be fitting to post this on her big day! Isn’t she beautiful? I love the wrinkles on her nose when she laughs, I love the gap between her teeth and I love her heart. It’s huge and open and giving. I am lucky to have a friend like her!

Happy Birthday Lea! XO

This is my mom and two of her 6 younger siblings. This was on my first visit home after I left for Canada. THis was the first time I got to see them all in 2 years. I remember going to a party for someone and as I was leaving it became a celebration for me. My grandpa was always the person to start singing at gatherings. He started with a good bye song and him and half the room walked out of the building with me while they sang the song to me. At the time I thought it was embarrassing. Now I think it was ncredibly beautiful.

And then one day I got my working permit. Two years into my life in Canada, only having communicated with my family and friends through letters and rare phone calls. I finally got to go and see my family. This is my grandmother. My favorite person in the World that is no longer alive and my heart bleeds when I think about how much I miss her love. I had to have a portrait of her to take back to Canada with me. She graciously let me photograph her, she would have let me do anything. The kindest, sweetest, most incredible woman I have ever known. I think of you every day!

So what is love if not this?

Oh and the link to my video, Love is…

https://vimeo.com/59620818

Look what I found! Portrait of the lovely Angela. Who always brought a laughter and joy into the room with her!