Photo Stories by Vladimir Sibirov

About this blog

Sat, 17 Jun 2023 18:49:06 +0200

Hey there! This is me and my fam. On a holiday. Shot on a film. With Canon AE-1 Program. Nothing to see there 😜

Tired of scrolling through endless ads on Instagram? Want to see only what you really subscribed to? Looking for high quality photos rather than phone-screen-sized compressed pictures? And so am I.

I made this blog with Hugo, Photopasta, and Google Photos.

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Nika in Japan

Mon, 10 Apr 2023 18:30:43 +0200

This is just a bunch of Veronika’s portraits made during the Japan trip in 2023.

In the beginning were a bit skeptikal about Veronika going on a long trip to Asia. When she was younger, she didn’t enjoy the things we enjoyed so much: food, culture, scenery, etc. But she was so excited and we had no choice but to let her join us. And we didn’t regret it!

As it turned out, this young lady is an eager traveller. And Japan was definitely her thing. She enjoyed it so much and looked so organically and so kawaii on the Japanese city streets. 🤩

When I asked Nika what she enjoyed the most during the trip when we came back home she said:

⚡️ Pokemon cafe in Osaka
👻 Ghibli park in Nagoya
💡 Team Lab Tokyo
🍣 Fresh salmon sushi and ramen 🍜
🍦 and of course icecream (the best one was from Hokkaido 🐄 which we tried in Osaka)

She is still just a kid. Such a sweet one 😍

Of course travelling around Japan for 12 days is not super easy for a 7-year old. She got tired every day from long walks. It wasn’t always easy to find food that she would like.

Hang tight, Japan! She is definitely coming back! 🧳✈️🇯🇵

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📷 Shot on iPhone 11, Poco F1, and Canon PowerShot G5 X Mark II

A visit to Nara Park and Todaiji Temple - Japan

Sat, 08 Apr 2023 21:41:37 +0200

This is a test album with some pictures from Nara/Japan. It is famous for its park with bowing deers and very old wooden temple in traditional Japaneese style.

This is the main temple building view from the outside.

Inside the temple there are some pretty nice statues:

Oh, and the deers, my dear!

This is certainly a must visit place in Japan!

Sayonara 🌸

Osaka in Red

Fri, 07 Apr 2023 12:13:26 +0100

Sharing the memories of one rainy day in Osaka, Japan. It is a remarkable contrast between the grey skies and bright signs on the streets, full of vivid colors. The rain made the streets shine and the colors pop. It was a beautiful day to remember.

How do you know if you are in Osaka? Just look for this guy:

What is so special about this ad? It is a symbol of the city and a popular meeting point. It is also a great place to take a photo with the city in the background.

On a rainy day you may feel like everything is grey and people rushing past you on the streets under their umbrellas are bored by seeing the same landscape every day.

The foreground colour of Osaka is red though. Signs, lights, ads, they make such a vivid contrast and liven up the picture and the mood as you walk along these streets, attracted by the smell of street food, which is present there in plenty.

Will definitely come and visit Osaka again. And no worries if the weather is rainy - even better! ☔️

An ode to Fuji - Kawaguchiko, Arakurayama, Shojiko

Mon, 03 Apr 2023 17:18:38 +0200

Why is 🗻 Fuji so important? Why does it take such a significant space in the Japanese and world culture?

Maybe because of its shape of a triangle with golden proportions. Maybe because it’s the largest volcano in Japan. Maybe because of its loneliness with no other mountain around.

My guess is: because of the fealings it raises when you see it.

There is something in its appearance that amazed me every time my gaze stumbled upon it, and it never failed to raise this “ooh” sigh and emotion in me. There is something magnificent, calm, peaceful yet fundamental and strong about it.

We all need a bit of Fuji within from times to times.

Kawaguchiko

Kawaguchiko is a small town with beatiful views on Fuji right from its streets and a lake Kawaguchi which gave the town its name. When you arrive at the main station, it meets you with this view already:

The town itself is small, cozy, yet crowded with tourists craving the Fuji views which it has in spades. Apart from those, there are some shrines. The lake itself is not very impressive, but it’s a good place to take a walk and enjoy the views.

The town itself has some shabiness behind its touristy facade. Even the touristy part can surprise you with how not necesserily touristy it is. Finding a place for lunch can be one of the hassles. Many places that you find on the map are closed, some work on Tuesdays but don’t work on Wednesdays and so on.

Some places are abandoned completely. It feels like they are inhabited by yokai, which according to the local beliefes is not necessarily so untrue. You need to be brave to go there during the night time.

Railways is probably another symbol of Japan. And the main means of transportation across the country. They are an integral part of the landscape. Here is a series of shots that combine these two symbols: Fuji and railways.

Time to take one of the local trains and travel just 20 minutes to our next station.

Arakurayama Sengen Park

The Arakurayama Sengen Park is a park located in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. It is best known for its view of Mount Fuji over Lake Kawaguchi and its five-story pagoda.

We were visiting this place during the cherry blossom season. The park is very popular among the locals and tourists, so it was quite crowded. You have to climb a lot of stairs to get to the top of the hill. But the view is worth it.

Special highlight for us was the view of Mount Fuji with the sakura blossoms. Plus the old and elegant pagoda. It was a very special moment.

Shojiko

Shojiko is around 30 minutes by bus from the Kawaguchiko station. There was almost no trace of civilization around our hotel there, only 1 restaurant, and 1 conbini 1 km away from the hotel. We were not quite sure if it was worth it, but the tourist forums promised us the best views on Fuji. Let’s see.

It was totally worth it, was’t it? Wasn’t it? It was! Just look at these shots of the surroundings:

The Shoji Lake Hotel has its own charm. Built in ~70s for the Japanese tourists and business gatherings, it has a very distinct style. On one hand, it feels very old, and even abandoned. There were almost no tourists when we visited, so it felt like a ghost hotel.

On the other hand it was not scary at all, clean, and well maintained. And the open air onsen with Fuji views… is an OPEN AIR ONSEN WITH FUJI VIEWS! We went there when it was already dark outside, so the starry night sky was the background for all that beauty.

I didn’t expect much from the Shojiko part to be honest, and it was one of the highlights of the entire trip.

3 days of Fuji viewing - is it too much or too little? It was enough for now. And definitely an invitation to come and do it again.

📷 Shot on Canon PowerShot G5 X Mark II

Seoul Kitchen

Sat, 01 Apr 2023 21:26:03 +0200

During our short time in Seoul, we were impressed by a contrast of Korean culture with the rest of Asia. And by Korean food of course 😋

Our first stop was near the Gimpo airport. We arrived during a cherry blossom season, so these beauties were everywhere. The surroundings are typical Asian city streets.

We were tired after a 12 hours flight, yet we were hungry. We quickly found a few places with good ratings on the maps and took a walk around. One restaurant caught my attention because of its very local and very authentic vibe. It didn’t look any touristy and clearly nobody spoke any English there, but the dishes at the tables looked very attractive, so I pushed my family inside, through their cultural shock resistance. Hunger and curiosity took over the hesitation 😋

We were hosted by an old lady who did her best to make sure nobody leaves the table without being full. The main dish this restaurant serves is a duck, which you roast yourself in a special pot with mushrooms, onions and sweet potatoes.

And of course, being a traditional Korean dinner, it is served with a dozen of side dishes, most of which we didn’t know. Except for kimchi and lettuce maybe.

Our favorite was the one in the left bottom corner, next to the heater. We couldn’t identify what it was, and neither could our Korean friend who we showed this pictures. One thing she was sure about: this place serves great food for its money, because all the elder people. They know good eating and know where to go to for that. So we were not wrong. And we enjoyed the food and the atmosphere a lot.

The streets of Seoul center resembled me of a mixture of Moscow with other Asian metropolitan areas.

We walked down the Seoul’s main pedestrian street, which is very very very similar to Staryy Arbat in Moscow and Bolshaya Pokrovskaya in Nizhny Novgorod.

To my friends from NN: they even have a “Художественные промыслы” shop there 😂 Here is how it looks:

Our destination in that area though was a lovely Korean grill restaurant with amazing food and atmosphere. This is glance at the kitchen and a row of rice steamers:

And the dinner itself looks like this:

A few words about airports. Here is how Gimpo looks, whish is a low coster (take that, Berlin-Brandenburg! 🥊) airport in Seoul:

They serve great noodles there, totally worth standing in the queue 😉

The bigger international airport is Incheon. It has more futuristic fleur about it and we’ve made a few encounters with human-alike robots there:

And the last glimpse of outstanding Korean cuisine before our 13 hour flight back to Europe:

We only stayed one night in Seoul on our way to Tokyo and one night back, hence this list of impressions is so short. We will definitely come again and dedicate more time to explore and taste South Korea! 🇰🇷🍜

📷 Shot mainly on Canon PowerShot G5 X Mark II

Prague Airport

Fri, 31 Mar 2023 16:55:23 +0200

When planning our trip to Japan from Berlin, we came across Korean Airlines offers on traveling via Seoul from Prague. At first it looked like too many stops, but the the price was 1.5-2x lower than flying from Germany, so we decided to give it a try. And it was a great deal and a great decision in many ways.

This post is just a small travel note to myself and fellow Berliners, don’t expect nice touristy photos of Prague here - they are coming in another one 😉

Berlin - Prague

The best way to travel from Berlin to Prague is by train. Make sure you choose one that goes via Dresden and not the one that goes via Munich. Why? Because this one goes through the National Park of Saxon Switzerland and Bohemian Switzerland, so you are guaranteed with a nice scenery for the most of the 4-hour trip.

The best part is panoramic windows in the restaurant carriage.

I didn’t take pictures of the scenery this time. Wikipedia links above might give you an idea about the surroundings.

Prague airport

It takes ~1 hour to get to the airport from the central station by bus or taxi. The airport is modern, clean, empty and it just works. If you are familiar with the never ending chaos in Berlin-Brandenburg airport, you know what I mean.

So, the extra 5 hours of travel were totally worth the wait, and we were ready for our Asian adventure to begin.

Stay tuned ✈️

📷 Shot mainly on Canon PowerShot G5 X Mark II

Madeira - Magic Forest of Fanal

Tue, 19 Apr 2022 18:32:52 +0200

All you need to know:

📍 Location: Fanal, Madeira
🌡️ Temperature: 9°C
💧 Humidity: ~90%
🪄 Feeling: magical, mystical, foggy, soaking cool
👍 My top pick of our entire Madeira trip

Without further ado, enjoy!

Into the mystical and the unknown:

Lost in a fairytale:

Exploring the laurel forest:

Follow the white rabbit:

Look, there is a house over there! Do people live there? Or maybe hobbits?

We’re going up…

And when we reached the top of the hill…

The cloudy fields go beyond our imagination, and it’s time to go back.

The laurel trees themselves are covered with moss and fern, coated in mist, fantastic.

Until the next time 👋

Madeira - Trip to Northwest

Sun, 17 Apr 2022 18:32:44 +0200

Here are some highlights from our trip to the Western and Northern parts of the Madeira island. It follows a common “Madeira West” tourist route.

First stop is Câmara de Lobos a fishing village situated to the West of Funchal.

The we visited Cabo Girão, a cape featuring a viewpoint of stunning 580 meters above the curved sea shore.

For ones who don’t have fear of heights (not me) it offers a skywalk with a glass floor. This is claimed to be “the highest skywalk in Europe”:

Climbing up towards the Paúl da Serra plateau, we made quite an unexpected encounter:

There will be another post about our favorite highlight of Paúl da Serra. For now, we are moving on to Ribeira da Janela, a viewpoint that is supposedly stunning with the shape of the rock facing the lagoon, but it is actually stunning with the force of the wind there. It is so strong it is blowing your chicks to the back. It would be fine if it wouldn’t be blowing sand and stones into your face at such a high speed!

Time for some really breathtaking views. There are a plenty of waterfalls near Seixal village, the most wonderful of them being Véu da Noiva (Bride’s Veil):

Let’s take a break in a peaceful village of São Vicente. Situated in a canyon on the North edge of the island, it offers a couple of places to visit like a XVII century church and constantly changing scenery.

And our final Northwest destination, Porto Moniz with its

The town is famous for its lava pools with the water coming directly from the Atlantic ocean.

If you turn around a look from the ocean side at the island, the view isn’t disappointing either:

The ocean is so harsh and beautiful there:

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📷 Shot (mostly) on Canon PowerShot G5 X Mark II

Madeira - Random Memories

Thu, 14 Apr 2022 18:32:37 +0200

Welcome to my humble album with random vivid memories from the beautiful island of Madeira!

We lived at the very edge of the south coast in Funchal, with a lot of greenery in the garden and stunning ocean views. Here are some of the views outside the window, rocky landscapes nearby, and their clawy inhabitants 🦀

We didn’t have much time to explore Funchal, and the most renowned Madeira Botanical Garden was unfortunately closed for the Easter holiday. Monte Palace Tropical Garden located on the same slope in Funchal was however open, so we went there and didn’t regret.

Enjoy the variety of greenery and centuries of work on the landscape design of this botanical garden:

A few words about the city of Funchal itself. Add more text here because it is good for composition. It is hard to follow a post that consists entirely of photo tiles, photo tiles, photo tiles.

It is also interesting to know more about the places depicted on the photographs. I guess this way both the right and left brains are happy.

A huge gallery needs a longer break after it. I don’t know if people are going to enjoy having to write so much text in order for their posts to look good. Maybe we should use generative AI to create these interludes by analyzing what’s on the photos and using some content from the Internet.

The downside is that it would not be personal anymore, sorry. Here is Funchal on Wikipedia.

A few words about food on Madeira. Even Portuguese people say that Madeira has the best food. The food on Madeira is indeed very special. The secret behind to that is simple: most of the key ingredients of it grow on Madeira or swim around it. Given that all sorts of plants thrive in the unique climate of the island, the fruit and vegetables are always fresh and ripe.

One of the most famous Madeiran specials is scabbard fish with banana and passion fruit sauce. Another honorable mention is bolo do caco, a unique flatbread made with addition of sweet potato.

These were just a few random photos that didn’t go under any specific theme. I will make at least 2 other posts that are specific to our trips to the West and North of the island.

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P.S.: THIS:

📷 Shot on Canon PowerShot G5 X Mark II