I didn’t expect to spend a weekend inside an exhibition hall in Łódź. But that’s exactly where I found myself — at EXPO Łódź, where the NINGYO Japanese Fair Łódź had set up for a few days. I’d planned a cycling route as usual, but curiosity felt like reason enough to visit. I’ve always been interested in Japanese aesthetics and craftsmanship, so I wanted to see for myself what a traveling fair like this could offer.
Warm December sunset over snowy fields and wind turbines — a fleeting winter moment captured during a bike ride
This snowy winter didn’t last long — barely two weeks — yet it managed to completely reshape the familiar landscapes along my favourite cycling routes. And now, even in mid-December, the cold already feels distant. Today was so warm and bright that I went out for a bike ride in just a cycling jersey, feeling the soft breeze on my face and catching that unexpected smell of damp soil warming under the sun — something you rarely sense at this time of year.
A turquoise ribbon cuts through parched hills as oleanders bloom by the roadside — a spontaneous moment of stillness and color
Some landscapes don’t shout — they hum. This one, nestled in the sunbaked folds of southern Europe, revealed itself not with grandeur but with quiet harmony: parched hills layering into the distance, a serpentine road, a turquoise river gliding below, and a burst of pink oleanders in the foreground.
