Trainspotting

On my way to the airport I stumbled upon the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Haarlem central station. For the occasion they pulled some historic trains out and had people in 1890's clothes walking the platforms.


The movie is a 1920's 'Blokkendoos' EMU with a 1200 series at the end.




Old machines rock.

Minas Morgul

This is the parliament building of Georgia, on Rustaveli Ave. in Tbilisi. It as built during the 50's, and clearly this is a result of Stalinst architecture that spread over the Soviet Union in the 30's.

At night it looks like a fortress, or some palace of evil from a movie. It's truly impressive. The building actually has a square courtyard in the centre, and as it is built up against a hill, it really seems to rise up from the low point (Rustaveli street level).

The building was constructed for the bigger part using forced labour from German POW's. It took them approximately 9 years to build this structure. Whoever survived the construction was allowed to go back to Germany.

Czars & Soviets

These pictures were taken in the city of Batumi, the seaside resort of the tiny Caucasian republic of Georgia. It's a cool place. As everywhere in Georgia, they like to put certain buildings in the spotlight, but never manage to do it exactly right. There's always something hasty and not well thought through about it. But, it does give you sweet effects after dark and in this case it shines light on two structures representing two opposites in history.

This is Batumi city hall. A Russian building. Fake-French, so to speak. It sits right on the boulevard, which is slow and lazy during the day and bustling with life (and booze) at night. The fountain also has lights in it - looking very classical there. If you would turn 90 degrees from where I was standing, you would see the ferris wheel, and some very bad-taste plastic and neon palm trees on a square that's just a little too large.

Not far from the city hall, is this odd-looking fellow. The parliament building of the autonomous republic of Achara. I really don't know what to think of this building. During the day it looks like a failed Soviet attempt at building a modern office building. At night it's freaky... like it has "Big Brother is watching you" written all over it. But I might miss the point completely. In any case, if you pass it after a night on the piss it makes for a good laugh.