Film Photo Diary #1 // Europe

One of my hobbies is taking photos, rather it be selfies, photos of my friends, or photos of my environment, I love documenting every moment of my life. Whenever I go traveling I make sure to bring a couple of disposable cameras with me. For some reason capturing moments on disposable cameras makes the photos more real. And it's always fun getting them developed because you tend to forget what you took photos of.

In today's post I am sharing with you some photos I took from my last trip to Europe. I went to Berlin, Germany, Budapest, Hungary, and Barcelona, Spain. I also traveled through several cities in Germany, including Leipzig, Dresden, & Bayreuth. I was there for a month in March 2017, and had an amazing time traveling with my boyfriend and two of my closest friends who live in Germany.

I brought with me two Fujifilm disposable cameras that I bought at Walmart. (I usually just buy the cheapest cameras I can find.) All photos below are taken with these cameras. Enjoy!

Me with my Boyfriend in Barcelona

One of the main things we did in Barcelona was discover Barcelona's nightlife. Here's a snap of me with my boyfriend, Jose at a bar near the Gothic Quarter in Barcelona. (Not all the beer is ours.) I'm wearing my vintage fur coat that I talked about in my last blog post. I got it at a thrift store in Germany, but you can read all about that here. 

My friends at the Mediterranean sea

These are the people I traveled with: my boyfriend Jose on the left, my friend Timmy in the middle, and my friend Lindsey on the right. I've known Timmy and Lindsey since High School, so it was surreal sharing this experience of traveling through Europe with them. Pictured above is them at the beach in Barcelona. It was a chilly day but we ended up going to the beach multiple times to people watch, enjoy the waves, and drink cheap beer and mojitos.

Barcelona on Film

We were sitting in a park square when I took this picture. These are what some of the apartments in Barcelona look like. I had my disposable camera with me and decided to take a picture of them. One thing I loved about Barcelona was the abundance of palm trees scattered throughout the city.

Jose's friend Loic joined us for part of our Barcelona trip. He lives in London and just had a quick flight over to Barcelona. (Loic is pictured in the middle.) Here we were at this really cool bar that looked like it was out of a fairytale. It was called El Bosc de les Fades, and I totally recommend visiting it if you're ever in Barcelona. 

We stayed near the Gothic Quarter in Barcelona, and there was so much graffiti in this area. I thought this one was funny and I asked my friends to take a picture of Jose and I in front of it, with my disposable camera. The graffiti says "Fuck de Tourist." After seeing this graffiti I read online about Barcelona and Spains economic crisis and how tourism is raising rent and other prices around the city. So this small graffiti is saying how some of the locals feel about tourism in their city.

Casa Batllo

Here is a picture I took with my disposable camera of Casa Batllo, a famous building in Barcelona designed by Antoni Gaudi. It used to be an apartment building but it was converted into a museum. Casa Batllo is on one of the most famous buildings in Barcelona, because of the unusual architecture and the fact that it was designed by Gaudi.  Gaudi also designed Parc Guell, the Sagrada Familia, and many more architecture gems in Barcelona.

me at the Berlin Wall

After Barcelona, our next stop was Berlin. We stayed at an Airbnb in  Kreuzberg, a hipster neighborhood in Berlin. The neighborhood had a lot of nearby cafe's, bars, and was located near the Eastside Gallery, which is the Berlin Wall converted into an art gallery. You can walk along the wall and see various artwork from different artists. I pulled out my disposable camera and asked one of my friends to take a picture of me in front of the wall. I liked this artwork because it says Berlin and it matched my outfit.

Me in Berlin's nightlife

One of the cool things about Berlin is all of the quirky bars. We went bar hopping one night and discovered this one bar that had a back room, which even had a loft area to sit it. We got a couple of pints and hung out before going onto the next bar.

Another thing that makes Berlin cool is the Photoautomat's that are spread out across the city. For only a couple of Euros you can get a vintage Photo Booth filmstrip of you and your friends. I took a few of these photos with my friends throughout our visit.

Jose in Leipzig

While on the trip Jose and I celebrated our 6-month anniversary. (Yep we celebrated every month) We decided to spend a day of just the two of us. Here's a photo I took of him with my disposable camera on that day, March 6th. We started the day by getting lunch; we shared a pizza and then went day drinking. This photo is from a pub we found. We ordered a couple of hefeweizen's and just enjoyed each other's company.

Dresden, Germany

We managed to go on a day-trip to Dresden, Germany. Dresden was such a cool city. It's amazing how the city managed to rebuild itself after the war. For those who do not know, Dresden was almost completely destroyed during World War II. There is this massive church in the center of the city, which was destroyed, but the city rebuilt it and it looks as if it was always there. Overall I enjoyed visiting Germany because there is so much history throughout the country. 

Next time you visit a new city or even have a day exploring your own city I recommend taking a disposable camera with you. You will be able to capture real moments and not be busy taking 10 pictures of the same thing, then scrolling through your camera roll and deleting the ones that didn't make the cut. With a disposable camera all you do is take a picture of the moment and then put it back in your bag, and you get amazing photos that you can frame or put in a photo album to look back on. 

See you soon,

Kristina