PHOTO POST: weekend in vilnius

It's the last post for the year of 2012 and both Felix and I would like to wish you a Merry Christmas (if you have celebrated on the 24th of December) and a happy upcoming New Year!

As I only celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January, a short notice weekend trip to Vilnius in Lithuania was planned. Such a cute little city which most of all fulfilled my longing for snow, as here in Austria there was no sign of it. Though there's a weird phenomenon I discovered about this city - it's much more spectacular at night than during day time!! Maybe all those gorgeous Christmas decorations are to be blamed :)

Hope you're enjoying the holidays and the winter break! We wish you a fabulous New Year's celebration tonight!! Felix is currently in the US, in New York to be exact, and I'm heading over to Hungary to celebrate in Budapest. So make sure to check back in a while & read all about our adventures ;)

 the only way to survive the Lithuanian cold - with cozy scarves and Russian style hats :) 

 icy & snowy streets up to the Gates of Dawn

 warming up during a sightseeing break at the "La Cave" café

 ♪ ♫ "snow is falling, all around me..." ♫ ♪

 Cathedral -Basilica of St. Stanislaus & St. Ladislaus

 typical Orthodox churches all around - the Church of St. Peter & St. Paul

 the most amazing entrance to a pub!!! & yes I am a huge fan of London ^^

 the Town Hall square at night 

MOVIE REVIEW: "Anna Karenina"

image via

Atonement, Pride & Prejudice, Hanna… Joe Wright is one of my favorite directors right now. Not only is his choice of actors always exquisite, his movies also shine with the best cinematography you can get. In his new project, once again with muse Keira Knightley who has finally seemed to have specialized in tragic time period roles only, he has a try at Leo Tolstoi’s famous adultery novel “Anna Karenina”.

As almost all of the scenes in the whole movies take place on a stage, making you feel like the theater audience with special backstage insights, the movie is given a special feeling to it right from the beginning. This technique works fantastically, even though I was skeptical while watching the trailer. The whole scenery in general looks absolutely fabulous, every scene works for itself. On that score, the movie is a masterpiece. The cast delivers very solid performances, although I feel that no one really stood out, however, maybe that was the screenplay’s fault.

That leads me to the weakness of the film, which is the plot itself. I have rarely seen such a heavy movie in my life with such few light moments so that the few light moments, especially in the end, are almost too appreciated. Blame Tolstoi, I’m sure the novel has exactly the same tonality! Maybe the screenplay should have been loosened up a bit and not centered on 3 persons only in order to take away some of the drooping moments.

All in all, however, a movie made with so much love for adequacy and detail, a cast stunning to look at and the fascinating beginning and end, a magical movie that dares to give you something different in terms of setting events in scene, despite being a mass release!

 

PHOTO POST: last goodbyes

Even though it's already the beginning of December, here on entertainment scrapbook, we like to do things differently ;) So instead of showing you pictures of snowy winter wonderlands, we have decided to say our last goodbyes to autumn 2012 with this post.
Hopefully you'll be able to feel the mood of these shots, where we wanted to capture such fun and carefree moments. The location being an old train station, a bit outside of Vienna, was a little dream come true for itself, as we have always wanted to take photos there. And combined with spending the time with good friends and lots and lots of laughter, the day couldn't have been more perfect.
On this note, a farewell to golden November and a hello to silvery and frosty December.