Color palette - from the north pole, via Belgium to Poland. Grey (and Great) Europe pictures

For my entry to the color palette grey edition, I have selected four photos:

North Pole, Svalbard

The first picture comes from the island that officially belongs to Norway and is located on the North Pole. It's Svalbard - magnificent land of the polar bears, full of white and grey landscapes. Svalbard is amazing on so many levels that it's difficult to describe it in few words.

It's the curious land, where everyone who is leaving the town for a walk, is obligated by law to take the gun with themselves (to protect from mentioned polar bears).

It's the land when it's officially prohibited to die and elder people are encouraged to buy the ticket plane to continental Norway (because of the temperatures, there are no new graves on the island. There is only one small historical graveyard).

It's the land where for half a year it's too bright to fall asleep with no problems and another half a year, during the polar night, everything is so depressive that to take care of the mental health of the citizens, it's prohibited to sell the alcohol on the island.

It's the land where there are more polar bears and even though the governor is trying to invite new citizens (mostly, setting one of the lowest taxes in the world), it's not changing at all. Unfortunately, it might though, because polar bears are suffering due to global warming and their population is shrinking drastically recently.

It's the land that I had the opportunity to visit several years ago and I would do it once again if I only could.
If you are curious about Svalbard and my trip to that place, read this post, where I describe my trip to that magical land.

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Brussels, Belgium

Another two photos come from Brussels, Belgium. It's a city very close to my heart. Even though I am Polish, my mother lives there and I used to visit her at least once per year before the pandemic (looking forward to meeting again as soon as I will be able to travel again).

It's a city of many faces - with a modern, bureaucratic area next to the European Union Parlament, another post-modern district on the north, with Atomium building created for one of the Expos, green, full of natural parks suburbians, mostly from the XXth century and old city center where baroque and romanticism mixes with art deco and different architectural styles.

In all that mix, it's not difficult to find the places where the grey color is the superstar. I could share with you Manneken Pis sculpture (pissing boy), or less popular Yenneken Pis or Zenneken Pis (pissing girl and pissing dog), but that you probably know. Instead of touristic pictures, let me share with you a more personal perspective on that city and two photos I love very much.

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Poland, lower silesia

I couldn't travel with you around the world in this post without taking you to my homeland, Poland. That picture was made in 1991 by my father, somewhere in the Lower Silesia region. It's not so easy to notice that but if you will look closely, you will find me and my mother in the central part of the picture.

I don't remember what castle ruins were. They all look quite similar in that region of the country. I do love the picture though and believe it deserves the spot in this publication. It's a small, personal touch.

Funny thing, now when I look at it, I could swear the angel sculpture on the left top part of the castle tower is almost exactly the same as the angel sculpture I have photographed in Brussels :P

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Thank you for reading,
@papi.mati

All the photos belong to me. The last one was not made by me personally but by my dad.

Invitation goes to:
@geos90
@graceleon
@willeusz
@yonaikerurso

CC:
@olesia and @nastena09

10% to @steem-bru