2 hearts, 1 world

It was my first time in Sofia (Bulgaria) and I was invited by my dear friend Yana. It could not have been better. I had such a great time. Too short though. I'm waiting for another invitation/excuse to come. Wink wink. Yana is a journalist, an activist, and above all someone who not only cares for others but does a lot for them. Yana rules! I suspect her to secretly run the country (if not the the world)!

Drue is a contemporary artist based in the Silicon Valley. Her artwork integrates brainwaves, relativistic effects, mirrors, ink-painting, storm & heartbeat recordings. The picture was taken in front of one of her creations in Portola Valley (California, USA). I almost forgot the main information: she is a dear friend of mine.

Just like the policemen in Rome, the famous Swiss Guards, internationally known for their sartorial elegance are allowed to take pictures with people making faces but not with two plastic hearts ...

I was in Rome (Italy), near the Coliseum and it was impossible to find a person living in Rome to take the picture with the two hearts. I asked some policemen but they were only allowed to take pictures with people, not with objects! Finally, I was saved by this gentleman, who kindly accepted to strike the pose. He was so kind that he only asked me for 10 euros after I took the picture. How nice of him.

This lady was a bit surprise by my request to take a picture of her at Heathrow airport (England). Maybe because of the early time of the day.

Meet Ashley. He works at night in Egrove Park (England) where I spent a couple of days. We had a nice chat at 5 am as I was waiting for my taxi. This man is nice and smiling at every hour of the night.

Muhammad comes from Bangladesh. In addition to having a beautiful smile, he helps a lot of people in need live a dignified life thanks to financial and human help. In 2006, he was awarded a very important prize to acknowledge his efforts. I had previously met him in Paris, but this picture was taken in Davos (Switzerland).

Paul is Irish, he writes and sings songs that reach the heart of a lot of us. He also devotes an incredible amount of time to help people around the world including meeting heads of state to convince them to cancel the debts of poor countries, among many other things. We met in Davos (Switzerland) and after I explained what the two hearts were about, he looked at me with a smile and was kind enough to take the time to strike this creative pose.

I was between two flight at Schipol airport in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) and I wanted to buy tulip seeds for my daughters when I started to talk to this very nice lady about the 2 hearts. She did not let me finish and after laughing explained me she has all sorts of similar requests. No later than the same morning someone asked her to take a picture with a toy monkey.

A walk away from the center allowed me to enjoy a great view of the city and once again I met a person nice enough not only to take the picture but to also explain me which buildings I was seeing.