Sunday, April 14, 2013

Czech Republic: A paradise

I can call it a dream. Czech Republic is beauty beyond expression. I cannot imagine a particular place in the whole of my Czech Republic experience that looked less beautiful. Lush greenery,  smoky mountains,  mirror-like lakes were doubling up the beauty. It felt like every element there, like the trees, mountains, lakes, were connected with one another and shared something very deep. And being there, felt like those elements absorbed us into the beautiful oneness and our hearts were following the rhythm of the lovely song of nature. The impressions are so strong that just closing the eyes are bringing back the rich colors, the scents, the wonderful memories I had there. Though these memories are from the past, they are overriding the present and still giving the feeling of oneness with the nature. Can I call  this a timeless experience? Ain't it wonderful? :)

Thanks to Landal, http://www.landal.com/gb-en/holiday-park/czech-republic/south-bohemia/marina-lipno (exact location where we stayed) for the wonderful accommodation in lovely apartments facing amazing landscapes, and for the great facilities like bikes, pools, sauna, boats, restaurants etc. And with amazing prices and offers. 

Also my warm regards to the lovely bunch of dearest friends who share similar preferences in enjoying nature rather than plan crazy schedules to cover more places and stuff. Looking forward to more such landal trips dear buddies. :)

One amazing experience that made my thoughts stronger on " the journey being more important than the destination ". More than where we went to, it was the lovely drives that made our trip all the more beautiful.












Landal houses viewed from the lake.







View from our balcony. The scene that was just dark grey got dramatic in a few minutes as soon as the non-stop rain finally stopped and the clouds drifted. The colors got brighter and brighter and the whole landscape looked HDRish. This pic is a normal capture and not an HDR.





Another lovely view from the balcony. We  spent our mornings just sitting in the balcony, sipping coffee, enjoy long breakfasts and watch the endless beauty of these smoky mountains.


A close up of the houses on the mountains.

 This was my first ever experiment with long exposure after buying the remote controller. The image was taken during late night when there was absolutely no light. It was pitch dark. The awesomeness of long exposure is that it makes things visible even during complete darkness. I was totally lost in the "wowness" after looking at this pic.. :) Thanks to Raghu and Shruti specially for accompanying me with my crazy experiments amidst freezing cold and waiting for very long duration to release shutter and a lot of trail and error in fixing the parameters in getting a good, low-noise pic.





Fun-group! :) 2 cars with large spaces would run out of space in carrying our luggage for our weekend trips that had mainly lots and lots of  food items. Enjoyed cooking and eating yummy food with you all.


A perfect day for a motor boat ride. Each one of us took turns in driving the motor boat and traversed along the lovely landscapes for almost half a day.


Raghu peeping out of the cabin :). Was fun making pics of all such creative poses of all of us.











We din't plan much for Czech Republic as the weather forecast showed us continuous rainfall all through the weekend. Nevertheless, the rain would stop once in a while when we would  go out and roam around. Once, we accidentally came across the trampoline close to our apartment. That turned out to be one of the best moments where we had a lot of fun.


A creative shot from a rare perspective capturing all smiles :) Love you all! 



Saturday, April 6, 2013

Never ending night life in Las Vegas

View from the tallest tower, Stratosphere where we stayed as well. Thanks to buddy Sush for booking a lovely room in Stratosphere!


Beautiful buildings with lovely architecture..

Mandalay Bay

Two blocks that are tilted to display "V" shape.. Marvelous..





Mini Eiffel tower lit up beautifully in the middle of Las Vegas Strip..




Fun driving on the boulevard, also known as the Las Vegas strip.

Harley Davidson Cafe...


Interesting architecture..


Hard Rock Cafe


Crazy thrill ride on top of Stratosphere, which is supposedly the highest thrill ride in the world at a height of 1081 ft.


Casinos that  never take a break in Las Vegas.

I always thought the casinos would be filled with smart brainy guys. I was wrong and I was quite amazed at the way people (esp old people) sit day-in day-out at the slot machines and just keep pushing a button constantly and play games with zero usage of their brains. I tried my luck at some of these games, a few slot machines and roulette. Not too lucky with gambling but still got quite some which I used for a couple of more games. I also met an interesting person at the roulette counter during his break, who poured out how his life transformed from being a physics professor at a top class university to a roulette dealer whose wife and children also moved away from him. I wish life brings back luck in his life. No wonder this is a place with lots of rags-to-riches, riches-to-rags stories.


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