19 Saturday Oct 2013
Posted in Photo of My Day
These is a photo collage of some shots from back in August when I moved and we took a little afternoon trip to the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium.
30 Friday Aug 2013
23 Friday Aug 2013
Posted in Photo of My Day
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My new institution of higher learning is way neato. Most of my classes for the duration of my time here will be held in the Cathedral of Learning, which is a zillion floors high and looks like Hogwarts in the inside.*
One of the cool features is the nationality rooms, which celebrate individual countries. Unfortunately I won’t be taking any classes in them, but I enjoyed exploring! Here are some visual highlights. (Excuse the photo quality for now; still working sans internet and am posting this from my phone.)
Photo 1: clockwise from top left: main hall, Armenian alphabet in the Armenian room, Austrian room.
Photo 2: clockwise from top left: Turkish room (those lighter colored wood panels double ask fold-down desks!), African heritage and Indian rooms.
*approximate.
10 Wednesday Apr 2013
Posted in Bumbling Chats, Destinations, Photo of My Day
When we were in Turkey, we were privileged to meet many kind and generous people, some of whom you’ve heard about here on the blog. For a few days our friend Mehmet came to town and we got to hang out a bit with his buddy, Levent.
Levent is a gifted photographer, and one afternoon we all took a walk along the water; Levent snapped away on his camera and some of the shots he took really encapsulated certain moments in a unique and beautiful way.
Take a look.
Connecting Asia to Europe in Istanbul.
06 Saturday Apr 2013
Posted in Photo of My Day, Travel Musings
By some act of literary coincidence, Dresden made an appearance in two of the books I read this year: Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut (finally) and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer.
That, plus a friend’s rave review of the city, and the fact that it was on my way to Berlin–where I’d fly back to the US from–all made it a perfect storm of reasons to visit.
I’m glad I did. Although I didn’t make it to the old site of the slaughterhouse where Vonnegut himself had been held during WWII, I did explore a bit of the city. Over a couple days, I:
Out of all of those things, though, I think my favorite was just exploring the city in the snow.
So, for this desert girl, here are some of my favorite snowy pics from Saxony.
The Golden Horseman is August the Strong, an elector of Saxony, duke of Lithuania and king of Poland in the 18th century.
22 Friday Mar 2013
Posted in Destinations, Photo of My Day, Wise Travel Words
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Stick painting on the beach. It’s amazing what an open, creative heart and a piece of tree can do together. Click to enlarge.
Something I’ve learned about life, which has been only reinforced by travel, is that you never know where you’re going to find magic.
It can be in a shared experience with a stranger, kind words, or seeing a treasured sight for the first time.
Or, as in this photo, it can be on a windy beach in Sonoma County in June, when my father picked up a piece of driftwood to create some sand art.
21 Thursday Feb 2013
Posted in Destinations, Photo of My Day, Wise Travel Words
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Isle of Skye, Scotland.
Click to enlarge.
Obviously sometimes this is a bad idea (has anyone else seen The Descent?!), but some of the coolest travel memories I’ve had have been from getting lost down side streets or, like this photo, from a day wandering through the Scottish Highlands.
Have you ever paved a way?
19 Tuesday Feb 2013
Posted in Destinations, Photo of My Day
Spent a few beautiful days in Salzburg last week: home of Mozart and the Sound of Music, both exciting music-related things (although one is far more ingenious than the other).
I learned a lot about Mozart while there, and will share some of those things soon with you all, but before I do, here’s a little taster of some Mozart-related monuments, etc. around town.
By the way: Mozart spent about a third of his life traveling!
Top left: Mozart graffiti in an underpass, Middle: Mozart’s statue in Mozartplatz, Top Right: Piano at the Baroque concert I attended (the piano had in Latin ‘Music is the Cause of Our Delight’; Middle Right: shot of Mozart’s birthplace, Bottom Right: Close up of the detail on the piano, Bottom Left: Mozartkugel, a Salzburg original bonbon named for Mozart (pistachio, marzipan, chocolate, oh my!)
16 Saturday Feb 2013
Posted in Destinations, Photo of My Day
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This desert gal is still getting her snow legs, and believe me, that requires taking a lot of photographic proof that snow a) sticks to the ground and b) isn’t so bad after all! In fact, it’s kinda nice sometimes. And pretty and shiny.
Here are my shots of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, in the snow. Sorry the title is misleading; I liked the alliteration.
Warning: This post is photo heavy! Let ‘er load, folks!
Nobody’s going to be sitting on that park bench anytime soon…
Here’s Ljubljana’s Tromostovje, or Triple Bridge–3 bridges crossing the river one after the other.
12 Tuesday Feb 2013
Posted in Destinations, Photo of My Day
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I’m not sure what his costume was supposed to be. Monkey cop?
This photo was taken on Saturday before the main carnival parade I attended in Ptuj, Slovenia. I saw this guy a number of times traipsing around town, spooking passersby and generally being mischievous, as one ought to be around this time of year.
Here he is, lighting a cigarette nonchalantly. You’d never know that just beyond the doors behind him on the left is a huge party going on with free food and drinks.
