And I'm happy to announce that the second part of the Gallery with my photos from Austria is already on-line! This one is a bit more varied - yes, there are mountain views, but aslo some birds of pray, village views and even one with Alpine cows ;-) Enjoy! Visit Alpine Views Gallery II
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And finally, here comes the first part of the photos from our short holidays in Austria, in the Mayerhofen Valley of Tyrol. The Alps are simply breathtaking – there is no other way to put it. And it’s amazing that during one week at the end of Summer you can get to see and capture both Summer and Winter views. I invite you to visit my Alpine Views Gallery I. Enjoy! Achensee (The Achen Lake) is the biggest post-glacial lake of the Austrian Tirol. And like every post-glacial lake it has incredibly blue water, lies in a picturesque setting surrounded by mountains and… is very, very cold ;-) Let me show you a short photo-story of an Achensee day trip. One of the more original ways of reaching the Lake is to take o 50-minute ride up the mountain from Jenbach with the Achensee Steam Cog Railway, driven by the oldest steam cog locomotive in the world – one built in 1889. Admittedly, it may not be the most comfortable or fastest way of transportation available, but it certainly is an original and unique one, with lots of whistling, hissing and puffing ;-) And this is how it looks: Once the antique railway reaches the Seespitz Station, having consumed hundreds of kilograms of coal (some of which has by now ended up on your clothes in the form of soot), you can take a boat trip around the lake and admire the views. And the views are really amazing: You can also get off the boat at one of its many stops and visit one of the lake-side villages, to see an incredible number of traditional Austrian houses with wooden balconies overflowing with flowers, and an occasional alpine cow ;-)
I'm happy to report that I'm back from my holidays, which were a definite success :-) The Austrian Valley of Mayerhofen we went to was so beautiful that it looked more like a picture out of a fairytale book than reality. Cable car rides up the mountains were thrilling, mountain trains offered adventures, Alpine meadows were picturesque, mountain views breathtaking. The air was so incredibly fresh and the colours so brilliant that I got an injection of energy every time I looked around and breathed – it made me feel so alive. And now that I’m back in Warsaw – the grey city covered by dreary clouds sprouting tons of grey rain – I have my one-and-a-half thousand photos from Austria to cheer me up! So, obviously, you’ll be reading a lot about it and watching lots of my holiday pictures here in the upcoming weeks, but for starters – a short photo-story about all things Austrian! Let's start with a few amazing mountain views - and yes, apparently if you visit the Alps in August, you can get photos of both mountain summer views and winter views!!! (for the latter you just need to get to the top of a glacier ;-) Then, there are of course mountains streams, rivers, lakes and waterfalls: And have you ever seen some postcards with "traditional Austrian houses," the ones with wooden balconies flooded with blooming flowers? Guess what - they really do exist!!! Next, we have a number of different railways which help you move through and up the Austrian mountains - some come from 19th century, some look as if they were from 22nd century: We definitely can't forget about the few animals which are symbols of the Alps - an Alpine cow and an Alpine marmot ;-) And last but not least in my teaser-preview of Austria, the country's world-famous speciality and delicacy - the Sacher Torte!
Finally, holidays!!! :-) For the next week, instead of working and sitting in front of the computer I will be hiking in Austria and exploring the Zillertal Valley in Tirol! Me and my photo camera cannot wait (and hopefully so does my husband... ;-) ! Please keep your fingers crossed for nice weather, so that I can come back home with lots of amazing photos and new material for The Creative Life! Talk to you in a week! Last weekend, true to my decision to keep exploring Warsaw and the surrounding area in search of something interesting, we went on a trip to the Kampinos Forest. It’s a huge forest area north of the city, and I’m sure it has many picturesque areas, but there is unfortunately no detailed tourist information available as to where to find them…
We went on a hike along the yellow route and discovered that Kampinos is also home to thousands of blood-craving mosquitoes, which make the entire experience less than pleasant – to put it mildly. I only stopped a few times to take photos of mushrooms, and for each of them I have at least 3 mosquito bites to show… I will give Kampinos another try in a month or so, hoping that the mosquitoes will be gone by then… In the meantime, here are the mushroom photos – you’d better like them, since I paid for them in my own blood! ;-) I think I already mentioned once or twice that if your fingers are itching to take up the camera but there’s nothing much in the neighbourhood which seems inspiring enough, there’s always… a zoo. After all, animals are always interesting photo models. So here is a picture selection from the visit to the Warsaw Zoo.
For me, the best way to cheer me up and make me happy is to discover a new great place which is worth being photographed; if a few days pass and I come across nothing worth reaching for my camera, my high spirits plummet and I get restless. Now, in Holland it was quite easy to feed my inner need for photo-hunting and beauty and adventure – there were lots of beautiful and original places to explore, parks where birds could be hunted down, towns to visit, gardens bursting with amazing flowers, the sea-side changing throughout the seasons, cycling routes to explore – and so much more. In Warsaw, this is not so easy – I’ve looked really hard, and I keep looking, but it’s extremely difficult to find anything which even comes close to satisfying my exploration-and-photo-hunger. So when it got really bad, I went to visit one place when it is guaranteed you’ll find something photo-worthy – the zoo.
The Warsaw Zoo is not very big and the beginning of my visit was not very promising, but finally I’ve found something interesting – the Bird Pavilion, of course. So here comes the first batch of photos from my visit to the Warsaw Zoo, let’s start with a very original collection of small birds from America and Africa – enjoy! The Summer heat wave continues and sitting in front of a computer is becoming more than difficult – with no air conditioning the houses are so hot and stuffy, that even thinking becomes challenging! Let’s hope the temperatures will drop soon and I’ll be back to blogging in a nice, cool breeze…
It’s a tough choice whether it’s better to fight the heat indoors or outdoors; for those of you who prefer the latter, I have a suggestion – a visit to a zoo. Only it cannot be the kind of zoo with a lot of animals crowded in a small space – it should be a zoo with extensive grounds and animals spread out through the park. And the New Malta Zoo in Poznan is exactly this kind of zoo – it would take several hours to walk around its grounds, which include three huge lakes and lots of forests, and you only come across an animal ever 15 minutes or so – if you’re lucky. It’s almost like hunting – there’s no guarantee you’re going to see these animals at all! So here are a few photo trophies from my visit to the Malta Zoo yesterday – can you name all of these? ;-) As a mood-booster, I took my camera on a walk through the Lazienki Park yesterday morning, hoping to hunt down something interesting with my camera. I’ve been to this park before, but although it is said to have a significant bird population, I’ve just kept coming across squirrels and mallard ducks, and not much else. But yesterday I hit bingo – I stumbled upon a small patch of green which seemed to be a Bird Central – I think there were at least 10 kinds of birds flying around, and some of them I even managed to take photos of ;-) So here is a photo-report from my small safari. First, a very available addition to my collection – woodpecker! I followed it around with the camera for half an hour at least, but it’s been extremely good at hiding and running – still, I was patient, so I got a few shots: Second came another valuable addition to my bird photo collection, since I’ve never come across this bird before – even though it’s apparently pretty popular. A pretty blue-orange bird with a “black eye-mask” called The Eurasian Nuthatch – if only it didn’t hid so well al the time in the darkest corners… And this, ladies and gentlemen, is a Fieldfare. I’ve already have photos of it, but no pretty ones – the problem being that this bird is honestly one of the least photogenic ones I’ve come across. I saw one in a book that it looks best not when it’s jumping (which it does 90% of the time), but when it sits cuddled-up in a fluffy roll – well, this one was…Still not a beauty, but it looks better than all the other photos of it which I've got ;-) And this is definitely not a trophy – magpies are very common after all – but this one was much less camera-shy than the others I’ve encountered, so I’ve shot a nice photo-session of it ;-) The Park seems to have a large population of Great Tits, which are quite accustomed to humans walking around (and feeding them, I guess). This one allowed me to come quite close, when it was lounging on the ground and probably warming-up in the sun… And finally something which might not be a bird, but which is the cutest symbol of this Park – fiery squirrels. They’re just soooo pretty!
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August 2012
AuthorA fiery red head, a writer and a photographer in love with beautiful design and all things creative |