Rumšiškés

Today I want to take ayou for a visit to one of the nicest Open Air museums Rumšiškés. It is located in Lithuania, on the hill above Kaunas sea (lake, in fact :-)). Museum was opened in 1966 and it has about 50 buildings mapping the village life in 4 parts of Lithuania. I love wooden buildings and wooden crosses, the place is so lovely. Enjoy my shots.

Rumšiškés.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Pattern

One day in Dubai gave me enough shots for Pattern Photo Challenge. That day we came to Dubai with car, parked it by the creek and just bellow the parking house there was a beautiful souk (market) with spices, teas, esences, fragrances and other smelly and tasty thinks.

Spice market

From spicy souk we continued to the gold one, where you can find all the gold jeweleries in shapes and patterns you can think of.

Gold market

Finally we took abra (boat over the creek) to the other side of the water to see fabric souk, with beautiful, colorful, glittering fabrics with embroideries. I just loved it :-).

Fabric market 1

Fabric market 2

Weekly Photo Challenge: Color

Colorful gallery for Weekly Photo Challenge, graffiti zone at Prague Těšnov.

Weekly Image Of Life: Easter Time

Today I have some shots connected with Easter in Czech Republic and Prague for Weekly Image Of Life: Easter Time.

Despite the fact that Czech Republic is very secular country, also here we have Easter services, this one from St. Salvator Church at Klementinum complex.

Easter Ceremony at St. Salvator Church, Klementinum

Mostly the feast is the great opportunity to decorate city squares and have Easter markets, as this one at the Old Town square.

Old Town Square – Easter Market

“Kraslice” are the real egg shales. The name comes from the Czech word “krásný” = beautiful and “krásný” comes from Slavonic/Russian word “krasnij” = red. Look at the next gallery and you won’t be surprised, that kraslice are mostly red. There are many decoration styles, every village has its own style and method and ornament shapes, which are used for centuries.

“Kraslice” – Easter Eggs

Important for Easter Monday, “pomlázka”. Pomlázka is a stick made from willow canes and the word comes from: “mladý” = young, “omladit/pomladit” = make younger. Therefore, on the Easter Monday mornings boys are visiting girls and they make them younger with their “pomlázka’s” and girls are giving back the eggs and ribbons. Look at it from other perspective here.

Pomlázka

About Czech Christmas gingerbread tradition you can read here, and for Easter we have special gingerbread shapes as well :-).

Easter Gingerbreads

Eggs are all around us, also like a colorful candles.

Eggs od candles?

And easter time is also important, as the spring is coming to Czech Republic and flowers start to bloom and smell, it is beautiful!

Spring is coming

Weekly Photo Challenge: Lunchtime

When we travel, we do not go All Inclusive, as we spent most of the day travelling the country and not in the hotel complex by the pool or at the beach. Therefore, the All Inclusive would be unavailingly profligated. But for our honeymoon we found a newly opened hotel with very nice prices in Tunisia on Djerba island, so we enjoyed the All Inclusive programme there. See some shots from our lunchtime for Weekly Photo Challenge: Lunchtime.

The offer was really huge and it was quite difficult to choose our dish.

Salat bar

Something lighter.

First courses

Our dishes through the week.

You think it is easy to go just for one style?

Moroccan theme lunch

Moroccan dishes

Something sweet.

Yes, I tasted it all … and it was delicious

And this was our most favorite drink, mint tea with pine seeds.

Tea with pine seeds – lovely

A Word A Week Challenge – Hat

A Word A Week Challenge – Hat challenge is very good for me, as I love hats and all the head covers, I have quite a lot of them in my closet and I wear one every day. But I wouldn’t bother you with photos of my head with hat, so I chose three collections for you.

The first one is a commercial for Staropramen brewery in Prague and I like it a lot. Staropramen beer is for everyone :-).

Prague Staropramen beer hats

The second collection is from my favorite Baltic states, most of them are from Tallinn market. Next time I am there I will definitelly go for one!

Beautiful colorful (mostly) “hats” from Tallinn market. The bottom right is from Lithuania, castle Trakai

The last shot is from Prague Christmas Crafts Markets and there I already was succesfull, one of them I wear this winter. See the earings bottom right and left from them above the black hat with red string there is a blue-green one and that’s the one I have bought.

Prague Christmas Market Hats

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Rainbow Colors

For Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Rainbow Colors I take you to South Bohemia with its beautiful towns, fresh air, colorful nature, places I really love and visit often. BTW preparing this post made me want to go there immediately :-).

Colorful streets of České Budějovice

We will start in České Budějovice, city, which was founded in 1265 by famous Czech king Přemysl Otakar II. It is the biggest city in the region and it has a stunning old city center. I love the small craftshops there.

Patchwark cushions and colorful soaps

Pomlázka and spring flowers

Spring is the perfect time for visit, but you can go there anytime. In spring you can admire a local market with flowers and colorful “pomlázka”, the beautiful and colorful things at view. They are done from willow twigs and decorated with colorful ribbons. They are used on Easter Monday, when boys have to help girls to be fresh next year with beating them with “pomlázka”. And finally the boys are given with the easter decorated eggs.

Glass earings and pendants

Market at Třeboň square

Another ravishing town in South Bohemia is Třeboň. Třeboň is a spa town, with a small beautiful center, a brewery with the best beer, renaissance castle and ponds with big carp culture tradition.
Easter Markets are very colorful here as well, I love all the glass jewelery that can be found there. You can guess how many earing pairs I have … And after the visit of the center, castle, castle gardens, brewery and spa you can go to the pond Svět (= “World”) and make a tour in one hour around the World on the boat.
If this is not enough, you can go to visit gothic Schwarzenberg’s sepulchre and chapel, which are worth seeing. On your way back you should come along the Golden Canal,  which goes throught the whole pond region and supply the ponds with water.
For refreshement visit Regent brewery pub or Šupina restaurant on the ramparts.

Glass earings

Colors eye-catcher

Last but not least is Český Krumlov, a wonderful place written in UNESCO World Heritage List. The town is mighty placed at the Vltava river meandr, with big castle and cute city center, look at my previous post about the city here. Every time we are there we have to visit a music shop, where they sell our favorite Putumayo music with lovely colorful covers and harmonized music selections from all over the world. In small shops you can find here jeweleries with unique Czech Vltavín (Moldavite) stone, often combined with Czech Ruby. This region is also a seat of the color factory for colored crayons and all other color types for artist, the name of it is Koh-i-noor.

Putumayo covers

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Wood

The third element in Cee’s Challenge is Wood. I invite you to visit places where you can find beautiful wood art works. We will start at the north, in Lithuania, where we will visit lake natural park Aukštaitija with its Beekeeping Museum. The next stop is in Neringa (also Lithuania), in a small village called Juodkranté, where is “witches” hill with lots of wooden sculptures, place full of stories, history and creativity. Finally I will take you pretty far to Yemen, to wadi Hadramawt, around town called Shibam, maybe you have heard about Desert Manhattan? I will show you doors, locks, door latches carved from the wood.
Beekeeping museum in Stripekai and wooden statues showing bee and/or honey connected moments, beehives.

Beehives

Bears robbing wild bees for honey

Wooden bees and honeycombs

People working in woods, honey god

Hill of Witches in Juodkranté, nice walk through the wood with lots of statues.

Seat

Musicians and devils

Faces, gods and totem

Wadi Hadramawt, Shibam.

Doors

Locks and wooden windows

Door latches or other door connected wooden objects

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Metal

Hint, hint!

Few years ago I was in Italy, in Venice. I fall in love with the city, I spent four whole days wandering through the small streets and canals, exploring hidden yards and passages. I was also collecting photos of objects and situations that seemed to me to be interesting. And now it’s the right time to show you one of the collections, which is called Bars and Grids of Venice, for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Metal.

Smaller grids

“Flower” bars

Doors

Weekly Photo Challenge: My 2012 in Pictures

The last Weekly Photo Challenge in 2012 is, not surprisingly, the reminiscence of the whole year. I chose for you the views of Prague (mostly), places that I visited, actions that happened there.

In January I visited Vyšehrad, place with beautiful atmosphere any time a day, on the shot you see rotunda of St. Martin from 11th century, one of the oldest churches in Prague. More about Vyšehrad and its famouse cemetery you can read here.

Vyšehrad

February is a month for carnival and Mardi Grass celebration. This shot was taken in Karlín, where the celebrations took place at the main square around the church. More about Karlín you can find here.

Smíchov

Spring was coming and at the small garden by the Faust house in Prague (you don’t know who is Faust? Read more at wiki) yearly selling exhibition of alpine plants took place in March.

Faust house and alpine plants

You already read something about Prague subway in one of my previous posts, in April I visited it from the background and the experience was quite interesting. See trains in engine house on the next shot.

Metro

“It’s first of May the day of love”, that’s the beginning of poem May by Karel Hynek Mácha, a Czech romantic writer. His statue stands in the big public park Petřín and every first of May couples are coming to kiss under blossoming tree here and greet Mácha. The English translation of the whole poem you can read at this link. Warning: it doesn’t have a happy end!

Petřín, the funicular at the background

At my blog you can read mostly about Prague city center, but there are big housing estates with block of flats around the city. Even there you can find parks and oases of nature, such as a farm called Toulcův dvůr with cows, horses, sheeps, and other domestic animals. I visited that place in June and on the shot you see the view from there.

Toulcův dvůr

Almost whole July I spent out of Prague, so this shot is from place called Czech Switzerland. It is at North Bohemia and the nature here is just stunning. You can hike there and admire the nature in its wildness. We were lucky, as the gulches on Kamenice river were opened after two years, when they were destroyed by big floods.

Quiet gulch

August I spent travelling around country too. Kutná Hora, the second most important city in Czech Republic in our history. On the shot you see the St. Barbara cathedral and I wrote more about this place here.

St. Barbora cathedral in Kutná Hora

Back to Prague, the famous John Lennon’s wall has been changing day to day, how it looked in September you can find on my shot.

Lennon or Lemon?

Fall in Prague is really beautiful as you can check also here, my shot for October shows you St. Vitus cathedral, the most important church in our country, from a bit different perspective that we are used to look at.

St. Vitus cathedral

Houses of Prague are full of house signs. People use to ask me why there is written “U” (U dvou slunců, U housliček, U prstenu, U kamenného zvonu, …) on the buildings. You can also find the “U” on my shot, where “U tří Turků” is written. The “U” means “beside” or “by”. Thus, the house is called House Beside three Turks, because of the three Turks heads on the facade. I plan to write more about house signs in Prague somewhere in future. Meanwhile, you can look at more house signs at my very first post here (bottom picture). That’s my shot for November.

Turks

About December in Prague I wrote a lot, you can check all the posts and I also wrote about the tradition of nativity scenes. The last picture is from the famous church of Our Lady Victorious, where you can find the statue of Baby Infant Jesus (also on my list for next year posts). At the back of the church you can find shelves with figures of baby infant Jesus all over the worls but also small nativity scenes, like is the one on my shot. The creches are from South America (Salvador), and I love that simple style a lot.

Betlem

I hope you enjoyed my 2012 tour and I hope we will meet next year, if not in Prague, then definitelly on my blog pages here :-).