The recollection brightened my eyes

The photo shows Le Meridien Barcelona on bustling La Rambla in Barcelona, Spain. My hostal was just a few minutes away from there. Speaking of Le Meridien, I've stayed in Le Meridien Pyramids in Giza, Egypt for three nights to celebrate own birthday. Le Meridien Pyramids has a great location to view the pyramids of Giza from its rooms and from its swimming pool. I had a really great time in Le Meridien Pyramids and Le Meridien Barcelona reminded me of my worthy splurge a lot, so that's why. When I stood there, the recollection brightened my eyes then I took this photo.

I'm a bit of a Britanophile

I took this photo in London, the UK. The photo shows the world famous department store Harrods and a lovely double-decker bus. Since this summer, I'm a bit of a Britanophile and I started to learn English English. Each lesson is filled with surprises and stimulating for me. Different accent, different vocabulary usage, and different idioms are so much fun to learn. Also, it's so interesting to find out a lot of cultural differences. I can't stop being a Britanophile. I think the Union Jack is a cool symbol, so I bought some clothes with a big Union Jack.

The Dome of the Rock

The photo shows the Dome of the Rock located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, Israel. This is the view from the Mount Olives showing the walls of the Old City as well. To get to the Mount Olives I caught a cab at the entrance of Mamilla Mall right after fabulous Israeli lunch at a restaurant in the bustling shopping mall. To be honest, I caught the cab to get back to my hotel, because I was absolutely beat, but I went to plan B and visited the Mount Olives then afterward returned to my hotel.

Bathing fountain in Kandy, Sri Lanka

I took this photo in Kandy, Sri Lanka. This fountain is known as a public bathing fountain for elephants or monkeys and such. When I visited the fountain, there were several monkeys seemed to really enjoy the bath in public.  I've heard that the fountain is more than hundred-year-old and is known as a fountain in commemoration of the visit of the Prince of Wales. I'm not sure, but it's interesting. Kandy is famous for its Esala Perahera (a.k.a. the festival of the tooth), but during the festival, I was in Unawatuna and watched the festival on TV.

Get into a long conversation

I took this photo in Malmö, Sweden. I liked the whitish building on the photo, especially the windows. The windows themselves were quite simple, but look at the ornament on the wall. They're spectacular, aren't they? I didn't have enough information about Malmö, but exploring the city was so much fun because of that beautiful buildings. I've talked with some Swedish people in some different countries during my trip. They were all chatterbox and were knowledgeable about many many topics. I enjoyed our conversation pretty much as if I lost track of time.

TG642 BKK - NRT; Dec 2010

The photo shows an in-flight meal of Thai Airways International flight TG642 Bangkok, Thailand to Narita, Tokyo (BKK - NRT). It was a red-eye flight. Shortly after the plane took off from Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok, I felt like I needed to have a power nap or something, but I actually fell asleep until breakfast. I could choose Khai Jiaw (Thai: ไข่เจียว) or Khao Tom (Thai: ข้าวต้ม), which meant omelette or rice soup. What are you in the mood for? I chose Khai jiaw and had it with a croissant, yogurt, and some Thai fruits.

Be on your guard

I took this photo in Thimphu, Bhutan. There was a zoo like place where I could see some caged takin exactly like the photo shows. I've heard that takin have a curious nature and sometimes they were easy to caught. Hey takin, be on your guard. From my point of view, takin were slow and the quiet type of animal. Come to think of it, when I looked at takin and was taking some photos, they gazed at me. When I left, I noticed them still looking at me. It created an illusion that I was being caught in a cage, they were living in nature.

Every cloud has a silver lining

I took this photo in Pokhara, Nepal. My hotel was in the area so-called damside and the photo shows view of damside. Very idyllic. I got out of my hotel room early in the morning to see the Himalayas. In that morning the sky was a bit overcast with dark clouds like the photo shows and it was kinda typical sky of the rainy season in Pokhara, but at least the Himalayas could be seen a little behind the clouds. Every cloud has a silver lining. After the Himalaya viewing, I had a croissant and a piece of white bread roll with a cup of coffee at a bakery cafe.

Seeing is believing

I took this photo at Pha That Luang in Vientiane, Laos. Pha That Luang is a huge golden Buddhist stupa located in the outskirts of the city center. I took a tuk-tuk- to get there. Someone told me Pha That Luan was surprisingly big. Someone told me Pha That Luang was so beautiful. I visited there and saw Pha That Luang with my own two eyes then thought Pha That Luang was magnificent. It was much larger than I expected and was such a stunning Buddhist stupa. A picture's worth a thousand words.

It's the highlight of my time in Venice

I took this photo when I was riding on a gondola in Venice, Italy. I loved the color and the design of this building. I personally believe that gondola ride is the highlight of Venice, so I was totally happy to did that. Other than gondolas, I gave two thumbs-up to Italian food just like everybody else. Actually, Italian have a special gesture to explain 'It tastes like heaven',  though. In venice, I had unforgettable Spaghetti Aglio e Olio Peperoncino. It's like spaghetti with garlic, olive oil and chili peppers. It looks kinda simple, but it tastes like heaven. I love it.

Lucerne from above

The photo shows Lucerne, Switzerland. I arrived in Switzerland from Munich, Germany via Principality of Liechtenstein. From the coach windows and from Liechtenstein I already viewed a lot of snow covered mountains. Then in Lucerne, I took a cable car to get to my hotel on the top of Mount Pilatus. The photo shows the city from above. Mount Pilatus is 2,132 meters high, and the hotel was located on the snow covered top of the mountain. When I took this photo, I was so excited to spend a couple of nights there.

Put the pedal to the metal

When I took a stroll around Rodeo Drive of Beverly Hills, California, I found this car which was surrounded by a sea of people. To be honest, I don't know much about cars, but so many people there were so excited to take pictures of this car, so I did the same thing just in case. You can imagine. It was my first day in Los Angeles, California and I was planning to get to Las Vegas on the day next, which means I had only so little time. I wanted to see a lot of places in Los Angeles without any difficulty, so I took part in LA City Tours. The one-day tour was going pedal to the metal and I could visit whole places that I've always wanted to. The tour guide was a motormouth, so I never got bored. Thanks a lot.

It's been two years

Just two years ago I flew to Lisbon, Portugal from Cairo, Egypt and in the afternoon I walked around Lisbon for the first time in my life. Lisbon left a strong impression on me. After my very short stay in Lisbon, I can't stop thinking to return to Lisbon again and spend more time in that picturesque city, but it hasn't materialized yet. I just can't believe that it's already been two years. How time flies. I took this photo in Baixa district of Lisbon, Portugal. I think this balcony was a store's outside display to show the beautiful clothes. Very nice.

A rose by any other name

I took this photo in Budapest, Hungary when I was walking around the hilly Buda side to see Buda castle and some more historical sites of this ancient city. Buda Castle (a.k.a. Royal Palace) is on the southern tip of Castle Hill, so view of Budapest from there is also spectacular. When I was there, I had a guidebook of Budapest, but I was more enjoyed the view of the city itself, so I enjoyed the beautiful scenery without looking up the names of buildings and such. I personally believe that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. However actually, I couldn't stop being a shutterbug in Budapest. Also, I was battling with the rest of the remaining space on my memory tip of digital camera. Before the trip, I thought I had enough remaining space on my memory tip, but it definitely wasn't enough, actually.

The Nile River flows through Cairo, Egypt

The photo shows daytime view of Egyptian capital Cairo from Cairo Tower. Cairo Tower is the place where you can see the world's longest river from above. The Nile River is 6,650 kilometer long and flows through ten different countries and its lot of cities. Cairo, Egypt  is one of the city. My hotel in Cairo, Egypt was within walking distance of Cairo Tower, so I got there on foot. When I visited Cairo Tower, there weren't so many tourists and I didn't have to wait to stand waiting for an elevator. A Bulgarian couple and I got on the elevator and went up to the open-air observation floor. This is the view from there.