.japanese garden

.as I'm trying to do as many interesting things as possible to regain strength after thesis writing, I've decided to visit a bonsai exhibition in Prague's Botanical garden. I had exactly 2 hours to accomplish this deed (bus from Vienna arrived at 5 PM, exhibition was closing at 7 PM, this was the last day of exhibition)...
I was really tired after the journey, but the call of green beauty was undeniable :). So I only left my bag at student residence and went straight into botanical garden. The weather was beautiful and added to the exotic charm of bonsai trees. Their placement in the Japanese garden only accentuated their elegance. Walking along all the exhibits under the sunny sky and mighty trees I felt refreshed and overwhelmed by the power of natural beauty...

It was definitely worth it! Everybody who was not there can only regret this lost opportunity of recharging the batteries.

.bike tour

.as I'm a bit bored of biking in the vicinities of Prague, we finally did some trek further away :). Together with Ivan (big thanks for willingness to do me a company) we rode through the wilderness of natural park Krivoklatsko (50km to the west from Prague).
We had taken a train to Nove Straseci station and from there followed tourist marks, criss-crossing forests of the park. Sunny, yet relatively cold weather was a gift, because riding in hot days is a nightmare (and on Thursday it should be 28 degrees...).
Region of Krivoklatsko is beautiful with its deep coniferous forests and almost untouched nature. It offers nice bike trails with all you ever wanted, challenging ascents, appealing downhills, technical passages full of roots... We did some 85kms and pleasantly tired returned back to Prague at around 8 pm. Next time we'll try some other part of Czech nature :)!

.butterfly garden

.Saturday sky was cloudless and hard labour on my thesis requires some resting and relaxing (on a regular basis ;) ). So I gladly agreed to visit botanical garden with my friend Eva (classmate from high school, now working in Prague, almost everybody I knew in Kosice is now here, unbelievable...).

There is an exhibition of exotic butterflies in the greenhouse Fatamorgana. Our steps walked right there. First thing we saw was huge queue of people. Fortunately it was moving quite fast and in a few minutes we were walking around plants from all around the world. And yeah, there were butterflies everywhere. Flying over our heads, sitting on every imaginable place, feeding, taking sun bath :), etc. All colours and sizes, it was an amazing opportunity to test camera's macro abilities ;). This exhibition end on 29th of April, so if you're in Prague, don't miss it!
Afterwards we didn't miss also other parts of the garden. It is still too early for everything to be nice and green, yet many flowers and trees are blooming right now so it was worth a walk around. The most amazing sights is offering the Japanese garden, where you can relax a bit amongst cherry-trees. If you're bored and looking for some kind of relax, don't hesitate, botanical garden in bloom is a soothing treatment for everybody living stressful life in this big city...

.(freezing) wildpark

.so it happened again. I've visited the Wildpark. But this time the temperatures were way below the zero (-8, feels like -12). But what wouldn't you do for a sister, right ;)?
Apart from this we had quite a nice time. The weather was relatively sunny and walk through quiet woods is always relaxing. As we soon found out, many things have changed lately in this little zoo. As if to oppose the power of nature and winter, many newborn animals were enjoying their time on the Earth. One example for all of them. 5 cute, little piglets were playing and racing around their paddock. Only from time to time they had to stop and ask mother for more of the energy drink. Yeah, you're right it was a simple milk, yet it acted on them like real red bull. Two minutes after leaving pit stop they were again unstoppable :). It was really beautiful...

That's it, the week of fun has started ;). More photos from today are available here.

.kyrillomania

.the global weather changes are each year visible more and more... These days Europe has seen the strongest windstorms ever (probably, at least it was the worst hurricane in past 25 years). And it affected almost whole Europe. Fallen trees, damaged roofs, tens of death casualties, paralyzed transport... The city I'm staying in was not hit with such a strength (only some lectures were canceled as a precaution) but situation in Germany was really bad and unusual this weekend (train traffic had to be stopped for a whole day, thousands of flights canceled, etc.).

Is this the way the weather will look like in the future? Hopefully not, hopefully the mankind can find a way to stop (slow down) the global climate changes...

.(almost) winter beauty

.probably nobody can argue that this winter is not as it should have been... No snow, temperatures way over the normal values. And I personally love this white, silky thing falling from the sky. It's making the whole world softer, nicer and calmer. But as I said, not this season (at least in almost all parts of Europe...).
So you probably can imagine my excitement, when today I awoke into white world :). Ok, it was not white because of the snow, yet the temperatures had dropped overnight by almost 15 degrees and it was freezing outside. Every possible piece of ground, trees and plants were covered quite thickly with hoarfrost. In combination with beautiful sunny weather it created breathtaking views, exposing the beauties of the nature...
I didn't hesitate much and took some photos. Hope they'll make your day a little brighter :)!

Have a nice (winter) day!

.first snow!

.ladies and gentlemen, we're proud to present you this season's first snow! We've waited a long time, however the wait is finally over :). It all began this morning. I woke up at half past eleven ;) (a little party with friends from high school on previous night...) and first glance from the window revealed some white areas around the house. White beauty, such important part of the winter for me, is still falling from the sky with unending intensity and the world is more and more silky and smooth :). Hopefully it'll stay like until the end of my stay at home. My wish of skiing is getting more realistic contours ;). So what to say at the end? Probably just "Let it snow, let it snow!"...

Let the winter be as nice as it should be and have fun in white fairytale world!

.wildpark & autumn

.after one week full of medicaments and sore throat I went for a walk to a nearby mini-zoo. It's on the other side of the main road as the university is. Quite nicely situated in the mids of a forest park, it's a peaceful place for relaxing walks among old trees and wild animals... It's really a small zoo, but has some interesting types of animals like buffaloes, deers, ponies and wild goats. Nevertheless we took some photos and enjoyed our time spent in the autumn nature full of colors :). The weather was awesome, sunny and extraordinary warm for this time of the year. So who knows, maybe for the last time this year...