Привезли разновидности кактусов из пустынь Калифорнии :). Удивительно, но в аэропорту все прошло довольно безболезненно. По приезду уже тут садили, теперь греются под миннесотским солнцем :).

Кто о чем в эти дни, а я про море :). Уж очень давно не плавала в морские глубины и не грелась на золотом песочке. В конце апреля встала на верный путь к получению сертификации для ныряний с аквалангом. Можно сказать уже почти у цели :), хотя инструктора 'радую' каждый класс, все же надеюсь на экзамен возмет. Теперь все мысли про морскую жизнь. В дни ныряния засыпаю ночью как под водой, потихоньку подумываю о подводных фотоаппаратах...



P.S. Интересно как человеческий мозг работает, во время лекции препод говорит: "SCUBA stands for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus....heh... Somebody Came Up Barely Alive". Хаха, как думаетe какая из версий на тесте вспомнилась? ага, то-то.

Родители в Европу собрались (правда еще визу надо получить). Едут в Голландию смотреть на цветущие поля и во Францию в Лувр. Эх... хорошо.

А это еще когда я в 2005 году ездила, панорама с Basilique Notre Dame de la Garde в Марселе. До сих пор помню сидела там читала, тут ко мне подходит американка и
она: Вы говорите по английски?
я: Да
она: Здорово! Не знаете почему у них тут кресты в округе?
я: Это церковь.
она: Где? А!!!  Вот это церковь?

Конечно, после их зданий амбарного стиля тяжело признать :)

Эх, кататься по нац. паркам калифорнии на весенних каникулах... не жизнь, а малина :). Мне даже начало казаться, что семестр уже закончился и наступило лето :). В общем, вкрации дело было так: сначала наши ноги проваливались в мокром песке и мы удирали от волн, потом лазили по пустыням и ноги начали проваливаться в сухом песке дюн, но этого нам показалось мало и мы поехали и попровались в снегах между громадных секвойи :).

Репорт такой: пустыни больше как саванны, где даже в Америке остались проблемы с водой. И! Оазисы существуют!!! Очень здорово! Как в книгах пишут, так и есть... "Райский уголок посреди жарких песков, где есть вода, тень и поют птицы" :). Про секвойи ничего не расскажу, их надо видеть! Просто деревья - великаны!

Фотографий много (все в одном альбоме в этот раз). Можно их посмотреть выборочно тут.

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Красуется на подоконнике :)

I've been working on the take home midterm for 13 hours straight! I'm not exaggerating, seriously. My write-up is thus far 8 pages long and still going...  Just because I study machines does it mean I have to work like one? Hmm, did not think so. It's all the fault of wonderful and mysterious inner workings of the Internet, or that is what I'm working on at least. After this week I will definitely be glad to be on Spring break. I hear it's nice in California this time of the year :)

There are a lot of choices where to go riding in Salt Lake City. Actually I heard that on Jan. 13th some guys attempted to ski through 13 ski parks via back country. We skied in Snowbird, Alta and Brighton. Snowbird offers very advanced slopes with cliffs, bumps, rocks...you name it. Thank God that those were not the only options :). Alta was great and views from the top are amazing! One downside is that snowboarders are not allowed there. So, after 5 years of not skiing, I found myself in ski boots again. Brighton is smaller than the other two with more options for intermediate skiers/boarders. Some of the runs were just right for experimenting a little bit more with the board. Utah snow is very dry. So when the slopes are groomed, you gain the speed quite fast. It's not something that I'm completely used to, so it felt a bit crazy at times.

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Снег, зимние узоры на стеклах машин по утрам, низкие температуры... Наступила поздняя осень, но ранняя не менее прекрасная :)




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Aletsch Glacier is the largest glacier in the Alps. It covers more than 120 square kilometres (more than 45 square miles) in southern Switzerland. It descends round the south of the Jungfrau into the valley of the Upper Rhône. At the Konkordiaplatz, it has an ice cover of more than 900 m, but as it moves to the south, the greater part of the ice melts, gradually decreasing the cover to around 150 m. Unfortunately, it gets effected by the global warming nowadays like so many other places in the world. The glacier receded by 100 m (330 ft) between 2005 and 2006. So, who knows what's going to be left of it in the years to come.



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The Matterhorn (Matte, meaning meadow, and Horn, which means peak) towers over the Swiss village of Zermatt. The entire town is a combustion-engine car-free zone. Electric vehicles are allowed for local commerces. So, the only way to get there is by train.

Matterhorn is perhaps the most familiar mountain in the European Alps. When climbing in the area, it is visible from almost any point, that's why you'll see it almost on every picture below. The mountain can be thought of as a compass because it has four faces which face north, south, east and west.

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We made it to Switzerland!!! It greeted us with heavy clouds and rain, which made it even more challenging to follow the directions. I did not tell you yet how much fun I had being the GPS! It was a pure nightmare at the beginning. European countries are not too good about putting out clear signs along the roads. For example, a street name plate is not always by the traffic light. More commonly street names are written on sides of the houses. What's even worse is that it is only true for major intersections and after one only sees house numbers. So, trust me it is a lot of fun when the driver is asking where to turn and you have no idea. The good news is that I got much better at it once I got used to Europe a little bit more.

We drove straight to Luzern. Because of the weather and some road construction on the way, we arrived at the destination between 10 and 11 pm. Remember that Europe is a fun place? Yeah, well all campsites were already closed. However, we found a man who was still at the reception desk and begged him to let us stay in their campground. The plan was to set up a tent right away but do the paperwork/registration in the morning. We offered him money or passports as an 'insurance' that we won't just take off. You know what he replied? "The money is not a problem, the problem is time". So then we clearly knew that we were in the richest European country. That phrase got stuck in our heads throughout the trip. I think it is a somewhat good description of people's lifestyles and attitudes over there.

Next day we wandered around Luzern. The weather was still not the best. Somehow it was in sync with my mood because lately I don't like traveling to big cities. In fact I think I looked so unhappy that we changed our plan and decided to skip Bern. We headed straight to the mountains and found a campsite in the heart of Bernese Alps.

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To be continued...

On August 17 I got on the fast train to Munich where I met up with Sergey :). We rented a car and headed down the Romantic Road. Our first stop was the famous Neuschwanstein Castle. The palace was commissioned by Ludwig II of Bavaria as a retreat and as a homage to Richard Wagner, the King's inspiring muse. It was built in Fussen next to the Hohenschwangau castle where Ludwig grew up. The king found inspirations in literature, music, art and carried nothing for politics. Such attitude and priorities caused a lot of tension with king's government ministers. Ludwig used his personal fortune to fund the construction. However, it did not spare Bavaria from financial fallout. Seeking a cause to depose Ludwig by constitutional means, the rebelling ministers decided on the rationale that he was mentally ill, and unable to rule. In June of 1886 a government commission arrived at Neuschwanstein to formally deliver the document of deposition to the king and place him in custody. Few days later, Ludwig was found dead in the lake. The official version say that it was a drowining accident but many believe that he was killed.

That is the story of Neuschwanstein. Nowadays, it is the most photographed building in Germany.

P.S. Neuschwanstein was the original inspiration for Walt Disney in his concept for the castle in the classic animated feature Cinderella.

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To be continued...

While in Kröv, we hiked through vineyards to a near by town and took a boat ride back. The land is hilly but every inch of it is covered by wine plants. All plantations are very well cared for. It's amazing how much work wine makers have to put in to make good wine. Winemaking is a serious business that takes a lot of dedication and love :). And over there they are good at what they do, the wine is exceptional!

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To be continued...

During my stay with Lena and Wolf in Netherlands, we took a weekend trip to south of Germany to visit Wolf's parents. They own a winery and a bed-and-breakfast in Kröv ( http://www.weingut-ketter.de/) . Kröv is situated along the Mosel river and is one of several small towns known for wine making. The whole area is very touristic. Many people come to taste the wine, participate in wine festivals and enjoy the scenery. I got to do that too! There are a few opportunities for sports as well like paragliding, golf, and easy hiking. Almost in every small town there is a castle from ancient times. Most of them are museums now. So, people can take excursions and wander inside of the castle. On the way to Kröv, we stopped by in Trier. It is a bigger town with Porta Nigra as probably the most famous attraction. Porta Nigra is one of a few architectural constructions that still remain there after Roman Empire rule.

Overall: great places, great people! Pack your bags and go visit if you can!!!

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To be continued....

They say biking is the best way to discover Netherlands. It is very true! There are bike paths everywhere, so one can get around the whole country this way. Most of the people take advantage of this opportunity. Parking is not a problem 'cause there is a lot of space provided just for that. In fact in bigger cities like Amsterdam there are several stories up bike parking spaces (kind of like you see here for cars.) Here is the picture of one that Lena took: ( here )

Me and Lena went biking trough several small towns. It was very interesting to see the other side of Netherlands. Away from big cities, one sees a lot of open space and fields. I suppose it is reserved for flower farming. Netherlands is number one flower provider in the world. I was told that there is a flower auction that gets held every day where millions of flowers are sold and shipped all over the world. It's crazy to realize that flowers that you see in stores here most likely have been delivered all the way across the Atlantic. Going back to small towns, I got the impression that farming prevails in those regions 'cause we did see a lot of cows, sheep and other farm animals. Also, there are still a lot of windmills. The ones that I saw were built in 18th or 19th centuries . In those days their main purpose was flood control (wiki). I believe some of them are still functional these days. While biking we didn't have to ride for hours along some road with the same scenery 'cause everything in Europe is very close. In some towns we got to see ancient castles with beautiful gardens.

Here are some pictures. Btw, the weather in Netherlands is something else. It changes very quickly and it rains a lot. However, I was shocked by winds!!! One day they were so strong that it knocked me off my feet while I was standing on the ground holding on to a bicycle. And no, I wasn't drunk or anything, winds were that strong!

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Well now about my trip to Europe :). This time I was set out to travel in Swiss Alps but of course I wasn't going to miss an opportunity to visit my sister Lena in Rotterdam. Plus Netherlands certainly has its uniqueness to it. So being there for the first time, I had a lot of choices how to spend time.

I devoted 2 days to exploring the capital. It is a very cute city with narrow houses, roads, sidewalks and channels. Like in any big city there are a lot of people (in fact so many they made me dizzy at times). The population is very diverse. I loved the fact that almost everybody spoke at least two languages. The most common are Dutch, German, and English. Amsterdam has a lot of touristic attractions but a must see for me was the Red Light District. Picture taking is not allowed there, so sorry no photo report. However, it was definitely interesting. For some reason I thought that girls behind windows should be naked. No sire, they were in the underwear that looked more like a swimsuit. Did you know that they have shows there? I didn't. Also, call me illiterate in that sense but I had no idea that you don't go for coffee to a coffee shop. If one wants coffee, he must look/ask for a café. They sell dope in coffee shops. In fact there are quite a few of those, so the whole city smells like marijuana. Overall Amsterdam was fun! I took a boat tour through the channels, watched street performances and wandered around. Unfortunately, all my attempts to go to a museum failed. Go figure.

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To be continued...

For the past few years, I've been going to Boundary Waters for the Labor Day weekend. It's a great tradition! I'm still a bit bummed that I didn't go this year but new places were calling :). I got back from Europe 4 days ago (more later), just in time to get over the jet leg and finish unpacking my things before the beginning of semester. Unpacking was a real challenge 'cause whatever used to fit here perfectly, didn't anymore. Throughout the summer I've been throwing away things but turned out it wasn't enough. So, this weekend I acquired a motto "I need space. Everything is going" and trashed half of my room. Of course while at it, I rearranged the furniture too. Finally! The room project is over :). A visit from an old friend and berry picking in the forest made the weekend even better. I guess I'm ready for school now. I should be, right? After an amazing summer, I suppose it is time to start working. Lectures start tomorrow (первый раз в первый класс :))...

I heard that Yellowstone is sometimes called 'the fast food of all national parks'. I would have to agree with it. It is huge! It takes hours to get from one place to another by car. Also, large territory of the park is still not recovered after the fire in 1988. So, if one would do a several day hike over there, he would have to go for days through the same scenery. It is great for wildlife viewing though. Also, I didn't like that there is an infrastructure near all beautiful places, and hence a lot of people. Seeing all them crawling around with cameras takes away from the overall impression. Nevertheless, seeing geysers, bacteria accumulations and boiling sulfur lakes is amazing! It was exciting to camp on top of the volcano and know that there are still a lot of active processes happening underground.

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On the way home we stopped by in Devil's Tower National Park, Mnt. Rushmore monument and Deadwood town. It made the road home longer but more interesting :). The end!

Panoramas are as is, pictures were not modified in the Photoshop. It's amazing how fast weather can change up in the mountains and how different it is from one mile to another.

Heading to Yellowstone...