Año Nuevo SP

Last stop during this trip was Año Nuevo SP, which is famous for its colony of elephant seals. Unfortunately, to be able to get close to the colony one needs to prebook a guide, which we of course did not do. So instead of guided tour we set up for unguided hike along the coast hoping to be able to get a glimpse of the colony at least from a distance. Unfortunately, that was impossible as the colony is located within protected area of the park, where visitors are not allowed. However, we still got lucky and on our way back to the car, we encountered one of the elephant seals, which made me very happy.

Cliff:


Rabbit:


Stones with holes:


Clams, the hole-makers:


Ocean:


Erosion:






Elephant seal - imagine that this thing is 3 meters long!

Natural Bridges SB

After spending a night at one of the campgrounds near Santa Cruz, we started heading north back to SF, on the highway 1. We stopped several times at the places that we thought were scenic. One of our stops was at Natural Bridges SB.

This spot is an excellent vantage point for bird viewing:

The Forest of Nisene Marks SP

Our second stop was supposed to be Mystery Spot, but unfortunately it was already sold out for a day. So we will have to come back to it on some other day. But at least thanks to that we had more time to hike in The Forest of Nisene Marks SP, which was the third destination of our trip.

It seems that this spot is more popular among mountain bikers than among hikers, and I have to admit that I did not find it spectacular in any way. It was just a regular forest as far as I am concerned.

As when we arrived there it was already late afternoon, we started with having a little picnic. Chef Lev brought with him lots of cheese and wine and even Riedel wine glasses! Here is an absolutely cute picture of him and Molli taken during our lunch break:


This is one of the very few moments when there was actually a bit of sun shining through the trees:


And here is the destination of our hike - the epicenter of 1989 earthquake:

Winchester Mystery House

Last weekend Mike, Max, Lev, Molli and I went for a road trip to SF South Bay. The aim of our trip was to go to as many "mysterious" places as possible. Our first stop was Winchester Mystery House, the Victorian mansion, designed and built by the Winchester Rifle heiress. The building is truly bizarre with doors leading to nowhere, stairs leading to the ceiling, windows in the floor and many other architectural oddities. We all agreed that it would be a great place for a Halloween party and that it would be not funny to get lost there...

Lev and Molli reading about history of the mansion:


View to the mansion from one of the courtyards:


Fortune-telling machine:


Do I know any Dutch people ;) ?


It's ages since I've seen one of those:


Winchester rifles on display:


Mike opens door leading to the wall:


Spider's net window theme seemed to be a popular one in the house:




One of the bedrooms:


Kitchen:


Window in the floor:


Window on the wall:


Door to nowhere:


Window with a view to one of the streets in San Jose:


Staircase:


Narrow corridor to the garden with a fountain:


Mirror, Monika, camera:


One of many organs that we saw in the house:


Few details that inspired me:




One of many fireplaces:


Narrow staircase, small steps:


The last glimpse at the mansion:

Live long and well

How would you feel about extending your lifespan expectancy by 14 years? According to the EPIC study it is relatively easy. It's enough that you won't smoke, you will exercise regularly, you will drink only moderate amounts of alcohol and you will eat five servings of fruit and vegetables a day.

If you would like to know how this study was done, read this article: Combined Impact of Health Behaviours and Mortality in Men and Women: The EPIC-Norfolk Prospective Population Study

bobaraba craze

While females in Western countries use a variety of treatments to make their bottoms look skinny, women in certain parts of Africa use treatments that are supposed to have an opposite effect. All that thanks to a hit song Bobaraba, which means "big bottom" in the local Djoula language (see BBC story for details).

Of course the song is already on youtube:

Kulu Shaker Govinda

Govinda Jaya Jaya
Gopala Jaya Jaya
Radha-ramanahari
Govinda Jaya Jaya
Nrsingadeva Jaya Nrsingadeva
Gaura Gaura Gaura Hari
Prabhupada
Govindam

Is Europe a country?

This NYT article prompted me to find a youtube video, in which a young, sweet-looking American girl publicly admits that she thought Europe was a country...

You have to watch it, to actually believe it:



According to the same article "nearly two-thirds of Americans want creationism to be taught along with evolution". TWO-THIRDS.

It's really scary that (many) citizens of one of the world's most influential countries playing a leading role in world's politics and economy are so ignorant.

my cousin

Yesterday one of my cousins (Agnieszka, a daughter of my father's brother) contacted me on our class. It was so great to hear from her as we have not seen each other for around 10 years...

Photos of her and her twins make me think that my family has very strong "blondness" genes. Even though both her father and her husband have very dark hair and dark skin complexion, still her kids are as blond as she is.

Beautiful Agnieszka:


My sweet nieces:


The weird thing is that I am the only person in the whole family (both from the side of my mother and my father) that has brown eyes. But I am not complaining, I like to be different :)

And she's back :)

Two weeks ago:

One week ago:

Last Friday:

Sunday evening:

Monday morning:

Monday afternoon:


OMG, You just can not imagine how great it feels to touch your own hair after having braids for 2.5 months... I am just totally in love with my hair now - they are so silky, soft and fluffy that I could touch them all the time!

It was fun to have braids, but I think I will stick with my own hair for some time now. But deep down I feel that the time will come when I will have dreadlocks and even bold skull :)

47: Moon landscape

One of the things that we did during our stay in Swakopmund was to take "The Welwitschia Plains drive" which is a self-guided car drive through part of the Namib Naukluft Park that takes around four hours to complete. To get a permit for driving your car within the park (and to get the description of the numbered beacons that you will see along your way) you have to visit Namibia Wildlife Resorts office in Swakopmund.

Part of The Welwitschia Drive goes through "Moon Landscape", which is a spectacular geological structure formed by the Swakop river millions of years ago as waters of the river were cutting through the softer surface deposits:




I changed those two pictures into black-and-white ones, as I thought that it makes the valley look even more dramatic. For comparison, here is one photo in natural colors:


At a first glance it would seem that the Namib desert is a dry and barren region, but when you look more carefully you will notice that the ground and stones are covered with lichens. Lichens depend for their survival on the mist that moves in from the sea over the desert at night and in the early morning. Because of the Namib's exceptionally misty nights, the lichen fields here are more extensive than anywhere else in the world. Some of them look like fragments of dead plant material or soil: they are gray/black and they lie loose on the surface. However, if you place them in water they will unfold and change color.

Here Jochen is experimenting with water and lichens: