Skip to main content

Brasov, Bucharest and Belgrade....

Ok so I haven't really had the opportunity to add to my blog this past few days, and have consequently taken some flack for that.

Budapest I must say since we left was amazing, a real gem... maybe not quite as special as Prague but a really interesting and beautiful city all the same.

Brasov turned out to be a great idea, staying somewhere a little quieter and off the track so much. Our host was excellent and there were some great photo opportunities. Essentially we did a bit of mountaineering and lots of walking, one of the nicest highlights being the hunters tower. A small boy beckoned us into an off the path tower built into the castle wall, and showed us around it was very well presented and had some lovely views of the town from above. Then on to the mountain and the panorama was spectacular, even if the Brasov sign was a little cheesy.

Moving on to Bucharest we only spent one day, which was enough. We saw a few museums which were intersting but really the city was a little too much in terms of few quiet spaces and it was generally confusing. Despite paying 12lev for a map we still managed to get lost within minutes, to be fair we haven't really followed main thoroughfares anywhere; the whole trip has been about discovering new things and this was in keeping.

Sofia was great, although it rained cats and dogs for a while in fact the roads were like rivers for an hour or so. Taking in the archilogical museum and the ethonographic museum on the second day we did tick our cultural boxes somewhat, although there were no real vantage points for photographs.
We did wind up a little pissed in the evening for the second time this trip, something regretted a little in the morning. We did however make friends with the host and this involved trying wine, and discussing things that had to be tried when visiting Bulgaria and England.

So today a day trip in Belgrade. We arrived very early in the morning, to a deathly quiet train station. The first hour spent finding left luggage and booking tickets for the next leg.
Afterwards, we walked pretty much the perimeter of the city centre along the rivers and this was very beautiful once we passed the bend in the river.
The citadel was very interesting, housing lots of nooks and crannies. Plus a zoo and a military museum, we visited both and the highlight for me was a display cabinet containing something called u-238, now it is my understanding that that is the weapons grade isotope... but I could be wrong ha ha.
The zoo was very good, but there seemed to be unfair amounts of space for some creatures and not for others; I guess the city is still getting back on its feet but hopefully it will improve the quality for the animals a little including using more water in the pools etc as opposed to washing the grass (an hour after it had rained).
The ethonographic museum was very large and interesting, but perhaps a little tiring after a long night on the road.
Anyway we did plenty more besides in all the last few cities but for now it is relaxation time and we leave for Zagreb in a little over an hour and a half.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Open Source Teacher (… is born)

  Let’s keep this first post quick, a foot in the door and an introduction. The past year has been somewhat tumultuous and that was before even the dramatic events of the past year; I took a gamble with my career and it didn’t pay off, yet. Most people support the notion that the path to success is paved with failures; they lead us to learning key lessons and provided that we take something from each, we will make it there, some-when somehow. It’s not easy that’s for sure and the more you have in life, the greater the risks you face when you try to put yourself out there and try something new. This particularly project though is a personal one, an experiment if you please and a way to find a way to become part of the conversations that take place around certain subjects: Open Education, Technologically Enhanced Education and Open Source. I have always had an interest, but just never found the time to actually roll my sleeves up and get stuck in, until this year, for a couple of rea...

Google Says Bye Bye to Bevelled Look

The new logo on Google UK 'looks flatter' according to BBC News's Leo Kelion (2013); I have to admit I was unsure if this was an actual change or not, to start with and took a double take, but it appears to be on a slow roll-out, the changes to the interface are subtle but very focussed on removing distractions and streamlining both the page layout (if it could be any more streamlined) and the user experience. Clearly, there are larger changes afoot, but if they are as subtle as these most users perhaps will not notice so much. The logo itself does feel cleaner now that the bevel has been removed, but could this be argued too simplistic? Eddie Kessler of Google (2013) stated in their official blog that they have also updated the colour palette and the letter forms, but these are very subtle differences indeed; the relationship between the first 'G' and 'o' does seem still to be quite awkward, but as ever this logo is as much about the negative space as it ...

New Website

So here is where the blog changes track, after years in limbo and not really serving the purpose it was originally intended to, now my blog is going to become a little more professionally focused. In the first week of 2013 I have decided to get in gear and sort out the portfolio website, which for most of the last year has only really had a placeholder marking my intention to update the look and the content; and before this it had of course been home to my college and university portfolio work. This is all still here but hidden behind the scenes, hopefully I will be able to root through it and find some work still worthy of display. This now is all to change, I do produce quite a large amount of flash files as part of my teaching, on occasion websites too and as part of that a large number of graphics. I have started to realise that I have amassed a substantial amount of work, and really I should be using it to showcase myself and skills to eventually hopefully work for me...