Borneja

Anika cooking course

2016-05-20T17:41:00.000+02:00

We love asian food! We love going to the restaurants and experience new flavours and new food! But the best way to celebrate it, is to learn how to prepare it yourself!

The last day on Bali we spent with Anika Cooking class. The class started early in the morning, because our chef wanted to show us the local market. He explained us the main ingredients used to prepare typical Indonesian meals.

Preparing the blessings, which attract good spirits.

When we returned from the market, it was time for morning tea.

The chef is showing us typical sweets to enjoy with tea.

The chef explain, that we will be learning to cook the following dishes: beef in Balinese sauce, grilled fish, fried noodles, fried rice, Balinese chicken satay, roasted eggplant sambal, tofu fritters, bean and coconut salad, bubur sum-sum and pisang rai. First we had to prepare and chop the ingredients.

When everything was finely chopped, we started working on chicken satay.

Next, we prepared delicious tofu fritters.

We continued with fried noodles, fried rice and other dishes.

The result was very delicious!! Our taste buds were having the time of their life.

The last thing on our menu was the dessert.

We had a great time learning how to handle the ingredients and how to cook proper and delicious Indonesian food! The owner and his aunt made sure we had a great time and bellies completely full.

The owner and main chef and his aunt.

Greetings from Anika Cooking Class in Bali,

Jerneja & Boris

Back to Bali

2016-05-17T17:41:00.000+02:00

Our vacation was coming to the end, but before we returned to Germany we needed some chillaxing. We went to our favourite Cafe & Hotel chain - The Hard Rock Hotel Bali. Amazing area, incredible collection, good food and pretty awesome pool. What more can one ask for? We had a great time here to relax and prepare for our return to reality.

Best regards from Hard Rock Hotel Bali,

Jerneja & Boris

Yogyakarta: Borobudur and Prambanan temple

2016-05-15T19:22:00.000+02:00

We left Jakarta, but we wanted more history. We booked flight tickets to Yogyakarta and we were on our way.

Yogyakarta is smaller city than Jakarta, nevertheless both cities have something in common - they are not very touristic! Even though they have a lot of rich history and art to offer, it is still mainly appreciated by the locals. The streets are crowded and it is very easy to get lost. Our decision was to take a taxi, which brought us directly to Andrea Hotel. It is a very nice and clean hotel owned by Swiss guy and his indonesian wife. He was very helpful and he recommended us a very nice place to eat and organised a tour to Borobudur and Prambanan.

It was late in the evening and we were hungry for some local cousine. We took the advise from the hotel owner and went to the House of Raminten, where we tried the meat balls.

The next day started very early. We woke up at 4:00 in the morning. We did our best to clean up and look normal. We were off to see the sunrise above the Borobudur temple. We had to hike to a mountain to see it, but not without a cup of coffee and some breakfast.

The mountain was full of people - mainly locals, waiting for the sun to come out.

At the top of the mountain

The view from the mountain. Borobudur was unfortunatelly not seen, because of the fog.

The way was back to the car was fun. We saw a lot of unexpected things and people...

On the ride to the Borobudur temple we saw beautiful rice fields.

Borobudur is the biggest Buddhist temple in the world and it is definitely worth seeing. It is important to get there early, before it gets crowded. And do expect, that locals will ask you to take pictures with them.

Borobudur temple

Meeting the locals :)

After the second breakfast we headed towards Prambanan temple.

We only wish we were hobbits... :-)

The view of Prambanan was spectacular. Prambanan is the biggest Hindu temple in Indonesia.

Prambanan temple

Greetings from Yogyakarta,

Jerneja & Boris

Museum Bank Indonesia

2016-05-14T21:14:00.000+02:00

The center of Jakarta has quite a few museums. By far the most impressive is the Museum Bank Indonesia. The museum was opened by Bank Indonesia in 2009. When visiting the museum you will see how the history of banking developed in Indonesia. The banking system was implemented and managed by the Dutch and it all started by trading with spices.

Greetings from Jakarta,

Jerneja & Boris

Jakarta history museum

2016-05-14T19:11:00.000+02:00

Since we had some more time, we decided to visit the history museum in Jakarta as well. The museum is full of art, history and old furniture, inspired by Dutch influence.

Regards from Jakarta,

Jerneja & Boris

Jakarta

2016-05-13T17:40:00.000+02:00

After a lovely stay at Komodo Islands it was time to head to new destination. We decided to fly to Java's capital - Jakarta.

As soon as we found a hotel and dropped our luggage, we went to see the city. Jakarta is known as developed city in Indonesia and as a financial center. The locals are very proud of their capital. The city was different than what we saw so far. Skyscrapers and arranged infrastructure made us wonder, if we are still in Indonesia.

Deutsche Bank in Jakarta.

In the center we went to see their famous National Monument - Monas.

It was a very hot day and we felt a bit tired, so we decided to go for a drink. Boris tried the famous kopi luwak coffee and Jerneja couldn't resist the avocado shake.

While we were wandering around the city, we could still see some typical Indonesia things.

At the end of the day we even found the Hard Rock Cafe.

Who wore it better?

Greetings from Jakarta,

Jerneja & Boris

Off the beaten track: Rinca Island

2016-05-10T22:12:00.000+02:00

The diving was behind us and we decided to book a hike tour on Rinca Island to see some Komodo dragons.

We had a bit of bad luck with local agency. The manager tried to rip us off by saying that there is no available tours from Flores Island and he wanted to charge us a lot of money for it. We cancelled the reservation and found another agency, where everything went smoother.

The travel from Flores Island to Rinca Island was by an old boat.

The boat wouldn't start, so the captain had to jump in the water and solve the problem.

We met a fisherman on the way.

We were very happy, when we arrived on Rinca Island. We hoped to spot some dragons.

After arrival on the Island, we had to register in tourist office. The island and the Komodo dragon are UNICEF heritage, so we had to book a guide and a tour in hope to see the dragons. Komodo dragon is extremely dangerous and can attack a human. The guides had wooden sticks, which is split at the end. This helps to maintain a dragon, if attacked. The dragon has more than 50 different bacteria in his mouth and can attack even a large animal like buffalo. After the bite, the pray gets blood poisoning, which causes slow and painful death.

The guide explaining us the tour.

Baby Komodo dragon spotted in the village.

More Komodo dragons enjoying the shadow in the village.

We went on a hike around the village. The guide showed us the place, where female laid the eggs.

Baby dragons hatched just a few weeks ago.

On our hike we finally spotted a real Komodo dragon in the nature. It is truly a beautiful creature!

Beautiful Komodo dragon

The tour took us up the hill, where the view was spectacular!

Greetings from Rinca Island,

Jerneja & Boris

Komodo Island

2016-05-08T17:39:00.000+02:00

It was time to continue our travel. We decided to fly to Komodo Islands.

Komodo Islands are known for exquisite dive sites and of course, Komodo dragon. We wanted to experience both. We arrived to Flores Island, one of the islands in Komodo. Firstly we visited Wicked diving and booked our dives. They also promised to see a lot of mantas and of course, we were very excited. We were surprised how good and preserved their equipment was.

Banana pancakes for breakfast.

Once the diving was booked, we looked for accommodation and some good dining. We found a very good Italian restaurant Made in Italy. It is owned by Italian guy, who makes everything from scratch and uses only fresh ingredients. He also imports more than 80% ingredients from Italy, just to make his food authentic. Needless to say, it was our favorite place on the island.

Made in Italy

The next day we started with our dives. We had a very good guide Sarah from France, who made sure that we saw a lot of diverse underwater life. We visited several dive sites, like Siaba Besar, also known as Turtle city, where we saw 2,5 m long white tip reef shark and lots of turtles. We were very lucky and saw a barracuda, which came very close. At Makassar we dived in to only 12 m, where we saw schools of manta rays. Tatawa Besar had a very strong current, which Sarah described as medium. We jokingly called it a Medium French. We had a drift dive, where we saw a lot nudis and trigger fish. We also went to Mini Wall and Mauan, where we encountered manta rays again. At Sebayur Kecil we saw a black tip reef shark, humphead wrasse, mantis shrimp, box fish, baby box fish and a lobster. Unfortunately we didn't have an underwater camera to capture these beauties.

Emma explaining the sites.

Preparing the picture of the dive site.

Celia making the briefing before we jump in the water.

Our gear.

Happy diver enjoying his coffee before he goes diving with mantas.

Chillaxing...

Wicked diving made sure, that our bellies were always full.

Saying goodbye to the sea.

Best regards from Flores,

Jerneja & Boris

Some more underwater adventures

2016-05-04T18:47:00.000+02:00

Now that we saw mantas, we wanted more. Soon we were back in the water discovering new underwater treasures.

Triggerfish

Trumpet fish

Nudibranch.

Trumpet fish

Pufferfish

Anemonefish

Lionfish

Phil-fish

Boris-fish

Moren

Sea snake

Nothing makes a diver more happy than some delicious local cousine.

Greetings from Lembongan Island,

Jerneja & Boris

Manta Point

2016-05-03T18:01:00.000+02:00

We woke up early. The boat towards Manta Point left at 8:30, so we had to hurry. We had our breakfast and quickly went to Blue Corner Dive.

It was definetely too early for Jerneja.

We assembled our gear and eagerly waited for our giude to give us a sign to leave. What happened on this particular day is hard to describe with words. They promised us to see a lot mantas, because this location is full of plancton and they come in schools to feed through the whole year. We have only see manta ray once before on the Similan Islands and we were very lucky, so we were not sure, if this encounter is actually going to happen. But we were hoping....

The jeep picked us up and we were on the road again. Eventually we came to the boat and we were heading to our diving destination. This boat was a lot smaller that what we are used to. It had no toilet, no kitchen, well... just a covered deck, where we had our gear. We were wondering, how are they going to prepared our lunch in there??

Since the boat was so small, we had to put on the dive suits before.

Always happy crew.

The gear is assembled and ready to dive in.

Ready, set, go! We were in the water on the way to see mantas. The currents were very strong and we also got caught in the surge. But the currents bring plancton and plancton attracts mantas. It was totally worth the fight with the currents, because the view was spectacular. We saw everything, that they promised and more.

We also saw this beautiful turtle...

...and some very photogenic stingrays.

Delicious and versatile lunch for a hungry diver after fighting all those currents. :-)

Best regards,

Jerneja & Boris

Lembongan Island

2016-05-02T17:18:00.000+02:00

Indonesia is commonly described as paradise for scuba dive enthusiasts. We wanted to jump in to our dive suits and in to the blue as soon as possible and make sure on our own that the glory of this country's underwater world is justified. That is why our next destination was Lembongan Island.

We soon found out, that traveling along Indonesia was not going to be easy. Lembongan Island is very close to Bali and know for its Manta point. This is why it is very popular with scuba divers. It took us 2 hours by taxi, some waiting, and another hour by boat and we arrived.

As we waited for the boat, we decided to try some curry and fresh juice.

Still waiting for the boat.

Boarding our luggage on the boat.

Finally on the boat and headed towards Lembongan island.

Last view of Bali and the fishermen.

We finally arrived. We liked this island a lot more than Bali. It was more quiet - without annoying locals - and yet full of people like us - either surfers or scuba divers. We went directly to Blue corner dive and reserve our dives. The people at the dive center were nice and helpful and they even helps us with accomodation and recommondations for best restaurants.

Blue corner dive, our diving center at Lembongan island.

We were in luck. The very next day they were headed to Manta Point - very famous destination, where manta ray encounter is guaranteed. We wanted more, so we booked 3 days of diving with them.

Greetings from Lembongan Island,

Jerneja and Boris

On the road again: Bali

2016-05-01T16:47:00.000+02:00

This destination was anticipated by both of us for quite some time. We were very excited, when the plane finally reached its destination - Bali.

This beautiful island is just one of many islands in Indonesia. The weather was nice and sunny and the atmosphere was laid back. It was the beginning of yet another amazing vacation.

We arrived tired and hungry at Denpasar airport. We headed directly to the hotel, where we left our stuff and decided to try some tipical indonesian food.

Nasi goreng (left) and chicken satay (right).

Now that our bellies were full and happy, we decided to check out the beach. On the way to the beach we saw a funny surprise, that reminded us of home.

The beach was really nice: sandy beach, blue sea full of surfers, palm trees everywhere and unfortunatelly full of tourist and locals eager to make some quick money on tourists. We had our fun, but we knew this is not how we want to spend our vacation. So, we headed on the next island.

Best regards from Bali,

Jerneja & Boris

Phuket Gibbon Rehabilitation Center, Bangpae Waterfall and Old Town Street Market

2015-11-25T12:00:00.000+01:00

So far we experienced most of the things we wanted in our trip to Thailand: Khao Lak friendliness, The diving (Part I and Part II), The Thai food, and the most of the Phuket island. To round up our vacation we wanted to visit Phuket Gibbon Rehabilitation Center, Bangpae Waterfall and Old Town Street Market.

We started with Phuket Gibbon Rehabilitation Center. The Center lies in the northern part of the Phuket island. We used our valuable scooter skills and found the Center easily. It was very simple and descriptive place. The center was founded in 1992 and is based on volunteering and donations. People working there take care of gibbons, that were taken from the forest illegally. Mainly they are used as a tourist attractions or pets. After rehabilitation the suitable candidates are released back into the forest.

There was a billboard with pictures and description about particular (well-known) lady who is using her captured gibbon to get money from tourists. She is a regular visitor in night clubs in Phuket where tourists do all sort of things with this gibbon for a money exchange.

Behind of these sad stories there was a hope. A hope for better life of gibbons on the Phuket island.

Our guide (volunteer)

We were lucky enough to get close to some of the gibbons in the rehabilitation center. Most of them are kept in another location far away from human, where they have potential to be released back to the nature. Our tour guide (volunteer) explained us some stories about gibbons kept there. We immediately fell in love with a female gibbon called Tam. She is a permanent resident at the center due to her physical disabilities. Tam was previously kept as a pet and when her wild instincts caused her to disagree with her human owner. He beat her and left the resulting injuries untreated far too long. By the time Tam received help, the only way to save her from dying of blood poisoning from the infected wounds, was to amputate a hand and a foot. Subsequently her new owners tried to house her with other gibbons. An attempt that failed when Tam was attacked and lost 3 fingers on her remaining hand. Shortly after this event Tam was brought to the center. Despite all this, Tam gets on with her life as everyone else. As a matter of fact she seemed to be very happy and full of life now.

Tam

Tam (copyrights Phuket Gibbon Rehabilitation Center)

Tam's best friend Bo

Like in Elephant Nature Park 3 years ago, we learned again that supporting any kind of animal show or activity as a tourist is not a good idea. Whether it is about elephants, tigers, gibbons or any other wild animal think twice before supporting such behavior.

With sadness in our eyes we hope for better future. Nevertheless we moved on to the nearby Bangpae Waterfall.

On the way to the waterfall we encountered some local people...

The path was rather easy, yet very humid and it took us about 20 minutes to reach the waterfall.

We were not in a mood to put our swimsuit on. Hence we went back to the hotel to get ready for the evening street market. The Street Market was on the west side of Phuket Old Town. Despite the rain there were a lot of people. The market was all about clothes and food.

In the last evening we headed back towards the hotel where we packed our stuff for the next day fly back home. The next day we had just enough time to visit The Cook again and taste some great pasta.

Jerneja and The Cook

At the end of the trip to Thailand we were again not disappointed. This part of Asia is such a great place to be. Let's see what comes next!

Greetings until the next time,
Boris & Jerneja

Southern Phuket

2015-11-23T16:24:00.000+01:00

Next days were dedicated for cultural and on-land underwater wildlife education. But before we headed off towards new adventures, we needed to enrich our stomachs. We chose Pancake Corner where sweet pancakes and salty eggs with bacon makes sense.

And off we go. We went to south part of the island. First stop Big Buddha. It lies on top of the hill and it could be spotted from all over the island.

Due to it's perfect location the view from the top is simply outstanding.

It is a 45 meter tall remarkable Buddha statue. Locals told us there are ongoing constructions around the Buddha going on for past decade and it doesn't seem to stop any time soon.

selfie o'clock

construction site

nice and clean view

We put our helmets on and continue our journey.

...but first, let us take a selfie...

Next stop was Wat Chalong which is considered as 29 the most important buddhist temples of Phuket. You be the judge.

For the last southern point of the island we decided to visit Phuket Aquarium. We witnessed some odd animals like electric eel, color-free fish and even fake version of mermaid.

To conclude our trip we treated ourselves with some spicy Thai food.

More animal and gourmet experiences to follow. Stay tuned!

Greeting from Phuket,
Boris & Jerneja

The return to the island

2015-11-22T20:00:00.000+01:00

The return to the mainland was bitter-sweet. We already missed the diving, but we knew that more adventures await us. We started off with delicious dinner at our favourite restaurant in Khao Lak, where lobster was the star of the evening.

As entree we got onion rings with spring rolls and home made spicy sauce

Table was nearly big enough for the star of the dish

To recover from 4 day liveaboard we had to eat a lot.

American breakfast

We decided to spent the rest of vacation on beautiful Phuket Island.

We settled down in Phuket Town. This part of the island is not known as the best place to be as a tourist. Therefore perfect for us. It was not crowded and a lot of local people live there. We found a very interesting restaurant in our guide book owned by Thai chef, who was spending some time in Italy. Thus his food is supposed to be a mixture of Italian cuisine with Thai enrichment. The restaurant is simply called The Cook and this name was already promising enough. Nevertheless we needed to experience that. From the street it was really hard to find restaurant, since the restaurant's logo has almost fully faded away. Once we found it, we went inside. There were a lot of pictures of pizzas with all sorts of toppings like green and red curry with chicken, pork with coconut-milk, sea food, etc. We were amazed after a waitress hand over a menu. Our decision was quick: green curry pizza with chicken and shrimp pizza.

Food was delicious and we were certain to come back. We rented a scooter and started our journey around the island. One of the reasons we visited Phuket in particular was to accomplish another visit of the Hard Rock Cafe. Therefore, we headed off to the west side of the island called Patong. As a matter of fact this is the most touristic place in probably the whole Thailand. Patong is a half an hour of scooter ride away from Old Town where we were staying. We arrived there in early afternoon and we saw a lot hangovered young and old people, weird dressed men and women and yet a few people still drinking in a bar or club from previous night(s). We were looking for Hard Rock Cafe and voila...

Again we were not disappointed about HRC, in the middle of afternoon there were only few people inside the cafe nevertheless we experienced live music of a local band.

View on the street we awesome, specially this 3-wheeled-pancake-maker.

For a dinner we chose The Hooters where the food was very american-ish.

BBQ ribs

Fried chicken

This was more of a gourmet experience. More cultural and natural to follow, stay tuned.

Greetings from Phuket Island,
Boris & Jerneja

The diving and its end

2015-11-19T20:00:00.000+01:00

The diving of the first day was awesome. Let's see if our next days will be awesome as well. We started with a morning dive in location called North point.

Priceless

Not much to see on the first dive of the day. In between first and second dive we had some free time to explore the main island with a significant rock on top of the hill.

A break from the moving boat

Time to enjoy!

On diving spot called Christmas point we witnessed couple of White Tip Reef Sharks cruising around. Since sharks are considered as shy animals (surprisingly), it is hard to spot them. Hence there is a 2 meters long shark one on the following video.

Before the last dive of the day Joe warned us of possibility to witness so called Green Monster. We were ready to jump into the water therefore there was no time to actually clarify what Green Monster is. We were diving and suddenly all fish started to rapidly swim towards rocks and corals to hide. We looked in the deep blue and suddenly green wave of cold and murky water reached us. We grabbed each other for hands and try to find safe spot somewhere. Most of the times we were able to find nice spot to wait for Green Monster to pass by. Due to strong currents in that area, Green Monsters are quite common. Our diving guides knew what to do in such situations but it was freezing cold!! Nevertheless experience was priceless and we now know what Green Monster is.

Boris with a puffer fish in the background

Giant Moray Eel

Breathing real air with the wet equipment on

Stars are not only on the sky!

It was time to call it a day. We locked ourselves in the cabin and take a good night rest to recover our strengths for upcoming two days of diving.
Next morning we heard: "It is a beautiful morning in Similan Islands! Rise and shine!" from Joe which was the sign to wake up, prepare our equipment and get ready to jump into the crystal clear water.

Beautiful morning dive

Octopus

Same octopus...

We finished the first dive of the day in the early morning. We had enough time to do another dive on the same location, Tachai pinnacle at Koh Tachai. We jumped into the water and quickly reached out final depth of the dive. We swam around the corals and suddenly it got darker under the water. We looked up and became breathless. Above us was swimming 5 meter wide Manta Ray. This magnificent animal danced around us for couple of minutes. The feeling was outstanding.

The star of the day: Manta Ray

Manta Ray still dancing around us as well as a group of barracudas - Priceless!

Lost in yellowness

Sea horse

Among the animals on the pictures we also saw some tunas, mantis shrimp and bay box fish.

Our captain turned the boat around and we headed back towards mainland. The last day of liveaboard we stopped at Hin Laung, where we spotted a stone fish. Before the last dive location was well known Koh Bon, West Ridge where 2 meters wide Eagle Ray came to say hello.

The last location was Boonsung Wreck near to Khao Lak mainland where we saw a lot of baby fish, all sorts.

Bat fish

Box fish

Giant Squid

One of the most dangerous animals in the world, Stone Fish

Baby Moray Eel

We concluded our diving with awesome feelings and crazy good experiences. Some of the highlights: Manta Ray, White Tip Reef Sharks, Hawksbill Turtle, Green Monster.

All and all well balanced trip. More to come. Stay tuned.

Underwater greetings from Similan Islands,

Boris & Jerneja

Let the diving begin

2015-11-16T20:19:00.000+01:00

The main reason why we decided to come back to Thailand, was to do awesome scuba diving in national park Similan Islands. Therefore, we headed to a well known location - Khao Lak.

We decided to go on 4 days liveaboard. Long story short: liveaboard means living on the boat - in our case for 4 days and 4 nights. It was one of rare rainy nights, when we were picked up from dive center. And so our 4 days of paradise begun.

After registering at Khao Lak Scuba Adventures we were all excited and ready to go. Boarding on the a boat named Manta Queen 3 was successful. We set sails and started our overnight ride towards the national park. On the 35 meters long boat there were 31 divers, 10 dive crew, 6 boat staff and 2 cooks. Our air-cond room with private bathroom looked like:

On the next morning at 6:00 a.m. the head of the diving crew Joe and his crew started a wake-up call with: "It is a beautiful morning in Similan Islands! Rise and shine!". The view from the boat was just stunning.

While we were drinking our first morning coffee, Joe already had dive plan ready for first dive site called Anita's Reef. We got our equipment ready...

... and started with diving! Finally!

It did not last long when we became amazed about the underwater life in Similan Islands.

Giant Triggerfish

Blue-spotted stingray

Breakfast was served after we came out of the water. And while we were eating, our captain headed off towards our next locations. West of Eden and Elephant Head Rock were next two dive sites. Again we were not disappointed.

Giant Morey

Elephant Head Rock

West of Eden

Hawksbill Turtle

After third dive we waited for sun to go down. The next in row was a night dive.

During the night dive different wildlife can be spotted. We witnessed a lot of small big-eyed fish and different types of crabs. The most admirable animal was lobster. It was time to call a day and jump into pajamas.

Bubbly and nitrogen-ful greetings from Similan Island
Boris & Jerneja

Same same but different

2015-11-14T18:00:00.000+01:00

Three years ago we visited Thailand. We were very impressed about it, therefore we decided to come back. Now it was about time to make this happen. We started our journey in small, well known town Khao Lak.

The town is known as the divers heaven. Everything here is concentrated on diving. Even hostel where we stayed was named Monkey Dive Hostel. Hostel was nice and tidy. It also combines Thai hospitality with international needs.

Three years ago we discovered the best local restaurant. After quick unpacking in the hostel we immediately went to check if the restaurant still exists. While walking down the street with fingers crossed we saw familiar sign of a restaurant. The restaurant was still there with exactly the same people and more importantly the best food around. So the dinner was served.

After dinner we went on a short walk around the town and observe that not much has been changed during last three years. As Thai people would say: "Same same but different".

The only difference was timing. Now it was actually diving season and there was a lot of divers. Speaking of diving... stay tuned for upcoming posts.

Greetings from Thailand,
Boris & Jerneja

25 Years Fall of the Berlin Wall

2014-11-09T19:14:00.000+01:00

This weekend was one of the most important anniversaries in the history of the Berlin city - the fall of the Berlin Wall, which happened on 9th of November 25 years ago. Therefore, the city prepared symbolic boarder of lights, which consisted of thousands illuminated balloons. The 15 km line of balloons was placed thought the heart of Berlin, where the Wall used to be. The event started on Friday, 7 November and ended on Sunday 9 November, when the balloons were released.

On Friday after work we went with some friends to one of the main gathering points Brandenburg Gate. Everything seemed to be ready; the stage, food and beverage stands were there.

And most importantly, the line of balloons was ready. "Lichtgrenze" - boarder of lights divided the city in two, just like the Wall used to.

There were a lot more visitors on Sunday night. We arrived shortly after they started to release the balloons, one by one. They symbolized the end of the division and happiness that came with it.

Greetings from Berlin,

Jerneja & Boris

Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas (Nevada)

2014-10-21T10:35:00.000+02:00

In the Hard Rock Hotel we took full advantage of the room service. American breakfast for one is enough from two hungry Europeans.

The journey in Las Vegas continued in the southern part of the city, the famous "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign.

We headed back to the city. On the way we saw huge Coca-Cola bottle and M&M package.

It turned out that these are multi-storey shopping and entertainment complexes. We visited M&M store first. No special explanation needed.

All colors, flavors and sizes of M&M candies

3D cinema about M&M candies

The M&M Nascar car

Right next door to M&M store it was Coca-Cola store.

It was time to refresh ourselves. Luckly for us there was a Hard Rock Cafe not far away from all the shopping complexes.

Hard Rock's tradition is if you have a birthday, you get special treatment and whole cafe is singing "Happy Birthday" with the toast. Oh well...

The last thing we wanted to try in Las Vegas was a typical american dinner. In the Strip area it was impossible to find anything else than world-class, well-known and fancy restaurants. So we went on the north side of the Las Vegas. In so called Old Downtown Las Vegas, where we experienced a strange feeling. This area was totally different from the Strip area. Very small houses with grates on the windows and doors. Nearly every property had a sign "No trespassing" and walking through this area was unpleasant. There we found our dinner and we expected everything else than hospitality. People were nice and really friendly. And more importantly food was delicious.

Cheeseburger with bacon and fries

Medium-rare steak

Cheese cake

Pumpkin pie

We experienced Las Vegas in all it's glory and it's horror. Nevertheless nice and unforgivable journey. There is so much left to see that going back might be an option.

Till next time, Viva Las Vegas!

Boris & Jerneja

Viva Las Vegas

2014-10-19T15:10:00.000+02:00

In this October we decided to spend one week in the Sin City, Las Vegas.

For our accommodation we choose Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas.

On the ground floor there was reception where we checked in. Passing through huge casino in the same floor, we finally found elevator to our room. At 8th floor of Hard Rock Tower, we opened the door of the room and immediately discovered the beauty of Las Vegas. This was not just a regular room but huge suite with big bathroom and gorgeous view on the hotel's swimming pools and on the Strip area of Las Vegas.

Right next to the hotel there was familiar restaurant.

For the first days we just explored the Strip area to get used to the atmosphere. We walked into one hotel and there was surprisingly casino. We walked through the maze in the casino and came to some kind of shopping mall. There were a lot of stores with well known brands. Unfortunately taking pictures inside the casinos was forbidden. But anyhow we manage to capture one interesting moment.

We passed the shopping mall and suddenly we were at casino. Again? No. This was a casino of another hotel. After a while we noticed that all hotels are connected and you could just walk through the hotels.

We finally came out of this neverending walking place and saw...

Each of the hotels had his own theme. The one was about the New Your City. The Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, the roller coster (passing through some of the hotel's rooms) and so on.

Another hotel had aquarium with all sorts of sharks swimming in.

The next in line was the Paris.

One of the best known hotels in Las Vegas are:

Hilton Grand Vacations

The Cosmopolitan

The Caesars Palace & The Bellagio

Speciality about the Bellagio hotel was the famous fountain in front of the hotel. It performed a water spectacle every 30 minutes.

No words needed!

Greetings from the Sin City,

Boris & Jerneja

Official closing of the running season: 36. PZU Warsaw Marathon

2014-09-28T19:51:00.000+02:00

It was time to conclude our running season - run a full marathon at 36. PZU Warsaw Marathon. But before the most important event of the season, we went for some traditional Polish dishes.

After the meal we were headed towards Stadion Narodowy to pick up our start numbers. We encounter unexpected marathon supporters on the way to the stadion.

Finally we arrived close to the stadion.

Everything was well organized and ready for the event including enormous amount of toilets.

When we came in the stadion, there was a huge wall with all the names of marathon runners.

We imediatelly jumped to the wall and start searching for our names. Jerneja found her name first...

... right after her Boris also found his name...

We had a detailed look on the running track to mentally perpare ourselves.

Next in line was picking up our start numbers.

It was time to prepare and get ready for the run. We changed to running outfit and went to the starting point.

Adrenaline level was very high and we were ready to go! After we heard a starting pistol, we focused to the next 42 kilometers. Every 2 to 3 kilomteres there were water stops to refresh our bodies. Along the track there were a lot of supporters who helped a lot to withstand all 42 kilometers (and 195 meters). Everything was organized very good except there were a lot of supporters on bicycles on the track. A lot of time we (runners) had to take care about them and move aside to pass them. Organizers should not allow anyone else on the track except runners and that kind of bicycling should be forbidden. We finally crossed the finish line and got well deserved medal.

While we were leaving stadion, we noticed food stands. It was pasta time!

In pain but with new priceless experience we switched to the recovery mode.

Marathon greetings from Warsaw,

Boris & Jerneja

Warsaw gourmet experience

2014-09-27T14:05:00.000+02:00

One hour and 25 minutes flight from Berlin - Tegel Airport brought us to the capital of Poland, Warsaw, where we spent the weekend.

We stayed in Chmielna Guest house right in the town center. The guest house had interesting room names like San Francisco, Cracow, London, etc. Surprisingly we were located in a room called Hvar. It was nice, cosy and clean room.

After we settled down, we went to southern part of the city. There we visited one of the best known restaurants called Stary Dom.

Right after we entered the restaurant, we felt like at home, old home.

Boris' first dish was Tatar of seasoned beef fillet. After couple of minutes Senior Chef came with everything needed to prepare tatar in front of us.

Freshly made tatar with pepper and mushrooms went along perfectly with fresh home made bread.

Jerneja enjoyed Galabki which is traditional Polish dish: stuffed cabbage with tomato souce.

For the main course we had:

Salmon baked in paper

Roast wild boar

We finished our amazing gourmet experience with deserts:

On the way home we waled around the city center. There were nothing really special to see but suddenly we saw well know sign:

And our activity for finishing the first day in Warsaw was defined. As always we had amazing time at Hard Rock Cafe.

Greetings from Warsaw,

Boris & Jerneja

Top 6 things you have to experience in Copenhagen

2014-08-31T11:27:00.000+02:00

Some of us started next day in Copenhagen with traditional breakfast called brunch and a large pot of freshly squeezed coffee.

While the others liked pancakes.

We decided to take a look on The Royal Guard change at Amalienborg Palace. Despite the rain, many people gathered in front of the palace. And suddenly The Royal Guard started their march from their barracks.

They stopped in front of the palace.

And went to each guarding point to change the 24 hours shift.

After changing all the guarding points, The Royal Guard went back to the barracks and show was over.

In the hostel we received nice city map which helped us to find all the important attactions of the city.

There we found out about the Round Tower.

We continued our city sightseeing north towrds the statue of Den lille havfrue or in english The Little Mermaid. The state was dedicated to homonymous fairy tale of Hans Christian Andersen.

While coming back to the city center, we visited botanic garden. This time of the year is not the best to see a lot of colorful flowers, nevertheless we got nice botanic experience.

When we finally reached the city center, it was time for the Copenhagen Pride.

The last attaction of our trip was the Carlsberg brewery. It was located in south-west part of the city. So we decided to take train to get there. We came to the main train station and found out that trains are not coming due to heavy rain and floods. After some time trains finally arrived to the station and we were able to reach the Carlsberg brewery.

The brewery was not as excited as Heineken. But they had some nice features like tasting some flawors of the beer and smelling them.

There was a section where we could see all sorts of packaging and labeling of the Carlsberg beer made so far.

For the end, there was one sign which was all covered by sticker of Carlsberg logo. We could not resist to put two more stickers on.

Greetings from Copenhagen,

Boris & Jerneja

First walk-through Copenhagen

2014-08-30T14:22:00.000+02:00

We decided to visit the capital city of Denmark over the extended weekend.

We stayed in Annex Copenhagen which is located very close to main train station and also not far away from the city center. After check-in we came to our room.

The room was very clean and tidy yet colorful and cosy. It is really interesting how can such a small room be transformed into fully functional sleeping place with all necessary facilities.

In one corner there was "bedroom"

In the other corner there was "bathroom"

In the third corner there was "living room" with nice view

In the room we experienced for the first time how resourceful are Scandinavians.

We unpacked our luggage and immediately went for a lunch. We stopped by in the nearest Thai food restaurant where we recaptured Thailand.

After fulfilling the requirements of our stomaches, we went for a walk around the city center. We noticed how proud the Danes are with Carlsberg beer.

We walked among the main street and discovered nice jewelry shop called House of Amber. The shop had state of the art jewelry made out of amber. There we could witness all sorts of shapes, colors and prices but among them all the most interesting was the animals (like mosquito) trapped inside the amber. This reminded us on famous movie Jurassic park.

Denmark is known as the country of Lego. We could not resist to visit several Lego stores around the city.

The Danes are not as proud as they should be on Lego, at least not in the Copenhagen. They have stores, they are selling a lot of things made with Lego but still we were expecting much more, like some sort of Lego museum, Lego-land, Lego...

Among the Lego stores there were a lot of other toy stores with interesting toys.

People on the street were trying to get money from people who passed by.

It was time to finish the day and we did it in the Hard Rock Cafe with a nice "little" dinner.

Greeting from Copenhagen,

Boris & Jerneja