Venice - Italy

What can I say, Venice is Venice. Beautiful, surreal and just amazing.

Why did someone decide to create a huge city on water (as early as 6th century) is beyond my understanding. It seems like very unpractical and difficult.

This is the original Vegas, historically the place was the center of sin and debauchery. So, it is no coincidence that Cassanova was a Venetian.

My legs hurt for we spent our three days walking, first all over the city, then the Museums and sites. We completely missed the Venice Film festival which was in progress at Lido; I think George Cloney was in attendance.

Plitvice Lakes - Croatia

Plitvice National Park has 16 lakes and numerous water falls; but its the turquoise blue color and the clarity of water that makes this place absolutely stunning.

The water is so clear you can see straight to the bottom with absolute clarity; when you see a duck you also see it flapping its feet under water.

If there is heaven it has to look like Plitvice.

Enjoy the slide show.

Kotor - Montenegro

There is a big water polo match between Montenegro and Croatia and it sounds like Montenegro is winning. The streets are empty and everyone is at some bar shouting and clapping; the shouts at goals and sighs on the response from the opposition tell the story as we walk up the walls of the old city. There is a big fire on one of the mountains and we can see the helicopters as they come and fill a water carrier from the bay.

Its a 1300 ft climb and its hot and incredibly humid, so the walk was not exactly fun, but the views at the top made it all worthwhile. We could hear the cheers from the old city, it seems like Montenegro has won the match.

The walk down was followed by an incredible 'ice coffee', a mixture of espresso and ice cream topped with with whipped cream and chocolate sauce (sooooo yum).

PS: Montengro did win the match from Croatia (the current world champs) but then lost the subsequent match to Serbia, so no medal.

Sarajevo - Bosnia and Herzegovina

The siege of Sarajevo
was the longest in history of modern warfare, lasting almost 4 years. The city was left in shambles at the end of the war. Before the trip I had read that there were still signs of affected building every where but I think that they have since been taken care off.

Sarajevo is a beautiful city, surrounded by green hills, cafes every where and a unique Islamic culture that seems unreal in this part of Europe. It is an emotional experience to imagine this city under siege and its amazing to see that they have managed to recover.

We went to Sarajevo with some doubts and only had an over night stay, we reached Sarajevo late at night and had a few hours to tour the old town. We wish we had more time.

Bled - Slovania

Bled Slovania

Salzburg, Austria

Death by Chocolate

You would think that Mozart's true genius was making Kugeln a yummy concoction of pistachio marzipan covered by dark chocolate. They are every where (literally).

View of K2