Sunset over South Bohemia, Czech Republic

Yesterday husband and I returned from an excursion to Prague and South Bohemia, and I'm still going through the thousand of pictures we took. However I like so much the bunch I took from the bus window of a sunset on our way back from the Hluboka Castle, that I'm hurrying to share them with you:

Nis, Serbia

And the second of the Serbian towns we visited - Nis, the third largest town in Serbia, built on the Nisava river.

First we went to the famous Skull Tower - after the defeat of one of Serbians revolts against the Ottoman rule, the Turks decapitated the dead Serbians and made a tower out of the skulls to give a lesson to the other conquered lands. A truly sad story, which resonates with us Bulgarians, as we too were five centuries under the same Barbaric rule and have similar monuments of the Ottoman cruelty.

And downtown

The central square of Nis

The Nisava river

The park cleverly incorporates the ruins of the old Roman fortress and later historical buildings

The University of Nis

Along the central commercial street

A famous sculpture of a Serbian writer and his most well-known character - a hunter and his dog

Pirot, Serbia

Two weeks ago husband and I travelled on a short excursion to Serbia and visited two of the towns closest to Bulgaria - Pirot and Nish. To me Pirot had very much the vibe of a small Bulgarian town frozen somewhere back in the 70s - the marketplace, the low prices, the relaxed provincial atmosphere, the smiling and super friendly people. Here are just a few photos from our walk downtown. We were left with such warm feelings towards this place that we plan to return again next year by car and to purchase some of these gorgeous home-grown peppers and tomatoes and melons we saw in the marketplace.

Project 31 Days of August

In August I started a project on Facebook, where I published one photo per day on my page. The idea behind the project as to carry out a short-term trial for an annual challenge and in the meanwhile to expand my knowledge and use of the DSLR camera.
To my amazement, instead of being energized, I felt bored and horrified right from the start. Finding a topic to photograph and talk about turned difficult - not that things didn't happen, but then I didn't feel like taking pictures and I found carrying the camera around cumbersome and a bit embarrassing - as if I was trying to pretend to be a photographer, when I'm obviously not. So I only took the camera with me once, and on later days when out I took pictures with my phone or the smaller travel camera, which obviously was not the point of the exercise.
I did miss two days - the 28th, when I simply forgot to take a picture, and the 31st, when I gave up the idea, after racking my brains for a while for a theme for a descent last picture.
So, while I sill enjoy taking pictures and more so looking at pictures taken by talented people, now I know that photography isn't my thing.

Red Ribbed Cardigan

Finally, a month after I finished this cardigan, I managed to organize a photo session of it. I had almost given up the idea of shooting it modelled, as it is meant only for home-wear, but last night husband and I were in the mood for walking in one of Sofia parks and it seemed like an opportunity not to be missed to take a few photos of the cardigan.

I started it in the end of May, planning it as something easy and mindless during the Euro'16 football matches. But it took longer than I anticipated, so I had to abandon it for a while to knit Gaby's blue Miette and then in August I returned to it and finally finished it. Not one of my finest pieces, but for a cotton/acrylic cardi to put on in the afternoons while working or wasting time on the computer it'll do.

Pattern: personal
Yarn: YarnArt Jeans approx. 300 g
Needle: 3 mm
Time to knit: probably a month and a half