Gerbera

           Once I bought a small gerbera in a small pot. I was a bit green with tons off small, bright flowers. It was growing and growing standing on my windowsill. But after some time the flowers dissapeared. The green parts grew on and finally I had to put them in a larger flower pot.

and they grew and grew some more (I guess gerbera likes the outside better
then the inside of the house)

and finally after two years small flowers appeared

and got bigger

I gave it to my friend to put it in her garden where they will have a lot of room to spread and grow.

Central Park

             In the middle of a big city there is a special park. A park where you can go, lie down on a green grass, watch the sky, walk around in the quiet, play baseball, run and feed some fish :). There are few places like this and one of them is Central Park in New York.

The Park was first opened to the public in 1857, but only a year after that it was proposed to expend it even more and make it more beautiful. Two men largerly responsible for the way the Park looks today are: Frederic Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. The complete work was finished in 1873 and it's 341 ha big. The Park is managed by the Central Park Conservancy under the control of the government.

Central Park is great. It's like a big, green lung in a middle of "exhaust pipe fumes" filled city. A breath of fresh air and a minute of peace and quiet in a city that never sleeps and never slows down. Full of animals and plants it can make a hard day of sightseeing New York enjoyable.

Central Park from above

The lake

Icerink

Osaka Castle - 大阪城

            In the heart of city Osaka, surrounded by tall and modern building lies a beautiful and picturesque Osaka Castle Park, with Osaka Castle right in its centre.

When I started to learn Japanese many reading exercises were dialogues between characters and they very often talked about visiting Osaka Castle. It was supposed to be big, beautiful and situated in a garden with many sakura (cherry blossom). When you read about something over and over again, naturally after a while it makes you curious. So when I was planning my trip to Japan my number one place to see was Osaka with its famous Castle.

The idea to construct the castle was conceived in 1583 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He wanted to build a spectacular castle, which would be five stories high, and have additional three stories underground. What's more he wanted it to be impenetrable for the attackers. However, after his death the castle was under siege many times and most of the original construction was destroyed and later rebuild.

The construction we can admire today was erected in 1620 by Tokugawa Hidetada, who ordered his samurais to build the walls (some of the stones still have markings of the clans who bought them). The castle was again burned many times, but in 1997 the government allowed to restore the tower once more. Now we have a chance to admire it as it looked during the Edo period.

The park and the castle are a true magnificent view. It takes quite a while to walk through the park and admire the castle inch by inch before we, at last, get to the main building itself. However, when you enter the castle the scenery abruptly changes. The inside has been confereted into a museum, where nothing is as it was during the time when the castle was build. The main attraction for me was the possibility to climb the tower and see Osaka from above.

Maybe the interior of the Castle is not the most impressive, but the outside and the park are for sure worth seeing. When we wander in the park area there is a feeling that we are catapulted in time to some long gone period. This feeling is strengthen when we visit the tower. From it the modern Osaka can be seen, with tall sky-scrapers and very busy streets. And here is a place totally secluded from all that every day rush and fuss. When you want to escape the modern world - Osaka Castle is a must visit.

Plan of the grounds

The Castle before entering the grounds

 Osaka Castle seen from the Osaka Museum of History


One of the gates leading to the Castle

The Castle itself

View of the city from above

Love, love, love ...

        I wanna finally fell in love - that is what my friend told me a few days ago. I was surprised. She never showed herself so vulnerable.

However, aren't we all?

I cannot say this aloud by - SO DO I !!!

I want to be crazy in love, trust this person, believe him, be sure of him. It should be simple but it seems that it is not. I cannot find the right one :(