Jump from 4200m aka. Sky diving

Our research group, Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Multimedia decided that it is time to put our fears aside and face the free-fall.
And we did it. We decided to go to Vrsar a nice Croatian coastal city. While it was really cold and cloudy in Ljubljana, it was sunny and warm (for this time of year) in Vrsar. We prepared for the jump and then took the airplane up to 4200m where we decided to leave the plane and go down our own way. Off course we did it in tandem with instructor on our backs.
But it was fun. All the 40 to 45 seconds of free fall.
The sky was completly clear and the visibility was amazing.
I want to go again. What a feeling.
Some photos are here, but not from the air, since they did not alow us to take the cameras with us (and it was the only righ thing to do).

König See & Großglöckner strasse

Another post from past.
On our way back from Austria (see previous post), we also stopped in one of most beautiful German resorts that even Hitler wanted for himself - König See. Not that nowadays this is one of more prestige German tourist place, Hitler's followers have build so called Eagle nest for their Fürer there, a nice mansion on top of hill with oversight on the lake and surrounding mountains.

After that we took the Großglöckner road, a mountain high road with nice view at Glöckner group that ends at Franz-Joseph Höhe, where one can see one of Europes largest glacier.

Photos are here.

Salzbug

A post from past.
When I was returning from my exchange in Austria, Hagenberg, we have stopped in Salzburg for few hours. A nice city with lots of tourist attractions, and lots of things to see. Here are some photos.

Giant crystals

I usually don't write about news that I pick up here and there. But this one was extreme. I have never heard of crystals as big as there were found in Mexico this October. They are just amazing.
But why say more, when picture is worth more then 1000 words. Check it out by yourself here.

Johanisberg & Mittlerer Barenkoepf

We were in the mountains once again. And this time we went on two peaks in the Glöckner group. First day we went straight for the first peak, we only stopped at the cottage for so long that we left our backpacks there. First one was Johanisberg (3453m). The weather conditions were not really good, but we were fast. We reached the peak very fast, and it was my first ascend from lowland to more then 3000 in one day, except for flying.
For next day we planned a really long tour, but since the weather forcast was not good, we decided to conquer only a nearby peak - Mittlerer Barenkoepf (3358m). It was a really short tour, but we did the right decition, since it had started to snow during our descent.
Overall it was a nice two day mountain tripp. You can find some photos here.

Xania, Crete - SSMS - Summer School on Multimedia Semantics 2008

When I was still on my exchange in NZ, my mentor send me an e-mail regarding summer school. It was in the beginning of September, and yes that means I was really really lazy, and have put my blog aside for quite a while.

I hope this is about to change and that I will write here more often again. So let's start.
Xania, Crete. A nice coastal city, with beautiful old town and nice beaches in the neighborhood. 8 days. Well, does it sound nice. I think so. The only problem is that there are lectures 5 of those days, in the morning and in the afternoon. So you really do not have much time to go somewhere. We did have some time to hang out with lots of other Phd. students from all over the Europe and elsewhere as well (Indonesia for instance).
Since I didn't have to pay for anything and we also had some nice organised trips it was nice. On top of that I had the whole Saturday just for myself, and it was really really nice. Lying on the beach in the hot late summer sun. What more would you want. Nice sea just 20m away.
On top of that I also had most of the Sunday to walk around in Athens. I was amazed. It is really nice capital. Well for photos, you'll have to go to my gallery here.