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| Tuesday, 16-Jan-2007 20:49 |
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The Caliph Cat
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| Thursday, 21-Dec-2006 18:20 |
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Espana Trip: Granada
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My last day of the trip brought me to Granada, home of Al-Hambra. As Cordoba, Granada is in the region of Andalucia, which was once Al-Andalus.
Granada as a whole reflects a more advance society than Cordoba was. Of course, if you follow the time line, the city of Al-Hambra was established in the 13th century while Cordoba was in 10th century.
Al-Hambra itself is a state of the art architecture. From carwings on the walls to paradise like garden of Generalife. Everything reflects the very advance civilization the muslims once had. Compared to Cordoba, mostly everything here is still in place; from the old palace of AlJaber to the new Palace of AlHambra and from the garden of Generalife to the streets of Albaicin.
Trip to Al-hambra was a wonderful one. It was a feeling of relief, happy and excitement.
Al-Hambra
Generalife or Jannat Al-Arrif
The Streets of Al-Baicin
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| Wednesday, 20-Dec-2006 21:34 |
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Espana trip: Cordoba of Andalucia
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Aaah.... finally my trip to Spain brought me to a place where I am always looking forward to, Cordoba of Andalucia.
The history dates back in 900th when the Muslims occupied the area. Strong faith and desire to advance brought the region to its golden era under the Muslims. All aspects of life were prospered during the period. The likes of Ibnu Rush (Avverose) were among the intellectuals that filled the streets of Al-Andalus.
Three centuries of prosperity were ended when the Christian Spain under Queen Isabel took over Al- Andalus and once again brought the city into darkness. There are many reasons why the Andalus Muslim Empire fell. When we get there, those reasons become pretty obvious. Lavish style of life and the weakness of the Muslims themselves finally brought the city they were always proud of to the hands of the Christians.
Then, all the good things were turn to less good things by the Christians. Wonderful mosaic moors architechture is turned to spooky half naked man drawings. The mosque which was once filled with lights and happiness is turned to a cathedral of darkness and sorrow (literally speaking).
As I told one of my friends when we got there, "There is absolutely nothing to be proud of. We are actually looking at the fall of once a great Muslim empire...."
I wish one day we can rise back... now probably the best thing we can do to look at the future and work for the best.... while listening to M. Nasir's song, Andalusia....
| Quote: |
Cahayamu bagai sabitah
Doaku kau sejahtera
Biar warna kubah-kubahmu kian pudar
Untukmu setanggi ini kubakar
Cahayamu sediakala
Aku rindukan zaman kebangkitan
Pabila nurani bersulamkan fikiran
Seganding dan bersatu
Lafaz niatku bertemu
Cahayamu tiada tara
Pohon salamku pada fakir-fakirmu andalusia
Pohon izinkanlah aku menyelami irama asyikmu
Pohon ku dipinjamkan gabus dan ghazalmu jadi azimat
Supaya dapat aku tari menongkah arus
Sahutlah andalusia
Apakah sudah kering lautan darah
Yang tertimbus di bumi alhambra
Ataupun masih bergelora menanti saat
Melimpah mengikut mata air
Antal hadi antal haqqu
Laisal hadi Ilaahu
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Mezquitas... once a beautiful mosque... now a cathedral
Fotress of the Kings. It is said that in this fotress they found America under Christopher Columbus.
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| Tuesday, 19-Dec-2006 18:34 |
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Espana Trip: Madrid- Capital of Spain
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Palacio Real
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The queen who brought the Muslim Empire down, Queen Isabel...
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...and her huband, Fernando
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Madrid was our next stop after spending 2 days in Barcelona. As other big capital cities in the world, there is nothing much you can expect.
Madrid, London or even Kuala Lumpur are much similar... tall buildings, shopping streets, rush hour, busy lifestyle etc.
If you are bored enough, then you can spend your time visiting the lavish Palace de Real or Plaza de Mayor. Night stroll around Sol might be interesting or probably a visit to Santiago Bernabeau, home of Real Madrid.
I just wish the cities I visit have souls... not just pure entertainment.
Aah...food....
Funny sign in the underground
If Malaysians were like them
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| Sunday, 17-Dec-2006 00:25 |
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Espana Trip 2006: Barcelona
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Barcelona was the first stop during my five-day visit to Spain. Personally, nothing interesting here, a city of freaks... yes... freak shows, freak people, freaky cathedral....
I just wonder what is so special about this city that it hosted the 92 Olympic Games... probably just the weather...
Nou Camp
Barca....barca...
Mr Freaky...
Mr Lenin... or was it Stalin?
The most visited uncomplished freaky cathedral in the world... Familia Sagrada.
Fresh rambutans or mangosteens...anyone?
Fresh food at Mercad La Boqueira
Spooky Museo De Art at night
Scriptura...
God... spare us your blessings...
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| Saturday, 9-Dec-2006 17:15 |
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Greenwich: Royal Observatory
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| Quote: | | The Royal Observatory, Greenwich (formerly the Royal Greenwich Observatory or RGO) was commissioned in 1675 by King Charles II. At this time the king also created the position of Astronomer Royal, to serve as the director of the observatory and to "apply himself with the most exact care and diligence to the rectifying of the tables of the motions of the heavens, and the places of the fixed stars, so as to find out the so much desired longitude of places for the perfecting of the art of navigation." It is situated on a hill in Greenwich Park in Greenwich, London, overlooking the River Thames. |
| Quote: | | Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) was at one time based on the time observations made at Greenwich (until 1954). Thereafter, GMT was calculated from observations made at other observatories which were still active. GMT is now often called Universal Time, which is now calculated from observations of extra-galactic radio sources, and then converted into several forms, including UT0 (UT at the remote observatory), UT1 (UT corrected for polar motion), and UTC (UT in discrete SI seconds within 0.9 s of UT1). To help others synchronize their clocks to GMT, a time ball was installed by Astronomer Royal John Pond in 1833. It still drops daily to mark the exact moment of 1 p.m. (13:00) year round (GMT during winter and BST during summer) . |
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| Wednesday, 8-Nov-2006 16:58 |
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Oxford's Christ Church College and Harry Potter
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My trip to Oxford brought me to the most visited place there, the Christ Church College. Christ Church (Latin: Ædes Christi, the temple or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest and wealthiest of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford.
Traditionally it has been seen as the most aristocratic college. It has produced thirteen British prime ministers (the two most recent being Anthony Eden from 1955 to 1957 and Sir Alec Douglas-Home in 1963–1964), which is more than any other Oxford or Cambridge college (and two short of the total number for Cambridge University, at fifteen).
So what is the relationship of this college and Harry Potter? Well this is the place where most of the filmings of Hogwarts School of Wizard and Wizardry take place.
I'm personally not a big fan of Harry Potter, but being in a place where the the most popular wizard in the world studies (in the film) is something worth to get exited about.
So these are few snapshots I've taken around the college.
The courtyard
The great hall of Hogwarts
The place where Hogwarts' wizards dine
Dumbledore and other Hogwarts academic staff sit here!
If you wonder why the hall looks smaller than the one in the film. The answer is the one in the film has been computer enhanced to make it looks bigger!
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| Wednesday, 8-Nov-2006 16:33 |
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Guy Fawkes Night
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These photos were taken in Oxford on the Guy Fawke's Day.
For those of you who are still wondering what it is, here's the detail from www.answers.com
| Quote: | | Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Bonfire Night, Fireworks Night and Plot Night, is an annual celebration (but not a public holiday) on the evening of the 5th of November primarily in the United Kingdom, but also in New Zealand, South Africa, the province of Newfoundland and Labrador (Canada), and formerly in Australia, and to some extent by their nationals abroad. It celebrates the failure of the Gunpowder Plot, in which a group of Catholic conspirators attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London on the evening of 5 November 1605, when the Protestant King James I (James VI of Scotland) was within its walls. |
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| Monday, 10-Jul-2006 03:53 |
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Late entry
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My apology for the long un-updated fotopage although the fact that many things have happened since I last updated my fotopage. The reason for this is I have lost my lovely Olympus Stylus 300 during my first few days trip around Europe. So for the rest of the trip, I used my 2MP Nokia 6280 camera. The products are not as nice as proper digital camera, but I am quite satisfied. At least I can still have all my memories in photos.
But that is not a reason for you not to browse my fotopage. Here is the list of all entries that I have updated consisting of all the places I visited around Europe.
1/6/2006- Budapest- Hungary
4/6/2006- Sarajevo- Bosnia & Herzegovina
5/6/2006- Mostar- Bosnia & Herzegovina
6/6/2006- Vienna- Austria
8/6/2006- Salzburg- Austria
9/6/2006- Geneva- Switzerland
11/6/2006- Zurich- Switzerland
13/4/2006- World Cup: Brazil vs Croatia at Berlin (Coming Soon)
14/6/2006- Berlin- Germany (Coming Soon)
15/6/2006- Munich- Germany (Coming Soon)
18/6/2006- Copenhagen- Denmark (Coming Soon)
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| Sunday, 11-Jun-2006 12:00 |
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Zurich - Switzerland
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Zurich Old Town
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Bahnhofstrasse, one of the most expensive street in the world
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They said this is one of the prettiest street here...
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Zurich is the capital city of Switzerland. Since World Cup has started, everyone was on fever. So here we didnt do anything much, just enjoying the ice creams, pastries and of course the World Cup.
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(It's a world spiral round and round)
