A - Z: Vast Vistas

Viewing Vast Vistas: Virtually Via View-screen.

OK, don't think I could squeeze anymore Vs into that concept.

By now you've realized I love to travel, if not stay tuned- more on that soon.
Traveling has so many aspects to it that I thought it was worth focusing on some of them, as I did with Tiny Tigers. If you're not lucky enough to live in a spot with breathtaking views, traveling can give you opportunity to see some.  And even if you do, it's nice to seek out new views to see.  This is a pretty amazing planet, worth looking around now and then.

It can be easy when traveling to just hit the major cities: it's where the airports are, so that is where you land, and they have most of the big attractions people have heard about ahead of time, so most traveling remains in those areas.  A downside to this is you will miss the big views of nature.  It's good to get away from our human-built micro-worlds and out into big nature.  It helps you feel small, feel the vastness of the planet, remember the depth and breadth of everything.  A nice thing about feeling small in this way, is that it helps you see that a lot of your problems are small too, and recharges you for the strength you need for the problems that are not small.

Someday I'll have to upload pictures from my time in Denmark & trips around Scandinavia in general, and earlier trips to Europe and China, as well as my trips to Yosemite: my favorite spot of nature in the US.
But here are some of my favorite Vast Vistas from my most recent trip: (Click them for larger views)

A great sky, heading to sunset, in Goreme, Turkey.  For both Inka and I this might have been our favorite location on our trip.  Goreme is amazing.  It's in the Cappadocia region and famous for its rock formations.

Nothing like a hot air balloon to get a vantage for a good view.

This area feels both ancient and alien. It really makes me sad that we live in a time when we can not visit other planets around other stars. But nice we have such an interesting planet ourselves.

What is a bit odd is I'm not usually overjoyed with arid regions. My favorite environments are filled with green trees, lots of water and/or cool rocky coasts.  Yet I fell in love with this place.

I'm pretty sure Jawas live here.

From the balcony of our cave room.  First time I've slept in a cave that had plumbing.
The days were hot but nights perfectly cool.  Amazing sky.

A view from Ephesus.
When the Romans were here the coast was a lot closer, this would have been a sea-view.

Looking out across Minsk on a rainy evening.

Not very many tall buildings in Minsk.  This is from the library, maybe the tallest building, which has a nice observation area at the top. Since there is a winding river through the city and there are so many parks, Minsk ends up being a city that has a lot of nature.

From the top of the ferris wheel: the only spot for such a view in this area of Minsk

About an hour north of Simferopol, Ukraine.

The Black Sea, not far from Yalta.

The Agean Sea, West Coast of Turkey. You could twist my arm to live in this spot.

Where are your favorite views? 


Enjoy the music:


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This has been an A-Z Challenge post. 
For the month of April there will be an update for each letter within the theme of: Things that influence and inspire me, or the converse: things which I find distressing or make me want to rail at the world.
Some of these will pertain to the miniatures hobby, but many will venture off to atypical territory for the duration of the challenge, then it will be back to normal with mostly minis and an occasional blithering.
You can find out more about the A-Z challenge my clicking the logo at the top left of the page.