We visited the Gaylord National Hotel back in 2008, after it and the National Harbor had just opened. These are two videos I filmed back then. The first is of the hotel’s musical water fountains and the second is of the National Harbor itself.
It’s been almost four years since this, and I still can’t get over that name… Gaylord…
Ligia and I went on a walk in one of the beech forests near Medias on Christmas Eve. This is a video I filmed during our walk. I loved the clear, crisp air and the quiet, punctuated at times by snow powder falling from the trees or the barking of distant dogs.
The background music is performed by a talented artist by the name of Donald Betts and is called “A Curious Story”.
Here are a few photographs I took on that same walk.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
The central plaza in the city of Medias (Southern Transilvania, Romania) is called Piata Regele Ferdinand (King Ferdinand Plaza). This is what it looks like in winter, during a snowfall.
That’s what it would look like this winter as well, if there were some snow around. I recorded this video almost a year ago to the day and so far, I’ve only seen some frost around. Just yesterday, it was into the low teens (Celsius) and super sunny — warm enough to do some light carpentry work outside.
When you travel through Brasov (Romania), you notice two things: the wonderful medieval buildings and the mountains that surround the city. But there’s another way to see the city — from those same mountains that surround it.
If you take the road toward Poiana Brasov, a mountain resort that sits perched atop those mountains, about 17 km from the city, you’ll find a few lookout points, positioned in such a way that you’ll get some great views of the city.
Here are a few photos taken from those lookout points.
We visited the mountain resort of Paltinis today. It’s about 25-30 km from Sibiu (Hermannstadt), Romania, and the road to it is in pretty good shape. The views are wonderful, so if you’re in the area, drive on over.
Funny thing about Paltinis… It’s the place where I almost wasn’t… My mom was skiing on their bunny slope when she was pregnant with me, and she had a bad fall which could have resulted in a spontaneous abortion. Thank goodness it didn’t, or I wouldn’t be around today.
Here are a few photos I took there, which I shot with an iPhone. I used a “pre-filter” for some of the photos — my driving sunglasses! It’s a neat little trick you can do if the lens of your camera is small enough to be masked completely by the lens of your sunglasses, and it works particularly well if they’re polarized. You simply hold the camera right next to your glasses and shoot through the lens. You can compare the resulting effect below. Another thing I should mention is the panoramic-sized photos were stitched together in Photoshop, they’re not single exposures cropped to look like panoramic shots. Click through to view them large.
Raoul Pop 