Flying rainbows in the sky

From inside a balloon



This post is about The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. - Oct 3-12 2009
Oct 3, Saturday morning made a perfect dawn for the balloon fiesta to start. Albuquerque Balloon fiesta is the largest in the world. Balloonists from all over the world group here for a whole week and display their proud possessions. We were up at 4:30 in the morning and dashed off to park at my office. This is the only time we have traffic congestion in our town :) . There is this huge sea of people at the Fiesta park and to my glee lot of foot stalls lined up. Balloonists start filling heated air into the balloons and this is a sight to watch. Hundreds of colorful balloons get bloated to mammoth shapes right in front of us. Then start the flickers. Some 12 balloons light up the same time and dim at the same time, resembling huge lanterns. This is followed by the dawn patrol and then the mass ascension. I felt I was in magic land, surrounded by all the colors of the world. One just tends to forget all the crowd around. Special shapes do need a special mention. Be it the smiley sun or the Cream land Cow or the Darth Vader or the Castle or the Pepsi bottle, each one is perfectly designed and make the joy of watching balloons more spectacular. Once the balloons were off, we hit the food stalls for some off-the-stove mini doughnuts, Funnel cakes and burritos. After all the food gets in, the sleep angel calls upon us and off we shoot, back to home. This week will be completely filled with balloons.
To see all the special shapes go to balloonfiesta.com

Creamland Cow

Bee on a flower

Bumble bees holding hands
Castles in the air

Cup-o-Cappuccino

Nothing like a cup of hot steaming coffee, first thing in the morning. It actually kicks off those lazy,sleepy cells inside my head. More like a head-knocker. When we were in Europe, I didn't like the coffee version much and resorted to Cappuccinos. A typical day would start with a Cup-of-Cappuccino. I had a great time sampling each one. Though Italy is known for these, the one I had in Swiss was the best. More interesting is that the whole thing was out of a pocket, stirred in hot water, which I made by myself :)(tough thing u see ;) .

Apart from being a good subject for the taste buds, they make good photo objects too. Cheersssss , Kalpana

@The Louvre, Paris

@Venice

@Interlaken,Swiss - this was the best