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Gorgeous Autumn Walk ; Czech
November 14, 2014
Autumn; I guess it is on the way to close its stunning view with so many bright golden leaves scattered all over the ground. Most trees try to shred their leaves before the cold winter comes. Yeah, it is already quite cold now, especially when I cycle to school everyday. Gloves are important. When the cold, strong wind strike my face, it feels so refreshing - and painful T_T
Before it's over for another year, let me share with you some more amazing views of autumn forest here in Czech Republic. :D
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| nemophilist-girl.tumblr.com |
This is actually Cesky Raj; again. But, this time, I walked in another part of Cesky Raj. And the view here is just different that previous one. :) Check here.
I was there with many new friends! It was actually a trip planned by my juniors, in which they have same interest as me :D And along the way, I managed to help sometime with the navigation as I just learnt about dealing with routes. :) Yeah, girls still can read map, yeay!
By the way, they are from Poland, India, Libya, Czech, Greece, Cyprus etc. Since most of us are international students, I'm excited to see how non-Czech deal with this hiking-walking thing. And I'm amazed that they love to take pictures too (same like me T_T).
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| Piotr, Masha, Pawel, Rishika, Magda, Syafikah, Andria, Basma, Ela, Hanis |
It was already late-autumn, in which most trees are leave-less. Haha, I'm not sure if it is a right word, but I just want to say there were less leaves still hanging on the trees.
It was a lovely walk. <3
I met many people walking with us, and most of them were elderly T_T Just imagine our grandparents walk along the road beside a lake, holding hands, keep themselves next to each other. It was beautiful!
I also met my Anatomy final-exam examiner! :D Haha, it's awkward for me but, it still feel nice to see him with his lovely wife and 2 shy twins; outside the school time. Final exam here are majority done orally, so, imagine yourself sit in front of your lecturers, answering all those questions. And they can ask you so many things and you don't have the chance to skip any questions or maybe just say, 'I don't know but maybe you can tell me'. :p
I've been joining last year autumn trip with him and other Czech students actually. :)
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| Apple trees |
Going to suburbs or villages or anywhere outside the skirt of towns, means you can have the chance to see or eat so many apples! The apple trees are all along the road and you can just pick it up and eat as long as you know the trees are not in somebody's gardens :)
Czech is full with castles. Here is another one - a preserved gothic castle; Hrad Kost. It was closed during our visit as they will not be opened starting November till March.
Basically, most buildings in Europe are based on Gothic architecture. It was a style that come from 12th - 16th century. You can check more about it in Wikipedia; I'm not able to put them into simple words. :)
p/s If you are travelling to Europe, Czech should be considered to be on your list, okay. Most of times, its beauty is indescribable. <3
Set It Free
November 9, 2014
Have you been in the feeling of regret? Like after doing something, you regret doing it. Especially something bad and even harmful to yourself or maybe somebody else.
It is a yes for me.
Honestly, there were so many things I wish I didn't do. So many things I wish I put my thought more before I did it. So many speech that I wish I had not say. So many moments I wish I never had.
In Malay, it is called 'Kalau lah'. That word 'IF'. T_T
I had come across this hadith and tried to do some self-reflection.
Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (?) as saying:
A strong believer is better and is more lovable to Allah than a weak believer, and there is good in everyone, (but) cherish that which gives you benefit (in the Hereafter) and seek help from Allah and do not lose heart, and if anything (in the form of trouble) comes to you, don't say: If I had not done that, it would not have happened so and so, but say: Allah did that what He had ordained to do and your" if" opens the (gate) for the Satan.
reference;- Sahih Muslim 2664
Sometimes, the things which had happened in the past do not allow us to move on.They make us feel so sad and keep on staying in the sad condition without even try to escape from it towards something better. Like, 'I can't let it go, I can't move on. It keeps lingering in my mind'.
And as a Muslim, it is not the good attitude to Allah who had destined everything for us. We are not being grateful with He had given to us.
It's the whisper in your ear saying 'set it free' - Matthew West
Now, it is the time to set it free. Erase all the thought that I've done sins or I'm not a good person. Turn back to Allah. Repent all the sins and try the best not to do it again.
Allah is the most Merciful. Have you read or listen to the story of somebody doing sins and then repent with all his heart but still doing the sin again then repeat again and again. Allah still forgive him. If we come to Him with repentance, He will forgive us! You can listen to that story in the video below. :)
Still remember the concept of tawbah (Taubat) that we have learned in school before?
1. Recognise our sins & mistakes
2. Feel ashamed to Allah as we have violated His trust
3. Promise yourself to never repeat the mistake
Believe in Allah and pray hard that He will make things right for us. Depend on Him in whatever we do.
Indeed, Allah loves those who are constantly repentant and loves those who purify themselves. - Al-Baqarah 2:222
Be grateful with what had happened. Everything that is destined is not coincidence, even when we meet our long-lost school friend out of nowhere in the supermarket - that is not coincidence. It is planned for us to meet each other.
Believe that everything happens with reason/s. In that way, we will not blame ourselves so hard and will have open hearts and minds to accept things. Keep on praying, never stop.
I found this WikiHow link very useful for us. :) Read it, guys.
http://www.wikihow.com/Ask-Allah-for-Forgiveness
Till then,
Assalamualaikum.
v Khaulah,
141109
Road Trip ; Pruhonice Park, Prague, Czech
November 1, 2014
I've been spending my weekend wisely by exploring Czech :) And usually, they were by train, by bus, by bike or on foot. And this time, it would be a road trip! Wohooo. I had my international license done when I was home last summer, so, let's make full use of it.
Last weekend, my friends and I went to a place listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site, located in Prague. It is Pruhonice Park and Castle; reachable by public transport from center of Prague (15km southeast of Prague). Take buses no. 363 and 385 metro line C 'Opatov' to the busstop “Pr?honice”. And if by car, it is not that hard to reach there (just use GPS. hihi).
Basically, Pruhonice consists of a castle surrounded by natural park; filled with grassy open spaces colored by trees, streams, ponds, waterfalls, look-out tower. Since the current owner of Pruhonice is the Institute of Botany; you can expect hundreds of local and exotic plants. :D
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| The water was not so clean that time T___T |
The area is very large - approximately 250 hectares. So, they already plan few routes for visitors. Before you can enter the park, you need to pay for entrance ticket - 30kc (student price). Then, you can take the pamphlet from the office, in this case you can choose any routes that suit you.
There are 3 routes - based on length and estimated duration of time.
1. BLUE - Basic Tour Route; 1.5- 2 hours; 2.5 km
2. YELLOW - Main Tour Route; 3 - 4 hours; 5 km
3. RED - Viewpoint Tour Route; 5 - 6 hours; 10 km
The RnR at the highway :)
There are no tolls at the highway! Wohooo, that's great! But, I don't understand why there are no lights along the road. Like seriously, when you drive at night, you are solely depending on your car's front lamps for lights. And even, you can use high beam if there are no cars in front of you (I saw cars in front of me doing it). I guess, cars on the other side of road are not really affected with that high beam as there are bushes in between the roads.
That's similar to our life. People may have different lifestyle, ways of life. But, we need to remember that we are heading to the same direction - Akhirah. We might have lots of obstacles on our way or maybe others may not have the same resistances. But be grateful that Allah gives us challenges that are within our limits. :)
Keep on moving forward, and make sure to recalculate our life routes when we find ourselves lost along the way to prepare ourselves to meet Allah. :)
Since we were looking for not-so-long-yet-not-so-short route, we decided to follow the yellow one. The marks were quite confusing for me, as sometimes I don't really know where was I based on the map. :p Maybe that's my weakness. :)
Well, since I am trying to promote people about the beauty of Czech (actually to promote students here to explore Czech. hihihi), I must say that this place is also a must; especially in autumn and spring. We went there in late autumn, just imagine, the view of what we saw during our tour was slightly different with the previous week. :D
Aha, by the way, I'm pretty sure most people with smartphone have Instagram right? And we use hash tags to classify our uploaded photos to few categories. For me, hash tags are not just for promoting or make it easier for people to like the photos. But, we can also use hash tags to have a view of how the place we are aiming to go looks like in few previous days :)
Late autumn - means it's getting colder. Yeap, it was, I can no more take off the trench coat. I even prepared a pair of gloves, in case of getting numb fingers.
Before going back to Hradec Kralove, we stopped at SAPA which is quite close to Pruhonice. I can say this place is full of Vietnamese markets - with lots of buildings for different stuffs. Like the one above, Tamda Foods is the supermarket for groceries. Of course, it is loved by Malaysians to buy things in bulk - like the prawns, squids, fish, soy milk etc at cheaper prices. Aha, not to forget, the important cili padi and lemongrass :D They are very expensive in the center of Prague and also in HK itself.
There are no tolls at the highway! Wohooo, that's great! But, I don't understand why there are no lights along the road. Like seriously, when you drive at night, you are solely depending on your car's front lamps for lights. And even, you can use high beam if there are no cars in front of you (I saw cars in front of me doing it). I guess, cars on the other side of road are not really affected with that high beam as there are bushes in between the roads.
One thing I learnt throughout the journey, is about the GPS. GPS functions well to show us the way, right? And sometimes, different GPS will suggest different routes eventhough the destination is just the same. Maybe what differs them is the distance.
That's similar to our life. People may have different lifestyle, ways of life. But, we need to remember that we are heading to the same direction - Akhirah. We might have lots of obstacles on our way or maybe others may not have the same resistances. But be grateful that Allah gives us challenges that are within our limits. :)
Keep on moving forward, and make sure to recalculate our life routes when we find ourselves lost along the way to prepare ourselves to meet Allah. :)
InsyaAllah,
wAllahualam. <3
v Khaulah,
141031
Dad's Girlfriend
October 29, 2014
After 2 weeks, finally I managed to have a Skype call with my dad :) And indirect phone call through Skype with mum. She was still at school, doing some last preparation for Sport's Day, I guess.
One sweet conversation that make me smile till now :D
My mum called my dad when I was on Skype with him. So, he put her call on speaker, so I can hear her. :D I screamed loud, but she can't really understand what I'm saying but she knew my dad was talking to someone.
<3 <3 <3
Hihihi, dad is always daughter's first love and always be, right? :D
One sweet conversation that make me smile till now :D
My mum called my dad when I was on Skype with him. So, he put her call on speaker, so I can hear her. :D I screamed loud, but she can't really understand what I'm saying but she knew my dad was talking to someone.
And she asked; "Who is that :)?"
Dad; "My girlfriend."
Mum; "Aha, you are now on Skype with Nina, isn't it?"
<3 <3 <3
Hihihi, dad is always daughter's first love and always be, right? :D
141028
v Khaulah
Hiking Trip ; Cesky Raj, Czech
October 25, 2014
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What's interesting about Cesky Raj?
What's interesting about Cesky Raj?
And when we say paradise, just imagine any of the most beautiful places that we have been. The real paradise or heaven; for sure we can not have the real view. Not yet. But, when we see somewhere beautiful in the world, it increases our expectation and hope, and insyAllah efforts to get into Jannah, our realllll paradise. Ameen.
So, that the first thing about Cesky Raj. The name itself.
What else? :D
Depends on which routes you take (or maybe not really) - you can feel you travel in different places! Emm, I mean, surrounded by different type of forests - sometimes, it can be full of oak trees, others can be simple maple trees, spruce, pines etc. Separately. Hihi. I'm still doing my best effort to learn more about the trees in the forest T_T bear with me. :)
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| Pine trees |
Since it is located at the north of Czech and not that so far from Adrspach, most of times you can still admire all the sandstone rocks :) The top rocks themselves were told (maybe) to be the base of sea, long long long time ago. You can imagine, how deep we are on the ground compared to previous thousands years. :O The main town here is Turnov - called as the heart of Bohemian Paradise. Before, I thought Turnov and Trutnov are the same place, but nope, Trutnov is more to the northeast. Check the map.
There are many castles if I'm not mistaken, but the one I went last time is Vald?tejn Castle - originally a Gothic castle. To get into the castle, you need to cross a narrow stone bridge - with some statues on both sides - it kind of similar to a smaller version of Charles Bridge.
Vald?tejn is the oldest castle in Cesky Raj. It was approximately constructed around 1260 by Jaroslav of Hru?tice from Markvartic family. He was the ancestors of lords of Vald?tejn. The castle was owned by Vald?tejn family until 1380, after that, few changes of owners take place.
From what I've been told, the last person who own it in about 19th century was the one who created all the trails to get to the castle for tourists, with some look-out points and spas there.
Aha, when you want to enter the castle, you need to pay 25 kc (student price) - you will get few papers of guides / map; they help you to understand the castle more. There were so many information on them, so, I just read first few pages. :p
Like I mentioned before, you can plan your trip here, in Mapy.cz. :)
After we spent most time at the castle, we planned to continue our walking. But, we took a wrong way, that lead us towards Turnov Mesto. Haha. We were right on the green route as planned - but after nearly 1km, I realised that we took the opposite way (helped by GPS). We supposed to go deeper into the forest, a bit more to the south of Cesky Raj. :p
But well, it is okay, we got to see how Turnov looks like. :)
The moment we arrived at the train station of Turnov, I feel worried about the tickets. In HK hlavni nadrazi, we bought 4 return seats from HK - Karlovice Sedmihorky - HK. However, since we would like to go back to HK from Turnov on the earliest train which did not pass Sedmihorky, we need to change the tickets. It was not an easy task, with our not-so-good Czech language and Google Translator, we managed to change ticket with extra +- 100kc/4 persons. So, the total return tickets costs less than 200kc per person. :) That's still nice prices for all the beautiful creatures we've enjoyed. Hihi.
Till next mission, bye!
Assalamualaikum.
141025
v Khaulah
Cycling Trip ; Vysoka Nad Labem, Czech
October 17, 2014
Another ride, and that time was to follow the flow of Labe river! It means to the south of HK, Vysoka Nad Labem about 8-9km away. It took nearly 50 minutes by bicycle if you stop a lot to enjoy the scenery. If not, 20-30 minutes will be your best achievement! Or maybe less ;)
This place, I guess more to peaceful neighbourhood and I can see a golf field on my way there.
In Czech Republic, generally there are lots of bicycle routes that you can use all over the country. And even most of them are marked with specific colours. Like the above picture :) Not only cycling, but any hiking routes will be marked almost similar.
I cycled between the faculty hospital and Labe river in the direction of Pardubice. The route was quite okay. Sometimes I needed to ride on the main roads but the drivers here are nice, it was not a problem. Just remember to use all the hand gestures to turn left / right or stop anywhere. And if there is any traffic light, stop and wait just like vehicles. Use GPS to make sure we are in the right direction if time is limited for us.
The map is stating 'You Are Here'.
After random time spent playing with the maps, I came out with this place. It was an observation tower, Milí? (rozhledna). It was reconstructed last year, if I'm not mistaken. With the height of 31 meter, it is said, from the top, people can see different mountains on different sides. Kunětická hora, Orlické hory, ?elezná hora, Krkono?e etc and also few highest points in center of HK - White Tower in Old Town and also Hotel Cernigov. Unfortunately, the moment I stepped at the top, I could not see any. It was cloudy; dark, thick one.
Before I forget, there are two ways to reach the tower - either riding the bicycle through a longer, hilly route (about 500-1000m) or just use this stairs (you can leave your bicycle locked down there or just bring it up the stairs). The second is surely shorter, but a bit steep.
I guess, that was my first time enjoying the autumn trees from top. :) Clearly seen different, beautiful colours of leaves around the tower. And even realising again how small I am from top. T_T Well, there is always a greater power than us, God :)
I would like to share 6 questions asked by Imam Ghazali to his students, when they were together.
And lets us ponder the values we can get from them.
1. “What is the closest for us in this world?”.
Some answered; parents, teachers, friends, or relatives.
According to Imam Ghazali, all those answers are correct. But the MOST correct one is “death”. Why? Because that’s is a promise of Allah SWT that all living things will die. (QS. Ali Imran 185) I think what make it closer is we don't even know when it will happen. It can be next ten years, next week or even a second after you read this sentence. T_T
2. “What is the furthest from us in this world?”.
Some of his students answered: China, the moon, the sun, and the stars. Then Imam Ghazali explained that all those answers are correct. But the MOST correct one is “past time”. No matter what we do, where we are we can never return to past time. So, that's the reason why we cannot really stick ourselves to the past when we have the present to take care of; by filling the current time with good deeds and prayers.
3. “What is the biggest thing in this world?”.
Some answered: mountain,the earth, the sun. All those answers are correct, said Imam Ghazali. But the biggest thing from this world is “passion” (or nafs) (Qs. Al-araf:179). Most of the time, people will do whatever the fulfill their passion - and sometimes even in bad ways. So, let's be careful with what we want (the passion itself), don't let it brings us into the hell. Naudzubillah.
4. “What is heaviest in this world?”.
Some answered: elephant, steel, metal. All the answers are corrects, said Imam Ghazali. But the heaviest thing is “to keep on amanah” (responsibilities) (Qs. Al-ahzab:72). Plants, animals, mountains, and the angels were not able when Allah SWT asked them to be a khalifah (leader) in this world. But human being proudly said his ability to the request from Allah SWT, so most of them enter the hell because they can not keep their amanah.
5. “What is the lightest in this world?”.
Some answered: cotton, wind, dust and leaves. All those answers are corrects, said Imam Ghazali. But the lightest thing in this world is “leaving shalat”. Just because of our love and priorities to the world, we take shalat for granted; when shalat is the moment we speak to Allah and date with Him T_T
6. Then the last question is, “What is the sharpest in this world?”.
His students answered together, sword. That is correct, said Imam Ghazali. But the sharpest thing is “tongue of men”. Because of our tongues, we can easily hurt the feeling of others.
Wallahua'lam.
That made up my last Saturday morning :)
More trips to go, more routes to be discovered, more places to step in.
Till then,
Assalamualaikum. :)
references; http://www.islamicity.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=10573
Wallahua'lam.
That made up my last Saturday morning :)
More trips to go, more routes to be discovered, more places to step in.
Till then,
Assalamualaikum. :)
references; http://www.islamicity.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=10573
V Khaulah
141016
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