Monsterrat and the temporary fear of God

I miss my time in Spain. To ease the longing I've been reworking some images I took and doodles I doodled while in Barcelona. If you do plan to visit, do not skip THIS place. About 1 hour north of Barcelona by train is Montserrat, a mountain top monastery in Catalonia. Winter is the BEST time. The entire region and the mountains were empty.

The crispy air up there burnt my face, it was a little creepy being so high, crucifixes appear on mountain tops amongst mini monasteries and  tiny hermitages just appear from behind terrain, it's quite and beautiful with a huge empty sky, probably the highest I have actually felt on this planet earth, it  all made I feel a little like I was closer to some type of god, actually the more time I spent up there alone I felt actually ended up rather fearful of one. Thankfully after a full day of exploration I raced the sun and descending via the funicular, then further down by the cable car and while the temperature dropped reality slowly came back to me in a slow warm rush and all that fear of God was replaced with that normal whimsy, happy feeling of existence. But I guess it could of also been an increasing fear of heights.

Images taken by Canon 30D + doodles + pink hue overlays.

Back from the hills of Ubud, orchids in hand.

I have recently returned from a short Indonesian jaunt and I must begin by saying I lost my favourite and beloved point and shoot camera on the back of a moderately high speed motorbike in Ubud. I had so many photos, I loved them and I miss them! Gone, but hopefully not really gone. I hope a Balinese kids finds my camera in tact and uses it, falls in love with photography and carries it everywhere like i did. On the up side, I have already purchased my new camera, a sparkling new Luxim LX5!

All I have left are my instagram pictures from my iphone, here they are - they are all I have, low quality but sum up my trip pretty perfectly.

The biggest highlight of Bali and the heart of it all is Ubud. Im telling you, go to the hills.  I climbed Mt Batur in the night time and lost my mind during the clim momentarily, but it was so beautiful from the top and well worth a trip. Mountain dogs have stolen my heart and A monkey ate a hole in my dress pocket. I don't have the motivation to write without my pictures so I'll keep it really short - I have some top Balinese tips! Find and eat at Melting Wok Warung plus eat some Indonesian Pancakes. Trust me.  Fork out and book accommodation at Alila Ubud. Climb Mt Batur and Bali Hai. My biggest and best tip, learn as much Balinese as you can and use it ...  the balinese people are so beautiful, always use Suksma (thank you)for thank you and drop a few Indonesia phrases like Pagi (morning!) - watch their faces light up!

Have a lovely Easter! Im looking forward to 4 days off with lots, lots and lots of food!