You voted: Top 10 Travel Picks from #CreativElenaRTW on Instagram

Landscapes. Light shows. Sunsets. Moai. Whatever makes you happy, really. With travel photography being one of my big passions in life (see my Flickr Photo Gallery with 15.000+ travel photos published from around the globe in the last two years!), I have gathered all your feedback from my Instagram travel photo feed during the course of my recent #CreativElenaRTW trip. Screened them. Meticulously filtered them. Highlighted all those photographs that scored the most ‘Likes’ from you. Only to tell and share with you, some of the still unpublished stories in those powerful picture travel tales.

 

As I told my friends upon coming back home, many a story from this #CreativElenaRTW trip has still been left between the lines. Let me unpack some of them now, cheered on by your support for my unique (photo) point of view.

Let us start by building a ‘crescendo’, crafting a symphony of visual imagery all the way up to the most liked travel photograph on Instagram during my #CreativElenaRTW trip! Curious what it will be? Wait and see. Here is number one to start with:

 

Steaming Iceland: Besides the morning glory, I am actually freezing my … off here.!

True dedication: In search for those stunning, once-in-a-lifetime travel moments. Against the odds. Pro the elements (-9°C on a sunny Iceland morning is probably nothing for Icelanders, after all!). And would you believe that all this steam here is actually used to power … a veggie greenhouse run by my dear friend Björn’s uncle who can be seen … as a shadow in that photograph? Mysterious, as it is. After all, more than half of Icelanders believe in Elven folk and the hidden people. Let me tell you even more about this fascinating country here.

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Ex-aequo with Iceland on Instagram: Al-Noor Mosque in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.

The first picture mirrors my last travel destination on this trip around the world. I actually went from Europe to Iceland, and from Sharjah back to Europe – with many an adventure in between. You voted for the beauty of Al-Noor Mosque in its unique colour robe, as expressed each year by the Sharjah Light Festival. Having been to a part of the Arab world that is still very much about meeting, sharing & open dialogue, I can only recommend you to go there and visit. Especially after meeting the locals in town!

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Now here is another, also personal favourite of mine. You clearly love EASTER ISLAND – especially that magic sunset view right before Christmas!

My dear readers … You cannot imagine the time it took me to upload this photo. Easter Island is dial-up in the middle of the Pacific Ocean: Any sign of connection with the outside world is a small miracle. And rightly so, I believe: The culture as well as the history I found on this small island thrust out into the middle of an Ocean are just stunning, incomparable to anywhere else. You better embrace being disconnected here, and fully soak up the magic of what is around you. After all, the beauty of that sunset view still gets to me to this present day ..!

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From Moai to “Mystik Mountain” sunsets in Nepal …!

This one is special. As those of you who know me, will know. 😉 Nepal … “Once is never enough”! What the country proclaims in terms of its national tourism anthem is just so true. I shall hopefully go back there soon again … ! As for the picture travel tale in this photograph, I love that you voted it among the only ones that actually shows a person (and it is not me!). Curious? Find out more here: “From Nepal with Love”!

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Rewind Running. As the votes on my Instagram travel photos continue, you take us back to the glitz & glamour of central Manhattan, New York City!

This picture was taken from sweaty palms. Despite the early morning chill on that peaceful Sunday morning, I was sweating from my morning run in New York’s Central Park – an all-time jogging dream of mine come true! Sounds odd, perhaps, but if like me you have been running for more than half of your life (and actually enjoy the physical exercise of it!), then Central Park New York might just be your “next big thing” – as it has been for me. Also, as I mention, there needs to be a way of balancing all those “food-tour-calories“, especially where creative foodie travel tales in the Big Apple are concerned.

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Still. Let’s talk about sunsets …!

You say it’s all about cats & kiddies on Social Media? I say it’s all about sunsets & supernatural landscape shots. But that is perhaps, because I am not posting any “cats & kiddies” photos (just yet). As I explained to a 13-year-old Nepali girl being invited to her friend’s wedding ceremony, ” … no, I am not married! I am still travelling …” Still travelling capturing and posting magic sunset pictures from around the world, such as this one in Tahunanui Beach, Nelson, South Island New Zealand. Oh, New Zealand – love of my early & actual traveller’s life!

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Let’s FACE it: The ancient Moai stone statues on Easter Island are just FASCINATING!

And speak for themselves. No comments needed on this travel photograph of mine, but dozens and dozens of ‘Likes’. An air of mystery wafts around those Moai to this present day, whose immaculate stone masonry results in this rather detailed portray of the spiritual elders of the indigenous Rapa Nui people. I myself have become totally fascinated, absorbed, with what I learned and experienced on Easter Island, dedicating four full travel articles to “Te Pito O Te Henua”, the navel of the world. Read on & enjoy!

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And again on ex-aequo terms: Al-Noor Mosque with the Moai from Easter Island.

The Sharjah Light Festival has been truly unique and continues to fascinate me. How are those immense and powerful light projections on such an elaborate building structure as Al-Noor Mosque possible – from a bunch of creative French artists? 😉

I am being cheeky here. Forgive me, my dear Frenchie friends! J’adore! What a perfect blaze of colours and light: WOW!

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Second only to one more photograph, here is No. 2 in a long list of all-time, #CreativElenaRTW Instagram travel favourites.

And it has to be … New Zealand. A dream destination among many. For this image (and my personal mission), I chose to hike one of the nation’s so-called “Great Walks”, several-day-hikes in the country’s most spectacular national parks such as Kahurangi National Park. What I especially love about this photograph is the juxtaposition of afternoon sunlight and foreboding shadows: The way is set. The goal has been marked. The forces are with you. Remain balanced between the polarities (sea, wind, thunder), and you will succeed on your path to even more hiking adventures. 😀

More words about my epic trail straight from a moved writer’s heart can be found here.

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And finally. Your favourite. A picture of peace. Serenity. And love (look at the colours!). NEPAL, it is!

“This is a really beautiful shot … I never saw it that way.” Isn’t it often that you surprise the very locals you are with by taking on new viewpoints of a sight so familiar to them, yet so special to you? I bet you it often happens this way. And rightly so, as in this case of a pretty lake scene on a late afternoon stroll in Pokhara, Central Nepal, what with world-famous Annapurna mountain ranges looming in the back. The feeling of peace, colour shades & perspective in this photograph are all excellent, I daresay.

Excellent enough for you to vote it Top #CreativElenaRTW Instagram Travel Photo. THANK YOU SO MUCH for all your support during this once-in-a-lifetime round the world trip of mine !!!

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For more on how this journey has yet succeeded in changing me, I recommend you to read: “HOME. Practical, emotional & fun conclusions from a life-changing journey around the world.

😀

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