From London to Italy and Leicester ...... (Part 3 Venice)

20th July 2014

So this is Venice, or as the italians called it Venezia, during my younger days i've been dreaming about this place, people say its boring, they say its only buildings on water and gondolas but so far i've enjoyed it. And here i am. Its kinda surreal. But i am in venice. I only used to see Venice from TVs, travel channels and pictures, now, here i am. First impressions compared to Milan is definitely different and interesting. This place is beautiful! I love old buildings and this checked in my check list. The moment you stepped out of the train station, you're greeted with water taxis. This is the main transportation of Venice, boats, gondolas and water taxis. The water taxis worked similar like the metro trains in Milan. But here its 7euro per trip. The Metro in Milan costs only 1.50euro. Bummer. Venice is certainly more expensive than other parts of Italy. A tourist traps they say.

I reached my destination at St.Angelo and meet the apartment owner, Alessandro. Very italian but speaks good english. I think he's making good money for renting his apartment here in venice. Roughly about 120euro per nite, good for 3 to 4 adulto. The room is spacey, it feels like home and i am already liking Venice. No view of the grand canal but i'm closed enough to the point of interest areas. Great deal.

My apartment, and that couch is a cool sofa bed

This is definitely a tourist place. I'm not sure if i'm seeing Italians or a tourist. Everyone looks like a tourist. And they said Milan is a shopping city but Venice is definitely a shopper's paradise too. I think Italy is a shopping paradise. Definitely a lot of shops here in Venice. All the big brands located nicely behind the no.1 top spots in Venice, the Piazza San Marco. For you inglessia, (that's english by the way) its St.Marks square. Me, parlo non italiano (I dont speak italian). I'm picking up little italian. Souvenirs, leather bags, handbags, there is H&M, (H&M is everywhere!!!), there are 2 hard rock cafe shops, a lot of cool tees. You can also buy the gondola's tee shirt as well which looks like the old cartoon prisoners stripes shirt.

Piazza San Marco

Shopping in Venice

I spent a lot in Venice compared to in Milan, somehow this beautiful place made me feel like spending. You know how a place can give you a feeling of spending/getting something, "I want to get something from here so i can remember/treasure this place" sort of feeling. Souvenirs, key chains, tees, and i should have buy a fridge magnet even though in my experience it always got broken played by my 2 highly active kids.

I had dinner in one of the restaurants near the Rialto bridge, although a bit expensive but this place is really romantic, at night, everything just glows with bright amber lights by the canal. i'm thinking this is a great place to bring your significant other. A Honeymoon. Dinner by the grand canal. Kissing on the Rialto bridge. Venice is indeed special.

Rialto Bridge

Gondola by the Grand Canal

i find my mind is at peace here. Its relaxing. Peaceful. A good retirement home.

One thing to note, all the towers in Venice are leaning, not just the famous leaning tower of pisa. "What is up with that?" Most of the towers. What are the italians thinking? Probably back in the days, when they worked their way up the tower, it looked straight from down below, not until they almost finished the tower they then realize it was leaning but its too late to turn back or redo, they just leave it as it is.
And the world thought it was genius! Its either the architect is a genius or the world is a fool!
I'm joking, of course i'm joking...... but am i??

Piazza San Marco

From London to Italy and Leicester ...... (Part 4 Burano and Murano)

21st July 2014

Burano, i guess someone a long time ago decided to play with colourful paint or they just discovered paint itself and painted their houses with different striking colors next to each other. To be honest i did not know and did not look up burano's history. Anyway, Burano has a lot of colorful houses and that's just it. Its beautiful in a way but i guess its a once in a life time experience. Unlike Venice, i'd love to come back to Venice anytime. With Burano, maybe just once. Dont get me wrong, its worth the experience. I'm happy that i visited Burano. I took a lot of pictures. Might be the same scene for a couple of shots. Which means its really that beautiful.

The boat took a lifetime to reach Burano. It's a 30 min ride but the slow speed make it felt like ages. At first i thought Burano is part of Venice, so i decided to just stand and let those empty seats being taken. "Well, its only gonna take 10-15mins just like those metros in milan", i thought. I was wrong. Actually Burano is another island next to Venice. I should have taken the seat. Anyway, Burano is a small island. One whole day should be enough for sight seeing, its a place to relax. A retirement home i guess.

On the way back to Venice from Burano there is another island in between named Murano, i made a stop here before heading back to Venice to explore Murano. It is another small island, much closer to Venice which is famous for making glasses into beautiful shapes. Be it pendant, vase, rings, animals, orchestra dudes, flowers, lots of shapes. If you're into these kind of thing, then its worth a visit. Its also cheaper compare to prices around the world. Made in italy, this is as original as it gets. The origin. Great as souvenirs. "I just came back from italy and look what i brought, a glass made in italy!" Me grin, the rest gasp! With their hands on their mouths.

There is this one island i passed by, in between Venice and Murano, long walls and no boats seems to stop there. It looks like Alcatraz island from the movie The Rock. Or this is the cemetery island that i read about in a book called something like "things to do in Venice".

A funny thing, actually i took a trip to Burano twice, because i took the wrong boat. The information display said its going back to Venice at 18.17. 18.17 the boat came, i hop in with full confidence but the boat is going in the direction of Burano. Oh Em Gee, i'm heading back to Burano.i feel like a fool. Its gonna be a slow long ride, now where's that seat. 19.17, i'm finally back in Venice.

I am in my hotel scrolling through all the TV channels looking for an english speaking channel. Nop. Everything's in italian. I'm watching Homer Simpson speaking fluent italian. The best thing with these dub audio is that they try to imitate the voice of the character themselves. Well not all works. Bruce Willis did not sound like Bruce Willis but close haha. I wish there was an option to put on an english subtitle, at least i could enjoy the movie. Thank god there's internet.

Hi, My Name is Dark Moody

I'm beginning to dig the look of my 'Andy Lee' wannabe look. It has the sort of surreal feel, painted look and really dark mood feeling about it, as if its about to rain in a few minutes. I dont really shoot a lot of landscapes lately or ever but now that i have that 'dark mood look' recipe, i wanna try it on all of my landscapes pictures but first i need to shoot more landscapes. I've been digging my library and see if i can find more landscapes pictures but alas there's only a few. Shucks! I need to get my ass off this couch and start taking photos!

I found a few photos from my last year's trip to Kota Kinabalu Sabah. I'm diggin the look. I'm calling this my "Dark Moody" set.

All shots taken with Fuji X-M1.
Awesome little camera!

PeeKaBoo ....

Unintentional....but works with the title..

Puzzled? Let me explain...

I was uploading a photo to my 500px , it looked like this in the website (black and white category)

See there?

As you can see its all blacked out on 500px website, it looks like there is something wrong with my picture, and viewers would also think either its just an all black photo or corrupted photo.

But actually if you're really intrigued and clicked on the picture, actually its a picture of ...

PeeKaBoo!!

my kid.....
right at the bottom of the pic...

It was unintentional, but somehow coincidentally works with the title!

The real story was, i'm tryin to do a self portrait but with manual focus and no help it was PITA to nail focus so i asked my kid to stand in and adjusted focus and took her picture along the way.