Monday 26 October 2009
Thursday 22 October 2009
Enchanted Venezia: Day 2
by wh
Harlequin of Venezia
The last thing I ever wish for in a trip is rain...Bloody RAIN!!! Well, we got one heavy raining day eventually on our second day in Venice... We went to Piazza San Marco that dark and cloudy morning.... along our way it started to rain heavier and heavier... =.= I bought a small umbrella cost me around 8 euro, it was broken after just one day use... and after the rain stop, you would see some of the bins on the street filled with broken umbrellas... umbrellas in Venice is truly "value for money"...
We got ourselves all wet and decided to go back to our hostel. It's terrible and hope for a better weather on the night time... In the end, the rain finally stopped just about the time we're going for our dinner... ^^
That night, we went to a Venetian seafood restaurant... There's a story behind the reason we wana have our dinner there. It happened a night before on our way back to hostel, we passed by this restaurant and there's a hanged porcupine fish with a cigarette in its mouth! Ha! we found the fish quite funny, SC tried to touch it and the cigarette accidentally dropped off from the fish's mouth. Oops... I found it quite funny as the porcupine fish still remain a shocking face despite its cigarette drop... lol Well the next thing we do is RUN!!! On day 2, we decided to go back and have a dinner there to see whether the fish is still smoking or not... :P Luckily none of the staffs there recognise us.
The legendary smoking porcupine fish
hanged by the window...
The seafood restaurant,
Tavernetta San Maurizio
After dinner, we went to Piazza San Marco and the decorative lights surround the piazza is just beautiful... Expensive restaurants are serving dinner at the piazza... In front of an expensive restaurant, there's a "band" perform some classic love songs, one of them is the phantom of the opera theme song, and some people are dancing at the piazza, how romantic it is... Well maybe the restaurant is too "high class" or expensive, there're lots of empty tables and seats on the outdoor section. So it's a pity that the band is performing for nearly no customers but those who are walking around the piazza...
Then we went to Bridge of Sighs, one of the main attractions in Venice... This beautiful bridge is connects to a prison and the Doge's palace. During the old times, prisoners will have their last view of Venice through the two windows of the bridge before receive their imprisonment. The name "Bridge of Sighs" probably refer to prisoners' sighs after their last view of beautiful Venice. But to me and SC, the sigh is referring to something else... As we looked at the bridge, we sighs... there's nothing wrong with the bridge, it's just the surround wall near the bridge which is all covered by advertisement boards... sigh...
Santa Maria della Salute...
Nice songs were played but 
But it's surrounded by
advertisement boards... sigh~~~
We walked around the stores near the piazza and on our back to our hostel, we saw some shops displayed really nice artistic masks, toys and souvenirs...
Melting shoes...
Masked man figure...
Meschere de Carnevale...
A ship with ideas... taken by SC
Symphonic birdies...
There're some Pinocchio shops around Venice even though it's originated from Tuscany...
Sitting dolls.....
Carousel or merry-go-round
models found in Venice...
A well-crafted small wooden desk with
some little books and other things on it, amazing!
That's our day 2, a little bit of disappointment... What can make it worse when we bought some souvenirs, the shop lady told us that there will be rain again on the next day... wtf... sigh.... finger crossed and hope we manage to wake up early on our day 3 and take some nice day-time pictures at Piazza San Marco... what a F day it is... =.=
Sunday 11 October 2009
Enchanted Venezia: Day 1
by wh
Winged Lion, Symbol of Venice
Day 1, after arriving Trevisco Airport, we got on a bus to Venice. After that, we probably used almost an hour to look for our hostels. The island is like a maze, and Venetian doesn't really speak English so it was crap. But we found it in the end and along our way, we were amazed by the wonderful places in Venice. It's like we escaped from our use-to-know world to a small village with it's own culture, the river is like our road, the boats is like our cars, and mask-selling shops are all around the places. Venice is well-known of its Carnivale once a year with people wearing masks around the place. There're some traditional one we saw, like Bauta and Moretta.
The old-time Venice is famous for its comedic theatre with actors wearing those traditional mask during their performance. Every character with the mask has given its name. I saw this act just few days ago in movie "Casanova" which film based in Venice.
Fresh produce market on a boat...
WH & SC at the city of bridges...
Beautiful bridges and river of Venice...
Decorative Venetian Mask
with a small bauta on the bottom left...
Meschere di Venezia...
SC with meschere shop...
Venice is well-known for not only its tourist attractions, and also its expensive foods and drinks. A coke for 4 euro, a spaghetti for 8 euro and haven't added with taxes!!! But day 1 we have some authentic lasagne and caborana. It's unlike creamy caborana in the UK, it's made by egg yolk, delizioso~! But we never knew we were treated dinner in McDonald's by a auntie and her daughter. Ha!
In the afternoon, we were walking around places near San Polo area and then San Marco where most tourist attraction near there. Bridges after bridges, rivers after rivers, we saw some gondolas crossing by the rivers, beautiful old shops and old churches. It's hard to describe, every angle in this island is a beautiful picture we probably imagine long time ago. We saw beautiful gondola by the river and some tourists are negotiating with the sailors. Gondola is a traditional Venetian boat now used as public transport. When I knew that a gondola ride costs 80 euro, those funny looking sailors probably wana earn more money from innocent tourists like us. 80 euro?! what a joke...
Venetian's symbolic Gondola...
SC with moored Gondolas...
As we taking pictures along our way to San Marco, an asian-look auntie with a young european-look girl asking SC about sharing the ride of gondola. If we shared a gondola, it would just cost us 20 euro each which is not bad actually. Honestly, fly to Venice that far seeing people on the gondola and not seeing ourselves on it would be quite a regret. They are actually from Belgium, the mom is Philippines, her husband a Belgian and her daughter's Belgian. (I've truly forgot their names after they introduce themselves, sorry...) It's a favour from them but we kinda need it anyway, so we accept the favour. In the end we got a gondola which cost us 80 euro and we'll have a night ride! The night gondola ride supposed to be extra charged (100 something euro) as the environment is much more quiet at night compare to daytime (rubbish!)
Riding on the Grand Canal, only by that time I felt the houses in Venice are floating. The gondola's sailor will wear a traditional strip shirt, tight trousers, and a stupid hat. When we sail into small rivers, the sailor will scream Italian by the time our gondola almost reach a junction. This is an old way for them to prevent crashes along the small rivers. It's really suitable for couples to get on this gondola ride, it's like back to old times, romantic ride it is in this magical place.
Venetian Gondola's sailors slacking near by the river...
Me and SC on a Gondola...
The imaginary floating city...
Small canal inside the city of Venice...
Night view along the Grand Canal...
Romantico feel near the
Rialto Bridge during the night...
After the ride, they wanted to treat us McDonald's as we've help them with the favour thingy. We tried to reject it but it's hard. In the end we've a wonderful night and a dinner with this lovely pair of mom and daughter. We've a great chat about their holidays in USA, our life in the UK and lots of stuffs. Before we gone back to our own hostels, we exchanging emails and they asked us to visit them in Belgium in future time just by letting them know. Ha! suddenly we got friends from Belgium during our trip in Venice, unbelievable...
That's it for now, it's too long already... it has been an interesting day1 for us in Venezia. Thanks for the Belgian mom and daughter who suddenly appeared in front of us and makes our trip in Venice a little bit special~... ^^
Saturday 3 October 2009
The Damned United
Seen this title on a book before the film came out, at first I was not really interested as the book talks neither Liverpool or Gerrard. The "united" was refer to Leeds United, the best English Football Club during the end of 60s. The reason why this film interest me is because of Brian Clough, a legend in English football. This film telling the true story of Brian Clough's 44 days as Leeds United's manager before he bring Nottingham Forest to become the European Champions back-to-back in 1979 and 1980.
When the film talks about his struggling days in Leeds United, there are flashbacks of his glory days as the manager of Derby County. His days of rivalry with Leeds United and Leeds's manager, Don Revie. There's no need to know who's Brian Clough, Don Revie or even you're not a football fans, the film is just about a successful young manager of a growing football team is hired to become a manager of his once hated rival team to the top of the league. This film has a strong English Football atmosphere like the managers rivalries, conflict between manager and chairman, and they talk football in thick British accent(strong Yorkshire accent by some of the actors).
This film is also talks about the friendship of Clough and his assistant manager, Peter Taylor. You can imagine Clough is an out-spoken asshole with lots of talking while Taylor who is his best mate always help him out cleaning up the mess made by Clough. In the end, it shows their long-lasting friendship and partnership leads one of their best feat of winning two times European Cup with Nottingham Forest. But it's a shame Clough remains the greatest manager England team would never had.
Friday 2 October 2009
SC left the UK just like that...
Yup just like that...
Now I'm officially the only BA who still staying in England. I really feel like wana finish my dissertation as quick as I can right now and fly back home in Feb. I miss the foods, friends, family, Segamat... Well my last day of work has been confirmed 28th Dec ^^... planning to go to Italy during the new year festival and then probably I'll fly back to Malaysia around February for the Chinese New Year. It's been Fckin 2 years I didn't celebrate CNY in Malaysia. Well that's it, fingers crossed, hope my dissertation will be finished by Jan...
After living in Thrale Road for a year,
SC can't wait to shut her psycho cousin's
house door for the very last time... smile~
before SC's entering
the departure gate...
Thursday 1 October 2009
My hero Steven Gerrard
WahSeh, probably the best advert Adidas has ever done! Stevie G in graphic novel animation!!! He's truly amazing. The captain fantastic is not only the powerhouse, he's the heart, the soul and inspirational figure of the Reds. I love one of the lines by Zidane, "After all, there was no miracle at Instanbul" WahSeh, this is good stuff! really good stuff!(for fans like me)
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