Travel
When I say, "Venetian," do you think of Las Vegas or of Italy? In the case of these open shutters, you should think of Venice, Italy. One clue is the benign decay you see in the masonry around the windows. Though I've never been to the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, I'm guessing it's not falling apart. Or sinking.
Filitosa is a historic site on the French island of Corsica. It was discovered in the 1940s and was determined to be a late neolithic settlement occupied from sometime around 3300 BC to 1500 BC. The stone columns in this photo are called menhirs and are thought to have been constructed to ward off enemies through magic.The day Deb and I visited Filitosa, which covers several acres and includes the quarry where the many structures and menhirs originated, we had the place to ourselves. We were certainly off the beaten path.One thing that strikes me about places like Filitosa is that it was inhabited for 1800 years. The town I live in has been inhabited for 125 years - less than 1/100 of Filitosa. I sometimes wonder what archaeologists will find in our location 1700 years from now. We have a clock tower. Will that survive? If it does, will they know what it was for? Magic?
The circular object with concentric circles of blue and white is known as the evil eye. If you look closely in this photo, you will also noticed bracelets with much smaller versions of the same symbol. This photo was taken in Istanbul, Turkey, but I have seen this bracelet in Greece and other places in Eastern Europe.The belief is that is that if you wear one of these amulets, bad things won't happen to you. I'm not sure if there is any science to back this up. The vendor's missing foot and toes make me wonder about its efficacy.Incidentally, the sign that we sometimes use to mean "OK" in western culture is the "evil eye" sign in eastern Europe. So don't flash the "OK" sign in Istanbul - it may cause a fight.
This young woman is a street performer we encountered a few years ago while strolling along the Las Ramblas in Barcelona, Spain. Even before I saw her, I knew I was hearing a didgeridoo, which makes a kind of a droning sound.Was she a good didgeridoo player? Perhaps a virtuoso? Frankly, I couldn't tell a good didgeridoo sound from a bad one since we don't have many players in my home town. But I did put a coin in her collection plate. I liked her style. And her big didgeridoo.
More than once in the US when I have pointed my cameras at a child to get a candid photo, I've gotten dirty looks. For that reason, I don't take many photos of kids when I am wandering around.But in this case, I couldn't resist. Plus, I was in Lisbon, Portugal, and his parents smiled when they saw me taking his photo. It's a different culture, I guess. The location is the Jeronimos Monastery and what I like about this picture is the child's casual stance. I also like how he is looking at me in a way that isn't fearful or suspicious.
I never used to be an adventurous gourmand. And I don't eat bugs and smelly fruit like that guy on the Food Network. But I am more willing to order mysterious things from menus when traveling in Europe these days.In this case, I ordered what the menu said was "garlic soup with bread and eggs." I assumed the eggs would be stirred in like they are in egg drop soup. I thought the bread would be served on the side. Imagine my surprise when what you see here was served. It was marvelous. I would like a bowl right now. Anyone know where I can get something like this?
This is a shot from the south (?) side of the River Thames. The structure spanning the river is a pedestrian bridge known as the Millennium Bridge, build to help commemorate the new Millennium a few years ago. In the distance is St. Paul's Cathedral, which was built in 1697 and was designed by the famous British architect Christopher Wren.When the Millennium Bridge opened, they found that it wobbled excessively and millions of dollars were spent on modifications in order for people to safely walk on it. St. Paul's does not wobble and never has.See this on Panoramio and Google Earth
Those who have ridden subways know that sometimes the escalators down to the tracks may seem endless. This is especially true in cities that are hilly. This escalator isn't particularly deep but I happened to have my camera out as we were going down.One of the deepest London tube stations is the Angel Tube Station and one thrillseeker has found a quick way to do down -- on snow skies. Check out this YouTube video.
Deb and I were in Lisbon on the last day of our visit to Portugal when I noticed these two people pondering something off in the distance. I was immediately reminded of a famous work of art by Duane Hanson called "Tourists." And so I snapped the photo. I'll have to admit that my wife and I come closer to looking like Hanson's tourists than this Lisbon couple does, though I think my wife is much more stylish.You might be interested in knowing that Duane Hanson casts his fiberglass and resin figures from real people. Most of the people in my photos are real, too.
To someone from the US (and much of the rest of the world), one of the many endearing idiosyncrasies of England is that they drive on the "wrong" side of the road. One would think that this would have little impact on the pedestrian but that would be wrong. For example, which side of the sidewalk do you walk on? How about people movers at airports? Escalators? Etc.As a pedestrian in London for the first time, I appreciated the courtesy of the warnings painted at many crosswalk because more than once, I looked left as I would at home, stepped into the crosswalk and then was aware that traffic was bearing down on me on the "wrong" side of the road.Incidentally, without trying to sound pedantic, 34% of the world's population drives on the left. The French used to drive on the left but Napoleon changed it. I don't know why.
We were packing our rental car and getting ready to leave our little cottage in Aldeia da Mata Pequena, Portugal, when the two resident peacocks walked up and started to look at themselves in the dark reflection. I thought they were admiring themselves, but when they started to peck at our car, I concluded that they thought they were looking at two other peacocks that somehow posed a threat. They moved on amiably when I opened the passenger car door.
You may have noticed that I post more photos of things than I do of people. When traveling, I rarely ask permission to take photos of people who are aware of my camera. - generally prefer candid, un-posed photos.This is true of this photo, though it's not exactly candid. In this case we we strolling through a public square in Lisbon and the gentleman who is looking at me saw my camera and encouraged me with gestures to take the photo of his friends. The man in the red shirt has two aces in his hand but I don't know what game he is playing.
