Archive for 'Photography'
Nice, Bruges, and Amiens
August 4, 2009 by nate, under General, Photography, Travel.
Hello,
I’ve been putting off updating because I’ve been quite busy the past two weeks.
So what have I been up to? – Well, on July 23rd, I started my vacation by sitting in Gatwick airport for about four hours waiting for my delayed flight. I arrived in Nice, France around 9:30pm and was able to check into my hostel in time. Nice was absolutely amazing and I believe it is possibly my new favourite place in Europe. Nice is the heart of the French Rivera, right along the coast of the Mediterranean. The water was clean, clear, and quite warm. For the entire week, I was a complete beach bum. I would lie out in the sun for about four to five hours each day trying feverishly to remove my ghostly white appearance in comparison to everyone else. I did manage to tan and not burn, however still nowhere near the level of the indigenous people.
Besides the beach, I travelled to Monte Carlo, Monaco, which is a small principality in the south of France near Nice, much like Vatican City, but quite opposite in purpose. Monte Carlo is a tax haven for very wealthy individuals and a gambling centre.
I also visited Cannes, which is renowned for the Cannes Film Festival that debuts many independent films as well as films produced by prominent studios. I went to the beach at Cannes, which was sand, rather than the stones of Nice, but the water was not nearly as clean.
I was able to meet many people and make new friends while I was in France. I travelled by myself but met many Canadians, New Zealanders (Kiwis), Russians, Aussie’s, and a few English people. Once I was in Nice, I did not go anywhere alone, I was accompanied by other young travellers and holiday makers the entire trip. Some of the people I met in Nice also live near or in London, so I am planning on meeting up with them before I return to the US.
In Nice, I visited my first casino. I never gambled before nor did I have any desire, but around 11pm on a Monday night, I entered the Casino with two Kiwis and we decided to play blackjack. I bought €20 worth of chips and sat down at a table. The minimum bid was €10, so I could only sustain a loss twice in a row. First hand, I had 19, but the dealer won with 20. I was down to €10. I decided, if I lost it all, I wouldn’t be extremely disappointed since it was a new experience and quite exciting. Next hand, I won with 20, dealer 19. So I was back to 20€. I won the next hand, up to €30, but lost the next, so I was back to par with €20. At this point my Kiwi friend, Dan, was up to €40 and decided to walk away with doubling his money. I decided I would either lose it all, or stop at €40. Two hands later, I was up to €40 and out the door. For twenty minutes of entertainment and excitement, I doubled my money and €20 is worth nearly $30!
I returned to London the next day, Tuesday, and went from beautiful 28C or 82F weather full of sunshine in France to 20C or 68F full with grey skies and rain. Luckily, my time in England was short lived because on Saturday, I drove to Bruges, Belgium with my friend, Graham, from work.
We left my flat at 4:30am and drove to Folkestone, where we took the Eurotunnel to Calais, France, and then continued our drive to Bruges, Belgium, about 100km (60m) away. Bruges is a really interesting place. The entire city is surrounded by a moat or canal which was for protection back in the middle ages and all the roads were ancient cobblestones. Graham and I walked around for a bit, went on a boat tour, and bought some chocolates for our friends at work as well as some for our mums (It’s no longer a surprise mom, your gift is Belgium chocolate). Afterwards, we went to a pub to try the famous Belgium beer. I tried Trappist beer, which originally was brewed by Monks in a Trappist Monastery. For being monks, I was surprised that the beer was as strong as it was, with 9.5% alcohol content! I also watched an American street performer escape from a straightjacket while wrapped in chains and locked. I never saw anything like this before in person and it seemed very real because he even had a Bruges police officer secure him in the straightjacket and chains. It was one of the best street performances I have ever seen.
Graham and I only spent one night in Bruges and we were planning on going back to France to visit the Normandy WWII battlefields, but we realized Normandy was too far away for us to visit in order to return in time to Calais and catch the train back to England. So, we stopped at Amiens, France to visit and for lunch. Amiens is a small city north of Paris and is home to one of the largest Gothic Cathedrals. I took a few pictures of the sculptures and the architecture. It was quite fascinating and it must have taken hundreds of years to complete (even with slave labor). After lunch and touring the cathedral, we returned to the car and headed back to England.
Now my adventures are at a standstill until August 22nd, when I will fly back to Amsterdam, The Netherlands (for my third time) to meet up with my brother, Justin, and my sister-in-law, Danielle, as they visit. I will be in The Netherlands until the 25th, when I return to England for nearly 24 hours and then fly back to Philadelphia. Only 13 days left of work and 21 until I’m back in America. It’s been a great trip so far and I will miss it, but I have much to do and I am looking forward to my senior year of University which starts on August 31st!
*Photos coming soon.
6 Comments
Oy, Mate!
July 2, 2009 by nate, under Photography, Travel.
Hello all,
Here is another update of my life in the UK.
THE WORK:
Work has been going well and quite busy. I have been using Microsoft Excel a lot and creating formulas that reduced previous tasks from an hour to ten minutes. I never had the need to do any of the things I’m am now, so I never tried learning complex Excel equations, but it’s quite fun.
Other than that, I have requested to work in our legal department for a few weeks. I figured if I’m going to seriously consider law school, it only makes sense to see what a corporate lawyer life and work is like. Since accounting isn’t the most exciting thing, I’m hoping the legal department will be.. Well, it sounds more exciting at least.
THE EXCITEMENT:
I haven’t done much this past week and I am quite happy with that. Last Saturday, I purchased the movie Transformers (the first one) and watched it twice, once with the commentary on, as I did laundry and relaxed. On Sunday, I finally walked around with my camera and took a few shots of the street I live on along, my living arrangement, the two year old housemate, and some nature shots of the Leatherhead Common behind the house. Perhaps this weekend, I’ll take some photos of the town centre, which is the lively area of town. It was a great weekend.
I am trying to figure out where I want to go for a short four day weekend trip. I was originally thinking Nice, France which is a beautiful city along the Mediterranean Sea but it is rather expensive there and I have already been to France. I am looking for a warm area with a beach, in a country that I have not been yet. Unfortunately, I’ve visited most of them within a two to three hour flight radius. So I think I may go to Nice for a weekend and then one weekend later on, take the train from London to Belgium, I never been to Belgium, for a day or two. That way I can fulfill both desires.
Other than that, I am going to London tomorrow for a birthday party of the sister of the boyfriend of a friend, Donna, whom I work with. Confusing? – Yeah, I know.
On Saturday, the Fourth, I’m not quite sure what I will be doing. I heard our Independence Day referred to as ‘Traitor’s Day’ to the English, which I think is quite hysterical.
CONCLUSION:
My French friend, Laura, is returning to her home in Toulouse, France on Saturday and I will then be the only intern at work. We’ve become good friends and it’s a shame to see her go, but luckily I have made many more friends at work and around town.
Click the photo below to open the gallery, check it.
No Comments
Prague, Germany, & France
November 14, 2008 by nate, under Photography, Travel.
I know it’s been a while since I’ve been able to update but it is mostly because I have been very busy traveling and presenting some research the past few weeks. In Prague, my team and I presented to two executives of a luxury watch company called Prim. Overall, I won’t go into much detail now, I was very happy with our presentation. We gave them three main recommendations and they were actually already in the process of performing our suggestions. Since we didn’t have all the inside information, this was impossible for us to know. However, they then asked us many questions regarding how we felt to perform the recommendations in comparison to what they have done.
Besides my project, was able to travel through out Prague and see the castles, and all the old architecture. It’s really a great city because during WWII, neither the Germans or Allies bombed Prague, so it has so many old buildings from the 13th – 14th century. We flew back to London, and I was in the UK for about 6 hours before leaving to fly to Munich, Germany.
Munich is a great town, it was outside of the touristy season of Octoberfest, which made our hostel stay and flight much cheaper. We went on a tour of the city but the most distinct part of the trip was our tour of Dacau, a Nazi concentration camp. Seeing this concentration camp in real life was probably one of the most eye opening experiences I’ve had. I saw the gas chambers, the crematorium, the dorms that the ‘invalids’ lived in. Dacau was the longest operating camp out of all the camps. It actually started before WWII, to house Hitler’s political prisoners. The original capacity for the camp was 5,000 people. However, towards the end of the war, there were 80,000 people confined there. The rules they had to undergo were outrageous. If they were to break any rule, they would receive 25 lashing on the back with this gruesome beating stick… They had to count out loud in German to 25 for each hit as well.. there were stories of victims who did not speak German, so they would be beat until they died.
Here’s a scenario for perspective that actually happened:
A persons button fell off on the ground, they bent over, picked it up, and put it in their pocket thinking they would sew it back on later. However, by doing that, they broke 4 rules, so subject to 100 lashings. 1. Sabotage of Nazi Property (button falling off) 2. Stopping Work (Bending Over) 3. Theft of Nazi Property (Button in Pockets) 4. Hands in Pockets (Prohibited by Nazis)
At the end of the tour, we went to the airport and rented a car. We then drove to Paris. Paris is also a great city. I had time in the car to review many of my french notes and read through a dictionary for a bit. I was surprised how much the few hours of study helped me remember! The total trip was about 10 hours long, but we were stuck in traffic for about 2 hours in Germany. The Autobahn in Germany is quite insane. If you think i80 is bad, well don’t drive in Germany. We were doing 180kph, which is about 110-115mph.. That may sound insane, but we were being passed like we were standing still. In Paris, we had some excellent food, go to see the Eiffel Tour, Arch de Triumph, and tour the Louvre. We didn’t have much time to be in Paris so that’s all we did.
This past week I got the chance to go see a Premiere League Chelsea Football game. It was great, they really love their ’soccer’ over here. I was in a sea of 50,000 people upon leaving the stadium.. It was a really close game but Chelsea lost in overtime penalty shots. There were over 100 policemen around the area and many of them mounted on horses. The next day I found out there was a huge brawl between the Chelsea fans and the other teams… Crazy Brits! This weekend, is going towards some much needed rest. As for pictures, I have about 1000 pictures I have to go through and have not had the time yet.
No Comments
Dublin & Howt, Ireland
October 3, 2008 by nate, under Photography, Travel.
This past weekend, 24th-27th, a few friends and I traveled to Dublin, Ireland. I’m not sure if I was spoiled by a great experience in Barcelona, but Dublin did not live up to my expectations whatsoever, although, I didn’t really know what my expectations where.. I really expected to see a lot of red-headed Irish, but only saw a few. My one friend who traveled with me has bright red hair and he was hoping he would blend in, but he still didn’t.
We took a bus tour around all of Dublin, it was a 24hr ticket, get on, off whenever you please for the day for 13 Euros. It was really great to learn the history behind all the strange looking statues and the old buildings. There’s so much history over here it puts our Jamestown go to shame. We went on a tour of the Guinness Brewery, and honestly.. I was not impressed whatsoever. However, about four days prior, I went on another brewery tour in London, and it was great, we were in the brewery, got to taste, smell the difference between the different ingredients. The Guinness tour was not in the actual brewery, but a mock one. It was completely given by TVs on the wall, and they just basically video taped the inside of the brewery… The one good thing about the Guinness tour was that at the end, you finish on top of the building, it’s a huge sky bar. So we all were given a free pint, and it was great to be able to see Dublin 360 degrees. My pictures didn’t come out well at all due to the glass, so I didn’t include them… and also it wasn’t that good looking of an area. In our hostel in Dublin, we met a bunch of Canadians from Vancouver, who did say ‘eh’ very often.
I really enjoy traveling and just meeting the most random people in different parts of the world. In our room, there was a German named Thomas.. We sat with him at breakfast and he was telling us about a town named Howt. We ended up taking a bus there with him shortly after, it was only 2 euro, and the bus ride was about an hour long. Howt is a village that is on the Irish Sea coast. It was a great experience. I got to see 150ft high cliffs along the sea. It was beautiful, I have many pictures of that. I can’t believe I almost forgot this.. the main reason I believe that I did not enjoy Dublin is because on the first night there, we ate at a Chinese buffet, we were all very hungry and decided it would be the most cost-effective solution. So I stuffed myself more than I believe I ever have on any Thanksgiving.. Unfortunately, I now learned never to trust a Chinese buffet in Ireland.. My three other friends didn’t eat much seafood, but I did.. I picked up some sort of virus, bug, that the next week or so, I’m just almost recovered right now.. I have been very ill. I spent over 30 euros, or about 45 dollars on medicine in Dublin, which none of it really helped whatsoever.. I just had the worst stomach virus I believe I ever had. Lesson learned. If I don’t look happy in any pictures, it’s because I’m trying hard to not grimace in pain.
Dublin & Howt, Ireland Photo Album
No Comments
Barcelona, Spain
October 1, 2008 by nate, under Photography, Travel.
So lets see… the 17th-19th I was in Barcelona, Spain.. In the airport in London, I randomly started talking to an Australian girl standing behind me in the queue (line) to board the airplane, and found out that she was also going to Barcelona.. We were flying into a airport about 30 km away, and she was traveling by herself but meeting friends in Barcelona, so we told her we’d go with her on the bus to figure out how to get to Barcelona from the airport.. When we arrived in Spain, she checked online to see which hostel she was staying at, and we found out that we were both in the same hostel, so once in Barcelona, we walked around, none of us speaking spanish, trying to navigate through. I ended up asking a random person if they spoke French, after they didn’t understand my English, and got directions via French.. I’m learning more and more that the seven years I studied French has finally come in handy..
After we arrived at the hostel and checked in, we discovered we were in the same room. I just found it pretty random that a random Australian girl I met in a airport in London, I’d be living in the same hostel, same room, in Spain.. Anyways.. Our room had about 20 people in it the first two nights, and the third night, they had put mattresses on the floor and ended up being about 25 people. I never really talked to an Australian person in my life before this trip and in my room were about 15 aussies. Australian men are crazy.. Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me if they all wrestled crocodiles. The one aussie mate named Gary, randomly jumped out of a second floor window, because he saw a marching band and wanted to see what was going on. Another interesting thing I learned about Australia, is that they really don’t like Kangaroos. They were saying how they always jump out in front of their cars… Anyways, Barcelona was an amazing trip. The Mediterranean ocean was beautiful, and warm… The environment was just so relaxed and I am definitely going to visit there again in my life if I can. I didn’t really get a chance to take many pictures there, because thieves were very rampant there and I didn’t feel comfortable lugging it around.