Faded White

I slept much better after turning the thermostat to manual and jacking the temperature up. I also folded the blanket in half to make it thicker. I had the same exact breakfast. I decided that today was time to wear my Under Amour Cold Gear top for the first time since the 19º weather in Korea. It was in the high 30ºs but I would be walking outside all day. I walked across town again to Piazza San Marco to meet up for a walking tour where I learned about Venetian history and architectural symbolism. I didn’t know just how wealthy the Venetians used to be. The couple hundred thousands of people of Venice had ten times more wealth than the millions of people in France at one point. It was really interesting because I had been to the same place the day before with no idea about all the stuff around me but now it was so intense. I didn’t realize just how much detail there was and how much meaning was in the details. The tour guide was talking so fast trying to cram all the info into the short time. She kept pointing out that she was only scratching the surface about everything she was talking about. I didn’t even notice that the statues framing the entrance to the city from the ocean were facing inwards instead of the traditional direction facing out to sea. This symbolized that the heavenly and important city was inside Venice not outside. It was all very interesting but freezing cold standing there outside in the open square listening.

We finally entered St. Mark’s Basilica which was also overwhelming. I’ve been to a lot of churches and cathedrals in my trip to Europe but this was another world. If it was medieval times I probably would have converted upon walking into that building. Sure there was mosaics telling stories outside on the front of the basilica, but inside the entire ceiling of five domes was mosaics. It was not painted frescos like you would see usually on ceilings. Instead it was millions of pieces of colored glass 1cm in size forming allegories and histories constructed over 800 years. It didn’t end there, even the floor had geometric patterns inlaid mosaic style. I guess what impressed me most was how so many different styles were mixed together harmoniously. The North African Muslim moorish influence was clearly visible mixed with Byzantine mixed with Renaissance.

The walking tour continued onto the side streets of San Marco to places I would never have stumbled upon by accident. Then it started snowing! This was a mixed blessing because it looked cool but meant it was really cold and I had difficulty keeping my camera gear dry. After the tour I rushed back across town back to my hotel to pick up my other memory card and extra battery for my camera because I feared that the cold was going to kill the batteries faster than expected. So I did that and then had to rush all the way back across town for my Grand Canal motor boat tour that I had booked as part of the package with the walking tour. I arrived to the meeting point and waited but nobody showed up. I’m assuming it got cancelled due to the weather as it was snowstorming too hard for even the gondoliers to work and they are quintessential figures of Venice. Sigh. Now I’ll have to go through the trouble of getting part of the package refunded. By this point I was also starving as it was 3pm.

I ate pizza for lunch at a restaurant. A better pizza than the fast food snack bar yesterday. Prosciutto, artichoke, and mushroom which I paired with a cappuccino. Afterwards I headed for the mask store again to buy some masks. It took a while and it didn’t help that it was dark at 4pm and cold but I eventually found it. What made it hard to find was that it is located in a non-touristy area. Why did I go to this particular store when there are a million other places selling masks? Part of it was that it was located away from the tourist shops and I could see the masks being made. They probably don’t get a lot of sales directly because of their location, but I assume that they make some of the masks being sold at tourist shops. I purchased two masks of different styles. There were some that I wanted to buy with flourishes like feathers but I would have never been able to transport them home. Then it was another arduous journey to get from the store back to the hotel.

I try to eat the food of a region when I go someplace so for dinner tonight I had for my Venetian meal. Antipasto was sarde en saor, marinated sardines with onionsl, pinenuts, and raisins. It was interesting but not unpleasant. Very light in flavor a little sweet balanced with a little sour. I followed this with cuttlefish in a sauce made from its own ink served with white grilled polenta. I added a side of mixed grilled vegetables to balance the meal a bit. It was a pretty satisfying meal and I was stuffed, but wanted to try tiramisu in Italy. I was thwarted though as they had already run out for the night.

I didn’t sleep too well even though I have a nice hotel room at Allogia Artista. The Kadinsky room with a huge framed print and Ikea lights to be exact. I even had a balcony though not a view. It was really cold and the blankets weren’t thick enough. I had the thermostat set on auto and apparently it wasn’t good enough. On top of this starting at 6am the local church started to ring it’s bell every hour at quarter past for mass or something. I ended up getting up at 8:00 after a restless night. Breakfast was continental with an espresso, apricot croissant, banana, and juice.

Your usual UPS boat…

After breakfast I started walking south across town intending to go to the San Marco district where all the main tourist attractions were but ended up in Dorosduro where it was mostly residential. It also seemed to be the academic area. I did find a Venetian mask maker though, Blue Moon Mask. This clerk at the store, Rita, explained the tradition of Venetian masks to me. I didn’t buy anything since I had a whole day ahead of photographing but would come back tomorrow.

I continued on until I finally reached San Marco and the iconic Rialto Bridge. I did a lot of wandering in the maze of Venetian streets looking at all the shops with their high design wares. Apparently everybody here got the message that brown is in too. I’ve been a big fan of brown since last winter and eventually preferred the natural aspect of shades of green with brown. Here it’s more autumnal with beautiful burnt oranges and yellows paired with brown. I even passed what appeared to be a gondola shipyard. The gondolas are more luxurious than I expected, but then again they should be for how much they charge. For lunch I had a slice of vegetarian pizza from a snack bar. I followed this with gelato at a nearby gelateria even though it was bitterly cold outside. Temperature was in the 40ºs with ocean breeze which made it worse. I had to see what a decent gelato tasted like in Italy. I had tiramisu and vanilla. Like in Paris the vanilla was “French” style with egg yolk that added a nice body that coalesced with the generous vanilla flavor. I have to say though that I prefer ice cream (more air) especially the one I had in Paris though that was double the price.

In the afternoon I visited Piazza San Marco, the historic entrance to Venice and the center of power. It’s where the St. Mark’s Basilica and the Doges Palace is. Lets just say there are a lot of pigeons in the square that aren’t afraid of people. In fact there are carts that sell bread crumbs to feed the pigeons and they swarm all over you. It’s a cheap and entertaining tourist attraction which made for some interesting photos. I also went up on top of the Campanile tower for a great panoramic view of Venice and the surrounding islands. Unfortunately, the industrial factories on the mainland spoil the view to the west.

On the way back to my hotel after the Kool-Aid neon red sunset I ended up walking in circles nearly twice before finding the appropriate path with signs. It wasn’t the shortest path though it forced me to walk through parts of town that I otherwise wouldn’t have which was a positive thing. I ended doing reading and research for an hour and a half before having a late dinner of seafood risotto. It was the best risotto I’ve had that I didn’t make for not being made to order. It came out rather quickly which meant it was obviously half way cooked when I ordered it.

My impressions of Venice after a day are that it is indeed serenissima. It’s beautiful and mysterious. It is a miracle of a city rising out of the water. It’s easy to imagine that a people powerful enough to build an entire city on stilts could rule and empire, but at the same it’s hard to imagine the Venetian Republic ruling an empire because it’s such a small and isolated place. Thing thing that probably impressed me most was how socially intimate the Venetians are. I guess it helps that there are only 60,000 native Venetians and 15 million visitors a year. You can tell who are the natives because they stop to greet each other on the street and chat for a bit. There’s also always a local chatting with a shopkeeper in the smaller stores. It seems that all Venetians have dogs too which they take with them as they walk around town. And finally, older Italian women love their fur coats.

It’s been a lifetime dream of mine to visit “the most serene” city in the world ever since I first saw photographs of it in various photo books and magazines. Originally I figured I was done traveling out of England after Edinburgh, Prague, Paris, and Amsterdam, but I thought about it while I was with a cold in bed one morning. I figured I should go because I was so close already and it would be cheaper to go now for a few days in the low season and see what it is like and see if it is worth going back to for a more extensive stay.

I took budget airline Ryan Air and have to say that they suck. Sure it’s budget but then again so is Southwest Airlines in the US. Southwest is stripped down but it isn’t uncomfortable. I didn’t know it was possible but Ryan Air is too stripped down in terms of service. It’s probably worth paying more not to deal with the crap of flying to remote airports and obscure gates at the airport terminal. But anyway, I arrived at Treviso Airport and then took an hour bus trip to Venice. The guy sitting next to me on the bus was from Liverpool, England, and had just flown in after spending a few days in Rome. I talked to him about how much modern suburbia Italy looked almost exactly like suburbia United States. I guess this is the sad fact about architecture in the age of globalization. Places seem to lose their character. In fact, at the airport even the stop signs were American style. I was a little taken aback when I saw them.

It’s always a little nerve racking arriving in the middle of the night to a new city but I managed. I was a little confused about finding my hotel because I couldn’t find the street. At first I thought the map was messed up because the street didn’t exist when I was standing right there. But then I realized that this is Venice. The narrow alley way crammed between two snack bars was the street.

Alloggi Agli Artisti Hotel Kadinsky Room

I had an incredible dinner I just had to post. I went to dinner with a friend and his parents at this modern French restaurant called Bank. Spent like 3 hours. I had: the house Merlot, foie gras parfait w/ pear & apple chutney and brioche then mixed game pie and finished with a cafe latte and shared a sticky toffee pudding/cake. The dessert was divine. The place had this cool glass ceiling with lots of mirrors on the walls and an open kitchen view.

I took tour with the group today of the Montmartre area of Paris. Joelle was our guide again but either the Montmartre area isn’t actually that interesting or Joelle is really good at art stuff rather than other histories. I dunno. Again I would have to say that Paris is a city to be painted rather than photographed in terms of capturing non-landmarks.

So that took the morning and by the time the tour was over we were hungry. Some of us headed off together in search of our last meal in France. I suggested Les Halles from my wanderings on Saturday in the area. So we went there and took our Sunday afternoon liesure lunch in a bistro. I was right about it being the place where Parisians hang out. There were no English menus at the place we went to so that was a good sign it wasn’t a touristy area. I had a French onion soup and braised beef with asparagus. Somehow this stretched out to two hours in the typical European fashion. We headed back to the hotel to catch our coach to the train station after the meal but on the way back stopped for gelato. The fig gelato I had was probably the best gelato I’ve ever had but the chocolate orange praline wasn’t as good. Always a sucker for rum ice cream I got that with hazelnuts or something as well in my three scoop cone. Paris on a Sunday afternoon is very idyllic with people taking lunch that stretches out all afternoon. This was only a pleasant facade though as unfortunately the next day would bring a state of emergency and riots that moved into the city center.

Our train ride back was the train ride from hell. We were like 30 minutes out from Paris then we hit something that sounded like rocks on the tracks. The train slowly came to a stop as they went out to investigate. Someone joked we probably hit a pig or something. Apparently we had actually hit a wild boar. That’s right. Some of the people in my group were half drunk from wine at this point and started making boar jokes and puns. It was funny at first but after a while like an hour or more it because super annoying. We ended up having to go back to Paris and change trains because the front of the train was knocked off and the windshield had cracked. The whole trip ended up lasting 8-9 hours before we arrived back in London. Eurostar didn’t even compensate us for the delay with anything. Not even free refreshments for being stuck on the train for so long. It’s good to be back in London.

This morning morning I got up and took a walk through Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise. The cemetery was humongous and I had no idea where I was going because I was too cheap to buy a map outside. The most striking thing was that people of different ethnicities and religions were buried together in this big cemetery. It’s the whole French egalitarian motto. It was drizzly which added to the atmosphere. At one point I took a photo and then all these crows starting squaking which freaked me out for a sec. I tried walking to the otherside of the cemetery to exit but never got there. I’m not even sure there is an exit over on that side. It was too big. I ended up turning around and walking back to where I entered.

Next I went to Porte de Cligancourt to check out the market there. This probably wasn’t the best of ideas as the riots were occuring in the suburbs at that point. But I didn’t even know about the riots at that time. After the Gard Du Nord station metro stop the racial shift on the train was quite noticeable. There weren’t that many white people going out there compared to Arab and Africans. It was really socially interesting to see such a dramatic shift. On the metro there was also this annoying as hell impromptu karaoke performers. They would get on with a boombox and mic and start singing. They were like street performers but much worse because you couldn’t get away if they sucked. This happened twice. By the end of this trip and the metro exploits I’ll be quite good at saying pahhhh don.

I got off at Les Halles which used to be the historical food center/market for Paris. Now it’s where the French middle class hangs out apparently. The Champs Elysees is for the tourists and the wealthy but the real Paris seems to be here. It also seems to be where the vice and sex shops are. It was a Saturday afternoon so there were a lot of people out shopping and eating. It was the first place I was where I didn’t hear anything but French. The only reason I got off there was because Anthony Bourdain, author of Kitchen Confidential, runs a restaurant named after the area. I checked out the Bodum tea and coffee store and bought some thermo glasses. I walked around and saw a dog in dreadlocks which caused people to smile as it passed them.

I met up with half of the group for dinner at this fondue place. I didn’t get fondue but got escargot, cockerel with sides, and creme brulee. It was satisfying but not the best examples I’ve ever had. It was fun though because there were so many people eating together so I got to taste a lot of other people’s dishes. They make the fondue strong here in terms of wine added. Afterwards we walked past the Notre Dame and encountered these bums with guitars near this quirky bookstore with a bed you can sleep on if you work there for a few hours. One of my flatmates in London, Brett, was called over to play with them so after much protestation he did. The bums were from London and California. It was weird but one of those travel memories you’ll remember for the rest of your life.

Where we were really trying to go was to this bar Caveau des Oubliet. It’s famous for good jazz. When we finally found it the place was packed and smoky as hell down in the wine cellar turned into jazz venue. The space was really small and there was no ventilation really but we were standing for some time listening to amazing gypsy jazz. It really rounded out my French experience. As the night went on the smoke didn’t get any better but some seats opened up as people left. The performers were Moreno & Marina Quartet. I witnessed some of the best guitar playing I’ve ever seen in my life. Two people played on the same guitar at one point! I didn’t even know that was possible. And one guy used a wine glass as a slide for his guitar on one song. The people in that place were much nicer than other Parisian I’ve encountered and everyone seemed to be having a good time listening to some incredible music. We were in there ’til 2am or so when they finally finished their last set. Outside this guy actually spoke to us in English because he was happy after listening to that music. I guess it did help that I said I was from San Francisco. We asked this friendly couple to take our photo outside but when handing the camera over to her she dropped it. She swore in French first, Merde, which was expected then translated it, shit, for our benefit in case we didn’t understand it the first time around. I thought that was funny. The camera was fine though. Man did I reek of smoke after that night but I say it was worth it for the experience.

I didn’t have much time to research Paris so maybe that’s part of the reason I’m not appreciating it. I don’t even have a guide book. I guess all my resources and effort is going towards my Venice trip now. Amsterdam is more of a relax place than photographic destination for me. So back to Paris. Friday morning was a trip to the Musee d’Orsay with the group. We had our own guide, Joelle, who was the most amazing art guide I’ve ever had. She led us through her art history lesson as she pointed out certain paintings that she had a point to make about. She traced the history from realism to expressionism through the paintings so we could understand the more famous works upstairs. Her lecture and that tour was inspiring and more informative than any art theory lecture I’ve ever had at USC. I didn’t even like the fine arts that much before. I’ve always been more about applied art but she kept me extremely interested the whole time. After that museum tour I was starting to get more positive vibes about Paris. It still isn’t my favorite city or anything but I wasn’t as pessimistic about it. I think it has to do a lot with the fact that the geography of Paris is hard to grasp in my mind. I don’t really feel comfortable in a place until I understand its geography. I also came to the conclusion that Paris isn’t really a city that you photograph. It’s a city that must be painted to express the personality of the city.

We had lunch at this creperie and then we split up on our own ways. I went with a couple of people for a walk down the Champs Elysees to the Arc d’Triomphe. We stopped at this cafe and had a snack. I ate ice cream of three flavors. Really good French vanilla with so much vanilla it tasted alcoholic. The ice cream plate also had rum raisin and chocolate. I split off from the others after this and went to the Louvre. When I got there I found out that if I waited until 6:30 I could get in for free. So I went outside and photographed the glass pyramid at sunset and waited around for a couple of hours. The Louvre was nice. I finally got to see a lot of art that I’ve only seen in textbooks. From the Winged Victory to the Mona Lisa to David’s paintings. The Mona Lisa was larger than I expected because everybody always says its so small. There weren’t that many people because it was off hours. There were a lot of art students just sitting on the floors sketching. The David painting were much larger than I expected because textbook pictures are so small. The Oath of the Horatia was ceiling height and I was shocked when I turned around and saw it. I spent a good three and a half hours in there seeing most of the collection. I only wish I could have read the info plaques. It’s annoying how they don’t have translations on the plaques considering how many foreign visitors pay to keep the museum open. The French hate English but sometimes they take it a little too far. What’s the point of making visitors feel unwelcome or out of place just to show that this is a French place? I guess maybe this attitude of disregarding other cultures may spill over into racial relations as the riots ongoing in Paris are starting to show.