Archive for the 'Pictures' Category

This past August I went on trip to Paris (for a week) and Greece afterwards (for a little more than 2 weeks). It was my first time in Paris – needless to say the city is beautiful. Everything there is so purposeful, so symmetrical, just perfect. If your heading down I recommend you buy the 2 or 4 day museum/monument pass – it’s vital cause you bypass lines (and save money). The Museum D’Orsey is a must, as is the Louvre. If you want to see everything in the Louvre don’t try and do it all in a single day. Also, make sure you get the headset before you go inside as everything is in French. Check out the Picasso museum if you like his work – be warned that a lot of his famous pieces aren’t there. If you have time check out the Palace of Versailles and the gardens behind them, you’ll need to take a train there, but you can grab the one at the stop beside the Eiffel Tower. Your pass gets you in there also.

Greece was just as I remembered it last year, but then again that’s why I keep going back. A highlight from Greece was visiting the Benaki Museum in Athens. Benaki was a wealthy man living in Alexandria who migrated to Greece in the early 1900s. He was an avid collector of Greek history and art, particularly that of Modern Greek history. After his death he donated his estate and his entire collection to the Greek government – hence the Benaki Museum was formed. I don’t think there is any place in the world with a more impressive collection of Modern Greek history than here. On the third floor was the traveling photo exhibit of Hubert Pernot. In the late 1800s Hubert was commissioned by the French government to come to Greece, take photos and convince the French people to vacation there. I’m not sure why the French government wanted the French people to vacation in Greece, perhaps moral was low and Greece was seen as an exciting new land just coming out of a 400 year war. In any case, Hubert fell in love with Greece and spent the next 30 years of his life touching every part, during which he compiled three amazing photo albums. This exhibit is a collection of his best photos (digitally enhanced of course).

You can look at photos from my trip here.

Photos

I don’t know why it happens, but I go through spurts writing on this (my) blog. It’s been a while.. I know.. and I have no real explanation as to why. December was a busy month for a bunch of different reasons: holidays, Vegas, a couple projects… time flies. Watch out for the roaming charges if your a Canadian going to the States, your cell phone bill will be through the roof. January started off on the wrong foot with a close family friend passing and a bunch of other things that consumed a lot of my time.

I just got back from Italy – Milan, Venice, Florence and Rome – it’s a great country. I was there for 2 weeks and everything other than the flights there and back, was great. I’ll go on the record as saying I’ll never fly US Airways again. 3 of our 4 flights were delayed, they lost our luggage when we arrived in Milan and when we arrived back home and because they made the connection flights so close together I never ran so fast through an airport in my life.

Other than that, the trip was honestly great. If you ever get a chance to go to Italy, make sure Venice is at the top of the list. The city is amazing, not place like it in the world. Choosing a good restaurant in Italy can be tricky, but I have a pretty good strategy: If the music is in English, the menu has green leaf salad and everyone around you speaks English, then your in the wrong place. I quickly learned to ask around (especially the people at your hotel) were the good places to eat are. These are the places were the locals go, their hidden away in obscure alleys, but the food is amazing. I took some pictures that you can see here.

Paros, Greece – I hadn’t posted in a while and thought November deserved something.

The Greek island of Naxos is rich with a certain type of mineral called Emery. Before the decline of the industry, the town of Moutsouna was buzzing with boats docking to get their next shipment. Today Moutsouna is used as a small tourist destination with nice villas and cafes for people looking to get away from the busy city life. I spent an afternoon here while I was in Naxos and saw the ultimate BBQ near the water (were the boats used to dock). Give me that BBQ with that view and I’m happy.

Somehow I managed to take over 800 photos on my trip to Greece this past summer. It took me a while, but I’ve gone through them and selected a subset of 82 photos to upload. The trip was great – in terms of islands I visited Naxos, Paros, Mykonos, Ios and Santorini. I spent 15 days on the islands and 7 days on the mainland (Athens/Tripoli/Nestani).

See them here.

On my way to work last summer (same place as now, IBM Toronto Lab), I had to maneuver an unfamiliar obstacle in the parking lot. It looks like the family was out for a morning stroll.

I was at the Auto Show today in Toronto, it was great. I took lots of photos, you can see them all here.

More photos here

First off, I’ll say I got a new digital camera today – the PowerShot Canon A540. It’s my first camera, and honestly it’s amazing. Besides the fact that it’s 6 MP, large LCD screen, etc. It has the ability to turn on and be ready to take a picture in literally 1 second. One of my first photos:

I was at the Starbucks at Erin Mills & Dundas today (in Mississauga, Ontario) and as always the cars here were top notch. It blows my mind how so many nice cars can be in one location. I took these photos within a 5 minute span.

Thats only a few – More here