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Next week I am taking 5 days off and heading to Belgium to visit my old good friend Gitti and others, as well as to chill out in Brussels and Brugge. I'm not really motivated at work these days, so this break might help me a bit to freshen up.
This photo was taken at FC Barcelona Museum during my visit last May. That was the same size aluminium replica of the real Champions League cup, and you could have a photo with it for 15 euros or something. I got to see the real replica of the cup from 2005 triumph being displayed in the museum as well. Together with Belletti's boots who scored the winning goal. I guess this time they should put Messi's boots as well. Or the whole team's boots together with Guardiola's shoes :) This the perfect season for FC Barcelona, Catalan nation and all Barca fans!
I wonder how these people can still bear such a regime. It's like a voluntary slavery, and can't be pitied. Even at the border they must be seeing how Chinese towns/cities are changing. And what they will think when one day (surely it will happen) they will get to see how different South Korea has become? Will these two countries with same nation be able to unify at all even if they get such a chance? We have to wait and see.
Well, yeah, one more half-marathon was completed by me, and I had 2 more fingernails dropped from my feet. Although my target was to finish it in less than 2 hours, I could only finish it in 2:06:00, and the improvement from last year was only 00:1:48. I had smooth run till 17th km, and after that my condition dropped fast. The rest of the run was mental fight. I missed 2 weeks of training in February due to sickness and Venice trip, so the affect was obvious. Not satisfied with the result, but satisfied with having completed another long run. No major injuries, so I can continue to do sports soon again. This time I ran in team category, our team EXATEC (university in Mexico) included myself, Cesar(Mexico), Blanca(Spain) and Gabriela (Slovakia). Each of us completed all 21+ km and deserves both thumbs up!
Below are my results:
Split
Time
min/Km
Delta
min/Km
RealTime
5 Km
0.28.21
5,40
0.28.21
5,40
0.27.52
10 Km
0.57.13
5,43
0.28.52
5,46
0.56.44
15 Km
1.25.30
5,42
0.28.17
5,39
1.25.01
Finish
2.06.00
5,58
0.40.30
6,38
2.05.31
And here's some unofficial photos;
EXATEC team before the race - Cesar, Gabriela, Blanca, Aibek
After the finish line - Efrain, Gabriela, Aibek, Cesar
Before all my Venice Carnival impressions and memories vanish, here's the story. Now one thing the reader should note is that if you ever decide to go to Venice, make it for the Venice festival in February. It lasts about a week. That's where and when you truly will understand the magic and charm that is so special and unique for this city. The only thing that might bother your decision is the crowd during this period. But even then all these people will be in a very festival mood, dressed up in masks and costumes and play a part in the creation of this magic. Weather is never that cold there in February, it was even pleasantly warm when we were there. And people who have been to Venice in summer time have complained that it was hot and stinky. This was my second trip to Venice, I was there 2 years ago for 1 day brief tour.
Also, Venice is not a cheap place to travel to, but there are many ways to control your budget. You can fly to neighboring Treviso airport by low-cost SkyEurope flight. And if you stay in a hotel on the mainland of Venice instead of the Venice island, then you can save great deal on accommodation as well. There are regular buses to the main island where everything happens.
So on a warm February day, we flied over to Venice Treviso Airport. This time I was with a fun group of Kazakhstani and Dagestani friends. As it usually is the case with group trips, it is more fun, and at the same time, it is much slower. Especially with the girls and in a place like Venice ;) Taking pictures in front of every interesting object > validating if the picture is ok > if not, taking it again > then taking the photo of the next girl... and repeating the process every 10 meters... I just wonder how it was simpler before the invention of digital cameras ;) But I have to accept that the pictures are awesome and the trips are more fun and interesting when shared. Make a mental note. And the weather was like a blessing from above! Everything was set up perfectly for the carnival to happen.
A bit of history This city had long been a center of trade and art in the Adriatics and ruled by the Doge - local Duke. It kept its neutrality and provided the connection for a trade between Christian West and Muslim East worlds. Also, it has great importance in Christian world as St.Mark's relics were buried where St.Mark's Basilica stands today. St.Mark the Evangelist is believed to be the author of the Gospel of Mark, one of the four main gospels of Old Testament (Bible). Initially he was buried in Egypt, but later his relics were brough from Alexandria to Venice by the merchants. His evangelistic symbol is the lion, and that's why St.Mark's Lion is one of the symbols of Venice.
Among the famous citizens were Marco Polo, Giacomo Casanova and Vivaldi. In fact, I'd highly recommend you to watch the movie "Casanova" (2005) where Leath Hedger put another great performance, and this film shows the best views of Venice, what the carnival atmosphere is like and overall look of Venice from that period. I watched it right after my trip, and truly enjoyed. Also, "Merchant of Venice" could be interesting to watch unless you have some problems with Shakespeare's English :)
Venice Carnival and costumes The beauty of this event lies in its uniqueness with costumes and masks, plus the uniqueness of the place itself. In old times, it was the opportunity for the people to hide behind masks and costumes and for a short period become someone they are not in real life. Like poor people dressing up like rich, famous people dressing up like ordinary people, monks/priests hiding behind the masks and flirting with women, etc. I guess that is somehow valid today as well. Even today you can see lots of people dressed up in full Venetian costumes, attracting the curious crowd and kindly posing in front of the cameras as if that's their main purpose to be there - to entertain the crowd. Those might be some celebrities or some poor workers from a small Italian town. But on that very day, they were the super stars. And I told to myself: "Damn, I am sooo wearing some great full costume next time!". Because the rest of the crowd in just only masks or some cheap-looking cloaks looked pathetic in comparison with these few ones.
Oh, and on the way back at the train station I encountered the most funny part of the whole event! Big crowd, mostly Italians from different towns, were waiting for the announcement of the platform number for their trains. And right the moment it was announced, there was a sudden change in the dynamics of the crowd. Huge crowd started to run towards the platform. Among them various characters... you could see the angels with fairy sticks competing with the Death with scythe for the train seat, or King and the Queen trying to overrun Mozart to get to the door first... It seems that the fear of standing on foot for whole trip back home levels all people as much as the masks do :)
Jewish Ghetto So we spent most of the time just wandering in this crowd, checking out each center of attractions, taking lots and loads of photos, and the overall satisfaction kept growing as the time passed. As our pace became really slow, I had to grab the initiative to be a guide and led them towards the Jewish ghetto, one of the local attractions that I missed in my previous trip *evil smile*. That turned out to be interesting place; my podcast told me that it was the very place from where the word "ghetto" emerged. Jews used to live only in this corner of the city before as they were not welcomed by other Venetians before. Nowadays it is still populated by the Jews and but it doesn't really resemble the ghetto that we understand today. Instead it is a very quiet place and you can see Jewish people in black dress, black hat and with long hair and beard. Maybe one thing that still resembles "the ghetto" are the clothes drying on the strings pulled between two buildings over a canal. :) I took videos of both this scene and a small yard in Jewish ghetto. Well, it worth a visit if you have some extra time in Venice.
And yeah, about the transportation in Venice. As there are no roads for wheeled transportation, you won't find any cars on the island. Only beside the bus station that is located in one corner close to the bridge that connects to mainland. So only the boats, water buses, water taxis and gondolas! You will be amazed to see that the doors of many buildings open to the canals and some boats are parked in front of it. Island is full of bridges and canals, but public water buses operate only in the Grand Canal.
Well, St.Mark's square is the place where all the celebrations happen. It was very crowded and getting around wasn't easy. Lots of street performers, parade music, crowd singing and dancing, colors and the masks were simply breathtaking. That moment you accept that you are the lucky person to be there. Well, I simply leave it to the photos to pass those feelings.
On our third day, some of us went to Florence. In my plan, I was supposed to go to Verona with Shuanet. But we decided to stay in Venice as we were not full of it yet. And otherwise we'd miss the Angel's Flight as well. So we went to the square again while enjoying Venice streets and canals once again, spent some time on Rialto bridge where I took short videos below. Then when we reached St.Mark's square it was even more crowded than previous days. It was literally packed like the sardines in a can!
Angel's Flight Every year they choose one celebrity for the role of the angel, who descends from the top of the clock tower down to the square where "the Doge" will be waiting for. People gathered and took their positions hours before the start. We could only get half through the crowd and then it started...
After the event I took my time to explore St.Mark's Basilica and its museum, as well as the panorama view of Venice from the top of the clock tower. Now I have to note out that my main guide were the podcasts by Steve Ricks that I download from iTunes. He has some great podcasts about Italy, especially two long podcasts dedicated for St.Mark's Square and St.Mark's Basilica! Make sure that you get them into your iPod before coming to Venice!
So I was listening to Steve Ricks who guided me through the basilica and then through the museum in the upstairs as well as the lodge on the roof. He was telling me the history, how St.Mark's remains were brought here, architecture and details of the basilica, Byzantine mosaics that are all over the ceilings under cupolas, the Bronze horses that were brought from Constantinople (previous name of Istanbul), etc. Then I sat on the roof of the basilica under the warm sun, enjoying the view of St.Mark's Square while Steve was telling me more about the square and surrounding buildings (Old offices, New offices, Napoleon's end), about the St.Mark and his lion (that is a symbol of Venice today), history of the square and more... That's my way of traveling and I truly enjoyed that afternoon with my own pace and way.
Europe is rich with the museums. I have an idea about reviewing and sharing about the museums I have visited in Europe. I usually try not to miss the interesting museums at my destinations. Besides opening my eyes on various matters like history, art, culture or other civilizations, visiting a museum also adds some sort of educational aspect to these trips. Through these museums I visualize European history, admire its huge art collections and appreciate their approach to art, music, architecture. And most of the museums are equipped with guided tours, audio guides, guide books and small explanatory notes in English if you want to quickly tour the museum without guides.
So here goes the first post and it's about Altes Museum (Old Museum) in Berlin. It's located on Museum Island along with few other museums. The building of the museum itself is an attractive neoclassical building with the ionic order columns in the front side (ancient Greek architecture). It was built in 19th century as a Royal Museum, later it was damaged during the World War and restored afterwards. Nowadays it hosts Greek and Roman antiquities museum and the Egyptian museum.
If you decide to go there, I'd highly recommend getting an audio guide that tells about the most precious items in the mass collection of Greek and Egyptian artifacts. Here I'll share few of them. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera with me and the pictures below were taken by my mobile phone camera. Thus the low quality.
The bust of Queen Nefertiti They say that she's Berlin's most beautiful woman! I could only agree. Even though she doesn't hold German passport and had nothing to do with Germans at all. She's ancient Egyptian queen. And the museum hosts her bust (sculpture that includes head, neck, shoulder and maybe chest). Despite the hundreds of years passed, the bust of queen's head was greatly preserved and shows the timeless beauty of ancient Egyptian queen Nefertiti, who together with her husband, pharaoh Akhenaten, changed Egypt's religion from a polytheistic religion to a monotheistic religion. They believed in only one god, Aten - the Sun God. It's one of the most precious works of art in the world. The bust was made from thick plaster covered over limestone core structure. It was found by German archeologists in Egypt and brought to Germany. They found it in the work studio of ancient Egyptian sculptor Thutmose who used to work for the pharaoh Akhenaten.
And as you see, one eye is missing. I remember someone telling me that it was left incomplete intentionally by the sculptor Thutmose in order to avoid getting murdered by the queen. Because she was afraid that he could make another such a beautiful sculpture for someone else. Well, I have heard similar stories about other masters. Like the one who built Prague's famous astronomical clocks and got blinded by the king so that he'd not be able to make similar ones somewhere else.
Besides the bust, there are many other sculptures and statues for Nefertiti and Akhenaten. Below is one of them where they are sitting under the rays of Aten.
The Praying Boystatuette Another important item in the museum is the statuette of the praying boy. It was found in Greek island Rhodes in 14th century and then brought to Venice. It was made of bronze and was cast around 300 BC. In 16th century it came to Prussia. Later the arms were added later to make it look like a praying boy.
Papyrus Collection Altes museum has one of the largest collection of ancient Egyptian manuscripts on the papyrus. Thanks to the invention of papyrus, we know a lot about Egypt's history today. Scientists are still trying to interpret more from these papyrus archives.
Canopic jars These were used in ancient Egypt to mummify and store the internal organs of the dead people for the afterlife. In the below you can see the jars with the heads of man, ape, jackal and falcon.
Mummy masks and tombs You can find lots of mummy tombs and masks brought from Egypt. But there's no real mummy in the museum.
Golden artifacts There are lots of golden artifacts as well. One of them is the golden fish plate (500 BC) that was found by a fisherman in his net.
Another interesting thing that I learned about the ancient Egyptian sculptures and hieroglyphs is the basic postures of people; Sitting posture - it showed that a person was enthroned, a noble and distinguished from others. If it is used after dead people, then it shows that the person joined the community of distinguished people in the eternal life. Standing and walking posture - you can also see person's walking person with left leg in front in the Egyptian figures. It showed physical dynamism and readiness to act in the eternal life if used after dead person. Writing position - it showed that the person is literate. Kneeling, squatting are the other postures of ancient Greek figures. Also, the figures of Gods or nobles were displayed much bigger than others.
Video of the Day: Singapore's Most Beautiful Building
This is where I used to work in Singapore - Parkview Square. Incredibly beautiful modern building with oriental features and a palm yard that is surrounded by the statues of famous people like Aristotle, Galileo, etc. It's one of the most beautiful buildings in Singapore and worth a visit. Located in Bugis area, it is only 100 meters away from Sultan Mosque and Arab Street (other tourist spots in Singapore). Several companies including DHL have their regional head quarters here in this building.
This narration was from 2 years ago when I was trying to experiment with travel video casts. I didn't like the results. I could see that I am not a very good live story teller, instead I decided to just keep it more simple with photos and videos without narration and myself making an introduction. :)
I'll be off to Venice in a week for Venice Mask Carnaval. Much anticipated. 2 years ago I missed it by one week, but this time I set my dates right. So this weekend I'll spend time with Venice and Milano podcasts, wiki pages, history and notes. Tell you what, preparations are part of the whole thing, and I enjoy preparing for a trip as much as the trip itself.
June 20, 2009 
