Showing posts with label Europe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Europe. Show all posts

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Graffiti in Istanbul

Anarchy graffiti + groovy guitar dude + the bohemian district in Istanbul = awesome photo

While traveling, I have a tendency to get caught up in everything... the architecture, the design, the food, the difference in weather, terrain and foliage, and especially all of the little things. I take pictures of flowers, museums and art, furniture in store windows, restaurants I eat at, stores I shop at and almost every place I visit. Anything I find interesting, odd or beautiful, snap snap, I take a photo... or two, or even three and four! So I'm pretty excited and anxious to share so many of them with you, but let me tell you, organizing the overflow of photos on both my computers is a mind-numbing pain! It's frustrating to try and group them, I'm doing it [loosely] by common theme or event/location where it applies.

Part two of the Amsterdam Flower Market is coming soon, you can check out Part I of the Amsterdam Flower Market here. Today I am mixing it up with some images from my trip to Istanbul, Turkey in 2008. I went for business, plus a couple of extra days for pleasure. My aunt and I worked for a fabric company together at the time and were absolutely thrilled when we had to go to Istanbul with a few colleagues for an enormous fabric convention called Evteks. It was an awesome trip! Not only because Istanbul is AWESOME (come on, the city is on two continents!), but it's so rich with culture and beauty. My aunt and I have traveled throughout Europe extensively and we love to experience the food, the sights and the culture as much as possible! You really do learn a lot more about where you are visiting when you open yourself to seeing and experiencing as much of it [and its people] as possible. We were amazed at how the other people on our trip cared so little about experiencing the sights and culture of the city; or scared of trying the local food, such as the delicious meze, a tapas/appetizer type dish of the Eastern Mediterranean and Arab world featuring a variety of dips. Meze is everywhere around Istanbul, along with other juicy Turkish delights, pun intended, hehe. So yes, soaking up the food, culture, sights and talking to the locals is a must! Throughout time I will share with you a little from each of those categories through my memories and photography.

This post is a collection of my photography from Istanbul and the common trait is graffiti! In one way or another graffiti is present in each of the photos in this post. You might also like a post I did a while back which also features interesting graffiti called Da Vinci's Mona Lisa Becomes Star of the Graffiti World! Enjoy!


This is some famous singer/wrapper/musical artist in Turkey, or perhaps beyond in other parts of the Middle East, I'm not sure. I caught a glimpse of her on the tv in our hotel room one day and vaguely remember. I spotted this graffiti down a narrow street during one of our long walking adventures, lol....


I love this picture, especially that the graffiti looks sort of like a heart... :)


Wise moment? LOL... I don't quite remember, but I know we were on our way to get a Turkish Bath/massage!!!! I'll post on that some day, what an experience... you gotta get naked in front of a whole bunch of other ladies!! That's it, I was probably worrying about that....hehe....


Who cares about the graffiti, lovely gates....... they scream for love....


Lots of stencil graffiti here and there, this one is some weird alien type monster head or who knows what, it's blurry but there is better and more thought provoking one coming up....


A narrow street close to where we had our Turkish Bath, with a lot of interesting graffiti....



So interesting I had to awkwardly photograph myself in front of it, hehe....


Rubble.... love it....


As for the thought provoking stencil graffiti I spoke of a moment ago, this one says "colored" and has a screaming child with hair flowing behind them?? Hmm... is the fact that it's in black have anything to do with the vague term "colored," so as to insinuate race? Is someone out there seeing something I'm not and want to give their input?.....


And there I am again posing in front of a door that has layers of wild and colorful graffiti... I liked the interest it added to front of the building :)


(All photography in this blog post are my personal photos, please ask me permission first if you would like to use any of them on your site. Thank you!)

Friday, May 21, 2010

It's Friday!!!!

(I loved this little guy outside of the Rijk's Museum in Amsterdam)

Man oh man, I am so happy that today is Friday.... I can only hope that this weekend goes by slower than whale shit moving on the bottom of the ocean! LOL!!! Excuse me, but I just had to say that.... my father used that expression a lot and it seems to have rubbed off on me, I think it's hilarious! :)

Anyway, yes, I certainly hope the weekend goes by slow because I have a lot to do... as well as a lot not to do! Hehehehe... in other words, a lot of loafing around to do so I can feel up to speed and shake this jet lag for good. Apart from loafing, I have a lot of cleaning and gardening to do... I can't wait to take pictures of all my plants so you can see how well they are doing (there are one or two that are having issues, I will share those too so you all can give me any helpful feedback on how to save them from perishing!). It's amazing how much progress you see in plants when you don't see them for a week, rather than staring at them obsessively for change each and every day. Kind of reminds me of the saying "a watched pot never boils" or however it goes... I was truly pleased when I returned from my vacation to find newly opened flowers on my succulents and clear signs of growth! Wheeee!

Also, by now I have propagated over twenty new little succulents from leaves! I am so proud of myself!! As soon as each new plants' propagation leaf starts to shrivel I transfer it into this large planter I have, I am grouping them all together as a visual reminder of the life I have helped create! yay :)

The only problem with this weekend is I'm not sure how I'm going to get all the blog posts on my trip done.... mainly because my laptop needs to go in for service because it won't turn on and my desktop stopped turning on while I was away (according to my boyfriend).... DILEMMA!! Oh well, we'll see. If it happens great, if not... more time for loafing and gardening! wheee...

Stay tuned for more pictures and posts about my trip, just as soon as I can orchestrate it all and get a working computer. In the meantime, I can't resist throwing in another few pictures from the trip for your viewing pleasure.....have a fantastic weekend!!!!

(A close up of those amazing tulips in front of Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport... they were losing their petals because tulips go out of season there around May 16th)

(Some of my favorite little mini sculpture head remains in the artifacts section... by far my favorite part of the Louvre!!! Greek, Roman and Egyptian artifacts are beautiful and enthralling!!)

(Enormous statues in front of the Opera House - Paris, France)

(Me... goofing around with my mom in the Louvre Museum - Paris, France)

Thursday, May 20, 2010

I'm back!

(tulip planters in front of Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

Helllooooo world! This is just a quick post to let you all know that I'm back from Europe!!! Though it has almost been a week, I am still suffering from that damned jet lag, so as you can imagine blogging has been the last thing on my list of things that require time, thought and energy. :(

I am really looking forward to the weekend so I can get working on the several posts I have planned for highlighting the best parts of my trip. What a trip, believe me when I tell you that I have a lot to share with you, evidenced by the nearly 2,000 pictures that I took (*gasp* yes, I know what you must be thinking... but I could have easily taken 4,000!) ... Oh how I love the iPhone, hehe, stay tuned! I hope you're all doing well.... ;)

(windmills in the town of Volendam, The Netherlands)


(the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France)


(in all of its glory... the Eiffel Tower on a horribly rainy cold day in Paris, France)

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Travel day is almost here!!


I am so excited, tomorrow I leave with my mom for The Netherlands to meet up with my aunt and a close family friend for nine days of adventure in Amsterdam and Paris! We will be leaving tomorrow afternoon and arriving around 7:30am Friday morning in Amsterdam, we will stay there until Monday then catch an early morning train to Paris, stay in Paris until Wednesday and then return to stay in Amsterdam until Saturday May 15th. WOOOOOOOHOOOOO!!! (that's what every nerve ending in my body is screaming).... Tomorrow can't come soon enough!

I'm really looking forward to spending more time in these two cities since in the past I was only able to explore them briefly.... Oh, and I never got to visit the Louvre and go up in the Eiffel Tower while in Paris because the Louvre was closed (it was a Wednesday and apparently they are only closed Wednesdays - what luck huh!?) and there wasn't enough time to trek up the tower for a look-see. So, I'll definitely be doing all of those things this time around!! And, like I said before, I'm particularly excited for my mother because it will be her first time visiting these two cities and she has not been in Europe for over 20 years! This is sure to be fun, my already giddy excitement about traveling and revisiting Europe is sure to be heightened further through my mom's enjoyment!

I will definitely miss my man, but he will survive without me (though I'm afraid he might gobble every last bit of food in the apartment out of boredom!! LOL). Also, I will have to leave detailed instructions for him on how to care for my army of plants!!! HAHA...

Anyway, I have so much to do before take-off time.... Packing is a nightmare for me because I don't like planning my outfits in advance and to make matters worse I have way too much clothes, purses and shoes to choose from! I am so anxious to get home from work today!!!

Have a wonderful day everyone, I'll do my best to post pictures and do brief posts while on my vacation... that is, whenever I am able to connect to a WiFi network!

~Catherine
xoxo



(All images found via Google image search on Amsterdam)

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Travel Update!!!


As I mentioned in my post from a few days ago, on May 6th I will be traveling to The Netherlands with my mother and my aunt to stay in Amsterdam for eight days!! BUT, it just got better... during our trip we'll be taking a train to Paris for a two day stay!! The last time I was in Paris I was 15, it was only for a few hours (we were on a Mediterranean cruise) which we spent running around Paris on the subway and by foot trying to see all the famous landmarks.... AND, the Louvre Museum was CLOSED... *GASP* Anyway, I am very happy to be visiting France again as an adult, it's sure to be a wonderful *two days in Paris* :)

Also, a long time friend of both my mother and aunt's from high school has just decided to join us, increasing ours to a party of FOUR! Woohoo! The more the merrier!

Stay tuned for the massive onslaught of photos that will ensue when we return on May 16th!!!


Monday, April 19, 2010

Amsterdam here I come! Sooner rather than later..... wheee...


Oh yes, it's true! In less than three weeks I'll be hitchin' a plane to The Netherlands for over a week of fun in Amsterdam, woohoo!! I didn't think I'd be going back to Europe again so soon, as it is I was lucky enough to go to Istanbul, Turkey in May of 2008 for business (and a few layover hours roaming Amsterdam too), yet for some reason the travel gods have shined down on me again in the form of a very loving mother!! And although I'd love for my boyfriend to enjoy this trip with me, but he can't take time off from work and this vacation just so happens to be a girls only adventure! (My aunt will be in Germany on business in the next few weeks and will be meeting my mom and I in Amsterdam on May 7th.)


Although I've been to Amsterdam four times before (albeit very briefly) and I've visited Anne Frank's house, walked through the Red Light District and strolled the Van Gogh museum, there's still so much that I want to see and do! I'm particularly excited for my mom, it has been many years since she last visited Europe and up until this point, I've done all of my world traveling with my aunt, so I'm looking forward to the added company, it's sure to be a lot of fun... Also in the realm of possibilities? A day (or two) trip to Paris.... another city that I didn't get to thoroughly explore, particularly given the Louvre was closed while I was there!

Anyway, May 6th is just around the corner, it's time to get planning and packing!! I can't wait!

Windmills and tulips and coffee shops oh my.............





Friday, December 11, 2009

All I want for Christmas is....

All I really want for Christmas is for Santa to move all my stuff from my current (ground floor) apartment to my new (16th floor) apartment with his sleigh... It would be nice! But since that is definitely not going to happen, I just hope the whole move goes smoothly (ha!).

But anyway, I usually think of things I want all year long but then forget most of them come Christmas time (which is probably a blessing), here is what I can think of at the moment:

- 1 -

Maybe one or two bohemian hippy fashion pieces to add to my wardrobe.... (not that I really need more clothes, shoes, jewelry or purses to drown in!)
I do need sunglasses and sandals though!

Say hippie aye a

Dance of the Yao People


- 2 -

Season 5 of The Office, the most hilarious show EVER!




- 3 -

A Suzani! I want one so bad... They are absolutely gorgeous!


- 4 -

Since mine mysteriously went missing over six months ago, I'll be needing a digital camera...


- 5 -

I don't know how I made it two years in my own apartment without my own vacuum! Borrowing my mother's vacuum is not an option anymore..... I need my own.


- 6 -

This is always good...
(not really -"more money more problems"- but whatever)


- 7 -


And hey, if Santa can find one of these... all the better...


- 8 -

Oh yes, and I can't forget.... This request is for Santa too....
A PERMANENT VACATION TO GREECE! :)



While I'm there I'd like this patio...........


Or this one......


That's the stuff Christmas wishes are made of right there!!!!! haha...

So, what do YOU want for Christmas this year?

Saturday, August 29, 2009

A Little Taste of My Artwork

Here is some of my artwork, I made all of these from dollar store wood shadow boxes that were originally hot pink with a fake daisy inside! Hahaha... I made the major transformation using simple acrylic paints and "puffy" paints, wall covering and leather samples from my past interior design jobs, and coins from my travels to Europe...

Let me know what you think...

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