Category Archives: Nature

Near and Far: Europe and California

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VENICE – Tops: California, Bottoms: Italy

I badly wish to go back to Europe. But I can’t complain as much. Not only that I’ve been very blessed to have gone there, the place I’m currently in ain’t too shabby for my travel fix. Plus, it really isn’t hard to cross-culture here in California.

Villas – Design of Getty Villa {Bottom) is inspired by The Villa of Papyri in Herculaneum (Top).

I really enjoyed the neat idea I came up with when I Merge: Herculanem and Getty Villa. And so, I tweak it a bit for my entry of Near and Far. The images in this post are places in California where you can imagine or reminisce different locations in Europe. Not what the challenge is looking for, but I’ve been known as a notorious  WPC rule-breaker.

Spanish Footsteps – Top Right: Rodeo Drive, California, Top Left and Bottom: Rome, Italy. Related post: Journey

I like to know. Anything around your area, or places you’ve been to, that resembles, comparable to, or is based from another location or site from a different country?

Alcazar Garden – Left: Sevilla, Spain, Right: Balboa Park

The next one is with the help of sister, Analyn. She’s quite a globetrotter as well.

Danish – Tops: Solvang, Bottom: Copenhagen, Denmark (picture courtesy of my sister)

This post is part of Flashback Friday. *sticks tongue out*

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FEATURED BLOG

Here is Loni. Check out her Yosemite posts. Check out her Venice post. Check out her Mud Run post. Check out the one where she got on TV. Check out her Anniversary post and the different places her and her husband have gone to. Check out her Academy post. Check out food, places of mainly California, and her wide-eye impressive photographs. My favorite however is  her 100th post where she showed her “Loni Exhibit”, These are some of my favorite things. Go ahead and Check out how Loni Found Herself.

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Solitary Walk: Venice Canals

Visiting the Katimbang family (see post before this), I went to San Diego this weekend. It was a four-day staycation for me. I was also touring around California our old-time friend we’ve known way back when we were all in Missisippi. While I thoroughly enjoyed the company that I don’t normally get, my travel opportunities, however, became limited. Frankly speaking, it was quite frustrating. I dare not to elaborate further not to sound such a very mean tattletale. Let’s just say that I didn’t get anywhere on my destination plans in San Diego. Anyhow, the disappointment were replaced with great conversations of new and old times. I guess, it still worth the long drive. Traveling with group sure has the “inner” benefits, but in all physicality, going solo gives you umpteen possibilities and freedom. See my post here about traveling in groups vs. solo – Lost in Paris.

With the aching, rising price of gas and the long hours on the road, I just couldn’t bare the thought of getting nowhere after three days of staycation. Going back home, in Los Angeles, I tried to cover LACMA but got there too late with too little to see. Knowing me, I just don’t give up that easily. I continued on. I punched in another address on the GPS and I was ready to roll again. When we got there, I told my good old friend to wait in the car handing him my iPad so he has something to do. I already took him to Santa Monica, Chinatown, Griffith Park, Fairoaks Pharmacy, Mission Beach and La Jolla. I’m sure he understood.

I went for a solitary walk in Venice Canals. The good riddance, perhaps selfishness or rudeness for some, was all worth it. It can easily be one of the top best solitary walks I had in my entire travel days of all-time.

Yes, the Venice Canals in California is set-up to resemble the one in Italy. Only this is a high-end part of Los Angeles. Not of historical signifance scenes than its predecessor, and no gondolas in sight, the scenery here is then beautified with glamour, stylish houses, gardens, trees, cemented and wooden bridges, and varieties of paddle boats.

These are the only passengers I saw on these boats.

I ran so quickly I tripped three times, bumped into two people blocking my way where one of which, I pushed to the water, dropped one of my lenses, just so then I could get on top of the bridge to catch this shot.

I was, of course, just joshing. I stood on the bridge and waited eagerly and patiently for that shot above. This one below, however, was a serendipitous sighting.

The lanterns that are hanging from a tree lit up, telling me I should go back now and get back to my friend I left so horribly inside the car. He did like the Hollywood sign and Santa Monica for those are popular, but I don’t think he had the same interest in seeing these views.

 

This post is part of Weekly Photo Challenge: Solitary.
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Italy and California?

Featured Blog

Here is an excellent all-around blog. I don’t mean it in the slightest. This blogger is an artist, a poet, a traveler, a photograph expert, and a well-versed writer. She is currently enjoying Verona, and sharing wonderful street photography and stories of her stay there. Mind you, stateside, she’s been to San Jose, San Diego, Honolulu, Chicago, Anchorage, to name a few. My most favorite from this newly Freshly Pressed blog, One Street Shy, is this Verona-slash-intrapersonal post.

Last Calls…. Brace yourselves, as I did.

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Though I didn’t anywhere in San Diego while traveling in group, this bookending solitary moment completely made up for it. With this scenery, I was certainly relieved.

SUNDAY POST: Reflection and Peace in Nature, or Caramoan, Philippines

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RELATED POSTS:

It’s more fun in the Philippines (part deux)
OF Carabao and Caramoan
Flashback Friday: Sabang Port
Weekly Photo Challenge: SUN

Reflection. It’s always good to reflect, to contemplate, or to mull things over. When your world is revolving so fast and you’re overwhelmed, when it drops a bomb on you and you have to react, or when it presents all its magnificent nature in front of you and you found yourself so blessed. Sometimes, the best thing to do is to pause and not jump immediately to the situation, and take a moment of reflection, compose yourself and sigh to what life hands to you, good or bad.

It’s a universal feeling- returning back from a vacation of a lifetime and couldn’t return back to reality. It’s hard to wake up, especially with the annoying alarm clock. It’s hard to stand up, drag your feet, and face your responsibilities. To sit and ponder, to find your peace, when nature is staring back at you, is a beautiful thing to do. The world is vast and wonderful, but it is also cruel and unforgiving. It is unstable, and that you need to locate your balance to everything. That, in every greatness, every grandeur, every splendour and all things glory and holy, it can be deathly. While its best to have moments of reflections, you also need to snap out of it for it can eat you alive and then swallow you whole. Too much reflection can bring you down, and pondering too deep can lead to procrastination. I know it’s a difficult thing to do but you need to stand up and shake that feeling.

Survivor Caramoan premieres this Wednesday, on September 19. I do wish and plead for you to see it even just the very first few scenes where they usually show the beauty of the location they are in. I’m just proud of my motherland. I’m glad that I’ve been to Caramoan. And that, I would want you to see what Philippines has to offer despite many setbacks.

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Philippines?

Featured Blog

Capture the Colours and let Lance Romel be your guide to some of the most beautiful locations in the Philippines. Take a tour to Zamboanga, Bohol, Tagaytay and more. Clicking on his blog, it doesn’t take a second for you to realize how captivating, arresting and impressive his photos are.

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Last Call:

I didn’t have much more to say about our trip to Caramoan than what I already narrate to my related posts. But I knew, even way back then, that I still old some pictures that I’ve been dying to share. To stop me from thinking too much, and to just let it out, I decided to segue it to Jake Printer’s Sunday Post. Thank you Jake for the save. Here’s the link to participate to his photo challenge.

This post is also a part of Flashback Friday. *sticks tongue out*