I spent a day in London going to galleries and markets and the next day Richie and Leanne came and picked me up and we had sushi train for lunch at bluewater.
Cupcakes and Sushi train at Bluewater
That night we hada few drinks, as Richies dunbells will tell you and Leanne and I went out for a good girly night out.
After getting our faces painted at Jumping Jacks
The next day we went up to the Notting Hill Carnival in London which was a very colourful parade with loads of great music and ALOT of crowds.
I then stayed in Kent with Aunty Marion and Uncle Bob and their gorgeous puppy and had a nice relaxing time there as well as going to a hops festival and seeing morris dancers, going out with Alan, Linda, Will and Sue for a lovely Indian meal and Nana Kaths 91st Birthday.
On the 12th I finally got the day I'd been looking forward to for a very long time and met up with Danii and Katie in London. Just so everyone knows, Danii didn't cry for once!! I did!! We had an amazing few days adventuring in York and Malton with Jonny and his lovely family and some of the best memories were going to pizza hut for lunch in York, playing on the park at Castle Howard and walking through the park in London with the squirrels.
At 3am I had to be up and ready to leave Danii and Katie to go to Germany. First to Munich to Oktoberfest and which was a load of fun at the campsite (although it was so cold at night i was wearing basically all of the clothes i had with me) I'd say 97% of the camping ground's residence on the first weekend that i was there were either from Australia or New Zealand. I went on a walking tour of Munich which was very interesting and pushed my way through the crowd at the Oktoberfest showgrounds and saw parades and took loads of photos of all the traditional German dress.
Next in Germany I went to Cologne where the first day I went looking through the city saw a 'love lock' bridge and walked about 4kms out of my way on the way to a chocolate museum, where they had the history and loads of fun facts about chocolate and a lindt factory so it was probably good that i went that far out of my way for the exercise. I then volunteered at an event that the Impossible Project (the people now making polaroid film) had and met some great people, saw a great presentation and cut up 3kgs of onions and a wheel of cheese from Holland. The next day I went to Photokina where I was the first person that day to score a free Lomography coloursplash camera and I had alot of fun geeking out over all of the camera products and services. I picked up alot of free stuff too which we all know how much I love :) OH! and the hostel in Cologne had the best breakfast cereal I've ever had. Bar none. I now know why Germans always complain at the state of free breakfast in hostels all over the place.
The fabled 20x24 Polaroid camera at the Impossible Soirée
Bran, Oats, Granola, Coco pops and dark chocolate shavings. Can it get any better?
Next it was to Berlin which I loved because of all of the history and I did 2 walking tours there, one free walking tour which gave you a good idea about the city up until the fall of the wall in 1990 and then the other walking tour was about the sub-cultures, street art and slums which was all very interesting and gave a more recent history, 1990 onwards kinda thing.
Bandenburg Gate
On the New Europe subculture tour of Berlin
Back to England and to Leanne and Richies new flat for their housewarming and possibly the biggest spread i've ever seen at a BBQ. Lots of dancing to the UK top 40 dance hits of all time and lots of cupcakes. 
Leanne, The one of the best people (and cook's) I know!
The next couple of days were filled with looking forward to what lay only a couple of days ahead and getting my 27kgs that i came with plus all of the stuff I've picked up along the way into a 20kg suitcase. Didn't work out so well with having to leave a case of stuff with Leanne and Richie and having to pay 60pound excess. Apparently the 11.9kgs that i had in my backpack (which didn't feel that heavy to me, it had definitely been heavier than that through Germany) was only meant to be 5kgs but anyway, got here to London Ontario in the end and have enjoyed every second of it. Oh except maybe when I realized that It was already getting down to -1 at night, that moment kinda sucked but I love our apartment, what i've seen of it I love the area and although I haven't really met anyone yet I certainly Love one of the people here. So now to find a job and brace myself for the winter.
Stay tuned for more in-Depth blogs about the people, places and photos taken along the way..
Since really getting into photography after buying my first digital camera in 2003, a 2 megapixel Olympus point and shoot, I've loved taking natural photos of people. After looking at all the great street photography artists in art school it made me love it and add to my strive to travel to far away places. Some find it terrifying to go out and click on the street and some find it amusing to move among people. Some spend their time mingling with locals there and some get embarrassed by the attention they get out of clicking photos. Here is a small list which i thought would help people wanting to get into street photography and how to go about it.
1. Plan your gear: While you plan to go out and shoot, plan your gear accordingly. Carrying too much gear might not be a good idea because you might want to keep attention on capturing life rather than worrying about extra lenses. Should you Include a longer lens? Well there are different theories around this question. Alot of people say that, a longer lens would help you capture shots from distance, and hence you would have candid shots without letting people know you are taking them. The other school of thought says to get closer and get into the frame to capture the soul in your shot. I tend to just use a mid range- 17-85mm IS, I tend to think that if the people are further away that that then you need to get closer, or leave them be.
2. Observe: While moving around in a new place, look for activities happening around. Every place is characteristic in its own way. Really it depends on the person behind the camera, you can decide what you like to take photos of, whether it be of a young couple in love or of a group of tourists all looking at a map confused, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Try to capture those moments.
3. Try and get involved: I am guilty of in some situations clicking a shot and leaving straight away. This can sometimes leave the people around stunned, anxious or angry but one of the best methods is to get involved with people, share a smile and not run with a photo. You never know, a smile or small talk might give you great shots, other times its best just to leave people be.
4. Neither appear conspicuous, nor suspicious: People who tend to sneak a shot and move on, might appear suspicious. Be very aware about doing this, in my experience though by just looking further off into the distance will put a persons mind at rest that you weren't taking photos of them, however always respect privacy of the people around you.
5. Bring home a story and not a photo: Street photography is a genre of dealing with people. Strike up a conversation and get to know your subjects, it will mean more to you later to be able to tell a story of someone rather than just being able to tell where the photo was taken.
6. Gauge the situation yourself: If you see a fight break out on the street you may feel like taking your lens cap off but, obviously, think before you do, could the adrenalin of these people turn on you? Develop an eye to gauge the situation by yourself.
7. Understand Law of Land: There are lots of places where you might not be allowed to take photos so it's important that you abide by the laws of land. Be careful of Shooting at the railway station, bridges, buses and taking photos of Police and alike are all against the law since they could compromise the security, so avoid shooting at such places, unless you know it is okay to do so.
Alright so, I've been really slack with not blogging whatsoever over the past couple of months but everything will be made up for that and man do I have some stuff to share from my travels!
This is the first installment, It came from and email that I send to all my fave people but here it is, with pictures :)
Best pizza: London, weird, i know, it had prawns and lots of cheese with a view of the Thames and was just really really good.
Best Pasta: Lasagne, near the colusseum we got a good deal of bread, salad, lasagne, coke and desert for 15euros. It was amazing.
Best Gelato: Positano, on the beach I had chocolate and Kinder flavours.
Best service: The guy at the hostel in Positano who made our spaghetti for us, people staying there wern't allowed to use the kitchen but we asked if he could just boil us some spaghetti but he cooked the whole packet, with pasta sauce and even made a chilli sauce stuff extra too!
Worst service: A tie- Information at an underground in Rome, told us to go the wrong way and were rude about it.
- Woman serving at supermarket bitching about us to a person in line behind us saying that we had no common sense because we were meant to weigh our own vegetables, how were we meant to know!
Most helpful person: Woman who didn't speak english showing us with arm gestures where the bus station was when the people at the underground sent us in the wrong direction
Best value food: Spaghetti that the guy at the hostel made- 1.60 euro for 3 nights of food.. not too shabby! also got small tubs of ice cream at the grocery shop for 1euro!
Worst value food: Caffe' Belle Art, in venice outside the Galleria Academia, we paid 14.50 euros for a mircowave pasta dinner, a bottle of coke and service charge for the table, the only goodthing was that it was out of the sun and they had good bread sticks!
Best tip off: buy tickets at Palatine hill to get into see the roman forum and the colusseum, the lines were about 2 hrs shorter
that at the colosseum
Worst tip off: the boat driver on the Capri boat tour saying that we could get into the blue grotto by bus in 45mins, 4 and a half hours later we finally got in!
Craziest person: a guy standing in front of a bus in the middle of london holding up traffic for a very long time, the look in his eye looked like he was about to pull a gun.
Best accomodation: Paris, we paid for a 4 person mixed dorm and we got a private room with ensuite!
Worst Accomodation: london, 8 person room with ensuite which the shower was either boiling or freezing, toilet didn't flush and no free wifi
Most awe-worthy sight: Vatican and the Lourve
Place most likely to go back: Paris
Place least likely to go back for some time: Positano, because its mainly centered around the beach and we have that at home.
Most unbelievable sight: the winding Amalfi coast rd to Positano.
Best new friend: Miguel the spanish guy we shared with in Rome
Most annoying person: Its a tie -Dave, the scottish person we shared with in rome
- American 'I just learned it, I speak with a Roman accent' Girl in Positano
-Canadian 'I work for a winery' guy in Positano
-Group of Aussie bogan girls on St Tropez cruise
Favourite souvineer again, its a tie - My nautical themed pashmina afgan from Capri
- My salt and salt shakers from the leaning tower of Pisa, its a good thing Cam and I dont like pepper!
Item most handy: Earplugs /towel
Thing I wish I had brought with me: Tweezers
Thing I should had left behind: my 'going out' jeans, it's always too hot!
Time when I most wished I spoke another language: In Verona when an
old lady got up with the statue of Juliet and instead of rubbing her boob like everyone else she touched her face, her neck when everyone else was just getting up there for a photo but she wasn't. When she got back down she said something to us, I sooooooo wished I spoke Italian at that moment! So cute!
Most alcholic drink: The vodka, gin, rum, tequila coke mix that they had on the menu in Rome.
Most convenient occurance: when Dayna was like, I wish i had some cold water outside the lourve and a guy popped up with water.
Most random occurance: when we saw a man walking his dog and his duck in Naples
Worst line up: Versallies.
Worst injury: The massive bruise on my leg which is still healing and i got it on the
first day in Nice from the broken suitcase.
Fave moments: - London - Voyeurism exhibition at the Tate modern
- Victoria and Albert museum (V&A)
- Paris - Walking off the subway on the first day we were there to see the Effiel tower in the distance, Arch di triumph and obilisk
- Chilling near the fountains at the Effiel tower and seeing why the call it the city of love..
- Nice - As we were arriving a guy playing amazing violin on the street
- St Tropez cruise
- Rome - Trevili Fountain
- Lunch near the colusseum
- Positano - Driving in on the coast road
- Boat tour to Capri
- Venice - first night watching the gondolas go under a bridge and hearing the music
- Day trip to verona
- Burano island, a really colourful place with lace making old ladies, mask making men and dogs sitting in shops.
So yeah I had a great time and I'm so glad I was able to do it all at the pace that we did with the person that I did. If anyone is ever going to any of these places and wants any advice please let me know and i'll try and help as much as possible.
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