I have this habit of writing down my thoughts, and experiances in my notebook. Some people term it as maintaining a diary. There are different styles and approaches to write a diary. I dont have the motivation to write a daily page/paragraph, but normally on sunday afternoons, I try to have some retrospection of the week passed and make a note of my observations. I thought of sharing some of the excerpts from my notes on this space, under the tag of Diary Archives.
26-12-2005
As the Christmas weekend drew close, almost everyone in the University was leaving home for the holidays. The University started to wear a very lonely look, all the labs were empty, except for a few desks which were occupied by the Asian students. Most the Asians had not gone home or holiday else where - not because that we dont like to holiday, but because its damn too expensive to make a trip back home and going for such a short period of 2 weeks makes no sense to me. Well, some of us had plans of short holidays to Rome, Venice, Milan etc. Rome is a little far down south from Trento and it also requires some planning in advance with bookings etc, so some of us decided to visit Venice, which is around 170 Kms east to Trento. It could all be done in a day, leave early morning, see around during the day and come back in the evening. So,it was a group of three of us - Haroon from Karachi, Sridhar from Kathmandu, and me. Haroon is an MS student and Sridhar is doing Phd in economics and is my hostel mate. our SAARC group as we named it had to meet on the Trento Stazione and take the train for Venice at 0806 AM. we could have started much earlier, but Haroon could not make it to the station so early in the morning since he stayed at a reasonable distance and needed to take a bus to reach downtown.
The return ticket cost us € 12.50 each, pretty reasonable price I felt. As the train chugged along, we bid the familiar Alps in Trento bye. I am a little bored seeing the same peaks surrounding me daily, and was hoping to see some refreshing landscapes of the plains soon. But to my surprise, the Alps extend a lot more into the south, ofcourse these are the lower ranges slowly fading into the plains. After some initial talking, we had some sandwiches and I then started to continue reading my novel. These days I am into the DaVinci Code (Dan Brown), still in the first half of the book. The duration of the journey was 3:30 Hrs, its a little lengthy since the train is run on Diesel and almost half the distance is on a Mountainous terrain, so it cannot catch up on speed. After some reading I was about to doze, and asked Sridhar to wake me when we reach the plains. Well the plains did look refreshing at the first glance. They reminded me of the landscapes in Germany when you travel between the large cities. I was recollecting my travelling experiances in Deutschland, the InterCity (IC), the Regional Bahn, etc. Those days looked so distant in past, how quickly time flies. And how relative Time is! At the same instant I was feeling bored and feeling that this train is taking eternity to reach Venice, and also thinking how quickly my years in Germany had passed. Many images of Darmstadt, Frankfurt, Munich etc were flashing in my mind then. Before my eyes on the outside were large farms spread out. The land was brown, with no farming activity in motion. Once in a while a farm house would passby. The farm houses were beautiful, with some garden space, some dogs, ducks, kennels, and haystocks, etc. These farmhouses had large iron gates at their entrances, which reminded me of the similar gates we have in sub-continent houses.
Around 1115 AM we reached the Venice region, the first station which is in the mainland Venice passed by. This is where one needs to board off to go to the Venice Airport. As the train moved on and we moved closer to the Mediterrenian, I was getting some excitement jitters. The first time I had read about Venice was in class 4, and had wondered then, that how could a city exist on water. Flashes of Shakespeare´s Merchant of Venice were running around in my mind. I was about to see the city of Antonio, Bassonio et al. I remember playing the part of the judge in school and judge about that pound of flesh drama. One of my favourite movies, the Italian Job was shot in Venice and so was Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I was very eager to see all those locations where the movies were shot. I was going to lay my foot on the city which is so famous in history. Marco Polo, Antonio Vivaldi, Giacomo Casanova were all from Venice. I had read so much about this city, that I could hardly sit down at my seat when I first saw the Mediterranian Sea. The last stop of the train was venice-St. Lucia, which is one of the largest islands of Venice. The train crossed the bridges over the sea and stopped on the St. Lucia terminal.
The weather was not very pleasant, nor was it gloomy either. The sky was not clear blue, with some haziness present. But now and then there was some sunlight, otherwise it was a typical grey winter day. The temperature was around 6 degrees. As we made our exit from the St. Lucia Stazione, the first surprise you meet as you come out of the station is, there is no large street filled with taxis, buses and pavements, instead you see the Grand Canale - the largest of the lagoons of Venice. Yes, its just water, water and more water everywhere you look. ofcourse on the other side of the canale are shops, buildings etc. The city is just like every other, except that black roads and streets are replaced by blue water, canals, bridges, boats etc. Venice is essentially the worlds largest pedestrian zone and with the absence of motorized vehicles there is no threat to keep people on their toes. As a result there is a ridiculous amount of random stopping, turning, and chatting causing blockage after blockage of frustrated pedestrians. Venice is Europe's largest car-free area, unique in Europe in remaining a sizable functioning city in the 21st century entirely without motorcars or trucks.
Venice is famous for its canals. It is built on an archipelago of more than 100 islands in a shallow lagoon. In the old center, the canals serve the function of roads, and every form of transport is on water or on foot. The classical Venetian boat is the Gondola, although it is now mostly used for tourists, or for weddings, funerals, or other ceremonies, due to its cost. Most Venetians travel by motorised waterbuses ("vaporetti") which ply regular routes along the major canals and between the city's islands. The city also has many private boats. The only unmotorized gondolas still in common use by Venetians are the traghetti, foot passenger ferries crossing the Grand Canal at certain points without bridges.
We bought a day-ticket for 10 euros, and took our 'bus' to the Piazza San Marco. Its a journey of about 30 mins. As the boat wades through the canal, you can see all the marvellous buildings on the either side. The magic of the oriental architectures, century old marvels of construction who have stood the test of time keep you spell-bound. I do not have a digi-cam at the moment, so my fingers were twitching like hell. There were many I-wish-I-had-a-camera moments all around me as the Bus (boat) floated around. Some of the beautiful scenes were when you are coming out from under a bridge, the sky slowly opens up above you and you see the famous Venice Skyline. I bet all directors shooting in Venice must have taken a shot or two in this manner.
Eventually we arrived at the grand attraction of Venice: Piazza San Marco and Basillica di San Marco. I can see why people flock here. The Basillica is ornate on an unsurpassed level and the grand square is a great place to watch people run screaming towards the thousands of pigeons waiting to be fed. The endless colonnades of the Procuratie Vecchie and Procuratie Nuove add a feeling of antiquity to the site giving it an exquisite Italian/Ancient Roman feel. We also fed the pigeons, and took some snaps with Sridhar´s camera. The pigeons reminded me about the Trafalgar Square in London - you stand still with your arms stretched and soon you will find yourself covered with pigeons. Well you have to keep looking your coat for any droppings of these thankful pigeons!
Venice is famous for its canals. It is built on an archipelago of more than 100 islands in a shallow lagoon. In the old center, the canals serve the function of roads, and every form of transport is on water or on foot. The classical Venetian boat is the Gondola, although it is now mostly used for tourists, or for weddings, funerals, or other ceremonies, due to its cost. Most Venetians travel by motorised waterbuses ("vaporetti") which ply regular routes along the major canals and between the city's islands. The city also has many private boats. The only unmotorized gondolas still in common use by Venetians are the traghetti, foot passenger ferries crossing the Grand Canal at certain points without bridges.
We bought a day-ticket for 10 euros, and took our 'bus' to the Piazza San Marco. Its a journey of about 30 mins. As the boat wades through the canal, you can see all the marvellous buildings on the either side. The magic of the oriental architectures, century old marvels of construction who have stood the test of time keep you spell-bound. I do not have a digi-cam at the moment, so my fingers were twitching like hell. There were many I-wish-I-had-a-camera moments all around me as the Bus (boat) floated around. Some of the beautiful scenes were when you are coming out from under a bridge, the sky slowly opens up above you and you see the famous Venice Skyline. I bet all directors shooting in Venice must have taken a shot or two in this manner.
Eventually we arrived at the grand attraction of Venice: Piazza San Marco and Basillica di San Marco. I can see why people flock here. The Basillica is ornate on an unsurpassed level and the grand square is a great place to watch people run screaming towards the thousands of pigeons waiting to be fed. The endless colonnades of the Procuratie Vecchie and Procuratie Nuove add a feeling of antiquity to the site giving it an exquisite Italian/Ancient Roman feel. We also fed the pigeons, and took some snaps with Sridhar´s camera. The pigeons reminded me about the Trafalgar Square in London - you stand still with your arms stretched and soon you will find yourself covered with pigeons. Well you have to keep looking your coat for any droppings of these thankful pigeons!
If you walk a little south from the Basillica, you come across the bridge where the chase sequence was shot for the Italian job. The particular scene when the group manages to steal the gold and flee under water, while their partners give the police a wild chase was shot here. I spent some minutes visualising how it was all done, the camera positions, etc. I could have continued a little longer, but Sridhar and Haroon would not let me. While walking around the city later we also saw that old building which was used as the Library in the Indiana Jones movie.
By this time, we were hungry and so made our way to the immediate pizzeria in our vicinity. We had a meal with a Quarter Pizza, Fries and a drink - costed around 6 euros. The guy serving was a Bengali. Haroon was complaining that "yaar itnay desi hai yaha, jaha dekha waha desi". I replied "haan yaar, subah utho, mirror mein dekho waha bhi desi!". Apart from numerous desis (sub-continent people), there were plenty of Chinese and Japs everywhere. I wonder what the Italians would say when they see so many Chinese, Japs and Asians. When you observe the tourists around you, you can see all the popular gadgets in use - digicams, handycams, camera-phones, etc etc. Some of them are real pros into photography. They take great pains to get that perfect shot. I felt jealous seeing those great lenses around me. We had good fun looking at people making some interesting poses. Well one thing worth observation was the use of Video messaging and Video conferencing by many tourists. They had some 3G phones from Motorola, Nokia and were doing live video streaming - UMTS is slowly finding its base among users, a good sign for someone like me.
Venice is one of the places on earth which exudes romance. All around me where tourists with their better halves, their special someones and were busy kissing away. I was feeling a bit lonely, and the heart was yearning for that someone to be beside me at this special place. Maybe a Raaj Aaryan would imagine his Aishwarya and sing a song, but this is no movie scene. I wish she was here! hmmm - deep sigh! To add misery I had the company of two guys!
Human traffic comes to a complete stand still just outside of Rialto Bridge. A classic destination which overlooks one of the more Venice-esque photo ops and which is also lined with a million kiosks filled with everything from miniature toy gondolas to Dantes didgeridoos. The ambience around it is very similar to the one you find in descriptions of the markets during the British-era of India. To be more vivid, more like the movie shots from the sets of Pakeezah movie, or similar to the bazaars of Old Delhi, Aligarh or Lucknow. The most prevalent and artistic items for sale were the masks from Carnival. These intricate and hand-made masks are truly works of art! If you have read the novel - Kiss the girls, there were many masks which fit the descriptions to the one used by Casanova in that novel (which was later made into a Hollywood movie, starring Morgan Freeman and Jodie Foster). There were many glasswork articles as well. One of the islands of Venice, Murano is famous for its glass workshops. The craftmanship of these is just amazing, just amazing. I could not buy them however owing to the price, unless you have someone special with you, it makes no sense to spend on buying something so beautiful and costly.
As we were strolling in the by-lanes, it was as if we had ventured into a maze, that is the size of a city - Venice. It is an interesting city, if you want to see around on foot. As you round a corner you never know what will be there; it could be a church, a canal or more likely an impenetrable wall of people. Since it was Chirstmas day, there were not 'many' tourists in the city. Still you would find people all around you. more Chinese and Japs to be precise. Infact when we did not see any of them around we were wondering if this particular corner is worth seeing or not. Being a Christmas day, the churches were elaborately decorated, and by evening wore on, we could see arrangements for the Concerts being made. Ofcourse we had no time to listen to any of them, but it was great to see the arrangements with bells, lights, and cones.
It had already become dark long ago. On our way back to the Stazione, we had good fun. We had lost our way and we were stuck somewhere in the maze of the city and its bylanes. We decided to go by the Audience poll option (KBC style), and follow the streams of the people such that we could somehow come across the Grand Canale, from there we could take the boats to the Station. But as we took our paths through the narrow shadowy lanes, by-lanes, narrow corridors, small bridges, it was as if we are doing some Treasure Hunt Game. Occasionally when we come across a sign stating 'Alle Ferrovia' meaning all ways lead to the main station, we would be happy that we are on right path. At any bifurcation, we would decide by following the direction taken by any pretty girls. At that time we saw Venice up-close. We saw all the possible faces of this city, its various lanes, city squares with fountains, there were many of those I-wish-I-had-my-camera moments as we walked along. We were also chatting that incase we had something like this in our countries what would we do. Haroon came up with a doubt about where could we play cricket with such narrow lanes and water everywhere. I was wondering how the day-to-day life went by here. How were the marriage ceremonies held, how were funeral processions carried out. Yes life is different here in 'Venice - the City of Lagoons'. Then came up an interesting conversation, we were thinking 'what-if I lived in Venice and owned a boat, what would I name it?' well we came up with many crazy names. My craziest one was 'Dhanno'.
After reaching the Stazione, we had some dinner - again a pizza with drink. Then we boarded our train back to Trento. As soon as we took our seats, I reached out for my notebook and made a note of all the key observations I had made during the day, so that I dont miss out on anything. We had some good sleep on our way back, with many memories being made in our minds about what we had seen during the day. I am pretty sure of returning back to Venice, hopefully with that special someone.
By this time, we were hungry and so made our way to the immediate pizzeria in our vicinity. We had a meal with a Quarter Pizza, Fries and a drink - costed around 6 euros. The guy serving was a Bengali. Haroon was complaining that "yaar itnay desi hai yaha, jaha dekha waha desi". I replied "haan yaar, subah utho, mirror mein dekho waha bhi desi!". Apart from numerous desis (sub-continent people), there were plenty of Chinese and Japs everywhere. I wonder what the Italians would say when they see so many Chinese, Japs and Asians. When you observe the tourists around you, you can see all the popular gadgets in use - digicams, handycams, camera-phones, etc etc. Some of them are real pros into photography. They take great pains to get that perfect shot. I felt jealous seeing those great lenses around me. We had good fun looking at people making some interesting poses. Well one thing worth observation was the use of Video messaging and Video conferencing by many tourists. They had some 3G phones from Motorola, Nokia and were doing live video streaming - UMTS is slowly finding its base among users, a good sign for someone like me.
Venice is one of the places on earth which exudes romance. All around me where tourists with their better halves, their special someones and were busy kissing away. I was feeling a bit lonely, and the heart was yearning for that someone to be beside me at this special place. Maybe a Raaj Aaryan would imagine his Aishwarya and sing a song, but this is no movie scene. I wish she was here! hmmm - deep sigh! To add misery I had the company of two guys!
Human traffic comes to a complete stand still just outside of Rialto Bridge. A classic destination which overlooks one of the more Venice-esque photo ops and which is also lined with a million kiosks filled with everything from miniature toy gondolas to Dantes didgeridoos. The ambience around it is very similar to the one you find in descriptions of the markets during the British-era of India. To be more vivid, more like the movie shots from the sets of Pakeezah movie, or similar to the bazaars of Old Delhi, Aligarh or Lucknow. The most prevalent and artistic items for sale were the masks from Carnival. These intricate and hand-made masks are truly works of art! If you have read the novel - Kiss the girls, there were many masks which fit the descriptions to the one used by Casanova in that novel (which was later made into a Hollywood movie, starring Morgan Freeman and Jodie Foster). There were many glasswork articles as well. One of the islands of Venice, Murano is famous for its glass workshops. The craftmanship of these is just amazing, just amazing. I could not buy them however owing to the price, unless you have someone special with you, it makes no sense to spend on buying something so beautiful and costly.
As we were strolling in the by-lanes, it was as if we had ventured into a maze, that is the size of a city - Venice. It is an interesting city, if you want to see around on foot. As you round a corner you never know what will be there; it could be a church, a canal or more likely an impenetrable wall of people. Since it was Chirstmas day, there were not 'many' tourists in the city. Still you would find people all around you. more Chinese and Japs to be precise. Infact when we did not see any of them around we were wondering if this particular corner is worth seeing or not. Being a Christmas day, the churches were elaborately decorated, and by evening wore on, we could see arrangements for the Concerts being made. Ofcourse we had no time to listen to any of them, but it was great to see the arrangements with bells, lights, and cones.
It had already become dark long ago. On our way back to the Stazione, we had good fun. We had lost our way and we were stuck somewhere in the maze of the city and its bylanes. We decided to go by the Audience poll option (KBC style), and follow the streams of the people such that we could somehow come across the Grand Canale, from there we could take the boats to the Station. But as we took our paths through the narrow shadowy lanes, by-lanes, narrow corridors, small bridges, it was as if we are doing some Treasure Hunt Game. Occasionally when we come across a sign stating 'Alle Ferrovia' meaning all ways lead to the main station, we would be happy that we are on right path. At any bifurcation, we would decide by following the direction taken by any pretty girls. At that time we saw Venice up-close. We saw all the possible faces of this city, its various lanes, city squares with fountains, there were many of those I-wish-I-had-my-camera moments as we walked along. We were also chatting that incase we had something like this in our countries what would we do. Haroon came up with a doubt about where could we play cricket with such narrow lanes and water everywhere. I was wondering how the day-to-day life went by here. How were the marriage ceremonies held, how were funeral processions carried out. Yes life is different here in 'Venice - the City of Lagoons'. Then came up an interesting conversation, we were thinking 'what-if I lived in Venice and owned a boat, what would I name it?' well we came up with many crazy names. My craziest one was 'Dhanno'.
After reaching the Stazione, we had some dinner - again a pizza with drink. Then we boarded our train back to Trento. As soon as we took our seats, I reached out for my notebook and made a note of all the key observations I had made during the day, so that I dont miss out on anything. We had some good sleep on our way back, with many memories being made in our minds about what we had seen during the day. I am pretty sure of returning back to Venice, hopefully with that special someone.
1 comment:
Good one mate.
Venice is a fish:)
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