These are my short photography slide show clips. All of the photos were taken by a film camera. Before you play the clips – turn on your speaker and view them on full screen. Enjoy!

Epic journey & Epic photo

my buddy Jesse with his Ducati classic 1000 cc

Me and my Ducati Monster S2R 1000 cc

I can not forget this morning … stupid DMV

We love gadgets, this is our GoPro HD video camera mounted on the back of Jesse’s bike

We also love anything from APPLE … gadget nerds rule

Day before riding out … a storm is coming but we don’t really care because …

California Pacific High Way 1 is waiting for us

Here we go !

I almost killed myself while riding + taking this photo

My tank view

Jesse’s view

We stopped at a nice cafe by the ocean

Drinking hot tea while checking out film footages from the GoPro camera

Time to ride again

Easy on the throttle

frequent stops to re-mount the GoPro camera

After riding 8 hours … I needed to stretch my arms

I think we should walk on the moon

100 miles done, 100 miles to go

Riding at night was scary but gave us an unforgettable experience

Our journey will continue in the future … Patagonia here we come …!

My second day in Venice started by walking early in the morning

These streets are off from the “tourist maps”

I wonder what is like living in those building …

Ventians still use the classic way to dry their clothes

nice view from the Realto Bridge

This is a gondola factory garage house

another long exposure shot

Enjoy the Black & White photos ….

I really appreciated my gears while traveling … Time & Music & Camera

Soak all day in this puddle of elegant decay. Venice is Europe’s best preserved big city. This car-free urban wonderland of a hundred islands laced together by 400 bridges and 2000 alleys – survives on the artificial respirator of tourism. Born in a lagoon 1500 years ago as a refuge from barbarians, Venice is overloaded with tourists and is slowly sinking. In the Middle Ages, the Venetians became Europe’s clever middlemen for East-West trade and created a great trading empire. By smuggling in the bones of San Marco in AD 828, Venice gained religious importance as well – Rick Steves.

Train ride from Florence to Venice took approximately 2:30 hours.

Waiting for my train at the Florence train station 10:00 AM in the morning.

10:30 AM – time to get on board

The train passed by city Bologna – The home to the Ducati motorcycles … I wanted to get off from the train so bad.

Looking out the window is another way to enjoy your trip through Europe

1:00 PM – Arrival in Venice was much more welcoming than Florence.

Waiting in the line to buy my Vaporetto (bus boats) ticket.

The vaporetto passes by the beautiful Grand Canal

After 20 minutes of joy ride through the canal I arrive at my hotel (my room was on the 2nd floor- one with the balcony on the left)

interior view of the room

I changed my clothes and went out to grab some lunch. I found this elegant looking restaurant floating by the dock.

While waiting for my ravioli, I studied the map to plan my day ahead.

Venice is an island – meaning, you can not get lost. Therefore, I started exploring around alleys without any map (Yeah! stupid idea but exciting)

As I was walking through the small alleys (I avoided main streets filled with tourists) I heard a magical music echoing. Then I came across Mr. Boka – Renaissance string instrument player. I stood there listening to his music (you can listen to his music from my previous posted video) After he finished playing his piece, I chatted with him little bit – asking him the history & type of instrument he was playing. Instead of throwing a coin into his case, I bought his CDs. Another tip/philosophy while traveling: rather than buying a cheap one-time-look souvenirs: buy an art piece or music that you can bring back home and enjoy.

view of the San Marco square tower

it started raining – I didn’t have an umbrella; got soaking wet  : (

I stopped at a concert hall/church and booked a ticket for the evening concert

interior view of the concert hall

this is for my buddies back in the US

simple ham & mushroom pizza for dinner

7:30 PM- walking to the concert hall, I came across the most awesome sunset …

Watching the Interpreti Veneziani group playing an orchestra right in front of my eyes was simply astonishing.

The cellist was amazing … his expression, emotion and movements were marvelous.

View of Florence from the top of Duomo (Please click on the picture to view panoramic version)

Front facade of Florence Baptistery

view of “Gates of Paradise” – It took Lorenzo Ghiberti 21 years to complete these doors. These gilded bronze doors consist of twenty-eight panels, with twenty panels depicting the life of Christ from the New Testament.

detail views

I was blown away by Ghiberti’s passion and skills towards creating this master piece. Look how detail each figures are …

waiting in the line to get into the Uffizi Gallery was pain in the butt! waited 2 hours outside the entrance

I spent most of this day roaming around different museums and galleries. They prohibited taking photographs Therefore, I am left with only exterior photos of the city – Florence.

La Mescita Fiaschetteria: “Is a characteristic hold-in-the-wall just around the corner from David- but world away from all the tourism. It’s where locals and students enjoy daily pasta specials and hearty sandwiches with good house wine. You can trust Mirco; just point to what looks good and eat lunch quickly, well, and inexpensively. The place can either be mobbed by local students or in a peaceful time warp”

This tiny restaurant was perfect for my ideal “back-door traveling” eatery. I wanted to get away from the tourist attractions and see the real people. Entering this place was exciting and welcoming.

No tourist – only the locals …

They didn’t bother to speak English- I managed to use my body language to order “Today’s pasta” and fizzling water.

Seafood fettucini- very soft, filled with flavors, fresh shrimps and mussels.

This was the previous day (Yes, I went to the same place twice) This pasta was holy – so sticky yet moist and mouth watering

One of many Cafe’s in Florence

Cafe’s in Italy are unique. They are bar/cafe at the same time- you can order a hot cappuccino and strong beverages at the same time. There are no chairs, people drink or eat standing up.

This was my breakfast – Cafe latte with chocolate & cream pastries …. ahhh sound of fattening… haha

People say – Florence have the World’s best gelato. I don’t think so … well it’s true, but I guess maybe 10-20 years ago? Now days due to the globalization (what da… I’m talking like a boring Geography teacher) Even a local gelato place down in Laguna Beach California have the similar (or sometimes even better) gelato …

Trattoria la Burrasca: “Is Flintstone-chic. Friendly duo Elio and Simone offer a limited menu with daily specials of rib-stikin’ Tuscan home cooking. If Archie Bunker were Italian, he’d eat at this trattoria for special night out. Everything is homemade and if you want good wine cheap, this is the place”

Another trattoria (A trattoria (Italian pronunciation: [trattoˈria]) is an Italian-style eating establishment, less formal than a ristorante, but more formal than an osteria. There are generally no printed menus, the service is casual, wine is sold by the decanter rather than the bottle, prices are low, and the emphasis is on a steady clientele rather than on haute cuisine. The food is modest but plentiful (mostly following regional and local recipes) and in some instances is even served family-style)

I started off with a house wine – pinot noir. I am not a wine drinker but I definitely tasted raspberry and cherry.

I didn’t know that a “Tuscany appetizer” would look like this … so raw and meaty … eew (but it was good )

Another “eew” looking dish – Grilled slice of beef with balsamic and cheese.

I personally don’t enjoy balsamic but it brought a weird (but good) harmony with cheese and beef. (I’d personally choose the pasta place over this trattoria)

Day 10 Itinerary

Interlarken (7:29 AM) -> Spiez (7:50) -> Milano Italy (10:35) -> Firenze Italy (1:00 PM)

Train schedule in Europe is very precise. My train to Milano from Spiez was scheduled to leave at 8:05 AM (and yes it did leave right on time)

this was my breakfast – corn salad from last night’s shopping (I was using a real folk instead of plastic lol)

At 1:00 PM I arrived at Florence – where the Renaissance was born … Home of Brunelleschi, Donatello, Masaccio, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.

I wanted to see the grand view of the town, so I walked about 30 minutes to the top of the hill

click on the photo to see the enlarged version : )

view of the Florence Cathedral (The fourth largest church in Europe, its length being 502 ft and its height (381 ft)

Closer view of the Duomo (Cathedral church)

Duomo’s construction began in 1296 and was finished by 1436

I was impressed by Duomo’s masculinity and its’ sophisticated details

view of the local resident buildings

side view of the famous bridge – Ponte vecchio (during the WW II – Hitler ordered his troops not to destroy this bridge because even himself thought it was too beautiful)

Walking around this town was unreal … thinking about Da Vinci walking this street 500 years ago blew my mind away

For dinner I tried the real Aglio Olio pasta. The pasta was moist and soft, the scent of garlic was present but not overly done. It was pretty dang good.

I also ordered a mushroom & ham pizza, this pizza was so-so … nothing special. I should’ve just went to the local restaurant. I learned that if you want the real taste of the town. Don’t go to a fancy tourist attracted restaurants- go to a small places in the back alley where you find no tourists… those small places make the real thing.

Day 9 started around 10 AM. I was very tired after 9 days of traveling and needed some extra sleeping. I went down to the lobby and had a breakfast consisting of warm bread and ham & cheese.

I wanted to play Chess but just settled by taking this photo.

Since the weather was not so great (it was mostly cloudy and raining) I gave up going up to Jungfrau (The top of Europe’s peak) because I would not see anything further than 20 ft. So I decided to go up to a little town “Wengen” and explore. This photo was taken while walking to the Lauterbrunnen train station. Im telling you… I loved this town so much that I didn’t want to leave.

View of train station

I wanted to take off those flags and put it in my bag  : )

train started climbing up to the mountain slowly

pretty view

I wonder how much it costs to buy those little houses on the hill …

After 15 minutes of joy ride, I arrived in town Wengen.

This was my lunch … due to the off-season, every restaurants were closed except a local supermarket.

Asking (more like using a body-language) supermarket lady directions, I started walking.

This town was so dead silent … gave me goosebumps

This house may look pretty but also haunting … haha :p

Some down hill action ! (They allow bicycle rentals during the summer seasons … it should be a blast to ride this road)

I looked back once again and said goodbye to town Wengen

Trail road showed up right after a corner

Let’s hike another 2.5 miles down to my home base – town Lauterbrunnen

Mist ….

deep into the woods …

beautiful trees … the air was so fresh !

I truly love hiking in the woods … anybody willing to join me after I go back to California ?

colors were just jaw dropping gorgeous

marvelous view of town Lauterbrunnen

After 40-50 minutes I was approaching my base

I wanted to check out town Interlaken. So when I reached Lauterbrunnen from Wengen – I took a train to the “big town”

Interlaken was boring … nothing special to see, just a little city … too many noisy tourists bothered me away

I tried to save some money on this particular day so I shopped at a big supermarket and bought myself a dinner and next day breakfast/snack/lunch instead of going to a restaurant …

this is a short on board train video from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen.