An urban apocolypse

Sometimes I swear my photography has a will of its own. I picked up my camera with the explicit intention of going out to take a bunch of colourful urban photos. Halfway through editing my pictures decided otherwise.

Colour became monochrome, darkness crept into my work and the sky went from vivid blues to dark and ominous greys. The world and the language of my photos had suddenly changed and instead of riotous colour. I was now looking at a world nearing its end.

It was changed in short order to a very urban apocolypse.

A charcoal sky

For the first few months of spring I decided to go out and try and capture the mood of the season. Unfortunately that mood had been predominately one of cold, sleet and steely grey skys. And while this wasn't idea for exploring or taking holidays it was perfect for capturing moody dramatic pictures of the sky.

Under this chrome dome branches from the trees spread capillary like over clouds and man made monuments alike. In the background the building sat like black sentries. It was a beautiful and apocalyptic world to explore with my camera.

As I wandered I took my time to sketch shade and light, capture contours, branches and leaves. In other words I changed the world with my camera and with it drew a charcoal sky.

Dancing in colour

I felt the need to escape this weekend, to run away from life and have an adventure so I followed that urge and booked my bus ticket to London. There is so many touristy things to see and do in London that it can be easy to become blinded to some of the exciting smaller moments that happen in the city everyday.

After wandering through the city I returned to my hotel just as the sun was setting. It was coming home that I stumbled across a number of teenagers performing bike tricks in an alcove next the thames river. I was fascinated by the colour, energy and joy that these people found as they leapt through the air on their bikes.

As I followed them with my camera I tried to capture them flying through the air. Dancing in the light, shooting past coloured walls, landing tricks and occasionally landing flat on their arses. It was like they were dancing in colour and I was there to capture every glorious moment of it.

The city of Bath

The historic city of Bath is a place best known for it culture, history and sheer opportunities to relax and luxuriate (mostly relating to its famous hot springs and the historic roman baths built around them).

I had decided to catch up with some old friends from uni and after some discuss on the matter we decided that Bath make an ideal place to spend a glorious summers day. Pulling into the station I discovered them standing outside the station next to what proved to be our ruin; Cocktail Bar Bath.
After a few cheeky cocktails we were ready to hit the city and see what it had to offer.

Bath itself is a beautiful city filled as it is with grand historic building, vibrant greenery, lovely parks and elegant streets. As we wandered along taking in its sights we took in ladies taking high tea, took in the beauty of the complex housing the baths themselves (we didn't go in due to the truly large amounts of money it would have cost), had a chance encounter with a man who offered us the chance to hold the pigeons that he had tamed, gawped at the brightly coloured pig statues that lined the street and took in the beautiful structure that was Bath Cathedral.

After all of this we felt like a sit down was in order and so we stopped for a spot of lunch in a part of town overlooking the splendid Royal Victoria Park which offered us beautiful views of the surrounding greenery.

Afterwards we took a rather languid walk up to the Royal Crescent, an impressive set of 30 terraced houses laid out in a sweeping arc before an impressively large park. We took the opportunity to sun ourselves on a bench for a little while before strolling back down into town. After taking in a few shops around town (including the lovely gift shop attached to the roman baths) we had one final coffee at a lovely little coffee house by the station before saying some fond farewells.

As I pulled away from the station I was really happy to have spent the day with friends in the historic city of Bath.

Amsterdam

I arrived in Amsterdam in the afternoon after a refreshingly short journey from Brussels. Once my and my travel companion had checked in to the rather lovely (and more importantly cheap) Student Hotel we dumped our luggage and set out to explore the city.

Amsterdam is a wonderfully picturesque city if you can tear yourself away from its more hedonistic pursuits, home as it is to a multitude of canals that criss cross the city, beautiful architecture and a wealth of art and culture to explore.

We started our exploration of this side of the city at Anne Frank's House. The modern, crisp exterior gave way to an emotive insight into the life and mindset of an average teenage girl growing up in the most extraordinary and tragic circumstances as her and her family hid from Nazi persecution. One of Anne's wishes was that one day she would grow up to become a famous novelist by giving an account of these life experiences. It was both heart breaking and inspiring that her wish came true in the worst way possible.

And though she died believing she was all alone in the world, her words will echo throughout time as a voice of hope for her people, long after the words of the cruel tyrant that tried to silence them will tarnish and fade.

Afterwards we wandered the streets of the city before finding an absolutely delicious chinese restaurant to eat at. The food was tasty and the portions were extremely generous and by the time we left we were both suffering from a serious case of food baby.

We had decided that a trip to Amsterdam wouldn't be complete without enjoying one of the city's famous cafes. So we headed to the famous Benny's Cafe, the place was by a haze of weed and packed to high heaven so we took one look before turning tail and heading to the much more civilised Benny's bar across the way. There we purchased one of their 'special' cakes which I washed down with a beer. The music was superb and the place had a great atmosphere and afterwards I was throughly ready for a night out.

Unfortunately this was not to be the case as I made it through one drink before the cake took effect. Through my stoned haze I decided that this was probably not a wise plan and through happy accident managed to get the metro service back to my hotel before collapsing into bed.

We decided to take a relaxed approach to getting up the next day but still made it out the hotel in good enough time to explore the world famous Rjjks Museum. Home to a world renowned collection of art and historic pieces. We took most of the day browsing everything from chinese statues, 18th, 19th and 20th century art and pieces by artists such as Van Gogh and (rather famously) an entire section filled devoted to the works of Rembrandt including the absolutely stunning Nightwatch painting.

It was a great way to finish off my trip and after some food and drinks at our hotel we decided to call it an early night. I spent a long day on the Megabus home the next day and arrived back tired but glad. It had all been totally worth the effort.

Brussels

Incongruous, surprising and actually kind of exciting. These are some of the words I was not expecting to describe Brussels as my first impressions were a bit mixed. But as the old saying goes don't judge a book by its cover and with Brussels a little digging goes a long way.

After taking a rather restless journey overnight on the Megabus me and my friend pulled into the city at rather an early hour. We were greeted to the sight of the city's beautiful lit Grand Place, the city's central square. With its gothic architecture, wonderfully intricate stonework and great selection of shops and bars, it really is the beating heart of the city.

After taking some time to wander around and have some breakfast, we set off to our hotel to rest and recover. Unfortunately we promptly found out our check in wasn't until 3pm, so we dropped our bags off and went to the first attraction on our list; Brussel's famous atomium, a metal museum built to celebrate the city's world fair day.

We were ever so slightly underwhelmed when we arrived, as while the structure was no doubt impressive its price, slight gaudiness and location left me feeling vaguely unimpressed. Much better (although thanks to bad sign posting slightly harder to find) was the entirely inaccurately recreated Chinese temple and Japanese pagoda in the nearby park grounds.

After taking this all in we decided to try our luck with the Arc de Triomphe, a beautiful and large arch build in the 1880's as a pavillon of exhibition. The building and statues surrounding it were impressive enough but what made it even better was the art and history museum it contained. Large and exquisitely presented, it was filled with a truely impressive collection of art, statues, and historical artifacts from all over the world. It literally was so big we were still finding new sections a good three hours into exploring it. Leaving it we were surprised and delighted to find that the park behind it had been colonized by brightly coloured parrots.

After we left we chilled at our hotel before going out for a lovely meal at a local (and cheap) pizzera. Afterwards we ended rolling into a succession of gay bars located around the Grand Place where we met a fellow Brit and enjoyed a good night out.

The next day I was hungover so while my friend visited a comic book museum I chilled out in bed. We met in the afternoon and decided to explore the Michaelis et Gudula cathedral. Inside was incredible, with beautiful statues, architecture to die for, and golden religious artifacts lovingly presented. What was even more surprising was that parts of the floor had been laid with glass so that you could actually see (and visit) the foundations of the cathedral excavated below.

We finished our two days in Brussels throughly impressed and ready to move on to Amsterdam.