Street Scene at Malta

Streetscape in Hoi An

A Streetscape in Outer London in 1985

Night view of a Side Street in Budapest

Walking Down the Cobble Stone Pavement in the Baltic

The Streets and Alleys of Baltic (7)

I will be doing a series on streets and alleys of the Baltic countries.

I have been to all the Baltic capitals which includes visiting of some of the UNESCO Heritage sites like Vilinus, Riga, Tallin etc.

What I found most interesting are the alleys and the streets which all have their own characteristics.

I am not able to tell you exactly where those alleys and streets are; in my simple mind, they are my memorable parts of the Baltic.

I like the cobblestones, the quaint street, the colored walls on both sides of the alleys, the cafes along or encroached onto the roads, the crude masonry wall facing and last, but not the least, the friendly people.

They leave an undeletable part in my memory!

The Streets and Alleys of Baltics (6)

I will be doing a series on streets and alleys of the Baltic countries.

I have been to all the Baltic capitals which includes visiting of some of the UNESCO Heritage sites like Vilinus, Riga, Tallin etc.

What I found most interesting are the alleys and the streets which all have their own characteristics.

I am not able to tell you exactly where those alleys and streets are; in my simple mind, they are my memorable parts of the Baltic.

I like the cobblestones, the quaint street, the colored walls on both sides of the alleys, the cafes along or encroached onto the roads, the crude masonry wall facing and last, but not the least, the friendly people.

They leave an undeletable part in my memory!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Sign (of Poverty and Endurance)

The photo challenge of Daily Press for this week is Sign and for last week was Endurance.

Here I am going to combine these two topics.

These are pictures taken in the city by my friend CP Chan in Hong Kong.

It is sad to see that some elderly people are relying on picking up cardboard from the streets for their survival.

They collect cardboard from shops and streets and cart them to nearest recycling collection points in exchange for money.

This happens in a place where capitalism is practiced to the extreme and where social benefits are still not sufficient for the aged people without savings.

These people remind me of the song Streets of London:

Have you seen the old girl
Who walks the streets of London
Dirt in her hair and her clothes in rags?
She’s no time for talking,
She just keeps right on walking
Carrying her home in two carrier bags.

The Gini index is a measure of the disparity between the rich and the poor; the index is over 50 for Hong Kong which is not good. We need to find ways to narrow that gap.

The pictures not only show signs of poverty ( which is present in all cities) but also show how some elderly people have endured the hardships in dignity.

I have visited a lot of countries  and have seen lots of beggars in my travels. I am glad that this city does not have many beggars, people, evenly elderly people prefer work and endure the hardships.

Understand that the government is addressing this but this is now getting more urgent as the population is quickly aging.

 

 

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Street Live (at Annecy, France)

 

We thought we have arrived at a toy land like place when we stepped out of our car upon arrival.  The houses are variously painted in pastel colors on both sides of a waterway running through the medieval town.

It really is just like Venice, with charming buildings that rise straight up from the waterways and lovely cobbled winding streets that wind their way through the ancient city.

Annecy is not only a particularly lovely town in the south of France. In the centre of the town on a the narrow streets are filled with markets and stalls selling antiques and other fripperies. The scent of freshly baked pizza and pastries wafts through the air as you wind your way through the labyrinthian shopping  I particularly like this stall selling cheese, wine and ham.

Everywhere you go, you will see shoppers, who filled all the space between stalls.

 

Annecy is pretty enough to wander around with its waterways and the backdrop of snow capped mountains in the distance.

You get a really lovely feel for what the city must have been like centuries ago, despite the modernities around you.

There is so much street live in Annecy – this is one of the elements which keeps Annecy alive!