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June 30, 2008

Animals On Las Ramblas

After our first day exploring Barcelona, Brent and I started our next morning on Las Ramblas looking at all the little animals. If you've ever been there, you definitely know what I'm talking about. All along Las Ramblas are vendors selling animals of all varieties. I'm not sure how I feel about that in general... but they certainly were adorable.

Baby bunnies!

Chipmunks:

Look at that sleepy little baby hampster! So cute!

Squirrels:

Ducklings:

All sorts of birds:

Pigeons? Really?

Chicks:

Doves:

Gallina de Guinea:

I think these are quails:

Anyway, there are lots more Barcelona pictures on the way!

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 09:50 PM | Comments (1)

Barcelona - Gaudí

A lot of people have been asking me to post some more recent things, but I have my Barcelona pictures all ready, so I thought I should do that first and then get back to everything that has been going on this summer.

Nearly a year ago, Brent and I spent five nights in Barcelona at the end of our travels around Europe. First on our list of things to do was to see all the famous architecture around the city, especially the Gaudí buildings. For those of you who don't know anything about Gaudí, he had a very unique style and his name is actually where we get the word "gaudy" from. Barcelona is a fantastic city and I'm sure my pictures won't do it justice, but here they are.

Beautiful building:

This building shows Gaudí's style:

Even the sidewalks are beautiful:

We stopped for coffee across the way from the Gaudí apartments where we saw this little kid whose parents clearly didn't speak English, considering that they let him wear this baseball cap that said "Chip Chip Motherf***er":

The Gaudí apartments:

Inside the apartments:

This looks like the one I got for Brent!

Up on the top level, the ceiling has this interesting shape:

It was actually designed to look like the inverse of this chandelier-style design:

There was a mirror underneath it to show how it works:

Gaudí's designs were inspired by a number of different things, a lot of which can be found in nature:

If you're at all familiar with Gaudí, you'll see how he got his ideas from objects like these:

Here are some models of Gaudí's other designs, like the sidewalks I photographed earlier that day:

Furniture:

My favorite part of the Gaudí apartments was definitely the roof:

Another amazing rooftop:

On top of Tibidabo Mountain, way off in the distance:

This looks a lot like the egg shaped building in London:

My picture of the one in London:

Yes? No?

Down in the atrium on the way out:

Statue of Gaudí:

Back in the streets of Barcelona:

Next up on our list of places to see was the Sagrada Familia (Sacred Family), a cathedral that Gaudí designed. Construction of the Sagrada Familia began in 1882 and still continues to this day! I can't wait to get back there when it's done:

Nothing like any cathedral I've ever seen:

Can you imagine building a cathedral that you'd never see finished? I can't believe it's over a hundred years later and still not done!

So much detail:

Brent and I realized at some point that there are letters and words hidden in all those swirls carved into the exterior. We were hoping to find some sort of significant hidden message, but we only came up with this one - "loser" - and took it as a sign to stop looking:

On top of these little roof peaks are all different bunches of fruit:

More interesting architecture on the walk back towards our hostel:

On the way back, we walked through a beautiful park that I unfortunately don't know the name of. There, we saw parakeets flying around loose and mingling with the pigeons! What a fantastic city:

I think every city has one of these chariot things:

You can even rent little row boats to go around the lake in:

Look at the size of that root!

Leaving the park:

I don't know why I take certain pictures in black and white:

After the park, Brent and I walked down the famous street Las Ramblas to get to the beach and the pier:

The Barcelona Port building:

Out at the end of this long pier is a mall!

I have no idea what these weird bumps are:

View of the city from the beach/pier area:

On the beach:

Comic book pillars to remind people to throw away their trash:

I love this picture of Brent on the beach:

That's a street band playing "Hotel California":

I can't believe I was right there with the Mediterranean!

Beautiful pink building at night:

Walking back up Las Ramblas to our hostel:

And finally, one of the creepiest elevators I've ever been in at our hostel:

More Barcelona pictures coming soon!

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 12:47 PM | Comments (4)

June 25, 2008

Prague Castle, Etc.

While in Prague, of course we had to go see Prague Castle. Prague Castle is right across the Charles Bridge, so we had a beautiful walk over from our hostel, which was in the Old Town.

The castle is guarded by these guys:

Entering the castle:

Official Business:

This looks to me like a giant bird cage, but what do I know:

One of the problems, photographically speaking, is that Prague Castle is completely walled in, so it's impossible to get far enough away to get a decent shot of the castle itself without it cutting off like this:

An interesting obelisk, one of about 10 million we saw while in Europe:

To me, this looks just like the flying buttresses at Notre Dame:

Notre Dame:

Similar, right?

Tower:

I bet that guy in the background loves his job:

Dalibor Tower:

These are kind of hard to read, but if you're interested you can click on them and look at the larger size on Flickr:

Narrow alleyway:

Another tower:

Sewer:

All the little buildings and shops on the castle grounds were so tiny and cute:

I love it:

Brent and I went into the castle itself to look at all the neat stuff in there. Here's a sign, depicting a knight slaying a dragon, which was pretty standard back in the day:

Creepy - a bird with ninja stars for ears:

Ok, why did someone give my boyfriend a crossbow?

Actually, it was pretty cool - anyone could go and use an old crossbow with real wooden arrows to shoot at a target. Obviously Brent had to give it a try. What guy wouldn't?

Here's one of the torture rooms (what is their obsession with torturing people over there?):

Swords for sale. And yes, if we could have traveled with them, Brent would have come home with one for sure:

Coat of Arms for sale too, only 68,000 Czech Crowns, which is like $5 or something. No not really, but who knows how that stuff works:

Art? Maybe? I don't know:

More torture devices:

This hole went very very deep, and this is where the misbehaving prisoners would be lowered, down into the "sub-basement" levels:

Weird:

Out of the torture chambers....

More from inside the castle:

I wish this was the view out my window:

Another guard:

Czeching out the scenery (haha, I had to use that joke one last time):

The Charles Bridge:

Ok, so these are really terrible pictures, but Brent and I saw the craziest slash most adorable little animal right outside the castle and we're dying to know what it is! It was about the size and shape of a squirrel, but with a striped tail and pointy little fur tufts on its ears. Any ideas?

A storm brewing off in the distance:

Garden:

An amazing violinist:

On the walk back towards the Charles Bridge to cross back over to our hostel, we heard the first crack of thunder off in the distance. Thinking we had time, Brent and I grabbed an ice cream cone to walk back with, but the storm came much faster than we had expected. We actually saw the sheets of rain approaching us and ran as fast as we could to the bridge, thinking - stupidly - that we might outrun the storm. We didn't, of course, but getting caught in a huge storm on a bridge is still kinda fun, right? Well, at least we thought so:

The best part? By the time we got to the other side of the bridge, the storm was over and it was completely sunny out!

So beautiful:

Since the weather was so nice again, we decided to go for a walk to a nearby park, where we had been told there would be peacocks. When we got there, these guys tried to pickpocket Brent, but we were too smart for them!

I actually wrote a blog entry about it the next night (when we were in Barcelona) but I didn't have any internet so I never ever posted it! Somehow, a full year later, I still remembered it though, so I'll post it right here (remember, this was written a year ago, when I was still all riled up about it, so it's very long):

Pickpockets should really just leave Brent and me alone because we're too smart for them. Anyway, we were in Prague on our last night there (last night) and went to a local park where there are supposedly peacocks (although we think we may have been misled by a peacock-pigeon mis-translation). By the way, despite being about 6:30pm, it was completely bright out, probably what it is in Connecticut at 4pm so it's not like we were being completely sketchy and roaming parks at night. Anyway, I'll tell the story of what happened, and then go through it again highlighting the incompetence of our pickpockets who really needed to take a lesson or two in being crafty.

So we were walking on a little path right next to a busy road when we saw three men holding tourist maps who stopped us and asked if we knew how to get to the "shopping gallery." Having just recently been to the local mall and being nice, helpful people (the "ugly American" stereotype is WAY off) we tried to direct them, even showing them our much superior map which had the mall on it. They then proceeded to tell us that they wanted karate equipment and when we said "Um... ok, there are some sports stores there" and then they tried to show Brent where a belt goes like the kind you use for karate at which point some guy reached into Brent's pocket only to be foiled by me yanking his jacket away (he had a jacket draped over his arm to hide his hand in Brent's pocket) and exposing his not-so-clever charade.

Now here's step by step how these amateurs tried to pickpocket us so that you'll be as lucky as we were if this ever happens to you (although I doubt many pickpockets are this dumb). First thing I noticed was that three 30-something men never hang out together in a park ALL holding tourist maps. It was especially sketchy when the first one stared at us and then motioned to his friends behind him. This is when I knew for sure that he was trying to scam us one way or another, but I always give people the benefit of the doubt. Two of them approached us and asked if we knew where the local mall was. Answering a simple question never hurt anyone, so we tried to be helpful and steered them in the right direction.

The next mistake they made was loudly announcing, almost in unison, "We're tourists!" As tourists ourselves, we know that no one makes an announcement of being a tourist. They asked us where we were from and we said America and one of the guys said "Oh! I'm from Turkey! Let me shake your hand!!" How many people from Turkey want desperately to shake the hand of American tourists? That was mistake number three.

I was sufficiently sketched out and adjusted my purse to hold it all the way behind my back so that they would have to reach around me to get anywhere near it. When the pickpockets started saying that they were looking for karate equipment one said, referring to the other, "He's a black belt, do you know what that is? He does moves like this--" and then proceeded to grab the other guys arm and give it a gentle tug. Hmm.... Anyway, he then said "Black belt, you know, BELT." With us saying "OK great, belt... yes." He then draped his jacket over his left arm and said "No no no, BELT, like this--" and started touching Brent's belt loops.

While he was doing this, the other guy looked at me and started mumbling "belt...store....um......black belt....no....store" being completely incomprehensible. Mistake number four, if you're going to do the whole touching someone thing to distract them, do it nonchalantly, don't make a big production about grabbing and shaking around someone's belt loops.

Mistake number five, if you're the "wing-man" trying to distract the girl with the impenetrable purse, come up with a better distraction than mumbling "belt...store....um......black belt...no....store." His next mistake, was that when I turned to look at the other guy's hands (suspecting they were probably dangerously close to Brent's wallet in his pocket) the guy mumbling at me snapped his fingers and said "Hey! Over here!" and when I glared at him and looked back at Brent, he did it again. That was enough pretending to be nice to other foreign "tourists" for me. I grabbed the guy's jacket, revealing his hand pulling Brent's wallet from his pocket at which point I grabbed the guy by the arm and Brent snatched his wallet right back.

Mistake number... whatever number I'm up to... this is when you bolt. When someone catches you with their wallet in your hand, you RUN, you don't stick around and keep trying, "Oh no no, belt, see? Let me show you." Idiots....

We stormed away at which point I loudly said to Brent "Let's call the police!" (even though we didn't have cell phones with us) and the three guys slowly sauntered off into the park. If I didn't think they probably had weapons I would have liked to have chased after them. Not that I could have done much against three full grown men, but it's a nice thought. Brent and I then went to the little train station right next to us and asked to use a phone to call the police because there were pickpockets outside. Everyone pretended to look concerned and then shrugged their shoulders at us. We then tracked down two police officers who also shrugged us off. Apparently pickpockets in the park is no big deal. Oh well.

Anyway, here are the very few pictures I took in the park:

The decaying bodies are supposed to depict what it was like to be a political prisoner under the Communist regime:

Creepy:

Out of the park, here's a cool old building:

If I'm remembering correctly, I think Brent and I stopped at a T.G.I. Friday's for dinner (don't you love Globalization?) and then walked back to our hostel as it was getting dark. In the twilight, I was able to get some really cool pictures of the river, the castle, the bridge, etc.

Here's Prague Castle:

One of my favorite pictures from our whole trip:

The Charles Bridge and Prague Castle:

I don't know what these wooden things are for, but they were fun to photograph:

The Charles Bridge:

We walked out onto the bridge to get a few more pictures. Don't you love the color of the sky? I didn't mess around with it on Photoshop at all, it was actually that beautiful:

I loved this:

And last, but not least, back to our hostel where our room was filled with empty alcohol bottles (not ours) including Cannabis Vodka. Interesting:

Next up will be Barcelona! Who thinks I should continue with Europe and who thinks I should get caught up on more recent stuff first? Let me know!

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 11:52 PM | Comments (5)

June 24, 2008

Back to Prague

Back in Prague, Brent and I decided to check out some of the touristy sights, starting with the Charles Bridge, which was literally right next to our hostel:

The Charles Bridge is known for its jazz bands:

View from the bridge:

We stopped at Bohemia Bagel for a quick breakfast across the bridge:

Another Plague Pillar:

Luckily, all the signs have little pictures, because otherwise, how could we possibly know that Karluv Most means Charles Bridge? Even with the pictures, that one took us a while....

Old door:

I love the Czech streets, they're all so beautiful. Why are some cities so... gray? If NYC painted all its buildings in pastels, I think everyone would be a lot happier:

I love the red rooftops all over Europe:

Prague's Eiffel Tower on top of a hill:

Decoration on someone's roof:

Next up will be all my pictures from Prague Castle!

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 10:32 AM | Comments (3)

June 20, 2008

Český Krumlov - Part 3

I know I've been terrible about blogging lately, but I've been having an early-onset-mid-life-crisis, or something of that nature. Anyway, here's the third and final part of my Český Krumlov trip.

After the torture museum, Brent and I decided to climb the castle tower:

Of course I took lots of pictures as we made our way over to the tower:

This building, as well as most of the other buildings in Český Krumlov, is from Medieval times. It was so weird walking through an entire village that has hardly changed a bit in hundreds of years!

When we got to the base of the tower, guess what we found! Bears!

There have been bears guarding the tower for centuries now! According to a nearby tour guide (not ours, we just listen in sometimes) ever since the bears started guarding the tower, there hasn't been a single day without them:

Everything in the Czech Republic was so colorful. Even their Medieval tower was painted in bright colors!

Everything you see is just painted on:

Amazing:

Of course we had to climb to the top on this rickety old staircase. Note to all female travelers - do not wear a short sun dress when climbing towers! I made this mistake in six different countries!

Wooden replica of the tower:

Same view out the window that people had centuries ago!

From the top of the tower:

I brought a telephoto lens with me and was able to zoom in on things WAY off in the distance, like this little church standing all by itself on the top of a distant mountain:

Way off in the hills there was another little village, much less spectacular-looking than Český Krumlov:

Look at that landscape:

The Czech wilderness:

Brent and Me in my too-short-for-tower-climbing sun dress:

That looks like a very old chimney:

Brent disappearing back into the tower:

I thought the fog made the scenery even more beautiful:

I know I've said it so many times already, but it was so surreal being in a little village from so long ago and seeing things like this:

Living in America where everything is so new, seeing old buildings like that is so exciting! I don't think Europeans understand how strange that kind of history is for us Americans.

Peeking through the wall:

Look at that snail! If I remember correctly, I think I decided to call him Herbert:

Brent and I wandered around for a while and found the gardens, which were spectacular. For some reason my pictures didn't come out very well in the gardens so I don't have very many, but they were beautiful:

Bales of hay:

Storm clouds rolling in:

The door out of the garden:

Gorgeous:

Sun dial:

I love this picture:

Water mill:

Looking down the river:

Brent's Ray Bans:

For dinner, we went to a little restaurant with this outside:

It turns out, the entire restaurant was filled with completely inappropriate things.

I don't think I'll be drinking from this faucet anytime soon:

We had an interesting meal and then headed back to the bus for Prague. On the way I snapped a few more photos:

Because of the storm this picture came out really dark but I thought it looked cool:

It was a long bus ride home and then a long walk to our hostel, but we made it safely. Here's a picture I took of Prague Castle on the walk:

After a day of creepy Medieval torture museum type stuff, I wasn't feeling so great about our hostel.... I wish I had better pictures, but we were on the top floor of this creepy old building in Prague that had a maze of staircases where no one could possibly hear you scream. Even better - the lights flickered on and off the whole time. Here's a blurry picture of Brent making his way up the stairs, past dark corridors:

Gross!

That's all for now. Obviously we made it safely, so I have lots more Prague pictures coming up from the next day of our trip!

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 07:22 PM | Comments (6)

June 10, 2008

Český Krumlov - Part 2

Note: I finally figured out what was wrong with my blog. Apparently I had re-set the clock on my blog and all my posts were backdated and not showing up. Anyway, it's fixed now! Sorry for how long this wasn't working.

*****

One of our first stops in Český Krumlov was the torture museum, or "Museum Tortury" (you'll find that if you add a "y" to the end of almost any English word, it becomes Czech).

The torture museum was much like Disney's "It's A Small World" ride in its clever use use of animatronics, but somehow people screaming and sobbing while getting burned/hooked/sawed/sliced/chopped doesn't have that same jolly feel:

Alongside the torture reenactments were actual implements of torture from "back in the day":

Is that a fish knife or a steak knife?

Oh right, that's the finger knife:

Take a guess what these are for:

In case the first finger knife didn't work....

Ouch:

This person was being burned at the stake. The display included a soundtrack of a woman screaming and sobbing... it was a little creepy:

To me, this just looks like a rooster chair:

Yes, that's an arm on the ground:

Is that dried blood?

Anyway, this was absolutely the creepiest museum I have ever been to, but it's one of the main attractions in Český Krumlov so it's worth checking out if you're ever there.

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 07:21 PM | Comments (6)

June 07, 2008

Sorry

Sorry my blog is being weird....

I've had a lot going on lately between being sick, my hands turning blue 3 times, and trying to find a job. I have pictures ready and will be posting very soon though!

-Lauren

Posted by lauren at 05:57 PM | Comments (0)