Molly, Ali, Cathy, Me, Vanessa, Erin:

Cathy and Erin:

Cathy and Molly dancing:

And here are a couple pictures I stole from Vanessa since I took so few...

Molly, Ali, Cathy, and Me:

Molly (after a few drinks I assume) and Ali:

-Lauren

Cathy, Alberto, and Vanessa:

Molly:

Vanessa, Me, and Molly:

Vanessa, Kaltrina, and Cathy taking a tequila shot to Vanessa's 22nd!

Alberto:

Speaking of Vanessa, she just moved away to Philadelphia!! We already miss her so much.... Maybe I'll use The Blonde Excuse try to make it look extra fun here so that she'll come back!

-Lauren

I hope you all enjoyed my last Barcelona entry, and now I'm back to the end of May (I know, I'm so behind...) when I was kittysitting Shadow, the cutest kitten in the world:

Yes, that ball of fur with feet is actually a cat:

And now, some pictures from a couple different nights at the beach (remember, all of these were taken out of a moving car, so the quality isn't great):

The turkey that lives at the beach and eats burgers and fries all day:

Colorful boats:

Lots of sailboats:

The NYC skyline:

Bird:

Lots more coming soon!

-Lauren

Anyway, when we were still in Barcelona, we went to the Cathedral of Santa Eulalia, which had a huge open courtyard in the center filled with beautiful palm trees, fountains and lots of geese/ducks:

I'm guessing someone is buried here:

Chandelier:

Diorama of... something:

Ceiling:

Statue behind bars:

Brent in the courtyard:

A goose checking himself out in the pond:

Fountain:

Inside the cathedral:

Gargoyles:

Passeig de Picasso:

After visiting the cathedral, Brent and I stopped for lunch... on a boat! It was a large boat docked in the harbor that was set up with lunch tables and served only tapas:

Here's Brent on the boat; he's smiling even though this is the day he got tonsillitis:

Me on the boat:

On the walk back from lunch, we saw these giant caterpillar nests in the trees:

When I looked back and saw this picture, I realized it's the same kind of tree that we saw in Mexico and thought was so strange!

The one in Mexico:

The next day, Brent and I went to the beach and the boardwalk area to take a few more pictures and look at the Mediterranean for the last time:

I love this picture. America in Barcelona... is this really what they think of us?

Kind of creepy:

This lamp was actually silver, but it's reflecting the ceiling:

While walking down Las Ramblas again, Brent and I saw Woody Allen and Scarlet Johansson filming Vicky Cristina Barcelona. I sent my pictures in to Perez Hilton, but he didn't take them. If you want to read the entry with ALL the pictures I took, CLICK HERE. Otherwise, here are just a couple:

Weird:

There were a lot of weird people on Las Ramblas dressed up trying to get money from people. One of the weirdest ones, however, was a man wearing nothing but body paint. No one seemed to notice except Brent and me. I didn't get his picture though, sorry.

Statues we passed at the beach nearly every day:

The beach:

Brent:

If I remember correctly, I think this guy brought soap to take a bath in the ocean. I figured that gave me the right to take his picture while he was sleeping and post it on the internet:

City, beach, mountains... what more could you want?

Barcelona at night:

For our last night, Brent and I decided to go to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner:

Saxophone Chandelier:

While there, Brent ordered the "Ledgendary Burger" and received much approval from our waiter. I ordered a caesar salad and got a very dirty look. Oh well.

Anyway, it was such an amazing trip and I wish I could go back and do it all over again! Maybe I will some day. For now, I'm going to get caught up on some more recent stuff, then go back to finish up Rome. If you haven't ever been to Barcelona, though, you should get on that right away!

-Lauren

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

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

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.

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

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

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

*****

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: