Paris & Friends

The famous old Metro signs... I don't understand why they ever wanted to change it to something else. This looks soo coooool.













This fine evening, we attended a house-warming party for one of Flo's friends. After seeing her old apartment, I'd say it was a much-needed move. Don't get me wrong, the old one nice but it was a tid bit small.














Flo and his sister. They think they're hot stuff.


A rather close group of friends.










This is her old apartment. You might understand why this move was so necessary. Flo barely had enough room above his head to walk around normally. In the bathroom, the tub was elevated... I couldn't even stand up straight in the shower! It was amusing nonetheless... and for once, I was grateful they didn't have ceiling fans.

Paris Paris Paris

Notre Dame














At night. We didn't get to go inside during the day. It's supposed to have beautiful stained glass windows.













Julien, Sophienne, Elodie and myself. The flying girl, Elodie, is Flo's sister.




The Eiffel Tower


Standard tourist picture with the eiffel tower coming out the top of your head. At trip to Paris is not complete unless you have a picture where you look like you're wearing the tower as a hat.















They all look like busy little ants.



















The Louvre


The oddly placed glass pyramid that is the entrance to the Louvre. Everybody saw this in the "DaVinci Code."Actually, you probably saw this exact same angle. I don't care. Mine is better. :-P





I don't know about you but I like my women armless (and maybe even head-less?)






The one on the left is the one and only Venus de Milo. I found her to be quite manly looking. On the right is... well, I'm embarassed to say that I don't remember her name.
As you can see, the popular items get quite crowded in the louvre.












He looks like he's five.

We spent 5 hours in the Louvre... after which, I realized all I wanted to do was be numb to anything cultural or intelligent and watch a stupid movie.



Basilica of the Sacré Cœur












You might recognize this from the movie Amelie. This church is located in Montmartre, the highest point in Paris. What makes this church more special than the 500 other catholic churches in Paris... during WWII there were thirteen bombs dropped in this area. Miraculously, not a single soul was killed nor was this church damaged.

South of France - Mélu's

After our trip to Barcelona, we went to Toulon in the south of France. We took three different trains and it took (I think) fourteen hours to get there. This was how I got to spend my 24th birthday. Alas, Flo was nice (and felt guilty for not getting me a birthday present). We got a hotel in Toulon and had a nice dinner at some tiny little restaurant. For the first time in two weeks, we had a night that was just the two of us.

The next day, we took a bus to Melu's (French) summer house where we met up with Myriam (from Spain), Mike (from Germany), Nicolas (French), and Nicolas' girlfriend Daniella (from Venezuela). Later in the week, Mario (from Germany) came. With the exception of Daniella, we were all at Oglethorpe last year. So, they were having a sort of "mini-reunion" amongst the international students.

From left to right:
Me, Mike, Melu, Nicolas, Myriam, Mario

Flo is in the very front...but you knew that already.

A very nice pool with a beautiful view! A bit too cold for me though. I went swimming...but it was on my own terms...just ask Flo about that. There was nobody throwing me in the pool!




Who I like to call "my little ray of sunshine," Nicolas.




THANK YOU MELU FOR LETTING US COME TO YOUR SUMMER HOUSE!!!!



Ah, the longing stares...









She'll dance for money!







When I start to get bored... I start taking pictures of myself. Oh yeah, sure, you think I'm self-centered. Well, have you ever tried self-portraits?! They aren't easy!

The many vices...









More to come!

More Gaudi

La Padrera


You'll quickly notice that my favorite aspect of this building was the roof. The pictures that I took inside of one of the apartments doesn't really show the creative genius of Gaudi. In this particalar building, there are very little straight lines anywhere on the buidling. I don't have a decent picture of the outside, but it could be likened to soft waves in the ocean. Even inside the apartments, there are no harsh corners where the walls meet or at the ceiling. All of it has a curve. In the ceiling, there are even little ripples.













I question whether or not the fence was part of the original design.





Could they be chimneys? I have no idea.


























Parc Güell


This thing and the lizard-thing below are practically the mascots for Barcelona. You'll see these in every single souvinir shop. These are both found in the Park that Gaudi designed. Oddly enough, his house is also located in the park and you can tour if your heart so desires.










This is the ceiling in what was intended to be a marketplace. I'm not sure they ever have markets there though.

La Sagrada Familia

We are at the tail-end of our trip in Spain which concluded in Barcelona. We saw so many neat things there that I'm having a really difficult time picking out pictures to post.


We left early in the morning to start our site seeing...












La Sagrada Familia

This picture does absolutely no justice to this church...



They have been building this church for over 140 years!!! Isn't that insane? I have no clue as to when they think this thing will finally be finished. The architect is Antoni Gaudi...Barcelon's own. He must have been an amasing salesman, I still have yet to figure out how he convinced anybody to pay for this to be built.









Much of his design is inspired from objects found in nature. For instance, this spiral staircase looks like a seashell.



















The columns closely resemble trees...

The amount of scaffolding needed to do this work is insane!




This is the opposite side of the church...


This is known as the "Passion Facade."




I can't claim these last two pictures either. As a matter of fact, there are several pictures that I've posted that Flo took. Alas, these are the dangers of taking pictures with other people's cameras. :-P