Saturday, February 27, 2010

Strasbourg



Ahhh Strasbourg. Great weekend excursion. This is Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-Strasbourg, a beautiful architectural marvel that spans over 700 years of construction. The French aren't usually hard-pressed on finishing cathedrals, or anything for that matter...



Beautiful shot of the stained-glass windows.


This is a building in the famous French quarter of Strasbourg. This particular building was the center of the Tanner's Guild and now is a haughty restaurant not suitable for the HCJYF's budget. INSTEAD, we go to this restaurant which had a strange mixture of musical instruments and pictures of women in compromising positions with sausage.

This image was on EVERY SINGLE PLATE. ughhhh. Hey, at least she's sporting the traditional headdress of the Alsace-Lorraine area! I had to give her at least a few points for that, even though she was actually straddling the EXACT meal that was next presented to me.



Voila! My meal for the night. Choucroute garnie (literally meaning dressed sauerkraut) : a very traditional meal here. It includes mysterious slabs of meat, meat, meat, sausage, sausage, and two random potatoes (need that starch!) all over a HUGE heaping steaming helping of sauerkraut. *shiver*. Sausage girl? Yup, right under there. You can just pick out her silhouette under the kraut juice...blachhhh. To say 'it was not one of the greatest meals ever' would be a vast understatement. Actually, Allie's expressive face best explains the overall sentiment of the night. She went for the maybe-heaps-of-French-mustard-will-save-this-dish approach. Don't think that helped too much. Dashelle, however, looks thoroughly amused.



Other than the horrific dinner, Strasbourg was, in fact, a beautiful city: rich in culture and history.



I would love to come back here, maybe when I am rich and successful and I can afford to shell out for a meal that doesn't include sausage girls.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Compilation of Favorite Photos (Since Christmas...woops)


In London with Alicia.


The Globe Theater. I bought an eraser there that says "Out Damed Spot! Out I Say!" So great.


View from the Opera House in Prague. You can see the Castle in the background.


Our Christmas dinner in Prague. Super fancy. We loved carrying Czech money around since the exchange rate is insane. I had 2,000 crown in my wallet occasionally.


Berlin! And the best Christmas tree-man in the history of the entire universe. This picture = pure happiness.


Part of the Berlin Wall still intact. It has been transformed into a memorial and has been recently updated for the 20th anniversary.


So one of my New Year's resolutions was to bring my camera with me more often. I got some good shots from my visit to the Musee Orangerie.


Don't let the cool lighting distract you from the real reason I snapped this one...


Waterlily closeup painted by Monsieur Monet at the Orangerie.


Cemetery Montparnasse. Souvenir or remember.

Monday, February 1, 2010

I'm a bad blogger...

My bad guys. I haven't updated this thing since Christmas. Woops. Anyway, I'm still in Paris and I hope everything is well wherever you guys are. I'm going to try to to be a little more consistent now that my first semester is over and I have some extra time to kill.