Pictures from Spain

A matador fighting a bull
Christopher Columbus's tomb in Sevilla Cathedral
View over Sevilla
Virgin Mary Paso late at night (will explain Pasos at some point)
Final Station of the Cross Paso just before Easter Mass
Above: Plaza Catalunya - Barcelona
Below: Gaudi House from the street
Roof of Gaudi House
La Sagrada Familia
FC Barcelona Stadium

Istanbul, not Constantinople

Egyptian Spice Market (1 and 2)
Big Medusa head in the underground cisterns
Giant underground cisterns
The Grand Bazaar
The Blue Mosque in the distance
The Hagia Sofia


Istanbul is one of the largest Muslim cities in the world, so I was expecting something different from the cities I had seen before, and I was not disappointed. First of all, it is HUGE. We got into the airport on the Asian side in the evening and it took us quite a while to get to our hostel, but once we were settled in, I started to realize what an experience it was going to be.

On the way to the hostel we passed the Blue Mosque and the Aya Sofya, which are both enormous (now) Muslim holy buildings with incredible histories. Even in the dark, I could tell the difference in the way the city was planned out - the streets were even more compacted and contorted than the rest of Europe, and it just felt older. As I walked around the city in the next few days, I realized that this feeling was partly due to the fact that the government does very little to maintain the ancient ruins and monuments that are all over the city, and they do less to maintain the infrastructure. Even so, there was definitely charm to the city, at least in the areas frequented by tourists.

I noticed a meld between the styles of the Christian and Muslim rulers who had repeatedly taken over the city and tried to reform it - the architecture is so different between the east and west, and in Istanbul they are both all over the place. The first day we went to the big main religious buildings and kind of explored a little. We also had a little bit of an adventure getting to the fish market on the river, but I was REALLY happy to get some fresh seafood for a change :)

The second day we went to the Grand Bazaar and the Egyptian Spice Market, which were both fascinating (and really stressful). Everyone in the Bazaar wants you to look at their stuff and try hard to lure you in, but with over 4000 vendors, it was a little tiring. I did some bartering anyway, though, and probably overpaid for some pretty cool stuff, but the experience and the story of the purchase was of course worth something too. We got a giant box of Turkish Delight, and then we saw the Whirling Dervishes that night, which was realllllly cool. They don't whirl as fast as I was expecting; it was more of a mesmerizing slow dance, but it was really relaxing and still pretty impressive. The music that the band played behind them was really cool and different and I was really glad I got to see them.


The last day of our time in Istanbul we spent in Asia (!!!). There is randomly a forest in the middle of the city so we took a little hike up this hill and got some pretty nice views of the Bosphorus and the other districts of the city. My stay in the airport the next day is now of course infamous - not only was my flight delayed by over 6 hours forcing me to reschedule my connection, but my debit card was eaten by an ATM :( Even though that really sucked, I was REALLY glad I got to see Turkey and I had a great time. Next, I went to Spain, which I have to say is one of the best places I have ever traveled, but more on that later! (Pictures will also be added when I have more time)

These are out of order.... I'll caption them and then write more about them later. Pictures from Berlin first. Above, remaining pieces of the Berlin Wall

Inside the new Gedaechtniskirche
Old Gedaechtniskirche next to the new bell tower. The old church was destroyed in the bombings in WWII and left as a memorial.

Checkpoint Charlie

TV Tower - very cool views from the top!
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles
Potsdamer Platz
Jewish Memorial
Berlin Cathedral

COPENHAGEN
Big church...?
The Round Tower
Main Shopping Area
Copenhagen Harbor
LONDON
Buckingham Palace
London Eye
The Tower Bridge
The Millenium Bridge and St. Paul's Cathedral
Westminster Abbey
CAMBRIDGE

St. John's CollegeTrinity College
King's College
Cool map of Cambridge that I found on the Backs
The Mathematical Bridge - Queen's College

Faschingsdienstag and Hall in Tirol

It's hard to believe that two weeks have gone by since I last updated you all! I have so many new pictures and I went to a bunch of cool places so I guess I should start up where I left off.
Faschingsdienstag is the Austrian festival equivalent of Mardi Gras, and it was quite the experience. We got out of class early to go to the parade, which was fun (even though I really don't like parades) - there were a lot of really strange floats and people dressed up in some crazy costumes... Most of the parade was focused on traditional Tirol. Most interesting were the witches, who walked around kind of terrorizing people and then offering them schnapps afterward. My German professor insisted that we paint our faces - that's why I look like a creepy clown.
After the parade we went out to the city's main dance club (ugh) and I came up with another costume (double ugh): I improvised a hipster get up that I think was pretty convincing.

The Saturday after Fat Tuesday, I went skiing again and bought my ski-pass for the rest of the season. It was very, very expensive :( But now I can go anytime that I want, and there will still be a couple of good months of skiing in the mountains around Innsbruck.

For Sunday afternoon we decided to take a short bus trip to Hall in Tirol. It took about twenty minutes to get there, and it was a really cool little town. There isn't much to do, but there were a lot of really cool old buildings and streets and it was nice to just walk around and look at stuff! The churches were really impressive - they were a little more simple than some of the other European churches I've been in, but they were very pretty.
We ended up sitting in a cafe for a while and drinking coffee - it was a really nice afternoon!

More on my February break tomorrow!

Innsbruck: Das Hut Des Tirols

Today we went on our first real skiing trip! On Thursday we went to a smaller mountain called Patscher Kofel for night skiing, but there were only a few runs open and there wasn't much of an opportunity to take pictures. We did get to ski through the forest down to a nearby town to catch a bus though, so that was fun.

For today, we went to a much bigger resort, Axamer Lizum. It took about 45 minutes to get there by bus, but it was well worth it. As you can see from some of the pictures, the views were fantastic!


I got a chance to test out my new helmet for a full day and it worked really well! I also got a really delicious Wurst at a little barbecue shop that was right on one of the ski trails. Anyway I had a great time; we're going to another mountain tomorrow!