Paris

The first evening I was in Paris I saw the Pantheon, which was very interesting because I didn't know they had one in Paris. I don't know what makes it a Pantheon, however the inside was beautifully decorated with paintings of saints covering the walls. There were also many famous people buried in the crypt in the Pantheon. Notably, Victor Hugo, Marie and Pierre Curie and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. That evening I also saw the cathedral of Notre Dame, however it was a Friday night and they was a service happening. So along with the crazy amount of tourists, the seating was completely full for the service, and it was very very crowded inside. The cathedral wasn't what I expected but I think my expectations were a bit skewed because it was the only cathedral I knew about before going to Europe. But it was a nice cathedral, the usual so to speak, with paintings of Christ or other biblical figures and ornate everything.

The following day I walked around Paris. I walked through a lovely park with marble statues aligned down the middle. I saw the Palace of Luxembourg, I am not sure what it was for exactly. I saw the Army Museum, which is where Napoleon's Tomb is. I didn't see the tomb, I just didn't care enough. I saw the Eiffel tower and I went to the very top, though it was a little foggy I still got a good view. I walked to the Arc de Triomphe, which is not that spectacular by the way, and I walked down the Champs de Elysse. I saw the pink obelisk, which is gray and 3000 years old, in the Place de la Concorde. The obelisk is fascinating, it is an actual Egyptian obelisk and it has those crazy hieroglyphics.

The next day was the first Sunday of the month and all the museums in Paris were free. So I went to the Louvre for 7 hours. Though I think it may have been better to have gone to two museums that day because the Musee D'Orsay was closed the next day so I didn't get to go.
The Louvre was insane, don't just because of the art but because of the volume of people the can fit in there. I did see the Mona Lisa, has everyone should. I walked through I lot of places and saw a lot of art there, the Louvre is massive. I particularly liked the painting of Napoleon's Coronation because of the grand scale of it. I also saw the Venus de Milo, though I am not sure why that one is famous. There were dozens of works that were famous, you can tell the famous works because there will be crowds of people and/or glass around the work.

My last day in Paris I didn't do much of anything because I was planning on going out during the night to see the City of Lights. I spent the day milling around the Latin Quarter, famous for its shops, cafes and bohemian vibe and it was the area where I was staying. Then as I had planned when it was dark I went for a walk. I pretty much did the same walk I did on my second day but in reverse. I started at the Pantheon, then to the Notre Dame, the Louvre, Place de la Concorde, Champs de Elysse, Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel tower. Paris is quite spectacular at night, especially the Eiffel tower. I didn't get to see the lights along the Champs de Elysse, I guess they don't turn them on in the off season.

I loved Paris.

San Sebastian

San Sebastian does not have a lot going on. It has two incredibly beautiful beaches, quite perfect in fact, but it certainly wasn't the beach season when I was there. I walked round the promenade, from end to end. I stuck my hand in the Atlantic, now I have touched both sides of the Atlantic. I saw the Cathedral but it was pretty plain as Cathedrals go. There is a very large statue, of Jesus, on a small moutain at the mouth of the bay. It didn't look to be on the same scale as the one in Brazil. I didn't climb up the mountain because the only thing up there was the statue, which I could see pretty good from the streets. That is pretty much all I did in terms of sight seeing. I did have a relaxing time there.

I am off to Paris, which is my final stop before coming home.

Barcelona & Madrid

My first day in Barcelona I spent walking around for a few hours. I saw the cathedral, not the Gaudi one but the normal one that has been there for a few hundred years. It was hard to see because it is no longer tourist season so they put up scaffolding everywhere to do restorations and renovations. I walkd down Las Ramblas, which is like the main tourist drag in Barcelona. It has all these performers dressed up in costumes, there are people selling small animals in cages, there are artists doing sketches of people and of course there are the souvenir stands. Just off of Las Ramblas was a market where I had some fresh fruit juice and it was bright pink but it tasted like coconut. The next day I spent on the beach. The weather was quite nice by Vancouver standards but you could see the locals in their heavy winter coats and still looking cold. It was very nice taking the day off to just lounge on the beach.

The following day I went and saw Gaudi's Temple de la Sagrada Familia which is a spectacle, no doubt about it. It has spires sticking out all over the place and the detail is quite ... odd. There are skeletons and all kinds of crazy stuff you don't normally see on a cathedral. It looked like a cross between Dr. Suess and Tim Burton. That is all I really did during the day. But that night I went to see FC Barcelona, the major soccer team in Barcelona, play Almeria. It was pretty exciting being at a game like that. They know how to celebrate a goal in Barcelona let me tell you. Otherwise it was much like any major sporting event, they jeered when the ref made a bad call. I think if they had been playing a better team the intensity if the arena would have been higher but also I probably wouldn't have been able to get a ticket.

There was some strike on in Barcelona and I had to take a bus, for an hour and a half, from the train station to the other train station were the trains were to get to Madrid. It was kinda fun. I am not spending much time in Madrid because there isn't much there. I walked around for a few hours and saw some of the sights. I saw the statue that is the symbol of the city. It is a bear standing on its hind legs leaning against a tree trying to eat the fruit. I walked through a park that had a small lake where people were rowing around. I thought it wouldn't be to much fun to do it by myself so I passed.

I am going to San Sebastian next.

Nice

I spent a few days in Nice. The beach there is amazing except the weather really wasn't warm enough to lay on the beach or go for a swim. Most of the town is quite new, there is a small old town that only takes a half an hour to walk around. In the old town there is a hill with an old castle. There isn't much of the castle left but there were some great views from the top. There isn't much to see in Nice so it only took me about 2 hours to see everything.

After walking around Nice I took a bus to a place called Eze which is a tiny medieval village perched on top of a small mountain. It is tiny, it only took me 10 mintues to walk around the entire town. But it is very medieval, the streets are very narrow and everything looks like it is from the medieval period. There was a viewing platform at the top were a castle use to be but they were charging 5 euros just to go up there.

I then spent some time in Monte-Carlo, Monaco. It is one of those places that makes you feel poor when you walk around. There were a lot of Bentley's and Ferrari's. I saw the famous Monte Carlo Casino but I wasn't aloud in because of some dress code, plus there is a 10 euro cover. I didn't spend much time in Monaco because I felt like I couldn't afford to stay.

I am spending time in Barcelona after Nice.

Naples & Pompei

I went to Naples so I could see Pompei. Naples itself does have some stuff to see, for instance there are a French and a Spanish castles, the Basilica in Naples is quite grand and there is a section of town that has 6 or 7 old churches in a few block radius. I saw most things though I just walked around them but didn't go into any. Naples isn't very clean, there is garbage everywhere and a lot more street vendors per area than anywhere else I have been. The Sunday I was in Naples the Pope was doing a ceremony. I didn't go to see him but a few people at the hostel did and they said it was crazy, he flew in in a helicopter and then rode the Popemobile to the Basilica and everywhere he went there were masses of people following him. The Pope is a rockstar.

Again, the reason I went to Naples was so I could see Pompei and I did. It was incredible. I saw Roman ruins in Rome but it really doesn't compare to this. Most of the structures are mostly destroyed but then there are some houses where the marble is still intact on the counters or the floor. There are other structures that still have roofs or incredible mosaics. And Pompei is huge. I walked around for 3 hours and I only saw a quarter of it, most of it you don't really need to see because it is mostly destroyed. I also saw some plaster castings of the people they found there. It was eerie and strange but interesting to see these people.

Picture of me in Berlin

I had a request to upload a picture of me so here is one of me in Berlin. I have other photos of me but I haven't had time to upload them yet.

Rome

I was only in Pisa a few hours before I travelled to Rome. There isn't much in Pisa besides the leaning tower. I had a great time in Rome. The first day I was there I went on a tour of the Vatican and it is massive, apparently the museum there has a total length of seven kilometres. It also has the world's largest collection of pagan art, kinda makes you think. Well, the reason they have so much pagan art is because there was a pope during the Renisannce, the Renisannce is the rebirth of classical ideas, so he bought all the classical art he coulde gets his hands on. I saw the Sistine Chapel, Saint Peters Basilica and Michelangelo's famous first statue that he carved his name into. I also saw the old pope apartments that were painted by Rapheal.

The next day I saw the Colosseum, which isn't in the greatest shape. The reason being when they were building Saint Peter's Basilica they took all the marble from the Colosseum and used it to build the Basilica. So no all you see today is the internal structure, but if you use your imagination a little you can get a good visual. I also saw the Palatine Hill which is one of the two hills where Rome was founded and where the imperial palace for the Roman emperor was built and now you can see the ruins.

I spent the next day walking around and I saw many of the sights that I hadn't seen yet like the Patheon, Tomb of the Unknown Solider and the ruins of the Roman forum. There is so much to see in Rome I would need a lot more time to see everything but I think I saw all the important sights this time around.

I am on to Naples, specifically to see Pompei