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| Heineken Tour |
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| Barcelona Olympic Sturcture by Calatrava |
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| Barcelona Pavilion by Mies Van der Rohe |
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| Casa Batllo |
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| Saga Familia |
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| Park Guell |
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| Frank Gehry |
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| Spain Countryside |
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| Bilbao Metro by Norman Foster |
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| Calatrava |
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| the Guggenheim by Frank Gehry |
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| On top of the mountain. One way to get down. Ski! |
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| The Ski Crew |
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| Parthenon |
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| Acropolis |
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| Acropolis Museum |
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| Athens Olympic Stadium by Calatrava |
Well HELLO!
It has been officially FOREVER AGO since I posted a message and pictures. Well here we go! I finally am back at my computer after 3 weeks of traveling.
Back in February I went to Amsterdam with all of my classmates and my professor for a seminar trip. The weather was crappy the entire time we were there, so it my have altered my impression of Amsterdam. Basically it was ok... nothing to rave about. LOTS of tourists! Weird being that it wasn't tourist season and I don't know what everyone goes there for? There really isn't a lot going on in Amsterdam in my eyes. I enjoyed my time there though. A few of us went on a Heineken factory tour and got to have a few free samples. One day we took the train to Ultrecht to tour the Shroder House. It was built in the early 1900's, so you can imagine how strange it was during that time to see something like that.
SPAIN!!! IS AMAZINGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!! I love Spain!
Barcelona was the first city for the Spanish Invasion. It was a really cool city. Plenty of architecture to keep me interested! :) It is also on the ocean, so what else could I ask for? I stayed here for the first two nights touring all of the must sees and spending some time walking around on the beach. It was a tad bit cold to hang out there.
On that Saturday morning we took a train to Bilbao to see Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum. It has always been a building that I had to see. AND I MADE IT!! It is basically amazing! We spent hours here just walking around and taking our time to soak it all in. Looking back at the pictures I want to go back, but not until I have a building next to it with my name on it!!! ;) The metro stations were all done by Norman Foster. Those were really sweet too!!
Then Sunday morning the three of us took a bus to San Sebastian for strictly BUSINESS matters only!
San Sebastian was a very small city that had all of the Spanish charm. It was a wonderful city that was very easy to get around and relaxing. Oh... did I mention that there is a beach :) and the temps were warm! Sangria and calamari right on the beach topped that off! I could go back to SB for sure!
We took the train back to Barcelona to catch our plane back to Paris. We landed in Paris and took the train back to Lille. Eight hours later I was on the train again for an overnight trip to Chamonix, France with Lauren to go skiing!
Skiing was amazing!! It was my first time skiing in the mountains, but I think I was able to keep up pretty well considering. Lauren aka a pro skier gave me some pointers as we went down a few runs. She also drug me to the top of the mountain and talked me into skiing down. Oh did I mention... BLACK RUNS ONLY TO THE BOTTOM!!! WONDERFUL!! ha lets just say I was NERRRRRVOUS! It took 30 mins. to get back down to the main lifts (not even the bottom of the mountain.) I want to go back NOW!! We took the train one day to Switzerland to ski on the same mountain, but a different part of it. The snow was ok over there, but I can say I skied in France and Switzerland!
After four or five days in Chamonix Lauren, Lyle, and I met up with Kirsten in Geneva, Switzerland for the night/day. Switzerland is very expensive for some reason! TONS of nice cars everywhere! We rented a paddle boat and went for a little stroll.
The next day we took the train back to Paris to catch our plane to Athens, Greece! I told you its been a long time since I have been on my computer!!
We decided it would be a good idea to sleep in the airport since we would have to be there very very early and to save money. WORST IDEA EVER!! It was cold and very uncomfortable!
ATHENS!!
We stayed across from the beach for the first four nights. We walked around the first day and tried checking out the Olympic complex. Most of the buildings were gated off and abandoned. We were walking up to one trying to take some pictures and a guy came up to us and asked if we wanted to go in!! HECK YES!! So we got to walk around on the inside and check it out.
I found Athens to be very unkept. Everything was overgrown and weeds were everywhere. I don't know if it was the season that they just didn't keep things maintained or what? Once we got the the Acropolis everything was much more clean and maintained. We hit up all of the major sites. I was never interested in mythology in school, so I didn't really know exactly what was going on at the different sites. Of course we went to the Parthenon. It was really good to just sit and think about how in the world they built these things!
The Acropolis Museum just opened recently, so we went and check that out. The building was amazing to me! I loved it! Concrete everything! I wonder why I liked it so much.
Had to get the traditional Greek foods: Gyros, Greek Salad, and more of a fancier dish that was pork with potatoes!! DELIC!
The last day we went to the Calatrava complex where another part of the Olympics were held. There was a game going to happen that night, so they weren't going to let us into the stadium. We got to walk around the outside though.
NOW!! I am back in Lille and catching up with the blog and pictures obviously. This week is going to be strictly devoted to getting caught up on my project that I have pushed to the side since February. ha ha my bad! This weekend I believe is going to be a London trip.
-Cody
