Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Eurrrrrrope

Over Spring Break my dad and I went on the EuroTrip with a school group. There were around 40 people altogether. Let me tell you.. we cover A TON in 8 days. It was an incredible experience and I had a blast. It was pretty tiring, but totally worth it. And I'm pretty sure my dad was overjoyed also. 4 days in France. 4 days in Spain. There's just too much info on everything we did and saw to type... so sorry if this isn't action packed..
We left OH at 3 a.m. ish and got to Europe the next morning (France time) at 8 a.m. It was somewhere around 20 hours of traveling. FANtastic.

We had an hour and a half to spend in the Louvre. The whole time I was searching for the painting which my brother, Kris, wanted me to find. :)

This is just one of the many naked women (statues and paintings) that my dad took a picture of...

This is the view from my room in the first hotel we stayed in (we stayed in 4). Can you see the Eiffel Tower?!?!!

My friend, Nicole, and me. Sorry it's sideways.. :(

The padre and me.

At night..
One was with the flash and one wasn't.

Somewhere down there is the MOULIN ROUGE!!! I never could find it though :(

Our French teacher, Madame C. (pronounced "say"), me, and Nicole in front of a walled city!!

On the luxurious bus.

This is a good amount of the group.. but not everyone :0

And here are some French boys we met ;D
No worries... he offered me a cigarette (in French, no less)
but I said "No. Merci."
:)

Allie, Brittany, and Cathie on a really old bridge.
If you haven't noticed... I don't know the names to any place or thing we visited.

Nicole and her mom.
French restaurant, baby!!

Our first visit to the Mediterranean!!!
I didn't have a swimsuit and my shorts were packed.... jumped in with my jeans and skank top...
could NOT resist!!

That man behind Allie wasn't with us.... he just decided to pop in the picture!! It was hilarious. She had no idea until he said something real quick before he kept on walking.

One of our hotels in Spain had a pool... I went a little crazy.
I was just the entertainer for about an hour...
Posing on the beach!!
L to R: Nicole, Casey, Kyle, Brittany, Kery, and... my dad.

It was actually your birthday that day!!!
:)
Again... couldn't resist the Mediterranean... but holy goodness did it have PSYCHO waves.
Not joking... I almost drowned.. pretty frightening.
In one of the hotels we had a top and bottom floor!! Here's the spiral staircase. Pretty sweet.

Our delayed layover in NY waiting to go home. This was even more traveling than the trip there.
The Best for Last...
We went to a Flamenco dancing show...
It was incredible!! The dancing was awesome. The performers must have changed outfits over 8 times!
And... they pulled my DAD on STAGE!!!!
He did an amazing job, and he was such a good sport.
I only wish we had gotten a video of it!!

So, after my trip I decided that
Europeans are CRAZY.
The following are evidences of this conclusion.
A FLOATING mall in Barcelona.
Who would spend that much time on this?
"Come on kids, let's go see some Gladiators tear eachother apart!!"
An unfinished bridge.
Something very painful to land on.
They LOVE their artwork... everywhere.
Temples and cathedrals everywhere you look. None even as close to the same as another.
How would you like to clean that one?
No words.
This was on the Arc de Triumph.
There!! I knew a name!
The biggest name in art, "Mona Lisa"
and yet... it's sooo dinky! And you have to stay about twenty feet away from it.
Not gonna lie, it was a little bit disappointing.
They are insane drivers!! I couldn't do it. No way. We never saw an accident, which was good.
Even their parking shows the complexity of it.
See the tallest building in this picture? It's a temple (not LDS..). It's ginormous!! And ridiculously ornate!! There are seriously not enough words to describe it.
I had a huge problem with this though. It's on the "death and resurrection" side of the temple.
It's Christ. Looking down. No face. Naked. Skin and bones. And... 
the cross is horizontal to the ground.
Seriously, it's disgusting.
But.. hey.. "it's art!"

Could I interest you in a smart car?
Mcdonald's EVERYWHERE!! *gAg*
A bridge. A crazy bridge.

But honestly... I'm only partly kidding. Europe (at least what I saw of it) is beautiful, and everywhere you go is something full of history and art.

To prove that I really did enjoy my time I've compiled some pictures supporting the fact that Europe KICKS BOOTAY!

Cute boys... everywhere!! :)
A protest. A high school protest!
The kids actually care about and have an opinion of what's going on in their country!
Dressing rooms!! I wish ours were like that :(
Eccentric cars on every corner.
Take-your-breath-away views.
From the Eiffel Tower.

Spectacular scenery.
Color all over the place!
Irony.
Usually people think graffiti is bad.. but hey...
"Je t'aime"
(  "I love you" )
 This is going to be my honey moon spot :)
Collioure, France.
More beautiful scenery.


FoooooooD

(Don't worry... I didn't drink the 'the')
They gave us eclairs about 3 different times for dessert.
We went to a different restaurant every night.
GILATOOOOOO!!!
American ice cream sucks.
See what I mean?
At the market.
Blue cheese pizza :D
And of course.. crepes!
They even know how to do breakfast beautifully.
Chocolate in the croissants.
Sorry if that was a lot of pictures to look at. My dad and I had over 900 altogether, so I think I did a fairly good job at narrowing them down. Hope you somewhat enjoyed!