Picture of the Day, Copenhagen

Copenhagen, Denmark -- July, 2011

Yay! Once of my favorite pictures of us on our trip! Aren't we adorable. This is north of Copenhagen, actually, but close enough :p. Rasmus has told me more than once that the blue of the sea next to the bright green of the trees reminds him of their national anthem (it's the translation on Wikipedia, so not as pretty as the original, I imagine):

There is a lovely country

it stands with broad beeches

near the salty eastern beach

It winds itself in hill, valley,

it is called old Denmark

and it is Freja's hall.

There sat in former times,

the armour-suited warriors,

rested from conflict

Then they went forward to the enemies' injury,

now their bones are resting

behind the mound's menhir.

That country is still lovely,

because the sea waves so blue frolic,

and the foliage stands so green

And noble women, beautiful maidens,

and men and brisk swains

inhabit the Danes' islands.

Hail king and fatherland!

Hail every a Dane-citizen,

who works, what he can

Our old Denmark shall endure,

as long as the beech reflects

its top in the blue wave.

Picture of the Day, Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre, Italy -- September, 2011

Cinque Terre is five little coastal towns connected by trails (and also by a train, and I think a road also, but the point is, you go to walk the trails between the towns). While we were there, the trail normally used between two of the towns - Corniglia and Manarola - was closed, so you could either take the train between the two, or take the longer, higher, less-traveled trail. We debated a bit, but since we had made such good time on the previous legs of the journey, we decided to try the long trail, and it was probably our favorite section. The previous portions had been a little bit crowded, but this one was practically deserted (there was a Venezuelan family that we met several times during the day, and they also did this section - the kids were absolute troopers!) . And once we got past the long ascent up into the hills, it was relatively easy going. And the views were beautiful!

Picture of the Day, Florence

Florence, Italy -- August, 2011

I'm cool and I know it and a really gotta show it (once again, you should imagine that to be sung to get the full affect). Dydimus let me borrow his awesome Swiss hat for a night during summer school. Or maybe I just found it lying around somewhere and claimed it for my own. Either way, I make this look good.

Picture of the Day, Füssen

Füssen, Germany -- July, 2011

A pretty little waterfall next to Neuschwanstein Castle near Füssen, Germany.

Picture of the Day, Florence

Florence, Italy -- October, 2011

I'm pretty sure we weren't supposed to take pictures in here, but after paying 15 euro to get in to see the David, it seems only fair we should get to have our own picture of the guy. There are actually three full size David's in Florence - this one, which is the original; a replica that is in Piazza della Signoria where this one used to be before they decided to move it inside to protect it; and a copper one at Piazzale Michelangelo, which is a very popular place to watch the sunset over the city.

Picture of the Day, Venice

Venice, Italy -- October, 2011

Rasmus looking suave in Venice. More importantly, though, is the 'Banksy' written on the wall. He's an elusive and famous British street artist. I didn't really know much about him, but we watched a documentary call Exit through the Gift Shop and found out all about the crazy world of street art.

Picture of the Day, Florence

Florence, Italy -- August, 2011

Sunrise in the hills of Tuscany -- Rasmus and I went walking early in the morning during our week of summer school at Settignano (in the hills above Florence). I loved to catch sunrise because, unlike sunset (which is admittedly probably more beautiful), sunrise felt more personal and peaceful - it was too early for most people to be up.

Picture of the Day, Parma [sort of]

Parma, Italy -- Fall, 2011

Ok. I confess. I completely failed in Parma. I did not take a single picture of the place. Now, in my defense, we lived outside the city center, between a freeway and sever parking lots, so there wasn't a lot of inspiration around. And I tended to forget my camera whenever we were in the city, or, that one time Live and I went biking to a forest. So this is pretty much the extent of my Parma pictures. I was very proud of the chicken dinner I made one night, so I captured it for all of eternity.

Picture of the Day, Füssen

Füssen, Germany -- July, 2011

Amber and a castle in Bavaria (you should imagine me singing that to a random tune to get the full affect). We had just conquered the massive hill up to the castle, and were feeling pretty nice. We didn't go in, cuz we're kind of cheap and all, but we caught some lovely views of the thing. And posed for the camera around it :p

Picture of the Day, Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre, Italy -- September, 2011

I read about Cinque Terre (5 lands) on a blog before I left for DILL, and decided right away that I wanted to go there. Which means I was waiting over a year to visit, and it most certainly did not disappoint. During our first weeks in Oslo, two of my classmates, Enrico and Ewelina, taught me to count to ten in Italian. Not too difficult, since Italian is very similar to Spanish, but it began my love affair with the single, beautiful word: cinque. When I read about Cinque Terre, I had no idea how to pronounce it (kind of like ching-quay.....at least that's how it comes out of my mouth), and as I learned my numbers, there was something quite magical about that single, special Italian five. As I recited uno-duo-tre, quattro-cinque sei, sette-otto-nove-dieci! While in Parma, I took special delight in cinque and, even better, cinquanta-cinque (55) hehe

Ok, that was a total tangent. To sum it all up, Cinque Terre is wonderful, name and all. Sadly, last winter, a couple of the towns were severely damaged by flash flooding and mudslides (http://onceinalifetimetravel.me/2011/11/16/cinque-terre-flood-vernazza-clean-up-progress/). But, they've been recovering over the last few months, and even plan to be up and running pretty normally before summer.

Picture of the Day, Pompeii

Pompeii, Italy -- October, 2011

How is this for substance? I know I've been posting a lot of pictures from Pompeii, and there really isn't a lot to say about each individual picture, but they are all just so amazing. It is hard to show in a picture what is was like to actually stroll through the city, rambling down roads and through remnants of ancient homes and buildings. It was really amazing -- clearly, as we spent about seven hours doing just that.

Picture of the Day, Florence

Settignano, Florence, Italy -- August, 2011

A high quality picture, I know, I know. But it shows a lot of our DILL teachers/admins chilling with us in Settignano during our summer school last August. Also, look at the amazing, never-before-seen views of Luis' and Kevin's heads, and Jakaria's forehead.

I'm not sure if this was make-our-own-pizza night or boys-whipped-up-dinner-for-us night, but this was the patio where we spent our evenings for a week in Italy.

(sorry, tomorrow's picture will have more substance, I promise :p)

Picture of the Day, Oxford

Oxford, England -- August, 2010

The old, overgrown cemetery I stumbled upon on my day in Oxford.

Picture of the Day, Tromsø/St. Petersburg

Tromsø, Norway -- December, 2010

St. Petersburg, Russia -- May, 2011

You can find a heart anywhere, if you simple look hard enough.

Picture of the Day, Pisa

Pisa, Italy -- August, 2011

I've said it before -- Pisa was serenely beautiful in the mornings. I visited the leaning tower every day I was there, and I just loved to enjoy it in the quiet morning light. The sunlight was especially beautiful this morning. What I also really like about this view of the tower is that you can see the top of the tower was built in a way to 'correct' for the base's leaning. The tower was built in three stages, and during the second stage, the floors were built taller on one side to straighten it out a bit...in appearance, at least. Another interesting note is that much effort has gone into preventing further tilting (or toppling) while retaining the original tilt. The reasons for the former are pretty obvious -- no one wants the tower to fall over. They want to retain the tilt because of its historical significance (and because no tourists want to go see the no-longer-leaning tower of Pisa).

Picture of the Day, Versailles

Versailles, Paris, France -- July, 2011

Phew! Versailles was huge. And when you've spent the day climbing the towers of Notre Dame and wandering around Paris, huge translates into exhausting! We could have walked and walked and walked all day and not seen all of it. And the July sun was pretty toasty that day, too. So when we found a nice cool bench in the shade, we seized the opportunity to pop a squat and rest our legs for a bit in one of the lovely garden areas.

Picture of the Day, St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg, Russia -- May, 2011

The Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg not only attracts tourists, but also sunbathers. See all of those little dots next to the wall? Those are all people soaking in the sun, some with fewer clothes than I may have wished.

Picture of the Day, Munich

Munich, Germany -- July, 2011

It's the Rathaus-Glockenspiel! There are two little dancing scenes that twirl around to the music at least once a day. It was very cool, but it lasts 15-20 minutes, so it was definitely good that we picked up some ice cream to munch on while we watched.

19

Olso, Norway -- August, 2010

I was just thinking about this evening the other day! And please look past my ridiculous expression there. Sorry about that one. As you can see from the date stamp, this was at the end of August, during the first couple of weeks of DILL. Muharrem had invited a few of us over to his place to have supper. He was the lone brave soul among our class that did not apply for student housing and instead found a woman with an extra room he could stay in. And this woman had a little boy (hence the children's books). While we were waiting for dinner to be done, Rasmus, Erikah, and I enjoyed some light reading. No surprise what I chose :p After a delicious supper, we all curled up on the couch and Rasmus saw his first episode of The Big Bang Theory. On the way home, we were treated to a fireworks show that was going on down at the harbor.

Video of the Day, Copenhagen

Copenhagen, Denmark -- July, 2011

 I really love when Audra sings Christina. It just makes me happy inside. Which reminds me: Happy Birthday, Audra!! And I'm not the only one who was happy. A couple got up and danced along! Well played, sister, well played

Picture of the Day, Berlin

Berlin, Germany -- July, 2011

A couple of years ago, Audra insisted that she should have a birth-week instead of a birth-day. Moving towards that notion, I have devoted not one, but two days to her birth. And I am certain she is very excited about this. One of my favorite nights on our trip was in Berlin. We went out to eat, had ice cream, marched down a sidewalk, sang Christina in the sbahn and took random pictures, like the one above. Audra appears to have gotten top and bottom confused on the camera. Or we learned how to defy gravity. I prefer the latter explanation - there is already a song to accompany it.

Picture of the Day, Moscow

Moscow, Russia -- May, 2011

Ah, remember a couple of days ago how I said beautiful building just pop up at you seemingly out of nowhere. Well, here was an excellent example. We got of the Moscow metro (which, by the way was freaking *amazing*), and we didn't actually have a good map or anything, so we weren't sure which way to go to get to the Red Square. So, we just chose a direction and started walking. And then, we get to an intersection, look to our left and BAM! if it isn't one side of the square, red and all.

Picture of the Day, Paris

Paris, France -- July, 2011

Ah, what is this? A peaceful faux-log staircase! How absolutely magical!!! Let's take these instead of the main stairs up to Sacre Coeur. We can walk up lazily and enjoy the lovely landscape. Oh. wait.

secluded stair + fantasy world = romantic pathway
secluded stair + Paris = public urinal

We ended up holding our breath and rushing up as quickly as possible. Very romantic.

Picture of the Day, Copenhagen

Copenhagen, Denmark -- July, 2011

Man, what was the name of that place where we karaoked on our trip??? Oh, Sam's Bar, you say? However did you know?? We had a ton of fun singing in Copenhagen that night. I mean, a ton of fun. So much so that we have decided on subsequent sibling trips, karaoke is a requirement in any visited city. Don't even try to act like that isn't an amazing idea. And no, I don't dislike double negatives.

Picture of the Day, St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg, Russia -- May, 2011

I think this is a theater. I'm not really really sure though, so let's just pretend that it is for the moment. One of the great things about being in a place that isn't Nebraska is that you can just be strolling down the street and BAM! there's an awesome building. That pretty much describes the entirety of our trip to Russia, as awesome buildings and churches seemed to appear out of nowhere. This was the morning we arrived in St. Petersburg, and near the start of our insanely long super-tourists day. We were walking from the train station to the Winter Palace and this was along the way.

Picture of the Day, Pompeii

Pompeii, Italy -- October, 2011

You've likely seen a cropped version of this one on Facebook, but I think it's worth posting the full thing. You can see a lot more of the ruins behind me, and also check out my killer pose. Yeah, I'm pretty ba, I know, I know. Oh, and I should give props to Rasmus for taking the picture, as it is obvious that I did not.

Picture of the Day, Munich

Munich, Germany -- July, 2011

When I thought of Munich before we visited there (for a very short time, it must be said), all I could think to associate with it was beer. Oh, and the clock-thing, of course (also known as the Rathaus-Glockenspiel). Now, I think green. Since we didn't really have time to go in anywhere, we ended up just walking around the city a lot. And I was so surprised at how many trees line the river; it was like a miniature forest! There were times where I wouldn't have known I was in a city at all, let alone the third largest city in Germany. I'm sure it's a wonderful escape for people who live there full time.

Picture of the Day, Rome

Rome, Italy -- October, 2011

Ken took this picture on our morning in Rome. I absolutely love it. The colors are so soft and pleasant. Can you tell I'm in a spring-y mood? (Although, technically, of course, this picture was taken in October, but it still reminds me of spring!)

Picture of the Day, Tallinn

Tallinn, Estonia -- May, 2011

I loved the way the orange roofs of Tallinn's Old Town popped against the blue sky. All the more so because my first two weeks in Tallinn was nothing but cloudiness. That certainly makes one appreciate all aspects of a clear sky. Even better was when the grass grew back in bright green and the bushes gained their leaves. Amongst the greens and blues and oranges of a summer Tallinn, it was hard to remember the dirty-snow brownish grey which dominated most of our stay there. I am so glad that we were able to leave Estonia on this note. When I think of Tallinn now, I immediately think of sunshine and a cool breeze; the bitter cold, ice, and frequent slips of the first 3.5/4 months are far more distant in my thoughts.

Picture of the Day, Geneva

Geneva, Switzerland -- November, 2011

I like big butts and I cannot lie....and that is one big BUTT! On the excellently-named Square de la Comédie in Geneva, is this interesting man....thing....and we could not pass up the opportunity to pose with the good sir. Sure, I also took a picture of Rasmus, statue, and Enrico from the front, but I find this view to be far more entertaining and, dare I say, enjoyable?