Having a dog like Noah is like having a tail that doesn’t like you very much. He won’t like it if you leave him to go to another room, so he’ll follow you. But when your heart has melted from his cute clingy self and you try to hug him he will, quite literally, push you away. With two paws, even.

I mean, that’s how much he doesn’t like you.

Noah turns a year old on March 31st. He was thisclose to becoming an April Fool’s joke.

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So, my mom casually commented on my lack of updates here which confirms two things: a) I have been away for a longer time than is healthy for someone who keeps a blog, and b) my mom reads this (hi, mama!). In any case, I was going to make an update, when there was a server error here (that I did not appreciate), and then the moment passed and I wrote on my beauty blog, Softly Sometimes, instead.

My mom pointed out that I hadn’t even finished posting about Europe yet, and now I have begrudgingly put together a photo post of Belgium. Now, Belgium wasn’t a major destination in terms of our itinerary. We took a day trip there because we were in between places (Amsterdam & London) and we figured it would be worth our while to make a stop over.

Because we were going to be walking around, I stashed the digital camera I brought along with me in one of the train lockers. These are the only pictures (aside from a few shots on my Diana Baby/110 camera) you will see of Brussels. The wider angle photos were taken with an LC-A+ (with a wide lens attachment & loaded with Kodak Ektar 100) and the more close-cropped ones were taken with a Nikon FM2 (loaded with Lomo CN 400). I hope you enjoy!

Fun Fact: Tintin is of Belgian descent, apparently!

We tried döner in as many places as we could. This was alright, but not that excellent.

I think we were there on a Sunday, so tons of locals were hanging out in the public squares. Some groups looked like they were on field trips.

Again, construction!

BIG GIANT DOG.

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Some pictures from various train rides. During the course of the month, I believe we’ve had at least thirteen major transfers when we were trying to get from city to city. This doesn’t include day trips to Château Versailles or Schloss Neuschwanstein. The novelty of train rides quickly wore off, when we had to haul all of our luggage, stow them in easily-accessible places, and then run to the next far-away platform for a transfer to our final destination.

Not that I’m complaining, though. Sometimes, train rides can still be magical. See for yourself.

(I don’t understand my title segregation and formats anymore, but I think they are pretty descriptive anyway, so whatever you need to find should be easy to find.)

St. Pancras Station, London
Nikon FM-2
Kodak Elitechrome 200

France
Nikon FM-2
Kodak Elitechrome 200

Gare du Nord, Paris, France
Lomography LC-A+
Kodak Portra 400NC

Germany
Nikon FM-2
Kodak Elitechrome 160T

Germany
Nikon FM-2
Kodak Elitechrome 160T

Munich Hauptbanhopf, Germany
Nikon FM-2
Kodak Elitechrome 160T

France to Germany
Lomography LC-A+
Ferrania Solaris 400

France to Germany
Lomography LC-A+
Ferrania Solaris 400

Florence, Italy
Lomography LC-A+
Fuji Natura 1000

Munich, Germany
Lomography LC-A+
Kodak Ektar 100

Brussels, Belgium
Lomography LC-A+
Kodak Ektar 100

Germany to Amsterdam
Lomography LC-A+
Kodak Ektar 100

En route to London
Lomography LC-A+
Kodak Ektar 100

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It’s 3 a.m. and I’m being a zombie, transferring a bunch of files for work (2 CDs x 2-4 GB each x 18 people), which as you can imagine, is depressing. Partly so because I did not have time to read through my copy of Refusing Heaven, in memory of Jack Gilbert.

But, news. Great news from yesterday: I have a new niece.

Yesterday (or I guess, now it’s two days ago), my cousin gave birth early in the morning to Sachi Elise. Sachi is a Japanese name that means “child of joy.” Elise means “God’s promise.” I like it because it reminds me of that song by The Cure, and also because one of my first web hosts is named Elise.

Here are a few pictures from when we visited her. I can tell you that a) she’s very nice, b) she’s very cute, and c) she was very quiet when we were there.

I’m enjoying this baby boom in my family. (In the last year and a half, 4 new babies on my dad’s side with another on the way & 1 baby on my mom’s side.) Life’s been stressing me out lately, but it’s always nice to remember that on some weekends, I can come home to beautiful burritos like Sachi.

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I’ve been trying to upload and edit my pictures as diligently as possible—to no avail. It doesn’t help that my connection speed has been akin to a snail’s. I got back fourteen rolls of film, though (3, I have yet to have processed) and I’ve scanned them all. I guess I should try to find the time to do that, too.

In any case, it’s been a high stress situation, being back. Something I’ve decided to remedy by vegging out while reading bad YA lit, and super-cramming everything

We started our Roman holiday by alighting from the metro, thinking we were two minutes away from our rented apartment’s street—only to find out that we were not. Rome’s underground rail covers only a little bit of the city. The quickest way to get to our new home was to cross the entire Vatican City, dragging our luggage on the cobblestones. As unpleasant as the experience was on our arms and fingers, Rome, at least, offered a spectacular view.

We settled in, had spectacular pizza (!) and a new dish my mom discovered made from Bresaola (dried beef), rocket salad, and shaved parmesan. The next day, we planned to conquer the Vatican Museum and to see, of course, the Sistine Chapel.

We crossed St. Peter’s Square everyday, to get to the central places, as well as the Roman underground.

Space invader! I saw one in Montmartre, Paris as well, near the Basilica of the Sacred Heart.

I think Rome might have my favorite trees. Check these ones out, lining the first floor wall of the Vatican Museum.

They have such wonderful mosaic floors, too.

There was a room dedicated to maps. It was quite thrilling to see people who made these partly from imagination, as there had been no cameras to take accurate pictures of land and water at the time.

Isabel.

I had no idea that Raphael’s “The School of Athens” was going to be there! I walked into one of the rooms, which was adorned in the style that was typical of this Museum. Then, I turned around, and there it was! I love this fresco; we talked quite a lot about it in school.

A bigger surprise: a series of Matisse!

We finally reached the crowning jewel—the Sistine Chapel. It was so breathtaking, I actually thought I was going to cry. The last restoration was conducted between 1980 and 1994, which reportedly made the colors really pop. Prior to the restoration, the chapel was dark and badly cracked. Imagine being part of that restoration team! I suppose it would have been exhilarating but frightening as well.

Technically, you weren’t allowed to take pictures, but of course no one listened.

Painted drapery.

The exit by the post office was an enormous spiral staircase and a thing of beauty. My dad wanted a picture, but we couldn’t time it properly without other people passing.

We had pizza from a random place called Pizzeria Rustica (near the Ottaviano stop), which created personal delusions of how any random place in Rome had great pizza. Lots of places had excellent pizza, but you could luck out and eat at a bad one—which we did. Here, you pointed to your chosen variety, they cut it for you, and charged by weight.

The crust is a bit thicker than typical Roman pizza (they like their crusts thin!) but it was delightfully crispy and burnt in some parts.

We took the underground to the Spanish Steps, which as you can see, a lot of tourists also wanted to see. I don’t exactly understand the fuss, but my brother said it was a big deal because it connected the Piazza di Spagna to Piazza Trinità dei Monti. It is also the widest staircase in Europe.

This fountain, the “Fountain of the Old Boat,” was thought to have been made by Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s less famous dad, Pietro Bernini.

We walked to Fontana di Trevi from Piazza di Spagna, and I can’t seem to find the name of this statue (monument?), but we all loved looking at it.

It is said that if you throw a coins into the Trevi Fountain and drank water from it, you would come back to Rome. I didn’t see the later part and just threw in a bunch of coins, so I guess my Roman future is still up in the air.

Apparently, around 3,000 euros are thrown into the fountain everyday and it’s being used to subsidize a supermarket to feed Rome’s needy. I wonder if there are enough coins thrown into the Trevi Fountain, in total, to get Italy out of debt.

Michael Jordan.

A lady sitting in the Pantheon. I don’t know why, but I expected to see a lot of Renaissance renditions of old pagan gods and goddesses in the Pantheon, but I did not.

Accordion player at Piazza Navona.

Piazza Navona is a city square that’s flanked by three fountains, the center one (called “Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi” or “The Fountain of the Four Rivers”) made by my one of my favorite sculptors, Gian Lorenzo Bernini. I learned quite late that my favorite work of his are housed at the Galleria Borghese, which requires pre-booked reservations, so I’m happy I got to see this fountain, at least. It’s supposed to represent the Nile, the Danube, the Ganges, and the Platte—great rivers of territories or continents where papal authority had spread.

Lady in the window. Tomorrow, the Colosseo!

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My sister went on a study tour in Munich about a year and a half ago, so she planned a packed few days for us. After Dachau, we decided to visit Schloss Nymphenburg (or Nymphenburg Palace), which was a tram ride away from the city center.

Schloss Nymphenburg was the main summer residence of the rulers of Bavaria, which is a state of Germany of which Munich is part. We were all palace’d out, so we just walked around the gardens, which are obviously things of beauty. This is partly what I mean when I say that it’s full of parks.

Everywhere we went, famous places were getting renovated or restored. I suppose it’s because it’s not peak season.

Bird-watchers.

Mushrooms.

Even fowls like it here.

I wondered if swans could fly, and then I got my answer.

We walked to Hirschgarten, the biggest beer garden! but it was a dud. We tried to look for the nearest train station, but got severely lost, before braving the woods again and looking for the tram instead. It took us about fifteen minutes to walk to the tram. Oops.

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Because of scheduling conflicts, we didn’t get to go to Versailles until the last full day, which turned out to be rainy. We opted to just tour the palace instead of going around the gardens. It was a little useless to do so in the rain, and in the middle of autumn. Or so I would imagine.

Versailles, now a city, was a province of France in which the royal palace could be found. It is, as you can see, extraordinarily lavish. I can’t imagine living in something that rich or that big. I suppose you can call it impressive, especially when you think about how it might have looked against the milieu of the starving French peasants.

For the record, I am not a fan. It’s a great place to visit, but it doesn’t appeal to me aesthetically, and I guess morally (though the fact that it’s been opened as a “museum” of sorts remedies that). For this reason, I don’t have a lot of pictures of the interiors. On that note, their beds are freakishly small.

I am, however, a fan of these floor tiles, which were by the exit.

We decided to ride back a little bit after lunch, in hopes that we could catch Musée d’Orsay before it closed for the day. We were met by a loooong line of people and a relentless downpour of rain.

(We went inside anyway.)

Technically, you can’t take pictures, but nobody ever said anything.

Look familiar, Whovians?

And that is the last of Paris! We caught a train to Munich, which entailed a transfer of trains at Stuttgart. A transfer to a train that we nearly missed. We literally had to run along the side of the train, which if you know me, might have been a pretty funny sight. In case you were wondering, we made it on the train just fine.

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Because we finished going around Centre Georges Pompidou a little early, we decided to go ahead and see the Eiffel Tower. We took the RER C train going there, which passes the stop by Musée d’Orsay and is on the way to Château Versailles.

The Eiffel Tower is gorgeous in the daytime, although it was considered as an eyesore back in the day. It seems like there is, weirdly, a lot of public opinion that surrounds these public Parisian monuments. Check out this upskirt:

There were a lot of people milling about the parks surrounding the tower. It’s very difficult to get a shot of yourself that doesn’t include other tourists posing by the beloved landmark. I can only imagine how packed this place is during the summer holidays!

To pass the time (since we wanted a night shot of the tower as well), we decided to take the River Cruise along the Seine. It was the perfect time as we managed to glimpse Paris as the last hours of the day trickled away.

I creeped this girl out, trying to take her picture because she looked a little bit like my friend, Stick. Bonus: the light is so frakking pretty!

If I lived in Paris, I would totally hang out the steps along the River Seine. And, I don’t know, maybe think about life or where I’d get the money for next month’s rent or something.

This sight reminded me of this poem by Leonard Cohen:

I Wonder How Many People in This City

I wonder how many people in this city
live in furnished rooms.
Late at night when I look out at the buildings
I swear I see a face in every window
looking back at me,
and when I turn away
I wonder how many go back to their desks
and write this down.

It was weird to see Paris from the middle of the river without being able to take a closer look.

We were on our way back to our point of origin (the part of the river nearest Eiffel), when the most amazing—and tacky—thing happened. The Eiffel Tower became a big, pointy, glittery thing!

This is it, in its almost-entirety. We had to cross a few blocks and climb up a few steps to get this view. It was worth it.

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After going around the Louvre, we took a walk along Rue de Rivoli towards Notre Dame. We planned to walk along the River Seine, but it was too hot (heh) so we opted to walk along the shaded streets instead. It was okay, though as the area was pretty lively and interesting anyway.

I love Notre Dame because, aside from being very detailed and beautiful, it is also very distinct. It’s easy to interchange churches and basilicas and cathedrals (if you are me, anyway), but the style of Notre Dame is very much its own.

We didn’t spend a lot of time in Notre Dame because of the heat, but even a momentary visit can leave you in awe. We decided to go to the park near the back of the cathedral, so we can see the flying buttresses and the gargoyles.

There’s also a pretty little park at the cathedral’s rear end (which is next to a café called Esmeralda, go figure).

A baby with no shoe, hee hee.

Colored this according to a certain film still. Can you guys guess what movie?

Since the day was still early, we decided to go to Montmartre, which is reportedly an exciting place to go gallivanting. We are not very good at figuring out unknown territories, though, because we were only able to explore the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, or La Basilique du Sacré Coeur. Aside from being geographically challenged, alighting from the Château-Rouge station to the shockingly busy street level was a little bit overwhelming. This is what we came to when we climbed to the top of the stairs towards Sacred Heart:

We won’t figure out how to get a better picture of the Sacred Heart until way later on our trip. Like I said, we are not very good at unknown territories. Anyway, there were SO MANY people. It’s like a weird sort of hang-out, carnival-y thing, in front of a basilica! There were people selling souvenirs and beer, and “attractions” like people playing music. There was even a man who had a whole “guess your weight” set up. It was very strange.

I, for one, wanted to go to see Sacré Coeur, because of its affiliations with the movie that shall not be named, since it is the answer to the previous question above. :)

We ate donner (sandwich) and durum (wrap), which are the Turkish versions of something like shawarma. At least, that’s what they are to me. I wish I had been facing the street so I could have people-watched.

We went to Galeries Lafayette, which was predictably closed by that time, so we decided to walk home and see the places we couldn’t see when we were busy riding the Métro.

On the way home, we saw Bill Murray and the Opéra National de Paris.

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On our first full day, we went to the Louvre, Notre Dame, but I’m splitting up the posts because I went a little too snap-happy and took way too many pictures. However, what you will see will still be only a fraction, as I literally made hundreds of photographs and a few minutes of footage. I hope you enjoy anyway.

My little art heart was ecstatic having seen all the art that was in the Louvre. There is a random fact/statistic that said that if you spent a minute on each piece, it would take you four months to complete the museum. A river cruise in the later days revealed that the art on display currently comprises only about 8% of the Louvre’s current collection. Can you imagine?

You enter the Louvre through the glass pyramid located in the central grounds (surrounded by the Sully, Dennon and Richelieu wings). The Louvre was constructed in 1793, with the glass pyramids added in 1988 by architect, I.M. Pei, under a project to renovate the Louvre by then-president, François Mitterand. Though initially met with vehemence (90% of Paris opposed the proposed design), majority of the Parisian population came to love it.

The Winged Victory of Samothrace or Nike

I was people-watching, too. This girl was sitting by a balcony-type area overlooking Nike.

Mona Lisa. Yes, it’s that small!

Some areas were undergoing renovation and some were closed to the public. It was exhausting trying to find your way around. I didn’t get to see some of the works I wanted to get a look at, but it was okay.

Cy Twombly’s The Ceiling at the Louvre’s Salles de Bronzes.

Even their staircases were beautiful.

A room full of Rubenesque women! I felt right at home over here.

My mom taking a picture of my dad taking a picture of Vermeer’s The Astronomer.

Venus de Milo

The inverted triangle inside the Louvre. I don’t understand why, in all of the places that we looked in Paris, not a single store sold any miniatures of the Louvre’s pyramids. Stroke of genius, in my humble opinion.

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