Displaying Category: Travel

Visited some really fantastic Roman ruins at Italica. The best of it all was the amphitheatre that we could walk around in as illustrated (sort of) by the photo here. Unfortunately, it's late and I need to get to bed given the extremely early time we need to be up in the morning to catch our flight.

They just tend to be some of the most visually stunning structures you will ever see. I took lots of pictures of the Catedral y Giralda, but I only have time right now for these few.

It's about a quarter after four and we've been sitting in this beautiful park for about thirty minutes. Chris and I are sitting on a pleasant shaded marble bench while Sander is lying on a very sunny grassy area in the middle. Though I have already gotten a lot of sun on my face that is probably going to be quite annoying this evening, I am fairly certain Sander is going to be in a lot more distress.

So far today we've found our way from the hotel to a sort of central square area that wasn't really a square in its actual shape, but the effect is the same. There's a great fort there, Alcazar I believe, as well as a spectacular cathedral that we walked through. Many wonderful (I hope) pictures were taken.

After the cathedral we found a tapas place to have lunch at. That was quite satisfying in its deliciousness. I'm not real sure what else we have planned but I'm not sure I care right now. The air smells amazing and the temperature is just perfect. The sun will be setting soon, I suppose, so we'll have to work something out, but in the meantime, I am happy to just sit here and breathe.

We finally got to our hotel in Seville (as in "The Barber of..." I guess) and, after working out a room mixup problem, started getting settled. I have no idea what our plan is at this point, other than sleep.

I will note, though, that the women seem consistently more attractive than just about anywhere I have ever been. Yes, this is the best I can do right now.

It's a little before 11am local time and I am finishing up my packing. Obviously, the computer is one of the last things to go. We did a wonderful walking tour of some of the really old sections yesterday and I took 100 photos. I downloaded them from the camera, but haven't done anything else with them yet. I think we'll be checking out in a little bit, then killing some time before taking the train back to the airport, at which point we head off for Spain.

Hopefully I'll have some time to post photos once we're checked in to the hotel much later tonight.

After meeting up with Chris, Sander lead us out into the "old section of the city" which I'm sure has some Swedish name I likely can't pronounce. One of the first buildings we encountered was this old church.

We started walking into the more town-like sections of town and things were clearly focused on the tourist. there are still nice buildings, though.

There's plenty more, but I think I need to go find the others. These and many more of my pictures are being posted in my Flickr set as fast as I can get them off my camera and previewed.

I only have a couple minutes as I am meeting folks in the lobby to walk (back) over to a Mongolian BBQ place for a large group dinner. I did, however, manage to take a bunch of photos in the old part of town that should hopefully be really cool. I'm looking forward to going over them and picking out the things I didn't see when I initially took the pics.

Back later!

I'm sitting here guzzling strawberry milk, because I needed to find some way to finish up the remaining milk before leaving and I had this old packet of strawberry flavored "Instant Breakfast" in the pantry, so... Yeah, there's a reason that packet has been sitting there for four years...

The packing is done and it's pretty tight. My hope was to do it all without needing to check any baggage and I think I've managed that. I'll be leaving here in about 45 minutes and heading over to my father's to get a ride to the airport.

People keep assuming I'm excited, but all I can think about now is all the stress and complexity of checking in at the airport and going through security and then waiting for boarding (why is waiting so stressful?) and then the actual flight and having to deal with the connecting flight and... Obviously I'm thinking too much, but it's a lot to think about! I'm also tired and that's just going to make it tougher to think clearly and keep a positive attitude. Here's to hoping everything goes smoothly! *chug*

Seriously, strawberry milk should be banned under some sweeping international accord.

I expect my next communication won't be until I get somewhere with public 'net access. Maybe I'll have a picture by then?

Not in that I avoid photos taken of me (though there's a fair bit of that too), but I'm weird about taking photos. Take, for example, an event like Dragon*Con in which people commonly pose for people to take pictures. I feel weird about this. I actually look for opportunities to take pictures when people aren't posing so I don't feel like I am imposing or being weirdly voyeuristic. And yes, I absolutely realize that a picture taken unawares is much more voyeuristic than a picture for which someone poses. I can't explain the feeling, it's just strange to me.

So now there's this trip during which I should take hundreds of millions of photos and I really want to. I always tell myself I'll be taking tons of photos and I'll capture every angle and all the beauty and then I'm there and I'm really just not feeling it. Sometimes I'll break out the camera for a sort of, pity shot, like I really wanted to do the scenery or the architecture or the colorful people justice, but I lost my nerve, so this is the best I can do. It's lame.

Any suggestions on getting over this freakish approach to photography?

I was really hoping to write something inspiring and exciting and motivational, but it's late and I'm pretty tired. I meant to deploy all this much earlier in the evening, but I had trouble getting that to work and then I had more problems just registering my own account (and I really hope you all don't have the same issues) and then I found other issues and... well, it's all good now, right?

People have been asking me if I am excited. I assume about the trip and then I say "About what?" and they say "About the trip, silly goose!" (except no one really says "silly goose" anymore, I made that part up). I kind of shrug, "Sure, you know, I'm getting there...," but really, I've had so much on my mind these last few weeks that I've barely had time to think about what's coming up on this trip. Now that things are drawing closer, though, I have started to think about it and I am getting excited. A bit.

I saw the movie "Push" yesterday and it takes place in Hong Kong. Not even the fancy parts of Hong Kong, but the streets and crowded markets and apartments and restaurants. I recognize it all, but it's still so different. I'm sure to the people there it's their everyday ordinary lives, but I think of the smells and the sounds and the tastes and that giddy feeling of being somewhere completely away from where I am normally and I feel excited.

I have no clue what to expect from this journey through Europe, but I think from now on, when someone asks if I'm excited, I'm going to say "Hells yes!"