Favorites from European Leg...

This would be Neuschwanstein Castle. One of the walls of my room is covered with a giant wallpaper hanging of said castle. Perhaps my wanderlust was inspired by the wallpaper. It's one of the most magical places I've ever visited. Too bad the inside of the castle is really icky. Since my visit to Neuschwanstein, I have finally learned to spell it properly. That's one advantage of traveling, it makes ya real smaaaaart.













I took this on my second trip through Berlin, when I had finally stopped snapping photos like a mindless droid and actually begin to work on taking nicer pictures. This sculpture is on the Schloss Bridge and is part of a series that depicts the life stages of a hero. It was done by Schinkel, who Hitler was a wee bit obsessed with. During WWII, the sculptures were removed once it became obvious Berlin would be bombed (under the pretense of 'cleaning'). I think the sculptures weren't restored to their position on the bridge until the end of the cold war. The one is the last stage--the death of the hero.

This was a wooded path on the Curonian Split, a little projection of land that comes off Kaliningrad, the isolated part of Russia. I was in the Lithuanian part, visiting the sand dunes. These trees are only about twenty yards from the beach, and I thought it was kind of crazy that the forest was so close to the seaside. You can find a lot of amber in the area, it washes up on the beaches after storms. This path reminded me a bit of Robert Frost...



Most sunsets in the Baltics were pretty fabulous. This picture was taken in Riga, Latvia. I had just finished an ice cream cone and was rushing back to the hostel to meet a friend. Got a little absorbed in watching the sunset, so of course I was late. I'm always late, but at least I had a good excuse this time.

This would be the parliament house in Budapest, which sits on the edge of the Danube. If you look at the clouds, you can kind of notice they're in a line--a cold front was coming in. About twenty minutes after I took this picture it began to rain. I liked Budapest a lot.