Adam and I made the first trip of the season up to Mammoth. Since Travis is living up there and I actually managed to score one of the MVP passes, there is no excuse for me not coming up.

Hotsprings

Jeff Anderson memorial art show

Next time I’ll try to actually take pictures at the hill.

Here are a few of the pictures from my time in Portugal. The first day I cruised around solo (with some people from the hostel later in the evening) then I met up with Kelley and two of her friends for the remainder.

Im starting to figure out the settings for daytime. Its about time too.

Oporto, Portugal at its finest.

Super Bock

Portugal serves up some of the best fish around. Its just really important to try and not watch what the fish are eating before you eat the fish. Garbage feeders never tasted so good. nevermind.

My friend met me in Portugal today.

She also brought along her special friend.

Wine tasting at one of the oldest wineries in the world.

Night #2

Encinidas?

Grande

Kelley’s brother Scott has a twin brother who lives in Oporto.

From Kelley’s lens

I got a little burnt out with uploading photos from my trip but lets see if I can get the ball rolling again. These are the some of the remaining photos from my time in Paris.

Back of Notre Dame

Someone decided to put my name up around my subway stop halfway through my trip. They could have done a little bit of a better job though. The fake drips just kinda throw it over the top.

Kabobs

The Pantheon

Walking home because…

…we got locked out.

Getting a little desperate Eva?

Best food for the money. This gem is on Les Gobelins street in the Southeastern section of the city.

Trust me (the picture doesn’t do this justice)

I decided to check out one of the famous cemeteries here in Paris. Some of the tombs/graves date back to the 1700’s.

Follow the signs

Oh, show me the way to the next whiskey bar…

xskullswithwingsx

For real?

My attempt to “Finish it off with a bang”

All my other car “wants” just got put on the back-burner. 1967 Volvo Amazon.

wow

I have been flying solo for the past few weeks wandering around Europe and relying on my Ipod more than usual. Usually my music choice comes from me hitting shuffle on iTunes on my computer and rarely do I find myself actually picking something to listen to.

Here are a few videos from the bands that have been being played through my headphones.

The Stray Cats are one of those bands that I have managed to hold onto since my childhood. It was a band that my dad listened to back in the 80’s and showed to me at a fairly young age due to the G rated content. Regardless, I have listened to them more times than I can count on this trip. Oh yeah and my Mom’s name is Gina.

The Cramps



Jack White and Alison Mosshart of The Kills = The Dead Weather = amazing. This was one of the first cd’s that I have actually gone to a store to purchase in quite some time. Well worth the $16.



This one is for Rachael



I missed Muse play in Paris by only a few days. I should have planned a little better.



I can thank my friend Joe for making me start listening to The Streets again. Thanks Joe.



More on The Doors in a little bit



anyways, thats all for now.

Going to Paris was probably one of the best decisions I have made on this trip. I really wasn’t even planning on coming here due to the countless times I have heard from friends that the Parisians were not friendly and I wouldn’t even have a good time here. Well needless to say, those people were wrong.

The post about Paris will be broken up into the next few posts because I have way too many photos I want to show. Enjoy.

Luxembourg Gardens day one

Just up the street…

Notre Dame

Who needs the Metro when you have feet?

Balance of Opposites?

I am not going to bother telling you all what these pieces are. If you know you know. If you dont, then you should do a little research.

Wall coverings

The most famous portrait in the….

I think I should go into the Postcard business.

more soon.

One of the main things that I heard at my home prior to coming over to Europe was to try a legit Belgian Waffle. For some of you who do not know, my parents own and operated a restaurant called The Belgian Waffle Works. Ridiculous as it sounds, waffles are part of my families everyday life at home.

First things first, lets find a waffle.

Found it. I guess the waffles out here that have tons of topping or are shaped a certain way are not “legit” waffles, but simply tourist waffles. I opted for the local style waffle

This guy is called the Mannekin Pis. It is a little statue of a boy constantly peeing, peeing, and peeing some more. The part about this statue that is actually more funny than the statue itself is that people come around on a daily basis and dress him up and random costumes depending on the events, time of year, or anything else that is going on around the town. Its actually pretty difficult to catch this statue without clothes of some sort on him.

Something else that I noticed about Brussels is their love for comics. Comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, all sorts of illustrated literary works find home in Brussels. There is a part of the city that is actually pretty decorated by these famous comics.

Some great typography work

Low angles, low angles, low angles.

Walk in the park.

The view from the hostel

This all happened a few days ago. Im about to leave Paris now actually to go off to Rome. Paris was just too much fun for me to find time to put these pictures up from Brussels. I’ll attempt to put up the Paris photos pretty soon.

and im off…

I don’t even know where to begin this blog about Amsterdam. My previous conceptions of this city pretty much consisted of 2 things, Legal “soft” drugs and windows lit by red lights. I’m pretty sure that I do not stand along with this idea of what this city would be like but I was pleasantly surprised to find much more to this city during my short 3 days here. This city is in no doubt something that I have never seen in my life, breaking all the rules and then some. But it had a great sense of culture, an extremely wide range of people, and a care-free mentality that I greatly appreciate.

The first that that I noticed when I got away from the train station was that there is water everywhere. Amsterdam is built largely around a system of canals. These canals make for some great photo opportunities as well as some really helpful landmarks to help find your way when you get lost. It seems like the water has taken its toll on some of the foundations of the building and caused them to go in all different directions. Either that or the people building them were spending far too much time at the “coffee shops.”

Don’t expect any pictures in this from the red light district. I guess it is really illegal and the girls will be the first ones to report you. I was not about to have my camera taken away for a few random nudie shots so I was happy to keep the camera to my side during these parts.

Architecture and such.

If you can notice in the background there is a sign for H&M. This store has completely taken over every city that I have been to having numerous locations in very small area. I can’t say that I am against seeing these stores though, the prices are not too bad and the quality/design is still there.

Ok so lets have a break from the typical photos that always seem to end up on my site. Amsterdam is known for sex and drugs so I figured it would be appropriate to share.

First off, down the street from us was a Sex Museum. I wont show you too many photos because it is graphic and my Mom reads my posts but I think you will get the idea of what this place consisted of.

Kelley’s mom is going to “thank” me for this one

“The Flasher”

Full commitment

I found my new love in Amsterdam

Great typography

Not something you see in store windows back at home

Also not something you see in most store windows back at home

RIP MJ

Kelley and I found a great italian restaurant in Amsterdam. The people who owned the place were awesome and the prices were reasonable for probably the best food that I have had over here SO FAR. Im saying so far because I am still going to Paris and Italy so I am sure that I will find lots of great food in those two places. But yeah, this food was amazing.

Random money from all over the world posted on the walls

Adding to the wall

Day 2:

Mini Cars are very popular in Europe and this is about as mini as they come.

This building was pretty cool. It seems that not only are the buildings crooked but the streets run in all sorts of directions as well.

Where the points meet

I had a pretty tough time remembering the street names here in Amsterdam. Safeword, safeword, safeword, safeword (credit: Eurotrip)

I just couldn’t do it. Maybe next time

Yes, I know.

Back to the typical Amsterdam stuff. “Smart Shops” sell all sorts of stuff that you cannot buy from a store pretty much anywhere in the world. From peyote to mushrooms, they pretty much have anything your tainted heart desires.

The menu (definitely leaving out some of the merchandise for legal purposes)

ps. I didnt buy anything from one of these shops (Hi, Mom and Dad)

Wandering

Anne Frank House/Huis

Breakfast of champions (at 1 in the afternoon)

Thanks for ruining my tourist photo

There was a skate contest going on in the city on more a more than legit mini ramp

These painted elephants were all around the city. This was the first one that I came across.

and this was the most ridiculous one I came across

The Van Gogh Museum is here in Amsterdam as well. It was pretty impressive to see a lot of his great works. If you go here though, don’t expect to see Starry Night and a few of his other more famous paintings. Regardless it was worth the 12.50 to get inside. Oh and there were no pictures allowed inside here

Random street art

Random guy swallowing a sword on the street.

Kelley found a shoe that fits her just right

“The Bulldog”

Best picture I’ve taken in Europe so far.

Off to Brussels, Belgium for a few days.