Category: Europe
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136 | Statues :: Lisbon, Portugal, 2013
Padrão dos Descobrimentos was a tribute to the age of exploration. Under Prince Henry the Navigator, Portugal became one of the major players in the European age of discovery, initiating the first voyages to Africa, expanding trade to Asia, and sponsoring Magellan’s first trip around the world. I guess it was also the beginnings of the…
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135 | Statues :: Bratislava, Slovakia, 2016
Random dude sticking his head out from a manhole in Old Town Bratislava. Some say he’s a Communist worker being lazy at work, some say he’s a sleaze bag looking up girls’ skirts. I think he’s probably just taking a break.
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109 | Architecture :: Koln, Germany, 2016
This two spire cathedral has been a part of Cologne’s skyline since the 13th century, and it took 6 centuries to finally complete. During World War II, Cologne became one of the aerial bombing targets for the Allies, who thought that devastation from the bombings will shatter German morale. A total of 34,711 tons of…
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107 | Architecture :: Barcelona, Spain, 2011
La Sagrada Familia brings a completely different kind of wow, especially when you walk in having read no tourist guides and with zero expectations. Catalonia’s favorite architect, Antoni Gaudi, took over the church’s design in 1883, and at the time of his death in 1926, it was still less than a quarter done. His plans…
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105 | Architecture :: Olafsvik, Iceland, 2014
Everyone’s seen Hallgrimskirkja (Hallgrim’s Church) in Reykjavik, but Iceland is actually the home to many other modernist churches, including the Ólafsvíkurkirkja in the little fishing village of Olafsvik, population ~1,000. The church was consecrated in 1967, and if you look closely, it’s made entirely of triangles. We weren’t looking for it exactly, but there happened to be a…
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091 | Faith :: Istanbul, Turkey, 2013
Not too far from Hagia Sophia lies Hagia Irene, a Greek Eastern Orthodox Church that had the luxury of not being converted to a mosque after the fall of Constantinople. Along with Hagia Sophia and Hagia Dynamis, these three churches were dedicated to God’s three attributes, peace, wisdom, and power. Hagia Irene had stood for…
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089 ｜ Dolls :: Toledo, Spain, 2009
When I saw Toledo from the bus window, I was completely blown away by its location, sitting on a mountaintop, surrounded by a river on three sides. The town was the first small European city I’ve been to, and I loved getting lost among its narrow cobblestone streets. Even all the tourist shops had their…
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088 | Dolls :: St. Petersburg, Russia, 2013
Can’t have a week of dolls with out these matryoshkas! I had planned to buy a set when I went to Russia, but the pretty ones were quite expensive, and I never found anything super unique like the political ones. Good thing too, since when I came back to the states and did a search…
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087 | Dolls :: Prague, Czech Republic, 2016
So these are also technically not dolls, but I loved these shapeless faceless mannequins! There’s something special about faceless dolls. It evokes curiosity, even though you know that it’s lifeless, you can’t help assign some kind of personality to it. It makes you wonder that, if she had a face, would she be smiling? Or…