A statue looks over a canal in Amsterdam. For more watery photos of Holland, click here. How can it not seem like paradise? It’s progressive, safe, a high level of education. Its food is wonderful and everything is so… green. To a certain extent, Amsterdam delivers. Its streets are lovely, lined with thin brownstone style [...] Read more »
Lyon sparkles at night beneath Fourvière. For more sparkly, glowy pictures of France, click here. It may be hard to believe given that I don’t believe in free will, but I don’t believe in fate or destiny either. It simply doesn’t make sense to me that our lives are truly in our own control, yet [...] Read more »
A couple girls relax in the waning summer sun at Cinquantenaire Parc in central Brussels, Belgium. For more golden pictures of Brussels, click here. “Belgium should be known as the land of a thousand sauces,” Guillaume says, dipping his pomme frite into a concoction he’s created. The restaurant he, his wife Martine, and his young [...] Read more »
A duck lands in the Vltava in Prague. For more splashy pictures of the Czech Republic, click here. There’s a lot about religion I dislike: the sectism, the hatred, the jihads, the hypocrisy, the difficulty in changing any of the doctrines that no longer apply, the literal interpretations. The list could go on for eons. [...] Read more »
Prague from the heights of Prague Castle. For more fortified pictures of Prague, click here. Growing up, veal paprikash was one of my favorite foods. My grandparents used to make it once every visit. My grandfather traces his roots back to Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic and Slovakia thanks to the velvet revolution. For him, [...] Read more »
For more graphic pictures of the East Side Gallery, click here. There were lots of things I saw in Berlin that were worth seeing. Still, the one thing that stuck with me was the East Side Gallery. This post won’t have any commentary or interesting notes. Instead, the artwork of the East Side Gallery stands [...] Read more »
A German eagle, symbol of the fatherland, sits defaced in backlash against the Third Reich in Berlin. For more uberpolitical photos of Germany, click here. “I’m being straight with you and-this is important so pay attention-if you had any other parents, they’d be telling you little lies that would eventually add up to your complete [...] Read more »
It is pure happenstance that I’m sleeping across the way from an old man. Across the aisle, he slips his suitcase beneath the bed and pulls out a bottle of Pilsner. “Smart man,” I say, smiling and nodding at him. I’m still a little bit buzzed from Oktoberfest. “Just a few sips before bed,” he [...] Read more »
Oktoberfest glows far below the grand church steeple, its carnival secondary only to beer. For more blotto pictures of Germany, click here. “Oh man, I love Germany,” Matt tells me. The trains are flowing like beer at Oktoberfest: quickly, freely, and with a regularity that’s both beautiful for its efficiency and scary for its monumental [...] Read more »
The gate of Dachau reads, “ARBEIT MACHT FREI.” It means, “work will set you free.” For more pictures of Dachau and Germany, click here. “Not yet. Not yet, Ben,” I tell myself. I can feel the tears welling up. “You’ve still got more to see.” Only 20 minutes ago did I walk through the gate [...] Read more »