In Either Paris or Rome...(or Athens)

We have ended our time in Europe with a whirlwind tour of all the major destinations; in the space of less than a week, we have traveled from southern Spain (Granada) to Paris, where we spent a crazy 9 hours running around the city, seeing all the sites possible in such a short period of time! Then we hopped an overnight train to Rome and spent two days there, and then we flew from Rome to Athens.





















1) Shot 1 of the L'Arc de Triomph. I am cranky because I have not had coffee...





















2) Shot two of the L'Arc de Triomph, I am smiling because Brad said he'd buy me a coffee if I stopped looking grumpy...





















3) Shot 3 of the L'Arc de Triomph and I finally have my coffee, and damn was it ever good!

- The Louvre, and the obligatory 'couple shot' in front of the Eiffel Tour:)





















A few photos later, another overnight train and then we arrived in the Eternal City - Rome.

- There is a cat santuary in the middle of Rome; B and I practically went broke buying all kinds of silly trinkets that the sanctuary was selling to raise money for the kitties! Anyway, this cat sanctuary, is located amoungst the ruins of several ancient temples and most imporantly this was the location of the theatre where Julius Ceasar was assasinated. The grey granite block in the photo above marks the spot (at least, the spot 7 feet above) where he was stabbed.

- Me with a lovely Roman Kitty!

- B's renditon of the famous painting; took him far less time than Michelangelo!

- Italy seems to have gone a bit crazy with the Anti-Terrorism stuff; read this picture and you will see what I mean...

- The Trevy Fountain

- View of one of the ceilings in the Vatican Museum, near the Cystine Chapel. I actually liked this one better.

- The line up to get to the Vatican Museum (aka the Cystine Chapel) was at least 1000 people long; and that was in mid October!

After two funfilled days taking in all the sights of Rome, we hopped a quick flight to Athens. Now Athens is not a very nice city, nor a very pleasant smelling city, nor a very clean city and really, the only tourist attraction of any note is the Acropolis and the Parthenon. Nevertheless our stay in Athens was fantastic because we stayed with a super nice guy - Dia (which means Zeus!!!!!) - who we met in Bergen, Norway about 2 months ago. Dia let us stay at his house; his mother cooked wonderful food for us and even did our laundry!! Dia's brother went out looking for Brad after he got lost on his way to the postoffice (quite a stressful experience, as we had to catch our flight to Bahrain...). Dia introduced us to his friends, acted as tour guide and translator, and even bought us Rakimellow - a neat drink made of Raki mixed with water and honey. How freaken' nice is that?!?!

- Shots from the Acropolis.

- Us at one of Dia's friends birthday parties. Completely freaking random!!!! (Dia is the one in the pink pants)

- A protest shot; apparently the Greeks strike even more than the French do! Shocking I know. Apparently this one was quite tame, because the police, who were out in full riot gear, didn't actually have to beat anyone up. Dia told us that the rioters usually throw smoke bombs and set things on fire, whereas at this one they just yelled a lot and sang hippy, soviet sounding revolutionary type music. The protest was made up of teachers, university profs and students, and was against the passing of a law privatizing some facet of the Greek education system.