Monday, December 18, 2006

Barcelona, Spain 15-17 December 2006

Barcelona, Barcelona....I've been around much of Spain but not to this infamous Spanish city. It was fabulous. I went with Arno and his colleagues (kindof a reward for some help I've provided his company lately). Anyhow, we visited some great restaurants, bars, and sights. The architecture in Barcelona is renown. I absolutely loved the Park Guell which was designed by Gaudi, artist/architect. (see photos below)

The weather was warm and perfect for walking around (which we did quite a lot). We also took one of those corny tourist buses with that has the top floor open so we could see more of the city. The most significant highlight of the weekend was jumping into the Mediterranean Sea with Arno and one of his colleagues! It wasn't even that cold, very refreshing :o)

Here are some photos, but as usual the rest are on Kodak! Click here for those.

Left: Arno, Gerco, and Aart (business partners)

Below: View within Park Guell





















View onto the beach and in Plaza Real
Lots of palm trees!!!


















Oslo, Norway 7-10 December 2006

Dear Family, friends, and whoever else might view this blog, It's been a while since I last posted something, but it has been a very busy past few weeks. I finished classes, have some papers to write, celebrated Arno's 26th birthday, Sinterklaas, traveled to Oslo and Barcelona, and am preparing to travel to the U.S. before coming back to Amsterdam for New Year's and writing my thesis!!! Whew....

Highlights of Oslo include:
sitting on fur in the bars and restaurants, visiting Statue park (see photos below), going to Drobak (a small town on a fjord an hour away from Oslo), seeing the Nobel Peace Prize winner (Muhammad Yunas of Grameen Bank) and being interviewed by a Bangladeshi TV station on the winner and his work in microcredit (if you don't know what that is, read about it--very interesting).

It was freezing in Oslo, the sun set a
t about 3:30pm which was strange, and prices were the highest I've seen in any country. Regardless, it was a good time. It felt like an American New England city for the most part. I'd like to go back to the North where you can see the Northern Lights and even get a trip to the North Pole!!

I hope you enjoy these photos! For the whole lot, go to my kodakgallery website!
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Some images from Statue Park