Paris, Day 1

This is a description of my day in Paris with some captions for the photos. If you just want to see the photo album, you can go here. Note that there are actually a lot more photos in the album than shown here.

The travel part of the trip to Paris was pretty uneventful. The airport had a special EU traveler section, which made everything very simple with passports…I didn’t really need to show anything. It was kind of a long walk to the train station though – we were in Terminal 3 (of 3) and only 2 terminals have train stops…I bet you can guess which one didn’t have one. We ended up meeting Vy’s uncle very very late (he had to wait about an hour for us on the street, he was giving us our hotel key…but he was very gracious about it all). We had some hotel problems, but let’s get on to the photos!


Here’s a picture of the small park right by our hotel. It was nice to have a park really close so I could go out and play…we also ate a few times here after picking up some Vietnamese food from some street vendors. Our hotel was right in the middle of the Vietnamese districts, and all of our best food was actually Vietnamese…we had terrible luck with French restaurants.


The first day we went on a walk through the streets. I kind of wanted to get a feel for my surroundings…I’m not sure what Vy wanted, but she did think we walked too much. We walked pretty much the whole day!


This was a building right by the library and the MK2 movie theater…no real connection, I just thought it looked nice.


This boat was just chilling on the Seine…across the river is a swimming complex, which I thought was pretty cool…it’s basically in the river.


We walked to the menagerie then dealt with a pretty horrible rainstorm. We had to hide under a building – this photo was taken right after it stopped raining…note the rainbow and the lack of people. The menagerie was beautiful, here are some highlights…











There’s all the photos from day 1! As always, feel free to check out the album!

Austria - countdown to Paris

This is a summary of my time before Paris with a description for the pictures. If you just want to see the photo album, you can go here. There are a lot more pictures in the album than shown here!

Well, I still have a couple days before Paris…and I took some pictures! I’m starting to learn my way around Vienna with the Linien (a subway system through the major parts of Vienna) and picking up a few useful phrases to fill in the gaps with my German.


Here’s a photo from Naschtmarkt…a sort of ongoing farmer’s market. They have a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, some prepared food or sandwiches, and then, well, miscellaneous other things. I came right as they were closing, so things were a little quiet.


Vy and I ordered some Hungarian food from this restaurant in the Naschtmarkt…it was really good!


The next day we went walking through Hofsburg – this time during the day. We started off in the center of Hofsburg here…


And made our way over to the Kunsthistoriches (Art History) Museum. Before we get into the photos, let me say that this museum is phenomenal. I highly recommend a visit for anyone making a trip to Vienna if you have any interest in, well, art or history. That’s right, OR, not and.







That’s all I’ve got for pre-Paris! More photos on the way!

Fun around the city

We went on a stroll through Vienna with Vy’s good friend Angelika today – it was a lot of fun, and Angelika is a really fun and nice person. Our stroll took us through a couple different parts of Vienna – we started out in Stadtpark (a park where I finally felt at home due to the very large number of trees) went through the Belvedere museum’s entry park, and ended up somewhere in downtown Vienna. Anyway, these pictures aren’t all that scenic. Feel free to browse through them if you’d like!


-Vy showing off her nearly finished ice cream cone while we stand in line to buy more ice cream.




-No mischief here…just a couple of well-behaved young adults taking their picture…or are they well-behaved? Sadly, I hardly moved at all.


-Vy really makes me look good! Also note the matching bracelets.


-Vy and Angelika strike a pose with reckless abandon!


-One last couple shot with Vy and I. It’s obvious I’m extremely unhappy here. This is a statue behind the Belvedere. It was actually really hard to hang on to, I’m surprised I can smile so well considering the effort I’m putting in to hanging on. I don’t know if it’s difficult for Vy, it’s a little unfair since she weighs about 3 pounds.