Sweet merciful crap, it's PICTURE TIME!!!

Alright, I'm just going to cut to the chase and say what everyone has no doubt been thinking lately: UT sucks. It's been a long time since I had a really meaty post. This is partially the result of my own laziness, but the unreasonable difficulty I've had finding a computer suitable for uploading pictures hasn't been helping things either. Well, it's time to recover the good graces of my readership, and what better way to do that than to knock your socks off with a pictorial extravaganza!

Let's start with some early Europe pics. Here's a shot of me harnessing the intermolecular forces of Brussels' Atomium. My future's so bright, I gotta wear shades:

On to Paris. I think everyone who visits the Musee d'Orsay takes this shot, but here it is again:

This is essentially the back yard at the palace of Versailles. As you no doubt can tell from the photo, these gardens are HUGE:

On to Madrid! I spent a pleasant, sunny afternoon at the Parque del Buen Retiro, where I snapped this shot of the pond:

The infamous bullfight. PETA members should close their eyes at this point:

I realized after I left Granada that almost all the photos I took there focused on the Alhambra. Oh well, it's a pretty cool place at least. Let's start with a few exterior shots:

And the interior. Note the detailed wood and stucco work. This is all original stuff, dating back to the 10th century. Very impressive:

When I wasn't busy getting completely and utterly lost in the Alpujarras, I took these pics:

Ok folks, time to switch continents. These are some random shots of the Jemaa al Fna square in Marrakesh.

Jemaa al Fna with the tower of the main mosque in the background. Note the ubiquitous orange juice stands...mmmmm, fresh OJ:

As the evening draws closer, food and craft vendors descend on the square, turning it into a giant restaurant/bazaar:

View from one of the dinner tables:

Tea with Ava, Chakir, and his neice, Maria:

A traditional Moroccan lunch spread, including "cous cous of the kings":

Chowin' down. The other guy is Kamel, Chakir's pal:

Hanging out with Chakir's mom:

Ok, I think it was at this point that I essentially stopped blogging about my travels, so I suppose nobody has any idea what happened next. I'll provide the Cliff's Notes version.

SO...the next morning Ava and I started a guided excursion into the heart of rural Morocco, beginning with a gruelling 8-hour van ride. The experience was made extra special for me by the fact that I spent the previous night alternating between puking my guts out and shitting my guts out. I think it was the result of some food I ate, or some water I drank, or a combination of both. Anyways, I didn't take many pictures that first day simply because I was too exhausted to even get out of the van. But here's on of an old Moroccan city that I did manage to pull off:

Another reason I didn't take too many pictures of the Moroccan countryside is the fact that it basically consists of massive quantities of dirt, sprinkled liberally with equally massive quantities of rocks. If you have a yen for the color brown, Morocco is the place to be. So I'll just cut straight to the good stuff: the sand dunes of Merzouga!

Dunes in the distance:

Someone took this picture of me right before Lasse the Dane beat the living shit out of me. Well, not really, but it sure looks that way. Somebody needs to take some photography classes:

Yep, we actually rode camels across the desert. And no, they don't spit that much, and they didn't even smell that bad. But I will say this: if you're a guy, that hump is REALLY inconveniently located:

Riding off into the sunset. Hi-ho, Ishtar!

And now for something completely different...Gaudi's Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona. Still under construction after over 100 years:

To be perfectly honest, by this point in the trip I was getting kind of tired of Mediterranean Europe, so I decided to head north to Switzerland. Iterlaken was my first stop. Now, let me tell you something about Switzerland: it's the most expensive country...ever. Period. Add to that the fact that Interlaken is essentially the Queenstown of Europe (i.e., filled with rich Americans eager to drop a huge chunk of cash on skydiving, canyoning, paragliding, and other "extreme" activities) and you're in for a fund-reducing experience. Which is why I only stayed a few days. But anyways, where was I? Oh yeah, Interlaken.

The giant Saint Bernard that greeted me at my hostel. Doesn't get much more Swiss than that, folks:

After a day of hiking, I got this view of Interlaken from above:

On my last day in Interlaken, I went mountain biking to a little town called Lauterbrunnen with some friends from the hostel:

After Interlaken, I spent a couple days in the town of Lucerne (a couple hours northeast). Here's a shot of the city, taken from the medieval wall that forms the northern border of the old town:

Lucerne's iconic covered bridge:

Okay, a little backstory: Maybe some of you have clicked the "CouchSurfing" link on the left side of my blog. Basically, it's a network of travelers (universal and otherwise) and hosts who meet up through the website. For all the gory details, go here. ANYWAYS, I CouchSurfed while I was in Lucerne. My host was a Swiss textile designer named Karin. Here's a pic of the two of us:

In front of the Lucerne train station, about to head to Munich:

You know, I really didn't take that many pictures in Munich. But I just had to grab a shot of this. Basically, they have a river that flows under a bridge in the English Gardens, and somehow it creates a permanent, immovable wave that's perfect for surfing. That's right, surfing in Munich. You heard it here first:

On another day, I took a daytrip to the town of Fussen, which features the famous Neuschwanstein castle, popularly know as "The Disneyland Castle." Well, here it is:

Well, there you have it. Those are pretty much all the decent pictures I've had a chance to upload up to this point. Since leaving Munich, I've been to a tiny German village called Haag, the college town of Mainz and (as if that weren't enough) Prague. But this post is big enough as it is, so I'll leave all of that stuff for another day. And if the past is any indicator, that day will be in the distant, distant future. But who knows, maybe I'll be able to get my act together and start posting more than once every couple weeks. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: stay tuned to find out!!!