Nimo and Me: Sorrento

I was lucky enough to spend my fall break with Nina Moses (biff!) in the towns along the Amalfi Coast!

We made Sorrento our home base and stayed in a great little hotel there.

Not that hotel. Ours had a better paint job but a worse view. 

From Sorrento, you can get to all the other towns along the coast by either bus or train. We spent some time hanging out at the train station, and entertained ourselves with our cameras

 Ain't she lookin' fly?

Sorrento (like all the towns in the area) is built on sea-side cliffs, so you get some really crazy architecture built into the rocks...

It's also an old port city, which would explain this awesome anchor that is (unfortunately, though artistically) strangling this tree.

The view wasn't bad...

The locals weren't bad either!

Just Wandering Around Paris...

Ok, here's the weird thing. As I was planning my epic month of travels for June, I found out that the Tim Burton Exhibit that I missed at the MOMA was going to be in Paris for a while.

I literally asked myself "Hmm... should I go to Paris for a couple days, too?" and answered "Yeah, why not! It would be super cheap!"

What is my life?!

Thus:

HUZZAH! Not only did I get to see an awesome exhibit, but I also got to see THIS GIRL:

Oh Sara Black, how I love you, and your dog, and your family.  (disclaimer: this photo exists because I was trying to snipe a photo of a random weird guy on the street and needed Sara to be a diversion. Unfortunately I didn't get a shot of the guy, and no longer remember what was so weird about him. bummer)

The night I arrived, Sara took me to a lovely french restaurant for dinner. The next day we went a-wandering, and happend to stumble (seriously we weren't looking for it) upon the Lapin Agile!

We also wandered through a beautiful park, and (surprise) I took photos of flowers :-P

And i'm glad I did, because I think this is one of my favorite photos I've ever taken:

For the last day or two I was there, Sara jetted off to Vienna so I wandered through the beautiful city on my own, mostly. And I found some cool things:

And of course I had to stop by Notre Dame. I literally took only one photo of it though. I'm not your typical tourist :-P

I was less interested in the church because I was really only there to meet up with yet another amazing person, Beth Fagan! The two of us chatted for hours about physical theatre, met up with her boyfriend, then gathered a delicious picnic feast to take to the edge of the Seine.

And after hours more of talking about (and demonstrating!) physical theatre on the banks of the Seine, we watched the sunset and finished the wine...

then ran to catch the last subway trains home. Perfect :)

Gratuitous Eiffel Tower Shots

Since the Eiffel Tower was only a few blocks from the home of Sara Black and family (where I was staying), I went by it several times. I even met up with Nicole and Chloe there one night! 

Since everyone takes a million beautiful shots of the tower, I decided to try to get some shots a little off the beaten path, so to speak. hope you enjoy them :) 

(ok you didn't REALLY expecte me not to take a somewhat-normal shot of it, did you?)

BIG TOWER!

And my favorite:

Edinburgh = Clouds+CoolThings+PIES!

EDINBURGH! 

It's pretty much always cloudy there, and pretty rainy. But with the help of Dagmara (my wonderful host/guide/fellowconquistador), I braved it to see everything!

Talk about a castle on a hill...

It's quite a lovely city. Check out this view from the castle

While at the castle, a sudden shower sent us inside into the Great Hall, just in time for a wonderful concert from a visiting chamber choir

Speaking of rainstorms, the view from the hilltop castle let me see separate rainstorms for the first time. In this photo you can see two areas of rain, separated by a clear area

Pretty cool, huh?

Also pretty cool = hats.

Perhaps even cooler: a sword-swallowing street performer (the one under the bed of nails)

Yet another pretty cool thing: discovering a bungee/trampoline set-up!

^ That's me!! ^

We spent a good amount of time in cemeteries too. Which seems weird, until you realize how amusing some of the carvings are...

And how bizzarre some of the monuments are...

Yup. you see correctly. A slave reaching up to Lincoln, "In memory of Scottish-American Soldiers". hmm...

And what trip to Scotland would be complete without MEATPIES!

Seriously though, that's lamb pie. and it's amazing. 

But fear not! Edinburgh isn't JUST cool things in a big city. There are also gorgeous hills and parks just  outside of the urban center.

I snuck up on a sleeping bird and accidentally woke him up!

OH! and we found MORE swans. It's clearly a trend on this vacation. We got really up-close-and-personal with these ones, too.

Yeah, Swan! Pose! Get it!