Pahree!

Paris is very expensive! Many places charge you a euro to sit in their establishment and drink the coffee you just bought from them.  Paris, get over yourself! 

This ridiculousness means you will see photos of the parks we picnicked in!  Since we were over museums after the shovefest of the Louvre, where everyone was trying to take pictures of pictures constantly, we opted for some intriguing attractions that seem awfully emo in retrospect.  First, there are the Paris catacombs, legendary as millions of once-Parisians' bones are piled in artistic patterns 20m underground in expired stone quarry tunnels (Notre Dame is made of this stone).  Continuing the tour de macabre, I visited a cemetery full of the bones of famous people including Chopin (awesome) and Oscar Wilde. I couldn't figure out where Dorian Gray was, though.  Har har, AP English humor.

So, any cheerful attractions? If having an espresso in the very brasserie where one of your favorite movies from the year 2001 was filmed and then being photo-bombed by a cute Frenchman counts, then yes!  

But back to bawling about pricing, I issue a late-in-the-game surprise verdict: after the energy of Ho Chi Minh, the friendliness of Sydney, and the culture of Istanbul, Paris, with your difficulty smiling and unwillingness to deliver a true happy hour price, you aren't measuring up.

La costa!

Onward to the Mediterranean coast. We stayed in the cutest coastal hill town full of white-washed buildings and quaint everything while visiting family!  I always relish the opportunity to experience a place with a local host, and this visit was a highlight of the Spain journey.  

But we didn't relax for long, sadly.  On to Barcelona, where the lines to pay 20 euro (are they insane?!) to visit Gaudi buildings were long, and the free Gaudi attractions were no longer free.  Jaded by the whole Gaudi scene, we only saw one of his buildings, the Sagrada Familia.  The man was eccentric and given to a lot of exterior embellishment, but the interior of the Sagrada Familia is exquisite and awe-inspiring in its straightforward beauty.  The ceiling is high, the verticality airy, and the hyperbolic arches achieving their desired forest effect.  I felt a connection with Gaudi in our mutual feeling that nature is the greatest inspiration in matters of the divine.

We visited one other modernista building, the Catalan Music Hall designed by Gaudi's mentor, and this interior was again inspirational.  I loved the tile mosaic muses around the stage, the light and whimsy, and for the first time began to understand why these buildings were so ground-breaking at the time: hell, these interiors feel ground-breaking still.

Flamenco!

Ha, flamenco! The passion, the rhythm, the sweat spray when the male lead spins whilst giving you your center-of-the-front-row flamenco lap dance. Oh yes, mom staked out the "intimate" seats, and it was truly special.

El fight del toro

We decided to witness a bullfight. As meat eaters we didn't feel a strong argument against the killing of the bull, and figured it's a cultural thing, so we bought a cheap seat and a large beer, and headed to the bull ring.

A bull fight is a strange spectacle, and we didn't enjoy it, and we met many an adult Spaniard who had never seen one, which makes us think it's a dying activity (small pun?).  To tell more about it would likely err into the beer-induced jokes we cracked at the activity's expense, at which point most would cringe and de-friend me.  It's dark humor invented whilst watching dark deeds...

The Moors and their amazing sense of style!

Southern Spain was once Moorish Spain, and the architecture in the region was largely preserved, which is good because the moors were awesome interior decorators! Their attention to detail, skill with patterns and symmetry, and fine craftsmanship set the alcazars of Granada and Seville apart from the cathedral norm.  Coming from Istanbul, the connection is easily made between the Islamic architectures. 

In Spain, the defeat of the Moors, who were mathematical and quite tolerant, by Ferdinand and Isabella, who were pretty much the opposite, lead to the unified Spain that discovered America and harboured (hehe) the world's most formidable naval fleet. Ferdinand and Isabella were abominable with their inquisition and religious dictatorship, and there is, for me, sadness in visiting such splendor that the culture behind it was so harshly treated.

The Alhambra in Granada is the most visited building in Spain, and boy do those tour guides usher you through at warp speed!  For this reason, the Seville alcazar shone, as our afternoon visit after the tour groups and in a light summer rain held an aura of enchantment that's hard to sense when surrounded by cameras snapping away.

Tapas y paseos, we must be in Espana!

The grand finale of my odyssey is a two-week stint in Spain with the fam!  We arrived on a Saturday just in time for a quick nap to rally for the late, legendary Spanish nights our guidebook promised.  Sure enough, we ventured out for dinner at 9:30 and visited 2 tapas bars over the next 3 hours.  We noted that, at midnight, the table next to us had multiple elementary-age children at it.  The paseo, spanish for walking around, seeing and being seen, was bustling and spanning a spectrum of age ranges as we strolled home on the streets until 1am, 2...whew, what time is it?!  I'm pretty convinced we tapped out before those children.

But wait, what's a tapa?! Well, in theory it's a snack you have with a drink, so if you drink enough and snack enough, your meal is entirely snacks. Tapas are often something of the pork and cheese or seafood variety on top of a slice of bread (pan), but can be fried stuff (croquettes), potato pancakes, beef with sauce, tuna and olives... I'm not convinced vegetarians or people looking to maintain their current pant size should visit Spain at all. :P

Mussels, antiquities, and tear gas: Istanbul (not Constantinople)!

The circuitous journey from SE Asia to the US begins, aptly, where Asia and Europe literally meet across the Bosphorus strait: Istanbul (not Constantinople)!  What an amazing mix of history and modern, conservative and liberal, late-night and early-riser.  Between days of sightseeing and evenings dancing, I loved Istanbul.

The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul is one of the oldest, and might be one of the coolest, buildings I've ever seen. Built as a cathedral in 537, the Hagia Sophia was later converted to a mosque via plastering over tile mosaics.  Thus, peeling a few layers of plaster reveals an entire different decor--it's like a Russian doll building!  This makes history accessible and dynamic, as the building's, and Istanbul's (was Constantinople's), timeline is laid bare in tile, plaster, and paint. 

While I was in Istanbul, protests were occurring due to a mining incident that left 100s of miners dead.  Many countries I've visited had political demonstrations, and while I usually learn about the issues, I steer clear of the activities for safety reasons. Case in point: in Phnom Penh, protesting garment-workers seeking higher wages were killed by police while I was there (and I'll likely remember this every time I see, 'Hecho in Cambodia').  However, the Istanbul protesters brought the fight straight to the tourist areas and thus, I have experienced tear gas...but I  blame the authorities for that.
   

But I've got a feeling, that tonight's gonna be a good night, because this town parties in a way that makes America feel like amateur hour!  After dancing on tightly-packed floors in rooftop bars under the moon, we'd walk home at 3am down streets full of performers, vendors, and lucid versus vomiting people.  This night culture invigorated me, so I stopped at a steamed mussel vendor, and I had to agree with the pub crawl host:  mussels from the seas surrounding Istanbul are the best.  They are steamed and savory, full of rice and the mussel--but, how does getting the rice inside work?  That's nobody's business but the Turks.