I spent about two weeks traveling in France and Spain at the end of last year / beginning of this year. It was an otherworldly experience for me, having never been outside of the USA before. Being immersed in a different culture with very little knowledge of their language can be a bit jarring, but once I embraced it things really started clicking and I came back with one of the most memorable experiences of my life.

I have yet to get through all of my photos from the journey but here are some that I've processed:

Dec 22nd 2009
Welcome to Paris. The view down from our apartment. I really enjoyed having an actual apartment during this part of the trip, cooking and eating fresh food (especially in the morning) was really excellent, along with the rest of the amenities that an actual apartment gives over a hostel.

Dec 22 2009
The courtyard in our apartment building.

Dec 23 2009
From the top of the Pompidou Centre. This museum seemed rather mediocre to me. But this view was pretty sweet.

Dec 23 2009
One of the installations in the Pompidou.

Dec 23 2009
2nd night in Paris, ate some amazing Moroccan food (and had my first Turkish coffee), walked through the Louvre courtyard, across the park, and down the Champs-Élysées Christmas market to the Arc de Triomphe. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is here. This day was my first full day of Paris, and the history exuded by seemingly every building I walked past was almost overwhelming.

Dec 26 2009
Inside the Louvre - this museum is one of the largest in the world and since it took 5 hours to explore one floor of one wing I can see why. The perspective of history covered in this place easily overloaded my capacity for appreciating and understanding art. It would take years to really get through everything here. The sculpture "Victory" probably left the biggest influence on me (I'll have pics of it up later).

Dec 26 2009
The particular wing we explored was the Denon wing. In the Denon wing hangs the Mona Lisa, which is a tiny little painting painted by some guy a long time ago; it's fairly famous, and might hold the secrets of the universe. Obviously it draws a lot of viewers, and this is what it's like from about the middle of the room. Opposite of the Mona Lisa is a huge painting that was much easier to view (it was seriously big) and had cats in it (gigantic cats).

More Paris plus Christmas Day coming next!