dresden

 It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything here.. I blame it on work and bad weather for photography. These are some photos from Dresden, part of my vacation in Germany this past summer. Some big changes coming my way.. my time here in the Netherlands is finally coming to an end it seems. My internship is almost up and after that it looks like I’ll be heading back to Canada and see where things take me from there! I’m both excited and really anxious about the move. I’m really used to life here now so I think it will be a bit strange being back home at first but there are definitely some things I’ve missed since I’ve been living here. Anyways, I want to try to make the most of my last few months here so I will try to take as many photos as possible. Hope to share more soon.

mitte

 More photos from Berlin this summer. I’m really missing that city.. hope to find an excuse to go back soon!

september

 I was back in Vancouver for the month of September and was able to do a little weekend road trip into Washington state. My friend Ellen has a place by Mount Baker that we’ve been going to since high school and I was really excited to get to go back again. It was really awesome to spend some time in the wilderness [those things in the distance in the second picture are elk!]. I have more photos from this trip that I will share soon.. hopefully along with more from Berlin and also Venice!

In other news I started work on Monday at an architecture firm in Amsterdam and I’m quite liking it so far. Can’t believe November is half over already!

berlin!

Again, it’s been forever.. haha. I decided just to crop the photos from Berlin instead of rescanning them since I wasn’t happy with the results last time I used the school’s scanner.. I think these look alright. But argh, now I’m so far behind with developing my photos.. I just got back from Venice just over a week ago and took lots there as well. Venice is truly amazing and I had a really great time! Will post more about it in the future but for now here are some pictures from Berlin back in July during a walk through Friedrichshain. I can’t wait to go back to that city.

on the street in paris

 Most of these photos were taken in the St. Germain area of Paris.. one of my favourite neighbourhoods for walking around in. Paris is a very walkable city.. especially when the weather was as nice as it was a few weeks ago. It was great to browse the shops in the area and of course I had to stop at Ladurée [I did twice while we were in Paris actually..haha]. I took a picture almost exactly like the fourth photo last time I was in Paris.. interesting to see how small things have changed.

Feeling a bit better now about the state of things here in NL.. we had a bit of a studio crisis as our P4 presentation date was moved a week earlier than we expected, but after a bit of pressure we’ve convinced our tutor to move it back.. so we’ve actually gained a much needed extra 2 weeks. Still things are going to be busy.. I’m trying to work on job applications and my online portfolio/website on top of studio work. At least I’ll feel comfortable devoting a day or two to that this weekend now that we know we’ve got some extra time.

Anyways, hope you’re enjoying spring!

le louvre

The Louvre was spectacular as always. Despite having visited it several times before, I always enjoy coming back. Although it does seem every time I visit the museum it’s busier than ever. We saw a lot of the ‘must sees’ but it was a pretty short visit in the end since we had a lot on our list for that day. The last picture is kind of blurry but I liked the effect of it better than it’s non-blurry counterpart.. sums up the atmosphere outside the Louvre more fittingly.. ordered yet slightly chaotic.

Hoping it will warm up a bit here over the weekend.. I’ve been longing to have a picnic outside but it’s hard to tell if the weather will hold out long enough these days. I had put my winter coat away but I found myself wearing it a few times in the last week.. come on spring! More photos soon

bonjour

Our trip to Paris was great, although a little short. We decided taking the train was the best option since you can get it direct from Rotterdam which is definitely more convenient and relaxing than flying [for me at least]. Although we were only there Wednesday-Saturday early afternoon we managed to see and do a lot.. including finding reasonably-priced and good quality sushi. Japanese food is pretty much my favourite and here in the Netherlands it’s usually super overpriced and underwhelming  [compared to what I'm used to in Vancouver at least], so I’m always super excited to have sushi when I travel. More photos to come.. these are just a few street shots taken on the first afternoon there. Couldn’t have asked for better weather!

copenhagen

 When we visited Sweden a couple weeks ago, Leah and I flew via Copenhagen since it was the closest main airport to where we were staying. Also with Copenhagen being only a 40 minute train ride from Lund, it made sense to make a couple of visits. These photos were take on the first visit where we basically spent time browsing thrift stores and wandering around the city centre.. the second trip was architecture focused. I was able to meet up with my friend Alex from Vancouver [photo 7] and we spent the afternoon together. All I have to say is Danes and Swedes are some of the most stylish people around! I really wish I had more money to shop there…

Photos from the Swedish side of the trip soon!

[PS - sorry for the bad quality in some of these photos, had to scan them myself because the photo shop made a mistake with my order]

last stop: wuppertal

 The last place we stopped on our roadtrip before heading back to NL was Wuppertal because Leah and I were adamant about seeing the Schwebebahn. I kid you not I had dreamt about this place before.. so I just had to go! The Schwebebahn is a floating tram system that’s been in use in Wuppertal since the beginning of the 1900s.. pretty amazing. It looks a little bit like some futuristic dystopian structure but it’s really great.. riding on it was almost like an amusement park ride. Overall I think we were all pretty glad we took the time to stop in Wuppertal and explore the city a bit.

I’ll be super busy for the next week working towards a big presentation on the 27th and then I’m leaving right after for 4 days for a little post-presentation/pre-birthday vacation.. so it might be a while until I post again but I’ll try to at least share a few photos from Scandinavia before long.

trier

 During our road trip we made a stop in the German city of Trier. Although we only stayed long enough to take a walk through the centre it seemed like a pretty interesting place with lots of history. The Porta Nigra [last 2 photos] is an old Roman city gate.. pretty amazing that it’s still in such good condition. I think my gloves may have gotten in the way on a couple of these photos in the top corner.. it was bitterly cold and really hard to work the camera without freezing my fingers off!

Thankfully the cold spell in this part of Europe has passed and it looks like we’ll be getting above 10 degrees pretty consistently soon. Looking forward to spring!