Oh my goodness, it is taking so long to sort through these photos! I have succeeded in touching up all my Portugal pics, which you can see at www.pbase.com/edoyle/portugal. Note that there are three galeries: one for Lisbon, one for Sintra, and one for Cabo de Roca. Enjoy! More to come tomorrow!

I have just returned from an incredible journey to Lisbon and Madrid with three of my cousins. We saw so much (and ate so much) that I will have to break the trip up into multiple posts, so check back often for updates. I'll post a few photos now in an attempt to whet your appetite, but it may take another day to sort through and edit all the pictures. Here are a few previews:

A view of Lisbon from the castle:

What do you get when you put three Kosts and a Doyle in the back of a taxi? Lots of laughter and a few pulled muscles. From left to right: Victoria, Emily, Theresa, and Diana

The castle in Sintra, Portugal:

Cabo de Roca, the westernmost point in all of Europe. I suppose that before the discovery of the Americas, this was the edge of the Earth.

Emily and Victoria in the Parque de Retiro, Madrid.

More to come soon!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!


Isn't she so pretty? And she's sweet, funny, energetic, a little crazy (that's where I get it), and hands-down the best cook in town (regardless of the town). AND she's cool. I couldn't ask for a better mom of friend. Alles Gute zum Geburtstag! Happy Birthday!

Love you, Mom. Have a super-fantastic day!

We took a day trip to Eisenach, a town in Thuringia that prides itself in being the birthplace of Bach as well as home to the famed Wartburg castle. The castle has been rebuilt over the years (including a restoration that was championed by Goethe) and doesn't look like a medieval castle anymore, but it's stone walls are steeped in history. St. Elizabeth lived there before devoting her life to service, and Martin Luther hid out there after being excommunicated from the church. I would tell you more about the history of the place, but the guided tour that we took was in German, and although I can now order a bratwurst with complete confidence, I cannot yet translate history lessons. However, the view from the castle needs no translation; the beauty of the German countryside speaks for itself:

Check out the windmills!

A view of the castle from outside:

A view of the castle from inside:

The Great Hall, where presumably the infamous mintstrel's competition took place (as told in Wagner's opera, Tannhauser.

This is Martin Luther's room, where he translated the Bible into German. The desk and chair are replicas, but the whale vertebra footstool (!) is original.

The road down the mountain...

A view out of one of the castle windows:

Two posts in one day, it's so exciting! (Don't piddle yourself.) I've uploaded my photos from last weekend in Berlin to my pbase photo album, which is much better suited for housing lots of pictures. The Berlin album can be found here. The trip was incredibly overwhelming, and I felt like Berlin beat me quite handily. I never got a good sense of the city, and perhaps that is because the feeling changes depending on which street corner you're on. There are (at least) 3 cultures in Berlin: East Berlin, West Berlin, and the strange overarching reunification culture of East mixed with West. Plus there's the Berlin nightlife (it's the hotspot in the EU these days, though I was too exhausted at the end of every day to actually go check it out), the enormous Turkish influence (man, those were some delicious Doner Kebaps!), and also the constant reminder of the War. There is construction everywhere, which gives the impression that Berlin itself is still trying to figure out exactly what it wants to be. But the architecture was quite impressive, the Reichstag was staggeringly powerful and beautiful, and I saw some great art (including my first gaze upon an original Brueghel which moved me more that I had expected) and mind-blowing archeological exhibits (including the Gates of Ishtar). Be sure to check out the pictures on the pbase site, but I will also include a few below just to highlight the confusion I felt in Berlin.

First stop in Berlin: Dunkin Donuts. That's right, you heard me. Sweet, delicious, sugary, creamy, Dunkin Donuts. America runs on Dunkin, and Lordy B, so do I.

It was my birthday, so I ate cake (or donuts) at every meal. Shake, shake, get some cake!

Here's some more intriguing German signage. This sign was located right near Checkpoint Charlie. I took a picture of it because I had NO idea what it could possibly mean.

Upon further contemplation, I realized that if you turned the sign upside-down, it was the picture of the East-German soldier jumping over barbed-wire. But why?

We toured an outdoor exhibit located along a portion of the Berlin Wall called Topographies of Terror. I was so exhausted by this point that I wasn't able to take much in, but they did have some incredibly cool maps of Berlin pre-WWII. Or, as the sign said above this particular sign, "Berlin bevor 1920." The Germans pronounce the "v" like an "f" so I suppose that spelling made complete sense to them. I thought of Maria, she would have like all the maps. After all, Berlin is her favorite city ("I should have been born German!" she has said to me more than once), and maps are her favorite pasttime. What is it that Pat Conroy said in The Prince of Tides? "My wound is geography. It is also my anchorage, my port of call." Maria, vor you.

Germans keep fantastic gardens! The long, steep walk from the bus stop to the concrete East German apartment housing that I live in (which is torture, I say!) is alleviated by the slew of beautiful gardens and window-flowers that line the walk. Some photos of the botanical beauties that greet me every morning and evening:




This is my favorite house to look at every day...

I've named these little garden people Josef and Ingrid. I don't know much German, but I like to say, "Guten Morgen, Josef. Guten Morgen, Ingrid." Josef smokes his pipe in return.