recap of a life unterwegs

As promised, my fifteen favorite photos I haven't posted yet and:


a map of all the places I went (excluding the US). In dark green are the countries I went to over the semester, in red are the specific cities, and in brown are the countries I've been to before.


Constance, March
gravestone of a Jewish soldier from WWI who died fürs Vaterland (for the fatherland)
ironic, seeing as what would happen a few years later


Berlin, April
Jewish memorial


Berlin, April
Berlin Wall, East Side Gallery


Moscow, April
That disgusting statue of Peter the Great towers over Christ the Savior, one of the most beautiful churches ever.


Cairo, May
An odd statue stands in front of skyscrapers. No one knows what the statue means anymore, tho, as the lettering at its base was rubbed off.


Cairo, May
Red sails on the Nile stand out in the smoggy evening.


Luxor, May
statue of a pharaoh towards sunset


Radolfzell, May
Birds fly over the Naturschutzgebiet on Lake Constance.


Augsburg, June
sea green and yellow light


Augsburg, June
near the entrance to an art museum


Montreux (Switzerland), June
A cruise boat crosses Lake Geneva in front of the Alps.


Zurich, June
The captains of Europe's EM 2008 teams dwarf visitors in the Hauptbahnhof.


Oslo, June
Vigeland


Dubrovnik (Croatia), July
Where's the Cheshire cat?


Constance, July
I pose for the first and only time with those weird blue statues in front of the university.

So in closing, thank you for reading, thank you for all of your comments, and I hope you enjoyed. I know I did ;)

um den Bodensee wandern, oder letzer Tag mit dem Eurailpass

Yesterday was my last day with the Eurail Pass. Technically I could still use it today, but I'm too tired from my adventure yesterday! So I took the train from Constance to Radolfzell, another small town on Lake Constance (der Bodensee in German). The trip took about a half and hour, and marked the beginning of another massive hike.


I started off mucking thru the forest along the Bodensee and wound up on the outskirts of Radolfzell when I finally managed to get out. I decided to just continue in that direction, having no clue where I was going, but I had the entire day free until 8 pm, so…


There's Radolfzell in the distance.


Following Lake Constance brought me to the even smaller town of Moos, which is really quaint - a close second to Egg for prettiest tiny German town.

Next I wandered thru Iznang, another small town, and continued along the way towards Horn.


Somewhere before Horn I got this photo. This plant is a so-called "living fossil" (I learned way more about plants in my Organismic Biology class than I did about animals). It's called a horsetail (Equisetum sp.), and split off from other plants before the evolution of seeds. In the Carboniferous period the Constance region was home to horsetails that grew as tall as trees (nearly 100 feet tall!), though now only one genus of horsetails survives.


Then I walked along a nature reserve (Naturschutzgebiet) on my way back to Radolfzell, where I bought waffles and whip cream - brunch today! - and took the train back to Constance.

Before I close, I want to ask a question: Yesterday I read about a book called The Third Policeman, and I was wondering whether any of you readers had heard of (or better yet, read) it? Anyone?