Coffee

There is a coffee shop in downtown Frankfurt that I always see with a line out the door whenever I go by. BUT, lines mean waiting and I hate waiting. Plus it's just coffee, right? I could not be more wrong.

I went in a few weeks ago and realized that this store deals in the legal version of crack.

I have never enjoyed a cup of coffee so much, nor been so wired from it. If anyone is looking for some really fantastic coffee (or cocoa) in Frankfurt, it's worth the wait.

Wacker's Cafe
http://www.wackers-kaffee.de/

Spain: Granada Street Art

I came across this street art while our bus was maneuvering a random hill in Granada...

 Watch out! He's coming to get youuuuuuuuu

Spain: Granada, Day 2

September 29, 2011
The Alhambra, where we took a three hour tour in one hour. Again, NEVER book a trip with Viator in Spain.

Possibly the best tourguide I've ever had...

A tourist's picture of tourists taking pictures...

 Although not everyone was as interested...

The only original glass remaining in the entire building...

 Site where they are renovating the lion fountain...

Spain: Granada, Day 1

September 28, 2011

I met up with my friend J later that night and we took in the city after dark, including a hilltop view of the Alhambra...

Spain: Seville, Day 1

Seville
September 27, 2011

Something I noticed while on my organized tour was that people were taking pictures of things that would be completely mundane/ridiculous/odd at home, but are somehow completely acceptable in a foreign country. While we were taking a tour in Seville, people stopped at one point to take a picture of a woman taking out her trash. She wasn't dressed crazy, the trash didn't look unusual, and the scenery wouldn't have even been obviously "Spanish" (whatever that means). But because this woman was in Spain, and not, say, our neighbor back home, it was a novel thing to photograph...we had to leave our entire country behind to recognize the interesting aspects of ordinary activities. I think that's part of the reason I always appreciate photographers who use their homes and neighbors as subject material. They manage to step back from their ordinary everyday and capture that same life as something new and interesting. They look at it, so to speak, through another lens.

My ordinary tourist pictures:

In 1929 Seville hosted the Exposicion Ibero-Americana, a world fair that intended to improve relations between Spain and the countries in attendance (mostly former Spanish colonies, heh heh...). During the 19 years prior, the city has spent enormous resources building up the expo buildings and the attending countries were also allowed to build exhibition buildings. Which they, in a grand array of styles (first picture). Naturally, as the host, Spain built the largest exhibition area, the Plaza de Espana (the rest of the pictures).
All in all, the strange conglomeration of buildings makes for a very unique and diverse neighborhood.

The Metropol Parasol, designed by German architect Jurgen Mayer, was just finished in 2011. It houses the central market and an underground archeological complex, although it was EXTREMELY difficult to find the entrance to the market. A lot of the doors led to elevators that you needed a key to use or a second door that was locked. I never managed to figure out how one got down to the archeological exhibit...

For all your protein needs...ALL of them.

And pictures of perfectly ordinary things: