Grüß Graz

In my last post almost a year ago, I said that I wouldn't be posting to this blog anymore ... well I forgot to post a link to the panoramic photos.

There are only two of them from Budapest and Graz, but they're pretty neat shots. Click here to see them.

I also re-edited a few of my shots recently to use them on my portfolio website. You can find them here.

Cheers!

Labels: Announcements

I honestly can't believe that it's been over three months since I left Graz. It seems like just yesterday I was standing on the Hauptplatz.

As promised, I am posting to tell everyone where all my trip photos are. I ended up with around 900 photos total although I haven't edited the panoramic photos that I took yet.

Graz photos
Budapest photos
Salzburg photos
Leoben photos
Vienna photos
Venice photos
Berchtesgaden photos
Füssen photos
Berlin photos

Unfortunately, this will be my last post, but I will leave the site up. Feel free to email me at jbrosher@indiana.edu with any questions or comments.

Labels: Announcements

Did I ever hit the ground running. It seems like I have been constantly busy since I returned on July 3.

After my flight arrived at 10:30 p.m. on July 3, I got up jet-lagged and all the next day to host a rather large get-together for Independence Day.

The rest of that week was spent trying unsuccessfully to unpack and edit the 1,090 photos from the trip. As sad as it sounds, I still have not unpacked my backpack from the trip. My suitcase is still on the floor in my room.

As for my photos, I started off strong getting through 500 of them in less than one week. Then I started work on July 9. Ever since I started my 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. job, I haven't had time to work on my photos because I am constantly working over. (I work at the local newspaper.)

Some of my photos are already online, but the majority of them remain unedited. I hope to have them edited before I start school on Aug. 27.

As for my reflection, I'll have that up soon, aka before Aug. 27.

Labels: Announcements

I have edited about 500 of my 1,090 photos from the trip. It's almost half, but I think it will be another week before I have them all done.

A few days ago I posted the first of my photos on my Picasa web album account. I decided that the best way to organize so many photos would be to break them up by city. The first album I posted is only Berlin photos.

Unfortunately Picasa only gives me a limited amount of storage space for my photos. This means that when I get done editing my photos, I have to resize them before I can upload them to the site.

Labels: Announcements

I am finally home after what was literally an entire day of traveling.

In Washington I was literally a zombie. A coffee from Starbucks helped, but that last flight seemed longer than my two previous flights combined.

I immediately cheered up when I reached the Dayton International Airport and got to see my mother for the first time in nearly seven weeks. Originally I did not think that being gone only seven weeks would be a big deal. It really wasn't until the last week when I started thinking about coming home.

Europe was really a life-changing experience for me, but in the end I am glad to be home again. It's not that I missed the United States of America, but rather that I missed seeing friends and family. If I ever wanted to live in Europe, I would definitely have to bring my friends and family along for the ride.

That may be possible for the next trip. A few years from now my parents will be celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary, and they are already kicking around some ideas about a trip through Europe. (I would have to come along to be the translator and guide naturally.) I'm really excited that they are even considering it. I wouldn't have to worry about homesickness since I would essentially be traveling with the home.

Wow. It's late!

Although I am very tired, I have been looking through photos from the trip on my laptop for about the past three hours. Really I need to sleep, but I am just amazed by how great the photos look.

I ended up taking only 1,090 photos. The end total will be much smaller than this because many of the photos will be stitched together to create panoramic photos. There are also a few shots that came out a bit out of focus that won't make the final set.

It will probably take me a good week to get all of them edited and put up online. I am in the process of putting up a portfolio website that will include the cream of the photos. However, all the photos will be on my Picasa web album account.

Stay posted for an announcement on that sometime next week.

Labels: Home, Travel

I'm finally back in the states after two flights, but now the long wait begins.

Apparently my travel agent thought that I needed nearly six hours between flights. I can understand two hours tops, but six hours? WTF?

I took my time getting off the plane and going through Customs and Immigration knowning that I had all day. When I got into the terminal, I saw there was a flight leaving in 3o minutes for Dayton ... my destination.

I could have made that flight! Oh well, what can I do?

Right now what I want to do is sleep. I have been literally traveling all day, and I am very tempted to just go take a nap in front of the gate. After all, I've got about five hours.

Labels: Travel

Despite the rain, some people came out to the Reichstag to do some sightseeing.

The weather today was probably the worst weather I have seen during my time in Europe. Throughout the day it was around 65 degrees Fahrenheit with a cloudy sky and light rain.

But the weather didn't stop me. Since I basically saw all the major landmarks yesterday, I spent the day seeing a few landmarks that weren't on the tour.

My first stop of the day was the Berlin Zoo. For months I have been hearing and reading about Knut, the new star of the zoo. Knut is a polar bear that was born in captivity at the zoo on December 5, 2006, and later rejected by his mother. He became known world-wide when a couple animal activists called for the zoo to let the bear die rather than raise it as a domestic pet.

The zoo didn't let that happen. Instead they used some well-played PR to introduce Knut to the world. It was hard to convince the public that the bear must die when there is footage on all the news channels of him running around being cute.

Knut was basically the only thing that interested me at the zoo. I had heard so much about this bear that I wanted to see him for myself while I was in the area.

The weather was still crappy when I left the zoo so I headed down to Unter den Linden, Berlin's "Main Street," to do some shopping.

Several credit card swipes later, I was headed back to the hostel with all my gift shopping for friends and family successfully completed.

I will probably go to bed early since I am setting my alarm for 5 a.m. tomorrow. My flight doesn't leave until 10 a.m., but I'm not exactly sure how to get there so I don't want to chance it.

Labels: Berlin