Rainbow over Lake Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

It was a lovely day in Switzerland as we walked around Lake Geneva! The water of the Jet d'eau and the sun created a beautiful rainbow. It was so nice seeing the whole rainbow. So lovely!

View from the Eiffel Tower of Paris, Paris, France

Ever since I first came to Paris, I've always thought that it's such a beautiful city. We went up to the top of the Eiffel Tower and as we waited for the sun to set, we got a great view of all the city, with the Sacre Couer in the distance. Lovely!

Beautiful Fuschia Flowers, Burford, Cotswolds, England, United Kingdom

My oh my! It has been a while! When my family came to visit me in Europe, they started their trip in the UK. We went to visit the beautiful Cotswolds and were very lucky that it was a nice sunny day. On a small stop on our day trip from London, we stopped in the quaint, small town of Burford. Here, I came across these beautiful flowers - I'd say they are the prettiest ones I've seen in my life! 

Murals of Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

Belfast is a very interesting city, the capital of Northern Ireland, a group of 6 counties on the island of Ireland, but a part of the United Kingdom. It's a city affected by decades of "the Troubles" and a still present divide between nationalists and unionists, between Protestants and Catholics. We took a black cab tour around to the murals and came across this quote by Bill Clinton, who wrote this on the wall some years before. Due to weather and preservation reasons, it was permanently engraved onto this metal arch piece. It was so interesting hearing about all the murals!

The Breathtaking Cliffs of Moher, County Clare, Ireland

Ireland, what a lovely place! We took a day trip from Dublin on a rare sunny day and were able to go over the West coast of Ireland. These were part of the Cliffs of Moher. The O'brien Castle sits atop one of the cliffs. So breathtaking!

Inside the Nasrid Palaces, Alhambra, Granada, Spain

Over winter break, I also went to the Andalusian region of Spain. It was very beautiful and I attempted to practice my Spanish! My favorite city of the 4 (Malaga, Granada, Cordoba, Sevilla) was definitely Granada. While there, we definitely had to visit the Alhambra. Our ticket to the Alhambra gave us a time slot to visit the Nasrid Palaces. This was inside of the Palace. Such beautiful architecture! I like how this wall seems like a mix of ancient and modern, including the chairs.

Felucca Ride on the Nile River, Cairo, Egypt

So over my winter break, I finally made it to my 6th continent - Africa, particularly Egypt. It was such an amazing trip and the weather was mostly great! I stayed in Cairo with Kristin, and we also took a trip over Christmas to the town of Dahab along the Red Sea. In Cairo, we took a ride on a felucca on the Nile River at sunset. It was slow and didn't really go far at all, but was nice nonetheless. This was our felucca driver(?). More pictures to come soon I think!

Press page mention!

...And this is what you get when you click the link:
Ok, and this is the second of the non-photo blog posts, but I thought it was cool. Don't ask me why, but I was googling my blog and I stumbled upon this press page for Annenberg Space for Photography. I'm listed on there along with the real press. Funny, I know. Just thought it was cool!

The actual blog post: http://victoriasphotodiary.blogspot.com/2010/02/50365-2000-avenue-of-stars-annenberg.html

And the link to the Annenberg Space for Photography press page: http://www.annenbergspaceforphotography.org/press-resources/press-clips_Q110.asp

K, photos to come shortly!

I (was) a Top Stamper on visastamper!

Ahhh, it has been a long while! Since I have a paper due in a few days, perfect time to blog again! You know, since I haven't done it in so long.

Before I post some photos from recent travels, just wanted to post some personal developments as of lately. So, there's this cool website called Visa Stamper where you log-in where you are and it generates a passport stamp in your virtual passport. Also, since it just launched December 2011, you can add in information about past traveling and they will look over it and approve. Anyway, I was excited because last week I went on and I was on the main page's "top stampers" board - score! Look for alohavictoria. This was cool, but since then they've changed some of the rules so I've since fallen out of the top, but not far behind. Also, this could just be because they just launched and there's not many members, but whatever...I shall bask in the glory! My passport is one of my favorite possessions and this is a testament to it. Hooray!

Check out my passport: http://www.visastamper.com/profile/alohavictoria

Happy new year! Hope everyone has a great 2012!