Pilgrimage day 7-9

Photos:

Typical Israeli breakfast

The Seat of the Universal House of Justice

Bahji gardens on the outskirts of Akka (x3)

The Shrine of the Bab

Pilgrimage day 6

Akka 

Pilgrimage day 5

Pilgrimage Day 3

Some more photos from Haifa.

Pilgrimage day 1-2

Words aren't enough; here are some photos. (Haven't even taken many photos yet in order to preserve the reverence of every moment)

Photos:
1. Predawn Tel Aviv
2. Pilgrim reception center
3. Pathway to the Shrine of the Báb
4. Simple path in one of the gardens

The Traveling Space Man is back!

I am currently en route to Haifa, Israel, where I will visit the Baha'i gardens and other sites which comprise a Baha'i pilgrimage. Current status: airport purgatory in Warsaw, Poland. (The animated gif that should be playing with this post a series of shots from my landing in Warsaw. Not sure if I was allowed to use my camera then...) It was interesting to land after 9 hours aboard a Boeing Dreamliner and see two big U.S. Air Force personnel/bomb carriers on the runway. I guess that's a result of Russia's recent moves (America is a strong ally of Poland's).

Although I considered getting out of the airport and checking out Warsaw's Old Town (completely destroyed by the Nazi's in WWII, and completely rebuilt afterwards), I decided against it after reading about many, many accounts of fraud, pick-pocketry, and other mal-intent that occcurs on the bus connecting the airport to the city's main tourist attraction. Also, leaving and re-entering the airport would involve about 4 hours of security and customs.

Madrid & heading home...

Well, I fly home tomorrow! It's been a great 3 weeks (feels like more), but there's something nice about the comforts of home. Even better, my flights start and end at reasonable times of day (Theoretically. I did some research a while back and found that all airlines are late about 20% of the time and none were better than 18%... how depressing.).

I missed blogging about Madrid, but I feel justified in doing it now since I'm back there briefly. The city itself didn't impress me much (every city I've ever been to pales in comparison to London), but it does have some cool stuff. The Prado Museum is one of the best of the world, and given that I've now been to several of the best museums in the world (MNAC in Barcelona, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and the Royal Gallery and British Museum in London), I can justifiably talk about it. The Prado was my personal favorite of all of them because I really love some of the Spanish paintings of the past few hundred years. I found that most of the super famous painters didn't seem that great to me, especially compared with the excellent but relatively unknown works sitting side-by-side the famous ones. The creativity involved with creating some of the Spanish landscape paintings and the emotion portrayed in some paintings of significant moments in history and fiction affected me a lot more than the endless rooms filled with various artists' interpretations of Christ's crucifixion. Honestly, I think there must have been at least 500 years where no one painted anything except for Jesus being born and Jesus dying. What about the rest of His life (and the rest of the world)? Isn't that what makes His birth and death so relevant? Alas...

Another interesting sight in Madrid is the old royal palace. Unfortunately, they don't allow you to take pictures of the inside, but the pics below are of the courtyard. The inside is possibly the most opulent space in the world (I haven't seen the Vatican, though -- that might put up a fight). It puts the phrase "living like a king" to shame. It's hard to find anything in that place that isn't covered in gold or silver. There's a whole room which is covered with uncracked porcelain. The king's bedroom is larger than most houses. And so are his dressing chambers. And every room in the place. There's a 400-year-old string quartet where each instrument is worth over $30 million. It's just crazy.

Segovia

04/06:

Well, it's just about the end of my trip (tomorrow is my last day), and I couldn't think of a better place to end it. I'm sitting now in a stone-walled garden all to myself with a little fountain, warm sun, cool breeze, and green grass peppered with bright red little poppies. Little cottony seeds from some tree float freely in the wind. The valley beyond the stone wall holds remnants of a 2000-year-old Roman aqueduct, and to top it all off, there's an old castle just up the hill. Yes, this really is the way to finish this memorable adventure.

Segovia is a quaint place. It's amazing how a little town like this can change so little over the millennia. Madrid was too much "city" for me (people shouting all the time, everyone in a rush, prostitutes and shady gold buyers lining the streets...), but this is the Spain of legends. Of course, you can't really have a modern job here (career options include selling things to tourists, and providing services for people who sell things to tourists), but it's great to visit.

Late post: La Sagrada Familia

This is from a few days ago, but bear with me :)

On my second (and last) day in Barcelona, I followed the advice of some friends (and every tourist guide in the world) and coughed up the admission fee to go inside La Sagrada Familia church. Simply put, it is amazing. Maybe even awe-inspiring. I've gone inside several of the great & famous churches here in Europe (and plenty of ordinary ones in America), and none of them hold a candle to La Sagrada Familia. While it looks a bit like a mud sculpture on the outside, it is an uplifting hall of light and color within.

Espana: Another World

31/05:

Flew into Barcelona this morning, which meant getting up at 4am... curse you easyJet! First thing I noticed is that people weren't exaggerating when they said that everyone speaks English here. It took a few hours before I could actually get someone to speak to me in Spanish. Of course, all that changed when I ventured out to my hostel this evening, which is in a "real" Spanish neighborhood to the north of Park Guell (pronounced like "gway"). Out here away from the tourist-driven downtown, you really get a feel for what Spanish life is like (as much as possible without living it yourself, anyway). And in that Spanish life, they don't speak English. I was made humorously aware of this when the lady at the hostel's check-in desk couldn't pronounce my name. (Native Spanish speakers can't make the "th" sound)

The sights today included a few rides on a hop-on, hop-off bus tour, a pass through the Picasso museum (really interesting to see stuff from his childhood through to the crazy weird stuff most people know him for), an awesome Catalan lunch, and lots of wandering around the streets of the Barri Gotica.

CERN

29/05:

A friend of a friend (shout-outs to Stefanie and Gianluca!) gave me a great tour of CERN today. CERN, by the way, stands for Csomethingfrench Esomethingfrench Rsomethingfrench Nsomethingfrench -- it's a research center with a few thousand scientists working away at solving some of physics' big questions by smashing protons and/or lead ions together at about 99.9% of the speed of light.

In the evening, the rain which had been plaguing the country since I arrived let up and let the sun shine spectacularly through. Switzerland may be the most beautiful place I've ever seen (and that's saying something).

Hiking Montreux

Feeling a bit under the weather today, I decided to get over the weather by hiking up a mountain! Okay, maybe the logic doesn't work there, but it's what happened anyway. It was a tough choice today: tour one of the world's most delicious chocolate factories, or hike some of the world's most beautiful mountains? My compromise was to hike the mountains, then buy a whole bunch of chocolate.

The hike was spectacular. Most of it was very similar to what can be found in the Pacific Northwest in America, but it all had a unique Swiss character (especially the views at the top).

After the hike (about 10 miles), I came back down to Montreux and walked along the shores of Lake Geneva. There is a beautiful pedestrian area that stretches for a few miles, lined with little shops, a casino, and what must be ridiculously expensive hotels. There were also some swans which moved into attack formation and hissed at me when I tried to sit by the peaceful lake.