Le Musée du Louvre

The one and only. A place so huge that it takes two whole days to see most of it. Its most famous pieces are the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo.

The Mona Lisa is a lot smaller than I'd expected, probably the size of a bathroom mirror. You had to wait in line to see it.

Venus de Milo is just as famous and the crowds are just as big.

And here is the back side of the statue, which you rarely get to see.

We only spent a few hours at the Louvre, so we just ran from exhibit to exhibit and took shots of anything that looked interesting along the way.

This one got my attention because it wasn't like any of the other statues. It's gold and silver plated from head to toe. The camera doesn't do it any justice.

Paris: Architecture

Some interesting buildings I've seen while running errands around town. They're not monuments or landmarks, just normal everyday buildings that have some interesting features.

A decorated arch leading into a courtyard.


This one is actually an elementary school. The walls have protruding fingers, hands, and feet.I found it to be an interesting way to decorate something that's meant to keep the children from sneaking out.

Eiffel Tower Lightshow

A better view of the sparkling Eiffel Tower from across the Seine river.

Springtime in Paris

The whole city has been blooming for a few weeks now. The most noteworthy are the sakura trees in the city.

They come nowhere close to the sakura trees in DC, but it's still a good show.

The State of Paris

Paris is a city, but it is also a department (sort of like a state). There are mini-cities inside it, twenty of them to be specific, each of them with its own mayor and city hall. This is the city hall for the 15th arrondissement where I live (the biggest in area).

Buenos Aires: Street Shows

Buenos Aires has had a tourist boom ever since the peso got devalued 3 to 1. Now there are tourists all over the city (mainly from Brazil) and people put up shows with whatever talent they might have to make a buck. I've seen magicians, hip hop dancers, even a guy who would walk on broken glass and nails for money.

Here's a street party in San Telmo. I'm pretty sure they were smoking something to act this weird.


La murga, a Argentine style of music. Fast paced with lots of drums and percussion.



The best show I saw was a street stand-up comic called El Chileno. It was like two in the morning but there were at least two hundred people in the crowd. It was one of the most memorable things I did during my trip, and it didn't cost a dime.

Buenos Aires: Demonstrations

Demonstrations and marches are an everyday event in the city. There's always a "paro" (strike) by some group protesting about something on any given day, be it teachers, retirees, unions, you name it.

The two main places where people go make some noise are Congreso and Plaza de Mayo (where the Casa Rosada is, the equivalent to the White House).

A march in front of Congreso:


Protests have become part of the population's human nature, and it's no surprise given how bad the country is doing. And it starts very young, even as early as middle school.

Buenos Aires

I found some photos from my trip to Buenos Aires last year. It had been almost ten years since we had left Argentina. Parts of the city were hardly recognizable.

El Puente de la Mujer (Women's Bridge), by Santiago Calatrava (famous Spanish Architect). It's in Puerto Madero, the old port of the city.

Puerto Madero used to be nothing but crumbling old buildings when I left ten years ago. It's now the richest area in the city. They have soldiers patrolling the area all the time, so it's one of the few places places in the city with no crime.

Congreso. I used to live a few blocks from this place.


Most people in Argentina are of Spanish or Italian ancestry, but there is a huge Jewish community as well. Here's a McKosher in the Abasto neighborhood.

Buenos Aires: Parks

Modeled after the great cities of Europe like Paris and Madrid, Buenos Aires has some truly beautiful parks spread out here and there.






They are the relics from the glory days of the country. It was once said that Argentina had a head of cow for every brick on the road.

Buenos Aires: Tango

The Tango, a French import that Argentina made its own. I don't know anyone my age that knows how to dance it, but you can still see some of the older folks having a good old time, like at this park in the San Telmo neighborhood.


Video:


Dance troupes perform shows near most tourist attractions. This is in an area called Centro near Galerías Pacífico.


By the way, Galerías Pacífico is probably the fanciest shopping mall I've seen so far aside from Galeries LaFayette in Paris. It's like a cathedral dedicated to the art of shopping.

Buenos Aires: Obelisco

Obelisco, probably what the city is best known for. It sits in the middle of the Avenida 9 de Julio, the widest avenue in the world. Its width is nearly the length of two football fields.


It's the busiest place in the city. There are billboards all over and it's right next to the theather district, so it sort of feels like another version of Times Square.


There's a bit of Champs-Élysées to it as too, with monuments, statues, and trees lining the avenue through some of the more posh areas of the city.