Côte d'Azur, France (09/27/2012-09/30/2012)

I've found paradise, and surprisingly, it's in  Southern France. Not much to say other than it was just a real treat to feel the warm Mediterranean sun, eat fresh local produce, drive on serpentine roads criss-crossing the mountains and look at some of the nicest clear blue water and skies I've seen in a long while.  People were friendly, wasn't too crowded (could be the time of year), and surprisingly, it was not nearly as expensive as I had feared (even property prices are not crazy in most places).

That said, I wasn't alone in my assessment - many of the world's wealthy (Russian oligarchs especially) call the French Riviera home, and the sight of yachts, €500 million houses (no lie - it's pictured below), and personal firework extravaganzas hint to some dynamics underneath the surface that may disprove my above hypothesis... but I didn't have a chance to find out.  Definitely a place to come back to (and of course it goes without saying that it was great to see family after so long).

Florence and Rome, Italy (09/24/2012-09/27/2012)

Our next stop in the trip was Italy - specifically Rome and Florence.  I was quite surprised that Bucharest was cleaner than Rome given Italy obviously had better circumstances over the past 50 years. Most of the pictures (up until the pyramid) are of Florence.  Speaking of pyramids, I was actually quite surprised to stumble across one in Rome of all places; it turns out around 15 BC, Gaius Cestius, a Roman magistrate, inspired by the Egyptian (or possibly later Nubian) pyramids, sought to have one built for himself for when he passed.

Florence was absolutely beautiful and the buildings had exquisite attention to detail. Every last surface was carved, or decorated in some fashion.  It's that sort of pervasiveness of art and pride in civic spaces I think we strongly lack here in North America.  The highlight was climbing to the top of Il Duomo (Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore) which in itself was a steep,dark and narrow climb - well worth the view.

Rome was mostly for family - so we did not sight see much - that said, we had a brief stroll through the Jewish Quarter on Yom Kippur (a Jewish lunch served by very some jovial yet highly political Egyptians was a fun point of irony).

Bucharest, Romania II (09/21/2012-09/23/2012)

Bucharest, the capital of my home country, was our first stop in a brief whirlwind trip across 7 European countries. While the purpose of this trip was to see family (some which I hadn't seen in 20 years), respecting their privacy, I'll just post scenery. 

I was utterly impressed with how clean and developed Bucharest is, even vis-a-vis 2007, just as it entered the EU.  Obviously there is no comparison with what I first saw in 1988 and then during the 1990s (after Ceausescu's fall).  I felt Romania with a renewed sense of optimism and I believe in its bright future. Building have been restored, people look happier, food is more plentiful and they even had a double-decker tour bus (which we shamelessly rode).   What was even more remarkable is the ugly 'bloc' housing - those drab grey depressing mass housing efforts of the communist era, were all get reconditioned with colorful and new facades. Definitely will be back again soon.