The Oza Post: July 2010

The stage at night! Crazy lights and lasers and music! No David Guetta unfortunately =(

More lights.

Another truck!

Duisburg Love Parade - Issue 10 - July 24th-25th

Left home in Aachen: 8:30 AM Saturday to head to Duisburg. Returned home at 4:00 AM early Sunday morning. Yes, most of the group from Aachen went to Duisburg to see the world famous Love Parade. Luckily we got there early enough to be not involved in the stampede that killed 19 and injured about 400. It was still pretty packed there! 1.4 million people were there and supposedly the venue could only fit 250,000-350,000. Just imagine how crowded it was!!! It was basically a parade with about 16 trucks that went in a circle each playing different music, and people dancing everywhere. Then, there was a huge stage where world famous DJ's from all over the world played techno music from 17:00 to 23:00. David Guetta was supposed to be the finale but he did not show up because of the incident that occurred earlier. The HUGE crowd had to walk to the main station, a 2 hour walk, and then catch the trains back to their respective cities. 1.4 million people trying to get home at the same time- not a pleasant scene. After hours of walking, we got on a train, transferred once and made it back in Aachen and found ourselves home after a VERY FUN, EXCITING, EXHILARATING, and EXTREMELY TIRING DAY. See pictures!

"The Tunnel" This is where the tragic incident happened. We were walking through the same tunnel hours before it happened.

Adding to the hat collection!

One of the trucks at the parade!

Me in the crowd.

The main stage and the crowd.

Paris 5 - Issue 9 - July 16th-18th

An Insect Hostel!! Only in Paris!

Bike stand- these are all over the city. You can rent one of these bikes from one stand, bike through the city and drop it off at another stand! We used these bikes to travel through the city at night!

A huge open area by the river where all kinds of people come and dance - Tango, Salsa, etc.

The Louvre at night!

Notre Dame!!

Paris 4 - Issue 9 - July 16th-18th

King Henri the IV's friends threw a party, got drunk, and some artist sculpted 300 of their faces and put them all over the bridge in Paris.

Bridge

The Louvre!

"Art" - a bunch of randomly sized pillars in the middle of a square.

Paris 3 - Issue 9 - July 16th-18th

Garden in Paris.

Finish line of Tour de France.

Paris 2 - Issue 9 - July 16th-18th

With the tower from a distance.

The Legend-ary tower!

View below from the tower.

From the tower.

View of Paris from the tower.

Paris 2 - Issue 9 - July 16th-18th

From the top of the Eifel Tower.

View from the Eifel.

Top of the tower.

Another view.

Paris - Issue 9 - July 16th-18th

Next stop- Paris!!! CouchSurfed there and the host showed me around town, we biked to the center of town at night and saw the city at night which was fun! Also did the walking tour during the day which was pretty cool. Checked out the Eifel Tower. See pictures!

Eifel Tower

I am taller than the tower, who knew!

Maastricht - Issue 9 - July 11th

World Cup final!! On the day we returned from Heidelberg. Holland versus Spain. Of course, I had to go to Holland to watch the craziness. Funny story on the bus ride there: me and my friend DT were going there and the police stopped the bus and checked for everyone's passport. I had mine of course, but my friend did not. He got kicked off the bus and got detained by the police and was threatened that he would go to jail if his land lord did not drive his passport over to the police checkpoint! Fun game to watch!