It’s been a while since my last blog because I’ve been so BUSY!!! I have been traveling for the past 20 days, and I just got Abi on the plane back home so now I have time to blog…
Have you ever said, “I could eat pasta everyday”? Well I probably have… and I did during my 10 day trip in Italy. I had pasta at least for lunch or dinner everyday (sometimes both), and I’m sick of it. I have also been eating a lot of pasta in my dorm room because it is so easy. So I’m really sick of it. However it is one of my favorite foods, so I’m sure it won’t last long.
Italy was a really interesting trip because I have studied about the ancient ruins of Rome and the start of the Renaissance in Florence in my architectural history classes. When we were walking down the street I would look around and say… “This looks familiar… I know we studied this before.”
Brittany and I flew to Rome on Monday the 4th really early in the morning. We started off our sight seeing with the Colosseum and roman forum. We did a lot of walking in Rome and all of Italy because the metro system is not very good. There are so many ruins that it took Rome 45 years to get two metro lines they have. They have started a third but it could take another 20+ years to build it.
Rome was really beautiful at night, Brittany and I followed a night walking tour from my travel book. It took us by some of my favorite buildings, like the pantheon. We had to go back to all of the sites during the day so we could go in. The pantheon is really cool because the dome in side is a perfect circle. It is as wide as it is tall. Also, the oculus at the top is open- no glass. So when it rains outside it rains inside (don’t worry there are drains). I wish it had rained when we were there.
Thursday we trained to Florence. I haven’t visited so many churches since mom, dad, Ab, and I were in Germany when I was in 5th grade (I think). Florence’s most famous church is known as the Duomo, St. Maria del Fiore Basilica. The dome (duomo) is an architectural marvel. For centuries they could not figure out how to build it. The dome was much larger then what they had built before. Brunelleschi was the architect who figured it out in the 15th century.
Another tourist attraction in Florence is the statue of David by Michelangelo. The real one is in a museum (with a huge line to get in, but a short line if you make reservations!!) and the copy is in the Palazzo Vecchio. I found the unfinished statues by Michelangelo near the finished David in the museum fascinating. You can see the process it takes to make such amazing sculptures, and how one huge block of stone becomes… alive.
I had a great time shopping in Florence. They are known for leather. I fell in love with a red leather bag before I left St. Louis in February- but couldn’t afford the $100 price tag. And I found a cute red leather bag with a similar shape in Florence that I got down to 35 Euro ($50) that’s right doing the Hagy Haggle. So you could say I saved $50!! At least that’s how I like to look at it.
Sunday we trained to Venice, by far the most beautiful city in Italy. There is a main canal that divides the island in two and most of the streets are smaller canals with sidewalks along them. It is easy to walk around Venice, and much less frustrating if you just wonder. It is impossible to use a map… I’m not even kidding.
Everything is more expensive in Venice. For example a soda normally cost 1.00–1.50 Euro ($1.30-2.00) in the tourist areas of town. But in Venice it is more like 2-3 Euro. This is because everything has to be shipped into Venice. And since there are very few streets, it is all brought in by boat, and then “hand-trucked” (basically a flat wheel barrow) from the boat to each store, over the bridges and stairs. Every morning we would see young strong guys making deliveries to all of the small shops- it really takes a lot of effort.
Venice is known for its glass. Back in the day, the glass makers were kicked off of Venice because they kept starting fires and were putting the people of Venice in danger. They moved to Morano, only 20 min by public boat away. They make all kinds of things like wine stoppers, vases, jewelry.
Wednesday the 13th, Brittany and I headed back to Prague. It was such a long day. To save money we took a cheep flight to Vienna and then a bus from Vienna to Prague… 12+ hours later I was in my room. I’m so glad that after this Wednesday (when I come HOME!!!) I will not be traveling for a while- I have had enough.
Have you ever said, “I could eat pasta everyday”? Well I probably have… and I did during my 10 day trip in Italy. I had pasta at least for lunch or dinner everyday (sometimes both), and I’m sick of it. I have also been eating a lot of pasta in my dorm room because it is so easy. So I’m really sick of it. However it is one of my favorite foods, so I’m sure it won’t last long. Italy was a really interesting trip because I have studied about the ancient ruins of Rome and the start of the Renaissance in Florence in my architectural history classes. When we were walking down the street I would look around and say… “This looks familiar… I know we studied this before.” Brittany and I flew to Rome on Monday the 4th really early in the morning. We started off our sight seeing with the Colosseum and roman forum. We did a lot of walking in Rome and all of Italy because the metro system is not very good. There are so many ruins that it took Rome 45 years to get two metro lines they have. They have started a third but it could take another 20+ years to build it. Rome was really beautiful at night, Brittany and I followed a night walking tour from my travel book. It took us by some of my favorite buildings, like the pantheon. We had to go back to all of the sites during the day so we could go in. The pantheon is really cool because the dome in side is a perfect circle. It is as wide as it is tall. Also, the oculus at the top is open- no glass. So when it rains outside it rains inside (don’t worry there are drains). I wish it had rained when we were there. Thursday we trained to Florence. I haven’t visited so many churches since mom, dad, Ab, and I were in Germany when I was in 5th grade (I think). Florence’s most famous church is known as the Duomo, St. Maria del Fiore Basilica. The dome (duomo) is an architectural marvel. For centuries they could not figure out how to build it. The dome was much larger then what they had built before. Brunelleschi was the architect who figured it out in the 15th century. Another tourist attraction in Florence is the statue of David by Michelangelo. The real one is in a museum (with a huge line to get in, but a short line if you make reservations!!) and the copy is in the Palazzo Vecchio. I found the unfinished statues by Michelangelo near the finished David in the museum fascinating. You can see the process it takes to make such amazing sculptures, and how one huge block of stone becomes… alive. I had a great time shopping in Florence. They are known for leather. I fell in love with a red leather bag before I left St. Louis in February- but couldn’t afford the $100 price tag. And I found a cute red leather bag with a similar shape in Florence that I got down to 35 Euro ($50) that’s right doing the Hagy Haggle. So you could say I saved $50!! At least that’s how I like to look at it. Sunday we trained to Venice, by far the most beautiful city in Italy. There is a main canal that divides the island in two and most of the streets are smaller canals with sidewalks along them. It is easy to walk around Venice, and much less frustrating if you just wonder. It is impossible to use a map… I’m not even kidding.Everything is more expensive in Venice. For example a soda normally cost 1.00–1.50 Euro ($1.30-2.00) in the tourist areas of town. But in Venice it is more like 2-3 Euro. This is because everything has to be shipped into Venice. And since there are very few streets, it is all brought in by boat, and then “hand-trucked” (basically a flat wheel barrow) from the boat to each store, over the bridges and stairs. Every morning we would see young strong guys making deliveries to all of the small shops- it really takes a lot of effort.Venice is known for its glass. Back in the day, the glass makers were kicked off of Venice because they kept starting fires and were putting the people of Venice in danger. They moved to Morano, only 20 min by public boat away. They make all kinds of things like wine stoppers, vases, jewelry.Wednesday the 13th, Brittany and I headed back to Prague. It was such a long day. To save money we took a cheep flight to Vienna and then a bus from Vienna to Prague… 12+ hours later I was in my room. I’m so glad that after this Wednesday (when I come HOME!!!) I will not be traveling for a while- I have had enough. 
I have also been going to a few operas and ballets. Brittany and I saw opera Aida last week at the State Opera House. The singers were really good but we were confused about what was going on because they were not very good actors. It didn’t help that the opera is set in Egypt, sung in Italian with subtitles in Czech (on a digital screen above the stage). We had to read the program to understand the storyline.
And finally, last night Carrie, my roommate and our friend Sally went to see Swan Lake. I was really excited because it was shown at the National Theater, and it was my first time to see a show there. Also, I had heard so much about Swan Lake. Carrie was really excited about the tutus. It might have been due to the fact that I didn’t get much sleep the night before, but the performance was really long… I mean LONG. It was beautiful and I am glad that I got to see it.
For my birthday a bunch of friends and I went out for a sushi dinner. It was really good. Half of the group had not eaten sushi before and the other half were advanced sushi eaters, I fell somewhere in the middle. I also got myself a flowering plant. Mom and Dad always get me flowers for my birthday, but I was not going to be around during the life of the flowers so I decided to get a pretty plant instead. It has even lived through my trip to Greece. I may have to find it a good home before I leave for St. Louis, if I don’t kill it before then.
Thursday we took the hard path to the Acropolis- unintentionally. It was a rather warm day but luckily I bought a hat with a big brim so I kept out of the sun. I went the whole trip without getting burnt, I am very proud of myself. The Acropolis had a lot of reconstruction going on so Brit and I were disappointed. But it was good to see it in person since we studied it in history class. Thursday night the Benaki Museum was open late for a free entrance fee, which worked perfectly for us. Athens was a great city for European students because the entrance fee for every museum we went to was free. Because I am studying in the Czech Republic I saved at least 50 Euro. Students Cards from the US, only got you 50% off.
We also went to Applebee’s for dinner; Brittany and I were in need of some American food. It’s been 3 months and I am really starting to miss food from home. We ordered the nachos- amazing!! They don’t know what nachos are here; every time I see it on the menu it tricks me. They really mean chips and salsa not nachos which to me means melted cheese, it defines nachos…usually in the Czech Republic there isn’t even any cheese!! Anyway, it’s a little strange that my friends and I travel to other countries in Europe to get US things. Like Starbucks in Vienna, I really needed a cai latte, they don’t have those in the Czech Republic either. We try to blend in when we are in Prague, we don’t go to all of the tourist spots, but when we are in another country for some reason we don’t care if we blend in.
Friday we saw the rest of Athens, another big museum, saw the stadium where the Olympics were held a few years ago (designed by Santiago Calatrava, famous Spanish Architect) walked around the historic part of town, and bought some books to read for our trip to Santorini. 
Saturday we got up early and headed to the port to catch the ferry to Santorini Island. It’s an 8 hour trip!! That’s a long time on a ferry. At least it’s a good view. When we arrived we checked into our hotel and went to dinner and took a walk on the beach. The hotel was on the black beach, I was hard to walk on because the sand is more like gravel.
Tuesday we got back on the ferry and then took a taxi to the airport. We had planned on taking the bus, but there was a strike and the metro and busses were not running. We also found out that even the post office was on strike. It’s been a long last two days of travel blended together, but it was all lot of fun.
Saturday we got up and started the day at the Schonbrunn Palace. It is really beautiful; it was the summer Palace of the Hapsburgs, only 4 miles from the winter palace in the city center. Next we did St. Stephen’s Cathedral, and lunch. Then we saw the Hofburg Palace (the winter palace) in the city center, but since we had already seen the Schonbrunn we did not tour the apartments. We did see the Treasury which contained some really amazing jewels and priceless historical artifacts. 
The group broke up at this point (mostly because we don’t all like horses, and people were getting cranky) and I went to go see the well known Opera House. But it was closed, I was an hour late. So I decided to walk around the city and see some of the architecture sites we studied in history class. The photo below is the Austrian Post Office Savings Bank one of the first buildings to use this much day light. There is an exhibit of architecture in the lobby, but I only got a few photos in before they closed the building and kicked me out. 
Sunday was museum day, Brittany and I started at the Modern Museum of Art, a really nice building with good art in it. Their collection has a good deal of architecture and the traveling exhibit was very interesting, very BLUE. The artist started painting blue on canvas, just blue, a royal aqua marine BLUE. And he then moved to adding dimension with sponges all with out using brushes. The next phase of his work was paint people and using them to get art on the canvas.
Next I went to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, 1450-1650 art. A very nice collection of Bruegel, Van Eyck, Rubens, and Rembrant. I skiped most of the other art in the building, it was HUGE so that I could get to the Opera House for my 3:00 tour.
The opera house was built in the mid 1800’s but mostly distorted during WWII. The central part of the opera house is original but the outside has been restored. The opera shows a new opera every night in order to allow the singers to rest their voices and give their best performance. However, they have to have two crews of workers to take the set down from the night before and then put up another stage for tonight’s performance. It doesn’t seem worth all the effort, and the expensive tickets are sold out every night, but the opera is still not making any money. At least the tours are not too pricy.
Photography class has been interesting; dad gave me his SLR camera that is as old as Abi to learn how to use a “real camera” as my teacher calls it. The photos I have been showing you are a part of that class. This is one of my favorites.
In my art and architecture class I have been working on a watercolor of the image below. Next I am going to use color pastels and then do a charcoal drawing and step by step make it more abstract.
I call Creative Components and Detailing in Architecture = Doodling because that’s what we do during class. Usually people doodle when the teacher is boring, but in this case he talks for and hour (without stopping) and we doodle. I wasn’t loving this class until last week when he actually liked some of my doodles. I usually don’t doodle so it has been hard for me to start. Below is one that for some reason he liked, I’m not sure why. We draw it all by hand but I put this one on the computer. We have to turn in 3 doodles, one can be purely a design but the others are suppose to be a stained glass window, a heating grate or something real.
For History of Architecture we go on a lot of field trips to historic places in Prague. At the end of the semester I have to write a paper about how Italy is in Prague. When Prague was at it’s peak the people in charge brought Italian artist and builders to Prague to design important places. These places have been left the way they were because right after the peak of Prague’s history a sharp decline came and no one wanted to finance an expensive change to the buildings. Things have changed some since the tourist boom in the late 90’s. Here is a church that experienced this peak- it was beautiful.
In Czech Culture and Czech Language I am learning a little about Czech people and why they are the way they are and also how to say little things like “Dobry den, anglicky, prosim?” “Good day, (can we talk in) English, please?”
The point of visiting Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic, was to see the Villa Tugenhut. It is a very well know piece of architecture from the 1920’s designed by one of my favorite architects, Mies van der Rohe. The house was beautiful. It is modern architecture and on paper just looks like a few lines, but in person it’s amazing. Mies was known for his clean lines and details so I was sure to take photos of details so I could figure out how to incorporate some of his designs into my projects. There was an amazing glass wall with huge pieces of glass. Two of the 5 windows lowered into the floor, almost like a car window. It was so cool I took a video.
After the tour, we had lunch and saw some of the sites of the city before stopping for a hot chocolate. Brittany and I have wanted sandals that we can easily walk around town in and went into one store and found them! On sale!! In my size (10) and Brittany’s (6)!!! We found amazing since they are both hard to find sizes. YAY for new shoes!
Wednesday I have class ALL DAY LONG- which wouldn’t be a problem if I was at K-State, but compared to my other days here in Prague it’s a rough day, I have 4 classes back to back between 8:45 and 3:30. Anyway, mom and dad had to entertain themselves during the day, and the US country presentation was that night so we went out for a late dinner in a restaurant I call the “neighborhood pub”. They have the best chicken meal I have found here.
Cesky Krumlov is a cute little town. We stayed in a really nice apartment/hotel that was actually apart of one of the courtyards of the castle and not far from the town center. I had a room all to my self on the other end of the apartment and the bathroom was as big as my dorm room here in Prague.
We went to a jazz club that was really nice. There was a group playing named Work in Progress. And on Saturday night we went to mass at the Catholic Cathedral for Easter Vigil. It was huge and freezing, we had to stop on the way home to get hot chocolate so we could thaw out before bed. 
I took mom and dad to the airport on Monday morning- really early Monday morning. And then spent the rest of the day and Tuesday recovering from my two weeks of being a personal tour guide- I was pooped, but I had a great time.
One of the things I wasn’t able to do the last time I was in Germany was take an ICE train, it’s more aerodynamic and goes faster then other trains. It’s so cool. The second class seats are like 1st class airplane seats. Ohh I miss it- the trains in the Czech Republic are nowhere near as nice. 
Friday the four of us saw everything we could of Berlin. Erin flew home from Berlin on Saturday so we had to see what we could. There is a public bus that goes pass the main tourist attractions, which is really nice. There is some really nice architecture in Berlin. I got to see some great examples of modern architecture from the 1920’s and from today. 
