Cesky Krumlov 9/15-9/21

Regular classes started this week. The Prague Institute is in Old Town, a two minute walk from Old Town Square, and we live at the pension which is about a 25 minute trip from the institute, by way of metro. I am taking an architecture studio (just like every semester), an architecture seminar (a lecture course on urbanism in Europe), Czech literature, and Bees and Beekeeping. Seminar and studio are taught by an American professor and Czech architect. Czech literature and Bees and Bees are taught by two Czechs. The Bees teacher’s English is amusing and he smells funny but the class will be fun. The literature class is more about Czech culture with an emphasis on literature. We talk about the Soviet occupation a lot in class, especially how in 1968 tanks came into Prague in the night to control an uprising that had been slowly building throughout the year. It was obviously an extremely important moment in Czech history, and in our teacher’s life, and it is very interesting to hear her perspective on it.

We don’t have class on Fridays to give us opportunities to travel. So this weekend some friends and I went to Cesky Krumlov. Cesky Krumlov is a small town about 3 hours outside of Prague, within the Czech Republic. It is supposed to be very pretty so we went. Mary, Meredith, Paul, Miller, Ryan, Danielle, Kelly and I were all planning on going. I had bought bus tickets at the main bus station the day before, so Friday morning, we all got to the bus station nice and early for our trip. It wasn’t until 10 minutes before the bus left that Miller took a closer look at the ticket and realized that the bus left from a smaller, different bus station. So, with baggage in hand, we all literally ran to the metro, changed trains, and ran out to the bus station, only to arrive two minutes too late. We moped back inside and found that all was not lost, there was another bus leaving in four hours. So, we spent the rest of the morning in Café Louvre, drinking coffee and playing chess and pool before arriving at the correct bus station for our afternoon bus ride.

The ride was long and uncomfortable, but we arrived in time for an hour or two of daylight. We walked through the town to our hostel. We were all in the same room and were excited about our stay when the manager asked for our passports. At that moment, we realized, our passports were sitting on a customs officer’s desk, waiting to be inspected, in Prague. We were already planning on staying out all night drinking, but we would at least like to have the option of sleeping in a bed. Luckily, Danielle had a cell phone, so we called Donna, head of the Prague Institute, who would have copies of our passport numbers on file. She, however, was not in the office, and was zero help. Desperately, we called the pension in Prague, and were able to get our passport numbers from them.

So, after two near crises, we were able to finally enjoy the town. We went out to eat and to a few bars before going to bed. The next morning, we walked around the town some more. The town is very small and pretty simple. There is a river and a lot of old baroque buildings. Above the river there is a castle with a large tower. There isn’t really much to do in the town, other than see the town as a whole. So we took our time and strolled through the castle area. We went up the tower and walked through the gardens and along the river. We ate lunch together at a place right by the river. We saw that they had mead on the menu, and not knowing what it was, ordered two pitchers for the group. It turns out mead is warm honey-wine. It was like drinking liquor as your beverage for lunch. It was less than satisfying, but the food was very good. After lunch, we took a few more pictures and then headed to the bus stop for our return journey to Prague.

First week in Prague 9/9/2008-9/18/2008

Classes started this week. That is, if you use the term ‘classes’ loosely. Basically we had an orientation session for the whole Prague Institute which included going over rules like ‘clean up after yourself’ or reminding guys to lift the seat before peeing. Real useful stuff. The next day we had another little orientation for the architecture program in Prague. We don’t have classes on Friday and studio is closed on Saturday, so it is heavily encouraged to travel on weekends. This being our first weekend though, most of us stayed in Prague and explored the city.

Ryan, Miller, Paul, Dumbielle, and I walked around on Saturday. We took a metro to Old Town. From there we walked across the Charles Bridge to Lesser Town. The Charles Bridge is always full of tourists and people trying to sell things, from jewelry, to paintings, to caricatures. I figured I was going to be here for the next three months so I didn’t take very many pictures of real touristy things such as the Charles Bridge, or the castle, or Old Town Square, with the intention of coming back later and taking better pictures than I would be able to get with a million people around.

Once in Lesser Town we took some pictures of the Vlatava River. Then, we walked toward the castle through a park in a valley because we heard there was a cool tunnel to see there. The park was pretty linear, following the valley/ravine up the hill toward the castle. There was one path up one of the banks, so we took it up and found an old wall with arched openings with a nice view of the castle and Saint Vitas Cathedral. Above this there were some nice fountains and a nice villa. We had no idea what it was at the time but later we found that it was used by the King’s wife, commonly called a Queen.

We went back down the hill and found the tunnel. It was pretty neat. The walls were brick and the form of an ellipse. We continued up the hill to the castle. We didn’t go inside because we knew that we would be exploring it later as a class. We did walk through it and around it. There were a ton of people. There was a band of street performers that were entertaining. The flute player had the greatest moustache I have ever seen, (think Chester A. Arthur stache) and I hope that one day I could have half the moustache he has. From the castle there is a good view of the city, and you can easily see all the way to the Baby Tower just a few blocks from where the pension is.

After being in Prague for less than a week, people were already flying across oceans to come and visit me. The first of these visitors were none other than my third favorite aunt on my mother’s side, Catherine, and her friend, Kerry. They were nice enough to take us out to dinner a few times during their stay. The first night we were to meet up with them, we decided on meeting in front of the Jan Hus statue in Old Town Square. This seemed like a good idea until Kelly and I arrived 10 minutes prior to our meeting time only to discover that the starting line for a marathon that was currently being run was at that very spot. Kelly and I spent the next 30 minutes combing the crowd looking for them, which was very difficult because Katherine is very, very short. We were about to give up when Kelly asked me “Do you hear that really hyper, loud, American voice?” I turned around to see Cathryn talking normally to Kerry and walking towards us. We ate dinner at Klub Architektu which was real good. My cousin Kate’s boyfriend Oliver had recommended this place to us and we enjoyed it thoroughly. It, like many restaurants and bars in Prague, is in an old 16^th century cellar, beneath an architecture school. We liked it so much we went back again later that week. We were also lucky enough to be present for Kathrin’s 26^th birthday. We ended up going to a nice place by their hotel. Overall, we weren’t too embarrassed by them. But seriously, we really enjoyed spending time with them and exchanging stories about our travels. They seemed to have a good time during their stay, and it was very generous of them to take us out to eat so many times.

(this image is from Kelly's blog. While it may be slightly more up to date, it's nowhere near as good as mine.)

Madrid to Prague 9/8/2008

Today was pretty simple. We woke up and checked out. We went to an airport. We boarded a plane. We flew to Prague. We got off the plane. We went to the pension. While checking in we ran in to a bunch of our friends. Most of us are already here but a few more groups will be arriving in the next day. We all went out to eat together near in Old Town and shared stories about our travels. It is real nice to see everyone and we are all real excited about the semester.

Madrid 9/7/2008

When we woke up this morning we found out we were still in Madrid. So, we tried to make the most of it.

First, we went to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, which is a modern art museum. The art was pretty cool, but the main reason we went was to see the addition done by Jean Nouvel. He added some elevators on one side and a new modern wing on the opposite side. There’s large covered courtyard surrounded by temporary exhibit space, offices, and the library. The temporary exhibit had all digital media that was my favorite exhibit.

After this museum we went to the Caixa Forum. This is a building designed by Herzog and de Meuron. It was a power station built in 1899 that was converted into an art gallery. They raised the roof several stories and extended the façade with perforated metal. The entire structure was also raised off the ground to let the plaza in front of the building spill underneath it so that you enter the building beneath its center. The exhibit inside was on images and videos of Charlie Chaplin (some real old dude with a moustache who was real quiet). The building was one of my favorites that I have seen so far, and we walked all around it.

After the Caixa Forum we walked to this big old park. It was nice to stroll around for a while. There were trees and grasses and lakes and paths. We took a nap for a while. When we woke up we heard a distant rumbling and followed it until we found several drum circles. We watched them for a while. Some were better than others.

It was getting late so we walked back to the hostel. The meal we had the first night we were in Madrid was so good we decided to go back and get the exact same thing again. Turns out it was good AGAIN!! We got some desert and some beers and hit the hay.

We head back to Prague tomorrow. We are sad that our vacation is over and that we will have to do real schoolwork sometime soon, but we are looking forward to exploring Prague and seeing our friends.

Madrid 9/6/2008

Apparently, the machine eating robot from Paris migrated to Madrid sometime during the past week. This migration led to poor sleep and thus a poopy attitude on the part of John W. this morning. Naturally, my poopy attitude disappeared completely after an hour or so of SHOPPING with Kelly!!!!!

After like 4 and one third hours of awesome shopping we walked around Madrid and saw some things. We went to Plaza de Mayor and Plaza del Sol. We ate some lunch. Then, in the afternoon we went to Plaza de Las Ventas for a bullfight.

Here’s how it works:

1. First there’s some horns band that plays a short song and a whole parade of all the players involved that marches out. There’s these dudes dressed like old conquistadors and some armored horses and their helpers and of course the matadors. Turns out there are several matadors, five or so minor matadors and three featured matadors that are the ones that go one on one with the bull.

2. Everyone but the matadors leaves the ring and they release a bull into the ring. The matadors are spaced out around the edge of the ring next to a small opening that they can fit through but the bull cannot. They pop out of their openings one at a time and taunt the bull so that the bull runs back and forth across the ring several times and gets tired out.

3. Some horns sound and two guys on armored-horseback come out with long spears. The bull will eventually charge the horse from a close range (the horse has blinders on and does not see this coming). The horse is protected by soft armor so nothing but a blunt force hits it. While the bull is pushing into the horse, the rider stabs the bull on the back of its neck until it is distracted by matadors which have ventured farther from their doors by this point.

4. More horns are sounded and the horses leave. A few of the featured matadors come out and make the bull charge towards their ‘pink and yellow cape-thingies’ (a technical term). Meanwhile other matadors will run up to the bull while it is distracted and stab two barbed sticks into its upper back. This happens three times, and if all three attempts are successful, the bull will have 6 sticks dangling from its back.

5. The final stage is with one matador and his red cape and sword. He goes out to the ring and salutes the crowd and leaves his hat on the ground. The bull will charge at his cape and narrowly miss hitting the matador. The crowd gets into it if he is good, especially if he doesn’t move when the bull passes and keeps the cape in front of the bull. He holds the cape out by draping it over a thin sword that he carries with him. Finally, when the bull is just a few feet in front of him and has his head lowered to charge, the matador will stab the bull at the top of his neck.

If the matador is good, the bull will die immediately. If not, the bull will continue running around and the matador will use a hook to get the sword out of the bull’s neck and stab him again. The bull, once slain, will be dragged out of the ring by three donkeys and the blood will be shoveled and carried out as well. Steps 2-5 are repeated until each of the three featured matadors has killed two bulls (somewhere between 5-8 bulls; the calculator function is broken on this computer).

As you can tell, this is an extremely gruesome event. It was very unsettling and made me cringe the first few times. It was extremely bloody, and was very painful to watch if the matador was not good. By the end, I was almost numb to the killing and it did not affect me the way the first few bulls did. Overall, it was a very interesting experience. I don’t know if I would go again, but I would definitely recommend it if you have never seen it before.

After the bull fight we had a cheap dinner and went to a bar before going to bed.

Valencia to Madrid 9/5/2008

Our room in the hostel last night had 14 beds, 12 of which were occupied by the loudest snorers on planet earth. Anyway, we got up and checked out of the hostel. We had bought tickets the day before for an IMAX show about the Swiss Alps, namely an ascent of the Eiger. So we walked back to Center for Arts and Sciences after leaving our stuff in the hostel.

The building with the theatre inside is my favorite at the CfAS (pronounced kuh-fahs). It is basically a giant eye. There are pictures of it in my previous post and you will notice that the eyelid is open around the eyeball making an open area to walk around outside. Today when we went, the eyelid was closed making the outdoor space more secluded. The theatre is inside the eyeball. The film was pretty cool; some very pretty scenery that we may get to see later in this trip. After the film, we took some more pictures of the CfAS then picked our stuff up from the hostel and caught the train to Madrid.

We got to Madrid after dark. We walked to the hostel and checked in. We are in a large room again with like 69 bunk beds, but our hostel seems pretty AOK. There is a neat closed in courtyard that all the rooms surround.

After checking in, we found a place to eat. A guy at the hostel recommended Tapas del Mundo. Kelly and I split a platter for two of a bunch of Spanish food that was way good. We found some churros with chocolate for desert which was yummy.

Downstairs in our hostel is a bar where all the college age kids meet up before going out till 5am. We went down there for a little bit and had a few beers. They had a DJ that it seemed like everyone was trying to ignore until he played “Space Jam” by Quad City DJs, when everyone immediately started dancing and singing along. (Space Jam was a song that reached peak popularity in America 11 years ago among the age group of 8-12 year olds.) Both confused and amused Kelly and I went to bed.

Barcelona to Valencia 9/4/2008

Today we left Barcelona, (bummer), en route to Valencia, (neat). We took a train. We checked in to our hostel which was a much farther walk from the train station than Kelly would have liked. We were in a large room with several bunk beds and we shared it with lots of people, including one girl from Georgia (the state) who was studying abroad in Valencia. We left the hostel and found a neat bridge and walked through a long park in the middle of the city.

Pretty much the only reason we went to Valencia, other than to break up the train ride to Madrid, was to see the Center for Arts and Sciences. It is a campus of five buildings designed by Santiago Caltrava (see Barthelona 9/1/2008). The five buildings are an opera house, an IMAX theatre, a science museum, an aquarium/SeaWorld type building, and an arboretum/parking deck. As with all his buildingds, Calatrava is able to do some amazing things with the help of some pretty extreme engineering.

We walked around outside for a while and took pictures and tried to decide which buildings we wanted to see most. We ended up buying tickets to go in the science museum that evening, and to see an IMAX show the next morning. The museum was pretty neat. A lot of the exhibits were aimed toward children and because of my superior intellect and maturity, it was hard for me to enjoy. But there was a totally cool one about comic books. It had all kinds of cool heroes like Spiderman, Wolverine, Daredevil, and I even got a picture of me with the HULK! Totally rad! In contrast, I did find the other exhibits to be much more mundane and juvenile.

After checking out the museum, we hung out outside taking pictures until sunset. We then walked back and got a cheap dinner and indulged in some ice cream before heading to bed early for the evening.