three down, five to go_

this is my final poster for my computer graphics class that i printed out full size and turned in yesterday. i used a bunch of images that i have taken over the semester (ny skyline i got from internet, though), one of my favorites being the background which is the jewish museum in berlin. the text, if you can't read it, is a mies van der rohe quote, "architecture is the will of an epoch translated into space". i am pretty happy with the way it turned out, i hope you are too. and if you don't like it, then make something better, and then look at that instead. so i am done with czech culture, ornament, and computer graphics. now i only have 5 classes to worry about, two of them that will be ending in the next week, so i will be letting you know how those go.

things, things, and things_

if some of you get annoyed by checking my blog site only to find that i havent updated it in like 3 or 4 days, well there is a real good reason for that. the stuff that i am not blogging is pretty much not that interesting. since vienna i have, again, been trying to get alot of schoolwork done, key word "trying". also i have gone out a couple nights. most of the friends that i have made from the economics university are gone or leaving this week, so i have made a point to run with that crowd a bit lately. lets see what else, i saw the new star wars. excellent work mr. lucas. besides the fact that your dialogues are often laughable and the graphic transitions look like they were taken from powerpoint, i realize it wouldnt be star wars without it. and for blogs sake, i will tell you and show you about what i did yesterday. i went vysehrad in the afternoon and took a bunch of pictures for my urbanism class because i have chosen to do my final work on this area of the city. it was a beautiful day and although most of my shots are more for documentation, i got a couple decently (and i mean decently) cool shots. so heres one. now comment.

from wien, with clouds_

Again I must apologize for taking so long to get this post up. The whole blogging process is quite time consuming so you all should be grateful for seeing this. You can show me your appreciation by either showering me with gifts or leaving good comments, so pick one. But now, my mid week trip to Vienna, or Wien, to those crazy Austrians. Also, be aware it’s a long one.
We arrived Wednesday afternoon to a rainy city. Regardless, we had an agenda, so after getting settled with accommodations and had a quick meal, we headed to MUMOK, the modern art museum. I was really impressed with the building. I took plenty of shots, but I chose not to include them because it is still difficult to understand it from just one or two images. The artwork, I must say was a little sub-par. Two floors dedicated to the one American artist form Cali, and most of it was pretty off the wall photos, videos and other weird experiments. One floor dedicated to mostly Russian artists and another floor with a grab bag of pretty famous artists, which was the area I liked best. After that we got some Viennese coffee, because they are so proud of it. Typically it is served on a silver platter and always with a glass of water. Wandered around for a bit, and made our way back to our hostel planning on getting some food and drink at a grocery store, only to find that they all close at 7; All of them. We know cause we walked for miles trying to find one that was open a little later, but it was nowhere to be found. So we just found a restaurant, I had a delicious bratwurst, and we all went to bed happy.
The next day we got up early with hopes of a glorious day. Needless to say, they were soon crushed, but we trudged on. First we went to the gasometers(above). 4 huge, well gasometer buildings, whatever they are. They were shut down many years ago, but renovated and added to by a group of architects, including jean nouvel, to house a mall and residential units. Next we went to Hundertwasserhaus (above), which is this crazy residential building designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, who claimed that the straight line was a betrayal of human individuality. The building incorporates a lot of sustainable techniques, and was also just cool, besides the fact that the place was crawling with tourists. Next we went to Schonbrunn palace, which was the summer home of the Hapsbergs. I know who they are because from the 1500s up to the 1800s, they ruled over the Czech Republic as well as many other adjacent territories. We didn’t see inside the palace, because the price was not right, but we did get to see some of the huge and extravagant gardens (below). This is where I was really sad it was not sunny and warm. After that we went and saw St. Stevens cathedral, which to my delight, happened to have an Austrian breakdance group performing outside (below). At this time, late in the afternoon, finally the sun started to show. We walked around the Ringstrasse area for a while until it got dark. Then we topped the evening off by taking a ride on the RiesenRad, a 65m high ferris wheel, built around 1900. It was lovely, but not quite worth the 8 euros for the 20 min. ride.
The next morning we packed up and headed back to prague on a gorgeous day. I guess these things happen though.

we are the champions_

sorry for such a long period between blogs, but these past few days have been pretty busy for me. on thursday, jonas, ryan and phil came into town as well as a few ia friends who are studying in germany. then on friday, corby came in as well. then the first three left on sunday, the same day that kyle, jeff, jaren and jacob came into town. corby left monday, and monday night kristen and scott came into town. so this morning kyle, jeff, karen, and jacob moved on. not to mention melissa, my roommates g/f is in town, a couple girls from KC visiting adam and aaron, and cali, a flatmate of mine's g/f. on top of that i my workload for school has been increasing alot lately. tomorrow, kristen and scott will move on, and i will also be going o vienna with adam, angela, and leslie. we will be returning on friday, coincidentally the same day that i have a paper due, so i have been working overtime to get that done before i leave tomorrow. now that you know all of that i will be quizing all of you later, so make sure to study these names and dates. ok, but if you havent heard, the czech republic won the national hockey championship sunday night when they defeated canada 3-0, breaking their 2 yr winning streak. we went to old town square where it was being shown on huge screens to a packed house (above). after the victory everyone was celebrating, cars honking, and people waving czech flags, so we decided to go to a couple of pubs before tiring out and heading home. it was a really cool experience to be here for that and i know our guests felt the same way. as you can see, kyle and corby show their enthusiasm for the home team victory (below).

reading, writing, rithmatic_

after updating my beautiful audience on my trip, i have to update you people on what i have been doing in prague since i got back. well, there isnt a whole lot of interesting things to say. i have been much more dilligent with my schoolwork mostly, but i will go over a few highlights. went to a boat party for the economics university where we cruised on a boat up and down the vltava while listening to music and dancing. good times, except the fact that it was really cold. went on a field trip for my history of urbanism class where we visited many of the housing blocks built in the communist era on the outskirts of prague (above). i snapped a few photos. i think this one is funny cause it looks like the sun is shining on everything but the building, even though its just the sun angle. but to be fair, the master plans for most of these developments are actually quite generous with green space, something you wont see much of anymore. other than that, today starts a week of ksu visitors. a total of about 20 ksu friends who have been studying in other places will be through prague in this time. so hopefully i will have some intersting experiences to blog about in the near future.

back from the future_

we arrived at our hostel in berlin, late thursday night (apr. 28th), and pretty much went straight to bed. the next morning we went to the pergamon museum which houses numerous huge transported and reconstructed artifacts from ancient times. examples are the pergamon altar from ancient greece-170 BC, the market gate of miletus from ancient rome-120 AD, and the ishtar gate from bablyon-6th cen. BC (above). pretty incredible to have these artifacts inside in a museum. we also stopped in to the altes museum, just cause it was designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, a legend in german architecture. after that we checked out the jewish museum by daniel libeskind. some spaces of the building were impressive,but the awkward nooks and crannies, lovingly called dead dog spaces, were not. the museum content seemed interesting for a range of ages, but unfortunately, i didnt examine too much of it. it prolly would have been enjoyable if i had more time or was actually jewish. i had dinner at an authentic german restaurant and ordered schnitzel. it was pretty good. especially the two fried eggs that were served on top of it. thats what i call home cooking. that night we went to the reichstag (german parliament) with the dome roof addition by norman foster, to catch some night views of the city (below). on the way back to our hostel from there, i happened to see something out of the corner of my eye. it looked like a lit up word, but when i looked over, all that was there was a single vertical light. after some scientific reasoning, i determined that it was blinking in a specific pattern very quickly so when the viewers eyes were in motion across it, it "stretched" these blinks out to form words. i was able to capture one of the words with my camera by panning it very quickly. if this concept is still over your head, either go to germany and see it for yourself, or just accept that germany is far more advanced than us. the next day i went to a museum which housed over 85 works of picasso as well as a couple other artists works. it was interesting especially cause with entry their was a free audio tour reciever thingie and the owner of the museum told some stories about how he acquired some of the works and had personal connections with the artists themselves. also had some haagen daas to try to fill the void of a gelato free world. it was delicious, but not the same. the rest of the day was just walking around and enjoying this modern city. because of all of the destruction here in the past century, the city has so much new construction and most of it is pretty sweet. everything is so efficient and calculated, a flatmate of mine thought it was like living in the future. oh, and they have the best gummies in the world (haribo, of course). finally that evening we boarded a train back to prague and back to school. i hope you enjoyed my trip, now leave a comment.

finally, the beach_

thursday morning (apr 28th) we got up early, determined to go to the beach. our castiglion buddies recommended cinque terra, a beautiful area with 5 small towns perched above a gorgeous bay about 1 hr north of pisa. we arrived at monterosso (one of the 5 towns) in the early afternoon and scoped out a place on the sandy/rocky beach ( below). it was a beautiful and, from what we heard, abnormally hot day, so we definately lucked out. the water was pretty cold, but crystal clear, so it made up for it (above). we splashed around some, laid out some, had a picnic of sorts, and left with a couple bottles of nice wine to take home. practically flawless afternoon. but this when things became more complicated. we had planned to catch the train back to pisa and have about 1 hr and 45 min to get from the train station to the airport. plenty of course. well, we got back to the train station where we had our bags put in storage. unfortunately, no one was at the office to get them out. our train was scheduled to be there in a few minutes, where are they? finally someone came and we quickly got our things and headed to our scheduled platform. phew, that was close......waiting for the train.....waiting...hmmm, whats going on. ok, so we waited there for almost an hour. for some really weird reason, our train was almost an hour late. we are getting a little nervous on the way to pisa as we watch the seconds tick by. we get to pisa about 40 minutes before our flight was scheduled to leave. mind you, according to easyjet, check in stops 30 min. prior to departure. if they are strict on that we only have 10 min. we more or less sprinted with all of our stuff out front of the train station and go to a taxi. airport please, and step on it. but he says he can only take 4 people, not 5. what do we do. i am not exactly sure how to get to the airport from here, but i was gonna leave my bag with them, and sprint in the general direction. ok, he says, i guess i can take 5 people. well lets go then. so in this country of mario andretti's all ove the streets, we have to get the least aggressive driver around. regardless, he gets us there, where we tip him well and run stright to the check in counter right at 30 min. before departure (good thing i didnt run. it was further than i thought). so we caught our plane to berlin that night, along with an exciting story to tell.

your reputation precedes you_

we left florence tuesday morning (apr 26th) and arrived in rome about lunchtime. first thing we went to see the colosseum (above), arch of constantine, and roman forum. didnt go inside the colosseum cause we are students and didnt want to spend the 10 euros to get in, but it was still pretty cool from the outside. from there we went to see the trevi fountain (below), the pantheon (above), and the spanish steps. that evening we watched the sunset over the piazza del popolo, which wasnt as good as our sunsets in florence, but still a cool place. the next morning we went to the vatican first thing (below). what do you know, we were there in the crowd for the new pope's first ever wednesday blessing. the place was packed with catholic pilgrims wanting to see their new papa. i would compare the atmoshpere there to a sporting event with only one team. people were chanting all sorts of cheers and what not, in support of their leader. then he came rolling out on the pope-mobile waving to the crowd. he went through the crowd on a predetermined path and actually came about 15 ft away from us. im not catholic, but it was still pretty incredible to be there for that. after sitting 2 hrs in the sun, we made out way to the vatican museums. saw the classics, ie raphael's school of athens, and of course, the sistine chapel and what can i say, michelangelo is amazing. later in the afternoon, we were able to get into st. peters. it is huge. the baldachino over the altar is almost 100ft tall. it also houses another michelangelo masterpiece, the pieta. breathtaking, thats about all i can say. the rest of the day we just wandered around and shopped a little. i bought a pair of pumas. you know what they say, when in rome, spend alot of money on fashion. amazing city, and the weather was amazing as well, some would say too hot, but i liked it compared to the weather in prague the past couple of months. and no one is leaving me comments, so i am going to have a survey for everyone who reads this blog to respond to: which civilization was greater, ancient greece or ancient rome? submit your answers along with a brief explanantion by clicking on "comments".

it means "rebirth"_

sunday morning (apr 24) we rolled out of castiglion fiorentino headed for florence. first thing we did was get in line for the accademia to see the david. it was well worth the 45 min wait and the 8 euro cover charge. it is so perfect, it made me weak in the knees. after that we went a block over to see the founding hospital by brunelleschi. it hasnt been preserved as well as it should have been, being that it is the first renaissance building ever. kinda worth keeping nice, in my book. moving on, we also saw palazzo pitti (from the outside), palazzo vecchio (from the outside), and the uffizi gallery (very unfortunately, only from the outside). that evening, as well as the next, we watched the sunset over the city, with a bottle of wine, at piazza michelangelo (below). on the way back to our hostel i snapped a photo of the ponte vecchio at night (above). for those of you who don't know, it is a bridge that the powerful medeci family used to build their own private escape route over the river from their palazzo, in case shit started to hit the fan. also, at one point the bridge was used as a busy market street for butchers and the like, but the medeci's didn't like that so much, so they gave those filthy peasants the boot, and replaced their shops with nice jewelry stores, which still dominate the bridge today. the next morning we went up to the top of the dome of santa maria del fiore, which was for many years, unrivaled in size anywhere in europe (above). we also saw santa croce, which houses the tomb of michelangelo himself. also, off of the church's courtyard is the famous pazzi chapel, another of brunelleschi's creations. that afternoon i went to see santa maria novella which made a beautiful renaissance backdrop to the busy open space in front of it (below). this is a beautiful city with too much to see in 2 days, but if you are in italy, it is a must see.

long lost friends_

so we left pisa friday afternoon to go meet up with some old archie friends from ksu in castiglion fiorentino. this is a lovely hill town of about 10-15 thousand residents, if i remember correctly. there were some amazing views (above) from almost anywhere in town. that night we were able to catch up on what everyone has done in the past 3 months over a liter, yes a liter (seriously, look at those mugs), of beer at a local pub (maybe those of you who have been can help me out with the name of this place, as i don't recall). the next day a large group of us took a bus to the adjacent town of cortona. apparently this is where "under the tuscan sun" was filmed. i can see why, cause it is very picturesque and perched high above the surrounding areas (below). near the top of the hill that the town rests on is a church (below). it is pretty nice for a town so small, but i still dont know how they actually went through with it after lugging the first stone up the hill. after that hike, i would have settled for a sacred rock at the top of the hill.
overall, it was refreshing to see some old faces and hear funny stories, as well as tell some of our own. i know they would be upset at me if i didnt mention how good the gelatto is in castiglion. they claim it's the best in italy, but i'll let you know after i try them all, which i plan to do.

oh yeah? well we have a leaning tower_

so my trip began in prague thursday morning (apr 21st) where we caught a train to berlin, hung out in the airport there and played spades all afternoon. and this was not the big, nice airport, it was the small kinda crappy discount airline airport way outside of the city. nonetheless, we got some euros out of the atm, and caught our easyjet flight to pisa that evening. when we arrived in pisa, it was already dark, and after a confusing bus experience, we managed to stumble upon our hostel, where we stayed in a camper, which was surprisingly cool. the next morning we went to the piazza dei miracoli and saw the tower complex (above) which includes, the baptistry, the cathedral and of course, the leaning tower (below). it was truly a sight, though. it is the weirdest feeling in the world to see in person something so historical that you have only seen in books. galileo actually performed gravity experiments there like 400 years ago. who would have thunk that a such an engineering folly would result in this, now so important, entity. and when i say they they have a leaning tower, i am not kidding. the only other thing worth noting in this town is the gelatto. so we high tailed it out of there that afternoon to catch a train to castiglion fiorentino to see some old friends.