Nein Danke

Ok, so we had the day off as it is supposed to be a travel day. While we did not go back to the Olympic Park for a swim, we went on a free bicycle tour through the city of Munich. It started at 1130 and ended at about 3 in the afternoon. We went to many places in the city we had already been, and also learned new things about the area, and the history of Hitler in the city. We also saw more naked people in the English Garden than we had previously, apparently the particular meadow where the naked people accummulate is known as the sausage fest, because no women really go there, or atleast the attractive ones. We found them on the river sitting on the banks.
We spent some time walking around the city and then met up to head over to SpringFest. Springfest is basically like octoberfest, but smaller because fewer tourists know of it. We walked through the carnival and then went to the beer hall for dinner. I only ate a large pretzel and we sat there watching the peopel drinking and cheering. There was live music in a polka style. For a few of the songs they did johnny cash and mexican songs, but in german. When we were about to leave, they started a contest of climbing up the large post in the center of the tent. A few people did it, then jeff decided he wanted to try. We waited a while and our barmaid tried very hard to get me to try it. I am not sure why she did, but she kept trying to have me go, smiling and telling me about the free liter of beer i would get..in her broken English. Jeff made it to the top, but did not take up on his beer. The lady tried to have me do it and pointed at my dress saying it was ok, i had on leggings. It was kind of cute that she thought that i really should do it, but in a hall of several hundred people, i am not going to make a fool of myself trying to climb up an old slippery pole while wearing a dress. All i could say was, Nein, Nein Danke.

We are heading out of Munich tonight on the overnight train, so lets hope I get some sleep. :)

Duck, Duck, Swan

Ok,so, i didn't have time to update yesterday, and given the time that I have tonight i will try to catch up on the many things I have done in a period of two days.

Yesterday, we started the day of class by meeting at the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial. I can't say that it was fun. I can't say I enjoyed myself.And I certainly cannot say I would like to go back. But, like those movies that should atleast be seen once, it was an experience i will never forget. Astrid met us for class and gave us the rest of the day to go through the camp, and leave when we had "had enough". I walked it alone with only my recorded headset for company, though i preferred it that way. Since about 1996 they changed the set up of the park so that every visitor has to walk through the same wrought iron gate that mocking reads Arbeit Macht Frei, or "work sets you free." Of the original 64 barracks there were only two rebuilt and where the others used to lay are only the foundations filled with river rock, as though the entire expanse of the camp were a gravesite. I went in the museum where i was "walked through" the years of the camp and its many cruel murders, experiments and horrors. I left the large building severly sobered and angry. I found Astrid walkign between the old road between the foundations. As i was talking to her I had a person run up behind me and give me a hug. It was my long lost Anna! Anna is studying in the town of Stutgart(sp?)and came to visit us for the day. Her being there made mine. We walked through a littlemore of the camp, and I merely glanced in the rooms of the crematorium and the barely used gas chambers, but that wasmore than enough.

After we gathered our little group together, we walked into the medieval part of the town of Dachau. we climbed the main hill and ate a small lunch on a patio overlooking the small river that runs through the town. The camp wasnot visible, and I am sure that fact helped to brighten our day. After lunch we had made a plan with some of our other classmates to go to the English garden to spend the afternoon in the sun and play some soccer. We were a little late, on both groups, but it worked out. We played some soccer in the middle of the massive park while hundreds of poeple layed in the sun, walked there dogs, did yoga or even get together to play drums. It was very relaxing, and lightened our hearts after the extremely heavy morning.

We decided to walk back to the train station instead of taking the tram and it was indeed a brilliant idea. We walked through numerous public parks with blooming flowers and lovely fountains. As we walked by one park on our hunt for food, our noses found something for us. We all smelled barbeque! It was a restaurant that barbeques outside and had very cheap food. Mary and I split a steak smothered in barberque sauce, and probably the best potato salad i have ever had. We also split what is called a Radler. Its really the only beer I can drink, as half of it is lemonade. After food we went back to Mike's hostel and played a couple rounds of Boggle. After the games the four of us, Mary Andie Jackie and I had to head to the train station to pick up our luggage so that we could go to our new hostel, on the other side of town. We got in at about 11. The hostel reminds me of a camp building from the 70s but the price was right, and they actually had space among all the construction worker convention visitings.

The breakfast this morning at the hostel was mediocre at best, but the price was right as it was included with the room. We got up and ate early in order to head over to the Olympic Park and go swimming before we met for class. The facilities were great as you would expect any olypmpic ones to be. There wer hundreds of little change rooms in the locker room and lockers with wristband keys. We swam for about 45min. I only did one true lap accross the pool, but I did dive off the boards alot and jump several times from the highdive. We met for class and learned about the bittersweet history of the park. We took the fastest elevator on the continent to the top of the park tower and got the best view of the city yet.

We were given a small lecture of the park by a classmate and then walked throguh a lot of it towards the old residential area. We then met up with ASTRIDS cousin in her housing area, since it is new age and sustainable-ish. The community sits on an oldmilitary base and the members helped todeisgn the place. It ios called "The project". Apparently architects come from all over to study it. The part that i really thought was nice was that in order to move in, you had to spend about 80 hours working on a building in the complex.That way, the place is part of you and you get to know other people that will live there too. One man giving the tour was actually born in Maine and lived in Ely,Minnesota for 8 years. After the visit our Anna left us for home, since she has a design due tomorrow.

After the tour, the Minnesotan and his girlfriend brought us to an icecream parlor, then Schloss Nymphemburg. It was a palace of the Wittenburgs. Though we did not go inside the palace, we spent two hours walking around the 200 acre "backyard". The grouds were expansive and I took way too many pictures. We walked with Astrid and she helped me figure out my independent study just a little bit more. The river found in the english garden was rerouted through this garden and in the water lived many,many waterfowl. There were ducks i could not name, mute swans and even some canadian geese. We left before sunset and are nowplanning for our last day in Munich before we head to Berlin on the first.

Hitler wouldn't have happened without bier.

So, I lied. Dinner did not turn out to be light. We left the hostel late, due to a game of cards, and we wandered the neighborhoods, and much on the main paths in the city, looking for a resonably priced dinner. We ended up back at the Weisses Pub we ate at on the first day. There was very little seating, and we had to go eat inside. There are long tables inside, at which more than one group ends up sitting. The table we were seated at was empty, except for one elderly gentleman. Jeff, being the only male ended up sitting next to him. When sparking conversation, he asked the old man what was good. The start of a 2 hour conversation. The man, called Peter talked up a storm about the city, country, and Europe in general. He spoke 4 language fluently and was a retired filmographer. He gave us one of the best history lessons, i can remember, but his attachment to his bier stein, and his self deprecating manner might have helped. There were so many one liners about germany, spain and munich residents in general, that i wish I had recorded it for a laugh on a later day. He told us how each place we were going to be and then discussed Dachau and Hitler, a can of worms none of us would like to open. As we were told, there was a definite tone of guilt to anything concerning that war, and his discription of Dachau left him very teary eyed. We paid our bill and Jeff bought his bier. As we walked out, he pointed to the exact location of where Hitler got started and said. "Hitler wouldn't have happened without bier."

Today we went south, basically as super-Uber-tourists. We took a tourbus to two castles, they were both built by crazy Ludwig (LOODVIG) the second. The first was a very small one, almost cabin sized, if a palace can be that, called Linderhoff. The interior was extremely ornate, either baroque, or racoco, maybe some combination of the two. The walls were covered in guilded work, and there was a chandelier which took the death of 50 elephants, and 4 years to make. We did not spend too long there, but got to enjoy the view a little before we headed off to my dream castle, Neuschwanstein.

Neuschwahstein sits on the top of a hill, overlooking a valley and a lake. Unfortunetaly, due to the odd winter germany was having, the lake is almost dry...very shallow lake. We ate a small lunch before we took a tram to what is called mary's bridge for a view of the castle before our tour. We did not get to take the hour long hike up higher to see the view i really wanted, and we were crunched for time as it was. I love this castle. It was one of those places, that i have found here in europe that just makes me smile. I can't help it. The paths wound through talls forests and up hills. Marys bride stand about 200 to 300 feet above a waterfall that winds under the base of the castle. We then basically sprinted from the hill, to get to out tour on time. Now, you have to realise, sprinting is something i rarely do, especially on mounatinaous paths. But of all tours weve had, i didnt want to miss this one. The views both of the castle, and from the castle seemed almost surreal, and it makes me sad that they would ever have to photoshop any picture of it. The tour was ok, the interior overdone, and decorative, maybe pretty if you like that kinda thing, but the views are what i was there for. I had been informed of, but still depressed by the stripping of the interior third floor for a gift shop, so I boycotted it and walked straight through passed the finiished kitchens, and out.

We rode the 1.5 hour bus ride back to Munich, and I sewed my greece patch onto my bag I bought there, and then took a much needed map.

BTW, for the next time your in there Alpine snow melt makes for deliciously cool tap water when running in the mountains.

Bananen for Munich

I woke up early this morning, at about 630 and took a shower to start my day off right. We didn't have to meet for class until 10 am, so I took my time, and the four of us girls, as Jeff is living elsewhere, ate breakfast at the hostel. It wasn't bad, but the coffee seemed watery to me, and the canned milk left me wanting.
We met for class, and everyone of us was early. It was a church thing today, so we started class, by climbing up the tower of Munich's St. Peter's. It was pretty tall, not overly so, but enough to take my breathe away due to the view, and the city's altitude... The church inside was nice, especially since it was almost obliterated in WWII bombings.
After we enjoyed the view, we walked back to the Marienplatz and the Glockenspiel. We waited until 11 am when the clock turns, and the figurines in the church move. It was kind of neat i suppose, but it took 10 minutes, and watching things spin for 10 mminutes, is, well, pretty boring. We walked from the Marienplatz to the church of out lady, or the Frauenkirche. It was a beautiful airy church inside with large interior collonades and bright beautiful stained glass.
We also stopped by another baroque church that I do not feel the need to name. The interior was dark, ornate and utterly discusting. I felt claustrophobic and heavy inside, even though the church was huge.
We then walked down the the Viktualienmarkt and ate lunch and a small outdoor restarurent. We ate with Astrid and she bought pitchers of beer for the class as beer runs through Munich like water and runs cheaper. I had some, but found solace in my water bottle when I ate my local favorite White sausage.
We endrd the day going to the largest public city park in the world, the Englischer Garten. I have to admit, it was huge, and the large fields made me want to pick up a game of soccer. We spent some time sketching there, then headed back to our hostel to eat a light dinner, and change our rooms for the night.

Bretzel

Ok, so last night we spent a while with the girls from wisconsin playing cards and eating what the germans think is gelato.

This morning, we had our first actual sleep in day in europe. We slept until 930 and it was great. We cleaned up our stuff and put them in lockers so that the new roomates could move in without a worry. We had fresh pastries for breakfast, as we missed the one in the hostel, and headed to what is called the Residenz. The res. is the old castle of the german nobles. It was expamnded through the years, generally by weak rulers who wanted to put their stamp on historz. Anzwaz, it was pretty neat and huge. Many of the original things were destroyed in WWII, but many were also saved. There were huge halls, beautiful parquette floors. The intricate wood details in the desks were trumped only by the work in shell and stone. Too bad so much money was wasted on such a selfish thing.

We ate lunch at a pub called Weisses Brauhaus.It is reputedly one of the better beer halls in munich, and I have to agree. The prices were good, and after a bowl of potato soup, and a sausage platter split three ways. We were all full, and loving it. The sweet mustard and pretzels provided complemented the meal well.

We will now go back to our hostel to have a small dinner and see if others from our class arrived in the city yet. We have class tommorrow and will meet Astrid at the Glockenspiel, or Rathaus (town hall)tommorrow morning.

Bernese...I want one

Ok, so I have to apolologize. On my last update I forgot about yesterday. On the 22nd, when we took the train from Interlaken to Zurich. We went stopped off at the citz of Bern. For those who don't know, its name means bear, its where Einstein was from and where the Bernese Mountain Dog got its name. The city was set on a small river and was verz clean. I was reminded a little of New Orleans however because the artisan district sits below water level, and apparently had to be evacuated a couple of years ago. We only spent long enough there to see some views of the bernese alps, pout at the fact we dont have a bernese puppz with us, look at the rosengarten on the far side of the citz, gaze down at some of the large brown bernese bears {bear bear}in the bear pit and ride the lift that took us up and down the steep inclines of the city.

Ok, so today.
We are now in the country of Deuscheland in the city of Munich. We took a morning train from Zurich that wrapped around the lake, and through a part of austria...which we did not have a pass for. It was ok though, it cost us 5 euro to make up for that mistake when it was have cost 15 each had we done it properly. The land that we road through reminded me of areas of wisconisn, with the rolling hills and small patches of old trees. It was the view of the snowcapped mountains, european homes and fields of chartreuse mustard that belied my perception. We are staying at a nice hostel called wombats and are sharing a room with 2 nice girls from the wisconsin dells. The city is busier than zurich, but cleaner than rome or even florence. We learned quickly that if the road seems as though you could never cross as a pedestrian that there is probably an escalator down to walk below the road...oops.
We walked around to get our bearings that afternoon, and we were very glad to find that food it germany, unlike switzerland is affordable. We ate our lunch in a cafe in the 5th floor of a department store, and Andie was taught by the nice waitress how to properly cut open german sausage. It was funny watching the woman take over, just like "mom". I finally got the meat that I needed. Mary and I split some pork broasted in dark beer with potatoes on the side. Yum. The pretzels here are delicious, but we decided the cappucino was a little let down after the rich 90 cent ones in italy. Oh well, beggars cant be choosers.
We have one more day as a 'break' before we meet Astrid for class, just a few blocks away. Updates will also be easier in munich than in switzerland, as they dont milk our wallets to make cheese and chocolate here.
Tschus.

Bitte Warten

So, while my friends and I have made it to switzerland, my poor passport shows no sign of either my egress of Italy, or my entrance to the hills. We spent our first 2 nights in the town of Interlaken. It is small town that is nestled between two lakes. The city makes its money on the many activities that are found in the area. An active visitor could do anthing from canyoneering, to skydiving. Because we are poor college students tryingnot to spend all of our parents money, we did not choose to go parasailing, though i really wanted to. We toured some caves a boat ride away and to a ride down a track from the top of one of the mountains with only a hand break to determine our speed. We stayed at an old hotel called Funny Farm. It had beautiful views, and was probably once a beautiful place to stay. The building was old, and have some nice art deco paintings in the interior. The main staircase was made out of white marble, that had been protected with some cheap strips of burber carpeting. Our room, while large, was severely dated and the beds left us wanting. The view, again, was gorgeous and I sat down, while my roomies napped to draw it.

The most interesting part of interlaken was the way through which we knew where we were in the city. On our first day, we went to the store and bought cheese crackers and salami for lunch. We decided to eat it in the park where we sat at the edge of an unmown field and watched some children playing in the adjacent playground. As we sat there, something blotted out the sun..for only a moment. It was a paraglider coming in for a landing. The city keeps that field unmown for the numerous paragliders that come in the land during the day. So, throughout our stay we would look to the skies to see where the paragliders were dropping so that we could situate ourselves in the city.

Today, we are in Zurich, the city that literally means too rich. It is costing my dad 10 swiss francs for me to be here typing to you, but its the cheapest one we've seen yet, and its been a while.

When we got here yesterday, we checked into our small hotel above a shopping area, and spent the evening by the lake watching the sun go down. It was very realxing, and as this is a break from classes, i am ok with being realxed. Since we only have 3 beds for 4 people, we had two twins nexts to eachother and one at the end. We then spent the night lined up like sardines, but with space between us. The windows were open, and we learned how quickly zurich can cool off. The town was remarkably quiet at night. That is excepting the stupid ducks that make a horrible call that is oddly like a dogs chew toy. We slept in until 830 and then went on a boat ride this morning on the lake. We ate buffet salads at a store downtown and spent the afternoon shopping. Its funny how food, anmd internet is so expensive, and yet clothing, generally is cheaper, especially with the difference between dollars and francs. Ok well tonight we might be going to a movie, possibly 300 since it is being played in English. We also plan to splurge a little on dinner and get some good truly swiss fondue before we head out to Munich, or Munchén tomorrow morning.

Hopefully Munich's internet will be more affordable.

Prost

OK, so I am alive. I am in interlaken, Switzerland, but its very expensive for internet here, so I will give a thorough update when we get to Zurich, hopefully, tomorrow.

Ciao Bella

So as I am sure everyone knows, there was very bad thing that occurred the other day in Virgina. One of my classmates, Shelbie, however had one that was just as bad. Her brother attends virginia tech and was in class at the time of the incident. Her father called Joe right after the fact to have him tell Shelbie that her brother was ok. Apparently he was in the same building as the shooter, heard everything and spent the time, waiting for it all to stop. Im glad that he is ok, but I have to stop and pray for those that aren't.

This morning went rather well with the class of 17 crammed into our small apartment. We had a brunch of scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, fresh fruit, yogurt and juice. I was completely full, as i think everyone else was. We said our goodbyes to Joe, as he teaches class in SLO on monday, and many people left, heading on their own vacational route to Munich.

Mary and I spent the afternoon looking for boots. I was not successful, as the ones i like are always out of my size, especially when they are on sale. Oh well, im probably better without them. Tonight we will go out with Kelly for dinner to some sort of Italian appetizer buffet. Then, the first of our trains to Switzerland leaves at 7 in the morning.

I feel it, deep down in my sketchbook

It was a pretty easy day today. We met Joe across the city at the San Pito. When we all arived, we bought access to the Boboli gardens. I have to say it was more of an estate, it took Mary and I 3 hours to traverse it to our content, though i must admit there was some sketching involved in there aswell. The garden was built starting in the 1600s and was 'redone' in the 1800's. There ar long dark paths everywhere because the hedges and trees are so old. Mary and I decided it was rather like the Secret Garden do to its creation of quiet seclusion. The entry is based on a symmetrical layout. As we climbed up the hill, we saw some old stairways that seemed to lead to no where. When we traversed the stairways, there was far from nothing there. On a 'small' patio at the top of the hill, the whole 360 degrees of the city of florence could be seen. We had a good view of the Duomo, and could actually see the rolling Tuscan Hills. With the amber homes, old cypresses, and blooming, redbuds, it was quite a sight to see. AS mary and i walked down the steps, we passed a bride and groom walking the slope to get their wedding photos done.

We each had a meeting with Joe about where are designs are headed and how our independent study is going. It took most of the afternoon.

WE then walked as a class to a couple of other gardens on the hills of florence, and finally spent the last day of class at a cafe at the gardens of michaelangelo. All we have left with Joe is a breakfast that we are making at our apartment tomorrow for the class.

We bought our tickets to Interlochen today. :) Yay Snow.

Eternal Smile

Ok, so it's been awhile, i know. We made it to Venice, and it is everything you would think it would be, but more. The first thing was did when we got there was get lost. We had thought it would be a good idea to try to get away from the tourist area and in doing so, we walked ourselves right off of our tour book map. Luckily, we found an american who pointed us in the right direction and then we headed to Piazza San Marco. Its easy to observe that the city in in fact sinking. Many buildings have been raised and some doorways into homes have blocks places above the original threshhold to keep the rising waters out. Apparently, even ST marcs square is underwater many months out of the year now. But back to the point of interest. When you see photos of venice, you would expect that the photos were carefullr cooridnated because of how the canal winds, and the window boxes are planted. The photos are not of just a few choice canals in the city. Every..single..canal we looked down was beautiful, unique and photographable. I had to check myself from filling my camera card up too fast. One thing we learned that is different between roads and canals, is that you cannot just jaywalk accross a canal to get soemwhere. We spent several extra minutes trying to find bridges to the unattainable other side of the 'fence'. Overall, i would say venice is nice, but too expensive to stay. We spent one day and that was all we needed.
Yesterday for class joe took us to a small city in tuscanny known as Lucca. I had the most fun of the trip yet. The original city was an old roman (or etruscan) town that was built on a hill. The city was surrounded by a wall to keep the armies of florence out so many years ago. Today, the city has spread outside the walls, but the original ones still stand. The city has made the walls into a large city park. Where soldiers once stood, people now walk their dogs and ride their bikes. Just below the walls on the outside are fields, with the earthwork still apparent, that people lay in the feel the sun, or walk their dogs. As a group, we rented bikes to ride the 2.5 miles around the city. The day was clear and comfortable, the walls were wide and open, and I enjoyed myself so much that I just could not stop smiling.
We ate as a class and I had the best taste of Italian food yet, Lasagna. After lunch we climbed a tower that had 200 year old oaks growing on it. From the top of the tower, we could see some peaks of the southern side of the alps. There was just a little bit of snow left this far into april.
This morning we went to another tuscan town called Siena. Siena was built in the mountains, and is a mountain city all the way. From here, we could see the quintessential farm land so well known in Tuscanny. To start the day we climbed 400 stairs of the town hall that miraculously stands without a foundation. It hit noon when we were up there, so our ears got to feel the bells first hand. Because it is nearing the end of our time in Italy, we did not do much today. We have an assignment due tommorrow, then will basically be done with Joe. The 4 of us, Mary, Andie, Jackie and I will be heading out to spend a couple of days in Switzerland before we meet Astrid for class in Munich.
I made dinner tonight, as it was my turn. We had fresh bread with sausage and bree, to start our pasta with mozzerella and zuchini.

Ciao Bella

Observations of Italian Culture

Italian men think that they are God's gift to women. According to some reading it is because of Casanova. I think that it is b/c they are just what Mary calls, Skeezy. Instead of the American cat calls, men here will pucker their lips and make kissing sounds at women. They will also make hissing sounds and try to get your attention on the street. They complement profusely, just for attention and make comments about your appearence. Just as I walked in this internet cafe, the clerk, who sounds oddly like Apu said to me. 'you're beautiful.' Women walking will hear things like 'bella signora, signora.' Anyway, they full of it and its best to just ignore them and let them find another source of prey.

Cars take precedence here, and the horn is more important than the brakes. You honk to turn, to stop to move pedestrians to or off the sidewalk. Sometimes, you even honk becuase you're bored and their are not enouigh cars on the road to nearly hit. Joe compared Italian driving to skiing. 'You only worry about whats in front of you, that you dont hit them. What is behind you is someone elses problem.' There is no correct side of the road, only right and left and what you drive on.

Americans are easy to spot. They wear shorts, not pants. Their jeans look right, not wierd and hanging off the buttocks. They wear flip flops. A waiter told me he knew I was american because, 'if a group of people is laughing, they are american.' Americans like their space. When in a line, people will be packed in tight neck, breathing on neck. Where the line opens up to wider spaces and individuals can be discerned, there are americans.

Coffee. Italians are coffee Nazis. They will not let you sit with your coffee unless you pay to do so. They do not drink Cappucino in the afternoon, only expresso, and they will roll their eyes if you dare to order a cappucino.

Italians, some anyway, like to cheat tourists of money, by giving back incorrect change, sometimes even american money, which does not compare. They will charge for a round trip, but only give a one way ticket. Joe had a fight with a train clek b/c the man had over charged then pocketed the money. But it was taken care of.

Some people are very nice where you wont expect them to be. A vender warned me of who could be pick pocketers in a plaza. A man helped me lift my bag on the shelf while on the train. Another taught us how to use the wierd key for our aparment and how to use the local phone.

Liz had a run in with a gypsy who was trying to pickpocket her, but all we got was a whack in the face and a group italians yelling at him. Plus the bag only contained chocolate. Ooops, wrong tourist.

So in total of what I have seen Italy is not culturally rude, its just different and more unstructured I suppose.


P.S. RIP Kurt Vonnegut

A starving artist

Andie and I went to bed before the rest of my roomies got back. I suppose this was a mistake. I had a rude awakening this morning when Jackie woke me with the words, 'We have 15 minutes to make the train.' I panicking for a moment and started gathering clothes. We decided that we would in fact take the later train, but because the later train was full, we put off the trip until tommorrow. So I will be waking up at 5 in the morning, then sleeping on the train. Anyway, since we were awake early in the morning, we decided to go to the large indoor market accross the plaza from our apartment. There was so much food in there, and as I was very glad to see, so much meat. The display cases were filled with large cuts of beef, chicken, fish, and rabbit. I was a little disturbed that tripe looks oddly like carpeting, but I hear it is actually pretty good, other than the oddity of the texture. The market was filled with so many different kinds of cheese, so we bought some brie, as it is the cheapest for our lunch and dinner. We also bought veggies and fresh made ravioli for dinner. We ate our salami sandwich lunch on the steps of the Church of St. Croce. This cathedral, that I have never heard of houses the tombs of several influential names from our past. Michealangelo rests here, accross the way from Da Vinci and Nicholai Machiavelli. When we were finished with our sketches we brought our things home and went to the bazaar near our place to get some little things for our people at home. I also bought a tshirt.

Kelly met up with us later and we walked to the best gelato place in town where i got a cup of rice gelato with chocolate orange and cream with choco chips. It was delicious. I also splurged a little on myself. Since this is a place of leather and artistry, Kelly knew of a little shop that makes leather sketchbooks. As my book currently is already half full, 1/3 into the trip, I am having one made. It is shaped to my liking and will have my initials embossed. The neat thing is, that it will not cost any more for the custom making, or for the lettering. The woman also gave me a student discount of 10 euro. The total price of a cutom leather book will be less than the price of two moleskeens, which are smaller and too popular for my taste. So, yes Im sorry, but the aroma of leather seduced me.

There are too many good artists here. Its about 6 euro for a good potrait.

A firenze

Well, on Thursay morning we took a two hour train to Florence. All of us were spread out in the train because the train service in Rome was less than helpful. I sat next to a guy that we have dubbed Europunk. He decided his foot room and elbow space on the armrest were more important than anyone elses comfort. Jackie sat next to a nun, and we mostly slept the whole way here. When we got to the city, we stepped out of the station and finally understood that we had left Rome. The city was clean. It did not smell like urine, or beer and the people, and the cars were friendlier and generally more open to Americans and tourists in general. Our apartment here is so nice. There is a pillow for each person and bedspace made to suit as many people as we have. No more sardines.:)The company left a bottle of wine and a bowl of fruit for us to enjoy as we look out over the plaza below our window. We met with Joe at the city's Duomo and walked around the city for a little while. Joe had booked tickets for us at the Accadmicca and we got in to see Michaelangelo's David. The statue is huge, which is odd considering the idea of david being so small. But I understand why the work is so revered. I cannot believe the detail old Mikey put into it at the age of 29. Davids right hand in particular, the strong one, is so detailed that the veins pop and you almost expect the see blood flowing under the surface of the marble. We were given a while to sit down and draw David. I felt though, that my work is basically inadiquate to compare with David, and I would not want to see his beauty marred on a page in my book. I wandered instead and found quite a nice sculpture of Magdeleine. She was put in the back corner of one room behind other sculptures, and she was, in genereal. ignored by the wave of people that came through the room. As there were no chairs in the gallery, i plopped myself down on the floor and drew her for probably 45 minutes. I was amazed at the number of people that spent time looking at her increased once my presence there seemed more important. I had many people looking over my shoulder at my work, but generally, i ignored them and kept skecthing. I am pretty sure it is one of my better drawings of late. The issue with the people watching has to make me wonder what else I could make tourists stop and look at, just by sketching them. When I left, I thanked the guard for not making me get off the floor and we left to go to the Duomo {dome}. Joe joined me and my roomates on a 463 step trek up the dome. The view was quite beautiful and the late afternoon haze created an almost surreal perspective of the Tuscan hills. We spent awhile up there then headed down and went to dinner, without Joe. Andie and I shared a bowl of roasted wild boar, which was quite tender, and therefore probably not wild. The waiters joked with us by singing american songs as they passed by and generally we had a good evening. Because we had to work on our regional roman wrap up for the morning we went to a bar to get some euro cappucino before we got to work. We stayed up until about 130 working on reviews and diagrams while below, outside our window the restaurant had live music playing. I showered, with actual continual hot water and went to bed.

This morning i had a rude awakening when a truck tried to fit inside a candy jar. Well, knock it over anyway. The hustle and bustle below us started early but since i was awake anyway, i didn't really mind. We met joe again, at the duome, since it is the most visible place in the city and walked around the city comparing ren architectuire to gothic. We looked at some plazas and spent some time at the river sketching the Ponte Veccio. While I was sketching, a nice young australian told me my work was "gorgeous" But I think he just wanted to sound like steve irwin. As I stood at the wall by the river, i saw atleast 4 different groups of poeple skulling on the river. I was sad though as there space was limited and they had to keep turning around. After the Ponte Veccio we walked to a church where my roomies and I gave our wrap up of rome and therefore finished all the work for the quarter for LA 411. Its pretty nice to have that out of the way. We were set free early and we met up with Kelly who is studying here and walked with her through the many markets and venders in the area. We bought produce and groceries and Jeff Yuen made us 5 girls dinner for the 4th time, which we ate happily around the table in our cute apartment above the plaza.

Tommorrow we hope to take a day trip to Venice but as the train system is on strike today, it might not happen. I do hear that these strikes are frequent and quickly ended, so, here's hoping.

Ciao a Roma

In our last day in Rome we met our professor at the train station on the south side of town once again. We took a two hour train to a little town called Bagnaia near the city of Viterbo. The town houses a villa built by a rich cardinal in the 16th century.We spent about 2 hours exploring the site and roaming through the many parterre gardens. The gardens are famous for the series of fountains that are created without pumps. they stem from a single stream that comes from the hills and the garden was designed as a metaphor for the embracement of nature during the time of the Italian Renaissance. I have to admit that it was a little dissappointing after Villa d'Este. This garden only charge 2 euro to the 6 of d'Este and they have many less visitors in Bagnaia. The structures were covered with lichen and the fountains contained months' growth of algae. I suppose in a way, the disrepair added to the antique and aged appeal of the garden, but the uneven parterres made me sad. I ate my bag lunch in the town square while most of the class ate at the restaurant. I didn't mind though, I spent much less on lunch, and I was full when I finished. When we returned from out series of trains and buses, we walked around the city so that jackie could find a shot glass for her collection. We are making dinner in our apartment tonight before we wait up and leave for Florence tommorrow at 6 am.

Bicycle Races

As the penultimate day in Rome we travelled in a pretty somber way. We met for class at what is called the piramide. It literally is a pyramid that was built by Julius Caesar and Antony after they conquered Egypt. Apparently in that time all things Egyptian was very en vogue. Anyway, we talked about the pyramid a little, then went behind it to the Protestant Cemetary. It basically is the cemetary for anyone in Rome who is not Catholic. We saw greek, english, american, chinese, canadian, finnish and swiss tombstones. The only truly famous name buried there is John Keats whose headstone reads, Here lies a man whose name was writ in water. Names and ethinicity aside, the cemetary was quite beautiful and well established, especially the plantings. Being behind the walls, it was asthough we were out of Rome, away from the city and sounds. The large variety of plants and the mediterranean lighting probably added to the effect. We also stopped by the Roman WWII cemetary just to see a comparison of cemetary types. I found both rather sobering...each in its own way.
In the afternoon we headed south to the area of the Appio Antico. This is the road the Romans used to send their troops out of the city to conquer other towns, cities, and countries. Many of the original stones are still there today, but I will get to that in a moment. To start the afternoon we went to the Catacombs di San Calisto. There are over 15 km of catacombs in 4 floors. the tour only took about 1/2 hour and we only saw two tombs containing remains, but it still was very interesting to see the place where 100,000 romans were buried, including martyrs and popes. We also went through the church that according to locals contains a footprint of jesus from when he visited St Peter after he fled Rome and crucifiction(sp?). To make the day a little lighter we rent bicycles to ride down the Appio Antico. Since the road is ancient stone, it is desrepair in many places. The large stones make for interesting rides on a two wheel 3 speed bicycle. On the side on the road there were some paths put in but they too had their own form of moguls that took out more than a few of us. The scenery however was beautiful and we road by acres and acres of ruins that now make up a part of a huge public park. Inside this park stands some of the old aquaducts, churchs and castles. They all sit on rolling hills with fields of tall grass with red poppies and camomile. It was an enjoyable and very picturesque day. My roomates and I finished off the day by walking back to the park where we started the week. We watched the sun set on the city as we pointed out all the places we had been and what we had learned. I know it sounds little hokey, but I am suprised at myself and all I now know about the city of of S.P.Q.R and Rome.

Happy Easter...again

So, a funny thing happened yesterday. I was blessed by the Pope...along with about 60,000 other people standing in the square. We were lucky when we went to the plaza di san pietro because we were given access through security and as we got to a good viewing point, the music started. I guess i am lucky here in Italy. I am about the same height as the average italian man and i had no problem seeing the pope, other than the distance. We did not stay long...since none of us are catholic, but there was beautiful music, and one reading, that was actually in English. The rest of the day we walked around getting information together for our regional transect studies and we all did the same today, but solo. I was lucky in that I overheard a man talking to his wife about Campodoglio and I asked them where they were from. They responded 'Long beach'. Apparently the man went to Cal Poly's architecture program 30 years ago and is familiar with atleast 2 od my profs, including Gary Dwyer. He had spent a year abroad in Florence and wanted to take his wife here to show him wheer he studyied so long ago. We have class again tommorrow and hopefully will be going to Villa Lante. So keep your fingers crossed that I get to give my presentation on it. Ciao

I need a McDonalds...fast.

Sorry about the delay in the eurotrip update, but as there was a holiday this weekend, my access to wonderful american technologies was minimal at best. On saturday morning we took the metro the farthest we have yet. We took a train from the termini to the city of Naples. It took about 2 hours and I slept most of the way. We past by small farms, but nothing that could really be considered picturesque scenery. Once in the Station in Naples, or Napoli, we met up with the rest of our class and then took a 45 minute smaller train to Pompeii. All images and descriptions of the ruins did not prepare me for the sheer size and advancement of this 20,000 in population city. Because the city was covered with ash only and not winds or destructive forces, very much of it is still intact. The mosaics and paintings on many of the walls are stiil in order and on the edge on some buildings the signs, for the surgeon and smith are still readable. the ampllitheatre of the city sat 20, 000 and apparently like rome, had issues with hooligans and fights after the games that were held there. the part of pompeii that i didnt like, that is fascinating, yet morbid, is the castings of the victims of the city. The ashes covered many citizens who couldnt get out, and it wasnt till after almost 200 years of excavation that a man in the 1920's discovered what the cavities in the stone truly were. I did not enjoy, but had to look at the plaster of the suffering man. The screaming child shocked me, and took away all previous thought of lunch. After we left the ruins, there were fruit stand of juices. As any geologist would know, vocanic soil is one of the best to farm on. I bought a glass of blood orange juice and mary had a lemonade. They were both delicious, one sweet, one perfectly, pointedly tart.

Easter

Happy Easter, sorry I dont have much time. Im going to the vatican to see the Pope.

It's like Disney World...for landscape architects

This morning we took the metro to the outskirts of rome to meet Joe and the rest of the class at the bus stop. We then took a 45 minute ride to the town of Tivoli. We headed right to the villa of Cardinal d'este, 1530's and stayed there for about 3 hours. Its amazing how beautiful and well maintained this old villa is. Most of the fountains on the hill still work. we watched the water organ play and spent time sketching and walking through the many gardens with wisteria and tulips in bloom. With over 500 fountains still in use, even on a warm day, we were quite cool and ready to enjoy the garden's splendor. After we ate a small lunch at the cafe on the balconys above the valley, we nixed the trip to hadrian's villa because it was so late in the day. Insteas we went to an area of the town known as villa gregoriana. Its an old valley that used to have a large waterfall run through it. The water was recoursed due to flooding and now there are numerous cascades in the valley. After 2 hours of steps, climbing walls, and sneaking in to roped off areas with the professor, we were quite tired and ready to head home to Rome. The bus ride back was extremely packed and i have to stand for about 20 minutes of it with some girls from the area squeezing in next to me. The horrible situation did not put a damper on my day though, infact, on the bus flying down the curvy roads of the hills, it felt as though i was on a roller coaster, weaving between the olive trees. This day was not a day so much of historical education, but more of a fun day of outdoors and beautiful scenery. It might even have been my favorite one yet in the country of Italy, but then again, i might be biased as a design student. Anyway, we are heading to Pompeii tomorrow morning and I heard Naples is well...an interesting area, so we will see what the day brings.

Athens

I guess it was a good thing we got out of Greece and its ferries if you check the news.

All Roads lead to Rome

First of all, let me say, I am incredibly tired. We met for class at 10 am this morning at the Campoliglio. It served as a palace and home of the senate. The original buildings were redone by Michaelangelo and in sits up on a hill with very awkward steps. We were there for about an hour working on study. For those of you who are curious, as to what we do as landscape archiecture srudents in europe, i will explain. Generally we got to a location, whether well renown or hidden. Someone, student or our prof Joe will give a schpeal on the site. We will learn about its history. We are then released to draw it, and explore, while always experiencing it as a user. We then meet up again to analyze the goods the bads and why work, or dont work. we've done this so much after 4 days, i feel as though looking back, my head might spin. So, I will try to update this as often as possible so that i dont have to keep looking back in my journal on what i did that day.
After Campodoglio, my roomies and I headed towards the vatican. We grabbed a slice of pizza on the way, and got in line for St Peter's. The line was deceptively short as we wanted to climb the cupola, or dome. We waited in line for about an hour to buy a 4 euro ticket to climb 552 steps to the top. The view was gorgeous, and as a group we clmibed even higher on the butresses than generally allowed so that we could have photos without other poeple in them. The bells rang while we were on the roof, and the whole building vibrated. Aftre we climbed down form the dome, went inside the cathedral. As we were taking pictures we say a censor burning and some acolytes walked out of a hallway. Many men of the church were lined up and i am pretty sure a was just a few feet away from a cardinal of st peters. I suppose i would be more proud if i were catholic, but i think the experience was neat. We listened to much of the mass from inside the vhurch for a while as we could not see it. When we left church the service was actually being playe don some mega screens outside.
Atfer the vatican, we walked down one fo the major shopping districts, but found that the prices were too steep to bother. We decided we will wait until florence to really buy anything as it is much less touristy. I am very tired, as are my poor feet. I think i destroyed my shoes in a matter of one week walking around this city. I wouldnt be suprised if i need a new pair by germany. Anyway, jackie is making dinner tonight and i want to go to bed early since tomorrow we are going to tivoli to visit the villa d'este and villa adriana.

Walk a mile in my shoes

I estimated today, that we walk, at the minimum 2 miles a day, no matter what. Our apartment is about 1 mile from the rail station, and we have had to use it every day since our arrival. Today, at about 5 miles, was the least we have walked yet...outside anyway.
Yesterday we met at El Teatro Di Marcello, an old theatre made by caesar augustus, for the 'people'. Part of it was restored by Mussolini in the 30's and it sits right next to the old ghetto, which dates back to when only true romans could live within the city walls. The buildings in the old 'ghetto' were actually quite detailed ornate. They displayed the main color pallatte of Rome. Black, white, maroon and gold. An old large roman buliding sat at the back of the ghetto, which was used as a fish market during the time of mussolini.
After walking through the ghetto, we walked along the path on the tiber river. The water was high and flowing, and rather clean. the path, unfortuneately was not clean. As much as the city tries, the local football clubs tag the walls, in the city, predominantly by the river. Also, as we climbed a staircase out of the river, we walked by 6 used needles and a pile of human feces. Yuck. But i guess that too is part of the education of why i dont want to live here.
For the first part of lecture, we walked through El Campo De'Fiori. There was a market going on in the plaza and i bought a delicious blood orange to eat while i sketched. We then went to the Piazza Navona, where Mary presented the fountains of neptune and the sea nymphs. The plaza was a refreshing open area after the small and narrow alleys leading into it. Down one road sits a large sculpture of a rather cute elephant with an egyptian obelisk on its back. Beside this statue there were two gypsy boys playing music. One was about 8 years old and playing the violin, the other was about ten and playing the accordion. As they seemed to be bringing in quite a large amount of coin, i did not feel the need to contibute. However, the music did add the overall presence of the site while i sketched the elephant. behind the elephant sits the church of Santa Maria Sobre Minerva. We walked respedctively through the church and admired all the beautiful stonework. Since I am not catholic i did not sit down and kneel, but others in the class did as we passed by the tomb of St. cattherine. The day continued with a trip to the Trevi Fountain, where Neptune is Flanked by two horses, one the tame, one the wild to demonstrate the moods of the sea. The fountain is large and behind it sits a building whihc serves as a water basin. Supposedly, several, several years ago, in a restorattion project, a workman commmitted suicide from the top right window of the building. After his death, people spoke of seeing a face, and body reflected in the window. So many poeple saw it, and were bothere by it that eventually they boarded up the window and painted a fake window on the boards.
Four blocks from the trevi fountain sits the Spanish Steps, named for the spanish embassy to the holy seed. there are 138 steps that rise to an old church at the top of the hill, but that is all they are...steps. I climbed them twice, once because i felt i should, and twice to take a wheres waldo kind of photo. Class ended. Then it started raining. We went to a coffee shop and sat there sketching for about an hour. We then went back to the trevi fountain after the rain to finish some drawings that ended up getting rianed on anyway. We then went home to fall asleep very, very tired.
This morning we woke up at 530 to get to the vatican museum before the line was aroind the city. We got there, were very close to the front and spent the morning looking at old paintings and most importantly, the Sistine Chapel. Its gorgeous, Its beautiful, awesome, and inspiring. I did however find the woman lacking feminity, but when you can study women, you cant draw them, sorry Michealangelo. the museum is supposedly 4 miles to explore in its emtirety. My friends and i went through it twice before noon. After noon, we got lunch for 400 euro at a kabob place. Mine was very good as they ran out of pitas and had to use freschetta bread :). We walked by the city walls and headed to the Vatican Square for class. We met and learned about the city and its history. Apparently, the collonade is made up of pieces of the colleseum, how stupid of the romans...really. Anyway, I am tired and out of time. Also, my roomates have a homemade dinner waiting for me... Hopefully.

No more cowbell.

First of all, I have to say, that I have the best mom in the world. Because my washington mutual account got frozen, I had no access to money when we were supposed to pay in cash for our apartment in Rome, while covering two other people. My mom fixed the problem for me and got it done. Thank you Mom.
Ok, so since I am writing this from a internet cafe in Rome, you can tell that we made it on our ferry,which was very smoky. I dont want to get into it, but it was not the most fun experience of my life. Anyway, we got off the ferry in Athens and took a 40 minute bus to the airport. Having had no sleep, we spent most of the night sleeping on the floor with our arms wrapped in our luggage to keep be aware of our surroundings. Once we could check in however, we found some chairs that did not have arm rests and slept on them for 2 hours until our plane started to board. I dont remember much of the flight because I was sleeping, but we made it into Rome at about 830. We got our lugagge just fine and took the espress tram to the Rome Termini. We walked, in a most circuituous route i might add, with out heavy, heavy luggage, about 1 mile to our apartment, where at 1130 the manager met us to get us set up and paid. After we got settled in we immediately left to go meet Jeff Yuen at the train station. We found him at the McDonalds and walked back to the apartment. At the apartment I was the first to shower, and I am not sure if that was a good idea. There was absolutely no hot water and because the tap comes ffrom the mountains, I would say that it was even frigid. I did not get a full showre, i basically washed my hair....kinda, and got out. Only, as i got out, i shut the door to the shower too hard and dissconnected the door, thereby making it impossible to open from the outside. Yuen ended up having to climb over the showre door and into the showre in order to fix it. Anyway, we left not long after and headed to meet Joe(our professor) for an optional meeting at the giacommo(?) park. We walked for 2.5 hours on what we were told was a 15 min. one, because we were sent to the wrong place. It seemed as though we had seen all of Rome, except the neat stuff. Finally after turning around we found Joe and two other students who met him. We got to see a fantastic view of the city, and Joe showed us the American Academy at Rome, where he studied when he won the Rome Prize in 2003.
That was yesterday and this morning we met for class under the Arch of Constantine. This is right next to the Colleseum. First we went to a church of st clemente. This church, built in the 1500s was built over two previous churches, one of which was built way back in the first century. It was beautiful, but I have no pictures, only drawings, as photos were not allowed.
After the church, we climbed the Palatine hill to visit the old villa and waited in line for about an hour to buy tickets. It was worth it. The old villa of the emperors was large, and the gardens are very impressive. My group gave our presentation of italy while in that garden. After class we went to look at the ruins on the forum and the old stadium. Its amazing to see what they were capable of way back then. Even the aquaducts are built on a ratio of a 1 to 1000 slope. For those of you non architect/engineers, that means really slow, but sloping drainage. We walked by the arch of titus, and anothe won of whom i do not know. Though I do know that no Jew will walk under the arch of titus as it celebrates a battle he won against them in Jerusalem.
We met up with Joe once more to make plans for tommorrow then headed off to the Colleseum to explore it. because we already had tickets from the villa, we got to cut through the line, which would have taken hours and go inside. Its huge. It is not as huge as the portrayel in gladiator, but impressive nontheless. I cant believe it was made in only 10 years. they remade a set of staicases to use, that are very steep and remade a part by the floors, so that you can see how the seating arangedmnt was. The emperor sat near enough to get sprayed with the blood of any animal slave or gladiator out there. Its a shame that the people of rome dissassmbled much of the colleseo for builing materials, as it is very noble in stature, up until the quite obvious retrofits.
After the colleseo, we went to find dinner and had our both our first sit down italian meal, and my first unshared dinner. The pasta was made after we ordered and the cold water hit the spot. After dinner, we bought gelato for jeff for his birthdya and walked home.

Rome, being one the smelliest cities I have ever been in, has the best water I have evr tasted. Since the water poors from the mountains, they constantly run a stream of potable water from every hydrant. It always cold, and tastes so good. It also minimizes the amount of money spent on beverages :). Anyway, my water bottle i brought with me, when empty hits my hip and makes a sound that reminds jeff yuen of a cowbell. Today when we were on the palantine hill, i dropped it, right after i filled it, and it broked, sending a stream of delicious water down the hill...so no no more cowbell.

I think I saw Larry Byrd today.