A bunch of traveling

So, its been a really long time since I've updated. I'm not in Italy anymore.. School ended for me on May 8th. After that I went to Copenhagen for a week as Sara wrapped up her school there. Copenhagen is such a cool city, it was really great to get to spend so much time there. It was also kind of sad to have to watch Sara say goodbye to her host family. They are really great. They really enjoyed having her there this semester. And they were so generous to me also, letting me stay there for so long.

So, we left Copenhagen and took a bus to Berlin. Berlin is a really amazing city. It was incredible to be somewhere with such recent history, things that shaped the world happened there less than 20 years ago. It was so surreal to see the Berlin wall, and places like Checkpoint Charlie.

After Berlin we went to Munich. What a great city. Beer halls and biergartens all over the place. They love beer so much. When you go to a beer hall, you can't even buy less than a liter of beer. ha. We also took a day trip from Munich to Neuschwanstein Castle. It was beautiful, located in the German Alps. Swan Lake (the place that inspired the classical music peice) was really close, so we went swimming there too.

And now we're in Zurich. I am very excited to see this city. I feel like i know so much more this time around than the last time I was here. Anyway, its Switzerland for the rest of this trip. OK, see ya!

Design, Design, Design.

I think my blog entries are usually pretty mechanical. I usually just tell you where I’ve been and the things about them, as if I’m teaching you. But really, you probably don’t really want to hear about the history of a 600 year old estate in central Italy. I’m guessing, if you’re looking at this page, that you want to hear about me. That’s pretty cool, and humbling to me, that people are interested enough in me to get on the internet and navigate on over to a page that I put up to keep people updated.

I want to paint a picture. Not with watercolors, as I have recently enjoyed, but with words. I don’t really know the significance or importance of describing this particular event in detail, it really has no consequence on my trip other than being a memorable experience. But I feel that I have been lacking in descriptions.

Last weekend, I went to Milan with 7 of my classmates and friends. We left on Friday night at 11:30 and took a night train to Milano Centrale. What an experience! As soon as we got on board the train, it smelled of tons of bodies, it was really musty and warm. We squeezed our way down the hallway that was full of people. Some were trying to sleep, some had given up on that futile endeavor and were just standing and staring at the wall in front of them. Our seats were full of people as well. We showed them our tickets and they made their way out of the compartment. It was a 6 person compartment, and two more of us were in a separate compartment. So, my friend and I made our way to that other compartment.

There were people in those seats as well. We showed them our tickets and, after examining them, they said that they also had the same tickets. They didn’t move. So, in desperation we went back to the compartment with our six friends inside. I said, ”We’re piling in!” So that’s how we spent the night, eight of us in a six person compartment on the six hour trip to Milan. Whenever one person had to move and change position, it affected everybody else, so sleep was far from undisturbed. But, I surprised myself and actually slept for four hours, which made me exceedingly happy, as I didn’t feel exhausted when we arrived in Milan at 7:05am.

It was now Saturday. We figured out the metro system and made our way to the Duomo at the center of the city. We walked inside of it, and I found out that it looks exactly like the Mines of Moria on the interior. (that’s for you Lord of the Rings fans) We then climbed the stairs to the roof of the Duomo. The entire surface of roof is walkable, I’ve never been to another cathedral like that.

We did some various other things around that area of town before we decided to go to a park. This park was awesome. Giardini Publici is what it was called. It is an enormous park, it reminded me of the public parks in London. (large, international, wealthy, business-centered cities must take great pride in their parks) We stayed there for hours, the entire afternoon. Everyone else but me fell asleep. I got out a book and started reading it, a book by Kurt Vonnegut called the Sirens of Titan. I’ve never had so much fun reading a book. (I read the 325 page book in 4 days, a new record for me)

Anyway, that night we didn’t have a hostel reserved in Milan because there had been none available on account of the design fair. We stayed in the small, beautiful town of Como, about thirty minutes north of Milan by train. It is situated at the end of an arm of a beautiful lake in the foothills of the alps, only a few kilometers from the Swiss border. The air was so fresh and crisp! We ate dinner in an open air restaurant on the waterfront as the sun set. Beautiful. I really mean that.
The next day we got up early and went to the Saloni, Milan’s enormous convention complex. The international design fair was there, and that day was the only day it was open to the general public. There were about 20 enormous halls completely full of exhibitions displaying the latest designs. There was furniture, lighting, and some student exhibitions too, along with some up-and-coming designers trying to make a name for themselves.

Sometimes I felt as if I was seeing the same thing over and over again. After I saw about 50 modern sofas in one exhibit, I went and saw 50 more in the next exhibit. Then I stopped and realized that the 50 sofas I had just seen looked remarkably like the first 50 sofas. There’s only so much you can do with a modern sofa I guess. And I got to see all of it. Sometimes I had to move to different areas of the exhibition to keep myself entertained. After an hour in the sofas, time to go see some lighting, then off to the chairs, and so on.

Seeing so much design stuff was cool, I suppose. But why? So much energy is spent on making different sofas that most people in the world can't afford anyway. So many of the exhibits were so exclusive and expensive looking that I felt uncomfortable going into them. I did not feel "at home" in them, which is what I want when I'm sitting down on a sofa. But I know I want my house to look cool someday, and It’ll probably have things in it that look similar to things that I saw at the exhibition.

Milan is such a design-oriented city. Its almost overwhelming. There are galleries everywhere. Most of it seems to be furniture design. We went to a “design district” of the city and parused a few of the galleries. There were also some product design galleries. After the last dose of design, we hopped on the subway and went to the central train station. We found our train and began our 5 hour train ride back to Orvieto.

And that was my weekend.

Only eight more days remain of my time here in Orvieto.

Tivoli

From the sketchbook... This past weekend we went to Tivoli. It is about 25 kilometers east/southeast of Rome. The first place we visited is called Villa D'Este. It was constructed in the 15th century by a Cardinal who had been rejected in his attempts to be Pope. It is built on a hillside, and has many amazing fountains. It is probably the most famous Italian formal garden. I really enjoyed it, and it is amazing to think of it being built in the 1400's, without the technology of today. It was a huge undertaking, I'm sure.

This is the largest fountain in the garden, it is probably 5 stories tall.

This view is looking towards the fish pond from the top of the big fountain.

Then we went to Hadrian's Villa. It is an enormous comlex of ruins, the size of an ancient town. This watercolor is of the end of the Canopus, a long slender pool that is one of the most famous parts of the villa.

Our last stop of the day was the Jubilee Church designed by Richard Meier. It's located in the outskirts of Rome. It seems sort of out of place, because it is in an area of Rome that is dominated by nondescript apartment buildings. But I think the church itself is amazing.

So, I've been enjoying watercoloring the past few days, if you hadn't noticed.

Only a few more weeks of being in Italy. Its hard to believe.

Buona Pasqua!

This past weekend was Easter weekend. In Italy, Easter is the biggest holiday of the year. (as it is in most of Europe) My classmates and I got Friday and Monday off from school. Orvieto has been completely packed with people all weekend, I’ve never seen so many people here! And not just foreign tourists, most of the people in town over the weekend were Italians. As I walked through the streets over the weekend, I would hear many wishes of “Buona Pasqua!” (Happy Easter!) Most businesses were closed over Sunday and Monday. The Monday after Pasqua is always a national holiday in Italy, called Pasqualetta. Which, when translated literally means “little Easter”.

All weekend, the church bells would suddenly erupt at seemingly random times. Espeically on Easter Sunday, it was as if they were announcing to the town that Jesus has risen! At least that’s how I took it.

For me the weekend was extremely relaxing. Three of my roommates went skiing in Switzerland, so it was just me and Aaron at the apartment. We just sat around and sketched and watercolored and watched Arrested Development on DVD. And slept at least 10 hours a night. It was amazing.

Last Wednesday evening, some friends and I hiked out to La Rocca, a large rock outcropping around 7 or 8 kilometers from Orvieto. The view of the city from La Rocca is great, Orvieto looks so small from there


We also had some fun making cool Karate poses.



Sara and I on top of the Torre del Moro, the tallest tower in Orvieto, the Duomo is in the background.

A couple weeks ago, Sara came to Italy for a week! I had a great time travelling with her. I met her and Ally in Rome. As we were on the bus into town from the airport, we were driving past ancient Roman ruins and aquaducts, things that I am completely used to by now. Sara and Ally were completly fascinated by it and exclaimed, "Oh wow! Old stuff!" Its interesting because they've only been seing modern architecture in Denmark, and I am completely saturated with historic and ancient things. What different experiences we're having. Anyway, we spent a couple days in Rome, then they came to Orvieto for a few days. After a nice chilled-out time in Orvieto, Sara and Ally came with us on our class trip to Siena. Siena is a really neat city. It is preserved in basically the same condition it was in the middle ages. It’s a beautiful town.

This is me in front of the Duomo of Siena. It’s façade is very similar to the façade of Orvieto’s Duomo. Though the interior is much more elaborate.

The next day, we went and visited our buddies in Castiglion Fiorentino at Santa Chiara. Then we went to Florence for a couple days. Then Sara and Ally left for Milan and I went back to Orvieto. It was really cool to get to spend time with Sara last week.

It is hard for me to believe that I only have one more month until I am finished with school here in Orvieto. My program is over on May 8th. I’m sure that date will be here before I know it. In the first month of being in Italy, time seemed to pass very slowly, but ever since the middle of March, time has been flying by.

Earthquake

I want to let everybody know that I am fine. Day before yesterday (Monday morning the 6th) there was a 6.3 magnitude earthquake in L'Aquila, Italy, about 100 kilometers east southeast of Orvieto. I was in Florence at the time of the quake, and I didn't feel anything.

Some of my classmates in Orvieto said they noticed some shaking, but it wasn't very significant. It's really weird to think of this tragedy happening this close to me. Italian tv keeps showing video and images from L'Aquila, revealing the destruction and showing the search for survivors. Last I heard the death toll was 209 with around 20 people still missing.

Thanks for your concern for me, please keep the victims and their families in your prayers.

Spring Break - 3 countries

I have done so much in the last two weeks.. It its gonna be impossible to make a post that gives you a good idea of everything I’ve done. It even seems like a daunting task for me, to even simply remember everything that I’ve done and everywhere I’ve been in the past two weeks.

The first half of my trip was our “study tour” or field trip to Venice. We were in Venice for two and a half days, not long enough in my opinion. Venice is beautiful. Its like no other city in the world, built completely in a “lagoon”, originally uninhabitable. Its founders built the city out of the swampy conditions and it became one of the most powerful cities in the world. It was its own country for over 1000 years.

Getting around was also cool in Venice, they use boats for their public transportation, which now that I think about it, makes complete sense. It was really fun cruising up and down the Grand Canal on the vaporetto (water bus).

We even got to see some of the high water that now plagues the city. One night, in St Marks Piazza, the water was up around a foot deep in some places. And it doesn’t come in from the ocean, the water comes up from the ground. It was really weird. (I didn’t have my camera with me that night, so no pictures).

After Venice, we went to Vicenza for a few hours and then on to Verona, where we stayed the night. Verona is a really cool city. It felt different from the Italian cities I’m familiar with here in the center of Italy. It felt more modern, more well-to-do. (the north of Italy has more money than other parts, and it was evident in the city’s appearance).

From Verona, three friends and I caught a train back to Venice, where we got our overnight train to Prague. There was a big mix-up with our plans to get to Prague, we were planning on riding a train directly to Prague from Venice, but apparently that service has been discontinued. We ended up having to buy tickets from Venice to Vienna and then catching a train to Prague from Vienna, all for 120 euro per person. (when we were originally planning on the tickets costing 15)

Prague was really cool though, I got to see Lisa (awesome friend from architecture) and I got to hang out with Laura and Gracia (awesome friends from challenge). It was really great. I got to catch up with people, eat fried cheese sandwiches, drink hot wine, and see the main sights of Prague. It’s a really cool-looking city.

This is the Tyn Church in Old Town Square (Staromestkse Namesti)

This is Frank Ghery’s “Dancing House”. Its an office building for AIG. It’s the only piece of modern architecture that I saw in Prague.

Lisa and I went to a Czech church on Sunday. I barely understood anything, because I don’t know Czech, but I did recognize a few words that are the same from Russian. They are both Slavic languages, so they share some words and roots. That got me excited about wanting to study languages again. Knowing a little bit of Russian really helped me in Prague, actually. The numbers are very similar, and sometimes, I would just order my food in Russian and they would understand me. (and then they don’t think I’m an ignorant American tourist, just an ignorant Russian one. Or a weird American trying to speak Russian in Prague)

From Prague, I flew to London, the Capitol of the British Empire. Ha. It was so weird being in a place where English is the only language. In the rest of Europe, things are usually in English, but they’re in the native language first, but in the UK, its only English. So, it was weird to be in a place that wasn’t home, that only spoke English. I could understand people passing by for the first time in Europe. So weird. I think this shows that its gonna be kind of a shock to actually come back to America, where I can communicate with anyone and understand everyone.

Anyway, London was really cool. I was by myself, so I could do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. I saw all the buildings and places I wanted to, and I made sure to spend a good amount of time just chilling out in London’s amazing parks.

London feels different than any other city I’ve been to in Europe, it felt more like Chicago, or any other large Amercian city. There are a few historical things, sure, but most of the city feels newer. I suppose much of the city was bombed in World War II, so it probably makes sense that most of the things feel new.

This is London City Hall. I had studied this building last semester in my environmental systems class, so it was really cool to get to go inside. It is located next to the Tower Bridge, across the Thames from the Tower of London.

Here I am in front of Saint Paul’s Cathedral. On the inside, this cathedral seemed more like a memorial to British war heroes than a church. There were statues and plaques everywhere dedicated to Generals and Admirals of the British military that had served in any of the various wars Britain has fought in the past 300 years.

This is me with the Tower Bridge in the background. I remembered that I had a remote for my camera, so I set it up and I snapped a shot of myself.

This is the Tower Bridge. Now, I realized on this trip that this is not the London Bridge, which is actually about a mile or so west of this one. The real London Bridge looks lame.

This is the House of Parliament, with Big Ben attached. This building is really huge.

Here’s me in front of Buckingham Palace. I didn’t see the queen, but I did see the changing of the guard the next day. (kind of, there were so many people, it was hard to see anything)

My feet hurt after walking a lot. So, when I was hanging out in Hyde Park I took off my shoes. It felt aaaawesome. Hyde Park is big. It also got cold once the sun went down.

Fish & Chips.

What an experience. I’ve never had a meal that made me feel like I was going to die sooner. OH MY GOODNESS. This meal is ridiculous. So much grease. I felt absolutely disgusting after eating it. I felt like my face was going to break out instantly because of the grease. Its an entire boneless cod fish deep fat fried served on top of a mound of greasy French fries. Never again.

And this is where I spent the night on the way back to Orvieto. I overlooked some details as I was planning my flights. My flight landed in Rome at 10:45pm, by the time I got to the main train station in Rome to catch a train back to Orvieto, it was past midnight and there were no more trains running. All the hostels were full, because of the big Marathon in Rome that day, so I had no choice but to spend the night on the platform and wait for the 6am train to Orvieto. It was the longest, coldest night of my life, but I made it. I was really happy to get back to Orvieto Sunday morning.

Spring Break

So, sorry I haven't updated this blog in a while. I have been lazy, I admit. Or, everytime I go to get on the internet, I'm doing something else (like skyping with Sara, or buying airplane tickets or reserving hostels). So, here's some text for you.

I'm leaving bright and early tomorrow morning for Venice. We are traveling there with school. We'll be looking at some very historic buildings and spaces. I've never been to venice before, so I am really looking forward to it.

Then on Friday, some friends and I are going to catch an overnight train from Venice to Prague. I'll hang out in Prague for 3 days and meet with some friends that are studying there. Then the following Tuesday I will fly to London, in the UK!

I'm really excited about going to London, even though no one else that I talked to wanted to go there, so that is why I will be traveling there by myself. I'm looking foward to it though, it will be a cool experience. I'll be in London from Tuesday till the evening of Saturday the 21st, when I fly back to Rome.

It will be a crazy couple of weeks, but I'm looking foward to it. And I'll do my best to post a blog with a good pictoral summary of my travels. Until then, Ciao!