Week 19: Ireland and the UK

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Well... Ireland was spectacular. On Saturday I took a trip to Cork with my rail pass. My last trip with it. I'm a little sad my privileges of unlimited travel have come to an end. Anyways, I got to see a lot of the countryside. It is beautiful. Mostly green farm fields with hedgerow fences and either cattle or sheep grazing. You can also usually see some mountain range in the background. Cork was a lot like Dublin. Although these cities have large populations, they feel small because their centers have mostly three story or lower buildings. What you don't see is their sprawling suburbs. Anyways, I looked around Cork for a bit and then took the bus to Blarney to see the one and only Blarney Castle. It was nice to see a castle in the stereotypical sense of castles: dark stone ruins of a fortress variety. All the castles in central europe had plaster on them... they looked like villas. While at Blarney castle, I kissed the Blarney stone... its supposed to give you the gift of gab. We shall see. I did some more looking around in Blarney and bought a few 'special presents' before heading back to Cork and eventually on to Dublin. By the time I arrived in Dublin, I had already finished reading The Man Who Was Thursday by CK Chesterton. I had purchased it in Cork just before leaving for Blarney. Yes, I liked it that much. I highly recommend it.

Sunday I went on a tour of the Boyne Valley. I got to see the Hill of Tara- the ancient crowning place of Ireland's past kings. I also got to see Trim Castle (Braveheart was filmed here). Finally, I got to go to the Boyne Valley vistor's center and tour the Newgrange Tomb circa 5000 BC. Older than the pyramids, this tomb shows that Neolithic peoples had knowledge of the Winter Solstice. For the shortest 5 days of every year, the sun pours in each morning for 17 minutes through a window box looking due east. The rest of the year it is totally dark. The absence of smoke residue on the ceiling further suggests that no one ever went in the tomb except for this brief time each year, as it is doubtful that neolithic people had flashlights. :) Super interesting.

Monday turned into an all day flying experience. I left the hostel in Dublin at 9, got to the airport around 10. Waited for my delayed flight to leave. Arrived finally in London Gatwick around 2, and then took public transit for almost 2 more hours. By the time I was in my hostel room it was 4:30. Too late to do much, plus it was raining and I was beat. So I took myself to see the new Fantastic 4 movie, which is not all that fantastic, but had a lot of London in it suprisingly. Then I hit the internet, finished reading The Five People You Meet in Heaven, and went to sleep.

Tuesday was my big sightseeing day... Tate Modern had an amazing urbanism exhibit, and its free to get into! Then I took the ferry over to Tate Britain where I had lunch and did a quick walkthrough. After that I saw the Parliament building, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye (ferris wheel), Trafalgar Square, etc. I also had coffee, because that is what I do. Later on I came back to the hostel area and bought new bottles of sunscreen, bugspray, and all the other toiletries that were too heavy to come on my Ryanair flights.

I think tonight I will go back downtown and take some night photos. Tomorrow is my last day in London. I have to spend the night at the airport because my flight leaves at 6 AM and the metro will close at midnight. In a way it will be nice to not have to worry about waking up at 3 AM to leave. I think tomorrow I will see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace at 11:30 before heading over to the Tower of London, London Bridge, and the Design Museum. And maybe the Freud Museum. And thats all folks. Then I am going to AFRICA! I can't believe it. So until then, signing off... Sally.

Week 18: France, and Ireland

Well my European adventures are coming to an end. France was just great. My first real stop was Bayeux in Normandy. I saw the D-day musuem, the American cemetery, and a 90 meter long tapistry almost 1000 years old depicting the history of the region. It was pretty sweet. Then I headed to Mont St Michel. The abby is pretty incredible, but the walk across the bay at low tide was the real adventure. I met two girls who were studying in Paris and we had a heck of a time. We returned to Paris together, and the next night they had me over for dinner, laundry, and internet. What a perfect combination. All in all, their hospitality was incredible. That day I went to the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa, but it was the arabic art that was my favorite. I also saw the Paris Opera House, Sacre Couer, and Moulin Rouge.

The next day I toured Versailles with Ashleigh and Tommy, two Seattle natives that I was sharing a hostel with. That fulfilled my aspirations of seeing the home to Louis XIV and later Marie Antoinette that developed in European History AP sophomore year of high school. The audioguide was pretty good and the gardens were beautiful.

Brittany and Jeff met me that night at our budget hotel and we stayed up way too late just chatting. The next morning we went to see the Villa Savoye by Le Corbusier... we are talking architecture with a capital A. Its kind of a big deal. Then we saw pretty much every museum on the planet over the next two days (including pompidou center and the Musee d'Orsay), as well as going to the top of the eiffel tower, seeing the Arc du Triumphe, the Pantheon, Jardin du Luxembourg, Notre Dame, etc.

Thursday night was the Summer Solstice, and the scene of the night of music for Parisians (Fete de la Musique)... as the longest night of the year all the musicians perform on the street until the wee hours. Fun... except that I needed to get up at 5:15 this morning. And so the adventure of budget airlines begins.

Ryanair is so cheap. Supposedly. But they fly out of Paris Beauvais... a hour and 15 minute train ride followed by a 30 minute bus outside Paris. Oh and that 15 kg checked bag allowance... that wasn't per bag... that was total. So I had to pay 88 euro for my second bag to come with me. Painful, but I had no choice. And Im going to have to do it again when I go to London... sigh. So my flight is going to end up costing about the same as a regular one would have... oh well.

I can't be too sad right now because I am in Dublin. Despite rain, today was filled with exciting activities such as seeing the book of Kells, a book of 4 gospels made by Monks over 1000 years ago with detail that could barely be acheived today. I also toured Trinity College and got to see its old library... its "long room" is the largest single volume library in the world and its books (some 400 years old) are organized by size... so if you want to find one you have to know its exact dimensions and go around measuring. Pretty hilarious.

After that I took the Guinness factory tour. I enjoyed it... and the building is pretty neat. There is a light well through the middle of the building shaped like a large beer glass... its cool.

Oh, and when I got here I went through a small culture shock... I haven't been submersed in an english speaking culture in close to 5 months now... it was a shock at first but I have to say it is really nice now that I have had a few hours to get used to it. My brain doesn't have to work so hard all the time! Thats pretty much it for now. Cork tomorrow. Ciao.

Week 17: Europe Galore

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To view photos click the link to the right under photos called webshots. Or just click the following link: http://community.webshots.com/user/chic101585

Just a warning though, they havent been rotated or sorted... sorry but I am doing this on the run. You get the idea though.
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Oh the places I have been. Where to start? I guess the fact that I am on a very foreign keyboard is a good places to start. Please excuse typos... I am out of my element here.

So when I left Praha I headed to Cesky Krumlov which was really cool. It is a small town on the border of Austria and the Czech Republic. I checked out the castle, ate a local cinnamon roll, etc. This roll was literally a cylindrical piece of dough, hollow on the inside. Delicious. Then I headed on to Vienna. Meanwhile, my train was late so I missed my connection and ended up on a double decker bus to Linz to meet another train. This bus was insane, or at least the driver was. I was in the front on the top floor so I basically had a windshield and wiper all to myself. Me and this guy from Mexico were playing blackjack and chatting with these other American girls. Funny.

We lived to Linz despite feeling a little carsick, and I proceeded to hop a train to Vienna. Yeah railpass. I find myself in a car with a Nigerian footballer, or soccer player, who not only wants to go to dinner tonight in Vienna but also be friends forever. I find a way to get out of this, naturally. Vienna was cool, but just not really my style. I took a lot of neat night pictures of the architecture. I finished checking out the rest of the town the next day before heading to Bratislava.

Bratislava was ridiculous. I suddenly felt the power of eastern europe before I was off the train. But I had a good time basically running through it because I only had 3 hours there. They have a very traditional castle which was neat to see and I think economically the town is moving up. I bet in a decade it will be a totally different place. So I continued on to Budapest.

Budapest was a blast. I saw the sights, got the nightlife in, checked out the baths... everything. I really liked it there... plus they had a vegetarian restaurant... perfect.

On the way from Budapest to Lichtenstein I shared a night train car with a guy from Vienna. We watched Never Die Alone while riding through Austria. Bizarre, but in a good way.

I arrived in LIchtenstein at 5 AM... Buchs really. That is still Switzerland. But after a short bus ride or 3 I was hiking the Furstensteig... incredible. That was the first time I have ever had vertigo, and probably the worst time to have it. But I lived and I really enjoyed it.

So after seeing the rest of Lichtenstein because its that small that I could do it in a day, I headed on to what I thought was Berne, Switzerland. I ended up in Bremen Germany... NORTH Germany the next morning. Too far to go back, I decided to cut my losses and press on to Coppenhagen. After all, I had a Swiss cheese sandwich in Buchs, which is Switzerland, and it was the worst sandwich Ive had in a long time. I got to see all of Denmark from the train, but unfortunately not much Coppenhagen because my train was delayed due to heat affecting old train tracks and making the trains fun slow to avoid accidents. Sigh.

So I went to Luxembourg where I had a hostel waiting for me. Keep in mind I went HIKING 2 days ago now... still no shower... DISGUSTING. I was sooo happy to get to my hostel. And then I realized that Luxembourg is really really cool. Look up Luxembourg city.. its like a fairytale castle with a moat and everything. Amazing.

Then I hit Amsterdam. Did the Heineken Experience aka brewery tour. Saw Rijksmuseum, Vondelpark, Oude Kirche, Niewe Kirche, the Anne Frank Haus, and of course the Redlight district... ironically Oude Kirche is in it... hence accidentally wandering into it. I also checked out a Buddhist temple while I was over there, just for good measure. Finally, I finished my book A Prayer For Owen Meany... a tear jerker I will say. And then I went to see Oceans 13 at a Art Nouveau theater in town.

Today I arrived in Brussels. I like the town, and I really like the waffles. I don't like the rain... but I will live. Anyways, my fair share of internet time has more than expired, so Im off, but I just wanted to get some of that down before I forgot.

Laters, Sal

Week 16: Departure from Praha

Wow. The last four months have been some of the fastest of my life. Things have wrapped up for me pretty well so far! On Friday my digital camera arrived at Fotoskoda all shiny and new for pickup. I got my last stipend picked up and turned in studio! Woof. All things considered I think it turned out rather well. Here is my final layout.

My professor didn't find the project "dirty" enough for the village... I'm hoping that must be some kind of translating error... but considering I basically whipped this thing out in 48 hours I don't feel too bad about it!





In any case, it was certainly an experience going to school in a different country. Things definitely run a bit differently, particularly in the areas of attendance, punctuality, and sobriety.

So Friday was a lot better of a day than Thursday was. I pretty much passed out from exhaustion in my clothes at 7PM Thursday and woke up at the crack of dawn Friday. I did a little surgery on my computer and got my spacebar in semi-working order again after removing a large chunk of something from its inner workings and finished my studio project. After I turned it in I went for a run, during which I had a spiritual experience of sorts. First off, I had a Rocky moment because I ran the whole loop and all the way up the hill without stopping... first time ever. This hill is massive... it took me a song and a half to get up it, but I made it. Yeah. Then I had to detour off my normal route due to some Harley exhibition going on and ended up running through this field of tall grass where I realized how much I actually enjoy running. Then finally on my way up the stairs I stopped and sat for a minute, not because I was tired, but because I didn't want to leave. And I think thats how I feel about Prague in general. Im just not ready to go.

Friday night was a dangerous combination or beer pong, a power hour, and Nebe... needless to say Saturday was not the most productive day ever, but I did manage do get one last round of laundry done and go see Swan Lake at the National Theater with Carrie and Emily. It was the only theater I hadn't been to yet... check that off my list. :)

Sunday I ventured off to Karlovy Vary to check out the sights, mineral water, and wafer cookies. Its also home to Beckerovka... it was pretty sweet. I got home in time to go dancing with Alena and Ondrej one last time.

Monday was full of goodbyes. Goodbye to Krystina at breakfast, Pavel at the park, Martin at dinner, Slava over a drink, my roommates in the kitchen, and others wherever I happened to run into them first. (some were coming in from a party as I was heading out to my train Tuesday morning lol) But lots of stuff got done that needed to happen. Bags were packed, much was thrown away. Mail forwarding was set up at the post office and my academic record turned in. My friend Scotty is being so kind as to take my laptop back to the states with him, so I don't have to worry about that. Brittany and Jeff are bringing my big roller bag to me in Paris. Currently I am sitting at my hostel in Vienna enjoying the sound of acoustic guitar from the bar. Its time for bed. Today was a fun day. I saw Cesky Krumlov, missed a train, took a wacky double decker bus, played cards with a guy from Tiajuana, apparently became lifelong friends with a Nigerian footballer out of Linz, and had some delish falfel for dinner. All in a days work. Also, some sweet night photos of Vienna were taken. But my internet time is up and its time to sleep!

Week 15: Berlin and the week of catastrophe

Well, as promised this weekend I was whisked away to Berlin for a weekend of sightseeing. As frequently seems to happen, I managed to be at the right place at the right time and caught an annual unidentified diversity festival happening all weekend, complete with parade, live music, and blocks of vendors. All of this really means lots of drunk Germans. But lets not get ahead of ourselves.

We arrived bright and early... 5 AM to be exact. But it was worth it for the price... round trip bus ticket to Berlin for 40 USD. Can't beat that! Heather, Jared, and I hit the hostel to drop off our stuff before making our way to the zooliogisher garten metro stop and walking over to the old post office where our bike tour began. Randomly, Dave Armstrong SMS class '02 is giving the tour. How strange. Anyways, the tour was really informative, and involved a beer garden so I was all about it. Plus everyone loves riding bikes... especially members of the Buhler Bike Gang (Brandon and Laura if you are reading this, go us.) Later we headed back to the hostel and had a little nap before heading back out in search of dinner and other delights. The sights that night:

Sunday consisted of going to the top of Reichstag, or the House of Parliament, a famous work of sustainable architecture by Sir Norman Foster. Cheers, mate. I pretty much loved it, not going to lie.

We had lunch in front of the Bradenburg Gate where a massive stage was set up and bad covers of 80's American music were being performed. Not only did I hear Pretty Woman, but also Summer of 69. It was pretty strange. There were a lot of vendors selling international food... or so it seemed. Then we walked over to Checkpoint Charlie and got a better look at the remaining piece of wall.

From there we hit the Jewish Museum, another famous work of architecture by Daniel Libeskind (Denverites- think the Modern Art Museum that is all pointy... its the same architect). Anyways, the museum had excellent content and the architecture had moments that I found to be very well developed, but overall lacked clarity and justification. Do another draft next time Daniel.

By this time we were very tired and went off in search of dinner. This landed us amongst the festival. If we saw a lot of vendors before, they were nothing compared to what we entered into. Foods, beers, and goods from all the world could be found in the 4 city block area the festival was taking up. In addition, there was a parade going on that people seemed to jump in and out of whenever they felt like it. Live music was everywhere. It was a really good time but I got sooo tired....

Before we went home that night we stopped off at a pub our bike tour guide leader showed us. It was at the top of an old bombed out building near the TV tower and shared the space with an art house. There was a lightning storm going on and it was really cool to watch from up there while drinking a beer and shooting the shit. Here I am on the way out...

On the third day we headed first thing to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. Wow. At first when we saw Checkpoint Charlie I was like ok, that was a little underwhelming. But the museum was so cool. The history behind that place is amazing and the museum tells you so many personal stories of how people crossed the wall with tunnels, zipcords, flying and diving contraptions... I really enjoyed seeing it all. It made me wish I had paid more attention in history class.

A quick walk took us to the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe, a controversial creation by Peter Eisenman. I found it very successful in accomplishing its goals in a straightforward manner. We lunched there before moving on to the northside of town for further exploration. Here I am on the first day riding my bike in front of it.

Basically after the we just wandered around for a while, drank beer and then ate dinner. That nipple is rather polished...

The famous TV tower...

And then we went to see the opera Salome. I really enjoyed it, despite not speaking any German. Following the performance we headed back to the hostel to gather our stuff and then hit the bus station to return to Prague. Another successful trip for the books.

Tuesday morning found me knee deep in credit card fraud. Apparently somewhere in the last week someone started making online purchases with my card at the most amusing places including family savers club, esssleep.com, and the south beach diet... Yes, funny choices of spending, but not such a funny situation. I officially have no credit card to fall back on for possibly the rest of the summer... not a good situation! So I had that turned off and then worked like crazy on studio all day (except for a run) before heading off to see a ballet performance of Cinderella! I LOVED it. Ballet is my favorite fine art I think. You get the music and the dance with acting too.

And then I came home and worked my little fingers to the bone in vectorworks (autoCAD for MAC). My project was due Thursday morning. Or so I thought. I have to do more work on it for tomorrow.

So to sum up the catastrophe: my cell phone is broken, credit card out of order, 2 broken cameras, 2 packages lost in the mail, one barely working spacebar, studio not done, 1 camera at the shop still.... and all of this is supposed to be resolved by Monday... its going to be a long day... and I said goodbye to Tomas today and almost cried... I'm going to miss Prague and the people I love here!

Week 14: Barcelona! (sang to the tune of My Shirona)

Shortly after posting last week, we departed for Barcelona. Our flight left Prague at 1:30 on Thursday. All things went as planned and we arrived safe and sound to our hostel located just north of Las Ramblas. Here is a picture of the crew that went on the trip... not a bad looking bunch I'd say. :)

Our first order of business was getting some tapas and sangria and then heading for a stroll down Las Ramblas. We ate dinner at a completely random, non touristy restaurant where I attempted to translate the entire menu for my friends (which was actually in Catalan so the waiter had to tell me in Spanish first lol) and then strolled down the beach. Excellent first evening.

Friday we went to the beach and built an incredible sand castle. Of course, the engineering boys were more concerned with making a working moat, drawbridge, and defense wall than a castle. Ha can you tell which part I made?

After the beach we went back to the hostel and showered before getting some lunch and heading to the Sagrada Familia Cathedral by Gaudi (among others). Pretty impressive stuff my friends, let me tell you!


That night we did a lot of walking around on Mont Juic and watched the magic fountain go off. The next day we got up early and headed to Parc Guell, another Gaudi creation. I pretty much loved it.

"Czech" me out on the bench!

Later that day the weather took a turn so we hit the Picasso museum for a few hours and then did some sightseeing in that area. Jon got in a strong man competition accidentally and did pretty well... lol. That night we went out and experienced a little Barcelona nightlife...

Then next day I got up bright and early and saw the Casa Mila (yet another Gaudi project... my favorite one too!)

And the roof terrace!

After that we hit the Barcelona Pavillion by Mies van der Rohe- a must see for architects... then the boys and I headed back to the beach while the Heathers did more sightseeing on Mont Juic. After the ocean we walked by the Torre Agbar just for fun.

And then I had the most delicious dinner ever at La Fonda and probably ate the best dessert of my life... not even kidding. A quick midnight dip in the ocean and we headed back to the hostel for bed so we could get up early and catch our flight back.

We arrived back in Prague around noon Monday and I began another busy week. I had to get a new transportation card, study and take my Czech final, get a lot done in studio, turn in my urbanism final project, finish figure drawing for the semester, go running every day, do laundry, gather everyones photos, organize an office visit to Studio VM, and find a pirate costume to wear to the final ISC party of the year... a boat party on the Vltava River that was on Tuesday night (and also was incredible). Oh, and somewhere in there I found time to go to the premier of Pirates of the Carribean 3. Maybe that is why I only got three hours of sleep last night!

Currently I am really ridiculously excited about watching the two hour season finale of LOST, so Im going to call this post done so I can go to Delvita with Brittany and Jeff to get champagne and cake to have while watching it. Tomorrow I am having dinner with Larry, Katerina, and Daniel before they leave for the US. I am leaving for Berlin on a bus at midnight and will be there through Monday! Ahh... the crazy life I lead! Miss you/love you. Sally

Week 13: Prague (strange isn't it?)

Ahh a nice weekend in. Friday night we hit the much hyped Cross Club... it was very cool. There were all these motorized engine parts all over the walls and ceiling with neon lights so it was crazy looking inside. But alas I have no pictures because one camera is out of commision, one camera is in the shop and won't be ready for 2-3 weeks, and the third, oldest camera of them all is currently in possesion of the US or Czech postal service... I don't know which is worse.

Saturday morning bright and early I went to the dress rehearsal for one of the orchestras playing in the Prague Spring music festival. Normally tickets are 2000 kc, but since a friend of a friends uncle plays in the symphony, we got in for free. I spent the rest of the weekend being the biggest vegetable ever because I was so worn out from all the travelling. That and I started running again. Sometimes it seems like that is the only way to spend time alone. Take tram 20 to the end, get off at the park and go for a jog down by the creek, through the rocks, past the houses, up the biggest hill God ever made (in Prague at least), around the lake and back on the tram. PS this is pretty much socially unacceptable because when people work out in Prague they always shower before getting on the public transit... Oh well. Its only a few stops and I don't care. Also, I think I am the only jogger out there. People either bike or walk. None of this breaking a sweat and running business.

Its funny, being in Prague is like normal life now. Everyone has pretty much settled into their routines of classes, grocery shopping, working out, homework and doing laundry. We have our Wednesday night ISC parties thursday night LOST viewings and our clubbing and thats about it. Nobody eats out because its expensive so we all make food in our little dorm kitchens.

On Tuesday Laura (my roommate from last semester) and LA (Lauren Anderson, college friend) came to visit during their end of semester travel bonanza. They were studying in Santa Chiara, Italy but their semester ended the first week of May. We had a fun time at the clubs on Tuesday night, doing a little sight-seeing, and then a blast at the last country presentation of the year.

So, Thursday, after I have another chat with my studio prof I leave for Barcelona for the weekend! There are six of us going... a nice, even number of people. Any more and finding places to eat is tough, but less than 4 is less fun as far as going out and stuff goes... I can't wait!