16.0 "Ten Bucks Says Kevin Gets Stabbed in the Eye with Sal's Fork!" (Barcelona)

We left Valenica early the next morning and began the loonnngg drive to Barcelona.  Along the way we stopped in the town of Morella, which was high up in the mountains (and accordingly chilly).  We spent some time studying a boarding school that was built up there.  We were all a little dissapointed.  Morella is a poor area and evidently couldn't afford the upkeep that a building like that needed.  Also, the boarding school itself was just...austere.  It was very much down to the bare bones in the student residences and was just very depressing.  After looking at the building we walked further up the hill beyond the boarding school into the actual town of Morella.  I've never seen a place like it.  The roads are narrow and the overhangs from every building project so far into the road that it's almost completely covered.  We found an amazing bakery in the town that sold a pastry called "XOXO" for something like 60 cents.  They were DELICIOUS!  It's a piece of fried dough, coated in sugar, and filled with some kind of cream.  NOM NOM

We later arrived in Barcelona, got unpacked, and had a "great" group dinner at a nearby restauraunt.  Hence the post title.  Sal got involved in a very heated debate with a member of our travel group.  He soon began to gesture wildly with a grape that was speared on the end of his fork.  Unfortunately, Kevin, an innocent bystander, was seated next to Sal at the time.  No one forsaw it ending well.

Bill Galloway arrived that night and we were all really really excited.  He was so incredibly organized and came back our tables that night passing out our metro cards for the next three days and had maps ready for everyone.  After dinner we all went back to the hotel lobby and Bill laid out a detailed map of the city.  He showed us where all of the major buildings are that we should definitely hit up and gave us the schedule for the next few days.

Kit, Aaricka, and I spent the rest of the night researching buildings that we wanted to see the next day and mapping out the most efficient route on a map.  We also did some sink laundry and turned out hotel room into a lovely little shantytown.  God knows what the housekeepers thought.

The next morning the three of us met up with another person on the trip and set out for our first real day in Barcelona.  First, we took the metro over to Sagrada Familia.  Well, it wasn't as simple as that.  We somehow got epically confused over the metro vs. tram stops and decided that we needed to begin at a different station than we originally planned.  This resulted in a forty minute walk around Barcelona trying to find a stupid metro stop.  It wasn't a complete loss though because it gave us a chance to actually look at the city.  Anyway....we went to Sagrada Familia, Casa Bottla, the Richard Meier modern art musuem, the Olympic Towers, and this awesome covered market that had this crazy undulating curve making up the roof, laid out in a modern take on Moorish tiles.  The market was ridiculous.  I enjoyed the building itself, of course, but I was really taken by the actual market.  I've never seen a place like that.  There were all of these counters that were the dimensions of a normal deli counter in the States.  Each one sold something different.  There were several dedicated to just fish, one to lamb, three or four to beef, two to just eggs, and numerous ones for breads, fruits, and vegetables.  Everything looked AMAZING!

The next day we loaded onto the bus for our trip to Igualada Cemetary.  We had been lectured before on what a great building this was, but I honestly wasn't completely prepared for it.  It was in a run down condition similar to the one in Morella--but this time it worked for the building, instead of against it.  The initial idea behind the cemetary is that everything is transient.  An obvious statement when it's taken in regard to a cemetary.  But the Moralles went beyond that.  He decided that his own architecture was transient and designed it to help it along that path.  It seems a little counterproductive to design something with the full intention that it will be destroyed and even push it in that direction, but it really brings the whole building back into the site that I had never considered.  The imperfections and the lack of upkeep only helped the building fall back into the site.  In a sense, the cemetary begins to feel like an ancient ruin even though its less than forty years old.   It's definitely a humbling building to visit.

After Igualada we drove up to Monserrat, an old monastery sitauted high up in the mountains.  It's the Disneyland of Monasteries.  I have never seen so many people in my life.  We all crowded into a church in the complex to listen to a choral group perform.  Dear god.  There were like two hundred old Italian ladies there that didn't seem to understand the concept of NOT TALKING.  BAH!  Plus they're all really short and push you to get passed you.  And I am very easy to knock over.

We had an awesome picnic lunch in a more secluded spot of Monserrat, overlooking a massive valley.  Everyone had a little photoshoot of them doing stupid things in front of the valley because there was such a big cliff below.  Zach (Nick's roommate) even took it upon himself to get off the beaten path and climbed (cigarrette in hand) down a portion of the cliff to a lower area.  A lot of heckling ensued.

Our last day in Barcelona we all woke up pretty late and had a very leisurely morning.  We took the metro out to the Olympic park to check out the Calatrava Tower.  It was pretty cool because a) it's Calatrava and b) there was a group of college aged guys doing these crazy flips in front of tower.  We decided that they were definitely ninjas.

The group met at the Barcelona Pavilion at 2 pm that day.  Amazing.  Amazing.  Amazing.  I'm way too lazy to write a whole post about that building, but it definitely deserves it.  I had a great time taking pictures and sketching.  We had a sketchbook review on the benches at the Pavilion that somehow turned into a sketchbook exhibition.  I have to say, we felt pretty cool with all of these people picking up our sketchbooks and looking through them.

That night we had our last dinner and Bill Galloway bought everyone wine to commemorate the day.  We were then treated to an architecture showdown between Bill and Sal.  And let me say, there's no better way to end a meal.

15.0 ...From Swimming in the Beaches of Alicante...to Swimming through the Streets of Valencia...Karma

We arrived in Valenica wayyy too early.  Like ten am.  Of course, it being a national holiday in Spain and it being ten am we could not check into the hotel and instead had to store our luggage there.  We headed out a few minutes later into the pouring rain to go to the Calatrava Complex!!!  BAHHHHH!!!! Unfortunately the weather kind of killed it that day and I really couldn't get any good pictures.  We ended up going to the Calatrava science museum to escape the terrible weather and spent our time playing with all of the exhibits.  The actual building was a little disappointing.  I liked the overall form of the building and how it brought in light but it epically failed craftsmanship-wise.  There were leaks all over the building, even coming through the overhang in front of the entrance like a freaking waterfall.  No exaggeration.   The BEST part of the exhibits was the Star Trek one where they had scripts from the show laid out on a table.  I had an Oscar worthy reading of one of them with a few friends.  It culminated in a scene where I played two characters that were involved in a conversation together.  Classic.

The next day a few of us went back to the complex to actually take pictures.  The weather had cleared out and there was actually a sky.  Seriously, it's like Calatravaland there.  I LOVEEEE ITTT!!!  I even managed to find a loose stone from the walkways around the complex and decided to take it as a souvenir.  Best.  Decision.  Ever.

That's pretty much all for Valencia.  Rawr.

14.0 Ali-ali Alicante Ali-ali Alicante (Alicante...duh)

Yeah so we did NOTHING in Alicante.  Sal wasn't kidding when he said that it was a beach destination with absolutely no architecture there.  Therefore this post will be short.  On our one full day there we laid around the hotel, painted our toenails (bright orange...yeah), went to the pool on the roof, took multiple naps, sketched, probably napped again, and went to dinner.  I did manage to dip my toe in the Mediterranean the day we arrived , but it was only for a second because it started pouring rain immediately after and I ran screaming from the beach.  Always classy.

13.0 Food Poisoning: 1 ; Virginia Tech Architecture: 0 (Granada)

It was creepily dark when we woke up the next morning to go to Granada.  Apparently the sun doesn't rise here until a little after 8 am.  This day brought some...surprises.

A couple of people were sick that morning and everyone assumed that they were just hung over.  Then, one by one people starting dropping like flies.  By the time the whole ordeal was over there was something like 17 out of the 29 people that had gotten sick.  It was pretty evident that it was food poisoning.  Unfortunately this also happened on a travel day...and let me tell you, it's lovely sitting in a bus for four hours while everyone is throwing up.  Luckily I never got hit.  Those of us that were still well at the end of the day were in a mild freak out mode...it felt like the plague.  One minute one of our friends would be energized and talking and the next they would have their head in a bag.  Lovely.

Anyway, we still managed to make our way stop in Cordoba that day to see the cathedral/mosque.  Again.  Wow.  I really wish I could have seen it before it became a cathedral, though.  It really felt like all of the Christian decorations were just kind of slapped on while the Muslim carvings and tilework were so seamlessly worked into the building.  We only had a couple of hours there and it's definitely another place I would like to go back to.  I would also love to explore the actual city of Cordoba.

We all made it alive to Granada and checked into the hotel.  A few people headed out but Kit and I were worried about Aaricka so we hung back and ran a couple of grocerey errands for her so that she could eat something when she felt better.  The well people had dinner at the hotel that night.  Let me tell you, that dessert table was AWESOME!

The next day those who had sufficiently recovered (only about 7 stayed home as opposed to 17) ventured out to Alhambra.  It was literally on the opposite end of the city so we took a forty minute bus ride to get there.  If you ever go to Alhambra, buy your tickets WELL in advance.  You can still get in to the general gardens but the real magic of Alhambra is in the Palace.  Luckily they had booked our tickets early because the Palace was completely sold out for the day.  Definitely worth it to see those squinches!  Alhambra felt like a larger version of Alcazar.  It had the same amazing level of detailing and seamless transitions between indoor and outdoor space.  We spent most of the day there before walking back down the hill to explore the city a bit and find food.  The rest of the day everyone just passseeddd out.  I managed to take a wonderful three hour nap and then wake up and sketch for a bit before dinner.  Most everyone was feeling better at that point so we had the whole group there.  Thank god, too.  Safety in numbers.  There were literally two hundred Asian tourists there.  They don't seem to understand the concept of buffet LINES.   It's more like a buffet wrestling match.  Also, they're OBSESSED with fruit.  I saw one guy take a plate back to his table with three pears, an orange, and banana...just for him.   That was normal.  And not his first plate of fruit.

This morning we're on our way to Alicante.  Sal has informed us that there's really nothing there and to take a break and enjoy the beaches.  Can't say I'm complaining.

12.0 Scooter...Taxi...HOORRSSEEE (Sevilla)

We spent our first night in Sevilla at a hotel two blocks away from the one where we met up with the group the next day.  It was great to have a real shower and not listen to people go in and out of the room at like 5 am.  We slept in and checked out at 11:30 and walked down the street to check into the other one.  I went to the grocerey store to pick up some food for lunch...it's so cheap here!  Even wine is super cheap--they had bottles for 1 euro.  Everyone slowly arrived and got caught up on their adventures on independent travel until we all met at 4 pm.  We talked with Sal for a bit about what we were going to see while we were in the Andulsian region and then headed to dinner around 7:30.  I definitely missed eating already paid for dinners...hahaha got sick of eating nutella and bread in London (not a cheap city).  After dinner we were all exhausted for some reason and just laid around and watched Spanish game shows.

The next day everyone went to Alcazar.  We didn't travel in a group because it's mayhem there with all of the tourists so I went with Kit and Aaricka.  We wandered down the road and found the gardens nearby.  There are fountains and tilework everywhere.  It's absolutely amazing.  After wandering around the garden we reached the old Jewish quarter.  It's composed of these little tiny alley ways that open up into these beautiful courtyards.  At one point we even stumbled upon a tiny courtyard with a fountain in the corner and a man sitting on a car playing Spanish guitar.  The weather was beautiful and sunny, making everything bright with the light bouncing off the whitewashed walls.  After a couple of hours we came to Alcazar.  Wow.  Wow.  Wow.  Wow.  I wish I could have had two more days just for Alcazar.  We only got through about half of the palace and even less of the gardens (the gardens are about three times the size of the palace).  Every space was just so well thought out and detailed that we would get stuck in there taking photographs and sketching.  It was absolutely amazing.  There are lime and orange trees everywhere that were so fragrant.  The whole place smells like those trees and rosemary, for some reason.  Dunno where the rosemary was coming from.

Everyone came back to the hotel for dinner later that night and packed up to leave for Granada the next morning.

11.0 London Calling!

We moved our bus ride to London up by a day because we were so sick of Amsterdam.  It was an overnight 10 hour ride...but it actually wasn't that bad.  I seriously just passed out shortly into the trip and only woke up for customs and when we were boarded the charter bus into a train car to go through the Chunnel.  Security at Victoria Station was very tight.  They had sniffer dogs and everything, which I guess made sense because we were coming from Amsterdam.  In light of all the recent travel warnings too it makes more sense.

London was amazing!  There's just something so comfortable about the culture there.  It's foreign and exotic without making you feel out of place.  We visited:

-Jean Nouvel's Serpentine Pavilion
-Covenant Gardens
-Bridge of Aspiration (got a tour!)
-Westminister Abbey
-Parliament
-Big Ben
-Platform 9 3/4 (TWICE!)
-Tate Modern
-Millennium Bridge
-Globe Theater
-Manze's Pie and Mash Shop (!)
-Tower of London
-walked across Tower Bridge (took about twenty million jumping pictures...we soon developed an audience)
-City Hall
-Swiss Re
-some random Richard Rogers building that we sketched the Swiss Re from
-British Museum
-Notting Hill (the neighborhood, not the house)

Once again, the hostel was pretty cool.  It was much nicer than the one in Amsterdam but I honestly barely slept because people were always going in and out of the rooms.  On the bright side there was a great common room and everyone was really friendly.  We made a few random friends.  There were a lot of people our age just traveling around and a fair number who had actually moved to London and were staying in the hostel until they found a place to live/a job.

I napped a bit last night as our car picked us up at 3:15 am to go to the airport to catch our flight.  Now we've arrived in BEAUTIFUL sunny Sevilla.  This is our last night on our own and we book what turned out to be a really nice hotel room.  I'm so excited to explore this city tomorrow and see what is here.

10.0 Amsterdammmmmm

As most of the handful of people who actually read this have probably heard.  I was not a fan of Amsterdam.  It was like one giant beach boardwalk filled with prostitutes and weird weird weird people on lots of drugs (example: neighbors in the hostel barking like dogs at 3 pm one afternoon).  I guess that combination of things might appeal to some but it just felt so...gross.

It honestly felt like they were trying to make it feel as skeevy as possible.  The Amsterdam police station was adjacent to our hostel (which was in the red light district) and there was a constant police presence everywhere you went.  We met up with Raviv's friend Idan one night and he informed us that it's actually a really safe place.  There's thousands and thousands of security cameras all over the place and the crowds are filled with undercover cops in addition to the ones in uniform.

I dunno...I could see it as a place that would be fun for a day or two.  But no more.  Four was way too much and we moved our trip to London up by one day.  One thing I did enjoy was meeting some nice people at the hostel.  We had a couple of great guys in our room that were fun to talk to and were normal and not creepy or sketchy.  I honestly didn't run into one rude person while I was there.  Everyone was very friendly and curious about where we were from and what we were doing there.

So anyway...we did managed to see a few cool buildings while we were there:

-the Nemo Center
-Amsterdam Public Library (personal favorite...had great lighting conditions and was overall just a really well done library)
-the Music Center (can't remember the name of this one)...we managed to get a tour of the concert hall while the performer for the evening was practicing...it was really cool
-Arcam center
-ING building
-Orphanage that has been transformed into a series of offices (they built the orphanage to children's proportions...was very interesting)

Anyway...I'm glad I went but I don't think I will be traveling back.

9.0 Le Gay Paris

PPAARRRISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Honestly, I was not a big fan of it here when I came with the Girl Scouts in high school.  It was dusty, smelly, and really hot.  But Paris in the fall is a whole other experience.  Plus, I feel like I actually got that full Paris experience...all of the architecture sites I could manage with a good dose of sitting in cafes and people watching.

We visited:
Corbusier Foundation
Bibliotheque Nationale (Francois Mitterand)
the Salvation Army building
a nearby pedestrian bridge that I don't know the name of
a Gehry building (made out of stone?!)
a stadium with grass growing up the sides (a group of preteens were climbing up it and sliding down, was pretty amusing)
Arabic Foundation
Notre Dame
Centre Pompidou
Louvre
Grand Palais
Rodin Museum
the Eiffel Tower
Cite d'architecture
Bibliotheque Nationale (St. Geneieve)
Pantheon
Branly Museum
Park de la Vilette

All in all Paris was an amazing experience.  I even had a real Croque Monsieur at a cafe!  Also, the couples here are on couple steriods or something.  They take PDA to a whole new level, which was interesting to get used to.  And honestly sometimes kind of gross, especially at 9 in the morning.

TJ, Indy, and I managed to get a taxi to the Eurolines station this morning.  We are currently on the bus to Amsterdam, it's a lloonnggg ride.

8.0 Troyyesss?

Finally done with Basel we set out for Ronchamp and later, Troyes.  Ronchamp was absolutely beautiful.  It always looked a bit funny in history class but when you're there it's impossible not to be impressed.  We also were SO close to meeting Renzo Piano!  He was coming to talk about his building next to Ronchamp at 4:30 pm.  We waited around as long as we could but we eventually found out that he was running thirty minutes late.  SO CLOSE!!  SO CLOSE!!  There was a local news station there that was waiting for him to arrive so that they could interview him.  According to Heiner I got filmed for a few minutes, standing outside Ronchamp and sketching.  I was prretttyyy exccitteeddd.

It was nice to finally be in a country where I could understand a little bit of what was going on.  The countryside is a little strange, it looks exactly like Virginia wine country.  I kept on waking up from random naps on the way to Troyes and being like...wwheerree amm ii??

We didn't spend much time in Troyes.  We had a delicious dinner: walnut salad, bouef collingnon, and chocolate mousse.  YUM!

The next morning we visited a library and a church in Troyes before setting out.  Nothing I was particularly excited about though.

7.0 BAHH Basel

We arrived in Basel on Friday afternoon.  There are a festival going on right across the street from our hotel all weekend to mark the 550th anniversary of the foundation of the University of Basel.  We learned very quickly that Basel is an expensive city.  I mean, the Nutella was almost four francs!  By George!

The hotel was...interesting.  In order to get to half of the rooms you literally went "through the rabbit hole."  By this I mean that to get to say room 17, you:
1) Walk up the stairs to the "1st floor"
2) Walk down long hallway, turning several corners and going down several steps
3) At end of corridor make a right and go down spiral stairscase just ahead.
4) At bottom of staircase turn left
5) Walk down a short ramp, down two steps, and finally up two steps
6) Room will be on your right.

REALLLLLLLLLLYYYYYYYY??????  Thankfully, I was not in Room 17 and did not have to trapse down to "Wonderland" very often.

The highlight of the hotel was having a television that got BBC...IN ENGLISH.  We had some fun with the channels...for the record NCIS is better in French, and they do show Jersey Shore over here.  With German subtitles.

I also really really really enjoyed the hotel breakfast.  THERE WAS BACON!  BACON BACON BACON!  And scrambled eggs and hash browns....SO AMERICAN!

For the record, Basel is the Cumberland Gap of Europe.  It borders Germany, France, and Switzerland.  Our first day we drove over to Germany (about ten minutes away) and went to Vitra.  Oh Vitra.  I got to see Zaha, Ando, Gehry (thumbs down), and Herzog.  BAH!  I seriously would consider living in Vitrahaus, the showroom built by Herzog.  I got stuck playing in on the children's floor for like thirty minutes.  Seriously, it has the most fun furniture EVER!
After Vitrahaus we went to Piano's Beyeler Foundation building.  I didn't think that I would enjoy it that much...but my god.  He is amazing.  Every single detail was taken care of so simply and elegantly.  I don't think I've ever been in a building that was so aware of the comfort of the visitor.  It wasn't an egotistical building.  It honestly existed to serve the artwork, serve the visitor, and enhance the landscape.

After the Beyeler Foundation we were introduced to a VT alumni who is from my understanding a rather noted architecture theorist.  I think I'm going to leave his name out because I'm a little worried about my comments showing up on Google.  But yeahhhh.  I could tell that he was very very brilliant, but dear god...he made absolutely no sense.  He talked ever so softly in a stream of consciousness.  Only occasionally could I make out random nouns.  His lectures over the next few days went something like this: *mumblemumblemumblemumblemumblemumble* SCRAP *mumblemumblemumble*.

I don't think I would have minded it so much if he didn't so completely impede everything I wanted to do over the next couple of days.  We'd be on our way to a building that I'd be really excited about and have to stop on some random street corner and "talk" about god knows what for an hour.  He's seems to have been a mentor to one of our professors here, who got very offended if we didn't pay completely attention to him.  I guess it's because of who he is, because people wandering off has never been a problem with our other guests.  Case in point:

We went to St. Anthony's Church this morning before we left Basel.  It was absolutely amazing.  I really wanted to make a sketch of the plan.  Of course our guest decides to go to the front of the church and start lecturing.  Slowly most people filter over there, or if our professor saw people talking he would bring them over there.  Before I realized it, I was the only one not sitting in the front with everyone.  I was sitting at the back of the church trying to map out the plan and would get up every so often to check something out.  Never been a problem before.  I'm doing what I came there to do.  After a few minutes the professor comes over to me and says, "I just want you to realize how very rude it is to not sit and listen when we have a lecturer."

BAH seriously?!  I've been listening to him talk about nothing for the last two days and I'm finally in a building that I really really want to figure out, and I can't do that?  It's not the end of the world and I don't mean to complain, but GAHH!!

One of the random fun things about Basel were the ferries across the Rhine River.  They're connected to a cable and travel perpendicular to the current at an angle that allows them to use absolutely no energy to get across quickly.  Our entire group piled onto one of them.  They're wooden and very low to the water and honestly did not look like it could hold 30 people.  TO JENNIE:  I thought of you!  The sides of our ferry had sunflowers planted in little ledges.  And I was like...those are Jennie's favorites!

So that's really all about Basel.  Not my favorite city, but still pretty fun to visit :-)  Definitely worth it if I can go live in Vitrahaus for forever and ever and ever and ever.

6.0 14 Degrees Celcius (Vals, Switzerland)

We left Austria at around 8:30 yesterday morning.  As I mentioned in my previous entry, the mountains were absolutely beautiful.  There was a morning fog floating around the top of each mountain and every so often the sun would break through and you could get a full view of the mountain and the springs running off of it.  I was struck on the drive out to Vals by those springs.  When we were driving close to a mountain I could see tiny little springs that seemed to appear out of the grass and moss, all perfectly clear.  Sometimes those little springs would develop into huge waterfalls running down the cliffs.  Down the hills beneath us was a deep gourge with the absolute cleariest water I have ever seen running through it.  When the water was too deep to be perfectly clear it turned into a pale aqua.  Sometimes we were so high up on the mountains that I couldn't even seen the beginnings of the water below, the gourge just seemed to go on infinitely.  It's a harsh landscape with its steep cliffs but somehow there are literally trees growing up the side of the cliffs.  The roads are just as harsh.  Even Fabio, our very competant and AWESOME bus driver, got freaked out a few times.  Two lane roads turn into one lane roads with no warning, especially hard for a charter bus. There seems to be a honking system here that one uses for these random one lane roads and tunnels.  When you enter them you honk a few times and repeat it one or two times through the tunnel depending on how long it is.   There were many sharp turns that Fabio didn't seem to be sure if we could make it around.  Shoulders here are also rather nonexistant.  If its a steep cliff off the side of the road there will sometimes be one, but they tend to disappear at random. Sometimes we even had to stop and back up on a turn to make room for another large truck or bus to pass by.   It was a beautiful drive, but I would absolutely never drive it myself...a little too scary for me.

On our way to Vals we stopped in Chur for Zumthor's Roman Ruins.  By that I mean we got lost in Chur for about thirty minutes.  Its a beautiful town with a rumored wait-list to live there, but the roads are SO confusing.  It was funny too that their sidewalks in that town were virtually nonexistsant.  There were probably about 2 feet wide and sometimes would disappear to like 6 inches.  

To get into the Roman Ruins you have to stop in a church in Vals to pick up the key.  Heiner went to pick it up and we had a mini dance party with Fabio to Timbaland until he got back.  The Roman Ruins were interesting.  Zumthor sort of created a building around the ruins of a couple of ancient Roman houses.  It's absolutely freezing inside because it gets very little light, sunlight is only allowed through two windows and two large, and very deep lightwells in the ceiling.  The building isn't entirely closed off, it has angled wooden slats that make up the main exterior wall.  We spent about thirty minutes there before returning the key and making our way to Vals.  On our way up the mountain to Vals Heiner kindly informed us that if we peed in Vals it would end up in Basel and then Rotterdam via the Rhine River.  Very important information, obviously.  The highlight of the drive, aside from the trecharous roads and beautiful scenery was having to stop in the middle of the road because there was a herd of cows being led by the road...with cow bells and everything!  At that moment I think we all finally realized that we were in the absolute middle of nowhere.  

The rooms are Vals were beautiful.  I did unforutnately manage to somehow break the light in the bathroom, though--classy, I know.  I was trying to dry my hair later on in the day after we had spent some time at the baths, but the hair dryer in the bathroom wasn't working.  Thinking that someone had probably somehow tripped the reset button I followed the wiring up to the light and found a button that I figured would restart it.  Nayeth.  It turned off the light...for forever.  Or at least until maintenance fixes it now that Kit and I have left the room.  

The baths...oh my god...the baths.  There's several of them:

 Sound Bath: which I never found, apparently it's just a room of bells or something

Flower Bath: warm bathwater temperature fillled with flower petals.  I met a bunch of Urugyians there who were architecture students on their own tour of the world.  They were spending ten months traveling South America, North America, Europe, and Asia.  According to them it usually takes 7 to 12 years to finish a Bachelor's in Architecture there because it's very lax.  We told Heiner and he scoffed and said "Stupid Uruyians!"

Ice Bath: 14 degrees celcius and filled with bits of ice, hence the title of the entry.  I did manage to jump in for about ten seconds before running out almost screaming

Fire Bath: 42 degrees celcius...burned when you got in but felt absolute amazing after a few moments

Outdoor bath: heated with the absolute most amazing view of the mountains dotted with tiny huts and a few mountain goats.  TJ, Indy, and I performed a beautiful water ballet to much acclaim in this bath.

Mineral bath: this one was centrally located with super soft water.  When we had silent night swimming last night TJ and I spontaneously performed an encore of our ballet.  It was magical.

34 Degree Celscius Bath: this one was my absolute favorite.  Its the perfect termperature and it has a hidden tunned with waist deep water that leads into a secret room.  SO COOL!

Saunas (Naked and Clothed): there were two three-room saunas with different fragances mixed in with the steam.  The clothing-optional sauna was rattthherrr eye opening and knowing my amazing maturity level, I handled it with total grace and absolutely did not giggle constantly.  It smelled amazing in there though, there was some kind of mint mixed in with the steam.  The last and most intense room of each sauna was insane and I could barely see because my contacts fogged up, but it felt so amazing when you left.

The architecture of the baths themselves is stunning.  The Mineral bath and the outdoor bath are the only really visible ones when you enter the building.  There are these columns all around those baths that are much larger than you think and house all of the other baths.  The 34 degree celscius one is tucked in a corner that is difficult to spot right off the bat.  The point is that you really take your time and explore the baths.  The concrete in the ceiling has reveals that run the entire length of the building and connect the interior to the exterior in a seamless motion.  The acoustics of each bath is amazing too.  It echos beyond belief, which makes it difficult to talk, but it amplifies the sound of the water running off and somehow refilling.  It's like being under a waterfall.  Most of the spaces are dimly lit and there are a lot of lights running under the water, usually nearby the jets.  Unfortunately we weren't allowed to sneak out cameras in so I couldn't get any pictures.  But if you search it online, I promise you'll probably fine some amazing ones that will get you the general idea.

When we got to Vals and checked in everyone immediately changed and went down to the baths for about 4 hours.  After that we got dressed up for dinner, just for fun, and had one of my favorite meals here.  There were four courses.

Appetizer: Pasta Salad

Soup: Some kind of Pumpkin soup...AWESOME

Entree: Mashed potatoes, green beans wrapped in proscuietto, pork chops

Dessert: Coconut and pineapple mousse/ice cream with a piece of fried pineapple

After dinner I headed back to the hotel and got ready for night swimming.  It's only held on Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday of each week and you have to be completely silent.  There was a lot of interesting pantomining going on.  Nothing better right before bed than soaking for another hour.  I don't think I've ever been so freaking clean in my life.

Heiner and Mario set the leaving time this morning for 10:45 so that people could go back to the baths if they wanted.  I took advantage of the time and caught up on sleep and spent some time really enjoying their amazing breakfast spread.  Literally every kind of bread I could think of, local cheese, meats (including proscuietto...YAY!), fruits, cereals...just about everything.

We're now on the bus to Zurich for the morning (CALATRAVA LIBRARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and will arrive in Basel later tonight.   We will be there until Monday.

BYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

5.0 I Can See the Alps from My Houssee (Bregenz, Austria)

As I type this we are driving past the most amazing view of the mountains I have seen yet.  There's a thick cover of clouds whisping over them, only allowing small peaks of their actual height.  They look so mysterious and ancient...it probably helps I'm listening to hippie music to go with it.

We arrived in Bregenz after about a 2.5 hour drive from Munich.  We stopped in the center of town and got off the bus to look at a couple of nearby buidings.  We began with an area high school where they had juxtaposed a new building with an older one.   TJ and I managed to look like we knew what we were doing and got into the school without a problem.  Apparently security here isn't a huge concern.  It was interesting to see the way the two buildings connected on the inside and addressed the contradiction that the exterior offered.  Well, more of, it didn't address it.  The interior continued seamlessly into the old building without a hint of what was going on on the outside.  We had a bit of a disscusion on whether we thought that this was good or bad.  After that we walked across the street to....

SIDE NOTE:  We JUST crossed into Switzerland.  Country number three for the win.

...anyway, we walked across the street to an apartment complex to look at how they created a livable space so close to the train tracks.  Finally, we met up at the Kunsthaus and stayed there for about three hours.  The only way to describe it is: glowing.  The interior has a suspended glass ceiling that diffuses all of the light from above which reflected off of the highly polished terrazo floor.  The concrete walls are cool and muted and are simply a part of the space without overwhelming it.   I sat on the third floor for about an hour just taking it all in.

We got back to the hostel and checked in.  Finally, out last hostel.  And it was much nicer than the last couple of ones.  It had a REAL shower...A REAL ONE!!!  I passed out on my bed until dinner, then came back and took the absolute best shower of my life because I didn't have to push a stupid button every ten seconds.  YAY!

The next day we bused around to nearby towns by Bregenz.  Bregenz, itself, is very spread out and each town kind of blends into the next.  We traveled to a one woman office overlooking one of the harbors.  It was a beautiful concrete cantilever.  Nearby on the property was the "Party Haus" where she hosts events for various groups.  It was also concrete, but not as minimalist.  It had three ameoba looking forms that were repeated over and over in the concrete.  Behind the concrete was feathered glass, which is a local tradition.  When they form the glass they raise and lower the temperature so that the glass crystallizes and forms these "feathers" all over it.
After the one woman office we managed to get lost for about thirty minutes trying to find a stupid industrial park, that honestly, no one cared about.  It had some cool building, but nothing particularly special.  It was very amusing however watching Fabio, the bus driver, try to make a U-turn in the middle of a three-way stop.

SIDE NOTE: Fabio is awesome.  When we got on the bus this morning he was playing a Snoop Dogg song on repeat and we hosted a mini dance party.  Apparently Heiner isn't a fan though, so when he got on the bus, Fabio changed the song to Beehtoven's Fifth.  According to Heiner, Fabio is the offical driver of the professional hockey team in Lugano, Switzerland.  But I don't know if this is true because I can never tell when Heiner is lying.

After the industrial park we drove to another town where they had a Baumschlage-Eberle (spelled?) hotel with a sweet restauraunt lifted over the driveway.  It was interesting but everyone was beyond hunger at that point and had seriously stopped caring about architecture.  When we finished our tour we broke up for lunch.  I went with a group of girls to a nearby cafe and got an amazing pretzel/bagel sandwich for lunch and a pastry as long as my arm for dessert.  NOM NOM NOM.  We found a nearby stationary store and I purchased a set of three mini Moleskine notebooks so I can make notes about each day for my blog entries.

After lunch we met up again and drove about twenty minutes to Mader, a middle school with an ecological focus.  The students grown most of their own food on site and even have a class where they learn to preserve the vegetables they produce to eat in the cafeteria later.  We got a tour from the school technicians because the building has a rather complicated electrical and glass louver system to help it conserve energy.  It was an intersesting building but we stayed there for about 3 hours, which was 2 hours too long.  On the bright side, I got to play with a miniature pony across the street when we left to get back on the bus.

Today we're on our way to Vals!!!  We may be stopping in Chur to look at Zumthor's Roman Ruins, but that is very time dependent.  I have no idea how long of a trip this will be.  I asked TJ about five minutes ago and he told me it was seven hours.  I asked if he was lying and he said yes--so I don't think he has any idea either.

Tchao!

4.0 Munchkinland?....

Oh Munchen. 

We began our tour of Munich on the outskirts at the Olympic Stadium by Herzog and DeMeuron.  It looks like an alien spacecraft fell out of the space.  It was fun to walk around but there really wasn't much there beyond the skin.  After that we stopped by the O2 village, which is student housing at the University of Munich.  Apparently Munich has a huge housing problem for students because it's a relatively expensive city to live in...especially close to the university.  The university's response to this problem was to create movable 8'x8'x8' cubes (it's acutally about 8'-8") that serve as "pods" for one student.  It was an interesting solution to design problem about conserving space.  We manage to get a tour of one.  After that we got lunch at on campus student bar...great pizza...and had a discussion of what it would be like to live in a cube.  Would we be purist and stick to the cube idea to a tee?  We thought it would be necessary to eat only sugar cubes and bouillon cubes while wearing cube shoes and hats.  There was a a bit of an argument on how to consume cubic beverages.  But we finally came to the decision that one would simply freeze the drink into juice cubes or ice cubes or beer cubes and let them melt in a cubic glass.  After that we visited another Herzog and DeMeuron building building--the Goetz Museum.  It had some rather experimental video installations...a little over my head.  I spent my time figuring out the section of the building.

After that we checked into our hostel...lots of very loud Germans and it was above an even louder discotheque that looked like a bowling alley.  Apparently things got a little out of hand there and there were a number of loud and somehow drunk 14 year olds that got in an epic fight involving beer bottles.  I missed it as I was hanging out at a nearby biergarten...thank god. 

The next morning we visited the Olympic park to view the other Olympic stadium.  We climbed to the top of one of the hills and got the best view of the city.  It was beautiful.  We walked around the stadium and park for a while and then stopped by the BMW museum and took motorcycle gang pictures outside.  After that we met up with a number of people from Riva (Nick!) and then joined Heiner for a verrryy fast walking tour through the Marienplatz area of Munich.  That night we went to Hofbrauhaus, just to say we did, and I had my first real German liter of beer.  I was verrryy full afterwards.  After that we went to the biergarten from the night before and hung out and talked for a while. 

The next morning we visited three museums all within the same general vicinity.  My favorite was the modern museum simply because it had the best Alessi teapot collection ever.  I think I've decided to collect teapots when I have money (when I'm sixty?).  That night we went back to the Marienplatz area and visited Augustiner, a different biergarten that was adjacent to the Hofbrauhuas.  We walked around the area for a few hours after that just to enjoy the city.

On our last full day we visited the Herz-Jesu-Kirche, the Architecture House, and another church that had side by side Lutheran and Catholic chapels.  It was rainy and freezing that day and honestly not very enjoyable.  The Riva people left and I think the combination of that, the weather, and the last two weeks just all came together and I was just exhausated.  I packed when I got home and literally just crashed.  Today we arrived in Bregenz (Austria!) and I finally took a real two hour nap and had my first non-push button shower in a week.  Believe me, I felt much better.

Also, I apologize for my lack of pictures.  I have yet to find a stable wifi connection here that I can use to offload pictures from my laptop.  I've even taken to copy and pasting emails into Word when I get them and typing up my responses there before cut and pasting them into the actual reply.  I'm even writing this post in Word right now in the hopes that I can find real internetz sometime soon!   I'm on the hunt though and hopefully I will find them soon.  Otherwise, expect to be bombarded with pictures when I get back.

In closing, things I miss from home:
-being able to understand what is going on more than 5% of the time
-ice cubes
-free water
-internetzzzz

So long...farewell...Auf Wiedersen...Goodbyyeeeeee

3.0 Nayeth Nurnberg...Nayeth

Reinhart: Now I used concrete as the main material of my building because of the site issues with erosion.  If problems begin to occur the concrete will not crack.
Heiner: Because no one wants a crackhouse in their neighborhood!
*Awkward silence*


On Tuesday we began our journey to Nurnberg.  Our bags were packed and loaded at 8:05 am and everyone herded onto the bus and instantly fell asleep.  About an hour later we arrived in Dessau.  Yeah...not a fan.  It may have had something to do with the gloomy weather but I have never seen such a depressing city with so many depressed looking people.  It was shabby, dark, and honestly smelled not so great.  First we visited the Ministry of Environmental Protection (?) building.  It was interesting to see how they took a "green" building and took it a little further.  One of the main criticisms of green or sustainable architecture that I hear a lot in studio is that with a variety of methods most architects can very easily a sustainable building...but they simply leave it at that.  The actual architecture simply gets left behind.  I think they did a pretty decent job with the Ministry building.  Of course the tour guide gave us a bunch of gimmicky made-up nonsense about how the different colored panels on the facade reflect the surrounding hills, industrial zones, and residential areas and everyone just their eyes.  But on the whole, despite looking like a bag of Skittles, it was a nice building.  After that we drove about a mile to THE BAUHAUS.  Hallowed ground.  It was just beyond surreal actual being there and touching the walls and playing with the windows.  Of course it took a little effort to put myself back in the shoes of those who were around when this opened.  We're now so used to this very "sexy" perfect clean architecture that an older modernist building doesn't have the same effect.  But when I stopped to consider just how revolutionary every single aspect of the building was and what a huge effect it had on our architecture school at Virginia Tech, it was unreal.  Heiner kept on jokingly calling it our grandpa's house and saying we were going to go visit Papa Gropius.  We had lunch in the Bauhuas cafe and I very sneakily stole a Bauhaus spoon as my souvenir.  Plus TJ, Indy, and I needed a spoon for our Nutella so we figured if we were going to sneak one, might as well be a Bauhaus one.  Very Virginia Tech Architecture of us. 

After the tour at the Bauhaus and a bunch of silly pictures of all of us jumping in front of the sign, we boarded back on the bus for the final four hours to Nurnberg.  The transition of the landscape was astounding.  When we began it was completely flat...like Kansas flat...and there were hundreds and hundreds of windmills all around us.  I fell asleep about forty minutes into the trip and when I woke up everything had changed.  We were going up a huge hill and we surrounding by these beautiful pine forests.  It reminded me of those romantic hunting painting from the Middle Ages where the light is shining between the trunks of the trees. 

We arrived in Nurnberg and were immediately struck by just how hilly it was.  Thankfully we were able to drive up to the Nurnberg Castle (where our hostel was) to drop off our bags...becasue believe me, walking up that hill with my bag was NOT happening.  I had more than my share of that hill over the next couple of days.  We got settled and had dinner at the hostel.  A bunch of people went out to explore the city but I stayed in because I finally had internet and wanted to get my life (and emails) back in order. 

The next day we began by meeting a Virginia Tech alumni named Reinhart at what amounts to an architecture managment firm.  He looks like the German version of Billy Rae Cyrus, drives a Porsche, and smokes more than I have ever seen anyone smoke in my entire life.  But he's very funny and we later discovered, has a RIDICULOUS house.  The architecture managment firm is used as a head office for small, generally one person, traveling firms.  An architect can rent out a desk for a half day, a full day, or a extended period of time.  They also have access to four conference rooms on the lower level and have a full office staff on hand.  It was an interesting concept.  After that we went to the New (***) Museum.  It is built as a diagonal cut through one of the older buildings that are attached to the stadium where Hitler held the Nazi rallies in Nurnberg.  It is now a museum about the Nazi party and focuses in particular on their history in Nurnberg.  The museum itself is incredibly.  It uses glass walls to border and create walkways through this old building, as though its recognizing the history of the place but looking at it through fresh eyes.  The exhibits were on the intense side and I think everyone was a little overwhelmed when we left.  Then we met back up with Reinhart at the Art Center (****).  I think this building must just have different effects on different generations.  Heiner and Mario were completely engrossed by the modernist structure but the students were a little under-whelmed.  It probably was a beautiful building about fifty years ago, but lack of upkeep, what smelled like some mold problems, and the destruction of art students over the years left it rather delapidated.  Granted, Modernist building, like this one (built in the mid fifties), aren't what my generation has grown up with as being revolutionary.  But all I could really see behind what probably was once a very pure space were all of the problems.  Cracked, dirty windows.  No insulation to speak of in the main entrance way.  Water seepage.  We've been told over and over to forgive these problems because these were experimental buildings with experimental materials, but at what point does the architect actually test some of his ideas...or just logically think through it, for that matter...before he actually builds it.  I just think that building, in particular, had just one too many problems to be forgiven for being experimental. 

The next day we went to the Neues Museum.  Wow.  We were in a pretty typical area of Nurnberg, aside from the multitudes of strip clubs around it...where Heiner thought it was hilarious to stop in front of each one and pretend to go in.  Heiner then showed us a little more modern looking building with a more traditional one next to it.  No big deal.  Then we got closer and realized that there was a small alleyway between the two.  When we rounded the corner into the alley...there it was.  This huge, curving glass curtain wall that just seemed to go on infinitily, cleverly hidden on the side of the more modern building.  In front of the curtain wall, and behind the more traditional building, was a massive cobblestone plaza with benches.  Wow.  Wow.  Wow.  We all freaked out and went back and rounded the corner several times because it was just that amazing.  The interior of the museum was so well thought it.  It had the curved glass curtain wall with what seemed to be much more orthangal interior walls juxtaposing and colliding with it.  This created a variety of space that would open up into a huge room or close down into a narrow hallway.  All over the building were these "moments" were you would round the corner of a small doorway and turn to the side to see the whole expanse of the building before you.  So much attention to detail.  And so much emphasis on these hidden views...almost like a Baroque garden.  We stayed there for about 3 hours, got lunch at the cafe next door, then wandered around Nurnberg, playing in the shops and taking silly pictures on the bridges.  Then we all met back up at 1:30 with Reinhart so we could visit one of his residential construction sites along the river.  It was definitely interesting seeing the difference between a German construction site and an American one.  For one, no one was wearing hard hats and there was a more than a little less emphasis placed on safety, but that just meant we got to see more of the site haha.  After visiting the site we wandered around the city some more before meeting up at the Neues Museum to begin our trekk to Reinhart's office/house.  Again.  Wow.  There's no other word to describe his house than just plain sexy.  He was very generous and bought something like 15 pizzas and 8 crates and beer and everyone mingled for a while.  We had to leave in three groups because of the train tickets we had purchased so Indy, TJ, and I decided to stay until the end with Heiner and Mario and a few other students.  It was a lot of fun...topics ranging from design, American versus European culture, advice from Heiner and Mario on the issues our generation will face in architecture, Heiner making fun of Mario for about an hour, and then everyone else making fun of Heiner when he walked away.  We even managed to make a Turning Torso-like (Calatrava) structure out of the pizza boxes and an "architecturally" (barely) significant arrangement of the old beer bottles and used wine glasses.  Heiner even managed to restart the whole "Marie looks like a vampire thing" because apparently his nephew who was visiting him that day asked him three times if I was one.  Oh ddeaarrr. 

We packed up everything this morning and are now on our way to Munich.  I'm currently watching the landscape change out of the window.  It's funny how it will randomly look like Virginia for a split second and then I'll see a bunch of buildings nestled on the hillside and I'm reminded where I am.





TCHAO!!

p.s. I apologize if this is riddled with typos.  I have done absolutely no proofreading on this.  Also...expect all emails to be answered in the next couple of days.

2.0 Jah Berlin

After ten minutes of sleep on an overnight flight, a spazzy three hour layover, and then one more hop across Germany...I finally arrived in Berlin.  It's a beautiful city.  The sidewalks are huge and every street smells like either pretzels or currywurst.  My travel companions, TJ and Indy, wandered up and down the main street with me for a few hours until we found a cafe to sit down at and get our first real German beers.  IT was a little chilly outside but was well worth it to sit along the street and people watch.  The next day the actual program began.  Let's just say we hit the ground running...literally.  I don't think I had been as physically exhausted as I was the first few days--ever.  Here is a semi complete list of the buildings we visited during our five days in Berlin.

1.0 Gedenksfatte Berliner Mauen
2.0 Reconciliation Chapel
3.0 Berlin Wall Memorial Documentation Center
4.0 Blue Church
5.0 Altes Museum
6.0 Pergamon Museum
7.0 some new David Chipperfield Museum
8.0 Neues Museum
9.0 Deutsches Historisches Museum
10.0 Ministry of Foreign Affairs
11.0 Friedrichs-Werdersche Kirche
12.0 Riechstag
13.0 Krematorium
14.0 New National Gallery
15.0 Philharmonie
16.0 Sony Center
17.0 Philology
18.0 Several buildings belonging to the 1987 Building Competition
19.0 Jewish Museum
20.0 Holocaust Memorial
21.0 Nordic Embassy
22.0 Dutch Embassy


There's a few more random ones that I didn't comment on in my sketchbook, but I think that list gives a very fair idea.  Honestly, the thing that struck me the most about Berlin were the dogs. They followed their owners around everywhere, without leashes.  For example, while walking back to the train station from the Philology we passed a woman biking very quickly down the sidewalk.  About fifty feet behind her was a dog running at full speed to catch up.  It was cute.  So knowing me, I reached down to pet it.  But the dog was like "NO WAY LADY" and just ran passed me, his eyes completely focused on his owner. 

Another overwhelming thing about Berlin is the history.  The difference between deep East and West Berlin is still very distinct.  You can really see the change in economic status depending on what side of the Wall you are on.  It's amazing to think that all of these terrible things happened there, not so long ago.   The scars on the city are very evident and I think they will be there for a long time.

Today we left Berlin.  It was honestly a little sad.  I think I'm a little emotionally attached to the city because it was our first one and we spent a fair amount of time there.  But honestly, I really feel like we had started to make our own place in the city.  We had a couple of cafes we went to daily and could wave to the bartenders as we passed by the door.  It was nice to feel a part of such a big place.

We've now arrived in Nuremburg and are staying in a castle with wifi.  More posts to come...

1.0 The Beginning

countdown: eight days to takeoff

And so the blog begins.  
I promise to change the background/layout once I've taken a poignant, beautifully composed, tres chic European photograph.  Right now, my main concerns are tackling my mile-long packing list and actually making it on the plane.  So don't expect much until I actually arrive.

 À tout à l'heure