Video from the Tate Modern

While visiting the Tate Modern in London, England, we recorded a video message that I was able to post to the blog directly via email. Click here to view it!

Spring Break 2009 - Berlin: Architecture with a history lesson

We landed in Berlin, Germany late and hungry. We muscled our way through the process of figuring out the railway system to get from the airport to our hostel. Emerging from the subway, we were presented with two fantastic late night options for some grub: a kebab at the little Greek munchies stand, or a Curry 36 (think American fast food: burger and fries, only instead of a burger, you get a huge, spicy German sausage). Lindsey went with a kebab (I think she is addicted to them) and Derrick & I swung for the sausage. Talk about good...I don't know if it was actually good or if we were just that hungry, but I found myself wishing we had a Curry 36 in Clemson.

After supper (at midnight), we wandered the streets for a bit looking for the hostel. Luckily, it was located in a nice part of town and the streets were deserted...not sketchy. After we checked in, we crashed hard because we knew we had to be up early the next morning for breakfast (and we hadn't been getting much sleep since the beginning of the trip) and a full day of exploring Berlin.

The next morning, after a sparse breakfast (we overslept and arrived after they had already shut things down), we set out on an ambitious agenda that would include most of Berlin's major architectural hotspots, historical landmarks, and inspiring monuments. We spent the morning exploring one of the fastest growing areas (both in terms of development and popularity) of Berlin: Potsdamer Platz.

The Sony Center at Potsdamer Platz.

The masterplan for the re-development is being spear-headed by the Italian architect: Renzo Piano (his architecture office is actually in Genoa...you may know him as the designer of the newest wing of the High Museum in Atlanta, GA) and it features so very interesting buildings designed by some very famous architects. Naturally, I was in Heaven.

We me up with our professor, Bernhard Sill, (his girlfriend lives in Berlin and he was in town to visit her and her family) for lunch and he showed us around the city for the rest of the afternoon. It worked out great because he used to practice engineering in Berlin before teaching at Clemson and we wasted no time getting lost (which is what would have happened had we tried to find everything on our own). We visited many sites...too many for me to simply list here, so I will only mention my favorites. The Holocaust Memorial by Peter Eisenman (think architect that designed the stadium for the Arizona Cardinals) was incredibly moving.

Holocaust Memorial.

Later that day, we visited the Jewish Museum by Daniel Libeskind. I won't bore you with the architectural details and significance, but I will say that it was an extremely educational experience and someone could spend a week there to see everything they have relating to the struggle the European Jews went through during World War II.

"Fallen Leaves" installation at the Jewish Museum.

The intersection of the three axis in the Jewish Museum.

After that action-packed day, Berlin ranks among my favorite cities and I would love to come back later to see the more of it. Alas, however, in order to make it to Dublin in time for St. Patrick's Day, we could only afford the 2 nights and 1 full day....

Upon leaving the museum, we ate some great steak at a cheap steakhouse (reminded me of something we would have in the States) and went to bed. Another early flight had us up with the sun....Ireland here we come!!!!!!!!!!!

Lindsey and me in front of a section of the Berlin Wall earlier in the day.

Spring Break 2009 - The First Leg: Milan, Athens, and the Acropolis

On Saturday, we arrived in Athens, Greece via an EasyJet flight that circled the beautiful Greek islands at a pleasantly low altitude before landing. It occurred to me immediately that 1 night in Greece would not be enough to experience everything this country had to offer (which I kind of already knew, it just didn't hit me until I saw those islands), and I began envisioning a return trip later in life (when/if I can afford to come back to Europe). We were a bit tired from the night before, having caught the last train from Genoa to Milan (it took us FOREVER, to pack all that we would need for the entire trip into one backpack each). Once we arrived at the train station in Milan (which is located in the city) we had to catch a shuttle to our hostel (which was outside the city, closer to the airport). Arriving at the hostel around midnight on Friday, we had supper (yes, the hostel had a restaurant that was held open just for us so that we could eat...the Italians are the most courteous people you will ever meet) and slept for a whopping 3 hours. We had to leave at 4ish in the morning to make it to the airport on time to catch our flight to Athens. Luckily, the hostel provided a free shuttle to the airport at insane hours, so it didn't cost us anything to get there.

Because we were flying on budget airlines (the no-frills kind that charges you extra if you check bags), we only had carry-on bags (backpacks....and not the hiking kind either, I'm talking about the smaller kind you use to put your books in for school) which ended up being very nice because we could simply blow right past all the check-in lines to go directly through security. Once we were settled on the plane, seat belts fastened, iPod on, overhead light off, it was time for a quick nap....we were headed to GREECE!!!!

After stepping off the plane at the Athens airport, we took a convenient (and relatively cheap) bus to the area of the city where our hostel was located. We walked down a crowded (in a good way) pedestrian street that was lined with interesting shopping and restaurants, occasionally navigating around an ancient temple or two (that the city grew up around, incorporating them directly into the street systems....it was very cool), we found our hostel with relative ease. During check-in, we noticed that the guy at the desk was natively Italian, and when I handed him my passport, I accidentally held open the page with my Italian Visa. He mistook it for the main ID page and got all excited assuming I was Italian. Which has been happening to me a lot while over here (I guess its the black hair and black jacket...haha). Our room had been double booked, so they took it upon themselves to upgrade us to a suite. It was a great hostel, and the guy at the desk offered to unlock the roof-top patio for us. From there we had a fantastic view of the Acropolis....yeah. Previously, we had only seen this in our textbooks. What an incredible first experience!

The view of the Acropolis from the roof of our hostel.

After unloading our luggage, we set out looking for a place to grab some lunch. On the way, Lindsey found the store she had planned to look for while we were in the city: The Poet Sandalmaker. This guy, and his father before him, and his father before him handmakes sandals in several historical Grecian styles. He sells them at very affordable prices (considering what he could charge all the tourists that come through his doors) so Lindsey got a couple pair.

Lindsey getting fitted for her hand-made Greek sandals.

We waded through the market and finally happened upon a quaint outdoor cafe right on the main strip. Across from our table was the fence that bordered the ancient Athenian Agora and we had a clear view of the Acropolis. The weather was so beautiful, conversations so interesting, and people-watching so entertaining, that we decided to spend the afternoon there. By the time we got up, we had eaten lunch and dessert over the course of about 3.5 hours!

Sitting at the cafe for lunch.

We found out that the Acropolis was open on Sundays with FREE entry, so we decided to spend the rest of Saturday exploring the areas near the Agora. We had a great supper at Greek restaurant and went to bed with anticipation for what we would see the next day.

The Temple of Hephaistos in the ancient Agora.

On Sunday we set out relatively early to explore the Agora and the Acropolis. It was so interesting and, again, the weather was PERFECT. Our pictures turned out great and the experience was one for the ages.

Heading up to the Acropolis.

Standing in front of THE Parthenon.

Heather left us around 5pm (to head out on her own to Turkey and Israel) and Lindsey, Derrick, and I spent an hour or so relaxing in the hostel lobby (with me trying hard to repack our souvenirs into our already overloaded carry-ons!) before hopping onto the bus back to the airport.

It was so nice to breeze past all the lines again at the airport (carry-on only is the only way to fly...I'm convinced) and we boarded our next flight to Berlin with ease.

Spring Break 2009 - The Plan

Each semester in the Genoa program, architecture students are encouraged to use their week of spring break to travel around Europe. In fact, Clemson even calls it "Independant Studies", dropping the "Spring Break" moniker altogether. The goal is to see some architectural/artistic masterpieces, whether they be buildings, urban plans, paintings, sculptures, you name it, that you are individually interested in.

Naturally, having never travelled to Europe prior to this semester, Lindsey and I wanted to plan a trip that would allow us to see as much as possible in the 10 days we had available. Derrick, one of my best friends from undergrad, was planning on traveling with us, along with a few other classmates off-and-on. So, with my primary travelmates being Lindsey and Derrick, we sat down to plan out what we thought would be a Spring Break for the ages. We knew we didn't want to waste a lot of time traveling, so we tried to avoid booking any of our travels by train. In Europe, there are many budget airlines that allow you to fly all over for less than dinner for two at Red Lobster (yeah, thats right). So, the three of us planned a trip using Ryanair and EasyJet airlines. We were interested in all sorts of places on an individual basis, and this, along with the cost of each option for airline tickets, governed our decision making process for where we would go. For example: Lindsey wanted very badly to see Ireland, I specifically wanted to go to Berlin, and Derrick was down for whatever as long as he didn't repeat any place he had already been (he had studied for a semester in the Barcelona program Clemson offers during undergrad).

At the end of our planning session, we emerged with an incredibly exciting itenerary that satisfied everyone's wishes for travel, plus some. We would take a train to Milan on Friday, March 13, spend the night, and get up early to head to the airport. From there, we would fly to Athens, Greece to see the Acropolis (with our friend Heather Bachman). After one night there, Heather would leave us for Turkey, and we would fly to Berlin, Germany for two nights to see all the great architecture in the city (or as much of it as we could fit in). On the 17th (Saint Patrick's Day) we would fly to Dublin, Ireland just in time for the festivities. Spending three nights there, taking in the city and some of the surrounding countryside, we would fly to London, England. In London, we would meet up with two of our friends who will have been traveling all over Ireland, Scotland, and England: Heather Nelson and Lura Blumenfeld. The five of us would then stay 3 nights in London, seeing the city, and taking a day trip out to Wiltshire to see Stonehenge. Early Monday morning, we would fly back to Genoa to arrive just in time for lunch. Whew.

With all this flying, we would never once spend more than $40 on a plane ticket, and never waste any more than 3 hours travelling. Lindsey would see Ireland, I would visit Berlin, and Derrick will have been new to all the cities we were visiting.

I will be posting summaries of each day of travel as we go, so keep checking back for stories and photos!!!!

Let the journey begin!!!!!!!!

Cutting my losses

     Ok, as you can probably tell, it has been almost a month since my last post. I have been busy with school and our travel schedule, thus leaving me little time to blog. I have recently finished weeding through all the pictures from our first 10-day trip (also a month ago...haha). I had planned to post a description of all the things we did and saw, but, alas, it may be impossible at this point to remember all the details. After posting the pictures to Facebook, I have decided that they do a decent job at telling the story of the things we saw (which is why I am just going to post links here to those photo albums for all to see -even if you're not a member of Facebook). As for the experience of it all, I was finally able to see, in person, some of the greatest works of art and architecture I have been learning about through textbooks in school. Florence was incredible for its Renaissance art (and gelato). We saw Michelangelo's David, Brunelleschi's Dome, and Leonardo da Vinci's Annunciation to name a few. Hotel Constantini, the fantastic little place we stayed at while in Florence, was within sight of the Duomo (the green building in the sketch below).

     It rained in Siena, our hotel ceiling leaked onto our bed, the "greatest piazza in all of Europe": Il Campo was almost completely empty, it rained the whole time, the restaurant was annoying, aaannnnnndddd that's all I have to say about Siena. 

     Rome was absolutely incredible!!!! It's one of my favorite cities so far. We visited Vatican City, saw all the major historical sites, our hotel was one block from the Pantheon (which we walked past everyday upon leaving the hotel), ate some great food, and I found a new architect to add to my list of favorites. Overall, the trip was a blast. 

     Since then, we have been chugging through studio on our current project: a lookout tower and cafe for the side of the mountain here in Genoa. We visited Milan (more details to follow) and took a 4-day roadtrip through Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, and France (I drove the car...yikes....Europeans are CRAZY drivers!). I have a lot of photos from that trip, and it may take years before anybody sees any of those...haha! Lindsey and I celebrated our first San Valentine's Day together as a married couple (you can read her description of the weekend on her blog). This past friday night, we had our Spring Villa Party (each semester, the students get to throw a party and invite friends from Italy), which was a lot of fun. Lindsey and I haven't danced that much since Josh Boltinhouse's wedding...haha!

     Sorry to all my readers for the huge lapse in coverage...I hope you can forgive me. Here are the links to my photos from the 10-day trip through Florence, Siena, and Rome; Enjoy!!! :

Florence - Part 1

Florence - Part 2

Siena

Rome - Part 1

Rome - Part 2

Rome - Part 3

Rome - Part 4