European Tryst

so it has been almost two months since my last post! i am deeply sorry, i really did try to keep on top of things but as it happens often in life, life itself gets in the way.

i am currently in berlin! (sorry for the lowercase type....these computer keyboards are screwy so just bare with me, i also won't have pictures yet...you'll just have to be patient and wait until may!) we finished school on the 15th and i caught a plane to paris on the 17th and haven't looked back! i'll finish up this blog with my travels of late and first try and catch you up on what i've been up to, at least what i can remember off the top of my head!

the closest item of note after my trip to holland was my parents coming to visit me in barcelona! it was so nice seeing some faces from home. we saw all the typically sites including a great visit to monserrat, the monastery in the mountains about an hour outside of barcelona. the place was oddly beautiful! you'll see when i post the pictures. all the mountains reminded me of jaba the hut or stubby fingers. we surprisingly ran into erin and her family there so us kids ran down to santa maria cova to see the cave where the little children saw images of the black madonna and the whole reason the monastery was built all the way up on the mountain in the first place. the cave itself was anticlimatic since a church had been built around it. i was at first picturing us climbing into a cave with flashlights....it was still nice though and very good exercise getting to it! we also went to hear mozart's requim inside of the breathtaking santa maria del mar cathedral. however, in between movements we heard sirens that the conductor stopped for, but they never ceased so he just kept going. we leave to see what all the hubbub was about....a riot apparently! they seem to be getting more frequent and i'm still not clear as the what they're all about. there was trash everywhere though! barcelona prides itself on being a very clean city so it was a shock to see and the riot police were still out with their giant shields and scary batons. i'm glad we were safe inside the church when all of that went down! the first night my parents were there we went to the aquarium which i had yet to see. it was real neat! i only really remember the one in corpus christi though so i don't have much to compare it too. but my parents said it was worth te 17 euro so i guess that means something.

dad at the aquarium...robot guy

at the olympic stadium

here are all the monseratt pics!

the cable car to go up...so high it disappears!

long way down...

where they saw the black madonna

we also went to mount tibidabo. there was a church there and an amusement park!

great view

the communication tower

crazy people

we also went inside casa mila, gaudi's apartment building where people still live! the roof was especially fantastic

one thing that i learned on my parents trip was that i definitely have been raised in a big family, mom and pop, i love ya to death but it was a shock to spend that much alone time with ya. i still feel bad that i sent them alone to go see some museums but i'm sure they appreciated the alone time together. at least i hope they did. their apartment was crazy nice though! good going homing-barcelona.com (i should get commission for that plug in) i did get a couple odd phone calls from the guy who met us there....guess he got my number confused with another client.

let's see....after my parents left i spent the weekend hanging with all the kids that came and visited from germany and italy. we went to the dow jones bar - a bar whose prices are controlled by demand, if a drink is ordered alot, the prices goes up and vice versa. it also crashes occasionally, sending the prices down and everyone to the bar! it definitely makes going out even more exciting! i guess that was also the first weekend i actually 'partied like a barcelona native' we must have stayed awake until 5 or 6 in the morning every night. it's definitely going to be a shock going home and having everyone go out at 10 and go to bed at 3...and to think i thought that was ridiculously late before i came here! We also took another trip to Sitges, Spain and got to again, experience the beautiful beaches. There were some impressive san sculptures when we were there as well, anoher attempt to get money from the tourists.

we tried to make our own....didn't work to well, settle on just digging out some seats

we collected shells

after that weekend, school really did take over all of our lives. we did studio non stop until our final presentation. i have to admit i like working here better than at home though. when i'm home, most of my friends are not in architecture so when it's crunch time and i don't see the liht of day, they are all out there having a blast. however, here, all of my friends are in the exact same boat so i'm not missing out on anything! so much nicer, better for the psyche i think. anyways, we finished our project (the night before it was due, however, i was so sleep deprived and delirious that my group forced me to go take a long nap....that's bad, i think my parents were worried about me, i was always, always on skype....it really was the choice between eating and sleeping and with those doners....sleeping doesn't have a chance, haha) after we turned in the project, a group of us relaxed at the irish pub nearby and then hit the hay to take a nap with the intention of waking up and partying the night away. however, when the time came to awake, i was out. i woke up at like 1 and couldn't sleep again! i watched a movie and planned some trips. my rommate came home from going out before i went to sleep again (and then kept me up all night for reasons i shouldn't discuss here...some people have no shame at times) so without getting to really make up on sleep, i headed to ROMANIA!

here are some pics from our studio project:

photoshop renderings: exteriors and interiors

model photos

romania was awesome. when we first arrived, it was about what youd expect eastern europe to be like. very run down, kinda scary. we had to walk through dirt and over construction fences just to get to the ticket booth (which was a run down green shack that looked closed and abandoned) and then when we got on our bus (finally!) we got a 50 lei ticket for not knowing how to use the validation machines. all the local romanians were so pissed at the guy for giving us a ticket, they were all yelling. nice to know they had our backs though. good news is that 50 lei only equals about 12 euro....gotta love the exchange rate! we first caught a train to brasov and stayed in a fantastic guest house with a huge bahtub! i took baths both nights and it was the nicest, most relaxing thing i've done all semester. while in brasov we attempted to go the black church, which is a lutheran church thats facade was badly burned. i was really excited since most of the churches of note are catholic and this was one was actually my religion! however, it was cloed to visitors. the cable cars to the mountain were also closed but we still got to see a good deal of the town. it was an adorable german-esque place with cheap cheap food! we also ook a day trip to bran castle and the fortress in rasnov, the fortress was my favorite part. we got off the bus though and had no idea how to get there except to follow the mountain. we met a group of people going there as well and they led us to the back of the mountain. there was a moment when bailey and i were completely alone on this back road in romania, not a thing in site. kind of scary, especially when a car put on its blinkers the second after i made a joke about hitchhiking...however, the other side of the mountain held a very gradual path to the top! it was well worth the trek and had great views. we took the front side down though and got to climb down some rocks! very fun, but glad i didn't try that on the way up. we also got some pics in front of the giant hollywoodesque rasnov sign. after brasov, we headed back to bucharest. we went and got another super cheap meal and went out for the evening! there was a 12 hour bike a thon going on for the green movement so they had a concert we went to. got to see some cool percussion displays and a traditional romanian dance! there was a boy in the dance that was always behind everyone though....so sad, but cute! we then started going down the list of recommended bars and ended up at cowboy cafe! there was an awesome live band that played all american music. we danced for hours to things ranging from shania twain to madonna to grease. it was awesome! one the way home we got stopped by a shady group of guys....however, after asking where we are staying, they already knew! turns out they were in our room at the hostel and wanted to see which bed we were sleeping cause there was a guy with horrible smelling feet and they were hoping we were next to them and not him, hahahaha. i really do distrust people cause i was real scared at first and they were harmless!

the next we toured the only thing there is to see in bucharest, the parliament building which just happens to be the second largest building in the world after the pentagon! we also went to the park and took some paddle boats and ate some more cheap food!

brasov photos:

notice the hollywood-esque sign in the background