Damn, these cities are making a killing from us Tourists!

A couple days have past since Rome and I’ve visited a few cities since then.  I’m currently in Barcelona, Spain.  But this time I’m not alone, good friend Narda has accompanied me for just this leg of the trip.  I’ll talk about the Barcelona trip after I talk about my other trips. 

After Rome I left for Florence.  Not really knowing the city I had the idea that the town was a fraction of the size of Rome.  I only had three days there but it was definitely enough to see what I wanted to see.  The first day I went to the Uffizi Gallery.  Not knowing how long the queue was I decided to line up thinking it would only take an hour or something.  3 hours in line!!!!  Once I got into the gallery, I had to get the audio guide since I waited inline so long.  Nothing spectacular about the gallery accept for Botechelli’s Prima Vera and the Birth of Venus.  2 hours after the gallery I exited only to walk into a packed Piazza D. Signoria.  The place was just full of tourists!  Not a big fan of huge crowds I decided head home for a siesta.  I just explored the city for the rest of the evening.  That was my day, lining up looking at a gallery, sleeping and exploring. 

(Outside the Uffizi Gallery - A Sculpture I thought was cool!)

The next day was Sunday so all the churches were closed.  The only option I had was to see Michaelangelo’s David.  I arrived 30mins before opening and that was my wait.  Nice sculpture, and since I paid 6 EUR to see it, I sat for 15mins sketching the David.  I read through the tourist book that every year on Easter Sunday, Florence has a fireworks celebration.  Since I was at the right place at the right time I headed towards the Duomo Square.  The gates were already set up and I was in the third row from the front.  I must of stood for two hours before the fireworks went off.  However, one of those hours was a show.  Costumes, bands, flag throwers, and what topped it off was four oxen pulling this huge carriage into the square.  For the hour holy service was going on in the cathedral while the pyromechanics set up more fireworks around the carriage.  With much anticipation, at exactly 11am, they let the fireworks go off.  Crazy, I recorded all 10mins of the fireworks going off.  Once the show was over I noticed that the area was just jammed packed full of locals and tourists, and yet I got one of the best spots to watch!  I went back to the hostel to have lunch, and later went exploring the city, only ending up in the Giardino Di Boboli.  A nice place, but very depressing since everybody was a couple and I was strolling around by myself.  I took a siesta in the park and strolled back to the hostel to end the day.

 (Candid Shot of Michaelangelo's David)

 (Piazza Duomo)

 (The Annual Scoppio del Carro - 10mins video soon to come!)

 (The aftermath)

 (Giardino Di Boboli - That's one really big head)

 (Giardino Di Boboli - Finally a sculpture that's not model fit)

The final day, I checked out all the cathedrals I wanted to see.  Nothing was really too impressive, compared to St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.  With good timing I went up the Cupola in the Duomo Cathedral without any lineups.  Getting up the Cupola was quite an experience.  It was a 2’6” wide hallway with 2 way traffic coming down the stairs, and it doesn’t help when the wall is sloped inwards.  Talk about getting intimate with the building.  I’m guessing Brunelleschi designed it that way, so that you must ‘feel’ his architecture.  I liked it; touching a 16^th C building is pretty cool.  After that I went back to the hostel to have another siesta on the park bench.  I already checked out of the hostel so I was bumming around until my night train to Nice, France.

 (Duomo Cupola - Largest renaissance painting in the world)

 (Duomo Cupola - I'm affraid of heights,

yet I still do stupid things like climb the tallest tower)

Nice, pronounced Niece, isn’t that Nice.  I guess I went at a wrong time, because they were reconstructing the entire main road and it was cloudy.  It was a really bad site to look at until I got to the beach.  It was cold and windy. I ate lunch looking over the water, and had a Siesta on the bench.  There was really nothing to see in the city, good thing I wasn’t spending the night there.  I explored the historic city and sat at the beach again to read and kill some time before my next night train to Barcelona, Spain.

(This is what I saw when I first arrived in Nice)

(Nice's main shopping drag)

(Nice's Modern Art Gallery)

(The beach - Where's the sand?  It's just rocks)

I arrived in Port Bou the next day, to take the next train to Barcelona.  I got to Barcelona without any problems.  I found the hostel and found Narda.  Narda is an old friend from church.  She had time to visit Barcelona while visiting family in Holland.  The first day we explored Barcelona.  Unfortunately, Barcelona had grey skies and it looked like it was going to rain.  We went everywhere, and Barcelona is one beautiful city.  The city was still lively at night.  I would definitely come back to Barcelona in the future for a longer period of time.  Well we ended up at Sagrada Familia by Antoni Gaudi as our last stop for the day.  By then the clouds cleared up and the sun and blue skies came out.  We didn’t go in just wanted to absorb the exterior design.  We ended the night trying Paella’s, which in my opinion wasn’t that good, perhaps it was made just for tourists in this area.

(Sagrada Familia by Antonio Gaudi)

Today, was a depressing day.  It never stopped raining once the entire day.  We walked around Park Guell, designed by Gaudi, and went inside Sagrada Familia.  The last time I saw pictures of this cathedral there was nothing except for 8 towers.  Now there’s actually a building to walk through.  The majority of the interior was full of scafolding and construction was in full force.  However, what an amazing building, a little too overwhelming though.  The proposed final design is breathtaking.  I can’t wait to come back 50 years to find a completed building.  Anyways, that’s the update of my adventure.  I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow since we’re going to see the final buildings completed by Gaudi.  Until then….

(Parc Gueil by Antonio Gaudi)

(Parc Gueil by Antonio Gaudi)

(Sagrada Familia - Left: South Facade by _____, Right:  North Facade by Gaudi)

(Sagrada Familia Interior)

(Sagrada Familia Interior)

(Sagrada Familia Roof Study)

(Sagrada Familia Final Sketch to be completed 2050 or so not too clear)

(Missing you everybody from home!) 

Ciao,

-Matt    

April has Begun, and I'm off on my backpacking adventure!!

(Pantheon - My professional picture)

School is finally over and I’m on my Europe trip.  My first destination is Rome, Italy.  I’ve been trying to find wireless all over Rome and have no luck.  I’ve been going to internet café’s but I’m starting to get fed up with the shitty computers there.  1 Euro for 30mins is way to short.  I'm now in Florence, with wireless so I'm gonna post away since I have the chance.  I'll first update you on my Rome trip.  By the way, I'm not gonna show everything that I've taken, just a little sample of Rome.

My friends and I left Bern on Saturday night and took a night train direct to Rome.  Once we arrived in Rome, we broke apart, since 5 of them were staying together and I was staying somewhere else.  We had different itineraries, and didn’t realize that Rome was our first destination, and they were also leaving Rome 2 days earlier than I was.  An hour later while I was walking around the central part of Rome, I ran into them again.  It was a good thing because 2 of the 5 have never been to Rome before.  The three of us would go explore Rome while the others would do their own things.  We walked all together for the first night, seeing many places, i.e. Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Piazza Foiri, Piazza Navona etc. 

The next day the three of us planned on going to the Vatican museums.  We met at 830am and waited in line for about 2.5 hrs.  We lined up behind a tour group of old Italian couples.  A good thing about Italians is that they dont' take crap from anybody.  Well there were groups of people who didn’t have the patience to lineup for 2+ hours, so they started jumping into the line, and did those people get an earful from the Italian group.  Either way we ended seeing the Vatican.  There were times when we just had to get past the hordes of people to the front.  The tour groups would either walk slowly or they would stop holding everybody else up.  Once we arrived into the Sistine Chapel, it was packed solid.  Very humid and quite dark for a sunny day.  It was a very nice place, if there wasn't too many people. 

(The Pantheon)

(The Colosseum at night)

(The Colosseum - I still think the Colosseum in Verona was nicer. 

Scroll down to my Verona Trip and compare, what do you think?)

(Trevi Fountain)

(The Sistine Chapel - yes I couldn't resist taking that famed picture)

For the rest of the day we saw more of Rome until we met up with the other group and 2 additional friends for dinner.  We went on a night stroll to the Trevi Fountain, again packed full of people.  The next day, my friend Andrew and I decided to take a bus out to see the Jubilee Church by Richard Mier.  My other friends went to this church the day I visited the Vatican Museum.  It was a very nice church, with zero tourists except for us two.  It was a good thing that we went in the morning because the other group got there, and it was Siesta time from 1230-330.  They were in the middle of nowhere trying to kill 3 hours.  Fortunately for us, Andrew and I went in the morning while there was still sunlight.  The skies started turning cloudy as we arrived back in the historic city.  Our next stop was at a theatre designed by Renzo Piano. 

(Jubilee Church by Richard Meier)

(Jubilee Church - Exterior and Interior)

Again we commuted to the middle of nowhere, and since paid to get out there we were obliged to join a school tour group.  We didn’t understand a word the tour guide was saying, so all we did was take pictures.  It was kind of an underwhelming building to say the least.  However, while in Rome, do what the Romans do, why have a sample when you can have the entire thing.  After our hour long guide we decided to grab some lunch where we got scammed for a few cents and walked the rest of Rome.  We went home for Siesta time, and decided to meet again at night.  Unfortunately, we didn’t meet up, and I was off on my own again.  Since I didnt' get the chance to see St. Peter's Bascilica the other day I decided to go on the thursday, thinking that the entire Vatican would be closed because of Easter weekend.  What was I thinking!  I didnt' know there's such a day called Holy Thursday!  I happened to catch morning mass, saw the Pope, but didnt' get to see 1/2 of the Bascilica which really pissed me off, b/c it was all closed. 

(St. Peter's Bascilica - Exterior and Interior. 

You can see the Pope, he's standing right in the center!!)

So while I’m in Rome I’m staying in a Hostel, four blocks away from the train station.  It’s a 1-2 star hostel, in an 8 person dorm.  I’ve met some interesting people.  Majority of them are from the states, doing a study abroad in Europe.  Supposedly, it's their one month spring break.  What's ironic is that everytime I ask where they're from, they always reply "from (state)...in the States."  Is this a common thing for American's to say?  Everybody knows which state belongs to the certain country.  I've met one Canadian girl from Windsor, she actually made me realize that all Canadians that backpack have some sort of Canadian patch sewed onto their bags.  I don't know, for me it's come in handy, since the locals don't treat me harshly.  I met one American girl who actually admitted that she was gonna sew a Canadian flag on her bag to get better treatment from locals.

I saw most of the historic city of Rome in the first 2.5 days out of my 5 days, and I was pretty exhasted of Rome.  I decided to walk on the other side of the river, along a park.  It was pretty relaxing, very few tourists and zero crime.  It was very peaceful and serene.  I bought a bag of popcorn and decided to sit for 30mins and soak in the scenic view of Rome.  I completed my 7km walk and returned back to my hostel to write up this blog and continue working on my thesis proposal.  A suggestion to everybody that wants to visit Rome in the future, do not ever arrive to Rome on the week before Easter.  I totally forgot that this coming weekend was Easter, and since Rome is the most religious city in the World, all the Catholics flock to St. Peter’s Basilica for palm Sunday and Easter weekend.  Most to all schools are on break for a month, so they all come to Rome.  Rome is packed with people visiting all the tourist areas.  In a positive way, tourists will always help other tourists, in a negative way there are too many lineups.  I’ll continue posting, if anything interesting happens.  Until then….

(The A-Style Bus!  The buses are so cute)

(The 7'0" tall Andrew, standing beside a regular sized car, or is the car just tiny?)

Ciao,

-Matt 

Let it SNOW!

It's crunch time for us.  We only have 3 more days until our final reviews!  I can't believe 3 months have gone by so quickly!  I knew the snowball effect would happen.  Speaking of snowballs, I think there's something wrong with this planet.  Two days ago, Bern was +12 and sunny.  Everybody was baking in the sun, enjoying Bern at it's finest hour.  Yesterday just went downhill, it started snowing, and hard!  I couldn't believe it.  Today, we took our last trip to Einselden for our last lecture, and did the snow come down hard!  Einselden is located in a higher altitude than Bern, it snowed about a foot.  This time we rented vans to get there, and this time I decided to sit in the prof's van.  Yeah...I admit he's a pretty bad driver.  I don't think it was really necessary to tailgate a truck, when the roads were slick and we had a gorge to the right.  We got lost and he lost his temper, but I couldn't care less.  I would totally bitch back if he was speaking directly at me, but he wasn't.  But he should know me by now.  I'm not two-faced, I wear my emotions on my sleeve.  I'll talk the way I talk with everybody, which is neutral to happy.  Actually the ironic thing is he's starting to talk to me more.  I'm thinking the people he used to reside with are talking back to him, I dunno that's my theory.  A day-off that was unnecessarily planned especially on our last week until our finals.  3 hr drive there and back was good sleeping time to work hardcore for the next 3 days.  I hope everybody is doing back fine at home.  I'm going to start stocking up on chocolate to send back home.  Wish me luck!   

Luv,

-Matt

Comment Allez-Vous ?

(Qu-est que ce?  what is that?)

Welcome back to another exciting adventure in my life in Europe.  It’s been a while since the last post.  Many things have happened but nothing interesting to share.  And this blog isn’t a diary or anything, just the cool things I’ve been seeing.  For those of you that are not in architecture or know of architecture you’re in for a treat.  I believe after the completion of my Europe trip all of you non-architects wish you were architects!  And for my friends that know architecture, don’t hate, just enjoy.  Buckle up!  It’s another road trip, and this time it’s to France!

To begin with many thanks to God for allowing the most gorgeous weekend desirable!  +12 with the occasional wind, but not one cloud in the sky, and Mindrup said it was going to rain - what an over-exaggerator.  Saturday morning all 17 of us meet up at 730am at the car rental depot.  The first escapade was dividing up the people into two vans.  If you have been reading in the past, I’m sure you can predict what was next.  Who is going to sit with the prof?  Hmmmm….let’s just say 100% of us wanted to go in the other van.  Unfortunately, I did not have a choice and I got a seat in the other van...lol.  The van I was in consisted of 8 people, 3 out of the 4 girls were in included within the van.  The van with Mindrup had 9 people consisting of all large guys and one female.  Bitter as they might be, we finally get on the road. 

Our first destination was the TGV Station by Calatrava.  This building was breathtaking!  A thousand times better than regular photos found in books and magazines.  This was the first complete Calatrava building I have ever seen so far.  For all you Toronto buffs reading this, the BCE Place located in downtown, Toronto, was designed by Calatrava as well.  Take a look at the pictures and see for yourself.  If anybody wants to see this building take the next flight out and land in Lyon, France.  I can tell you more about this building, but it speaks for itself.

The next place - we drove far out into the middle of nowhere to Le Corbusier’s La Tourette.  I was taught this building in school; however I never understood the importance until I walked through it.  I can’t really re-explain it, but the symbolism and proportions were thought out so well.  Brief history, Le Corb is one of the best architects in history.  He more or less characterized architecture the way it is today for all architects.  Proportion, geometry and symbolism are used throughout his architecture.  In this example, we see the fundamental 5 points of architecture written by Le Corb before he changed his style.    

(La Tourette by Le Corbusier)

(La Tourette by Le Corbusier - Interior Courtyard)

(Left - The Modular man by Le Corb. 

Right - Mike is the perfect Modular man in the sleeping quarters)

(Huge steel door to the chapel, before and after)

(Left - Interior of Chapel.  Right - Private prayer rooms for monks)

(La Tourette by Le Corbusier - Rear Elevation)

(This is what monks see while they pray.  It's a very beautiful site)

That night after a long day of driving we all went out to dinner and hit a pub for after hour drinking.  Weeks before we went on this roadtrip, Mindrup was eager to get drunk with all of us.  Our trip to Vals a while back, his wife did not allow him to drink with us.  Well this time his wife wasn’t there, and he was free like a bird.  Everyday until the France Trip, he was bragging about getting wasted with all of us.  Secretly, all of us students were going to make his wish come true.  We were going to shut him up for good and at least have a good time with him.  Perhaps he would come out of his shell, and not so uptight.  Anyways we were at the bar for quite a while, and we were feeding him drinks until he was declining.  It was great, all of us were having a great time, however Mindrup really wanted to leave very badly, making up cheap excuses to leave (I think the alcohol was getting to him).  We kept on feeding him, until he snuck out without any of us realizing.  The entire night he was denying the fact he was drunk when he was 100% drunk.  Well we had a blast for the rest of the night without him.  After the pub half the group went back to the hotel.  The gay guys went clubbing, and five of us including me wanted to see the clubbing scene in Lyon.  I’ve never been clubbing with these guys before, but it was SO fun.  We even enticed Selina to club - she’s not even a clubbing type of person, but that night she admitted it was fun.  Long story short, we had fun, got back at 4am, and woke up at 730am, very painful. 

The next morning, most of us were pretty tired, but we had to leave.  Good thing for me is that if I drink the night before I never get a hangover the next day.  Mindrup still hadn’t admitted he was drunk the night before, but he did admit that he couldn’t get to sleep b/c his heart was beating too fast.  It was probably from all the alcohol.  We arrived at our first destination 1.5 hrs later.  The other van was telling us that Mindrup was complaining that he was having stomach and head aches, but still not admitting he had a hangover.

Or first destination was pretty interesting.  It’s a dream done by a mailman a hundred years ago.  The story goes like this.  One day while delivering mail on his 15km journey he tripped on a piece of rock sticking out of the ground.  He picked it up and analyzed it, he loved the stone so much he kept it.  Everyday he would go back to the same area and find more stones to collect.  This mailman had a dream, and it was to build a castle for himself.  After 33 years of collecting and building with these found stones he completed his dream, and these are the pictures I took.

(Le Palais Ideal du Facteur Cheval)

Before we left for our next place, Mr. Mindrup told some people that he felt like vomiting, so they gave him Gravol and Tylenol.  He immediately passed out, allowing the other van a calm ride.  Three hours later we stopped at a Salt Factory now museum designed by a 17^th Century architect Ledeaux.  Palladio and Ledeaux, I still have no idea about these two guys.  We walked around this fortified Salt Factory looking at renaissance style architecture.  For me, one word….boring!  Since I have no background information about this guy and his work I had no idea what I was looking at.  We stayed for an hour or so and finally we drove another three hours to Belfort, France.  By the way, Mindrup felt better after the nap and his mood changed, in a good way. 

Once we arrived the city was deserted.  It was such an eerie place to be in.  I know that in Europe Sunday is when everybody closes and rests, but I did not know that the city would all be closed and empty.  We stayed at an elegant hotel, where I fell asleep instantly like a baby.  The next morning a group of us decided to take a morning stroll around the city.  Belfort is known for its giant limestone Lion and its fort.  The fort overlooks the city of Belfort, however the city isn’t much to look at.  We got on the road again to Ronchamp, France.

(Our Hotel Entrance - No your eyes arn't deceiving you, the American Flag is upside-down. 
"So you want to change the name of french fries to freedom fries huh!")

Oui, Oui!  Ronchamp, France.  And what is in Ronchamp, France, but the one and only The chapel of Notre Dame du Haut, but almost everybody knows it as Ronchamp by Le Corbusier.  This building definitely ranks in my top 10 buildings.  I see it in books, but really, nothing compares to experiencing it live.  It’s kind of like watching your favourite actor in a movie and seeing them in real life.  I don’t even know where to start about this place, it’s just stunning!  It’s located on top of the highest hill in Ronchamp, overlooking the small town.  No tourist bus can get to this location, only cars and taxi’s.  And if you’re traveling from Belfort to Ronchamp it’s quite the expensive taxi ride.  The church is such a peaceful place, all your positive emotions just come out, and everyday life is forgotten.  The very nature calms the soul.  I would love going to a church service there.  This building was done in Le Corb’s later years, where he broke free from his 5 points of architecture.  I’m actually not going to talk anymore about this place in case I ruin the beauty of my pictures.

(Ronchamp by Le Corbusier)

(Left - Exterior facade of the windows.  Right - Interior windows. 

Good thing the weather was perfect)

(It's so peaceful....)

Just sitting and enjoying the architecture killed 2 hours instantly.  I would of never of imagined that I would be eating a sandwich and being in Ronchamp looking at the most famous building in the world, all at the same time!  We left for our final destination which was an architect’s firm in Basil, Switzerland.  Nothing was really exciting about his work after seeing Ronchamp.  We left and drove back to Bern.

The road trip was fun for all of us.  I won’t say bad things about my prof, since I wasn’t in his van, but I heard many stories.  Getting him plastered was his fault for continually saying it to us before the trip.  However I do give him props for knowing how to get to these places, but I did wish he put more appreciation into the places we visited, such a moody and depressing person when we’re at these places.  Well, his mood didn’t stop any of us from having a great time. 

This is the last trip as a group until I backpack Western Europe in April.  There might not be any new blogs until then, perhaps I’ll write one or two before I leave.  Until then - Adieu.

-Matt    

(Au Revoir!)

Stupid Internet!!!!

ALL THE PICTURES ARE UP EVERYBODY, ENJOY!

Quick update:  The past week Bern has been getting lots of rain, and wind storms.  I'm hoping tomorrow is sunny!

-Matt