A spectacular and exhausting tour of Europe

I had a great time traveling around Europe with Anna and Ryan!

We decided to get a Eurorail pass rather than booking cheap flights the whole way. I suggested getting the pass, but after we bought it I thought we might have made a mistake. Looking back on our whole trip, I’d say I am glad we took the train everywhere. Some of our trips were pretty long – like 14 hours or so – but it is a lot more comfortable in a train and you get to meet some really interesting people and get to know them really well from a few hours of talking.

We started our European adventure on the night August 14^th, taking an overnight train from Malmo to Berlin, then from Berlin to Wroclaw (pronounced vort-swave), where Anna’s cousin lives. We stayed in his small apartment with him and his girlfriend, sleeping in their living room. They showed us around Wroclaw and took us on a great hike a few hours away in the Czech Republic.

Our next stop was supposed to be in Prague, but we took a minor, unintentional detour. As we were getting off of the train in Dresden, Berlin to transfer, I took my luggage off of the train and then went back on to help Anna and Ryan with their luggage. The doors closed, leaving my luggage outside on the platform and Ryan, Anna and I and their luggage inside the train. Luckily the next stop was only 15 minutes away. We caught a train going back to the other Dresden station and to my surprise and immense happiness my bag was still on the platform.

We missed our connecting train, so we spent the day walking around Dresden and had a pretty good time.

Finally, we arrived late that night in Prauge. Our hostel was in Prague’s epicenter of tourism, so things didn’t start to quiet down until 4:00 in the morning. We stayed in Prague for a few nights, usually spending our days walking around and exploring the city. My favorite thing in Prauge was a jazz concert that we went to one night, kind of by accident. I saw a flyer for “free music.” Being the cheap college students that we are, we take advantage of any free opportunity that presents itself. When we got to the jazz bar and the bouncer asked us to pay the cover charge we showed him the flyer that we had picked up. He explained that “free music” is a style and has nothing to do with the price. We felt like dumb Americans.

We decided to pay the cover charge (it was cheap, only about $6) and the music was great!

Our next stop was in Bern, Switzerland. It was my favorite stop of the trip and by far the most beautiful. It was a nice change of pace from Prague. Our hostel was located right on the Aare river, a freezing cold river of snow melt from the alps that is the most beautiful shade of turquoise and has a super fast current. Ryan and I went swimming down it one evening (rather, we were flushed downstream in the current). It was freezing, but really awesome to move that fast in the water.

From Bern, we took a day trip to Spiez, a city in the Bernese Oberlands. The city is situated around a huge lake that is the same beautiful shade of turquoise as the Aare river. The Alps are all around the lake. We set off that morning to hike in the Alps. Instead, we ended up walking along the banks of the lake and taking a three-hour nap on a rock that juts into the lake.

Our last stop was in Barcelona. We saw several Gaudi projects. My personal favorite was the Parc Guell. We also ran into several other Cincinnatians. We took a day trip to a beach just south of Barcelona with about 6 other UC students that we ran into. The water was the perfect temperature, and the beach wasn’t too crowded. At the end of the day some people started playing pick-up sand soccer and Dave (another UC student) and I joined in. Sand soccer is so much more physically demanding than normal soccer. Its hard to walk, let alone run in the sand. Nevertheless, it was fun and a great workout. I’d missed playing soccer since I left Copenhagen.

By the time the end of the trip rolled around I was ready to go home. Traveling was really fun, but really exhausting. Its really nice to be home and sleep in my own bed!

Yum

The restaurant we went to in Christiania last night was REALLY good (also really expensive, but in Copenhagen I wouldn’t expect it any different.)

Today is the Fam’s last full day in Copenhagen. Next, they are going to London for a couple of days – my Aunt Judy lives there, so they are going to stay at her house. I am going to send my computer back with them so that I don’t have to carry it around while I am traveling around Europe on the trains with Anna and Ryan, so this will probably be my last entry for a while. I will write a final one once I get home about my 2 weeks of traveling through Europe.

The open house for our projects is tonight. After that, we have a DIS dinner. I think my dad and sister are planning on going to the Denmark vs. Chile soccer game. I’d like to go to a soccer game while I am in Europe – maybe I’ll be able to while we are traveling around Europe for 2 weeks.

Critiques

My critique went well. I am back in my room at the Kollegium and am ready for a nap after getting just a few hours of sleep last night. My dad, sister, and aunt should be returning to Copenhagen from Struer tonight. It will be nice to have the time to show them around Copenhagen tonight and tomorrow without worrying about my studio project. I am thinking that I will take them to a restaurant that I saw last time I was in Christiania. Its on the top floor of one of the buildings on the perimeter – its pretty cute and looks really good. The stairwell up to the restaurant reeks of pot – we’ll see if that scares my aunt at all.

Back to Copenhagen

I had a great time today seeing the area that my family came from. Our first stop this morning was at Paul Eric’s (pronounced Polly-eg) house. According to him and Jahn, my great grandmother lived with her family on the farm next door until she was sold to a wealthier family at the age of 12 to take care of the kids and the house. Paul Eric didn’t speak English, but he was one of the most interesting people to listen to. He speaks Danish like he is singing a song – the tone of his voice is constantly changing.

After Paul Eric’s house we went to see some Viking burial mound, and then to the church where my great grandmother and grandfather were married before they moved to America. Jahn told us the legend of the beautiful church. Apparently, a young couple – a prince and his lover- were made to dance to death as a punishment for their forbidden love.

We drove towards the coast and stopped to see fishermen unloading the day’s catch. We walked up the steps of a lighthouse for a spectacular view of the Danish coastline, and then we headed back for another delicious dinner.

I am on the train back to Copenhagen. I should get in around 3:00 am, and I have critiques at 8:00. Woof.

Visiting the Fam

So we are up in Struer, Denmark right now. I’m at my great grandmother’s cousin’s grandson’s house (or something like that) and it is absolutely beautiful. The house is a “sail house” by the Danish architecture firm, KPF. It’s one of several black, modern row houses along the banks of a beautiful fjord. A large, retractable sail on the rear of each of the homes gives them their name – it also shades the house from the bright sun.

Struer is the home of Bang and Olufsen, the upscale electronics and technology company, so the house came fully wired and outfitted with all of the new B&O products. My distant relatives just moved into their new home a couple of week ago, but they’ve already got the place filled with furniture, a lot of which I recognize from our Scandinavian Furniture Deign lecture.

When we arrived, Jahn (my super-distant uncle) and his wife Abigail had a delicious dinner waiting for us on their designer dining room table. We started with some smoked salmon and greens served with the best white wine I’ve had. For the main course we had fillet mignon and new potatoes with sauce. For desert we had fresh fruit and ice cream. Mmmmmmm.

Tomorrow we are going to go on a road trip around Struer to see where our family came from – I’m looking forward to it.

More Visitors

My family is arriving in Copenhagen later on today. My aunt, dad, and sister Alice are visiting me for about a week. I’m hoping to show them around, but it will be tough to find time since our final project is due in a couple days. On Sunday, once my project is done (hopefully), we are planning to go up to Struer, Denmark to visit some very distant relative. My Aunt Judy is very interested in our family history and genealogy and has managed to find and contact some of my grandmother’s (her mother’s) cousin’s children and grandchildren. It should be interesting to meet them.

In the mean time, I am busy at work on this my studio project, a sports complex. We had desk crits with another professor the other day – mine did not go so well, so I’ve scrapped a lot of things. I’m hoping it will all come together in the end.

Study Tour: part deux

The Western Denmark tour was great! Our last stop was the Trapholt art museum, the museum that I built a model of for my first project. It was strange visiting a building for the first time but knowing so much about it. It was less monumental than I had imagined. The building has a strange geometry on one side, but you hardly even see that side of the building when you visit the site.

After we visited Trapholt, on our way back to Copenhagen, the bus driver pulled off of the main road into a residential neighborhood. The bus stopped and the group leader announced that the bus was broken. It could not go above the kilometer equivalent of 30 mph, so we would all have to leave the bus and join the other study tour group on their already full, but supposedly bigger bus. Our luggage, the said, would meet up with us later in Copenhagen. Everybody grumbled, but got off of the bus and began walking towards where we thought the other bus was waiting. On our way we walked through a churchyard during a wedding. They led us to the cemetery in the rear, and then surprised us with shots to celebrate the end of a great last study tour.

A Visitor from Home

Tori arrived safe and sound. For her first day here we shopped for most of the day. At night we went to Christiania, Copenhagen’s “alternative” neighborhood. Apparently, the area used to be used for military housing. I guess a bunch of squatters started living there and never got kicked out. It’s a pretty neat place – there are vendors everywhere selling all sorts of hippie apparel and paraphernalia, an indoor skateboarding area covered in graffiti, and a bunch of whimsical, leaning houses around a lake. The whole place smells of marijuana and its not hard to see why. Everybody there is smoking, and they sell it openly on the street.

We ran into one of my friends from soccer, Aurelio. He is the one who sat with me and watched the pick-up game that I was not allowed to play in while we waited for his friends to arrive. He showed us around and pointed out all of the good restaurants and places to go.

I’m getting excited for our Western Denmark tour. I really enjoyed our first study tour, especially the food. We leave tomorrow morning.

Hooray for the weekend!

This weekend was a good one. On Friday night I was planning on going to Tivoli Gardens with Jen and Sarah. It started raining, so we went out to dinner instead. We found a vegetarian restaurant not too far from our kollegium. We are not vegetarian, but the place looked interesting from outside and, as I said, it was raining. When we walked in the first thing we had to do was take off our shoes. The restaurant was buffet style, and reasonably priced. We sat at the only three open chairs, next to a Belgian woman visiting Copenhagen for work.

The food was delicious. They had this great tomato soup that tasted like it had a little curry in it. They also had these thai curry green beans that were fantastic. I went up for thirds. The Belgian woman was really interesting too. She was telling us all about what to see when we travel around after the DIS program, and about all of her experience in different cities and hitch-hiking.

Saturday was Cassie’s birthday, so a few people got together and had a party for her complete with a slip and slide. The kollegium is right next to a train station, so we had several spectators. Later on that night a big group of us went to the opening ceremonies for the outgames, the gay Olympics. We had a great time there with all of the people, live music, and dancing. Events are going on all over the city this week, so I’m sure I will see more of the outgames.

On Sunday I started planning my post-DIS travels around Europe with my two traveling buds, Anna and Ryan. We decided to buy a Eurail pass rather than cheap plane tickets to each city. We figured that would be less stress and greater flexibility both now and later.

Later that day I went to play soccer with Copenhagen’s Latin American contingency. I had a blast! It was some of the most fun pick-up soccer I’ve played in a long time. The men kept on talking about me in Spanish – I don’t understand much, but I usually got the gist of what they were saying. Finally, someone told them that I could understand them and they smiled, some embarrasses about what they had said.

They invited me to stay for a barbeque, but I couldn’t. As much as I wanted to stay, I had to get to studio to do at least some work for Monday. Maybe next week.

Tori, my little sister’s friend, is coming to stay with me tomorrow. She is traveling around Europe and has a few days to kill before her next plans. I told her to call me when she arrives at the train station – hopefully we won’t have any problems finding each other!

Tape

We had the day off of school today. I had a nice long morning doing nothing then went to meet my group in studio to finish up the site models. After I finished my part I walked to the art store with another girl in my studio. I wanted to buy some double stick tape, but didn’t see a price tag on it. I thought it couldn’t be more than the kroner equivalent of a couple bucks but I was wrong. A single role of double stick tape was 70 kroner, even with my student discount. That’s a 14 dollar role of tape. As wonderful as double sided tape is, it is not worth 14 dollars. I’m going to return it tomorrow. Hopefully a different employee will be working then. I bought a utility knife at the same store for only 5 kroner (about 1 USD). I guess that goes to show that Danes are firm believers in the saying “measure twice, cut once.” The monetary punishment for needing to tape something back together is wicked.

Its raining again this afternoon. That put a damper on my soccer plans. Instead I went to the grocery store, and then proceeded to eat most of my groceries when I got home. At least groceries in Copenhagen are reasonably priced.

hmmm

Our studio professor was unimpressed with the work we’ve done. We were supposed to have finished two site models and done a site analysis in a day an a half. None of that got completely done. Instead we had two admittedly ugly and half-done site models and a very preliminary site analysis. After an hour-long studio (it was supposed to have lasted 4 hours) we all got back to work. I am working on the site analysis. My partner was supposed to have added pictures to my text and printed a few copies out for the group. Unfortunately she did neither and wasn’t in class today. Her friend said she was sick and was dealing with personal issues. Hopefully everything is ok.

I was going to go play soccer again today. I found a good game yesterday and it looks like all of Copenhagen goes to the park after work to play, so I have plenty of games to choose from. Unfortunately, it was raining when I left studio at about 5:15. Since I’ve gotten back to the dorm, though, the rain has stopped. I wanted to ride back to the park, but I left my cleats at studio. Bummer. Maybe tomorrow.

One project down, one to go

Today we began assignment 2, the real studio project. I have the same studio professor as I did for the first assignment- I like him a lot, so I’m happy. Our project is to design a public sports complex near a park not too far from the DIS building. We went on a bike tour today to see several other examples of successful community centers and sports facilities. On our way home it started to pour – we stopped and waited under the eaves of a building during the worst of it, but still got pretty wet.

I am a little worried about time. We only have three weeks to do the studio project, but I have a friend coming to stay with me next week and family coming the following week. I don’t know how I am going to balance entertaining them with studio work. Hopefully everything will work out!

Futbol

I went to Faelledparken today to play some pick-up soccer. I heard that there was a game at 11:00, so I showed up a few minutes later hoping to find a game. Instead I found a bunch of people kicking a ball around getting ready to play a game. I asked one of the men if I could play when they started – he said he didn’t mind. I put on my cleats and headed out towards the field to kick the ball around with them. When I walked out, a bunch of the men started talking amongst themselves. After several minutes, one came out and told me that I could not play because I was a girl. They were Muslim, and their religion would not allow it. I said that I understood, but I think my emotions were visible because the man that had originally said that I could play walked off of the field with me and to talk. I told him he should play. He said he wouldn’t and that some of his friends would be coming soon to start a new game.

I waited and they came. The crowd was almost entirely South American – everyone was speaking Spanish and I could understand some of what was being said. It ended up being a huge game – about 15 per team. We would play for 45-minute periods, then take “water breaks” where the players would drink a beer and smoke a cigarette. The group was really fun and nice and the soccer wasn’t bad either. I am planning to go back next week. Hopefully I’ll be able to find some other games before then!

End of the Study Tour

So sad. Today was the last day of our study tour. We spent most of today driving (I spent most of today sleeping on the bus.) I loved Helsinki, but I think I loved Stockholm even more. Gamla Stan, the old area of Stockholm, was my favorite spot in the city. There were tons of narrow streets, big, old buildings, and great shopping.

The meals on this study tour have been some of the best that I have ever had. Last night we ate at a restaurant in Gamla Stan. We started with a salad, then came the main course, Swedish meatballs and potatoes, then desert, a chocolate truffle. DIS has every little detail painstakingly worked out, so whenever we arrive at a restaurant they bring our food right to us. There is hardly any waiting between courses, and I never have to worry about what to order because DIS pre-se lected the best thing on the menu for us. The portions are always just right too – enough to satisfy any hunger, but not so much as to make you feel sick.

Today on our bus ride back we stopped at a castle for lunch. When we sat down at the table they had our first course already waiting for us – a delicious crab and lobster concoction on bread. Our main course was salmon and potatoes, and desert was a berry parfait. Delicious. I can’t wait for the meals on our next study tour!

Helsinki

Today is our second day in Helsinki. I love the city and also love the fact that we are staying in the same place for more than one night- its nice not to have to pack up every morning.

Today we visited the Myyrimaki Church, another building that I learned about in Jerry Larson’s lectures. The way the church plays with light is spectacular. Next we visited Kiasma, a Steven Holl modern art museum. I had never heard of or seen pictures of the museum, so when we arrived it was a complete surprise. The modern building is full of swooping metal and concrete curves. I really enjoyed the exhibits too.

This afternoon was the first time we had time to ourselves (sort of). We were given a list of buildings to see and told what to sketch while we were there. The winners, we were told, would get a prize. My group decided to take it easy. We took our time and just went to a few of the buildings. The first one we went to, the Temppeliaukio Kirkko Rock Church, was my favorite. The church is carved out of a giant rocky outcrop. Inside the acoustics are near perfect. When we walked in we were some of the only visitors. A violinist was playing, the church was warm and beautiful. It was like heaven. Then tour busses pulled up and loads of people came pouring through the church’s doors. The number of people spoiled a bit of the magic, but still the space was spectacular.

After our “free” afternoon we met back up with the group at a bar on top of a hotel with a great view of the city. My group did not win the prize (new sketchbooks). Oh well.

Tonight one of the other tour groups is supposed to arrive in Helsinki. It will be nice to see them – it feels like we’ve been away forever even though its only been four days.

Study Tour

Yesterday we began our first study tour through Sweden and Finland. We had a lot of driving yesterday followed by a ride on a huge cruise ship (the bus came too.) Today we saw three buildings: Alvar Aalto’s Paimio Sanitorium, a hospital built for tuburculosis patients, the Petajavesi Old Church, an old wooden church with a big bell tower, and the Alvar Aalto museum.

It is strange visiting all of these buildings that I learned about in Jerry Larson’s history class like Paimio Sanitorium. After having studied it, I was underwhelmed by the sanatorium. There were certain things like the staircase and the signature Paimio chairs that I did like. The Paimio Sanatorium was built at the beginning of Modernism. The style has evolved a lot since then. At the time that the building was built it was innovative, modern, and revolutionary. Now, however, it seems a bit ordinary.

Tonight we are staying at a hostel near a sauna. We went to the sauna earlier tonight with groceries and everyone cooked dinner over an indoor fire. Cooking took a lot longer than we all expected, so a lot of people just gave up on their food and used the sauna. There were tons of leftovers on the fire when we left.

The sauna was a traditional Finish sauna next to a lake. We were supposed to go into the boiling hot sauna for as long as we could stand it, then run outside and jump in the freezing cold lake. I went into the sauna a couple times but never got up the nerve to jump in the lake. Everyone said the water felt great though. Maybe next time.

Project 1 = DONE!

Today we presented our models for assignment one. We finished at about 5:45 this morning, so I was not entirely coherent for the critique. Nevertheless, I think it went well. I was happy with our model – the lighting especially. The Trapholt Art Museum has several skylights that really photographed well in our model. Our studio professor seemed to like our model too.

I am ready to catch up on sleep before we start our big study tour tomorrow.

Field Trip!

Today we went on a field study to Northern Copenhagen. First we visited a furniture warehouse, Paustian, with some of the most beautiful modern furniture I have ever seen. Next we went to Grundtvig’s Kirke by Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint. The church was truly astounding. It is made entirely of brick (6 million, to put a number to it). It is in the style of traditional Danish churches with stepped gables, but at a much larger scale. Next we visited a Danish co-housing community. All of the families live in small houses. There is a larger community house in the center where the families take turn cooking dinner for all of the others each night. In theory I think that I a great idea and a great way to build a strong community. Apparently it works too, since the community that we visited has existed and thrived for decades. After the co-housing visit we went to another church, Bagsvaerd Church. I was skeptical when I saw the outside – it looks a little banal from the outside. The inside, however, is the opposite. A wildly undulating ceiling plane with hidden light sources makes the interior space almost magical. Finally, we went to the Louisiana Museum. I had heard great things about the museum before coming to Copenhagen. The museum definitely lived up to the hype. There was an exhibit on green architecture and interesting permanent art exhibits. My favorite part of the museum, however, was the outdoor. The museum is located right next to the water and there were several gardens and forests around the building. I was walking on a path in the forrest with two others and we stumbled across a huge slide. We each rode on it about 15 times before we had to head back to the bus.

I really enjoyed today and I am looking forward to our Sweden/Finland tour in a few days. Unfortunately, I have to get back to studio to work on my Trapholt Art Museum model due on Friday. I am hoping it won’t be too late of a night.

Modeling

This weekend we began working on our first assignment: a model of an existing building that we will visit on one of our travel tours. My group was assigned the Trapholt Art Museum located in Western Demnark. We decided to build our site model out of foam to make use of the handy and oh so fun hot wire cutter. Apparently we did not use the hot wire cutter correctly –the first words out of our studio professor’s mouth were “you’ve never used foam before.” Not exactly the reaction we were hoping for. We still have a large model to build, so hopefully that will turn out better than our site model did!

On Sunday I went to a nearby park, Faelledparken, to find a game of pick-up soccer. I found a group of 8 men playing and joined in. Most of them, I found out after the game, were not Danish. One was French, one was Russian, one was Vietnamese, and one was American. The told me about other pick-up games in the park. I’m plan to play whenever I can – it’s a great way to meet local people outside of DIS.

Open Air Museum

Today we visited Copenhagen’s open-air museum, a museum dedicated to the Scandinavia’s historic building traditions. The AC was broken on the bus, so the ride there was blazing hot. At the museum we saw several very old houses transplanted from their original site to the museum. After a morning lecture on sketching we were charged with the task of sketching anything and everything of interest to us at the museum. My sketching skills were definitely rusty to begin with, but as the day wore on they seemed to improve.

My favorite building of the day was a house built with a seaweed roof. The roof looked outrageous, almost like a giant sheep dog sitting on top of a house. Despite its comical appearance, the roof preformed well. Somehow it managed to keep out the water, though I am not convinced that it does not just act like a giant sponge and breed all sorts of bugs and fungus inside of it.

I had heard rumors that the other bus had air conditioning, so I made sure to get on that bus on the way home. The rumors were true and the ride back was much more comfortable. Copenhagen weather has been much warmer that I had anticipated, but I am not complaining. I much prefer hot summers to damp, rainy ones.

After the Open Air Museum, DIS hosted a welcome party in the courtyard. There were hot dogs, drinks, and lots of people. After the party, I walked around exploring Copenhagen with a group of people for a few hours. I am still amazed at how late it stays light outside.

First Day of Classes

Today was our first day of school. We met this morning at Frue Plads, a square near DIS, and took busses to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts for a brief orientation and introduction to the architecture program. After lunch we had an hour-long lecture on the history of Copenhagen, followed by a boat tour around Copenhagen’s many canals. We saw much of Copenhagen’s architecture, including the opera house and the Black Diamond by Danish architects Schmidt Hammer Lassen.

After the tour I walked around downtown Copenhagen for a while. There are several pedestrian only streets that seem to be constantly filled with people. Shops line the streets. Unfortunately, the prices of everything are out of my range. Copenhagen is an expensive city!

Goddag København

Its been a long day. I arrived in Copenhagen this morning after a red-eye flight from Washington D.C. Try as I might, I could not sleep on the plane.

Today we had a full day of orientations and tours. I took a three-hour walking tour of Copenhagen around mid-day. It is truly a beautiful city. I love all of the parks around the historic downtown district, all of the secret, quaint little courtyards tucked behind the buildings, and especially all of the bikers. Biking is the primary mode of transportation around the city. Pedestrians beware: the bikers do not stop for confused or tired tourists walking in the bike lanes.

After a long day in the city we headed out to the kollegium – similar to a dorm, but away from campus and open to more than just university students. Most of the University of Cincinnati students are in my same kollegium. We had a group dinner, took a short tour of the neighborhood, and were given our room keys.

The rooms are quite nice, each with a bathroom and small kitchenette consisting of a stovetop, sink, and refrigerator.

It is still very light outside, even though it is 10:00 pm. After a long 2 days with very little sleep, I am going to bed.