SNM

Just a preview of the never boring times with Megan and Sue. More to come soon...

Barcelona

For the past couple of weeks, I have been fortunate enough to travel and see things that I never thought that I would. Because of my travels and the fact that I actually am an architecture student needing to work on my studio project, I have been absent from my posts. The weekend before my studio left for Venice, seven of my friends and I went to Barcelona. At this point I have completely run out of new adjectives to describe how much I love these cities. We left on Thursday afternoon from CF to get to Rome where our plane flew out of. Upon arriving at the Roma Termini station in order to catch our connecting train to the smaller train station in Ciampino, we realized that our time was a little more limited than we expected. We ended up running, almost sprinting across the station. With my bag flailing behind me, I am positive that I looked ridiculous. Sweating, we made it to Ciampino and caught our first Ryanair flight to Barca. We arrived pretty late that evening and went to a small restaurant for tapas and wine close to our hostel. We all immediately noticed how much we loved the urban feel of Barcelona in comparison to the much more historic Italian cities that we had seen thus far. On Friday morning we got up and began our adventures starting at Sagrada Familia. It is safe to say that there is no other cathedral quite like it. Originally designed by Gaudi, it is still under construction. 

 It was such a change to what we had seen that it took our breathe away. 

 The front door

 Interior. It was difficult to find any rational pattern or geometry so all that we could do was stare. The light inside bounced off every faceted surface and made the interior almost seem delicate. 

 William and Todd

 We continued on our Gaudi hunt through Barcelona to Casa Mila, something that we had studied since the beginning of our architectural schooling. Inside we got to see one of the apartments, the attic which now houses a small museum about Gaudi and his inspiration, and the roof. He took much of his design from forms that he saw in nature, from sea creatures to the veins in a leaf.

 One of the doors. 

 Drew, Todd, and me in front of one of the many chimneys that popped up all over the roof

 We then travelled down to the historic district to the Santa Caterina market for lunch. After wandering through the fresh produce, meat, and fish, we found a really cute restaurant within the market. After our beers with lunch, we decided to try their sangria; it was the best I have ever had!

 Park Guell, another Gaudi production. The weather was awesome and the views out to the ocean were pretty amazing.

 Most of us. After the park we went back to our hostel to get ready for dinner and our night out. We had an amazing dinner at a really cute restaurant suggested by my friend Alix who lived there last summer on Las Ramblas. It was so fun to people watch and have good food with good friends. We all went to a small bar on Las Ramblas after dinner before a couple of us went to a discoteca on the beach. All that needs to be said is that it was a good night. After arriving back to our hostel at about 5:30 in the morning we all realized that we had a night to remember. 

 We slept in on Saturday morning and began our day two near the marina. This is my roommates and me at the park by the harbor. 

 The group but sweet Christine is taking the picture. 

 Barcelona Pavilion by Mies Van Der Rohe. The quintessential architecture project; it is actually the first project that i remember learning about.  

 The reflection pond was perfect. 

 National Museum

 Amanda and I sat here for a long time taking in all that is Barcelona. The view was incredible and an adorable spanish man was in front of us playing music. There was nothing more to do than just stare.

 Olympic torch from the 80s.

Andrew and me at the fountain at Olympic park right before we had dinner and had to get some sleep to get up 3:30am venture to the airport. Barcelona was magical and more than any of us could have ever asked for. We loved the contrast with the Italian culture and all agreed that we would go back as soon as possible. 
There is so much more that I could say about this place but for the sake of not rambling, life couldn't get better. 

Siena

This past Wednesday, we went to Siena, probably my new favorite Tuscan hill town. The first place that we went to was the main cathedral in town that features a very distinct Sienese design of horizontal black and white marble striations on the exterior as well as the interior of the church. The sky was unbelievably clear and made bell tower of the church really stand out. It was definitely a great way to start the day. 

 The interior of the church. There are no words. 

 The outside. One of the only Gothic style churches that we have seen in Italy. When the church was being built in the 11th century, the plan was to actually beat St. Peter's basilica in size. To the right of the picture you can see where the addition was intended but it was never actually realized. 

 In the center of the town is the Campo which has an enormous piazza made up of 9 "pizza slices" to stand for the 9 members of their government. It was really fun to come back to the piazza throughout the day because you could watch where people would gather, always in the shade of the tower which I am climbing up in this picture. 

 Looking up from probably only half way up the tower. It was cramped in lots of places but this tower was much easier to climb up than the Duomo because of the vertical air shaft that ran all the way through. In the Duomo we circled around 2 shells of the dome and it got tight! 

 Looking out from the top of the Tower. I love that in most of the Tuscan hill towns, we have been able to climb up the bell towers or at least get to the top of the hill to look out onto the city. The organization of buildings and street patterns is so incredible. Such a nerdy architectural thing to say but there is absolutely nothing like this any where else in the world. 

 The girls at the top of the bell tower

Ty and my honeymoon pic! 

Part of our assignment for the day was to pick one of the Contradas (regions, there are 17) of the city to visit, draw, and witness the culture. Two times a year, the 17 contradas host a Palio in which each of them recruit a horse and rider to race in the Campo. It is a huge deal for the city and the winning contrada will host a enormous dinner and festival in their region for all those that live there. I chose Torre which is the region of the Tower, symbolized with an elephant carrying a tower on its back. This was a part of the region in which the whole way down the street you could see the tower pop up between the trees and the buildings. It was beautiful. I actually stumbled upon the societa elefante which is the society for the region in which a bunch of older men were gathered together and what sounded like bullshitting about god knows what. I poked my head in and they immediately stopped talking. It got very awkward very quickly and I left them to their business. Probably the highlight of my day! haha. 
Siena was an awesome city with tons of amazing shopping. Hope to go back soon! Our next trip is to Montepulciano, home of my one of my parents favorite wine. Could life get better? 

It's been a month!

I found the 311 of CF. Most of you probably know that I love the bar 311 in Austin on 6th street which has a 70s cover band play every night. I have missed it dearly. BUT, on Thursday night, the Velvet Underground opened for the season and I knew that this was the 311 of Italy. We had a blast. An awesome band called Barrence Whitfield and the Savages played. The lead singer was originally from Florida but grew up in Georgia. How he decided that his band should play in CF, we have no idea but we were all so excited that he did. Basically our whole school and a ton of locals showed up for the opening; it was packed and hot, but we danced all night anyway. 

A really blurry picture from my iPhone of Amanda and me. 

 Barrence

 On Friday, a couple of us took a day trip to Florence just to hang out and shop. There was a really fun market near San Lorenzo church that we walked through in the morning. Then we wandered around the city eating gelato and shopping. This is my friend Emily who ordered her gelato in a waffle cone but what she didn't know is that meant HUGE amounts of icecream on top of that cone. 

 We climbed to the top of the Duomo right before we left to go back to CF. It was such a cool experience because you climb in between the two layers of the dome. It got kind of dizzy and cramped at times but obviously well worth it. The city was beautiful from the cupola. 

 Shadow of the dome!

Last night was open house at Santa Chiara, our school; a lot of locals came to see our school and meet us. They brought homemade dishes of a variety of foods and wine and desserts. They even set up a stage and some local singers came a played a concert for us while we danced in the courtyard. It was a blast! I can't believe I have been here a month officially now. I am in love with this country...I couldn't ask for anything better!