Before leaving for Prague it was mostly business as usual with studio work etc. I am almost getting along with the locks, but they still are a challenge. I will just say again how cheap grocery shopping and food is here, I love it!
Studio is going well, I am starting to get use to designing in the metric system and that the second floor of a building is really the first floor and the first floor is really the ground floor. Also, we have a wire cutting machine for making blue foam models and it is taking quite a bit of time to get the hang of, soon hopefully. My studio professor, Detler, is pretty cool. He talks a lot though and there is a slight language barrier but he is super nice.
I have gotten use to washing my clothes in the bath tub, and then hanging them through out the apartment. Socks are the only things that really get stiff, but no more wrinkled clothes!! I even act like a washer machine when I do laundry =) Cooking is fun, we finally have all the ingredients we need and organic food (bio food here) is cheap too. And we get fresh baked bread because there are Bakeies every 5 feet. I love it.
Wednesday night before we left for Prague a group of us went to a beer garden and it was so much fun. For 9 Euro you get a beer the size of your head (1 litter) and they have a band and you just dance around. Some people were lederhosen and the girl were dresses, its a lot of fun. I danced with Michelle most of the night. The beer garden was right near the Reichstag and the huge train station, so it was amazing to experience at night.
Thursday – Saturday I spent in Prague (Prag in German and Praha in Czech) and the trip was for our Urban Design class, we are also going to Rome and Hamburg before I leave in November. We drove there by bus, and it was about 5 hours. When we got close to Prague, Rolf played us this really beautiful song, and it set the mood right. We checking into our “botel” that was right on the main river and in old town. It also had an amazing view of the Prague Castle. We then all went out as a group to explore Lesser town, the Charles Bridge, old town square, and this smaller square. It was one of the girls birthdays so we all went out to dinner, I got pizza with Buffalo cheese and Czech beer, Pilsner. It is very good on draft. I then went back and hung out on the roof deck and then called it a night.
Friday we started the day early but taking the metro, that is seriously a mile underground and has the longest escalator in the world, to a catholic church and another more modern church. At the catholic church we got to go up in the tower that had an incredible ramp up to an amazing view. We then breaked for lunch, and I went to a Czech resturant with Julia and got fried chicken steak with tomatoe and blue cheese on it, it was yummy. We the then metoroed it over back into Prague central and explored the city and ended up at Frank Gerrys contribution to the city, “Fred and Ginger” it was a pretty amazing building. We then were free for the night to work on our Urban Design research. Julia, Austin, and I walked over to Lesser town to analyze the square there, we break for a bit at Starbucks, and then headed over the Charles bridge into old town. We went to a Czech restaurant by the other square we had to analyze and it was off the beaten past so no tourist. They played music, we got Pilsner again, and I got the traditional Czech duck, which was huge and delicious. We then analyzed the square as the sun was setting and into dusk. It was a cool space to analyze in this setting. We then strolled back to the Botel and got gelato and explore around the Old Town Square. We eventually got back to the Botel and Julia and I wanted to separate from the group, so her, Michelle, and I went bar hoping and it was fun. We went to a local Czech bar, and Irish Pub, a street vendor with beer and huge hot dogs, and then a British pub. It was a good night.
Saturday we had an early start and a free morning to finish the analysis and explore. I went with a group of people and we walked around, shopped, and eat lunch. We then met back up and split off into groups of ten. We had to climb the mountain to the Prague Castle, which has an amazing view! And then our group was first to go to Adolf Loos’ Muller House. The space was absolutely amazing. Each room has a different ceiling height, and sometimes is on a completely different level. It was defiantly a trademark building for modernism. We then went back to the castle and walked around with Rolf for a while. We saw the first palace with a huge gathering room with vaulting ceiling, a later renaissance chapel, the massive/impressive Gothic Cathedral (made me re-appreciate Gothic Architecture), and then we went down into the old trench around the palace and went through this amazing tunnel that was added to connect the two halves. We then headed on the bus back to Berlin.
Prague is absolutely an amazing place, and I would love to go back again. There money is interesting (1000 = about 50 euro) so it’s fun to use. But the city is amazing with so many secret hiding spaces for amazing things. You can duck into an alley, and then your in a beautiful garden or find a tunnel. It is very touristy, so it was weird hearing English and seeing Americans!
But it’s nice to now be back “home” in Berlin. This week is a full week, and I have a pin up on Wednesday for studio. Everyone is going to Munich for Oktober Fest next weekend, but Julia and I decided to stay in Berlin. Next trip planned is Barcelona, which should be a blast!
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