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Happy Easter from Vienna! I should have been keeping this weblog updated as I’ve been traveling, but internet cafes in Italy and Austria have been too expensive! But to briefly recap (I’ll post more info in the future), Rome was just as nice, if not nicer than I remember. Venice - wow! It’s a great city. Vienna, I’ve only seen a little so far, so I need to get off this computer! The real Europe is so much better than anything Disney can muster up at EPCOT!
What a strange time it’s been in Italy so far! I arrived in Milan yesterday and immediately went about finding a place to stay. No troubles there, the Let’s Go guidebook I picked up in Lisbon quickly lead me to the right place - a hostel run by the local Boy Scout council. My initial impressions of Milan, however, weren’t all that good. Everyone was too well dressed! Every sidewalk had become a catwalk! And there’s something about sunglasses - probably not being able to see others in the eye - that felt really unhospitable. And on top of that the entire front facade of the city’s cathedral is covered in scaffolding, and the world-famous Teatro alla Scala opera house is under major renovation and reconstruction.
So I took a train to the nearby town of Como. Como is a beautifully set along the lake with which it shares its name along the southern edge of the Alps. But, of course, I didn’t make the trip just for the natural beauty; there were architectural sites to see! The main reason I went to Como was to see Terragni’s Casa del Fascio. It was one of the many buildings we studied this semester in our class on Communist, Fascist, and Nazi architecture. There must be something in its geometry, its political significance, its setting, its symbolism, or its narrative arrangement that makes the building particularly attractive in more than a merely aesthetic sense. Unfortunately, because it’s still a government building (no, not for the Fascist Party), I wasn’t able to get inside, even after multiple pleas in very, very broken Italian on my part.
Tomorrow: Rome
So at last, I’m finally here in Bilbao, Spain. I’ve been meaning to make this trip since the spring of 2001. I figured I’d just take a train up from Barcelona one weekend, but that never happened. Then I suspected that I’d come down from Glasgow during spring break. But alas, it was not until early this morning that I set foot in this fair city. And I must say that it’s been every bit worth the wait!
For those of y’all who don’t know, Bilbao is home to Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum. The building’s created such as stir with all the tourists it’s brought to town and essentially placing this industrial city on the world’s cultural map that other cities around the world are now wanting to get in on the so-called “Bilbao effect.” But don’t be so easily deceived to think that the folks in charge of things here have put all their eggs in one architect’s basket - ready to ride the wave of architectural fashion. No, the city invested their resources well and over the past decade or so have gotten other internationally acclaimed designers such as Santiago Calatrava and Norman Foster in on some of the major projects.
But, of course, it is Gehry’s museum that steals the show! If the outside could be called impressive, there isn’t a word fine enough in English, Spanish, or Basque to describe the interior! It’s been fun to watch visitors often more caught up in the building than in the art. But in spite of my fears that the building would completely over-power the art within, for the most part the collection on show creates a near-perfect synthesis with the building. There’s an unexpected harmony that exists between the art and the architecture similar to the way the titanium-skinned mass of the building makes peace with its surroundings - neighboring buildings, the river, and the hills.
I’m only here until tomorrow before making my way to Italy via Lyon.
Like it or not, I’m only here in Portugal for the day. I took a train yesterday afternoon from Seville and arrived here in Lisbon this morning. I finally broke down and bought a guidebook. Until now I had been trusting my instincts on what to see and had pretty much thought that if whatever’s worth seeing isn’t well-marked enough for me to notice it, it’s not really that much worth seeing. But today while avoiding a brief Portuguese rain shower, I dodged into a bookstore and wandered into the tourism section. Upon opening a guidebook to Lisbon I flipped to the architecture section, and low and behold, there it was - Alvaro Siza’s Portugal Pavilion from Expo ‘98! Honestly, I don’t think we ever studied it in any of my architecture classes, but it’s been one of my favorites for about as long as I can remember. What’s really ‘cool’ about this building is the outside space made by way of covering steel cables in concrete. Sure, you’re probably thinking, “that doesn’t sound very neat or impressive.” Well, let me then tell you that the cables have been allowed to sag (as gravity would have them do anyway) so that this multi-multi-ton area of concrete and steel looks and acts like a large piece of fabric - remarkably thin for the span it covers. If you still don’t think it’s cool I guess you won’t care that this weblog entry is being typed inside a train station designed by Santiago Calatrava. (Architecture-philes, you know what I’m talking about!)
I’m on a train back to Madrid tonight and by Saturday morning I’ll be in Bilbao - home of Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum. Ciao!
So today’s got to be one of the first real let-downs I’ve had in my past couple years in Europe. I’m in Granada for the second time in three days and still can’t get into the Alhambra! Well, today I actually did get into the Alhambra, but not into all the good parts - the ones where you need a ticket. How was I supposed to know that everybody and their grandmother’s tour group would have all the available tickets reserved the one week I’m here in Andalucia? Oh well, I’m not too disappointed since I have been lucky enough to see lots of other really cool architectural and cultural sites on this trip. But for future reference, book your ticket to the Alhambra in advance!
I’m back in Seville for the evening and will be leaving for Lisbon tomorrow afternoon. No more disappointments…
So I was supposed to be in Granada today; I was. But since I was wanting to see the Alhambra and since I hadn’t reserved a ticket and didn’t want to stand in line all day, I went ahead and took a train to Sevilla. This is a gorgeous city with a fascinating blend of Western and Arabic architecture. The smell of wisteria even makes me feel like I’m back home smelling flowers in our backyard! I’ll use Sevilla these next couple days as my basecamp to return to Granada and also visit Córdoba before going to Portugal.
And to bring everyone up to speed on these past couple weeks:
I had a blast being a tour guide again when Edgar and Kevin were visiting me in Paris. We found a list of Paris’s “Top 25 Destinations.” In the one real day Edgar was in town, we covered nine, and before Kevin returned home after a long weekend we had knocked out seventeen of them! The most memorable moment, probably for all of us, was being asked by a French bride-to-be to nibble candies off a necklace she was wearing. You can imagine the scene: three rather clueless Americans standing on the steps in front of Sacre-Coeur. Up walks what looks like a sorority girl halfway through some really bizarre initiation ceremony with her hair in pigtails, funny striped socks pulled up over her pants legs, and wearing a candy necklace. Now, just so you know, Sacre-Coeur is notorious for being surrounded by people who are up to no good. So when this young lady walks up to us asking for help in English with her French accent, I’m a little cautious. But she’s surrounded by camera-toting “friends” anxious to capture that Kodak moment as a group of foreigners bite off pieces of candy from around their victim’s neck. After mutiple refusals on our part and multiple requests on their part, I decided that if I can run with the bulls in Spain and dance around in a kilt in Scotland, what’s participating a little French bachelorette party tradition going to hurt? I went first, Kevin second (having a little difficulty - something about biting the string accidentally), and Edgar third. We stood around a little longer trying to figure out what we had just done and watching as the party moved on to the next group of male tourists.
When the visitors left it was time to get down to work on all my presentations. But I can hardly think of anything more boring than reading about my school work, so I’ll spare you the details.
And as for Barcelona, what can I say? It’s still definitely a city in which I can see myself spending many more days/months/years of my life. You’ve got the city; you’ve got the mountains immediately to the north; you’ve got the Mediterranean immediately to the south. The pace of life is comfortable; the people are beautiful; the food goes far beyond being just edible. It was nice to see some things I hadn’t seen before. Last year was the International Year of Gaudí so quite a few of his buildings have just now been opened to the public. The weather couldn’t have been better, and I had a great time meeting the other international students (Argentinian, Canadian, German, Greek, Italian, Mexican, etc.) who came along with us.
I’m still trying to decide how I’ll occupy my time when I get back to the States. Any ideas?