While Rowan was in class (he is currently studying German so to be able to translate the few medieval documents he will need for his PhD), I was instructed to go to the Alte Pinacothek, or the old museum of art. A hearty thumbs up for this museum. I liked that they didn't have descriptions or tags next to the art; every frame had just a title and the artist's name. But, with your ticket, you get a free audio guide, and almost every painting had a very thorough description. It was a very user-friendly, easy way to move through the museum. I came to the conclusion, after wandering their huge Rubens collection, that I don't like Rubens. Pity. But I did like the rest of the collections. Met up with Rowan and went to the amazingly opulent Scholss Nymphanburg. Gawked at every room in the palace, and then strolled arm in arm through the gardens to all the "small" palaces that either of us would easily take as a home. Went into the chapel where you had to put on these silly slippers so not to ruin the floor. A rechoreographed version of the Ice Capades was necessary. Had wonderful conversations about Rowan's amazing life (Rowan is truly amazing, if you haven't been able to tell yet) and how he has met QE II, the person, not the ship, twice. Wow. I fully declare to the world that Rowan is wonderful and that we all must watch him, because he will be very famous one day. Even if it is in the tiny community of medieval trade history. As long as I can build your house...yes?
Got back into town and Rowan had this deep desire to try to get scalped tickets to the one night performance of "Roberto Deveraux" at the opera house starring the amazing Edita Gruberova. I am not up to snuff on opera as I should be, so Rowan told me that this role, Elizabeth I, could only be played by such a diva soprano as she and that people were making pilgrimages to see this. After seeing the people in tuxes and formal gowns pulling day luggage behind them, clearly having just arrived from the train station, I said, well, let's try to get tickets...and we did! Wonderful tickets in the front row of the top balcony. Perfect for seeing and hearing the performance. I will admit...I am now a believer in this Edita Gruberova. From the minute she walked onstage, she had the presence of a diva, and the voice...well, it was amazing! The die hard fans, aka us and a few others, stayed to give her numerous curtain calls. What a fabulous night!
Rowan went away for the rest of my time in Munich, which was a very sad parting. Rowan's notes guided me through Italy day by day (hour by hour), but having the real Rowan was quite a treat! However, while being led around, gawking at facades, one does not really get a sense of the city's layout. So I decided to take a free tour given by another amazing guy names Ozzie. He is worth going to Wombats in Munich and taking this tour. You will know him when you see him. He exudes fabulousness. To give you an idea, he started the tour outside the train station and screamed, "Hey! I'm a big, tall, black guy screaming the words Hitler and Nazi all the time. I've never had a problem! Munich must be safe." Wow. He gave us a great history of Munich from the very beginnings up to the Nazi regime, which started in Munich, by the way. You would never know because the city has tried to wash over everything to do with WWII...only a few hints on the ground. You wouldn't necessarily know that it was even bombed to smitherins, because they rebuilt everything in the older style of architecture. We had a good debate on whether that was a healthy or unhealthy way for the city to progress. Pros and cons to both sides. After giving Ozzie a huge hug (and a good tip), I headed to the Residenz, the city palace of the monarchs that was rebuilt in most of its glory after WWII. Headed over to the English Gardens, apparently the biggest park in Europe (ever city seems to claim this!), and wandered for a few hours there.
The next day was Disney princess day! I think I have now covered all of them, making me extremely happy. Of course, I am talking about a day trip to Fussen to see King Ludwig's fantasty castle, Neuschwanstein, used by Disney for the Sleeping Beauty castle in a few parks. First of all, Neuschwanstein, and it's older sibling, Hohenswangau, are located in the most beautiful setting in all of Germany. Second of all, Ludwig and Max, his father, were crazy, but the kind of crazy I would like as an architect. For example, the ceiling of their bedroom in Hohenswangau couldn't just be painted with a night sky and stars. Their stars had to be translucent with lights on the floor above so they would twinkle as the king fell asleep. They also had a hole cut above the bed, and a disc would slide around to mimick the correct phases of the moon. In Neuschwanstein, Ludwig had a bed made that looks somewhat like a carved wooden wedding cake that took four carvers four years to complete. The entire castle is decorated with allustions to all of Wagner's operas, Ludwig was a huge fan, so he hired a scenic designer to design the castle and the interiors for him. I tell you, scenic design is where the true creativity is at.
The next morning was spent at the outdated Deutches Museum, or science and technology museum. I have an issue with science museums because they are never updated fast enough to be interesting or useful. The computer section still was displaying a huge box from 1989 calling it the most recent of computer design. Hmmm. Some items don't change, like the history of musical instruments or a timeline of breakthroughs in chemistry before 1950, but I felt like I was reading an introductory history of science book (in German) from 1980. Don't waste your time.
But go to Munich for opera, opulence, and of course, Ozzie. And be sure to look at the ground, because that is where you will find the only marks of WWII.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
"If you want so sit alone, the church is across the street!"
Got off the train in Munich, and for the first time in a long time, someone was there to meet me! And someone wonderful in fact...Rowan! (character: Rowan, I believe he may have been introduced before, but he is a good friend from Harvard, a genius in the academic area of medieval trading in the Adriatic, and was an amazing Chesire Cat in my version of Alice in Wonderland. He is studying German in Munich for some weeks in order to translate medieval German texts for his PhD program.) Anyway, Rowan met me with a huge huge, a big smile, a great chocolate croissant, and a Munich map...all very much needed. He then wisks me away through town to many a beautiful church, including one which I never really caught the name of, but can be described, at best, as Rococo on steroids. Found out that the famous glockenspiel is being rennovated for its hundredth anniversary next year, thus it doesn't play. After a whirlwind tour and lunch at the market, we decided to run back to our respective homes, change for a night at the opera, and get in line for standing room tickets to a Korean opera of "Alice in Wonderland" with puppets. (That would probably be JD's worst nightmare.) Anyway, we get to the opera house two hours early in the freezing cold, stake out our place, despite some nudgy old women, and get inside to find out that the student rush line is our only hope. We stand there until the last call bell, and then the ticket manager says, "Bad news, students. No tickets." It's an opera, by a Korean composer, about Alice in Wonderland, with PUPPETS...it got terrible reviews...and people are still flocking to see it?! Well, we are dressed up with nowhere to go in particular, but we decide that we are famished, and craving Bavarian cuisine. We find the Weisshaus, a popular touristy restaurant, and get sat at a big table with two other couples. At first, we are all hestitantly smiling at each other, talking amongst ourselves and looking at a menu which sports cow's lung, pork knuckles, and boiled calf's heart. Yum. Well, I choose cheese spatzle, which I have been craving, and Rowan goes for the weinerschnitzel. The waitress comes by and the woman to my right orders a combination platter of the aforementioned "delicacies" of lung, knuckles, heart, liver I think, and something else. Our waitress, whom we fondly refer to as Hildegard because it would just fit her perfectly, gives her the strangest look and gasps, "You LIKE that?!?!" When the woman says that she is being adventurous, Hildegard responds, "No, no. You don't want that. No. Lung? Heart? They're cooked! I don't like them cooked!" (Oh, so you like raw heart and lung, Hildegard...I wouldn't want to mess with this woman.) "No, it is not good. You want this." Scared and taken aback that the waitress would talk her out of her choice, the woman orders what Hildegard suggests. Once H leaves, we all just burst out laughing! And that was the beginning of a great meal! Both couples were school teachers, Rowan is probably going to be a professor, and I have a great respect for school teachers, so we all talked about school and education, travel and languages, studying Latin and meat farming in the US. One couple was older, and the husband had just retired as a PE teacher in Wisconsin, so he know raises cattle on a farm. His wife, a middle school science teacher, grew up on a cattle farm and has cooked aforementioned delicacies, but she really liked what Hildegard suggested. The younger couple were new teachers taking a group of language students on a field trip to Munich. We talked for hours! At the end of the meal, Hildegard comes up and bellows, "See! See! You come in alone and now you are all chatting away as friends! This is what happens in Bavaria! I say, if you want to sit alone, the church is across the street!" That may be the best quote I have ever heard in my entire life, especially coming from a huge Bavarian woman. Oh Hildegard!
Monday, July 9, 2007
Drum roll please...
And your New Seven Wonders of the World are:
Chichen Itza, Mexico
The Great Wall of China
Petra, Jordan
Colosseum, Rome
Taj Mahal, India
Machu Picchu, Peru
and my friend Nikki's personal favorite
The Christ Redeemer, Brazil
Thanks to all those who voted...I know I did.
Chichen Itza, Mexico
The Great Wall of China
Petra, Jordan
Colosseum, Rome
Taj Mahal, India
Machu Picchu, Peru
and my friend Nikki's personal favorite
The Christ Redeemer, Brazil
Thanks to all those who voted...I know I did.
Friday, July 6, 2007
Switzerland...good cheese, good chocolate (milk), good views, and American country music?
OK, I actually don't like Swiss cheese (meaning the ones with the holes), but they have some nice other cheeses. And Heidi chocolate milk is the best chocolate milk on the planet. But I digress...
The train was a bit longer than I had expected, thus leaving me in Bern, the capital of Switzerland, exhausted and probably vitamin deficient. Tip: Eat plenty of fruits and vegggies, and protein when travelling. OK, so the first night was a bit of bust because my body went into shock from unhealthy eating, but there was an American band playing country rock outside our window, and the huge crowd was going nuts! It's amazing to see what makes it out of the US and becomes popular in other countries. Country rock, for example. Beverly Hills 90210...another example. Anyway, I was explaining how I felt to one of my roommates, Lucky (yes, that is her name), and I said, "I feel like I've been hit by a truck." She responded, "I was hit by a truck, and that ended my professional dancing career in New York." O...K... You never know when an innocent cliche is going to offend someone. But, since her accident, she learned so much about anatomy that she has become an anatomy and physiology professor at Arizona State, but she really wants to move to Boston to choreograph. After she gave me an Vitamin C pill so that I could at least get up and put my stuff away, we talked all night about theater. Good times.
The next day, I fulfilled one of my life dreams...to travel on a glass train! I had only heard of these train cars with huge windows all over in Canada, but it turns out that they have the Golden Pass Panoramic train through the Alps, and it is gorgeous! I went on a train to Speitz to Zwimmerman? to get on the panoramic train and travelled down to Montreax, which is a town up the lake from Geneva. It was a beautiful day and the lake with the Alps all around it is just breathtaking. Took a ferry up the lake to the Chateau de Chillon, which Lord Byron made famous and is a very neat little castle on the lake. From the Chateau, I caught a boat that took me up the lake an hour and a half to Lausanne. Caught a train home, and I call that a really nice day trip! Bravo to the book Europe by Eurail which suggested this itinerary. Probably the most gorgeous scenery day I have been on. If you go to Switaerland, go to the Golden Pass. Beautiful
On the suggestion of my aunt Sandy, I took the next day trip to Lake Lucerne, intending to continue a tradition of taking a picture at the top of Mt. Pilatus. Sandy, I tried! Honestly! But it was raining. The weather report said that it was going to clear in the afternoon and be bad in the morning, which was true, but the mountain gets cloudy in the afternoon regardless, so they wouldn't even sell me a ticket. Sounded like a really neat trip by boat, then by the steepest cogwheel funicular on a 40 minute ride up the mountain, then down by a sky lift. I was so excited...I guess another time. But, Luzern, the town, is lovely, even in rain. I started out on their famous covered bridges with beautiful paintings under the eaves. Walked up on the ramparts to some of the old watch towers on the edge of the city, and then down through the old town. All the platzes (can that be made plural?) are surrounded by buildings with huge facade frescoes making colorful panoramas all over the city. Walked up in the rain to the Dying Lion, the "most moving piece of rock in the world." Maybe true. It was very moving. To all those people who worked in the Ag, this was the random poster that was on the wall for so long that we couldn't figure out what it was! Saw an old 19th century panorama painting of the French troops coming into Switzerland for their internment from the Franco-Prussian War, and then headed back to the info center in hopes that the mountain had cleared a little bit. Nope, no luck. So I hopped on a train back to Bern and convinced some girls in the common room that they needed to watch Drop Dead Gorgeous, a terrible, but somewhat hilarious movie. Good way to relax for the night.
Next morning, got up, went to my favorite grocery store in town and then walked the streets, up to the bear pits (which are very sad...two brown bears are just sitting at the bottom of this pit while tweens through food and other things at them and annoying tourists take pictures of them...they looked so sad and lost) and around to the glockenspiel (another let down) and to the Einstein house. The house where E=mc² was born had a great movie about Einstein's life and a very small, but thorough exhibit. Very enjoyable. Off to the train station to go to Zurich!
That night in Zurich...it rained...it poured. But I still made the trek to the two main churches, which are quite stark compared to others I have been to, but one had Marc Chagall's famous stained glass windows. I will admit, they were different and worth seeing. However, there was nothing else in the city worth seeing that day at least. I went over to the Design Museum to see an interesting exhibit called "On Time" about the history of time keeping and Swiss watches. I think the curator was showing some friends around, so he was watching me for my reactions.
I think overall, I liked Austria more than Switzerland, but I would come back with a car to drive through the Alps.
The train was a bit longer than I had expected, thus leaving me in Bern, the capital of Switzerland, exhausted and probably vitamin deficient. Tip: Eat plenty of fruits and vegggies, and protein when travelling. OK, so the first night was a bit of bust because my body went into shock from unhealthy eating, but there was an American band playing country rock outside our window, and the huge crowd was going nuts! It's amazing to see what makes it out of the US and becomes popular in other countries. Country rock, for example. Beverly Hills 90210...another example. Anyway, I was explaining how I felt to one of my roommates, Lucky (yes, that is her name), and I said, "I feel like I've been hit by a truck." She responded, "I was hit by a truck, and that ended my professional dancing career in New York." O...K... You never know when an innocent cliche is going to offend someone. But, since her accident, she learned so much about anatomy that she has become an anatomy and physiology professor at Arizona State, but she really wants to move to Boston to choreograph. After she gave me an Vitamin C pill so that I could at least get up and put my stuff away, we talked all night about theater. Good times.
The next day, I fulfilled one of my life dreams...to travel on a glass train! I had only heard of these train cars with huge windows all over in Canada, but it turns out that they have the Golden Pass Panoramic train through the Alps, and it is gorgeous! I went on a train to Speitz to Zwimmerman? to get on the panoramic train and travelled down to Montreax, which is a town up the lake from Geneva. It was a beautiful day and the lake with the Alps all around it is just breathtaking. Took a ferry up the lake to the Chateau de Chillon, which Lord Byron made famous and is a very neat little castle on the lake. From the Chateau, I caught a boat that took me up the lake an hour and a half to Lausanne. Caught a train home, and I call that a really nice day trip! Bravo to the book Europe by Eurail which suggested this itinerary. Probably the most gorgeous scenery day I have been on. If you go to Switaerland, go to the Golden Pass. Beautiful
On the suggestion of my aunt Sandy, I took the next day trip to Lake Lucerne, intending to continue a tradition of taking a picture at the top of Mt. Pilatus. Sandy, I tried! Honestly! But it was raining. The weather report said that it was going to clear in the afternoon and be bad in the morning, which was true, but the mountain gets cloudy in the afternoon regardless, so they wouldn't even sell me a ticket. Sounded like a really neat trip by boat, then by the steepest cogwheel funicular on a 40 minute ride up the mountain, then down by a sky lift. I was so excited...I guess another time. But, Luzern, the town, is lovely, even in rain. I started out on their famous covered bridges with beautiful paintings under the eaves. Walked up on the ramparts to some of the old watch towers on the edge of the city, and then down through the old town. All the platzes (can that be made plural?) are surrounded by buildings with huge facade frescoes making colorful panoramas all over the city. Walked up in the rain to the Dying Lion, the "most moving piece of rock in the world." Maybe true. It was very moving. To all those people who worked in the Ag, this was the random poster that was on the wall for so long that we couldn't figure out what it was! Saw an old 19th century panorama painting of the French troops coming into Switzerland for their internment from the Franco-Prussian War, and then headed back to the info center in hopes that the mountain had cleared a little bit. Nope, no luck. So I hopped on a train back to Bern and convinced some girls in the common room that they needed to watch Drop Dead Gorgeous, a terrible, but somewhat hilarious movie. Good way to relax for the night.
Next morning, got up, went to my favorite grocery store in town and then walked the streets, up to the bear pits (which are very sad...two brown bears are just sitting at the bottom of this pit while tweens through food and other things at them and annoying tourists take pictures of them...they looked so sad and lost) and around to the glockenspiel (another let down) and to the Einstein house. The house where E=mc² was born had a great movie about Einstein's life and a very small, but thorough exhibit. Very enjoyable. Off to the train station to go to Zurich!
That night in Zurich...it rained...it poured. But I still made the trek to the two main churches, which are quite stark compared to others I have been to, but one had Marc Chagall's famous stained glass windows. I will admit, they were different and worth seeing. However, there was nothing else in the city worth seeing that day at least. I went over to the Design Museum to see an interesting exhibit called "On Time" about the history of time keeping and Swiss watches. I think the curator was showing some friends around, so he was watching me for my reactions.
I think overall, I liked Austria more than Switzerland, but I would come back with a car to drive through the Alps.
Friday, June 29, 2007
The Hills Are Alive!
When in Salzburg, one must do two things: make a tribute to Mozart and go on the original Sound of Music tour. I, proudly, have done both. I booked my seat on the Sound of Music tour, despite the warnings that it was going to be very kitchy, and started to get excited. I put my hair in pigtails and sang some of the songs in the shower (to myself of course). Got downstairs and onto the bus, trying to not look too excited in case everyone else was just doing it because they should, but immediately I met the three girls around me (Character: Caroline and Isabelle from Australia and Julia from CA) who were so excited, and Caroline the most so. She had been on the tour and couldn't wait to do it again a few years later! She knew all the words to the soundtrack (yes, they play the soundtrack on the bus while you are driving through the countryside) and knew all the scenes. I'm so glad I met them because we just well full out into the tour and it was so much fun! We were singing, we were taking pictures in poses, and all that jazz. We first stopped at the what was the back of the Von Trapp house in the movie with the lake scenes. So beautiful. The mountains are in the background, and on the other side of the lake were the trees the kids dangle from. (By the way, Harvard owns this building and it's the Salzburg Institute? Anyone heard of it?) Then we drove by another mansion which served as the front of the house in the Confidence song and the attempted escape scene. Then we went to a beautiful palace that had the glass gazebo reconstructed in its park for the public to see. Then, it was on to the hills! Basically, they took us around the Lake District, which is just gorgeous! If I had another day, I would take a tour just of this area. You just don't get views like that anywhere else in the world. Unbelievable. Wow. I can't wait for Switzerland! Then they took us to the church where Maria and the Captain got married in the movie, and they directed us to a cafe for apple strudel. Then back to the Mirabel Gardens where the Do a Dear song was filmed around the fountains. Many more things were pointed out to us, but I was just so entranced by the beauty of the area! Definitely worth it!
C, I, J, and I went to a great place for schnitzel (more Favorite Things of both mine and Maria) and then I headed off for a whirlwind sightseeing journey of Old Town. I definitely suggest going to the Fortress, which has loomed over the city for over 1000 years. Perfectly intact and has some of the best views I've ever seen. Stunning! (I know, lots of things in my blog are stunning, beautiful, gorgeous, etc...but it's all true. I shall try to use more pretentious synonyms in the future.) Came down on the steep, STEEP funicular (something like 45 degrees or more...) and walked into one church for mass, another church for mass, yet another church, a cemetary, probably another church, and heard the bells from the glockenspiel. What a lovely town! And then I went to Mozart's Birthplace, which has an odd museum inside. Instead of trying to recreate rooms or give an extensive biography of Mozart, they gave the rooms to Robert Wilson, a very famous artist who has done very odd installations in Boston...aka Fritz for those who know him from the Ag, to design. He designed installations for each room that play on a trait of Mozart's life and character. Weird, but I enjoyed it more than most. Something different that I didn't expect. Walked around with a giant pretzel seeing all the church goers in their traditional dress. I have never seen so many men so proud of their leiderhosen. (Well, maybe the Scots and their kilts...) Anyway, the whole day can be summed up as beautiful. From the mountains to the buildings to the people to the food...this area is wonderful. I really like Austria and wish I had more time. I will definitely come back, and maybe try to get a car and drive through the countryside. Anyone with me?
Off to Switzerland tomorrow!
C, I, J, and I went to a great place for schnitzel (more Favorite Things of both mine and Maria) and then I headed off for a whirlwind sightseeing journey of Old Town. I definitely suggest going to the Fortress, which has loomed over the city for over 1000 years. Perfectly intact and has some of the best views I've ever seen. Stunning! (I know, lots of things in my blog are stunning, beautiful, gorgeous, etc...but it's all true. I shall try to use more pretentious synonyms in the future.) Came down on the steep, STEEP funicular (something like 45 degrees or more...) and walked into one church for mass, another church for mass, yet another church, a cemetary, probably another church, and heard the bells from the glockenspiel. What a lovely town! And then I went to Mozart's Birthplace, which has an odd museum inside. Instead of trying to recreate rooms or give an extensive biography of Mozart, they gave the rooms to Robert Wilson, a very famous artist who has done very odd installations in Boston...aka Fritz for those who know him from the Ag, to design. He designed installations for each room that play on a trait of Mozart's life and character. Weird, but I enjoyed it more than most. Something different that I didn't expect. Walked around with a giant pretzel seeing all the church goers in their traditional dress. I have never seen so many men so proud of their leiderhosen. (Well, maybe the Scots and their kilts...) Anyway, the whole day can be summed up as beautiful. From the mountains to the buildings to the people to the food...this area is wonderful. I really like Austria and wish I had more time. I will definitely come back, and maybe try to get a car and drive through the countryside. Anyone with me?
Off to Switzerland tomorrow!
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Austria, ja!
Arrived in Vienna, Austria on the Gregor Mendel train! (When they announced that, I burst out laughing. My friend Tom and I, and someone else, did a whole game show video tape based on Gregor Mendel and his plant studies for 6th grade science. Hilarious.) Anyway, didn't know exactly where to go, so I started at the most famous place I could think of...the Vienna Opera House. Took a wonderful tour by a huge Austrian guy with a very think accent. He told me afterwards to get in line for standing room tickets for tonight's opera as it would only be a 3 hour show rather than Wagner's extravaganza the next day that would last about 5.5 hours. I can do tonight. Walked a bit more to Stephansplatz to St. Stephan's cathedral, which is beautiful. Don't walk up the 343 stairs to the tower though. Not worth it. But the crypt is! Took an interesting tour where I got to see some mass graves from the Black Plague and the collection of innards of the Austrian rulers. Weird, but interesting. Went back to the opera house to get in line and got my amazingly cheap 3.50 euro ticket to stand at the back of the orchestra level with great sightlines of the stage. The show was Massanet's "Wurther", and ok opera, but a fantastic set! We've tried to do trees. We usually fail. (Courtney being an exception.) But this tree was amazing! I was really impressed! And beautiful leaves. Just a stunning stage picture!
Woke up the next morning and there was a girl in the bathroom. Really had to go and was thinking...when is she going to get out. Was about to get down from the bunk and knock on the door when she came out...and guess who it was...KARA KAUFMAN! Ultimate shock happened. (Character: Kara...stage manager from Harvard. Very good friend. Didn't expect her to be in Vienna!) She was sleeping below me the entire night! It totally made my day to see her! She decided to take some stress free time and go to Europe, but didn't tell me! What are the chances of this happening? Wow. We had breakfast downstairs and caught up a bit, but she and her friend were taking off on a train to Budapest. Had I known, I would have gone to Budapest, but I was staying in Vienna for another day and a half and then off to Salzburg. Well, I will see her when I get back in NYC for sure. Hilarious.
After we both ended screaming and hugging and they left, the other girl in our room was wide awake. I felt bad because I had woken her up the night before coming in, but we banded together for the day to travel around the town. (Character: Sara from Japan who just graduated from Brown in biochem and is staying in Providence another year to work in a lab) We started off walking around the Hofburg Palace and all the platzes around there. Went into the library/Imperial State Room which was just overwhelmingly gorgeous. Our mouths hit the ground. They were having an exhibit on gifts of books that Franz Josef had received during his reign. The books may only of had congratulations in them, but the bindings and covers were just stunning works of art. I wish I knew how to do binding and book art. Another art to learn when I get back! Felt like Disney Princess Belle in the Beast's castle. (Have I hit all the Disney Princesses yet? Almost.) Definitely a must go see when in Vienna. Then we walked around to the Burg Theatre, the Votiv Church (which wasn't open, but had beautiful Gothic details), the Rathaus (which is gorgeous!), and Parliament. Decided that we were going to go to see Midsummer Night's Dream at the Burg later, so Sara went back to switch to another hostel while I took the subway out to the middle of who knows where in town to the Hunterwasser apartment building. Hunterwasser wasn't an architect, but he built a number of buildings without straight lines. Every layer and piece is painted a different color. Very Gaudi-esque, but not as refined. Lots of tourists in the area, so I fled back to Stephansplatz and walked along Graben St., as my guidebook told me to, to Peterplatz to view some interesting architectural "gems," including Adolf Loos's bathroom complex...they were all just ok. But St. Stephan's church is beautiful inside! Walked over to the Staatsoper Museum, which is just ok, and then had to meet Sara back at the Burg to get in line for standing room tickets. No one was there when we got in, so we got some of the first places in the front of the standing room section, which is in the back of the orchestra section, like the Staatsoper. And the show just felt like coming home. It reminded me very much of the A.R.T. (American Rep Theatre) in the design and the director's calls, which were just genius! So the play was in German, which is very interesting to pick up on the rhyme scheme and the attempt at iambic pentameter in German. The set started off with techies and these little old ladies setting up hundreds of tables for the wedding. Puck comes on as the wedding planner, and after the first scene, she takes off her big coat (revealing a school girl's outfit, which I didn't understand) and signals a HUGE STORM onstage. What was the roof over the tables, collapsing some of them, to create a forest landscape that the actors then walked on! (And you thought my ideas were crazy!) Then, for about 5 minutes straight, it snowed white cork making a thick layer of ground for the actors to trudge around in and throw each other to the ground on. I could't figure out what it was until intermission when I went up and stole a piece. Genius. (Is cork fire retardent?) Another genius call was to make the little old lady maids into Titania's fairies and have them sing during the performance. Hilarious. The acting, despite not totally understanding what they were saying, was fabulous. The players were really funny, and Puck was genius. They ended the play with Puck screaming at the audience in German, which was for some reason really funny, and then singing "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" in English. Actually a great ending! I loved it! Vienna has great theater, hands down.
Woke up the next morning and there was a girl in the bathroom. Really had to go and was thinking...when is she going to get out. Was about to get down from the bunk and knock on the door when she came out...and guess who it was...KARA KAUFMAN! Ultimate shock happened. (Character: Kara...stage manager from Harvard. Very good friend. Didn't expect her to be in Vienna!) She was sleeping below me the entire night! It totally made my day to see her! She decided to take some stress free time and go to Europe, but didn't tell me! What are the chances of this happening? Wow. We had breakfast downstairs and caught up a bit, but she and her friend were taking off on a train to Budapest. Had I known, I would have gone to Budapest, but I was staying in Vienna for another day and a half and then off to Salzburg. Well, I will see her when I get back in NYC for sure. Hilarious.
After we both ended screaming and hugging and they left, the other girl in our room was wide awake. I felt bad because I had woken her up the night before coming in, but we banded together for the day to travel around the town. (Character: Sara from Japan who just graduated from Brown in biochem and is staying in Providence another year to work in a lab) We started off walking around the Hofburg Palace and all the platzes around there. Went into the library/Imperial State Room which was just overwhelmingly gorgeous. Our mouths hit the ground. They were having an exhibit on gifts of books that Franz Josef had received during his reign. The books may only of had congratulations in them, but the bindings and covers were just stunning works of art. I wish I knew how to do binding and book art. Another art to learn when I get back! Felt like Disney Princess Belle in the Beast's castle. (Have I hit all the Disney Princesses yet? Almost.) Definitely a must go see when in Vienna. Then we walked around to the Burg Theatre, the Votiv Church (which wasn't open, but had beautiful Gothic details), the Rathaus (which is gorgeous!), and Parliament. Decided that we were going to go to see Midsummer Night's Dream at the Burg later, so Sara went back to switch to another hostel while I took the subway out to the middle of who knows where in town to the Hunterwasser apartment building. Hunterwasser wasn't an architect, but he built a number of buildings without straight lines. Every layer and piece is painted a different color. Very Gaudi-esque, but not as refined. Lots of tourists in the area, so I fled back to Stephansplatz and walked along Graben St., as my guidebook told me to, to Peterplatz to view some interesting architectural "gems," including Adolf Loos's bathroom complex...they were all just ok. But St. Stephan's church is beautiful inside! Walked over to the Staatsoper Museum, which is just ok, and then had to meet Sara back at the Burg to get in line for standing room tickets. No one was there when we got in, so we got some of the first places in the front of the standing room section, which is in the back of the orchestra section, like the Staatsoper. And the show just felt like coming home. It reminded me very much of the A.R.T. (American Rep Theatre) in the design and the director's calls, which were just genius! So the play was in German, which is very interesting to pick up on the rhyme scheme and the attempt at iambic pentameter in German. The set started off with techies and these little old ladies setting up hundreds of tables for the wedding. Puck comes on as the wedding planner, and after the first scene, she takes off her big coat (revealing a school girl's outfit, which I didn't understand) and signals a HUGE STORM onstage. What was the roof over the tables, collapsing some of them, to create a forest landscape that the actors then walked on! (And you thought my ideas were crazy!) Then, for about 5 minutes straight, it snowed white cork making a thick layer of ground for the actors to trudge around in and throw each other to the ground on. I could't figure out what it was until intermission when I went up and stole a piece. Genius. (Is cork fire retardent?) Another genius call was to make the little old lady maids into Titania's fairies and have them sing during the performance. Hilarious. The acting, despite not totally understanding what they were saying, was fabulous. The players were really funny, and Puck was genius. They ended the play with Puck screaming at the audience in German, which was for some reason really funny, and then singing "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" in English. Actually a great ending! I loved it! Vienna has great theater, hands down.
Party in Prague!
Again, skipping over Venice to get to Prague, but I will start with my train horror story from the overnight from Venice to Prague. Got on and realized there were no locks on the doors. Not good. Had heard from a girl that she was actually gassed in one of the overnight cars so that the robbers could come in and unclip money belts. More not good. Anna (character: Anna from JMU who is working as a housekeeper to a professor at his villa on the Italian island of Elba) gets on a few stops later and we are told that we are the only two people supposed to be in the car. Great. We fall asleep, but I take great precautions with my stuff, locking it with a bike cable to the bed and put my messenger bag under my head around me under my shirt and the whole bit. At around 3AM I wake up. Not sure why, but I'm just lying there when I two guys open the door and pop their heads in. I'm just watching them thinking, "Oh, they must be lost." One of the guys sees me and gestures to the other guy to shut the door as they say sorry. Think more to myself...no, they saw two girls alone in the car. There are only supposed to be two of us in there. They are trying to rob us. I run out of the car and start asking them why they are in this car and what they are doing. In my sleepy mind, I was ready to beat up two train robbers... Anyway, they flee to another car, but I knew, for some reason, that they would be back. I lay back in bed thinking of all the James Bond ways to kick them in the face (I thank Kayt for this state of mind...) and thinking that I should get out my pocket knife, when all of a sudden I hear Anna screaming, "My wallet's gone!" What? I was awake the whole time! Nope...I had fallen asleep and the guys came back. She woke up to the bald one breathing heavily on her face, but she thought that they were just trying to climb up the ladder to the top bunk. When they saw her awake, they fled. Apparently, he reached over her, unzipped her purse, took out her wallet, took out the euros on one side, the dollars on the other, and put the wallet back in a different compartment, thankfully leaving the passport, the iPod, the camera, and the credit cards. But we were more freaked out that they could get that close to us and neither of us noticed!!! She decided to stay up the rest of the night, and the conductor had her and 3 other people get off for a few minutes at Salzburg to file a police report. We were the only ones with a description. Very scary. We put the ladder against the door in case anyone else tried to get in. Talked and snacked for a bit as we just sat in shock. They didn't take anything of mine, but if they were that close to her, they were that close to me. Avoiding night trains from now on...or, I'll take my bike cable and put it around the door handle and lock it shut. Surreal.
Anyway, Prague is great! Turns out I went from knowing no one on my travels to knowing 7 other people(and really another, but Kara didn't tell me she was there...more on that coming...), so it was really a party in Prague! Crashed in the hostel for a bit since I didn't sleep so well on the train and then went off to the Mucha Museum, which is great! If you like Art Noveau, if you like poster design, if you like art, go to the Mucha Museum. Walked along the river for a bit and then went back to meet up with Eric! (Character: Eric, my cousin who just graduated from the Air Force Academy and is going to Africa to climb mountains. He's awesome.) Had dinner in Old Town Square and then walked around town for a bit. Then both of us decided to crash. Planned to meet up with Eric, Katie, and Bryce (Characters: Katie Stebbins, a costume design student at CMU and the awesome sister of Amy Stebbins! and Bryce, Katie's awesome boyfriend who is now a lover of the theater) to do Prague Castle. Eric and I looked around Tyn Church (it has beautiful spires!) and St. Nicholas's Church and then met up with K&B for Castle time! Made the long trek up, but it was worth it. St. Vitus's cathedral alone is worth it. It's a beautiful church with gorgeous stained glass windows, of which one is by Mucha. Climbed up the trecherous spiral staircase to the top of the tower for great views. Had a wonderful "traditional" lunch of fried cheese (any culture that emphasizes its fried cheese is good with me!), meat (something I didn't have in all of Italy), and knedkly (dumplings). Got caught in a downpour on the Charles Bridge and split off to go to an internet cafe, but got rerouted by the sight and sounds of a military parade in the Old Town Square in memory of a 1621 massacre in the Old Town Square. (Thank you, Dan, for filling me in on that! All the speeches were in Czech and the soldiers were marching with big smiles on their faces...maybe it's beacuse they have to march like awkward toy soldiers from the Nutcracker ballet...) Spent the whole night in anticipation for the Prague Quadrennial (the PQ!) which Katie and Bryce were participating in.
Oh my gosh, the PQ is so wonderful and fun! OK, the PQ is an international festival of scenography and theater architecture that happens every four years in Prague. This sounded not only up my alley, but was my alley. It was so cool! There were exhibits by every country by both students and professionals. Some of these exhibits were good, some not so good, but all were very interesting. I started off by perusing the theme exhibit which was given to student designers to create anything they wanted. The theme this year was Aristophanes's "The Birds." The costumers had a field day! I saw some amazing stuff in this exhibit from puppets to set models to amazing costume sketches to video art. Then attended a lecture on how acting exercises could influence or affect drawing and design. Mostly for costumers, the lecture discussed the extensions of the planes of the body that actors must work with in order to inform their movements. All I could think of was Bo in his Caterpillar costume for Alice. It was a great lecture because many times designers don't think about how their design will affect the actors acting. We think, "The actor will deal. It is what they do." But really the designers AND the actors have to be on the same page. Not that I'm giving up raked stages, people, I'm just saying that I will be more aware of a raked stage's implications on the acting when I design a floor that is above 15 degrees with water... Then I toured the professional pavillions. They ranged from extensive overviews of what is happening in that country's theater scene (the USA, Ireland, and the Sushi Bar of Japan--amazing concept! you sat at a plate with a set model on it and the description in the menu on your placemat) to random drawings, still photographs, or slide shows (Germany and Poland--whose pavillion was the outline of Poland extruded 20' in the air and built out of bright magenta plastic), to installations and interactive spaces (Hungary's customs booth which rejected everyone and the Czech Republic's Carnival). I think I prefer the extensive overviews, especially the one from the US. Maybe that's because I recognized many of the designers. Everything from Eugene Lee's set model for "Wicked" to pictures of the Theatre de la June Lune's "The Miser" and "Amerika" was there. Poland, however, does win for the best caramel candies. I also looked upstairs at the inspiring architecture exhibit. So much is being done in theater architecture in the world. I only hope I can get into that stuff. Decided that I need to go to USITT next year. Anyone up for it? Ended with an interesting lecture on designing with smoke machines and fog. Blase and Tom, this workshop was for you! Then I met up with Xin Wei! (Character: Xin Wei, a good friend from Harvard who was on the Board of Directors for the Gilbert and Sullivan Players with me and is on her way home to Singapore after graduation) She's travelling with two friends and we met up with Eric and went to a really good dinner with more meat and more fried cheese. Went out with them and a girl we met at the hostel to a jazz bar to listen to music and just relax and chat. Great day!
The next day was cousin quality time at Karlstejn Castle. If you want to feel like a Disney Princess in Prague, go to Karlstejn. It's up on a hill and you go through a medieval town to get to it. Very Renaissance Faire in a way, but that is due to the tourists. I've decided that castles are more beautiful from the outside than the inside, and palaces are vice versa. But it was still great to go! If you go, book in advance for the long tour that takes you to the chapel and the great tower. We couldn't get in, but the pictures were beautiful! The castle was built by Emperor Charles IV of the Holy Roman Empire for his treasures. He collected relics and one of them is the head of a crocodile, which he believed, because they didn't have crocodiles in the area often, was the head of the dragon in the St. Michael story. Hilarious. The castle was also occupied by Wencelas IV, and it had a very Ruddigore-esque picture gallery. (No, no stained glass, Courtney.) Had a great time at the castle, and got back in time for dinner with Xin Wei's party and a show at the black light theater. Black light theater is very beautiful for production stills, but not necessarily wonderful after the first effect wears off. There were a few mimes that did some funny bits though. Spent the rest of the night at a jazz bar listening to a great trio that wasn't playing jazz. (I hate jazz.)
Went with Xin Wei and friends and K&B to the PQ for its last day! Katie showed me around the student exhibits, which are really creative I thought. Again, a whole range, but there was the USA extensive overview booth, which was just well done. Each master's program represented had its own closet in this big mirrored box. They could design their closets, so some had shelves with portfolios and pictures, some had models, puppets, props, and UNC? had the most creative...you pulled open a drawer and the top looked like a puzzle. When you pulled up each piece, you saw a tube with show pictures, descriptions, and props. Very neat. Austria or Australia (can't remember which) had a neat pavillion too...you were Alice falling down the rabbit hole...or rather sliding down a big slide with the tea party table upside-down all around you, all made out of paper. Not sure if it showed anything about student theater in the country, but it was fun! Sat for a long time in the uber-awesome cafe structure. Another theme of the PQ was construction, so they made a three-tiered cafe/seating area out of scaffolding and covered everything in foam, bubble wrap, and thick brown bags blown up and sectioned off to make very comfortable lounges and sofas. I must find some in the States and make furniture for my apartment (if I ever get one...) next year. Xin Wei and I sat there for at least an hour just chatting. It was so good to see her again before she gets stuck on her island that lacks the presence of cows. Have fun in Singapore! Then Katie tells me that she and Bryce bought several bags of bird seed with the intention of having a happening. Katie wanted to have a whole flock of pigeons following her around Old Town Square, so we head off with a trash bag full of bird seed. (We stop at the Jewish Museum which is made up of five synagogues and the cemetery which Rabbi Lowe, of the Golem story, is buried. The Spanish Synagogue was beautiful, but the whole thing was very expensive. Not sure the way they set it up was the best way either, but it was interesting.) We get to the Square and there is only one pigeon. Bryce runs after it with a box and gives it a whole pile. After being confused for awhile, it starts pecking. Then another pigeon comes. Then another. We look up and there are hundreds of birds coming in for a landing! We make a line of piles, so the birds started at one end, and when they were finished with that pile, they moved to the next one. Thus, we had hundreds of birds zig zagging through the Square! Finally Katie puts lots of piles around her feet. The birds gets closer and closer as they other piles disappear. After about 20 minutes, they are ready to go to her feet, but all of a sudden, a tiny child runs into the picture and scatters all the birds away! They are so full from the rest of the food that they don't come back! It was hilarious! A wonderful performance that came full circle. People actually were watching. One group clapped I think. Ta da! After that K&B were leaving town, but I will see them again in Berlin! Can't wait! They are great! Met up with XW and friends for one last dinner and then hung out with Eric and friends (he met up with some buddies from the Academy and some girls from Switzerland) at a neat place that was basically a maze of underground caverns with some bars. Reminded me of the big theater party in Edinburgh that the Underbelly Theatre held in the bank vaults underneath the city. Ate a really good fried cheese sandwich walking back to the hostel. Eric, I hope you had a great time in Prague!
Eric and I chatted by the river a bit before he had to leave on the plane. It was good seeing him! I'm glad he came to visit! He directed me towards Frank Gehry's Dancing House, aka Fred and Ginger. I really loved it! I'm not sure it fits its surroundings, but it did look like two figures dancing. I like it. Walked around for a long time and then Dan Wenger (character: Dan, friend from Harvard who is an actor and is studying in Prague for six weeks) called! We didn't know if we'd meet up, but we did and chatted at a cafe for a long time. Helped him through buying train tickets at the station (I'm a pro!) and then met up with one of his friends for a delicious dinner by the river. Great ending to a great city! Thank you to everyone who met up with me!
Anyway, Prague is great! Turns out I went from knowing no one on my travels to knowing 7 other people(and really another, but Kara didn't tell me she was there...more on that coming...), so it was really a party in Prague! Crashed in the hostel for a bit since I didn't sleep so well on the train and then went off to the Mucha Museum, which is great! If you like Art Noveau, if you like poster design, if you like art, go to the Mucha Museum. Walked along the river for a bit and then went back to meet up with Eric! (Character: Eric, my cousin who just graduated from the Air Force Academy and is going to Africa to climb mountains. He's awesome.) Had dinner in Old Town Square and then walked around town for a bit. Then both of us decided to crash. Planned to meet up with Eric, Katie, and Bryce (Characters: Katie Stebbins, a costume design student at CMU and the awesome sister of Amy Stebbins! and Bryce, Katie's awesome boyfriend who is now a lover of the theater) to do Prague Castle. Eric and I looked around Tyn Church (it has beautiful spires!) and St. Nicholas's Church and then met up with K&B for Castle time! Made the long trek up, but it was worth it. St. Vitus's cathedral alone is worth it. It's a beautiful church with gorgeous stained glass windows, of which one is by Mucha. Climbed up the trecherous spiral staircase to the top of the tower for great views. Had a wonderful "traditional" lunch of fried cheese (any culture that emphasizes its fried cheese is good with me!), meat (something I didn't have in all of Italy), and knedkly (dumplings). Got caught in a downpour on the Charles Bridge and split off to go to an internet cafe, but got rerouted by the sight and sounds of a military parade in the Old Town Square in memory of a 1621 massacre in the Old Town Square. (Thank you, Dan, for filling me in on that! All the speeches were in Czech and the soldiers were marching with big smiles on their faces...maybe it's beacuse they have to march like awkward toy soldiers from the Nutcracker ballet...) Spent the whole night in anticipation for the Prague Quadrennial (the PQ!) which Katie and Bryce were participating in.
Oh my gosh, the PQ is so wonderful and fun! OK, the PQ is an international festival of scenography and theater architecture that happens every four years in Prague. This sounded not only up my alley, but was my alley. It was so cool! There were exhibits by every country by both students and professionals. Some of these exhibits were good, some not so good, but all were very interesting. I started off by perusing the theme exhibit which was given to student designers to create anything they wanted. The theme this year was Aristophanes's "The Birds." The costumers had a field day! I saw some amazing stuff in this exhibit from puppets to set models to amazing costume sketches to video art. Then attended a lecture on how acting exercises could influence or affect drawing and design. Mostly for costumers, the lecture discussed the extensions of the planes of the body that actors must work with in order to inform their movements. All I could think of was Bo in his Caterpillar costume for Alice. It was a great lecture because many times designers don't think about how their design will affect the actors acting. We think, "The actor will deal. It is what they do." But really the designers AND the actors have to be on the same page. Not that I'm giving up raked stages, people, I'm just saying that I will be more aware of a raked stage's implications on the acting when I design a floor that is above 15 degrees with water... Then I toured the professional pavillions. They ranged from extensive overviews of what is happening in that country's theater scene (the USA, Ireland, and the Sushi Bar of Japan--amazing concept! you sat at a plate with a set model on it and the description in the menu on your placemat) to random drawings, still photographs, or slide shows (Germany and Poland--whose pavillion was the outline of Poland extruded 20' in the air and built out of bright magenta plastic), to installations and interactive spaces (Hungary's customs booth which rejected everyone and the Czech Republic's Carnival). I think I prefer the extensive overviews, especially the one from the US. Maybe that's because I recognized many of the designers. Everything from Eugene Lee's set model for "Wicked" to pictures of the Theatre de la June Lune's "The Miser" and "Amerika" was there. Poland, however, does win for the best caramel candies. I also looked upstairs at the inspiring architecture exhibit. So much is being done in theater architecture in the world. I only hope I can get into that stuff. Decided that I need to go to USITT next year. Anyone up for it? Ended with an interesting lecture on designing with smoke machines and fog. Blase and Tom, this workshop was for you! Then I met up with Xin Wei! (Character: Xin Wei, a good friend from Harvard who was on the Board of Directors for the Gilbert and Sullivan Players with me and is on her way home to Singapore after graduation) She's travelling with two friends and we met up with Eric and went to a really good dinner with more meat and more fried cheese. Went out with them and a girl we met at the hostel to a jazz bar to listen to music and just relax and chat. Great day!
The next day was cousin quality time at Karlstejn Castle. If you want to feel like a Disney Princess in Prague, go to Karlstejn. It's up on a hill and you go through a medieval town to get to it. Very Renaissance Faire in a way, but that is due to the tourists. I've decided that castles are more beautiful from the outside than the inside, and palaces are vice versa. But it was still great to go! If you go, book in advance for the long tour that takes you to the chapel and the great tower. We couldn't get in, but the pictures were beautiful! The castle was built by Emperor Charles IV of the Holy Roman Empire for his treasures. He collected relics and one of them is the head of a crocodile, which he believed, because they didn't have crocodiles in the area often, was the head of the dragon in the St. Michael story. Hilarious. The castle was also occupied by Wencelas IV, and it had a very Ruddigore-esque picture gallery. (No, no stained glass, Courtney.) Had a great time at the castle, and got back in time for dinner with Xin Wei's party and a show at the black light theater. Black light theater is very beautiful for production stills, but not necessarily wonderful after the first effect wears off. There were a few mimes that did some funny bits though. Spent the rest of the night at a jazz bar listening to a great trio that wasn't playing jazz. (I hate jazz.)
Went with Xin Wei and friends and K&B to the PQ for its last day! Katie showed me around the student exhibits, which are really creative I thought. Again, a whole range, but there was the USA extensive overview booth, which was just well done. Each master's program represented had its own closet in this big mirrored box. They could design their closets, so some had shelves with portfolios and pictures, some had models, puppets, props, and UNC? had the most creative...you pulled open a drawer and the top looked like a puzzle. When you pulled up each piece, you saw a tube with show pictures, descriptions, and props. Very neat. Austria or Australia (can't remember which) had a neat pavillion too...you were Alice falling down the rabbit hole...or rather sliding down a big slide with the tea party table upside-down all around you, all made out of paper. Not sure if it showed anything about student theater in the country, but it was fun! Sat for a long time in the uber-awesome cafe structure. Another theme of the PQ was construction, so they made a three-tiered cafe/seating area out of scaffolding and covered everything in foam, bubble wrap, and thick brown bags blown up and sectioned off to make very comfortable lounges and sofas. I must find some in the States and make furniture for my apartment (if I ever get one...) next year. Xin Wei and I sat there for at least an hour just chatting. It was so good to see her again before she gets stuck on her island that lacks the presence of cows. Have fun in Singapore! Then Katie tells me that she and Bryce bought several bags of bird seed with the intention of having a happening. Katie wanted to have a whole flock of pigeons following her around Old Town Square, so we head off with a trash bag full of bird seed. (We stop at the Jewish Museum which is made up of five synagogues and the cemetery which Rabbi Lowe, of the Golem story, is buried. The Spanish Synagogue was beautiful, but the whole thing was very expensive. Not sure the way they set it up was the best way either, but it was interesting.) We get to the Square and there is only one pigeon. Bryce runs after it with a box and gives it a whole pile. After being confused for awhile, it starts pecking. Then another pigeon comes. Then another. We look up and there are hundreds of birds coming in for a landing! We make a line of piles, so the birds started at one end, and when they were finished with that pile, they moved to the next one. Thus, we had hundreds of birds zig zagging through the Square! Finally Katie puts lots of piles around her feet. The birds gets closer and closer as they other piles disappear. After about 20 minutes, they are ready to go to her feet, but all of a sudden, a tiny child runs into the picture and scatters all the birds away! They are so full from the rest of the food that they don't come back! It was hilarious! A wonderful performance that came full circle. People actually were watching. One group clapped I think. Ta da! After that K&B were leaving town, but I will see them again in Berlin! Can't wait! They are great! Met up with XW and friends for one last dinner and then hung out with Eric and friends (he met up with some buddies from the Academy and some girls from Switzerland) at a neat place that was basically a maze of underground caverns with some bars. Reminded me of the big theater party in Edinburgh that the Underbelly Theatre held in the bank vaults underneath the city. Ate a really good fried cheese sandwich walking back to the hostel. Eric, I hope you had a great time in Prague!
Eric and I chatted by the river a bit before he had to leave on the plane. It was good seeing him! I'm glad he came to visit! He directed me towards Frank Gehry's Dancing House, aka Fred and Ginger. I really loved it! I'm not sure it fits its surroundings, but it did look like two figures dancing. I like it. Walked around for a long time and then Dan Wenger (character: Dan, friend from Harvard who is an actor and is studying in Prague for six weeks) called! We didn't know if we'd meet up, but we did and chatted at a cafe for a long time. Helped him through buying train tickets at the station (I'm a pro!) and then met up with one of his friends for a delicious dinner by the river. Great ending to a great city! Thank you to everyone who met up with me!
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