Andrew: "we could go the beach and then the place or the place and the then the beach or we could go to the beach and the place and the beach again"

(Me in front of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece)
(Erik, Kelly, me, and Andrew at the acropolis looking down on Athens)(View from our terrace at sunrise in Mykonos)


(My delicious brunch food)(Allison, Ally, Me, Kelly, Jenny, Pauline, and Andrew out on the terrace)(Sarah and I on the terrace)
(Sunset from our terrace)
(In Mykonos Town)(In Myknonos Town)

It's been awhile since my last entry and a lot has happened. I've been everywhere. Before I left Germany for the holiday, I visited the East Side Gallery, Alexanderplatz again, the Reichstag at night, and had a day trip to Hamburg.

The East Side Gallery is a cool chunk of the Berlin Wall which is still standing in its original location; it's about a mile long stretch. In 1990 over a 100 artists from around the world were asked to paint portions of the wall. Over the years it's been graffitied and erroded from the weather. Now there's an effort to restore it to it's 1990 state. The artists have been invited back to repaint their narrative murals on a newly cleaned and restored surface. Personally I think the graffiti adds something to it, making it more authentic and Berlin-esque.

I returned to Alexanderplatz to observe how people interacted with a temporary installation celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall. I took lots of photos and am hopefully working it into my class project.

The Reichstag is the parliamentary building. There was an architectural competition a few years ago to restore it and make it into a more "transparent" building open to the public and preventing too many governmental secrets. Therefore an architect named Norman Foster designed a glass cupola with a reflective spiral in the middle. Pathways wind up the dome and people can walk up while looking into the mirrors and down on the political sessions. A group of us went at night and it was pretty amazing. The views from the top were also pretty incredible.

The following day we had a class trip to the harbor-city of Hamburg, Germany. It was a few hours by train. There we met with a tour guide who showed us Hafen City which is a new city center being designed and built up along the river. It was pretty interesting but it was extremely hot and started pouring on us.

NOW HERE'S THE GOOD PART....The next day a group of 9 of us (Ally, Sarah, Allison, Jenny, Pauline, Erik, Andrew, Kelly, and I) headed to Athens, Greece. We were there Wednesday through Friday and then Monday night-Tuesday afternoon. Athens is definitely on the bottom of my list as far as cities go. The city itself was pretty dirty, semi-unsafe, full of stray dogs, congestion, and ironically really terrible architecture. Don't get me wrong, the acropolis was amazing! I couldn't believe I was standing in front of the Parthenon! From the B.C. era! The origin of architecture! I couldn't even grasp these concepts. It was just unreal and definitely worth seeing. You've got to go super early in the morning though otherwise it's flooded with seas of tourists and you can't even get a decent photo.

Another plus to Athens was the pub crawl. That was a blast. We ended up with a bunch of other Americans from Tennessee, went to some cool clubs, and ended the night (morning) with some salsa dancing at a cool club.

Friday night through Monday morning was spent on Mykonos, a Greek Island. That was fantastic! I did NOT want to leave. It was full of beautiful beaches, turquoise and blue water matching the blue and white buildings, hilly winding roads, and AMAZING Greek food. We stayed at a place called Hotel Deliades on Ornos Bay and it was super classy. The buildings were stacked like adobe-houses. We had three rooms and could walk on the roof-tops to each other's balconies. We had gorgeous views of the water on both sides and the mountains ahead of us. The hotel had an amazing brunch every morning. I was in heaven every morning with my plate of Greek yogurt with peaches, fresh watermelon, tomatoes, cucumbers, local fresh goat cheese, croisants, and fresh-squeezed orange juice.

The first night we were on the island we met up with my friend Tania from study abroad last summer. Coincidentally she was at the same place and the same time! We met for drinks and headed to the most famous club there called Space Club. It was absolutely insane. It was all techno music and every ten minutes the DJ would scream Mykonos, blow a train-like horn, and all the bartenders would get up on the bar and throw napkins. They also gave out whistles to everyone. Honest-to-God, my ears were still ringing 2 days later. Good for dancing, bad for the hearing. We got back to the beach around 5 am, jumped in the Aegian Sea, lounged, then I went up to my terrace, watched the sun-rise turning the buildings on the mountain golden, taking photos, and just soaking it all in. We napped and spent the rest of the day at the beach and pool. Tough life. We went out again that night after enjoying another jam-session on our terrace while watching the sun set. It's one of my best memories of the trip.

The next day we took a water-taxi to another beach called Super Paradise Beach. The water-taxi was a lot of fun and a good way to see different coastal areas of the island. Super Paradise Beach was beautiful. The water was definitely a lot colder and there were a lot of crazy young spring-breakers. We swam out to some rocks, climbed up them and enjoyed the view. We had some of the best Greek food that night - chicken souvlaki, tatziki, sagnaki, gyros, local olive oil and bread, greek salads...yummmmm. I've never had better food on a vacation. Hands down best food. That night we headed down to the beach with the guitar. We lounged on chairs staring at the stars, the ocean, and the twinkling lights of the boats and buildings in the mountains. It was the perfect end to our Mykonos adventures. I don't remember the last time I was so happy and relaxed. Life just seemed to good to be true.

The next day was a little chaotic. None of us wanted to leave..and we almost didn't! Ah! Our shuttle to the ferry port was running a little late and there were two similar ferries at the port. However one of them was leaving. The walking bridges were up and the drawbridge and beginning to rise. Before we knew it our drivers and the ferry people were screaming at us in Greek and yanked us on board the departing ferry. Turns out it was the wrong one. We had to get off at the next island and wait for our ferry which was luckily taking a similar route. Ha!

We made it back to Athens in one piece and then left the following afternoon - today. Our flight was uneventful and we arrived back in Berlin around 8:30pm. It was honestly one of the best trips of my life and I definitely want to go back. I would skip Athens and head to the islands, especially Santorini. I hear it's beautiful and quite romantic. It really was the time of my life and worth every penny.

I wish you were all there to experience it with me. Hope you all get to go there at some point it life. It's just breathtaking. Miss you all. <3>

A Week Come and Gone

I can't believe it's already been a week since I last wrote. I'm trying to think of how I can sum up the entire week in one post...Here are the highlights:

GRAFT: One day this week we went to a really cool architectural firm called GRAFT. They hit the jackpot when Brad Pitt asked them to design him and Angelina Jolie a house. Since then they've opened up a office in LA and Bejing. Brad was the one who called them up to get going on a project in New Orleans, so they organized a building campaign with famous architects and the Make it Right Foundation. The cool part was that it was all based on the people's feedback. Designs were chosen by the people themselves instead of doing mass quantities of contemporary housing which would be irrelevant to the culture and style.

They also just won a huge competition in Berlin for the property of the former airport Tempelhof. A large part of their success is this consideration of an architect's social responsibility. So for example in their competition entry, one of their main ideas is to revitalize the run-down baseball diamonds and buildings that were closed because of the airport. So instead of taking up all the land with a massive building, they are basically rearranging the perimeter of the fence and opening up a large portion of the land to the Berliners. The open space gives the Berliners an opportunity to define the space in their own way and create an identity for the park through makeshift outdoor eating areas with beer stands or artisian markets, etc. I think it's a really refreshing approach to land use and social considerations. Architecture may not be able to cure the world of it's problems but it can open up spaces for communities to grow. I find it pretty inspiring. Their website is graftlab.com if your interested.

Boat tour: We finally did a boat tour of the city. It looks very different from the water but it was a good way to get a feel for the large landmarks, the museum row, and see the governmental area.

Lost voice: Unfortunately, I lost my voice this week. All the coughing lead to a day and a half period where I couldn't even get a whisper out. I isolated myself and did work until it came back. Otherwise it was too tempting to talk back to people. Fortunately its back and my cough is going away. I feel like everyone is taking turns with the cough. College kids are prone to everything.

Housing developments: In 1957 there was a housing exhibition in West Berlin. One of the days this week was dedicated to meeting with people and architects who lived in the buildings and their thoughts on the projects. Although some of the buildings were pretty ugly and outdated it was still worth seeing what social housing was like in the 50s while the country was still recovering from the war. We were supposed to do a self guided tour of a 1950s housing project in East Berlin but it started pouring rain and we ended up going back to the apartments instead.

Bunker Tour: This was probably one of a favorite things we have done so far! There is this old war-time bunker that housed 5,000 people at one point. It's a massive above-ground bomb shelter. It's uses have changed throughout the years: fruit storage, notorious clubs, and art exhibitions. It's now a privately owned Boros Collection (http://www.sammlung-boros.de/index.php?id=2711&L=1) and you need to book a tour to go through it. We had this great tour guide who was extremely knowledgable about all of the contemporary artwork. A lot of the work was designed for the bunker specifically. Some of it was even built inside of it and can never be moved out. There were even a few that went through walls through cut-outs, or spanned several stories, etc. They have knocked down walls and removed floors in order to create bigger spaces and terraces. It's really interesting to look at the stratification of the walls and see where the concrete floors used to be. The artwork was amazing. Strange at times. But amazing. Probably one of my favorites was an electric fan that was hanging down from the ceiling. It rotated and swung all around the room responding to the people in the room. The closer you got to it the smaller movements it made because you were blocking the air; the further you got from it the more wild it got. Crazy stuff.

Festival: Yesterday was the 60th Anniversary of Germany (and its government). There was a huge festival all-day and into the night in the Tiergarten. It started with stages and vendors down by the Bradenberg gate and went for miles. Me, Sarah, Ally, Erik, Andrew, and Kelly just hung around drinking beer, eating crepes, listening to music, people watching, etc all day. Tough life.

Kelly actually brought his guitar with him. We've been doing that a lot lately since our computers are gone. Just play the guitar and sing. Even make up songs (blues about our laptops..haha). We took it even further - Andrew, Kelly, and Ally would play and sing for beer. They got free beer twice yesterday. Haha! So funny. I've got it all on video. Same song different places. We'll see how far it gets us.

More live music: Last night we went back to the artist colony for some live rock music. There was a great band playing in a small club and it wasn't TECHNO! Haha. We had a blast but once again got back as the sun was rising. I'm exhausted.

Wannsee: Today the guys, Sarah and I took the train to Wannsee which is a harbor and lake area on the outskirts of Berlin. There was a nice park but unfortunately most of the areas around the lake were privately owned and we didn't get too close to the water. Oh well...only 3 days til Greece! Can't wait.

Miss you all. Love you lots.

The Social Scene

I've had a couple of visitors since I last wrote. Matt's friend Evan met up with me on Thursday and joined our architecture march. Lars gave us a tour around the city; some of the things we visited or looked at: remainders of the wall, the Church of Reconciliation, Alexanderplatz, the TV tower, some buildings by Peter Eisenman, Philip Johnson, Rem Koolhaas and Zaha Hadid, a handful of memorials and plazas, and the Daniel Libeskind Jewish Museum. It was a pretty full day but incredibly informational. It means a lot more coming from a guy who has lived in the city and remembers it the way it was. 

Evan joined us for dinner and a trip to the bars. The next day our class took a trip to J. Mayer H. architectural firm in Berlin. They had some really bizarre and expensive designs but incredibly interesting. For example they had a 2 million euro budget for a house which ended up being 8 million euro. He said the clients were difficult and wanted to change a lot of things after they were already built; but he also said that you need crazy clients to complete their crazy projects. Their projects really relate to what we learn at Michigan - way of thinking, theoretical design, and use of technology.  The firm is working on a huge plaza-like structure in Seville, Spain. It's definitely worth looking up. 

Late that night Johanna arrived. The next day we went to the Modern Art Museum and experienced the most amazing sound installation. There was a large open room with speakers hanging at all different lengths in cocentric circles. People sat and laid down in the middle of the circle surrounded by these speakers each with a different sound. The show was called "Murder of the Crows." The sounds were so incredibly clear you really thought that there was a bird, piano, wind, or singer somewhere in the room. It was so realistic sounding!

We also went to the artist commune in our neighborhood. I'm not sure if I already mentioned it but it was this old abandoned war-struck building which was squatted by artists in 1990. They made a colony and have been fighting on and off with the government to hold on to the property. These artists live, eat, work, drink, and hang out there. It's covered in graffiti (the preferred medium of Berlin) and full of the funky artistic youth of Berlin. You can buy their artwork there to support their fight. It's so rebellious and has an underground kind of feeling to it. I've never seen anything like it and find it completely fascinating. I've taken some great photos there. 

Last night was our first clubbing night in Berlin. A group of 10 or so of us headed out to the club at around midnight and returned at 6 am. People were still in line to get into the club  at 5am even thought the sun was already up. Crazy! It was a blast but I dunno how much more techno I can take. Haha.

For obvious reasons today was a lazy day. A group of us went to the Tiergarten to relax, read, and do some homework. Johanna left to return to Munich. Erik and I went on a run with Greece in mind. In only 10 days a group of us are traveling to Greece for 6 days. Have to get back in shape! We're flying into Athens, staying there for a couple days, and then making our way to the islands. I can't wait!

Living the life. Love you all and miss you tons! xoxo

Rough Night in Berlin

This is not a happy story...Yesterday the guys and I went grocery shopping, dropped off our bags and headed out to the Peter Eisenmann Holocaust Memorial. By the time we got back an hour and a half later, our room had been broken into. All four of our laptops were gone and Kelly's suitcase was dumped out and used to take our laptops out of the building.

The owners were shocked. They said they have never had a break in and it seems like a very secure building. Luckily our passports, Eurorail tickets, and everything else was still there. Lars called the police and a detective came and fingerprinted our room. It was like CSI but very unsuccessful. Unfortunately I don't think we will see our laptops again but mine is covered by insurance. Guess I'm going computer shopping when I get home.

It was a rough night. Kelly cooked a great dinner for the guys, Lars and I. We each proceeded to drink our sorrows away with some European wine. It ended up being a fun night and helped us sleep that night. But when I woke up in the morning I was hoping it was all a dream.

Today was a long day. Woke up a 6am and took the train to Hannover to see an urban planning project with sustainable housing. We just got back at about 11:30pm. It was an exhausting day and I'm getting sick. It's going around within our group. I'm going to go to bed soon and hopefully wake up refreshed and ready to go.

Don't get me wrong Berlin is not a bad city. It happens in Ann Arbor too. Actually the other night, a group of us went to a great Jazz Club around the corner which has free concerts on Monday nights. It was a lot of fun. Live music is always great. We were immersed in the Berlin culture. I plan to go back soon.

Tomorrow we are doing a city wide tour of the "Wall" as stated by Lars. Matt's friend is going to join us. I'll keep you updated but I'll need to borrow someone's computer so it may not be as frequently. Love you all. Good night.

Almere + Birthday in Berlin

Yesterday seems like 4 days ago. It's crazy that I've only been in Europe for 5 days! We've been so active - doing and seeing so much. Don't get me wrong it's great...but it's about as tiring as having mono. Haha.

I woke up at 6am yesterday to prepare for our departure from Amsterdam and our day trip to Almere. Almere is a unique town in the Netherlands, about an hour outside of Amsterdam. The city was designed, built, and constructed only 30 years ago. The master planner was Rem Koolhaas. It's still a work in progress. At least one new housing development is built each year. In the last 10 years the population went from 80,000 to 180,000. We wandered through the exhibition experimental housing projects, which were incredibly interesting but not necessarily appealing. The Dutch are NOT afraid to combine materials in their buildings. And they are big on cantelevers. They produce some pretty crazy designs.

An architect, René van Zuuk was nice enough to meet with us and give us a tour around the city and inside some of the buildings. There are a lot of big name architects involved in the development of this city like OMA, SANAA, William Alsop, David Chipperfield, etc. It's completely contemporary and follows the theoretical design we learn at Michigan. The whole thing is in layers. There's a "subworld" of parking and infrastructure that is invisible to the pedestrian. Then there's shops on the first level, housing above that, bridges above that, green rooftops with more houses with front lawns. It's like nothing I've ever seen. The community seems to be closely knit. The SANAA (firm which built the Toledo Glass Museum) building is a city art center. They teach art, dance, music, theater, and more. There were kids and families swamming the building. It was pretty inspirational. Hopefully one day I'll create architecture which can effectively reach out to people.

After our tour of Almere, we hopped on our night train to Berlin. My friends bought a bunch of wine and cake and we celebrated my birthday on the train. We had 11 people in a tiny sleepercar meant for 6 people. It was a great time and we met some other Americans and Canadians, who we ran into today.

Our lofts in Berlin are remarkable (though very expensive). [We're also in a good location - about 10 minute walk from the Central train station on the East Berlin side.] You can check them out at miniloft.com. There's an architectural firm at the top of the building. Somehow I ended up in a boy room instead of a girl room. But that's okay. Boys are easier to live with anyways. I'm rooming with Andrew, Erik, and Kelly.

Today we slowly explored the city. It's nice not to have to rush and see everything all at once. We bought our monthly transportation pass and took it to the Tiergarden park area. It an enormous park but then again we're in an enormous city. ENORMOUS!

We visited the monument of the angel and hiked our way to the top. Then we just laid in the grass and relaxed for a while before grabbing an authentic hearty German meal at this whole-in-the-wall restaurant which Lars recommended to us. And now I'm here. Finally. A moment to relax. It feels great. Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes. Hope you all had a great Mother's Day.

xoxo

(Almere_Showing the top level of townhouses)

(Almere_Showing the above and below ground levels.)


(SANAA Building_Showing the families in the building)(SANAA Building_Showing how the building butted up to the water)

(Night Train_Birthday Bash)

(Berlin_Approaching the monument)

(Berlin_View of the park from the top of the monument)

"Getting Lost" in Amsterdam

Hello from Amsterdam! This is by far one of the greatest cities I have EVER been to. It is so beautiful and uniquely European.

Our flight over here was fine - no glitches. Andrew, Pauline and I landed around 9am and had the whole day to explore. And we did just that. After dropping our bags off at the hostel we explored our neighborhood Zeeburg. After some extensive napping we headed in to central Amsterdam.

The central part of the city is breathtaking. There are canals, bridges, cobblestone streets, infinite rows of tall/skinny townhouses, and bicyclists everywhere! It is just amazing. For the first time in a long time, we had nowhere we had to be and nothing we had to do. So we wandered. We wandered along the moss-covered cobblestone streets of the residential area, past the boathouses, towards some loud echoing music, through markets and festivals, the shopping areas, the red light district, and more. We were completely immersed in the city and it was great.

The next morning our classmates and teacher arrived at the hostel. We explored the city some more until everyone arrived. The Dutch architecture is outstanding. The contemporary stuff is out of this world. We walked around and sat down in the new library along the river. It is definitely one of my favorite buildings as far as atmosphere goes. I took lots and lots of photos with my new Canon but unfortunately....BELIEVE IT OR NOT....they were all deleted today. But that's another story....

Anyways, last night a group of us headed into the city to experience the bars and pubs. We sat outside drinking Dutch beer along the canals at night. (YES, I drank beer. Haha). Doesn't get much better than this!

Today we've already walked over 10 miles. A girl I was walking with had a pedometer and we honestly walked 8 miles by lunchtime! It's been an exhausting day. We went to see a bunch of housing projects on these artificial islands called the Eastern Docklands. Various architects designed contemporary takes on the traditional tall and narrow townhouses. They were situated along the canals going through the island and were so incredibly picturesque. I even sat down and sketched for a bit.

Unfortunately, Erik, Jenny and I could not find our group and ended up meeting up with them at the hostel later. This trip needs to be a tad bit more organized. But other than that, no complaints. I absolutely love Amsterdam. I would return in a heart beat. Between tonight and tomorrow I want to revisit all the places I saw in the past two days and re-shoot them to make up for my lost photos. I'll upload photos after that.

We're here for 2 more nights and then will make our way to Berlin. I may not have computer access again until we are in Germany. But I love you all and hope everything is going well back home.

xoxo

Bon Voyage

Today is my last day at home. At 6pm I'll be on an airplane to Amsterdam. I can't believe it's finally here!!! I'll keep you posted.