The Rest of Spring Break '09

Wow. Its been a little while since I typed something up here, but not without reason. Its been a combination of my Landscape Architecture studio getting amped up in intensity and my overwhelming desire to not miss anything of Prague, going and doing anything and everything in my power to take it all in. Also, a general liberation from the overwhelming "needs" of technology that we experience in the USA has happened.

For the rest of my spring break activities, I will just post pictures onto the picture part of this website (link to the right). I don't quite have the time to go into ridiculous detail about it, but I'll say that it was a beautiful city. The weather didn't really have an effect on the precedings; although it was kind of cold, it didn't rain, and the sun even came out for our last day! To see a blue sky was awesome, we have certainly been repressed from any kind of nice weather in Prague (it's coming, I hope?).

I can best describe Vienna as "Prague that sold out to the 21st century." What I mean is that the old architecture styles (incredible facades, every surface detailed, every building has unique character, etc) were very similar to Prague. There were lots of streets that I think looked like they could have been in Prague, based on these architectural similarities alone. However, there were 21st century advertisements all over the place, via signs flat on the buildings, signs sticking out from the buildings, neon lights, etc, that Prague most certainly does NOT have. There were many streets that I found myself feeling like a NASCAR driver coming down pit lane, trying to find my destination among all of the numbers and signs hanging out over pit lane.

Another thing that contributed to this feeling was the newer style architecture all over the place. After the World Wars destroyed many of the older buildings in the city, opportunities presented themselves to give Vienna a lift into the new age through the reconstruction process. This newer architecture was incredible, and really all over the place in the city.

A list of some of the little things that made Vienna awesome over the last three days that I haven't really covered:

street performers/artists, deserted spooky carnivals, glass elevators to creaky wooden platforms ten stories in the air in the ceiling of a church, temporary ice skating paths through the local park, big huggable globes, incredible beer (Ottakring: Radler), oversized chess sets, multiple views of the city from above the roofline, public transportation fun, among (many) other things

So that was Spring Break '09 for me; 6 days and 5 nights in Vienna, Austria. Pretty cool, absolutely nothing I could complain about, and definantly something I'll always remember.