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bdkelley
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Name: Bryan
Country: United States
State: Wisconsin
Metro: Milwaukee
Birthday: 11/28/1981
Gender: Male
Interests: I have a bunch of interests including art and architecture, pretty much any music that doesn't regularly find its way onto a milwaukee radio station, and of course Seinfeld. I also enjoy reading. C. S. Lewis and John Piper are two my favorites. I love hanging out in the city my friends and most of all my continuing struggle to know God and glorify Him in my life.
Expertise: I'm learning a thing or two about architecture at UWM, but my real expertise is being the dude on Jeremy Nick and Jon's couch.
Occupation: Student
Message: message me
Member Since:
8/19/2004
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| Well the trip is almost over, less than a week left. I'll be taking the long flight into Chicago on Tuesday. I'm looking forward to actually. We've done so much in the last three months that its really hard to take any more in. There are a lot of things about America that I miss too and I appreciate a lot more now.
Last night we went to Opera Garnier and saw the Cinderella Ballet. The building is great and the show would have been nice except that we sat way at the top where there was no leg room at all and it was really hot with no circulation. We've spent this week seeing all the contemporary architecture in Paris and catching up on other things we still want to see. On Friday I'm going to go to the D-day beaches at Normandy. My grandfather actually was there late in the day. I think the fighting had died down by the time he got there but its still must have been a terrible place to be, especially since he was a medic.
Ok I'm going to enjoy the rest of Paris. See you all soon. | | |
| I spent this past weekend by taking a 3 day trip to London. It was a great time, but also exhausting because I packed so much in. I took the train through the chunnel. It goes incredibly fast. The British are great. Everyone is friendly and so nice to be able to speak the language. I saw the changing of the guard on friday at Buckingham Palace. The Band actually played portions of Beatles songs. And I hit up a bunch of the Major museums. The Tate Modern, The British Museum, and The National Gallery. The Tower of London was really neat to see. The crown Jewels are there and so is the armory with all of the medival weapons and torture devices. And I took a ride on the London Eye which is the largest ferris wheel in the world. It gives a great view of Parlement and the rest of the city. I checked out Norman Foster's City Hall and Millennium Bridge which are both cool and I spent Sunday shopping at Covent Garden, and along Oxford Street. The Street performers are very funny and entertaining. Later this week we take a 3 day trip to Lyon, la Tourette, and Ronchamp. Only 2 weeks left. I'll see you all soon.
Cheers
Oh and the other great thing about the British is that they're clean. They pick up after they're dogs and the actually shower everyday unlike the French, Czechs, and the Italians. (The Germans and Austrians are pretty clean too.) | | |
| Well time seems to be going fast. Only about three and a half weeks and I'll be home and between now and then I'll be really busy. Its at the point in the trip where everyone is just about broke and is realizing they have a lot of work to catchup on. We've got 2 mini design projects yet, some analysis work, and a lot of sites to see.
I'm going to try to go to London at the end of next week and I want to go to the D-day beaches in Normandy sometime too. And there is a ton of stuff in Paris. So far we hit Notre Dame, the Eiffel tower, Napolean's tomb, The Louvre, and Chartes Cathedral. I'll have to go back to the Louvre though because they were moving the Mona Lisa and one of the major gallery spaces was closed. The building is huge anyway and there's no way to see it all in a day.
Paris is a really nice city but rains a lot. The Parisians aren't nearly as bad as there made out to be either. Alright I've got a lot to do. Later. | | |
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Well I’ve arrived in Paris safe and sound. So much has happened since I left Florence. I’ll warn you now that this will be a long post. Almost all of it was good. We traveled as a class to Venice where we stayed for a week. Our hotel was great. It was situated right on the water. From our hotel room we could see St. Mark’s and all the other churches across the water. The weather was beautiful, 60 degrees and sunny everyday. I took a ride in a Gondola with some of my Puerto Rican friends and saw the world largest pigeon population in St Mark’s square.
At the end of the week I departed on my own for Austria. The first city I stopped in was Graz. It’s a smaller city in the southeast part of the country but it has recently built some really cool new modern architecture and was named the European city of culture back in 2003. I liked it there but the water was a little chilly. Then I moved onto Vienna which is probably my favorite city so far. Its hard to say because everywhere is great and everywhere is different. But Vienna has a beautiful historic downtown with an amazing gothic cathedral, great baroque architecture everywhere, and beautiful parks and gardens. There are a bunch of pedestrian only streets lined with cafes and shops making for a great public atmosphere. There isn’t one particular thing that stands out from Vienna but the overall feel of the city is just great.
Then I went on to Prague. I must say that the Czechs seem to have quite a problem in the BO department. At the first stop on the train in the Czech Republic a bunch of people got on the whole train stunk. Thankfully once it got going again they pumped fresh air into the cabin and it was ok. But I arrived in Prague alone and without a place to stay. I read in Let’s Go Europe and was told by several people here that I would be bombarded with people trying to sell me a place to stay but it didn’t happen. I also arrived at the outside of city center where it still feels like you are in the Soviet Union. So being disoriented and alone I became a little freaked out and the only thing on my mind was to find a place to stay. I stopped a few places to find my bearings, get information, eat, and get accommodations. At some point I took off my shoulder bag with my brand new camera to get stuff out of my backpack and somehow my camera was stolen. I felt so terrible after it happened. I knew going into Prague that I needed to be careful because there are a lot of thieves preying on tourists but in all of the commotion I was overwhelmed. I felt so bad because my Dad had just sent it over and it was a great camera. It really put a damper on an otherwise amazing trip.
There is some good news though. My Dad isn’t upset and the Pastor of my church back home is actually coming to Paris to meet at a church we partner with here. He’s going to bring over my Dad’s camera which will work ok for the rest of the time. Who knows, maybe this is God’s way of getting me involved in the Church over here. That is what my Dad thinks anyway. I hope I can be of some encouragement in some way. I turns out that some of the other people on our trip got robbed too. Steve had his camera, video camera, and journal stolen in Madrid, and Abraham had his bag with his sketchbook and all his work stolen there too.
Anyways after the whole camera ordeal Prague was ok. The city center is beautiful though a bit over touristed. I meet a few Americans whole were really nice. 2 of them were from Chicago and went to U of I, so we had a friendly little rivalry going over the NCAA tournament. They were really fun guys and I’ll probably catch up with them again sometime this summer. And Czech beer is so good. It’s the best I’ve ever had.
After Prague I spent a night in Dresden. The city is really interesting. It was totally destroyed by bombings in WWII but since then it is being rebuilt exactly as it was and they use as much of the old structure as they can find so parts of the buildings are hundreds of years old while others are rather new.
My last stop was Berlin which is also one of my favorite cities. It has changed so much in the last 15 years. You can barely tell that it was once split in 2 and there is almost no evidence of its even darker past during the war, except for one bombed church and the pile of rubble that will always lie on the ground of the former SS headquarters. The wall is almost completely gone except for few segments and in its place is some of the best modern architecture there is. The Jewish Museum is incredible. It memorializes the Holocaust but also displays the wealth of Jewish culture through all of history. Everything in the museum is interactive and the architecture is very good. Germany and Austria are great because so many people speak English, everything is modern, and everyone is friendly. It’s also very clean (meaning I don’t have to worry as much about stepping in dog poo everywhere I go like I did in Italy and have had too so far in Paris). But they do walk really fast. I thought I was quick but they put me to shame. I guess that’s where Nick Frank gets it from.
Well I guess I’ve rambled on long enough but I have so much to say. The trip has been so great and I still have all of Paris and hopefully a weekend in London yet.
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| Grüss Gott,
Thats how they say hello in Austria. It means may God greet you. I'm in Vienna right now and its a really cool city. It has several big streets that are pedestrian only and are lined with shops and cafes. There are also great imperial Palaces and Baroque facades everywhere. The metro system is very nice too. Everyone is very friendly and most people speak English fairly well. I also had my first Starbucks fix since leaving the states. It's made it here but not quite to Italy I guess. Tommorrow I leave for Prague. I'm having a great time but I really do miss all of you back home.
Oh and I got my new camera so more pics will be up soon but not until I get to Paris.
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