10 Days Part IV: 53rd Venice Biennale

Actually, we just stumbled upon the Biennale. I didn't know exactly what it was, and Dad even less so - I don't even think he'd heard of the Venice Biennale. So the idea was sort of bouncing around in my head, but I wasn't intent on seeing it. We happened upon a doorway in a very plain-looking square one day, and dad went through it into a small courtyard and started talking to the lady at the desk. It turned out to be not only an art exhibition, but one affiliated with the Biennale, so we took a pamphlet and a map of all the other exhibitions, which led us on a voluntary scavenger hunt all over Venice to small galleries and venues - most of which were in really old buildings with beautiful architecture! We ultimately ended up at Giardini, which is a huge garden at the south-eastern tip of Venice, and probably the largest concentration of artwork in the Biennale. Here is some of what we saw (not quite in chronological order):

10 Days Part III: Murano, Venice

The last and least ordinary city we visited during our ten-day jaunt in Europe was Venice. We spent four days wandering around the tiniest alleys I've ever seen, feasting on hazelnut and lemon-basil gelato, soaking up the sunshine and, of course, checking out the art and the glass. The island of Murano alone, not to mention the rest of Venice, was pretty saturated with glass. There were even glass statuettes of the Virgin Mary.
Unfortunately, we weren't able to get very good photos of the glass that we saw in the shops and galleries because the people in them don't allow photographs to be taken. I did manage to get a few though. It helped to talk to the people in the galleries and tell them that I had been studying glassblowing - with modesty of course, since I'm only fresh out of college, and the glassblowers on Murano started doing it when they were tiny and have been doing it for years and years and years - but when I showed them I wasn't interested so much in the product as the process, their manner seemed to change. One of the galleries even had a guy come fetch us from the store, lead us out the back and through some small alleys to their production shop, where we watched a couple of guys making pieces for chandeliers.
Nothing huge or fancy; production stuff, but it was still very cool to see. Note that the above photo is a great contrast to most of the other hot shops we saw in Murano, which were a part of the tourist attraction and had guys whipping out quick vases and pulling cats (something I have never been able to do, granted I've only tried a few times, is pull a pony) accompanied by abrupt commentary. However -This is the small window outside Cesare Toffolo's gallery and shop, which should give you some idea how ridiculous his work is - super thin and precise. Toffolo Studio was on the bottom floor, a shop for which the products are I believe designed by Toffolo and produced by himself and other glassmakers, and Cesare Toffolo's personal gallery was up a flight of stairs. His work looks incredible when it's right in front of you.
I don't know if I'm allowed to put this photo online, but chatting with the nice lady that took us up to his gallery and asking nicely, I was allowed to take ONE photo, and this piece wasn't on his website at the time I think, so I chose this one. You can see it big if you click on it. It's hard to see the images inside the balloons - it's really not a very good picture - but they were done painstakingly by graffito, and there are little men inside the balloons gazing proudly at them or painting them. I think my favorite pieces, though, are the ones of the little glass men inside the hourglass and the pitcher, pouring out (which are on his website). Rock on, Cesare.
We also visited the Museo del Vetro on Murano, which was no Corning Museum of Glass, but very historical and informative, and it did have a bit of contemporary glasswork. They didn't allow photos in their either, and I wasn't motivated to try and sneak any, except for this last one which was one of two lonely-looking sculptures in the garden behind the Museo. Still, if you're ever on Murano, I would reccommend stopping in. Back on the main island of Venice we saw some of the 53rd Venice Biennale at the Giardini location and in small galleries all over the island, which I think I will post a photo update of later.

10 Days Part II: Vienna

We somehow managed to wake up without the aid of an alarm or a wake up call in time to catch our train from Prague to Vienna (we had no clocks, working phones, or watches. We told time via digital camera). We visited Schönbrunn Palace, which houses on its grounds the oldest zoo in the world, called Tiergarten. It is one of three, I think, zoos in Europe with giant pandas, and it definitely had some of the best habitats for the animals that I've ever seen. Besides the Tiergarten, Schönbrunn had a hedge maze and two hedge labyrinths - this place is massive - and acres and acres of grounds and gardens to walk through, every inch complete with fountains and statues and flowers. The pathways are all topped with clean-looking white stones. I don't think we made it through even half of the grounds, although we might have if you include the enormous zoo and the patch of hedge mazes.
Vienna also had quite a bit of art to offer, of which we only scratched the surface while we were there. Even at Karlskirche, a baroque-style cathedral, there was a small gallery exhibiting Christian-themed art from the 70s and 80s (some of it had a sense of humor). My favorite place, though, was St. Stephen's, a beautiful gothic cathedral with catacombs underneath, which we took a short tour of. We also visited the Museum Der Stadt Wien (Museum of the City of Vienna) where there was art on display that dated from the beginning of the city's history up until pretty recently - I saw a blown glass hand grenade from Austria's struggle with the Ottoman Empire and also some Gustav Klimt up a few flights of stairs. We didn't even make it to the gigantic museums quarter because there was so much else to see.The rest of my photos can be found here.

10 Days Part I: Prague

The Czech Republic is SO cool. Especially for a place with such a depressing history, but maybe that's why I'm drawn to it. After all they've been through, the country is finally on the upswing. It seems like such a together culture, united by its unfortunate past.

Among all the other things we crammed into the one full day plus the previous afternoon we were actually in Prague, we visited the Alfons Mucha Museum near Wenceslas Square, which was fairly small but really interesting. They had not only some of his most famous posters on display, but also sketches and test plates, which I loved. We also went to the Museum of Communism (more accurately, of Anti-Communism). That was also quite interesting, but very heavy, especially compared with Mucha's dreamy, idealized Art Nouveau - which, by the way, they have a lot of over there, especially in the architecture. (In my opinion, the USA is downright ugly compared to pretty much all of Europe, although a friend pointed out to me that we do have some lovely wilderness.) Allow me to illustrate (You can see the rest of my photos here):

Cathedral at Prague CastleStatue of Saint Wenceslas at Wenceslas SquareA building decorated in art nouveau style next to a beautiful towerEven their train station is art nouveau, even if they don't use this part anymore...And here's a sketch by Mucha for good measure.

Praha, Wien, Venezia...

I'm leaving for PRAGUE today.

I'm thinking I'll just not sleep tonight, since we leave the house around 4 in the morning, which is in about three hours. So I might as well just keep getting things together. There's a Red Bull waiting for me in the fridge anyway.

Our itinerary is still sort of unplanned - me and my dad have been known to be rather spontaneous about this sort of thing - but we have our hotels booked. Prague for two days, Vienna for three, and Venice for the last four. I am gonna see some art. I know very little about the history of the Czech Republic (or of Austria and even really Italy for that matter) but I DO know from multiple classes, projects, and research assignments on glass that the Czechs and Italians know whats up with the stuff. At least one day of this trip will be spent wandering around Murano, on a scavenger hunt for Lucio, Cesare, and Gianni, and visiting the Museo Del Vetro.

So. I have a lovely selection of plane food ready to go:I thought it would be nice to bring along some tea for the trip to have on hand, and I also have a newly discovered taste for Marcona almonds, which were introduced to me last weekend - they are delicious. And you really can't go wrong with Terra Chips or Kashi Cherry Dark Chocolate granola bars.

As the trip has gotten nearer I've been thinking how un-European my wardrobe is. I hope I don't stick out too much, but I have a feeling my dad might stick out a bit more than myself over there. I like being the stealthy kind of tourist rather than the fanny-pack-wearing, camera-all-over-the-place, in-your-face-Americans-screaming-"pick-my-pocket" kind of tourist, but I think it will be okay (I do not own a fanny pack).

Wish me luck!