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!

Reading Material

Last week, this little gem arrived:I am slowly accumulating more coffee table books, and figured I should have at least one about glass. The other two I have thus far are "Amphigorey" by Edward Gorey and, while it isn't precisely a coffee table book but actually a graphic novel that I'd like to show off to people, "Inland" by my friend Kate. Not that I have a coffee table to put these on at the moment, but when I do, they will have a home!

"1000 Glass Beads" is a book that I've been exposed to a lot ever since I was a senior in high school (almost five years ago) just beginning to learn about glass. Some of the beads seem fairly basic to me now, although there's no denying that all of them took extreme precision to create - I am often a bit impatient when it comes to spacing dots or shapes evenly, so I appreciate the effort that goes into making the pattern on a glass object consistent. At any rate, there are some lovely beads in this book.

Aaand, the other day this came in the mail:
My first issue of The Flow, a magazine about lampworking. It's only published quarterly, but we'll see whether the content is enough to persuade me to subscribe for another year. Milon Townsend is featured in this issue, and it's interesting to me that he lives so near me and is so well known, and I didn't realize who he was when I SAW him blowing glass at the Sterling Renaissance Festival a few years back. He makes some amazing things. I remember asking him whether he needed any help or an apprentice or anything, but he probably gets a lot of that. So I took his card, which surprised me years later when I dug it up in a pile of papers - Milon Townsend??! How did I get his card? Oooh yeeeah...

GAS Conference

The Glass Art Society is holding it's annual conference in Corning, NY this year. The conference will be going on all weekend, and even though I can in no way afford to become a member of GAS AND buy a conference pass without having the student discount (which I was silly not to take advantage of while I had the chance), I still managed to take in a whole afternoon/evening of conference events, which were spectacular! I went down with my friend Carolyn to help her set up her light pieces for the "Neon On The Bridge" show and was hoping to get some conference action in the process.

I ran into tons of friends and acquaintances from Alfred - most of the glass seniors of '09 were there (i.e. my classmates) along with graduates from the past few years, MFAs and professors. There were galleries and exhibitions along Market St (the main drag), lots of little shops that had a bunch of different wineries that set up inside for tasting, glassblowing demos next to a stage for live music, and of course the fabulous light show on the pedestrian bridge, coordinated by the one and only Angus Powers.

I even managed to unexpectedly get my dinner and drinks for free thanks to a nice guy working at the pizzeria we ate at. I wish I could go to the rest of the conference, but I suppose I'll just have to become a member of GAS and go to Louisville next year. I'm young yet.