Prague is best described as pretty. We mostly walked, and climbed the surrounding hills. It is not a city that feels particularly lived in, though we were only there two nights and thus mostly stayed near the city center. Very much to look at, not so much to interact with.

They have a fine museum of the decorative arts which has a beautiful collections of clocks, fabrics, posters, liturgical vestments, and a playful temporary exhibit on dadaist design.

Our time in Berlin was relatively subdued. The weather was shit, so we mostly went to museums. Our first night, my colleagues went to the  Berghaim, supposedly the coolest club in the world, and stayed until 7 in the morning. Cara and I just got whiskeys at a relatively low-key bar that would have been great if they hadn’t been playing crap music at high volume. Avoiding being sucked too far deep into the club scene allowed us to get up early and catch the flea market, which runs along an old stretch of the Berlin Wall. We didnt buy anything, but it was good to check out people’s old junk. I found alot of great bike parts that I wouldnt be able to carry, so that was a drag. Lots of neat cameras too.

Another highlight was the Turkish market. Mostly food, but a lot of fabric as well. Our only souvenir our entire trip was purchased here: a yard of beautiful wool fabric. Many museums: The Jewish Museum, The Hamburger Bahnhof, The East Side Gallery,and The Pergamon Museum. They were all really exciting, though I particularly liked the Hamburger. It is in an old train station (bahnhof) and has an impressive contemporary art collection. Rodeny Graham’s film piece Rheinmetall/Victoria 8 was particularly inspiring. The film shows what appears to be snow falling on an old typewriter and is beautifully shot and almost hypnotic. This horrible cell-phone video captures nothing close to the elegance the piece. But, if you watch it with your eyes closed, you can at least here the clatter of the Victoria film projector.

Two weeks ago, after a minimal amount of planning, Cara and I prepared to catch a bus to Berlin. We originally intended to take an overnight bus that a friend of mine, Blaine, was also taking. But when we went to book the ticket, we found that the bus had only one seat left, so we had to take a different bus, which departed at 6:30 the next morning. This is a terrible time for a bus to depart. Cara and I stayed up very late trying to figure out at least the rudimentary details of our trip, packing, but also going for a long walk. That night, the 30th, is something of a drunken holiday in Copenhagen, as it was the night that Tuborg released their annual Christmas brew. This means that the city puts on promotional hats distributed by the brewery (this year, blue wizard hats with white stars!) and begins drinking as soon as the workday ends. Around 6, the streets become a sea of stumbling, singing, vomiting danes who continue this yuletide tradition well into the night. Cara and I of course had at least participate a token amount, so after we had booked a flight from Budapest to Malmo that would end our trip, we went out to the seven eleven and got some Julebryg. This meant that we didn’t get to sleep until far too late. We dutifully set four alarms to insure that we would wake at 5:30.

Of course we did not. We woke around 6, and had needed to get on a train about 10 minutes earlier. Cussing, I checked the train schedule, and saw that there was a train departing in 4 minutes that would get us there in time. I live about a 15 minute walk from the station. Shit! But, we didnt give up: we quickly threw the remainder of our objects into our backpacks tied are shoes, and started to run. Somehow,  Cara’s cell-phone, a hand-me-down from a mobile store owner, began playing at incredible volume the most obnoxious song possible given the circumstance: “Let’s Get Retarded ,” by the Black Eyed Peas.

We could not turn it off.

Since we had so little time to get to the station, we had to both jump on my bike, wearing mind you immense backpacking packs. This horrible music was coming from the the upper compartment of Cara’s pack. As she was sitting on the top tube of my bicycle, that meant that it was about 5 inches from my ear as I pedaled us both frantically towards the train. Somehow, we made it. And the bus. Then we slept.

Gotta leave the house before it is dark out. Check back for more later.

Last weekend I biked around to all of the numerous flea markets. I found nothing to buy, but had a great time looking at other people’s trash and seeing new parts of the city. I plan to do the same tomorrow, but I expect I will once again find mostly  Royal Copenhagen Porcelain. That same Saturday I caught a Cassavetes film at the Danish Film Institute, where they show a lot of really great material, including old silent projector films accompanied by live music. Hopefully I will make it out for that, but I also got a few theater recommendations from one of my teachers.

Classes remain interesting. The archinerds are involved but not overbearing, and projects tend to go in a more self directed fashion. It will be a program of inputs and outputs, and I hope that I remain excited enough to crank out some decent work.

What else?

This coming week will be hectic –midterms already, lots of work to do. But then, Saturday I’m off on a two week tour of Sweden and Finland which I am really looking forward to. This is a part of our academic program Just as the Jutland tour was. I will be researching an Alvar Aalto Building in Helsinki, which is great because he is certainly a fascinating architect. After this trip, I have two weeks of school, and then two more weeks of personal travel, and then a little bit more school.

I am going to go find something interesting to write about.

One of the best visits was to Koldinghus, a defensive castle built by Christian the I in the 13th, and then expanded into a royal residence by Christian the III and used as such through the 19th century, though it slowly became less and less important. Some Spaniards who were staying in the castle during the Napoleonic wars accidentally burnt it down and it remained a ruin until the 1991. What is left of the original structure, besides the Giant’s Tower, is non load-bearing, and the roof and walls are now held up with some impressive three story trussed Gluelam.

Tilst Kirke, a thirteenth century church that has been expanded over time, was another great visit, and one of my favorites. We were not only brought up into the bell tower, but were able to enter the space above the main chamber. Here we could see not only the original timber work, but were able to walk on top of the three sections of impressive groin vaulted brick work that from below created a dramatic painted ceiling of truncated domes. The entire church was seemingly modest, but so carefully constructed that it became quite elegant, with all of the peace of 700 years of religious reflection.

We visited a lot of expensive modern architecture, most of which was quite dull, though the Aarhus Town hall by Arne Jacobsen and Erik Møller was fantastic. It looks like a cement factory from the outside, and has a tower that was rush-designed in three weeks, but the interior is a really remarkable space. The space is seemingly composed of only soft edges and light. All three stories are internally visible, with a staggered roof that lets in much light, and what was once the largest window in Denmark. The use of wood is what is particularly striking. Most walls are adorned with a slotted wood that makes it seem as though a strong wind would move right through from one room to the next. The main city chamber is adorned entirely in  red Cuban mahogany and is exquisitely done, though it is perhaps too extravagant for democracy.

Besides a lot else, I would just like you to know that I caught a hedgehog and held it for quite a long time. I doubt this experience will be repeated. Sorry about the pictures, I’ll try to find a camera soon.

After that was done, I tried to figure out  this “vibrant european nightlife” you hear so much about. Not too much seems different yet; just like in the states, everyone is louder, drunker, and happier than you are. But, I must have had some fun, because I didn’t get to bed until around 5. There was a neat party in an underpass which was kind of rad to see.

The Danes are also really, really good at graffiti.

Mostly I just walk around. I enjoy very much just spending the evening not going anywhere, and then picking a quiet spot, hopefully near some water, and having a beer or two. Actually, I guess this describes my afternoons as well. Like any city, Copenhagen tricks you into thinking you have to spend money to be happy, but mostly I have just been getting used to the air + to the map, and avoiding anything with walls. Today I decided to start going to places on purpose, and between classes went to the National Museum. This museum is mostly concerned with archeology, cultural anthropology, and ethnology. Truly fantastic exhibits of the tools, clothing, and household objects of cultures around the world. The exhibit on Danish prehistory was very striking and had many high points: traveling from stone to iron, watching tool craft develop; imagining the terrifying but somehow hilarious  clash between Cro-Magnons + Neanderthals leading to the latter’s extinction; very well persevered and quite haunting mummified remains in carved oak coffins, buried in full dress and jewlery; and some spectacular rune stones.

But, that was not even the bulk of the museums content. They had an excellent Aboriginal exhibit, which I hope they translate soon, and some equally fascinating displays on the peoples of Iceland, Greenland, and Alaska. In general, they made quite a effort to cover as much of the globe as possible. The feature exhibit was on Egyptian amulets.

Their exhibit on modern danish history was quite good, mainly because it included many banal objects. I at least, am of the belief that these are the things that define us more than our ‘great works,’ so I appreciated the showcasing of all the ugly 50′s furniture, mass-production toys and household things, pokemon cards, Beatles singles, coffee pots, and all that. Quite neat in the context of the rest of the museum. It is an comforting thought, that. What will be left of all cultures is that of which we are least proud, but that which is most commonplace. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.

Tomorrow I will buy a bike, I hope. This weekend my program is taking us on a trip through Jutland.

Today I moved into my new apartment. It will be great to be closer to school and to the city center, but I will miss Mikkel and his gang. On Sunday I went swimming in the øresund, then fell asleep in the tall grass under a beech grove by lake Ersum. These delights will be missed. Mostly, I got here with no trouble. Mikkel helped cart my crap, and a bit of furniture as well, down to my new place, which saved me an embarrassing and cumbersome train ride. After bringing up what I already had to my room, I left off to solve two problems –dinner and a mattress. On my way home from finding the first (which unfortunately turned out to be bread and beer), I found the second, and it was big and free.There were, though, about a half a dozen 14 year-olds making out on top of my new bed. They were all much better dressed than I was, so I decided to regroup  and formulate a new stratagem. The best I came up with was to come back in 30 minutes.

The bed was still there, and I no longer had to try to break the language barrier with a bunch of tongue-sucking fashionistas. Unfortunately, I found that my one-armed self was not quite up to the task of lugging a queen sized mattress 10 blocks. After making it about 300 feet, I decided to cross my arms and stare at the offending object for a bit and look around for some kind of ‘tool.’ I ran back to the grocers, saw the pictured milk cart, snatched it, and stealthily rattled it through a cobbled court yard cafe. Once loaded the mattress on to the cart, it only took me about a half an hour to push the stupid thing back home. Thankfully, Anders, my roommate, was home, so I didn’t have to drag it up the stairs. So, now I have a place to sleep that isn’t made of wood. Here are some pictures of my room, I have to go return that cart.

Here is a quote brought to my attention by a friend, excerpted in a book that he recommended and I in turn read.

Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.

Isaac Watts