blög!: June 2004

Saturday, June 26, 2004

graz

26. june

after the wedding my mom, sister, ryanne, and i drove down to graz where my mom's vet hospital is. graz is a totally different corner of austria, but that doesnt matter cause austria fits between sf and la (and has a population of about the bay area). the city was declared 'culture capital of europe' of the year 2003, so its small but there is a lot of cool stuff. btw graz is in the steiermark which is arnie country.

church is in a suburb of graz called voitsberg
its designed by friedrich hundertwasser (also did the don quixote winery in napa)

small mountain at the center of graz with famous bell tower

inside that mountain there is a lift to the top

view from the top
notice the crazy looking blue thing and the artificial island in the river

the island...

...is actually an extremly cool bar

the porcupine up closer turns out to be a moma (surprise)

a model

Friday, June 25, 2004

wedding

23. - 25. june

my aunt got married on the 24th of june in a small town in austria called alt aus see

alt aus see

my aunt sonja and uncle willy, on the day before the wedding

my cousin's kids, florian and julia, at dinner the day before

we're training them young

sometimes i feel like this too

wedding day

weather changes fast in the alps, it had rained the night before

the reception

prost!

another guy in lederhosen, this must make some of you happy. incidentally this was also the gondoliere that took my aunt and uncle to the dinner. the paddle is just for show (notice the outboard motor).

how the rest of us got there

location for dinner

florian in lederhosen

ryanne was a big hit with the kids

she also caught the bouquet. good work ryanne, you're getting married

update several months later:
YOU ARE GETTING MARRIED!!! www.bandrwedding.net

Sunday, June 20, 2004

sabine and ry in karlsruhe

16. - 20. June

the local supermarket

17th - archietecture party
students in a department are allowed to throw huge parties in campus buildings. so think of it as rager in say. . . . evans.

tunc (toonch), turkish name

18th - karlsuhe fair
the city celebrates its birthday every year by putting up a fair with music, film, food and a huge ferris wheel

19th - field trip
karlsruhe is in the middle of german wine country called the pflaz

chapel we stopped by up on a hill over looking the wine country

the inside

wine country

Sunday, June 13, 2004

praha

10. - 13. June

prague is the coolest place i visited this summer; the city rocks and it's one the least expensive european capitals. the weather was much better in prague and so the pictures are better too, but some of the coolest things are not on camera at all. in particular, the art that you see in paris or london or vienna (to a lesser extent) is heavily from western europe. prague was behind the iron curtain until the velvet revolution in 1989 and so the museum of modern art here has entire galleries of artist you've never heard of. that's not to say that they dont have everything else too. i spent three hours on the first floor (20th century starting with art decco, so klimt, shiele, kokoshka through expressionism and into the craziest modern stuff) thinking it was the main gallery. then i got to the second floor - czech cubists: woa, that stuff is good, and there is so much of you'd need a week and its goddamn good. you can see communist art and not just the propaganda but by people who really believed as well as those that rebelled against it - communism never looked this good. and so when i got to the third floor i couldn't feel my legs - or rather i could feel them all too well - only to run into ALL the impressionists. i mean the only ones there were missing were manet and degas and they were on the periphery of the movement. there are 5 floors, i didnt make it to the rest. each floor also has an adjunct gallery with non-canvas type art - for instance architectural models from wright and gehry as well as design art like jugenstil, a couple of vitra chairs etc, etc, etc. oh i almost forgot, they had an entire rodin room too.
three words: off the hook
apart from the art, the city has an awesome night life. the czech republic has the highest per capita beer consumption in the world (160L/yr), and if you buy it in the supermarket it goes for about 40 cents a bottle. so there are pubs and restaurants on every corner, and you can get a decent meal for $5. on to the pictures...

pražský hrad (prague castle) is the enormous complex including the cathedral in the background on the left. construction of the castle began in the 9th century. in the foreground is the karlův most (charles bridge); the bridge has also existed in some form or another for 1000 years.

from katedrála sv. Víta (st. vitus cathedral) at the cener of the pražský hrad.
the part of the river you see here runs along the north end of the old town.

vladislavského sálu (vladislav hall) in the královský palác (royal palace) in the pražský hrad.
are you learning czech yet?
63m long, 16m wide, and up to 13m high - archietectural masterpiece

main entrance of the katedrála sv. Víta at midnight shortly after a down pour

south side of the katedrála sv. Víta
the panorama below is taken from the top of the tower on the right.

back side of the katedrála

the two bridges in the middle of the picture (mánesův most, left and karlův most, right) originate at the staroměstské náměstí (old town square) identified by the spires of the týský chrám (teyn chruch). the copper green dome on the right of the picture is chrám svatého mikuláš (st. nikolas church) from which the next two pictures are taken.

original is 11 x 5 megapixels (6' 9'' x 9''). it so big you almost dont need to go to prague. if you want it ill send the original.