Sunday 6/12

Took it easy after the Czech ride. Watched Aladin in the hotel with some of the Vienna crew. Actually did get out on a bike to take some pics of Horn:

Saturday 6/11

This was the day of the big ride to the Czech border. Only 10 out of the +20 people in our group went. We left at about 9:30 and hit the hardest and steepest hill almost immediately. It was about 30 minutes of decent and was absolutely miserable. Pretty soon we hit our first break-point in Pernegg and stopped at a small church:

We continued on to our next point, a town called Geras. This was what we were riding through:

And here’s the crew in Geras, with Tate utilizing the mirror:

Kept riding and hit a town called Drosendorph. This was the final stop before reaching the Czech border. And then, 35 km later, we crossed the border and stopped to eat and “get baptized” according to Tate:

So that meant we were halfway. Still had to make it back to Horn. All the downhills we hit on the way to Czech became uphills. It was brutal, but it paid off in the end, riding the victory trail down that first terrible hill. Legs were dead, still are 2 days later, but the trip was amazing.

Thursday 6/9, Friday 6/10

Our crew took a train from Vienna to the countryside, a place called Horn, for the weekend. We got there and got bikes almost immediately. We rode about 45 minutes to a monastery, and spent about 2 hours exploring the grounds. A group of about 5 of us ended up just climbing cherry trees for most of the time. Got to eat these bad boys:

Then we stopped in the monastery’s church, which was beautiful:

On Friday we took a ride to this giant tower overlooking the Austrian countryside. Here’s the tower and the view, as well some peeps in bike gear:

Also...

This is getting longer so check out older posts to catch up from the beginning.

Also, our group has a page on Posterous. We update photos frequently. Check it out here:
http://viennastudio.posterous.com/

Saturday 4

Ahh, that is today.

Well, I updated my blog.

I went to the market and bought cheese and bread and lots of beer.

It's way too hot to do much else. Tonight we're going out for Kate's birthday. She's a gal in my group.

Here's some pictures taken throughout the trip:

My professor here, Tate:

Thur. 2, Fri. 3

During the day we went to a furniture museum. Got to see a sweet Marcel Breuer exhibit. There were sweet chairs, like this one: Hey Parvina!

Then that night we went to see the Vienna Philharmonic perform an outdoor concert in the gardens of Schonbrunn Palace. 

Friday- We went an visited Type Jockeys, a graphic design firm. They do really incredible design, AND they make and sell fonts for the design world. Check them here(seriously): http://www.typejockeys.com/

Then we met this artist Cristoph Katzler. We went to his apartment and he showed us a lot of his projects. He studied as an industrial designer, but does incredible stuff like this light box, which I could have stared into for days. The box is only about 1x1x1. It's made of reflective materials, and when you flick a switch, pressure varies, causing the material to deform and create infinite shapes. Here's a few:

Last night, we went to see an Italian opera "Rigoletto". We saw it in the Theatre an der Wien, which is a beautiful, historic space. It served as the premier for Beethoven's 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th concertos, so yea, it's pretty crazy to sit down and watch an opera there.

After the opera, we went out as a group to drink and ended up in some underground club with sweet lights and Austrian dance music.

Wed. 1

Okeeee so Wednesday we went and visited a graphic designer/artist/everything fellow named Nikolaus Eberstaller. We took a bus out of Vienna to his studio in the countryside.

This is him on the right:

He designed a beautiful wine label for a vineyard down the road soooooooooo we went there. We got a tour of the vineyard and had a wine tasting at the end. Needless to say, twas awesome. At the end of the day, we went to his family's restaurant for a traditional dinner buffet. I love buffets. 

Cultural differences, Part one:

-there's escalator etiquette
-the taxis are mercedes
-people stay at the club until 6 am, then there's an afterparty until 10 am
-people don't jaywalk
-everyone loves techno

-BEST ICE CREAM IN THE WORLD
-BEST EGGS IN THE WORLD
-BEST PRETZEL RODS

He's backkkkk

Ok damn, so I'm a week late. I'm just gonna start from now, if you really care I can tell you later about my first weekend. I can some it up as follows:
-first Austrian techno rager, -lot's of beer, -first Austrian club, -Brazilian ballerina, -chanting monks, -light show in church, -pouring rain, -kasekrainer, -Donau River

WORD. Here's some random pics

 View from our window in the institute:

Friday 5/27

The first weekend. During the day, we chilled in this park:

Then we went to a museum called The Albertina. Got to see Picassos, Monets, Kandinskys, Signacs... it was really freakin sick. Also discovered Paul Klee, he is incredible. Filled my sketchbook up a lot.

Later we met with the architecture firm Hein Troy. Got to see some of his ecological-design projects. They were beautiful. Even a cemetery he did was fantastic. His goal in life is to fill 100 sketchbooks. He needs about 70 more I think.

And then came nighttime....
I'll have to post that later, tis time for class.

Reporting live from the institute...

Wednesday/Thursday (25/26)

Hmmm, Wednesday wasn't that busy. It was an orientation day into the school. We became citizens of Vienna for the month which is cool. And I had my first Kasekrainer. It's a big sausage (filled with cheese) that they stuff in a loaf of bread filled with mustard and ketchup. It's truly incredible.

That night I went to an architecture presentation. Four design firms from Prague came to discuss their work. All but one team spoke entirely in German, but it was easy to follow their pictures and project progression. Got a few architecture ideas from that...

Thurrrrrsssday. Ah, yes we went to a furniture studio. They collect unique (and intelligent) furniture designed locally (Europe, but the closer to Vienna the better). Here's some of their stuff:

Let's see here... last Tuesday

Ok I'll try to bump these posts out. Sorry, I have really limited internet access. Ok so last Tuesday I was traveling. I had a layover in Zurich, Switz which was awesome because I got to fly over the Alps on the way to Austria. Got to the airport and met up with the crew, then dispersed to our homes.

I live in a baller spot with 2 other fellows, Matt and Matthew. Also another American girl. The family owns the whole building, and its really nice. REALLY NICE.

After a fierce rock-paper-scissors battle, I won the right to my own room. There's no AC though...

That night we went to our first bar, had an incredible dark beer. Also, it's asparagus season apparently so we had that. And that was Tuesday.

The Alps

20 hours to go

So I decided to copy my girl Parvina and make a blog for this trip. We'll see if it lasts....
You can follow her here: http://parvinainvienna.blogspot.com/

DAMN I'M EXCITED

But yea... I leave in 20 hours. Pretty crazy now its under a day. Haven't packed really at all, and still got stuff to do in the morning. Gonna leave my house around 1. Balling out in a limo all the way to the airport (one of the benefits of my family owning a funeral home).

My grandma gave me a bunch of Lorazepam, it's supposed to lessen anxiety. Testing pill #1

D-Rose is a boss.

Until the next post...reporting live.