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Tuesday, December 29th, 2009From “Innocents Abroad”
Sunday, May 17th, 2009From one of the great travelogues, “Innocents Abroad,” by Mark Twain:
One of our favorite youths, Jack, a splendid young fellow with a head full of good sense, and a pair of legs that were a wonder to look upon in the way of length, straightness, and slimness, used to report progress every morning in the most glowing and spirited way, and say:
“Oh, I’m coming along bully!” (he was a little given to slang, in his happier moods,) “I wrote ten pages in my journal last night–and you know I wrote nine the night before, and twelve the night before that. Why it’s only fun!”
“What do you find to put in it, Jack?”
“Oh everything. Latitude and longitude, noon every day; and how many miles we made last twenty-four hours; and all the domino-games I beat, and horse billiards; and whales and sharks and porpoises; and the text of the sermon, Sundays; (because that’ll tell at home, you know,) and the ships we saluted and what nation they were; and which way the wind was, and whether there was a heavy sea, and what sail we carried, though we don’t ever carry any, principally, going against a head wind always–wonder what is the reason of that?–and how many lies Moult has told–Oh, everything! I’ve got everything down. My father told be to keep that journal. Father wouldn’t take a thousand dollars for it when I get it done.”
“No, Jack; it will be worth more than a thousand dollars–when you get it done.”
“Do you?–no, but do you think it will, though?”
“Yes, it will be worth more than a thousand dollars–when you get it done. May be, more.”
“Well, I about half think so, myself. It ain’t no slouch of a journal.”
But it shortly became a most lamentable “slouch of a journal.” One night in Paris, after a hard day’s toil in sight-seeing, I said:
“Now I’ll go an stroll around the cafes awhile, Jack, and give you a chance to write up your journal, old fellow.”
His countenance lost its fire. He said:
“Well, no, you needn’t mind. I think I won’t run that journal any more. It is awful tedious. Do you know–I reckon I’m as much as four thousand pages behind hand. I haven’t got any France in it at all. First I thought I’d leave France out and start fresh. But that wouldn’t do, would it? The governor would say, ‘Hello here–didn’t you see any thing in France?’ That cat wouldn’t fight, you know. First I thought I’d copy France out of the guide-book, but there’s more than three hundred pages of it. Oh I don’t think a journal’s any use–do you? They’re only a bother, ain’t they?”
“Yes, a journal that is incomplete isn’t of much use, but a journal properly kept, is worth a thousand dollars–when you’ve got it done.”
“A thousand!–well I should think so. I wouldn’t finish it for a million.”
His experience was only the experience of the majority of that industrious night-school in the cabin. If you wish to inflict a heartless and malignant punishment upon a young person, pledge him to keep a journal for a year.
(Twain, Mark (1869) The innocents abroad. Connecticut:American Publishing Company. pp. 40-42. Retrieved from Google Books.) See? UNC’s honor code has gotten to me.
Trip to the Foreign Police
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009So, because I’m staying at an apartment and not a hostel or hotel, within three days of arrival, I had to register my address with the foreign police. When I first read this in my guidebook, I thought, “no problem.” I’d just go to the local police station, tell them where I’m staying and all done.
Then I started looking for where I was to go online, and found stuff like this. With recommendations like “If you’ve already been to the foreign police, then you know what to expect. If not, expect trouble. Long lines, not a word of English, and just general unpleasantness.“ And this. And the recommendation that you would have to arrive before the place opened at 7:30am to get a reasonable shot at getting in that day. Finally, all the online info, from the Czech Ministries, from the Foreign Police website, from bloggers and other sites, said that EU+Switzerland, Norway and Liechtenstein all go through one door that is relatively easy, and all other countries get to go through together.
Fun. So, I knew last night that I would have to get up this morning at 6:00 to have a hope of getting there before 7:30 and therefore a hope of getting to see someone today. Had to get up at 6:00. Therefore, of course, I could not fall asleep at all last night. I think I got two hours of sleep. That I am writing this now, and being even remotely coherent, is amazing.
When I awoke, I looked online, and saw that the Red Sox were still playing on the West Coast. That kind of blew my mind.
Anyway, up I got, took the tram over, and found the building. I would estimate that there were some 400 people in line in front of me when I got there at 7:15. The line was much more orderly than that shown in the above video, however, and it moved relatively quickly (we were close to actually getting into the building within an hour and a half.) As we were getting close, I heard a woman behind me, I think Russian, who was speaking some English, so I asked her some questions. She told me that as far as she knew, Americans go through the EU door, and a police officer keeping order confirmed this. Nowhere is this written!
So I was allowed to go to the other office, in which it took all but five minutes to meet with a clerk, who was very nice, but told me that I had to go to another office in another building a ten minute walk away (!!) But once I got there, again, everything was taken care of in minutes.
Ahhhhh! I wish they would give some of this info out. I don’t necessarily like getting this preferential treatment, but I would have liked to have known. I especially felt uncomfortable when I left the Vietnamese, Indian and Russian people in the hour-long line, but I was also very relieved to not have to stand in it anymore.
Ok, now to bed.
A long walk
Sunday, May 10th, 2009Second day in Prague. I thought I had defeated jet-lag, but alas! Woke up at 2:45 pm Prague time, that is, 8:45am Eastern. And now I’m writing this at 3:54am Prague, 9:54 Eastern. Oh well, always takes a couple days.
My walk around Prague
Walked about 6 miles today, at least according to Gmaps Pedometer. The first place I discovered was on the same hill that I explored yesterday, a beer garden/plaza area overlooking the city. Since I had just woken up, I did not partake, but evidently 3:30 is not an unusual time to toss back a few in Prague. It has some great potential as a place to do observations and interviews a la my Human Use course. There is the beer garden itself and two grassy areas, one that was used for lounging, and another for standing, talking and throwing a ball around. Both good and awful architecture are represented, but the area seems defined by trees and the views of the city. Between the grassy areas and the beer garden is a wide walkway that appeared to function as a type of plaza, with typical Prague pavers. William Whyte would recognize this behaviour: people gathering in the middle on the walkway, both adult and children. Older folks are also represented. Whyte would also appreciate the outdoor vending. The 1936 guidebook to Prague that I read for Human Use (Eugene Fodor’s “1936 on the Continent”) had a whole section on sausage shops, so I guess some things never change. There is a fairly large expat population around here, so it is unsurprising that I heard English a few times. Perhaps I can conduct my survey on some of these folks? I can think of a worse way of spending my day. Finally, the area is made perfect by its spectacular views of the city. Coming down the hill toward the city, I saw one masochist proving that bikers will use the paths we make available to them. The beer garden in at the top of this ridge.
Onward into Prague! This is one of the ugliest buildings in Prague (not in fact the ugliest! I will get to that at a later post, I am sure). It is a department store on the periphery of the center of the city. In my past travels to Prague, the area across the street has been under construction, but now it is complete. It is a massive mall, but that looks like this from the outside. Inside is typical mall, however.
On to Old Town Square, in one sense the center of the city, in that that physically, the city does rotate around it, and that it is one of the centers of the tourist image of the city. Nevertheless, I get the feeling that locals never go there, and when I surveyed architecture students who had lived in Prague, it was generally a place they avoided, largely because of the number of tourists. Evidently the Prague Marathon is on this weekend, and the square was taken over by a concert; the band was singing in English. I am unsure if this was part of the “Marathon Music Festival”, which is evidently “ fast becoming the cultural phenomenon of our time.” I would be interested to know if in this case there were some Czechs there or not, but my suspicion is that even then, there weren’t many. The Wenceslas Square-Old Town Square-Charles Bridge-Prague Castle spine seems to be only tourists, all the time.
Anyway, there were some interesting things to observe anyway. We talk about human use of the built environment, but what about rodent use? Demand for seats was certainly higher than supply. Perhaps some movable chairs?
As mentioned above, a tourist axis extends from Old Town Square to Charles Bridge. Kevin Lynch would call the axis a path, and the two attractions nodes. The path is remarkably well defined in how tourists use the area, it will be interesting to see if this is so in their drawn maps. This crush of tourists is Charles St, depicted in green below. Meanwhile, this is Platnerska, depicted in red below. While this street is somewhat out of the way, not so much so that people wouldn’t use it instead if crowding were an issue. Most of the time, you’ll hear me talk about how the presence of people attract more people, but Charles St. perhaps goes beyond what even I would consider pleasant. Nevertheless, this is the path that people follow. Is it because it is the obvious choice when standing at each node? Is it because the guides and guidebooks take them there? Is it because the winding medieval feeling streets and spaces are what people came to Prague for in the first place, and the broad street of Platnerska doesn’t sell that? I don’t know, but I’m interested to find out. People come to Prague multiple times, but do they go to Charles St. and Old Town Square a second time?
Paths between Old Town Square and Charles Bridge
Even in Prague,and I actually saw two of them! This spectacular alleyway and remnant of the communist policy to put industry in the heart of town is located at the bottom of the map above, really still in the medieval buildingscape. This guy looks down from above, while even on this little alley folks are trying to get people to follow the rules. I have seen little evidence of their use. It would be interesting to get trace evidence on how often they have to be refilled to see if anyone is actually picking up after their dogs. Some great seating. Seen a few obelisks and similar constructions around town: the city is often referred to as having a thousand spires. It would be interesting to see if, once laid out on a map, they create some sort of baroque ordering system. The city is so often referred to as baroque, but how about in this way? Some evidence it might be can be seen from the Castle.
On my way back home, I went completely out of the tourist realm, to the backside of the castle. I found a park that was made out of a small segment of the old walls, including one of the few remaining gates, all of which harkened back to many an Urban Form lecture.
All in all, a very good day. I definitely ended the day feeling each and every cobble through the soles of my shoes, however. I don’t think I’ll be trying to fit in with the Europeans by wearing my old dressy shoes anymore!
Counties
Monday, April 6th, 2009Two more NC counties: Davidson (home of Lexington Barbecue #1; I gotta say: I do like East Carolina BBQ more than West. Sorry.) and Randolph.
Whoo hoo!
Wednesday, April 1st, 2009New county: Forsyth, the home of Winston-Salem.
A great weekend with Michael
Monday, August 11th, 2008
From a garage in Durham
Mike of BunkoSquad fame came down to visit NC this weekend. We went to get bbq, see minor league baseball, and latched onto a photo-taking tour of Durham that was amazing. My photos are here; Bunko’s photos are here.
Also added one new county, Wayne, as can be seen here.
My photos from LA
Saturday, August 9th, 2008Finally getting some of my old photos up on-line. Expect in the coming days and week to see my trips looking at planning programs at USC, Rutgers and UNC, my trip last year to Prague (with a day in Amsterdam) and my road trip last year with Bunko. Click on the pictures to get to that part of the set. In LA, I saw:
USC Campus
USC’s campus, which was very nice. Ever notice that they bring you to campus when it is absolutely gorgeous? They did that at UNC too. The architecture at USC is a little fascist, but I still like it.
Downtown LA
I never knew that downtown LA had such beautiful building stock. The pity is how much of the area has been torn up for parking lots and highways. I understand that a big issue in the area is gentrification: there is a vibrant lower-class neighborhood here that is being forced out as people are rediscovering the charm of these buildings. Unfortunately, gentrification may be the only way that the urban fabric is knit together. I don’t know what the solution to this is.
Cezar Chavez Ralley
While in LA, I stumbled on a Cezar Chavez rally/march, which was pretty awesome. Good to see that there are still activists out there. Not sure what this purple bull/elephant/dragon thing is. Part of the protest against grapes? Log cabin republicans? Barney? I don’t know.
Union Station
Union station is an absolutely beautiful building. Too bad we don’t plan our transportation so that people make full use of it. Too bad also that you have to walk across some major streets to get there. But when you look at this part of the set of photos, take a good look at the craftsmanship. We don’t do this anymore!
Just the greatest sign ever, no?
Outside a pawn shop in Santa Monica.
Santa Monica Beach
And finally the beach. Ahh.