Is it a Small World, After All?

Eleven days of traveling done, and we're all back in BCN. But the memories I made over Spring Break will definitely last me a life time.
Dublin is a fabulous city and I suggest anyone who can visit do so! Especially around St. Patrick's Day. They really do love our Spanish friend Mr. Santiago Calatrava over there. One bridge named for the famous James Joyce is already in existence, and while there I learned another has been commissioned. I spent a good bit of time here wandering the edges of the Liffey River and I found a few interesting buildings. One in particular stuck out to me, but I have yet to find out what it is. Currently under construction, there were no signs marking what the future of the building had in store or who designed it. It seemed to be a play with the intersection of forms: a "glass cylinder," if you will, intersected with a more traditionally rectangular building. I'm still on a mission to find out what the building is - I'll keep you updated. As for the culture and atmosphere there - it was great. And the pints of Guinness there truly are "perfect pints." I made friends with people from Texas (but they weren't Aggies), Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and Australia. And I'm fairly sure I saw a Clemson hat roaming through a crowd somewhere in the Temple Bar area. AND I think I might have seen someone from my high school walking around, but who knows? I could say so much more about Dublin, but I should probably move on to...
Vienna was also fabulous! The city center was busy and it truly is a great location to visit. The St. Stephen's Cathedral which I just happened to stumble on in my search for another building was beautiful! I only wish they had such monuments in the U.S. The Coop Himmelblau works throughout the city are also very interesting. However, after having studied it in AAH 101, I think my favorite project there was the Post Office Savings Bank by Otto Wagner. I showed up just before 2:50, not realizing there was a museum that closed at 3 and had a 5 euro admission, but the one employee there let me in for free! The layout in the foyer of the bank is seemingly simple, but it truly is an elegant space. The Gasometer City project was also pretty interesting - gas container spaces transformed into shopping spaces. Got 5 euro ORANGE shoes there! Sandwiches there are also pretty fabulous.
Copenhagen was also amazing, and probably by far my favorite. Remember how I met someone from Copenhagen? Well, she got a great little hotel room for me where she works there! Never underestimate the power of connections! Aside from our lovely accomodation, the city of Copenhagen is a great place to stay, especially from an architectural point of view. All the BIG projects throughout the city are interesting to see, but their office was by far my favorite. I loved seeing the models and certainly enjoyed the legos used to label everything, but possibly my favorite aspect was the openness of the office and the interaction that such openness makes possible. The BIG exhibit at the Danish Architecture Centre was also interesting - it's something I'm not accustomed to be able to directly interact with someone's projects and not be prohibited to take pictures. Perhaps the most interesting part of our stay in Copenhagen however was the ability to, on a whim, buy a ticket and ride a train into Malmö, Sweden to see the Turning Torso - an interesting piece of architecture, for sure, but the cold we endured to see it was rough, to say the least.

Those eleven days were certainly interesting, but I can say with the greatest certainty that I was exhausted and ready to be back to Barcelona, yet again proving that this place is becoming home for me more and more. I can only wonder how much I'm going to miss it when I get back to Clemson.