Wall of cats at the Hungarian Pavilion. It was hooked up to some system that made the cats' eyes light up sporadically and they also meauwed when you hit the wall. I am not sure of the architectural connection but it was interesting nonetheless :-)
Mala som taku odozvu, ze nie vsetci moji slovenski "pozorovatelia?" rozumeju po anglicky tak sa budem snazit prekladat. Dopredu sa ospravedlnujem za zlu gramatiku, pravopis, vymyslene slova... Tak teda, toto je stena maciek v Madarskom Pavilione na architekturovom bienale v Benatkach kde som bola cez vikend. Tym mackam obcas ziarili oci a mnaukali ked sa ta stena udrela. Nie som si ista ake spojenie to malo s architekturou ale bolo to zaujimave :-) 

 
Getting ideas for model building/ presentations... at the Biennale. 

 
IB, Kristen, and Leisa at the Biennale. 

 
A cruise ship coming into Venice. Everybody turned to take pictures of the site. 

 
Venice! It was all you could ask for and more! Everywhere you looked there was a view fit for a postcard. We spent 2 days at the Architectural Biennale and a day around the city. The Biennale itself was worth going for and the city was an awesome bonus! 

 
Barcelona beach at night. Rose-Mary and I on an interesting piece of concrete urban furniture. Credit to Arif for the really nice photo. 

 
night portrait 

 
IB, Leisa and I watching a movie on my laptop. 

 
IB and me baking tripe stew for Rose-Mary and Arif in our kitchen. 

 
Leisa hanging laundry on the balcony. We love our balcony, it might be the apartment's best feature. I like sitting out on it, eating my lunch and watching people below (it's on the first floor). 

 
 
Me. 

 
 
Noves de Segre, Spain. In this small town with about 70 permanent residents and additional vacationers, single family homes are built several stories high on a small footprint. I am guessing that the compact size of these Pyreneese towns has to do with fortifications, land available for crops, and rocky soil which makes it very labour-intensive to build foundations. You can see a view out of our window and a view of the town from a little hill that I walked up early one morning - in the dark:-) 

 
 
Abandoned silk factory in Lyon. A taste of the changing economy in Lyon, the large silk factory has been abandoned and is now waiting to be rebuilt/reused as part of a large urban renewal/rejuvenation project. In between these uses, it seems to have provided a home to squatters and a canvas to graffiti artists. 

 
 
Nimes, France, we were real tourists and listened to the audio tour, which turned out to be excellent. Here you see the best preserved Roman amphitheatre around today. The structure went through a history of different uses from hosting gladiator fights, through serving as a fortress to present day bull fights. A typical day in ancient times would have seen animals fighting in the morning, followed by prisoners being fed to animals at lunch time, when most of the people would leave and only the most blood-thirsty would remain to watch. The day would finish in trained gladiator fights that would rarely end in deaths. 

 
 
 
Norman Foster's building in Nimes (I can't remember the name). I lost my flip flop on the glass staircase, hmmm not quite the same as loosing a glass slipper like cinderella, but pretty close. 

 
 
Pont du Gard Aqueduct is one of the best preserved aqueducts around. We happened upon it on our way from Geneva to Nimes, needless to say it was quite a pleasant suprise. 

 
 
 
Geneva, Switzerland. 

 
 
Exploring the architecture of a cornfield or getting into trouble again? 

 
And this is the inside of the church! Arif stiched multiple photos to create this view. 

 
One of my most favourite events of the trip was discovering this door when Rose-Mary, Arif, Jonathan and I were walking around the previously described Corbusier's church. I tried to open it and ended up leading everybody up the steps to complete darkness, so I flashed my camera and discovered a door! Behind was the sanctuary of the church - 1 floor off the ground. You must understand, that this was still a construction site and there was nobody around at this time, and we knew we were not supposed to have sneaked in! So with my heart beating with more than just the awe of the amazing space inside, I took everything in, we snapped a group photo and seconds later the alarm went off!!! It took us no time to rush down the steep dark staircase and drive off to safety.