In India

So I have finally arrived in India and spent the past two days eating and sleeping a lot. Unfortunately, this internet station has uninstalled all the usb drives so I can not upload any new photos. I will try in a couple of days once I return from Coorg, a small county south of Bangalore.

Conglomeration of Photos

Elevator Sweating. Dubai
Purple
Green
Tea Room Entrance. Burj al Arab
Solid Gold Elevators
Tea
Atrium
Gradation
Jumeriah Hotel
Burj
Emirates Towers
Trafalgar Square lion
Dubai
Mosque
British MuseumLondon Eye

Marble Arch

Leaving Dubai :(

Ski Slopes in Dubai

Burj al Arab

Burj

So I am done with Dubai and now its off to Bangalore, which should only be a 4 hr flight but instead I will be flying back to London and then to Bangalore, which will basically take a day. Internet here is terribly slow so I will post just a few pics of Dubai that I have so far.

Dubai

Alright, so internet in hotel is real funky, only works with safari and wants all arabic characters. So I am trying my best to post this. Arrived from London this morning at 730 local time. Breezed through customs and walked from the cool airport and was struck by the Dubai HEAT! I could immediately feel my body getting sticky waiting for my bus to my hotel. Room is very nice and will try to post some pics. After getting settled I made the poor decision of walking to the Burj from my hotel during lunch time. The sun was at its peak and over 110. I was sweating like a pig but understood the buildings and planning of the city much better. Everyone talks about how great the architecture is here, and the noteworthy buildings are impressive and spectacular but for the most part they are poorly designed and do little for the environment or the occupants. The planning is even worse. The city has no sidewalks, forcing me to run across lanes of traffic. There is a funny story that goes along with that. Planning... right, absolutely terrible, there is nothing linking these buildings together and the roads separate them. There is no cohesiveness and I find that people only move from the interiors of these conditioned spaces to their cars and back into more conditioned spaces. Dubai is for the visitor who wants to enjoy one solitary resort and not leave that space. I do complement their strides, however, with trying to create more mass public transit and construction of metro lines. Hopefully this will mitigate some of these problems. This can only be applied to my walk today, which covers a small portion of dubai so far.

So my story... I filled up my quarter gallon water bottle with ice cold water before leaving and within 10 minutes of walking I was sweating like a pig and my water bottle was way too warm. Before even getting half way I was out of water and bought a gallon of lemonade for $1 which was soo refreshing. The buildings improved along the walk but the sidewalks became nonexistent, and pedestrian circulation was limited in order to control entry. When I neared the Burj (across the street from it), it became impossible to cross the road because of the 10 lanes of highway traffic and I was walking on the edge of road. I soon noticed two men following me also dripping with sweat. They asked me how they could cross and see the Burj, so we teamed up in our efforts. After much running and darting among cars we gave in to a taxi who was probably one of the worst ever. A 2 minute ride turned into a 30 minute ordeal where he thought we wanted to go up the Burj (tallest building in world and still growing) in his cab! He takes us through a series of construction checkpoints until we are within spitting distance of the building. Very amazing building and experience to say the least. I spent quite some time recovering in the dubai mall checking out the aquarium and shops. Being stubborn, I decided to walk back as well but found myself dehydrated on several occasions and had to buy multiple bottles of water, which instantly became warm when leaving the supermarkets. I have never experienced such heat in my life. I spent some time after recovering in my room and in the pool.

In the evening I met up with Kaylee and we walked to the creek and saw some of the historic buildings as well as ate dinner. I ate an Araise, which was thin grilled slices of beef wrapped with a tortilla like break with yogurt and greek salad. It was a delicious Lebanese dish.

I hope to post some pics but I am sorry if not. Pics of Burj al Arab tomorrow and meetings with architectural firm!

Heathrow Airport to Dubai

Man who would ever have thought that access to the internet would be so hard to come by. The only place I have been able to get it is at the Apple Store and even then I had to checkin online for my flight outside it late at night. Anyway I am now waiting for my flight in 3 hours to Dubai which I am super stoked about. I can not wait to see the buildings and have my two interviews with architecture firms. I am also going to attach a few of the photos from the rest of the cruise, but they wont be organized well since they are a hodge podge right now. The photos are from Tallin, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, and Stockholm. Hope you enjoy and will try to go back and edit this post later with some more descriptions of the trip.

Finlandia Hall. Alvar Aalto.
Outside Metro Station. St. Petersburg.
Ship
Peterhof Gardens
Catherine the Great's Palace
Church of Spilt Blood
London
University of Helsinki Museum Toilet
Vasa Museum
Russian Orthodox Church. Tallinn
Palace Square. St. Petersburg
Catherine's Palace. Ballroom.
Senate Square. Helsinki.
Self-Explanatory
London
Tallinn

VIDEO!

Internet Finally!

So I am in Tallinn and finally found some internet. Option quarter travel in Copenhagen and Berlin was wonderful, with something left to be desired in Tallinn. So after several hours on our flight we arrived in London where we proceeded to run to our train (Heathrow Express) that would take us to our Bus Station where we nearly missed the National Express Bus to Victoria Station from where we caught our bus to our port, Dover, England. The bus rides were enjoyable and offered glimpses of the English countryside. Dover seemed like a quaint little city and it was very impressive to see the white cliffs of Dover that are referred to from the second World War.
Cliffs of Dover

After sailing from Dover we had a sea day to enjoy the ship. The ship is very nice but still believe the Norwegian Pearl beats it! Our first port of call was Copenhagen, which was remarkable. I really enjoyed walking the streets of Copenhagen and taking in the design capital of the world. I especially loved visiting the University of Copenhagen and Jean Nouvels new Concert Hall. The buildings, especially how new buildings have been incorporated among old historic buildings is remarkable from an urbanistic standpoint.
In front of Norwegian JewelConcert HallCopenhagen Nyhaven Canal

Dormitory?
DR Concert Hall by Jean Nouvel

The next port of call was Warnemunde, where I was forced to run to catch the train to Rostock Station to catch a connection to Hauptbahnhof, Main Station of Berlin. I never realized how large a city Berlin really is. The transportation system within the city was amazing and transfer between modes was easy. The architecture was very impressive and I could see the development over the years. Berlin was a very large and magnificent city, which could not all be covered in the limited time available. I was very impressed and would love to go back. Berlin is the kind of big city where you must spend at least a week.
Berlin Wall
Brandenburger Tor
Peter Eissenman's Holocaust Memorial
Mom having a beer.