Day 27- June 21th: Art Night, my poor feet!

There are many moments in life when pain is deeply entangled with pleasure and tonight a rare event will bring both of of them together and make them a enjoyable as a pair.

Every year Budapest throws a party for the Art- lovers. The Museums and Galleries in the city are open all day and night until 4am with a low one time entry fee at 1,200 HUF and it's good for all museum and galleries. A great bargain because that is the price for one Museum entry. The town became more alive than ever, people young and old, lovers and old friends are all around the city for this major event. Big parties, special events, and performances are scheduled at most museums.

I met up with my roommate Andreas at 8pm at the Ludwig Museum- Budapest and we started there and 5 museum and galleries later it was already 2 am and we were exhausted. The city transportation hours was extended but all lines were jammed pack with passengers. It was a wonderful city-wide event but I wish it would have longer hours or the entire week ended like The Pasadena Art weekend.

My highlights are the wonderful interior space at the Applied Arts Museum. The white classic interior and it's large Hungarian antique collection is contrasted with video displays and ultra modern art installations. It worked seamlessly and wonderfully! The electronic music echo through the space where modern and classic blends much like the attendees of the event; punks, metrosexuals and century old people.

The Contemporary museum's Roman exterior is impressive and the interior is massive. I wish LA could have similar places for modern art. MOCA is nice and the shows are good but having 3 different small to mid-size galleries just doesn't work as well as MOMA or the Hungarian Contemporary museum did for me. The art there is mostly good but with some weak pieces but it was a enjoyable experience.

We finally got back to the hotel around 2:30am and tired as hell but we slept happily after seeing so many wonderful work.

Day 11- May 28th: Modern vs. Classical

I had a somewhat earlier start today. After yesterday's misadventure I feel confident on finding my way today. I took the train and even stopped at the Market place for a refreshing fresh hand- squeezed orange juice; a great relief in this high heat and humidity.

Upon on looking over at Hungarian architecture students work I realized how the training in our field is so much the same and yet so different. A good amount of the students here presented their final thesis on designing classical buildings and some worked on a hybrid of the two and the rest, modern designs like what we did in the States. I have never seen students or schools that actually taught students to design or even attempt to work on classical architecture other than learning them in history classes.

Is classical architecture dead? Or are we just too ignorant to have it as part of of our lives?

After meeting with some faculty member and got the information I needed; I said goodbye to the university and continued my search. After going to both stores they recommended I did find a very thick Plexiglas sheet, a 8ply basswood pressed board, glue and color films. I hope it will work and if not than I am out of luck. I feel very lucky to have had studied in the U.S. and didn't have to worry about not having materials to work with. We have the best materials, and selection possible and even pricing.... non necessities items are very expensive here, no matter how cheap they might be in Target back in the States.