Family Visits in Europe

I'll eventually have an entry about friends visiting me, and an entry about A Dinner Party, my project (I'll wait until we're closer to finished), but first I figured I should write about my family coming to visit me out here.

My uncle Craig Underwood, whose blog you should definitely check out (www.collaborationevangelist.com), brought his wife Patty and kids, Jordan and Myles, out here for a week. I had some things I had to take care of during the week, but I did get to see them quite a bit while they were here.

The first place I showed them was Old Town Square, which is absolutely overwhelming for your mind if you've never been. I've been there a thousand times at this point, but I think they were taking it all in pretty well. The old buildings are beautiful and spectacular, and it sometimes feel like you've been transported back in time, unless there's a big modern fair going on in the middle of it with obnoxiously loud music. The prices are as high there as anywhere else, but it's one of my favorite places to take a stroll, depending on the crowds. I'll never forget the first time Vefik and I stepped in there.

They seemed to be enjoying themselves.

We did the usual stuff. I showed them as much as I could. We went to the castle. I showed them Mala Strana, the most beautiful part of the city. We went to the John Lennon Wall. I went back to Pisek. They went to the Jewish quarter, and a few other places. They visited me, and then I went with them later on in the week to the zoo, which is incredible.

That's right, they let you hang out with the lemurs.

I thoroughly enjoyed Zoo Praha. I have to go back at some point. I haven't been to a zoo since Meredith and I went to Cincinatti a few years back. This is a huge place, with a random but good selection of animals.

I took Craig around the city a bit in the evenings. We hunted for statues by David Cerny (look him up if you haven't heard of him... he's absolutely insane) one night. We went to several shops around the city. Unfortunately, I couldn't talk him out of this:

But yeah, the Underwood visit was a good lesson in time management. And it was the first time in months that I was talking to someone I knew before I got here. AND it was my first opportunity to show off a city. Twas wondrous.

A week or so after that, my father and brother arrived. I was busy shooting during the first weekend, but they took on Prague without me. They stopped in Pisek and saw me, hopped down to Bratislava, then Vienna, and finally returned to Prague, where I met up with them again. I took them to the castle, Kutna Hora, Vysehrad, and Zizkov. They really loved it, from what I can tell.

Can't you see the excitement?

They got a pretty good sense of what a strange place the Czech Republic can be. Prague has such a macabre history of martyrs, wars, and the plague, but it's somehow an insanely charming city.

Kutna Hora's especially memorable for these guys. It's an hour away from Prague, so it's more of a genuine Czech town. And surrounding yourself with bones and not being terrified is an indescribable feeling.

See? No terror here.

It's weird to spend so much time in the company of strangers and then suddenly end up knowing a city well enough to navigate it, and then showing people you've known your whole life what it's like. It's like when you have different groups of friends that you hang out with but not all at once. When they converge it feels like worlds are colliding. That's kind of what it felt like. Not bad, just surreal.

When Dad and Chris left, I walked back to the bus station from Vysehrad. A lot of the Prague public transportation was down for a few hours because of the Prague marathon, which I walked right into several times.

Twas interesting.

The journey so far...

First, I met up with my father in London at the airport. It was wonderful to see him. It's been over 3 months since I saw anyone I knew, and seeing him was a breath of fresh air. We went on the Rock n Roll Tour, which showed us all sorts of places that have changed music over the years. It was really cool. Afterwards, we headed to the West End and saw The Mousetrap, the longest running play ever. It was really good, and it shows no signs of stopping anytime soon.

The next day, our main tour began and we headed to France. We saw the white cliffs of Dover from our ferry, and got to Paris around 6ish in the evening. It's a very enchanting city. We ate at Montmarte, which was wonderful. The service and the food was excellent. We saw the Sacred Heart and the Moulin Rouge. The next day we saw the Louvre (just the outside), Notre Dame (beautiful and really cool to be there on Christmas), the Eiffel Tower, and various other parts of Paris. It's a wonderful place.


After that, we set off for Switzerland, where we stayed in the town of Grindelwald. We headed up to the top of some of the Swiss Alps, including the "Top of Europe". I nearly froze to death, but the area was surprisingly awesome. I got a really bad cold and ended up feeling kind of miserable on our way out of there, though.

We stopped in Boppard on the Rhine River, but I was asleep for the entire night we were there.

Then we went to Amsterdam. We did the Anne Frank House, the Heineken Brewery, and the Van Gogh Museum. It was kind of awesome, but it's the most indulgent city in the world. Absolute chaos. Especially for New Years.

Afterwards, our tour ended and Dad and I went to London. We saw the Tower of London, St. Paul's Cathedral, and we rode the Eye. The Eye of London was a surprisingly good highlight of the trip. I was terrified going up it, but I really kind of loved it once we got on.

On Sunday, we said our goodbyes and Dad flew back to the US. I went to Dublin, for the first part of my "alone" section of my journey. It was a really nice little town. I ended up touring the Guinness Brewery, the Jameson's Distillery, and Old Kilmainham Jail. I got lost at one point, eventually making my way back but exhausting myself in the process. I went to a comedy show, where they made fun of me for being American. Good times.


After Dublin, I flew to Barcelona. That city was amazing. It was like an art museum as a city. I saw the Picasso Museum, the Parc Guell, La Rambla, and Port Vell. I'd go back in a heartbeat; it was wonderful. I had hoped to practice some of my Spanish there, but they mostly speak Catalan in that area.

I took the AVE train to Madrid, which was essentially a flight on the ground. It's one of the fastest trains in the world, and it was kind of awesome. Madrid so far seems cool; I've done El Prado (lots of Goya and El Greco), the Botanical Gardens, and I've been to the Plaza Mayor. We'll see what I do here in the next few days.

Until then, Ciao!

No hay nada aquí hoy

First I said I'd update this once a week, then once every few weeks, and now it's been almost a month. Wow, I'm awesome.

We've shot a music video, which you can expect to see online probably next week. We also shot a report, and we may shoot one more thing before Christmas. We've had some new classes, and school's generally been all right.

But let's be fair, I'm overdue on a blog about my grandfather.

My grandfather, Cecil H. Underwood, passed away over a week ago. His health had been on the decline for a long time. In a lot of ways, it's a relief.

I knew my grandfather well in a lot of ways, but at times he seemed like a mystery. Before I left, I kind of knew I'd be missing his funeral, so I said my goodbye to him in private. Part of me felt like I was running away a little bit, but I know he'd be okay with where I was at his service. Chris, my brother (pictured above) was able to read a statement from me at the memorial service (thanks Chris), so I did what I could to express my feelings.

Granddad was a public figure in West Virginia. He was a political figure, and while he didn't always win, a lot of people knew who he was. And it definitely looks like people liked him. Every time his health failed, it somehow got to the news media, which always bothered me. Granddad was a very private, quiet man. Unfortunately, being abroad, I had to deal with the public figure part of him first. I knew that something was going on, but couldn't get ahold of anybody, so I ended up checking the Charleston newspaper, which already had a story on it. Four hours after his passing, and they had interviews and statements. It was a bit surreal.

And while I'm not sure it's necessarily a good thing that they had as many cameras at a memorial service as they did, I was able to stream it live online and see how it went, for the most part. It was a lovely service, and everybody that I could see did a wonderful job. Granddad would be a little embarrassed at all the love, but he would appreciate it.

Also, my brother and my uncle Craig look too alike. When Chris got up to talk, I wasn't sure who he was until he spoke. I realized that it looks a little bit like a family of Lex Luthors... I'm not saying we are though.

But yeah, Granddad's passing is sad, but things happen for a reason.