Flying solo...

Like a bird firstly spreading it's wings, leaving the safety of it's nest, I left the safety of my fabled wolfpack companions- Dan and Pip.

IN BRIEF
First stop on the last legs of this adventure was

Milano
to see my friend Angelo (a guy that I met whilst in Edinburgh). This was quite a whirlwind adventure as I arrived was whisked back to Angelo's apartment, taken in to see the Duomo, Castle etc etc... before jumping in a car and driving out to Pavia to see Franco Battiato in concert!!! What, I hear you say? That means nothing to you, well, me neither. But he was HUGE in the 70's, 80's and 90's. He is like the John Farnham of Italy... This is the song where everyone went nuts! Of course, I have no idea what it's about, but it was definitely my favourite...

Wandering myself around the art museums/galleries of Milano I was just astonished by how fabulous everyone was. Walking around in pressed stream-lined Italian suits, drinking expressos, smoking cigarettes and I swear that Italian women have something to do with funding the entire high-heel shoe industry... It's all so alluring that it almost convinces me to buy a packet of Camels and reduce my diet to only calorie-negative celery. Though this thought may have also occurred to me when my host Angelo described me as both 'liking food a lot' and 'eating like a man' (actual quotes).
Other then that I managed to get to the Milan Film Festival and see a documentary called You Don't Like the Truth: 4 Days in Guantanamo Bay, which left me so angry and furstrated about 'the injustice of it all', but was also super well done... Check it: http://www.youdontlikethetruth.com/
Anywho, moving right along. I said goodbye to Angelo and made my way for...

Venice

where I was kindly given my key, walked up to my room, swung open the door and screamed! Those who know me well will know that I have an irrationally large fear of birds (it's just their beaks, you never know what they're going to do... poke your eye out!?). Nevertheless, I was greeted by my two new roomies, two pidgeons, who had been bunkering down in my room for a while now as there was shit everywhere...I think pidgeons are out for me. First food poisoning, now this... nevertheless, various bird-flapping/pointing to my room hand gestures later, the hostel staff had given me a new room... So anyway, Venice... the museum of a city, where I spent most of my time at the Venice Biennale (one of the largest art festivals in the world), but more on that later. I also managed to get seriously lost a fair few times, get myself out on the town in Santa Margherita, taste some mean pina coladas and fall asleep on late night buses (so nothing new).

Next up I subjected myself to a terrible night-train which found me lying on the ground underneath some seats for nigh on 6 hours. But all in order so that I could get to
Munich 
where I had a day in which I think I experienced every emotion. Let me break it down:
Exhaustion: arriving at 6am in the morning and remembering straight away it's the first day of Oktoberfest, so everyone is walking around in leiderhosen and sucking back on their morning beers. I head straight for the waiting room.
Panic/Great Distress: As I realise that I've lost my Eurail Pass, a document that is possibly worth hundreds of euros.
Embarrassment: As I begin to cry when the Lost and Found Officer explains to me that they can't get anything off the train until Monday.
Elation: As I realise an hour later that I just left it in the waiting room.
Excitement: At seeing all the opening Oktoberfest Opening Ceremony in the main square of Munich.
Despondency/Heavy Heartedness: As I made my way to Dachau concentration camp and learnt about it's history.
Awe/Excitement: As I wandered around Oktoberfest, making friends with those who were in the 'too hard too early' basket (see below, picture taken 3pm).

Nevertheless, time was a ticking and I didn't have any accommodation in Munich, so I caught the train to

Vienna
in order to meet up with the one and only Pip McIlory, your friend next door from the company Elevate Education.
Finally realising that Europe does actually get cold, Pip and I rugged up and braved the elements. And yes, I loved Vienna-how typical. Loved wandering the markets. Loved seeking out all the architecture from the Viennesse Succession. Loved the Museumsquartier. And LOVED the free concert tickets Pip and I managed to score from a home connection. Yes please!

At the Viennesse Secession building.
All too soon our little honeymoon was over. I said goodbye to Pip who was off to Siena for University whilst I was heading further north and getting down Czech Republic style in...

Prague
rockin' up at my hostel at around 12 midnight, I was quickly whisked away to the oldest pub in Europe (supposedly), where I delved into the finest of Czech beers. Three days later I've seen a few more beverage establishments, eaten some seriously good Goulash, had a run in with the Czech postal service and fallen for the comincally ironic art of bad boy Czech artist David Černý, who makes works that look a little something like this:

Anywho, Prague-that's where I am now! So I'm finally up to date and about to munch down some breakfast and make my way to Berlin! Can not wait! Hope all's well in your land. Thanks for reading.

 POINTS OF INTEREST
Venice Biennale

Finally, I was there, the Venice Biennale. Ticket in hand I readied myself for a serious few days of art.
And it was... ok. Whilst I had expected to be absolutely blown away, I only found that there was just a few things that I really liked.
Furstrating was my slight death wish towards contemporary art and it's obedience to Barthe's Death of the Author. No, didactics aren't cool, but yes, sometimes contemporary art needs a bit of context and just throwing someone in to interpret in their own way sometimes makes everything into an indecipherable mess. ESPECIALLY the Italian Pavilion... I could have cried at how terrible that was. This was actually in the exhibition:

yes, a globbular red Italy shaped crucifix, need I say more.

Triennale's Options of Luxury exhibition, Milano
This was the most ridiculous exhibition I have every seen. I actually thought it was a joke. It describes itself as following the 'evolution of luxury goods'. I'm not even sure if words can actually describe what they presented you with. It was just like this huge journey, which didn't really make a great deal of sense... but you walked through all these rooms, where computer graphics screamed slogans at you like 'Food is Art' and 'Luxury surpasses the ordinary'... Different rooms included an elaborately reconstructed designer dressing room, a hall of masks where you looked in to see potential 'desires' (see below) in front of you (embarrassingly, these desires included such steroetypes as 'travelling to South East Asia' and 'buying that designer handbag') and a make-shift island which showed the 'luxury of the future' compelte with folk rolling around in orb balls and having rave parties in caves...

There was actually one room where you got an ipad and wandered into a GIANT handbag and pretended like you were going around in this persons handbag whilst they walked around... what!? I am not sure if I have done this justice, but I am still bewildered about this.
ART-WANK
-Museo Novecento, Milan: Glad to finally get into an Italian Art Museum for free, this place was well done. All modern Italian art. Favourites included Boccioni.
-Triennale Design Museum- What is Italian Design?- And awesometeractive exhibition where you got to lounge around in all the fabulous furniture... so many famous pieces such as the Lips Sofa, Spaghetti Chair etc. example:

-Venice Biennale (see above)
-Peggy Guggenheim Collection-really well done museum, which highlights an important part of the art industry that is often overlooked. Collectors and gallerists have played an instrumental role in defining the direction for art (money is power). So great to walk around Peggy's old digs and see not only her collection of mostly abstract expressionist art, but also pictures of her lazying around next to the grand canal, looking fabulous.
-Palazzo Fortuny-TRA- still undecided about this one. This was a very new and innovative curatorial approach which blended together East/West contemporary art, artefacts into a house-like museum.
-Leopold Museum- Biggest collection of Egon Schiele in the world. Fanstastically explained and well put together. Nice one Vienna.
-MUMOK-Vienna's Modern Art Museum. Intense explanations for explaining the tough topics of minimalist and conceptual works.
-Museum of New Art, Prague- an art museum that I randomly just walked into and was super impressed. Just opened in Jun 2011, this is a professional space not only for their collection but for various higher education organisations to show work. Up and coming and exciting, nice one. It also houses Cerny's Shark and Guns. Nice.
-David Černý sculpture- it covers Prague, so gives a really nice feel to all the public spaces and shows off a bit of Czech humour.