Signs that time is passing...

It's officially spring here in Vienna, down to the freshly blooming flower beds (okay, so I watched the guys plant them on my way to school, but they are still pretty right?). I have just tossed out my second bottle of allergy medicine and I am staring at my single pair of contacts thinking--by the time I need you, I will be back in States. My roommates and I have also developed a schedule. We all know who gets up when and which pan to use for the eggs in the morning. I have my favorite foods to buy at the grocery store (cherry tomatoes still on the vine) and the Kebap guy and I wave whenever we see each other although I suppose I should learn his name someday.

I know I have been bad about posting in my blog recently but I have found it difficult to find both the time and motivation. It's easy to write about the crazy ski trip I just went on or adventures I had with my sisters--but writing about life? That's a little harder. Here's the fact of the matter: somewhere along the line, during this crazy fun semester, I created a life for myself in this city. I look around me and I talk to my friends who have lived in or near here all their lives and I hate to think that I will be gone in a month. I barely know these wonderful fabulous people--I barely know this wonderful fabulous city. I knew coming into this semester that I wanted to LIVE in Vienna, not just vacation here for five months. The result of that effort and I am sitting here shaking my head--where do I go from here?

The whole venture is somewhat ironic. All of high school I knew I would be leaving--don't worry about it, it'll just happen. In college I have had a blast but I know we will all disappear to the corners of the world after graduation. All the friendship group and small communities have felt wonderful but the knowledge of their temporary nature lurks in the back of my mind. And then, I come to a city where I know I will be staying only five months and life feels, well, more permanent. More like I could stay here and do this for a few years longer and be happy to stay in one place. Let my wandering feet breathe for a while (well, at least during the work week) in place with good coffee and the beginnings of good friends.

I was talking to my roommate Eloise earlier and the conversation went like this:

"You know, I just want to stay in Vienna long enough to get sick of it."
"I don't think that's ever gonna happen."
"Yes, but it would be nice to find out."

Am I crazy to fall in love with a place that is SO difficult to move to and live in? I swear there is more paperwork per square inch of this place than people in this crazy city, but it still has its shiney. For some reason, this beautiful, quiet, reserved, history-filled, dancing, eating, noise-filled city has captured my heart. Honeymoon period? For certain. But will it change with more time? I really, really want to find out...

Happy Dreaming!

Ich bin gern in die Alpen schifahren.

I went skiing in the Alps!!!! Only my second time skiing (minus that time when I was little and I don't remember) and only my 3rd and 4th day ever on the slopes and it was in the ALPS! How spoiled am I? Pretty darn spoiled. We drove out on Friday to a ski resort near Salzburg called Raadstadt/Altensee. Our passes though got us onto about six different mountains which was pretty sweet.

The first day was a little rough--I had to get my snow legs back. Madeleine and I paired up for the weekend and she stuck with me as I conquered first the beginner Blue runs and slowly but surely moved up on the intermediate Reds. By the end of the day I was starting to head down the intermediate runs with only minor bumps along the way.

After a full day of skiing we headed back to the hostel. Adrienne, Madeleine and I thought we would head into town to grab drinks and see the local town. Well, we eventually made it to town but first we had to cross a dark cow pasture, find a couple of bridges over some streams, and wind our way through the dark outer neighborhoods. It was a gorgeous night with the stars peaking out between the clouds!

The next day the three of us headed off bright and early to Zauchensee/Flachauwinkl and took on the fresh powder. At this point I was starting to hit my stride. I was still pretty scared out of my mind but by the end of the day I was leaping down those Red runs with furry and vigor! Not bad for my fourth day on the slopes! The sun was also out making it a beautiful day to look out at the scenery. It was nice to just have one or two people to ski with--we got in a ton of runs and had a lot of fun. The best was when we were headed up to the top of Zauchensee and we all had a simultaneous "DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE!!!!" moment. It was pretty darn awesome.

The rest is best left up to pictures, so here they are:

Madeleine (left) and Adrienne looking happy to be heading up to the top. You can see the other mountains behind them (we skied over there too!).

Yea, I might have skied down that. :D

And I might have been a little happy about it.

Look how pretty it is!!! I am not even lying, it was glittering. We got up top and we thought we had walked into a craft store.

Ready to take our last run down the slopes. But what a fabulous weekend it was!

Happy Schilaufen!

Bad Aussee (No, it's not a dirty word!)

In case you are wondering, the cure for all that ails you is a weekend in the Alps.

This past weekend Margaret and I spent a magical weekend in the rural alps along the Steiermark/Oberösterreich border.

The House:
As you can see, we arrived in Bad Aussee to the most picturesque house you can imagine. It was so warm and homey--just exactly what two girls tired of the city needed. Monika came to pick us up from the train station and we immediately went home to make delicious curry for dinner. The house smelled exactly like Grandma Wallig's house with that warm wood scent. We loved the ceramic stove keeping the whole place warm and everything was just the perfect size of not too big but not too cramped.

Our Hosts:

Monika taught Margaret and I our first words of German during our three week intensive German course. Michael is a retired Vicar in the Evangelisch (Lutheran) church. He is originally from Northern Germany. He and Monika met after she had left her first husband and was raising four kids all on her own! They fell in love and made quite a stir! Of course, Monika takes this in stride now--she's such a mischief maker she probably took it in stride then too!

Me outside in the backyard on Saturday morning:
On Saturday us girls drove around the mountains into Upper Austria to where the Hapsburg emperors used to vacation. Our first stop was Hallstatt the site of many artifacts from an acient civilization made rich on salt. The whole area is called the Salzkammergut and everywhere are markers of the old salt trade. Now the town is small and meant as a quiet vacation spot complete with newly renovated hotel. The churches were the most fascinating part of the trip. We climbed up a number of steps to the Catholic church and looked around.

The beginning of the long ascent:

Graves at the top of the climb:

As you can see, ground these days is fairly scarce. The town is squeezed between a fairly sheer mountain and a lake so the graves are very small. Monika hauled us all the way up here to show us the one thing we will never see anywhere else: a skull crypt. Since there is so little room, many people opt to be placed in a small crypt. The bodies are buried for ten years and then exhumed. The skulls are then blessed and painted intricately with symbols from the person's life and their name. I have a hard time taking pictures of burial places (as you can see by the poor nature of this photo, I could only bring myself to take one) so I don't have a photo of my own. However there is a website with some photos and more information here.

A mountain stream rerouted throughout the whole little town:

The nice thing about being so high up is we had a beautiful view of the rest of the city, lake, and protestant church:We spent the rest of the day exploring the area and enjoying the scenery. We even had time to run back home and walk Kyara, the dog around the Toplitzsee. The Toplitzsee is famous for being a very deep lake where the first 60 m is sweet water and the last 125 m is salt! The Nazi's supposedly buried treasure here and sure enough, in the 80's they found gold and false English bank notes! In '87 they also dug up a whole box of bottle caps a men's club had buried as a prank! The authorities weren't too happy but they apparently thought it was funny enough to hang the box in the restaurant by the lake.

Margart by the Toplitzsee:
Also around this lake is where the Archduke Johann met and fell in love with the Postmaster's daughter Anna Polchl whom he was unable to marry until his Hapsburg brother finally conceded 15 years later.

After a quiet evening making Potato Goulash and watching Keeping Up Appearances we woke up the next morning for Sunday Mass. It was so much fun to see Monika interact with all her local friends. She's so funny and obviously the life of any conversation. I want to be her when I grow up! We had a weekend full of her stories. She lived in England for a couple years, has traveled all over the world, and now spends part of her time giving Cambridge Exams and travelling with her church ladies. I hope I have half of her energy when I'm that age and just as many stories to tell!

After a lovely morning at the coffee shop with Michael we headed to grab lunch. On our way home, we had a surprise. Michael is the Chancellor for his chapter of a men's club started in Prague a couple hundred years ago. Everything is discussed with whit and humor except Politics, Family, and Religion. As Monika put it, it's a place for older men to go play like boys. It sounded like a great time to me! After hearing about this club all weekend, Michael took us in and showed us around! It was so funny and wonderful! It really felt like being part of the family being able to experience something so few people from the rest of the world have seen!

Michael in his official hat and Monika being goofy in a borrow apprentice cap:
Unfortunately, after our adventures into the club it was time to head back to Vienna. We said farewell to Monika and Michael, petted the cats and dog, and headed off on the train. Our perfect weekend in the countryside was over.

However, before all seems lost, Monika will be coming over for dinner tonight since she had errands in town to run! Margaret is cooking up delicious food and I'm bring dessert so we can have another lovely evening of talk, food, and fun! I am really looking forward to a chance to hear even more funny stories.

Happy Alps-ing!

Ball Photos

Madeleine and I in our masks!

Rudolfina Redoute aka Ball 2.0

Since we had so much fun at the last ball, Madeleine and I decided that the next student ball, the Rudolfina Redoute was a requirement.

The Rudolfina Redoute gets its name from K.Ö.St.V. Rudolfina, the Austrian fraternity that hosts the ball. A redoute is a masked ball where women are obliged to wear masks from opening to midnight. During this time, any woman in a mask may ask any man to dance and cannot be refused. After the unmasking quadrille, either gender may ask until the ball ends at 5am. (More history here.) Pretty cool, right? Madeleine and I were pretty excited both about our masks and the free reign we had in asking people to dance!

Since we were unable to secure good spots for the opening of the TU Ball, we arrived early to assure ourselves good viewing room of the events. I was really glad we did! After the Debutantes were escorted out onto the floor and the opening dance performed, we were treated to a short performance of Carmen excerpts by two singers followed by a beautiful ballet interpretation. It was really spectacular. We ended up with standing spots right next to where everyone entered so we would be watching the performance and then all of the sudden there would be an opera singer or a ballet dancer right next to us. It was a great opening to see!

The rest of the night just seemed to fly by. Justine and I ended up dancing for a while with two Austrian friends--they seemed pretty cool but after about an hour we realized they seemed to completely lack personality. It appears the stereotypical frat boy exists here in Austria as well. (Notice that I said the stereotype not every frat boy!) After we ditched those losers, we had some more fun dancing around with each other and asking a few people to dance. I met a very nice guy name Gerald who teaches American Political systems at the University and worked at one point for Schwarzenegger (>.<). He was very polite but a little strange. Lovely dancer though.

The real highlight of the evening is when Madeleine and I saw a pleasant looking fellow from across the room. At her insistence I navigated across two rooms of revelers to ask him to dance. Turned out to be a great idea! My new friend Lukas and I realized that neither of us could dance very well, so we sat down and had a lovely conversation. It turns out he spent some time in Texas during high school, loves to travel, and is all around a nice really nice (and shy!) guy. After about an hour we hunted down his roommate, an outrageously funny guy from Germany named Norbert, and decided it was high time we got some breakfast at the early hour of 4:30am! To the sounds of Norbert's loud laugh and Madeleine's limping, I've-worn-my-heels-too-long gate, the four of us, plus one of Lukas's friends, headed over to the Rudolfina fraternity flat for early morning breakfast.

As a recap, let me just set the scene: It is 5:00am in the morning, we have been dancing since about 9:30pm and here Madeleine and I are standing in a room full of Austrian fraternity men (and friends) having Krapfen and beer for breakfast. I don't know how to even describe how awesome and surreal it still seems. After much more laughing and joking, especially at our choice of breakfast (BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS!!!), Norbert and Lukas escorted us to the U-bahn to catch the first train of the morning home.

It definitely was a great night but the best part has been that I now have Austrian friends! Lukas and Norbert have been horribly nice about inviting Madeleine and I to join them and their friends. I met a few of their friends last Wednesday over a quick drink and we'll be seeing them again this Thursday at a small party they are throwing for a friend. I am so excited--I have Austrian friends! :D

More stories to come at another time.

Happy Friending!

Barcelona take two

Continuing from the adventures at the Sagrada Familia, Adrienne and I decided, on a whim that we would see if we could get opera tickets at Liceu. We knew that Wagner's Tristan and Isolde was showing with Debra Voigt as Isolde but we didn't realize that as students we could get partial view tickets for 4.50. Best 4.50 of the entire trip. The work was absolutely stunning and neither of us could believe that four hours had passed. Where we were sitting you had to crane your neck underneath a railing to see the stage and we could only see straight down on top of the singers. It turned out to be the best view for final scene. As dream Tristan wrapped his arms around Isolde it was like looking down on an angel.

That night we finally had a chance to hang out with our super cool Argentinian roommates and decided to schedule a night out for the following evening.

The next day we hit up the Picasso museum complete with a special exhibit on Erotic Japanese Art. While it was an interesting exhibit, I'm not sure it's one I'd be horribly interested in experiencing again--it was just a wee bit awkward after a while. Since we were already in the Gothic Corridor, we decided to wander around a bit. We found ourselves hungry and quickly ducked into a little family run restaurant with a daily menu for 10 euro.

This was quite the experience. While observing what must have been the Spanish version of Jerry Springer on the television, we were also experiencing it in the restaurant itself. The place was absolutely adorable but it was quite obvious that the younger girl serving as waitress was new or very overwhelmed and the older woman was ready to let her have it if she didn't hurry up. The food was good and the setting was really nice with lots of crazy European plates and dolls up along the walls. Despite the initial fighting, it was cool to listen to the daily gossip between the owner and some of her regulars--even if we didn't understand a word.

The next stop was the famous Catedral. If I were to describe this stunning work of architecture using only one word it would be "space." Somehow the long elegant arches stretching up and peeling out into more arches made the whole place seem impossibly larger on the inside that it had been on the outside. I am finding the more time I spend looking at golden altars and intricate embellishment, the more I am simply awed by raw, unadorned space. Sitting down in a pew looking up at the ceiling seemingly miles ahead of me, I felt simultaneously smaller and somehow closer to God. It is a feeling I am becoming familiar with but I don't think I will ever quite get used to it.

That evening we took sometime to go out with our roommates Vicky and Denise. It was interesting to hear about Argentinian lifestyle--nights staying out until 5 to 6 am but a working day that lasts much later. Dinner doesn't start until 9pm and the daily siesta helps pass the hotter parts of the day. Apparently with more modern companies, neither Denise or Vicky had siesta and they said they miss it. When Adrienne and I explained that we rarely went out passed 2 am Vicky commented that our lives must be pretty boring! And here I was thinking I've been living it up as a college student!

Unfortunately, Vicky and Denise needed to leave pretty early the next morning to catch their flight to Italy so we had to call it an early night. Adrienne and I also got up early and decided to take a train out of the city and hike up to the Montserrat Monastery (information here). It was pretty surreal when we hopped off the train and found ourselves in a little Spanish town with only a vague idea of where to find our trail head and no one else wandering from the train station but us. It was a beautiful but steep hike up to the monastery and one of those surreal days where you keep looking around trying to find the camera crew. The monastery itself was incredibly touristy since most normal people take the local train to the top. None the less, the sanctuary was another religious experience by itself. The hike was also a much needed cure for my need to see greenery.

On our last morning we decided to watch the sunrise over the Mediterranean to say our goodbyes to the beautiful city of Barcelona. We were pretty sad to be leaving but we also knew it would be good to be home. By the time we made the nine hour trek home, we were ready for a nice calm night in our own little apartment.

To see the full album of the trip click here.

Happy hiking!

Barcelona

[20.2.2010 Photo links are fixed for those without Facebook!]

Oh my Barcelona. My friend Ugur warned us that Barcelona would be our favorite city. He was so right. There is a magic about Barcelona that is simply indescribable until you see it. Since it was such a fun trip I will start at the very beginning.

In order to travel cheaply to Barcelona, we had to fly out of Bratislava. Vienna and Bratislava are the two closest national capitals in the world at only 30km apart. In order to get to the airport on time and because we had never done the trip, we left pretty early to on the U-bahn to catch first a train to Bratislava then a bus from the train station to the airport. First leg down and we had four hours to burn before our flight would depart. Well, we thought.

The other thing to know about this trip is that we were flying RyanAir--notorious for their horrible delays. Unfortunately we fell prey to one of these oh so delightful delays. The killer is that both of us forgot--in our infinite wisdom to bring a book, or chrocheting, or even an iPod. This was dull. Probably the dullest four hours of my life. One of my favorite things about myself, however, is that when I get really, really bored--I get resourceful. At this point, a couple of Slovakian guys had been talking in English in the row behind us. I finally got bored and just turned around and jumped in the conversation. Being especially bold, after running to the bathroom, I plopped my butt onto the seat next to these guys and started a conversation. One of the guys had a book called "Vulgerisms in any language" and thus we began to learn bad words/sayings in Slovakian. Unfortunately, I have forgotten all of them but it was a nice way to pass the time. The other fun part was meeting Ugur from Turkey--he was the reason the Slovakian guys had been speaking English. Ugur and I started discussing traveling, the delay, music, etc. He was a really cool guy. When we were all getting tired, he got out his mp3 player and I got out my notebook. At his goading I wrote a really, really bad poem about how much Ryanair sucks for abandoning us for six hours in the airport. I then gave it to him as a present and in exchange he gave me 5 Turkish Liras--I made a joke about it being my first and only payed poem ever. It was pretty fun.

We finally boarded and took off at around 1 am--which meant Adrienne and I had spent 12 hours in the Bratislava airport. On the plane we ended up sitting next to a really boisterous/friendly Austrian girl (they do exist!) named Anna. She was fun to talk to and gave me a few recommendations for places to go/see. I didn't get her information which was a shame but it was like 4am when we got in and I had no social skills left to me.

The problem with arriving in a foreign country where you don't speak the language at 4am in the morning, is that no buses are running and you have no notion of how to call a cab. Rather than deal with it, we just reneged on our Girona reservation and took the bus straight to Barcelona. We finally dragged our travel worn bodies into our hostel in Barcelona at 5 am. The guy at the front desk just looked at us and said "we'll do payment in the morning--just go sleep." It sucked that it cost us some extra money but not having to navigate the street of Girona at 5 am was worth the extra 20 Euro. Still--that was one of those growing up moments where you realize that you have to decide what is safest for you and your travel mate in an unforeseen situation. It was especially sobering since my travel mate is completely useless when she is sleepy/hungry/has to pee. I discovered this over the course of the trip but that night I was fine just taking control--I wanted sleep!

Our hostel was totally cute. It was the main floor of two back to back buildings with a courtyard in the middle perfect for soaking up the afternoon sun. We had rooms across the courtyard, directly outside. Everything was painted that deep orangey/yellow color and teal. It was so charming. I completely forgot to take pictures of it but there are pictures at their website here.
After dragging our tired bodies out of bed on Sunday, we decided the sunny weather meant nothing but beach. And that's exactly what we did.

Our hotel was right off of La Rambla, the main drag down to the beach. We came out onto harbor and there was Christopher Columbus, just chilling on his pedestal. The air was warm and the beaches were beautiful. I stuck my toes into the Mediterranean!!!! A bit chilly but a lot of fun! The best part is that everyone in the city was out that day. The weather hadn't been very warm for a while so everyone was out with their dogs, riding bikes, building sand castles, strolling along the beach, and doing my absolute favorite thing: busking!!! We sat down and watched this one band for a good hour. They were super quirky with a string bass, accordion, flute, alto and bari sax, tuba, and vocals. It was the perfect way to spend a day relaxing.

Unfortunately, the next two days were rainy. :( Still tired, and rather culture shocked from our quick and late night transition from German to Spanish, we took it easy the next day. We got up around 11 and headed over to the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's unfinished cathedral. It was really spectacular with a lot of really amazing detail. The way the decorations are molded and the shape of the towers makes it look like a sand castle that is being rained on. The statues were really intricate and wonderful too look at. I was a big fan of the manger scene especially with the pigeon sitting on the Shepherd's head. The outside was interesting but over all, I found the whole thing just too overwhelming. The architecture on it's own is so fabulous, the excessive detail seems to take away from the structure rather than add to it. The inside, despite being a complete construction zone was still pretty magnificent. (For more information about the sight, the tourist website in English is here.)

I'm going to have to finish Day 3-5 tomorrow. I desperately need sleep. I went to another ball last night I didn't get home until 6am. That's a whole other story to tell... :D

Happy Adventuring!