In other words my flight was cancelled. Not anything to do with the weather here of course, just that the people in Gatwick have given up caring and stopped shovelling snow or something. From what I can gather from t'facebook, the UK appears to either have been taken by surprise by extra snow or too darn lazy to do anything about it, which has somewhat inconvenienced people. I am not all that bothered about th flight cancellation really, I mean it is sad that I will have to wait to see everyone, but there really isn't much point getting annoyed when the runway you were supposed to land on isn't even open and you wouldn't be able to be picked up in any case...
Well, it has snowed here now, though less than 6 inches in total I think. But still, everywhere is remarkably pretty.Vienna is well prepared for the snow, so there is much less of a festival atmosphere (you know, everyone rushing put to build a giant snow phallus in the 4 hours before the tube starts running again, etc). There are in fact no snow constructions of any description, but part of that is that because the temperature has stayed below zero since it fell, the snow is a powder rather than partially melted, so you can't squish it into snowballs. I took a stroll around during the snowstorm on Saturday, and the Heldenplatz did look very nice completely white. Christmas markets look nicer too, they seem a lot less tacky when everyone is standing in the bona fide snow and the little huts are covered in it. Although the market areas do develop this brown mud paste which is like the mother of all slushes. Mostly, you get the classic Vienna old couple out for a stroll, there will always be at least one fur coat between the pair and both will always be properly attired in a hat.
So, I don't know what I'll do tomorrow but I hope it's fun. I am currently reading the Moomin book I got for my birthday. It is every bit as good as I expected, though it does make me want to go run away and live on an island with a family of friendly troll creatures, which is not an easy career path to get onto... For music I have downloaded some Jeffrey Lewis, so I can laugh and smile inrecognition at his well worded, cute guitar songs about crushing insecurity and or punk and or hippies. He is great.
Merry nearly christmas!
Monday 21 December 2009
Wednesday 16 December 2009
Birthday etc
My birthday snuck up on me, as it does every year. I never pay much attention to it until one day everyone starts wishing me a happy birthday and there are cards in the mailbox. So, now I can legally drink in the states and buy spirits in Finland! That is about all the difference in me from last week I am afraid.
This year my birthday was the day after I had got back from Prague so I was pretty tired and was planning on sleeping the whole day, but then my buddy texted and asked would I like to go climbing. I decided it might be an idea to do something I enjoy on my birthday, and I am glad that I went because for some reason I was much better than I had been the previous two wednesdays. I am reluctant to attribute this to the development of some previously unknown character facet at age 21, more likely it is because after two weeks of practice I have started to remember how to climb again.
Afterwards Mirva came round, I cooked delicious Risotto (all my food LOOKS ugly but is in fact delicious, like a superhero with an alter ego. Only it is a food) and she made this delicious cake thing that wasn't really a cake because you don't have to cook it. It had a biscuit base but it wasn't a cheesecake either as the topping was made of whisked egg and cream and chocolate. Whatever, the foamcake (TM) was very tasty, even if it didn't set until the next day so we first ate it as a kind of chunky milkshake... Mirva bought me a moomin book for my birthday, following a conversation about how much we both liked the books (or in my case the one I have read). Apparently the author was Finnish and she lived alone on a tiny island off the coast of Finland. Cool.
On friday I went to a free concert at Mirva's school, they have them quite often so the students can actually perform stuff to people rather than just practice. It was great because you got a wide variety of composers, levels of difficulty and degrees of obscurity (as well as a variety of levels of piano skill). I think I might try and visit these evenings semi regularly, as they are a pretty good way of getting to know what I think is good. My buddy Ruth joined us for that, then we went off to the super cheap sushi restaurant for, well, you guess what for.
By the time we arrived and ordered our group had grown to include our new Iranian friends, their ex-german teacher Anna Lena (who has two first names), and Anna Lena's friend who was the brother of the guy who was her guide on a university trip to Benin and Togo. We spoke a lot of german, which was cool, and discussed the Voodoo/ Vodun/ whatever religion, because Anna Lena is studying religion and anthropology or something else cool and unusual. It turned out that Eric (i think that was his name?) was also a hereditary tribal prince, so that was also pretty cool. He doesn't get anything for it, but people would apparently respect him more than the average man if he were at home. After sushi we went to a bar in a shady looking aea behind the Westbahnhof where you can pay however much you want for a beer! Damned communists/lefty students! Actually the atmosphere was really nice, just like a house party really, not dangerous feeling at all. I would go there very often if not for the suffocating pall of smoke. Ruth however pronounced that she did not like the place because it was so 'abgefuckt', which is a 'german' word which means pretty much what you think it means. Awesome.
Got home very late/early, lazed around some, wrote about rocks, then went out to a bar to 'celebrate my birthday'. Of course I would have preferred to just go out to a bar without the raised expectations such a grandiose title brings with it, but we had a pleasant time in this strange incredibly trendy looking (in a 1960s decoration way) bar. In london you would pay a premium for the 'arty' atmosphere, but I don't think the pressure to be in the cool arty set is so great here (or perhaps anywhere outside of Shoreditch?), so it was just normal (thus still expensive) prices.
Mostly the rest of the time I have been fiddling with my mapping report and or drinking tea, apart from yesterday evening when we did a bit more christmas marketing. I am still puzzled by christmas markets, they seem like a great idea until you realise that the spirit of christmas isn't small wooden carved animals, hanging mobiles and incense shops. At least the gluhwein is good.
It snowed here for a while today, but the internet tells me it did that everywhere else as well. A scattering has settled, so maybe lots will fall tonight, but I am not optimistic. besides, tomorrow I have to go to 6 hours of lectures and I'd rather not be in them missing snow drifts.
Der Tom
This year my birthday was the day after I had got back from Prague so I was pretty tired and was planning on sleeping the whole day, but then my buddy texted and asked would I like to go climbing. I decided it might be an idea to do something I enjoy on my birthday, and I am glad that I went because for some reason I was much better than I had been the previous two wednesdays. I am reluctant to attribute this to the development of some previously unknown character facet at age 21, more likely it is because after two weeks of practice I have started to remember how to climb again.
Afterwards Mirva came round, I cooked delicious Risotto (all my food LOOKS ugly but is in fact delicious, like a superhero with an alter ego. Only it is a food) and she made this delicious cake thing that wasn't really a cake because you don't have to cook it. It had a biscuit base but it wasn't a cheesecake either as the topping was made of whisked egg and cream and chocolate. Whatever, the foamcake (TM) was very tasty, even if it didn't set until the next day so we first ate it as a kind of chunky milkshake... Mirva bought me a moomin book for my birthday, following a conversation about how much we both liked the books (or in my case the one I have read). Apparently the author was Finnish and she lived alone on a tiny island off the coast of Finland. Cool.
On friday I went to a free concert at Mirva's school, they have them quite often so the students can actually perform stuff to people rather than just practice. It was great because you got a wide variety of composers, levels of difficulty and degrees of obscurity (as well as a variety of levels of piano skill). I think I might try and visit these evenings semi regularly, as they are a pretty good way of getting to know what I think is good. My buddy Ruth joined us for that, then we went off to the super cheap sushi restaurant for, well, you guess what for.
By the time we arrived and ordered our group had grown to include our new Iranian friends, their ex-german teacher Anna Lena (who has two first names), and Anna Lena's friend who was the brother of the guy who was her guide on a university trip to Benin and Togo. We spoke a lot of german, which was cool, and discussed the Voodoo/ Vodun/ whatever religion, because Anna Lena is studying religion and anthropology or something else cool and unusual. It turned out that Eric (i think that was his name?) was also a hereditary tribal prince, so that was also pretty cool. He doesn't get anything for it, but people would apparently respect him more than the average man if he were at home. After sushi we went to a bar in a shady looking aea behind the Westbahnhof where you can pay however much you want for a beer! Damned communists/lefty students! Actually the atmosphere was really nice, just like a house party really, not dangerous feeling at all. I would go there very often if not for the suffocating pall of smoke. Ruth however pronounced that she did not like the place because it was so 'abgefuckt', which is a 'german' word which means pretty much what you think it means. Awesome.
Got home very late/early, lazed around some, wrote about rocks, then went out to a bar to 'celebrate my birthday'. Of course I would have preferred to just go out to a bar without the raised expectations such a grandiose title brings with it, but we had a pleasant time in this strange incredibly trendy looking (in a 1960s decoration way) bar. In london you would pay a premium for the 'arty' atmosphere, but I don't think the pressure to be in the cool arty set is so great here (or perhaps anywhere outside of Shoreditch?), so it was just normal (thus still expensive) prices.
Mostly the rest of the time I have been fiddling with my mapping report and or drinking tea, apart from yesterday evening when we did a bit more christmas marketing. I am still puzzled by christmas markets, they seem like a great idea until you realise that the spirit of christmas isn't small wooden carved animals, hanging mobiles and incense shops. At least the gluhwein is good.
It snowed here for a while today, but the internet tells me it did that everywhere else as well. A scattering has settled, so maybe lots will fall tonight, but I am not optimistic. besides, tomorrow I have to go to 6 hours of lectures and I'd rather not be in them missing snow drifts.
Der Tom
Saturday 12 December 2009
Praha/Prague
So last almost weekend (Sunday to Tuesday, thanks to the immaculate conception for giving me an extra day off!) I am to Prague went, as german grammar would have it. We travelled by bus, not my preferred means of transport, but unfortunately the only real choice in terms of last minute cheapness. The journey was only four and a bit hours long, so a long way off the longest time I've ever had to spend on a coach, and we even got free mineral water. Luxury. Any foolish ideas I might have had of watching the Austrian and Czech countryside roll past were however scuppered by an impressively impenetrable wall of mist that hung in the air, reducing visibility to about 30 metres for most of the journey, then giving way to a dull drizzle. True holiday weather!
On arrival, tiredness and the non-correspondance of the Prague roads to the hand drawn map in our possession led to some brief lostness, but eventually we reached our goal, the delightful Hostel Elf. The hostel was really great, an example of a place where a friendly and reasonable attitude leads to amazing results which make you wonder why things aren't always so. Cheap rooms, free tea and coffee in two huge urns at all times, art all over the walls both in and outside, permanently staffed reception and no curfew, sufficiently abundant shower and toilet facilities and a free breakfast of cornflakes and doughnuts. (OK the last one isn't that great, but it was more free breakfast than anywhere else would have given us). Although not situated in the exact centre of Prague, it is a mere 10 minute tram or bus ride away. Plus did I mention it was cheap?
The hostel also gives a 15% discount at a local restaurant. While the decor (random alligator model, african folk art, driftwood, shark teeth) and music (an english language 80s and 90s hits station) were confusing and clearly geared at the lazy english tourist (as, IMO, was the choice of Heinz tomato ketchup in the condiment stands), the food was very good. A meal wasn't that much cheaper than in Austria, but the price per gram of food certainly was. I ordered duck, dumplings and red cabbage, and I was absolutely stuffed without getting through much more than half. Potato dumplings will keep you going pretty well in the cold Prague winter I think. Combined with the unecessarily alcoholic (12%!!) beer, we were pretty much knocked out and had to go for a major siesta.
So it was that my first proper tourist experience of Prague was of the city at night. The hostel was situated right next to one of the numerous hills that exist in the city, Vitkov Hill, which we promptly climbed. Thank goodness, they don't lock parks like we do in the UK. On top of the hill there is a HUGE statue of an old Czech King on horseback looking ready to trample all comers. Behind him is the massive cuboid of the Czech National Museum/ memorial thing. Mirva climbed on top of a Russian tank we found, which made me all British and uncomfortable... ('you're on the tank! what if somebody sees!'). It's funny how British one gets when one is not in good old blighty, what. Of course the main attraction apart from the towering monarch and almost empty plaza in front, was the spectacle of Prague at night. Every one of the numerous fairytale church spires lit up, the huge castle on the opposing hill glowing alost green in the lights, the retr0-futuristic TV tower, the ring of other hills off on all sides, some spotted with the regimented lights of the most soviet flats I've seen for a while. Very nice. I had not really realised how big the city was. It definitely feels bigger than Vienna, but how much is due to the greater visibility afforded by so many hills, I'm not quite sure.
We then wandered in the rain down to the main square of Prague, overlooked by the instantly recognisable spire of the Tyn church/cathedral. There was a christmas market (of course) and a ridiculously over the top christmas tree which was almost blinding. Sufficiently dampened, we returned home via tram.
The next day we tried to meet up with one of the hundreds of free tours advertised around the hostel, to no avail as we reached the meeting point only 2 minutes after the scheduled start time and they had already disappeared. It would have been good to get a bit of the history of the place, but wandering around did at least have the benefit of freedom. We detoured through the old Jewish Quarter (where the Jewish Cemetery has become a cynically rather overpriced tourist attraction) to the river for a river cruise. Prague has a proper river through the middle of it, rather than ignoring it and leaving it off to one side as has happened in Vienna, and it provides a nice way to admire the buildings of the centre. Luckily on the Monday we had bright, warming sunshine all day long, the winter kind that doesn't make you overheat and lights up everything in a completely different way to summer sunlight. This gave Prague a chance to show off its better points, all the architecture sitting around calmly showing off, the medieval bulk of the Charles Bridge with its enigmatic statues and the ever present hills standing hazily off in the distance.
I am a huge fan of all the hills in prague, as has already become clear I think. One of my favourite things to do in a new city is to climb tall things and look at other things from the top of them. To this end we then climbed the steep scarp from the river up to where a large orange constantly ticking metronome sculpture commemorates the end of communism. We then made our way along the top of the hill past an impressive pavilion and several 1920s mansions to reach the castle. The castle is the largest medieval castle in Europe, although much of the original structure is now overgrown by things from later, grander periods when there was less worry about invasions. There is a MASSIVE cathedral inside the castle grounds, which weirdly reminded me of the cthedrals at home due to its very austere interior appearance and hordes of tourists. There were some astounding highlights though, like the silvery reliquiary/ tomb of St Nepomuk and a 14th century entrance hall type thing with slabs of precious things stuck on the walls and the best and most atmospheric studded wooden doors I have ever seen. The outside of the cathedral had some pretty impressive mosaic work too.
There wasn't much time to see all the other things in the castle, as was the theme for the whole trip. It is very hard to resist the urge to 'tick Prague off the list' and just slow down and enjoy a manageable amount of things. One thing we briefly browsed was the museum, which gave some much needed background on the history of the place. We also met up with a friend of Mirva's via a Finnish man who was also in Prague, Mark (Marc?) the french architect. He was an excellent guide, what with having learnt about all the architcture of the city and all. He took us across the city centre to another castle, this one looking a lot more businesslike, and then to another Czech restaurant. We were plied with EVEN MORE FOOD than I had previously though possible, I had the beef with dried plums and a side of garlic toast. Ate WAY too much garlic. It was definitely good to have some proper dark Budweiser though, why on earth do they not sell it anywhere else?? Look at the pic below, that is food for a mere 3 people!!
We rounded the day off with a long walk up the banks of the river, a stroll across the Charles Bridge, more beer and then home. The statues on the Charles Bridge really are impressive, the sheer level of angst and anguish and pathos and stuff those sculptors could fit on peoples faces was very impressive. My favourite was probably the sinister one I think commemorating the plague, with three snivelling wretches hidden in a dark recess that I had to illuminate with my camera flash. Boo!
We awoke to a very damp morning. Undeterred by the weather we checked out and after some brief second hand shoppingrocked up in the main square. We had a lot of fun checking out the immeasurably cheaper christmas market, and tried some very delicious mead. We finally caught the show of the 14th century astronomical clock, featuring death ringing a bell as the faces of saints scroll past an open window. Deliciously macabre. Also went inside the Tyn church, which contains many many beautifully restored black and gold baroque altars, and climbed the tower of the town hall. The centre of the upper part of the tower is now hollowed out, and featured a really cool tube lift that I took a photo of.
It was nice to have one more view of the rooftops of Prague and gaze down at the impressive patterned streets, and to get out of the rain. After descending we consumed yet more warming mulled wine and mead, and ate some of my new favourite fast food, the deep fried pizza dough garlic cheese piece of genius that is the Langos, as well as purchasing some bottled mead and one of those Hungarian cylinder breads I don't know the name of.
Our final port of call, tourism wise, was the communism museum. This is a small but very well laid out museum, situated above Macdonalds and next to a casino... Inside I learned a lot more about the 20th century history of Czechslovakia/ the Czech republic, plus looked at some very cool memorabilia from those strange times. It is always hard to comprehend the changes that happened so relatively recently to the map of Europe. It was then to=ime to get on the bus for a cramped and warm 4 and a half hour journey back to Vienna, woo! All in all a very good trip.
So, Prague. I was really struck by the stereotypes about what it was going to be like that had snuck into my subconscious from living in the UK through all this EU expansion. I thought somehow it would be shabby, dangerous, cold, unfriendly, and generally lacking things that other european capitals like London or Paris have. But what it really is is just another great European capital. Not to say it doesn't have its own unique feel from its history and situation, far from it, I loved the way it looked, even if I have no real idea of the way a normal Pragueian behaves. I was just surprised at how surprised I was about the fact that Prague was a modern city that I would quite certainly live in without any problem at all. (I have decided this is probably the only way to really visit a place properly , unfortunately a rather time intensive requirement.) Our french guide Marc, also an erasmus student, echoed my thoughts. He too was pretty ashamed of the stereotype he had started off with. Basically, where I am going with this is that the distance between London and Marseille and London and Prague are identical give or take 30km (seriously, look it up!), and I find it fascinating what a difference there is between how we see both places/countries.
Der Tom
On arrival, tiredness and the non-correspondance of the Prague roads to the hand drawn map in our possession led to some brief lostness, but eventually we reached our goal, the delightful Hostel Elf. The hostel was really great, an example of a place where a friendly and reasonable attitude leads to amazing results which make you wonder why things aren't always so. Cheap rooms, free tea and coffee in two huge urns at all times, art all over the walls both in and outside, permanently staffed reception and no curfew, sufficiently abundant shower and toilet facilities and a free breakfast of cornflakes and doughnuts. (OK the last one isn't that great, but it was more free breakfast than anywhere else would have given us). Although not situated in the exact centre of Prague, it is a mere 10 minute tram or bus ride away. Plus did I mention it was cheap?
The hostel also gives a 15% discount at a local restaurant. While the decor (random alligator model, african folk art, driftwood, shark teeth) and music (an english language 80s and 90s hits station) were confusing and clearly geared at the lazy english tourist (as, IMO, was the choice of Heinz tomato ketchup in the condiment stands), the food was very good. A meal wasn't that much cheaper than in Austria, but the price per gram of food certainly was. I ordered duck, dumplings and red cabbage, and I was absolutely stuffed without getting through much more than half. Potato dumplings will keep you going pretty well in the cold Prague winter I think. Combined with the unecessarily alcoholic (12%!!) beer, we were pretty much knocked out and had to go for a major siesta.
So it was that my first proper tourist experience of Prague was of the city at night. The hostel was situated right next to one of the numerous hills that exist in the city, Vitkov Hill, which we promptly climbed. Thank goodness, they don't lock parks like we do in the UK. On top of the hill there is a HUGE statue of an old Czech King on horseback looking ready to trample all comers. Behind him is the massive cuboid of the Czech National Museum/ memorial thing. Mirva climbed on top of a Russian tank we found, which made me all British and uncomfortable... ('you're on the tank! what if somebody sees!'). It's funny how British one gets when one is not in good old blighty, what. Of course the main attraction apart from the towering monarch and almost empty plaza in front, was the spectacle of Prague at night. Every one of the numerous fairytale church spires lit up, the huge castle on the opposing hill glowing alost green in the lights, the retr0-futuristic TV tower, the ring of other hills off on all sides, some spotted with the regimented lights of the most soviet flats I've seen for a while. Very nice. I had not really realised how big the city was. It definitely feels bigger than Vienna, but how much is due to the greater visibility afforded by so many hills, I'm not quite sure.
We then wandered in the rain down to the main square of Prague, overlooked by the instantly recognisable spire of the Tyn church/cathedral. There was a christmas market (of course) and a ridiculously over the top christmas tree which was almost blinding. Sufficiently dampened, we returned home via tram.
The next day we tried to meet up with one of the hundreds of free tours advertised around the hostel, to no avail as we reached the meeting point only 2 minutes after the scheduled start time and they had already disappeared. It would have been good to get a bit of the history of the place, but wandering around did at least have the benefit of freedom. We detoured through the old Jewish Quarter (where the Jewish Cemetery has become a cynically rather overpriced tourist attraction) to the river for a river cruise. Prague has a proper river through the middle of it, rather than ignoring it and leaving it off to one side as has happened in Vienna, and it provides a nice way to admire the buildings of the centre. Luckily on the Monday we had bright, warming sunshine all day long, the winter kind that doesn't make you overheat and lights up everything in a completely different way to summer sunlight. This gave Prague a chance to show off its better points, all the architecture sitting around calmly showing off, the medieval bulk of the Charles Bridge with its enigmatic statues and the ever present hills standing hazily off in the distance.
I am a huge fan of all the hills in prague, as has already become clear I think. One of my favourite things to do in a new city is to climb tall things and look at other things from the top of them. To this end we then climbed the steep scarp from the river up to where a large orange constantly ticking metronome sculpture commemorates the end of communism. We then made our way along the top of the hill past an impressive pavilion and several 1920s mansions to reach the castle. The castle is the largest medieval castle in Europe, although much of the original structure is now overgrown by things from later, grander periods when there was less worry about invasions. There is a MASSIVE cathedral inside the castle grounds, which weirdly reminded me of the cthedrals at home due to its very austere interior appearance and hordes of tourists. There were some astounding highlights though, like the silvery reliquiary/ tomb of St Nepomuk and a 14th century entrance hall type thing with slabs of precious things stuck on the walls and the best and most atmospheric studded wooden doors I have ever seen. The outside of the cathedral had some pretty impressive mosaic work too.
There wasn't much time to see all the other things in the castle, as was the theme for the whole trip. It is very hard to resist the urge to 'tick Prague off the list' and just slow down and enjoy a manageable amount of things. One thing we briefly browsed was the museum, which gave some much needed background on the history of the place. We also met up with a friend of Mirva's via a Finnish man who was also in Prague, Mark (Marc?) the french architect. He was an excellent guide, what with having learnt about all the architcture of the city and all. He took us across the city centre to another castle, this one looking a lot more businesslike, and then to another Czech restaurant. We were plied with EVEN MORE FOOD than I had previously though possible, I had the beef with dried plums and a side of garlic toast. Ate WAY too much garlic. It was definitely good to have some proper dark Budweiser though, why on earth do they not sell it anywhere else?? Look at the pic below, that is food for a mere 3 people!!
We rounded the day off with a long walk up the banks of the river, a stroll across the Charles Bridge, more beer and then home. The statues on the Charles Bridge really are impressive, the sheer level of angst and anguish and pathos and stuff those sculptors could fit on peoples faces was very impressive. My favourite was probably the sinister one I think commemorating the plague, with three snivelling wretches hidden in a dark recess that I had to illuminate with my camera flash. Boo!
We awoke to a very damp morning. Undeterred by the weather we checked out and after some brief second hand shoppingrocked up in the main square. We had a lot of fun checking out the immeasurably cheaper christmas market, and tried some very delicious mead. We finally caught the show of the 14th century astronomical clock, featuring death ringing a bell as the faces of saints scroll past an open window. Deliciously macabre. Also went inside the Tyn church, which contains many many beautifully restored black and gold baroque altars, and climbed the tower of the town hall. The centre of the upper part of the tower is now hollowed out, and featured a really cool tube lift that I took a photo of.
It was nice to have one more view of the rooftops of Prague and gaze down at the impressive patterned streets, and to get out of the rain. After descending we consumed yet more warming mulled wine and mead, and ate some of my new favourite fast food, the deep fried pizza dough garlic cheese piece of genius that is the Langos, as well as purchasing some bottled mead and one of those Hungarian cylinder breads I don't know the name of.
Our final port of call, tourism wise, was the communism museum. This is a small but very well laid out museum, situated above Macdonalds and next to a casino... Inside I learned a lot more about the 20th century history of Czechslovakia/ the Czech republic, plus looked at some very cool memorabilia from those strange times. It is always hard to comprehend the changes that happened so relatively recently to the map of Europe. It was then to=ime to get on the bus for a cramped and warm 4 and a half hour journey back to Vienna, woo! All in all a very good trip.So, Prague. I was really struck by the stereotypes about what it was going to be like that had snuck into my subconscious from living in the UK through all this EU expansion. I thought somehow it would be shabby, dangerous, cold, unfriendly, and generally lacking things that other european capitals like London or Paris have. But what it really is is just another great European capital. Not to say it doesn't have its own unique feel from its history and situation, far from it, I loved the way it looked, even if I have no real idea of the way a normal Pragueian behaves. I was just surprised at how surprised I was about the fact that Prague was a modern city that I would quite certainly live in without any problem at all. (I have decided this is probably the only way to really visit a place properly , unfortunately a rather time intensive requirement.) Our french guide Marc, also an erasmus student, echoed my thoughts. He too was pretty ashamed of the stereotype he had started off with. Basically, where I am going with this is that the distance between London and Marseille and London and Prague are identical give or take 30km (seriously, look it up!), and I find it fascinating what a difference there is between how we see both places/countries.
Der Tom
Saturday 5 December 2009
Der erste und einzige Geologe auf dem Mond and other stories
Actually did some things this week! Apart from the normal homeostasis actions that is.
Last weekend I spent hugely increasing my knowledge of lake district geology, a highly enjoyable pastime. I have no idea why I always put of doing research and reading papers, because once I start I always get really dragged in, some of my favourite work has ended up being stuff I had to read papaers for, notably my essay on giant dinosaurs last year. I will NEVER get over that I HAD to write an essay on giant dinosaurs! Fantastic.
I was repeatedly told before I came here that I had to watch the classic 1949 film 'The Third Man', an old fashioned adventure thriller set in Vienna. Even more predictably, I did not watch it. But now I am sort of glad that I didn't, because watching it with a more than passing familiarity with the landmarks and streets in the film made it much more worthwile. The basic plot is that western (the genre) author Holly Martins travels to postwar, divided Vienna to take up an offer of a job from old friend Harry Lime. It is not a big spoiler (as it happens about 2 minutes into the film) to tell you that when he arrives, Harry is dead. Holly spends the rest of the film trying to find out if it was really 'just an accident', tangling with the black market, the police, Harry's girlfriend, a man with a tiny dog, a parrot, and the sewers of Vienna, all to a cool and instantly recognisable zither soundtrack.
I really enjoyed the film just from a film perspective, never mind the setting. It was just enjoyable. The jokes were funny (though the lines were sometimes corny, what can you do), the mystery was engaging, the twists were well executed, the lines well delivered, and the cinematography and soundtrack created a brilliant atmosphere. I loved the ending too, for anyone who has seen it, I thought it was just right.
But the setting is a very important part of the film. Crucially, it is a big part but it stays in the background. The film is never trying to point out how cool or european or whatever it is being by being set in Vienna. Because it is never particularly overt, what comes across it that someone just really loved Vienna and wanted to show it off. Actually, I think it might seem to someone that hadn't been here that they WERE showing off, what with the ridiculous in your face architecture and interior decoration, but if there is one lesson you should have already learned from this blog, it is that Vienna really does just casually throw stuff like that at you, seemingly without expecting even a raised eyebrow because hey, everywhere looks like this, right?
One of the most interesting things was seeing postwar Vienna with the rubble still in the streets. Seeing such a familiar place with these piles of rubble in them was unusual, and allows you to look at new buildings and imagine the rubble they replaced. It is funny, but I've never seen many pictures of post blitz london. Perhaps the ones I have seen do not have any recognisable landmarks in so I have trouble relating with them? A lot more of London has changed I think, and not just from bombing.
The very next day I changed tack and after a brief climbing session hurried to the Festsaal of the Austrian Academy of Sciences to watch a talk on lunar geology by the last man on the moon, Dr Harrison Schmitt. Of course, the major draw wasn't lunar geology itself, but a man that had actually poked that lunar geology with a sampling tool. As a geologist Dr Schmitt was in a unique position to apply the instincts of an experienced fieldworker on the moon. Apollo 17 was the las tApollo mission, and by then NASA had really developed some quite impressive kit. Everyone knows about Apollo 11, but who knows about Apollo 17 where the guys spent three days driving around the moon, travelling several miles and revolutionising scientific understanding of an area?
The talk itself was quite interesting as Dr Schmitt has a different opinion on lunar formation to the established view. It was nice to hear different opinions, as the fact is very far from being settled, although I have not read his work to know how justified he is of course. Being an american from the era of Apollo space science and the optimistic expectation that humans would soon conquer the solar system with other big projects, he is keen that we get back to the moon to mine its Helium 3, and ideal, 100% clean fuel for fusion reactors. Overall, this man came across as someone who had a real understanding of science, who while he may have seemed dogmatic and set in his ideas, would actually gladly change them if anyone could actually prove he was wrong. I do not think all famous scientists think like that.
Seeing someone who has actually stood on the moon is a very very odd feeling. It is hard to comprehend how far away this person has been, and how impressive it is thatthey then came back. Harisson Schmitt must be over 60 now, which is another shock. to all intents and purposes, we have moved backwards. We can no longer put a man on the moon in a semi routine way. We have lost the expertise, but more importantly the drive. Dr Schmitt made the important point that Apollo worked for several reasons. First, it had enough money (the man in charge of getting the money asked engineers for their estimates, averaged the figure then doubled it, and he was right on the money), second, it had youth on its side. In the words of Dr Schmitt (quoting the head of NASA or the Apollo programme or both, I forget) they 'didn't know how to fail'. The average age of the people in the control room was 26, and the average age of the 40,000 engineers directly working for NASA was similar. Furthermore, people were given the room to play around with their ideas, rather than being rigidly forced to fulfil a certain target. Nowadays, google uses the same sort of methods, and look where they have got to...
There is always the argument that we should spend out money on earth first. As a science fiction fan it is obvious where I stand, I believe that the inspirational value of the moon landings, as well as their position as an important step towards a final goal of relieving the planet of our crushing presence and not to mention the unforseeable technological and purely scientific gains, are worth the just under 100 billion 2009 US Dollars it cost to put Apollo 11 astronauts on the moon. ( I don't know how much the subsequent program cost). But even if you think we should be banding together to tackle something else, like HIV or malaria or water cleanliness or climate change, I think we still need to look at what made the Apollo programme such a success, and how we can emulate or improve on its methods in the modern world.
I'm going to Prague tomorrow!
Last weekend I spent hugely increasing my knowledge of lake district geology, a highly enjoyable pastime. I have no idea why I always put of doing research and reading papers, because once I start I always get really dragged in, some of my favourite work has ended up being stuff I had to read papaers for, notably my essay on giant dinosaurs last year. I will NEVER get over that I HAD to write an essay on giant dinosaurs! Fantastic.
I was repeatedly told before I came here that I had to watch the classic 1949 film 'The Third Man', an old fashioned adventure thriller set in Vienna. Even more predictably, I did not watch it. But now I am sort of glad that I didn't, because watching it with a more than passing familiarity with the landmarks and streets in the film made it much more worthwile. The basic plot is that western (the genre) author Holly Martins travels to postwar, divided Vienna to take up an offer of a job from old friend Harry Lime. It is not a big spoiler (as it happens about 2 minutes into the film) to tell you that when he arrives, Harry is dead. Holly spends the rest of the film trying to find out if it was really 'just an accident', tangling with the black market, the police, Harry's girlfriend, a man with a tiny dog, a parrot, and the sewers of Vienna, all to a cool and instantly recognisable zither soundtrack.
I really enjoyed the film just from a film perspective, never mind the setting. It was just enjoyable. The jokes were funny (though the lines were sometimes corny, what can you do), the mystery was engaging, the twists were well executed, the lines well delivered, and the cinematography and soundtrack created a brilliant atmosphere. I loved the ending too, for anyone who has seen it, I thought it was just right.
But the setting is a very important part of the film. Crucially, it is a big part but it stays in the background. The film is never trying to point out how cool or european or whatever it is being by being set in Vienna. Because it is never particularly overt, what comes across it that someone just really loved Vienna and wanted to show it off. Actually, I think it might seem to someone that hadn't been here that they WERE showing off, what with the ridiculous in your face architecture and interior decoration, but if there is one lesson you should have already learned from this blog, it is that Vienna really does just casually throw stuff like that at you, seemingly without expecting even a raised eyebrow because hey, everywhere looks like this, right?
One of the most interesting things was seeing postwar Vienna with the rubble still in the streets. Seeing such a familiar place with these piles of rubble in them was unusual, and allows you to look at new buildings and imagine the rubble they replaced. It is funny, but I've never seen many pictures of post blitz london. Perhaps the ones I have seen do not have any recognisable landmarks in so I have trouble relating with them? A lot more of London has changed I think, and not just from bombing.
The very next day I changed tack and after a brief climbing session hurried to the Festsaal of the Austrian Academy of Sciences to watch a talk on lunar geology by the last man on the moon, Dr Harrison Schmitt. Of course, the major draw wasn't lunar geology itself, but a man that had actually poked that lunar geology with a sampling tool. As a geologist Dr Schmitt was in a unique position to apply the instincts of an experienced fieldworker on the moon. Apollo 17 was the las tApollo mission, and by then NASA had really developed some quite impressive kit. Everyone knows about Apollo 11, but who knows about Apollo 17 where the guys spent three days driving around the moon, travelling several miles and revolutionising scientific understanding of an area?
The talk itself was quite interesting as Dr Schmitt has a different opinion on lunar formation to the established view. It was nice to hear different opinions, as the fact is very far from being settled, although I have not read his work to know how justified he is of course. Being an american from the era of Apollo space science and the optimistic expectation that humans would soon conquer the solar system with other big projects, he is keen that we get back to the moon to mine its Helium 3, and ideal, 100% clean fuel for fusion reactors. Overall, this man came across as someone who had a real understanding of science, who while he may have seemed dogmatic and set in his ideas, would actually gladly change them if anyone could actually prove he was wrong. I do not think all famous scientists think like that.
Seeing someone who has actually stood on the moon is a very very odd feeling. It is hard to comprehend how far away this person has been, and how impressive it is thatthey then came back. Harisson Schmitt must be over 60 now, which is another shock. to all intents and purposes, we have moved backwards. We can no longer put a man on the moon in a semi routine way. We have lost the expertise, but more importantly the drive. Dr Schmitt made the important point that Apollo worked for several reasons. First, it had enough money (the man in charge of getting the money asked engineers for their estimates, averaged the figure then doubled it, and he was right on the money), second, it had youth on its side. In the words of Dr Schmitt (quoting the head of NASA or the Apollo programme or both, I forget) they 'didn't know how to fail'. The average age of the people in the control room was 26, and the average age of the 40,000 engineers directly working for NASA was similar. Furthermore, people were given the room to play around with their ideas, rather than being rigidly forced to fulfil a certain target. Nowadays, google uses the same sort of methods, and look where they have got to...
There is always the argument that we should spend out money on earth first. As a science fiction fan it is obvious where I stand, I believe that the inspirational value of the moon landings, as well as their position as an important step towards a final goal of relieving the planet of our crushing presence and not to mention the unforseeable technological and purely scientific gains, are worth the just under 100 billion 2009 US Dollars it cost to put Apollo 11 astronauts on the moon. ( I don't know how much the subsequent program cost). But even if you think we should be banding together to tackle something else, like HIV or malaria or water cleanliness or climate change, I think we still need to look at what made the Apollo programme such a success, and how we can emulate or improve on its methods in the modern world.
I'm going to Prague tomorrow!
Friday 27 November 2009
Now that's what I call a monastery! 1173
This past Sunday Mirva and I (check my mad grammar) set out to visit Klosterneuberg, a small town a few miles north of Vienna, situated on the shore of the Donau and up onto the surrounding hills. The hills around Vienna may be small, but I like that they are there, London can feel too flat sometimes. Although it does have hills around Hampstead heath etc, they are a rather long way away, visually speaking. These ones stand out nicely.
Very appropriately for the religious nature of our destination, we were slightly hungover due to visiting a friend of my buddy's house and drinking tequila with some friendly Iranians. Ahem. Anyway, Klosterneuberg is possibly a more normal Austrian town, with a sleepy feel which, although I am sure was exaggerated by the day of the week, definitely marks it out from the main city. Even here though, the hand of the invisible person whose job it is to make sure that all of Austria is pretty can be seen.
The focal point of the town is the monastery complex, situated on a steep rise above the main street, with its imposing spires and a substantial group of surrounding buildings. Up close the towers are even more impressive, lots of nice embellishment going on there:
Note that one tower is a different colour, we'll come back to that later...
As we arrived, the main church of the monastery (the thing above) was emitting an impressive choral noise, so we decided to wander inside. It turns out that the interior is even more impressive than that of the Karlskirche. Go back and look at a picture of that, then imagine if it was longer, and all the marble was replaced with more gold leaf and paintings and astonishingly detailed carvings and other casually accumulated pieces of votive art. Woah! just about does it as a descriptive word. Adding to the atmosphere was the fact that it was the Sunday communion mass, so the local orchestra and choir were singing, the church was full, and there at the front was the priest in his robes blessing the bread wafers while the altar boy waved the incense burner around...
After this incredible experience, it was clear that we (well I) needed delicious chocolate cake in order to be able to appreciate any further magnificence. Luckily this sort of thing is not hard to find, and indeed we ended up in a rather cool, jazz oriented cafe where they served the tea with 4 different types of sugar and 3 hour glass timers for 3, 4 or 5 minutes so we could brew our tea to our satisfaction. Awesome.
Klosterneuberg has long been a place where the leaders of Austria have chosen to live or worship or build things, and one of the more impressive bricks in their wall of grandeur is the unfinished 18th century baroque palace of Kaiser Karl VI, planned to equal the Escorial palace in Spain. After he died with it unfinished, all work stopped, as neither the monks being forced to finance it nor his son (who was more interested in Schoenbrunn) wanted to carry it on. Only one of the planned four huge courtyards was built, but it is still huge. The picture above is of the unfinished saa terranum (or something like that) which is supposed to be a ridiculously epic room leading into the garden. Those 'atlantean' statues are REALLY big, and there's 8 of them in total round the room... Below you see the outside, which helps you understand the odd contrast between superficially finished exterior and bare brick interior seen through lots of the palace that was only recently opened up. Monks used it for wine storage! Note person for scale.
The reason I know so much is that you can only go round this place with a tour, and due to the time of year and the fact that it happened to be the english tour that was about to start as we came in, there were only three of us in our tour group. An old Austrian lady took us on a winding tour through the various phases and buildings of the monastery, palace and cloisters. All the doors were locked, so it felt very special, as we'd all have to wait for her to get a key out and open the door to some treasure before we went in, and then of course we were the only ones in there. There were painted figures, stained glass from the 12th century, a huge gold and enamel altar by a man called Nicholas of Verdun, roman artefacts etc etc. The sheer weight of history impresses me, and I find it hard to imagine what it is like for Mirva, as in Finland they don't have the same legacy of ridiculously old things as we do in other parts of Europe.
Finally, here is a view north, if you look carefully you might be able to see some huge castle looming romantically on the hoizon!
Not much to report this week. Work still very interesting. A finnish friend of Mirva's is visiting, she is called Outi which is pronounced like oaty with the t like a mixture between t and d and the emphasis completely on the first syllable. Weather nice.
Ummm.... bye!
PS if you are still wondering about the different coloured towers, it's because some guys who built the second tower in the 17th century didn't bother to colour match the limestone with the first tower! Basically it is a mistake/ labour or money saving device which is still glaringly obvious after 400 years! I think that this fact is very telling about humanity. I can't help but imagine whoever was building it loking at the pile of stones being delivered and thinking: 'oh crap'
Very appropriately for the religious nature of our destination, we were slightly hungover due to visiting a friend of my buddy's house and drinking tequila with some friendly Iranians. Ahem. Anyway, Klosterneuberg is possibly a more normal Austrian town, with a sleepy feel which, although I am sure was exaggerated by the day of the week, definitely marks it out from the main city. Even here though, the hand of the invisible person whose job it is to make sure that all of Austria is pretty can be seen.
The focal point of the town is the monastery complex, situated on a steep rise above the main street, with its imposing spires and a substantial group of surrounding buildings. Up close the towers are even more impressive, lots of nice embellishment going on there:
Note that one tower is a different colour, we'll come back to that later...
As we arrived, the main church of the monastery (the thing above) was emitting an impressive choral noise, so we decided to wander inside. It turns out that the interior is even more impressive than that of the Karlskirche. Go back and look at a picture of that, then imagine if it was longer, and all the marble was replaced with more gold leaf and paintings and astonishingly detailed carvings and other casually accumulated pieces of votive art. Woah! just about does it as a descriptive word. Adding to the atmosphere was the fact that it was the Sunday communion mass, so the local orchestra and choir were singing, the church was full, and there at the front was the priest in his robes blessing the bread wafers while the altar boy waved the incense burner around...
After this incredible experience, it was clear that we (well I) needed delicious chocolate cake in order to be able to appreciate any further magnificence. Luckily this sort of thing is not hard to find, and indeed we ended up in a rather cool, jazz oriented cafe where they served the tea with 4 different types of sugar and 3 hour glass timers for 3, 4 or 5 minutes so we could brew our tea to our satisfaction. Awesome.
Klosterneuberg has long been a place where the leaders of Austria have chosen to live or worship or build things, and one of the more impressive bricks in their wall of grandeur is the unfinished 18th century baroque palace of Kaiser Karl VI, planned to equal the Escorial palace in Spain. After he died with it unfinished, all work stopped, as neither the monks being forced to finance it nor his son (who was more interested in Schoenbrunn) wanted to carry it on. Only one of the planned four huge courtyards was built, but it is still huge. The picture above is of the unfinished saa terranum (or something like that) which is supposed to be a ridiculously epic room leading into the garden. Those 'atlantean' statues are REALLY big, and there's 8 of them in total round the room... Below you see the outside, which helps you understand the odd contrast between superficially finished exterior and bare brick interior seen through lots of the palace that was only recently opened up. Monks used it for wine storage! Note person for scale.
The reason I know so much is that you can only go round this place with a tour, and due to the time of year and the fact that it happened to be the english tour that was about to start as we came in, there were only three of us in our tour group. An old Austrian lady took us on a winding tour through the various phases and buildings of the monastery, palace and cloisters. All the doors were locked, so it felt very special, as we'd all have to wait for her to get a key out and open the door to some treasure before we went in, and then of course we were the only ones in there. There were painted figures, stained glass from the 12th century, a huge gold and enamel altar by a man called Nicholas of Verdun, roman artefacts etc etc. The sheer weight of history impresses me, and I find it hard to imagine what it is like for Mirva, as in Finland they don't have the same legacy of ridiculously old things as we do in other parts of Europe.Finally, here is a view north, if you look carefully you might be able to see some huge castle looming romantically on the hoizon!
Not much to report this week. Work still very interesting. A finnish friend of Mirva's is visiting, she is called Outi which is pronounced like oaty with the t like a mixture between t and d and the emphasis completely on the first syllable. Weather nice.
Ummm.... bye!
PS if you are still wondering about the different coloured towers, it's because some guys who built the second tower in the 17th century didn't bother to colour match the limestone with the first tower! Basically it is a mistake/ labour or money saving device which is still glaringly obvious after 400 years! I think that this fact is very telling about humanity. I can't help but imagine whoever was building it loking at the pile of stones being delivered and thinking: 'oh crap'
Thursday 19 November 2009
Art is SO GREAT!
It has been another week of many thoughts floating around my brain in a fuzzy cloud, all clamouring to be given the precious (little) oxygen of publicity this blog can provide. So count yourselves lucky you are getting this blog post about awesome art and not about feminism and/or my privileged status in society. No, seriously.
By art here I mean the stuff you find in an art gallery. Something Mirva pointed out is that the word 'art' also technically applies to TV programs, music, epic poetry, cabinet making and so on, but I find it interesting that we native English speakers definitely understand that when I say 'I like art' I am basically talking about pictures. We use 'artist' at least as much as 'painter', even though Russel T Davies is very much one of these, but (as far as I know) not the other.
Anyway. I guess I have always liked art, but for most of my life I was definitely way more interested in making it than looking at it. As with most things required of a child by their school, I saw looking at art as a chore, and as a result of the hilariously superficial bullshit we were able to pass off as analysis of said art, I also saw it as faintly ridiculous. My personal creation sadly peaked at the age of 16 with my art GCSE, although I am not arrogant enough to assume that the mark I received was anything but weakly related to the quality of what I produced, picture wise.
Around this time, I began occasionally going to art galleries not just for school trips,but of my own accord, usually with friends. Be under no illusions, the first time I went to an art gallery like this (probably the Tate Modern?) I am sure it was not out of a pure desire to see art. Rather, going to an art gallery was a cool, grown up and different thing to be doing, from my point of view. If you say you went to a gallery at the weekend, you immediately mark yourself out as a certain kind of interesting, thoughtful, and yes, high class person, or so ran my thinking.
I think this attitude extends to a lot of things people do ostensibly for fun, many people go to places because they 'ought to'. Activities I include in this category include visiting art galleries, watching shakespeare, observing various historical ruins and even perhaps whole cities! Now, I am also certain that many people do not go to see Shakespeare or Athens because they 'ought to' but out of pure love for the thing involved, and that is the somewhat obscured point of this post.
I am extremely glad that I really, really enjoy going to art galleries. I realise that this is not a given, and I could have turned out as one of those 'ought to' people. But I feel the enjoyment I get from paintings is similar to the enjoyment I get from listening to brilliant music. I have one criterion for really good art, and that is: Does it look cool? Cool is not really a defined quantity, but what I am saying is that the visual impact of a piece is the thing. What about deeper meanings? Those can make a piece of art better, but if it doesn't look impressive then I am not interested. Note my choice of word though, impressive does not have to mean beautiful.
A few random points about my gallery enjoyment: galleries are about 500 times better if you have a friend with you. Pictures are made to be talked about, I would find it hard to be excited as much about something I couldn't excitedly gesture at and say loudly 'look at that! Wow!'. The second point is more a corollary of the 'does it look cool?' criterion. If a picture or sculpture does not look cool, I do not waste much extra time looking at it once this decision has been made. I do not believe that I 'ought to' be looking at everything in the place, if it is a boring chore, I stop staring at it!
Here in Vienna, there is a vast amount of art which just looks really really cool. Luckily for me it is also a real centre for works by some of the artistic movements I like best, namely the Impressionists and the (mostly) German Expressionists of the 20th century. There isn't a final point to this post other than the fact that I find visiting art galleries fun to an extent that I never expected would be the case only a few years ago, and I am glad that this is so! I leave you with a couple of pictures that 'looked cool' to me on the evening visit to the Albertina that inspired this post. First is 'Studie für Landschaft' by all round legend, Wassily Kandinsky, second is Mr Lyonel Feininger's 'The High Shore'.
Art, you guys!
Bis bald, der Tom.
By art here I mean the stuff you find in an art gallery. Something Mirva pointed out is that the word 'art' also technically applies to TV programs, music, epic poetry, cabinet making and so on, but I find it interesting that we native English speakers definitely understand that when I say 'I like art' I am basically talking about pictures. We use 'artist' at least as much as 'painter', even though Russel T Davies is very much one of these, but (as far as I know) not the other.
Anyway. I guess I have always liked art, but for most of my life I was definitely way more interested in making it than looking at it. As with most things required of a child by their school, I saw looking at art as a chore, and as a result of the hilariously superficial bullshit we were able to pass off as analysis of said art, I also saw it as faintly ridiculous. My personal creation sadly peaked at the age of 16 with my art GCSE, although I am not arrogant enough to assume that the mark I received was anything but weakly related to the quality of what I produced, picture wise.
Around this time, I began occasionally going to art galleries not just for school trips,but of my own accord, usually with friends. Be under no illusions, the first time I went to an art gallery like this (probably the Tate Modern?) I am sure it was not out of a pure desire to see art. Rather, going to an art gallery was a cool, grown up and different thing to be doing, from my point of view. If you say you went to a gallery at the weekend, you immediately mark yourself out as a certain kind of interesting, thoughtful, and yes, high class person, or so ran my thinking.
I think this attitude extends to a lot of things people do ostensibly for fun, many people go to places because they 'ought to'. Activities I include in this category include visiting art galleries, watching shakespeare, observing various historical ruins and even perhaps whole cities! Now, I am also certain that many people do not go to see Shakespeare or Athens because they 'ought to' but out of pure love for the thing involved, and that is the somewhat obscured point of this post.
I am extremely glad that I really, really enjoy going to art galleries. I realise that this is not a given, and I could have turned out as one of those 'ought to' people. But I feel the enjoyment I get from paintings is similar to the enjoyment I get from listening to brilliant music. I have one criterion for really good art, and that is: Does it look cool? Cool is not really a defined quantity, but what I am saying is that the visual impact of a piece is the thing. What about deeper meanings? Those can make a piece of art better, but if it doesn't look impressive then I am not interested. Note my choice of word though, impressive does not have to mean beautiful.
A few random points about my gallery enjoyment: galleries are about 500 times better if you have a friend with you. Pictures are made to be talked about, I would find it hard to be excited as much about something I couldn't excitedly gesture at and say loudly 'look at that! Wow!'. The second point is more a corollary of the 'does it look cool?' criterion. If a picture or sculpture does not look cool, I do not waste much extra time looking at it once this decision has been made. I do not believe that I 'ought to' be looking at everything in the place, if it is a boring chore, I stop staring at it!
Here in Vienna, there is a vast amount of art which just looks really really cool. Luckily for me it is also a real centre for works by some of the artistic movements I like best, namely the Impressionists and the (mostly) German Expressionists of the 20th century. There isn't a final point to this post other than the fact that I find visiting art galleries fun to an extent that I never expected would be the case only a few years ago, and I am glad that this is so! I leave you with a couple of pictures that 'looked cool' to me on the evening visit to the Albertina that inspired this post. First is 'Studie für Landschaft' by all round legend, Wassily Kandinsky, second is Mr Lyonel Feininger's 'The High Shore'.
Art, you guys!
Bis bald, der Tom.
Monday 16 November 2009
Ed: The Visit (and other stories)
Yeah so I was cruelly prevented from writing nonsense on the internet at the usual interval by the visit of the famous Sir Edward Taylor, ex-mitbewohner and all round nice guy, so now I have lots to write about. It has been quite the month for visitors, beginning with a meeting with old school friend and fellow german student Tracy last Saturday. It is shameful and not a little surprising that I think the last time we met was about a year and a half ago, but I suppose that's life... Funny that when we do meet it is in Vienna.
As I type this I am looking at a large wall calendar gifted me by the Sushi restaurant I visited on Monday. I am sure in part due to the fact we were about 15 people, not only did we enjoy the low low sushi prices (€6 for 13 bits of sushi), we also got free lychees! I am by no means a sushi expert, so all I can say is that it was tastier than yo sushi and that I especially enjoyed the horseradish sauce/paste stuff (much to the shock of my companions...) Why is the sushi in a landlocked country so cheap?? Conspiracy theorists apply within.
Edward-san arrived on one of the more horrible days I have experienced in this fine city, and while I did enjoy taking him on a long meander through the relentlessly architecturally impressive city centre, I did feel that perhaps that Vienna was not showing her best side. The Naschmarkt was practically empty, meaning that every vendor stood behind their stall and shouted 'Gruess Gott!' or 'Bitte schon!' when you came within 10 metres of them. Mulled wine sellers deliberately take the lids off their wares and exaggeratedly waft the tempting smells towards you... Despite this high level of attention, we still managed to actually purchase some things, most of which we actually wanted. Ed was rather taken by the taste of the traditional still-fermenting wine drink known here as Sturm, which in Ed terms means he will attempt to make some when he gets home. Other purchases were some Medlars (they look like they are rotting/are actually rotting, but that is how they are meant to be eaten and they taste pretty good), some good Austrian cheese and some PROPER pickled gherkins. Ie the kind that are actually fermented in salt water rather than just added to vinegar. No need to keep them in the fridge. I have wanted to try some ever since I learned that what I thought were pickled gherkins actually weren't anything of the kind, and I am quite satisfied with them. Also bought were important ingredients for delicious stew, that evening's meal.
Thursday is the day of extreme lectures, so Ed was unleashed and set to roam free through the city. Thankfully the weather improved, turning into one of those lovely winter days where everything is crisp in the cool sun. He met me after university, appearing unscathed, and I showed off to him some of my favourite more modern architectural marvels, the Mullverbrennungsanlage and the Flakturm. Then we met up with Mirva at the Siebenstern brewery, to eat food Austrian style ('no vegetables please') and to try as many of the beers as possible. All of them proved good.
On Friday there was a veritable deluge of UCL students as we were joined by another friend from home, on a weekend visit from her erasmus year in Munich. We dined once more at the home of the 'best falafel in Vienna', which is indeed very good, though a difficult statement to fully prove, then returned to the market for more Sturm shenannegins (sp?). We explored the centre of town and then climbed the tower of the Stephansdom just as the sun was etting. The view IS worth the 343 steps, although the windows you look out of are rather small and I was hoping for more of a precarious balcony tbh.
Because things never happen spaced out, but instead all at once, Saturday was Mirva's birthday, so I took her to lunch. We debated going somewhere stupidly grand, but in the end settled on a proper Viennese cafe we had already visited once before. the Cafe Eiles is a large and quiet hotel style cafe,with no tourists (except us, we took many photos), just people sitting around reading newspapers clipped to these amazing and very handy newspaper holding wooden frames while sipping coffee. In common with a lot of the less touristy cafes and bars I have seen, it has an old fashioned vibe, harking back not only to the early 20th century but somehow also to the 80s with the posters and applainces on display and in use. I cannot explain it, maybe it is just that eerything still looks like it does in the 1980s published guide to Vienna I happen to possess. It is something about the lack of bright colours. I do not mean by this that it is unpleasant, far from it! It just has very interesting vibes.
Of course as mentioned previously the world is bad at scheduling, so Saturday was also the day I visited the opening of the large christmas market in front of the Rathaus. Beautiful and sparkly with smells of punch, cinnamon, gingerbread and cheese wafting in all directions among stalls of slightly ridiculous christmas decorations and hand made things. What you are really supposed to do is ignore these and just drink mulled wine and punch and enjoy the atmosphere, so we did.
Sunday I rested from the enforced actually having to do things (kidding guys, I enjoyed it) then went on what is becoming an almost traditional Sunday late afternoon walk. I am really enjoying playing around with my camera, I almost wish I had time to learn more not just by experiment, but I am pleased at what I have been getting recently anyhow.
Above: spot the chair
Below: spot the Mirva
This week: more work, less gallivanting, hopefully.
As I type this I am looking at a large wall calendar gifted me by the Sushi restaurant I visited on Monday. I am sure in part due to the fact we were about 15 people, not only did we enjoy the low low sushi prices (€6 for 13 bits of sushi), we also got free lychees! I am by no means a sushi expert, so all I can say is that it was tastier than yo sushi and that I especially enjoyed the horseradish sauce/paste stuff (much to the shock of my companions...) Why is the sushi in a landlocked country so cheap?? Conspiracy theorists apply within.
Edward-san arrived on one of the more horrible days I have experienced in this fine city, and while I did enjoy taking him on a long meander through the relentlessly architecturally impressive city centre, I did feel that perhaps that Vienna was not showing her best side. The Naschmarkt was practically empty, meaning that every vendor stood behind their stall and shouted 'Gruess Gott!' or 'Bitte schon!' when you came within 10 metres of them. Mulled wine sellers deliberately take the lids off their wares and exaggeratedly waft the tempting smells towards you... Despite this high level of attention, we still managed to actually purchase some things, most of which we actually wanted. Ed was rather taken by the taste of the traditional still-fermenting wine drink known here as Sturm, which in Ed terms means he will attempt to make some when he gets home. Other purchases were some Medlars (they look like they are rotting/are actually rotting, but that is how they are meant to be eaten and they taste pretty good), some good Austrian cheese and some PROPER pickled gherkins. Ie the kind that are actually fermented in salt water rather than just added to vinegar. No need to keep them in the fridge. I have wanted to try some ever since I learned that what I thought were pickled gherkins actually weren't anything of the kind, and I am quite satisfied with them. Also bought were important ingredients for delicious stew, that evening's meal.
Thursday is the day of extreme lectures, so Ed was unleashed and set to roam free through the city. Thankfully the weather improved, turning into one of those lovely winter days where everything is crisp in the cool sun. He met me after university, appearing unscathed, and I showed off to him some of my favourite more modern architectural marvels, the Mullverbrennungsanlage and the Flakturm. Then we met up with Mirva at the Siebenstern brewery, to eat food Austrian style ('no vegetables please') and to try as many of the beers as possible. All of them proved good.
On Friday there was a veritable deluge of UCL students as we were joined by another friend from home, on a weekend visit from her erasmus year in Munich. We dined once more at the home of the 'best falafel in Vienna', which is indeed very good, though a difficult statement to fully prove, then returned to the market for more Sturm shenannegins (sp?). We explored the centre of town and then climbed the tower of the Stephansdom just as the sun was etting. The view IS worth the 343 steps, although the windows you look out of are rather small and I was hoping for more of a precarious balcony tbh.
Because things never happen spaced out, but instead all at once, Saturday was Mirva's birthday, so I took her to lunch. We debated going somewhere stupidly grand, but in the end settled on a proper Viennese cafe we had already visited once before. the Cafe Eiles is a large and quiet hotel style cafe,with no tourists (except us, we took many photos), just people sitting around reading newspapers clipped to these amazing and very handy newspaper holding wooden frames while sipping coffee. In common with a lot of the less touristy cafes and bars I have seen, it has an old fashioned vibe, harking back not only to the early 20th century but somehow also to the 80s with the posters and applainces on display and in use. I cannot explain it, maybe it is just that eerything still looks like it does in the 1980s published guide to Vienna I happen to possess. It is something about the lack of bright colours. I do not mean by this that it is unpleasant, far from it! It just has very interesting vibes.
Of course as mentioned previously the world is bad at scheduling, so Saturday was also the day I visited the opening of the large christmas market in front of the Rathaus. Beautiful and sparkly with smells of punch, cinnamon, gingerbread and cheese wafting in all directions among stalls of slightly ridiculous christmas decorations and hand made things. What you are really supposed to do is ignore these and just drink mulled wine and punch and enjoy the atmosphere, so we did.
Sunday I rested from the enforced actually having to do things (kidding guys, I enjoyed it) then went on what is becoming an almost traditional Sunday late afternoon walk. I am really enjoying playing around with my camera, I almost wish I had time to learn more not just by experiment, but I am pleased at what I have been getting recently anyhow.
Above: spot the chairBelow: spot the Mirva
This week: more work, less gallivanting, hopefully.
Friday 6 November 2009
Yesterday was celebrate thwarted catholic plot day...
...and I didn't even notice! It is so strange how bonfire night is such a big and obvious part of my year and has been forever (how could you ignore a constant hail of explosions, flashing lights and smoke anyway?) and yet move to a country that doesn't have it and I don't suddenly feel this urge to watch things blow up. Well, no greater urge than normal, haha. I wondered if bonfire night was one of those internationalised festivals like halloween, but apparently not. I have discovered it is celebrated in New Zealand, which actually if you think about it is pretty odd really.
Yeah so Halloween. Seems a while ago, doesn't it? Basically I am super cool and down with what all the hip kids were listening to in 1793 or whenever. So, I accompanied my lovely girlfriend (oh snap, weren't expecting that, were you? Maybe you were, I wasn't. Well: good for you. Maybe wave hello. Be nice!) to a performance of Mozart's Requiem in the Karlskirche, Karlsplatz. I wasn't quite prepared for the grandeur of this building, I heard church and imagined something low key. Wien doesn't do low key churches:
This place was the church of the Emperors etc of Austria from the time of its completion sometime in the middle of the 18th century. The dome is 7o metres high on the outside and not much lower inside. You walk in and are assaulted by the most impossibly detailed interior decoration, all set in this vast, neck wrenchingly tall, echoing space, and over the altar there is a huge representation of the spirit with Yahweh or similar written in hebrew in the triangle at the centre.
The full height of the ceiling is quite hard to convey, as is the absolutely amazing stone used to face the interior and make the columns. I have literally no idea of what kind of stone it is, or its original location. It is called marble, but stonemasons call pretty much all rocks marble, whether they are or not... Sigh. It is very pretty though.
Normally you can climb the semi permanent scaffolding to get a look at the roof.
So, Mozart's Requiem. I was worried that while it would be a nice experience to 'collect' as it were, that I would not really enjoy the performance in itself. I do not have practice in appreciating classical music. The setting was a definite help, combined with the use of period instruments for a spellbindingly authentic feel. I kept thinking about all the other times and places at which it had been performed... I have a tendancy for my mind to wander during instrumental music, but once I really started to concentrate on the sounds and try and come up with my own interpretations of the meanings, I did get drawn in. There were moments where I really felt I got the transitions between different parts or moods or whatever of the music, and it sounded amazing. The overwhelming thing I felt after though was that I wanted to hear it again. it strikes me as the sort of thing you need to be properly familiar with to hold the whole thing in your head at once and follow the journey while knowing where you have come from. I did feel unprepared considering that Mirva was sitting next to me actually reading the score as it went along, but a man's got to start somewhere...
With assistance I think I might actually be able to sort through some of the last 400 years or so of music and get a sense of what I like and don't like, and the stories (real,romanticised, mythical, etc) behind some of that. Right now knowing nothing is actually quite fun, as I am constantly discovering things that are basic knowledge to other people.
The rest of my week really hasn't been anything to write home about, mostly I have been going to lectures and doing work for various courses. It has been a week of good german learning though, met my buddy for a drink on Tuesday (OK we went climbing but gave up after 20 minutes because there was only a rubbish bouldering wall THEN went for a drink...) and then chatted to a few members of my geology classes yesterday. Mainly about this one really annoying piece of wok which I completely understand and have all the right numbers and formulae to do but somehow doesn't work anyway. I was very happy to discover I was not alone in this. I really do need to write about the student protests here someday, but I cannot be bothered to write another full blog post right now.
Bis bald!
Yeah so Halloween. Seems a while ago, doesn't it? Basically I am super cool and down with what all the hip kids were listening to in 1793 or whenever. So, I accompanied my lovely girlfriend (oh snap, weren't expecting that, were you? Maybe you were, I wasn't. Well: good for you. Maybe wave hello. Be nice!) to a performance of Mozart's Requiem in the Karlskirche, Karlsplatz. I wasn't quite prepared for the grandeur of this building, I heard church and imagined something low key. Wien doesn't do low key churches:
This place was the church of the Emperors etc of Austria from the time of its completion sometime in the middle of the 18th century. The dome is 7o metres high on the outside and not much lower inside. You walk in and are assaulted by the most impossibly detailed interior decoration, all set in this vast, neck wrenchingly tall, echoing space, and over the altar there is a huge representation of the spirit with Yahweh or similar written in hebrew in the triangle at the centre.
The full height of the ceiling is quite hard to convey, as is the absolutely amazing stone used to face the interior and make the columns. I have literally no idea of what kind of stone it is, or its original location. It is called marble, but stonemasons call pretty much all rocks marble, whether they are or not... Sigh. It is very pretty though.
Normally you can climb the semi permanent scaffolding to get a look at the roof.So, Mozart's Requiem. I was worried that while it would be a nice experience to 'collect' as it were, that I would not really enjoy the performance in itself. I do not have practice in appreciating classical music. The setting was a definite help, combined with the use of period instruments for a spellbindingly authentic feel. I kept thinking about all the other times and places at which it had been performed... I have a tendancy for my mind to wander during instrumental music, but once I really started to concentrate on the sounds and try and come up with my own interpretations of the meanings, I did get drawn in. There were moments where I really felt I got the transitions between different parts or moods or whatever of the music, and it sounded amazing. The overwhelming thing I felt after though was that I wanted to hear it again. it strikes me as the sort of thing you need to be properly familiar with to hold the whole thing in your head at once and follow the journey while knowing where you have come from. I did feel unprepared considering that Mirva was sitting next to me actually reading the score as it went along, but a man's got to start somewhere...
With assistance I think I might actually be able to sort through some of the last 400 years or so of music and get a sense of what I like and don't like, and the stories (real,romanticised, mythical, etc) behind some of that. Right now knowing nothing is actually quite fun, as I am constantly discovering things that are basic knowledge to other people.
The rest of my week really hasn't been anything to write home about, mostly I have been going to lectures and doing work for various courses. It has been a week of good german learning though, met my buddy for a drink on Tuesday (OK we went climbing but gave up after 20 minutes because there was only a rubbish bouldering wall THEN went for a drink...) and then chatted to a few members of my geology classes yesterday. Mainly about this one really annoying piece of wok which I completely understand and have all the right numbers and formulae to do but somehow doesn't work anyway. I was very happy to discover I was not alone in this. I really do need to write about the student protests here someday, but I cannot be bothered to write another full blog post right now.
Bis bald!
Friday 30 October 2009
Important Announcement
Tim is currently winning in the 'who is my favourite friend?' competition. Bad luck all you other not-as-great-as-Tim-friends! Now you know it is a competition, maybe you will try harder. Or assasinate the competition? ANYWAY Tim sent me a book and a CD and a postcard, so he rocks.
Things I will write about soon: Vast Austrian student protests, Radiohead.
Things I will write about right now: we visited a proper Austrian restaurant/ brewery yesterday, makes all its own beer. I drank the first good beer I've had since leaving England. Beer culture is mysteriously elusive in Wien, or at least you really need to pick your establishment. If it is a bar, it will not serve interesting beer. Yesterday I had both a dark lager in the style of those from Prague (ein prager Dunkler), which was definitely my favourite, and a smoked beer ('Rauchbier'). The list of potential places to drag Ed when he visits is getting perilously long...
And now I will just throw some more pictures out there:
BLURRY DARWIN + TORTOISE
What I see on my way to the computer room (Votivkirche)
Today went for a walk through the Prater at night, we reached the Lusthaus (above with cool moon ) at the S end, so walked in total nearly 9km, 4.5 each way!
A terrifying ghost for halloween fans out there. Thanks to Grace for teaching me how to do this!
Man I love this park. It is infinite. ('unendlich' auf Deutsch)
Ciao for now!
Things I will write about soon: Vast Austrian student protests, Radiohead.
Things I will write about right now: we visited a proper Austrian restaurant/ brewery yesterday, makes all its own beer. I drank the first good beer I've had since leaving England. Beer culture is mysteriously elusive in Wien, or at least you really need to pick your establishment. If it is a bar, it will not serve interesting beer. Yesterday I had both a dark lager in the style of those from Prague (ein prager Dunkler), which was definitely my favourite, and a smoked beer ('Rauchbier'). The list of potential places to drag Ed when he visits is getting perilously long...
And now I will just throw some more pictures out there:
BLURRY DARWIN + TORTOISE
What I see on my way to the computer room (Votivkirche)
Today went for a walk through the Prater at night, we reached the Lusthaus (above with cool moon ) at the S end, so walked in total nearly 9km, 4.5 each way!
A terrifying ghost for halloween fans out there. Thanks to Grace for teaching me how to do this!
Man I love this park. It is infinite. ('unendlich' auf Deutsch)Ciao for now!
Tuesday 27 October 2009
Darwin on a Tortoise
Before I explain the detail of my Darwin sighting, I will address other recent events. On Saturday I felt I should do something other than just lie on the bed all day, and so I set out for the Naschmarkt, Vienna's largest and most famous market. My original aim was to locate some high quality baklava, as I am missing it slightly, and also because there are some people who have never eaten it who must be converted.
The food part of the Naschmarkt is a long but thin strip of semi permanent stalls, shops, bars and restaurants. As I wormed deeper in I was surrounded on all sides by piles of delicious produce from Austria and its neighbours. There were many many hummus and baklava stalls, usually also equipped with bewildering arrays of stuffed peppers, garlic, aubergines, and diverse soft cheeses. There were traditional Austrian butchers, cheese shops, cake shops, several chinese shops similar to those in chinatown in london, and also indian food shops with heaps of spice packets. Unlike London these shops are far from ubiquitous, and I think it is definitely easiest and best to go to the Naschmarkt for any curry sauce or wasabi peanut and soy sauce requirements. There were also people selling mead and honey, real (ie fermented, not put in vinegar) sauerkraut and pickles, and pressed apple juice. I liken it to borough market with all the pretension and high prices removed. I think normal people go to the Naschmarkt just to shop, which makes it a much better place.
I tried a sort of turkish pancake with sheep cheese in it, because I needed something hot and greasy in the cold, and also a delicious hungarian bread tube (my words, not theirs). These consist of thin hollow cylindrical bread wrapped around rotating wooden rods for cooking, then rolled in flavouring (cinammon, chocolate, sugar, coconut) and given to you, piping hot. It appears Hungarian food is a force to be reckoned with, at least in the realm of street food.
After my joyful pass through the food market, I discovered the equally exciting antique market beyond, with piles of books old and new, old clothes, beuatiful watches, boxes of rusting clockwork, and possibly counterfeit or stolen roman artefacts. And the usual assortment of crockery, random meat mincers, paintings etc. Very very cool, and I had to drag myself away from a gem and mineral stall where there was a (to my eyes) genuine meteorite on sale. It was not labelled as such, so I entertained the possibility they might not realise what it was and sell it for cheap, but even if you didn't know it was from space, it was still made of gems and pure iron, so it wasn't going to be cheap...
The surroundings of the market add to the experience, for some reason the generic pretty viennese apartment blocks and offices are here decorated with flowing patterns and pictures. At the end of the day as I walked back through the market towards the cathedral, I was unable to prevent myself purchasing a teapot and a couple of excellent loose teas. Clearly I have become accustomed to living with Edward and his freely available tea, and am now in withdrawal.
I stuck my head in to the cathedral before going home, because I could, and watched about the first half hour of a service to dedicate a new organ. No actual organ playing before I had to leave, unfortunately. The atmosphere inside is amazing, it is more of a working cathedral than many I have seen (this country is supposedly 70% Catholic after all). When the choir started singing and I stood next to the banks of twinkling tea lights at the foot of an unfeasibly large column covered in saints and gothic embellishments, I definitely understood that it is possible to appreciate the atmosphere of peace in a holy place, even if you are an atheist.
On Monday was the national day of celebration, when Austria celebrates being Austria and everyone gets the day off. Apparently they are also supposed to be celebrating their constitutional neutrality, something I find hard to square with the display of helicopters, tanks, jets and other army equipment in the Heldenplatz. Several museums were cheaper, so I checked out the globe museum (the only one in the world!) for free. As I said to my companion at the time, I am glad I visited it but also glad I didn't pay. There is excitement to be had examining the mistakes and political changes of globes from the past, but most globes are not incredibly beautiful and the general shapes on them are pretty invariant, for obvious reasons. Still, it was nice to imagine the romantic dreams that seeing blank areas of map would conjure in previous centuries, and to mourn the loss of 'here be dragons' and the like.
I then visited the Natural History Museum again. The new Darwin exhibit was OK, and I admired the good job it did of explaining common misconceptions about evolution and genetics as well as telling Darwin's story. However I feel I might enjoy the story more in book form, when I didn't have to wander around in a hot room, and I did know a lot of the basics already. By far the coolest and most ridiculous thing was definitely the life sized darwin model in the entrance hall, where he is depicted riding a giant tortoise. More excitingly, the plaque nearby says that he ACTUALLY DID ride tortoises at the age of 26 when visiting the Galapagos. I'm sure we could lure a few more kids to the side of evolution with that information...
The food part of the Naschmarkt is a long but thin strip of semi permanent stalls, shops, bars and restaurants. As I wormed deeper in I was surrounded on all sides by piles of delicious produce from Austria and its neighbours. There were many many hummus and baklava stalls, usually also equipped with bewildering arrays of stuffed peppers, garlic, aubergines, and diverse soft cheeses. There were traditional Austrian butchers, cheese shops, cake shops, several chinese shops similar to those in chinatown in london, and also indian food shops with heaps of spice packets. Unlike London these shops are far from ubiquitous, and I think it is definitely easiest and best to go to the Naschmarkt for any curry sauce or wasabi peanut and soy sauce requirements. There were also people selling mead and honey, real (ie fermented, not put in vinegar) sauerkraut and pickles, and pressed apple juice. I liken it to borough market with all the pretension and high prices removed. I think normal people go to the Naschmarkt just to shop, which makes it a much better place.
I tried a sort of turkish pancake with sheep cheese in it, because I needed something hot and greasy in the cold, and also a delicious hungarian bread tube (my words, not theirs). These consist of thin hollow cylindrical bread wrapped around rotating wooden rods for cooking, then rolled in flavouring (cinammon, chocolate, sugar, coconut) and given to you, piping hot. It appears Hungarian food is a force to be reckoned with, at least in the realm of street food.
After my joyful pass through the food market, I discovered the equally exciting antique market beyond, with piles of books old and new, old clothes, beuatiful watches, boxes of rusting clockwork, and possibly counterfeit or stolen roman artefacts. And the usual assortment of crockery, random meat mincers, paintings etc. Very very cool, and I had to drag myself away from a gem and mineral stall where there was a (to my eyes) genuine meteorite on sale. It was not labelled as such, so I entertained the possibility they might not realise what it was and sell it for cheap, but even if you didn't know it was from space, it was still made of gems and pure iron, so it wasn't going to be cheap...
The surroundings of the market add to the experience, for some reason the generic pretty viennese apartment blocks and offices are here decorated with flowing patterns and pictures. At the end of the day as I walked back through the market towards the cathedral, I was unable to prevent myself purchasing a teapot and a couple of excellent loose teas. Clearly I have become accustomed to living with Edward and his freely available tea, and am now in withdrawal.
I stuck my head in to the cathedral before going home, because I could, and watched about the first half hour of a service to dedicate a new organ. No actual organ playing before I had to leave, unfortunately. The atmosphere inside is amazing, it is more of a working cathedral than many I have seen (this country is supposedly 70% Catholic after all). When the choir started singing and I stood next to the banks of twinkling tea lights at the foot of an unfeasibly large column covered in saints and gothic embellishments, I definitely understood that it is possible to appreciate the atmosphere of peace in a holy place, even if you are an atheist.
On Monday was the national day of celebration, when Austria celebrates being Austria and everyone gets the day off. Apparently they are also supposed to be celebrating their constitutional neutrality, something I find hard to square with the display of helicopters, tanks, jets and other army equipment in the Heldenplatz. Several museums were cheaper, so I checked out the globe museum (the only one in the world!) for free. As I said to my companion at the time, I am glad I visited it but also glad I didn't pay. There is excitement to be had examining the mistakes and political changes of globes from the past, but most globes are not incredibly beautiful and the general shapes on them are pretty invariant, for obvious reasons. Still, it was nice to imagine the romantic dreams that seeing blank areas of map would conjure in previous centuries, and to mourn the loss of 'here be dragons' and the like.
I then visited the Natural History Museum again. The new Darwin exhibit was OK, and I admired the good job it did of explaining common misconceptions about evolution and genetics as well as telling Darwin's story. However I feel I might enjoy the story more in book form, when I didn't have to wander around in a hot room, and I did know a lot of the basics already. By far the coolest and most ridiculous thing was definitely the life sized darwin model in the entrance hall, where he is depicted riding a giant tortoise. More excitingly, the plaque nearby says that he ACTUALLY DID ride tortoises at the age of 26 when visiting the Galapagos. I'm sure we could lure a few more kids to the side of evolution with that information...
Wednesday 21 October 2009
Blog-Os, the tasty, topical, DIGITAL cereal!
...Filled with just the right balance of nutrients and copyright indignation, for all you budding Doctorows out there! mmm. Tasty.
Now, to business!
One consequence of my more settled routine, and perhaps also a huge deluge of cultural delights in the past few weeks, is that I have once again not been very active in the tourism area. I have done many things, but none of them are really write home worthy.
The party on saturday night was fun, it had a high proportion of danish people. This didn't influence my enjoyment of the party positively or negatively really, but I did meet this great danish guy who cultivated a proper posh british accent and a love for all things british. He is the first non-UK person I have met to know Fawlty Towers. We resolved to create a more highbrow version of Borat where he unleashed his powers of absurdity and witticism on the unsuspecting (and naturally highly dane-prejudiced) public of our fair island. He also works for Carlsberg, thus his professional life is spent surrounded by free beer. A good man to know. After we had consumed a lot of beer, we went out. We ended up at some underground place which I would definitely not have paid for while sober, and we danced enthusiastically to lots of music I would not have ejoyed while sober. However, I was not sober, and the whole thing was very very fun.
On sunday, my major achievements were a) making a delicious sausage casserole/stew thing and b) being introduced to the fantastic (and surprisingly as old as me) Studio Ghibli film 'My Neighbour Totoro'. It is completely delightful, the kids are cute but not annoying, the parents are cool and sensible, the totoro are funny and strange and adorable. And I'm sorry Ms Kitefish, but I think the cat bus is pretty cool too. There, I said it.
Monday was also uneventful, though I did go for a long rambling walk around central Vienna, basically because I could. Damned cold. The perfect setting to get to know music in though. A friend has gifted me pretty much every note of music that Andrew Bird has ever played, and I am slowly working thorough it. At the moment, it is all good, but each album has one song that blows everything else out of the water. I am especially enjoying the little known first album from 1996, which is basically a folk record, rough violin reels with just the right level of wail to be sad and uncomfortable and lovely, without sounding twee or annoying or discordant.
Tuesday: lectures. Wednesday: less lectures, and I finally scanned in and started working on my mapping project. Luckily, Uni Wien has really wide screen, super fast, Adobe Illustrator 4 equipped PCs. The only downside is that unintelligible computer babble menu items are no more intelligible and considerably less easy to guess the function of when in German. Good news from today: Ed is coming to visit very soon! Finally I have a real life person to shamelesly show this place off to. I am looking forward to it. He'd better like art :-) and opera...
Thursday's lectures/practicals were BRILLIANT. I think maybe I have finally reached a level of geology where every single thing is new and exciting and complicated. The German thing helps too. I feel like I am learning more things as I am re learning old words in a new language. Isotope chemistry is getting very complicated, more fool past me... My favourite lectures are still Petrology though. I have a tiny hope that I might thus be able to pick one strand of rock-studies over another, but I'll probably be just as interested in the stuff I study next term. In the evening found (actually, I was taken to) a great 'oriental' (as in the orient express, not China) restaurant. Huge plate of the tastiest foods that area has to offer, tres lecker. My finnish language skills continue to improve at breakneck speed (ha) I can now say one, two and three, and occasionally pronounce written things slightly right.
Todays plan: nonexistent! Except, MUST WORK ON MAP.
Now, to business!
One consequence of my more settled routine, and perhaps also a huge deluge of cultural delights in the past few weeks, is that I have once again not been very active in the tourism area. I have done many things, but none of them are really write home worthy.
The party on saturday night was fun, it had a high proportion of danish people. This didn't influence my enjoyment of the party positively or negatively really, but I did meet this great danish guy who cultivated a proper posh british accent and a love for all things british. He is the first non-UK person I have met to know Fawlty Towers. We resolved to create a more highbrow version of Borat where he unleashed his powers of absurdity and witticism on the unsuspecting (and naturally highly dane-prejudiced) public of our fair island. He also works for Carlsberg, thus his professional life is spent surrounded by free beer. A good man to know. After we had consumed a lot of beer, we went out. We ended up at some underground place which I would definitely not have paid for while sober, and we danced enthusiastically to lots of music I would not have ejoyed while sober. However, I was not sober, and the whole thing was very very fun.
On sunday, my major achievements were a) making a delicious sausage casserole/stew thing and b) being introduced to the fantastic (and surprisingly as old as me) Studio Ghibli film 'My Neighbour Totoro'. It is completely delightful, the kids are cute but not annoying, the parents are cool and sensible, the totoro are funny and strange and adorable. And I'm sorry Ms Kitefish, but I think the cat bus is pretty cool too. There, I said it.
Monday was also uneventful, though I did go for a long rambling walk around central Vienna, basically because I could. Damned cold. The perfect setting to get to know music in though. A friend has gifted me pretty much every note of music that Andrew Bird has ever played, and I am slowly working thorough it. At the moment, it is all good, but each album has one song that blows everything else out of the water. I am especially enjoying the little known first album from 1996, which is basically a folk record, rough violin reels with just the right level of wail to be sad and uncomfortable and lovely, without sounding twee or annoying or discordant.
Tuesday: lectures. Wednesday: less lectures, and I finally scanned in and started working on my mapping project. Luckily, Uni Wien has really wide screen, super fast, Adobe Illustrator 4 equipped PCs. The only downside is that unintelligible computer babble menu items are no more intelligible and considerably less easy to guess the function of when in German. Good news from today: Ed is coming to visit very soon! Finally I have a real life person to shamelesly show this place off to. I am looking forward to it. He'd better like art :-) and opera...
Thursday's lectures/practicals were BRILLIANT. I think maybe I have finally reached a level of geology where every single thing is new and exciting and complicated. The German thing helps too. I feel like I am learning more things as I am re learning old words in a new language. Isotope chemistry is getting very complicated, more fool past me... My favourite lectures are still Petrology though. I have a tiny hope that I might thus be able to pick one strand of rock-studies over another, but I'll probably be just as interested in the stuff I study next term. In the evening found (actually, I was taken to) a great 'oriental' (as in the orient express, not China) restaurant. Huge plate of the tastiest foods that area has to offer, tres lecker. My finnish language skills continue to improve at breakneck speed (ha) I can now say one, two and three, and occasionally pronounce written things slightly right.
Todays plan: nonexistent! Except, MUST WORK ON MAP.
Saturday 17 October 2009
My wish is my command, apparently.
So last time I wrote, I was all 'phew, I should do less stuff'. Clearly the world heard my plea, as this week I got ill for a few days and was unable/ more correctly unwilling, to do much more than lie around watching films. I managed to go to all my essential (ie 3rd year) lectures though, so I didn't suffer in that respect.
So, brief summary: Monday, did nothing except go in for a lecture that didn't exist (d'oh), and registered for the library (hurrah!). Tuesday, went in for a lecture starting at 8.30 to find it started at 8.45, causing brief paranoia that lectures were moving rooms to avoid me when I found the door was locked... After sitting through my 2 lectures, went home as felt rather weak. Thereafter lay around, remembered that my good friend William had left his hard drive of movies in my room, then watched the Matrix parts 2 + 3. As he later commented, of all his movies it was an odd choice but I didn't want anything too emotional and complicated (or at least with complications I cared about paying attention to). I found them more enjoyable than the torrent of scorn that has been poured on them in they years since their release would imply, but perhaps only because the bright sheen of hopeful expectation has long since blown away in the force of the inevitable light breeze of mild disillusionment (or some other I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue inspired phrase).
Wednesday watched the entire first series of 'Flight of the Conchords'. BRILLIANT. I dislike musical comedy, but these guys have the perfect touch, they are taking the piss out of whole genres of music while at the same time really respecting them, and they have created a pair of likeable but ridiculous characters. I especially like the episodes where typical sitcom/soap stereotypes get turned around, such as when protagonist Brett is used for sex by a deceiving american woman who claims she will be posted to Iraq the next day, or when both are subject to extreme anti New Zealand racism by their indian fruit seller.
Thursday is Lecture Day(TM). It appears my assumptions about the course I thought was just a rerun of something I did in 2nd year were somewhat wrong, about which I am excited and grateful. However I am definitely going to need to get some textbook reading going ASAP. Hydrogeology was fun, but not too difficult. Petrology was really complicated but super fantastic. This will not mean anything to non geologists, but my first lecture exlained exactly how we get those phase diagrams that we've been seeing since first year. The explanation was so simple in appearance yet it leads to very complicated things and I am glad other people do the maths for me at this stage, but still. So cool! Later did some late night film watching and music listening with a friend, Lola Rennt is still a genius film, and Tim, if you're out there, I listened to a Tom Waits song and it wasn't so bad! I played them the Fiery Furnaces and they didn't hate that, which is pretty much a first.
Friday did absolutely nothing, apart from watching vintage Terry Gilliam film '12 Monkeys'. Kind of cool, and not what you'd expect from a film featuring Brad Pitt and Bruce Willis as leads. Those guys have serious act power.
Today's plan: work then party. So simple to write, so hard to do...
Der Tom
So, brief summary: Monday, did nothing except go in for a lecture that didn't exist (d'oh), and registered for the library (hurrah!). Tuesday, went in for a lecture starting at 8.30 to find it started at 8.45, causing brief paranoia that lectures were moving rooms to avoid me when I found the door was locked... After sitting through my 2 lectures, went home as felt rather weak. Thereafter lay around, remembered that my good friend William had left his hard drive of movies in my room, then watched the Matrix parts 2 + 3. As he later commented, of all his movies it was an odd choice but I didn't want anything too emotional and complicated (or at least with complications I cared about paying attention to). I found them more enjoyable than the torrent of scorn that has been poured on them in they years since their release would imply, but perhaps only because the bright sheen of hopeful expectation has long since blown away in the force of the inevitable light breeze of mild disillusionment (or some other I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue inspired phrase).
Wednesday watched the entire first series of 'Flight of the Conchords'. BRILLIANT. I dislike musical comedy, but these guys have the perfect touch, they are taking the piss out of whole genres of music while at the same time really respecting them, and they have created a pair of likeable but ridiculous characters. I especially like the episodes where typical sitcom/soap stereotypes get turned around, such as when protagonist Brett is used for sex by a deceiving american woman who claims she will be posted to Iraq the next day, or when both are subject to extreme anti New Zealand racism by their indian fruit seller.
Thursday is Lecture Day(TM). It appears my assumptions about the course I thought was just a rerun of something I did in 2nd year were somewhat wrong, about which I am excited and grateful. However I am definitely going to need to get some textbook reading going ASAP. Hydrogeology was fun, but not too difficult. Petrology was really complicated but super fantastic. This will not mean anything to non geologists, but my first lecture exlained exactly how we get those phase diagrams that we've been seeing since first year. The explanation was so simple in appearance yet it leads to very complicated things and I am glad other people do the maths for me at this stage, but still. So cool! Later did some late night film watching and music listening with a friend, Lola Rennt is still a genius film, and Tim, if you're out there, I listened to a Tom Waits song and it wasn't so bad! I played them the Fiery Furnaces and they didn't hate that, which is pretty much a first.
Friday did absolutely nothing, apart from watching vintage Terry Gilliam film '12 Monkeys'. Kind of cool, and not what you'd expect from a film featuring Brad Pitt and Bruce Willis as leads. Those guys have serious act power.
Today's plan: work then party. So simple to write, so hard to do...
Der Tom
Sunday 11 October 2009
Not the wittiest of blog titles
Oh dear, a lot to catch up on and it has only been 4 days. I need to do less or write more. I will now recount the past four days in this newfangled 'chronological order' thing I've heard so much about.
Thursday I had 6 hours of lectures. Hmmm. Starting at 9am as well. I was left rather exhausted, partly as I need to get back in the swing of lectures, and partly because 6 hours of geowissenchaftliches Deutsch as opposed to English definitely tires the brain a little more.
But what are my courses like? Applied Environmental Geology seems pretty cool, all stuff I haven't really learnt before, definitely not too easy, and I can understand the lecturer easily. This was actually the hardest lecture + practical as I was learning new words rather than figuring out the German meaning of old ones. Isotope Geology actually seems annoyingly similar to a course I took in 2nd year at UCL, but I figure I deserve a little bit of slack what with everything with being in German and all, plus this course will take a bit more of a detailed numerical approach which will be very welcome. Petrology seems the best of the three so far, engaging lecturers and the potential to learn lots of new complicated interesting things. Plus I even answered a question in it.
What's the best way to rest after 6 hours of lectures?? If you answered a) 'go to the house of your Polish friends and drink polish vodka/wodka with them', you would be right. Not much to say apart from POLISH PEOPLE DRINK VERY FAST. Luckily while I got very drunk, I was (as always, haha) reserved enough that I did not get into any difficulties. Once we had drunk lots of wodka and learnt a polish drinking song/toast called 'Sto lat' we retired to a nearby halls to a party. A very good evening was had by all.
Friday I had no lectures, which was excellent planning on my part. As far as I can remember I did nothing with my day, then went off to a friends for drinks, then straight to a big Erasmus party inside a massive mansion type place. I guess Vienna has so many lovely buildings they can afford to use some for clubs. A surprisingly fun night in comparison to some of the Erasmus events, the DJs played many UK favourites like Blink 182 and Blur, and then magnificently segued into Ska-P, (Europe's best left wing Spanish ska-punk band) and various other Ska-Punk-Reggae-Balkan gems. Did not get to sleep till veeeeery late. Consequently spent much of Saturday daytime lazing around again. Your tax dollars at work, ladies and gentlemen!
Saturday evening saw a woeful party organised in the basement of our building, which most people quickly realised was a waste of time. It was selling beer for way more than it cost in nearby shops, playing far worse music than we could generate in our own flats, and was also an overheated, smoke-filled, poorly ventilated and unattractive basement. I thus retired upstairs with a group of (well, 2) like minded people, where naturally we talked about god, the meaning of life, the finer points of the New Zealandish, Finnish and English educational systems and the British concept of class until 4am.
I was very tired today (see a theme here?) but managed to be sufficiently awake by 3pm to go and check out the Belvedere, one of the many stately homes and gardens around Vienna. On the way we passed the incredibly large fountain by the soviet army memorial. The fountain kicks up so much spray that when the sun breaks through the clouds a bright rainbow forms in front of your eyes. Very cool, although soaking. Took some great photos, but I think Vienna makes anyone look good at photography tbh.
The Belvedere park was amazing of course, parks just aren't going to seem the same for me now without a vast stately home filled with famous art at one end... There was a great view over Vienna, all the spires of the churches of Vienna, the Stephansdom, the big wheel, the hills behind. Wow. There were also some mysteriously violent classical statues which I will research someday because seriously, why would 2 cherubs be subduing a woman and making her vomit water (ie it was a fountain). Also, why is the man below wrestling a crocodile??
Inside the Belvedere were vast marble filled rooms, painted ceilings, and a very lage amount of world class art, ranging from giant mythical tableaux to small landscape paintings, by way of expressionist Egon Schiele, impressionist Monet, and I'm not really sure-ist Gustav Klimt, including Mr Klimt's rather famous picture 'The Kiss'. This city really is spoiling me I think. When I get back to London I resolve to stay in this tourism habit, I have seen less of the treasures of that grat city than I have of Vienna. Bad Tom.
As we left the Belvedere at closing time the sun had just gone down and wispy clouds were hanging over Vienna. Very nice.
Thursday I had 6 hours of lectures. Hmmm. Starting at 9am as well. I was left rather exhausted, partly as I need to get back in the swing of lectures, and partly because 6 hours of geowissenchaftliches Deutsch as opposed to English definitely tires the brain a little more.
But what are my courses like? Applied Environmental Geology seems pretty cool, all stuff I haven't really learnt before, definitely not too easy, and I can understand the lecturer easily. This was actually the hardest lecture + practical as I was learning new words rather than figuring out the German meaning of old ones. Isotope Geology actually seems annoyingly similar to a course I took in 2nd year at UCL, but I figure I deserve a little bit of slack what with everything with being in German and all, plus this course will take a bit more of a detailed numerical approach which will be very welcome. Petrology seems the best of the three so far, engaging lecturers and the potential to learn lots of new complicated interesting things. Plus I even answered a question in it.
What's the best way to rest after 6 hours of lectures?? If you answered a) 'go to the house of your Polish friends and drink polish vodka/wodka with them', you would be right. Not much to say apart from POLISH PEOPLE DRINK VERY FAST. Luckily while I got very drunk, I was (as always, haha) reserved enough that I did not get into any difficulties. Once we had drunk lots of wodka and learnt a polish drinking song/toast called 'Sto lat' we retired to a nearby halls to a party. A very good evening was had by all.
Friday I had no lectures, which was excellent planning on my part. As far as I can remember I did nothing with my day, then went off to a friends for drinks, then straight to a big Erasmus party inside a massive mansion type place. I guess Vienna has so many lovely buildings they can afford to use some for clubs. A surprisingly fun night in comparison to some of the Erasmus events, the DJs played many UK favourites like Blink 182 and Blur, and then magnificently segued into Ska-P, (Europe's best left wing Spanish ska-punk band) and various other Ska-Punk-Reggae-Balkan gems. Did not get to sleep till veeeeery late. Consequently spent much of Saturday daytime lazing around again. Your tax dollars at work, ladies and gentlemen!
Saturday evening saw a woeful party organised in the basement of our building, which most people quickly realised was a waste of time. It was selling beer for way more than it cost in nearby shops, playing far worse music than we could generate in our own flats, and was also an overheated, smoke-filled, poorly ventilated and unattractive basement. I thus retired upstairs with a group of (well, 2) like minded people, where naturally we talked about god, the meaning of life, the finer points of the New Zealandish, Finnish and English educational systems and the British concept of class until 4am.
I was very tired today (see a theme here?) but managed to be sufficiently awake by 3pm to go and check out the Belvedere, one of the many stately homes and gardens around Vienna. On the way we passed the incredibly large fountain by the soviet army memorial. The fountain kicks up so much spray that when the sun breaks through the clouds a bright rainbow forms in front of your eyes. Very cool, although soaking. Took some great photos, but I think Vienna makes anyone look good at photography tbh.
The Belvedere park was amazing of course, parks just aren't going to seem the same for me now without a vast stately home filled with famous art at one end... There was a great view over Vienna, all the spires of the churches of Vienna, the Stephansdom, the big wheel, the hills behind. Wow. There were also some mysteriously violent classical statues which I will research someday because seriously, why would 2 cherubs be subduing a woman and making her vomit water (ie it was a fountain). Also, why is the man below wrestling a crocodile??
Inside the Belvedere were vast marble filled rooms, painted ceilings, and a very lage amount of world class art, ranging from giant mythical tableaux to small landscape paintings, by way of expressionist Egon Schiele, impressionist Monet, and I'm not really sure-ist Gustav Klimt, including Mr Klimt's rather famous picture 'The Kiss'. This city really is spoiling me I think. When I get back to London I resolve to stay in this tourism habit, I have seen less of the treasures of that grat city than I have of Vienna. Bad Tom.As we left the Belvedere at closing time the sun had just gone down and wispy clouds were hanging over Vienna. Very nice.
Wednesday 7 October 2009
Fun in the sun
What? I had to title this post something. I am refering to the unseasonable (according to actual Austrians) weather we are having which led to 27 degree temperatures and bright sunshine today. I am not complaining.
I realise I left my dedicated readership in a terrible state of suspense the other day, so I must hasten to recount the further adventures of 'me trying to actually get a question answered by a petrologist.'
Let me tell you, it was not easy. Upon my return at 12 the next day, I was forced to wait 40 minutes before my coordinator reappeared. Luckily he was able to answer my question in about 5 minutes. Which of course he could have done yesterday. Ho hum, I am healthier for the walk (45 minutes now I know the way and if I want to work up a sweat). My mistake appears to have been thinking that there were rules. There are no rules! As long as I end up with my required number of credits (by attending and passing exams) nobody gives a damn what lectures I am going to, or even in what department for that matter. I had a paranoid feeling of being questioned about my presence at every turn, this is apparently not what will happen.
This is all very liberating, and though I'm not about to attend icelandic history modules or whatever it will make next semester's choices hugely easier. Plus it means I can follow my clever (and doubtless unoriginal) plan of turning up 2 out of 3 times a week to the equivalent of the 'geology 101' lecture. Now, of course I learnt all of it 2 years ago. But this is a huge advantage as I can refocus any effort that would otherwise be used up in trying to write notes, understand concepts or keep from sleep to make lists of vocabulary, most of which I can figure out from the context. I covered 2 A4 sides in german geo-vocab this morning. Otherwise the lecture would have been as boring as 1st year intro lectures always used to be, despite the novely of being in a room with at least 60 people.
Later on I went climbing with Ruth and 2 of her friends. Pluses: sunny sun, 30m+ climbing wall on the side of a giant concrete flak tower with an aquarium inside. Also, speaking the Deutsch for quite a while. Minuses: It appears if you don't do any serious climbing for like 8 months you get RUBBISH, plus I never had any endurance anyway as all I ever did was boulder. Soon though, climbing wall. Soon. Even if you do close for winter in 2 weeks.
Sprechening of ze Deutsch, I am actually encouraged to find that I might be improving. Or at least returning to a good level. People always compliment me on my language, but it is hard to tell if they are just doing that cos I am english and speaking a foreign language (seriously! we may stereotype the germans but our stereotype is that we are lazy buggers who can't ever speak anything but english. I am glad to be knocking it a bit).
I can now hold a shaky one to one conversation about uninteresting everyday stuff with a German (or Austrian taking pity on me and speaking nicely). In groups of people I can basically get what everyone is saying and if I have had enough alcohol, maybe make 1 witty comment per conversation. If the people in question are Austrian however, and especially my buddy and her friends, I cannot get much. Ruth comes from somewhere called Vorarlberg, the really mountainous bit right on the border with switzerland. So their dialect is by their own admission completely unintelligible. Damn hill folk :-)
Tomorrow, real lectures! And polish vodka. NOT at the same time.
I realise I left my dedicated readership in a terrible state of suspense the other day, so I must hasten to recount the further adventures of 'me trying to actually get a question answered by a petrologist.'
Let me tell you, it was not easy. Upon my return at 12 the next day, I was forced to wait 40 minutes before my coordinator reappeared. Luckily he was able to answer my question in about 5 minutes. Which of course he could have done yesterday. Ho hum, I am healthier for the walk (45 minutes now I know the way and if I want to work up a sweat). My mistake appears to have been thinking that there were rules. There are no rules! As long as I end up with my required number of credits (by attending and passing exams) nobody gives a damn what lectures I am going to, or even in what department for that matter. I had a paranoid feeling of being questioned about my presence at every turn, this is apparently not what will happen.
This is all very liberating, and though I'm not about to attend icelandic history modules or whatever it will make next semester's choices hugely easier. Plus it means I can follow my clever (and doubtless unoriginal) plan of turning up 2 out of 3 times a week to the equivalent of the 'geology 101' lecture. Now, of course I learnt all of it 2 years ago. But this is a huge advantage as I can refocus any effort that would otherwise be used up in trying to write notes, understand concepts or keep from sleep to make lists of vocabulary, most of which I can figure out from the context. I covered 2 A4 sides in german geo-vocab this morning. Otherwise the lecture would have been as boring as 1st year intro lectures always used to be, despite the novely of being in a room with at least 60 people.
Later on I went climbing with Ruth and 2 of her friends. Pluses: sunny sun, 30m+ climbing wall on the side of a giant concrete flak tower with an aquarium inside. Also, speaking the Deutsch for quite a while. Minuses: It appears if you don't do any serious climbing for like 8 months you get RUBBISH, plus I never had any endurance anyway as all I ever did was boulder. Soon though, climbing wall. Soon. Even if you do close for winter in 2 weeks.
Sprechening of ze Deutsch, I am actually encouraged to find that I might be improving. Or at least returning to a good level. People always compliment me on my language, but it is hard to tell if they are just doing that cos I am english and speaking a foreign language (seriously! we may stereotype the germans but our stereotype is that we are lazy buggers who can't ever speak anything but english. I am glad to be knocking it a bit).
I can now hold a shaky one to one conversation about uninteresting everyday stuff with a German (or Austrian taking pity on me and speaking nicely). In groups of people I can basically get what everyone is saying and if I have had enough alcohol, maybe make 1 witty comment per conversation. If the people in question are Austrian however, and especially my buddy and her friends, I cannot get much. Ruth comes from somewhere called Vorarlberg, the really mountainous bit right on the border with switzerland. So their dialect is by their own admission completely unintelligible. Damn hill folk :-)
Tomorrow, real lectures! And polish vodka. NOT at the same time.
Monday 5 October 2009
"It's ups and downs you know, ups and downs" (but mostly ups)
I walked past a thermometer on the side of a building today. It said 20 degrees.
Heute I was supposed to meet with my coordinator and sort out actually maybe studying some courses at some point. To this end I set out to walk to the geology department of the university, located in a different and less central part of Vienna, but not much farther removed from my house than the main campus. My route took me back through the Augarten, where I paused to photograph my favourite flak tower once again in the beautiful late afternoon sunlight.
Still cool. I cannot help but imagine that had the war gone differently, the scene in the Augarten 60+ years later would not probably have been so different from today, save that the concrete behemoth would be a sparkly monument to victory rather than a graffiti covered, too expensive to demolish ruin.
Buoyed up by the weather, I entered the geology department via a torturous route through a door in an underground car park as all the maps of the campus (shared with the Wirtschaftsuniversitaet) were confusing and half erased. I was immediately struck by the sheer awesome size of the building, 5 stories and very long, connected by one giant open space with light streaming in from the glass roof onto rocks and dinosaur skeletons. And the view from the 5th floor over all of Vienna was an extra treat, especially as there were nice little groups of desks to work at while gazing over it. It made me weirdly happy to see even from a distance people who were definitely geologists, I think I miss the 'geologist' mindset more than the 'english person' mindset at present.
Had I not just discovered that my geology department was located in some form of modernist geology palace, finally reaching the office of my Koordinator and finding that he was just leaving to (I think) administer an exam, despite having specifically told me his meeting hours on the phone last week, would have made me a little angry. Luckily though, I was in a good frame of mind, so I was merely polite and organised a meeting for tomorrow at 12.
LOOK AT THE GEOLOGY PALACE! Complete with pterosaur. Didn't take photos of it all (there is way more) as I felt a bit self conscious wandering around with my camera like weirdo tourist in my own department.
The Wirtschaftsuniversitaet is conveniently located next to an incineration plant (Muellverbrennungsanlage or rubbish-burning-place) which would normally suck. Luckily this is Vienna, city of really cool stuff, so it is a super amazing architectural wonder by the legendary architect somebody Hundertwasser. Below is a lovely view of the main chimney shining proudly in the sun, with hills behind.
Then I walked back home, pausing only to take lots more photos of the Augarten...
Heute I was supposed to meet with my coordinator and sort out actually maybe studying some courses at some point. To this end I set out to walk to the geology department of the university, located in a different and less central part of Vienna, but not much farther removed from my house than the main campus. My route took me back through the Augarten, where I paused to photograph my favourite flak tower once again in the beautiful late afternoon sunlight.
Still cool. I cannot help but imagine that had the war gone differently, the scene in the Augarten 60+ years later would not probably have been so different from today, save that the concrete behemoth would be a sparkly monument to victory rather than a graffiti covered, too expensive to demolish ruin.Buoyed up by the weather, I entered the geology department via a torturous route through a door in an underground car park as all the maps of the campus (shared with the Wirtschaftsuniversitaet) were confusing and half erased. I was immediately struck by the sheer awesome size of the building, 5 stories and very long, connected by one giant open space with light streaming in from the glass roof onto rocks and dinosaur skeletons. And the view from the 5th floor over all of Vienna was an extra treat, especially as there were nice little groups of desks to work at while gazing over it. It made me weirdly happy to see even from a distance people who were definitely geologists, I think I miss the 'geologist' mindset more than the 'english person' mindset at present.
Had I not just discovered that my geology department was located in some form of modernist geology palace, finally reaching the office of my Koordinator and finding that he was just leaving to (I think) administer an exam, despite having specifically told me his meeting hours on the phone last week, would have made me a little angry. Luckily though, I was in a good frame of mind, so I was merely polite and organised a meeting for tomorrow at 12.
LOOK AT THE GEOLOGY PALACE! Complete with pterosaur. Didn't take photos of it all (there is way more) as I felt a bit self conscious wandering around with my camera like weirdo tourist in my own department.The Wirtschaftsuniversitaet is conveniently located next to an incineration plant (Muellverbrennungsanlage or rubbish-burning-place) which would normally suck. Luckily this is Vienna, city of really cool stuff, so it is a super amazing architectural wonder by the legendary architect somebody Hundertwasser. Below is a lovely view of the main chimney shining proudly in the sun, with hills behind.
Then I walked back home, pausing only to take lots more photos of the Augarten...
Museum Crawl!
Last night was the 'lange Nacht der Museen'/ long night of the museums. Basically, almost every museum in the whole country (Austria, if you weren't paying attention) opens its doors from 6pm to 1am, and you can buy a ticket to as many museums as you want to visit for a measly €11... This is a BRILLIANT IDEA. There was a real festival atmosphere as parents and children wandered around from museum to museum, and combined with the natural beauty of the city and the bright full moon it was really a special feeling evening.
First museum was the clock museum of Vienna, and there isn't much I can really say other than it contained a vast number of incredible clocks, varying in size from beautiful pocket watches with tiny miniature paintings (the best I think) to huge astronomical clocks recording more things than I even knew could be measured. Other clocks were just stupidly ornate or included weird extra details like the clock that played a different tune (waltz, polka etc) for every single hour.
We then aimed for the Mozarthaus (my companion being a musician) but were distracted while lost and found the Schottenstift Museum. This appears to be a museum connected with a nearby monastery, originally founded in the 12th century. I had no idea what to expect in this place, and really, despite an overlying religious theme, there didn't really seem to be any definite rules on hat was included. Highlights were endless incredible 16th century paintings, a big set of panels of the life of christ from the middle ages, and the amazing wooden flooring of the museum itself, including one room floored with a 3 tone diamond pattern that made it look like a wall of cubes. Also cool were decrees on parchment or vellum written in 1200-odd, very odd to see something in handwriting from that time, and then to imagine it being handed over and read.
Next was the Mozarthaus. Parts of this were rather dissapointing, very little in the exhibition about Mozart and his time was actually directly related to him. The magical thing was finally reaching the floor of Mozart's flat, and looking out the window at exactly the same views he looked at while composing 6 pages of original genius music a day, or giving concerts to his contemporaries etc etc. The manuscripts of things he had composed were interesting as well, the rough, rushed appearance of each individual note really brought home how composers write in music like authors write in sentences.
A brief break for a fast food dinner led to my discovery of an originally Hungarian food called the langos (lAHNgosh according to wikipedia), a deep fried flat bread spread with a garlic sauce. Warm, terribly unhealthy and completely worth it. I am sad it has not taken the world by storm because it is probably one of the tastiest fast foods I have ever eaten.
Next we visited the Schatzkammer, the treasury of Austria through its various incarnations as kingdom, empire, seat of the Holy Roman Emperor, etc. This place was stunning, there was seemingly no end to the gold and jewellery on show. There were crowns (one from the 8th century) worn by every King imaginable, christening and coronation gowns, Knight's robes, dazzling reliquaries, preposterously large jewels (one emerald was over 2500 carats) ancient swords and spears, a cabinet for the storage of the keys to the coffins of the ruling line, chalices galore, and several purported pieces and nails of the true cross. Far from being jaded by the constant stream of unbeatable artisanship, I was just more and more impressed at the sheer power represented by the collection. You could probably spend a good half hour staring at and learning about any one of the things in that plac,and I may be forced to return.
After a brief chocolate grape break we ended the night at the Albertina, one of the many art galleries in Vienna. This one is a modern art gallery mainly I think, and we only had time to see the new Impressionist exhibition. As so often happens in the case of exhibitions, I was left with a much greater impression (haha) of these paintings than could ever be conveyed by a book. Seemingly wrong or impossible colours up close coalesce into perfect depictions of light glancing off skin or walls. Huge brush strokes somehow convey every detail of rippling water. Every important artist of the period was represented. I count myself lucky that I am able (at least nowadays) to visit an art gallery and to truly enjoy myself, exclaiming in happiness when I find a new amazing picture, always wanting to stare for hours at the current painting while running off to look at the next. It seems that these artists like Monet, Manet, Toulouse Lautrec et al are renowned because they made really, REALLY good paintings. Who would have thought it?!
Everywhere should have this as a tradition. One of the best evenings I have ever spent doing anything. Great atmosphere, great art, great history.
Today I went to a traditional Heuriger, tavern like places on the outskirts of Vienna where people gather to drink the new wine of the season. Maybe not mature, but sweet, alcoholic and delicious, and full of great people. I actually managed to speak German quite a bit tonight (with the aide of educational tool number wine), and I have the encouraging feeling that at least where it comes to german german, I may be making some progress.
I feel like I have dumped poor old London for this glamourous new girl Vienna, poor London, we had a good thing going for 2 whole years, and now I'm dallying araound with this new more beautifulcity. It can never last, right? But whatever, Vienna is much better even than I expected. I am very glad to be here.
First museum was the clock museum of Vienna, and there isn't much I can really say other than it contained a vast number of incredible clocks, varying in size from beautiful pocket watches with tiny miniature paintings (the best I think) to huge astronomical clocks recording more things than I even knew could be measured. Other clocks were just stupidly ornate or included weird extra details like the clock that played a different tune (waltz, polka etc) for every single hour.
We then aimed for the Mozarthaus (my companion being a musician) but were distracted while lost and found the Schottenstift Museum. This appears to be a museum connected with a nearby monastery, originally founded in the 12th century. I had no idea what to expect in this place, and really, despite an overlying religious theme, there didn't really seem to be any definite rules on hat was included. Highlights were endless incredible 16th century paintings, a big set of panels of the life of christ from the middle ages, and the amazing wooden flooring of the museum itself, including one room floored with a 3 tone diamond pattern that made it look like a wall of cubes. Also cool were decrees on parchment or vellum written in 1200-odd, very odd to see something in handwriting from that time, and then to imagine it being handed over and read.
Next was the Mozarthaus. Parts of this were rather dissapointing, very little in the exhibition about Mozart and his time was actually directly related to him. The magical thing was finally reaching the floor of Mozart's flat, and looking out the window at exactly the same views he looked at while composing 6 pages of original genius music a day, or giving concerts to his contemporaries etc etc. The manuscripts of things he had composed were interesting as well, the rough, rushed appearance of each individual note really brought home how composers write in music like authors write in sentences.
A brief break for a fast food dinner led to my discovery of an originally Hungarian food called the langos (lAHNgosh according to wikipedia), a deep fried flat bread spread with a garlic sauce. Warm, terribly unhealthy and completely worth it. I am sad it has not taken the world by storm because it is probably one of the tastiest fast foods I have ever eaten.
Next we visited the Schatzkammer, the treasury of Austria through its various incarnations as kingdom, empire, seat of the Holy Roman Emperor, etc. This place was stunning, there was seemingly no end to the gold and jewellery on show. There were crowns (one from the 8th century) worn by every King imaginable, christening and coronation gowns, Knight's robes, dazzling reliquaries, preposterously large jewels (one emerald was over 2500 carats) ancient swords and spears, a cabinet for the storage of the keys to the coffins of the ruling line, chalices galore, and several purported pieces and nails of the true cross. Far from being jaded by the constant stream of unbeatable artisanship, I was just more and more impressed at the sheer power represented by the collection. You could probably spend a good half hour staring at and learning about any one of the things in that plac,and I may be forced to return.
After a brief chocolate grape break we ended the night at the Albertina, one of the many art galleries in Vienna. This one is a modern art gallery mainly I think, and we only had time to see the new Impressionist exhibition. As so often happens in the case of exhibitions, I was left with a much greater impression (haha) of these paintings than could ever be conveyed by a book. Seemingly wrong or impossible colours up close coalesce into perfect depictions of light glancing off skin or walls. Huge brush strokes somehow convey every detail of rippling water. Every important artist of the period was represented. I count myself lucky that I am able (at least nowadays) to visit an art gallery and to truly enjoy myself, exclaiming in happiness when I find a new amazing picture, always wanting to stare for hours at the current painting while running off to look at the next. It seems that these artists like Monet, Manet, Toulouse Lautrec et al are renowned because they made really, REALLY good paintings. Who would have thought it?!
Everywhere should have this as a tradition. One of the best evenings I have ever spent doing anything. Great atmosphere, great art, great history.
Today I went to a traditional Heuriger, tavern like places on the outskirts of Vienna where people gather to drink the new wine of the season. Maybe not mature, but sweet, alcoholic and delicious, and full of great people. I actually managed to speak German quite a bit tonight (with the aide of educational tool number wine), and I have the encouraging feeling that at least where it comes to german german, I may be making some progress.
I feel like I have dumped poor old London for this glamourous new girl Vienna, poor London, we had a good thing going for 2 whole years, and now I'm dallying araound with this new more beautifulcity. It can never last, right? But whatever, Vienna is much better even than I expected. I am very glad to be here.
Thursday 1 October 2009
-Interlude-
Nothing to do with me personally (apart from that it was found on some geology blogs), the link below is to a site where US science teachers in poor schools put up posts detailing exactly what projects they would like to do with their students, and why, and exactly what they will cost. Donors can then get the feeling that they are helping progress to a small but easily defined goal, and nobody is going to run off with their money and spend it on a new coffee machine or something. I think it is an amazing idea.
http://www.donorschoose.org/
However, looking at the site I find myself quite shocked that it should even be necessary to have a program like this. It really brings home just how poorly equipped some kids in america are to learn science, and I can't help but think that this must contribute to the fact that supposedly under half the US population 'believe' in evolution. (I don't want to even start on the question of whether evolution should have to be 'believable; rather than merely 'proven', but yeah.)
Schools in the program that are classified as 'high poverty' have at least 40% of children claiming free school meals. To claim free school meals the family income (for a family of 4) has to be below $23,920. So over 40% of children at these schools come from families where the yearly income is less than £3750 per person.
Of course, I have no idea what the corresponding facts are for the UK. Basically, I just think it is a cool way to run a donation website.
http://www.donorschoose.org/
However, looking at the site I find myself quite shocked that it should even be necessary to have a program like this. It really brings home just how poorly equipped some kids in america are to learn science, and I can't help but think that this must contribute to the fact that supposedly under half the US population 'believe' in evolution. (I don't want to even start on the question of whether evolution should have to be 'believable; rather than merely 'proven', but yeah.)
Schools in the program that are classified as 'high poverty' have at least 40% of children claiming free school meals. To claim free school meals the family income (for a family of 4) has to be below $23,920. So over 40% of children at these schools come from families where the yearly income is less than £3750 per person.
Of course, I have no idea what the corresponding facts are for the UK. Basically, I just think it is a cool way to run a donation website.
Wednesday 30 September 2009
If this was a livejournal...
... then my 'current mood' would be 'relieved'. Today I decided it was time to stop sending repeatedly unanswered emails to my coordinator and actually try phoning him. I had been putting this off because I don't really like phone calls if I can avoid them, and especially not phone calls in German, to someone who for all I knew could have had the worst and least intelligible accent this side of, well, Vienna is probably ground zero for unintelligible Deutsch actually. Never mind.
So anyhow, I phoned him, and I am now going to meet with him on monday afternoon. And he gave every indication of understanding everything I was saying, and didn't try switching to english! (This may be bad if he knows none, but you do not get to head an academic department without passable english I would think). Monday afternoon is after the supposed deadline for applying for courses, but he does not seem to think this will be a problem. I was confused when he said he had received my emails though, because why in hell would he just read them and not even reply with his visiting hours?? Hmph.
Other gargantuan achievements today include (and are in fact limited to) obtaining and charging with money the card we have to use to pay for the washing machines. Apparently coins would be too low tech or something. It does eliminate the change problem I guess, even if we do have to go to the bank to put more money on it. Washing is cheap (€1,60 for washing, drying free!), I may not actually wait until all my clothes are dirty and then wash them all at once now!
It is erasmus orientation week, which is like freshers week with better people, cheaper drinks and constant repetition of the three most important definitions of one's personality, to whit: nationality, home town, and course of study. On monday I went on a tour of the university led by a gloriously vague man who was obviously more concerned with fun than academia during his time as a student. This was followed by a semi regrettable trip to the erasmus club night, overcrowded, too loud and terrible music, but if you get there early drinks are actually free. It is mighty weird to be standing by the bar, cash in hand, and have a random cocktail thrust at you before you can even open your mouth to order. I left this at around ten and went on a long meandering walk through the near deserted streets of central Vienna (not sure if people don't go out late on Mondays, or more likely all the bars are further out of the centre than in London) with a new Finnish friend. If you will allow me to put on my T-rex voice a second: 'Guys! I have learnt more about Finland this week than I ever expected to know, it seems like a pretty OK country to me!'
Interestingly, though we all do a fair amount of drinking round here, nobody I know has taken it upon themselves to drink themselves into an embarrassing stupor, and were someone to suggest this as the sole goal of a night out, I think they would be looked at most oddly. This is made all the more topical following the extremely sad death of a UCL fresher after a fresher's event last weekend. It looks like he probably had an existing unknown health problem, rather than drinking himself to death, and he may not have imbibed much or anything at all, but still, there are many Sun etc articles recounting with horror and disapproval the plethora of cheap drink nights and adverts geared towards students that merely boast about how wasted it will be possible to get.
I don't really know what to think, except that there is something slightly off with the British attitude to drinking and yet I do not think it will ever be possible to change it, it is just what we do. The drink prices in Vienna and the ease with which beer can be obtained, combined with the bebevolent attitude to people sitting down and drinking it in public, are somewhat refreshing, and make an interesting counter argument to recent UK arguments about cutting down on supermarket booze deals etc.
So anyhow, I phoned him, and I am now going to meet with him on monday afternoon. And he gave every indication of understanding everything I was saying, and didn't try switching to english! (This may be bad if he knows none, but you do not get to head an academic department without passable english I would think). Monday afternoon is after the supposed deadline for applying for courses, but he does not seem to think this will be a problem. I was confused when he said he had received my emails though, because why in hell would he just read them and not even reply with his visiting hours?? Hmph.
Other gargantuan achievements today include (and are in fact limited to) obtaining and charging with money the card we have to use to pay for the washing machines. Apparently coins would be too low tech or something. It does eliminate the change problem I guess, even if we do have to go to the bank to put more money on it. Washing is cheap (€1,60 for washing, drying free!), I may not actually wait until all my clothes are dirty and then wash them all at once now!
It is erasmus orientation week, which is like freshers week with better people, cheaper drinks and constant repetition of the three most important definitions of one's personality, to whit: nationality, home town, and course of study. On monday I went on a tour of the university led by a gloriously vague man who was obviously more concerned with fun than academia during his time as a student. This was followed by a semi regrettable trip to the erasmus club night, overcrowded, too loud and terrible music, but if you get there early drinks are actually free. It is mighty weird to be standing by the bar, cash in hand, and have a random cocktail thrust at you before you can even open your mouth to order. I left this at around ten and went on a long meandering walk through the near deserted streets of central Vienna (not sure if people don't go out late on Mondays, or more likely all the bars are further out of the centre than in London) with a new Finnish friend. If you will allow me to put on my T-rex voice a second: 'Guys! I have learnt more about Finland this week than I ever expected to know, it seems like a pretty OK country to me!'
Interestingly, though we all do a fair amount of drinking round here, nobody I know has taken it upon themselves to drink themselves into an embarrassing stupor, and were someone to suggest this as the sole goal of a night out, I think they would be looked at most oddly. This is made all the more topical following the extremely sad death of a UCL fresher after a fresher's event last weekend. It looks like he probably had an existing unknown health problem, rather than drinking himself to death, and he may not have imbibed much or anything at all, but still, there are many Sun etc articles recounting with horror and disapproval the plethora of cheap drink nights and adverts geared towards students that merely boast about how wasted it will be possible to get.
I don't really know what to think, except that there is something slightly off with the British attitude to drinking and yet I do not think it will ever be possible to change it, it is just what we do. The drink prices in Vienna and the ease with which beer can be obtained, combined with the bebevolent attitude to people sitting down and drinking it in public, are somewhat refreshing, and make an interesting counter argument to recent UK arguments about cutting down on supermarket booze deals etc.
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