Spring. (Boing!)

It is well and truly Spring this week. Blue skies, 20 degree highs, a blessed lack of sleet, refreshing (rather than evil and biting) winds, etc etc. It is weather that shows the city at its best I feel.

I am well, despite a continued inability to find out how the monkey got there. I'm still going to lectures and otherwise carrying out the important homeostasis activities required in order to stay functional. Rock learning is excellent, especially the subject of the formation of the Alps. I cannot wait to get out into the mountains and poke all the rocks we've been learning about with a stick. I wonder though, if Austrian geologists end up way better field and structural geologists due to having to get their heads round this whole alps thing whilst we are swanning around the comparatively simple Dorset...

In other geology news I have provisionally sold my soul to Dr Ian Wood, and my MSci Project next year will be something along the lines of 'Isobaric equations of state and thermal expansion in Pyroxenes', If you don't know what that is, don't worry, you've got about 1 year of me doing it to find out, no rush! Basically the bit that I would mention in bars to impress people is that I get to play with a big expensive X-Ray laser machine.

Mirva came to visit this week, but as she was taking extra classes at the university there wasn't a whole lot of time for sightseeing. Still, (we didn't want to disappoint you blog-ites, naturally), we did manage to get out on a long meander around the Prater and take a trip to the massive Zentralfriedhof (Cemetery). The walk around the Prater was nothing remarkable until we turned off the main path and discovered a weird area of perfectly regular little streets with small picture-postcard houses, all looking thoroughly out of place in Vienna, where nobody lives in anything that is not a flat. It turned out to be some sort of uniquely germanic thing called a 'Kleingarten', which is translated in dictionaries as 'allotment' but appears to have more emphasis on living and social aspects than our own purely agricultural version. It was perfectly quiet and walled off from external interference by woods on one side, littered with community noticeboards and little plaques, with a big earth bank shielding it from the road on the other side. A very mysterious little area, which I imagine is either a cooperative and friendly paradise or a horribly claustrophobic community of snobs. Perhaps both. I would like to visit the Gasthaus there one day and see what it's like inside.

The trip to the Friedhof was made on a warm but grey Sunday. The aim for the day was to locate Beethoven's grave, which wasn't as easy as you might expect given the paucity of signage. However, that can be forgiven because after all it is a place of rest (The suffix Fried- means peace) not a tourist attraction. The Cemetery is really big, though I'm not sure how it compares with the bigger London ones. As this is another country after all, the style of graves and especially the names are all pleasantly different. Huge numbers of imposing monoliths where long long family lines are interred, and of course a lot of Jewish graves too. Especially honoured people are located in the central region of the cemetery amongst the Ehrengraeber or 'honoured graves', and there were plenty of very beautiful gravestones and interesting characters to be seen. The Jugendstil Church in the middle of the place is absolutely huge and an awesome example of the style, a refreshing change of pace from the other chapels and churches in this part of the continent.
Good old Ludwig Boltzmann, with his formulae on his tobstone! Way to go!

Brahms and Strauss. Can you tell who liked to write frivolous waltzes??
Beethoven
Blue!
Architecture.

Well, that's about it, I'll be back soon with tales from sunny Finland. In the meantime, if you are bored you can check out the rest of the cemetery photos and some others here.

Der Tom.

How did the monkey get there?: The question you never knew you should be asking

<3 John Darnielle

The Haps, what they are.

The second semester is upon me! No more travelling to foreign lands for at least two weeks... Had two exams in the first week and a bit, left over from last term. They were a lot less silly seeming than some previous exams, I enjoyed them in the way one enjoys exams that provide you with a challenge that you know you can overcome, instead of in the way where you silently wonder if the whole thing is a trick. Also, the new lecture regime (see below) is definitely causing my academic German to improve, hurrah! This is great even if it is pretty much useless when all science ever is conducted in english. Seriously, learning science in another language is probably one of the most pointless uses of one's language skills, even if it may be fun because I get to feel clever for doing it (this is definitely the case).

I have new lectures now, a vast array relative to last semester as I need to be taking twice as many credits at Vienna this time. This means I actually have a sensible working week with at least 3 hours of lectures every day except fridays (our department does not believe in friday lectures and WHO AM I TO ARGUE?) Only one 9am lecture, all the other days begin at 11am which is fast becoming my all time favourite lecture start time. You can actually get enough sleep, still get up at a non brekneck speed BUT you have to leave the house before you can start hating yourself for having watched 4 episodes of the Big Bang Theory instead of being constructive.

Obviously everyone is dying to know what I am studying and how the lectures are.
So:

Petrogenesis: It's a masters Petrology course. We study how to find out where rocks came from using their chemistry and lots of thermodynamics/ diagrams/ reaction kinetics/ equations. It is awesome. I love learning things that need understanding, rather than just memorising. This course is hard, but the lecturer is good and so it's all gravy (super cool colloquialism or what?).

Isotope geology: Masters version of the course I did last term, as such seems to be recpping a lot I learnt for that at present. However, it will be good to actually KNOW this stuff by repetition. Also when we get past the basics I have high expectations as all the lecturers involved are darn good at their research and their examples are always fascinating. I am happy to be benifiting from the different research direction of Wien vs UCL.

Applied/ Envionmental Geology: All about engineering geology and taking natural resources, so the economic bits and lists of production amounts are boooring as heck. That said the theory of why the things are why they are is a lot more interesting. Minus points for the engineering geology lecturer who has the strongest austrian accent yet and speaks 5-10 times faster than any lecturer I have hitherto experienced, and is commonly unintelligible to me despite his obvious huge enthusiasm...

Quaternary Geology: That's the last 2.6 million years to most of you. This is a great lecture because it concerns geomorphology (landscape), and one of the first things I loved about geology was really partly geomorpholgy, that old 'standing on a hill and knowing why it is there'. Theother part is about climate and the recent climate changes (my recent, of course). It is exciting and humbling to follow the history of the ridiculous numbers of ice ages that have happened in recent times, and the impressive marks thay have left. More than ever I am really getting that feeling of just how much stuff goes on on the planet even in time periods we often blithely include in the +/- error on a date. Also thinking about the impact of ice on all those proto humans, wondering whether/ to what extent (as I do not have a masters in human evolution unlike some friends of mine) we are really a product of all these slightly unusual (over geologic time) ice age shenanegins. Final plus point is the fact that it is concentrating on Austria, so I get a new geological perspective not really available in the UK, we know sod all about the Alps for obvious reasons.

Regional Geology is cool because I get a summer field trip through the alps! Hurrah! Also because I am again getting a new geology perspective, literally all geology I learned before now was grounded in UK examples, it is great to start to get a more Europe wide view. Plus, there is a big emphasis on the alps and how they came to be, so I'm learning some mountain chain evolution geology in heaps more detail than we ever would at UCL

Finally I signed up for a module that is entirely field trips. Provided I can figure out how to actually go on these, the reason why this is brilliant should be obvious to all!

I am also starting to go climbing again and attempting to make some more friends who will disappear shortly (at least I can leave them behind too this time!). While doing this I spent a large proportion of my time hanging out with and insulting the accent and culture of the one and only William Naylor, quantum physicist teleport engineer extraordinaire.

All in all, going well so far. Though there is the foreboding shadow of my to do list looming ever larger in the background. I shall fight it the only way I know how, by watching and rewatching more episodes of The Big Bang Theory.

Goodnight!

Moonshen/Mew-nick/Munich

Last week I went to visit my friend Naomi in Munich. So begins the first sentence of many a GCSE German writing prompt or translation task, and so begins this entry. Although it does make the whole blog a little visually tedious, I think I will first and foremost direct ye to yet more delicious photos, which will facilitate easier visualisation of my subject or some other such waffle.

I set off on the TRAIN at 8.20am. I heart the train. After all those hours spent in aeroplanes the lack of security checks, massive legroom and huge chairs were extremely welcome. No safety briefing, but there was one of those cool screens like you sometimes get in planes that shows a map of your journey, the amount completed so far and the speed the train is going at, which is fun when you get to 200km/h because it really does not feel like that much. Okay planes fly higher and go faster, but apart from the bonus of actually arriving fresh at your destination and being able to do things I really value the way it actually feels like you've travelled. By plane, you go through the same process to get to Israel as you do to get to Berlin or Northern Ireland or Gatwick, the timing of the intermediate step changes, but not the experience. The ground is more often than not hidden from view by clouds. The result is a bit like the effect you get if you only travel around London by tube, your departure point and destination completely divorced from each other, only a vague sense of distance and different weather. But on the train, you (or I) can stare out of the window the whole way, actually experience the journey, watch different landscapes and styles of architecture (both aspects of the much more important geology of course) slowly grade in and out. Trains, woo!

Arriving in Munich I was taken for a tour around the city centre by Naomi, in a short time taking in the many many churches of stunning impressiveness scattered around, as well as the super gothic neues Rathaus, bratwurst and sauerkraut in the Viktualienmarkt, and the Beer Hall where the Nazi Party used to meet, back in the day. We then hunkered down in a coffee shop avoiding the rain and afterwards went back to the flat to cook some delicious fake risotto and to 'test'/drink many different varieties of delicious beer we procured at a nearby Supermarshay. During this we had an unexpected but very pleasant skype call from one of our friends from halls who is still in the UK, trudging his way wearily through the last year of his degree. It is strange that life goes on without one, even if to think otherwise is very self centred.

The next day I headed of alone to find the Haus der Kunst, the gallery the Nazis built which most famously hosted the massive 'degenerate art' exhibition where they condemned most of the artists of the day. I sought it out because most of the so called 'entartete' artists were german expressionists, m absolute favourite artists of all time. Sadly I hadn't paid attention, and the Haus actually houses no permanent collection, instead showing changing moder art exhibitions. Undeterred I was treated to the weird combinations of unrelated words and pop art pictures of Ed Ruscha, and a highly weird exhibit grouping together four current artists uinder the loose theme of examination of history. Really, although they justified it in art language I didn't feel the theme of the latter really came through. It was enjoyable, but not really beautiful. The 'coolness' factor of the sculptures and darkened sculpture and video filled rooms was in immersing yourself completely in the weirdness. How often do you get the chance to wander around a completely designed but utterly surrealist place? It is fun to be confronted with really confusing things occasionally.

Refreshed I wandered out into the joyous joyous sunlight and spent the next hour exploring the area around Odeonsplatz and the Residenz of the Bavarian Princes/Dukes/ whatevers. The big yellow church I can;t remember the name of had some rather lovely baroque statuary going on, along with a healthy dose of bigness. After a quick look at the nice old buildings of the University I met up with Naomi and she took me to the Brauhaus. These are much more prevalent in Munich than in Vienna, and pretty much replace the cafes we have here. They are wonderful friendly places where all the staff wear traditional bavarian dress without a hint of irony or tackyness, and where the beer is delicious and very cheap, only surpassed in deliciousity by the food. I had a massive roasted pork slice with mushroom sauce and fried gnocchi like things (kaesespaetzle in German, what a mouthful...). Extremely satisfied and a little intoxicated we set off for an aimless wander around the streets, literally picking whichever street looked nicest until we reached the river at sunset. The Isar isn't quite in the centre of Munich, but it is beautiful, a little ribbon of park and river, big white smooth river stones and incredible architecture and ornate bridges at regular intervals.

Bidding goodbye to Naomi earlyish the next morning as she headed Londonwards I made a beeline for the palaentology museum, only to find it seemingly closed for renovation. I travelled further to the Neue Pinakothek, the newer (duh) of a pair of galleries slightly north of the town centre. I was aiming for the expressionists again, but it appears they are housed in the Pinakothek der Moderne. Not the first person to get their Pinakotheks mixed up I reckon... There was an OK collection of german and landscape painters, a few massive religious paintings (MASSIVE) some cool impressionism, a Van Gogh sunflowers, pleasant stuff, but not ultra exciting. I still spent a good 2 hours in there though! The best picture came near the beginning, Wilhelm von Kobell's 'The Siege of Kosel'. I think my favourite thing about this was the viewpoint, the perfect impression of distance, and the great clouds. The picture i've linked to is a bit of a rubbish one of it actually, but it'll do for an impression.

For lunch I hung out in the Viktualienmarkt and consumed yet more nourishing nourishing roasted pork with dumplings, and then (perhaps unwisely after a big meal?) scaled the 92m tall St Peters Church tower to be rewarded with brilliant panoramic views of the city. It was a perfect and very clear day, and the Alps seemed very near indeed. After a final wander along the Isar river and up into the big park of the englischer Garten, it was time to go home!

Munich was a beautiful place, though I have no doubt that my impression was significantly improved by the appearance of the first proper warm spring day, judging by the grey and bedraggled snow and grit heaps all around, it wasn't so pretty a few weeks earlier! Really Munich wasn't that different to Vienna, but it had more of a city-like feel to it due to its increased size. The beautiful buildings are ever present, but don't come in such intimidating blocks as in Wien. Plus, the beer was cheaper! All in all, a good not-weekend.