24 hours in Paris complete. After sitting in the Charles de Gaulle Aeroport for around let's say forty minutes, contemplating whether or not I had made the right decision to be on my own in Paris for a month, I hailed a taxi and soon found myself flying by the Parisian countryside, on my way to the centre de la ville.
Still nervous about speaking French to everyone I encountered, I curled up on the seat to enjoy the ride while brainstorming some common phrases I could bring up with the taxi driver. "Eh, Madamemoiselle, les chaussures sur la siège, mais qu'est-ce que vous faites??" Shit, already made a mistake. "Oh monsieur, je suis vraiment désolée, c'est un accident, je m'excuse." Apology not accepted. "Mais qu'est-ce que vous pensez?" Tears start to form. "Monsieur, je suis désolée, mais les chaussures sont nouveaux, la siège est parfaite, je vous promets." Still he shook his head and muttered under his breath. I started to cry thanks to my anxious nerves and honest mistake. I always feel bad when I upset someone, and since he clearly felt disrespected by this young American, I felt even worse. So I stared out the window, tears streaming down my face, not daring to move an inch out of fear of him getting angrier. But then we hit traffic. A lot of traffic. Friday afternoon-3 pm- 5 accident, traffic. So after 45 minutes or so, when my eyes were dry but puffy he started to ask about me. We talked about Miami, Paris, University, etc. And by the end, we were doing just fine and I had a good idea of where I was in the city. I sure as hell didn't tip him though. 80 Euros for a cab fare was far enough as is.
So I arrived at 7-9 rue du Val du Grace and stepped inside the first gate. There's a lovely little garden with walkways that lead to the different buildings. Since it was about 90 degrees and I was about an hour late as is, I decided to skip the garden exploration and head for building A to meet Madame Dru on the 5th floor. I rang the doorbell and was welcomed in by a woman a little shorter than I am, wearing black yoga pants, some bohemian sandals, an Eiffel tower tee-shirt and a lightweight black over shirt. Her hair was short, blonde and white in color, and I noticed she wore a pair of golden hoops in her ears, but one was noticeably smaller than the other. So I made a mental note to ask her what the significance was. I also noticed a giant ring on her right middle finger. Very bright green in color, almost egg shaped. Likes ones children can win in prizes from the 25 cent machines. And her green reading glasses hung around her neck on a petite chaine, ready to be placed on her nose at any point in time. Soft greenish bluish eyes popped out at me as she welcomed me into her home.
Her daughter Elisa, sat in the first room on the left, typing away on her Mac Book, smoking a cigarette and sipping some white wine. The hallway from the door is long and each of the rooms breaks off from this one hallway. The next door on the left is my room. Very bright white and clean. There are two desks for me to work at, a large white armoire with sheets and towels and drawers for my belongings. Sitting at the edge of the desk were a spare notebook, a vase of yellow roses and a few writing utensils. Ah, the small things in life. :)
The rest of the apartment is a photographer's dream. A bowl of rings just like the one she had on when I first arrived sitting on a shelf next to a rack of large bangles with a few bottles of Italian cologne d'eau. An entire wall is dedicated to Madame Dru's mementos from her lifetime. A few post-it notes left by her son, Adrien, after long nights out, asking his mother to wake him at certain times. A few photographs hang next to the notes, photos of people who resemble her late mother and father. Then she has odd cartes-postales and maps and drawings she has evidently collected over the years. The stories behind such treasures wait unveiling over the next 30 days. The kitchen door is across the hall from mine, and inside is a small two or three person table, with a fridge, small stove and a wonderful window where Madame Dru grows geraniums, daisies, etc. There are bowls of various fruits sitting next to the window. Again, a photographer's ideal setting, one that they attempt to recreate for their black and white shoots that end up in magazines. Adrien's paintings hang on the wall along with a few other notes and postcards, which surely all have special meanings. There is a toilet closet and a separate room for the shower and sink and washing machine. The apartment is small, but very homey. The eclectic style is just what I've always imagined my apartments (if I live in them) to be like. Books line the walls and where there aren't bookshelves there are places for jewelry or fun dishes or just walls covered in special photos.
My room overlooks a little street and I can see window gardens across from me. The window in the kitchen looks out to other houses and a little walkway or alleyway, I'm not quite sure. But since my window faces north I get a little view of the morning sun and it's just perfect for waking up to.
Adrien, Madame Dru's son, is an artist and lives in the country...most of the time. He's a little taller than I am, with a shaggy beard and walks around in his paint-covered jeans most of the time. He's helping me with my French along with Madame Dru, who both speak English very well. Her daughter, Elisa, is trying to finish up University but is pursuing some type of career/side career in theater and just left for the weekend to go north for a performance. She left the house wearing a black and white polka dot dress and bright white heart shaped sunglasses. Just to give a little visual of how artistic this family is. I adore every bit of it.
Dinner was light, a rice salad with cheese and tomatoes (apparently I eat tomatoes in France?)with some soy sauce and bread. Then we had a bit of chevre and Roquefort cheese. And we ended le diner with strawberries and vanilla ice cream. I was very tired by 9 pm so I retired to my room to read and write for the rest of the night. This morning we had yogurt, granola, toast, and tea for breakfast. I added a few almonds to my yogurt and then we headed out to the market so Madame Dru could show me around. We started off toward the Parc du Luxembourg, this great public park with a gravel trail around it where people jog and walk all day long. The interior of the track is lined with benches and divided shades of grass where people do Tai Chi and yoga. There are a few private tennis courts and a new volleyball court. Madame Dru and I talked about family interaction in places like this, her family, my family, and every kind of literature we liked to read. She showed me how to get to school in the morning, and hooray because it's within walking distance!! Then we went to this video store, one of only two in Paris which holds every kind of movie you can imagine. French films, German films, Japanese, English, etc. All organized by Director's last name. If it's been released, it's in there. So we walked around and talked about how it's not common knowledge for everyone in the U.S. to know director's names, maybe just the title of the film and the major actors starring in it. So hopefully by the end of this trip I'll know a few more than I did before. And there is a wonderful collection of postcards from the 50s, mostly black and white, of candid and planned shots of movie stars. I can't wait to go back and pick out a few to send out.
Then we walked over to la rue Mouffetard where there is a long street of small shops and les librairies (book stores, not a chain) that sell new books and les livres d'occasion (second hand) for pretty cheap. She showed me her favorite cafes and petits restaurants, and bakeries. I found out where she buys her scarves too :) a place called Diwali, not too expensive. But I was advised to wait until June 30 when the sales begin, because everything is very cheap then. But I didn't bring many clothes so I'll need to go shopping at some point! We went to a bakery and bought a couple of slices of Quiche Lorraine and Quiche Chevre Epignard (goat cheese and spinach)and some little sweet tasting rolls (almost as sweet as brioche dough) but are hollow inside and have sugar bits on top. We sliced them in half and filled them with chocolate and vanilla ice cream for lunch. We also bought a piece of flan, she loves cheese cake and flan....how French of her! So then we bought some rotisserie chicken legs and roasted potatoes for lunch and headed back to her apartment. She made a salad and I ate half of a tomato in it, and we talked about life and death and some things in between. Most of the time she speaks to me in English, or mixed French/English and I try speak to her in French, correcting myself in English along the way. I learned how to say pole vaulting :) (Sauter a la perche) And I am a perchiste, or a pole vaulter.
For now we are resting, going to eat dinner around 8 pm and at about 10 I'm going to walk over to le Censier Daubenton to meet Joseph, a boy from my classes in Miami and we're going to venture over to the 4eme arrondissement for the evening. Should be fun.
A bientot et grosses bises,
Lauren
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Daily Digest (Days 3&4)
:) sorry I stole this subject header from ya...kinda sorta. not really
Anyhow, welcome to the end of Day 4 in Vienna. The past two days have been excitingly exhausting. I don't know how Grandma can manage to do all this! We both eat the same amount and sleep the same amount...which speaks poorly of my energy levels I suppose! But hey, I'm a young growing woman right? Surely I need my rest too!
So yesterday was rainy-- very rainy. But beautiful. Almost like an October fall rain, where the clouds roll in just to cover the sun enough for a chilly afternoon, but the rays can still shine through. Streaks of grey clouds covered the sky and little droplets fell like powdered sugar on top of a dessert. Soft enough to not affect the day, but hard enough to leave a coating on everything it touched. So after breakfast, Grandma sent me on a great adventure to find the International Herald so we could set our agend for the next two days. Well, you can imagine that when rain comes, the newspaper deliverymen don't like to step out of their trucks to deliverit. So I went on a nice wild egg hunt to find this paper that we would be able to read. And along the way I found a nice tourist-like hoodie to stay warm.
When I returned we decided we'd take the morning off exploring and Grandma would finish her spy novel and read about the latest world disasters (Spain going under economically, strains between Israel & Egypt, etc.) and I would get to walk around town, try to find a few 12-letter street names that had hidden historical spots on them, and maybe do some shopping....guess how many of those street names I remembered and then consequently found? Zero. So instead I wandered around the giant Cathedral and turned at each available strasse or grasse (one-way or two-way streets) and just circled around until I found the Cathedral again and took the next turn. I stopped in many shops to get the feel for how expensive clothing is here and the kinds of fashion they wear everyday. I envy their free-spirited minds to mix and match seemingly mismatching outfits. In my eyes, they look fabulous but I know that if I were to walk around the US in a pleated skirt, plaid sweater, turquoise tights, brown boots and a blue zip up hoodie, everyone and their mothers would look at me sideways. Jus' sayin'.
So then I found this little Viennese tea and chocolate shop where the owner happened to make her own jewlery and I was able to taste a few of the chocolates and learn about the flavor varieties for the teas. The women were so helpful I just had to buy a bar of chocolate and a box of tea. How I'm going to get them home intact after 30 days in Paris I have no idea, but we shall see :)
Then I met Grandma promptly at 1 pm and we went to her little tea room where we had a light meal of chicken salad and jellied ham (she got that, meat and jello should never mix in my mind!) Then we headed to the U-Bahn and the street-car to venture up to the Belvedere, this old palace with a beautiful garden. Again, comparing things to my Parisian adventures, this garden looked like something you'd see at Versailles. The pattern of the garden was so clean cut and I'm sure there was a symbolic background, but my German ain't so good these days. (Getting better though! I can read the menu now!) and there are ponds on either side with beautiful statues in the center. Then in the middle of the garden, just as it starts to slope down you catch a sound of running water, where one of the fountains happens to waterfall into an even grander fountain at the bottom of the hill. And it just continues all the way down. There's a center path, and paths on either side of the gardens, decorated with benches and strolling couples, walking hand in hand whispering sweet nothings to each other as if the statues could hear their every word. It was beautiful. And the view of the city was perfect. The skyline was a little hazy, and patches of red rooftops stood out from the tops of the green towering Cathedrals. Of course, if you look for it, you can always see the great Cathedral by our hotel centered in the Graben.
So we went inside the Belvedere, which has been rebuilt into an art museum for 17th and 18th Century Austrian artwork. Grandma specifically wanted to show me Gustav Klimt's work. Much of his paintings were portraits of women with architectural backgrounds that sometimes made them look 3D. Of course the symbolism of his work went right over my head but maybe after a few weeks of training in Paris I'll be able to pick up such secrecies. His work is a little too out-there for my taste, I preferred the pointalism approach by other local artists and the work of another major artist, named Egon Schiele. His scenery paintings were much more realistic, while his portraits had less structure, and a greater grotesque feeling. The faces revealed every detail, every wrinkle and dark spot, showing their darker side. The colors were not as vibrant as the Klimt pieces, but the eroticism behind both artists' work must have been extremely controversial at the time. For Klimt, many of the ladies were either half or completely topless and for Shiele sometimes the scenes were nude altogether.
So after the Belvedere adventure we headed back to the room for some relaxation before dinner. And for dinner we went to the oldest inn in Vienna. It's called the Kupferdachl, and it was one of the more modern places we have ventured. I was a little surpised because so many of the places we have gone have lower ceilings, no central airing, and there is usually a faint smell of beer and cigars that hits us upon entering the doors. At any rate, we were seated immediately and I decided to try a wheat beer tonight since I never tried one in the states. Weizenbier, it was a little heavier but good. And I had gnocchi...not exactly Austrian or German but that's alright I suppose. And to top off my cultural evening I stopped for some Gelato on the way home :)
This morning was beautiful. The sunshine started pouring in our room around 6 o'clock and when we went to breakfast the clouds merely dotted the bright blue sky. After eating our meat and cheese breakfast, accompanied by some heiße schokolade, we started out for the U-Bahn station to head for the Viennese hills/mountain. We took the 38A bus to Corbenzl which has this nice little resort that sits on top of a hill that overlooks most of Vienna. The tree line hits just right so you can look out over everything. The busride continued into the park and up the hills into Kahlenberg where there's a Church and a private International University and a little souvenir shop with an ice cream freezer and a playful dog. Grandma then took the bus down to the Leopoldsberg stop where I would walk down the trail from Kahlenberg to meet her. The trail was paved for me and there were plenty of small flowers, mostly pink and yellow in color, for me to look at. I turned a corner or two and saw this big open field where I could imagine young children running around as their parents sat on a blanket drinking wine, enjoying the Sunday afternoon. The trail follows the road we took to get to the top and when I met up with Grandma at the bus stop, we turned a new way and followed this steep path up to the top of the mountain. There was this old German building that was closed up but had lookout points at every corner. I saw the Danube river, with it's locks and dams and how it crosses over into the Danube Channel as it enters the center city of Vienna. And then we walked a little further down the lookout and I saw in the distance the faint outline of the Czech Republic. I just thought it was amazing. I thought, here I am, 19 years old, helping my Grandma make her last hike up the Viennese hills and I am looking at, for the first time, the Czech Republic. And the sun was shining brightly upon us. Things like that just don't happen everyday. But I digress.
We went back down to the bus stop which had to take us back up to Kahlenberg where I stopped in the little souvenir shop to look at some old postcards and of course to pet the dog. The owner of the shop told me the cards were the last of his friend's collection from the 1970's. I could tell these were old photographs, mostly black and white, but that wasn't how I knew. The clothing and types of photographs were aged, a little outdated and the cardstock for the postcards was a different material, and starting to bend at the edges. I told him I was very interested in black and white photography so he told me all about his friend's old shop in Paris. His English was very good for being so far into the country where not many tourists probably go. So I bought four postcards and thanked him for the lovely conversation. I stepped back out into the sunshine just as "Hey Soul Sister" started playing on the radio, and I could hear the man whistling along as I rejoined my Grandmother on the bus. Great start to the day.
We had lunch at Grandma's coffee house again, I got a vegetable quich and Grandma had some soup. There were these two old ladies sitting in the corner of the shop, just having a wonderful time. There were probably into their eighties, and had most likely known each other for quite a long time. It was about 2 in the afternoon and both of them had suits on, blazers and skirts with some pumps. One was wearing her nicest set of pearls and the other a nice long golden chain. Sipping tea and a tall beer, the two were in non-stop conversation until their food arrived. Then they just dove right in, enjoying every bit of their nourishment. And as they finished, the conversation just picked right up until the waitress came back around. They ordered something, in German of course, and the waitress sped right off and came back with a water, a cafe au lait, and two chocolate desserts. The one woman picked hers right up and bit into it...it was a smaller dark chocolate piece, probably fully rich in flavor and the other kind of laughed at her as she delicately broke a piece of hers off with her fork. A few minutes later I noticed her give a small piece of hers to her friend, insisting she have some, probably cause it was far too much. I'm sure this all seems so drole, but watching them, the best of friends, was just refreshing to see. They have this nice little women's coffee house and bakery to go to and enjoy themselves over a drink, some lunch and a nice dessert. And not only that, but they were dressed to the nines for the occasion. If I live to be that old, I only hope to be so lucky to have a friend to share my afternoons with.
So, we finished up lunch with a strawberry streudel and headed back to the room for a nap before dinner. My legs felt good, but so drained of energy. So I rested and woke up just in time for dinner. We went back to the Gosserklinik where I had a plate of assorted sausages and roasted potatoes. I tried a Pilsner beer with dinner and Grandma had soup and we shared my sauerkraut since I'm not much of a fan. We talked about my five-year plan and where I see myself in the future, in the off-chance that she doesn't stick around to see it. A little sad, but understandable because she wants to make sure her granddaughter has a map for life. We also talked about a few more places I could come back and visit when I have the money. Freud's apartments, the art museum, etc. Many things to do, many things to see. I'd like to ride the U-Bahn around and just get off at each stop and run upstairs to just see where I ended up.
Now we're back in the hotel, packing up our belongings, ready to head our separate ways. Grandma's taxi leaves for the airport at 5 am and mine doesn't leave until 10 am. So after I see her off and dry my tears I will probably eat a little breakfast and walk around to burn some energy for my plane ride to Paris. I'll want to sleep so I can be refreshed to meet my house-mother tomorrow.
Looking forward to the next phase of my adventure,
Lauren
Anyhow, welcome to the end of Day 4 in Vienna. The past two days have been excitingly exhausting. I don't know how Grandma can manage to do all this! We both eat the same amount and sleep the same amount...which speaks poorly of my energy levels I suppose! But hey, I'm a young growing woman right? Surely I need my rest too!
So yesterday was rainy-- very rainy. But beautiful. Almost like an October fall rain, where the clouds roll in just to cover the sun enough for a chilly afternoon, but the rays can still shine through. Streaks of grey clouds covered the sky and little droplets fell like powdered sugar on top of a dessert. Soft enough to not affect the day, but hard enough to leave a coating on everything it touched. So after breakfast, Grandma sent me on a great adventure to find the International Herald so we could set our agend for the next two days. Well, you can imagine that when rain comes, the newspaper deliverymen don't like to step out of their trucks to deliverit. So I went on a nice wild egg hunt to find this paper that we would be able to read. And along the way I found a nice tourist-like hoodie to stay warm.
When I returned we decided we'd take the morning off exploring and Grandma would finish her spy novel and read about the latest world disasters (Spain going under economically, strains between Israel & Egypt, etc.) and I would get to walk around town, try to find a few 12-letter street names that had hidden historical spots on them, and maybe do some shopping....guess how many of those street names I remembered and then consequently found? Zero. So instead I wandered around the giant Cathedral and turned at each available strasse or grasse (one-way or two-way streets) and just circled around until I found the Cathedral again and took the next turn. I stopped in many shops to get the feel for how expensive clothing is here and the kinds of fashion they wear everyday. I envy their free-spirited minds to mix and match seemingly mismatching outfits. In my eyes, they look fabulous but I know that if I were to walk around the US in a pleated skirt, plaid sweater, turquoise tights, brown boots and a blue zip up hoodie, everyone and their mothers would look at me sideways. Jus' sayin'.
So then I found this little Viennese tea and chocolate shop where the owner happened to make her own jewlery and I was able to taste a few of the chocolates and learn about the flavor varieties for the teas. The women were so helpful I just had to buy a bar of chocolate and a box of tea. How I'm going to get them home intact after 30 days in Paris I have no idea, but we shall see :)
Then I met Grandma promptly at 1 pm and we went to her little tea room where we had a light meal of chicken salad and jellied ham (she got that, meat and jello should never mix in my mind!) Then we headed to the U-Bahn and the street-car to venture up to the Belvedere, this old palace with a beautiful garden. Again, comparing things to my Parisian adventures, this garden looked like something you'd see at Versailles. The pattern of the garden was so clean cut and I'm sure there was a symbolic background, but my German ain't so good these days. (Getting better though! I can read the menu now!) and there are ponds on either side with beautiful statues in the center. Then in the middle of the garden, just as it starts to slope down you catch a sound of running water, where one of the fountains happens to waterfall into an even grander fountain at the bottom of the hill. And it just continues all the way down. There's a center path, and paths on either side of the gardens, decorated with benches and strolling couples, walking hand in hand whispering sweet nothings to each other as if the statues could hear their every word. It was beautiful. And the view of the city was perfect. The skyline was a little hazy, and patches of red rooftops stood out from the tops of the green towering Cathedrals. Of course, if you look for it, you can always see the great Cathedral by our hotel centered in the Graben.
So we went inside the Belvedere, which has been rebuilt into an art museum for 17th and 18th Century Austrian artwork. Grandma specifically wanted to show me Gustav Klimt's work. Much of his paintings were portraits of women with architectural backgrounds that sometimes made them look 3D. Of course the symbolism of his work went right over my head but maybe after a few weeks of training in Paris I'll be able to pick up such secrecies. His work is a little too out-there for my taste, I preferred the pointalism approach by other local artists and the work of another major artist, named Egon Schiele. His scenery paintings were much more realistic, while his portraits had less structure, and a greater grotesque feeling. The faces revealed every detail, every wrinkle and dark spot, showing their darker side. The colors were not as vibrant as the Klimt pieces, but the eroticism behind both artists' work must have been extremely controversial at the time. For Klimt, many of the ladies were either half or completely topless and for Shiele sometimes the scenes were nude altogether.
So after the Belvedere adventure we headed back to the room for some relaxation before dinner. And for dinner we went to the oldest inn in Vienna. It's called the Kupferdachl, and it was one of the more modern places we have ventured. I was a little surpised because so many of the places we have gone have lower ceilings, no central airing, and there is usually a faint smell of beer and cigars that hits us upon entering the doors. At any rate, we were seated immediately and I decided to try a wheat beer tonight since I never tried one in the states. Weizenbier, it was a little heavier but good. And I had gnocchi...not exactly Austrian or German but that's alright I suppose. And to top off my cultural evening I stopped for some Gelato on the way home :)
This morning was beautiful. The sunshine started pouring in our room around 6 o'clock and when we went to breakfast the clouds merely dotted the bright blue sky. After eating our meat and cheese breakfast, accompanied by some heiße schokolade, we started out for the U-Bahn station to head for the Viennese hills/mountain. We took the 38A bus to Corbenzl which has this nice little resort that sits on top of a hill that overlooks most of Vienna. The tree line hits just right so you can look out over everything. The busride continued into the park and up the hills into Kahlenberg where there's a Church and a private International University and a little souvenir shop with an ice cream freezer and a playful dog. Grandma then took the bus down to the Leopoldsberg stop where I would walk down the trail from Kahlenberg to meet her. The trail was paved for me and there were plenty of small flowers, mostly pink and yellow in color, for me to look at. I turned a corner or two and saw this big open field where I could imagine young children running around as their parents sat on a blanket drinking wine, enjoying the Sunday afternoon. The trail follows the road we took to get to the top and when I met up with Grandma at the bus stop, we turned a new way and followed this steep path up to the top of the mountain. There was this old German building that was closed up but had lookout points at every corner. I saw the Danube river, with it's locks and dams and how it crosses over into the Danube Channel as it enters the center city of Vienna. And then we walked a little further down the lookout and I saw in the distance the faint outline of the Czech Republic. I just thought it was amazing. I thought, here I am, 19 years old, helping my Grandma make her last hike up the Viennese hills and I am looking at, for the first time, the Czech Republic. And the sun was shining brightly upon us. Things like that just don't happen everyday. But I digress.
We went back down to the bus stop which had to take us back up to Kahlenberg where I stopped in the little souvenir shop to look at some old postcards and of course to pet the dog. The owner of the shop told me the cards were the last of his friend's collection from the 1970's. I could tell these were old photographs, mostly black and white, but that wasn't how I knew. The clothing and types of photographs were aged, a little outdated and the cardstock for the postcards was a different material, and starting to bend at the edges. I told him I was very interested in black and white photography so he told me all about his friend's old shop in Paris. His English was very good for being so far into the country where not many tourists probably go. So I bought four postcards and thanked him for the lovely conversation. I stepped back out into the sunshine just as "Hey Soul Sister" started playing on the radio, and I could hear the man whistling along as I rejoined my Grandmother on the bus. Great start to the day.
We had lunch at Grandma's coffee house again, I got a vegetable quich and Grandma had some soup. There were these two old ladies sitting in the corner of the shop, just having a wonderful time. There were probably into their eighties, and had most likely known each other for quite a long time. It was about 2 in the afternoon and both of them had suits on, blazers and skirts with some pumps. One was wearing her nicest set of pearls and the other a nice long golden chain. Sipping tea and a tall beer, the two were in non-stop conversation until their food arrived. Then they just dove right in, enjoying every bit of their nourishment. And as they finished, the conversation just picked right up until the waitress came back around. They ordered something, in German of course, and the waitress sped right off and came back with a water, a cafe au lait, and two chocolate desserts. The one woman picked hers right up and bit into it...it was a smaller dark chocolate piece, probably fully rich in flavor and the other kind of laughed at her as she delicately broke a piece of hers off with her fork. A few minutes later I noticed her give a small piece of hers to her friend, insisting she have some, probably cause it was far too much. I'm sure this all seems so drole, but watching them, the best of friends, was just refreshing to see. They have this nice little women's coffee house and bakery to go to and enjoy themselves over a drink, some lunch and a nice dessert. And not only that, but they were dressed to the nines for the occasion. If I live to be that old, I only hope to be so lucky to have a friend to share my afternoons with.
So, we finished up lunch with a strawberry streudel and headed back to the room for a nap before dinner. My legs felt good, but so drained of energy. So I rested and woke up just in time for dinner. We went back to the Gosserklinik where I had a plate of assorted sausages and roasted potatoes. I tried a Pilsner beer with dinner and Grandma had soup and we shared my sauerkraut since I'm not much of a fan. We talked about my five-year plan and where I see myself in the future, in the off-chance that she doesn't stick around to see it. A little sad, but understandable because she wants to make sure her granddaughter has a map for life. We also talked about a few more places I could come back and visit when I have the money. Freud's apartments, the art museum, etc. Many things to do, many things to see. I'd like to ride the U-Bahn around and just get off at each stop and run upstairs to just see where I ended up.
Now we're back in the hotel, packing up our belongings, ready to head our separate ways. Grandma's taxi leaves for the airport at 5 am and mine doesn't leave until 10 am. So after I see her off and dry my tears I will probably eat a little breakfast and walk around to burn some energy for my plane ride to Paris. I'll want to sleep so I can be refreshed to meet my house-mother tomorrow.
Looking forward to the next phase of my adventure,
Lauren
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
If we're all so different...
Then I wonder how we're affected by events the same way. We all get sick the same way. Pathogens enter our body and our fighter cells either prevent the spreading of the bacteria, or they are in turn killed and our immune system is weakened and we get sick. No matter what part of the planet you are from, you will at some point get the flu, or a fever of some kind. We cough the same, we sneeze the same way, and most of the time we say Bless you just the same. The difference between being sick and being killed by a disease is the development of medicine and vaccinations. Diseases kill us all the same way.
And if we're all so different then how come we fall in the love the same way? Every girl grows up with some fairy tale story read to her at night, and she falls asleep dreaming of her handsome prince arriving to carry her away from a seemingly wretched life to this faraway richness. And every boy goes through some conversation about the birds and the bees upon entering high school. People world-wide are swooned the same, there's usually flowers, chocolates, creative notes, letters, or music involved. We kiss the same, hold hands the same, vow to be together the same way, and even have our hearts broken the same way. A broken heart is a broken heart. The sick to your stomach feeling is felt all around the world. And the heat that rises from your toes to your face after you've found out you've been cheated on rises just like the bile inches its way up your esophagus. Again, word-wide. And even the chemical composition of our tears is the same.
Our genetic make-up is the same, the only differences we see are how the chromosomes are turned on while our genes come together. Children around the world are still born with down-syndrome, or cheiloschisis and palatoschisis, and when we break our bones they are mended the same ways.
So if our mind and bodies function the same way, what's really different about us? The language we speak, the food we eat, and the way we dress? Sure our cultures may be different, but if we're all made up exactly the same, then why can't those cultures transcend one another? I don't care who you are or where you from, language does not have to be a barrier. With the potential capacities our minds have, there is no reason we should not be able to communicate with one another. And the food we eat still all comes from the same basic ingredients. The preparation is different, sure, but if you take it apart piece by piece you will find common ingredients. And who cares if we dress differently? The way you dress only matters regionally and that's based on climate and maybe religious traditions.
If we can somehow find a medium like I think I found today-- some kind of similarity between one nation and the smallest village on Earth, I think we can find an even higher common ground. And maybe one day we'll start to understand one another a little bit better. And then even further into the future (that is, if we don't blow each other up before this point) there will be no need for invasions of neighboring areas, or terrorist attacks between disputing countries, and maybe North Korea will begin relations with it's southern brother too.
Here's to wishful thinking.
And if we're all so different then how come we fall in the love the same way? Every girl grows up with some fairy tale story read to her at night, and she falls asleep dreaming of her handsome prince arriving to carry her away from a seemingly wretched life to this faraway richness. And every boy goes through some conversation about the birds and the bees upon entering high school. People world-wide are swooned the same, there's usually flowers, chocolates, creative notes, letters, or music involved. We kiss the same, hold hands the same, vow to be together the same way, and even have our hearts broken the same way. A broken heart is a broken heart. The sick to your stomach feeling is felt all around the world. And the heat that rises from your toes to your face after you've found out you've been cheated on rises just like the bile inches its way up your esophagus. Again, word-wide. And even the chemical composition of our tears is the same.
Our genetic make-up is the same, the only differences we see are how the chromosomes are turned on while our genes come together. Children around the world are still born with down-syndrome, or cheiloschisis and palatoschisis, and when we break our bones they are mended the same ways.
So if our mind and bodies function the same way, what's really different about us? The language we speak, the food we eat, and the way we dress? Sure our cultures may be different, but if we're all made up exactly the same, then why can't those cultures transcend one another? I don't care who you are or where you from, language does not have to be a barrier. With the potential capacities our minds have, there is no reason we should not be able to communicate with one another. And the food we eat still all comes from the same basic ingredients. The preparation is different, sure, but if you take it apart piece by piece you will find common ingredients. And who cares if we dress differently? The way you dress only matters regionally and that's based on climate and maybe religious traditions.
If we can somehow find a medium like I think I found today-- some kind of similarity between one nation and the smallest village on Earth, I think we can find an even higher common ground. And maybe one day we'll start to understand one another a little bit better. And then even further into the future (that is, if we don't blow each other up before this point) there will be no need for invasions of neighboring areas, or terrorist attacks between disputing countries, and maybe North Korea will begin relations with it's southern brother too.
Here's to wishful thinking.
Grüß Gott! Schwedenplatz? Oh, jot U-Bahn Hein!
European breakfasts are to die for. A nice bowl of fruit with two kinds of apples, oranges, grapes and kiwi. Then a spread of different sliced meats and cheese. Anyone who serves meat and cheese in the morning is okay in my book. And then there's the drink choices. Orange/Apple/Grapefruit juice, or Viennese coffe, or even Heiße Schokolade (hot chocolate). So then you of course choose your bread, and there are a million and a half of those. Plus any kind of jam you want. So, you sip your drink and read the paper, in a cozy little area of the room and it's just a nice way to wake up. So then I headed off on a hunt for an International Herald, and the magazine vendor was so excited to see I was an American, he just couldn't stop smiling. I was mildly freaked out, but not overly concerned. And so it goes.
Then we ventured on over to the Palace area where the new and old palaces have merged. Great walls and gates enclose the palace in this great round-about circle. Facing the entrance to the new Palace is Saint Michael's crypt and Cathedral. The outside has a statue of Michael saving someone in a great fashion and when you step inside it looks just as beautiful as any Cathedral you've probably seen before. But once you approach the alter, you notice these golden sunbursts that reach up into the ceiling where Cherubs and other religious figures are depicted. And you have to admire the architect who used the available sunlight on the outside to make the man-made sunlight on the interior just sparkle and shine at the right moments.
And then in the center of the round-about there is this sectioned off piece of the street that happens to be an underground Roman ruin! And it's not just a street, there are columns to hold up the structure and it appears that it was two stories! There are little doorways and ramps which are probably disintegrated stairways but I just wonder how much further the ruin goes....and I'm sure they'll never find out because there's no chance the Palaces will be torn down for exploration.
Walking into the Palace, Grandma and I bought a ticket for Sisi's apartment, or Duchess Elisabeth, & also the Emperor Franz Joseph's rooms. Walking upstairs, seeing all of Elisabeth's gowns and outfits and reading her story, I felt a little sad. She was a deeply troubled girl, married to the Emperor, I suppose against her own inclination, so she tended to travel a lot and even had a room strictly for extreme exercise. A quote I saw she said read, "Ich stehe einsam, wie auf and'rem Stern." or, "I stand alone, as if on another star." So she must have been so lonely and distraught about this new life she had to live, attending court and speaking to the public, many things a young girl would prefer to stay away from as long as she can.
But then we moved further into the apartment where the actual rooms started. And I think my favorite room had to have been the Conference Room. The blue furniture matched the tapestries on the wall and the gold leafed moulding was just beautiful. The china on the long table even matched the golden leaflets on the wall. It was interesting to me because the rest of the rooms were decorated with deeps reds, and the Conference Room stood out as the only blue one. Unlike Versailles, these rooms were decorated with intricate flowering gold, instead of placing gold on every visible surface. There was a delicacy to this home, a balance between the impressive decorations and the simplicity of the design itself.
After the Palace, we walked on over to the Emperor's Library, which faces a square used in many famous older movies. One in particular my Grandma mentioned was The Third Man. Anyway, walking up the library steps there was this beautiful golden statue on the railing at each turn. And walking into the entrance of the library my breath was taken away. I showed the man my ticket and entered this beautiful grotto of literature. The shelves were all lined with leather bound books, and I immediately noticed hidden stairwells built into the shelves that led up to a second floor of shelves. Ladders ran all along the shelves so any book you chose could be at an arm's length away. The museum owners selected some of the most famous manuscripts to be opened and put on display in glass cases. Greek, Judaic, Byzantine, Arabic, and Chinese manuscripts were the first of what I saw. Methods of surgery, home medicine and religious practices were just a few topics mentioned. My favorite manuscipts were those of Hippocrates; I couldn't believe they had been preserved and were sitting open right in front of my very eyes! And not only were the words perfectly legible, but there were drawings in full color to go along with the print. Then my eyes turned to my next favorite piece. Four globes placed on every corner of the center of the library. Two were celestial, and two were topographical. Designed by Coronelli in 1693 the celestial globes depict the shapes of the animals and gods and goddesses in full color and then in sort of blueish greyish tone as if it's the night sky. And the topographical ones are very accurate, he used the latest exploration reports and maps of the world and they show the types of people living in the areas and I think a few animals as well.
There was a large tapestry hanging at the back end of the library that showed the 12 astrologers derived from the Old Testament, as each were looking up into the sky and were connected to their constellation or planet. Then the library took a turn back and the beginnings of zodiac and horoscope studies were shown. I couldn't believe how many books on magic and finding your zodiac sign there were. There was a Judaic book that described how the lunar cycle affected the crops and it discussed the astronomical aspects of the crops as well. The only library I could even come close to comparing this one to was in Beauty & the Beast and I think Disney did an excellent job making that one so lavish. This one was a little darker inside but the collection was absolutely breathtaking.
From there we went to a Roman Ruin museum which was so-so to me. There were random blocks of stone with little paragraphs about them, which was cool to see because they found them on excavations but for me it wasn't the highlight of the day.
For dinner we went to this amazing little restaurant one U-Bahn station over, called, Griechenbeisl. Inside there was this great wall in one of the rooms that famous artists, composers & writers have signed. Beethoven, Mozart, and even Mark Twain :) The waiter was so excited to hear I was from Missouri....and everyone there was so kind to us at dinner. And the owner of the place (the only woman in the house, hoo-rah!) came up and asked us how everything was after we were finished....now that's how a restaurant is meant to be run. I tried Stiegel beer tonight, its from Salzburg and it had a nice light flavor to it as well. Didn't compliment my spinach & ewe chesse quiche very well, but it's still a beer either way! And it is a very famous Austrian beer...well, not sure about famous but it was the first on the "on-tap" list and people next to us were drinking it as well. The restaurant was magical though, you walk down a few steps to get inside and then you're greeted with two ways to go. One faces the kitchen and the other is a pathway that leads past the bar, and into the 1st room. Which also happens to be a fork, where you can turn left into the signature room, or you can turn right and continue your descent further into the restaurant, both metaphorically and physically (it slopes downward) and then in the furthest of the rooms is a Piano player. It was just so nice to sit in a booth, that had a pillow sewed to where you sat and just relax.
So now we have retired to the room for the night, Grandma is drifting off to sleep and I am left with my usual insomnia. Maybe I'll take advantage of the big bathtub again. And then I'll read until I drift off again.
Tomorrow we are heading to the mountain to sight-see a little more.
Gute nacht!
Then we ventured on over to the Palace area where the new and old palaces have merged. Great walls and gates enclose the palace in this great round-about circle. Facing the entrance to the new Palace is Saint Michael's crypt and Cathedral. The outside has a statue of Michael saving someone in a great fashion and when you step inside it looks just as beautiful as any Cathedral you've probably seen before. But once you approach the alter, you notice these golden sunbursts that reach up into the ceiling where Cherubs and other religious figures are depicted. And you have to admire the architect who used the available sunlight on the outside to make the man-made sunlight on the interior just sparkle and shine at the right moments.
And then in the center of the round-about there is this sectioned off piece of the street that happens to be an underground Roman ruin! And it's not just a street, there are columns to hold up the structure and it appears that it was two stories! There are little doorways and ramps which are probably disintegrated stairways but I just wonder how much further the ruin goes....and I'm sure they'll never find out because there's no chance the Palaces will be torn down for exploration.
Walking into the Palace, Grandma and I bought a ticket for Sisi's apartment, or Duchess Elisabeth, & also the Emperor Franz Joseph's rooms. Walking upstairs, seeing all of Elisabeth's gowns and outfits and reading her story, I felt a little sad. She was a deeply troubled girl, married to the Emperor, I suppose against her own inclination, so she tended to travel a lot and even had a room strictly for extreme exercise. A quote I saw she said read, "Ich stehe einsam, wie auf and'rem Stern." or, "I stand alone, as if on another star." So she must have been so lonely and distraught about this new life she had to live, attending court and speaking to the public, many things a young girl would prefer to stay away from as long as she can.
But then we moved further into the apartment where the actual rooms started. And I think my favorite room had to have been the Conference Room. The blue furniture matched the tapestries on the wall and the gold leafed moulding was just beautiful. The china on the long table even matched the golden leaflets on the wall. It was interesting to me because the rest of the rooms were decorated with deeps reds, and the Conference Room stood out as the only blue one. Unlike Versailles, these rooms were decorated with intricate flowering gold, instead of placing gold on every visible surface. There was a delicacy to this home, a balance between the impressive decorations and the simplicity of the design itself.
After the Palace, we walked on over to the Emperor's Library, which faces a square used in many famous older movies. One in particular my Grandma mentioned was The Third Man. Anyway, walking up the library steps there was this beautiful golden statue on the railing at each turn. And walking into the entrance of the library my breath was taken away. I showed the man my ticket and entered this beautiful grotto of literature. The shelves were all lined with leather bound books, and I immediately noticed hidden stairwells built into the shelves that led up to a second floor of shelves. Ladders ran all along the shelves so any book you chose could be at an arm's length away. The museum owners selected some of the most famous manuscripts to be opened and put on display in glass cases. Greek, Judaic, Byzantine, Arabic, and Chinese manuscripts were the first of what I saw. Methods of surgery, home medicine and religious practices were just a few topics mentioned. My favorite manuscipts were those of Hippocrates; I couldn't believe they had been preserved and were sitting open right in front of my very eyes! And not only were the words perfectly legible, but there were drawings in full color to go along with the print. Then my eyes turned to my next favorite piece. Four globes placed on every corner of the center of the library. Two were celestial, and two were topographical. Designed by Coronelli in 1693 the celestial globes depict the shapes of the animals and gods and goddesses in full color and then in sort of blueish greyish tone as if it's the night sky. And the topographical ones are very accurate, he used the latest exploration reports and maps of the world and they show the types of people living in the areas and I think a few animals as well.
There was a large tapestry hanging at the back end of the library that showed the 12 astrologers derived from the Old Testament, as each were looking up into the sky and were connected to their constellation or planet. Then the library took a turn back and the beginnings of zodiac and horoscope studies were shown. I couldn't believe how many books on magic and finding your zodiac sign there were. There was a Judaic book that described how the lunar cycle affected the crops and it discussed the astronomical aspects of the crops as well. The only library I could even come close to comparing this one to was in Beauty & the Beast and I think Disney did an excellent job making that one so lavish. This one was a little darker inside but the collection was absolutely breathtaking.
From there we went to a Roman Ruin museum which was so-so to me. There were random blocks of stone with little paragraphs about them, which was cool to see because they found them on excavations but for me it wasn't the highlight of the day.
For dinner we went to this amazing little restaurant one U-Bahn station over, called, Griechenbeisl. Inside there was this great wall in one of the rooms that famous artists, composers & writers have signed. Beethoven, Mozart, and even Mark Twain :) The waiter was so excited to hear I was from Missouri....and everyone there was so kind to us at dinner. And the owner of the place (the only woman in the house, hoo-rah!) came up and asked us how everything was after we were finished....now that's how a restaurant is meant to be run. I tried Stiegel beer tonight, its from Salzburg and it had a nice light flavor to it as well. Didn't compliment my spinach & ewe chesse quiche very well, but it's still a beer either way! And it is a very famous Austrian beer...well, not sure about famous but it was the first on the "on-tap" list and people next to us were drinking it as well. The restaurant was magical though, you walk down a few steps to get inside and then you're greeted with two ways to go. One faces the kitchen and the other is a pathway that leads past the bar, and into the 1st room. Which also happens to be a fork, where you can turn left into the signature room, or you can turn right and continue your descent further into the restaurant, both metaphorically and physically (it slopes downward) and then in the furthest of the rooms is a Piano player. It was just so nice to sit in a booth, that had a pillow sewed to where you sat and just relax.
So now we have retired to the room for the night, Grandma is drifting off to sleep and I am left with my usual insomnia. Maybe I'll take advantage of the big bathtub again. And then I'll read until I drift off again.
Tomorrow we are heading to the mountain to sight-see a little more.
Gute nacht!
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
P.S.
The Viennese couples love them some PDA.
Gathering notes/thoughts on the way love works here, to be mushed into a fantastically written entry later on. Get excited.
Tchao.
Gathering notes/thoughts on the way love works here, to be mushed into a fantastically written entry later on. Get excited.
Tchao.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Love, Truth, Beauty & Knowing.
Day 1: I have decided that there are few things in life that are more entertaining or more exciting to see than watching your 79 year old, almost 80 year old Grandmother remove her shoe, pull her knee up to her chin & tap her foot to realign her meridian...while sitting on the window seat of a 7-hour flight. Gotta love those anti-jet lag exercises. The idea is to tap on acupuncture points for a minute, based on your starting and arrival time-zones. And you perform this every two hours, changing the point on the body as the time changes. But I digress, back to my grandmother bending her leg the same way her 19 year old granddaughter is doing. Surely the German guys sitting next to us, returning home from a Las Vegas trip, are thinking we're crazy Americans, but then again, the one sitting directly across from me has been asleep on his buddy's shoulder in such an intimate way for the past two hours. So who's really crazy here?
"Oh would you look at that swagger? Holy mackerel!" --Grandma Pidge
Did my Grandma just use swagger the way it's meant to be used? Yes, yes she did. The first class seats on the flight to Zurich resembled something out of an Austin Powers movie, and I half expected one to spin around, revealing Doctor Evil, pinky at mouth, stroking his cat. The dome-like seat with extra leg room gave the first-class cabin this ultra-modern feel. We ooed and awed a little and made our way to 36A & 36B.
We pull out our novels, and stow away our bags. Hmm, I've got a Ted Bell novel, and she has a John Grisham...and did we both just place our bags in between the seats so we can prop our feet up later on? Spooky. So the flight takes off and we get our pretzels, drinks, and eventually the dinner comes out and a movie pops on the screen. I can't sleep. Not out of excitement, but rather this maternal instinct takes over whenever I'm with a grandparent and I want to be fully alert if something should happen. So I let her sleep and I watch part of a movie and just close my eyes so they won't be strained when we arrive in Vienna around noon. I've been travelling since 9 am central time. It was now 8 pm and we had 6 hours to go just to get to Zurich...
The sunset was majestic. Shades of pink, orange and purple were mixed together, creating a wonderful work of art high above the clouds. And then-- darkness. A few stars speckled the night sky, and every once in a while a distant red jet light was seen blinking through the night. But what was truly beautiful was the sunrise. Never have I seen such a sunrise, and it started just as breakfast was being served. Streams of deep red light rose from underneath the plane, but the cloud-line hid much of the show, leaving my imagination to run wild, wondering how much the world below me could be enjoying the view. A few minutes passed and the red stream rose higher yet, and a deeper orange began to show beneath it. The sky suddenly seemed to glow, in a peaceful way. Not in a deadly fume, mushroom cloud sort of way. The clouds parted a little bit, revealing the blue depths of the ocean and the colors continued to blend through the skyline. The yellows were playfully added into the deep oranges and the red rose further into the sky, fading to a dull pink above the plane. Then, as breakfast was being cleared the sun peaked its head over the wing of the plane, revealing it's brightness and splendor. Kind of makes you wanna buy property 7 miles above the ocean. If you ever get the chance to be flying slightly south but going east, during a sunrise, take that opportunity and soak it all in. A couple of hours later we were starting our descent into Zurich, Switzerland. And you would not believe how fairy tale like the land looked from 10,000 feet in the air. Little villages appeared to be painted along a vast scenery of farmland and dirt roads leading to new farmland and smaller villages. Tiny cars moved along the dirt paths and the Swiss Alps in the background pieced the work of art together. Surely fairy tales take place here everyday. All I could think was how lucky I was to be flying in over such a quaint little area, with the Alps painting a beautiful background along the way.
Zurich to Vienna was just the same, every hill and dirt road just captivated my every thought. And the car ride to the hotel, along the Danube canal was just breathtaking. While my grandma scoffed a little at the graffiti taking over the surrounding walls of the canal, I tried to catch a closer look at the detail of the graffiti, taking in this new culture with every kilometer we drove. The main road to get to Habsburgergasse where our hotel (Pertschy) is located in the center of Graben, the town square, looks like a more inviting version of the Champs Elysee in Paris. Some name brand stores, but mostly little boutiques and specialty shops lined the street with a myriad of people making their way to unknown destinations.
The hotel entrance is in the little alleyway, big enough for one car to pass at a time. Our driver let us out, and helped us with our bags into the teeny-tiny elevator. TIf you stand in the courtyard he is parked in, and look up, a square shaped balcony surrounds you, for 5 stories up. The check-in is on the 1st floor, which is actually the 2nd in US homes, and our room is on the 3rd floor, or the 4th in the US. Our door opens out onto the balcony and if we look down we see the courtyard and every other balcony of the hotel. People stand out there sipping coffee, or smoking a cigarette, enjoying the cool 12 degree Celsius breeze. And the room is just charming. Not exactly what Grandma had hoped for, but that's what happens when they renovate the room you've been staying in for the past 20 years. The walls are white, and there is a dresser with matching closet, and classic molding outlines the doors of the closet and the drawers. Little flowers dance along the edges and the legs are all the classic European shape. The bedding is a light yellow, and each bed looks like combination of a cot and a twin sized bed. Extremely comfortable, just petit. And the bathroom, ooh the bathroom. There is a step up to get into the white-tiled room. There's a deep set sink with a few different knobs for adjustments, a hanging toilet with two options for flushing and the bathtub is just to die for. I've never seen one like it in America. The tub is long enough to lie down in, without having to bend your knees...And there's a nice little fogged window that sits about halfway down the tub to give extra privacy. Cozy and beautiful is the only way to describe the room.
Enough about the hotel and the room though. Onto Vienna :)
I'm still trying to memorize the 12 letter names of places, but I got smart and decided to gather a few souvenirs to help me remember. We started the day out at an Italian restaurant for a light lunch. I ordered an asparagus salad with chicken and when I tried to add a little pepper the whole thing dumped out onto my plate! So the waiter kindly brought me a new one and away we went. Then Grandma showed me this wonderful sculpture that was crafted during the Middle Ages when the Plague was affecting all of Europe, and especially Vienna at this time. The sculpture was intended to be a gift for God, in His honor, and in return he would stop the plague. So there is a scene of people dying on top of one another with gold inscriptions and honoring all around. Then we walked to the underground transportation system and bought tickets for the week. The tickets not only work on the Uriban, but the streetcars and busing system as well. Coming out on the other side of the Uriban station we just walked into, we stopped in front a giant Cathedral and laughed a little as tourists snapped shots of the gothic structure. And by we, I mean Grandma. Hey, I'm a tourist too after all, right? Then again, I have a gazillion pictures of the cathedrals in Paris so I didn't need many of this one :)
Then we took a streetcar tour of the little city, noting how the History Museum & Art Museum face one another. And then we saw the famous Opera house, and all its splendor. What I didn't know was that the front piece is the only original section, because during the war, the Americans bombed the Opera house, leaving little left to preserve. I started to nod off a little bit on the ride back, so Grandma suggested we go to her favorite little cafe where she usually gets her 4 o'clock coffee and the occasional pastry. So we sat down, and I ordered a Einspanner (one shot of German coffee with whipped cream) and Grandma got Viennese coffee, I believe. I noticed the whipped cream in Vienna, is actual whipped cream, not vanilla extract, sugary, whipped cream. So this was the first time I truly enjoyed espresso in its full form. And I let Grandma pick the pastry we were to share, expecting something small, with little sugar and no gluten to accommodate her dietary needs. Low and behold, the waitress comes out with this chocolate dome...I'm wondering what's inside when Grandma licks her lips and cracks the dome in half. The dome is solid chocolate mousse. I guess Grandma didn't lose her sweet-tooth after all! I noticed the chocolate was rich was but not unbearingly so. Maybe there's not a stick of butter involved in the preparation of this dessert like in Paris, or my house. So we sat, listened to a few lady's conversations, trying to pick up bits of the German language intertwined with the French language, and then headed back to the hotel for some rest.
Around 6 we got our jackets back on and headed to dinner. A place called Gosser Bierklinik, this dark pub/restaurant. Since we had eaten plane food and a light lunch/dessert already, we decided on a small but hearty dinner. So looking over the menu, I recognized Gosser on the drinks list. I asked Grandma if they brewed their own beer and she said well yes I guess so, since they call this place the Beer Clinic! So I said alright, well I guess I will order myself one to try....realizing how bold this statement probably sounded coming from a 19 year old's mouth first day in Vienna, I quickly added the old, If that's okay with you, onto the end of my sentence. "Well sure, we're not driving and I'm not responsible for your underage drinking, and they won't care anyway!" So I ordered my Gosser Spezial and the waiter was surprised I ordered the small size, and just one. Must be a pretty good beer then! I ordered a Hungarian stew called Goulash and Grandma ordered a cheese/spinach souffle, which in the end we decided was a quiche. And miraculously enough, the spicy Goulash was complimented nicely by the light Gosser beer. So it ended up being a lovely evening! And when I got back to the hotel, after calling Evan and Mom on the payphone in the Uriban station, I found out the rooms have WiFi, so I will be able to keep up with emails and research on common phrases.
So far I've learned how to greet someone with a sort of blessing which is used in everyday life, how to properly say I'll see you later when you leave and then of course Danke. It's not pretty, but its getting there. One baby step at a time.
And right now, nothing sounds better than soaking in the tub for a while, finishing up Hawke and then maybe, just maybe reading a chapter or two of this new book I've been working on the past few weeks :)
So, as Willy Wonka says to Mrs. Gloop, "Adieu. Aufwiedersehen. Gesundheit. Farewell."
(for now.)
"Oh would you look at that swagger? Holy mackerel!" --Grandma Pidge
Did my Grandma just use swagger the way it's meant to be used? Yes, yes she did. The first class seats on the flight to Zurich resembled something out of an Austin Powers movie, and I half expected one to spin around, revealing Doctor Evil, pinky at mouth, stroking his cat. The dome-like seat with extra leg room gave the first-class cabin this ultra-modern feel. We ooed and awed a little and made our way to 36A & 36B.
We pull out our novels, and stow away our bags. Hmm, I've got a Ted Bell novel, and she has a John Grisham...and did we both just place our bags in between the seats so we can prop our feet up later on? Spooky. So the flight takes off and we get our pretzels, drinks, and eventually the dinner comes out and a movie pops on the screen. I can't sleep. Not out of excitement, but rather this maternal instinct takes over whenever I'm with a grandparent and I want to be fully alert if something should happen. So I let her sleep and I watch part of a movie and just close my eyes so they won't be strained when we arrive in Vienna around noon. I've been travelling since 9 am central time. It was now 8 pm and we had 6 hours to go just to get to Zurich...
The sunset was majestic. Shades of pink, orange and purple were mixed together, creating a wonderful work of art high above the clouds. And then-- darkness. A few stars speckled the night sky, and every once in a while a distant red jet light was seen blinking through the night. But what was truly beautiful was the sunrise. Never have I seen such a sunrise, and it started just as breakfast was being served. Streams of deep red light rose from underneath the plane, but the cloud-line hid much of the show, leaving my imagination to run wild, wondering how much the world below me could be enjoying the view. A few minutes passed and the red stream rose higher yet, and a deeper orange began to show beneath it. The sky suddenly seemed to glow, in a peaceful way. Not in a deadly fume, mushroom cloud sort of way. The clouds parted a little bit, revealing the blue depths of the ocean and the colors continued to blend through the skyline. The yellows were playfully added into the deep oranges and the red rose further into the sky, fading to a dull pink above the plane. Then, as breakfast was being cleared the sun peaked its head over the wing of the plane, revealing it's brightness and splendor. Kind of makes you wanna buy property 7 miles above the ocean. If you ever get the chance to be flying slightly south but going east, during a sunrise, take that opportunity and soak it all in. A couple of hours later we were starting our descent into Zurich, Switzerland. And you would not believe how fairy tale like the land looked from 10,000 feet in the air. Little villages appeared to be painted along a vast scenery of farmland and dirt roads leading to new farmland and smaller villages. Tiny cars moved along the dirt paths and the Swiss Alps in the background pieced the work of art together. Surely fairy tales take place here everyday. All I could think was how lucky I was to be flying in over such a quaint little area, with the Alps painting a beautiful background along the way.
Zurich to Vienna was just the same, every hill and dirt road just captivated my every thought. And the car ride to the hotel, along the Danube canal was just breathtaking. While my grandma scoffed a little at the graffiti taking over the surrounding walls of the canal, I tried to catch a closer look at the detail of the graffiti, taking in this new culture with every kilometer we drove. The main road to get to Habsburgergasse where our hotel (Pertschy) is located in the center of Graben, the town square, looks like a more inviting version of the Champs Elysee in Paris. Some name brand stores, but mostly little boutiques and specialty shops lined the street with a myriad of people making their way to unknown destinations.
The hotel entrance is in the little alleyway, big enough for one car to pass at a time. Our driver let us out, and helped us with our bags into the teeny-tiny elevator. TIf you stand in the courtyard he is parked in, and look up, a square shaped balcony surrounds you, for 5 stories up. The check-in is on the 1st floor, which is actually the 2nd in US homes, and our room is on the 3rd floor, or the 4th in the US. Our door opens out onto the balcony and if we look down we see the courtyard and every other balcony of the hotel. People stand out there sipping coffee, or smoking a cigarette, enjoying the cool 12 degree Celsius breeze. And the room is just charming. Not exactly what Grandma had hoped for, but that's what happens when they renovate the room you've been staying in for the past 20 years. The walls are white, and there is a dresser with matching closet, and classic molding outlines the doors of the closet and the drawers. Little flowers dance along the edges and the legs are all the classic European shape. The bedding is a light yellow, and each bed looks like combination of a cot and a twin sized bed. Extremely comfortable, just petit. And the bathroom, ooh the bathroom. There is a step up to get into the white-tiled room. There's a deep set sink with a few different knobs for adjustments, a hanging toilet with two options for flushing and the bathtub is just to die for. I've never seen one like it in America. The tub is long enough to lie down in, without having to bend your knees...And there's a nice little fogged window that sits about halfway down the tub to give extra privacy. Cozy and beautiful is the only way to describe the room.
Enough about the hotel and the room though. Onto Vienna :)
I'm still trying to memorize the 12 letter names of places, but I got smart and decided to gather a few souvenirs to help me remember. We started the day out at an Italian restaurant for a light lunch. I ordered an asparagus salad with chicken and when I tried to add a little pepper the whole thing dumped out onto my plate! So the waiter kindly brought me a new one and away we went. Then Grandma showed me this wonderful sculpture that was crafted during the Middle Ages when the Plague was affecting all of Europe, and especially Vienna at this time. The sculpture was intended to be a gift for God, in His honor, and in return he would stop the plague. So there is a scene of people dying on top of one another with gold inscriptions and honoring all around. Then we walked to the underground transportation system and bought tickets for the week. The tickets not only work on the Uriban, but the streetcars and busing system as well. Coming out on the other side of the Uriban station we just walked into, we stopped in front a giant Cathedral and laughed a little as tourists snapped shots of the gothic structure. And by we, I mean Grandma. Hey, I'm a tourist too after all, right? Then again, I have a gazillion pictures of the cathedrals in Paris so I didn't need many of this one :)
Then we took a streetcar tour of the little city, noting how the History Museum & Art Museum face one another. And then we saw the famous Opera house, and all its splendor. What I didn't know was that the front piece is the only original section, because during the war, the Americans bombed the Opera house, leaving little left to preserve. I started to nod off a little bit on the ride back, so Grandma suggested we go to her favorite little cafe where she usually gets her 4 o'clock coffee and the occasional pastry. So we sat down, and I ordered a Einspanner (one shot of German coffee with whipped cream) and Grandma got Viennese coffee, I believe. I noticed the whipped cream in Vienna, is actual whipped cream, not vanilla extract, sugary, whipped cream. So this was the first time I truly enjoyed espresso in its full form. And I let Grandma pick the pastry we were to share, expecting something small, with little sugar and no gluten to accommodate her dietary needs. Low and behold, the waitress comes out with this chocolate dome...I'm wondering what's inside when Grandma licks her lips and cracks the dome in half. The dome is solid chocolate mousse. I guess Grandma didn't lose her sweet-tooth after all! I noticed the chocolate was rich was but not unbearingly so. Maybe there's not a stick of butter involved in the preparation of this dessert like in Paris, or my house. So we sat, listened to a few lady's conversations, trying to pick up bits of the German language intertwined with the French language, and then headed back to the hotel for some rest.
Around 6 we got our jackets back on and headed to dinner. A place called Gosser Bierklinik, this dark pub/restaurant. Since we had eaten plane food and a light lunch/dessert already, we decided on a small but hearty dinner. So looking over the menu, I recognized Gosser on the drinks list. I asked Grandma if they brewed their own beer and she said well yes I guess so, since they call this place the Beer Clinic! So I said alright, well I guess I will order myself one to try....realizing how bold this statement probably sounded coming from a 19 year old's mouth first day in Vienna, I quickly added the old, If that's okay with you, onto the end of my sentence. "Well sure, we're not driving and I'm not responsible for your underage drinking, and they won't care anyway!" So I ordered my Gosser Spezial and the waiter was surprised I ordered the small size, and just one. Must be a pretty good beer then! I ordered a Hungarian stew called Goulash and Grandma ordered a cheese/spinach souffle, which in the end we decided was a quiche. And miraculously enough, the spicy Goulash was complimented nicely by the light Gosser beer. So it ended up being a lovely evening! And when I got back to the hotel, after calling Evan and Mom on the payphone in the Uriban station, I found out the rooms have WiFi, so I will be able to keep up with emails and research on common phrases.
So far I've learned how to greet someone with a sort of blessing which is used in everyday life, how to properly say I'll see you later when you leave and then of course Danke. It's not pretty, but its getting there. One baby step at a time.
And right now, nothing sounds better than soaking in the tub for a while, finishing up Hawke and then maybe, just maybe reading a chapter or two of this new book I've been working on the past few weeks :)
So, as Willy Wonka says to Mrs. Gloop, "Adieu. Aufwiedersehen. Gesundheit. Farewell."
(for now.)
Sunday, May 30, 2010
11:34 p.m.
The air is stifling. For it only being the end of May, the summer heat has already hit hard. Summertime in Saint Louis is hard to beat. Heat radiating off asphalt pavement, laughing children running around with sticky hands from the sweet treats delivered by the ice cream truck, and Cardinals baseball games on nearly every body's mind. The month of June is always perfect. Everyone is out of school, enjoying the hot days sitting by the pool, and having cookouts during the cool but humid nights. Tonight isn't one of those nights.
The stifling air is not a product of the outdoors. Well, indirectly it is. The stifling air haunting my bedroom tonight comes from a forty-year old home's circulation. The second floor is naturally hotter, naturally less breezy, and naturally more uncomfortable for those very reasons.
A fan hums continuously and disturbs the taped posters on the wall. In order to feel the fan's effects just a little bit more, my feet are hanging over the edge of my polka-dot covered bed, and my right foot shakes out of habit. My cat is lounging next to me, wondering why this bright glow is keeping her from sleeping. Every once in a while her irritation causes her to lift her head from the bed, turn it slowly towards me as one ear cocks back, as if a sound has caused her senses to awaken her. When in reality, it's the drumming of my fingers on the keyboard and the brightness of the screen that causes her insomnia. My insomnia, however, is caused by other reasons.
When I was younger, I used to lay wide awake before every vacation or trip I went on. The only difference is the reasoning behind it. As a kid, there are no obligations to keep track of, no promises to uphold, and friends were always there when you got back. The adventure I was about to embark on was what mattered. Sure there was some anxiety when I wasn't travelling with a parent, but mostly I laid awake wondering what was waiting for me, wondering if we could leave as soon as I saw the sun's rays peaking over the hill. But tonight I lay awake for a different reason.
Sure I want the plane to take off already, but I want to be sure of a few things when it lands. I want to know I'll be accepted as an American student, who is truly interested in learning the culture of both Austria and France, and not just some spoiled American kid on summer vaca. And I want to know that I'll be able to find my way around foreign airports and make it to my connecting flights on time. And then find a trustworthy taxi driver to take me to my House-Mother's apartment. And I want nothing more than to understand Madame Dru and learn from her about her lifestyle in Paris. It's one thing to be a student in a city, but to see how it's inhabitants live their lives is one that has always fascinated me. Part of me wishes I could fast-forward to the part where I will be sitting in cafes, sipping lattes or a glass of white wine, asking the waiters where they are from while pieces of live performers songs ring through my ears. People on bicycles will ride by and the tires will bounce along the cobblestones. And not only do I want to sit in the city and see how people interact, but I want to see how they fall in love, appreciate one another and appreciate (or disrespect) complete strangers. I know it won't be Eden, or even close to a Paradise, but it will be something-- something spectacular.
And while I am sad to leave my country behind for a month, and while I feel guilty for diving into not just one, but two new cultures....ignoring my own, I know that when I step outside to walk to class, or enter a new arrondissement, I know that the pavement will still be steaming, children will still be running around gaily with ice cream stuck to their grinning faces, and...okay maybe it won't be baseball, but the talk of the town will be the World Cup and the Tour de France. And maybe, just maybe, keeping those few things in mind, the cultures won't seem so different, and American soil won't seem so distant. I can carry that piece of knowledge and understanding with me, secretly of course. We all know the French would hate to be compared to the Americans...
And so the fan hums on. My cat has chosen a new spot to sleep, and I have rolled onto the bed properly, and laid my head to rest.
By this time tomorrow, I will be in Vienna, drinking my morning coffee, reading an international newspaper at a local cafe, watching the summer work its magic.
The stifling air is not a product of the outdoors. Well, indirectly it is. The stifling air haunting my bedroom tonight comes from a forty-year old home's circulation. The second floor is naturally hotter, naturally less breezy, and naturally more uncomfortable for those very reasons.
A fan hums continuously and disturbs the taped posters on the wall. In order to feel the fan's effects just a little bit more, my feet are hanging over the edge of my polka-dot covered bed, and my right foot shakes out of habit. My cat is lounging next to me, wondering why this bright glow is keeping her from sleeping. Every once in a while her irritation causes her to lift her head from the bed, turn it slowly towards me as one ear cocks back, as if a sound has caused her senses to awaken her. When in reality, it's the drumming of my fingers on the keyboard and the brightness of the screen that causes her insomnia. My insomnia, however, is caused by other reasons.
When I was younger, I used to lay wide awake before every vacation or trip I went on. The only difference is the reasoning behind it. As a kid, there are no obligations to keep track of, no promises to uphold, and friends were always there when you got back. The adventure I was about to embark on was what mattered. Sure there was some anxiety when I wasn't travelling with a parent, but mostly I laid awake wondering what was waiting for me, wondering if we could leave as soon as I saw the sun's rays peaking over the hill. But tonight I lay awake for a different reason.
Sure I want the plane to take off already, but I want to be sure of a few things when it lands. I want to know I'll be accepted as an American student, who is truly interested in learning the culture of both Austria and France, and not just some spoiled American kid on summer vaca. And I want to know that I'll be able to find my way around foreign airports and make it to my connecting flights on time. And then find a trustworthy taxi driver to take me to my House-Mother's apartment. And I want nothing more than to understand Madame Dru and learn from her about her lifestyle in Paris. It's one thing to be a student in a city, but to see how it's inhabitants live their lives is one that has always fascinated me. Part of me wishes I could fast-forward to the part where I will be sitting in cafes, sipping lattes or a glass of white wine, asking the waiters where they are from while pieces of live performers songs ring through my ears. People on bicycles will ride by and the tires will bounce along the cobblestones. And not only do I want to sit in the city and see how people interact, but I want to see how they fall in love, appreciate one another and appreciate (or disrespect) complete strangers. I know it won't be Eden, or even close to a Paradise, but it will be something-- something spectacular.
And while I am sad to leave my country behind for a month, and while I feel guilty for diving into not just one, but two new cultures....ignoring my own, I know that when I step outside to walk to class, or enter a new arrondissement, I know that the pavement will still be steaming, children will still be running around gaily with ice cream stuck to their grinning faces, and...okay maybe it won't be baseball, but the talk of the town will be the World Cup and the Tour de France. And maybe, just maybe, keeping those few things in mind, the cultures won't seem so different, and American soil won't seem so distant. I can carry that piece of knowledge and understanding with me, secretly of course. We all know the French would hate to be compared to the Americans...
And so the fan hums on. My cat has chosen a new spot to sleep, and I have rolled onto the bed properly, and laid my head to rest.
By this time tomorrow, I will be in Vienna, drinking my morning coffee, reading an international newspaper at a local cafe, watching the summer work its magic.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)