Witnessing the Election from Abroad

I normally do not discuss politics to great ends and can’t recall ever writing about politics beyond typical schoolwork.  However, since I am here in Europe and finding that most people I meet here consider this election to be one of the most important elections in American history, I feel tempted to write down a little bit of what I have seen and thought about.

 

The degree to which Austrians, and other people internationally, are aware of our American politics certainly impresses me.  Particularly what I notice is the dislike for Bush, and the overall support of democratic policies.  I have seen anti-bush graffiti, posters, t-shirts, etc. in every city in Europe that I have visited.  Here many Austrians are more pro-Obama than myself, and in fact, were more concerned with the American election than I was.  Their knowledge about American politics sometimes made me feel a little self-conscious about my identity as an American. 

Here in Vienna people shouted out of their windows in joy at us early in the morning when Obama had been elected.  Even though his presidency was not announced until around 5 in the morning Austrian time the newspapers all had Obama on the front page.  When I went to lunch, Viennese would ask if I was American and then elate over Obama’s win and tell me “Happy Birthday” – although I admit I’m not sure why they said happy birthday.  My German teacher related to our class how the newspapers had all been snatched up and the one she grabbed she will store away and save forever.

Here, the election means more than what happens in America for the next four years; it means more than how America will affect the world for the next few years; the election stands for what America is.  The newspapers I have read here, and Austrians here have told me that America is a symbol for opportunity, for inspiration and creativity, a symbol for future of the whole world.  To many of the Europeans, not only do they prefer Obama’s policies to those of McCain, or certainly the Bush regime, but also they feel that the election of an African American president is exactly part of the image they previously had of America.  It says that Americans have not become stuck in old habits and prejudices.  It represents the belief that America is the place where change happens, where racism is fought hard, and where every person has a chance to a good life.

Over the past 8 years the world has associated America and Americans with the views and actions of Bush.  Many believed us (although were still somewhat confused) when we said that most of the country did not vote for him or support his decisions.  But when Bush won again, it seemed an obvious sign that Bush was a symbol of America and Americans.  Now that we have voted Obama as president, the world feels they can once again believe in the America that they believed in before.  They can believe in the country that knows the importance of change, of equality, and of liberty.  I actually do not think I would be wrong to say that there are more people outside of the USA that know about American politics than there are Americans that do.  I believe that too many Americans do not think about politics but only believe in their rights.  I think too many Americans get stuck in the beliefs that were handed down to them.  Too many don’t know to analyze, question, and build their beliefs from what they feel and see is happening to them and the world.  Too many people build an us vs. them mentality that creates strict divides in opinion rather than a full range of opinion that naturally exists.  This us vs. them mentality helps to keep people and their actions on one side of an issue, even after many of their feelings and thoughts have crossed.

Citizens of many other countries do not get tied down to their family and friends’ beliefs about American politics but they see American politics for how it effects and interacts with the rest of the world.  We do need to listen to them – they see things that many of us do not!

Onto my own opinion of Obama’s win:  Overall I am relieved – relieved that I am less likely to worry about America continuing down the same path it has been treading for many years.  I have believed that Americans need to wake up from their internal beliefs that often trap them, watch and listen to the world, and realize what things they need to change in their lives.  For years I have told friends that if change does not happen soon to America, then America may never see itself at the top again and it may never be the place to be, the exciting country that it has been for so long.  The path America has been on has caused me to start learning about life outside of America because I have imagined that is where I might rather be in 20 more years.

But surely enough and greatly to the help of numerous documentaries over the past 6 years or so that are reaching the general American public, America is beginning to wake up.  Many still have not, but now that the ball is rolling, it is likely to continue.  I am not certain that Obama will take us directly into the right direction, to the best future we can have.  I do admit that Obama does not have the experience record that some other people might have.  Yet he knows his weaknesses and knows to bring people with experience along with him.  I am confident that Obama will do his best to bring about change.  If the change is immediately good, then so be it, and we shall enjoy it.  Yet if the change is bad, it will force Americans to pay attention to what is really going on, how we are affecting others and our environment, and then the good changes will begin to happen from within America itself. 

This idea is just what Al Gore referred to when he showed a cartoon of a frog in his documentary, The Inconvenient Truth.  If the frog jumps into hot water, or if hot water is poured onto a frog, it will immediately jump away to safety.  Yet if the frog is in luke-warm water that is slowly heated to boiling it will not jump out before its own death.  Gore’s analogy was that the American people, collectively, are like the frog.  If we are heading down the wrong path, as a collective being we will just continue on, each of us individually feeling like it is either not our problem, or it is too big of a problem for us to have any effect.  Thus we will lead to our own downfall.  There could be some point at which the water boils and we can no longer choose to jump out.  Yet if change happens quickly and it is negative change then we will jump out of our current state that we have been stuck in, and figure out where to get from there.  Throughout history America has proven to be very good at getting out of tough situations like this.  If you don’t believe in this metaphor, look at our history, and also look at the past 6 years.  We were not put in boiling water, but it was hot enough for some people to jump out of it and ask themselves and each other “What is going on?”  It was enough for us to ask for something different than what we have been getting.  There has been a quick influx of books, articles, movies, and more that have entered mainstream America and that question the running of our government and our country.

           

So in conclusion: I believe in change for America.  I believe that whether the changes we go through are good or bad they will bring us up eventually to a better place.  I understand that people can disagree on the immediate effects Obama will have on our nation.  Yet to me it is obvious that Obama is a symbol for these times at which we must go through change to reach our goals.  Even more so, with the introduction of female candidates for vice president and president as well, this Election will remain a symbol of our time of change.  Looking into the future – experience is not the thing we need most to climb over obstacles we have never faced.  Instead, what America stands for to the world is what America needs most – creativity, ingenuity, and change.  God bless America, my home sweet home.

            

Mein Wochenende in Wien mit John

Before John came over on Friday, some of the other students in our apartment building hosted an early, Wednesday night Halloween party after most of us had finished all our finals.  The party was a complete success, and very luckily was never busted by the police.  I say this, because Vienna has a 10 o’clock quiet hour rule – city wide!  That means also that all practice room facilities are of course, closed by 10!  Most Viennese go out to restaurants, bars, and clubs to parties, and house parties are actually much less common here in Vienna.  Which of course makes it a bit easier to experience the culture here!  None the less, we Americans still love our house parties, so that’s what we had on Wednesday night.  For the real Halloween, I did however go out with John, so that was fun too!

 

Also before John came over, on Thursday night I went with some friends to see Pierre Boulez conduct Mahler’s third symphony with the help of the Vienna Philharmonic and…the Vienna Boy’s Choir!  Oh, it was wonderful!  Overall I think  Boulez took it a little slower than the piece should go, but hearing that piece in the Musikverein is a wonderful experience!

 

Day 1, John arrives:

 

Westbanhoff station on Friday morning.

John got here mid-morning, but didn’t get much sleep on the train, so he went to sleep for a bit while I made a few errands.  Upon the afternoon, I took John out to walk around a little bit of the city, starting with the Naschmarkt.  Since John was also an IES  abroad student, I showed him our facilities in Vienna (The original IES facility in fact!) and then I practiced for a bit while he biked around the city.  John apparently got the experience of trying to buy apple juice and instead got sparkling apple – even after I warned him this would happen.

 

On our way home we tried to find costumes, but the shops had just closed (6 PM) so we just picked up some makeup at a local Bipa store.  Then we went home and made some Korean food together – bibimbap.  Mmmm, tasty!

 

All the ingredients for Bibimbap

 

My costume for Friday night.

 

After dinner we dressed up and went out to a Viennese club with a few friends for Halloween (Vienna has apparently just started celebrating Halloween 5 or so years ago).  Vienna University was also sponsoring a Halloween party at the Museums Quarter, but it supposedly had too many people (ie, no one could get in until others had left) so we headed off to the club that was recommended by IES.

 

            The club turned out to be great – there was a center room/bar with three rooms tangent to the center one.  We checked out each room of course, the first being the bar with numerous hired dancers in Halloween outfits.  We met a few others from our school in this first room.  The next room was the main dance floor, playing mostly techno music (not a surprise at all here in Europe) and oddly with a very slick, almost as if wet, floor.  I almost fell once or twice as we danced here.  Lastly, the third room was another bar with a bit more space for dancing that was playing almost entirely American music.  As we walked into the bar we got to hear a dance version of “Country Roads” with all of the Austrians singing together “Country roads take me home to the place I belong, West Virginia…”  Seemed a little ironic, but we stayed here for another half hour or more singing along and dancing to American songs.  We even got a few Austrians to dance with us as we basically took over the floor (at one point even the Macarena was played…).

 

A group of us at the club on Friday

Day 2

•After a very long night, John and I did not wake up until it was afternoon.  So we left the house to pick up some food to cook and came back in to make an afternoon breakfast of omelets, toast, and a cinnamon roll.  Got into a deep conversation about the problems with and purpose of stereotyping (among several other topics) and realized that the sun was already setting!  The sun starts to go down by 4 in the afternoon (or do we call it evening now?) and it is dark by 5!

 

So we decided to go see an Opera – The Marriage of Figaro – at the Volksoper.  Unfortunately, once we got there we discovered that standing room tickets were sold out!  The ushers at the Opera House were relaxed enough that it looked like we could sneak in and sit down without buying tickets, but we decided to be good citizens and not do this, so instead we left to visit Prater Park.

 

Along the way, when we switched from the U-Bahn train system to the S-Bahn, we stopped by Millennium City – the newest and most modern shopping mall in Vienna.  It was interesting because hundreds and hundreds of people were here even though no stores were open!  After a few minutes of walking through the mall we discovered why:  In the middle of the mall is a movie theater complex, many many restaurants and bars, arcades, pool and bowling, gambling, and more.  So we hung out here for about 30 minutes, maybe an hour, just walking around and playing a few games.  The cool thing about stopping here is that there obviously were very few tourists here so it was a closer look into the young Viennese culture.  Also, as I mentioned before, the Austrians go out to party more than they have house parties, so Millennium City was pretty darn busy tonight.

 

After Millennium City we hopped on the S-Bahn (after some more confusion) and went to Prater Park, the amusement park that sits just beside the Danube river on the East of the city.  We had fun checking out a few rides – which was an interesting experience because not many people were riding the rides at this point in the night, so we got to ride roller coasters by ourselves, as well as this very awesome ride that spins you around at almost 100 miles per hour!  It felt extremely wrong for the both of us to see the earth from so high up, and to see it completely upside down.  The ride made it feel not like we were upside down but that the world was upside down!  Here are two pictures I took of some friends riding it a couple months ago – I didn’t bring my camera with me tonight!

 

This ride was extremely tall...and even faster.

My friends on the same ride, in early September

 

After trying our rides, we walked around the park a little, and then ended up paying 2 euros to jump on some trampolines for 5 minutes.  Seemed like a silly thing to do before we discovered that these were some serious trampolines!  They sent us flying like no other trampolines I have ever been on, and it was an interesting feeling when I felt a complete loss of balance while in the air.  After 5 minutes, both of us were extremely tired.

 

After the Prater fun we headed back into the city to check out a restaurant I had been to earlier this week.  Just a few blocks north of Stephansdom and Mozart’s house, was a restaurant that existed in an old wine cellar.  This means that to eat we walked down several flights of stairs, into a place that looks like it had hardly changed since the Medieval times!  I ordered a Wiener Schnitzel (Vienna’s symbol of diet) and John ordered Beef Goulash.  While we each found our meals alright, we both found the other’s meal quite appetizing so we switched halfway though.  To drink we both had Sturm, which was a bit different at this restaurant than what I normally find in stores but was still quite good – and it’s unique flavor caused me to like it a bit more too.

 

After dinner and another long discussion keeping us there for a few hours (in restaurants here the waiters never try to get you to leave to make space for more customers) we headed back home – although not before an Austrian came up to John to compliment him on his Obama pin.  If there was an election for the American President in Europe – I am pretty darn sure Obama would win, he sure is popular over here!

 

Day 3:

Today I got up quite a bit earlier, and got to work on updating my blog, facebook, and doing some homework before John got up and while he was out for a jog.  By the time it was noon, I was eating my third meal of the day (leftover bibimbap) and then we headed off for the Schönbrunn Palace.

 

Schönbrunn Palace

 

First thing first, the Schönbrunn Palace is HUGE!  Looking at a map, almost the entire inner city of Vienna could fit inside the grounds and gardens of Schönbrunn!  We couldn’t figure out where to go, so we just followed the groups of tourists and were awestruck at the magnificence of the gardens!

 

At Schönbrunn

One of the games in a labrynth at Schönbrunn

 

After walking partway into the gardens, we decided to pay about 2 euro to enter the labyrinth mazes/gardens/playgrounds.  It was totally worth it – there was a playground that was tons of fun (although yes, it was made for kids).  Still there were a number of others about our age as well as adults looking at themselves in the distorted mirrors and such.  Then we tried our skills in the mazes, starting in opposite directions in the largest maze and finding that after many wrong turns we met up again just before the end and tied (yes, we were competing).  Each of the mazes took about 15 minutes to find our way to the end, and two of them included little puzzles that we spent a bit more time solving.

 

 

After mastering the math puzzle with a group of about 10 other confused tourists standing around. To be fair, John though of the strategy for it first. Go teamwork!

 

Looking into the fun mirrors.

 

 

 

Finally, after probably 2 hours of playing, we decided to walk the rest of the way to the top of Schönbrunn to overlook the palace (and as we found out, to overlook a good portion of Vienna!  Unfortunately it was a bit hazy and cloudy, but the view was still phenomenal.  Also, near the top we happened to run into two German girls while we were taking pictures.  We walked around and talked with the girls for another 30 minutes, went to see some Emus (quite entertaining) and then went to eat a late lunch/early dinner with them.

 

John and I with the two girls we met from Germany.

 

 

After parting with the two girls, we tried to see the Belvedere, but it turned out the gardens had closed about an hour earlier.  Oh well…  So we biked through the city and eventually back home, but not before coming across this strange setup of dishes that turned out to be in preparation of a performance that concerned nothing other than the American Elections!  We met more pro-Obama Germans and Austrians both at Schönbrunn and here in front of the dishes.  I’ll have to check this out on Tuesday to see what it is about.

 

So in the end, while we slept in late once, showed up to a sold out opera, and tried to see the Belvedere after it closed, the weekend was still a very long one, filled certainly with some great memories and good loooong talks (yes, I needed the extra few o’s of course)!  Take care John, see you next year, and I wish you the best on your time in Paris!

 

Looking at Schönbrunn from behind/under the statues.

 

 

Day Two (Well, first day really, but we’ll call it day 2):

We started off our stay in Prague by visiting the square of the most important church in Prague; the St. Vitus Cathedral.  Unfortunately we did not get to go inside because there was a mass at this time (some people ventured back later but I chose to see other things).  We then visited the Old Royal Palace and also the St. George Basilica – founded in about 920 AD.  Certainly a big difference here from the cathedral!  From here there were great views of the city and I managed to capture a nice shot of a friend on the balcony.

 

Standing on the Balcony looking over Prague.

 

 

Standing in the entrance of the museum of Medieval armor.

 

 

After that we walked along the Golden Lane, filled with really tiny old houses that have now become shops.  Running along the on the second floor (they are all connected) was a sort of museum of battle armor through the middle ages.  There were quite a variety of armored suits, helmets, and shields!  Even one for a kid (or midget I suppose).

 

One of the tiny houses on the Golden Lane

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next we watched a performance/procession of the Prague guards and then quickly headed off to the Prague Castle Gardens, founded in 1534.  These gardens were absolutely beautiful, and considering that this day we had the most beautiful weather of the trip, our walk through these gardens was truly my favorite experience.  Every turn gave another wonderful view of the city that really took my breath away.  I really must say, the best things in life are free (well, ok, it cost a fair bit to get here, but after that…).

 

The Czech Guards

 

A small group of performers on the square

Viewing Prague from the Gardens

 

 

 

 

Walking down to the Wallenstein Palace

 

Looking at the Wallenstein Palace through my friend's glasses

 

A friend standing at the John Lennon Wall

 

 

 

 

After the gardens, we continued downhill and saw the Wallenstein Palace – the seat of the Parliament of the Czech Republic – which also had beautiful gardens.   On our way to lunch (I must say we were all very hungry, our lunch was not until 3 in the afternoon) we got to see the famous John Lennon wall, walked across the Charles Bridge again, and had a little bit of free time in one of the town squares.  Along the Charles Bridge I found it funny that there was a performer playing “New York, New York” and there were many tourists gathered around him singing along.  I then hummed the tune later and a friend got annoyed that I was singing an obviously American tune on my first day touring in Prague.  I guess they hadn’t noticed yet how much American music has become a part of the culture for Europeans!

 

The John Lennon Wall

 

 

 

Look, it's a mobius strip!!!

 

 

 

After lunch we had the rest of the afternoon free until the concert at night, so a friend and I decided to head off to the remains of a castle that we would not be getting to on our tours.  Along the way we ventured into a mega store to look for batteries for her camera.  It was quite something to see TV’s priced at over 100,000 (yes, in koruny, not in dollars).  Electronics seemed to be quite expensive here – a camera that cost $600 in America was selling for almost $1000 here…

 

An historic rotunda in a more modern setting...

 

 

Unfortunately, once we found our way to the castle grounds, we could not find much of a castle, instead we found much of fortifications, old buildings whose significance we did not know, and a cathedral (but it was quite a site to see nonetheless).  The best part however, was getting yet another wonderful view of the city, this time from right by the river.  Of course, in my usual fashion, I convinced my friend to do a jumping picture with me – and it turned out quite nice!

 

Jumping picture over the Vltava River

 

 

On our way back to see the concert we got a little sidetracked because the trams were diverted by a marathon that was going on in the middle of the city.  Nonetheless we got there and time, and got so see a nice sunset just one bridge north of the Charles Bridge!

 

Sunset over a bridge in Prague

 

Concert Hall in Prague

 

 

            The concert hall was beautiful, although I found it odd that in the balcony there were large pillars obstructing the view from some of the seats.  Not surprisingly, no one was sitting in those seats…I wonder if they cost less because of that too…  The concert as I remember was the Mendelssohn Elijah Oratio.  It is a good long concert so I decided to only attend the first half, and then to walk around old town Prague with a friend during the second half and before dinner.

            On our walk we found many toy shops (particularly puppets and dolls) and also many jewelry and crystal shops – very expensive ones!  We also found a shop selling some old film cameras, for not so cheap…

Here is a window advertisement that I do not think we would find in the states…  I suppose the theme was back-to-school wear, but I don’t think American ads show any hint of academics in their ads…just the social importance of looking cool when going back to school.

 

Clothing ad using education as a theme

 

 

            We had dinner in a cozy restaurant with a Jazz trio performing near the front, and a bar and club in the basement.  After dinner about half of our group went to a sponsored club night thanks to IES.  This club had many separate rooms, with one dance floor, and it had the feel of going to a club inside a cave.  Pretty cool, and the lights on the dance floor were spectacular!

 

Our spot for dinner

 

The cool downstairs club area of the restaraunt

 

 

 

            After an hour or two in the club, I decided to call it a night so that we could get up early enough for the morning tours and with enough energy for the whole day!  Upon suggestion, one of my friends got up REALLY early in the morning (opted not to go to the club) to take pictures of sunrise in Prague.  Turned out to be a little hazy but a good experience he said.

 

In a club in Prague

 

On the dance floor

 

To be continued with day 3….

 

Use your travel agencies wisely…

Added a day after posting the article on my first night in Prague:

 

So a travel agency has apparently opted to my most recent journal entry from my blog as an example of a bad vacation due to bad planning.  They recommend for people to use their tour agency, unless “you want to spend you holiday to visit Prague like what Polyfusion have done?”

 

I decided to let their link stay, because it made me laugh.  The writer finds it “interesting to see where she goes,” because I obviously did not see many of the important sights of Prague!  The writer assumed I was a girl (which, I admit I do not think I have mentioned otherwise in my blog before) and also failed to notice that this was just my first night in Prague!  In this article, I was in the city of Prague itself a grand total of 5 hours, from 9 at night until 2 in the morning!  What a surprise I did not see everything!  I can assure you I saw almost every must-see tourist spot in Prague over the next few days…and saw each almost twice or more!  I’ll get some of those photos up soon…only it will have to wait until I am back tomorrow from my trip through Wachau in Austria.

 

As to the writer’s reference to my photography skills…  No, I am not a professional, and many of the photos on my trip were taken as a tourist rather than as a photographer (IE, very rushed and hardly planned out!).  Yet, to show a more planned out photograph, look at the panorama of the small town of Mariazell, Austria at the top of my site…  I have a little experience, but yes, I do believe the beauty of that town speaks for itself as well!

 

In conclusion, I do hope, that if this travel blogger hopes to have many people reading his work…he should take more time reading his sources, and more importantly writing his blogs!  There is at least one grammatical error in every sentence of the first paragraph!!!  For my readers…if you noticed the typo and grammar error within the first quote, that was not my doing.

 

Anyway, I am off to Wachau.  And next time, remember to use a travel agency, right?

3 City tour: First day (well, night) in Prague

So in the Middle of September (Sept 11th to be exact) We left for a 10 day excursion through three major cities of Eastern Europe: Prague, Krakow, and Budapest.  We left in a hurry just an hour and a half after finishing our final exams for our German Intensive 3 week courses.  On our way to Prague we watch a couple movies (as we end up doing on every bus trip).  One of our “favorites” is Total Recall, simply because Arnold Schwarzenegger is from Austria (and actually is from the same town that my German teacher is from).

 

Showing the lightheartedness and youngness of our crew (the oldest person on our bus is certainly the bus driver…whom is probably in his early 30’s and the next oldest is probably only about 26) upon arriving in the Czech republic our bus driver shows us the proper way to take a certain kind of Czech shot of alcohol.  Who knows if he was just playing with us, but it was certainly a funny way to start our trip…

 

 

Upon our arrival in Prague we all eagerly peered out of the windows of the bus, fighting eachother for the chance to get an early picture of the city’s sights.  Here is one I caught of “The Dancing House” as designed by Czech architect Vlado Milunic.

 

 

 

 

 

Absinth Shop

 

Also, another picture to show us that we are not in America, here is an Absinth shop.  For those who are not familiar with Absinth, it is a 140 proof alcohol (70%).  I tried my first shot of it here (actually a double shot) and I must say…I started feeling it pretty darn fast…

 

That night we had our first dinner of the trip in a small, homely restaurant that served some lovely food.  Chicken and potato fries, with some Apple Strudel for dessert!  Little did we know, this would be a meal we would repeat about another 5 times on the trip….

Our dinner for the night (and similar to many future dinners!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The restaurant we had dinner in.

 

 

 

 

The Astronomical Clock just after Midnight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After dinner some people headed back to the hotel to catch some sleep, but many of us opted to stay in the city for a short, unofficial night tour by one of our guides.  We walked through one of the main squares and the surrounding area west of the river, overlooking much of the city.  Then we headed over the beautiful Charles bridge.  Here the tour ended and many went back to the hotel, and a smaller group chose to continue on to a bar that our guide wanted to take us to.  I decided to join the group – sleep was not my goal on the trip, but getting to know as much as I could in a short time was.  However, we happened to pass by the Astronomical clock right on the hour, so I chose to pause to see the show and take a picture.  Unfortunately I discovered that even though a hundred or so others stood and watched and cheered, the astronomical clock only does its thing during the day.

 

To make the night interesting, I then turned around, and realized that the entire group had disappeared.  I must comment here, that our tour guide walked with the utmost brisk pace, and all of our guides in Prague did so for the entire 3 days there.  Is it a thing of the natives to walk fast?  Who knows…

 

So now I was alone, at midnight, on my first night in Prague, without a clue as to where I was because I had not paid attention to our path of travel during the tour, I was just experiencing the sites!  So I gave a call to one of our trip’s leaders to see if he could tell me how to get to the bar.  Unfortunately he had no clue how to get to the bar, as they walked so fast he hardly had the time to pay attention to where we were going either.  His suggestion – find a nice place, get a drink, then find your way back to the hotel.  How to get back to the hotel; he didn’t know that either.  In fact he said to go north, when I later found out that our hotel was southwest from the town center (and about a 30 minute tram ride…once I found the tram that was a mile away).

 

Also to make my situation nicer, I had forgotten to add money to my prepaid phone before the trip – so I only had 10 minutes left on my phone at this point.  If that wasn’t enough, while on the phone, finding out that I would get to have the experience of finding my own way in a foreign city at night, I felt something warm and wet fall on the side of my head and roll off onto my shoulder.  Without looking I knew what it was…A bird had decided to leave me a present – and a generous one – it got my hair, my jacket, my new white dress shirt, and the shirt I was wearing under that.  So I got off the phone, found the closest restaurant (which happened to be quite a fancy one) and found their bathroom to clean myself off.  To my satisfaction – no paper towels!

 

Here is where your interpretation can come in.  Some people say that being shat on by a bird is good luck.  I don’t if that is true, or if it is just a way to console the person who at the moment probably feels kind of crappy…  None the less, I did have a bit of luck in happening to take all the right turns to get back to the river from the old town square, even though I did not recognize all the streets. Then I found the right tram to take back to the hotel which I found because I had taken a business card of the hotel with me and it had the address on it.

 

So now that you know that I got back alright (close to 2:30 in the morning though), I will let you know of my short venture further into the city before finding my way out.  I walked up the main shopping street in Prague, basically the Champs De Elysee of Prague, with the National History Museum at its end.  Along the way I checked out a club, walked into another restaurant (merely because I saw a nice piano inside), and almost found myself inside a strip club before realizing what it was.  There was some tall guy in an almost renaissance-looking outfit suggesting that I pay a visit to his club.  I had not seen the connection between that outfit and a strip club, so I followed him into the entrance until realizing where I was.  

After that I spent maybe 20 minutes getting a few night pictures, and got to see a bit of the night culture – including I think one prostitute whom was approached by a man as I passed.  I can’t be sure…but I think it was likely.  I could tell that Vienna was a safer city, and also that there were less upper class in Prague (during the days in Prague I almost never saw anyone in suits).  To be fair, it was the weekend that we were in Prague!

 

I hate leaving you with this dirty ending, but that is how the night ended (albeit the 30 minute tram ride back to the hotel was somewhat clean).  Although, not knowing Czech, I got off a stop early and walked the rest of the way to the hotel.  Here are two pictures overlooking some of Prague at night:

Prague at night.

 

 

Back in Wien!

 

Well Hidey Hoe!

 

We just got back on Sunday night from our 10 day excursion through Prague, Krakow, and Budapest.  The trip was absolutely wonderful!  The tour guides were great, the weather was great (well…ok, maybe a cold and wet spell hit all of Europe in the middle of the trip, but we got through it), food and drinks were almost entirely paid for, and I could hardly have asked for a better group of people to travel with.

Currently I am busying myself with classes that started just yesterday, as well as sorting the 1500 or so photos I took on my trip.  I certainly have some great ones, so keep your eyes posted here!  My estimate is about 18 hours of work to sort through and edit everything…

 

which allows me about an hour for every 100 photos.  This might be a little conservative…

 

I am a photographer before a writer, so once I am nearing the end of my photo-editing I will begin posting summaries of our journeys online.  But since I am here right now, I will post a few teasers.

 

On our first night on the trip, I got separated from the main group, alone in Prague.  All was fine though, and I managed to wander onto the Champs-Elysées of Prague to snap this photo after walking halfway across it.  The building at the end I believe is the National Museum.

 

Czech Republic

The next two pictures are both in the Old Town of Prague.  One is a view from the Town Center’s tower, and the other is a view of a major marketplace in Prague.  Unfortunately I was unable to find this marketplace later on my trip when I wanted to buy a few souvenirs.  

 

 

A Marketplace in Prague

 

A view of the Old Town Square from the Town Center

Auf Wiedersehen, and I hope to get my travels online as soon as possible!  Thanks for reading!

Home in Wien!

So, I have now been in Vienna for almost two weeks, and in Europe for 3 and a half – I think it is about time I finally started putting journal entries onto my blog!

 

First off, I must apologize to family and friends for not getting all the pictures and stories up earlier!  I hadn’t thought through how long it would take to sort through all the photos – and also how I would feel energetic enough to be spending most all my time traveling about and very little in front of the computer.  I must say – life away from the computer tends to be much more exciting!  I also now have about 2000 photos that I am still sorting through – I have already started putting them up on facebook and also full resolution (or close to) on my Picasa photo site.

 

I also must add that in the apartment we are living I am asked not to upload or download files – which means I must take my computer with me to internet café’s or to school each time I upload.  Apparently in Europe (or at least Vienna) it is common to pay for internet based solely off of data usage and not time usage.

 

My final reason for not getting to my blog for updates – is that I have expected to write my entries and go through photos at home.  However, my roommates have turned out to be excellent conversationalists  (as well as excellent cooks) and so they have kept me busy at home too!

 

 

 

 

 

Alright – so onto where I live, study, and play in Vienna!

 

 

First off, the IES building that I study in is right in the middle of the city.  We are just a few blocks from the main Opera Hall and in a huge tourist area – so many of the stores have english names.  The building we study in is the old Palais Corbelli and is just a block off the main walking street, Kärtner Straße (yes, that means no cars allowed during the day)!  I will get bigger, better photos of this street later, but for now, here is a picture just one block from our center, including the “Mostly Mozart.” Store.

 

 

 

The building itself is mixed in among many others on the street, but once inside it is truly beautiful!  Here is a picture of the space I do most of my practicing in and where I performed just this morning for an audition to a music workshop!  

 

The concert space in Palais Corbelli

 

 

 

Musically the hall is very wet due to all the marble, but the piano is by far the very beset Kawaii I have ever played on!  There are three other grand pianos in the building, and four uprights.  The uprights are Yamahas, and the other grands include Bechstein, Bösendorfer, and an Austrian make that I cannot at the moment recall its name.  It is really cool to find these different great brands whereas in America great pianos are usually limited to Steinways.   Check out my Picasa photo site to see a picture of the classroom where I currently take “Intensive German” for 3 hours a day as well as many other photos.  I imagine music history will be taught in this room when the regular classes start up later this month.

 

The rest of the building includes quite a few statues, grand staircases, and large rooms.  I need to remember to get some pictures of the faculty offices, because they are some of the most impressive rooms!  Not that the faculty got selfish, but the owner of the palace will not allow IES to have so many students taking classes in some of the nicest rooms.

 

On the way to and from the Palais Corbelli I frequently use Vienna’s city-bike program which allows anyone (tourist or citizen) free bike rides up to an hour long (only one euro more for an extra hour) between any of these bike stations.  This one in the picture happens to be right outside of the Opera Hall.

 

City Bikes at the Staatsoper

Continuing on the way to home, I pass through the Naschmarkt, which is Vienna’s largest open air marketplace with items ranging from clothes to olives, wines, cheeses, fruits, meats, nuts, and so much more.  This half-mile long market also has restaurants spanning the whole length.  After about 7 in the evening every day these restaurants are PACKED!  On Saturdays, the end of the Naschmarkt nearest our house (just 1 block away) hosts a flea market.  Basically, every day I walk through the Naschmarkt and pick up some fresh food for dinner!  Here is a picture of one stand at the Naschmarkt.  Remember to check out the Picasa site for other pictures including ones of my apartment!!!

 

 

A stand at the Nashmarkt

I’ll try to be back for more posts soon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 1, August 10-11th 2008: 24 hours of traveling

Well, my plane touched down here in the Vienna Airport just about two hours ago.  I’ve had a good time walking around the airport seeing all the chocolate shops (including Mozart chocolates of course), clothing stores, and even a meat vendor in the airport!  It seems that the only thing past security are the gates, so right now I am having an early lunch in a nearby cafe outside of the security entrance.  I went with a familiar Salmon Lachs sandwich, which was actually just about $6 – didn’t make me feel like the dollar was so bad yet!  I had a bit more trouble ordering a drink because the cashier didn’t seem to speak english.  Everyone else I have ran into so far does speak english, so that has been helpful.  On the airplane I sat next to two viennese people that were coming back from a vacation.  They were both very nice when I talked to them, although as I have been told by others they were perfectly content only speaking to eachother and never prompted much conversation with me.  Thus, they seemed slightly unfriendly unless I actually got into conversations with them, whereupon they were very welcoming.  Luckily at the Vienna Airport they have free wireless internet which allowed me to call home on SKYPE.  Unfortunately the American airports seem to enjoy charging about $10 for internet usage…  

 

 

Well – I must update this – neither the Munich airport nor the Copenhagen airport had free wireless internet.  Munich ran, not surprisingly, on T-Mobile’s wifi service.  Particularly in comparison to American airports, the Munich airport seemed almost just as much of an upper-scale shopping mall as it was an airport.  There were cheap as well as expensive restaurants, jewelry and clothing stores, and enter-to-win sports cars sitting in the airport (these were getting a fair amount of attention).  Through each of the airports, I found it remarkably easy to find my way around despite a lack of English in some places and a few minor differences from American airports. 

 

The flight from Vienna to Munich was nothing special – I had a whole row of seats to myself and spent the time trying to catch up on all the sleep I didn’t get on the first flight.  My second flight was pretty full, and unfortunately for many of the passengers there were an amazing 8 babies on the plane!  One of the flight attendants was going crazy with trying to give the safety announcements before takeoff while all of the babies seemed to be in a chorus of screaming tantrums.  Lucky for me, this turned out to be one of the best tests for my new headphones, the Shure SE530 PTH, to see how much they really block out noise.  Turned out to do quite well!  I’ll mention more about the headphones later…

 

PS – for those who were wondering, I wrote both august 10th and 11th as day 1 because of the 6 hours lost by traveling east in a plane.  From when I left on the 10th to the end of the 11th in Europe was exactly 24 hours!

“A New Earth” by Eckhart Tolle

A New Earth, by Eckhart Tolle is a wonderful book that will help many people – possibly every person that reads it! The claim of some that read it, and somewhat by the author himself, is that a new era for society is approaching and this book points more in this direction than any other book before it. Although this hasn’t necessarily made me proud of it – Oprah has added this book to her book club’s recommendation list, and this past summer she has led an online class for everyone to watch and participate in because she truly believes in the power of this book.

I don’t want to go into details about this book here but you can ask me to tell you more about it if you like – or you can get a copy for yourself! There is tons of information all over the internet about the book because it has affected quite a number of people. The book focuses on issues of consciousness and coming to awareness about your true identity and your life’s purpose. It is about recognizing who you are, the world we live in, and how many of us do things or believe in things that are not really of our own being. It is about our tendency to get lost in thought and detached from reality – thus bringing about pain, suffering, and a feeling that we are never happy enough or successful enough.

If you have read this book and found it useful, then you should already know about his first book, “The Power of Now.” I have just started reading it today so I cannot tell you anything about it really, but I have no doubt that it is worth more than a look.

Still Polyphasic – but no structure!

I’ll expand on this later, but for those interested in hearing, I am no longer on my wacky (but wonderful) sleep schedule! I still take naps (0 to 2 a day) and sleep from 4 1/2 to 7 1/2 hours at night because I have experienced that naps are extremely helpful for memory, performance, and energy.

I fell away from the uberman schedule because having to take a nap every 4 hours was too rigid. Having the rigid schedule did wonders for productivity when I took advantage of it, but it just isn’t the easiest thing to keep up with. This is particularly due to work (which I could not change the time of) and soccer games I played during the summer. After playing 2 hour games of soccer, I would need another hour to cool down after getting home and often it would leave me with too much energy to fall asleep easily.

I do hope to try the uberman schedule again sometime soon though, and I am very disappointed that my schedule in Austria this fall might not allow me the time to take any naps at all during the day! I might have to sleep a full night of sleep regularly (Gasp!).

I find that I have benefited from trying out the schedule, in several ways:

1) When I feel like napping, I can take a 5 to 10 minute nap (waking up naturally) that often feels like I had slept for over an hour. As long as I feel like napping, I can fall asleep within 5 minutes. I find that after the nap I have a clear mind, I am in a good mood, I tend to perform better at tasks ranging from piano to sports, and I also tend to find slightly more creativity after naps. When I say “feel like napping,” I am referring to a feeling that is different from usual tiredness. It feels very similar, but if I choose not to nap, then it goes away pretty quickly. Some other bloggers refer to it as a similar feeling as needing to go to the bathroom in that it doesn’t prevent you from moving on without a nap but seems to be just a bodily suggestion to take a nap.

2) When sleeping my core sleep, I can wake up multiple times in the middle of night and still consider myself well-rested in the morning. This is because I am only waking up in the proper phase of my sleep cycle (with the added benefit of being able to remember my dreams!) Last night in fact I woke up 3 times and had three dreams that were all connected in sequence. It was like my dream was a movie and I simply paused it to wake up and walk to the bathroom or get a bite to eat before going back to sleep.

3) I have a better idea of how much sleep I need each night/day. I can also control how much sleep I need by consciously deciding to sleep more or less and without an alarm I wake up at the time that I want to. I imagine I might not keep this ability if at some point I become sleep deprived. Then my body, of course, will try to get as much sleep as it needs!

Anyway…I’ll come back to this topic with some more conclusions, but I haven’t written an update on this blog for quite a while and I know a few friends that would want to hear if I kept it up or not. Hope the info on this site helps anyone that has thought of trying a new sleep schedule like the uberman or everyman!