snap snap

hey guys! here are the links to my photos from vienna...they're hosted by facebook, but you can access them even if you're not a member. enjoy! 

#1: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2069072&l=40ec9&id=5407547

#2: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2069086&l=6bb9b&id=5407547

rain and writing

today is my last day. 

this morning i went down to zentralfriedhof to pay my respects to people much more talented than i am (although, i was suitably impressed by my ability to navigate public transportation yet again...it's so simple, but i feel so triumphant every time i make the switch from, say, subway to tram to walking and then actually GET somewhere). in a fit of....sentimentality, i'll say, i stopped and bought flowers to lay on the graves. two bouquets...one whole one for beethoven, and single flowers for brahms, schubert, hugo wolf, and schönberg. 

it's nice there...very quiet. i was somewhat surprised to see so many other flowers lying on their graves. beethoven's was covered with things people had given to him, huge bouquets right down to really small things. it made me feel much less self-conscious as i added mine to the pile. someone had printed out and laminated a little sign and laid it on schubert's grave: "schubert, ich liebe dich!" but schönberg....no one had given anything to him, so i did. mozart didn't need them, he had quite a few already, and i've grown to understand schönberg a lot more than i did before i came here...i bought a book of his essays at the center, and he is so fascinating. 

i felt weird taking pictures of them there, but it meant a lot to me to be able to remember the trip that way. so i tried not to...exploit....it, i guess. i dunno. it feels weird. i feel kinda stupid, but it was important to me. 

i'm packed and ready to go, but i don't want to go into it, really. i'm feeling a little vaguely sad. 

during my down time on this trip, i've be engrossed in a book my sister gave me for my birthday, daniel levitin's this is your brain on music. as i read, i become more and more stuck by the fact that this is an Important Book. while it may seem imposing at first, levitin takes care to explain the technical terms of music and musical psychology, often taking music theorists and musicologists to takes: "music theorists have an arcane, rarified set for terms and rules that are as obscure as some of the most esoteric domains of mathematics. to the nonmusician, the blobs of ink on a page that we call musical notion might just as well be the notations of mathematical set theory. talk of keys, cadences, modulation, and transpositions can be baffling." 

he also criticizes the critics; "musicians and critics sometimes appear to live behind a veil of technical terms that can sound pretentious. how many times have you read a concert review in the newspaper and found you had no idea what the reviewer is saying?"

most of you know that i harbor a not-so-secret desire to be a music writer at some point in my life, and i can't help but take levitin's comments rather seriously. whenever i write papers on a piece of music, i am almost always struck by the fact that about halfway through, my language dissolves into something that is not satisfying on either a technical or aesthetic level.  they are too poetic to be scientific, and too technical to be emotionally revealing (my personal pet peeve in music writing is the dependence we have on mentioning measure/bar numbers. there's nothing more disturbing to a train of thought than a number that means nothing. and yet, it's almost impossible to NOT include).

i think this book hits very close to home: i hope that if and when i write for a large amount of people, i can manage to get some sort of love of the subject across, as well as technical analysis and artistic evaluation. there are many things i've been working out in my mind about my trip to the gustav mahler library. there's a reason i haven't written anything about it yet....i've started the post three times already, but whatever comes out is either so dry it could be used to aid flood zones, or so sappy laura ingalls could have had her fill of maple syrup candy for a year. 

albertina

tomorrow is my last day in the city, but everything will be closed, so i took today to say goodbye, and wandered around, buying gifts for people, hunting down a jewelry store that had haunted me since i'd been there last wednesday (i bought this huge, fantastic ring that's a mirror with a cross on one side and on the other side says "spiegel, spiegel, auf dem Wand..." (mirror, mirror, on the wall...)), spent a pleasant hour in cafe central (i've grown to love it there. this was my fourth trip. i haven't revisited anywhere else so often), getting eis (ice cream, as i learned the hard way. keep that crap out of my coffee) in stephansplatz, looking around and feeling kinda sad. 

this city...it's amazing. just amazing. it's a combination of history and modern life, an awareness of the past with a sense of living everyday life to its highest quality. the cafes on the sidewalk, where people sit with beer or espresso at every time of the day, the museums that sit next door to a shoe outlet mall, hearing "grüß gott!" or "servus!" to greet you and remind you how far from home you are, trying to navigate a city that speaks a language that you only have the most tenuous grasp of. 

i'll save the rest of my goodbye aria for tomorrow (my plans for tomorrow include a trip to zentralfriedhof, as mentioned below, a trip back here to pack, and then a long walk in the evening, when all the buildings and museums are lit up. i imagine i'll wax quite philosophical tomorrow night...i'm pretty sure i'll get kind of teary, too), because today i want to talk about my trip to the albertina musuem, which i took on impulse and was INCREDIBLE. 

i was thinking this morning over espresso and orange juice (oh, ps: i seem to have become addicted to orange juice while i've been here. i mean, i constantly crave it. and i HATE juice. ALL juice. but i've been guzzling it by the gallon lately. weird) about what i should do with my last "business day" in vienna. i thought maybe i should go outside my box and actually take an organized tour (gasp!), maybe of the danube in a boat (like the circle tours of nyc), or in a fiaker, or something. but then i realized that this whole trip has been about doing the things that make me happiest....studying music, looking at art, drinking coffee, walking through cities, exploring...and i realized that that was how i wanted to end my trip. 

so i went to the albertina, which is really beautiful, and saw a large, comprehensive exhibit they have on of paul klee, whose works i wasn't really familiar with until today. i tell you what, some of them are pretty spectacular. of all the modern art movements, i find i really like abstract expressionism, (abstrakter expressionismus...german-spanking) most of all, rather than true expressionism like kandinsky (blech. i know i'm studying him for this project, but i REALLY don't like kandinsky) or kokoshka (same there, minus the studying him part). 

but klee blurs the lines between the two, and some of his paintings are just gorgeous. i was going to find pictures for you, but i can't seem to find the ones i want. :( sorry. 

anyway, then i went upstairs and saw their new collection, on permanent loan, called "sammlung batliner, monet bis picasso" (the batliner collection, monet to picasso). that's right, people, today i saw: monet, renoir, degas, kandinsky, kokoschka, miro (yay!), ROTHKO, magritte, signac (i didn't know much about him, but his stuff is pretty damn cool), sam francis (whom i've loved for a while, but his stuff his hard to find), francis bacon, munch, picasso, and many, many more. 

here's the rothko i saw. it's huge! and wonderful. i heart rothko.

 

things like this...like with monet and david, it's almost imperative that you see them in real life to fall in love with them. jackson pollock, too. i remember the first time i saw a pollock...it was in the cleveland museum of art (which is a fabulous musuem, by the way, and free. i used to go almost every week between my rehearsals in cleveland on saturdays in my senior year of high school), and is called "anger". here it is: 

and i remember standing in front of it and thinking, "yeah, that's exactly what it feels like to be angry". but these paintings by rothko, pollock, etc, they're HUGE and they're totally engrossing, but you have to SEE them. 

so that's how i spent my day, engrossed in modern art and buying people presents...now i'm going to grab some dinner and head to the rathausplatz...they're showing la boheme tonight!

mödling, snails, trains, and ham

despite having been rather sick last night (i only get sick at the most inconvenient times possible...it's like a law with me), i woke up this morning in a rather adventurous mood and decided to explore outside of vienna for the day. 

i've been playing around with the idea of traveling to salzburg, but after today i only have two days left in vienna, and i didn't want to take that amount of time out of the city, so this morning i conveniently came up with a new idea...i hopped on a train (god i love europe. where else would the complete lack of a car not mean i was trapped within a city? life in baltimore would suddenly seem so much more convenient if i could get out to towson without having to take my life into my own hands to try and figure out the bus schedule) and headed down to mödling, which boasts the schönberg-haus. 

i have to say, i had more fun hamming it up and taking pictures while waiting for the train than actually walking around mödling (don't worry, the platform was empty). i've been in a really excellent mood all day, even though, like i said, i wasn't feeling too good, AND i got lost like three times in mödling, AND the schönberg-haus was pretty lame AND i could not for the life of me find decent vegetarian food for lunch in that town AND my feet hurt! but mödling is totally cute and really beautiful, and i saw a snail!

and then i zipped back to vienna (i really, really like vienna) and went to the haus der musik, hamming it up for even more pictures....i wish i bought my camera cord and could show you all now, but i'll post the pictures when i get back. like i said, i was in a bizarre mood. i hit on leonard bernstein's suit. ;) i've totally made it past that awkward feeling of traveling alone, and have discovered that if you just treat whatever you have with you (a book, a water bottle, whatev) as a traveling companion, it's a lot more fun. 

no, i'm not totally off my rocker, but it seems better to take a picture of yourself holding something up to the camera (or pointing to an austrian snail) than it is of just your face. i've gotten tired of my own face. 

i'm at the point where i'm getting a little homesick now...but i really don't want to leave vienna. i absolutely love it here. i wish the people in my life were also here, or that vienna could suddenly appear in the states (and contain real iced coffee. really, folks. the first thing i'm gonna do tuesday morning is sit in donna's and drink enough iced coffee to float me back to my house). 

i'm absolutely exhausted! tomorrow i think i'll do a few museums just for pleasure, like the albertina or the austrian national art museum (one of the ones around here has a bruegel AND a bosch...yum!), and sunday i'll venture out to zentralfriedhof and say goodbye to dead guys (namely, mozart, beethoven, schönberg, schubert, etc). 

moser and david.

okay, i realize that last post was a little "heavy", so here are some graphics to lighten things up! here are some things i saw at the belvedere (i'm having a hard time coming up with a post on the belvedere, but i swear there will be one. for now, just enjoy the pretty pictures). 

here is the self-portrait by kolo moser i've been talking about. i bought a print of it.

 

this next one deserves a bit of a build-up....i mounted the grand staircase, turned around and BAM was hit in the face with. a. david. DAVID! i've never seen a major piece of his before...i've seen one small portrait, but never ANYTHING like this. i love david. his "dying marat" is probably one of my favorite paintings. (i'll stick that one a little further down, just cause it's good), and he meant so much to the neoclassical movement. (oh, ps, as soon as i saw this next painting, the only thing that ran through my head was: david. napoleon, st. bernard, 1801, 1801, 1801, 1801. my art history prof would be proud). here you go: napoleon at st. bernard, 1801, by jacques-louis david

here's the death of marat (1793):

um...that's it, i guess. let me know if you guys want to see anything else by anyone i've talked about, or what i've seen...i have favorites from manet, klimt, schiele, ernst fuchs, hundertwasser, etc, if anyone wants to see them. (ps: all of which i have seen IN PERSON within the last week. i'm on art overload, and it's GREAT). 

a dying art

at the risk of sounding like a victorian novelist, i spend an absolutely delightful day at the schönberg center, near karlsplatz. no, no, don't laugh....i mean it (fortunately or unfortunately). the exhibit they have set up is entertaining, informative, and engaging. they are currently running this multi-media event called "who i am" (or, if you feel like spanking yourself with some german, "wer ich bin"), and it's really great. they have set up schönberg's study the way he had it in los angeles, using all the real (!!) things, even though they are behind glass, and they have a video of his daughter walking you through everything....he was an incredible craftsman, and built most of his equipment himself, including devices that made it easier for him to navigate his tone rows, like a system of index cards labeled with the prime forms (he calls these the basic sets), and their inversions. they have a table in another room with reproductions of these things on them, and encourage you to handle them and figure them out. 

there are tons of devices like that...wheels, cylinders, charts...it actually makes it easy to see why someone could compose that way without LOSING THEIR MIND. i mean, he wrote an entire OPERA based on ONE TONE ROW. good god. i would have lept into the danube. or the pacific ocean, depending on if i were shönberg before or after the umlaut (sorry. bad music joke. schönberg himself anglicized the spelling of his name to schoenberg when he moved to the u.s....i'm never sure which spelling to use, but for now i like typing umlauts). 

they also have reproductions of materials from his teaching years...course rosters, exercises he'd corrected, notes he wrote about a student recital, and some final exams for his courses at ucla. it was way cool. they played some radio interviews he did, and showed the transcripts in german and english on a nearby tv screen. on the whole, schönberg was cool. 

but their library! it is really great. anybody can go in, grab a book off a shelf, sit at this huge communal table, and work for as long as they want (i sat down around 11, came up for lunch around 2, and then worked til 5....it was really engrossing). i swear, EVERY book their was interesting, and SO MANY were applicable to my project. there were books about the reaction of klimt, mahler, moser (yay!), schnitzler, schönberg, and loos to beethoven, musical symbols in schoenberg's pieces, i mean...everything. and the list of sources i got that i want to check out is like five pages long. i've learned that dissertations are a good place to go to get lists of primary sources, because i don't have the courage yet to attempt a full bibliographical book without a bottle of motrin and some antacid on hand. (oh, and ps: you can see the exhibit and spend the day in the library for a mere pittance of 2.50 Euros). 

they also have a shop, as all the museums and centers do, but this one is actually USEFUL. they have scores, recordings, books (in german and english translations), essays, pamphlets...i intend on picking some stuff up tomorrow, but i didn't want to lug it all around as i went shopping today. 

as i was walking back to the u-bahn to head back to the 7th district (that's where i'm staying), i started to wax philosophical about music in general, and what it means to me specifically. the times i've had conversations with people about why i'm here, they all tend to regard me as odd...that i would come to vienna not just to drink coffee and buy souveniers and take a river tour. but in reality, this is a vacation for me, of the very best kind. i think many people regard it as strange that i (and most of my musician friends) have decided to devote our lives to something so few people really understand or care about. 

but when i think about what music has done for me, (and i'm not talking about emotionally, although certainly there is that aspect, too. when have i not been lifted out of a foul mood by beethoven's 4th piano concerto? when has schubert's string quintet never made me marvel?), what it's meant to my life, i realize that there's nothing else i COULD do. i credit my summers at interlochen with helping me become who i am now. i think they changed me from a socially uncomfortable person to someone who knew who she was, what she stood for, and what she wanted to do. music has been responsible for so many of my very best decisions, living in baltimore, the friends i have now, trips around the world (with more to follow, i'm sure). 

i wonder sometimes why i've decided to devote myself to the minutia of an art form that seems to be dying, but then i think that if music continues to change people, to uplift them and show them something new, something beautiful, something painful, or something ugly--if it does for others what it's done for me, than there's no way it can ever possibly die. 

beethoven rox: or, the secession pavilion

today i trekked down to the secession pavilion, which was both incredibly awesome and somewhat of a disappointment. 

the building itself is GORGEOUS.

 

the inscription above the door reads: "to every age its art, to art its freedom," and the small decal to the side says "ver sacrum," which means "sacred spring," and is the motto of the secessionist school and the name of the arts journal they published. it was designed by the secession school, used to have details all along the sides and back done by kolo moser (you know, i never really knew anything about moser, but now i find that i'm a HUGE fan. almost everything i see that he's done, i love. i bought a print of a riveting self-portrait that he'd done when i was at the belvedere). however, the back and most the of the insides of the pavilion was destroyed by bombs in the war, and it was rebuilt without most of the decoration on the back. :(

anyway, the beethoven frieze is housed in the basement of the building, and it absolutely took my breath away. there was no way i could have understood its scope or statement just by looking at pictures in books (which i have done, many times). but now i get it...it surrounds you, and all of a sudden all of its symbolism makes perfect sense. it was painted for a secessionist exhibit in that building, a beethoven retrospective formed around a statue of beethoven by max klinger. the frieze depicts klimt's interpretation of wagner's analysis of beethoven 9....mankind's struggle through their own human weakness, the "hostile forces" of the world, and then finally their redemption and completion through art. in the third panel of the frieze, the forces of "human hope" finally encounter Poetry, and stop their seeking in a wash of gold, disolving into empty space. in the original exhibition, right after this picture there was an opening in the freize where visitors could see the statue of beethoven. then klimt's paintings resumed, with the most joyous explosion of gold and decadent patterns, a couple in the most sublime embrace....i swear i literally heard the final chorus of the last movement echo through my mind. it gave me goosebumps. 

i stayed in that room for a long time, making notes, and then decided to see the other parts of the building. it's kind of cool that it's still used as an exhibition space for up-and-coming austrian artists, truly continuing what that building was designed to do, instead of turning it into yet another klimt retrospective, complete with "the kiss" scarves. (at the risk of sounding like an art snob, i HATE "the kiss". i mean, it's not emotionally grabbing to me at all in the way that the beethoven freize was, or in the way that his "judith und holofernes" was. and yet, it is vaulted as his greatest work...i just don't believe it. (and i'm not a TOTAL snob: my favorite artist has to be the most popularly successful one of all, van gogh. although seriously, kolo moser is giving him a run for his money)). 

but i found the new exhibits to be dull and un-artistic....boring, not saying much...bad art. it was done tactlessly, crudely. i appreciate the thoughts, and the efforts, and whatever, but it really just wasn't good. comparing it to the modern exhibit currently going on at the belvedere, which i found stimulating both emotionally and intellectually, i felt the artists at the secession were rather second-rate. 

rathausplatz film festival! or, der nussknacker

last night i zipped down to the rathaus, where they have a free film festival during the summer...every night they play a different music dvd, or they have strange performances (mambo, viennese waltzes, whatever). last night was the nutcracker, which i love. i know, i know, it kind of has a bad name, but i maintain that it is that piece that first made me realize that instrumental music can be powerful (i know that these things are not easy to pinpoint, but i credit the nutcracker with my realization that i loved classical music. at this point, it doesn't matter whether or not that's the truth...it's what i remember, even that memory is false). 

anyway, i was really excited, and took my seat in front of the screen around 8.30...the show started at 9.30, but i wanted to make sure i could see. then it started to rain. and i don't mean drizzle...i mean, buckets upon buckets of sheets of rain. and the loudest thunder....i went and stood under an overhang and read my (soaking wet) newspaper for an hour, while a three-inch puddle formed around my feet. they said they were going to play the movie unless a hurricane came, so i waited it out. 

and then, as the movie started, i was just struck by this incredible feeling...here i was, crammed shoulder to shoulder with some of the nicest people i've ever had the pleasure to wait out a rainstorm with, freezing cold, listening to gorgeous music, watching ballet, in a public square, in VIENNA. 

i really can't imagine anywhere else that could happen. 

walking

guten tag, damen und herren!

today i visited the belvedere galerie, which i'll talk a lot more about tomorrow (i'm going again...i wanted to get an overview today). i'm really exhausted right now, for some reason. i'm about to go grab some dinner and then head to bed EARLY. vienna is tiring! but so amazing...the city just keeps opening up. 

so i thought i'd save the "artistic" observations for tomorrow and just kinda ramble about my personal trip here, which is what i want to talk about. and it is my blog after all, so i get to say whatever i want. ;)

my feet hurt! i swear to god, i have never felt ANYTHING like this, EVER. i mean, it won't go away! i walk everywhere...i've developed this charming little limp that i'm sure enchants everyone around me. but i traipsed around the city again today. it's amazing, all these landmarks that are kind of in the back of my mind to seek out, and i stop to get some coffee and turn around and bam! hello, secession pavilion! hello, karlskirche! hello, stefansdom! 

i went to cafe central again today because it has airconditioning (i thought it was strange that they had that literally engraved on their front door, but trust me, when i was melting after my visit to the belvedere gardens, it was absolutely the first place i thought of). i really like it there...it's a little more expensive than i would like, but now i've learned the things to avoid (like eiskaffee, which is upwards of 5 Euros and absolutely disgusting, and bottled water (which is usually at least 3 Euros)). i had a "sommerspritzer" this afternoon, which is white wine, club soda, and sliced limes....perfect after a day sweating my way through like 3 museums (the belvedere is a compound of musuems, really), and then espresso (they don't have "coffee" as we know it. "kaffee" is espresso....a "melange" is a latte, etc). cafe central is large and roomy and beautiful, but it has a feeling of a small-town coffeeshop, even then. i like it! too bad it's kinda out of my way.

then i decided to wander in the immediate area, which i hadn't explored yet. it turned out this was stephansplatz, a huge market-type area, lined with boutiques, and there were buskers, painters, rappers, dancers, mimes, and musicians drawing crowds everywhere. apparently it's a big thing in vienna in the summer to send people out in 18th century costume to sell tickets to classical concerts at major venues like the staatsoper, stephansdom, and karlskirche. when i turned down the guy who tried to sell me a ticket today, we ended up having a rather long conversation about van cliburn and tschaikovsky's 1st piano concerto...i told him i was studying schönberg and mahler and then we talked about das lied von der erde for a while...he seemed very surprised that i actually knew what i was talking about, and we ending up chatting for a while. it turns out he is a violinist in the "best of mozart" thing they were doing that night at stephansdom. he understood when i turned it down. ;)

so basically, that's why vienna's amazing. just by turning around i discover something that excites me so much. i wandered into a store today that sold ONLY classical cds. i mean, packed, floor to ceiling, with thousands of them. ahhhh......

crown prince leopold, tofu, and kolo moser

today was my first day of actively doing research...it turns out that i was smarter than i thought in planning this trip, giving myself a free day and then easing into working by starting with the leopold museum. 

the museum stands within the museumsquartier plaza, and is rather beautiful in a very simple way. it's also set up quite cleverly, with two upper and lower floors of exhibitions and a cafe sandwiched pleasantly inbetween. that means, if you're as (ahem) organized as i am, you can start at the bottom floor (marked -2 on the elevator, which i found amusing), view exactly half the museum, stop for a coffee (or two) and then go on to the second half of the museum. 

on the ground floor, there is a small exhibition space that i was excited to learn housed an instillation about herbert von karajan, a famous conductor. the photos were taken by erich lessing, all in black and white, and focus on an intense three weeks in 1957, but there are some photos from outside that time frame. as photographed by lessing, karajan's conducting comes across as both intimate and expansive, but always expressive. he seems intensely animated at all times, leaning over guest soloists from the podium, jumping into the arms of leonore while rehearsing fidelio to show florestan what he wants, leaping in and out of cars and small airplanes, always with rather incredible hair. 

a few photos stood out to me. there is a short series that shows karajan and george szell standing outside at a music festival, chatting animately. szell stands stiffly, karajan draped over the bridge railing (in every single photograph, karajan seems to lounge everywhere...even on the podium). in the first photo, the sun is shining, but by the third, szell has taken out an umbrella to shield them from a light drizzle. by the sixth photo, the ground around them is absolutely soaked and it is clear that it had been pouring rain for about ten minutes or so. i just love the idea that they were so totally absorbed in their discussion that they did not even think to head indoors, but just disregarded the rain. 

another photo that made me smile was one of karajan rehearsing beethoven's 3rd piano concerto with glenn gould. karajan was seated at the piano bench, squinting up at gould, clearing saying something like, "look, i'm sorry, but do you think it would be possible--i mean, if it's not, it's okay!--but if it is, that would be great...if it's possible for you too..." and gould is slouching above him, extremely young but with incredibly tired eyes. 

there were many more, and a kiosk that let you hear a recording of karajan's recording of bruckner 8 with the berlin philharmonic. sogood. 

after that i headed to the bottom most floor, which was housing a special collection of modern art from the islands of faroe, the tiniest, most insignificant cluster of land off the coast of norway (i think?? it's cold there). what struck me about this exhibit was how many attempts were made by artists to render their landscape. out of 80 pieces, i would hazard a guess that at least 60 of them were landscapes. and, other than a few really beautiful silver-ink photographs, none of them were exactly. they all abstracted the view to some extent, and it just put me in such a mood of melancholy. their relationship to the sea and cliffs that hem them in, and to the pilot whales that they used to hunt, is difficult to understand. most of the artists, when they portrayed humans at all, showed them in shadows, small, without faces. it was harrowing, but also beautiful.

and now, the main event: they were showing an exhibit called "wien 1900. wiener werstätte, jungenstil". while not specifically focusing on klimt (although you could tell they wanted to, the only large or significant klimt painting the museum was able to beg or borrow was his large "death and life"), the exhibit helped pinpoint klimt's importance in the larger art movement of the secession. 

i was struck, first and formost, as soon as i entered the exhibit, of the importance of the vertical line. almost all the posters, ex libris pieces, even the landscapes, were arranged along a very strong vertical line. there was also a strong grasp of the effect of empty space. it is easy to see, when one looks at the secessionist posters, why they are viewed as works of art and not simple publicity pieces (besides being designed by the likes of klimt, bohr, and moser). they are very large, taller than i am, decadently colored, lavishly patterned. they grab attention instantly. 

the exhibit moved on through klimt, moser, schiele, and then otto wagner (and some adolph loos--while he was not a member of the secessionist school, he was one of their strongest critcics). i was conscious, as i moved through the rooms, of how very not-viennese i was. this exhibit seemed to attempt to convey to viennese a sense of their development and history, and i was jealous. 

actually, on a personal note, that's something that's been bothering me. i don't know how they know that i'm not austrian, but they do. i'm not wearing a fannypack, i'm not wearing my "baltimore: greatest city in america" t-shirt (yay! i love that t-shirt), i don't look perpetually distressed (that's what oversized sunglasses are for), and yet they just know. it's little unsettling. 

to end positively, i love the food here. i was so petrified at first, but it is so much easier to find vegetarian food than it is in, say, wadsworth. and it's all so good. today i had a grilled tofu wrap with avocado, bean sprouts, and orange-chili sauce. SO GOOD! and only three euros. 

and i think i've solved the "eiskaffee" issue (yes, this is still bothering me). today i asked a hapless kellnerin (waitress/barista) if she had any "kalt kaffee." that seemed to do the trip, as i then was given a glass of espresso and water over ice. soooo close, it almost fooled me. as it was, it satisfied an urge. as they say, necessity is the mother of invention. 

off i go...i am going to the belvedere galerie tomorrow and i am so damned excited. i get to see my klimt painting in person, and walk up the most gorgeous set of stairs in the western world. 

eiskaffee??

i slept so deeply last night that when i woke up this morning, i literally had no idea where i was. i had been having this dream about selling a huge house, and when i woke up in was in vienna. i got up kinda early, and decided that today was my day to go exploring....

the weather has been very pleasant, cool and breezy, so i headed up to mariahilferstrasse, where i found my towel yesterday. it's a bit of a walk to take before one has had their traditional morning overload of coffee, but it was really, really nice. i stopped and bought the herald tribune so i could do my crossword (of course. don't roll your eyes at me, momma), then stopped at cafe for breakfast. i hadn't almost anything since i was at dulles, so i was starving. luckily, the menu had pictures, so i pointed to something, managed to get it across that the ham was not necessary, and sat outside and devoured everything in sight. even the orange juice. blech. (ps. speaking of crosswords....will, you know exactly who fuzzbutt is. don't even bother asking or pretending. hmph). 

so then i just....wandered. i strolled around, passed the MuseumsQuartier, and then stumbled my way into the Burggarten, which, if none of you knew, has this mozart monument....i came across it completely by accident, just walking in the park. yes, i took pictures of myself in front of it. yes, i felt like a complete idiot doing that. 

then i wandered past the staatsoper and discovered that they were doing a concert tonight, despite the fact that it's their summer break, so i bought a student standing-room ticket on impulse, and now i have something to do tonight! i passed karlskirche, stefansdom, some huge edifice with franz joseph's name on it, the albertina museum (it had a really huge, angry statue of zeus in front of it. i took pictures), a bookstore where i bought postcards, a store with more huge, amazingly awesome rings than you could possibly imagine (i showed some restraint), meandered past the haus der musik, and lots and lots and lots of cafes, including the Cafe Central. 

i eventually went back to the cafe central, which is really really famous because it's really really old and some really really famous dead people used to go there. and there i discovered that i really don't like viennese "eiskaffe", which, i assumed, was MY version of iced coffee...namely, black coffee, poured over ice (or, as one pleasantly inept barista in wadsworth called it, "coffee on the rocks"). greg, you would LOVE eiskaffee. i, however, couldn't help pouting at it and wanting to demand help getting all that STUFF out of my coffee. i know, i'm a philistine, but really. it's chilled coffee?? or espresso?? that's sweetened, and it's had this semi-sweet cream dolloped over it, complete with caramel crunchy things and i'm sure it's traditional and i'm sure it's got history, but it tasted like melted coffee ice cream and i'm a bit of a purist, i afraid. 

oh and by the way, i've reconciled my differences with mineral water, too. blech. but...."mineral" is easier to say than whatever the word for "plain, flat, wonderful tapwater" is. also, once i got my check, i discovered that the water was more expensive than my coffee. so i think i will remember to lug around my own water next time. :)

then i kept wandering, and it started raining, and like the stalwart discoverer that i am, i kept going and going and going....i found stamps, then realized that i actually had no idea how to get back to the hostel....then kept walking and walking and decided to take the u-bahn back, which is retardedly easy to use. 

and you know, the thing i kept thinking as i was wandering the streets of vienna is just that i feel so damned lucky to be able to be here. it's a little confusing, slightly intimidating, absolutely wonderful, and totally worth it. 

but i really do hate eiskaffee. 

the eagle has landed.....in wien!

okay, so after a very looooong day of travel, i am finally here! it feels amazing....intense, but amazing. allow me to fill you in. 

so my flight from dulles was pretty uneventful, except for the minor fact that i could. not. sleep. so i spent eight hours watching house, md on the airplane tv screen...i couldn't hear it because i broke my headphones. with my knee. don't ask...i don't know. but thankfully i didn't need the headphones because i already know every line to that season of house. i'm aware of how pathetic that sounded, yes. 

also, united airlines is under the impression that "vegetarian meal" apparently means "dry couscous and iceberg lettuce", and i'm scared of ordering food in german at this point, so i haven't eaten in a while, but that part of the story comes later. 

i had a grand adventure in the frankfurt airport, which led me to actually emigrate to germany (???) by mistake. i was all of a sudden ejected from the terminal, with a very friendly german trying to ask me why i looked so distraught. however, this led to my very first conversation in german, which went something like this:

me: "um.....can you help me??"

very friendly german guy: *blank, curious, bemused stare*

me: "i don't know the word for gate......um.....gate beh zehn?"

v.f.g.g.: "ich bin deutsch."

me: "um...ja. das weiß ich nicht.....ich suche....um...." here i point frantically to my ticket. 

v.f.g.g: "ein moment." *scurries away. brings new guy, less friendly, but better groomed*

new guy: "ja?"

me: "ah..." here i again point to my ticket "beh zehn? wo ist beh zehn? lufthansa?"

new guy gently pushes my elbow and i trot after him, hungry, having to pee, tired, and a little cranky, kinda feeling like i wanted to cry. 

fifteen minutes later, however, i managed to conquer my fear and ask the stewardess at my gate (which i FINALLY found, yay! after going through security again) where the bathroom is. and apparently i did well, because she answered me in german, right away. 

anyway, that crisis averted, i slept like a log on the hour flight from frankfurt to vienna, and found my hostel pretty easily! i mean, it was a little confusing, but i'm doing okay, i think.

the hostel is pretty much exactly what i expected. it reminds me a lot of interlochen, actually, but a lot cleaner. that makes me happy. :) so after putting my stuff in a locker, making my bed, etc, i went out for a walk, and had some espresso and sachertorte sitting on the sidewalk in VIENNA. oh. my. god. sometimes life is just too good to me. 

with the help of my mom, my aunt, fuzzbutt, and a very very sweet waitress who didn't speak much english but managed to help me so so much (and made me feel better about pantomiming my need for a bathtowel), i went on my first successful shopping trip, locating mariahilferstrasse, a department store, and bathtowels without help. i couldn't help but feel inordinately triumphant as i walked back the hostel (again, without getting lost!), a fluffy red towel stuffed in my totebag. 

so after a shower and a change of clothes, i feel like a new woman. i'm going to do a little work and then collapse into bed and hopefully wake up on time tomorrow, having defeated my jetlag (in theory, anyway). at first, i was skeptical about leaving the first day of my schedule free, but now i am so glad i did, because this is all a little overwhelming. but i'm sure with a day of me wandering around and getting my bearings, i'll feel much better! i even found a place during my adventures today that advertises vegetarian lunches, so i may even conquer my fears and eat real food tomorrow! 

ALSO....such good news, i got another email from dr. fanning, of the international gustav mahler society, and he said another scholar has volunteered to show me around the library on the 14th and the 17th, both days that i am actually in the city, and not in the middle of getting on a plane. 

so, all in all, this was an excellent day. i mean, after all, i'm in vienna. 

nerves!

hey guys! i think my nervousness has truly set in right around now...i am in a place where i feel strangely unprepared, even though i KNOW i've spent months getting everything pulled together. i know what u-bahn stops are next to EVERY destination i want to go, i know what my days will hold, i know how to get from the airport to the hostel, i even know the size of the lockers that the hostel provides. today is friday (july 4, which i totally forgot about until i heard the fireworks over federal hill....i admit, i freaked out and thought they were gunshots at first. bmore pride! i've been inside assembling schedules and things ALL DAY. i got a lot done but i feel LAME. there is also no food in the house...i just heated up the only thing in the freezer, some vegan sausage patties. hmmm). 

in case you lost the train of thought above due to my extensive parenthetical information, today is friday and i've decided to start packing sunday, so there's this weird no-man's-land tomorrow, where i don't think i really have anything specifically to DO for the trip, but feel that i should be doing SOMETHING. wow, i'm big on the caps lock today, too. 

i spoke to my aunt and her friend on the phone this afternoon, which was absolutely fabulous. i now know how to ask for the bathroom: wo sind die Toiletten, bitte? as opposed to what i was going to ask: wo ist der Badezimmer?, which, while technically correct, is unidiomatic, and means i'm actually asking for a place in which i can take a bath. not so great in a grocery store. yuck. 

i guess i'm writing all this out of sheer nervousness...i've talked to will (hi fuzzbutt! you're awesome!) about exactly when we need to leave for the airport on monday...i've made copies of my passport and driver's license to keep in the locker in the hostel, all the sort of things you do when you've never taken an international trip by yourself before. my german teacher would be proud (except she hated me...i can't blame her, really...long story). i have retained SO much more than i actually thought i did. i keep role playing with myself, but i think that all my attempts might be accompanied by a lot of frantic pointing on my part. :)

it's getting late, and i have a date with humphrey bogart to get ready for. i recently bought a dvd of dark passage, which is a noir movie i absolutely LOVE, for occasions just such as this. 

okay. i'm sure i'll feel better when i start packing and acting all official and confirming flights and things...i'll try to stop prattering on. except talking needlessly for ages is kind of my specialty. 

i need a glass of wine....

update on library...and some pretty pictures

i got an email the other morning from mr fanning, of the mahler society library. apparently a mahler scholar is coming into town to do some research library while i'm in town, and offered to take me into the library during its off hours and let me do some private research. even more exciting: he offered to speak with me (like, an interview, yay!) about his specialty, symbols in mahler's music. BUT (and this is a big but), he is planning on going to the library at 9 am on july 21st....and my plane leaves from vienna at 11:30 am on the 21st. 

i'm not really sure what i'm going to do about this...i might see if united will let me take a later flight back, or just prolong my trip for one more day...the hostel where i'm staying has rather flexible booking agreements, so i may just call the airline and see what's possible before i accept or decline. this is an incredible opportunity, and i don't want to screw it up just because of scheduling. i'll keep everyone posted. 

that said, here are the pictures that made me so excited about this project i got stage fright while handing in my application. i'm not joking. i don't get nervous performing, but grant proposals apparently give me fits. 

this is the belevedere palace, which houses the austrian gallery....this is where the klimt piece i'm studying is housed. 

this is the grand staircase of the belvedere gallery....it's gorgeous. 

this is the palais fanto, where the schönberg archives are housed.

 

this is the leopold museum, where they are having a very applicable exhibit (for me, at least)

and this is kinda cool...it's a photo from last year's music film festival at the rathausplatz....i plan on going at least three times. i mean, i've been to film festivals before, but i saw jurassic park and monty python, not la boheme and bruckner 9. although i did meet michael moore...he's hairy up close. :(

so there you go...i'm hanging on for info about the mahler library, and will also spend time in the austrian national library, which dr. fanning recommended to me as well. so a few changes, but that's to be expected. i leave in four days, so it's crunch time now!