London Bye Ta Ta

Wow! I am back from this crazy two week break, having successfully rocked the world of public transportation and after visiting three different countries. I owe huge thanks to Adele and Vincent, Ursula and Phillip, and Steve and Kristel, who gave me the contacts of these lovely people who hosted me and made the trip very special! Thanks again!

The adventure began on the 20th, when that morning I scurried as fast as I could to the Salzburg Airport, checked in and made it in time for my flight to London. As the plane took off you could see the Alps really well, and it was like a wall of mountains to the south. Quite a sight! From the London Luton Airport I took a bus into London (almost an hour away), and had fun listening to British music on my iPod while I freaked out because I was in ENGLAND! Then there was no trouble finding the hostel, which was just a short walk away from the Baker Street bus stop, checked in, dropped off my stuff, and then decided to go down town.

It is quite essential to know the Tube/Underground when you’re in London, and to know the cheapest way to get around. This, by the way, is the Oystercard, which you can put a set amount of pounds on and it’ll get you far! Otherwise it’s quite expensive to get around. Luckily my friend Melissa recommended that I get one ahead of time, so I saved a lot of money on transportation, and ten pounds got me through my whole stay! However, I was totally confused by the Tube for like an hour, and spent a fair amount of time blundering around in tunnels before I figured it out. But, once I got used to it, it was awesome, and took me straight to Trafalgar Square.

When I emerged from the station, it was so cool to really set foot in London! The National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery are all in Trafalgar Square, so that’s where I spent most of my visit. I spent some of the afternoon looking to see if I could find a copy of the new Mick Ronson biography at any of the bookstores on Charing Cross Road, but to no avail, which was annoying, and dashed my reading material plans for the trip. But, I then headed to the National Portrait Gallery, which had a cool exhibit on the Sixties and Swinging London (it was called “the Beatles to Bowie” so I obviously had to go). That was a fun way to start my visit, seeing very good photographs of all my favorite British musicians, and they were playing some sixties music throughout the exhibit, and I recognized all the songs, which was fun.

As I left the Gallery, I saw a glimpse of Big Ben in the distance, and thought I would go explore around there. So I walked all the way down White Hall Street, and took a look at the beautiful Westminster Abbey and the massive clock tower. It was all very pretty in the twilight. Just around the corner was the Thames, and across the bank was the London Eye (the giant ferris wheel). Then I was quite tired, and my legs were pretty exhausted, so I headed back to the hostel (but first made a stop at Picadilly Circus, just to check it out), got a great dinner from a restaurant down the street, then relaxed a little before heading to bed.

Something that struck me rather funny about London was the way that they label everything. Their signs don’t simply say “exit”, instead it’s “the way out”, and rather than a “yield” sign, it’s “give way”. Quite cute, and very British.

The next morning I was chatting with the girl in the bunk under me at the hostel, and she was really neat. Her name was Sarah, and she was also an artist (she does printmaking at a gallery studio nearby), who was staying there while she looked for an apartment near her work. She was nice to talk to, and gave me tips on how to get cheaper tickets for the theater during the day. I took this advice to heart, and snagged stage seats to see “Othello” at Trafalgar Studios that night.

My first stop that day was the Globe Theater, so I could take a tour of the reconstruction of Shakespeare’s play house! The original Globe burned down due to a fire, started when a spark from a cannon set off during a production of Henry VIII landed on the thatch roof. Not very clever special effects. That was pretty interesting, and I learned about how the Theater worked back in the day, and about the costumes of Elizabethan times and so on. So that fulfilled one of my hopes and dreams...

After grabbing a quick lunch at a classic little London cafe, I went to the National Gallery for about five hours straight. It was a big museum, full of wonderful works of art. It was really amazing to get to see pieces like Van Gough’s “Sunflowers” and some of Monet’s Giverny pieces, not to mention work by Ingres, Van Dyck, Titian, Raphael, Velasquez and Rembrandt! An excellent way to spend the afternoon. Then I ran back to the hostel for a quick sandwhich for dinner, put on some nice clothes, and then went back into town for a night at the theater.

To see a Shakespeare production in the heart of London was a great experience. This version of Othello was really fantastic (and nearly uncut so it was LONG) and all the actors were very good. Having a stage seat was fun too, since I was right in the middle of all the action going on. The people I was sitting next to also spotted someone famous in the audience named Jonathan Ross (who I had no idea who that was at the time), who I later discovered is a famous announcer for the BBC who has said some rather controversial things. The were all jazzed and went to get photos with him at intermission. But what a great evening!

The next morning I was off again, taking another bus to east-Jesus-nowhere London and another airport, this time heading to Paris!

Two Week Break Plans

Just so you all know where I'll be and what I'll be doing over the next two weeks, I'm going to post it here for you!

Tuesday, Oct. 20th - Flying from Salzburg to London
-Find my hostel, find the Globe theater and have a little Shakespeare party with myself, eat a bagel

Wednesday, Oct. 21st - Go to the National Gallery in the morning, and then another amazing museum after lunch. Enjoy some authentic Indian Food for dinner.

Thursday, Oct. 22nd - Fly from London to Paris
-Find Adele's house, unload there and explore the city a little, maybe meet up with Melissa

Friday, Oct. 23rd - THE LOUVRE.

Saturday and Sunday - Go to Normandy with Adele and her family! Yippee!

Monday, Oct. 26th - Explore Paris some more

Tuesday, Oct. 27th - Take a train from Paris to Stuttgart
-Meet Sula!

Wednesday, Oct. 28th - Go to Wuerzburg for the day, and see Tiepolo's Residenz Frescoes!

Thursday, Oct. 29th - Hang out in Stuttgart

Friday, Oct. 30th - Take a train back to Salzburg!

So, it should be pretty cool! Special thanks to Kristel, for giving me all her friend's contact information and to them for hosting me. Wish me luck! I'll do my best to make sure I get back in one piece.

Shakespeare, Sarah Wagner, and School

Hi Everyone! In the past two weeks I've had lots of opportunities to see a lot of great theater that I wanted to tell you about. Last Thursday I saw my first opera at the Salzburg Landestheater, "The Marriage of Figaro". That was quite an experience! The music was beautiful; both on the part of the pit orchestra and the performers on stage.

If you are familiar with the Marriage of Figaro, then you know that it is very confusing. If you're not familiar with it, then it is even more confusing, and I don't think that I can explain it adequately. Basically, these two servants (Figaro and Susanna) of this Count want to get married, but the Count has his designs on Susanna, meanwhile ignoring his wife the Countess, who for some reason actually loves him. But a young soldier is in love with the Countess, and since Figaro is so in debt to the other woman, she wants him to marry her. And there is lots of fun mistaken identity going on, people running around and getting confused (as well as the audience) and people falling in love. And since it was sung in Italian with German subtitles, that added to the confusion.

But! The staging was really great. They used one of my favorite staging techniques ever for the last act called a "scrim" (a screen that is lit from the back, with the actors behind it so you only see the silhouettes), and that was really inspiring and gave me lots of ideas for the next Mahler-Hynes production.

Then, a few weeks ago, the school assigned us "buddies" from the Salzburg University so that we can get to meet some natives and people our own age. My buddy, Sarah Wagner, and I started emailing each other back and forth right off the bat, and quickly met up for breakfast over a weekend. And she's so cool! We got along great, and found out that we have a lot in common. She's actually from Germany, but she's a psychology major at the University. She's also a vegetarian, loves theater and cooking, so as you can imagine it was quite a success. And this Tuesday, she found out about an acting class for native English speakers or proficient students of English at the University, and we both went to that and had a blast on Tuesday night! I'm glad that we met up and that she invited me to that!

We also made plans to go see "Der Sturm" (or more commonly known as THE TEMPEST) together on Sunday. Unfortunately it turned out that she couldn't make it, but I still went by myself, and it was amazing. Of course I knew exactly what was going on even though it was in German (some of the more famous parts were in English), and it was really cool to see another version of it, especially done by professional actors. And, what was also really cool, was that they did so many things the way that Dan and I did! So that was really gratifying to know that we were doing something right...

So, things are going well! Early next week I depart on this two week break adventure!

A day in the Life in Salzburg

What October Fest is REALLY like

Hi Everyone! This past weekend I had to make another excursion, this time to Munich in order to some research for an Art History paper. My assignment is to write an essay on one of the pieces in the Alte Pinakothek (one of Munich's many great museums) so I chose "The Four Apostles" by Albrecht Dürer to write about.

Fortunately, a bunch of other kids from the program also wanted to head to Munich for the last weekend of October Fest, so we all pooled together to get the cheap group train tickets. Julie & Julia and myself all got a ticket together so that we could head back a bit earlier than the others. On the train there, I actually ran into my friend George, who was also going to the Festival! It was a funny coincidence, and made me look like a cool kid, since I actually knew someone not in the program.

After a pretty two-hour train ride through Bavaria, we arrived at the Hauptbahnhof of Munich, and I have never seen so much lederhosen in all my life. The train station was packed with people in dirndls and national garb, all heading to October Fest. So, determined to avoid October Fest at all costs, I said goodbye to my friends, who went to follow the swarm of excited Germans, and I went off on my to find the Alte Pinakothek.

It's a beautiful building, north of the train station, and architecturally designed to look like a Venetian palace. Inside I ascended the massive left staircase, and explored the world of Gothic, Renaissance, and Post-Renaissance art. They had lots of great pieces, including Albrecht Dürer's self-portrait, works by Tiepolo, Raphael, lots of Rubens, Tiepolo, and more. After trying to decide which of the other three incredible art museums to visit that day, I decided on the Pinakothek der Moderne, which is right across the street.

This building was full of interesting pieces, and loaded with aspects of design from the past century. The basement harbored many examples of furniture, technology and jewelry, and fun pod-like rocking chairs that you got to sit in. The ground floor had an interesting photography exhibit, portraying the architecture of Berlin and New York City in contrast. Then I made my way to the East Wing on the first floor, where most of their painting collection is. Amazing works by Picasso, Lucio Fontana, Max Beckmann, and many of my favorite surrealists could be found there. The east wing hosted Sigmar Polke, Andy Warhol, Don Flavin, and several video pieces that were also pretty neat. Lots of sketching was accomplished...

By then I was starving, and after searching for a decent looking place to eat, I just got a little pizza from a restaurant near the train station, not really feeling like wandering around a thoroughly inebriated Munich alone by night, and then found a BAGEL shop, which was also very exciting. At 7:30 Julie and Julia met up with me, and we boarded the train to head back to Salzburg.

Here's where I share with you the aftermath of a day spent at October Fest. Before leaving the train station, a belligerent drunk started a fight in our car, resulting in spilled beer and a bratwurst roll falling on poor Julie, and some unassuming man being tossed out of the train, who then sat next to me on the train with a cut bleeding on his forehead. Pleasant. Then, a bunch of completely wasted people a few seats back from us proceeded to sing "Low Rider" and "The Chicken Dance" (if indeed, it can be sung), and smoke (against the rules) until they mercifully departed about half way to Salzburg. So, tip: if you REALLY want to go to October Fest, go as early as you can and leave as early as you can. That way you'll get a good seat in the tents, and have at least a few sober people with you on the train. I'm glad we didn't catch a later train, because it would have been a lot worse...So, this is what they don't show you on TV, as the press is required to only show the nice aspects of the festival, they don't tell you about the hill where people pass out, and cops have to periodically check their pulse, or any gross stuff like that.

But, we made it back to Salzburg safe and sound, after this only mildly revolting and somewhat entertaining train ride. So that was an interesting day.

A weekend in Graz

Now to tell you all about Graz...

Stephanie and I headed out of the Salzburg Hauptbahnhof (main train station) Friday afternoon, and got to watch the gorgeous scenery roll by as we made our way to Styria. Lots of beautiful mountains, castles, cows, alpine farms and the Salzach all on the way. Our second train at the switch point was delayed, so we got to Graz a bit later than we'd planned on, but that was no problem. On the second train, we were in a compartment with this student, Johanna, who was really nice and we got to chat with her on the way there, which was cool.

The hostel we checked into was really nice, even though we were in a big dormitory with a bunch of other guests. The staff pointed us in the right direction to catch the bus into town, and we immediately hopped on in search of dinner. Since we were starving, and most of the restaurants were closed by then, we had to settle on David's Pizzeria, which provided us with satisfying but greasy Italian food. Then we headed back to the hostel for a good night's sleep until the next morning when...

This awful man checked in and fell asleep and SNORED like there was no tomorrow. It was truly, an epic snore. You could hear it down the hall, from the second floor, etc. In other words, it was impossible to sleep after he arrived, so we made the best of it and got up a little early to head into the city that day.

After an excellent breakfast (included by this lovely hostel), we walked around town, and scoped out where we wanted to go that day. We walked down the "art mile", where most of the galleries and museums and antique stores are located, and then down by the river. There you can see the "Mussel"; a modern architectural building that is rather shaped like a mussel. It sits in the middle of the Mur river, and hosts a cafe, ampitheater, and apparently a jungle-gym for kids. Then we walked by the Kunsthaus, which is another really cool piece of modern architecture. This building is called "the friendly alien", and it is smack dab in the middle of the old city, and provides a cool contrast to the more traditional buildings. It is also an excellent museum, but we postponed our trip there till Sunday, so that we could see another exhibition opening then. Most of these modern places were built when Graz was named the "cultural capital" in 2003.

Walking back through town, we went the the Neue Galerie, where they had some great modern pieces of art and installations. One of them had a very human-ecological feel, and was a series of photographs of a woman interacting with the architecture of her middle-eastern city. Those exhibits were pretty fascinating, and then we walked into the really nifty antique shop just down the street. This place was loaded with all kinds of crazy stuff, like memorabilia from past wars, drinking horns, sabers, etc.. It was a cool crazy shop!

For the afternoon, we split up, and I decided to walk through the city park, and eat a BAGEL that I chanced upon in a bakery. It was of course, delicious, and I got to watch the ducks and a lady and her daughter feed the massive carp in the pond. The park was really neat, and there were so many people there. Europeans really know how to relax-people were lounging around on blankets in the sun, reading the newspaper, collecting chestnuts...there was even a cricket game going on! I sat and watched that for a while, and it reminded me of COA very much. After dodging a few balls, I decided to keep looking around though, and so I went to see the city Dom. That was a beautiful building, and oddly enough I was the only one in there! So I got to really look around.

Stephanie and I met up around 4, to head up to the Schloss. We took one of the lifts up the mountain, which was really fun, and at the top we had an amazing view of the city. You could see everything for miles around, and so we relaxed there for a little while, getting serenaded by some nice panhandling hippies, and taking in the scenery. We think that we may have seen a UFO, too, but who knows! I'm just saying, there was a weird black, inexplicable speck in the sky, and it very well might have been a UFO. On top of the Schloss, you can see the Glockenspiel (the clock tower), a unique underground theater, and the old watchtower.

Then we found a nice restaurant up there for supper. Our waitress was a little peculiar, but we got to sit with a very friendly and good-humored Austrian couple. My food was really good (linguine with goat cheese and cubes of cantaloupe, don't knock it till you've tried it) but Stephanie ended up with some very weird, traditional grape soup. We also had the traditional Austrian appetizer of semmeln (little rolls) with topfen (sweet cheese-so yummy). But, the view was breathtaking, and it was fun to watch the sunset from our table over the city.

We headed back to the hostel, and there met this interesting guy named Phillip, traveling to Salzburg from Indiana. He could have been a COA kid for several reasons: firstly, his name was Phillip, and this of course meant that he had curly hair, glasses, and played a stringed instrument. So, the COA-like Phillip played the fiddle for Stephanie and I outside the hostel. Then, they went out, and I went to bed, and was pleased that the man with the acute case of sleep apnea was not staying for a second night.

Sunday morning we checked out, and went to the Kunsthaus before leaving town. They had several wonderful exhibits there, featuring Andy Warhol's paintings and movies, contrasted with similar work by other modern artists. That was great, and then they had a video exhibition about democracy and political action, which was pretty intense but very good. It was an excellent museum! I wish I could work there! :)

The train ride back went smoothly and with more amazing views fleeting past our window. Back in Salzburg, we returned to our host families to do some homework and catch up before the week began. It was a great weekend! I'm so glad Stephanie invited me to come with her, because we had a blast. Graz was completely different from Salzburg, and a great place to go, should you get the chance.

Photos from Graz!