I realize this isn’t Europe related, but last night I was in Chicago with the opportunity to take a few shots of the beautiful city at night.
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| Chitown, October |
I need to buy a tripod for my camera … it did a surprisingly good job of taking night shots for a silly little digital cam. A tripod and 8 second exposure would have made some fantastic skyline shots. And bean shots. It was really cool to see that thing at night.
I’ve decided for sure that I am going to study through BGSU/IFK in Salzburg again next summer. This time for six weeks. I’ll use the extended weekend to go to Vienna, and I might head up to Berlin for a few days before I fly back to the States. It all depends on what I end up doing with my life next year, be it PhD work, another masters, teaching English overseas, or something TBD.
On a related note, the updated AYA Salzburg program website has pictures from our midweek excursion to St. Gilgen. The main page is a picture of Jess and Stuart swimming in the Wolfgangsee, and the forms page has a picture of Jason, myself, and Carissa sitting on a grassy bank on the Wolfgangsee. So schön!
I can’t wait to go back!
I completely forgot about the pictures I took at the Rathausplatz Filmfestspiele in Wien. I don’t really have much to say about it that I didn’t already, but I will mention that I just uploaded all of the pictures without really looking at them. So some are double and some are super dark. Meh.
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| Abschließende Nacht in Europa |
It was probably better than actually being at the real concert. The sound was amazing and the screen was huuuuuuuuuuuuge. Oi oi, do I miss Europe. I can’t wait to go back.
I bought my first Coca-Cola (Coke Zero to be more specific) out of a vending machine on campus today. It’s so fat! I didn’t realize how much bigger 20 fl.oz. is than a 0,33L bottle.
Everything is bigger in America. oi.
And now I am in the cheery little town of Bowling Green, OH, where I am half-way to becoming a master of music. Because this little town is brimming with nothingness, I have spent today planning out my future travels.
The next time I backpack around Europe I am going to take this course:
Glasgow/Edinburgh -> London -> Stockholm -> Krakow -> Budapest -> Vienna
or
Madrid -> London -> Brussel -> Hamburg -> Leipzig/Dresden -> Vienna
The theme here is that I want more time in London and Vienna, especially Vienna.
Next February I am planning on attending the Internationale Filmfestspiele in Berlin for about a week. So I might visit Leipzig and Dresden at that point. Not sure yet. Round trip airfare is very reasonable that time of year, and train tickets would be pretty cheap too. And at that point my German will (hopefully) be much better than it is now, so getting around will be that much easier.
Next summer I’d like to take the Salzburg class again, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to swing it because my move-out day for my apartment would happen right in the middle of it. And I’d like to graduate on time (I’d only take the Salzburg class if I postponed graduation until August so that my tuition would continue to be waved).
The most realistic thing at this point, however, is actually moving to Europe. Which would be pretty amazing. There are two schools that I will be applying to this fall: The University of Nottingham and The University of Vienna. Both have masters of arts degrees in popular music, and Nottingham actually has a masters in film music. How brilliant would that be? Very.
Additionally, I will be heading to Japan at some point in the next year to visit my friend Keith. He’s moving there on Sunday to study in Tokyo through Temple University. I hope for crazy stories about crazy Japan from him. That will make me feel even more inclined to see him.
Now, where this money will come from … that’s another issue altogether. I am working practically full-time this year, so I should be able to save up something ideally. If I have these travel goals in mind I’ll be able to keep myself from getting into a rut, buying things I don’t need. Which is the trend in my life pretty much constantly. Go me? Europe is much cooler than video games, so I think that’ll be good motivation to quell my spending.
I can’t wait to go back.
As an afterthought, here are a few things I’ve noticed since returning to the States:
– I hate plastic bags, and I appreciate the fact that Meijer, Kroger, and Whole Foods give you 10 cent refunds for bringing your own bags
– Soda bottles (plastic ones, at least) look GIGANTIC, especially the 2L ones at the store
– Everyone drives everywhere … and that annoys me
– Where is the public trans? Why can’t I take a train to NYC for $15?
– Fresh food is much cheaper in Europe than here, and that’s depressing
– My brain appreciates that fact that I don’t have to constantly convert between €/£ to $
– I found a sucker that didn’t protect their wireless, so I’m getting rid of mine. Free internet!
So. After all of that airplane mumbo-jumbo I finally got home to Chicago. I got a bit worried when the lady at Heathrow asked what was going to happen with my luggage.
“Will it be changing flights with you?”
“I sure hope so!!!”
Did it? No. I get to Chicago without luggage. Which seemed okay when they said it would arrive on one of the next two flights from Heathrow and I’d have it within 24 hours.
Well, after three days I pretty much lost all hope. Then today they called to tell me–in more or less words–that they would “keep looking” but to expect some claims forms in the mail in the next few days. Which sucked. And I got really depressed. But eventually my mom threw me a bone–she gave me some money to go to Frys and replace my power supply for my computer. I get there, buy my stuff, leave, pull into the driveway …. Mom tells me the airline called and found my bag. It was at O’Hare the whole damn time those bastards. They apparently “didn’t realize there was a number on it.” Way to go, jackasses. But my mom was told they were putting it on a local delivery truck tonight, so I should get it back shortly.
But it’ll probably be all wet due to the weather. Owned-me.
Well, I was bound to have at least one snaffoo. Is that how you spell that? Anyway, I got up super early, packed up, checked out, and took various tubes to get to the Airport. Vienna Airlines had it set up so that I could check into my flight–luggage and all–at the CAT terminal at the Landstrasse station in Vienna proper. Beautiful. I get on the train, get to the airport, don’t have to check in through a big queue, head through passport control, and go to the Bistro to get some coffee. Then I hear an announcement that my flight to Chicago was cancelled.
AUSFALL
oiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
So I headed over to the Service desk, and was the third person in line. Got my flights taken care of … I go through London Heathrow now. Which is kind of mean, because I am obsessed with London now, and now I get to sit there at an airport for two hours without being able to see anything. Sigh.
So, if any of you happen to read this before 2pm Chicago time, can you please call my mom and tell her? I sent her an email but I’m not sure if she’ll check her email before she leaves. I have some change (GBP) but I’m not sure I’ll have enough time at Heathrow to call her, and even if I do it will be 6am there and she’ll be sleeping. Tell her it’s still at Terminal 5, but now I’m flying in through American Airlines. Thanks.
Did I mention that it’s been raining all morning? I walked to the train station in the rain. Awesome. But you know, aside from the fact that my hands are shaking from being a bit stressed out I’m handling it quite well. I bought some chocolate and a Coca-Cola Light. I’ll be fine.
The next time I come to Vienna I am staying for at least a week. There is so much history, especially for us music nerds, that I was constantly overwhelmed with sights and sounds and just … everything. It’s fantastic.
I decided to take the Essential Vienna Walking Tour from the Lonely Planet Vienna book, which was a fantastic decision. It started at the Staatsoper, went up the Kämtner Strasse (the Getreidgasse of Vienna, where there are two H&Ms within half a km of eachother … not joking), up to Stephansdom, and then through the Bergplatz and by all sorts of other famous stuff. You would not believe how much I saw. And I did it all in about five hours, which ended up being around 3pm or so for me. So I decided to head over to Schönbrunn to check out what the fuss was about. The gardens were beautiful and the parks were super sharp. But I was running out of steam at that point, having walked nearly nine miles already before the journey home. So I decided to come back to the Hostel.
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| Wien |
Back to the topic of two H&Ms … when I went to the one in Berlin I saw this fantastic jacket that I wanted so so badly. Pseudo military style but with a feminine cut and a big collar with a zip-in hood, in brown. But they didn’t have the right size. And the thing about H&M is that even though they carry pretty much the same merchandise, each store carries different amounts of things. So something you might see in one store might not be anywhere else you go afterwards. Naturally, I was depressed about this because it was the perfect jacket. Well, today when I stopped in to H&M #2 I found it! And even though I really couldn’t afford it at all–even remotely, even though it was only 39€–I still bought it. It’ll be perfect for the ‘Mind the Gap’ patch I bought in London. And it’ll look awesome with my Deutschland fußball scarf and my green jersey scarf. And really anything. The only catch is I have to make sure I keep off the weight that I lost.
Yeah … so much for that materialism quest! But I’m still going to give her that shirt anyway. It’s been decided.
I called Mom and it was nice to hear her voice. She is so excited to have me home tomorrow. And I am totally excited about being there. Free food, free laundry machines, my car, my kitty, my brother, nice showers, a flat iron … ah so good. And friends! So many people have been asking me when I’ll be home so that we can see eachother. The next few days are going to be busy! Here’s hoping the jet lag isn’t too bad, haha.
Oh! Fun side story. While at the Roman Ruins at Michaelerplatz I was approached by a dude dressed like Mozart. Well, everyone was approached by at least one dude dressed like Mozart. But this one talked me up and said he wanted to take me out for coffee. He told me about eight times that he was finished working at 6pm. Too bad it’s 6:30pm and I’m not heading back there. Oh well. His name was Sami.
Tonight I think I’m going to head over to the Rathausplatz (another location I didn’t mention above because I’m tired, so?) and catch part of the Film Festival going on there. The screen is 20m x 11.5m (65.6′ x 37.7′) groß. How badass is that? It doesn’t even matter what’s showing. Which is ‘ Das Waldbühnen-Konzert: Plácido Domingo, Anna Netrebko, Rolando Villazón,’ which I suppose will be interesting. I just want to watch something on that enormous screen. Und es gibt frei Eintritt! So toll!
I cried. Literally. Actually, I cried about four times. First was when I went around the Dr. Karl Lueger-Gedächtniskirche and saw Schönberg’s grave. It was simply incredible. Then I wandered a bit and found the Musiker section. I went over to Beethoven’s first, put on the ‘Pathetique’ Sonata, and listened to the whole thing while standing in front of his grave. And I cried. Then I moved over to Schubert’s grave, put on ‘Gretchen am Spinnrade,’ and cried again. After that I moved to Brahms’s grave, put on the fourth movement of the Deutsches Requiem, and literally wept. And then I sang along with it for a while and these two random gay guys that were there looked at me like I was mental. Whatever. I was having a moment.
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| Wien – Zentralfriedhof |
I never got the name of the Portuguese guy. Eh oh well. I got to the train station in plenty of time this morning, got on the exact train I wanted, and knit for four hours while I traveled to Vienna. When I got to the Südbahnhof I went over to the ATM … only to have it tell me my account was overdrawn. I freaked. So I went over to the ticket machine, used my nearly maxed credit card to buy a 24-hour ticket, and headed on my way. I was losing it because I didn’t know how I was going to pay for anything. When I got here I found out that the internet was pretty expensive, so I had no way to check. The phone in the hostel wouldn’t accept my phone card, so I couldn’t call home. So I said ‘f this,’ went up to my room to take a shower, then went to the Zentralfriedhof. When I got back I saw a guy on his laptop using WIFI, so I asked about how to get on it and discovered that the WIFI was free. Checked my account, it’s not overdrawn, just really low. So I transfered some money from my savings account and now I can eat tomorrow. Fantastic.
There are two museums in town that have Hieronymus Bosch paintings, so I will definitely be going to those. The rest of the day will be filled by doing the “Essential Vienna” walking tour from the Lonely Planet guide. Hopefully I have some energy tomorrow to do everything I want to in one day and not die. It also looks like it will rain a bit tomorrow. Unfortunate for walking, but at least it will hopefully be cooler than it was today. Good lord, it was in the 90’s … carrying all of my luggage and having a small sweater on and it being that hot was not so good.
Naturally I am very excited about tomorrow …. but even more excited about Saturday! Chicago! I miss home so much. And as soon as we get off of the Highland exit and get on Butterfield Rd. (damn, it took me about 30 seconds to remember the name) I am making my mom stop at Qdoba to buy me a burrito.
Oh, and one more thing about today. One of the reception girls freaked out over my Haunted Life tshirt (because of the skulls on it) and gave me two extra free drink cards to ‘encourage’ me to ‘forget’ my shirt when I check out. I actually think I will give it to her. I’ve decided to make an effort to get rid of my overly-materialistic nature, and I think giving her my shirt would be a small step in releasing my ties to earthly, well, crap and will have the bonus of good karma points and making someone happy.
Vienna! Ah!
I just watched a group of eight people down 50,-CZK shots of Absinthe. 70% alcohol. And my new friend from Portugal–whose name I don’t know yet–told me that if I ever have an urge to try Absinthe that I should fight it with all of my might.
“As soon as I drank it I felt my stomach ache. That was the worst idea I’ve ever had.”
Owned.
I also kind of have a crush on this guy … very cute, engineering student, plays lots of video games, and has a super nice smile. And speaks nearly flawless English. And I don’t know his name. Europe is awesome.
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