Venice...again!

My parents came in town to visit!  Super exciting for me after being away from them for almost 8 months straight.  I couldnt wait to see how they would react to the european environment and was excited to see them absorb my "normal" life there.  But it started off with us going to Venice for a 4 day wedding.  Jody and Jennifer (people i have always heard about from my parents but never actually met)  had a magical destination wedding.  They got married in the catacombs of st marks basilica.  NUTS!  It was crazy beautiful and for four days i ate 17 course meals with drinks to match each round and talked with some of the most kind and interesting i have met in  a while.  Everyone had such adventures and stories to tell and it was incredibly nice to speak english in a fast pace with wit and banter.  Ok so here are just a few of the hundreds of pictures from the long weekend...

While in Venice we got to go to a glassblowing factory/museum.  I love the ambiance of this room.. and this chandelier is aaaamazing.
Not a postcard... its real life.
My mom and me, just taking a walk in europe.
cute cute cute
The view from our fabulous room in our fabulous hotel for a fabulous destination wedding.

Apparently my parents dance just as much as I do... thats where that came from.  It was fun to listen to their insane questions and unrealistic advice.  But that can wait for a different blog for when they came to my ostrava life! 

Belgium- Bruges and Brussels

This was taken inside the Music Museum in Brussels.  It had instruments from today and all the way back to the Roman empire and from every country in the world.  You wore these headphones and when you would get close to an instrument you would start to hear it play. LOVELY!  I really was so amazed that actual people thought up actual instruments and constructed them and mastered them.  I felt like they must have been aliens because it is so far from what i would be able to create and invent and understand.  But i thank them all for their brilliance because music is vital in my life.  And when you think about it... music really is such a beautiful thing... just think....every culture, every age, every year in history...everyone makes a form of music and everyone enjoys it.   Its a bond the world shares. 
Just another hum-drum church.... :)  No, i dont get tired of their beauty.  
Belgian chocolate!!!  Sooo delicious.  These ladies were soo cute.  We walked in and they showed us the rick steves book they are now in.  They were so proud of their hand-made chocolates that we basically were applauding them.  And the chocolate was amazing, so they deserve it.  But sidenote...there are a bazillion chocolate shops lined up in Belgium. Do they really eat THAT much?  I had no idea there would be soooooo many shops. Not that i'm complaining. 
Bruges's main square.  Adorable no doubt.  

Brittany and I met up with lyds in Bruges and enjoyed Belgian beer and chocolate.  The weather wasnt amazing but the company was great.  We even watched the movie "In Bruges" while we were there... which was kind of perfect.  And went to a cafe with 44 kinds of hot cocoa.  

I liked bruges much more than brussels.  It was quaint and cute.  

Brussels was a big city... the architecture was mismatched and it felt loud and dirty.  But, in Amsterdam I had met a guy that lived in Brussels who offered to show us around a bit, so because of him we got to go to fun places one night.  We had a belgian dinner and then went to a pub with over 400 kinds of beer...insane....then dancing.  No complaints there.  Gotta love meeting friends during adventures :)  

My trip home (alone) was the following:

Walk 10 minutes to the train station.  

Take a train to the airport.

Take a plane to Prague.

Take a bus from Prague airport to Prague train station.

Take a train from Prague to Ostrava.

Take a tram from train station to my stop.

Walk from my stop home. 

It took a day.  My ipod died on the first 10 minute walk.  Ha... 

Amsterdam!

On Valentines Day I left Prague at 4:45am to head to Amsterdam!  Brittany (my longest known friend) was meeting me there and we were going to be able to travel together for a bit before she started her internship in France (lucky kid!).  I ABSOLUTELY LOVED AMSTERDAM.  It was insanely beautiful and the people there were the kindest people I have ever come across in these traveling adventures.  Plus it was fun to see Brittany again after so many months.  

I LOVED all the bikes and deeply long to live in a bike town.  Its so practical and the bikes were hipster-chic.  The fashion was fabulous as well.. i had no idea they were one of the top fashion cities.  The Van Gogh museum was highlighting all the the night pieces...his best in my opinion.  Again, art filled my soul with goodness.  We also went into the place Ann Frank and her family hid for 4 years... did you know her book is the second most-sold book in the world (the first is the bible)?  I think she would be happy to know her life was so significant.  

We did a walking tour through the town and learned so much about the people and history there, thanks to a really passionate and interesting tour guide.  Then, at night we took the redlight district tour as well.  

The redlight district is basically being shut down and is expected to be completely gone by 2012 thanks to the democratic christians.  The idea of buying drugs and sex and it being legal and expected seems to be a subject most Americans find clearly wrong.  I must say I cannot agree.  The truth is sex and drugs are around whether its legal or not, and shutting it down completely will just make it darker and more dangerous, but not stop it (as the past has shown). Amsterdam has almost made drugs and sex safer.  I felt safe walking around the streets at night.  I didnt feel like i would be taken advantage of... people had a place to go for things like that and it would be with girls that chose to offer it. There are rules the girls follow and their clients.  

(I am not going to go into all my thoughts about this whole topic here, because its one sided and i dont know if anyone really cares... but if you want to know my in-depth thoughts id love to talk to you.  The point is, being closed minded, judgmental or naive seem to only lead to disrespect and further corruption.)

 Amsterdam bleeds tolerance and respect.  I left feeling affected as though I had learned a great life lesson.  I fully intend on returning and I would suggest it to anyone and everyone. 

no reason

When you try your best, but you don't succeed
When you get what you want, but not what you need
When you feel so tired, but you can't sleep
Stuck in reverse

And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can't replace
When you love someone but it goes to waste
Could it be worse? 

High up above or down below
When you're too in love to let it go
But if you never try you'll never know
Just what you're worth

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you.

-coldplay

...because i love it

Lovely

Hundertwasser..... I fell in love with this artist and i think you will too.  Soo, here is some information I have learned about him:

He utilized bright colors, organic forms, and tried to reconcile humans with nature, with his strong individualism and rejection of straight lines. 

He called his theory of art "transautomatism.” It is the idea that different people see different things in the same picture and that picture should be less what the artist wants us to see, and more about how we interpret it.  

Hundertwasser believed that straight lines are 'godless and immoral.'  He thought that, as humans, we have lost out connection to the organic geometry of nature by forcing ourselves to exist in boxes as homes. He believed in the fluidity of line and shape and was fascinated with spirals.  He thought they represented us perfectly as humans; going in circles, yet never exactly in the same place and never identical to the last loop.  

He created revolutionary architectural designs, which incorporate natural features of the landscape, and irregular forms of building designs.  The features include undulating floors ("an uneven floor is a melody to the feet"), a roof covered with earth and grass, and large trees growing from inside the rooms, with limbs extending from windows.  In creating parks of grass and trees above the buildings he thought we would be able to double the space and improve the environment. 

His last project was named Die Grüne Zitadelle von Magdeburg. Although he never finished this work completely, the building was put up a few years later in central Germany.  It is the picture above.

He believed, “The flat floor is an invention of the architects. It fits engines - not human beings.  If modern man is forced to walk on flat asphalt and concrete floors as they were planned thoughtlessely in designers' offices, estranged from man's age old relationship and contact to earth, a crucial part of man withers and dies. This has catastrophic consequences for the soul, the equilibrium, the well-being and the health of man.  An uneven and animated floor is the recoverery of man's mental equilibrium, of the dignity of man which has been violated in our levelling, unnatural and hostile urban grid system.  The uneven floor becomes a symphony, a melody for the feet and brings back natural vibrations to man and architecture should elevate and not subdue man.  It is good to walk on uneven floors and regain our human balance.” I love that!

He designed KuntHausWien (the museum in Vienna we went to) and took no payment for the design, declaring that it was worth it, to "prevent something ugly from going up in its place".  He was also asked to design one of the Ronald Mc Donald House's for children suffering from cancer in Essen/Grugapark, and i think thats lovely. 

Finally.....In the museum in Vienna, they had some of his quotes displayed and Lyds and I wrote down some we liked. These are them: 

"Our present, planned architecture cannot be considered art.  Our modern buildings are detached and pitiable compromises by men of bad conscience who work with straight - edged rulers."

"If we do not honor our past, we lose our future.  If we destroy our roots, we cannot grow."

"Our real illiteracy is our inability to create.  To paint is a religious activity." 

"God is a creator.  If man wants to fulfill his purpose as God's image he also has to be creative.  If man is creative he comes nearer to God." (If you know me at all you would understand why I love this.  Its like he quoted my thoughts)

"A church should be beautiful.  One should like to go inside and they should feel at home inside.  One should find in it a bridge to GOd, to nature, and to creation.  God should like to go into this house of God, built by man, to meet with him there."

The thing I really loved about his art was just that it was an expression.  It was made to be beautiful.  It was made because he enjoyed it.  It was made because he wanted others to celebrate creativity and realize its energy.  And I think thats what art should be about.  There shouldn't be rules or expectations, and everyone is capable of creating something...anything...it should organically spring forth from their own, individual ability, however it manifests itself within that person.  Ok, I'll stop...

New Years

This should have been a photo of lyds and I on a warm train, in the very-early-morning hours of December 27th, on our way to Salzburg.  In reality, it is a photo of lyds and I on the coldest bus ever, in the evening-to-late hours of December 28th, on our way to Prague.  Once we found out how expensive the train to salzburg and then the train out of salzburg was going to cost, we changed our plans.  So we extended our Vienna trip almost two days and headed to Prague a day earlier than we had originally planned....thus saving us over 150 euros.  
Once in Prague we got to meet up with friends from Hungary, like Mem, which was really great. 
And lyds and I were finally able to be in a photo together instead of just one of us... having that third friend to take the picture is oh so useful! And Prague was FREEZING!  I think that was the coldest i had ever been.  I wanted to rip my hands and feet off they burned so bad.  And, when walking around, I would start to internally panic about when i could get inside somewhere again. Ha!  Good old Florida upbringing didnt prepare me for the frozen burn of no mittens and thin socks.   Lyds parents came in town on the 30th.  It was nice to be around parents for a bit.... even though they weren't mine.  

And on the 31st, Lyds and I went to the Charles Bridge.  It is the typical tourist thing to do.  We had heard it is crazy and people shoot fireworks off everywhere, so naturally, we wanted to go.  It was crowded and people did shoot fireworks off everywhere.... off the bridge, into the sky, into the crowds, etc...  Supposedly, New Years Eve fireworks are only from locals.  And since there are no laws or regulations, they are going off whereever.   So, on the bridge, people were humming the white stripes - 7 nation army - yeah, we didn't get it either. and we moshed. bc the people move like a current and you just go with the flow. and giggled, and hugs and kisses on the cheek from strangers as we counted down the last moments of 2008, and celebrated the start of 2009. Then, we ran into our friend, Cat, had a beer, and went home. 

 And after all this time lyds and i have had together... months of being together everyday... we decided we are so grateful for our friendship, that seems to defy the normal tendencies of girl friendships.  It is a blessing that we have had no conflict at all, and that we still like each other and laugh our way through these travels.  

Finally... January 1st, in Prague, is when the city puts on their firework display.  6 pm.  Much  more family friendly.  Lyds had left with her parents to go to Germany, but i was hoping that one of the 7 people i knew in Prague at the moment would want to go and see the fireworks, but no one did. I was thinking i should go alone and then thinking how i just cant seem to be one of those people that does stuff alone and how thats kind of lame of me, but since I am that way, I should just head to the train station and back to Ostrava.   So i was supposed to take tram 9 to hlavni n.d.....i looked at the board and it was coming in a minute...i looked up and a tram was coming, its super full but i shoved in....clearly assuming it was the 9 because of time. But it was so full i was pushed against the door and couldnt see the info. So finally it started getting less crowded and i could move to see the board and i saw that Hlavni was never on the tram stop options. So i looked up and yup..im on the 12. not the 9. I have never ever done that. SO i was like great. Ill get off at the next stop and look at the sign and get on one that will take me somewhere where there is a metro because i knew how to get there from any metro. 

I got off at the next tram stop and proceed to wait. Nothing was coming.  So i saw down the street there was a different tram stop, different direction and since i didnt care where i was going, i just need to get to a metro, i thought...sure why not. I then proceed to walk to that tram stop and realized where i actually ended up was on the exact bridge i should have be on if i wanted to watch the fireworks. A million people walked towards me and i realized it was only 20 minutes until the show. So i thought...its fate. I should see the fireworks.  So i did.  And they were magical and lovely and 17 minutes long.  

The next morning my holiday came to an end as i headed back to "home" and picked up the life i left in Ostrava. 

Vienna for Christmas!

All of these photos posted in the reverse order I was hoping for.... but here we go:  First you should know that Christmas in Vienna is impossible to describe...but imagine lights that are 2-3 times the size of you hanging between buildings that were built yearsssssssssss ago.  And walking around finding streets that each hold their own magic and own style. Stumbling upon christmas market after christmas market with people from all over europe drinking hot, sweet wine, eating sausages and pastries and candied nuts. everyone is smiling. homemade ornaments and gadgets and toys and puppets and art in miniature houses all in a row. christmas lights, christmas trees, christmas spirits, aaaah. 

   Picture 1: Don't you love the architecture?  I loved the hustle-bustle of pre-christmas!  
Picture 2: On our last night in Vienna (the 27th) we went to the Opera house (isn't is classic?) and saw the Nutcracker Ballet (Ballett: Der Nussknacker).... standing tickets were only 4 euros!  And it was so lovely! The costumes were amazing and even though i have seen this ballet before, i was so impressed with the idea that a whole story can be conveyed through dance and lyric-less music.  Whole emotions are expressed through their passion for dance and dedication to the art.

After the show we met up w/ 3 friends from the hostel to try to find good dancing. good - not so sure - shady, on the river, dark, really loud bass, dudes entranced by the lights overhead, hipsters everywhere, smoke everywhere - that is what we found. a european experience - sure. an experience we kept laughing through - of course. the nice part - we paid ourselves back at the end of the night. bc if you take empty glasses or bottles back to the bar - they give you money back. GENIUS. so we went around collecting other people's trash basically and made ourselves a few euros. more bars should do that. we got home at 4am. or 5am. i don't remember. we were supposed to wake up in time to go to the vienna boys choir and check out of the hostel before that -- no - we woke up at like 9 i guess. and laid around the hostel and used our little book to try and find some decent place to have coffee or eat - we failed at 3 attempts all over the city - so we went back to a place that we had the day before that was near the center and the opera house and enjoyed a superb meal. we walked down the streets - and said goodbye to the city sprinkled by magic fairy dust and christmas cheer from santa's sleigh. 

Picture 3: (the 26th) This is the Belvedere.... two palaces, separated by a garden, that were built in the 18th century as the summer resident for Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663-1736).  It is known for its Baroque architecture, and design. Now, it holds art from the Middle Ages.  Here we saw the Gustav Klimt collection, so of course "The Kiss" and "Judith."  It was nice and I like Gustav more now... but i have to admit, lyds and i were distracted when we were here because we were supposed to leave the following morning and head to Salzburg but had just discovered our train tickets were going to add up to 100 euros each.  We were internally trying to sort out alternative last minute options.
Picture 4: Christmas Night dinner!  Everything closes Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and the day after Christmas.  All Shops, restaurants and grocery stores.  By night time we were starving and it looked as though our only option would be vending machine food from the hostel.  But in our last minute of searching we saw a distant lite up sign.  It ended up being this tiny, little, Italian restaurant.  The only two workers (ma and pops) probably lived in the back or upstairs of this place.  Since we were basically sitting in their kitchen, we watched them make our food from scratch and it was delicious!

Picture 5: (the 25th) Kunthauswein Museum.  This is the outside of Hundertwasser's art gallary.  He also designed the building, which had 10 trees growing out of it from the inside, uneven floors, organic materials, and no straight lines.  I have lots to say about him so he will be a different blog post later... but this was the greatest Christmas gift i could have ever been given.  It re-engergized me and reminded me of the goodness of art and the inspiration it offers me.  Lyds agreed.
Picture 6: Christmas day still...lyds and i parked on the second floor of Starbucks for a few hours, with the view of the opera house, hot coffee, books, journals, and music.    
Picture 7: Hofburg Palace....we didn't have a chance to go inside it.  But it was attached to the Albertina, which we did go to.  It is a huuuuuge Art Museum with over 500 works.  It shows the historical progress of art from impressionism to modernism.  We saw pieces by Monet, Degas, Picasso, Rothko, Van Gogh, and more.  Sometimes life doesn't feel real.  You know you are doing things and seeing things, but the reality of it doesn't sink in.  I had this moment there though where I thought..."This is now.  This is real. Its Christmas day.  I am in Europe, standing in front of a Monet. How did this happen and how grateful am i?"   Picture 8:  St. Stephans Cathedral.  The picture does no justice.  It's dark and gothic and beautiful.  Inside was a bit of a tourist attraction which look away some of its mystery and appeal for me.  But the building is impressive nontheless.
Picture 9: Christmas Eve.  Haus der Musik is an interactive museum where music is audible and visual.  There was a room that was a recreation of the womb.  It sounds cheesy but it was powerful and comforting.  It kind of vibrated and the colors and sounds were intoxicating.  There interactive activities helped you create music, direct music, morph sounds, combine sounds, record sounds, visualize feelings, and so much more.  It also had a bunch of amazing historical, brilliant musicians. There were whole rooms on Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Strauss, and more.... all of them had, at some point, lived in Vienna and created masterpieces.  I can't imagine inventing the things they thought up.  It's brilliant.  Also.... someone find the cd "i mozart lounge" please.  It has a weird bluish sculture on the front photo, if i remember correctly... it is so creative and so fabulous! and it is not the same as "Mozart Lounge" which is not as good at all.
Picture 10 - one of the christmas market booths.  Meat.   ew.
Picture 11 - One of the christmas market booths.  Handmade items.
Picture 12:  this was our first starbucks since being in the US.  I have a whole new level of drip coffee to go.  
Picture 13:  Christmas Eve. This is inside the Votiv church and it is where Lyds and I went to Christmas Eve mass.  It was in english...and so cold we could see our breath the whole time.  But I liked going back to my old roots and being in a catholic service.  I have my own conflict with Catholic beliefs, but i must admit, there was something beautiful about the tradition of it all.  That cross-culturally people are doing the same motions.  Its a bizarre global connection and it was perfect for Christmas.  And Im stealing Lyds words to describe the church because I agree: "you know the ones that catch bad flack for being too big and impersonal and cost too much money - those ones that steal your breath and remind you that the history of christianity is jaded and beautiful - one that couldn't be contained or boxed in by cathedrals or catholics or protestants - ones that make you realize the awe and majesty of one we serve that is greater than us - we had christmas eve mass in one of those." 

After church we went back to our hostel and made some friends in the downstairs pub. 
Photo 14 - hot wine....its so weird and sweet, and filled with pieces of fruit.  They serve it all over the markets and you can keep the mug, or return it and get some of your money back.
Photo 15 - one of the magically decorated streets.
Photo 16 - lyds and i literally frolicked around the streets.  they were overwhelmingly amazing.
Photo 17 - the biggest market.  This was the most amazing christmas event i have ever seen.  tons of booths, tons of food, tons of drinks, tons of lights!  Even the trees had giant, light-up ornaments.  Everyone was truly enjoying the season.  I think it should be mandatory for everyone to go and experience Vienna at Christmas time.  It is more beautiful than i know how to describe.  

I have a million more photos i could post from Vienna, but i know this blog is already too long. All in all, if i couldnt be with family on Christmas (though we all know lyds is family)... Vienna was, by far, the perfect alternative.