See the world through my eyes! Experience it through these blog posts.

Healthy Stress & Hiking Paths

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Humans are complex beings  – at least I am…. a study in contrasts at times.

I have traveled around the world, yet I was almost too afraid to explore Vienna’s hiking paths on my own, and I hadn’t found anyone to join me. It’s not like I spent my first 4 months here locked up in my room, but this is something I had wanted to do and hadn’t.   I didn’t know how safe it would be for a woman alone to be walking in the woods around here.  I didn’t know how to get to the trail heads.  All sorts of little fears had gotten in the way of my making it to the thirteen hiking paths around Vienna.  Until yesterday.  The sun was shining and I had done my research (plus I’d written I would in my blog, so….).  I felt the fear, but did it anyway.  Have you read that book? “Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway” by Susan Jeffers?  I did about 15 years ago, and I’m a big fan!  I’m also a fan of a saying that was printed on my Lulu Lemon yoga bag:  “Do one thing a day that scares you.”  It’s good to stretch our comfort zones – that’s how we grow.  My life is a testimony to that.  And lo and behold, Sunday morning, I even learned how to make my body’s stress induced reactions healthy! During breakfast, I watched a great TED Talk (14 minutes) that revealed scientific evidence on how our beliefs change our reality – worth a watch!  Stress, it turns out, is not a public enemy.  It’s only bad if you believe it is.  If you believe it’s good, your body will respond differently and you’ll live much longer.  Check out the video – I’m sure it has added a few years to my life!

After watching that, I headed out with a healthy attitude.  I had chosen Hiking Path #1 (logical, I know) – Kahlenberg, described as “an uphill walk through vineyards and wooded hills rewarded by a marvelous view of Vienna and the Danube.”  Perfect!  And it was.  As it often happens, there was absolutely no reason for fear… It was simply wonderful! It often is.


They advertised that it is a 3-4 hour hike – it took me 4 hours and 20 minutes from the end station of tramway D – the start of the 11km loop.  I only brought my iPhone to take pictures, but I still like to walk at a leisurely pace, so I’m usually slower than most.  It was awesome!  There were times I was on my own, but the trails were far from empty: people of all ages – walking, jogging, mountain-biking, dog-walking, pushing strollers and wheelchairs, and nordic pole walking.  This is how Viennese balance their café & confectionery culture!

The path was pretty well marked, but I’m glad I had written down the route’s major landmarks.  There are lots of trails that intersect this loop and I had to ask a few times to make sure I was still on track (literally!).  There was only once when I was wasn’t – I had gone a hundred meters down a very steep hill, only to have to climb back up again.  Good exercise!  As you’ll see in the photos, some of the paths are paved, on gravel, or packed dirt – or mud.  I enjoyed the variety and loved being able to see past the buildings across the street.  It felt so good to be in nature!

When I got to the top, the clear blue skies had turned a bit cloudy, so the views of Vienna weren’t perfectly clear.  That’s OK.  I joined all those who had gotten there by bus or by car (the parking lot was full!) to admire the view.  I also treated myself to some roasted potatoes and a delicious bowl of goulash soup (that was for you Papa), which I ate sitting on a bench in the sun. I don’t usually eat beef, but was in the mood to taste this traditional dish.  I then entered the packed church in time to hear a lovely hymn.  In addition to the church, Kahlenberg is home to a transmission tower, a historic tower, food stands, tourist shop, a fancy restaurant, ballrooms, hotel, private university, conference rooms, and a house with a big back yard and several Newfoundlander dogs.  Nice! By the way, the washrooms on the descending path near the bus stop are the only free ones.  I saved a Euro there and many people do along the trails, as I found out when I saw something move downhill from me while I was talking a picture.  (The elderly gentleman standing next to me didn’t say a thing while I was shooting away near his wife’s hideaway… oops!)  After spending half an hour at the top, I headed back down past a really cool hebertism trail (obstacle course among and up the trees) and through the forest and vineyards.  In the fall, tourists and locals spend a lot of time up here at all the heurige – wine taverns.  Since I could never get past the smell of wine, this hasn’t been part of my experience.  I love Vienna’s spring water though 🙂

Note: There was an interesting plaque at the top of the hill that left me curious – I don’t have much time to research it now as I need to get to school soon, but it turns out that it’s about a parallel universe and the creatures that live there. Seems that Kahlenberg is also known to some as Seen des Himmels (Lakes of the Sky). Check out their website if you want to know more and click on this image to see it larger – hopefully you’ll be able to read the text.

IMG_4634Anyhow, I had a great day in nature and now I’m excited to explore the other 12 trails – I’ve got til June! I tell ya – feel the fear and do it anyway!  It’s worth it!

P.S.  On Saturday night, Ellen and Monica, two of my roommates, went to a ball in the Hofburg Palace – it was organized by their university.  Ball season is such an important part of Vienna culture, and one I won’t be participating in, so I wanted to share a couple of their photos.

Have a great week and hope you get some time in nature!

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Reflections on War & Peace: Visas & Vienna’s Augarten

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IMG_4262During the holidays, my father lent me James A. Michener’s non-fiction novel “The Bridge at Andau” about the the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and Austria’s crucial role in helping the 180,000 refugees who escaped by crossing over the tiny footbridge and swamps at the border.  It certainly wasn’t very cheerful reading, but it gave me a much deeper appreciation of human nature and of this region’s history.  It was also a great reminder of how truly lucky I am to live a life of freedom – always being able to decide what I want to do and where I want to live, as long as I am willing to take the necessary steps to make it happen.  Considering I was born in Canada in this era, these steps have always been relatively easy – certainly never life-threatening.  Still, some cause me stress..

This morning, I took one of these steps – I went to the Austrian Registry Office to make my official request for a residency permit that will allow me to study here until June. I could only apply once my school received its certification, which only happened late in December.  I was nervous. I’m sure my holiday reading didn’t help – stories of abuse by authorities who wielded the power of life and death behind the iron curtain.  Truth be told, though, I’m usually nervous in such situations (“Is there a document missing in this 1-inch thick envelope of paperwork?  Did I fill-out the 9-page German application accurately? Will they accept my renewed criminal record check if it hasn’t been notarized? Can my future really be determined by a yes/no from officials even if I’m a good girl?)” You get the picture.  Part of me has a very spiritual take on events – nothing is good or bad, it just is, and a decision either way will be a sign of what I’m meant to do next – but part of me gets all uptight around anything to do with authority and bureaucracy.  Luckily, Florence, our school’s administrator, was kind enough to accompany me, the first student to go through this process. Better still, the officer who greeted me was very nice and even complimented me on my German.  She double-checked all of my paperwork and, after a few minutes, so did her colleague, who then sent me to the cash to pay my 100 Euro fee.  I’ll find out the results in a few weeks.  Wish me luck!

Since it was sunny and above zero (although not yesterday’s 10°C), I then decided to explore a nearby park that seemed huge on the map.  The Augarten, I discovered, is actually a 52 hectare walled-in park with tree-lined avenues, flower gardens (no blooms now), sports fields, playgrounds, dog parks, an outdoor swimming pool (still full, but covered in ice), a retirement residence, a palace, a contemporary art gallery, a porcelain factory & shop, restaurants, home of the Vienna Boy’s Choir, and more.  It’s the oldest Baroque garden in Vienna. Even though the grass is still green, it wasn’t nearly as impressive as it will be in the spring (I will definitely return if I get my visa).  Walking amongst thousands of bare trees, however, added to the ominousness of the two huge anti-aircraft gun blockhouses that loom over this public park.  What a strange sight! I wasn’t sure what they were at first, although I felt uneasy around them, so I looked it up on Google while sitting on a park bench and found out that these flak towers also served as air-raid shelters during WWII.  I’m surprised they weren’t in the movie “The Third Man” with Orson Welles, which showed a lot of Vienna post-war.  Standing here, at the foot of these foreboding structures,  I recalled how uncomfortable I also felt when I heard the anti-raid sirens being tested in Vienna and when I learned how they test them weekly in towns and villages across Austria.  (I just checked and found out that they are now used as fire sirens instead).  All in all, the juxtaposition of war and peace – concrete bunkers and baroque gardens – was thought-provoking. The cold war only ended in 1991 and the last world war only 68 years ago.  Although monuments and stories remind us of this in Canada, it is so much more evident here in Europe – at least for me.  I smiled though, as I was nearing the end of my walk, when two white doves flew in front of me and landed in a tree  (OK, they could have been pigeons).  I also smiled when I followed my nose into the palace restaurant for a delicious daily special – rainbow trout on a bed of risotto for 7.90EU ($11.50 Cdn) – although I was surprised that it came without any vegetables.  Still, it was excellent energy for my 2-hour walk home along streets I had yet to explore.

May 2014 be a year of peace and freedom all around the world, and may we all learn to choose love over fear.

P.S.  After writing this post, I found 2 films on the Hungarian Revolution online:  “Revolution’s Orphans“, a Canadian short film (click to view) and “Children of Glory” – which I watched in German (click to view) because the English version wasn’t available on YouTube.

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Transitioning Into a New Year

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It’s long been a tradition to set New Year’s Resolutions.  I believe that how we choose to spend the transition from one year to another is, in itself, the creation of intention.  So here’s how I spent the last day of 2013 and the beginning of 2014.

New Year’s Eve:

  1. After hugging my family goodbye in Ottawa, I spent the day traveling from one continent to another – reading, watching movies, chatting with my neighbour, thinking, and sleeping.  When New Year’s Eve hit both Canada and Austria, I was flying high in the skies, aimed towards education, adventure, mystery, discovery, creativity, and so much more.
  2. After doing the laundry (I didn’t want to start off the New Year with dirty laundry – bad Feng Shui), washing up, and getting dressed, I relaxed for an hour with a great book friends gave me, “Merle’s Door – Lessons from a Freethinking Dog”.
  3. I did the groceries – filling my fridge and cupboards with an abundance of healthy organic foods – good Feng Shui.
  4. I then decided that although part of me wanted to stay home and relax by myself (that ever so strong introvert self), a stronger part of me would have regretted not playing tourist by exploring the free activities along Vienna’s New Year’s Path – the whole downtown core was filled with hundreds of thousands of people, several stages, outdoor screens at the Opera House and  St. Stephen’s Cathedral, an abundance of stands selling food, champagne, punch, mulled wine, and paraphernalia of the swine variety (pigs are a traditional Austrian symbol of good luck for the incoming year),and waltzing lessons.  So I pushed through my resistance and headed out, walking around the historic part of town from 4:30pm to 6:45pm – plenty of time to reaffirm that I’m not into crowds, especially when a good number of folks are drunk and setting off loud firecrackers and fireworks (websites warned to bring along ear plugs to avoid permanent hearing damage).  I’m sure extroverts had a great time until the wee hours of the morning, but I was quite content with my explorations.  Glad I did it! My most interesting moment was when I was heading towards the stage at City Hall for my final stop (where I eventually caught a few songs by the Abbariginals. I got a really good vibe from a street in the opposite direction.  There, I found a whole series of booths that offered spiritual guidance for the New Year – shamanism, astrology, numerology, angel card readings, etc.  Nice!
  5. At 7pm, I joined 2 other classmates at our Director’s/Administrator’s apartment.  Florence & Laurence had just returned from their home in France and had invited us for appetizers and a champagne toast before shairng a meal and several hours of conversation.  It was really good to connect with them – to bring in the New Year with friends.  At midnight, we were on the roof watching fireworks lighting up the sky in all directions.  We set intentions for the New Year and sealed them with hugs.  Although the 3 major official fireworks shows were over by 12:15am, unofficial ones and sidewalk firecracker parties were  still happening by the time I got to my place at 1:15am.
  6. I fell asleep listing all the things I was grateful for on this day and in 2013 and praying for everyone I know and those they know, and so on (basically, all of humanity).

New Year’s Day:

After 10 hours of sleep (catching up for my short night on the plane),

  • I woke up and lit a Tibetan Dharma beeswax candle I received from my mother (which will burn until I go to bed).
  • I smudged / purified myself and my room with Peruvian palo santo wood smoke.
  • I showered, imagining all that no longer served me going down the drain to be transformed into something useful.
  • I pulled 5 of my Spirit Calling Cards, asking for guidance on what I need to focus on in the next year.
    New Year's Reading
  • I did 3 pages of stream-of-consciousness writing related to my card reading, finding a deeper understanding in its meaning.
  • I did my monthly financial tabulations for December as well as my yearly summary –  seeing where my money came from and where it went all the while evaluating if these categories / amounts were in line with my values and priorities (a great system I learned years ago in the book “Your Money or Your Life”).
  • I moved $5,500 into my Tax Free Savings Account – the yearly allocation for Canadians.
  • I read my January astrological forecast,  which actually predicted “The full moon of January 15 will be very helpful if you need to hear back about a passport, green card, or visa” – I will be applying for my residency visa on Friday…
  • I connected with all of you by writing this blog and sent Happy New Year emails.
  • I reached out to a friend to make plans for this weekend.

and before the day is over, I plan to:

  • make a healthy organic brown rice & lentil soup;
  • make a digital vision board – intuitive style;
  • watch another inspiring film on youtube on the life of Nelson Mandala, featuring Sydney Poitier (I really enjoyed the one I saw at the Bytowne Cinema in Ottawa last week, “Mandela: Long Road to Freedom“, which is based on his autobiography and is nominated for 9 awards.  Mandela died during its London premier.
  • get a good night’s sleep before getting back to business & art tomorrow.

This is how I’ve chosen to end one year and begin another:  a couple of days filled heart-connections, travel & tourism, stretching comfort zones, spiritual rituals, relaxation, inspiration, and other priorities.  I hope you’ve also had a great transition into 2014, in line with how you like to spend your time – being true to ourselves is indeed a great gift to all those around us.

May 2014 be filled with love, peace, joy, health, wealth, and happiness to all of you, dear readers (from 30 countries in December alone! – baffling!) and all those you know and those they know, and so on, and so on, etc.

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Tutoring in Payerbach- What a Great Idea!

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Look what I did!  I’m so thrilled! – with both the process and the result.

IMG_4102My Spirit Calling Card reading 3 days ago was right.

Untitled-1I’m so glad I decided to contact two of my teachers, Vera Aichinger and Kuba Ambrose to host and tutor me for 2 days in their small town 89 km outside of Vienna.  What a fruitful experience indeed!

DLH_5503I took an early morning train from Vienna to Payerbach on Wednesday, arriving half an hour earlier than arranged (regional trains in Austria are much more expensive than in the Czech Republic, by the way).  This gave me time to take in the misty beauty of the place before Vera and Kuba met me at the station.

Their little house at the edge of town was about 15 minutes walk away.

It felt so good to be out of the city – one of my goals during my time off from school was to explore the Austrian countryside.  When I remembered Vera’s invitation to come and visit them after they moved out here,  I came up with the brilliant idea (if I say so myself) to hire them to tutor me, which would also help me with another of my goals:  to improve my drawing/painting.  What a win-win situation!

Kuba put together a 2-day course based on my inspirations and desire to improve my understanding of the human figure to then be able to stylize it into my acrylic paintings.  I’m so grateful for all his preparations – he started with an enlightening presentation that helped me understand the impact and appeal of works by artists that explored the more graphic 2-D style (e.g. Mucha) and the blend of 2D and 3D (e.g. Klimt).  He also talked about how the Impressionists used colour to create depth without the use of neutrals, something more in line with my current preference for bright colours.   I then spent time before lunch working on copying one of Mucha’s sketches.  There’s a lot of value in copying the work of masters – and it’s not as easy as it appears – not for me, anyway…  So much erasing went into creating this very simple sketch. Learning to see where I had veered from his was in itself a great challenge.

IMG_4097I would be remiss in not talking about lunch…  Although Vera was busy preparing for the  Soul Painting class she is offering this weekend in Vienna, she cooked us a variety of delicious, abundant, vegetarian meals over the course of the 2 days.  I definitely learned about creativity in the kitchen watching her work over the wood-burning stove beside our worktable.  What a blessing!

After lunch, we went for a walk in the woods around their house and on the hiking path alongside the train tracks.  I had to take their word for it that we were at the foot of the mountains.  The fog never lifted enough in my 2 days there to see past the foothills.  Still, it was gorgeous!

After feeding the wood-burning stoves (the house’s only source of heat), Kuba continued what Aloria Weaver started teaching me during my last couple of days in class.  I had asked her to spend several hours one-on-one with me (and Edgar – our class skeleton) to help me understand how to draw faces.  That was an invaluable start.  Kuba took that a few steps further.  First, I had some serious work to do to grasp how to translate all the parts into a dimensional-looking drawing.  Feeling my face with my fingertips, I tried hard to imagine it like a landscape that my pencil would translate on paper.  This was tough since drawing dimensional landscapes isn’t something I can do either.  But through a variety of exercises, I went from drawing this …

IMG_4101to drawing this.  Good work for my first day.

IMG_4095Since there was no heat in the house when I woke up early the next morning (and I was told that I might smoke up the place if I tried starting the wood stove by myself without a prior demonstration), I decided to stay warm in my sleeping bag covered by a very thick duvet, and spent time feeling my face and reviewing what I had learned the day before. With a lot more practice, I will achieve my goals!  I just have to redirect my current obsession with free YouTube movies back to extra drawing practice 🙂

For my second day of tutoring, Kuba adjusted what he had planned based on my desire to translate what we’d learned into the world of painting.  My task was to first draw a face from my imagination (and with a lot of coaching) onto watercolour paper and then to paint it.  Using quick-drying acrylic paints, we approached this task in a similar way to the layering approach I’m learning with oils and egg tempera in class.  I’ve only begun to understand the process in class, a reality that isn’t helped by the fact that it takes a week or more for some layers to dry, and therefore much too long between practical lessons for someone with my limited memory.  Here, I was able to go from step to step, layer to layer, lesson to lesson, all within a day.  Perfect! What I learned in my 2 days in Payerbach will greatly help with my in-class painting and beyond.  I’m as sure of that as I am that what I have learned in my first trimester has helped with what I achieved here this week.  Isn’t it great how life and learning work?!

With a very limited old-master colour palette, we first applied the whites and darkest shadows over an overall colour wash.  We then accentuated the highlights and applied a dull greenish glaze to create what is called the “dead layer”.  We then brought out some of the colour, highlights, and local glazes in a series of layers.  I learned a lot about colour-mixing and blending in this process. It’s always been difficult for me to blend highlights to mid-tones to shadow without delineating lines.  Again, practice will help here.  It will also greatly help with symmetry.  Try as I might, I needed Kuba’s eyes and hand to help fix the eyes – it took a while to figure out that both her eyes were looking in different directions – the difference a millimeter makes.  Have I mentioned I’m an abstract painter? I am not inclined to precision in my painting as I might be in several other aspects of my life.  Perhaps that’s why I find it so freeing.

Anyhow, by the end, I was thrilled with it all.  As I sat on the 5:54pm train back to Vienna, looking at my finished painting, I found it hard to believe that I had created it.  Yay!  Thanks Vera & Kuba for a wonderful 2 days – it was also such a pleasure really connecting with like-minded souls.

 

how-to-paint-a-face

OK – now it’s time to pack for my week in Ottawa  – Christmas with the family. Yay!

 

 

 

 

 

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Intuitive Walking Game – Fun!

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pigeonThis was fun, so I thought I’d share – especially during this holiday season when it’s so easy to add on the extra pounds.  Dress accordingly…

I’m a walker.  I’ve never owned a car (although I love to drive) and always find a place to live within an hour’s walk to school or work.  It’s about the only exercise I get apart from some restorative yoga.  I love walking – I get to see lots, think lots, listen to audio-courses, etc.  We all know the benefits.

I also have no problem sitting on my butt all day.  On Friday, I spent all day at school where I hired one of my classmates to tutor me on some Photoshop techniques he had wowed me with.  On Saturday, I watched 6 movies in a row (I recently discovered that you can see full movies for free on YouTube, so I’m catching up…).  On Monday, I spent 13 hours on the computer writing an article for a great inspirational website (my first draft was 2,000 words and the limit was 1,000 – I can be wordy at times… have you noticed?).

So on Sunday, when the sun came out (a rare occurrence during Vienna winters), I just had to get out.  Usually, when I don’t have a destination, I like to play an intuitive game that goes like this:  at every intersection, check which direction feels better and follow through. It’s a great way to explore the world and develop your intuition.

Sunday, however, that didn’t appeal to me.  As I was putting on my boots, three numbers kept popping up in my mind: 6, 8, and 2.  So I tried something new. I walked 6 blocks in a direction I had never walked before, 8 blocks to the left, and 2 blocks to the right.  Perfect!  My intuition brought me to a neighbourhood park where I spent a while sharing a bench with a pigeon and soaking in some Vitamin D.  I felt honoured that he didn’t fly away.  I was sure there would be something at the end for me, no matter what it was.  As a bonus, I got to see all new things along the way, including a farmer’s market.  When I lost my count, I just checked on my smart phone’s map app and got back on track.  As a reward, after my total of 32 blocks (I discovered some blocks in Vienna are super long), I found a store that actually had Lays potato chips – Paprika (to go with another couple of movies on YouTube).

I usually go walking on my own, but I’m sure you could play this with friends – get each one to subsequently tune in and come up with a number and a direction and trust that there will be something there for you at the end, even if it’s a bird on a bench.

 

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Guest Teaching in the Czech Republic

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After a wonderful 3 days in the Austrian Alps relaxing, skiing, socializing, and feasting, I went back to the Czech Republic with my hosts.  We got to Blansko at 8:30pm and I went straight to bed after a very welcomed plateful of spaghetti.  I’m glad I got a good night’s sleep because on Monday morning, at 7am, I was heading off to work.

Monday:

On Monday, I joined Soňa at her primary school in Adamov, the small town where I spent the first month of my 2 years in the Czech Republic back in the early 90s.  It was fun!  I taught 4 hours of English in grades 1,2,3, and 4. We played vocabulary games, Simon says, and learned/sang Jingle Bells. Check out my drawing of the “one horse open sleigh” – my 3 months of drawing lessons are definitely not evident there…. sigh.  I still had a lot of energy after 4 hours, but spent the last hour at school reading my borrowed Kindle before joining Soňa and the kids for a bowl of goulash and a plateful of noodles with a sweet poppy seed, sugar, and butter sauce.  Hadn’t had that in 20 years!

At 1:30pm, we headed out to Boskovice with a stop at a palace on the way.  I had never visited this historic town with its former Jewish ghetto, its palace, and the ruins of an old castle up in the forest.  A great day indeed!

photo by Soňa

Tuesday:

At 7:15am, I met my friend Lenka, who is the director of a primary school in the small village of Rudice. After an hour of reading and an hour polishing my mathematics skills in Lenka’s grade 4/5 class, I spent 3 hours teaching grades 3, 4, and 5.  That last class could go beyond the word level and into sentences and questions, so we covered much more in our time together.  I also got to try a smart-board (interactive white board) for the first time – cool! One of the classes was much more… energetic … than all the other classes I had taught so far, and so I’ll admit, I was tired by lunch time.

Lenka and I went to the Golem restaurant in Blansko, and I enjoyed a huge plateful of roasted duck, sweet cooked red cabbage, and 2 kinds of dumplings (the traditional and potato, which I preferred).  We then spent a relaxing afternoon at her place with her partner and her cute little rabbit.

In the evening, I joined Honza (Antonin & Soňa‘s 18-year old son) at Ulita, the community tea house in Blansko where he works part time. What a great place – some of the regulars were playing board games and Honza and I got to know each other over a cup of rooibos tea.  He’s quite fluent in English, and so we chatted about a whole variety of things, including his other part-time job designing computer programs for his sister Iva’s university professor in Brno.  Impressive.

Wednesday:

I woke up early and finished the novel I was reading on Iva’s Kindle. Yay!  I was then able to join her and her brother on the 9am train to Brno, the city where I lived and taught in for 2 years.  I had 4 hours on my own to walk down memory lane, pedestrian malls, and historic alleys of this, the second biggest city in the Czech Republic.  I found 3 Christmas markets, which was perfect.  You can imagine my surprise when I heard a children’s choir on stage singing Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah in Czech – beautiful!

At 2pm, I met my friend Lucka, who is also a school principle.  We headed to her home in the village of Omice and spent the afternoon catching up, cooking, eating, and decorating gingerbread cookies.  I remember her doing this back in the 90s – amazing skill!  I just wished I remembered some of the zentangle patterns I had learned for this welcomed culinary arts & crafts activity.

Lucka’s designs.
My designs.

At 7:30pm, I was on the Student Agency bus back to Vienna – I had bought my ticket online for $10 (200 Czech Crowns), a third of the price of the train.  They even have individual TVs at every seat, so I finally got to see the Academy Award winning film Argo.  By 10:30pm, I was back in my student residence bed, thankful for such a wonderful week with such wonderful people. My heart just opens up every time I’m in the Czech Republic.  It’s a very good feeling, and I’m glad that this time, I was able to give as well as receive.  There’s such pleasure in both!

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Saint Nicholas Ski Weekend in the Alps

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Thursday Night:

Exactly a week ago at this time, I was waiting, and waiting, and waiting….  in front of the Hofburg Palace for my Czech friends Antonin, Soňa, their daughter Iva and her friend Jakub to pick me up.  I thought I had chosen a relatively easy place to meet, right off the main Ring road.  Alas, road blocks and detours had them circling in Vienna for 2.5 hours before we finally met up. Thank goodness for cell phones!

Luckily, we had such a great weekend in the Austrian Alps that our rough start was soon forgotten.  We got to Tauplitz , the oldest ski region in Austria, a bit past 10pm.  Antonin and Soňa are part owners of Haus Alpin, a hotel at 1650 meters above sea level that caters only to Czechs and is booked by individuals and school groups 2 years ahead of time.  A few choice times a year, they and the other 39 owners come together in this 40-room hotel to socialize, feast, and partake in the many blessings of these 2000-meter mountains. This time, I was blessed enough to join them.

Once in the parking lot at the end of a steep twisty road part-way up the mountain, we called Haus Alpin to be picked up by a couple of ski-doos with luggage/people-wagons behind them. After dropping our stuff off in our room (6 beds for 5 people – plenty of room!), we headed downstairs to the dining room to socialize.  I was tired, but it was great.  Czechs speaking Czech all around – what more can I ask!?  Sitting on a small table was a huge round of Parmesan cheese from Italy (2 feet+ in diameter) with a few knives to jab our way through it.  That was dinner as I was too tired to get a real meal from the kitchen (I’d be getting plenty of those later).  Boy, did I sleep well that night.  I didn’t even hear the others come in.

Friday

As was forecasted, we woke up on Friday morning to a huge snowstorm with hurricane winds that shut down the whole mountain.  There were reports of thousands losing power in the Czech Republic from the same storm.  So we spent all day

  • sleeping (I was up at 5am, but ended up napping for 4 hours before lunch – it’s the altitude, you know)
  • reading (thank goodness for Iva’s Kindle e-reader that had some English novels on it to choose from – I got hooked! I didn’t think I’d like reading on a Kindle, but it’s like reading on paper and fits in your pockets.  I can see myself with one of these one day).
  • eating (and eating, and eating – what great food and plenty of it – all included in the price, which was free!  Such blessings!)
  • playing ping-pong (while running around the table)

After lunch, which always consisted of 2 choices of soups with Czech rolls, Soňa, Jakub, and I headed out into the storm in full gear to go to the nearest hotel around (which is also the most historic), Hollhaus.  There, upon request, we had an English lesson while Iva and Antonin trudged half-way up a nearby hill on foot, battling the elements, to then ski/snowboard down once. They had been more restless than I was. Tony joined us after that for a cappuccino and mulled wine.  By then, every table was crowded with Czechs from next door – great minds think alike!

Friday night, we celebrated Saint Nicholas.  No one told me that we’d be having a second feast, so I loaded up on the grilled potatoes and corn on the cob to go along with the bacon-wrapped turkey brochettes I chose (others had venison steaks with traditional dumplings and red cabbage).  An hour after dinner, however, we were presented with a gourmet buffet (that I skipped), followed by amazing deserts (that I didn’t skip – a mouth-watering hot chocolate cake with hot chocolate sauce inside – a description that doesn’t do it justice).  Oh, but I forget – sorry …. a bit food obsessed, especially after this weekend).  Between dinner and the feast, we had a visit from Saint Nicholas, accompanied by an angel and devil.  Each child (and a few teens) were called and The Book was checked to see if they had been good or bad in the past year.  No one got coal, this year, but a few little ones who thought they might were literally trembling and crying, waiting for the verdict. A few had to sing a song, but, in the end, everyone got a bag of goodies, much to everyone’s delight.  Once again, I was in bed and asleep before the others.

Saturday:

I didn’t wake up as early, knowing that the ski lifts wouldn’t open in the morning due to the continuing winds and blowing snow.  After a bit of yoga in bed, I really got into my book – “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn and enjoyed my time with my friends.  After lunch, however, we got geared up and headed out to the few open runs in our vicinity.  This was my first time on skis since a weekend in the Rockies with my ESL classes when I was teaching in Calgary (2004).  It had been more than a decade before that, so you can imagine how nervous I was heading out with the wind and low visibility.  But I did it (self-pat on the back), equipped with Soňa‘s ski pants, Honza’s helmit (the son that didn’t come this weekend), Iva’s old skis and boots, and Jakub’s goggles (he chose to use his new sunglasses).  It was a bit nerve-wracking, but Tony and Soňa were patient and very encouraging.  Yay!  By the time I got back to Haus Alpine, my legs were sore (my butt wasn’t though, despite my one fall, which you may get to see when Tony edits his video that he shot with a camera on his helmit) and I was very hungry (those butterflies in my stomach made some space after lunch).  Before dinner, however, the gals headed down into the hotel’s new steam sauna – very nice!  I hoped it would help relax those unaccustomed leg-muscles that had had quite the workout that afternoon.  I then thoroughly enjoyed my huge piece of vegetarian soufflé and salad.  After dinner, I stayed downstairs to read, and just when I was getting ready to head up, Soňa asked if I wanted to join them at a crowded table.  I had been relishing in all the Czech conversations I had had up to that point, but I knew that I wouldn’t understand a word anymore at that hour, exhausted from my first half day on the hills.  So once again, I was first asleep.

Sunday:

Up at 5am for some yoga and reading again before the others woke up at 7:50am, 10 minutes before breakfast.  I don’t know how they do that!  What I do know is how I came back from my 2 years in the Czech Republic, 20 years back, with an extra 20 pounds!  I’ve never enjoyed bread, but I do love my Czech rolls with cheese and tvaroh, a milk-product we just don’t have in North America.  I worked it off though – with better weather and visibility, we headed straight for the hills. This time, I actually found myself enjoying it, just like when I was a kid zooming down the hills with such a sense of freedom.  My family spent 5 years in Europe when I was 5-10 years old, and I have many fond memories of ski holidays in our camper.  I reconnected with that on Sunday.  Sure, the butterflies visited the belly a few times, but I even found myself singing as we coasted down Panorama Alley and other more leisurely runs.  The whole mountain was open, and so we went on 5 different kinds of lifts and skied from 1914 meters all the way down to the village of Tauplitz and back up and around.  Wow!  At times, we could even see the mountains in the distance, which was spectacular! (photos included above).

After lunch, we grabbed our luggage, which we had stored in the ping pong room with everyone else’s stuff (no worries about anyone stealing anything in this crowd), and enjoyed a ski-doo ride back to the parking lot.  I had my camera out and did some drive-by shooting, both on the ski-doo and in the van on the way down the mountain and away from Tauplitz.  First though, we had to take the snow off the car, and no one has shovels or scrappers around here it seems (note: they wanted me to take pictures – it’s not like I wasn’t ready to help, just so as you know!).  What an amazing weekend for which I am so very very grateful, thanks to my dear friends!

Since classes were finished, I headed back to the Czech Republic for 3 days with my friends, but I’ll write about that in the next post.

 

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Now That’s a Market! +

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Wow!  OK, so if you have time to only go to one Christmas Market in Vienna, definitely go to the one in Karlplatz, in front of St. Charles Church.  There are over 80 booths/cabins filled with the handcrafted wares of juried artists and artisans.  Nothing junkie here.  Plus I’m told the organic mulled wine and the children’s activities here are better than anywhere else.  Again, I didn’t buy anything, but enjoyed immersing myself in the creative beauty.

I came across this market when our class exited from the subway after a fantastic afternoon in the studio of Micheal Fuchs (one of Ernst Fuchs’ sons, who is also a successful artist and teacher – as is Micheal’s son… talent runs in the family).  His studio is in a small historic town on the outskirts of Vienna.  I love field trips, plus I learned a lot about sight sizing portraits. Great stuff!

After a quick dinner, we all headed back to school for a painting party. Apart from the mulled wine, our party was just like class, but more chatty.  At about 11pm, it was finally my turn to get help putting my second glaze on my painting.  We opted for a magenta to keep it in the warm tones, but the colour that came out of the tube was much too red, and so we added blues and rose to try and achieve what Laurence was used to from his higher quality oil paints. The glaze went on much darker than I would have liked, obscuring my whites more than it did for other students (but it didn’t melt them away this time! yay!).  It’s true, I initially felt disappointed, but also calmly resigned (Laurence might disagree with this description)- trying to reserve judgment. I’ll just see where this painting goes and learn a lot in the process.   I did get to see how Laurence lifted glaze with the palm of his hand – the artist’s karate chop technique… probably not recommended for your health, but interesting.  I got home at midnight and not sure what I’ll be doing this weekend.  I’m open to spontaneous ideas.  First, breakfast.

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Vienna’s Christmas Markets

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My walks home after school are taking much longer than usual now that the Christmas Market season has begun here in Vienna. In the last week, markets have sprung up all over town – series of wooden cabins selling arts & crafts, Christmas decorations, imported wares, and lots of food & drinks (especially gluhwein – mulled wine). There are 3 popular markets on my usual walk home, and I detoured a few blocks one evening to take in the one at City Hall.

The atmosphere at these is quite fun – the Viennese are very social people, and it seems that standing around in the cold chatting for hours holding a cigarette and a ceramic cup filled with mulled wine is as typical here as spending hours over a cup of coffee and pastry at a cafe during the day.

Each market has 20-60 cabins filled with colourful stuff.  I only saw one or two things that I thought would make nice gifts, but when I realized they were made in China and could be found in 2-4 cabins at each and every market, I was glad I hadn’t spent my money on them.  There aren’t actually a lot of artisans at these markets – mostly commercial and imported stuff except for all the cheese, meat, and other edibles. Still, if you’re into shopping, you could find some neat gifts here. I can’t imagine being one of the vendors, however.  These markets last all the way until Christmas and some until New Year – there may be little heaters in each of the cabins, but it’s not warm.  I shared a table the other day at my favourite Vietnamese restaurant with a girl who said she’d worked at one of those markets before and had been miserable.  We’re still a couple of degrees over freezing here, but the wind and humidity add to the cold for sure.  And it’s getting colder.

Here are some iPhone shots to give you an idea (sorry for the blurriness – I’m thinking of going back with my real camera, but just in case…)

Maria Theresa Square:

Once I leave school and the palace area, I cross the street and through the square between the twin Art History and Natural History museums with a monument to the empress Maria Theresa.

Museum Quarter:

Across the street from that is the famous Museum Quarter, with its dozen or so museums – a popular hangout space in any season.  There are no gift vendors here – simply several establishments selling mulled wine and punch and the occasional live music show. There’s also what I believe is a curling rink, but the stones look different.

Spittelberg:

This one covers a few of the cobblestone alleys off of Burgasse, the main street I walk on between my place and downtown.

 

City Hall:

This one looks most like Christmas with all their Christmas lights, a children’s village and impressive backdrop – all that’s missing is snow.

I’m sure I’ll be exploring more of these markets around town and maybe even outside of town (I just found notice for a boat trip to a castle near the Slovakia border for a few hours at a traditional market there… a tempting treat for 50 Euros including an on board buffet… part of my financial priorities is experiencing Austria while I’m here).  OK – time to head to school – have a great day!

 

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A Day Trip to Mödling

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This was definitely a touristy weekend – I’ve always taken advantage of being here to discover gems in and around town, but now that I know my stay here will be shorter, I feel even more compelled not to stay home on weekends.

My Saturday hiking plans with two of my classmates were cancelled when they were deterred by the threat of rain (they didn’t move here from Newfoundland!), so I took advantage of the 48-hour transit pass I had bought and spent the day in Vienna on the fast trains (S-bahns), underground (U-bahn), and trams, getting off wherever I felt compelled to. It’s so much fun exploring without a plan –  deciding at each moment whether to turn right or left, whether to hop on or off one form of transportation or another.  If you haven’t tried it, I recommend it. It’s a great way to tune into your intuition, embrace the mystery, and get to know an area.  Sure, there may be a huge wall around a public forest with the door locked, or a hissing wild swan blocking your way to a path that had called you to jump off the train.  To me, those were simply clear signs that I wasn’t meant to go there. I did take the next path to peek at the small garden homes along the water, right in the middle of the city.  Neat!  I also explored a beautiful huge park on the Old Danube and ended up having lunch/dinner in a luxurious Chinese restaurant filled with Chinese people (always a good sign).  Being my birthday week, I allowed myself the extra expense, listening to my stomach, which never fails to be heard one way or another 🙂

On Sunday, the weather was much better for my trip to Mödling with my classmate Donnalynne.  It’s only 14km out of Vienna so we were there really quickly thanks to the S-bahn.  We would have had to wait over 40 minutes for the bus from the station to either the Liechtenstein Castle or to the Seegrotte, so we hopped a taxi for 10 Euros – worth every penny as I tried understanding our driver’s questions and eventually was able to communicate that we wanted to be dropped off at the parking, not at the door of the castle, so that we could walk and take pictures on our way there. He was patient with my determination to understand him, and we succeeded.   Wow! What a walk… It’s quite a special feeling walking up to one of these majestic castles (especially when heavily influenced by Hollywood movies, novels, fairy tales, etc.)  The castle is owned by the same Liechtenstein family that owns the small European country of the same name – they came from here.  It was great walking around in the sunshine and we had a touching conversation with a man who grew up in the area during the Nazi occupation. His father had had to join the army to avoid prosecution for openly speaking out against the Nazis and then was taken prisoner of war in Italy.  Sharing in that way certainly enriched what could have been a superficial tourist experience.  We then took lots of pictures before taking the guided tour inside (no pictures allowed inside…).  You might recognize this castle from the movie The Three Musketers (1993- with Charlie Sheen and Keifer Sutherland), which I haven’t seen yet.  It was also used in Robin Hood (Kevin Costner) and for a small scene in Lord of the Rings.

We then walked about 15 minutes through the wide open fields, forest paths and village to the Seegrotte, the biggest underground lake in Europe, formed after a mining accident caused the water from above ground to flow inside.  They must pump the water out daily so that tourists can take the 8-minute boat ride at the end of a very informative tour.  The Nazis had totally pumped the water out and used it as both a concentration camp and factory for building parts of aircraft.  This place is seeped in history and being here so close to Remembrance Day seemed appropriate.  On a much lighter note, it was also used for the filming of a few scenes in the Three Musketeers and other movies.  We had wanted to ask the friendly lady at the cash (who had surprisingly given me the postcard I wanted to buy for free after I complimented her on her choice of music – Norah Jones) which restaurant she recommended, but the office was already closed.  So we wandered back up into the village (it seemed longer uphill after a day of walking around) and found a great place run by the same family for the past 100 years.  Donnalynne was in heaven with her venison stew and dumpling and I thoroughly enjoyed my grilled chicken with pumpkin risotto and my first sauerkraut since I arrived here.  We then rushed to the bus stop 2 minutes away to catch the only one in 1.5 hours back to town where we immediately caught the S-bahn back to Vienna.  What an awesome day!

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