Christmas Markets in Vienna

*Nick in Vienna

As I mentioned in the last post we have done a ton of things in the past couple weeks. We going to try to catch up a bit and write about various highlights. We're heading to Budapest with my parents in a couple days, so hopefully we'll catch up before then. This post is mainly pictures, but I wanted to post them while people were still in the Christmas spirit.



I wrote about this awhile ago, but there are tons of Christmas markets in Vienna. Seriously, is there is a bit of open space then there is a Christmas market. They all have wonderful hot wine and other adult drinks, sausages, chocolates, cakes, and numerous stands with ornaments, crafts, toys, books, scarves, etc. Here is a picture of Jane and myself with my brother and mom at one enjoying our drinks.

The biggest market is in front of the Rathaus, which is city hall. Here is a picture of the building all lit up. They turn the building into a gigantic advent calendar and show a new painting leading up to Christmas every day. We were there on the 23rd, which is why you can still see the 24 in this picture my brother took.






On Christmas Eve we went to one at the Schoenbrunn Palace near me. This was the summer palace of the Habsburgs and is crazy big. Here is a wide shot and one of a stand where my Dad got a huge donut-like thing.

where we've been - part 2

*Nick in Vienna

Well, it has been quite awhile since we've posted anything. Hopefully you all have gotten by. We had another huge grant application due on Dec. 15th that took up pretty much all our time. And now my family is visiting us in Vienna so we've turned into tourists the past week and haven't had much time. We're going to do some more specific posts on highlights, but I thought I would just mention a few of the things we've been up to the past few weeks.

I went to Paris on the 9th. During the days we worked like crazy on the grant application, but most of the nights we were able to have fun. We went to a couple Paris Christmas market, went to one opera and one ballet, and explored new parts of the city we had never seen. On the 14th my brother arrived from the states for a visit to Paris before we all went to Vienna. We had to send him out a bit on his own, but he had a great time touring around Paris. We finished our grants on the 15th (with over 15 minutes to spare!) and spent a couple days in Paris with my brother. We went to an amazing display of Monet (more on that in a later post), had a four-hour dinner with one of Jane's friends, and went to the art studio/cafe that Jane had been to for Thanksgiving.

On the 18th we flew to Vienna. The trip to the airport was not smooth. It had snowed during most of the day and it was wreaking havoc on travel, or at least that is how it seemed. We went to the metro about 2 1/2 hours before the flight, but the trains were so crowded that it took 4 trains to get us all to the north train station - the first one we couldn't fit, then Jane got on the next train, then me, then Ben. It was a crazy mass of pushing people (who mostly all stayed very calm) and being virtually unable to move. We finally made it to the train station where we took a train to the airport. We actually got our tickets very quickly and made it to the gate with about 30 minutes to spare, but the flight was delayed. After waiting a couple hours in the terminal they got us in the plane where we then waited another two hours before taking off. We landed in Vienna around 3 in the morning - about 4 hours later than we were supposed to. None of the transportation was running yet, and there were no taxis, so we had to wait until about 5 for a train into Vienna. When we got to my parents hotel at about 6 they were very relieved (they didn't know what was going on and why we were 6 hours late because we had no way to contact them).

For the past couple days we have seen some of Vienna and took a lovely day trip to a monastery town called Melk (more on that in a different post). We also went to the ballet. Unfortunately, it has been so cold (around 5 farenheit) that we have barely been able to be outside, which is a shame because Vienna is beautiful at Christmas. It is supposed to warm up in a couple days. Today my parents and brother took a day trip to Salzburg, but Jane and I stayed here to recover and save some money.

We'll post more soon now that we are starting to recover.

Viennese Christmas Lights

*Nick in Vienna

Last night I did standing room at the opera for Ariadne auf Naxos. During the break between getting my ticket and tying a scarf to mark my spot I took a little walk and took some pictures. I hope you enjoy.

A French Thanksgiving

*Jane in Paris*

On Thursday the French Fulbright Alumni group put together a Thanksgiving dinner for any alumni, students, exchange teachers, distinguished chairs, and UNESCO Fulbright interns that wanted to come (I've learned that "Fulbright" actually encompasses a wide variety of exchanges). At my families' houses Thanksgiving is always a rather relaxed affair, but it would figure that the French would have to take our casual American holiday and make it a spectacular gastronomic affair.

The dinner was held in a restaurant at Les Frigos, a 6-story meat cellar turned artist work space. The structure is a plain white factory-looking building built during one of the World Wars to house the tons and tons of cows that had been slaughtered as the Germans advanced. The picture to the right shows the menacing pipes that pervade the building. In the 60s, I think, the French government decided to give the building to artists, who quickly began to decorate the building inside and out.



Not only was the meal in an incredible place, but the mostly French contributers to the meal made sure to add a sophisticated, gourmet twist to their dishes. The turkey was cooked like a steak, and it was served covered with a sauce. The mashed potatoes were sweet potatoes with just the right spices. Of course there was lots of wine and Perrier to drink. The tables were adorned with festive, fall centerpieces.

I was oddly the only Fulbrighter of my kind (U.S. Student is my title), and one of just a handful of Americans at all. This disappointed me because I haven't seen the other American students since late October, but it also gave me an opportunity to practice my French, because the crowd was mostly French alumnae of the program who had once been on a Fulbright to the U.S. I talked with a couple passionate about music and art in general for an hour, and they eventually gave me their contact information and suggested that we visit the various composers' museums in the Paris area in the Spring, once the leaves come out on the trees. I had read before coming here that the French like to engage in lively conversation, and that interruptions are actually encouraged because this shows enthusiasm. I was very proud of myself for being able to do this, and therefore take part in the discussion in an appropriate way.

One other great part of the night was that one of the alumni there was a sculpter that had a studio at Les Frigos. In groups of 20 at a time he gave us a tour of his studio, where several of his original pieces were on display.

At first they seemed bizarre, but the artist explained that he was interested in geology and archeology, and that he focused on the layers of the Earth's surface, because we humans are intimately connected to it. The sculptures in the pictures are made of pieces of iron that are either oxidized or burned to create color, and the artist welds small pieces of something, I think more metal, carefully on the surface to create the appearance of soil. A single tree typically adorns it. I loved the sculpture in the picture on the left because it's all gray.

What a unique experience! But still, it felt strange to not be in the U.S. during Thanksgiving. Besides family, the thing I missed the most was all of the football.

Weekend in Vienna

*Nick in Vienna

This past weekend Jane came to visit me in Vienna. We decided that we were going to relax the whole weekend, meaning no research or writing, because of the grant applications we recently turned in. We probably have not had a weekend without research since last spring when we went on a climbing trip, so it was very nice to relax for a couple days.

On Friday we went to a modern art museum in Klosterneuberg, which is a small suburb about 20 minutes north of Vienna. There is a bus that leaves from downtown Vienna every couple hours that goes to the museum and is free if you buy a ticket for the museum. When we arrived we found out the museum was free that Friday (not sure why), so the bus ride and museum entrance was free, which was pretty great. The museum was quite nice and typical of a modern art museum. Lot's of really cool stuff and lots of stuff that is like, huh, well, that sucks. They were doing a special exhibit on Daniel Richter, a German artist, with some of his stuff as recent as a few months ago. There was also a sound installation that was terrible. It was some guy with a laptop making lots of weird sounds and messing with them electronically. It bugged us quite a bit because it was so loud it could be heard throughout the museum, plus it wasn't anything people haven't been doing for years. Why is it that when some people buy a mac they all of a sudden think they are artists?


On Saturday we did a bit of shopping in downtown Vienna - well, we mostly did looking, though I did buy one thing. The sun goes down here at about 4 and there are some amazing Christmas lights up all around downtown. It is really something to see and next time I'm down there I'll bring a camera. We then went back to my place to make something like a Thanksgiving dinner. We won't be together on Thursday (though we should each be with new friends) so we wanted to make something, which can be difficult in a foreign kitchen. We made mashed potatoes (with no masher) and Jane made egg noodles cooked in chicken broth that have been made in her family for who knows how long and have become a staple of our Thanksgivings. They were very good, but there was no rolling pin and we couldn't find one in the store so we bought a hard salami and she used that in its package. Not sure if she is the first person to use salami instead of a rolling pin, but really it seemed to work quite well. We also substituted cherries for cranberries and minute steaks for turkey because I have a tiny oven and we didn't really see any turkeys anyway.



On Sunday we went to the opera. This time we did standing room for Richard Wagner's Die Walkure. It's the one with the famous "Ride of the Valkyries" that is in Apocalypse Now. We got there 3 hours early to get in line and the opera itself is around 5 hours. So yeah, we were pretty tired afterwords. I kind of considered it earning a music badge because you can't claim to be a musicologist unless you are willing to stand through a Wagner opera. Actually, we were by far in the minority age wise. Most people were probably at least 50, with quite a few that seemed to be closer to 70. They have probably been doing standing room tickets their whole life. I wonder if there heels hurt as much as mine did? Jane got bumped out of a spot by an old woman pretending to be confused. We had heard about crafty old women at the opera always getting there way, but it is different to experience it. She also got in trouble jogging through the halls to catch up (things move very fast after tickets are bought as people jostle for standing places) The performance itself was incredible, and came out to way less than a euro and hour.

Today we went climbing and then Jane had to go back to Paris. I'll be going to Paris in about 3 weeks and then my family is coming here for Christmas. We've got more grants due in a few weeks, so it is back to work for us.

Paris Spectacles

*Jane in Paris*

Last Friday I went to my first opera in Paris. The state opera here actually has two houses, one that looks really ritzy and is in an affluent part of the city (Palais Garnier), and one built in 1989 in a lower middle class area with a modern design (Opera Bastille). The opera hall itself was designed to have no obstructed seats (Garnier does because of all the decorative architecture) and to evenly disperse the sound so that there are no dead spots. Some people roll their eyes at the idea that the French government did this, but I actually think it's a pretty brilliant idea. While opera started out as a genre for the incredibly privileged few, there's no reason why it can't be both a high art activity and an art "for the people" today. The Bastille site offers free concerts once a week, and standing room tickets to all of the operas and ballets shown there. Furthermore, the Palais Garnier tends to show the more classic operas.

Unlike the vast majority of opera goers, I like to see modern operas - the more recently it was written the better! So it was fitting that the first opera I saw was at the Bastille, the newer, modern opera house, and that it was Salome by Richard Strauss, which was composed in 1905. Most people reading the blog don't know this opera - it's really wonderful. The music is beautiful. It sounds like Wagner, but its better and gets to the point much quicker. The entire opera is in fact only one act. The singers did an excellent job - in particular the soprano who sang Salome. The libretto is based on Oscar Wilde's telling of the Biblical tale of the death of John the Baptist. Since Salome dances for Herod in the story to bring about John's beheading, the singer in Strauss's opera has a big dance scene. It was amazing. You know that an opera is good when what the composer has done makes you really think about the words, and as I was listening to the opera I was struck by the beauty of Wilde's libretto. It's actually pretty profound from a spiritual point of view.

I bought a standing room ticket, which required getting in line several hours before the performance like in Vienna. But there were several procedural differences: each person can buy two tickets and not just one, when you first arrive a worker hands you a number with your place in line on it, and the tickets are dispensed by machines and not a box office. Oddly, there are still workers that operate the machines for you - this is perhaps so that no one can buy more than one ticket.

Just as the line was moving, finally allowed to proceed to the machines, I heard someone shout my name. I turned around and there was an Ohio State student I had I taught last year, a violinist. This caused me to lose my place in line, but luckily I had my number 10, so I just went through the line showing it to everyone, who seemed to take it very seriously - "oh, you're 10, please..." This student, Leah, just happened to be in Paris this weekend and also just happened to have bought a ticket for Salome. What she was doing there 90 minutes early I don't know. She hung around with me and the people I had come with before the show, and then I invited her to dinner on Saturday. Ryan Stewart, who some of you know, was also in Paris on Saturday, so I ate dinner with him, one of his work colleagues, and my student Leah. It was pretty random - but I feel like a lot of things that have happened to me in Paris feel like that. I can't explain why; perhaps its just such a bustling city and it draws such a diversity of people that magical things are bound to happen.

On Sunday evening I went to another, very different performance. I met a Scottish jazz guitarist here in Paris last month, Tam de Villiers, and he played a show in the jazz district of Paris with his quartet. The name of the club is Le baiser sale, quite a racy label fitting for jazz music.



The quartet's music was very complicated, and I had to listen very closely or I really had no idea what they were doing. I went to the show with my German friend Andreas, who Nick and I met on the train when I moved to Paris, and his friend Carouli. Andreas is a drummer, so we had to sit right next to the drums. Luckily, though, this was jazz drumming, so there wasn't a lot of banging. All of the players were amazing, but the drummer caught my attention the most because of his proximity. He hardly ever played a groove, but was instead constantly improvising. For one piece he played the snare drum with his fingertips, and in one hand he held an egg shaker that would rattle whenever he hit the drum, and then he also had a stick made of a bunch of little sticks tied together. The drummer, whose name I eventually learned is Karl, is from Manitoba. Like many of the North Americans I meet here, he married a French person.

So this was a busy weekend for me! I'm visiting Nick next weekend, and we're going to try to put away the books while I'm there, so for the next few days I'll be hard at work at the Bibliotheque Nationale.

Viennese Christmas Markets

*Nick in Vienna


It turns out that Vienna is lousy with Christmas markets. I've seen tons of adds for various markets already and have gotten some stuff in the mail. There is a huge one outside the Schonbrun Palace that we're going to check out when my family visits and another huge one downtown that I'm sure we will visit as well. These markets are unlike any I've been to in the states (not that I've been to many) in the sense that besides crafts, ornaments, and a billion santas, they also sell all kinds of food and alcohol. This means my Mom is going to have a wonderful time when she visits, and if the rest of us aren't loving it we can have a great time with cheap beer, wine, and whatever that fruity alcoholic drink is with actual fruit in it - it is really good and I've never seen it stateside, but I can't remember the name.

The picture above I took today at a little market pretty close to my house. There was also a one-man band there who was very good. He was playing "I Heard it through the Grapevine," and right after this picture played a really good harmonica solo (I compensated him well for the picture, don't worry). Probably because Vienna is such a musical city the level of the street performers here is really high. When Jane was here a couple weeks ago we heard this grizzled old guy singing the blues and playing guitar. It was so good. I commented to Jane that this guy could open for Wilco right now and hipsters all across america would eat him up. If I was a talent agent I would start rounding up all the hairy old Austrian blues playing men and form an incredible band. I bet I could get them on Austin City Limits in no time.