Whirlwind Wien

Well, I finally made it out of Germany. I haven't been trying too hard because Munich has been so damn great, but when opportunity strikes...go to Vienna. Having learned a great deal from the previous weekend's lack of planning, I got together a game plan on thursday to get on a train to Vienna, Austria and see what it had in store for me. Courtney had come from there when she visited, and she left me a map of the city and a recommendation. I was going it alone this time. It would be the first time I've ever travelled somewhere that I didn't go with or meet someone there, a whole city just to myself. How exciting.

I decided to book a bed at a hostel, rather than sleep on the streets again. So that worked out well. I had a map and a bed to sleep in. Everything was comin' up Curtis...Austria is a German speaking country so the language I was used to, and it worked tremendously in my advantage. I was easily able to handle the communication, although people in Vienna seemed more eager to help me out with my German than in Munich. I felt good being able to order food, ask directions, etc., without having to "impose" my language on them. There was a good flow to the whole trip, here's how it unfolded.

I arrived in Wien at 1 in the afternoon and immediately set out for the cathedrals. I studied Romanesque and Gothic architecture before moving to LA and the interest has not subsided. In fact, coming to Europe has only sparked my interest even more. I visited St. Stephan and St. Vincent cathedrals one after the other. St. Stephan's is the largest church in Wien, and is the landmark for the center of the city. The city has actually passed a law that nothing can be built taller than it within a certain radius so that no buildings obstruct it's view. The tower was so powerful from the ground that all I can do is show you a picture. St. Vincent's cathedral was a beautiful example of high gothic architecture, complete with vaulted ceilings and flying buttresses, immense alters, and a serious case of verticality. This was a great taste of the European cathedrals, and I only hope that as I see more of them, the differences will stand out from the obvious similarities.

Following the cathedrals, I headed over to the hostel and dropped of some of my stuff before going out on the town. Unlike Munich, a night out in Wien doesn't only consist of only beer swilling, you can watch Opera while you down the local brews! A little class never hurt anybody. During the summer months, the city hall acts as an open air cinema which plays films of operas and classical music. I headed over there around 7:00 and got some great food and drink, mingled with the Wieners and settled in for "Il Travatore", a tale of two brothers who sacrifice the woman they both love because of their personal beliefs. As the screen went black and the 500 audience members scrambling for public transportation, I decided it better to head back to the hostel and get some rest for the day ahead.

Rothaus Opera Film Festival


Pretty nice room for a hostel
I woke up at 8 am and was ready take in the museum scene in Vienna. The city is literally packed with museums. They've devoted several city blocks within the center to what is called Museum Quarter, and outside of that are several more museums to be had. I started off with the Sigmund Freud Museum which was based in the apartment he and his family called home from 1890-1938. He actually used the apartment for his practice during this time as well. From there I headed to the Belvedere Palace, home to 90% of Gustav Klimt's art work. An impressive collection of work housed in an opulent baroque palace overlooking the city. It was just a short train ride back to the Museum Quarter where I took in the Leopold museum and the Museum of Modern Kunst (kunst=art). Both museums were very impressive.

Belvedere Palace = Baroque extravagance
While I tend to lean towards the modern side of the arts, the Leopold Museum had nearly the entire works of Kolo Moser, one of the founding artists in the Austrian modernist movement, which was utterly astounding. His career began designing graphics for stamps and currency, moved into furniture and interior design, and ended as a respected painter in a variety of mediums. They also had a large exhibit of Paul Rotterdam's drawings. His style is strikingly graphic, but his strokes of graphite extend beyond the perceived boundary laid out by the form.

Pattern by Kolo Moser
The MOMOK was appointed with all the standard modernists, but a few exhibits stood above the rest. An entire floor was devoted to the post-modern movement in America, including a large collection of pop-art and found objects as well as study's in performance pieces(Happenings and Fluxus) and sound(John Cage). The most exciting artist of the trip, however, was Markus Huemer. He's a contemporary artist working in both digital and classical media. His large paintings were absorbing, intrusive statements; distorting natural subject matter into a poster-like graphic. His digital work was more conceptual; motion sensing computers juxtaposing the viewer and the work, and Rothko-like minimalist statements done in shades of Process Blue, the same color the projector displays when it is displaying "nothing."

"I could have painted you a political painting" Markus HuemerSo Wien was amazing. The perfect amount of culture and history to fill my head. The museums kept me inside my head and I didn't feel the need to converse aimlessly to pass the time. It felt very much like a Germany that wasn't utterly decimated in the war, so there was a greater since of heritage in the architecture of the city, and that was in-turn reflected in the attitude of it's citizens. Although I didn't have enough time to see it all, I feel that the little I did see will be enough to bring me back again. And next time I'll make it a point to extend my stay in the beautiful Austrian city of Vienna.

STRAIGHT HOONAGE

Rallye Deutschland 2007 - Trier, Germany

So I'm just starting to recover from the hectic weekend I had. But the greater the risks, the greater the reward; and risk it all we did. I left the house on saturday before anyone else to enjoy a peaceful day of history, little did I know that I would end up in Germany's oldest cities. As I was riding the train back from Dachau (read below), Allen sent me a text message to meet him at the train station at 5 pm. Why you ask? So did I. It was 4:40 and the train takes over 25 minutes to return to Munich. I called him up to see what was going on. He let me know that the last train to Trier leaves at 5:37 and the World Rally Championships are making their only stop in Germany tomorrow. Needless to say I stepped off one train and got right on another.

Getting to Trier was easy. To quote H.S. Thompson, "Buy a ticket. Take a ride." I think he meant that in a slightly different context, but I digress. We knew where we were going, and where to look for fellow race fans for advice; but we had nowhere to stay, no tickets to the race, no idea where to buy said tickets. We did have huge amount of optimism, and the desire to see racing that doesn't generally make it across to America. Six and a half hours and two trains later we pulled into the station at Trier. Part one: Get to Trier; complete.

Trier is a small city on the border of Germany, maybe 30 minutes from Luxembourg. It was founded by the Romans in 16 BC and the historic tone of the city is echoed in it's appearance. The city Center is home to the Porta Nigra, a Roman gate to the former city border, built in the second century. It's starting to sink in. So we've come to the oldest city in the country to see modern monsters, rip around tight, winding streets at breakneck speeds...Sweet. Nothing was going to stop this from happening.
First we needed some information. We met a group of Subaru fans outside a a cafe and managed to get a map of the race events off of them. It told us that the info booths opened at 7 am, but didn't mention anything about buying tickets. So we had to wait. It's now around 1 in the morning and we haven't found anyone else to help us out. We tried 4 hotels for a room, but of course there's no rooms, 120,000 people have come from everywhere to see the races. We continued to walk around town looking for a place to sleep, which by this time, did not exclude cozy places on the street or on a bench.

Around 2:45, we posted up in front of a large stone building near one of the turns on the racetrack. Our thought was, if we wake up within the gates, maybe they won't check for tickets. Um, yeah right. We just needed a place to stay close enough to the track so we could get there in the morning. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I slept in a nook on the stairs until I couldn't take the cold anymore, and decided to get the heart rate up by walking around. It would be sunrise soon and that meant we needed to find tickets. We found coffee and bread at the train station before heading towards the racetrack to find tickets. The night was gone, and I had spent my first night homeless...something I'm in no rush to do again.
The entire race was sold out. What? Wait we came all this way, slept on the street, and can't see the race? Sympathy is not a German strong point apparently. I had previously learned how to ask for tickets in German(read further down for that one), so I made up a sign from a poster I found on a phonebooth around the way, and we headed towards the entrance. This was at 7:30 am. The rally started at 11:11, so I figured we had a good shot, plus there was no way we were leaving this city without seeing the race. At 10:04, a stroke of luck: A woman with a large group of people, had 1 extra ticket. That will do...now for the other two guys I came with....uh, you guys have any luck? Nope, but that didn't matter. We could get inside the gates now.

We spent the next 3 hours watching some crazy Hoons throw hyper-tuned, AWD machines around an ancient city. The excitement throughout the city was electric. After all the cars on the ticket had run their times, they brought out the vintage rally cars. Audi Quattro, Renault Elf, BMW 2002, and something called the LANCIA STRATOS? hmm, what could that have been...only the sickest rally car ever built. A Lancia Stratos in the flesh(steel); running balls out, through the streets of Trier. And only 7 hours ago I was sleeping on the stoop of some building in the cold night.
The smell of octane in the air and melted rubber from the street will last forever, but not to worry, I took a few pictures and some video. I'll get the video up as soon as RTT unblocks youtube, or follows through with getting us internet access at the flat. Here's a couple shots to wet your appetite.

Audi Quattro

Mitsubishi Evolution

Dachau

A somber morning, partially cloudy, led me to the Hauptbahnhof(central station) and 25 minutes outside of Munich to the first concentration camp built under Hitler's rule. I took the trip alone. The experience of the hallowed grounds really needed to be done that way, alone. There is a dark history to the quite bavarian town. Over 12 years,from 1933-1945, thousands of people were forced through the gates of the camp, and astounding numbers would never leave. In 1944, at the height of the Nazi brutality, more than 120 people a day were executed there. These numbers leave me dumbfounded.


Prisoner entrance. The gate reads "Work will set you free"

I could not imagine trying to take in the historic relevance of this place with others interrupting my experience. Even after the fact, I'm finding it hard to put into words the emotion I felt as I walk around the grounds. It was a history lesson that you have to see to understand. Nothing I read during any of my education could have taught me as much as just being there and taking it in. Amidst the stories of the evil which was brought upon innocent people, the memorial stands as a beautiful shrine to hope and understanding. It shows the world that the atrocities committed there will not be forgotten, nor repeated.

PacMan Fever

So Allen and I went out on friday night for a beer and it rapidly turned into a heavy evening. I saw the glare of the arcade machine from the hall. I stepped up and left my mark on the PacMan arcade in the bar...18540. I know it's not too high, but we'll see if it can hold up to the Germans.

Suche Zwei Karten (searching for 2 tickets)

I played soccer for many years growing up and I've ALWAYS wanted to see quality, premier league soccer in Europe. Now that I live here, it is the perfect chance. Enter FC Bayern Munchen. Bavaria's biggest soccer team has won some 13 of the past 20 years in the German league, and is home to some of the most terrific players in the country. There season started on saturday and already a sea of red jerseys fill the streets of Munich. So the second game of the season was today and it also happened to be a national holiday for Germany! Things are starting to fall into place...but I had no tickets.
The day started, a little late, as an exciting adventure to secure tickets to the friendly match between Bayern Munich and Barcelona. Courtney had agreed that seeing football would be a great thing to do for the day, so we woke up and headed for the stadium after a little coffee break. The plan was simple, meet a few of my coworkers at the train station, head to the stadium, and pick up some tickets from scalpers outside. Easier said than done.
The train station was a madhouse, and wall to wall soccer fans, piled into subway cars like sardines, made for a less than thrilling 20 minute ride to the Allianz Arena. We got off the train and headed to the gates of the stadium. Fans of all ages, clouted in red and white, stormed from the train down the path leading up to the entrance. I was thinking, "no one who loves their team this much, is going to give up there tickets", and I was right. We spent an hour and a half in the blazing sun looking for someone who looked like a scalper, but to no avail.
Every person that we asked, turned out to be looking for tickets themselves. In a bitter state of defeat, we headed back to the train station and got on board the U-Bahn. Courtney and I left my two coworkers to fend for themselves at the stadium. We decided that the day was too nice, although hot, to waste by going home, so she suggested the English Garden, and a stop by the famous beir gartens.
On our final sip of beer I recieved a call from Clement, my coworker, telling me that they got in for only 40 euro and that if we came back, we may find tickets before the game started. We jumped back on the train and headed out again but the scene had changed since we left the arena earlier in the day. In little over an hour that we had been away, all the fans had gone inside and we joined the remaining souls out front to beg passers by for their seats. No luck.
We headed back to the apartment to relax from a long day of unfulfilled hopes, but we had tried. Failure this time, but my luck will change. I will see a pro soccer match; I will see it soon; and you can be sure that I will write every detail about the game when I do.

Bike Tour

This weekend has been rough. Plenty of beer and a late night walk home after missing the train, only to find that I didn't have the keys, Parker did. Anyway, the opportunity struck to take a moment for myself on sunday. Plus, the sun meant I could get back on m bike. I woke up with the sun bleeding through the blinds, a welcome feeling after 5 days of rain. The chance to get on my bike and see some more of the city got me up and into the shower. After a light breakfast, I grabbed my camera, jumped on my bike, and headed down the street towards the plaza with Allen.

An hour well spent sipping coffee and reading in the Gartner Platz, while Allen finished his weekly internet routine, prepared me for a well paced ride up and down the banks of the Isar. The city has done a great job of isolating bikers from the traffic, and it makes for some good cruising speeds. The river itself, flows from the Alps in the south, the water can be very cold, but the Bavarians have done a marvelous job of building around it. The Isar splits apart into three at points only to rejoin itself down stream. This makes for an intricate bridge system with waterfalls and gates(flood control I suspect).
First stroke of luck was a small tunnel leading down under the main road that crosses the river. Graffiti strewn across the walls and the cooler temperatures led to a quick sit down and snap a few photos.
Up and out of the tunnel and I found myself in fornt of the Maximilianeum House. From what I could tell it was used as the home of the Bavarian Senate, after the King, for whom it was built, had passed. The elevated terrace provided beautiful views of downtown munich and some stunning architecture.
I continued along the river with Allen and stopped for a few more pics, before we decided to head back towards our neighborhood to get something to eat. The Muncheners know how to take in the sun, everywhere you looked people were just hanging out, walking, sitting, riding, or anything else that can't be done when the rain comes. On the way back we cruised past another plaza with a raised terrace, overlooking a unique fountain. We paused for some pics and continued on towards somewhere to eat.
We sat down at the cafe and saw some other guests eating burgers and decided to follow suit. My first german hamburger was less than stunning, but I had to scratch the itch. I have no idea how bad those in n' out cravings are gonna hit me in a few months. Outside of the cafe, I saw one of the most well kept BMW 2002's I had ever seen.
So sunday went well...I've got a better feeling about this week, as I'm starting to figure out the work thing. Courtney Smith will be passing through Munchen for a few days. I'll show her the little I know of this beautiful city. Oh , and there's a german holiday on wednesday too! Stay tuned.

Mid-Week Hustle

Things around the office got a little boring, what with doing 3 tutorials totaling nearly 400 pages of lessons. So on wednesday, I decided to look into a little thing that the Euorpean's call a "bar". I found a few choices for the evening, so afterwork the three of us strolled down the Straβe(street) looking for the spots. The first one looked a little dead so we continued on. We walked for bout 15 minutes before we ended up at the Atomic Cafe.



The club was on the list cause it was Indie/Alt rock night. The soundtrack could have come straight from LA; but the scene inside was pure Germany. You only have to be 16 to get into the club and drink here, so it made for an interesting group of people. Let's just say that there was little bit younger crowd was on hand. The music was good, and as usual, the beer was cheap. This lends itself well to hot, sweaty, insanity, if you're in the mood...or 17 years old.
We hung out for an hour or so before we had had enough, and pushed our way to the door. At least we got that out of system.

Kafe Kult

We road our bikes for a few miles towards NE Munich in search of a small club called Kafe Kult, allen fell off his bike(another story entirely) and we completely missed our turn to get to the place. We ended up about a half a mile up the road from where we needed to be, and after a brief pow-wow, decided that we must have missed it so we turned around.

On the way back, in a moment of triumph, Allen saw our turn out of the corner of his eye. We headed into a dark street, following the music, until we arrived at our destination.

Kafe Kult. A small, dark, and smokey club that resembled a graffiti ridden club house. They serve 2 euro half liters of beer and host some of the smaller rock bands from around the world. Kind of a jumping off point for smaller bands. From Monument To Masses played there 2 years ago. But this night we were fortunate enough to see one of the greatest live shows I've ever witnessed. Partly because of the international presence, partly because of the huge undertaking it was to get there; we were utterly stunned by this small band from Italy.

Niel on Impression is a 5 piece band including 2 guitars, a bass, drums, and keys. No vocals. they sound similar to Saxon Shore and FMTM and Pelican, only a little more direct in there sound. They rocked HARD for little more than an hour on their final stop for their tour this year. Dripping with sweat, they cautiously picked up their instruments for an encore that turned out to be the best song of the night. easily 8 or 9 minutes of pure energy...

I could go on and on, but really just download their stuff or check them out on myspace. Neil on Impression.

PS. Doesn't the lead guitarist look like James Barry?

der Regen auf Munchen

The rain in Munich...comes and goes. It seems to heat up for three of four days, build humid moisture, pressure and so on, until the sky can't take it and it rains for 2 or 3 days. Doesn't hinder our experience, aside from not being able to ride my bike. I rather like the rain. I guess that comes from growing up in Sacramento, definately not from living in LA.

The skies now are beautiful shades of grey. Layered patches shifting through the sky. Cloudy sky always will remind me of San Francisco and the cool air from the ocean. It's a good reminder that even though these places I am so familiar with are far away and I cannot see them, they still exist in some corner of my mind. On the flip side, it also brings up memories of long cool days spent with Marisa. The rain comes, and the music that plays along with it changes into tones that don't let me forget her. Soon enough, she'll be next to me agian.

oops, my emo side is showing. don't hate me for it. It's bound to only get worse the longer I am away from home.

Munich, or how I learned to stop worrying and just drink beer

Hallo From Munchen,

We've been in the city for four days so far, and all I can say is that I'm blown away. Today was the first day that we didn't have to go to work and it yielded quite the reward. Our schedule had been thrown off a bit by the time difference, but yesterday and today were the first days that had a natural flow to them, as my body has started to get used to the 9 hour change.
We celebrated a bit hard on friday night. Having gone to the market to buy food(and beer) for the place, we definitely began to feel that this is our home. So to prove it, we drank like the germans drink. Augustiner Brau is the only beer that Munich doesn't export and it enjoys quite the reputation because of this fact. It is THE beer of choice for all the locals from what I can tell at this juncture. Everywhere you look, people are walking around with a bottle in their hand. No laws about drinking in public here. The passengers of a vehicle can even drink! Anyway, we got a case of this beer, 20 .5L bottles for 12 euro, and started in. Our apartment is right near a major night scene that is frequented by many people our own age, so we made dinner and enjoyed a few cold ones before heading out to find the local dive bar.
Beers in hand, we started down the street. We ended up at a small place that we came to learn has a reputation for the best late night sausage and fries(wurst und pommes frites). There we met a handful of locals who were very willing to help out with our many questions regarding the local scene. After a round of beers and some conversation we decided to head back to the house.When we arrived we opened the apartment's previous tenants CD collection and reveled in their taste for American classics. Bon Jovi was a big hit as we finished off the last round of beers for the night and went to bed.
Waking up to the light that was pouring into my room was not too much fun, to say the least. But not having seen any real "touristy" sights, I was eager to get out on the streets and cruise on my newly purchased Peugeot road bike, and hit the streets I did. In german tradition(from what we understand), breakfast at the house contains toast, juice, cheese and a selection of cured meats. Weiss Wurst(white poached sausage) is also common, but we have not been fortunate enough to find it. So having a light meal in my stomach, and a sweet new bike, Parker, Allen and I met downstairs to see the sights. Armed with a map, a camera and a bottle of water, we headed north to the english garden.
Englishen Garten is very similar to Central Park in NY in size, but the quantity of plant life and sheer number of bike paths to meander through made it quite the fresh experience. We road for about an hour and a half, stopping for the quick photo op. when we felt the bug. After exhausting ourselves, we felt it necessary to get our first taste of the beer gardens. We stumbled upon the chinese tower garden(don't ask why it's chinese) to find germans packing into picnic tables, hoisting full LITERS(Mas Bier) of beer, eating 14" pretzels thick as could be, and listening to a full live german band playing bavarian classics...so we followed suit. It was hard to imagine that this could exist peacefully in America, and it probably never could. Something straight from a german stereotype, that you truly have to see to believe.
With our bellies full and our heads slightly off kilter, we mounted our bikes and headed out of the park. It was about 4:30 pm when left the garten, a bit early to call it a night, so we broke out the map and trekked north east towards the olympic center. The slight change in our attitude made for a blur of munich businesses as we left the modern part of the city and traded it in for subtle hills and cottages that surround the Olimpium Zentrium. We road around the center, saw but did not make it inside BMW's headquarters and museum, and watched the street artists perform for hordes of asian tourists(the first ethnic group we had seen). I'll just say that roller-blades have never left the german people, but skateboards are few and far between. Having just about enough of weaving through packs of families and camera wielding asians, we decided it was time to head home.
We arrived home around 7 pm and put our bags down before going back downstairs to eat at the cafe that we live 5 stories above(in germany it's the 4th floor as they don't count the ground level as a floor...and we don't have an elevator). The meal was a great way to come down from the crazy exercise we had from riding our bikes for nearly 5 hours. following dinner we all crashed out for an hour or two before I awoke and hit the streets once again in search for internet. I went back home and invited Parker and Allen to join me in the plaza down the street for a beer to end the night. The plaza is a roundabout with a garden and fountain in the middle. Young people hang out, drink beer, and talk in the garden and on the stairs of the theater which faces inward towards the plaza. Our beers lasted us quite a while while we wound down from a busy day and discussed some of the unique characteristics of our neighborhood here, as opposed to LA.

I've got a new german cell phone that is on a prepaid basis. You can call me for 9 cents a minute by dialing 1016868 before dialing 011-049 to dial our of the country, followed by my cell number, 0176-76399525. If you call me it's free for me.
all together now: 1016868-011-049-0176-786399525. I know this sounds crazy but you should be able to get ahold of me.


Curtis