Vienna MASKS

The rest of our time in Vienna was amazing. The mask exhibit was phenomenal! It displayed masks from many different cultures and provided info about the different interpretations of masks in different cultures over time. The first room contained many things and of them was a display of sculptured heads, faces, and necks cast from people just after their deaths. In Roman times up until the 20th century people created these casts of the dead in order to commemorate their deaths. It was considered the most important way to remember the deceased. We were extremely impressed with how intricately detailed the casts were. The hair, eyes, wrinkles, lump in the throat, etc. were defined so perfectly! It really did seem like we were looking at an actual person.

In other cultures (I forget which) the skulls of the deceased would be kept in close proximity to the family as a way of ensuring the dead person would live on and also to protect from evil spirits. Some of these skulls were on display.

The masks from African cultures were creatively exhuberant! Sometimes animal teeth or hair was woven into the mask, sometimes human hair - a few masks had big, natty dreads and /or afros weaved within and without them! These were by far the most fun, creative, and intricate masks.

However, most all the masks were creative in their own ways. The war-time armor masks were threatening and frightening-looking. Many of the expressions on all kinds of masks were so interesting! These were expressions a human face couldn't even make - some were warped and menacing (as in the case of the war-time masks), others twisted and goofy, others hollow and foreign.

I read there was a time in 18th century Rome(?) where masks were banned from the stage, at which point spectators began wearing masks to the shows. Take that, mask-banners! Masks became a part of everyday life and this is depicted in many paintings.

At one point it was noted that there was a time where masks shifted from having a celebratory function to playing a role in disguising and having
an association with lies (again I forget the society in which this took place). I recall reading an essay back in high school about "the mask that lies..." I forget who wrote it or what it was called but I wrote a short essay a year later using the concept. (Anyone remember this?)

Overall the exhibit was fascinating! Our pictures will show that. We both thought it was really great. I'd see it agian today if we were still there. Only downside: we didn't see Montezuma's mask because that part of the exhibit was closed. Still though - an amazing display of masks. Since then I've noticed masks in display windows of stores or in posters, etc. and I've felt compelled to point them out to Jack because I feel this certain excitement now when I see a mask!

Two simple, initial drawings

The latest:

Here's a few drawings for you all to chew on. This is the plan, as it goes so far. I'm looking for a person to draft this once I get it together, and Ruth will try to find an architectural program to draw it as an alternative. It's a cinderblock or poured concrete first floor with 8 or so rooms, a retaining wall around the outside, and on the second floor, a steel building, something like the S series at crownsteelbuildings.com. Domed with flat walls at the bottom, offset from the first floor to provide a deck/patio above the ceiling of the first floor. Hope you like it. I'm fleshing it out, but this is all I have sketched at the moment.

Take care, gotta go.

JL

The latest:

9-23-09 Continued Again...

We left the museum on a mission to find some hefty Hungarian food. Basically, we were hungry in Hungary...We found a nice little Turkish joint actually with sweet dishes. No one really spoke English in there so we had to drag the person from behind the indoor counter to the pictures of the food displayed outside in order to point at what we wanted. I had my first Baklava, which was PHENOMENAL! My tastebuds swelled with the deliciousness of cinnnamon and LOADS of sugar! Jack had a really colorful dish and I had rice pilaf as well. We got so lost in conversation that when we finally noticed the time, we realized we only had 25 min to hurry back and catch our train to Vienna! We POWER WALKED like crazy horses with our heavy-as-hell backpacks and made it with three minutes to spare!







Jack's Dish


All was well. On the train I read about Vienna. J gave me a looong massage - one of the BEST I've ever had! It was much needed as my neck and shoulders were real sore from the heavy backpacks. We arrived in Vienna some time at night and luckily found a private room available at one of the two "Wombat" hostels in Vienna. The place was the shit: totally stylish, modern, chill, and loungy. The room was 50 euro but was totally worth it as it was super nice with a big bed, comfy sheets, shower, etc. The place was really clean. Breakfast and a free drink at the hostel bar was included.

Around 11PM we went down to the bar in the basement. The layout was really comfortable and totally hip. The bar was filled with young people from all over. The bartender was playing the beginning of popular songs and whoever could shout out the title and artist first would win a free shot. I knew so many of them, as did Jack, but since it was more of a challenge for the others (the songs were mostly mainstream U.S. hits and the peeps weren't American), we let them go at it. It was fun to watch! Jack had a few drinks and we both ate ravioli. I was soooo happy it didn't bother my stomach a bit!

After we finished, we jetted out to find an Elektro club I wanted to check out. I pictured this really chill, comfoy, laid back scene with loungy couches and a soft red glow...I was eager to reward my ears with the pleasure of hearing some trancy, melodic, foreign electro! We noticed, via our map, that it was within walking distance, which was great because we would get to see more of the city up close. Also, we were pretty worn out and didn't want to go a long way out. All was still well.

Vienna looked beautiful at night. The weather was cool and perfect. We were near Westbahnhof, near the train station. We walked through a big shopping district, which was quiet and empty. Unlike Budapest, which was a bit dirty and very smelly, Vienna was clean and fresh. The air smelled very "green" although we were in the city. We walked passed the sign for the club at first. It was tucked behind a strip of stores - we went under a couple of archways and through a tidy little courtyard to get to it. This small scene reminded us of New Orleans.

We could hear the music outside and saw a TV that showed a bird's-eye view of the DJ spinning. Jack said he loves when clubs do that. The really awesome thing was that the club was almost exactly how I imagined it!...in fact, better. We walked through four rooms with stylish decor and soft, red lighting before we got to the one where the DJ spun. In a more energetic mood I could have danced, but we were so tired we just layed back onto the smooth leather couches and dug the scene. The soft red glow was there, the comfort, the style, the beats, the atmosphere. It was a quaint place, which matched our mood perfectly. No one was dancing, just socializing and relaxing. Jack even dozed off, haha. I LOVED the tracks they played!!!

We only stayed about an hour, but it was a great experience. The next morning we got up at 9AM, showered, freshened up, and packed. We checked out at 10am and headed over to this sleek cafe within the hostel to eat. Breakfast was phenomenal! We were SO EXCITED about the food after eating cheese and bread for like nine years.
Jack had cornflakes, a hardboiled egg, fresh red, green, and yellow peppers, milk, O.J. and 1 1/2 ham and salami sandwiches with cheese spread. We each packed a sandwich for lunch later. I put cucumbers on mine, oh yes. I had a bowl of granola, dried fruit, and yogurt. I had two hard boiled eggs, milk, toast with pb and j and toast with butter and cheese spread. Holy crap.

Then Jack blogged on the internet for awhile (the Wombat offered computers and pay-as-you-go internet) while I stretched and then lounged on this ultra comfy, large cushion mat (see pics) while reading up on the Hungary communism museum pamphlets. Then we hopped on the UBahn to find this ethnology museum that had an exhibit on masks next door. Jack especially wanted to see the mask of Montezuma!

9-23-09 Continued...

The House of Terror is a museum and a memorial. The building was once the headquarters of the ArrowCross and Nazi parties in Budapest and was subsequently used for interogations, thus having prison cells and torture chambers constructed in the basement. Innocent civilians were accused, tortured, and even murdered. When we first walked in I heard somber music playing - a very depressing string piece - and I simply could not stop the tears from liberally flowing down my cheeks. It took me about 10 minutes to gather myself (we hadn't even bought the tickets before the misery overcame me), and all the while I was baffling over how humans can be so cruel to other humans.

We learned a lot about the political climate of Hungary from the 30s through the 90s, with a focus on the Arrowcross party, the Nazi domination during the 40s, and the communist regime that followed and its severe consequences in the late 40s through the 50s especially.

The museum was very creatively put together. It was a combination of video, audio, photographs, artifacts, and reconstructed scenes. Although the guards did not want us to take pictures for some reason (isn't the communist regime over..?), Jack snuck in some shots. An interesting example of the museum's imaginativeness was a room that had eight flat screens in it, four on each side directly across from each other. The TVs showed various clips of people talking about the deportations that took place. On one side of the room, wives would tell their stories of how their husbands were taken away from them forever, leaving behind eight or ten children for the woman to raise with hardly any food to give them. Then we'd hear a man begin to talk and we'd twirl our heads around to watch the TVs on the other side of the room, men share their experiences of their hardships at the labor camps. The men and women took turns speaking and as a result we were constanlty turning around and changing the focus of our attention. I belive it was meant to provoke a dizzying feeling. At last all eight TV screens showed video of the countryside passing by at a fast clip, the video was shot from a train. The sound of the noisy train whipping over the tracks was loud. The countryside was a passing blur. It was as though we were being deported ourselves.

I learned a great deal about the communism government in Hungary during the 40s and 50s. Almost every room of the museum provided documents that gave information relevant to that room's theme (i.e., "Double Occupation," "Life in the 50s," "Propaganda," "Resistance") and I read every one so that I could really absorb a lot about the history. The museum was absolutely well done.








Carpet






Propaganda

JL here

If you're reading, you probably said "what happened to all those Europe pictures?" Good point. We got back. Broke. Ruth said "I'm starting to worry about money." And the next day, I had a job. And a week later, she's starting. Sorry. One day. And one more thing in my ongoing excusemaking/procrastination, we finally have a plan for starting SOME work at Eleuthera. A week into the new year or so. Phyllis and Burt will be in Florida, and so will Laura, through January, and in February Leo will be there. So definitely, those two months, we're gonna be working. Thought you'd wanna know why we've been such slackers and what we plan to do to break the cycle of sloth.

XOXJL

9-23 20:55

On Monday we were told that we couldn't "upgrade" our Eurail pass. We would have to ask for a refund for our first pass and then purchase a new one. Eurorail.com told us that the only way we could get a full refund is if we mailed in our pass and re-ordered a new one, which means we'd have to wait until it is shipped to us before continuing our journey. The first time we ordered, it took over a month to ship! Our alternative was to buy a new flexi pass at the Reisezentrum and mail in our old on one to Eurail.com for an 85% refund. Problem is we don't have enough money to buy a new 15 day flexi for the two of us. SO we decided to just keep and use the pass we have, giving up a few days in Muelhaussen. Later on, we'll just purchase train tickets back to Munich on our return.

It was about 6pm on Monday by the time we figured all of this out. Jack suggested we call Caroline and meet her at the HofBrau Haus for dinner! I was so excited! Hofbrau Haus is considered by Germans as a "tourist spot" because the environment mimics that of the Oktoberfest bier tents, which is PERFECt because we weren't able to get into one on opening day. Spending Monday night - our last night - at Hofbrau Haus, roaming the streets of Munich with Caroline couldn't have been more perfect! Hofbrau Haus is humongous and it was packed to the brim, but we luckily snagged half a bench right at the front entrance! I had called Caroline earlier from a payphone at the train station. She had just been leaving her job so the timing was perfect. We agreed to meet at the HB Haus right away, so Jack and I jumped on a couple of Ubahn lines. We had to ask a few strangers where it was - the streets are so narrow and winding, it seems like it would be waiting for us around every corner. I kept saying "I can smell it!"

Due to the amazing seats we had, Caroline spotted us before she was even through the door. She had sounded so excited and surprised when we had called her earlier! I was very delighted to be seeing her again so soon! The Hofbrau Haus was a MAD HOUSE of drinking, laughing, yelling, dancing...People would jump up on tables to dance to the oopma band that exhuberantly played. At random, tables would burst into song (in German of course) and usually Caroline would know the words and we would all sway to and fro with our drinks high in the air in front of us, prosting and cheering! Other times the room would rumble with the sound of people slapping the wooden tables and stomping their feet, like is sometimes done on the bleachers of a sports event, the din increasing with intensity until you're unable to hear your own shouting, all this taking place within a matter of seconds!

We ordered a Radler for Caroline before she arrive - the minimum amount is enormous: 32 oz. Jack tried a few different types of German beer. We watched the oopma band play and we also got to see the dancers - a guy and girl in German outfits dancing together and a group of guys playing wooden spoons on their legs, knees, and wrists. There was a group of girls twirling around too but I couldn't see them very well from where I stood. Caroline showed me the outdoor area, which was very pretty and decorated with christmas lights. We all talked about various things including Caroline's day with Anton, the possibility of her British friend Becky coming in for the weekend, and Jack's & my itinerary for the rest of the week. I ordered fried Bratwerst and sauerkraut for Jack. I had Spaetzel, which is a dish of egg noodles SMOTHERED in cheese (gouda?) and mixed with sweet, carmelized, fried onions. The meal was fantastic and totally German. The salad I ate with it had pickled cucumbers that weren't quite pickles, yet weren't cucumbers...it was very delicious!













From there we wandered the brightly lit Munich Streets. The night air was perfect. Caroline bought us ice-cream -- I had 3 scoops: Banana, Cookies n' Cream, & Dark Chocolate. CnC will always be my favorite, but I was surprised how fantastic the dark choclate was! Omg it was good! SER goot!I'm already looking forward to trying it again! On our ice-cream eating stroll, we luckily ran into this phenomenal violinst Caroline had told me all about. He is a street playing musician and she had shown me a video of his playing the other day. He is extremely skilled!! Caroline even teared up while showing me the video, it was that pretty. That night he was playing with a backup group -- another violinist, cellist, and a percussionist who also played the same "box" we saw the other night. They played a very beautiful piece that showed off his technical skills and then they played a rendition of Paccabell's canon "in D Major" that was totally hiipped up. It was very upbeat with awesome percussion and a very jazzy bass part. I couldn't help from bouncing up & down, nodding my head profusely. I was compelled to start beatboxing! We threw them what shrapnel in our pockets we could afford and continued on.




We eventually found ourselves in some main sqaure, chilling by this big fountain. We took pictures of the beautiful scene that surrounded us and of each other. The water sprayed so tall it blurred the brightly colored lights of the building signs, fading the light to a soft glow. It was very relaxing and beautiful. I sat on Jack's lap. I can remember Caroline's smile. Care took us to the train station and we hugged many times before boarding. She thanked us for coming and told us to be safe.




Munich Hauptbahnhof


The overnight trains, we discovered, down have 1st class cars but luckily we had a small room of six seats to ourselves for most of the night. Surprisingly I slept pretty well, waking up off and on, considering the uncomfortable circumstances. Our train left a short time after midnight. Jack woke me at 6am when we arrived in Budapest, the destination he suggested we scope out first. I had spent some time in the middle of the night reading up on Hungary and Budapest, its history and guide of things to do. Caroline had lent us a "Let's Go Europe" book that Jack found in her room; it had been left there by the last tenant. It has proved to be very helfpful so far. I suggested we stay in Budapest during the day and head to Vienne in the evening where we could stay in a hostel for the night. We walked around Budapest, heading towards the House of Terror. People gawked when we mentioned we were walking the 3-5 kilometers it took to get there. It was a bit tiresome with the backpacks, but totally worth it.

Doin' Munich In Style Part II - Ruth

...We also went on a huge ferris wheel and got to enjoy a SPECTACULAR view of Munich & Oktoberfest! Caroline and I went on a sweet ass super fast rollercoaster together. Then all of us but Jack went on this RIDICLOUSLY high swing ride that was AT LEAST 10 stories high!!! Seriously the fucker was HIGH and we were merely sitting in these tiny swing seats with our feet dangling down, strapped in with a loose seatbelt and held up by four small chains! I sat with Caroline because I knew it would ease my fear of heights. I am so glad I confronted my fear! If I hadn't I would have missed out on a completely unforgettable, thrilling-ass-crazy experience!!






We left Oktoberfest around 6pm and I trekked to the grocery to buy toilet paper and bananas while everyone else slept. I enjoyed strolling the streets of a forgeign land alone.




Around 8pm Jack and I went to the Hauptbahnhof to upgrade our Eurail ticket from a Saver to a Flexi so that we could wouldn't be tied down to a schedule for the rest of our trip, but unforunately the Eurail office was closed. We will go back Monday at 11am to change it and then we will take a train to Salzberg.

Saturday night we ate at an Italian restuarant in the University District. Aaron and Caroline ordered pizzas that were four times the size of their faces!




Today (Sunday) we took Aaron to the central station and had breakfast together before giving our farewells. I am so, so glad he came to Munch to see us! It was so great to see him and I love how Jack and Caroline could see what a great person is he and vice versa! Aaron told me he really liked Caroline and thought she was very cool. The other night he said Jack was "the fucking man" and that he totally admires him! I even saw them hugging at Kultfabric!!

After a short nap Sunday we met a friend of Michelle Estebon, named Michael, for lunch. We ate outside in downtown Munich at a wonderful restuarant called Medon.




Michael is very nice! It was great to get to know him! He spent the entire afternoon with us - we saw an Egyptian exhibit at a museum, walked through the Hof Gardten, saw the surfers again at the Englischer Garten and watched a brass band there. We saw two accordian players playing for money downtown and a very talented violinist at the Hof Garten. We ended the visit with a hearty meal at the Chinese Tower in the Englischer Gardten - Caroline ate two brats, I had a decliously seasoned chunk of beef and onions with seasoned potatoes, Jack had a huge pig knuckel (which I had some of and it was very good, tender, juicy, the whole 9), Michael had plums and a powdery, doughy dessert, and all three of them drank Radlers (Sprite and Pilsner mixed together).
















As soon as we got back, Jack and I started planning for this week's jaunt before Muelhaussen. Care, Jack, and I totally yucked it up tonight! I love how we all can enjoy and appreciate each other's sense of humor! Love, Love, Love them forever! I'm so thankful Aaron came. I'm so thankful Michael showed us around - he was a very informative tour guide and he even offered to take a day off work when we come back to Munich in a few weeks to drive us somewhere! So nice.

I am so thankful I have such a wonderful, beautiful, talented, smart, funny , warm, thoughtful, loving sister!! Seeing her has been beyond amazing!

And I am forever thankful to have such a wonderful companion to travel with! Jack is the best, most relaxed, flexible traveller I've ever seen. I love spending this time with him and I can't wait for more adventures to begin! He is simply incredible, innovative, tenacious, warm, loving, and thoughtful!!!