Carbon Copy

Self-Portraits

I realized the other day that I rarely put pictures of myself on this blog, so I thought I would indulge myself by putting some highly authored photos, each entitled "self-portrait," on here.

(Just to be clear, this is a chewing gum cigarette. They sell them here, and I thought it would be fun to buy some since you can't get them in the US, and for good reason - we don't want to encourage kids to start smoking.)

Yeah, they all look pretty much the same, but oh well... So, that's me.

Christmas Squalor Walk

Dan arrived Christmas morning. That's Angie's boyfriend. They were all holding hands and happy to see each other, and I figured that we were going to be spending enough time all three together on our tip to Vienna, London, and Dublin, so I wanted to give them this time alone with each other. I wrote in my journal and then went for a long walk with my iPod.

At first, I didn't really know where I wanted to go, but headed back towards the little residential area we had traversed on our way home Christmas Eve. I wanted to linger a little longer. As I crossed the bridge again, these buildings, hidden from view on Christmas Eve, caught my eye.

I thought it would be nice to somehow make my way up to them and explore a little. I had no idea if it was even possible, or how far away they were, but my iPod battery had just been recharged, so I had plenty of good music to listen to and nothing but time, so why not try.

Well, the roads here aren't exactly straightforward like they are in Utah, so I found myself weaving in and out of them, not quite sure what was a road up the hill and what was a driveway. I made a couple mistakes. Eventually the road led down by the railroad tracks, and instead of spending my Christmas afternoon exploring the grounds of a beautiful building, I found myself in the squalor of railroad tracks, graffiti, trash, and underground passages (also covered in graffiti).

This is all part of what I love about being here, though, like I've mentioned before. The juxtaposition of graffiti with details like this little fountain along the way:

And the moon rising over the university, while cirrus wisps of clouds wrap around it. I sat down on the wall lining the river and tried to capture the perfect blue of the sky.

Then I remembered the way the shadow of an iron gate fell across a snow-covered ground over by a church on the way home, so I tried to take a photo of it, but it didn't work. Here's the church that it is by, though, so if you are ever in Innsbruck and you want to see a delicate shadow in the evening, stop by this church:

(This is what it looks like at night, too, so you'll know.)

Then I decided I had had enough of walking around and waited for the bus. The clock on my iPod is 10 minutes fast, though, so instead of waiting for 10 minutes, it ended up being 20 minutes. This is a self-portrait of me impatiently waiting for the bus in the cold:

After I got home, I made some stirfry and called my family. I wished I could be with them, but I'm also really glad to have had Christmas on my own - all alone. It felt just as good as being in the warmth of my family's house.

Christmas Eve in St. Johann in Tirol

St. Johann in Tirol. The Lederers live here and invited us to join them for Christmas Eve. We gladly accepted. We piled gaily into their van (packages and baggage and scarves and puffy coats) to drive for an hour east towards Salzburg. It was dark, so I couldn't see much. We were quite pleased to join the Lederers because they are one of our favorite families here in Innsbruck. Briefly, the Lederers are: 1) Irene Lederer: a widow. She's always trying to get us to eat more and makes yummy Christmas cookies. (she also acted as the Christkindl). 2) Kordula: She's about our age, going to school to become an x-ray technician, speaks pretty much perfect English, and is clumsy. 3) Leonora (Lolly): 16, tour-guide, plays the guitar and owns good movies like About a Boy and Emma. 4) Arthur: a student that lives in Graz, so we've only met him twice. He was there with his girlfriend. He told me I had a good German accent, so I like him. Although today, while sitting behind him in church, I was nervous about singing because I wanted him to keep his opinion that my accent is good. 5) Two other children, out and about in the world.

When we arrived in St. Johann, we dined and played a card game. I lost. We crawled into bed around 1:30. I slept well, except I had to get up in the middle of the night to take off my legwarmers because I was too hot.

Christmas Eve

Lolly took us on a tour of the village of St. Johann. Apparently, it's a pretty touristy little village, which allows it to keep its charming exteriors, but also ensures plenty of souvenir shops. It's settled in the valley of two mountain ranges - one of which includes the tallest peak in Austria. However, it was so foggy, that we couldn't see any mountains. Well, later in the afternoon, we saw the outlines and ridges of some.

So here is a virtual tour of St. Johann:

Interior of the church:

And of course, the attached cemetery:

And the expansion of the cemetery:

(I think the way the snow frames this picture makes it kind of look like it's being effaced in some way - pretty perfect when you think of death, huh?)

While we were in the cemetery expansion pack, the bells from the church rang noontime clangs. I love the church bells.

Continuing our tour, these are some facades of houses and other buildings that I saw on our walk back home:

What I like about this last building is the chimney. It's so perfectly distressed with exposed brick, you might think it was fake, but it isn't because, as I have to remind myself, this is Europe and things really are old here, not just made to appear old.

As promised, the mountains peeped through the fog for a moment:

(Okay, so there aren't any mountains really in that last picture, but I like the way the houses are settled up against where the mountains would be if there wasn't so much fog, and I liked that they are the very traditional kind of Tirolean (Austrian?) architecture.)

When we got back, we made merry with decorating the Christmas tree.

And played a boardgame where you contrive to kill little cardboard people by either burning them in the fire, dropping a chandelier on them, making them fall off a bookcase ladder, trip down the stairs, or be crushed by a suit of armor. This time I won.

Later, we went for a walk in the fog, sang carols, and looked at blurry Christmas lights from faraway houses. When we got back, the Christkind had come and laid presents on the table.

We opened them, had dinner, and caught the last train to Innsbruck. When we got back to town, the normal buses had stopped running for the night, so we had to take a Nightliner bus, which dropped us off about a mile from home. We walked down little streets, thick with fog, but illuminated by red, lit candles balanced on windowsills. We had to wind up the base of a large cable bridge and cross over, not only the sleepy Inn River, but the rushing cars of the freeway, and then back down to more familiar streets.

More Munich

Well, of course there was more to do in Munich than just the Lenbachhaus, but I didn't want to clump them all together, so here are some more pictues and a little bit of commentary about the rest of my trip to Munich.

The trip to Munich included, Angie, me, Claudia, and her friend, Simone. These were the principle players, but along the way there was also a riot of football (and that means soccer) fans. Apparently, there was a huge game in Munich that Saturday, not to mention all the Christmas shoppers and the regular tourists and everyday citizens. Thus, it was a crowded trip. We left in the wee hours of the morning (9:00 am) from Innsbruck and drove to Kufstein, where we ran to catch the train - this was a special deal, all four of us for 22 euro (public transport in Munich included). The Munich trains station is the largest I had ever been in. It was like an airport, just as crowded, just as much luggage, just as many little stands. But thanks to Claudia and Simone and their expert guidance, we found our way to the TI and then through the subway system and over to the Lenbachhaus, about which you have already read. Afterwards, we headed back to the main downtown area to the rathaus and kriskindlmarkt and then inside the Frauenkirche.

The cathedral had amazing stained glass. But this is the thing with stained glass, I can never figure it out. I mean, it's so tall that I can't really see the top, and then I'm not really up on my biblical (should that be capitalized?) iconography, and I really don't know anything about saints. I guess it's just about the coloring, though. St. Denis and his ideas of light.

Of course, there were also carved saints and plenty of memento mori(s).

And a crypt with an expressionist pieta.

After the cathedral, we visited an expensive stationary store and as we left, we saw this view of the towers of the Frauenkirche:

We found our way back to the rathaus and entered the courtyard, where there was a little market and some gothic gargoyles and other architectural features.

I love how with gothic architecture, it's all about the details, like this webbed dragon.

Or these figures above a doorway:

Then we walked back out to the Marienplatz where the lights were just starting to come on.

We dined in the famous Hofbauhaus - the oldest pub, apparently. We had white sausages and I had half a chicken. Angie had the stuffed peppers.

We left our mark on the table so we would be remembered by those that come within the next couple weeks or so.

Here's a little of the boisterous atmosphere:

The Kriskindlmarkt is always best at night. The lights shine and it smells of roasted almonds covered in cinnamon and sugar. There is a famous glockenspiel in Munich. I read on the Web site that the figures dance at 11 am, 12, and 5 pm, so we stepped outside the 5 story bookstore at 5 to 5 to watch the figures dance. The bells pealed and we waited, our eyes fixed to the top of the tower, but nothing happened. We found out later that the 5 o'clock performance is only during the summer.

Well, we caught the train back at about 7. The soccer game was over, and it was a tie. Both sets of fans were happy. The fans on the train with us were so happy that they were lighting flares, jumping up, singing songs, clapping, and of course, taking pictures. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of them. But they did provide an amusing spectacle.

If you think the night is over, thing again. There are still a couple pictures of the Kufstein fortress. We jumped out of the car in the freezing cold to take this pictures.

Okay, that really is all now. Ciao.

Lenbachhaus in Munich

For 3 euro (approximately 4.01138 US dollars), I gained admittance to the Lenbachhaus Museum this last Saturday in Munich. Lately, I've been questioning just how much I really enjoy going to museums. The last couple expeditions haven't left me feeling terribly satisfied. I leave feeling overwhelmed and somewhat let down. I was a little nervous about going to this museum because I didn't want the same experience. Since I was there, and my student ID card gave me such a discount, why not see a collection of German Expressionism, the Blaue Reiter Group.

Of course, the whole museum was not dedicated to this group, so I passed through a multi-media exhibit which used dark and light and hypnotic movements. Then I climbed stairs to the second floor.

I don't really feel like doing a huge commentary on everything. At first, it felt like any museum. Paintings, people, benchs, white space, windows where you could see out side.

There were a couple pieces that caught my eye. I didn't write down the names of the artists. I wish I had now. But I did take a couple pictures, to be used for my own personal use on this Internet Web site. (note: these photos should not be used by anyone else perusing this site... not that they're great photos of the paintings.) By a couple, I mean about 40 or so. But don't worry. I narrowed down which pictures to put on here.

This is the room where I started getting really excited. I wish I could describe why. Maybe in another mood, I could, but I just loved the bright splotches of color, the piece-iness of it all. I loved being able to get up close and see the dried paint in clumps. These pieces were accessible to me. They almost seemed a part of me.

The photo of this Gabriele Muenter painting turned out blurry, but I still want to use it because I love the colors.

Some of the Kandinsky paintings were so small. Imagine fitting a colorful, splotchy world in your pocket or purse. I wish I could.

Some of the more famous German Expressionist paintings by Kandinsky, Klee, and Marc:

And the final salon was the Lenbach rooms, filled with art pieces collected by Lenbach.

As you exit, you descend using this staircase with broken bottles caught in the walls. Another time of day, and the reflections of brightly cut glass would be on the wall. I couldn't help but think of the movies - riot scenes in bars, when people break a bottle for a weapon. The riot inside after viewing art.

I'd like to sneak up the steps of this false entrance and lurk around the museum for days. I could slip inside and sit on the red benches. I'd like to take down the pieces of art and run my fingers over them and smell them. I wouldn't hurt them, really, other than the innocent passing of oil from my hands, which might not be great for preservation. But I'd stick them back on the walls when I was done. I want everyone to look at them.

Krampuses Amok

Krampuses were running amok in Telfs on Saturday. I captured a few in photos.

After the parade and the scaring and hitting of people, you find out that krampuses are really just like everyone else.

Some kids want to grow up to be a krampus, so they are practicing right now.

A toast to the Krampuses - Cheers!

Cemetery

I've always found comfort in the cemetery, as this little blog has from time to time attested. Last Sunday was no different. Across from the stop for the #3 is a walled cemetery that I have meant to visit for the past two months. After church (3 hours of German that I don't understand), I decided to wander for a bit. Of course, I took my camera to church (who doesn't?), so here are some pictures.

Something I like about the cemeteries here are that often there will be an arcaded gallery with paintings over what looks like a hearth. There will be candles lit and flowers. It makes me think of the dead gathering in one big living room, all surrounding the formal portraits. I like the cozy scene. I also like that people here actually go to cemeteries. They are always busy. There are places for you to fill your watering can.