Rawr is dinosaur for...

Znojmo

12 March 2011

Pictures, March 2011

Just 'cause I haven't done this in ages.

Guten Morgen

Welcome, children of the millennium, to my childhood memories of winter.

Grazer Umland

Budapest

ganz großer Insidertipp: das Sirius Teaház mit Stockbetten und Höhlen.

Ausflug

...

Knowing well that leaving tomorrow means leaving somebody behind for another seven months, much likely having nothing but phone conversations and letters to breach the distance, kind of really freaks me out right now. Somehow, I am the anti-nomad, entirely unaccustomed to this new, flexible, uprooted life happening around me - with cheap transportation and an Europe without borders (at least for those born with the right citizenship...).

These are two pretty amazing museums everybody going to Oslo should see:

The Kon-Tiki museum, featuring the two original "ships" used to prove that ancient cultures were able to move further than previously known.

And the amazing, but very cold Frammuseet that has the entire ship of Roald Amundsen's South Pole expedition (the one he won against British explorer Robert Falcon Scott, who froze to death with his team) on display. You can actually walk onto the deck and inside the ship. It's pretty cool but naturally I didn't get the whole thing on one photo.

Inside the Opera House

Going to see the last performance of this, which was incredible and a very good introduction to modern dance for me.

At the Opera House

Oslo, Tag 6

Some surprising facts about Oslo:

• There are like seven different kinds of slippery - which would all require their own names, but I have to do with descriptions. There is the sluggish melted snow kind, the newly fallen snow on ice kind, the plain ice kind, the looks like the snow has been removed but really, there is still a bit left kind, and my favourite: we decided to protect you from falling by gritting the road, but then, after the fifth consecutive day of snowing, we realized it was pointless. All of these could be summed up in one description: The "why didn't I buy new shoes before leaving" kind. As I said today: "They have grip in Vienna. They don't have here."
• You will start to figure out how to wear your trousers after the first time you make the mistake of not either putting huge wool socks around your legs or wearing the kind of shoes that go around them, instead of under. Shudder.
  
• Floor-heating is the answer to so many problems.
  
• There is pretty cheap coffee that is absolutely OK to drink at some places, served by friendly, very un-Viennese (that was not meant as an insult, but if you've been to one of the more traditional Viennese cafés, you know what I mean) waiters. In QBA, you get free internet access, a refill for half the price (first cup 18 Krona, second 9) and a good atmosphere.
• Tronsmo-bookstore was described by Neil Gaiman and Allen Ginsberg very favourably. They have leftwing political stuff, a focus on gay and lesbian literature and tons of comics in the basement. I'll try to check it out at some point in the coming week, since I finished the only book I brought, "1876" by Gore Vidal (which was probably the weakest in the "Narrative of Empire" series I've read so far...).
• If you want to purchase any alcoholic beverage apart from beer, you'll have to visit a Vinmonopolet. Everybody entering the store (not just purchasing - it's not sufficient if the person buying has a valid ID) needs to be able to prove they are older than 18 or 21. As far as I can tell this or high prices doesn't exactly keep the Norwegian youth away from drinking.
  
• You go into a small club. You expect to be absolutely justified to use the adjective "smoky". As it turns out, you are not. The one thing that seems to be oddly off, that you can't quite grasp, is, as you eventually come to realize, the lack of cigarette smoke (I say they'll never get there in Austria, ever.)
• Three days ago it snowed like 15 centimetres in a couple of hours and the public transport system was running perfectly on time anyway - including tramways and buses. No "Oh my god, there is snow! in winter! we are going to have to stop the trains and all the other stuff will run late and despite the fact that this happens EVERY winter, we are still completely flabbergasted (hah, for years I have waited to put this into a sentence) and surprised". I love it.
• Old people. Heave. The machinery supposed to help them walk. Over huge piles of snows. Same happens with baby carriages. These people are so incredibly tough.
  

And by beach, I meant...

My memory card died. If I find a new one, there will be more pictures (it's awful timing too because I'm pretty sure that today is the only sunny day I'll get).

Oslo, Tag 3

Ich hole gerade die verpassten Winter der letzten Jahre auf:

Hier wird fast kaum gestreut (und wie man sieht werden die Straßen selten geräumt), und die Bewohner haben sich perfekt daran angepasst und rasen schneller vorwärts als ich es aus Wien gewohnt bin: während ich mit meinen Stiefeln (kaum grip) kläglich vorwärts schlurfe und jeden Schritt zweimal machen muss (fünf Zentimeter vor, drei Zentimeter zurück, usw....) - tolles Workout. Und es ist eigentlich auch gefühlt viel weniger kalt als das Thermometer anzeigt.

Schickes Alltagsdesign: einfaches kaltgepresstes Rapsöl um ca. 4 Euro.

Ich wohne an der Grenze zu Grünerløkka, dem siebten Bezirk Oslos. Heute gehts zum Strand: war noch nie im Winter am Meer. Yay.

Heimat

There is something about seeing all those places you went to as a child turning into vast construction sites that is very consistent with my life right now. Everything, every little part of it, forces me to think about this specific place in every sense of this word, and how I fit in, what my role is, where my limits are, and if probably I was never meant to stay and by simply doing that: staying, I have escaped something that was supposed to happen and now I am in a state of limbo with no idea at all where this might be going. I gathered as much about one and a half years ago but this must have started earlier. I've always had these periods of transitition, and I have never dealt with them very well, or maybe not at all. Like, not making any decisions and afterwards dealing with the results by saying "obviously this is the only thing my emotional limitations allowed me to do". Which is probably a lie. I swim really well if you just throw me in the water.

Richtung Semmering

I made this picture without realizing what kind of house it was. Now I really, really like it. Endzeit, Baby.

Minimalism

Ausflug

Kälte, Stille, Weite

Winter I

1. Utopia

Eine Siedlung am Stadtrand, ein blau, das nicht verblasst, ein Ort, der nicht aussieht wie die Umgebung, der aussieht, wie kommunales Wohnen, und doch gänzlich verlassen, wo Menschen auf der Straße immer aussehen, als gehörten sie da nicht hin, als müssten sie wo anders sein, als hätten sie sich verlaufen wie die Frau, die fragte, wo denn da ein Christkindlmarkt sei und wo der Teich.
Es dauert hier drei Monate, bis eine neue Reihenhausanlage steht: ehe das Dach noch drauf ist, beginnt es zu regnen, zu schneien: dann das Dach, dann steht das Gebäude einige Monate leer, ohne geheizt zu werden, und die zukünftigen Mieter werden den Schimmel nie wieder los, aber Hauptsache Eigenheim mit Garten, Hauptsache im Grünen.
Man will darüber schreiben, aber leben will man dort bestimmt nicht.

2. Tree

Dieser Ort, an dem man das erste Mal laufen ging, tausend Mal spazieren, einige Male gefeiert und halbherzig auf dem weitläufigen Spielplatz herumlungerte, bis man von jüngeren, aber schlagkräftigeren Peripheriekindern vertrieben wurde. Wie bereits gesagt: es sieht alles ein wenig ambitionierter aus, als es sich ausgezahlt hätte. Zum Beispiel ein riesiger Platz im Zentrum dieser neuartigen Siedlung: mit Spielplatz, einer Eisdiele, einem chinesischen Restaurant, einem Anker. Obwohl es im Zentrum liegt, findet man dort kaum einen Menschen, vor allem keine Gruppen, vor allem nicht genug, um diese Verlassenheit zu vertreiben, die über allem schwebt. Ein gescheitertes Projekt: Der Anker hat nur noch halbtags geöffnet, die Eisdiele ist zu verkaufen, der Second Hand Shop steht zum Verkauf frei, und die Verkehrsanbindung besteht auch nur bis 20:00, danach muss man anrufen, um ein Anrufsammeltaxi zu bekommen. Dystopie oder: wie man eine Utopie zu Grunde richtet.

3. Lake

Was aber trotzdem noch zutrifft: dass man bei einem Spaziergang die architektonischen Eigenheimideen der vergangenen dreißig Jahre versammelt sieht, über das Tiroler Berghaus bis zum kühlen Bungalow, der an den gleichnamigen Film von Ulrich Köhler erinnert, den man sofort in den heimischen DVD-Player werfen will (Spex-Abo-Prämie), um dieses Gefühl wieder aufzuwärmen, was der entscheidende Unterschied zwischen allein und einsam ist. Es gibt auch neuere Träume: Der Automobilmechaniker, der nur Privatauträge aus dem Ausland annimmt, hat sich dort einen modernen Block gebaut, der es in die Architekturbeilage des Spectrums schaffen könnte, wenn sich diese Menschen auch mal hier hin verirren würden.
Wo ist die Musik über diesen Ort? Wo sind die Filme, wo die Bücher?