vienna
highlights:
- the SECESSION!!! klimt and schiele work up close and personal.
- ballet! oh, oh, oh! anna karenina at the state opera house. best train-death-staging.
- opera! hilariously german with german subtitles. and we got to sit in boxes! different boxes, mind, but boxes all the same.
- HUNTERTWASSER!!! i have been dying to see that house since ma-em's visit all them years ago.
- the chance to have a non-uk hangout session with emma. first one since spain? (france doesn't count cause mom-dad were there...)
-cakes, doughnuts, croissants for breakfast.
lowlights:
- there were a FEW museum/galleries which weren't worth their entry fee. and the modern art museum charged me for the MANDATORY bag check. can you even DO that? charge admission, then charge more for the bag check?! and it wasn't even a big bag.
- meat soup!!! okay. not SO much of a lowlight for me. more hilarious. emma ordered a mystery dinner, which turned out to be liver soup... gross. i did feel bad, though. for her. i gave her part of my roll...
side by side
a little secret-show of the first year MFA drawing and painting kids. we would normally be allowed to show as part of the degree show which is all up and upons the college. but this year 'they' decided not to let the first years show. because. people might be confused? lame! so we put on a guerilla show in a little side room. it opened to a decent crowd on monday evening, complete with a musical performance by alexa hare. it was a nice way to end the year with my homies.
orkney
highlights:
- tiny plane!!! oh, i love a tiny plane. watching the coastline approach. and we got coffee and biscuits!
- my rental bike! heavier than a road bike, but with significantly less-knobbly tires than the mongoose. we had a good time, me and that bike. i rode out of kirkwall on the highway (luckily a very small highway, as highways go) and along the coast past many cows and sheep.
- it never ever got completely dark. the sky stayed that sort of sapphire blue from sunset (around 11pm) till sunrise (around 2:30am).
- SEALS! i don't think i've ever seen for-reals seals before. non-zoo seals. because of the rain, they were just floating a few meters off the beach, little grey heads bobbing, staring at me all alone on the rocks. eerie and beautiful and amazing.
- orkney ice cream. i had a double cone. one scoop apple crumble, one scoop rhubarb and cream. amazing. SOOOOOO good. ooooof.
lowlights:
- the news that grandma h. passed away suddenly in ottawa on tuesday. not only am i saddened to have lost her, it also means there are no more grandparents left. there was some poetry in hearing the news while standing in a quite laneway, looking out at an amazing sunset over kirkwall and the fields and fields. i couldn't have asked for a better place to sit and think about all of my amazing grandparents, and how lucky i have been to have had them in my life. i would love to be able to be in ottawa with the family right now, and remember grandma h. with everyone, but since that isn't possible, orkney was a beautiful alternative. i smiled remembering last time i got to hang out with her, and her telling me about all the boys she had after her before she met grandpa. sassy woman. you are well loved and well missed grandma.
