At the café across the street from the King’s Palace, I had topfelstrudel, a startlingly good confection made with vanilla and white cheese, whose variety remains unbeknownst to me. Of course, its price was ridiculously high but the experience was worth the cost – entire walls sheathed with silver mirrors that reached the floor, sleek ebony furniture, translucent curtains that allowed a few lucky rays of the late afternoon sun into the classically designed yet stylish (in modern terms) room. As usual, I checked if the flower on the dining table was real. It was! A lovely, fresh flower in bright yellow and muted pink tones, with its green but drying stem dipped in a small pool of water that was in a porcelain vase. It looked slightly out of place in the room, though; I had expected black flowers with either white stripes or gray polka dots. Whatever – it is merely a matter of personal taste. The topfelstrudel was good.
My newly minted friends then whirled me off to a multitude of places, whose names I can unearth but do not care much about. Hence, I will describe the places, and you will know their functions and appearances, but not their names. If you absolutely must know, please e-mail and I will find out for you!
A post savings bank (something like
It was gray, imposing, and dull-looking. However, move a little closer and you will see the aluminum studs encased within small concave hemispheric hollows that had been carved into the marble. It looked like a punk-turned-architect had gotten hold of the blueprint after it had been submitted and accepted.
A charming Hundertwasserhaus, designed by Hundertwasser, an architect with a truly creative streak in him:
It was exploding with a multitude of shades, tones, and textures. None of the walls was straight, and the tiles were uneven. Symmetry was disallowed in that space. The entire house looked like a mess that emanated with beauty – the sort of beauty that emanates from a kindly old grandmother with a crooked nose that she broke when she was just a little girl.
The
Beautiful oil paintings created by Claude Monet and Gustav Klimt (creator of the infamous The Kiss, a painting that had aroused the ire and angst of the public when it was first exhibited); stunning sculptures of docks men and Venus, shrouded by her mist of mystery and beauty.
Check it out at: http://www.belvedere.at/jart/prj3/belvedere/main.jart
The Wiener Staatsoper Opera House, Werther:Watched and cried! The soprano was crazy. Staggering on the stage, committing suicide – all the works of a typical opera, even seemingly as degenerate as a soap opera on TV. HOWEVER, the soprano made all the difference. All the notes and tangible emotions were executed with perfection. The most impressive feature was how he made every intangible emotion raw, intensified, and unbelievably sincere. Sincerity is the keystone that is lacking in many operas. This opera, Werther, overflowed with sincerity.
As a passing remark: The street outside the opera house was filled with pests, dressed in beautiful, well-fitted, shimmering, but ridiculous outfits from the Baroque period. Why ridiculous, you ask. Those men (non-performers) were selling tickets for that evening’s concert/ballet/opera, performed by groups of relatively untalented individuals dressed in a similar fashion (as I perceived from the photos that those salespersons had thrust in my face). Why untalented, you ask. If the musicians/performers were talented, they would not need to dress up in ridiculous outfits and pretend to be fine gentry engaging in musical endeavors. Nein! They were charlatans, dressed up like clowns to attract unknowing tourists.
The Vienna street/music festival at the Donau (
I loved the street culture. Excellent music, though I must say that the Viennese cannot really dance well. Alternatively, perhaps it was that they were not drunk enough since the night was still young. I left quite early at 11.10pm, since it was just throngs of people who were not doing anything effective. At least dance! You get to burn calories!
The fireworks reminded me of…
Returning to fireworks: the fireworks seemed so close, as though you could touch them if you wanted to. Just like many things in life.
Stephansdom - the tallest church in Austria, established in 1147, building was completed in 1570. St. Stephen's Cathedral (German: Stephansdom) in Vienna, Austria, is the seat of a Roman Catholic Archbishop, a beloved symbol of Vienna, and the site of many important events in Austria's national life.The day I went, many important luminaries were present (asides from me, of course...). Turned out that it was the funeral of the previous president of the Austrian Republic (Republik Österreich). You might have seen the funeral on TV; it was huge news in Austria and the funeral was even screened in the subway station.
Kurt Josef Waldheim (21 December 1918 – 14 June 2007) was an Austrian diplomat and conservative politician. At the time of his death from congestive heart failure at age 88,[1] Waldheim was the oldest living former Secretary-General of the United Nations and the oldest living former Austrian President, having served in these roles from 1972 to 1981 and 1986 to 1992, respectively. While running for president in Austria in 1985 he attained international notoriety because he falsified in his memoirs both the duration and the nature of his service as a Wehrmacht intelligence officer during World War II.
Text courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Waldheim
Stephansdom I
Vienna Secession - Marks the change in phase of art, style, academia, and administration in Vienna. The inscription goes: to every age its art; to art its freedom. If you ask me, I think that "To every age its science; to science its freedom/shackles." also makes great sense. Lovely golden dome. It's nicely termed "golden cabbage". Just as The Esplanade in Singapore is called the "durian".
The Vienna Secession (also known as Secessionsstil, or Sezessionsstil in Austria) was part of the highly varied Secessionism movement that is now covered by the general term Art Nouveau. It was formed in 1897 by a group of 19 Vienna artists who had resigned from the Association of Austrian Artists, housed in the Vienna Künstlerhaus. The first president of the Secession was Gustav Klimt.
The Vienna Secession was founded on April 3, 1897 by artists Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Max Kurzweil, Otto Wagner, and others. The Secession artists objected to the prevailing conservatism of the Vienna Künstlerhaus with its traditional orientation toward Historicism. The Berlin and Munich Secession movements preceded the Vienna Secession, which held its first exhibition in 1898.
Text courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Secession
Österreichische PostsparkasseAustria's savings bank. Built in 1903, designed by Otto Wagner; it's an 8-storey brick structure featuring a thin Sterzing marble skin (hmm... It's like Yale's Beinecke Library), studded with aluminum. Inside, the main hall rises to a curved, frosted-glass ceiling, pierced by its supportive iron columns, while the floor consists of ultra-thick glass blocks, allowing light to flood into the administrative heart below.
Text courtesy of: Wallpaper* City Guide, by PHAIDON. Beautiful pictures and descriptions in this series of travel books. For the modern (and rich) person. I could not afford anything that was recommended in this book! Maybe... 10 years later?
Stephansdom: Funeral procession for Ex-president Kurt Waldheim; born 21 December 1918 in St. Andra-Wodern; diplomat, minister, representative to the UN, president. Died 14 June 2007. If you click on this photo, you can download a larger version, in which you can see the Viennese flags with the coats of arms of important blue-blood families emblazoned on them.
Stephansdom- blazing with lights that had been installed by the media.
Stephansdom - The gorgeous, complex altar.
Stephansdom - Gothic Cathedral
Donau Street Festival - View of Donau (Danube) River from Bridge
Donau Street Festival - The Sunset. Gorgeous.
Donau Street Festival - You can see a rainbow at the bottom right hand region.
Hundertwasserhaus - See the crazy design? Trees all over the place. Multitudes of colors.
A beautiful altar, Orthodox church.
Sunset - With a few rays of sunlight illuminating the famous Hochhaus Neue Donau, which is the tallest residential building in Vienna. It was designed by Harry Seidler.
Sunset - I could not help but fall in love with it! In the foreground, you see white tents and specks of white, glowing lights: They're part of the street festival!
Cafe Griensteidl - opened in 1847, it was the meeting point of literary men such as Hermann Bar, Arthur Schnitzler, Karl Krauss, Hugo von Hofmannsthal or composers such as Hugo Wolf or Arnold Schoenberg; birth place of Viennese literature. People could live out their notions of decadence; pulled down in 1897; reopened in 1990, the old atmosphere has been replaced by a modernised version.
Courtesy of: http://www.univie.ac.at/Very-Vienna/magazin/artikel/36/sechsunddreissig.html
Staatsoper Opera House - The beautiful chandelier. I love chandeliers.
Staatsoper Opera House - watched the opera, Werther: the most unbelievably sincere (how ironic this sounds) opera I've been to. I'd say that the Wiener Staatsoper is superior to the Metropolitan Opera in NYC.
Random pond. Focus on the interplay between light, water, and the algae on the pond surface.
No comments:
Post a Comment