This weekend has been unbelievably amazing. I still can't wrap my mind around the fact that any of this is actually happening.
The end of the week was pretty much same as always, with tons of music and work and Kebap and trying to fit in naps.
Friday is when the awesomeness really began. I was finally able to do a yoga podcast for the first time since last Sunday, which always immediately makes things 150% more bearable. (It also makes me 150% more bearable!). Julia came over and we yoga-ed it up and then sat down to a delicious dinner prepared from scratch by Belle and Sarah! They made a couple chickens and potatoes and tons of veggies and our whole apartment smelled kind of like Thanksgiving, but mostly like comfort and love.
After dinner we all headed over to Shelby's apartment for a little belated birthday celebration for her and an early birthday celebration for Matt! It took us a little while to get there because the Strassenbahn decided to NOT BE RUNNING ALL FRIDAY, but we eventually made it by way of a random bus. We brought Matt a tupperware of birthday-eve dinner because he wasn't able to make it in time BECAUSE OF THE BROKEN STRASSENBAHN.
Shelby had made some gorgeous gluten-free desserts and we all sat around and ate and talked and they drank champagne and it was really lovely. I also brought Matt a little cake from the gorgeous bakery by our house so we sang happy birthday twice, one for each awesome birthday celebrant.
After the party we headed over to the Travel Shack for some more drinks and hanging out. I wasn't really in a going out mood, but once we got there I ended up having a pretty good time. Some other IES kids found their way there and there was some pretty badass music from my middle school years playing, so I couldn't complain. At midnight we SCREAMED happy birthday at Matt and before we left they brought Matt a bunch of birthday Bailey's shots with a sparkler candle stuck in a Twinkie type deal. Classy celebration, if you ask me. He also did a fire shot, which is where they light the alcohol in your mouth on fire and then sprinkle cinnamon on it to make it spark. Again, class.
We left before 12:30 so that we could catch the bus before it stopped running, which was fine by me because now that I haven't been drinking redbull, I CANNOT STAY AWAKE.
Saturday morning was perfectly lazy. I slept in, did some yoga, and just sort of booped around the house for a while. At three we all met by the U-Bahn to head over to a Heuriger for more birthday celebrations for Matt! A Heuriger is a restaurant/winery that serves only wine that it grows in its own vineyard, which is situated directly behind the restaurant. The 19th district has a ton of these, there are streets lined with restaurants and behind them are rows and rows of vineyards. There are beautiful patios and gardens to sit in. The weather was PERFECT! The sun was shining and the air was cool and smelled like fall.
We got to the Heuriger at around 4:30 and didn't leave until almost 8:00! I have never experienced anything like that before. We ordered a round of wine, (I got fresh sparkling white grape juice and it was THE BEST THING EVER), then schnitzel, then more wine, then coffee and dessert. It was so relaxed and laid-back and European, I almost couldn't stand it! Completely counterintuitive to how I usually live my life. I really learned how to slow down.
After the finishing up we headed to the Museumsquartier for the "Lange Nacht der Museen". It's a special night where ALL the museums in Vienna are open until 1am and you only have to pay 11 Euro and you GET INTO ALL OF THEM! There's special bus service to take you between them too. It was so cool to see the pure enthusiasm for this event! The streets were strewn with people and everyone was out having a blast and seeing as many museums as they could.
We went to the Naturhistorisches Museum first. Compaired to the Natural History Museum in New York, this thing was shit. It was literally just cases and cases of things; mostly replicas. The only really cool part was that the Venus von Willendorf is there. We learned about this little sculpture in Vienna Art and Architecture class. It's estimated to have been made between 24,000 and 22,000 BC! It's a gorgeous little statuette and it's thought to be a fertility symbol. Seeing her up close in person was so much cooler than seeing her on a little slide in class.
(Belle being a bio nerd)
The next museum we went to was the Belvedere. We had intended to go to the Upper Belvedere to see the Klimt stuff, but it was closed so we had to go to the Lower Belvedere to see an exhibit we knew absolutely nothing about. BEST MISTAKE EVER. It was a Hans Makart exhibit about the senses and it was THE COOLEST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN. I feel in love with this artist. The colors and the shapes and the hidden subtleties were so amazing. I have never been so affected by art before in my life. I took lots of illegal pictures:
The last museum on our list was the MOMUK, Vienna's museum of modern art. WHAT A CONTRAST TO THE BELVEDERE. This was the craziest fucking museum I have ever seen. I was beyond confused and bewildered and oftentimes disgusted by some of the stuff I saw. I made so many friends because everyone was looking around completely befuddled and making eye contact with one another. Half the stuff was just stupid, like a painting of solid blue or an overturned chair. Other stuff was offensive, like a juxtaposition of Barbie paraphernalia and Holocaust images that made my stomach churn. That isn't art, it's just shock value.
There was a Picasso that was pretty cool and a wire sculpture that hung from the ceiling and, to me, could possibly represent balanced chaos. That stuff I can consider art because it says something to me and makes me feel something. A stationary running vacuum, (yes, there was one there), doesn't do shit for me.
(WHAT IS THIS?!)
(This one I DID actually like, it's the balanced chaos one I mentioned).
By the time we were done at the MOMUK it was almost 1am and we were POOPED! We were going to go dancing at Lutz for a while, but the cover was 10 Euro (because there were no male bouncers to work our feminine charms on this time), and we were too tired to spend money to pretend to be awake. I was so content to go home completely satisfied rather than to go home an hour later, exhausted and cranky. I seriously felt like it was MY birthday, I had the most wonderful day.
Today, (Sunday), is just a typical Sunday. I slept in, did yoga, finished up my homework, and am now doing laundry and trying to learn the German for my performance workshop music. This coming week looks promising, with Matt cooking Indian for us on Monday, a potential piano concert on Thursday, services with Ilana on Friday, Salzburg on Saturday, and La Traviata with Natalie Dessay on Sunday! All this interspersed with learning beautiful music, beautiful German, and about beautiful art. If I'm lucky I'll throw in some yoga and some Daily Show watching.
I lead a charmed life.
Aw, thanks for helping to make my birthday great!
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