Well well, i know i will not keep my promise not to issue another post in the old year - but i cannot!
Through friendly advice i have found something very very beautiful which is a hommage to a beautiful man:
Maybe you can remember the episode of Princess Fantaghirò and the gorgeous sorcerer Tarabas played by Nicolas Rogers. I do remember very well - and how all the little girls were sighing because of him *ggg*
This will be my last entry for this year, so be glad you have endured my blog ^^
I'd like to seize the chance to say thankyou to my readers - though elected few but faithfull. Thanks for reading all my mental produce and be sure to stand by in 2008 - if you don't have other things to do.
Have a merry Christmas, fine holidays and a good take off for the New Year!
Blessings, Ingrid
(Reindeer by Patience Brewster)
Today is an important day for Europe:
the number of countries belonging to the Schengen Agreement increased and the external border of the community went eastwards. Yippie, finally free travel between "old" EU-states and the new former Eastern Bloc states.
Since i come from a town that lies on the Austrian (Salzburg) bank of a river that seperated us from Germany, i have been always sensitive for borders. I think, borders should be bridged since they were set up always by someone that didn't think about the people living on each side of the border balk. But even worse are boundaries inside people's mind and i hope that this enlargement of the Schengen area will add to people's openmindedness...
Hi there!
Ever heard of Xmas-fever? Watch out, you may be already infected! It is everywhere...
I mean, Innsbruck is lovely indeed at Christmas time...
...and THIS is the place (amongst others) where all the Xmas-virus comes from. I have been infected too recently - as you may see in our flat:
I even got friendly with the Christmastree Stefan carried home...
Dear goodness, i barely recognize myself! Tz tz tz!
Fortunately this fever will reach its peak soon and then decline, phhew!
Get Myspace Christmas Countdown
Ooops! See, i didn't manage to escape! I turned into an elf!!! Whaaaaa!
My psycho-elfish crew
Mas yo prosigo soñando, pobre, incurable sonámbula,
Con la eterna primavera de la vida que se apaga
Y la perenne frescura de los campos y las almas
(But i, poor cureless sleepwalker, continue dreaming
of eternal spring of life, which but expires
and of everlasting viridity of the meadows and the souls)
Rosalía de Castro
When days are becoming cold, dark and dull, i always keep longing for a brighter, sunnier place. Every year over and over again. After all i detest snow. (Well, you may argue that i'd better live somewhere else than in Tyrol...) I prefer warm weather and - most luxury of all - the sea nearby! Well, someday i will hopefully live in a warmer fields, but until then i will only have the chance to dream of and yearn for the sea...
"Es ist schon so lange her.
Es war schön, und zwar sehr.
Ich will wieder ans Meer!
Endlich wieder ans Meer..."
(995er Tief über Island, Sportfreunde Stiller)
I have actually never been very keen on being a member of any kind of club.
But there are certainly some "organizations" were you can take some benefit from, like Ikea Family or... yes, McD's Junior Club where i was definitely bound to enroll our daughter - although she is still very young, but already a proud member of McD Junior Club (no advertising included *ggg*)
In christmas time, our dear Seilergasse turn into "Fairytale-Street"
if you pass through the street, you are surrounded by fairy tale creatures, being fastened to the houses:
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| Fairy tale |
Since it has been very very cold here in Innsbruck city for the last days, i found a very neat way to flee from here easily:
i chose to take part in a university's excursion (again) to South Tyrol, which is - as the name already tells - south. South of the Alps and so it is mainly untroubled by snow and cold in winter! How convenient!
A view in the lovely city of Meran. Note: while landscapes north of the Alps are already "gifted" with thick white snow covers, you may enjoy a nice late autumn afternoon south of the mountain range.
What a wonderful world! After all a journey from Innsbruck to South Tyrol should only take you about 2 hours. Depending on where you're going.
The most interesting sight has been Castle Tyrol:
... with its most impressive romanic portals:
...and mediaeval frescos:
(At this point i was humming the lines from David Gray's "Nos da cariad":
"Hold on to St. Christopher
The sky is murderous red
Go to sleep my one true love
Our glory lies ahead"...)
All in all Castle Tyrol is place very worth visiting, not only if you're interested in Tyrol's and South Tyrol's history and contemporary history but also because of its rich (culture) historic treasures!
One of my favourite bands lived up to its name to be one of the most stirring indie live bands - at least in the german speaking area ;)
Sportfreunde Stiller live in Innsbruck:
Some say love it is a river
that drowns the tender reed
Some say love it is a razer
that leaves your soul to blead
Some say love it is a hunger
an endless aching need
I say love it is a flower
and you it's only seed
It's the heart afraid of breaking
that never learns to dance
It's the dream afraid of waking
that never takes the chance
It's the one who won't be taken
who cannot seem to give
and the soul afraid of dying
that never learns to live
When the night has been too lonely
and the road has been too long
and you think that love is only
for the lucky and the strong
Just remember in the winter
far beneath the bitter snows
lies the seed
that with the sun's love
in the spring
becomes the rose
("The Rose" by Bette Midler)
Munich has always been something like my favourite town:
very close by, easy to be reached, plenty of sightseeing and shopping facilities, nice people.
Last time i have been there, i didn't feel that cosy anymore...
I was strawling along the shopping street when all of a sudden my eyes began to upswell as if a bee had stinged me and my lips and fingers were itching too *Oh my goddess*:
I immediately fled to the next coffeeshop to sit down calmly and see if it would go away or if not, call for a doc. Fortunately it turned out to happen the first alternative *sighing*!
Later on i asked my doctress about that and she said it might very surely have been an allergic reaction to something in the air over there in Munich.
I just hope, that doesn't mean i cannot go to Munich anymore cause that would make me very sad! -_- (I will see a doctor at the allergy department this week for further enlightenment on that subject!)
While listening to FM4 radio - an austrian radio channel - i stumbled over the funny song "Sponsoren" by Christian & Lollo.
Even if you may not understand the words, you might as well guess the meaning:
two young ambitious musicians yearning for sponsors... =^+^=
Last weekend we had some proper weather here in the Alps, so we decided to run up the mountains. No no, of course not by foot, bike or anything which would cause me to cry. A cablecar would do as well!
Take this one for instance!
The cablecar that runs up the "Nordkette", which is a chain of mountains north of Innsbruck, and soon you will be lifted up more than 2.000 m above sea-level.
Looks like that...
The landscape is like that: cliffy!
And if you keep your eyes not well peeled or you're simply hiking very thoughtlessly you might as well be surprised by thick fog:
PS: But of course we made our way out of the fog - as you can see, we arrived at the hut in time to take the last cable car downhill. Before we even had a little time to pop the corks for my birthday... ;)
Without intending to plug blogger very hobnailed, i really have to tell you how much i am in love with it!
Shortly i have made out, that i am now able to implement surveys, yippiiiiieee! You must know, since i am studying psychology i really grew a "fan" of surveys, polls questionaires... Call me odd, but that's funny to "drill for answers", so please be so good as to take just five seconds of you life to answer my question on right top handside and make me smile ;)
Cheers, Ingrid
One thing i am still belated to tell you about is that i have the honour to present my new home - and it is not only mine, but it is OURS, Stefan's and mine!
It is the first time, we were moving together, so were both very nervous and fastidious with the rooms' arrangements: which colours fitted best for the walls, but this colour should go together with the floor's colour. Next the curtains should fit the room's set... I can assure you, this turned out to be a rather difficult undertaking! After all we did not share the same tast yet...
The first shock was since the house is an old building (and yes, ladies and gentlemen, we're living right inside the old town of Innsbruck!), it has been rather neglected by the owner, which would be ok if you are a normal student looking for a cheap home. But as it is in our case, we wanted to have a perfect cosy home, and so we started to first fix the windows...
...but then we ended up renovating the whole flat cause we thought if we first started to fix one thing, we could as well fix the other things.
You may call us foolish, since it is only a rental flat, and we will never get back money nor time invested, but we found it worth it. After all we chose to stay for longer in that flat ;)
So we ended up like this:
Thanks to some good mates we were able to be rather quick with painting the rooms and fixing nearly everything. It was hard work and it cost many tears and even more sweat, but also had a ball =^+^=
But in the end we were finished and are now happily living here, enjoying this beautiful view
Of course we started a big inauguration party, using the bath tube as a fridge for all the beer O;) (somehow, we didn't manage to take a photo of that...)
But this is a view (my favourite one) across the main room, where you're looking across our "jungle", haha!
Cheers, ing
(More photos here!)
Don't know much about history
Don't know much biology
Don't know much about a science book
Don't know much about the French I took
But I do know that I love you,
And I know that if you love me too,
What a wonderful world this would be.
Don't know much about geography
Don't know much trigonometry
Don't know much about algebra
Don't know what a slide rule is for
But I do know that one and one is two,
And if this one could be with you,
What a wonderful world this would be.
("Wonderful World" by Sam Cooke)
Since financial ressources do not come from an everflowing spring under my bed and nobody can live only from love and air neither, i had to search for a new opportunity to gain money to finance my studies.
And so it came that i will soon be working for Toys'R'us - yeah, i always wanted to be inside toys business since i was little. - Even if it was in a different way in my imagination... ;)
...and for all the other hours of my days goes:
Here's one of my favourite songs at the moment: "Eres mi religion" by Maná
Some days ago me and Stefan rent a car from LaudaMotion, which was the cheapest possibility to have a car for some hours. We got a Smart... Well, i was more than sceptical, not only as far as the size of the boot of the car is concerned, but also about the car itself. I mean, after all it was a SMART, you know what i mean!
The funny thing is that it got automatic gearbox (which is a thing i appreciate in a car!) and so i drove several times between Stefan's former flat to take his stuff to our new flat (more about this on next opportunity ;)).
And i must admit, that is was a real pleasure to drive this car! I loved his easy way of driving and his excellent brakes - and the boot is bigger than you might think! No, i can really recommend this car - and the car rental service as well (Caution: advertising!)
So that's what i'm dreaming about now:
Take care!
Hola! Que tal? You may guess it already from the map above... Right, we took a trip in Spain! First we visited Salamanca, then headed north to the region surrounding Llanes, Asturias. Next destinations were Burgos, Medinaceli and Cuenca till we finished the road trip in Albacete were we where guests at Stefan's second cousin's wedding. Let's start in Salamanca: we were lucky to be there while they were celebrating their "ferias", which ist about a week or ten days of party all over the town including various events.
The most-lucky thing for me was that by coincidence the galician musician Mercedes Peon was playing at the Plaza Mayor! Great!
Lucky me!
Maybe the best known riddle in the whole of Spain: Find the frog!
Well, let's continue the journey now. To Asturias, where we spent most of the time laying on the beach (actually different beaches) and eating seafood, mmmh!
And what sort of beaches they were: long sandy beaches, rocky bays and rather coldish water!
...but beautiful in any way!
But we also had to bid farewell to sea (how i hate goodbyes...). As a little comfort we went to Burgos, which lies directly on the "Camino de Santiago". We spent about three hours there =^+^= Uhm, we didn't have so much time...
The most impressive cathedral of Burgos:
Then we rushed off to the beautiful one-horse-town of Medinaceli (not on the map, but the fourth point on the route), which was quite a puzzle of different architectural and cultural manifestations. The roman arch of Medinaceli:
Mediaeval houses:
It also has a great ruin of a castle (where i must confess that i forgot in which period it was built)
Let's move to Cuenca now, the "enchanted city", where clocks still run a little different:
Cuenca is famous for its hanging houses:
The last point of the journey was Albacete, were the wedding took place. Unfortunately this town doesn't have anything worth taking a photo of - and those of the wedding are top secret, especially those of the day after... =)
To sum it up, it has been a great journey with lots of things to see and to taste and so i came back with a whole bunch of strong impressions and immediately subscribed to a spanish course!
Hasta la próxima!
