La Serenissima

or: Venice revisited.

About two weeks ago we received an email from the uni's bureau for foreign students, which was orgenising a trip to Venice, inviting everybody to join the fun. Since only the transfer from Innsbruck to Venice was organised, we thought, why not spend an afternoon in the mediteranean sun?

Although getting up at 5 a.m. normally is a great obstacle - and so is being on time - we managed it to be at the meeting point at 5:45 a.m. and away we drove to our destination. The whole bunch of people was split up into 4 busses!

We left the bus at Tronchetto, which is the big bus parking lot, and jumped on a vaporetto, one of these boats that take people from A to B in Venice.


(My video looks like a drug-addict's view on Venice because my camera does have little problems mean and fools around all the time. Well, meanwhile its 5th birthday has already past...)

We really tried just to follow our nose to avoid the tourist crowds at Piazza San Marco. At first we found this charming patio:



Like this we were strolling around this town, always avoiding the lanes with too much people. And so it came that we found places we have never been to before, although i have been here twice and Stefan even thrice. When we grew hungry at about 1 p.m. we found a little takeaway where we bought fried frutti di mare (squids and shrimps) and fresh bread which we ate beside a little fountain in a lane's anabranch.
Strolling around like this we found a little café at the "Place of wonders" where we took cappuccio and caffè latte.



In the end there was also an accordion-player playing a tarantella. Beside the café there was a bookshop which sold calendars for 2009 (already!), one was with italian young priests. I can tell you, i could scarcely hold myself from buying one!



When we were already a little tired from walking around and sitting in the sun, we found ourselves at a church by a one of the larger channels and we began to wonder where we could be. So we looked up our location on our map. At first we couldn't find our place, but then it turned out that we reached the northern part of Venice - Ghetto. And funnily in front of the church there were many people beautifully dressed and some security guys as well with plugs in their ears while we were checking our map. Then the bride arrived, also guarded by two security guys. Dunno if they were famous or important people or if this is usual for a wedding in Venice...

Back to our location, which was in fact a little bit far north if you consider the fact that our remeeting-place was at the south. And: the meeting time was 6:10 p.m. and it was by then 4:15 p.m. So we took a quick glimpse at the map looking for the next bridge heading south and headed there. But we didn't make more than 100 metres before we discovered a fleamarket (i love fleamarkets!) situated in a former church. Inside we found three elderly women who talked with us very friendly. They had a clothes, books, jewellery, kitchen stuff etc. all in a tumble and please don't ask how much we bought because they had some really pretty things! We left the place before we could find more ;)

On our way back to the meeting place we took the main tourist route because it was the simplest path to find San Marco - our meeting place was a little walk down beside Canale Grande from San Marco. Luckily at this time Venice isn't so crowded and so we made it in time.

At San Marco we also could make a little shot of me


(on the right handside you can see me 9 years ago, with longer hair and more doves)

You may have a look at our Venice photos in my photo-album

Finally

Finally the sun came back to our realms! You know, i don't particularly mean to talk about the weather all the time, but in fact it is very important to my mood. Since it kept on snowing the last two weeks over here, i began to feel very frustrated. And now... sunshine all over and all the tiny little flowers blooming, that's just so lovely! Huch, great!


(That's a pic from the Innsbruck botanic garden)

And as coincidence has it there's another reason for me to smile smile smile at the moment! I am now a grad student (yeah!). You may call me a Bachelor as well (yeah yeah!) - even though not officially. This means in fact more to me than just the sheet of paper or the title, but the great advantage is that i don't have to work so much (and early) any more because i'm receiving study assistance again (yahooooo!).


(View in front of the Uni, by the river Inn)

Moving

Sometimes you meet strange people. In fact there are many many weirdos out there. Don't get me wrong, i'm not saying that i'm supernormal. Haha, but....!

Yesterday in the evening there was someone ringing at our door. I didn't want to open at all since i wasn't expecting anyone Ò.ó But then we found that it was a girl who moved into the appartement on the second floor who wanted to borrow a screw driver. Ok, that's not so weird so far!

But today we heard from our lessor that the girl in question was made by her mother to leave the flat immediately since she (the girl) didn't have the permission from her to move out from home. And the point is that the girl was by then 25 years old! I mean what the heck is wrong with this lady that she can't let go her twentyfive-year-old child?! Goodness gracious me!

And so it comes that the flat on the secound floor is vacant still, so if you should be interested in a flat in a little alley of Innsbruck's old town... ;)

Oh and by the way: i would be glad, if we could have back our screw driver!

Dreaming of a white Easter?

I could never understand why some people like snow that much. Well, it might be ok in december or january, e.g. when you think of "white christmas" (although it hardly comes to this) or skiing holidays.

But as it keeps on snowing in late march, i'm growing more and more upset about this mad weather! I should be sitting outside, sipping cafe in the sun - instead i have to reactivate my warm sweaters and boots! I am not amused!

Light

One of the best songs i ever heard, check it out, it's beautiful! ;)

elaborate lives

We all lead such elaborate lives
wild ambitions in our sights
How an affair of the heart survives
days apart and hurried nights
Seems quite unbelievable to me
I don't want to live like that
seems quite unbelievable to me
I don't want to love like that
I just want our time to be
slower and gentler, wiser,free

We all live in extravagant times
playing games we can't all win
Unintened emotional crimes
Take some out, take others in

I'm so tired of all were going through
I don't want to live like that
I'm so tired of all were going through
I don't want to love like that
I jsut want to be with you
Now and forever ,peaceful,true
This may not be the moment
to tell you face to face
But I could wait forever
for the perfect time and place

We all lead such elaborate lives
We don't know whose words are true
Strangers, lovers, husbands, wives
Hard to know who's loving who

Too many choices tear us apart
I don't want to live like that

Too many choices tear us apart
I don't want to love like that
I just want to touch your heart
May this confession
be the start
(from Aida, the musical.
Tim Rice & Elton John)

Google me!

There's one thing that's been going on inside of me for already quite a long time.
Maybe it's because me blood has been stirred right now by a prof who tends to take students as fools, that i am posting this issue right now.. Who knows - and can know - why we are doing the things we do?

On my blog there is a counter (see top right). And i can tell you why: i'm interested in the number of people visiting my blog, their origin and their reasons to drop by. What i would fancy a lot more would be visitors making comments, letting a lively discussion emerge. But this is not the case and i'm bemoaning this circumstance.

Anyway, but through this counter in question i have noticed that during the last months i have been found through google several times. Surely i know that my blog-space belongs to this combine. But what i find remarkable are the key words by which my blog is found: "ingredients of monster", "winter depression in Scandinavia", "UEFA Euro 2008 fanmile" etc. to name only a few. Of course, these are all terms appearing on my blog, but i never intended to make anyone visit my site nor do i hide names of celebrities like Britney Spears to attract more visitors. This blog just isn't informative, it's just my mental effusions! The reason why i created this blog in late 2005 was that i was studying away from my family and my friends. This blog should help keeping in touch over the distance of 250 kilometres.

And now? People from all over the world are visiting my blog. Recently i had a visitor from Pakistan right after one from Texas... ;)

And after writing this, is simply lost the thread... Well, i told you now, you can't say you weren't informed, right! Googling at one's own risk!

A little haha

The zebra crossing...



I always wondered, why it was called that way!

Carlos Núñez

I have been already looking forward to February 26th for already quite a long time. After all, Carlos Núñez would have a gig round the corner, one of my favourite musicians for already more than 10 years.
Of course i have pre-ordered the tickets long before because i wanted to make sure that i will have seats in this cosy venue: the "house of culture" in Waldkraiburg (somewhere in eastern Bavaria). Due to the fact that i have had already the honour to watch Carlos and his band in action - last time at a big festival - i chose this small venue because i hoped for a more intimate atmosphere. And i haven't been disappointed...! ;)


(The entrance of the house of culture)

In fact we found the house of culture a modern venue and the hall where the concert was to take place - the small one - was devided into two areas for the audience: in front of the stage were several round bistro-tables where people could sit and drink and in the rear were a couple of rows of chairs. I immediately fell in love with the ambiance!
But before entering the hall, i had to solve a tiny problem: i left my tickets at home in Innsbruck! Yes, it was all embarassing and vexing, but it came to my mind only when i already was in train to Salzburg... But fortunately i had a call to the ticket office - which was fortunately belonging to the venue itself - and the chief told me that i would not be necessary to drive back to Innsbruck to get the tickets but they were actually reserved on my name and i only would have to identify myself. And so it all went ok, although i had an anxious feeling until i took my seat in the audience...


(My ticket - remaining untouched forever...)

And i must admit that we maybe had the best seats in the whole audience, as far as you don't like to sit in the first row, to count the artist's vibrissae...:



Since we sat first row, a little elevated behind the mixer's desk, we perfectly saw everything. Meanwhile Carlos talks a little german as well - even if he still needs to read his notes in additon.
This time Carlos Núñez' tour had the name Celtic Flamenco, and so they played a gorgeous mixture of various celtic-influenced music, mainly from Galicia of course, but full of flamenco-elements, contributed by flamenco-guitarrist Victor Romero. And - maybe due to the fact that the band has just come back from a trip to Cuba - they played some cuban rumbas and i even had the chance to watch Xurxo (the drummer and Carlos' brother) on congas! He has also improved since the last time i saw him. The new girl in the band also did a great job, although i must confess, i missed Begoña Riobó - but this is only because i really liked her very much!



In the second part people were more enthusiastic and started to sing along (mainly me, but i simply cannot resist "Para Vigo me voy") and in the end the audience was dancing and celebrating a big party (only the half of it, because the other ones were elderly people, but it was fuuun!). Carlos and his band had to come back on stage several times because the audience simply didn't want to stop dancing and yelling. I haven't actually expected to end up partying in a little venue in a little town somewhere in Bavaria with Carlos Núñez shaking hands, but as life is full of surprises, i was very happy to have been there.

News from our flat

In the last weeks we have been adding some things to our flat in order to make it a cosier place. You know, when you live at a certain place you naturally want to feel comfortable in it, don't you?

...and not only this little spring's messenger did we add, but surprisingly did something else in our flat begin to grow...

Yes, it started with a neat aquarium. And then we suddenly found ourselves with several little "brothers" of it.

(Our fish tend to be rather shy ones... =^+^=)

But these crabs are rather lively guys =)

And to have a place for leisure, we got very friendly with an elbow chair...

We call it "the philospher's chair".

...recently

Yesterday, as i was just browsing my online-newspaper, i was very shocked by the headline:

Two red pandas killed in Nürnberg Zoo! The two were found with slashed bellies in their enclosure.

Although there are many animals killed every minute, but i'm nevertheless horrified about people going round and kill defenseless animals just for fun!

My pet-to-be

I always loved animals, and my favourite pets have always been cats.
(The one on the left is my kitty =))



But since i've seen this cuuuute fellows, i know what my future-pet is gonna be:

The "why-should-i-be-on-time" day

First of all i want to anticipate that i have never been a very duly person. Actually i am running most of the time to be as less late as possible.
It is said that timeliness is a question of courtesy, but i would rather tend to Einstein's relativity which says that everything is relative - including time. And by the way: everybody who's important and therefore waited for is as a rule tardy. In fact being on time is one of the great do-nots!

Today i shouldn't even have started to try to be as quick as my watch tells me. When my boyfriend's alarm rang at 7.30, i turned around knowing it was too early yet. At 7.45 my alarm managed to get me up and i then had to manage to get my boyfriend up. And this is the point where we were actually running late cuz we had to be at the trainstation at 8.20 to meet up with my boyfriend's father who was dropping by on his journey to Italy.

Finally we ended up hurrying, almost running, again and realizing that we at the trainstation at 8.25. Fine! Only five minutes - we were bettering!
But we were wrong: we were too early (imagine that!). The train would not arrive before 8.30 - a misunderstanding had taken place and therefore we were already on the platform when Stefan's father did arrive. Wow, it is a strange feeling to be the waiting one...

In the afternoon i had an appointment at the Innsbruck University's Language Institute (ISI) to convert a seat reservation for my next spanish course at 14.00. Although i thought i'd have enough time to go there calmly i ended up fetching the bus in a hurry again. And as i found myself at the wing of the building where the ISI should be i found that it ain't there any longer because of the great building lot at the Uni. It was by then already 14.01 - so i would actually have been on time, aye?
So i hurried to the wing - on the other end of the Uni of course - where the ISI office should be now. Arriving there the nice lady told me that i can't possibly have a seat reservation for today, because enrolling will not start before next week's monday... Great! My theory that timeliness is futile, turned out to be true!

And the moral of the story is: i should either get myself a filofax where i'll put all my schedules with a quarter hour adjustment, a loud alarm clock and tolarant people around me OR agree to the fact that tardyness is courteous - or at least give me a bit more leeway!

Something...

"And I don't know if I'm being foolish
Don't know if I'm being wise
But it's something that I must believe in
And it's there when I look in your eyes"
(John Paul Young, Love is in the air)

Sometimes there's a need to share some thoughts with you, although i cannot tell you exactly why. Do you know the feeling, when you want to express something, which is rather an inner sentiment, but scarely to be put into words. Any act of art, painting or dancing would rather do to express the sense of it all...

Maybe it's because i'm looking forward to the beginning spring and the longer growing days, which awake a bright shining light deep within me that comes from an older source. I don't know much about it but its name. It is love.



Love is within everything and love is everything.
It has never been gone, it simply changes its appearance.

Flimflammed

Hip hey!

Carnival is the great time of nonsense in the year's circle. This time i decided to be again part of it... ;)

Well, that's not me of course!

...and neither this! That's my nephew ;)

Isn't it said that people use to disguise themselves as the person, animal or thing what they have always wanted to be? Well...

As a psychologist i would say it is better to act out one's feelings that way....

=^+^=

and even the ministry of witchcraft dropped round

...and by the end of the day i was like that:

Adapting mainstream

Or: "The great fixing year continues - stories from the do-it-yourself workshop"

Each and every student's home has got many many pieces of furniture by Ikea. I love Ikea really very much! But i actually want to have "special" pieces of furniture that fit each other AND that fit within our flat, which is settled in an old town house of the 15th century. So you see, you either renew totally everything of the flat, so that modern furnishing doesn't seems out of place, which would mean to do away with the chunky wooden floor, but i couldn't have the heart to do that!

So we chose the second possibility, which is to adapt everything that's inside the flat to the style of the house.
In one special example i'm currently concerned with, i repainted Ikea-chairs (which were called Stefan). The goal was to give them a certain dark-wooden tone that fits the floor and the wooden old windows. And by the way - and in using a certain glaze - those chairs should look a bit more antique.



Here you can see the metamorphosis: on the right handside the original chair, in the middle you can see on that's in treatment right now, and on the left you see the perfect chair...



Well, almost perfect! Of course there'll be then a soft cushion on it - life is hard enough after all ;)

And when finished i lent back in my chair enjoying perfect music:



Cheers, Ingrid the handygirl

Planes

You said that for every aeroplane i see in the sky, there's somebody thinking of me right at this very moment.

Does that mean, if i see thousands of planes, there's so many times and so many people thinking of ME?

Best in the world

Since i just recently figured out that i will be soon living in the middle of Innsbruck's "fan mile" of UEFA's European Soccer Championship 08 which is going to take place in Austria and Switzerland. I don't know yet if that's good or bad, but i know that there will be party going on all night and drunken crowds under my window, so i think it'll be better to take holidays from work...

But since every cloud has its silver lining, the Spanish team will be playing in Innsbruck, which is much to the pleasure of all the Spaniards here which are not so little!

And as i think Spanish food is already best in the world - well besides Indian - i prepared my favourite dish last weekend: Chipirones y patatas a la gallega, which is squids and potatoes the galician style. Hmmmm delicious!



Unfortunately i cannot delivery you the smell yet via internet, but be assured, we had the greatmost pleasure in enjoying this meal ;) ...although i am not the best cook in the world, but i am not so bad i flatter myself! =^+^=

Btw: i found a cartoon on multiple choice tests - which i personally lovehate very very much!



Prof says: Read attentively the exam and then choose option a or option b.
Subtitle: Life is like a multiple choice test, sometimes it leaves you nothing more than a bad option or a worse option.

Umbralliant days

There are days when you get drowned without an umbrella. Somehow it's kind of out of use to use an umbrella - at least as far as i can judge from people on the streets. I remember my parents being also behind me to take an umbrella along when it was raining outside but nowadays even children run around in driving rain without any umbrella. At least it has been common to take an umbrella where i come from - even if it is another time...



At least, i tend to use umbrellas properly.
I don't mean to say that all things were generally better in former times. But when i come across people walking in a threesome using the whole of the pavement and you have to step down on the street to pass, i am actually longing for more sense in sidewalk-traffic.

The great-disposable-year

This year Stefan's Mum proclaimed the official "great disposable year" (originally titled "Das große Wegschmeiß-Jahr"), which means you throw away all the things which you haven't been using for ages. Maybe it has been inspired by Ikea's Knut, where you throw your Christmastree out of the window, but i quite liked the idea very much and so i chose to apply it to our household.



By the way: a big welcome back to our computer, he chose to stay alive for a little while longer.

The sense behind all the throw-away thingy is simply to get rid of all the stuff you don't need anymore - which has already been long over due... - and to finally get the things you really need.
E.g.: thing you don't need - guy driving his car (So you got a car..! Fine, and you know how to use your throttle very effectively... Good.... you're such a *$%~!^^*+ mmmh, let's look for a good spanish cuss word - no! let's look for)
E.g.: something you really need! True love could be this - but maybe it's already too hackneyed to be longed for?



Well, that's rubbish then... Ò_ò As it is, it's simply better for you in the long run to chuck away all your old ugly plates and to go and buy beautiful ones which make you smile when you eat from them. (quote: Maria José P.) - Not that i am now trying to promote diverse furniture stores, but sherds still bring good luck ;)


This is a work made out of shard by Patrick Shia Crabb

And concerning one of my favourite avocations - eating - i should really think about an inventory in my store cupboard. Maybe i should say adieu to my sister's christmas-cookie i forgot in a drawer...

But more than all this one should free oneself from all the material burdens that keep you from really living your life: to get rid of all the mental blockades and to change your point of view and see, life is great and it's worth living it!


Somehow i found more folk thinking about that topic...

In that sense i wish you a perfect yeaar 2008, let's see how this disposable year works out...
Slainte and cheers, Ingrid

Computer-Monster

Now i should know, why our computer chose to not work properly anymore...



Whaaaaa!

Adoring memory

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*

Best wishes

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)

Building bridges

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...

Xmas all over

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

Hope

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)

Welcome to the club

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*)