I apologize that I have not been posting much. In the past three weeks, I've been to Stockholm, Hamburg, Saarbrücken (Germany), Luxembourg, and next week I'll be off to London before I head back to Los Angeles for the holidays.
Yes, I have been busy. But to be honest, I am going through a very difficult time in my life right now, and I am in no mood to blog. I do not foresee me being able to write again anytime soon. So, I am ending The Erstwhile Iowan indefinitely. If I start it up again, I'll let you know....
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Vienna
I realize that I have not been posting much since I moved to Malmo, so I'll make this post super-extensive to try to make up for it. To be honest, I haven't gone to many interesting places since moving, but this post is the kickoff to many trips I'll be making before Christmas.
This past weekend, I made a trip to another new-to-me destination, Vienna, where I was able to stay with a former classmate from Yale, Georgi. Georgi had always talked about getting people to visit his home country of Bulgaria, so it was a decent consolation to visit him in another Eastern European country. Yes, that's right - Eastern European! I had always thought of Austria as part of Western Europe, but as you can see here, Vienna is actually further east than Prague, and just minutes up the Danube from Bratislava in Slovakia.
Vienna, of course, has been much more developed than other Eastern European nations throughout time. Outside the reach of communism, plus being the seat of the Austro-Hungarian empire, allowed Vienna to always be one of the leading cities of Europe. That said, I have to say that my visit to Vienna was not quite what I expected. Vienna was a very nice city, but I admit that I had expected something more "grand". The city of classical music, opera, the Habsburgs, Ed Norton in The Illusionist - I thought the city would be full of that old, classic European architecture that we tourists love. Instead, I found that wherever the Kaiser's reach extended, those buildings were of incredible grandeur. Outside of the Kaiser's reach, to be honest, kind of reminded me of the former communist cities that I have visited in the past (Budapest, Krakow) - kind of drab, bland generic architecture, and housing of low quality by Western standards.
However, despite the downer of a description, on to the good stuff! Vienna was still weekend full of eating (especially desserts), and visits to the former palaces of the Habsburgs.
Fancy Buildings
It's sad to think, but all the really great, grand buildings that we see across Europe will never be repeated. All the effort and time that went into constructing the buildings, but more importantly, all the money that went into them, will never be duplicated. What government would be willing to set aside all that money these days, just for a building? Perhaps China, but they would probably build a modern building.
St. Stephen's Cathedral. This was the very first touristy thing I ran into in Vienna. It was bombed out during WWII, but they re-built the roof from all the damage the pesky Americans and Russians caused.
This is an example of a former Habsburg palace that was turned into a museum. Pretty much all the former palaces house some sort of museum now - this one, art (kind of like how the Louvre used to be the French monarchy's palace).
The gate into the Kaiser's royal grounds
I am not sure what this church is, but Georgi and I came across it at night, on the way to the Russian WWII memorial and it looked amazing in the dark.
The National Library. It used to be the private library of someone in the monarchy, and these days it's just a museum about the evolving reach of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Despite it's name, you cannot check out any of the books - only look at them sitting on the shelves.
The roof of the National Library
The Belvedere museum. Yet another former palace turned art museum.
Parliament. Congressional Hill doesn't even compare.
City Hall! A stark contrast to the bland city halls of the US.
Food
I really liked the food in Vienna. Plain and simple but hearty, lots of desserts, and lots of beer.
For some reason, it never occurred to me that wiener schnitzel was from Vienna. Perhaps it was because I never knew the real name of Vienna was actually Wien. For those animal lovers out there, this is actually a pork schnitzel. I didn't go for the veal, which cost 5 extra euros.
Mmmm...roasted pork with some mushy sauerkraut-like thing with some mushy stuffing ball. I had no idea what I was eating, but it was good, traditional Austrian food.
The Nachtmarkt is an island in the middle of a long street, full of food vendors and restaurants. I snapped this picture right before the guy said "no pictures", but I told him I wanted to buy a pickle so he was all nice after that. He even gave me an extra free spicy pickle.
This is some sort of Hungarian doughnut. The dough is rolled into a long strip, wrapped around a wooden roller, then cooked over a spit. When you eat it, the dough coil unravels. Really cool!
Coffee break with Georgi. At this point, I had already eaten so much dessert, I kind of didn't want to eat any more.
Weird Statues
Vienna, in its Austro-Hungarian splendor, has lots of statues. Many of naked ladies (I began to think these statues were the 18th century rich peoples' version of pornography), but overall lots of really "interesting" statues.
This was outside of the gates to the Kaiser's compound. I am not sure if that guy is really scared of that topless woman, or perhaps she has really bad B.O. coming from that raised arm.
I noticed a few Viennese statue themes: 1. topless women. 2. Animals. 3. Little boys/angels riding animals. This statue combines all three.
Homo-erotic statue at the Kaiser's gates. Quite brutal that the guy on the right is about to bash in the head of the guy on the ground.
Lots of horse-punching statues around. It's supposed to be a way of breaking down a wild horse. However, Georgi (who loves horses) saw an error in this statue - the horse had horseshoes, something a horse would never have unless it was tamed. Thus, this is just a statue of animal abuse.
More naked ladies again, but these statues reveal another theme: large men beating the hell out of other men/strange creatures.
Even geese are able to be ridden. They must have been bigger a few hundred years ago.
Protests
Vienna was full of protests that weekend - two official, one by my friend. They all occurred on the same day, Sunday, which must be the official day for protests in Vienna. Hu Jintao, the premier of China also happened to be in town my final day. There were no protests that day, due to the fact that the police had shut down every possible area that one could protest (or a tourist would want to visit), and that in general people are pretty nice to China these days because they have all the money.
Free Tibet. Also some Falun Dafa people. These people are everywhere. The police didn't really care, though - there were only a handful around, not doing anything.
The Turkish community had a huge protest. Nobody knew about what, but there were hundreds of them, they were loud, and they looked like they were about to break stuff. Tons of police in riot gear everywhere.
It was Bulgarian Presidential elections, too. Here Georgi's own little protest. It's in Cyrillic, but you can probably figure out that last word.
Random Vienna
A cheeky ad I saw at the airport.
The old and the new mixed in together in Vienna.
The ferris wheel in the Prater - a Viennese icon. Apparently, it was in a James Bond film. I still didn't recognize it.
Children's maze. If I were three feet tall, this would have been awesome.
Some of the industrial buildings were disguised with art. We believe this is the building for Vienna's heating company. I like the blood that streams down the external facade of the building.
This is one of those really cheap cars that East Germany used to make. The body is made of some paper material mixed in, so it can actually start to fall apart if rainwater is too acidic. Georgi also said that if you wanted to steal the car, you can either just kick a hole in the door, or just reach underneath the car and pull the cord to the door locking mechanism.
Vienna had lots of these weight scales on the street. For 20 euro cents, you can find out your weight. This one was nicely placed next to a junk food ad.
A flak tower - one of three that the Nazi's built in Vienna, and one of the few that the Nazi's built in Nazi-occupied territory, to help shoot down bombers. They flak towers were positioned in a triangle to create a safe-zone from Allied bombers. This one is not being used, but another was turned into the Vienna aquarium.
Lastly, this group was my favorite street performers. They did an excellent rendition of the Last of the Mohicans song (I kept thinking about Daniel Day Lewis running through the streets of Vienna, chasing a deer). However, that clip was too large to post, so here's an alternate.
This past weekend, I made a trip to another new-to-me destination, Vienna, where I was able to stay with a former classmate from Yale, Georgi. Georgi had always talked about getting people to visit his home country of Bulgaria, so it was a decent consolation to visit him in another Eastern European country. Yes, that's right - Eastern European! I had always thought of Austria as part of Western Europe, but as you can see here, Vienna is actually further east than Prague, and just minutes up the Danube from Bratislava in Slovakia.
Vienna, of course, has been much more developed than other Eastern European nations throughout time. Outside the reach of communism, plus being the seat of the Austro-Hungarian empire, allowed Vienna to always be one of the leading cities of Europe. That said, I have to say that my visit to Vienna was not quite what I expected. Vienna was a very nice city, but I admit that I had expected something more "grand". The city of classical music, opera, the Habsburgs, Ed Norton in The Illusionist - I thought the city would be full of that old, classic European architecture that we tourists love. Instead, I found that wherever the Kaiser's reach extended, those buildings were of incredible grandeur. Outside of the Kaiser's reach, to be honest, kind of reminded me of the former communist cities that I have visited in the past (Budapest, Krakow) - kind of drab, bland generic architecture, and housing of low quality by Western standards.
However, despite the downer of a description, on to the good stuff! Vienna was still weekend full of eating (especially desserts), and visits to the former palaces of the Habsburgs.
Fancy Buildings
It's sad to think, but all the really great, grand buildings that we see across Europe will never be repeated. All the effort and time that went into constructing the buildings, but more importantly, all the money that went into them, will never be duplicated. What government would be willing to set aside all that money these days, just for a building? Perhaps China, but they would probably build a modern building.
St. Stephen's Cathedral. This was the very first touristy thing I ran into in Vienna. It was bombed out during WWII, but they re-built the roof from all the damage the pesky Americans and Russians caused.
This is an example of a former Habsburg palace that was turned into a museum. Pretty much all the former palaces house some sort of museum now - this one, art (kind of like how the Louvre used to be the French monarchy's palace).
The gate into the Kaiser's royal grounds
I am not sure what this church is, but Georgi and I came across it at night, on the way to the Russian WWII memorial and it looked amazing in the dark.
The National Library. It used to be the private library of someone in the monarchy, and these days it's just a museum about the evolving reach of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Despite it's name, you cannot check out any of the books - only look at them sitting on the shelves.
The roof of the National Library
The Belvedere museum. Yet another former palace turned art museum.
Parliament. Congressional Hill doesn't even compare.
City Hall! A stark contrast to the bland city halls of the US.Food
I really liked the food in Vienna. Plain and simple but hearty, lots of desserts, and lots of beer.
For some reason, it never occurred to me that wiener schnitzel was from Vienna. Perhaps it was because I never knew the real name of Vienna was actually Wien. For those animal lovers out there, this is actually a pork schnitzel. I didn't go for the veal, which cost 5 extra euros.
Mmmm...roasted pork with some mushy sauerkraut-like thing with some mushy stuffing ball. I had no idea what I was eating, but it was good, traditional Austrian food.
The Nachtmarkt is an island in the middle of a long street, full of food vendors and restaurants. I snapped this picture right before the guy said "no pictures", but I told him I wanted to buy a pickle so he was all nice after that. He even gave me an extra free spicy pickle.
This is some sort of Hungarian doughnut. The dough is rolled into a long strip, wrapped around a wooden roller, then cooked over a spit. When you eat it, the dough coil unravels. Really cool!
Coffee break with Georgi. At this point, I had already eaten so much dessert, I kind of didn't want to eat any more.Weird Statues
Vienna, in its Austro-Hungarian splendor, has lots of statues. Many of naked ladies (I began to think these statues were the 18th century rich peoples' version of pornography), but overall lots of really "interesting" statues.
This was outside of the gates to the Kaiser's compound. I am not sure if that guy is really scared of that topless woman, or perhaps she has really bad B.O. coming from that raised arm.
I noticed a few Viennese statue themes: 1. topless women. 2. Animals. 3. Little boys/angels riding animals. This statue combines all three.
Homo-erotic statue at the Kaiser's gates. Quite brutal that the guy on the right is about to bash in the head of the guy on the ground.
Lots of horse-punching statues around. It's supposed to be a way of breaking down a wild horse. However, Georgi (who loves horses) saw an error in this statue - the horse had horseshoes, something a horse would never have unless it was tamed. Thus, this is just a statue of animal abuse.
More naked ladies again, but these statues reveal another theme: large men beating the hell out of other men/strange creatures.
Even geese are able to be ridden. They must have been bigger a few hundred years ago.Protests
Vienna was full of protests that weekend - two official, one by my friend. They all occurred on the same day, Sunday, which must be the official day for protests in Vienna. Hu Jintao, the premier of China also happened to be in town my final day. There were no protests that day, due to the fact that the police had shut down every possible area that one could protest (or a tourist would want to visit), and that in general people are pretty nice to China these days because they have all the money.
Free Tibet. Also some Falun Dafa people. These people are everywhere. The police didn't really care, though - there were only a handful around, not doing anything.
The Turkish community had a huge protest. Nobody knew about what, but there were hundreds of them, they were loud, and they looked like they were about to break stuff. Tons of police in riot gear everywhere.
It was Bulgarian Presidential elections, too. Here Georgi's own little protest. It's in Cyrillic, but you can probably figure out that last word.Random Vienna
A cheeky ad I saw at the airport.
The old and the new mixed in together in Vienna.
The ferris wheel in the Prater - a Viennese icon. Apparently, it was in a James Bond film. I still didn't recognize it.
Children's maze. If I were three feet tall, this would have been awesome.
Some of the industrial buildings were disguised with art. We believe this is the building for Vienna's heating company. I like the blood that streams down the external facade of the building.
This is one of those really cheap cars that East Germany used to make. The body is made of some paper material mixed in, so it can actually start to fall apart if rainwater is too acidic. Georgi also said that if you wanted to steal the car, you can either just kick a hole in the door, or just reach underneath the car and pull the cord to the door locking mechanism.
Vienna had lots of these weight scales on the street. For 20 euro cents, you can find out your weight. This one was nicely placed next to a junk food ad.
A flak tower - one of three that the Nazi's built in Vienna, and one of the few that the Nazi's built in Nazi-occupied territory, to help shoot down bombers. They flak towers were positioned in a triangle to create a safe-zone from Allied bombers. This one is not being used, but another was turned into the Vienna aquarium.Lastly, this group was my favorite street performers. They did an excellent rendition of the Last of the Mohicans song (I kept thinking about Daniel Day Lewis running through the streets of Vienna, chasing a deer). However, that clip was too large to post, so here's an alternate.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Kullaberg
The other week, my roommate had guests in town, and a trip up the western coast of the Skåne region was made. Kullaberg nature reserve was the destination, a little peninsula that sticks out into the sea.
Smiling, though I am actually freezing because I was woefully unprepared for the cold wind.
This is how windy it was. All the trees grow flat to the ground due to the constant wind.
To get to the coast, we had to walk through cow pastures, dodging huge piles of cow poop pockmarked everywhere throughout the field. The cows were the furriest I have ever seen before. Must be a genetic adaptation to handle the cold.
Final destination. We had to use a rope to climb down the ridge to the shoreline.
Smiling, though I am actually freezing because I was woefully unprepared for the cold wind.
This is how windy it was. All the trees grow flat to the ground due to the constant wind.
To get to the coast, we had to walk through cow pastures, dodging huge piles of cow poop pockmarked everywhere throughout the field. The cows were the furriest I have ever seen before. Must be a genetic adaptation to handle the cold.
Final destination. We had to use a rope to climb down the ridge to the shoreline.Sunday, October 9, 2011
Learning the Basics
Recently I spent a week in Silkeborg, Denmark, for a week of training camp for all those in my program class. I had to deal with a week's worth of career planning sessions covering subjects that I already think about constantly, already have learned, and already have acted upon. However, there was still a huge highlight to the week - the opportunity to visit some of Vestas' production facilities on the west coast of Denmark. Despite having worked for this company for ~1 1/2 years now, I still hadn't seen a turbine, understood the magnitude of the turbines' size, or really understood how they were made. Now, I know!
Silkeborg is centered around a series of lakes. A beautiful place to be; we were extremely fortunate that the temperamental Danish weather was cooperative.
One of the production facilities. Closest I've been to Vestas turbines, ever!
V112 blades in the yard. This turbine model has a 112 meter rotational diameter
V112 nacelles in the yard. They are right about to be shipped off to Australia for installation on a wind farm.
Silkeborg is centered around a series of lakes. A beautiful place to be; we were extremely fortunate that the temperamental Danish weather was cooperative.
One of the production facilities. Closest I've been to Vestas turbines, ever!
V112 blades in the yard. This turbine model has a 112 meter rotational diameter
V112 nacelles in the yard. They are right about to be shipped off to Australia for installation on a wind farm.Monday, October 3, 2011
Hot Women in Scandinavia
I find the differences in social norms across cultures quite interesting. For instance, a famous Danish film director recently got in trouble at the Cannes film festival for saying that he considered himself a Nazi. In some weird Danish logic, that must have made sense. That cartoonist that drew Mohammed with a bomb turban? Yeah, Danish too. Advertisements can be much more "sexy" over here. This ad is from Norwegian Airlines, my favorite airline in Europe. I love how their advertisement is basically saying, "come to Scandinavia because the women here are hot". Would that kind of advertisement ever happen in the US? Nudity is also common. A local gym ad? Naked women, just barely concealed, to show you what kind of body you can get from working out. I also came across an interesting postcard found for free distribution to the general public in a restaurant. It was a topless women's torso, wearing a necklace. Of course I was curious, so I picked one up to find out it was a jewelry store advertisement. Needless to say, more eye-catching than a Zales ad. We Americans are prudes!
Saturday, September 3, 2011
That's So Sweden
For those that remember Raven Simone, the oh-so-cute Olivia from the Cosby Show, she grew up and had a kids' TV show titled, "That's So Raven". I have no idea what that show was about, but the name has stuck with me.
For this post, I thought I would spend a little time discussing what we Americans typically think about when we think of Sweden. For those of you who thought "hot blondes" immediately, you will have to wait. We're going to kick off this post with something a bit less exciting.
Ikea: Sweden is the center of the cheap furniture universe, and Malmö is the home of the world-wide flagship store. It is right next to my office, and I make many a trip here. It's like any other Ikea, but perhaps maybe slightly bigger, and they test products here before they decide on releasing it to the world-wide market.
H&M: Sweden is also the center of the cheap clothing universe. I sense a theme. H&M's are like Gap and Starbucks around here - there are a ton of them around, with a store never too far away around the corner.
Swedish fish: In Denmark, danish pastries are called "sweetbreads from Vienna". However, in Sweden, Swedish fish are apparently still called Swedish fish. On a related note, I am currently planning a trip to Vienna, and will definitely find out what they call their breakfast pastries.
Swedish pancakes: Pancakes are one of my favorite foods (hence, my earlier blog about Paola taking me out for pancakes in Copenhagen), and I LOVE Swedish pancakes. Thinner, like a crepe, and a bit spongy as opposed to fluffy. My first attempt making them at home from this box kit failed miserably, so I may have to just have to buy them from restaurants.
Swedish Meatballs: Yes, meatballs are common. But not as common as Ikea would make it seem. You can buy them at the grocery store in 1 kilogram packages, for only about $5. Very tasty.
Volvos: They are everywhere. Just like police forces in the US like to use Ford vehicles, Swedish police like to use Volvos. They are not a Swedish company anymore (used to be owned by Ford, and now some Chinese company), but definitely Swedish origins. And it seems like everyone drives a Volvo station wagon just like you see here. Unlike Denmark, Sweden doesn't have a huge car tax, so cars are big and plentiful. Saab, the other car company of Swedish origins, is not around so much anymore, and Swedes tend to think of the successful aerospace/jet engine Saab company, and have written off the car company just like the rest of the world.
Björn Borg: Probably the most famous Swedish athlete ever. One of John MacEnroe's fiercest and most polar opposite rivals. In fact, Johnny Mac is on the poster with Björn, but obscured. These days, Björn Borg sells colorful underwear. Unlike Michael Jordan, who simply pushes Hanes, Björn Borg actually has his own underwear brand. It's quite popular, and I'll have to consider buying myself some as a souvenir when I leave Sweden, though I cannot imagine myself ever wearing underwear as loud as you see here.
Blondes: Yes, there are blondes around. But unlike popular belief, this country is not full of blondes everywhere you turn. In fact, there are quite many brunettes, and it took me quite some time to find some blonde subjects to snap a picture of. These girls' fashion style is pretty typical of many a Swedish lady. Kind of too 80's for my taste, but who am I to complain.
For this post, I thought I would spend a little time discussing what we Americans typically think about when we think of Sweden. For those of you who thought "hot blondes" immediately, you will have to wait. We're going to kick off this post with something a bit less exciting.
Ikea: Sweden is the center of the cheap furniture universe, and Malmö is the home of the world-wide flagship store. It is right next to my office, and I make many a trip here. It's like any other Ikea, but perhaps maybe slightly bigger, and they test products here before they decide on releasing it to the world-wide market.
H&M: Sweden is also the center of the cheap clothing universe. I sense a theme. H&M's are like Gap and Starbucks around here - there are a ton of them around, with a store never too far away around the corner.
Swedish fish: In Denmark, danish pastries are called "sweetbreads from Vienna". However, in Sweden, Swedish fish are apparently still called Swedish fish. On a related note, I am currently planning a trip to Vienna, and will definitely find out what they call their breakfast pastries.
Swedish pancakes: Pancakes are one of my favorite foods (hence, my earlier blog about Paola taking me out for pancakes in Copenhagen), and I LOVE Swedish pancakes. Thinner, like a crepe, and a bit spongy as opposed to fluffy. My first attempt making them at home from this box kit failed miserably, so I may have to just have to buy them from restaurants.
Swedish Meatballs: Yes, meatballs are common. But not as common as Ikea would make it seem. You can buy them at the grocery store in 1 kilogram packages, for only about $5. Very tasty.
Volvos: They are everywhere. Just like police forces in the US like to use Ford vehicles, Swedish police like to use Volvos. They are not a Swedish company anymore (used to be owned by Ford, and now some Chinese company), but definitely Swedish origins. And it seems like everyone drives a Volvo station wagon just like you see here. Unlike Denmark, Sweden doesn't have a huge car tax, so cars are big and plentiful. Saab, the other car company of Swedish origins, is not around so much anymore, and Swedes tend to think of the successful aerospace/jet engine Saab company, and have written off the car company just like the rest of the world.
Björn Borg: Probably the most famous Swedish athlete ever. One of John MacEnroe's fiercest and most polar opposite rivals. In fact, Johnny Mac is on the poster with Björn, but obscured. These days, Björn Borg sells colorful underwear. Unlike Michael Jordan, who simply pushes Hanes, Björn Borg actually has his own underwear brand. It's quite popular, and I'll have to consider buying myself some as a souvenir when I leave Sweden, though I cannot imagine myself ever wearing underwear as loud as you see here.
Blondes: Yes, there are blondes around. But unlike popular belief, this country is not full of blondes everywhere you turn. In fact, there are quite many brunettes, and it took me quite some time to find some blonde subjects to snap a picture of. These girls' fashion style is pretty typical of many a Swedish lady. Kind of too 80's for my taste, but who am I to complain.Unfortunately, I regrettably have to report that the Swedish Bikini Team has yet to be found. It appears as if the team is a made-up fantasy of early 90's beer commercials. Interesting factoid related to bikinis: in Malmö, women have the right to swim at public pools topless. It is an equality thing (very important in Sweden), since men get to swim topless. According to Wikipedia, the city councilman justified the rule by claiming, after all, 'some men have larger breasts than women'. And no, I have not gone to a pool yet - I actually hate swimming!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)