Tag Archive for: photography

Tidbits

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I didn’t want to make yesterday’s post too long, so I’ve decided to wrap up my week’s summary in a separate post.

What caught my eye?

Vienna is relatively clean.  With all the smokers, however, there’s bound to be some unusual ashtrays.

IMG_4985Vienna’s Iceworld:

On Friday, I had to go to the main OeAD office to pick up my new apartment keys, and so I walked past City Hall and got to see Vienna’s Ice World.  In addition to a couple of skating rinks, there were long snaking ice paths between them and very appealing food stalls.  It was 3pm, and I hadn’t had lunch yet, so I had myself a Finnish specialty – fire roasted salmon on an organic baked potato and sauerkraut sauce.  It was quite cold eating that standing outside, but fun too!  I may return to skate one day- it’s 6 Euros entrance fee, plus 6 Euros skate rental.  Lockers are 2 Euros, but I could skip that, making it an $18 Cdn outing.
It did look fun and it’s been a few years since I’ve been in Ottawa when the Rideau canal was open – the world’s longest outdoor skating rink.

At School:

  • Poetic Landscape

This week we worked on the concepts for several paintings.  One I haven’t talked about before is our “Poetic Landscape”.  Timea and Benedetto will be coaching us on very specific elements – drapery, transparent figures, and landcapes.  If you’ve followed the link to Benedetto Fellin‘s artwork in previous posts, you’ll see he specializes in all three within each composition.  Our first task was to find examples of these elements to collage together as our painting sketch – something I did in Photoshop. We’ll be doing the drapery from real set-ups in class, however.  Although I’m really motivated to learn both drapery (for long flowing dresses) and transparent figures, I can’t say this project had me very excited when I first heard of it. I saw it more as a simple practice exercise.  After putting these elements together, however, I’m really looking forward to it.  I chose an image of a Buddha and a drapery set-up I found on the Internet and superimposed them on a photograph I took of Shag Rock in Fortune Bay, Newfoundland.  Doesn’t it look like he’s rising from a lotus? Love it – and reconnects me to the very spiritual nature of the Rock – the island of Newfoundland. We’ll be doing this in oils over an acrylic ground.

  • Dominique poetic landscapeFantastic Creature:

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Do you remember that I showed this pony painting by Bob Coonts in my Inspirations post? It’s similar in style to a phoenix that my friend Lori Reddy and I did together (I painted the background and she brought it to life, leaving me breathless!  I later used a similar technique for “Jubilation”.

by Bob Coonts
by Dominque Hurley

Well, that’s the style I’ve decided to use for my Fantastic Creature project, but stepping it up a notch.  On Thursday, I spent most of the day designing the owl, learning new ways of approaching such tasks thanks to Timea’s coaching.   I also added another layer of colour and more white details on the canvas.  Fun!  I’m also including early process photos taken by Laurence & Florence as I just got these.

  • Sacred Codes

On Thursday, Laurence gave a great 2-hour presentation on the Hindu Worldview, looking at the different eras and sacred texts to answer these 3 questions: “Whence Come We?” “Who Are We?”, and “Where are We Going”?.  I certainly learned a lot thanks to his wealth of knowledge and personal experiences.

  • Still in Progress:

On Friday, I spent most of the day working on my self-portrait – you can hardly tell the changes unless you know what to look for, but trust me, I’ve done quite a few more hours of work on this since you last saw it.  Oils in the Mischtechnik take time… Laurence spent quite a bit  coaching me on how to apply shadows on the female figure.  Very helpful.

This blog is as much a diary of my time in Vienna as it is a way for me to share my journey with you – hope you’re enjoying all the details.

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My New Home Until Bali

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For my first four months in Austria, I shared a very small apartment in OeAD’s Kandlgasse international student residence with 3 young women from elsewhere in Europe.  When it became legal for me to stay in Vienna longer than a trimester, however, my room was no longer available.  Luckily, a single apartment in the same complex eventually opened up. What a relief!  I love this modern clean “passive house”  and neighbourhood – my 40-minute walk to school, the organic grocer at the corner, the tram/bus/subway central 2 blocks away, etc. I wasn’t thrilled about the fact that this whole district doesn’t have trees, but I’ve just found a couple in the courtyards in front and behind my new place.  Yay!  I’m even thrilled at the bare vines growing on the wall outside my window –  signs of nature!  Progress! Interestingly, I have mixed feelings about living on my own after 3 years of having roommates.  When I weigh the advantages and disadvantages, however, it’s clear that I’m going to enjoy having my own space for a while.

Disadvantages:

  • Single apartments are expensive: including cleaning and administration fees, it works out to $863 Cdn / month.  That’s a lot! For the past 3 years, I chose to have roommates, so I could invest more of my time and financial resources in my art, education, and travel.  This is definitely the main disadvantage, but since I’m here, I’ll enjoy it instead of worrying about it. It was obviously meant to be.
  • No more in-home greetings and tourism stories – it was nice coming home to a “hello”, wishing people a nice day, and hearing about various spots my roommates visited with their organized group.  I was lucky – all three were very nice.
  • I won’t get as much practice in unconditional love. As you know, my life purpose is to both explore and express my love of beauty and the beauty of love.  I’ve focused a lot on learning how to be unconditionally loving, with definite progress thanks to the resources at RealLove.com . I’ll write more about this soon, but basically, living with 3 young students with very different schedules, personalities, and various levels of cleanliness and consideration was great training ground.  Each time I got irritated (especially when I couldn’t access water because of a sink full of dirty dishes), I got quicker at recognizing the counter-productiveness and selfishness of my internal reactions.  When I return to Newfoundland in July, I may live with roommates again, but this time I’ll look for compatible ones.  Until then, I’ll certainly enjoy being on my own.
  • My new room is not in the main building, which means I’ll have to suit-up to do laundry, and only once my hair is dry during the winter months- not a big deal, but a slight inconvenience.

Advantages:

  • None of my roommates in the last 3 years have had similar schedules, interests, lifestyles, habits, or life philosophies. After one day on my own, I feel more free to be me – woke up at 6am, played some music, sang, did my guided yoga practice with normal volume, etc.  The walls here are pretty thick, so it’s nice not to feel like I need to be quiet until noon or 1pm, when “normal” students wake up.
  • I’m an introvert and need a lot of alone time. After being out and about or at school with people all day (all of which I enjoy), I need my own space to recharge my batteries.  I do my best work, thinking, etc. when I’m on my own. Then, and only then, can I enjoy and do well in public.  Although I had my own room, there were often big dinner parties after my bedtime as well as several house guests in our very small space, and so recharging my batteries was sometimes challenging.
  • Allergy-free zone:  I’m hoping my skin issues have something to do with my allergy to perfume.  Europe hasn’t caught on to the scent-free movement.  Sharing a space with three young beautiful social European women meant constantly coming into contact with clouds or perfume or films of it on shared surfaces like the shower, floors, etc.  I even had to buy my own toilet paper as the last communal batch was scented.
  • A clean kitchen!!!  Cooking will be so much more appealing when I can access things, have more than a shelf in the mini-bar sized fridge, and not be turned off by the stinky dirty dishes sometimes left there for days.  I like to clean mine as soon as I’m done, but I had to respect that others didn’t.  We’d had a group meeting about kitchen etiquette, but it only helped for a week.
  • More sleep: I have an unusual schedule.  I wake up at 5am and am in bed around 9pm.  So dinner parties that started at 8pm right outside my room weren’t fun.  Also, my roommates often came home late at night or in the wee hours of the morning interrupting my sleep with their high heels on hard floors or the occasional dramatic post-party conversations or cooking. It wouldn’t have been so bad if our hours were the same, but alas for all of us, they weren’t (although that also had definite advantages, especially when it came to bathroom use).  Also, our place really echoed, so that didn’t help.  If last night was any indication, my new place is very quiet! Yay!
  • Guests: Now that I have a little more space, I’m hoping my friends from the Czech Republic come to visit. For 15 Euros a night, I can get another mattress delivered if they want to stay overnight.

So there you have it.  I have a new home for the next 2 months, and I’m thrilled.  I’ve unpacked, put up my prayer flags, had my ritual house-warming ceremony (smudged it with palo santo smoke, lit a beeswax candle, did a bit of fung shui, invoked my angels and guides to help me fill it with healthy energy, etc.)  For those of you I know like pictures, here’s how it looks.

 

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Vienna City Hike Path #4 – Jubiläumswarte

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I woke up with low energy on Saturday – probably because I stayed up late watching movies Friday night.  Still, the sun was coming out and it would be warmer than on Sunday (-2, but -7 degrees with the wind chill), so I focused on how much I enjoy being out in nature in order to get myself off my computer chair and out the door. Even waiting for tram 49 down the street I considered turning back, but I knew this wasn’t an intuitive message – it was the kind of mental noise that stops me from doing things I enjoy.   Already, it was late – almost 1pm.  Instead of doing all the city hikes in order, therefore, I found the shortest one on the list, City Hike #4 – Jubiläumswarte – 7.2 km and an estimated 2.5 – 3 hours.

DLH_5790I’m really glad I got out.  It felt good to be moving and seeing new things.  This trail went through parks, hillside garden communities, forests, etc. No vineyards this time.

Sure, it was colder than last week, but after a few minutes on steep inclines, my hands warmed up. An advantage to the cold weather was that there was no mud this week.  Instead, there was a dusting of snow on the higher elevations (hadn’t seen snow since Christmas in Canada).

At the top was the Jubiläumswarte tower.  I saw someone going up and so I worked up the resolve to do it – it would be a shame to have climbed all the way up here and not see the view, even if I was still in low gear.  You can understand, therefore, why I had mixed feelings when I realized he had climbed over a shoulder-height winter fence to do it – something I wasn’t willing to do.

There were a lot less people than the other hikes, and only 1 restaurant near the very end.  I didn’t want to eat there because soon it would be dark, and I didn’t know how far I still had to go.  At one point, I added about 20 minutes to my trek when I took a wrong turn. There are lots of signs, but sometimes, it’s just not clear with all the criss-crossing trails and my assumption that the biggest of the 2 paths in front of me was the correct one was wrong.  Oh well… no big deal.  When I did catch up to creatures of the human variety, I was instructed to turn back. Even with that detour, the whole trail only took me 2.5 hours.

When I got back to my neighbourhood at 4pm, I decided to try a vegan restaurant called Loving Hut.  I had a coconut curry dish that came with rice and salad for 8 Euros.  It was quite good and very welcomed as I hadn’t eaten since my bowl of porridge at 9am.

DLH_5837 copyI’m glad I pushed myself.  Who knows how long the trails will still be safe to walk – a bit more ice and I wouldn’t have wanted to be up there.  And even with that outing, I still have plenty of time to do my packing, laundry, cooking for the week ahead, and work on my quotes project.  I’m sharing a quote a day on my public Facebook Page.  Here’s one from last week.

Blue Lotus

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Vienna City Hike #2 – Hermannskogel

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This weekend was one of contrasts!

Quote 3_Precious MomentsOn Saturday, I spent at least 14 hours sitting on my butt in front of the computer.  I did watch one or two movies at the end of the night, but for about 11 hours, I worked on a new project for my Facebook followers. I had been getting requests to see more of my work, and so I’ve decided to offer 1 of my images a day (painting or photography) as a backdrop to inspirational quotes.  This was today’s offering, for example.  I’m greatly enjoying this project as it definitely fits my business name – Dominique Hurley – Art & Inspiration.  My public Facebook Page is open to non-Facebook members, so feel free to visit or Follow it.  While I was working, I listened to several inspirational podcasts hosted by Deb Ozarko. Time just flew! They’re about letting go of fear, judgment, conformity, status-quo, and celebrating a simpler, heart-centered life of purpose, passion, and compassion.  I found out about them because she contacted me from British Columbia asking to interview me, following a recommendation from a friend I’ve been “inspiring for decades”.  Wow!  Thanks Jo-Anne! If anything I say can be of any help to anyone, then I’ll be glad to do it – even if it’s been a very long time since I’ve had a heart-to-heart, soul-to-soul conversation for anywhere close to an hour as it just hasn’t been a part of my Vienna experience.  I know I’ll be fine, though. Actually, it will be great!  I’ll let you know when it gets released on iTunes – we haven’t even set a recording date yet.    If you’re looking for inspiration though, I recommend these podcasts – all sorts of topics like veganism, living with intention, standing in our goddess power, courage, and forgiveness.

Sunday Hike

DLH_5675On Sunday, however, I got off my butt!  My classmate Martin Cash and I headed to Vienna’s tallest hill for a 4.5 hours exploration of City Hike #2: Hermnanskogel.  Martin, it turns out, is a perfect hiking partner.  His pace was almost as leisurely as mine, and if it wasn’t me uttering in awe “check out that vibrant green moss on this fence”, it was him exclaiming “look, these trees have eyes”.  It was great being in nature with a fellow observer who appreciated subtleties in colours and textures.

I’m so glad I brought my real camera (last week I only had my iPhone)- I almost left it at home, not knowing how steep the hills would be, but it was worth the extra weight.  There were a few times, though, when I’d wished I had also brought my long lens.  Maybe next time – but that would mean a tripod too…  Still, I’m thrilled with the results – lots of in-camera dancing and panning, as well as mirror work and other artistic adjustments in Photoshop.  You’ll get plenty of straight shots too – a nice variety to represent both the visual and energetic experience of the day.

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The trail head was 2 subways and a bus away from my place, but with Vienna’s amazing public transportation system, there’s rarely more than a 5 minute wait for anything – even on Sundays, it seems.  From the bus stop, we simply followed the signs (and fellow hikers, many with their nordic walking sticks.)  We were soon past the vineyards and into the forest.

The high was to be 12 degrees Celcius today – we’re having a very unusual winter… still fall, really!  You’ll see that in the photos.  I so resonated with the purples, greens and oranges (yes, some of these were digitally saturated, but others weren’t – that’s just how I experience colour).  The birds provided background music at the beginning of our hike, but near the top, strong winds added to the impressive soundtrack.

We weren’t alone on the trails, but there weren’t nearly as many people as last weekend on Trail #1.

If you read about my love of dogs in a previous post, you’ll understand how thrilled I was when this little dog chose to walk with us rather than his elderly owners behind us – I think he preferred our calm and positive energy instead of their constant yabbering and complaining.  I like listening to German for my learning purposes, but I kept my distance too.  Anyhow, I couldn’t help but take these pictures of our companion checking out the smell-mail on this 1891 marker (a behaviour he would repeat along the way).  Centuries of dogs have left messages there.

Once in a while, I could see the roadway and it looked shiny and wet, despite the fact it hadn’t rained in hours.  It was only once we got closer that I figured out that it wasn’t an ordinary paved road. Wow!  The work involved! There’s history to this, I’m sure…  By the way, it’s a very long road!

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At the very top top – the highest point in Vienna, we found this tower, which was erected in 1888 by the Tourism Club.  This spot also marked the 0 km point during the Austro-Hungarian era.

On our way down, we stopped at a very busy restaurant (there are a few along the trails – some of which are usually closed by this time of year).  We shared a table with a young couple and their newborn in a carriage.  They had parked about 1km lower down and taken the smoother trail up.  There’s no way they would have managed the very muddy steep trails we had taken. I sat with my back to the long wall plastered with stuffed animals (not the toy kind)- but I could feel that wild boar behind me staring… Although I resonated with many of the podcasts I’d heard on veganism yesterday (I was vegan for 3 years and vegetarian for longer), I ordered a chicken schnitzel. A few years back, after several health consultations by medical intuitives and a lot of tears, I had had to bring chicken and fish back in my diet.  My body, it turns out, needs meat occasionally – and I prefer when someone else cooks it.  Martin, who had eaten a sandwich partway up, had a cafe latte and Sacher cake – very Viennese!

Part of the #2 loop was closed due to trail maintenance (they were cutting down trees – a painful site to see, I’ll admit), so we took a detour. At one intersection, Martin felt we should veer right on an unmarked trail down.  I used my necklace as a pendulum to confirm.  It was the right decision – we ended up reconnecting to trail #2. Had we followed the crowds, we would have ended up back on the trail I did last week (which would have added another hill and about 2 hours to the trek).  Instead, we were back in town for the 2:50pm bus.  A truly wonderful day.  I hope you enjoyed seeing it through my eyes.  Now lets see for how many days this week my legs will remind me of today’s good work…

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Healthy Stress & Hiking Paths

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Humans are complex beings  – at least I am…. a study in contrasts at times.

I have traveled around the world, yet I was almost too afraid to explore Vienna’s hiking paths on my own, and I hadn’t found anyone to join me. It’s not like I spent my first 4 months here locked up in my room, but this is something I had wanted to do and hadn’t.   I didn’t know how safe it would be for a woman alone to be walking in the woods around here.  I didn’t know how to get to the trail heads.  All sorts of little fears had gotten in the way of my making it to the thirteen hiking paths around Vienna.  Until yesterday.  The sun was shining and I had done my research (plus I’d written I would in my blog, so….).  I felt the fear, but did it anyway.  Have you read that book? “Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway” by Susan Jeffers?  I did about 15 years ago, and I’m a big fan!  I’m also a fan of a saying that was printed on my Lulu Lemon yoga bag:  “Do one thing a day that scares you.”  It’s good to stretch our comfort zones – that’s how we grow.  My life is a testimony to that.  And lo and behold, Sunday morning, I even learned how to make my body’s stress induced reactions healthy! During breakfast, I watched a great TED Talk (14 minutes) that revealed scientific evidence on how our beliefs change our reality – worth a watch!  Stress, it turns out, is not a public enemy.  It’s only bad if you believe it is.  If you believe it’s good, your body will respond differently and you’ll live much longer.  Check out the video – I’m sure it has added a few years to my life!

After watching that, I headed out with a healthy attitude.  I had chosen Hiking Path #1 (logical, I know) – Kahlenberg, described as “an uphill walk through vineyards and wooded hills rewarded by a marvelous view of Vienna and the Danube.”  Perfect!  And it was.  As it often happens, there was absolutely no reason for fear… It was simply wonderful! It often is.


They advertised that it is a 3-4 hour hike – it took me 4 hours and 20 minutes from the end station of tramway D – the start of the 11km loop.  I only brought my iPhone to take pictures, but I still like to walk at a leisurely pace, so I’m usually slower than most.  It was awesome!  There were times I was on my own, but the trails were far from empty: people of all ages – walking, jogging, mountain-biking, dog-walking, pushing strollers and wheelchairs, and nordic pole walking.  This is how Viennese balance their café & confectionery culture!

The path was pretty well marked, but I’m glad I had written down the route’s major landmarks.  There are lots of trails that intersect this loop and I had to ask a few times to make sure I was still on track (literally!).  There was only once when I was wasn’t – I had gone a hundred meters down a very steep hill, only to have to climb back up again.  Good exercise!  As you’ll see in the photos, some of the paths are paved, on gravel, or packed dirt – or mud.  I enjoyed the variety and loved being able to see past the buildings across the street.  It felt so good to be in nature!

When I got to the top, the clear blue skies had turned a bit cloudy, so the views of Vienna weren’t perfectly clear.  That’s OK.  I joined all those who had gotten there by bus or by car (the parking lot was full!) to admire the view.  I also treated myself to some roasted potatoes and a delicious bowl of goulash soup (that was for you Papa), which I ate sitting on a bench in the sun. I don’t usually eat beef, but was in the mood to taste this traditional dish.  I then entered the packed church in time to hear a lovely hymn.  In addition to the church, Kahlenberg is home to a transmission tower, a historic tower, food stands, tourist shop, a fancy restaurant, ballrooms, hotel, private university, conference rooms, and a house with a big back yard and several Newfoundlander dogs.  Nice! By the way, the washrooms on the descending path near the bus stop are the only free ones.  I saved a Euro there and many people do along the trails, as I found out when I saw something move downhill from me while I was talking a picture.  (The elderly gentleman standing next to me didn’t say a thing while I was shooting away near his wife’s hideaway… oops!)  After spending half an hour at the top, I headed back down past a really cool hebertism trail (obstacle course among and up the trees) and through the forest and vineyards.  In the fall, tourists and locals spend a lot of time up here at all the heurige – wine taverns.  Since I could never get past the smell of wine, this hasn’t been part of my experience.  I love Vienna’s spring water though 🙂

Note: There was an interesting plaque at the top of the hill that left me curious – I don’t have much time to research it now as I need to get to school soon, but it turns out that it’s about a parallel universe and the creatures that live there. Seems that Kahlenberg is also known to some as Seen des Himmels (Lakes of the Sky). Check out their website if you want to know more and click on this image to see it larger – hopefully you’ll be able to read the text.

IMG_4634Anyhow, I had a great day in nature and now I’m excited to explore the other 12 trails – I’ve got til June! I tell ya – feel the fear and do it anyway!  It’s worth it!

P.S.  On Saturday night, Ellen and Monica, two of my roommates, went to a ball in the Hofburg Palace – it was organized by their university.  Ball season is such an important part of Vienna culture, and one I won’t be participating in, so I wanted to share a couple of their photos.

Have a great week and hope you get some time in nature!

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Reflections on War & Peace: Visas & Vienna’s Augarten

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IMG_4262During the holidays, my father lent me James A. Michener’s non-fiction novel “The Bridge at Andau” about the the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and Austria’s crucial role in helping the 180,000 refugees who escaped by crossing over the tiny footbridge and swamps at the border.  It certainly wasn’t very cheerful reading, but it gave me a much deeper appreciation of human nature and of this region’s history.  It was also a great reminder of how truly lucky I am to live a life of freedom – always being able to decide what I want to do and where I want to live, as long as I am willing to take the necessary steps to make it happen.  Considering I was born in Canada in this era, these steps have always been relatively easy – certainly never life-threatening.  Still, some cause me stress..

This morning, I took one of these steps – I went to the Austrian Registry Office to make my official request for a residency permit that will allow me to study here until June. I could only apply once my school received its certification, which only happened late in December.  I was nervous. I’m sure my holiday reading didn’t help – stories of abuse by authorities who wielded the power of life and death behind the iron curtain.  Truth be told, though, I’m usually nervous in such situations (“Is there a document missing in this 1-inch thick envelope of paperwork?  Did I fill-out the 9-page German application accurately? Will they accept my renewed criminal record check if it hasn’t been notarized? Can my future really be determined by a yes/no from officials even if I’m a good girl?)” You get the picture.  Part of me has a very spiritual take on events – nothing is good or bad, it just is, and a decision either way will be a sign of what I’m meant to do next – but part of me gets all uptight around anything to do with authority and bureaucracy.  Luckily, Florence, our school’s administrator, was kind enough to accompany me, the first student to go through this process. Better still, the officer who greeted me was very nice and even complimented me on my German.  She double-checked all of my paperwork and, after a few minutes, so did her colleague, who then sent me to the cash to pay my 100 Euro fee.  I’ll find out the results in a few weeks.  Wish me luck!

Since it was sunny and above zero (although not yesterday’s 10°C), I then decided to explore a nearby park that seemed huge on the map.  The Augarten, I discovered, is actually a 52 hectare walled-in park with tree-lined avenues, flower gardens (no blooms now), sports fields, playgrounds, dog parks, an outdoor swimming pool (still full, but covered in ice), a retirement residence, a palace, a contemporary art gallery, a porcelain factory & shop, restaurants, home of the Vienna Boy’s Choir, and more.  It’s the oldest Baroque garden in Vienna. Even though the grass is still green, it wasn’t nearly as impressive as it will be in the spring (I will definitely return if I get my visa).  Walking amongst thousands of bare trees, however, added to the ominousness of the two huge anti-aircraft gun blockhouses that loom over this public park.  What a strange sight! I wasn’t sure what they were at first, although I felt uneasy around them, so I looked it up on Google while sitting on a park bench and found out that these flak towers also served as air-raid shelters during WWII.  I’m surprised they weren’t in the movie “The Third Man” with Orson Welles, which showed a lot of Vienna post-war.  Standing here, at the foot of these foreboding structures,  I recalled how uncomfortable I also felt when I heard the anti-raid sirens being tested in Vienna and when I learned how they test them weekly in towns and villages across Austria.  (I just checked and found out that they are now used as fire sirens instead).  All in all, the juxtaposition of war and peace – concrete bunkers and baroque gardens – was thought-provoking. The cold war only ended in 1991 and the last world war only 68 years ago.  Although monuments and stories remind us of this in Canada, it is so much more evident here in Europe – at least for me.  I smiled though, as I was nearing the end of my walk, when two white doves flew in front of me and landed in a tree  (OK, they could have been pigeons).  I also smiled when I followed my nose into the palace restaurant for a delicious daily special – rainbow trout on a bed of risotto for 7.90EU ($11.50 Cdn) – although I was surprised that it came without any vegetables.  Still, it was excellent energy for my 2-hour walk home along streets I had yet to explore.

May 2014 be a year of peace and freedom all around the world, and may we all learn to choose love over fear.

P.S.  After writing this post, I found 2 films on the Hungarian Revolution online:  “Revolution’s Orphans“, a Canadian short film (click to view) and “Children of Glory” – which I watched in German (click to view) because the English version wasn’t available on YouTube.

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Transitioning Into a New Year

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It’s long been a tradition to set New Year’s Resolutions.  I believe that how we choose to spend the transition from one year to another is, in itself, the creation of intention.  So here’s how I spent the last day of 2013 and the beginning of 2014.

New Year’s Eve:

  1. After hugging my family goodbye in Ottawa, I spent the day traveling from one continent to another – reading, watching movies, chatting with my neighbour, thinking, and sleeping.  When New Year’s Eve hit both Canada and Austria, I was flying high in the skies, aimed towards education, adventure, mystery, discovery, creativity, and so much more.
  2. After doing the laundry (I didn’t want to start off the New Year with dirty laundry – bad Feng Shui), washing up, and getting dressed, I relaxed for an hour with a great book friends gave me, “Merle’s Door – Lessons from a Freethinking Dog”.
  3. I did the groceries – filling my fridge and cupboards with an abundance of healthy organic foods – good Feng Shui.
  4. I then decided that although part of me wanted to stay home and relax by myself (that ever so strong introvert self), a stronger part of me would have regretted not playing tourist by exploring the free activities along Vienna’s New Year’s Path – the whole downtown core was filled with hundreds of thousands of people, several stages, outdoor screens at the Opera House and  St. Stephen’s Cathedral, an abundance of stands selling food, champagne, punch, mulled wine, and paraphernalia of the swine variety (pigs are a traditional Austrian symbol of good luck for the incoming year),and waltzing lessons.  So I pushed through my resistance and headed out, walking around the historic part of town from 4:30pm to 6:45pm – plenty of time to reaffirm that I’m not into crowds, especially when a good number of folks are drunk and setting off loud firecrackers and fireworks (websites warned to bring along ear plugs to avoid permanent hearing damage).  I’m sure extroverts had a great time until the wee hours of the morning, but I was quite content with my explorations.  Glad I did it! My most interesting moment was when I was heading towards the stage at City Hall for my final stop (where I eventually caught a few songs by the Abbariginals. I got a really good vibe from a street in the opposite direction.  There, I found a whole series of booths that offered spiritual guidance for the New Year – shamanism, astrology, numerology, angel card readings, etc.  Nice!
  5. At 7pm, I joined 2 other classmates at our Director’s/Administrator’s apartment.  Florence & Laurence had just returned from their home in France and had invited us for appetizers and a champagne toast before shairng a meal and several hours of conversation.  It was really good to connect with them – to bring in the New Year with friends.  At midnight, we were on the roof watching fireworks lighting up the sky in all directions.  We set intentions for the New Year and sealed them with hugs.  Although the 3 major official fireworks shows were over by 12:15am, unofficial ones and sidewalk firecracker parties were  still happening by the time I got to my place at 1:15am.
  6. I fell asleep listing all the things I was grateful for on this day and in 2013 and praying for everyone I know and those they know, and so on (basically, all of humanity).

New Year’s Day:

After 10 hours of sleep (catching up for my short night on the plane),

  • I woke up and lit a Tibetan Dharma beeswax candle I received from my mother (which will burn until I go to bed).
  • I smudged / purified myself and my room with Peruvian palo santo wood smoke.
  • I showered, imagining all that no longer served me going down the drain to be transformed into something useful.
  • I pulled 5 of my Spirit Calling Cards, asking for guidance on what I need to focus on in the next year.
    New Year's Reading
  • I did 3 pages of stream-of-consciousness writing related to my card reading, finding a deeper understanding in its meaning.
  • I did my monthly financial tabulations for December as well as my yearly summary –  seeing where my money came from and where it went all the while evaluating if these categories / amounts were in line with my values and priorities (a great system I learned years ago in the book “Your Money or Your Life”).
  • I moved $5,500 into my Tax Free Savings Account – the yearly allocation for Canadians.
  • I read my January astrological forecast,  which actually predicted “The full moon of January 15 will be very helpful if you need to hear back about a passport, green card, or visa” – I will be applying for my residency visa on Friday…
  • I connected with all of you by writing this blog and sent Happy New Year emails.
  • I reached out to a friend to make plans for this weekend.

and before the day is over, I plan to:

  • make a healthy organic brown rice & lentil soup;
  • make a digital vision board – intuitive style;
  • watch another inspiring film on youtube on the life of Nelson Mandala, featuring Sydney Poitier (I really enjoyed the one I saw at the Bytowne Cinema in Ottawa last week, “Mandela: Long Road to Freedom“, which is based on his autobiography and is nominated for 9 awards.  Mandela died during its London premier.
  • get a good night’s sleep before getting back to business & art tomorrow.

This is how I’ve chosen to end one year and begin another:  a couple of days filled heart-connections, travel & tourism, stretching comfort zones, spiritual rituals, relaxation, inspiration, and other priorities.  I hope you’ve also had a great transition into 2014, in line with how you like to spend your time – being true to ourselves is indeed a great gift to all those around us.

May 2014 be filled with love, peace, joy, health, wealth, and happiness to all of you, dear readers (from 30 countries in December alone! – baffling!) and all those you know and those they know, and so on, and so on, etc.

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Intuitive Walking Game – Fun!

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pigeonThis was fun, so I thought I’d share – especially during this holiday season when it’s so easy to add on the extra pounds.  Dress accordingly…

I’m a walker.  I’ve never owned a car (although I love to drive) and always find a place to live within an hour’s walk to school or work.  It’s about the only exercise I get apart from some restorative yoga.  I love walking – I get to see lots, think lots, listen to audio-courses, etc.  We all know the benefits.

I also have no problem sitting on my butt all day.  On Friday, I spent all day at school where I hired one of my classmates to tutor me on some Photoshop techniques he had wowed me with.  On Saturday, I watched 6 movies in a row (I recently discovered that you can see full movies for free on YouTube, so I’m catching up…).  On Monday, I spent 13 hours on the computer writing an article for a great inspirational website (my first draft was 2,000 words and the limit was 1,000 – I can be wordy at times… have you noticed?).

So on Sunday, when the sun came out (a rare occurrence during Vienna winters), I just had to get out.  Usually, when I don’t have a destination, I like to play an intuitive game that goes like this:  at every intersection, check which direction feels better and follow through. It’s a great way to explore the world and develop your intuition.

Sunday, however, that didn’t appeal to me.  As I was putting on my boots, three numbers kept popping up in my mind: 6, 8, and 2.  So I tried something new. I walked 6 blocks in a direction I had never walked before, 8 blocks to the left, and 2 blocks to the right.  Perfect!  My intuition brought me to a neighbourhood park where I spent a while sharing a bench with a pigeon and soaking in some Vitamin D.  I felt honoured that he didn’t fly away.  I was sure there would be something at the end for me, no matter what it was.  As a bonus, I got to see all new things along the way, including a farmer’s market.  When I lost my count, I just checked on my smart phone’s map app and got back on track.  As a reward, after my total of 32 blocks (I discovered some blocks in Vienna are super long), I found a store that actually had Lays potato chips – Paprika (to go with another couple of movies on YouTube).

I usually go walking on my own, but I’m sure you could play this with friends – get each one to subsequently tune in and come up with a number and a direction and trust that there will be something there for you at the end, even if it’s a bird on a bench.

 

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Now That’s a Market! +

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Wow!  OK, so if you have time to only go to one Christmas Market in Vienna, definitely go to the one in Karlplatz, in front of St. Charles Church.  There are over 80 booths/cabins filled with the handcrafted wares of juried artists and artisans.  Nothing junkie here.  Plus I’m told the organic mulled wine and the children’s activities here are better than anywhere else.  Again, I didn’t buy anything, but enjoyed immersing myself in the creative beauty.

I came across this market when our class exited from the subway after a fantastic afternoon in the studio of Micheal Fuchs (one of Ernst Fuchs’ sons, who is also a successful artist and teacher – as is Micheal’s son… talent runs in the family).  His studio is in a small historic town on the outskirts of Vienna.  I love field trips, plus I learned a lot about sight sizing portraits. Great stuff!

After a quick dinner, we all headed back to school for a painting party. Apart from the mulled wine, our party was just like class, but more chatty.  At about 11pm, it was finally my turn to get help putting my second glaze on my painting.  We opted for a magenta to keep it in the warm tones, but the colour that came out of the tube was much too red, and so we added blues and rose to try and achieve what Laurence was used to from his higher quality oil paints. The glaze went on much darker than I would have liked, obscuring my whites more than it did for other students (but it didn’t melt them away this time! yay!).  It’s true, I initially felt disappointed, but also calmly resigned (Laurence might disagree with this description)- trying to reserve judgment. I’ll just see where this painting goes and learn a lot in the process.   I did get to see how Laurence lifted glaze with the palm of his hand – the artist’s karate chop technique… probably not recommended for your health, but interesting.  I got home at midnight and not sure what I’ll be doing this weekend.  I’m open to spontaneous ideas.  First, breakfast.

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Vienna’s Christmas Markets

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My walks home after school are taking much longer than usual now that the Christmas Market season has begun here in Vienna. In the last week, markets have sprung up all over town – series of wooden cabins selling arts & crafts, Christmas decorations, imported wares, and lots of food & drinks (especially gluhwein – mulled wine). There are 3 popular markets on my usual walk home, and I detoured a few blocks one evening to take in the one at City Hall.

The atmosphere at these is quite fun – the Viennese are very social people, and it seems that standing around in the cold chatting for hours holding a cigarette and a ceramic cup filled with mulled wine is as typical here as spending hours over a cup of coffee and pastry at a cafe during the day.

Each market has 20-60 cabins filled with colourful stuff.  I only saw one or two things that I thought would make nice gifts, but when I realized they were made in China and could be found in 2-4 cabins at each and every market, I was glad I hadn’t spent my money on them.  There aren’t actually a lot of artisans at these markets – mostly commercial and imported stuff except for all the cheese, meat, and other edibles. Still, if you’re into shopping, you could find some neat gifts here. I can’t imagine being one of the vendors, however.  These markets last all the way until Christmas and some until New Year – there may be little heaters in each of the cabins, but it’s not warm.  I shared a table the other day at my favourite Vietnamese restaurant with a girl who said she’d worked at one of those markets before and had been miserable.  We’re still a couple of degrees over freezing here, but the wind and humidity add to the cold for sure.  And it’s getting colder.

Here are some iPhone shots to give you an idea (sorry for the blurriness – I’m thinking of going back with my real camera, but just in case…)

Maria Theresa Square:

Once I leave school and the palace area, I cross the street and through the square between the twin Art History and Natural History museums with a monument to the empress Maria Theresa.

Museum Quarter:

Across the street from that is the famous Museum Quarter, with its dozen or so museums – a popular hangout space in any season.  There are no gift vendors here – simply several establishments selling mulled wine and punch and the occasional live music show. There’s also what I believe is a curling rink, but the stones look different.

Spittelberg:

This one covers a few of the cobblestone alleys off of Burgasse, the main street I walk on between my place and downtown.

 

City Hall:

This one looks most like Christmas with all their Christmas lights, a children’s village and impressive backdrop – all that’s missing is snow.

I’m sure I’ll be exploring more of these markets around town and maybe even outside of town (I just found notice for a boat trip to a castle near the Slovakia border for a few hours at a traditional market there… a tempting treat for 50 Euros including an on board buffet… part of my financial priorities is experiencing Austria while I’m here).  OK – time to head to school – have a great day!

 

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