Out With A Bang

Sooooooooo it's been a while... My bad.

Quick summary of my last week in Vienna:

To start I had three classes. First was Francesco Scavetta's A Surprised Body. Francesco is a tall, bald, Italian man with a soft voice and a very physical way of teaching. The class involved a lot of floor work requiring a soft body. It involved a lot of emptying of the body and using external support. It was honestly very challenging for me to keep all the sensations he was asking for. Sensationally it was challenging and beautiful work.

Next class was Alice Chauchat's Confusing Agency. This involved a lot of thinking. The majority of this class included improvisation scores to provoke observation and conversation. The scores often included the impossible, so it would highlight the struggle of negotiation. For me it enabled "noodling" in the sense that I moved with not too much motivation and the movement allowed more work to be done in my mind. However, it felt less purposeful and I felt as though I wasn't paying attention to myself, but to these thoughts that seemed removed from dance in a sense. It wasn't my favorite.

Finally I had Eleanor Bauer's Dancing, Not The Dancer. This was also an improvisation based class, but Eleanor's energy just too it to a different level. The initial rules were 1) Say yes to the movement before you can name it 2) Complete it with your everything 3) Observe. These rules gave us bombastic movement at first, but after a few times, we could find more subtlety and enjoy doing less and know how to complete that as well. It really felt like I had a purpose and everything I wanted to do was impulsive, but completed to the fullest. Loved it.

After the festival came to an end, we partied one more time at the Festival Lounge and then on Saturday morning... BUDAPEST!!!!!

Yes, queue singing of the song "Budapest." Spontaneously I decided to tag along on a trip to Hungary with a few friends I met from Alberta! It was both excellent and too short. We did a two hour walking tour, took a train over to a beautiful traditional bath house, and then we made it back to our hostel in time for an awesome pub crawl!

So we got shots at every bar and partied hard, met some other cool tourists and made it back to pass out. The next day me and Raine spent the day hungover, since we all got trains at different times, and then I caught my train back to Vienna. Then I flew back home on the Tuesday and her we are!

Since my trip it has been a little weird and difficult not being completely immersed in newness, and I'm not as busy as I would like, but I will for sure be doing my next adventure ASAP.

Happy Travels,

G

I can't remember anyone's name

This is a bit of a problem... It's not that I don't remember who you are, I just will have to ask what you're called about 5 times before I remember it. Thus is the price of meeting a ridiculous amount of people from all around the world in just 4 short weeks.


Just finishing up with week 3 now and it's the home stretch! I'll be home August 18th, one week on Tuesday, and the festival ends on Friday. Having been away for about 6 weeks now I'm feeling pretty excited to come to familiar territory soon. For now let us continue with this adventure!


Week three was a good one. I spent the entire week with Clara Furey and Peter Jasko in my second research project entitled, "A Dark Tale." The material we played with was mostly based on material they are using currently for a duet they are creating and performing together. Every day we started with around 40 mins of shaking... Yes non-stop shaking, which is actually an old Asian traditional exercise to aide with alignment issues, and as a meditation practice. We did this slightly different every day, but the idea was to activate our bodies physically, and activate the use of the mind in a particular way that enables openness and using imagination skills.

The rest of the days we went through a series of guided improvisations, either using a specific physicality, or by imagining a situation that we described as a "catastrophe." We left the word catastrophe open to include a wide variety of dramatic experiences. Sometimes we would get in groups and out of the improvisations create movement phrases we could repeat, and show the others. One thing that I really took from the work was how important the eyes and the face are. We can use the eyes in a way that we are imagining something that seems so real to us, and the audience watching can also see something that is not there. It was seriously amazing how this changed our physicality and intention, and I really felt how powerful you really can be as an interpreter when you use these techniques. At the end of the week we put a bunch of phrases together like a show, and performed them for each other. It was really nice to have something concrete to take away from this experience. Clara and Peter are also debuting their duet in Montreal this year so I think I'll be taking a trip to Montreal at some point soonish!

We also took a trip to the river in the middle of the week to decompress and boy was it beautiful. We went to a nude portion and had pizza and beer and felt good. The perfect day I would say.

Thursday night I saw Miguel Gutierrez's FUCKMEGUNTERBRUSBRUSGUNTERMEFUCK. This was performed in MUMOK and was epically beautiful. The majority of it was Miguel speaking about how he wanted to actually bring a piece he had already created, but ImPulsTanz couldn't fund it, so they asked him to bring a new performance... He gave a really good rant about how he hated the fact that there was no piece yet, but everyone was raving on about how excited they were for it because of the name and description he made up when he was pissed off one day. It was also about how shitty the industry can be with politics and how much you do work you don't want to do because you need the dime. He is based out of NYC so I think a trip is in order to see his real show also.

On Friday, we partied at the festival's lounge, which is a club open every single night of the festival! So a few friends went to party and I got home at 4AM... Good thing I didn't have workshops until 12:30PM the next day!

I woke up not hungover for some amazing reason and went to Jared Gradinger and Angela Schubot's "On Becoming" intensive. This experience was high up in the clouds somewhere. We did a lot of Kundalini yoga breathing exercises that got me really lightheaded after one full hour... The rest of the time yesterday and today we went through a series of abstract improvisations that made me question their usefulness, but in the end I enjoyed and had an experience with them that opened some new ways of training. I felt high most of the time, but that in itself was a very interesting way to dance, and it also did a good job of reviving me for another week of workshops.

On Saturday evening saw Philippe Gehmacher's my shapes, your words, their grey. This performance was in a museum with a beautiful set huge inflated shapes as the exhibit. He allowed the audience to walk around in the whole space as he danced in it, and spoke about the colour grey as he laid different sized, rectangular tiles down in a specific composition. In all it was a boring piece, but it was done very well and I took away some good things from it.

In the same evening, I saw Doris Uhlich at a club performance of Universal Dancer Club Version. I got lost for an hour and so was half an hour late, but luckily the show hadn't started until right when I got there. Talk about lucky! There was a huge crowd of people and the solo was based around this table with a motor underneath that made is shake and rock. It was absolutely amazing. Doris had techno music going as she moved the air with her body on top of the table that shook violently with lights in every direction. It was beautiful and fantastic and artistic and all things I love in theatre. I think I have found a new idol in Doris. After the performance, the bar transformed into a rave, and we all raved and danced really hard... Like really hard... I did go home fairly early (2AM) so I could be ok for the workshop the next day.

This coming week I'm taking three workshops starting at 9:30AM... I think this is going to take a toll, but it's the last run so better make the most!

Happy Travels,

G

Digging Deep

Its crunch time and it's the latter half of the festival.

LAST WEEK! So I worked with Bruno Caverna on Becoming Animal and Doris Uhlich on More Than Naked. Some pretty intense stuff.

Bruno himself is Brazilian and looks like a hippie. His ideas and the way they explain them can often be abstract and a little difficult to grasp, but then again so is art. Bruno teaches in an artistic way and I can really appreciate that in a word where everything has to be concrete. This class was fluid, and like water, we moved across the floor and in partners. The man point of the class I really felt was about play fighting. We learned certain ways to take someone to the floor using tipping points against someone's balance, but it was always in the spirit of play and love. It was as if in a relationship with your partner there was always this seductive showing of your weak side, but being fluid and clever enough to redirect the other's energy to use it against them if they came after you. It was very exciting to do partner work in that way because it could get rough and almost violent, but there was so much trust in each other's bodies that there was never danger and we could really feel the playful connection.

Arsenal Studio B before Becoming Animal

I was going to take Sybrig Dokter's Body in Question class, but the first class I went to felt unchallenging and not quite what I expected, so I decided to drop it and focus on the other classes.

Doris Uhlich's More Than Naked was certainly more than being naked, though that was a big element. We started the week by getting comfortable being completely nude in the class with techno/pop songs playing to get into a playful mood. As we were undressed and running around freely, we began to work on shaking our body parts and seeing where the party wants to go in our body. Shaking causing all kinds of jiggling, but with all kinds of pride. As a side note, this became very much about body love, no matter how much you jiggle. We ended up being comfortable with contact with others as we were naked since we spent 2.5 hrs naked together every day. On the final day we had a DJ come in, and we raved to techno music for a full hour nonstop... We used props in the studio, mirrors, danced like insane people, and felt like we took some serious ecstasy, but it was all natural baby. After that experience I could be naked anywhere.

On the weekend I took Axis Syllabus with Frey Faust! It was a little underwhelming, mostly because when I signed up it was an advanced class, and ten they changed it to an open class without me knowing. We did a lot of self research using some intricate anatomical information he gave us, and it was very interesting to find what momentum does to your body's structure naturally, but I wished for a little more than that in terms of physical work.

This week I have started my second research project, this time with Clara Furey and Peter Jasko! The work we have started is based on a piece they have together and we are working with the content of their repertory as our starting point of research for movement. The work is very imagery based in a  way, but that isn't always where we start in terms of movement initiation. We often do improvisations based on a few physical principals, and in the middle of that improvisation, images that happen are something to elaborate on and welcome into the work. It also has a lot to do with stage presence and what that has to do with the face and the eyes, which is something I love thinking about and would love to research more in my own independent work.

Justin petting cats

As a side note I have also been hanging out with some Canada friends! Justin DeLuna, Syreeta Hector, Erin Poole, and some new friends from Alberta! It's really nice to meet people from your home and make new connections that way that have a very big possibility for collaboration. In hanging with Justin we went to a cat café called Café Nero... There were 5 cats lounging while we drank allo vera juice. It was quite hilarious really, but all in all a cute and fun experience. While here a group of us North Americans have also discovered the love for Manner brand wafers. They are nutella wafers and good lord they are too good. Don't worry I will bring some home!

Anyway, sorry for posting late, I've been busy as you know. I will hopefully do some more partying this weekend and tell you all about some drunken adventures!

Happy Travels,

G

Soreness

The weekend was wild...


First it started with a party Friday night. It was a huge ImPulsTanz opening party at the Kasino at Schwarzenbergplatz with a live band show, lots of drinks, and so many people. I obviously got lost first and found a different casino that told me where the even was. So then I found my way and saw the big obvious lights that spelled out IMPULSTANZ on the building... duh. The night was amazing. I had a few drinks and finally found Syreeta, a fabulous and lovely dancer who was in the Toronto Dance Theatre company while I was in school there. We caught up a bit, lost each other a few times at the party, but found each other again. I found a few other friends I met at ImPulsTanz and we decided to go to this other party hosted by Archie Burnett, my Waacking teacher that week! So we found the bar called Roxy and found a group of amped up dancers having so much fun, so we danced forever... Well, until 4AM. And even then the party was still raging when we left!



The street on which I got lost



Then the next day at 12:15PM I had Parkour... Maybe partying so hard the night before was not the best thing before such an intense class, but the workout for sure helped my hangover. Leech was our instructor and he had a really great approach to teaching it and about the philosophy around Parkour. He spoke about it as though you speak about life. The choices you make in Parkour are the same as life in the sense of how you calculate risks in your head. In life when you think about achieving something, most of the time one would say that the risks are worth the outcome, so take the chance. In Parkour, if you feel like you are feeling afraid of doing something you have in your mind, as long as you trust your body enough, you should take those risks. The downside of Parkour is blisters... My hands hate me now, but it's okay because I really do feel like I have a better sense of my fear and when it makes sense and when I should let it go. All in all it was a great experience. My body is so sore going into this week. We were walking on railings, running up walls, in the playground being monkeys, just experimenting and playing around.

Sunday night I also saw a performance at MUMOK (contemporary art museum) by Ana Rita Teodoro called Gut's Dream. It was a very beautiful solo with paper bags that extended and came apart. However, it was only 30 minutes long so I felt there was more to be said, or something missing. It felt like only part of something, rather than something shown by itself. After that I got some delicious Froyo and went home.

I saw this guy on the way home in the subway

Today I started my weekday workshops. First I have Becoming Animal with Bruno Caverna, A Body In Question with Sybrig Dokter, and More Than Naked with Doris Uhlich.

Bruno's class was all about play fighting and feeing as though you are a young animal learning to fight with your brother. So the entire time you know you are safe, because you are still soft with each other, you are purely learning. Sybrig is exploring relating to identity and minorities and finding where your can fit into the equation. It's a softer class physically, but very nice to think about. Especially after having Pilippe Riera's project last week I feel very in the political space of the injustice towards minorities. Then finally Doris' class is, yes, you guessed it, all about nudity! We were very well introduced to the aspect of getting naked as a group and dancing without worry of jiggling, in fact embracing the jiggles! It was a fantastic dance party and we all were very naked and sweaty, but happy and immersed in the infectious music and beat. I'm very excited for what is to come.

I will have it all in dirty details for you next week!

Happy Travels,

G

Waacking and History of Violence

Alright I'm noticing a trend... One where I'm not making my own deadlines. Therefore, I'm making the executive decision to cut it down to one post a week on Sundays or Mondays. It's a little difficult to maintain a constant flow of information whilst in the middle of a REALLY intense dance process.


Back to the good stuff! This week was fabulous! It was the first real week of dancing and it started with Philippe Riera's research project on history and Violence. Also, I forgot I scheduled another class this week called Waacking with Archie Burnett! So I had that too. My day was mostly spent at Dance Arts from 10AM-4PM with Philippe Riera, then I walked to the Arsenal and  had Waacking from 4:20PM-6:05PM. So my days were full this week.

Philippe's project was formatted loosely, and basically we were doing a lot of movement and dance research in the context of violence and how we create violence onstage without being literal necessarily. He gave us a lot of exercises in the form of an improvisation score that could lead us to honest and real reactions. At the beginning of the week these exercises gave us a lot to work with since improvised work is always different, especially with unfamiliar people. We soon had a conversation about how our honest reactions don't really tend to go in a violent direction. So we kept a lot of the exercises, but any decisions we made should have reference to a certain way of violence, create clashing concepts, or address touchy subjects such as politics, religion, sex, etc. This lead the project in a very personal direction where we could have pretty intense conversation about these touchy subjects we wanted the work to address. It ended abruptly and felt too short to really dive into some of the harshness and extremities that can occur in violent art. Otherwise, it was an excellent time and I really enjoyed working with a group of professionals with so much information behind them. It made the work very full and fulfilling, and I'm happy to have several new friends from many corners of the world!

Now onto something completely different! Waacking is a branch off of urban styles that comes from Hollywood. It is paired with disco music mostly and the movement is based on old movie stars and imitating some of there luxurious poses, while also incorporating a specific set of arm movements that look like your holding a whip and whacking your arms around. It is similar to Voguing, which is usually paired with house music and was primarily created by black, gay communities in NYC imitating models in fashion magazines. I had little knowledge of the technique before the workshop, but had seen it done before and learned a few moves. This workshop really allowed me to come by it honestly. I've never been one to admire glamorous movie stars, but the way Archie spoke about it and allowed for lots of individuality, it really start to make sense in my body. These techniques are also not choreography techniques. They have short movements that are part of the movement vocabulary, then you improvise within that structure and elaborate using your own flavour. What an excellent workshop.

So the Arsenal is the main building for the workshops, and the studios themselves are wildly huge... It's basically a massive warehouse that is converted into a few huge rooms with sound systems and dance floor laid out. One side of each studio is all windows too, so you get a fantastic sense of freedom inside these stage sized studios. But outside, wow. There is a small pool set up for dancer's use, a café with outdoor seating and pillows, a hangout where you can play foosball, and a bike shop for all the bicycles that are available through the festival. This is truly dancer's paradise.

This weekend I will be at the Arsenal for a Parkour intensive for 5 hrs/day... I will definitely abuse that pool. Next week I will also be at the Arsenal with 3 more workshops to talk about!

I also saw 2 more performances this week. The first, a solo by Saskia Holbling at Schauspielhaus. It was ok... There were several props onstage including a strange looking mummy/puppet. There was a lot for potential it to work, but I couldn't quite follow so it left me stale. The second was Serapions Ensemble at Odeon. It was too long, and too hot. The set was very interesting, and the performers were very talented, but it was too theatrical and overacted. There were many moments that lasted waaaaaaay too long and this lead to the show being almost 2hrs loooooooong... I have plenty of other shows to see so there will be many more chances to see spectacular work. Tonight I will be a party for the festival so I'll have a drink for all my Canadian favorites at home!

Happy Travels,

G

Preparations

Because I was a little late on the last post, this will be pretty short since not much happened since then.
 
I did get to go see another dance show on Friday night called Personal Symphonic Moment, a trio choreographed by Elina Pirinen. This piece was so wild and intense I could help but love it. The Odeon theatre was a beautiful facility where the sides of the stage were lined with massive pillars and the back wall had 3 arches, which gave the building a classic charm. The opening of the piece was in darkness with Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony blasting in the theatre for 5-10 minutes. The lights slowly fade in and we first see the three dancers slowly walking forward. They stop, and from behind their backs pull a bag of paint that they pour over their faces. From there, it goes ape-shit. There were several rude gestures and nudity, but that was not even the most intense. There were numerous props including a bath of ice, marsh mellows, microphones, a remote control car, mouse traps, fake flowers, and more paint. I'll leave it to your imagination to figure out how they used them because I couldn't even know where to begin. No matter how crazy it got, I kept loving that work. It was physical and magically absurd.

At that show I found a friend I had made the night before at another dance show and met a few new people as well. 3 of us went for a beer around Schwedenplatz on the river. The river is lined with random bars and the one we went to had sand placed on the sides with lawn chairs you can chill in with a beer. So we grabbed a table, drank, then decided to go home. I have a feeling the parties will get a bit rowdier once the festival is really in full swing.

After a relaxing weekend of yoga in Turkenschanzpark and doing nothing but skyping JR, I'm feeling pretty anxious to get moving again. The first thing I do is one of my field projects with Philippe Riera from 10AM-4PM Mon-Fri this week. I'm feeling well fed and ready to get to work. More to report on Thursday; wish me luck!

Happy Travels,

G

Opening Performances

Sooooooooo I forgot to post yesterday... My bad. BUT here is the lowdown on ImPulsTanz thus far!


Tuesday was awesome because of the amazing performance Doris Uhlich and her dancers gave at the opening event of the festival. It was in the middle of Museums Quartier with a massive stage and people crowding everywhere just to get a good view of this show. It was truly incredible to see so many people out to support this strange and beautiful art. Doris Uhlich is a choreographer and a DJ, so she's pretty awesome. Starting her piece off with "Doing It Right" by Daft Punk was a solid intro for the piece we were about to see. Her dancers entered the stage at the beginning clothed, and exited at the end completely nude. In the middle there was a lot of stripping, bodies jiggling, running around, sweating, baby powder in the air, more jiggling, and eventually champagne showers. And to Doris' selection of music, it was epically enjoyable for everyone. It was a perfect beginning for me in particular because I needed to see that empowerment the dancers had.

Wednesday I decided to take out a city bike and go for a ride along the Donaukanal. The weather had cooled down to a normal temperature so it was comfortable and enjoyable.

Yesterday was busier than normal. I decided to go get my workshop pass from the workshop office, which I read was in Museums Quartier. So I went there and found an ImPulsTanz office, only to find out the place to get my passes had moved from that spot and it was a good distance away where most of the classes actually take place. So I went there and found the office, got my pass, and also looked into the studios... Holy lord they are massive and amazing and I cannot wait to get in there and start moving. It was unlike any other studio I've ever been in and I feel so lucky to experience that.

That evening was also the first of the [8:TENSION] series performances. This series showcases upcoming artists and some of their experimental work. The first was by Maarten Seghers. In my humble opinion it was more performance art than dance, but it was a strange and funny performance that I still enjoyed. He spent a good portion of the show talking about horseradish and trying to get the audience to cheer "horseradish", and it was a great example of how you can harp on something and eventually get people on board with you.


Another great part of the night was actually making friends! Feeling lonely sucks, so I met these people doing the ATLAS program in the festival where you get to have a mentor and create something during the month here. Felt very grateful to finally know some people before going into the classes.

And that all takes us to today, which started off lame because as I was going to get groceries, I was J walking and tripped and wiped out on the road... I scrambled to get up and still went to get groceries, but I tore up my knee pretty nicely. So now my next trip is to the drug store...


Happy Travels,
G

The Lonely Traveller

So coming out of an eventful week, I'm quieting down a bit.

One luxury of travelling alone is not worrying about anyone else's timeline. I can wake up whenever I want, see whatever I want, eat when I want, it's all in my hands. I'm finding it interesting to really have so much time alone. Even in a crowd, I'm isolated. I can't understand anyone when they speak, I have trouble communicating to people, and I have nobody to communicate to in my own language. This time has really been me learning to rely on me again. I've always been self-sufficient more or less, but now it's really telling of how important that is in a situation like this.

I've done some sight seeing and now I'm just trying to be accustomed to my routes to and from the dance studios, and prepare myself for the 26 days straight that I will be dancing... Daunting? Absolutely.

I've found the route I need to take to the dance studios and timed it roughly, and I've been double and triple checking my schedule of classes and shows to see so that once it starts, I'm ready to give it my all. I must admit I've been feeling pretty lazy with the amount of down time I have, but I'm doing my best to get out everyday and get something done, even if it's just a walk to the park.

While it has been pretty lonely, I did get to meet up with old high school buds on their own Euro-trip! Sarah, Cameron, Shane and I all went through high school in Halifax together and when I found out their next stop was Vienna, I had to make plans with them to get out of the lonely traveller blues. Yesterday the four of us went for lunch at an Italian restaurant by Stephansplatz station, a very crowded and beautiful area with Stephansdom (gothic church) right in the center. The reunion was really nice to catch up with them, we had an excellent conversation about art history and today's contemporary art and ate some excellent and well

priced food. They were going to the Kunsthistoriches Museum and since I had already been, I decided to head home. The brief encounter was enough to make me feel a little social for the first time in a week and a half.


I have had some good opportunities to get lost as well! Sometimes I might forget my life-saving map booklet and it somewhat liberates me to wander and find things I wouldn't be looking for. It is the perfect way to see Vienna's streets that are so full of life, coffee and gelato! I have become an avid gelato lover and I don't think I've seen a regular ice cream bar yet, so gelato is the dessert of the month for me. I think my favorite so far is haselnuss.

The ImPlusTanz festivities will be starting on Tuesday so this should be my last non-dance related post, so get ready for some weird contemporary coming at ya!

Happy Travels,
G

Explorations

What an eventful/uneventful week!

The first few days got off to a rough start. The jet lag hit me pretty hard because I was in bed for probably a full 24hrs after arriving with an awesome headache, a sinus infection, and intense fatigue. In 30degree heat on top of that, I just need to crawl into a hole for a while.

In order to stop feeling so lame I commanded myself to get outside, no matter how hot. So I went to discover my new neighbourhood. I found a health food store, a Hofer (grocery store), MANY cafes, the closest U-Bahn (underground) station, and the best way to get to the famous Danaukanal (Danube River). The neighbourhood is A. Beautiful and B. well connected so I feel pretty lucky to be here. After a few days of nothing in particular, I should probably get going on experiencing tourist life.

First was the Kunsthistorisches (Art History) Museum... Woah, That's a real museum. The building itself is across from the Naturhistoriches (Natural History) Museum and are almost identical buildings. They were both built around 1890 by Emperor Franz Joseph, the Art History Museum for the housing for emperors' and archdukes' personal art collections to be shown to the public.

As I walked through, I felt lucky that I could at least speak English if I didn't understand German because everything in the exhibits were written in both. I walked through the many rooms full of paintings dating back to as early as the 15th century and admired the immense detail and skill these artists have. It was also interesting for me to read how people analyse paintings and what people can get out of them; the process was very similar to how you can analyse dance and I felt very connected to the artists in that way.

Much of the museum was also dedicated to trinkets and valuable collections. I found it almost comical to walk through some of these rooms to find priceless statues and trinkets belonging to past royalty. Some of the items were understandably desirable: beautiful clocks, jewelry boxes, model ships etc. There was one item that just made me laugh at the expense someone paid to have this hilarious piece of art, Bear as a Hunter.



I'm fairly confident that there aren't many museums that can compare to this one.


Tuesday I decided Shönnbrunn Palace and estate gardens was my next destination. To say the least, this place is massive, so you will read that word frequently in this description. You first approach the gate that looks like something from the Never Ending Story and you enter the courtyard that leads up to the mansion. The courtyard is basically a football field and the palace has about 1500 rooms... I took a shortened audio tour of a few rooms to get a feel for the baroque style. Then I went to the gardens behind the palace... It must be multiple football fields in size because it's just massive. Included in the gardens is a labyrinth (which you pay extra to enter so I didn't bother), a massive fountain statue of the god Neptune and his entourage, and a massive hill behind the fountain leading to another monument. Yes, it was massive. Before I got to the hill, I got distracted by the entrance to the Vienna Zoo!

I felt conflicted about being in the zoo. I love that we get to see and learn and study them, but I'm not sure about if they should really be stuck in cages and then never be able to be released into the wild. I got over my internal moral battle though and walked among the animals. The zoo had basically everything including an awesome polar bear exhibit! The bears had become accustomed to the warm environment, but it seems like they preferred the cooler water they swam around much of the time. There was also a seal show where I got soaked by this guy jumping for fish.



That is where I met a fellow traveller who was from the States. He had a poor pronunciation of the word "danke" by my low standards, but he was cool to talk to.

When we parted ways, I decided to go to the Donau Zentrum and do some shopping. I treated myself to a few dresses from stores I didn't know, and then headed home for a much deserved cold shower.

Yesterday it thankfully rained. In the cool rainy weather it was the perfect day for revisiting Museums Quatrier and hitting up the Naturhistoriches Museum. While the building was as beautiful as the Kunsthistoriches, it was not highlighted because of the difference in subject. The best part was the dinosaurs! As a kid I really liked the idea of being a paleontologist, so I think that kid is still in me. There were incredible skeleton models, mechanical moving dinosaurs, real bones and fossils, a kids dream. They also had thousands of taxidermy animals on display, which I really enjoyed browsing around. There was also a great exhibit on human evolution. They have a great collection of skulls...



After I left, I grabbed some lunch in Museums Quartier, and then headed out to walk around the city aimlessly. I forgot my map that day so it was decently easy to get lost. It was really nice walking around the old cobblestone sidewalks and really taking in the city's character. Bakeries and cafes everywhere, beautiful fashion shops with fur coats worth thousands, and monuments and old buildings to admire everywhere. Every time I felt nervous about being lost, I walked onto a new street where there were plenty of cafes and streetcars, so I never felt too worried about it. I ended up stopping for a drink at The English Café! I had read about it online, and it was a pretty hippie with lots of books to read. Strange place, but really nice to have a beer and watch Wimbledon tennis on the big projector. Upon leaving I felt it time to find my way home. I found a street with streetcars and figured out where I needed to go pretty easily. I got home safely and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

The U-Bahn system is pretty intense, then when you add the S-Bahn and the streetcars and busses, it can be pretty complicated. I've been taking it one day at a time, and since I'm here for 5 more weeks I feel like I have that luxury. This is why I feel it was slightly uneventful also, because I've had a lot of down time and I enjoy that a lot. I do look forward to dancing and doing more festival related things. It feels a bit lonely sometimes when you don't know anyone and you don't speak the language, but I'm glad I've been able to go at my own pace. It will definitely pick up when ImPulsTanz starts.

Happy Travels,
G



Nesting

I've never been very good at the whole "nesting" portion of a trip. I've always just dropped my bags wherever I was staying and left ASAP to go see and do what deserves to be seen and done. This time my trip is a little different since I have SO MUCH TIME to really adjust and see it all. These first few days of settling in I've really had the opportunity to arrange my things how I want them, buy the things I forgot (clearly not the things from my first post), and slowly ease my way into the environment where I don't know the language well, I don't know the area at all, and I don't know anybody.

This cute flat I'm staying in has really helped me find my nest also. I found Andrea through AirBnB and was reasonably nervous about not really knowing who with and where I was living. It was a good price for the entire 6 weeks and was right downtown, so I went out on a limb and took the opportunity.

I was amazingly surprised to find so much personality in one place. I arrived with nobody home and I felt like I just know who these girls were. Photographs of themselves and past trips all over the walls, mantras of good fortune and love at every corner, longboards, paper lanterns, yoga gear. They seem like my kind of people! The only roommate I met so far is Kathi and what a sweetheart. I'm loving every part of this place so far and I'm sure I'll love and appreciate it even more as time goes. Here are a few pics and next time we'll actually talk about Vienna :P

"Welcome Home"

Dining Room Area

Bedroom!!!!!

Kitchen with a window to the hallway...

And the toilette closet... The rest of the bathroom (including the sinks) are through the kitchen...

Happy Travels!

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Arrivals

Kay, so love and miss you TO, but here we go AUSTRIA!

Firstly, my last few days in TO were magic. So lucky to have such beautiful friends that came out to party this week. Lovely Marco, Andrew, and Sebastian were next on the must see list. And just like old times me and Lea spent some valuable time catching up. I fell in love with my friends again and there are no greater people to wish me well on my adventures... Except maybe J.R. (the boyfriend), but friends you made my days so thank you!

Wednesday morning/Canada Day I wake up bright and early to Skype the BF and wish him Happy Birthday Day!

PS sorry for leaving the continent on your BDay...

First order of the day is coffee with the bro, sis-in-law, and nephew. Got a cappuccino to get into the Vienna mindset and feeling good. Go to the park and play around with the little nephew William and head home to tackle the job that is packing...

Laundry, organizing, folding, packing, calling credit card company, call my bank, get my phone unlocked, etc. For sure a stressful morning. This is the first trip I've organized entirely by myself, so getting nervous. Thankfully I've got my whole family cheering me on. My brother generously gives me a lift to Toronto Pearson International Airport and drops me off like this:

And then I took off at sunset:

8hrs of being in the air and going forward in time did a number on my sleep schedule, and having a cold and/or allergies didn't help. Anyhow, I made it to Frankfurt on time so I can catch the connecting flight to Vienna. This flight, being only 1.5hrs, and me being dog tired, lead to me passing out in a deep sleep for the whole hour and a half. I feel waaaaaay better.

So in the heat of 28degrees that is Europe, I caught a very pleasant cab from the airport to the beautiful flat I'm staying in. Using AirBnB I found the lovely Andrea who gave me her bedroom for the 6 weeks I'm here. The keys left out for me, I let myself in to find a flat full of character and personality. Decorated eccentricly, and with a kind note left on the table, the apartment welcomes me to take a much needed nap. Zźzzzz.

Happy travels!
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