Linzer Weekend

A few weekends ago, I went to Linz for the weekend to catch up with some old friends from Amstetten, and accompany Jake in meeting some of his distant relatives in Bad Ischl. It was an interesting experience.

First, on Friday, I went to a whiskey convention (my first) at the Arcotel convention center with several other teaching assistants in Linz, which, I'll be honest, I didn't really enjoy. I'm definitely more of a wine gal, so the whiskey - even the good stuff - was lost on me. I'd like to try new things, and I did end up enjoying some of the Scotches they had on sample, but I don't know the  first thing about a good whiskey. And, predictably, my taste runs expensive. After an afternoon of sampling, I guess for now I'll stick with wine.

There was also a wine convention (festival?) in Linz at the mall on Saturday. I would have liked to stay and go through the different wines, like we did with the whiskey, but we had to get to Bad Ischl. Seems either the hangovers were too much to plunge in, or I'm the only wino in the bunch. Anyway, I stayed long enough to get a couple of bottles of wine, which will certainly go up on Wine Snobbery on a Budget.

Jen, Jake and I went to a pottery class at the Volkshochschule. That was possibly the most fun of the weekend. I hadn't worked with clay since elementary school, and I had never thrown anything on a wheel before. I tried, but my technique needs lots of improvement. I didn't make anything except blobs that fell apart on the wheel, so I stuck with hand molding, and made this person:

I call it "Napping Nude #1" !

And there were other, finished pieces that had already been fired and glazed. They looked pretty good. A lot of creativity running around Linz! Jen did some great stuff, and this one guy made a fountain.

Saturday saw us taking the train to Bad Ischl to meet Jake's relatives his mother found through genealogical research. I think it's wonderful to have found them, and to share all of this family history, but I couldn't help but feel, though he and Eleonora, the woman we met, share a common ancestor four generations back (her grandfather and his great-grandfather were brothers), having coffee with them, family tree spread across the small round marble cafe table, reinforced the fact that they were still strangers despite this connection.

To be honest, I've never really cared much for genealogy, though it is amazing the facts you can dig up by following someone's family line. I guess to me the interesting part would be not who is related to whom, but more the stories you could find from learning about people in the past - your past. Or your present. I doubt I will ever meet Eleonora again, but it was curious to see how a life can be altered by one person moving to a new country. It makes me wonder how globalization will change immigration.

 Here are photos of Bad Ischl:

view from the train

Bad Ischl is famous for being a spa/resort town, the one in fact where the empress Sophie (mother of Franz Joseph I) came to get infertility treatments...they must have worked, since she conceived Franz Joseph. It was also a favorite of Franz Joseph's wife, Sisi. Though, she did take any excuse for a vacation. The Kursalons (spa centers) are still being run and going strong, though they're quite pricey for being given in such a famous place.

downtown

very famous "Trinkhaus"

I will curb my ranting for some beautiful scenery, namely the river Ischl:

And back to Linz: this is the house Johannes Kelper (the father of modern astronomy) lived in:

And the Marienkirche (practically every town in Austria has one):

And a beautifully blossoming tree in the courtyard of the Standesamt:

On to Italy: Trieste

After Ljubljana, we took the bus to Trieste (you can only get there by bus from Slovenia) to see more of the Adriatic coast. Interestingly, it was also in some ways a history lesson, considering Trieste was one of the oldest parts of the Habsburg empire, having been "collected" in 1382 by Leopold III.

Though once part of ancient Illyria, and more Slavic than Italian (the city was only annexed in 1918), Trieste is today a part of Italy for mostly political rather than cultural reasons. An important port during the Renaissance and the crossroads between Venice and Vienna, Trieste became Maria Theresia's favorite way to keep the Slovenians and Croatians under her thumb, by promising trade and wealth and baroque buildings painted yellow. French troops occupied the city during the Napoleonic Wars, though the city retained relative autonomy because for some reason (unlike the other large Habsburg cities) German-speaking Austrians could not be persuaded to move there. For example: only 5% of the population in Trieste spoke German at its peak (most spoke Slovenian) compared to 51% in Prague, and roughly 60% in Budapest.

I just finished a history of the Habsburgs borrowed from the library - can you tell?

Here are several photos of Piazza Unita d'Italia:

Anyway, on to the present, with just another dip into the past! Since ancient Illyria was invaded by the Romans, there are plenty of delightful ruins left by Cesarean occupants, like this lovely amphitheater:

And the most delightful experience: around the amphitheater there are lots of stray cats (as pictured below) and a little boy with his grandparents came up to the railing and started saying, "Meow!" He reached out to pet one of the cats, when his grandmother said, "Non toccare il gato!" (Don't pet the cat). The cat ran away and the the little boy waved, saying, "Ciao, meow!"

And, of course, there is a castello in Trieste. We went and took pictures. There was also a museum, which houses Roman artifacts, but none of my pictures really turned out.

Another Roman arch

We also took a trip out to Miramare, built in 1856, which was the summer home of Archduke Maximillian (brother of Franz Josef) - the one who inherited the title Emperor of Mexico from the Spanish side of the Habsburgs, and upon arrival in Mexico was executed. It's not easy being emperor of a country you've got no emotional ties to...

We took a tour of the castle, and the gardens, and had a picnic. The weather held for most of the day, and we were rained out at night, when we had to duck into a bar to get out of a downpour. Yes, unfortunately, it was not the Italian weather most of us anticipate, but it is April. And you know what they say about April showers...!

a break in the gardens

All in all, Trieste was a bit of a disappointment after Ljubljana, mostly because it rained more, but also because the vibes of the two cities are so incredibly different. To me, Trieste seemed very static, stuck in the past, a sort of shy younger sister to Venice, whereas Ljubljana had a much younger, more resourceful and less staid atmosphere. Even as an outsider who had never before been, I could tell: things are changing in the former Yugoslavia. Tourists? Stability? A capitalist economy? It's on the verge of something.

On the Last Legs of Austria-Hungary: Ljubljana

For my Easter break, I ended up going to two cities that once compromised the southern edges of Austria-Hungary: Ljubljana and Trieste.

I was highly impressed by Ljubljana. Slovenia's landscape is a lot like Austria's, with sloping hills rolling into mountains, green fields, and the like. The climate is much like Italy, and the architecture is of the same Habsburgerish Vienna/Budapest/Prague feel in some spots, with other influences mixed in.

 The city (I'll be honest, there really is only one city in Slovenia) is incredibly clean - definitely cleaner than Vienna - due to a concentrated effort by the government to encourage and improve access to recycling and proper sanitation.

The river of Ljubljana cuts through the city. The area where we stayed was in the student district, which gave me a distinct nostalgia for my Lawrence days...though this area's definitely cooler than College Ave. We also took a tip from the guidebook and went to the old Austrian military barracks, which have been since turned into bars and artist communes for people who cannot otherwise afford rent. Very alternative - and pretty damn cool.

Ljubljana Castle is one of the more famous sites the city has to offer:

Either as adopted patronage from St. George or some earlier myth or legend of the Slovenian people, there are TONS of dragons all around the city. The castle has dragon emblems all over the place, and they sell dragon key chains, dragon gummy candies and dragon key chains in the gift shop. One of the most famous dragons is the dragon bridge, which is done in the Jugendstil (art nouveau) style. Ljubljana is also famous of being the smallest city with the largest amount of Jugenstil architecture (move over, Vienna!) in the former Austria-Hungary.

dragon step

dragon bridge

We went to the Serbian Orthodox church as well - problem was, it was Holy Monday, so everyone was in there praying. Actually, there weren't a lot of church-goers, possibly because, as the deacon (or whatever he's called, this guy who let us take pictures when the service was over) said, Slovenia was communist as part of Yugoslavia, and there are not a lot of people living there anymore who are religious for that reason. In fact, he said (after discovering we were Americans) that the largest population of Serbians - and Serbian Orthodox Christians - live in Chicago. Imagine that!

And here are some random pictures: