The last weekend deserves a post...

... at least, as the introduction for some future posts derived from this experience.

Saturday and Sunday, 11-12 January 2014, were absolutely fabulous! It started with a 30 min running (yap, I just restarted my "Bewegung") and at midday I went in a sunny Vienna.

The first objective was to get the vivid colors of market-products from Naschmarkt. Absolutely an enjoyment, especially in the gray days of the winter. Fruits from all-over the world, from India, Colombia (fruits I mean!), Marrocco, China, etc.; olives from Greece, Spain, Italy; cheese from Egypt, Denmark, Greece, Bulgaria, Austria (of course!); fishes and see-fruits served with sparkling-wine in the proximity of well-known oriental shops selling kebab and shaorma; fruits-juices in all the combinations and colors; seeds and peanuts; bread from Italy (ciabatta) or from Persia (it sounds better as from Iran, isn't it!). You name it! But believe me, just fabulous! I took pictures from almost all the opened shops. I came then to the question, where are the Romanian food specialties? None! Big disappointment. So, from culinary point of view, we do not exist! :-( Do not tell me about the "sarmale" as Romanian food, since I just learned myself in Turkey that the word has its etymology from Turkish verb "to roll". Halal!

This observation remained valid for the food-market, and, even more disappointing, it was contradicted by what was in the old-market, as Romanian product for sale. Among few other orthodox icons from East Europe, it was the one from next photo. So, this we sale in West!? I felt like living a soul-hemorrhage. How long do we still let it in waste?

Cafe Phil

After two hours, I escape to Ra-Min for a big bowl of hot Chinese noddles soup. Perfect energizing for lunch! Shortly jumping then in the caffeeshop-library "Phil"! This is a place filled with books to read on spot or to buy for continuing reading at home. The whole cafe is arranged as a comfortable and warm living room, furnished with sofas and floor lamps. A place in the city where you can feel at home, as the perfect location to read a book or to chat with friends! ("Do not put me in a category, but read me. I do not have a gender!"-was written on a bookshelf!).
Next on the list was KHM. Yap, it is famous as well! Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien! I was lucky to get last year, as a present, an annual entrance ticket to seven museums in Vienna, including the Museum of Art and History! Shall I repeat myself? Then, FABULOUS! I was asking myself how could I be so ignorant and not to be there in the first three months in Vienna. As the first step in Paris I made it at Louvre (a visit in Paris promised to my old Volvo car to roll her down on Champ-Elysee; this is another story for another post), the same I should have not ignored this museum in Vienna! One big advice for you, my friend! Once you are in Vienna, visit KHM! A MUST! I did not have art classes and I did not have access to painters catalogs in my childhood. I am a pure amateur in recognizing various artists. But I had one passion as child: to collect stamps, among which, at most, I liked the various famous paints and painters collections. I shall confess that I was shocked to find out at KHM the big copies of my stamps of paintings ( :-) ): Rubens self-portrait (in fact two large rooms only for his paints), his "The four Continents", or "Babel Tower" by Pieter Brügel, the same painting reproduced in my schoolbook for History, or "The Children's games", or "Art of Painting" by Johannes Vermeer (the same one who painted "Girl with one earring"), or Tiziani, or Caravaggio, or Velazquez (his last paint, "Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Blue Dress")... I will write few personal amateur impressions about some of them in the following posts. Convince yourself at the first visit! WOW! A place to return for the whole year in the raining weekends in Vienna!

KHM restaurant

I left then, at around 17:30, directly to StaatsOpera for Don Giovanni. Lucky enough to get perfect central standing places at galleria for a sublime spectacle.

I reached home at 23:00 o'clock, completely exhausted, but lighted in my ignorance!

On Sunday, a rush at 11:00 o'clock to St. Augustin church for Schubert's "Große Messe in B-Dur, during the religious service, and directly after that, back to KHM since it was the last day of Lucian Freud's exhibition! I was visiting this exhibition before, but much more as a run through the gallery. So I returned for an in-depth understanding about the display of so many "naked people" painted since 1966. I was convinced! He said that he did not paint the nudes (therefore are also called "naked"), but particularities of people beyond the clothes, unbiased by the added (and most of the time, laying) first impression of a dressing style. What convinced me, it was the "Red Haired man on chair", about which Freud said "When I paint clothes, I am really painting naked people who are covered in clothes". I liked this idea, to get the person in his essence, unbiased! Until 2011, when he passed away, he was regarded as the biggest artist, alive, of our time. One little detail which might not by a coincidence for his masterworks. Lucian Freud was the nephew of Sigmund Freud.

In conclusion, a very intensive cultural first weekend in Vienna, in 2014! A marathon, I would say! And therefore, it shall be remembered with this post and some photos on FB. But not today, since tomorrow I will travel to England and it is already so late... that I have to rephrase it: "Today I will travel to England". Do you see, Razvan, why I post so rarely!? It takes too much time. But it gives me, in return, the joy to share some nice moments with you!