rambling...

[ETA 13.3.2008: picture: www.schoenbrunn.at/de/site/publicdir/res/82134_18165_Abb8_Canaletto.jpg; link defunct]


Sunday: did the touristy thing & went to Schönbrunn (the palace, that is) with my mother. If asked I'd have said I must have been there at one point in my life, but seeing as I have no memory whatsoever... maybe not. The rooms that still have their original rococo decorations and furnishings are worth seeing, otherwise... :: shrugs :: Emperor Franz Josephs rooms are depressing beyond belief, the same dull brown material patterned with ivy leaves used for furniture and wallpaper. Nothing imperially glamorous, or even interesting at all. (In fact the bedroom where he died reminded me of nothing so much as my grandmother's living room during the last year of her life, when she was already sick and we moved her bed in there so she didn't have to walk around that much.). You suddenly totally get the whole thing about duty, religion and severity of character the audioguide tells you. Then there's the empress's dressing room, mirror, scales... and the level of fucked up-ness of the whole marriage (or family) is suddenly very, very apparent.

Sadly, and apparently for no particular reason, the Berglzimmer, which I'd particularly wanted to see are closed to the public again. :: le sigh exaspéré ::

On the other hand, the Kronprinzengarten is open now in its newly restored baroque state; worth visiting. Rather than the watered-down generic french garden architecture characteristic of the current state of most of of the park, which always struck me as somewhat bland, here the extreme severity of the design is counteracted by the colourfulness of the flowerbeds themselves, which contain a wide variety of species. Suddenly the impression is a much more balanced and pleasing one.

Bravely resisted a piece of Apfelstrudel in the Hofbäckerei.


Speaking of which (sort of), yesterday I finally managed to find energy enough to go shopping for clothes, something I really, really couldn't put off any longer. Saying I haden't got anything to wear was barely an exaggeration at all... Found two cute skirts and a long-sleeved top, and God, it certainly is a relief to be able to pick size 40s without having to dread they (or the 42s, for the matter) won't fit. Almost worth the drooling over all the chocolate I didn't allow myself to eat.

I still need trousers, though. Maybe I can drag my sister along for moral support...


Decided to have my hair cut next Wednsday.