more oktober columns and pictures and some from november, too!

Since my last update, Cedric and I made a second trip to Vienna for a Cardiac move concert, visited his gnome relatives in Mirabell Gardens and went to Venice, Italy, where Cedric had a small stay in prison. Check out the photos and read the columns to hear about all of those adventures and more!


In Piazzo San Marco

At one of Venice's many canals

The second night's sunset


In prison in the doge's palace in Venice


The sunset from Murano our first night in Venice


The Cardiac Move kitchen


Gnome buddies!





Column six: Oktoberfest: the first of many adventures

Column seven: Cupcakes, Oktoberfest and other Austrian fun

Column eight: Slow down you crazy child, Vienna is waiting

Column nine: Getting the sniffles in Austria

Column 10: Train rides, rock shows and elections abroad

photos!

So here are some pictures of my recent adventures with Cedric. I'm not sure why they are in reverse order, but nevertheless, here they are.


At Schloss Schoenbrunn in Wien, our final destination on our trip.


At Schloss Belvedere, where the Klimt paintings are.


At the restaurant Centimeter, where we ordered a sword full of meat. Fantastic.


At Neuschwanstein on a beautiful, fall day.

At the Alpensee near the grounds of Neuschwanstein.


On the highest point of the Untersberg.

After getting off the gondola, way above the clouds.
On the Monchsberg, in front of the Dom.

columns and pictures

Finally, I'm getting some pictures and columns up on the blog. The Internet wasn't working the greatest last night, but it's better today!

This first picture is of Cedric on the train when we finally got seats. We are on our way to Salzburg for the first time.

Here we are at Oktoberfest in the Hacker-Festzelt tent.


This is at our second journey to Oktoberfest on Sunday, 28. September. Behind Cedric are the masses of people.


On Monday Cedric and I went for a walk down Hellbrunn Allee and found Frohnburg, the palace that was used for the front of the von Trapp house in "The Sound of Music."


Here is Cedric at Mirabell, with the Festung and gardens behind him. This was after our first big bike ride.


We continued our journey across the river and stopped for another photo.



And here are some column links:

Column three: Packing the essentials; books and snowpants

Column four: Final auf wiedersehens have been said, Austria here I come

Column five: Six days to Europe and a computer meltdown

the columns continue for austria

After a couple weeks off, school began again, which meant it was time for me to starting writing about Austria. The first few columns are about my preparations for studying abroad. My column on Sept. 26 will be the first one live from Austria. As for Cedric's well-being, he is anxiously waiting for me to leave, so his life's purpose can continue to be fulfilled. His bags are packed, his shoes are tied and he's ready to have his passport stamped.

Column one: Prepping for a semester (well, year) abroad

Column two: Overcoming Euro culture shock

the rest of the new york city columns (10 and 11)

Column 10: Ways to see NYC on a budget

Column 11: Leaving the hustle and bustle


At IKEA in Red Hook, Brooklyn, at the new park at the Navy piers


At Trinity Church in the Financial District



On Liberty Island with the Financial District in the background


Visiting the Statue of Liberty


At the Top of the Rock looking south

column nine

Here's column nine: The amazing adventures of the side show.

And some pictures:

Going to see Wicked:
Dancing on the Big keyboard at F.A.O. Schwartz:


Hanging out in Bryant Park before the summer classic movie starts:


At Coney Island:

a never-ending amount of free activities

Free activities could really keep someone busy all of the time. I get an email every day that contains a listing of all things free. It's intense. Over the last two weeks, I've attended a fair share of free activities, but considering the number that is on each daily list, I really haven't been to a lot.

Last Monday my roommate and I went to Bryant Park for an old movie. HBO shows old movies and everyone brings picnics and eats on the grass. We saw "The Man Who Came to Dinner." It was pretty funny and hanging out in the park was lots of fun. On Thursday afternoon I went back to this park for the Broadway in the Park series. For five Thursdays, four or five Broadway musicals head to the park for an hour-long performance. Each show gets two or three songs. I saw Chicago, [title of show] and an upcoming musical about Russia. This week is In the Heights among others. I'll be heading over during my lunch break. It's about a 13 minute walk from work if I cut through Grand Central Terminal and walk really fast. I did get there today for the show, and I saw the tail end of Avenue Q, all of Mamma Mia!, which was superb, Phantom of the Opera (and the Phantom asked us to sing along with him for Music of the Night), Pure Country, and In the Heights. The Heights cast was missing some of their leads, so the understudy sang one of the parts, and this mean that none of the songs that the creator and lead character sings could be sung. Poor Usnavi.

This past Tuesday I went to Central Park after work for the final Concert in the Park. The NY Philharmonic was fabulous. The people sitting around us were quite hilarious at times. Just picture a lady wearing a fanny pack swaying to Tchaikovsky, some super-possessive, Italian-speaking blanket hoarders (they wouldn't let anyone step on their blanket, yelled at them if they did, and tried to block all pathways surrounding their blanket), and a group of 20-something-year-old guys galloping to William Tell Overture.

This weekend will bring more free things, with a trip to Coney Island for some beach-going and some music and a trip to MoMA. It's going to be a marathon weekend, I'm assuming. We'll see how it goes.