The past few days...

...has been crazy:

sLOVEnia

Sister Cake and I had the best 2 days chillaxing at Lake Bled in Slovenia, adding itself to one of my favourite places. It was so beautiful I could've wept (but I didn't, I scoffed Bled cake instead.... nomnomnom). My visual mediocrity does not do any justice as usual...

I think I am evolving and becoming more of an outdoor person ("oh the horror!!!!" *in Brando-apocolypse voice*) and I went on long walks, rafting (the rapids were crystal clear blue-green!!!), swimming in the lake and what I do best, lolling (meaning lying around, doing nothing, not laughing out loud, but I am good at that too).



I was captivated by the amount of swans we saw!!! And baby swanlings (I made that word up). I saw a swan attack a guy who got too close to her swanlings, it was great.

Sprockets

Flooding of eastern Europe

While I've been trickling my way down south of eastern Europe there has been much talk of serious flooding in Poland. During my time there last week I didn't see any flooding but the rain was fairly unrelenting. It wasn't til I got to Budapest that I actually saw some of the flooding first hand:

The Danube: not so blue right now

Aside the flooding, Budapest has a real unrefined beauty about it and a relaxing feel. Plus I'm obsessed with the awesome Hungarian roof tiling:

Location:Budapest, Hungary

White whine #2: Art Burn

Like most tourists, I love going to galleries and museums overseas as they are usually far better stocked than Australian ones, as Australia would rather pour billions into sports stadiums. Boring.

So far I've been to more than I can count, most good some not so good. Yesterday the Museum Moderner Kunst Siftung Ludwig Wien (MUMOK modern art museum) fell under "not so good". It was my fault for failing to see what was actually exhibiting there before running in and blindly buying a ticket. Oh how I paid...





(MUMOK, more like a modern day Death Star than gallery, really)

If there's one thing in the world I hate, it's video art. Video art is ususlly like someone's boring bad dream portrayed by bad acting and shitty filming in monotone. Also throw in a crap soundtrack of dog barking, footsteps and random synthesized muzak. It's a massively self indulgent, wankfesty bullshit genre of art, I hate it, it's boring and I never bother indulging it. This is a massive generalization but you get the idea.

MUMOK is currently running an exhibition featuring 5 FUCKING LEVELS of video art. Urgh. Mostly of the extra shitty extra nonsensicle German variety with some Yoko Ono thrown in. Yuck. (aside: mike myers used to do a skit called "Sprockets" parodying a German art critic hosting a show called "Germany's most disturbing home movies" featuring ridiculous b&w clips, I would link some up if i was bothered, but alas.... Google it)

So I think I attempted to watch about 3 or 4 videos but I was really an epic fail. I still hate video art and there's only so much I could take of Joseph Beuys singing 80s pop tributes to Ronald Reagan in German.

However, all bad memories are erased! I also went to the Belvedere museum and saw many paintings by Gustav Klimt, including "the kiss" and "Judith"..... So so so beautiful!! As a wise woman once said: I DIE!!!!!

Visual mediocrity: Czech this out + Polish bonus hour

After an interesting evening spent in the border town of Szczecin (or as I like to call it, village of misfit toys and broken dreams), we took a sleeper train across Poland to Krakow:



(Cake is so excited to sleep on a train, meanwhile this was nothing new for me as I used to sleep on the train most mornings on my way to school.)

Rynek Glowny & around...










Sculptural tribute to Chopin




















Pretty Prague....



















St. Vitus church, featuring stunning stained glass, including a window by Alfonse Mucha...

Cross the bridge from the old town, climb up the steep hill and get the best view in Prague:



















I have been tempted to buy ridulous things here, like this Autoharp or a skull from a minature deer with antlers... Alas my pack is already too heavy....

Location:most Edvarda Beneše,,Czech Republic

For mutter...

"Where they have burnt books, they will end in burning human beings..."

Heinrich Heine, 1820

Location:B96a,Berlin,Germany

Bella Lugosi's Dead (undead)

A pilgrimage for any designer - the museum archive of the Bauhaus School (for art, design, architecture).

The school was shut down by the Nazis In the 30s because they liked comfortable furniture and non-abstract art.

Location:B96a,Berlin,Germany