#napyear

As I typed into the “say whatever you want” typewriter at MAK, the very funky modern art museum downtown, if cities were people then Vienna would be out of my league. Also, I had to be shown how to use a typewriter, so my dreams of writing the great American novel during this year off took a second hit.*

Formerly a series of palaces, occasionally broken up by enormous churches when building palaces became boring, Vienna is a place to go to see art, drink coffee, eat pastry and just generally out-Melbourne Melbourne. Go wandering and find a shop that makes bars/coffee storage/bookshelves from refurbished airline drinks trolleys. Get lost looking at galleries inside courtyards that 200 years ago were actually courts (in the courtly sense). And when do you get lost, walk around the corner and the metro takes you home.

Highlights;

1. The Belvedere, in particular Klimt’s “The Kiss”. I’ll admit to expecting to be disappointed by this particular work, especially after having a tired print of it hanging in my bedroom for the past 3 years, but it was actually astonishingly beautiful in the flesh (or in the gold lamé so to speak).

2. MAK - really well curated modern art museum. Stefan Sagmeister’s exhibition @thehappyshow​ did a wonderful thing for me when I sat down and listened to his TED talk about sabbaticals. It really has reinforced my slightly wavering conviction that I am doing the right thing by taking a year off.

3. Coffee - The Viennese are very serious about this. I can appreciate and respect this, usually three or four times a day.

4.  The Kunsthistorisches Museum (god you’ve gotta be careful typing that word out). A monumental palace full of art collected for the sake of collecting art, interspersed with some true masterpieces, and some unintentional comedy.

Lowlights;

Pretty much none. The first day we arrived was glacial with 40kmh-1 winds, but it’s good prep for Zermatt, so upsides all around!

Day 9

Despite feeling a mite under the weather myself c/o coughing man on the tube, the weather in Brussels has been pretty good, and the city has proven to be a huge surprise. Olivia and I had no expectations going in so finding this;

was pretty excellent.

Brussels is home to the European Parliament - currently the world’s second-largest experiment in democracy, located on the soil of what was once one of the most nakedly extractive colonial powers in what is a pretty grim history of extractive colonial powers. 

I won’t give a history lesson on Congo Free State (Later renamed the Belgian Congo) but looking at the gold-leafed monuments in the Grand Square, I wondered briefly if the buildings themselves would better have been made from bone so we knew where it all came from.

Brussels has the city equivalent of small-man syndrome, and it has been to the gym to get bigger monuments in the hope of attracting that pretty Swedish tourist who shacked up with Paris.

But they’re all crammed together really closely and the effect is a bit unsettling. You kind of wonder if Brussels shouldn’t just chill out, but if you say so, it may glass you. All of the below were less than 5min walk from each other.

Everywhere you turn, gothic churches share street space with Napoleonic edifices (edificeses?), devolving into an uncomfortable melange of dutch houses with french offices given a slightly german twist reflecting Brussels’ and Belgium’s location as a cultural crossroads (or crosshairs, depending on whether you’re planning on starting a war or not). 

Then you throw some BRUTALIST PUBLIC LIBRARIES in and the effect is all pretty confusing.

You can wander down alleyways full of dark shops hawking frankly creepy congolese artefacts that would not be out of place in the opening chapter of a HP Lovecraft short story, or stay out in the main streets and be quite happily fed by waffle carts and chip shops. After a brief brush with the former, we gladly did the latter.

Tomorrow is Bruges. I’m preparing for an onslaught of “you’re an inanimate fucking object” quotes from Olivia.

When a man is tired in London, he is probably just jet-lagged.

Flight was quite nice actually. Could definitely recommend Finnair as a very pleasant experience from cabin crew, meal choice to seating.

 Helsinki looked very cold from the windows of our plane.

Went for a nice long walk in no particular direction through some soft rain on Friday. One of the things that surprises me is how quiet London is outside of the major hubs. You can walk along a major street just a kilometre from the financial district and not see a soul for 10 minutes.

We’ve only really just put our feet down and haven’t gotten around much aside from a couple of expeditions to see our northern cousins, who I appear to be completely unable to remain sober around.

18hrs to go…