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Fun Fact
Total funding amounts to $125.3M.
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But the kapelle was worth it. And I made it out without breaking my ankles. The end.
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Well, that dumb ass van was a huge letdown #dreamscrushed
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Immediately greeted by the most epic of tire swings #worthit
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Some nonchalant woods nosing and WHAT HAVE WE HERE #secretstaircase
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Didn't run all the way up this silly hill to be locked out. No sir.
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Hope
Guys, today I broke into a castle.
Let me back up. Today, like many other days, I laced up my shoes and headed out for a run. My intended destination was the Villa Rustica, a crazy awesome ruin of a Roman villa not too far from our house, that has been restored into something of a playground (you can climb all over it! There's descriptions for each of the rooms. Mostly I just like to walk around on the tops of the walls.) Last week we stopped there on the bike trip, so that my retired history teacher host mom could show me around. Having left my phone at home, I new that I needed to come back to take some photos (and to climb around on it again, of course.) Liesbeth was telling me that she used to take her 2nd graders (12 year olds) on a hiking day every year, and they would get really excited because she would bring them a liter of wine (mixed with 10 liters of water. Of course. Can't have a bunch of drunk 12 year olds running around.)
Anyway, as usual, I knew the general direction to go but not the exact streets and paths to get there. After two failed attempts, I gave up (2 failed attempts and I didn't want to risk the farmers thinking I was crazy. But really, why do I care so much?) It was a little frustrating, because I could literally see it from where I was but because the fields were so muddy (quick sand mud!) I couldn't cut across (believe me, I tried.)
I emerged on the other side of the woods laughing at myself for failing, and then I looked up to see the castle at Neuberg looming in the distance. (Literally looming, I kid you not.) And I thought to myself, why the hell not? It was easily the biggest "hill" I'd ever tackled (at running speed, anyway) and there is clearly a first time for everything. Plus the thunder thighs I've acquired from recent mountain biking efforts were sure to help me. And so I paced myself. The first third or so (about half a kilometer) was okay. Thunder thighs engage. The second third was twice as steep and also wind-y. Hairpin turns on roads through the vineyards. (I enjoyed it much more on the way down, I assure you.) The last third was a push. But I ran all the way up to the gate of the castle!
And it was locked. Shit. There were a couple of cows in a nearby field who all gathered to watch me. But no humans. Hmmm. I walked around to the chapel, which was sadly "zu gesperrt" (closed. one of my favorite expressions in German these days.) But, thanks to an obnoxiously large keyhole, I definitely did not miss out on basking in its glory. I continued walking, and eventually decided on a wander in the woods.
And after nosing around a bit, there it was: a hidden staircase! Which was of course blocked off. Ha! Like that would stop me. I carefully made my way down the rocky ruins, stopping a few rotting steps before the ground to see if there was anyone else around. No sign of intelligent life anywhere. Well, except for cows. A few more cautious steps over some more tape, and I arrived at the "Hof." The courtyard. That was a very thrilling moment for me. Alone in a castle, to do things like cartwheels and dreaming about the people who lived here hundreds of years ago.
Running downhill for an extended period always sounds awesome until you're actually doing it. I always forget about that. I chose to focus my mind on giving Villa Rustica one last shot, and succeeded! I also had a chance to look at my km splits, and running up that hill was actually under my long run pace. Score.
This run was such a perfect metaphor for my life at the moment, and maybe even for my life as an artist thus far. Well, I can hope anyway. I had my sights set on the Villa, and while it was extremely frustrating not to be able to reach it. But it turns out that I was actually meant for something more, something greater--the Schloss Neuberg. The journey up the hill was a labor of love, and there were so many times I wanted to call it quits and turn around. But what could beat breaking into a castle? Even better, I could refocus my path to the Villa and actually get there.
I'm still trying to figure out what my "Schloss Neuberg" actually is. And I'm sure I'm not the only one. But I have a feeling it might be even better than breaking into a castle :)
And so I'll dedicate tomorrow's run to all of us who are still trying to find our Schloss Neubergs. Even if your legs get tired, keep moving forward!
xoxE
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May Day!
What an epically fantastic win of a day. Liesbeth and I have been planning a bike trip for quite some time, and yesterday it finally became a reality! We decided on an early start, as it is now mid-Spring which means a thunderstorm literally every afternoon/evening.
All of the speedwork and plyo I've been doing lately really paid off, too--I was a "hill" climbing champion. Our first stop was my ex-boss Natalia's fairytale farm, about 90 minutes in. (Remember when I had to farm-sit last summer with all of the crazy geese?) All of the geese (except for the special ones, the grey one and the runt from the special-ed goose pen) were of course long gone (at the beginning of November is an Austrian holiday, St. Martin's Day, kind of similar to Thanksgiving, when Austrians typically eat a goose. Hence the raising of geese.) A chat and some proper hydration and we were back on the road. I don't think I've ever been legit mountain biking like that before, but I do know that I'm hooked! (We have plans to go again later this weekend.)
Upon arriving home (starving) later that day, Liesbeth and I (okay, mostly Liesbeth) conjured up a Styrian pizza-- polenta crust, tomato sauce, asparagus and other fun vegetables, and a generous layer of swiss emmentaler. Delish. I could have totally used a nap afterwards (regardless of how late it was in the day), but the green party was sponsoring a showing of The Grand Budapest Hotel.
It's been difficult to constantly explain to people that my plans have changed and I will be heading back to Chicago next month. Maybe it's because that means it's real and I can't refuse to think about it. It also makes me super nostalgic under the influence of alcohol (we went out for drinks after the film). It kind of hit me when we were sitting in Casa (an adorable restaurant/bar on the main square in Hartberg--the vibe is definitely identical to that in an Italian café-bar, but the architecture is totally Austrian wine tavern) and the Katy Perry song "Roar" came on, the one I used to make the music video with the BAKIP girls on the beach in Lignano back in October.
Time sure does fly.
xoxE
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Life's tough, get a helmet. #holidayweekend #biketrip #peaceoutschlampen
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Impromptu adventures at the castle in Schlaining with mama L today!!!
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Richtig und wichtig
That's something Liesbeth says to me all the time but I just noticed today. "Right" and "important." It rhymes in German though and has a nicer ring. So after breakfast this morning, I helped her make gnocchi from scratch because my sister Lisa was stopping for lunch on her way from Graz to Wien.
Cooking with Liesbeth is always an adventure. Step 1: find the right cookbook, scour its pages for something useful, read over once, and let's get moving. Step 2: make an absolute mess. That's the one thing that's so awesome about our kitchen: it's a well-used organized mess that we clean up, only to mess it up completely a few hours later. When you make gnocchi, you make the dough and then you have to test it by dropping it into the boiling water to see if it falls apart or sticks together. Ours were very sticky--so much that Liesbeth was flinging them off of her fork and into the pot proclaiming "Herein mit dir!" ("In with you!")
I only spent a couple of uneventful hours at work today, after which I dragged myself back up the hill (occasionally I walk to work). Around 4:30 Liesbeth looked at me sideways and pulled me off the couch, saying it was high time for me to move past this funk I've been in and that we were going on an adventure.
First stop: Spar and then Hofer (Austrian Aldi.) Tomorrow is a national holiday (May Day) and so everything will be closed. And with my sisters coming home we will definitely be cooking up a storm.
Then we were off to Burgenland, the Austrian state to the west of Styria (where I live.) Burgenland was once part of Hungary (all of the signs are still in German and Hungarian). Liesbeth decided it was going to be a choose-your-own-adventure type deal, and after listing off the options, looked at me expectantly. I chose Schlaining, because how cool is a name like Schlaining?! (Shl EYE ning.) Turned out to be TOTALLY the right choice.
I consider myself to be a castle-aficionado. I've seen a lot of them (there's 3 within 10 kilometers of my house, for goodness sake), but the Burg at Schlaining blew basically every Austrian castle I've seen out of the water. I won't even attempt to describe it in words, so please enjoy the pictures.
Inside the castle, however, was of course a Heuriger (wine tavern.) Liesbeth and I sat outside, enjoying the last of the day's sunshine, along with a couple of glasses of Sturm (partially fermented wine) and some really tasty toast--typical brown bread with smoked gouda, pears, and mountain cranberries on top. I pretty much wanted to stay there forever and never leave. Being a retired history teacher, she also gave me a brief history of the happenings of that particular area, mainly the annexation of Burgenland (the newest province in Austria.)
Mostly I like being at castles because I like to imagine what it would have been like to live there. You know, like as a kid--running all over the place, in the woods and creeks. What it would have been like to be attacked by the Turks. I got a little taste of that today--we hiked all the way around the entire fortress. There was even a Roman-style theater, which was basically asking that I run down the stairs and jump up on the stage. Made friends with a snail, picked some pretty snowbell flowers. Then got accidentally drunk in a castle.
On the way home, we took a lengthy detour through Burgenland, through some adorable villages that even Liesbeth had never seen before. Since May Day is tomorrow, each little town center or churchyard was erecting a "Maibaum" (May tree, kind of like a Christmas tree but way awesomer looking-- it's a needle tree, usually between 20 and 40 feet high, that has been completely shaved, except for the top 5 feet or so. The branches at the top are hung with pretty red and white ribbons.) The end goal was her home village of Neudau, quite possiblly the sweetest little place in Austria. It also, of course, had a castle. This one was interesting--the front part of it was clearly out of the middle-ages, but behind it was a gorgeous late-Baroque mini-Schönbrunn, for lack of a better description. It was even yellow, too!
Afterwards she took me to her birth house, a surprisingly massive farmhouse on the outskirts of Neudau. When she was born in 1950, her parents lived there along with her aunts, uncles, and cousins, which I think would have been such a fun way to grow up. We had an interesting discussion too--one of the political parties (the red), which was made illegal post-World War II and is associated with the ideas of communism, socialism, and atheism (and Hitler), actually remained (secretly) popular in Styria, primarily a farming province. I of course asked why, and it turns out that Hitler actually supported it, along with the preservation of family farms. Which was of course why it was made illegal, but at least it's easy to understand why the people would still hold onto the ideals.
Now the two of us are drinking beer and watching the Austrian version of the Tonight show. What a day :)
xoxE
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