Classics!

     In the past few years it has been a regular thing for me to have these situations every once in a while:

Situation 1:

I am at work. A good song starts. 

Me: Oh, I love this song!

Coworker 1: Oh, me too! I used to listen to it when I was in high school. 

Me: Well, I know the song, but I have no idea who is the singer or what is its name. 

Coworker 2: Oh, I know it too. It is a classic. We had great songs when we were younger, right?

Coworker1: Yes, we had some really amazing songs. This one is Cyndy Lauper/Aerosmith/Roxette's.

Me: I will download it! It is great!

*writes down the name of the song on a random paper *

Situation 2:

I am riding a car going somewhere, wherever, and I hear a song. This is my chain of thoughts:

Hm, I think I know this song... la la la la... yeah... it is awesome. They had so good songs back then. Well, we have them now, too. I mean, Adele is great, Beyonce, too. And I really love some pop/rock/alternative artists we have now that aren't that popular. la la la la Yeah, I should burn a CD with these stuff. la la la la Yap, i will, I will download this song when I get home. la la la la la

Guess what, I never did. 

     So, a few months ago, I took a few papers that I keep next to my PC, and when I hear a great song on the radio, either old or new, I use google to find the artist and write down his name and the name of the song. And right now I have 30ish songs on my list. And I will keep adding them. And a nice surprise to me that one of my coworkers added a few songs the other day. And normally i would get pissed for someone putting their nose in my business, but this time I didn't cause the songs are OK, and I will surely need help to make this list. I think 100 songs will do. But not just classics that are 10+ years old, but new things too! 

     That is why I want you all to give me as many songs as you can remember that are classic for you and that you can never get enough of. And I will now give you a few of my own that I ADORE! 

LETS MAKE A LIST TOGETHER! 

(and if you haven't noticed by now, I kinda love making lists...)

The songs in this list have no particular order. I just randomly added the song I like. There are a lot more on my list, these are just some I really like. So do comment and tell me what else would you add and what you think about these songs :-)

1. Emma Bunton - What took you so long

2. Roxette - For the very first time

3. Belinda Carlisle - Leave a light

4. Crowded House - Weather with you

5. James Blunt - You're beautiful

6. Adele - Set fire to the rain

7. Sir Paul McCartney - Hope of deliverance

8. Marlon Roudette - New age

9. Chris Daughtry - It's not over

10. Celine Dion - That's the way it is

Rain, Sun and a Steering Wheel

     This post was supposed to be written more than a month ago. I was inspired, but I couldn't find the time. Then I forgot about it, as I tend to sometimes :-) What is it that makes this post so special? Read on and you will find out.

     I am a girl who generally enjoys life, but most of the times, I find happiness in big things. I need to do big things in order to prove something to myself. It is wrong, but I guess I like to complicate my life like that. I try to change it, and though it is hard, there are moments when I see just how important those beautiful little things are. When the huge ones don't matter that much anymore and when I feel different. Some kind of inexplicable joy in my chest that grows and spreads all over my body. It makes my day and absolutely nothing anyone does or says to me can't get me angry in the next few hours. These things are verrry rare. A great cup of coffee, a beautiful song on the radio, the way my hair shines in the sun. But not every cup of coffee, even though I always drink the same coffee when I go out. And not every song, and even when it is the same song, not always. And not every time my hair shines, but sometimes, when I see it from a different perspective. 

     I know this makes little sense for most of you, because a song is a song. If it makes you happy once, shouldn't it always? And if a coffee is made in the same way, shouldn't it taste the same every time? And yes, the song is the same, and the taste of the coffee is the same. But I don't FEEL it the same way.      Just like I didn't feel the rain falling from the sunny sky in the same way as I did on some other occasion.

     

     Why is that? What makes me, and I believe some of you, too, feel things differently sometimes?

     I have been thinking about that topic for a while now, and I've grown to believe it is about how we see life itself. What actually happened that day? I wasn't very nervous. I was thinking about this boy who I liked. And about how I don't feel like sitting in class for the next few hours. And how the traffic really makes me wanna send someone to that ... lets call it a dark place... And how life in general is ok, but nothing special. I repeat I was NOT unhappy. I was NOT nervous. I was NOT hopeless. I was just... whatever. The weather was ok. It just started getting cold, and I had to wear long sleeves, but it was still above 15 degrees, so I wasn't cold. And there was some sun. Not much, but enough to make me think it is much warmer than it was. And I was listening to the radio in my car, and a good song was playing. And then it happened. It started raining out of the blue. While there was till sun. I was... amazed. It was beautiful, and it made forget about why was I blah that day. I just stopped feeling anything negative that I had been. I just stopped thinking. I had to get my phone and tape it, because when my brain started working again, I realized just how beautiful life is. Those little things make it beautiful. Not exactly the rain falling from a sunny sky, but the coffee that tastes good and puts a smile on my face. And a song that gives me goosebumps. And the sun in my hair that makes it shiny and makes me remember why I wanted it red in the first place.

     Here you have the video. This might not be anything special to you, and the video is not that good, so you can't really see it well. I would love to read what is special to you. What makes you happy. :-)

    

The Wien experience!

     There I was at the Old Prokop Station waiting for the bus number 3 to show up when I saw there will be 5 buses. 5!!! That is at least 250 people going with us, probably more, because some of them were double-deckers. Anyways, Maja came soon, and Ivana a little bit later and we were on our seats ready for take off! I took some help from Dimigal(anti-vomit pill) and the rest of the trip is a blur. What I do remember is it took forever for us to cross the border, and I can sincerely say I hate customs, border or anything related to it!

    No matter how awful I looked and felt it all went away when we entered Vienna! My first thought was: "I want to live here!". The architecture, the wide streets. It is so much like any other city, but so beautiful. Our first stop was Belvedere which you can see in the picture below. It is actually consisted of two buildings, but we were to lazy to go all the way down to the other building, so we just went around this palace and took a few pictures.

Belvedere

     It is rather fascinating how Vienna has so much nature everywhere you look, though I think it has something to do with its rulers being very involved with Arts and all that jazz. In the picture below you can see small part of the park around Belvedere. I can't put all the pictures, so you will have to go and see just how wonderful it is!!!

A park around Belvedere

     After that, our second stop was in (I think) District 4, where we were taken to see a few buildings of a famous artist whose name I can't remember (of course), but if I ever need it, I will find it in the book about Vienna I bought at one of the shops that sell souvenirs around those buildings.

Masterpiece of Friedensreich Hundertwasser (I googled it)

     Our third stop was the city center where we took a walk down Mariahilferstrasse, where you can find shops, caffes, fast food restaurants, and ... well, that is all you can find there. It wasn't anything too special, but we did see a few brands that we don't have in Serbia. And Starbucks, which is always a joy!

     Our forth stop was the hotel. They gave us the key to our room and we had less than 30 minutes to get ready for our fifth stop. Since there were three girls, there was no way we could all take a shower and get ready in time, so we just freshened up, I got myself to look decent and we were off to Danube Tower, our fifth stop of the day!

    If someone ever told me an elevator can go that fast, I wouldn't have believed them! I mean, come on! More than 200 meters in less than 30 seconds? I just had to look up! I saw all the wires and cables that held the elevator! Sooo cool! Made me a bit... not sick, but something in that domain. Anyways, the view from the tower was AMAZING! You can actually see the whole Vienna! And they say that during daylight, when the weather is good, you can see the suburbs of Bratislava! So, the view you can see in the picture below.

The view from Danube Tower

     Amazing right? And the restaurant is turning while you are sitting and enjoying your drink. It is really beautiful. Of course, we had Sahertorte, because we were in Vienna after all. And we had wine. And boy was it strong! But it added up to the experience which was amazing! You can see just how happy I was to be there in my eyes, can't you?

My smize! (disregard the fact that I look like I slept in the bus for more than 10 hours)

Sachertorte and red wine! Nomnom

     Our sixth stop was the city center again, where we took a walk, and had some traditional street sausages! With one slice of dark bread and ketchup! And thought it might sound like I am making fun of the meal, it was delicious, and I loved it! We also went for what the waiter said was Vienna's coffee, but it was nothing like it! It was just regular cappuccino. So he was a fraud. But they have good Sahertorte which we found out cause Ivana took it, again. And so did all of us, the next day. We went home by the trolley, and it took us 30 minutes. Our hotel was nowhere near the city center!

     The next day was long, and a lot of fun! After breakfast we went to the shopping mall near our hotel. We decided to enter only the shops we don't have in Serbia, and so I spent a lot of money, refreshed my wardrobe, and bought my niece and nephew, my sisters and parents some nice clothes! For me too, ofc! And a lot of sweets! Interspar is part of the Spar chain and they are something like Idea in Serbia. I felt like a kid in a toy store. Mostly because I saw all these sweets I want to try. And buy. I just can't buy the whole store, right?

Yap, just like a kid!

     With our wallets almost empty, we headed to the city center and the Museum of Nature and Science (or whatever it is called)! There are no words to describe it, so I will just post pictures for you to see how amazing it is! Everything from dinosaurous' skeletons, stuffed animal and various minerals and gems!

The rock from the Moon!

This is something that was ejected from a volcano in Brasil and its interior is covered  with Amethyst! AMAZING I SAY!

A stuffed sloth

A stuffed dodo bird
(I never saw one before and I was really excited to see it) 

Me! Just joking.
(I took this for my fb profile picture. It is some kind of ancient bird/dino)

Dinosaurous' skeleton

Me in the museum's lobby! It is beautiful, and huge!
(and I like how I look here, so I had to put it here)

     The evening ended with the reason I went to Vienna in the first place, the classical music concert about which you can read here. But before that, and before our Museum visit, we had some fun with the map and saw a bit of the city. Not much, but enough to notice the architecture is amazing. The whole city has and air and atmosphere about it! Like it is a few decades in the past, but still so modern!

A monument of Mr Schiller

Opera House

What do you see in this picture?
a) an interesting, old-fashioned street light
b) a bad picture of a street in Vienna
c) a McDonalds sign?

     Our third and last day of stay in Vienna was amazing, and made me 100% sure I want to come back, and that is the Schönbrunn Palace. It is huge, so beautiful and has so much history that it left me with so many wonderful impressions. It was built in the 18th century by Maria Teresa (who had 16 children, and had a daughter who had 18 children! o.O) The palace has an amazing garden/park that is enormous and so beautiful that it left me breathless! Enough talk, look at the photos cause they will say more than 1000 words!

The wind in my hair ^^

Only a par pf the castle
(We couldn't catch the whole thing with our cameras)

My favorite photo!

Isn't is just breathtaking?

The Thriumphat gate
(or something like that)

A part of the garden
(this looks wonderful in the spring when it starts blooming)

     After this last stop we went home, happy and excited. It was worth the trip, and it enriched me with so much new knowledge and experience in terms of beauty and culture. Something you must see for yourself to understand! I hope you all go and feel the half of what i feel and it will be worth the trip. I will go again, because 3 days is not enough to see and feel everything, but it is enough to want to come again!

     For those of you who already saw all this things, what are your impressions? Do tell :-) And of course comment as much as you like!

Watch an orchestral performance in Vienna - DONE!!!

     Vienna is beautiful, and I will extensively write about how beautiful it is in my next few posts. But the most amazing thing about Vienna is something I will try to explain now. You can never actually explain the feeling, because it is one of those things you have to live (like most of the things from my list), but I believe my writing skills are good enough to serve the feeling justice.

     I will start of by telling you that Vienna has an amazing cultural heritage, and that everything we see as culture has some roots in Vienna. Music, Theatre, Arts, Food... You name it, you will find it there. And you will love it! I was impressed and frankly, a bit ashamed by the fact I didn't know that there is so much to see there. And not just see, but feel and acknowledge. It will all be explained more in my next post, but it is important for me that all of you who read this understand that Vienna has a wealthy heritage in all aspects of culture that is defined by arts. The Habsburg Monarchy and most of it's members were all artist. They sang, played, painted, spoke many languages! They did a lot for the upbringing of culture in Vienna and I am very grateful! Why am I grateful! because if it weren't for them, I wouldn't be able to attend a concert were amazing music was performed. 

    Frankly, I know it wasn't a really full experience, because it wasn't as good as it can be, it was just made for tourists to get a part of Vienna's soul for a low price, and I am not sure I will ever be able to afford attending something that has the highest value in terms of quality and experience but this was satisfactory, I enjoyed, had fun, and I can check another thing off my list!

     

     The concert took place at the Wiener Börsensale, at 8.30PM, Saturday, November 5th. The orchestra wasn't big. I think a flute, 4 violins, a cello, a contrabass and a piano. The solo performers were Rita Scheider, mezzo-soprano, and she was amazing!!! I don't remember the names of others, but there was a baritone and two ballet dancers.  cute tiny blond, and a guy with a pretty nice behind :P (I could see it because I was in the first row ^^)

    I would tell you the names of everything they played and sang, but i don't know the names... I was a slacker at school when we learning those pieces. I do know that they played Mozzart and Strauss. And that out of everything they played, I heard most of them before. In cartoons mostly, but hey, I never said I listen to classics in my free time...

     We had a break for the performers to rest, and we had champagne. It wasn't very good, but it made the experience much better.

     I enjoyed the music, I had a smile on my face all the time and never, for a second I though this was boring, I will fall asleep, I shouldn't have come. I was thinking about how good they sound, and that it is a pity I never played an instrument... And that my kids must play something. maybe the piano, because the sound of piano is the best. Then I thought about how amazing it was that people invented instruments, and that all that amazing sound came from wires and ... stuff. 

     When the ballet dancers came out, my heart was full. They were ok, but the fact that I have evertything at one place was amazing! Rita was sooo good! I was amazed! The voice that woman has! I rememeber that I wanted to sing opera when I was a kid.     

     They didn't let us take photos, but I took a few when I thought no one looked. So they are not very good, but you can see some of the atmosphere ^^ 

This is where the concert took place, I had a seat in the first row, on the right!

 The orchestra

The champagne ^^

My comrad-in-crime  

 Ballet dancers!

 Rita Scheider(in purple)

I also have a few videos, for you to hear the concert. It is a weird angle, and they are all very short, but I think you will like them :-)

5/100 <3 ^^

A quick update!

     No one cares. Nope, no one. Deal with it. If you are going somewhere, it doesn't matter for how long, don't expect anyone to care. They will watch a Turkish series on TV rather than talking to you. They just DON'T CARE! The sooner you deal with the fact, less pain you will feel. And every time I think I will get used to it, but I don't think I ever will. On the bright side!

I AM GOING TO WIEN!!!

     In just an hour I will be on the bus No3, waiting for it to start the engines and take me and my friends to the city of music, great food and amazing shopping. I am very excited, and since I should really go, like in a few minutes, I just want you all to know I didn't forget about my blog, I am preparing a few very interesting posts and I will write thoroughly about Vienna next week, so get ready for a lot of reading. 

     Have fun while I am in Austria eating Sachertorte ^^