Purple Trees

I've never seen trees so purple before...



The first thing I thought was... wow, they'll look fabulous in renderings! Jacaranda trees, some kind of a Sydney version of the cherry blossoms. They bloom for about 2 weeks in spring, and I happen to be around here at a lucky time!


Even the droppings, are just gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous...

3mths.l8r

This past three months in Europe felt like a long time.
It must be a wanderlust's dream to be living and working across Europe the way I did, peddling on some green research project.

Many people that I have met during this trip I contacted for the first time by e-mail, and its always exciting to meet them for the very first time. Are they nice? And do I look like what they expected me to be? Excluding my encounter with the rude talking landlord in Sweden... the encounters have been all unbelievably good.

The Dreer award has opened up a chance of a lifetime to travel and work across Europe.

It has been wonderful.

And soon, off to Australia!


(Up) My wonderfully airy and plantly apartment room in Munich.

Linden tree

On the last week of october, I came back to Switzerland again to say bye to friends and plants of Waedensvil~


Cosmos flowers in the ZHAW garden...


I learnt a new smell while I'm in europe,
the smell of a street...
lined with blooming linden tree.

This tree is molting leaves right now and obviously not having flowers. Before in July though, it had fruits, and almost everyday I am there, we have tea here with Phillip and Simone, while drinking the linden tea (me) and expresso (them). I loved this tree so much that when I see them still in bloom in Sweden... I remembered, and breathed deeeply... oh, the sweet and gentle scent of a linden tree...


View of the Swiss alps from the plane.
Second must visit again place in Europe. After Rome, of course.

Oktoberfest

Can't go away from Munich without talking about THE Oktoberfest...


Endless lines of marching bands, girls on beerwagons for two hours long... as if they emptied out all the Bavarian villages aorund Munich!


This is my favorite display, a herd of heidi goats!


on and on...


Up movie mascots dressed up in Oktoberfest theme.


But the festival really is a two-faced one. On the good face is the traditional parade (above) and on the 'bad' face is the drinking. Almost needless to tell, Oktoberfest is the biggest drinking party in the world. And sight like this is kinda common in the fest area, around the station and even near my apartment! (Drunkard sleeping in the corner of the street on bright daylight)


In the meantime, for two weeks, Thereßenwiese is turned into a giant theme park with scary scary games...




"I love you" cookies thing...


No pretty beer pictures here though. I almost didn't drink the last week I'm in Munich because I've been getting sick practically every week for the past month. But there's the last beer I had in Munich! It's my fav beer, a Radler (beer with lemonade), with some tender pork cutlet~

Fünf Höfe Hanging Garden

The hanging garden at Salvatore Passage of Fünf Höfe is my favorite project from Indoorlandscaping, the office that I have been working for in the past month. The project was finished in 2002 with architects Herzog de Meuron, and seven years on, the plants are still looking healthy and gorgeous... here they are:




Set in a trendy shopping arcade (Armani, Zegna, D&G, Zara, etc.), this garden makes a reference to the mythical Hanging Gardens of the Babylon, the city of luxury of 600BC. But unlike the ever-perfect mythical gardens, this one is real and it drops leaf litters everyday, and hence require a lot of cleaning and care.


The plants hangs gently onto a chain, as it climbs down from fifth floor to the second floor... a height of over 10 meters long!


Above is the stunning view of the garden from the café on the second floor. The bright lights wakes up the plant everyday, and makes sure that the plant gets enough light to photosynthesize and grow. Below is the view from the fifth floor where the pots for the hanging garden sat on. These pots are irrigated hydroponically and there's almost 200 of these climber pots, comprising of six species, including Scindapsus, Passiflora, Tetrastigma and Philodendron. The white tabletop-like umbrella on them is used to shade them from too much sunlight.


This last picture was taken on a different day (my last noon in Munich in fact), hence the brighter daylighting.

Frauenchiemsee

Normally I don't do maps, but the location of Fraueinsel is quite interesting, here's a google screenshot of where it is. On the first map, the top left corner is Munich, and on the bottom is Chiemsee (literally, Chiem lake). There is two main islands in Chiemsee, the Herreninsel and the Fraueninsel (literally, the Man island and the Lady island). The second map shows you the die Fraueninsel... isn't it such a cute island? It used to be monastery for women, but now it is open for all.



On Monday I took a day trip with Albert, Pak Steve and Pak Jimmy (left to right) to Chiemsee. From Munich, we took a train (using the ultra cheap 28 euro for 5people Bayern card) and a boat to reach the islands. First we went to Herrenchiemsee and visited the opulent castle of Ludwig II, which is built as a copy of the palace of Versailles. But for all the rich tapestries, porcelain, gold, crystal and marble, the beauty nature still beats the palace, hands down. My favorite part of the visit is seeing the charming home gardens and neighborhood of the Frauenchiemsee, and feeding the tame ducks there...


A silly looking garden decoration~

The homes in Frauenchiemsee exudes a kind of cute-romantic-idyllic atmosphere around it... imagine, living in a neighborhood on an island, with no cars and only boats to travel to the outside world? Ooooh.... *brain drools again*

And how peaceful it would be, sitting on this swing chair, under the weeping willow, by the blue, blue lake...

Finaly, beside the main chapel, there is a great populus tree covered in climbing hedera and clematis, and on it is a prayer fitting for this island:

"God the Father, we bring you thanks, you made the lake so beautiful, surrounded by Your creation. You are the master of the world who created them; receive our praise and glory and honor."

Franz Mayer of Munich

The atelier downstairs to my office makes my brain drool with envy...




One day when we didn't have much to do in the office, Andreas took me downstairs to see the studio of Franz Mayer of Munich. Initially I didn't have much of an idea what the office does, I know they make mosaic and glasses, but what could be so special? That's before I saw their studio! Oh my! What enviable lives! It's not just any mosaic or glasses, its art pieces mosaic (they make the big murals in NYC's subway) and church-grade stained windows!!!

Above is the pictures of the glassmaking in process. On the first picture is the studio where they draw the stained glass in question. They have big mirrors above their studio space so they can see the images inverted. After the drawing is done, the image is taken to the person who shapes the colored glass one by one (second pic), and then it is drawn on. After all the pieces are ready, they are put together manually with lead as the binding 'glue' (third pic).

Below is one of the mosaic pieces that I was quite taken by. It's like *whoaaah!!!* painting with coloured tiles! I wonder what it feels to work patiently like this for life: a steady artists' job making mosaics and glasses all life long. The lady there told me that most people who worked there, have been there for 20 years and more. It seems like such a certain way of life... certainly beautiful one. Or is it...? Deep down in my heart I was thinking to myself, if I could have another life, this is it.


As the home for the atelier, the building naturally has a lot of stained glass and mosaic art pieces embelishing it, making the office space more homey and livable. Below is the glasses that I pass everyday to work, they make my day feels brighter, and not just "this is another boring office job in a boring bozy glassy office" kinda feeling...

Jesus in three hip colors, orange, blue and pink!

Snow white stained glass on the 4th floor above. It's on display along with puss-in-boots, mother goose and other cute fairytaile stained glasses.

Giardino Giusti, Verona

The only day I get to spend in Verona is a rainy day.
There, I spent the day (yesterday) with dripping wet bag and soaked feet, which is probably why I am having headaches right now. But the good thing is, the rain makes the experience of the garden feel more somber and melamcholic. It also drives away other visitors, and even the ticketing person! Making the garden visit a free entry for me, and me alone for the hour.





Walking in this garden makes you feel that you are in another era, and that's a no wonder, when you read its long established history:

Built in 1570, the basic design of this Giardino Giusti is almost half a millennia old. And if that is not old enough, they say that parts of the garden is even older than that, with 700-year old cypresses predating the foundation of the garden. The elaborate myrtle hedges however, is a later addition from the 1786.

The garden is one of the oldest in Italy, and has been called the most important of the renaissance gardens. Since the 16th century, a trip to the garden is usually included as a part of the Grand Tour (educational trips of young aristrocats), and it has had illustrious visitors, including Mozart and Goethe, who supposedly wrote one of his books under its towering cypresses.

Bologna Weekend

They say all roads leads to Rome. But for me, no matter how much I love Rome, the roads seems to lead to Bologna more than Rome.

For the 4th time, I'm back in Bologna. First visit was to see Gabri whom I met in the previous year. Second was as a part of uni's northern Italy trip. Third was to visit Gab again on the way to Cinque Terre, and now, my sort-of employer, Andreas invited me to a green expo in Bologna.

This is one of the Italian green wall product on display at the expo... It's a pretty standard product.

And this is Andreas my boss (although probably he wouldn't call himself that way), and his new vintage toothpaste.

Bologna second hand market at San Stefano

A sweet accordion player who has a good smile... I was listening to her under Bologna's endless porticoes as I wait for Gabri to come out of the Sunday mass.

Gabri!

Delllicious pasta with fiori di zucca and mussels!!!

Sidenote: Coming back to Italy makes me realize how photogenic the country really is. It is easy to take good pictures of Italy and blog about it. Perhaps it's is because their medieval-renaissance culture places strong emphasis on axially oriented design? Anyhow; something in the way the city is laid made it measuredly scenic, even on my tiny point-n-shoot camera. This is in contrast to Munich, which is a wonderful city to live in, and by far a more comfortable place to walk around at... but, I have yet to take good pictures of it. Without those gigantic d-slr that has wide apertures, the pictures I take here look so flat and banal. Munich really is a nice place to be, and deserve more blog notes than it currently has.

Augustenstraße 93, Munich

It's been a week since I reached Munich. For most of the time, I have been sick. As a result, I am resting lots at home, my new apartment room at Augustenstraße. I like where I live now. It's only 15 minutes to walk to work, and the street is full of grocery shops. From normal groceries, discounted netto groceries, organic groceries, bath and health products, Asian shop, Bollywood shops. All in all, I pass by 7 groceries, 4 bakeries (and a McDonalds) every morning on the way to the office.


My favorite shop is this one, a second-hand english bookshop that has a generous number of cozy sofas tucked away in its bookish corners~