So for those of you just joining the show, I should explain that this particular blog started up as a way for me to keep in touch with people (mostly my mom and little brother, let's be honest) while I was in Europe this summer. This fact may help to explain the first 15 or so posts, ahaha. And when I decided to start blogging again in general it seemed easier to pick this one back up than to start all over again.

Today was tutorial day. Once a week I teach two tutorials for a second-year class on Greek and Roman mythology. This, dear readers, is a topic that I really don't know a whole lot about. I mean, I know as much as the average person, probably a little more, purely due to osmosis. But I am in no way shape or form anything approximating an expert in the field, so basically I spend an entire morning every week trying to play catch-up so that my large gaps of ignorance shall not be revealed come tutorial time. This week was the Hymn to Demeter, one of the Homeric Hymns (which JUST FOR FUN are not in fact by Homer).

....so, it is now a week exactly since I wrote the above. This is not setting a good trend for my general diligence in attending to this blog, is it. I am presently sick as a dog and dreaming lovingly of the days when I would just dope myself up with dubious and ill-thought-out cocktails of Sudafed and Advil Cold and Sinus and whatever other decongestants/painkillers happened to be sitting around the house. (I remember one day in particular when I went into work at Tims in Saskatoon in the midst of a raging cold and took so many medications immediately pre-shift that I rendered myself high as a kite. In particular I remember making an ice-cap at the ice-cap machine and thinking very clearly that I had better go sit down in the back because I was feeling VERY ODD INDEED.) Anyway, those happy golden days are behind me as I struggle by on plain old Tylenol and the occasional throat lozenge. So it goes.

K, I am going to post this before I forget again. Kudos to you if you have made it this far.

What I look like today.

The Thesis is becoming concretely terrifying now. I alternate between feeling grimly hopeful that I can finish it in time and blind panic over how little time I have left. This latter is usually accompanied by feelings of black self-loathing for having let things get to this point. What have I spent the last month/two months/five months doing? And if I've done nothing up to this point what reason do I have to think that things will magically improve? I'm panicking a little even as I write this. But I keep ending up at: I have no choice. I've got to finish. Even if this is the sorriest, shortest, most incoherent thesis ever to hit a committee, I've got to hand SOMETHING in. I've got to get done. Not just because of the baby (although it would sure be nice to be done with it by the time that happens) but because I've pretty much stacked all our cards on getting accepted and funded somewhere fall. Which can't, obviously, happen if I haven't finished my degree here by then.

And there's also just being disappointed with myself. Seriously. I KNOW BETTER. That's the worst of it. I know better.

Anyway, that's that. The good news is that it looks like we will have a buyer for at least some of our furniture, come summer/moving time. Thank God...I am spared at least from having to parcel EVERYTHING WE OWN off on Craigslist, piece by piece. Now it will just be half of everything we own. Hah. If anyone wants anything in my apartment: please notify me. I'm only half joking. On a related note, I need those people from Hoarders to come go through my stuff/fix my life.

So I think I'm going to start this up again. It occurs to me (yes, now, after living away from North Battleford for eleven years and away from Saskatoon for two) that if I want people to be a part of my life for more than the ships-passing-in-the-night Once A Year Visit, then I should perhaps take steps to stay connected with people a little better. And since I am not really a phone person, and never get around to writing letters, however much I like the idea of them--well, a blog might be one place to start.

The problem is always with thinking of something to write about. Once our kid is here that will be a constant source of amusement/terror, I have no doubt, so I will be able to write lots about that (thereby transforming into the dreaded Mom Who Can Talk About Nothing But Her Offspring). But since it's not doing anything noteworthy as of yet (not even kicking--I apparently have the world's laziest child) I will have to get through at least a few months here on my own steam.

Will be back once I've thought of something to write about.

Salzburg pt. 2: berchtesgaden!

Ok!  Time for some pictures from Berchtesgaden!  This will be the short version; when I have some more time, Joe, and if you're interested, I can type up some more stuff.  So basically, Berchtesgaden is a small town just on the German side of the border with Austria.  In fact one of the mountains that directly overhangs Salzburg is the Unterberg, and basically if you climb over that mountain you end up smack dab in Berchtesgaden.  So the two towns are VERY close together.  This map sort of shows their relation:

So the main mountain shown here is Untersberg ...and if you look at the little names around the edge of the map you can see that Salzburg is off to the upper-right of this picture, and the town of Berchtesgaden is of course near the bottom.  In the little writing at the bottom right you can see the name Obersalzberg, which is the name of the mountain that the Eagle's Nest is built on, and into which the bunkers were built.  Hitler's residence and buildings for many of his staff were also located on the Obersalzberg. 

Anyway.  I am a map nerd, so I feel better now that I have properly oriented you.  :)  (You are probably dying of boredom...so I will move on.)  This picture is fairly explanatory...I took it from the bus we took from Salzburg to Berchtesgaden.  It was a very scenic drive although once again it was pretty cloudy so we couldn't get the full effect.  Oh well.  

The weather was a minor hindrance in an otherwise FANTASTIC day.  I LOVED this tour--it was very very history-heavy and the guide was very well-informed and gave alot of very fascinating and detailed information.  I will give you the very short version here (though you might already know alot of this, Joe):  

Fairly early on in his career (say, the very early 30s, though I'm not positive on the year), Hitler lived in a house on the Obersalzburg (to refresh:  this is the mountain that overlooks the town of Berchtesgaden).  After the NS party came to power in 1933, that house was hugely expanded (though for sentimental reasons he incorporated the old house into the new one) and became known as the Berghof.  Over the next decade large portions of the mountain were taken over by the NS party and it became a sort of unofficial party headquarters--most of the top-ranking military figures and civil staff eventually had residences and/or offices based there.   This of course involved an enormous amount of construction.  One cool thing we saw (most of the buildings have been destroyed so there is little evidence still visible of the buildings that used to exist) were the dormitories built for the SS men (and their families) who guarded the place.  

Anyway all of that is in addition to the bunker-system, which was built during this same period (roughly from 1933-->the end of the war) and was pretty massive.  It was designed for use as a shelter from bombing, etc., but also for used for storage.  As things got more dangerous (so, during the war) alot of business was conducted in the bunkers as well, I believe.  

The last part of the complex---in addition to the town of Berchtesgaden, the 'mini-town' Hitler built on the mountain above it, and the bunkers---is the Eagle's Nest.  In a way it is the most sensational of them all but also the least important, in terms of how much it was used.  It was built as a present for Hitler's 50th birthday (which was in 1939) by Himmler, I think.  The craziest part is that not only was this building erected on the VERY PEAK of the mountain (I got vertigo just thinking about the construction workers up there, it is actually on the edge of the mountain, no joke), but an entire road up the mountain was also built JUST to access this one building.  I think the guide said it cost something like the equivalent of 130 million dollars in modern money.  And the kicker is that Hitler only visited it 14 or so times.  He didn't like it that much apparently because he didn't like heights and was also claustrophobic, and the last part of the way up involves taking an elevator up a shaft cut into the rock.  So he didn't even spend that much time there.  It is fairly famous though as it was seen as a sort of trophy by the Allies...everyone wanted to get there first.  To this day there is still some debate as to whether the Americans or another army (the French?  I forget) got there first.

SO.  I am sorry for how long that was.  That is the short version, I promise.  :)  Anyway if you are still reading at this point...here are some pictures of inside the bunkers!  Not great because of how dark it was, but they still give some idea. 

This one is just a basic shot looking down one of the tunnels.  You can see that in this one the walls are very rough and haven't been finished, but many of the bunker areas  were apparently beautifully finished as nicely as any house would have been:  carpet, plumbing, wood paneling, the whole shebang.  

I thought this was really neat:  it's a barrel that hasn't been opened and has been sitting in the bunkers ever since the NS were still here.  You can see on the top the word "Wehrmacht", the name of the German general armed forces (as opposed to specialized units like the SS or the Luftwaffe).

This was FASCINATING:  it is a room in the bunkers in which a huge safe was kept, which you can see tipped over on the floor.  After the bunkers were taken by the Allies, someone tried to blast it open; it didn't work but tipped it over, where it has lain ever since and has never been opened.  And no one knows what is inside, apparently.  This could have just been something the guide said I suppose, but he seemed pretty solid so I don't think he was joking. 
Another look into one of the side-hallways.  You will notice that all of the rooms and hallways look SUPER bare, in spite of what I said earlier about them being nicely furnished etc. Apparently this is because after the war the Allies turned a blind eye for a few weeks while the local people came in and completely stripped the place bare.  They took anything that could possibly be lifted or unscrewed, right down to the tiles on the floor, the light sockets, the plumbing fixtures, everything and anything.  (This had a lot to do with the fact that they had just come out of a war economy, their country was pretty much demolished, so they had no access to ANY kind of materials or supplies, even if they happened to have money.)
Authentic graffiti from one of the companies that came through here early on after the region was taken by the Allies.  You can see that it is dated the 5th day of the 5th month , 1945.  It also has the regiment etc. of the soldier who wrote it.  I don't know what all the abbreviations stand for, maybe you will have a better guess Joe.  
Walking through one of the tunnels.

I am so sad that this one turned out so dark!  I already lightened it up alot, this is the best I can do.  Oh well.  You will just have to believe me when I tell you that that dark blob to the left of my head [ :) ] is an escape tunnel that was built in case of the bunkers being completely overrun--it just leads out into the woods on the mountainside.  And it is situated at the very end of a hall, behind three different machine gun emplacements... so it was to be used only as a REALLY last resort.

The view as we came out of the bunkers...cloudy but still a pretty view.  

The view looking down out the window of our bus as we drove up the mountain towards the Eagle's Nest!   That is a SHEER DROP, people.  I was seriously freaking out during this part of the ride.  Like, at one point I had to close my eyes.  And was tempted to move to the other side of the bus, to shift my weight to the mountainside-side of the bus, even though I knew this was CLEARLY IRRATIONAL and my weight was not going to make the difference between us hurtling off the side of the mountain, or not.  BUT.  There was NO WALL, or anything.  Just the road, and then this DEADLY DROP.  Oh my lord.  This prairie girl did not handle it too well.  Although it was awesomely hilarious cause about halfway up the guide was like "I would just like you all to know that we have been doing these tours since 1955 and our bus company has a perfect safety record"  and I must have laughed a little hysterically cause he was like "oh someone is nervous at the back?"  It was awesome.  But yeah, I was glad to get to the top.

So at the top of the road we got to ride in the elevator, which I didn't take a picture of, but I found this one online to give you an idea of what it looks like:

And this is what the tunnel looks like leading into the mountain, in order to access the elevator (this one also I didn't take).  The light fixtures are original !  

This is me in the 'sundeck' portion of the Eagle's Nest...sort of a gallery along one side that would have given an AMAZING view, had we been able to see anything at all except thick white clouds.  :)  The windows have glass in them now but originally they were open to the air.  

This is a picture of Hitler sitting on the same sundeck, back in the day.  

And here is a picture I found to show what the view WOULD have been, had it been sunny out:  

OK!  Gotta finish with these quickly as I am talking far too much.  So this next one is a fireplace inside the building...the cool thing to notice here is how much the marble of it has been chipped away.  This was done by American GIs after the war who wanted to take a piece home as a souvenir!  

This is part of the buildings that has been turned into a restaurant.  We had something to drink here before we went back down.  

And this is the three of us on the balcony outside...I wanted to go outside to say I'd done it, even though there was no view to see!  So behind us it is...surprise surprise...white clouds.  Hah.  Left to right it is Alice (she's the one moving to Victoria next year, who I did the first part of the trip with), Sam (just did a degree in Oxford), me.  Not bad for a self-portrait I think. 

OK that is all I've got for now!  Hi to my, like, five readers.  :)  Love, Becky.

[[for mom]]

Hi Mom, if you read this today I just wanted to say a)  how nice to was to talk to you!  b)  I will attempt at some point to be somewhat more coherent about the catacombs.  Which I apparently know nothing certain about.  My goodness.  This is a topic I am apparently writing my thesis on. HEAVEN HELP ME.  

Love, your daughter.

Salzburg Pt. 1: The Sound of Music!

So on the first full day we were in Salzburg, we went on a Sound of Music tour.  This was probably the most ridiculous experience I have ever had in my life (well, it must be at least in the top three or four) but was also, of course, awesome.  How could a Sound of Music tour not be?  SO.  We arrived at the pick-up point for the tour and got on the bus, which was huge.  The tour guide was dressed in some sort of traditional-ish costume (clearly intended to scream "AUSTRIA!  SCHNITZEL!  THE HILLS ARE ALIVE!" with every thread of its fabric) and was borderline crazy.  I'm not kidding.  I suppose it was probably just part of the routine (since after all she probably does this several times a day and has to be a little weird to not lose her mind) but, MY GOODNESS.  Imagine a combination of very lame jokes [actual example:  "Captain von Trapp married Maria after he lost his first wife.  He must have been very, very absent-minded to have lost her like that, don't you think?"] and awkward quotations from the film [actual example:  "Hi everyone my name is ---.  Let's start at the very beginning, shall we?  It's a very good place to start."] and, of course, the mandatory group singalongs.  I felt excruciatingly awkward for the first five minutes and considered hiding under my seat to avoid such shenanigans.  Then I was like "You are here, dude, just roll with it" so I sang along with gusto (relatively speaking at least) and enjoyed it all quite alot.  Except for getting soaked, which I will get to later.

The first place we went to was the site where they shot all the scenes that took place in the front of the von Trapp house.  Or in the back?  I always get mildly confused as to which is the front and which is the back.  Anyway.  In any case this is the lake you see by their house in lots of different scenes, for instance  the one when the children and Maria are all in the boats on the lake, and they capsize as they are waving hello to the Captain; or the one where the children say that they've been to pick strawberries, when really they had gone to the Abbey to see Maria. They shot all the scenes from the other side, though--that is, from right in front of the palace, looking across to where I took this picture.

This shot is a little better because you can sort of see the path along the front of the water, which is where, for instance, the Captain and the Baroness stroll along while they are talking about the parties in Vienna.  And the clearing at the very left of this picture was where the gazebo originally stood (it has been moved since then to another site).

This is the next site we went to...it is where they shot the scene in which Maria gets off the bus with her guitar and carpetbag and sings "I Have Confidence" as she goes down the lane to the von Trapp home.  You can just barely see the line of the yellow fence here, below the trees...

...but here is a better shot, looking down the lane (though  sadly you can't see the yellow fence here; I think it must have started a little way up the road).  And she would have been going down the road behind me; in other words this picture is taken in the opposite direction to how you see the road in the film.  Seriously the more I try to make that sentence make sense, the more confusing it sounds.  Hopefully you will know what I mean!  Haha.

The gazebo, in the place where it has been moved to.  They only used this one for the exterior shots; they built another (and bigger) one back in LA to use for interior scenes.  That is something I hadn't known before the tour--that they only shot exteriors in Austria, with one exception:  the wedding scene in the church.  All the other inside scenes were shot back in the States, on indoor sets.

ALAS, this is as close as we got to the abbey!!  We only got to see it as we drove past, and from quite far away.  It is the one with the red roof.  I was hoping to go for a walk at some point during the visit and see if I could get any closer to it, but it pretty much rained the entire time we were there, so that kind of put the kibosh on that idea.  Oh well.

From Salzburg the tour bus drove for probably about 20 minutes to the nearby town of Mondsee, which is where the church is that they used for the wedding scene.  It would have been a very gorgeous drive I think, but sadly it was very cloudy and the visibility wasn't very good.   This will give you some idea:  

It did clear a tiny bit for a few minutes and I got a couple of nice pictures, this will give an idea of what the countryside was like.  Very beautiful.  I think there were even higher mountains that were hidden by the clouds.

Alice and me in the bus...Alice is apparently overcome by the tour.

One of my favorite things on the tour:  the church in Mondsee where they shot the wedding!  I don't remember it being pink in the movie...maybe they have painted it since.  Or maybe they just adjusted the colour when they shot it.  Anyway it was cool to be there!  You probably can't tell from this picture but I was SOAKED at this point; on the way to Mondsee it had started raining in earnest and by the time we walked from the bus to the church I was pretty much damp right through.  Like, dripping.  And my shoes and soaks were soaked.  BUT.  It was worth it. :)  Still, I was not all that impressed.

This is also in Mondsee:  apparently these are the trees that the children were in when they were all dressed in their clothes that Maria made from the curtains, and the Captain says something like "who are those hooligans" as he is driving by in the car with the Baroness and Uncle Max.  (I forget the exact line.)  

Back in Salzburg!  These are the Mirabell Gardens, where alot of the "Doe, A Deer" song was shot.  We actually went back to the Gardens a couple of days after the tour, when it was not-really-raining-but-merely-threatening-to-rain, in order to get some decent pictures.  The Mirabell Gardens were one of my favorite places to see, mostly because they are so recognizable from the film.  For instance, this:  

I took this standing right at the top of the steps where Maria and the children hop up and down right at the end of the song!!  Yes I was very excited, haha.  

And THIS one is me running through the--what are these things called--an arbor?  Anyway, it is the one that they run through.  You can't really tell from the picture but I really am skipping.  (I do not skip often, let me tell you, but this moment seemed to demand it...)

The fountain (you can see it in the picture taken from the top of the steps, but this is a closer shot) that the children all dance around the edge of!
This next place wasn't on the tour, but since it is somewhat related to the movie I will include it here.  It was actually probably my favorite of all the things we saw in Salzburg.  I had found it in a guidebook so we went to check it out.  It is a cemetery and 'catacombs' connected to St. Peter's Church.  The cemetery part is made up of a pretty normal cemetery (you can't see it in these pictures, but it's off to the left of the first shot) together with the line of arched cubicles that you see running along the bottom of the cliff, here.  

This is a better shot of them.  Each little cubicle is a sort of above-ground crypt for a particular family.  So there are headstones and memorials in each one.  I would have liked these anyway, but they are extra cool because they are the direct inspiration for the cemetery that the Trapp family hides in when they are fleeing the country (when they go to the abbey, and hide in the shadows, and Rolf finds them?  remember?).  They built a replica back in the States but it was modeled on this cemetery.  I loved this place.  

The other cool thing here is something that you can sort of see in the first picture--there are some walls and windows built into the cliff-face above the cemetery.  Those are called the 'catacombs' and you can walk up inside the cliff-face and see the caves inside.  They are not true 'catacombs' in the regular sense of the word (they were never used as regular places of burial, for instance).  They were occupied by hermits in the early middle ages (at least one of the chapels was in existence by 1200, and there is some evidence that there was a Christian community here much much earlier, from at least around 700 or so), and there are chapels built into the caves and also some altars.  It was very dark inside so the pictures didn't turn out awesomely, but I am including them anyway cause it was such a neat place.    This picture is of the Gertrude Chapel, it dates from 1178.  The arches in the walls are where clergy would sit during services held here.  So beautiful!  even though the picture isn't the greatest.  

This is looking the other way.  It is so cool and moving to be in a place where Christians have met continuously for so long--a thousand years, give or take!  (This is a feeling I often get while in Rome and it is one of my favorite things about the city....the sense you get of all the people who have been there and lived and prayed and felt there.  It is crazy.)  And apparently masses are still held occasionally in this chapel!  so it is still in use.  

Sorry this is so jumbled!  I hope it made some sense.   Love you lots!  Becky

p.s.  Joe, the next post will have lots more WWII stuff!!  I promise. :)