January 27th, 2015

Starting this post right in the middle of Super Bowl week.  I listen to a lot of football talk podcasts and this week has been all about deflated footballs.  My take is that many teams do it, and those that don't have in the past or figure they will in the future, so no one calls each other out on it.  I equate it with the use of pine tar on a pitchers cap in order to get a better grip on the ball. The Patriots pulled that 4 man line stunt on the Ravens, and while that was not illegal, it went against the spirit of good sportsmanship and to line-up and play ball without subterfuge.  The Ravens got pissed and tipped the Colts off to call bullshit on the Pats during the Championship game just to stick it to those guys. 

Did the Pats do it?  Duh.  You'd have to be like the mother whose son opened fire at a high school denying that her precious angel was capable of such a heinous act to believe otherwise...or your typical Pats fan. 

Does it make a difference?  Totally...easier to grip and catch and hold onto while running as 5 huge dudes try to rip it off your body.  And Tom Brady has a history of shoulder trouble, so you think that throwing a ball that's 10-20% lighter would help with that?

I pray the NFL buries them after this week is done.  Their proven history of cheating and obvious contempt for anything other than their way demands it.  I'd accept a year suspension for Belichek and/or Brady, or stripping them of their entire 2015 draft.  And I am a Seahawks honk, and their is still a lot of bitterness inside me from the Tuck Rule game, but say that as a football fan first.  Am a big believer in karma and believe that all will be decided by said karma in Arizona on February 1st.

Go Hawks...

We broke our stay up in Vienna with a two night/three day jaunt to Salzburg.  Betty put this on the agenda as she had to see the town where the Sound of Music was filmed.  For all our transits from city to city, we pre-purchased train tickets.  The to and fro from Salzburg and Vienna was 3 hours each way, and the trains were not crowded...allowing us to spread out and read, nap, snack while watching the lovely countryside pass by.

Do you know my friend Walter?  He was from Fraggle Rock...a girl in our dorm in college had him, and my friend Matt and I fell in love with first the girl, and then the muppet.  We ultimately obtained him and shared/competed to keep him...Matt's grandma knitted him that poncho to match his turquoise hair..  I won and he has been my traveling companion ever since.  He was in Argentina with us in '86, which is why Enrique was so happy to see him when we hit Vienna.

While Vienna was a big city that felt small, Salzburg felt like a picture postcard.  Small streets immaculately maintained, compact with everything you could want within a ten minute walk, and framed by the pointiest Alps you could possibly imagine.  The hills were definitely alive.  Rolled in midday and spent that afternoon strolling.  Their Christmas market was a total delight with some of the most awesome looking/tasting pastries on the planet.

For as much as I was disappointed in the Austrian food, they made up for it in the sweet department (still can't figure out how they stay in shape).  I will say that their second most famous treat (after Mozartkugel), is the Sachertorte.  Another one that sounds better on paper than what we tasted as it was always dry. 

We took the funicular up to the medieval Hohensalzburg Castle.  You can't spell funicular without F-U-N.

Hard to capture in pictures how commanding it is over the town.  It basically allowed Salzburg to remain independent throughout history.  Stunning views of the city on one side and the Alps on the other.  Again, amateur snaps cannot do it justice.

Our hotel here was just perfect.  5 minute walk from everything, in an old (1353) building, great little sitting area for decompressing with a glass of something and fast wifi to update Facebook.  Both reasonably priced and serving a fantastic morning breakfast, the Hotel Stadtkrug is highly recommended.

 

We departed from the schnitzel march and had a nice Italian dinner that night...let's stop here and thank the Lord for giving us Italians. 

The next day, our only full one in Salzburg, was dedicated to the Sound of Music.  Had booked the 1/2 day SoM tour with Panorama and we met our guide Peter in front of Mirabel Palace.  I like to talk about super powers, and one of Betty's is to be the first in line.  Like a battering ram, got on the bus first so we had the primo seats.  Not sure if it is a super power rather than a Chinese thing cause I see that pushy thing in a lot of the women here.  Perhaps it is a collective super power, like bees.

Peter had his rap down...at one point, he lost track of what he was saying, said "where was I", then launched into repeating two minutes of what he just said note for note, including the jokes.  And he told us a lot of corny jokes.  The ones we remember...

What does a fish say when he runs into a wall?  Damn
What do you say to a man with no left side?  You're all right
What is yellow and smells like bananas?  Monkey vomit.

He told Carolyn that if a guy was bothering her, she should say, "is that your face, or did your neck throw up?

Pure gold.  He had a running gag with the driver, Boban.  Boban is an alcoholic maniac that hasn't killed anyone in weeks.  It did keep the tour moving for us.  We asked how many of these he gave a week and he said twice a day, 5 times a week.  No wonder he had it memorized just so.

It was really well done...we saw the lake where they fell in, the mountain where she twirled, the Gazebo...

 

Interspersed between sights, he would give us trivia and snippets about the movie.  As the husband of a superfan, one who has the 30th anniversary VHS, the 35th anniversary DVD and the 40 anniversary blu-ray, and who has watched all of the special extras and have even been to Sing-a-Long Sound of Music, it was hard to stump me.  It was interesting to hear how mystified the Austrians are at the Americans fascination with it, and how Salzburgers like to call out all the logistical imperfections.  It would be better if they simply said thank you for keeping our economy strong and provide bigger seats for the American sized ass.

 

Overall, it was a nice day (as you can see, with splendid weather), and the bus took us through some lovely lake country so we got to see a little of the countryside.  Quaint villages nestled into rolling hills around crystal clear lakes with the Alps framing the whole scene, as pretty as you could imagine.  I could tell that Betty enjoyed it.

 

 

 

That is me with a brown paper package tied up with strings hat.  One of the other screwball SoM aficionados had it, so had to give it a spin.

 

The last stop on the tour was at St, Michaels church (the one where the Captain and Maria got married, in Mondsee. 

As you can see, for December 22nd in Central Europe, was a glorious day,,,dry, low 60's, just yummy.  Hit the autobahn back to town, where they dropped us off at the Mirabel Gardens, another place where the Von Trapps sang and danced.

I think it was at this point that I launched into my Sound of Music rant.  Seriously, I think it is an amazing movie...tells an historical story, is full of laughs and snark and while I will not admit to crying, will admit to getting choked up with Captain von Trapp as he realized that his Austria was never going to be the same during Edelweiss.  But there is one part, really one line that always knocks me out of the moment.  During Do-Re-Mi,  as Rodgers and Hammerstein are using simile to help the kids remember the notes, they go....

Doe, a deer, a female deer

Ray, a drop of golden sun
Me, a name I call myself
Far, a long, long way to run
Sew, a needle pulling thread
La, a note to follow Sew

screeeeeeeeeeech....

La, a note that follows Sew?  How effing lazy is that line?  They are pitching a perfect game...Maria, Edelweiss, My Favorite Things, Climb Every Mountain, The Lonely Goatherd, So Long, Farewell, 16 Going on 17...every one of them etched into every brain.  And deservedly so...great music and exquisite lyrics...except for that La.  Like the pitcher with the perfect game...two outs, bottom of the ninth, no runs, no hits, no errors, and the batter taps the ball back to the pitcher...and the pitcher keels over with explosive diarrhea.  It is just like that.  

 

The one sight we didn't see on the tour was the theatre where the SalzburgMusic Festival in the movie took place (when the Von Trapps escaped).  Hadn't really thought about it before, but that was a very bizarre looking stage.  Peter said to us that they give tours of that stage at 2PM and pointed us in that direction.  It was 1:45, so we hoofed it over and saw the tour group going inside.  We jumped in and were taken right into some other theatre.  Apparently, this tour was to showcase the venues where the Salzburg Festival's music shows are currently held.  We all started looking at each other as we were taken through several (very nice) concert halls, with detailed descriptions of each, but wondered if we had hopped into the wrong tour.  This snap was taken about an hour in and you can see the look of horror on Sophie's face when the guy said that we had two more venues to see.

 

The dude giving the tour did it both in German and English, the German portion usually was few minute monologue with the English being 80% shorter.  He was a total Longhair and was very serious about these venues.  At one point, he prefaced a story saying this is one that the kids (pointing at ours) will like.  Oh boy...finally.  It was something about having a show with a real tank and a mishap having to do with it being too big or something.  We couldn't figure out the interesting part in our post tour recap, but we still gave him a chuckle out of courtesy. 

 

At the end, our patience was rewarded as we walked into the Sound of Music theatre, the Felsenreitschule.   Cut into the hillside, it looked exactly as it did in the movie except they put a retractable roof over it for shows in any weather.   Was kind of a spooky place in the movie, probably as they had Nazi's stationed in all the alcoves, and it felt that way in person.  Beautiful, but in a cold and forbidding way. 

We had a couple hours to recharge before our Mozart dinner that we had booked for the night.  As if you didn't know, Mozart was born in Salzburg so we thought it would be a good place to subject the kids to some music.  We felt that as it came with food, that should keep them entertained.  We got a late start (still pissed at Betty for being the slow one that night) and hit the place a few minutes before showtime, and got the table in the corner behind the performers.  Damn it...when I say 6:30 out the door, it's 6:30 out the door.  Not 6:40-efffin-five!.

 

A pretty room, the venue was in the old Church. 

The food was typically Austrian, edible but bland.  The show was a Mozart greatest hits performed by a string quartet with a male tenor and female soprano.  Did you know that a string quartet consists of a cello, two violins and a viola?  Do you know the difference between a violin and a viola?  Did you know there was a difference between a violin and a viola?  I didn't, but do now.  

 

Even though I was miffed about our seating location, and underwhelmed by the food, we had a lot of laughs that night. Started out when I had the realization that Mozart rhymes with fart, and if you can control the pitch and duration of them, you can create Mozfarts.  And with our vantage point behind the performers, we got a little insight into the interpersonal dynamics of the ensemble.  The soprano was a pregnant Korean who was supposed to have some sexual tension with the tenor, but that guy had the total hots for the first violin.  Every time he would come out, he would check out the stringstress, giving her the old up and down, and the second violin would give her the raised eyebrow, he is totally into you look.  The girls were a little creeped out, even the kids.  Suppose it is a good sign that they can recognize a lothario in their early/pre-teens.

 

And the two violinists were such bitches to the viola.  There was a lot of interplay, smiles and nods between the violinists, but the poor viola player was getting the cold shoulder from the other two.  I hate mean girl stuff, especially in my classical music quartets. 

 

Our train outta town the next day was 3pm, and since it is compact, felt we had done the city center to death, so we took the bus to the Untersbergbahn.. 

 

That is a mountain peak about 25 minutes outside of town and there is a cable car from base to summit.  Had been a long time since I've been on one of those...think the last was as a little boy when we visited Palm Springs.  Wonder if they still have that thing?

Yet another gorgeous day.  This peak is on the edge of the Alps, so you look in one direction and you see the rolling valleys and lakes and Salzburg in the distance. 

 

 

 Turn to another and you can see the Foothill towns leading into the mountains.

 

 

  And then you look another way and the peaks of the Alps stretch out as far as the eye can see.  You can pick out the one where Hitler's Eagle's Nest is situated (wanted to tour that but was closed for the season)

I looked up synonyms for spectacular in hopes of finding one that could accurately describe it, and one cannot do it justice.  It was equal parts stunning, dramatic, breath taking and dazzling. 

 

The locals were all commenting/lamenting at the lack of snow so deep into the season, but we felt lucky as we wouldn't have been able to do this if it had been snowed out.  There was still a layer of ice and snow at the summit, and with my balky knees, was very treacherous in hiking up to the peak.  The kids stayed with me saying they would help out, but as soon as they saw a trail with loose snow for snowballs, they vanished.  Going up isn't bad, but coming down any incline is a struggle, and combine that with a  sheet of ice and it's just a matter of time before I wipe out.  Without my aids, was going slow and did go down on my butt a couple times.  A lovely elderly Russian couple that were also having a hard time came up and we all grabbed onto each other to make it down.  Had to yell at the kids, and the adults, later at how pissed I was that not only did my own friends and family desert me, but I had to be helped out by gawdamn Russians! Horrible horrible Russians.  Later found out that they were Ukrainians, so life made a lot more sense afterwards.

 

Before we leave Austria, have to mention beverages.  First, learned that lemony soda drinks are super trendy in Austria these days, and the most popular is the Almdudler.

It was OK, and those two canoodling on the can are precious, but the name is what we loved.  A few days later, poor Sophie stepped into a fresh pile of dog crap with her deep treaded snow boots.  Nasty...we decided that the German name for dog crap on the street was probably Almdudler, so for the rest of the trip, whenever someone spotted some on the street, the cry of Almdudler was heard warning the others.

 

Secondly, the Austrians are extremely proud of the fact that Red Bull is an Austrian creation.  Their headquarters is just outside Salzburg (Peter pointed it out on our tour) and it seemed that every person we spoke to worked in how great Red Bull is.  They own sports teams, is the biggest export, etc.  Caffinaeted chemicals and total shit if you ask me, but I guess you got to support your own (like Pats fans defending Tom Shady and Belicheat).  So at the end of our Austrian stay, in ranking the most famous things Austrian, the top 5 in no particular order are:  Red Bull, Mozart, Sissi, The Sound of Music, and Hitler.   

 

Am feeling a little better about these posts.  It was hard to get started and was procrastinating a lot, but am feeling like I'm on a roll...and just in time, cause our next stop was Budapest and that place was my favorite on this trip, and is arguably (with myself) the best city I've ever seen.  Looking forward to reliving that next time.

 

 

 

January 26th, 2015

It's been a couple months, but whatever was going on with posting pix, it seems to have resolved itself, so here we go.  Must say that I'm feeling rusty and have procrastinated sitting down for a couple days.  Am starting to write this a few hours after the huge Seahawk comeback against the Packers.  I had already gone through the 5 stages of grief and then they were brought back from the dead.  At one point in the 4th quarter, I looked up how many days it was till pitchers and catchers report (34 at the time).  As good an ending as any fan could possibly want...it's hard to be impartial of course, but as good an ending as there ever was.

 

Have a lot built up, but must write up our super fabulous trip to Central Europe.  Our trip started with a flight to Vienna on Air Emirates with a 3 hour layover in Dubai.  We did see the Burj Khalifa (tallest building in the world) out the window. 

 

Air Emirates was a very nice airline, but the transit was pleasantly uneventful.  They post the flight plan on the monitors in the seats, and seeing that we were going away from a direct path and through Iran and Turkey, and not over Iraq and Syria, made me feel more at ease.

 

We hit Vienna midday and were picked up by our hotel (Pension Neuer Markt).  Located 50 yards from St Stephen's Church, could not imagine a better location.  Small, family owned, and unassuming.  Perfect spot for us and highly recommend. 

 

In college in 1986, I went on a Semester abroad to Buenos Aires.  Some of my dearest friends to this day were in our group or we met there...and even met a girl named Betty Pien that I still hang around with.  We all stayed with families, and mine was arguably the best of our group of 30...the Guitarts.  Pepe and Elsa and their three kids, Gato, Maria Jose and Enrique.  Enrique and I were the same age and he was the one that convinced his parents to take in a student after seeing it on the bulletin board at the Universidad Catolica.  Loving and fun people and I consider them all family members to this day.  Will make a note to reminisce on those days in a future post, but the reason I mention it now is that Enrique now lives in Vienna and I was so excited to see him as I haven't for 28 years. 

 

We made plans for Enrique to come by the hotel the day we arrived...this is the moment when he did.

 

I so love that guy.  As genuine a person as they make.  As I was leaving Argentina, he accepted a job as a gofer on a cruise ship, which started his journey in the world.  He ended up in Vienna 25 years ago, not knowing any German and started digging ditches.  He now has an Austrian wife (Inez) and 13 year old daughter (Zoe) and works for a company that arranges art exhibitions.  We went to his charming apartment just outside of the historical zone for dinner and a game of "Do You Remember?".  His wife is a journalist, and while we only were with her a few hours, could tell she was a genius...they had a 12 foot high wall crammed full of books and could tell that she has read them all.  They told us that their daughter goes to a high school that teaches hotel management.  We were very curious about that...they have high schools there that teach practical knowledge, and she lobbied to attend this one.  It is not part of the regular school program, and is considered private school, but they only pay US$1200 per year for it.  They learn the regular stuff, but in ways that are practical in the hospitality industry.  Accounting, English, etc.  She has recently been working in kitchens to learn how those work.  Such an amazing way to view education and at such an early age. 

Inez was lamenting the education system in Austria...not for its quality, but rather that many of the universities are full of German's.  Austrian schooling is free, not only for Austrians, but for anyone in the EU, and the German application process is very stringent and exclusive, so a large number come to Austria to get their secondary education.  I was somehow expecting Austrians to be exactly like Germans, probably as they speak the same language, and in some ways, they are very similar, but it was obvious from day one that while there is not outright hostility towards them, they view them as a very annoying big brother.  Hard for me to compare as I've never been to Germany, but the Austrians we met present themselves as more relaxed and less mass murder-y.  My overall impression was that they were certainly not the cuddliest of people we've met, but were clean and efficient and perfectly nice when engaged.

Anyway, I had a great dinner that night...I think, we were pretty spent and jet lagged and I only took that one picture above.  Oh yeah, and this one...

Luckily, Enrique and Inez planned on coming out with us the next day to walk around Vienna.  Before they came, our hotel had a deal where they would take us by car out to the horse stables where the horse drawn carriages are kept overnight and then give us a ride into town.  Very zen. 



  

Won't do a minute by minute timeline and will group the highlights.  As far as buildings, Vienna (the old part within the Ringstrasse) is compact and extremely clean.  The architechture is mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries, when the Hapsburgs ruled much of Europe and had money to burn.  The heart of Vienna centers around St Stephen's Church...very old and an amalgam of various styles as it was constructed over many centuries.

Should mention at this point that along with us on the trip was our friend Ann-Marie and her daughter Sophie.  Avid readers of this space will recognize them from our trip to Italy over the 2012-2013 winter break.  And that redhead on the left is Enrique's wife Inez...here is a better snap of her.

We visited and enjoyed both the Hapsburg Winter Palace and Upper Belvedere (a part of their Summer Palace).  The Summer Palace is an art museum and houses a bunch of Gustav's Klimt's finest.  Was not a huge fan of what I knew of his (like his most famous work, The Kiss), but over the course of our stay in Vienna, saw a lot of his work around town and became impressed with his range and skill. 

The Hofburg Palace and grounds dominates the center of Vienna and was the center of the Hapsburg Empire, but is now a series of museums. 

Hitler gave his famous Anschluss speech, announcing the "unification" of Germany and Austria in 1938 from there.  We decided to all visit the Treasuries Museum, which houses the relics of the empire.  A lot of crowns and jewelry and such...very interesting.  I gravitated towards the unusual.  Here is a nail that is said to have been one used to crucify Christ.

And this artifact contains pieces of the cross.

The girls then wanted to see the Sissi Museum.  Sissi, Empress Elizabeth of Austria, seems to be the best Austrian ever.  Will let you read her history, but everywhere we went, in Austria, Hungary and Czech Republic, the people all spoke reverently of her benevolence.  The kids and I predicted that the museum was going to be a bunch of dresses, so we took a break to relax in the Cafe Society.

Has read about the historic coffee houses and how they were the center of Viennese social life.  Renowned for their presentation of coffee and the churlish waiters, cafes were dotted all over the city.  Some of the more famous ones had histories of being places where politicians or musicians or thinkers would hang and discuss ideas...Freud probably being the most famous of these intellectuals.  The first place we went with Enrique was to one of these so we could get some caffeine in us.  It was his personal favorite as they had a torte that he highly recommended.  As we wanted to make this first visit a quicky, he tried to get the waiters attention by saying "We know what we want to order.".  The waiters reply..."Everyone knows what they want to order." and walked away. 

While the girls went to see Sissi, I took my kids to the café that I most wanted to see...Cafe Central.  Many famous patrons enjoyed a coffee here, and it is said that in 1913 alone, Freud, Tito, Trotsky, Lenin and Hitler all visited here.  Described as the most opulent, it did not disappoint. 

I had a gritty Turkish coffee and the kids got soup.  A lovely respite from touring around. 

Since I mentioned food, think it is time to review Austrian cuisine.

Can do it in two words...bow-ring.  The soups we had at the Café and other places were fine, but bland.  Enough to warm you up and provide some nutrients, but that's as far as I'd go in raving about them.  I love weiner schnitzel...my first one was in Australia in high school.  During lunch, we would go over to the local Hotel (which are bars in Australia) for a pint and counter tea (lunch), and I would always get the weiner schnitzel.  I loved that dish...it probably wasn't very good, but as it was my first and have always compared future schnitzels to that.  Prior to this trip, the best one I ever tasted was the Chicken Schnitzel in the Jewish Ghetto in Rome on Christmas day 2012.  I knew that Vienna was supposed to be ground zero for the worlds best.  Researched on-line...schnitzel was brought back by the Hapsburgs from Italy (natch), but they are tout theirs as the best.  Asked my Viennese friends and previous travelers where to get the best stuff as I planned to eat my weight in it.  And I definitely ttried...my notes say we had it 4 different places.  The best?  I would have gladly taken that crappy Australian version over any we tried in Vienna.  I won't name names (but will off line if you ever go), but all the ones we had were dry and tasteless.  The only redeeming factor if you can call it that, was probably their size, always larger than the large plate they were served on.  And did they ever offer little Carolyn a 1/2 order?  Nope.  And the schnitzel was always served with a side of mayonnaise laced boiled potatoes.  Sometime with garlic, but still...just another heavy starch.  Can I substitute a salad for those?  That was the first and only time I saw an Austrian laugh. And this is what they seemed to serve in every "Austrian" restaurant.  Variations on fried meat and potatoes.  We were starved one night, so Paul and I decided to get a side of sausage with our schnitzel...this is what we got.

And it wasn't even as tasty as it looked.  They did have all the Asian and European cuisines in town, but as we were here, we kept trying the local stuff, and banging our heads against the schnitzel wall.   By the end of our 6 days there, we were all craving anything green. 

That said, I did find one thing that flipped my switch, and that was curry wurst. 

Basically, a chopped up hot dog with curry powder on it.  Not haute cuisine, and the sausage wasn't even that good, but this thing was magical.

To be fair, the pastries in Austria were pretty damned great, but think I will save that recap for the Salzburg entry.

A thing they do in a lot of European cities in December are Christmas Markets.  We saw a bunch and they were all great.  Had read that Vienna and Salzburg were in the top 10 best in Europe and we found them great.   Went to a couple in Vienna...at the Shonnbrun Palace and in front of the Rathaus.  Christmas Markets are a combination of stalls selling gift items, food and hot alcoholoic beverages.  The gifts are supposed to all be local handicrafts and over the course of our trip, would say that is true (did not see a Made in China sticker anywhere)  While there were a lot of similar items (like ornaments and candles), rarely saw the same thing twice.

The food was the Austrian take on festival fare, and as you would guess from the above, not exceptional.  What was omnipresent at the Markets, and on the streets everywhere, was the Gluhwine .  Known as mulled wine in English speaking countries, the markets were a draw for everyone to come out and get loaded on the stuff.  Not American binge and barf style, but European respectful alcoholism that has the potential to turn into soccer riot mob rule with proper motivation. 

These markets are really pretty, especially at night, and are great places to get warmed up and kill some time...and with the crowd lubed up, a lot of fun.

In addition to the Christmas Markets, there were other pop up fun things to do for the locals around town.  In the open spaces amongst the Museum quarter, they has set up a curling court (field, lane?).  Loads of laughs.

And across the way, they had set up a race/obstacle course for kids to play with remote control cars.  As we were watching, we kept seeing one car going the wrong direction, crashing into walls/other cars, just creating mayhem.  So cliché that it was the Asian kind that was controlling it with his dad laughing maniacally behind him.

As we were walking around with Enrique, he told us of a public ice rink that was behind a building we were near.  It is important to make sure to budget in time for things that the kids like to do so it is not all museums and opera houses, so we decided to take them there one afternoon before dinner. 

I am the map guy...and am damn good at it,  Rarely don't know where I am and even rarer that I get us lost.  As we had to cross town to get to the rink, and only had a general idea where it was, it was a bit tricky to find but felt confident we were heading in the right direction as we were walking.  I figured it out much later, but Betty and Ann-Marie would take turns questioning where we were going.  At every crucial juncture for two weeks, as I pointed in one direction, they would point in the other and say "Isn't it that way?" or "Are you sure you know where you are going?".  I initially thought they might know something so would double check (triple really as I plan ahead.), but came to realize that they never looked at a map, have shitty senses of direction and were far too happy to see me lose my mind every time so concluded they were doing it to get even at me for the (admittedly) annoying things that I do.  I started to hang back at some junctures and let them walk ahead to see what they would do, and more often than not, they would go about 50 yards in the wrong direction without a care in the world, and then look back to see me waiting for them.  Ha.

Of course, we turned a corner in a desolated corner of town and there was the rink.  Never learned to skate,and bad wheels prevented me from considering going out there, but they all seemed to have a good time and it was a great scene in general. 

 

We had a few hours one afternoon, so decided to pop into the large art museum in the Ringstrasse, the Albertina (also connected to the Hofburg complex).  One of those that reportedly holds 60,000 pieces.  We scared the kids with that fact, but were most interested in seeing their temporary exhibitions. They had a Miro retrospective and another tracing Expressionism from Monet to Picasso.  I like Miro and surrealism, and what they had collected was a fantastic representation of his work, but I came away most impressed by the eras he lived and worked, he was 100 when he died, but created work from 1914 and into the 1980's, all the while living in and around all the worst parts of what the world had to offer. 

Was much happier in the Monet to Picasso exhibit as I love that style best and there were a small, but great selection of the masters.  No pictures allowed naturally, but across the hall was another pop art exhibit, featuring some Warhols and others from that "school".  Probably no pictures allowed there either, but still

Think this was my favorite snap of the trip.  Didn't really notice how awesome it was till I saw it large on the computer so did not get the name of the piece.  It is a glass rectangle, but in the picture you can see me/the gallery in the reflection.

I'm so ugly, I could be a modern art masterpiece.

Vienna is also a city of music and all the 'greats' came there to show off their wares.  Vivaldi, Schubert, Strauss, etc...but you can't swing a dead cat without hitting something that isn't Mozart related.  Over the next few posts, you'll get the gist, but his spirit, image and music are omnipresent.  In every store, they sell Mozartkugel, which is pistachio marzipan, surrounded by nougat and dipped in dark chocolate.  Sounds delicious but we were not bowled over.  As we were in the city, took tours of the Vienna Opera House and Burg Theatre.  Both took a licking in WWII, experiencing major damage due to fires created by lone bombs, but they tried to reconstruct them to their Hapsburgian glory and were majestic. 

Would have loved to sit in the Royal Box at the Opera House

The Burg Theatre was billed in the guidebook as the "most prestigious stage in the German speaking world".  How do they come up with things like that?  The guides on the tour were at a loss for explaining that quote. 

The theatres in Europe are all so cool.  Great sight lines and acoustics, and takes you back in time.  Wish I liked classical, opera, theatre more just so I could go to them, but my venue of choice is the beer stained, overflowing toilet, rock and roll clubs. 

The Burg Theatre tour was dominated by our fascination with the Harajuku girl on it.  Traveling along with her frumpy mom, she had long 3D painted nails, eyelashes at least a centimeter long, those big cartoon eye contact lenses, and a pink hoop skirt dress with all the trimmings.  Totally smitten.

Overall, really liked Vienna.  Clean as advertised.  The pride that they have in their water, its taste and cleanliness, was palpable.  We were told to always ask for tap water at meals and it was suggested that we could drink out of the toilet, which became a running joke...tap or toilet?  Extremely efficient public transportation with nodes for subway, trams and buses everywhere.  The population was attractive...amazed with the heavy and starchy food that they weren't all enormous, and their attire was conservative but very hip.  I did not get a feel that they had a certain look, and other than the trendiness of the clothes, thought that in looking at the people, that we could be at any lily-white private school PTA meeting in the States. 

The things to see there were all well maintained, historically interesting and totally convenient.  I can see why it is always in the top 3 cities of best places to live.  Other that the total disappointment in the food, I would have liked a more cuddlier spirit from the natives, but they were certainly not rude, just on the chillier end of the spectrum.  Thumbnail review...thumbs up with reservations noted.    

Our train to Salzburg was on Monday morning.  The Seahawk game was in the middle of the night on Sunday/Monday, so watched the first half live on the computer.  As we had some time and free wifi at the train station, took the opportunity to watch the condensed version of the second half...a 35-6 drubbing of the Cardinals.

Go Hawks...

Week of November 21st, 2014

Hiya,


As mentioned last week, had problems uploading photos.  Just spent far too much time trying to rectify that problem and have not been able to figure it out.  I have so many local election pix and comments to share that it's killing me.


Next week, we are heading out of town (Malaysia) for Thanksgiving and will definitely not post.


Come back in December to see if this thing works itself out. 

Week of November 14th, 2014

Hey there.




Bunch of random thoughts this week, and I'll try to stay off of my political soapbox.




Some real progress is being made by the local government and I feel partially responsible.  First, a new law is now on the books and being enforced regarding bicycles.  All bikes are now required to sport front and back lights...not just reflectors.  Still no requirement that riders wear helmets, but it's progress.  What still seems incredibly stupid is that that the scooter riders, who are required to wear helmets, are still allowed to have their children passengers ride without them.  I don't know, but would have to think that the law is for helmets to be worn by all passengers, but the sheer number of kids, and I'm talking toddlers, out there without them means that this law is not being enforced.  Do these parents and police have any sense of shame?




The big news is that they have taken up my suggestion to start using their precious traffic cams to start ticketing buttholes that run red lights.  Going through intersections 2, 3, sometimes 5 seconds after the light turned red was epidemic.  I had been noticing that cars were inexplicably stopping when the light turned red recently when someone told me they started giving tickets for this infraction.  Savvy scofflaws (most notably the taxis) are figuring out where these ticketing cameras are and will still blow through those, but again...progress.  And you're welcome.


A friend related a story about these cameras that I found both positive and disconcerting.  She told me that a few days ago, she lost one of her favorite and expensive earrings, and determined that it must have fallen off in a cab ride home.  All the cabs look alike and she had no idea the number.  She went to her local cop shop and they accessed the network of these cams.  Estimating the time she got home, they pulled up one from her street and saw her getting out of the cab, but the angle was not good enough to discern the license plate.  As they backtracked her route over the course of three hours and a dozen or so feeds from her 2 mile journey, they ultimately found the right one and the company ended up having it in their lost and found.  Amazing that they would devote that much time to this effort, and happy for her reuniting with her favorite piece of jewelry, but a bit disconcerting that a person is constantly being filmed.  Does help explain the low levels of street crime.

Was asked the other day if I could help out with a local orphanage from time to time and got into discussing the demographics of the kids at it.  I was surprised there were so many orphans here as they feel like a society that is Western in their low birth rate and wouldn't have a glut of unwanted kids.  A quick check of world birth rates proved that assumption, with Taiwan ranking just ahead of Japan with the fifth lowest rate in the world.  Naively, I did not consider that the children would be non-Taiwanese.  Legal foreign nationals (like us) totaled 640,000 in 2012 (2.7% of the total island population of 23 million), with the three primary origins of those being Indonesian (41%), Vietnamese (23%) and Filipino (19%).  Found it interesting that just six years earlier, the largest foreign population was Thai at 27%..  The orphanage lady said that all of her children were not Chinese, but were exclusively from these other populations.  Most of them were children on non-legal foreign nationals that were caught and returned to their home countries.  It was not clear whether they were left here by parent choice or that the parents were deported without being able to take their children.  I said that I found it strange that with the demand for adoption in many countries, that they are not able to find homes for some of these kids, but was told that they are unable to be adopted due to their illegal status and that their only current prospect is to remain in these orphanages until they are old enough to be deported.  My heart sunk for them...I will be reaching out to see what I can do to help and hopefully elaborate more positive news, but simply a tragic tale.




Local government elections, or as the locals call them, erections, are coming up
in a couple of weeks, and campaign signs are omnipresent around town.  Have a collage of hilarious ones to share, but this site is not allowing photo uploads today, so will have to wait till next time.  Stay tuned for my election, pardon me, erection night coverage.


As for last weeks US midterms, I have watched every election closely since 1976 and some confound more than others.  Have ranted and raved my reaction to them out of my system and won't bore you with any of that today, but I will direct you to this 

analysis that gave me hope.   If you have 3 minutes, would love for you to read it and tell me if you find any flaws in his rationale.


Finally, have you ever met this guy?  Was at the November Beefsteak and Burgundy lunch and we had a couple of prospective new members come as guests.  One of them (let's call him Henry as that was his name), another member and I were talking during the welcome wine and canapé portion of the lunch.  We were describing the club and some of the stuff that goes on and we say that before we sit down for lunch, we make a toast to the Queen (it is an Australian club in origin), and Henry, who has been nearly mute for the entire conversation says, "Good, just as long as we don't have to toast that scumbag Obama."  By using such a polarizing statement as your opening salvo, it tells me all I need to know about you.  I was not proven wrong that my immediate assessment of him as being a shallow moron as I got to listen to him in action over the next couple of hours.  Look, nuance might not be my forte in a lot of things, but regarding politics, a complete lack of it is dangerous and counterproductive.

Week of November 7th, 2014

Hey there.  Feel it fair to comment on how awesome the weather has been lately. 

That is just beautiful.  Nice and warm during the day, a little rain here and there, and cool, but not cold at night.  I do a lot of bitching with the heat, and deservedly so, but knowing we get this nice stretch helps get through some very miserable days.  And 101 can start creating its own weather.

Three tips from the 'Do Yourself a Favor" file for you this week.  First, go buy a digital photo frame.  I love old pictures and having a bunch of them around in frames is awesome, however, with the near absence of any real prints these days, with everything on your phone or computer, having one of these scrolling through your life is indispensible.  Mine has about 400 shots spanning the digital age and as I'm walking by it, a shot or two of some person, place or thing gets my attention and brings back a happy memory.  And not only are they really cheap, but it is easy to mix in new ones.

Next up, if you do even a little bit of cooking, look into a Chinese knife.  I've been teaching myself to cook the last couple of years and regret never watching mom and learning from her.  Need to make a concerted effort in the next year or so to teach the kids some basics as you can read a recipe, but navigating the kitchen properly is not intuitive.  In an effort to learn more, I take a cooking class when I can find them, but what I really need is a basics of kitchen class.  The local Community Center offered a "How to use a knife" class last week and I learned a ton.  Most importantly, I was holding the damn thing wrong and thank my guardian angel for allowing me to keep all parts of my 10 fingers.  In addition to helpful tips on how to chop all variety of meat and vegetables, was introduced to the Chinese knife.

  It looks like a cleaver but is more delicate and is used just like a chef's knife.  While it cuts delicate veggies just the same, its lager surface area helps with fine chopping as you can feel it along your fingers better and longer when bringing it up so you don't bring it back down and slice a piece off.  And once your stuff is chopped up, you can scoop a lot more up with it to transfer into the pan or bowl.  It also makes it easier to smash garlic or press it into a paste, and you can use the butt end close to the handle to scoop out seeds from chili or bell peppers.  Maybe you all know about these things, but it was the first time I'd ever seen one and don't envision ever using a regular chef's knife again.

For the third tip this week, have been sprinkling in a term into my rotation that seems to have a readily apparent positive response to the person I'm talking to.  That term is "I love that about you".  Pretty easy to work it in...if someone does something nice for you or just society in general, throw it out there.  Don't use it too much, and only once in a long time with each person, but when you do, watch the person's face light up...happens every time.  It's magic.

Something that has been on my mind lately has been space.  Not the Final Frontier kind (although Rosetta and New Horizons and everything that mankind does outside of our plant is supremely cool and completely fascinates...and am lining up early to check out Interstellar ), but what we do with our personal space and how being aware of it is one of the three pillars of being a decent human and ultimately will determine if we survive as a species.   When you are out in the world this next week, think about how you are using your space and watch how others use of theirs affects everything around them.  How about the morons that need to swing left before making a right turn, like they are driving some unwieldy big rig.  One of my least favorite people is the one that sees that you are looking like you are going to be in a tie to hit the same spot, so they speed up to get in front of you then proceed to slow down or stop.  This happened to me at the airport a couple weeks ago, when the family with too many suitcases rushed in the doors and froze in front of the departure information board...their look of wonder at the changing screen reminded me of Dorothy when she stepped from B&W Kansas into the Technicolor of Oz.

I do it subconsciously but sometimes realize that I am navigating life as if I were a speedboat.  I will go as fast as possible when in open water, but when cruising into harbor, will go at a speed to create as little wake as possible. 

What got me onto this train of thought was the Catcalling video that went viral a couple weeks ago but is still being discussed a couple weeks later (unusual in our 24 hour news cycle).  This one seemed like a no brainer...a call out against misogyny in hopes of raising awareness that this shit is unwanted by many at best, and can be life shattering if taken to its ugly extreme.  What has nearly made my head explode is the backlash against it from everywhere.  From the usual troglodyte dude talking heads on Fox (and their bubble headed bleach blonde co-anchors), to people I know (and used to respect) on social media.  More women than not  said that she was a bee-atch and that they like getting catcalled.  That it makes them feel good about their appearance.  Shallow?  Do those women realize that some men would catcall just about any woman?  One even said that this is how some people find their partners.  I'd wait the full year before I buy that wedding present.   A couple of international types argue that what women in the US experience is nothing like what they get in other countries.  We want to compare ourselves to them?  Sure, while I contemplate how great the roads would be without women driving, a la Saudi Arabia, realize that probably isn't cool. 

A statistic that I see a lot is that 1 in 3 women will be sexually abused or assaulted during their lifetime.  That feels a bit high to me, but even if you say consertaively that it is 1 in 10, that is a horrificly high number.  A lot of the reaction is that saying simply benign comments like "hello beautiful" are non-threatening, but the fact that some women do should be enough to stop it.  How do you know that the person being catcalled isn't having a horrifically bad day or experienced some terrible episode in their past.  And if was just the "you look pretty" stuff, you might be able to persuade me that I'm overreacting.  Watch the video and see the parts where the dude is following alongside the girl for 5 minutes.  One friend said to me this video is worthless because it was edited that way, and I asked him if he believes that that kind of thing doesn't take place.  Got the 'yeah, but still' reply back.  That guy in the video should be locked up.  When I think about the women in my life having to deal with that complete lack of respect and fear for them when they walk alone, and that so many people think that is OK and that women are looking for it (especially from horribly insecure women that are), it makes me shake in anger.  Tell me a woman you love that you don't worry about when she is out walking alone, especially at night.  Actually, if you can do that, please don't tell me and would prefer that you don't enter my space at all.  

I though I was supposed to be less of a bleeding heart as I got older, but find I am becoming more of one. 

Finally, have been seeing a few 20 year retrospectives on the OJ trial.  Seems incredible that he got off.  He was sooooo guilty.  And thank karma that he is in prison and hope he is suffering.

Week of October 31st, 2014

Hey...didn't get my act together for a proper post this week.   Until next Friday, here is a photo of yours truly on October 31st.  The day before Movembeard begins.