To Vienna (Austria)

When I told people that I was taking a trip to Vienna, no one seemed very impressed, as they assumed I was going to the town down the road named Vienna to buy some groceries.   But the real VIENNA--what a delightful European city.  It was the home of the Habsburgs; the capital of the Austrian Empire; the center of the musical world.  The mid-size capital of a politically neutral county, I found Vienna full of charm and energy.  The cruise director of my recent journey was a young Austrian, enthusiastic, optimistic, and knowledgeable.

Vienna was smaller and quieter when my family first visited over 40 years ago during our European summer.  While traffic is more congested now (they, like the rest of the world, are doing major road repairs), there is still a relaxed atmosphere as people linger at the sidewalk cafes and famous coffee houses over Sachertortes (wonderful chocolate cake) and conversation.  Jenny and I enjoyed a decadent piece at the famous Demel Cafe. Almost any place you pick in Vienna has someone famous who ate, slept, studied, or visited there.  The Viennese became renown for their coffee and coffee houses after the Ottoman Turks were defeated in the  Battle of Vienna (Wien) in  1683 and fled, leaving their Turkish coffee beans and pots behind.  The Black Plague a few years earlier (1679) had  left behind a reduced population and, in the central square, a very Baroque ( and partly grotesque) statue built in gratitude for their salvation.

Like most of Europe, the Romans settled and then a series of "barbarians" took it over.   The Babenbergs started ruling in1156 and enjoyed prosperity during the era of the Crusades, as the town was at the crossroads.  One of the most distinctive features of Vienna, the inner Ringstrasse (Ring Road), was initially built as a ring of fortifications paid for by the English ransom for Richard the Lionheart who had offended their ruler's honor in the Crusades and was then captured when trying to sneak home via their land.

The Habsburgs, who ruled from 1246-1918, eventually turned the Ringstrasse into a wide avenue connecting fashionable homes, the massive Opera House, the Parliament, the Town Hall, and the Hofburg Palace.  Even today, the city's districts move out in concentric circles from the inner ring.

Vienna is a city of unique buildings, peaceful parks, many museums (120), and beautiful churches that are often filled with heavenly music.  St. Stephen's cathedral (Stephansdom) has been considered the heart of Vienna for eight centuries, though it has sustained damage from the wars and sieges, including  at the end of World War II by SS commandos.  Repaired, the cathedral now stands opposite the modern Haas Haus which captures its reflection in the glass windows.  Across the street from another side of the cathedral, there are photos showing what remained of the cathedral after the bombings. I was intrigued by the reflections of the rebuilt church in the photos of its destruction.

Vienna comfortably combines a wide range of architecture--gothic, baroque, neo-classic, art nouveau, and modern.  After a morning walking tour in 2006, Jenny and I stayed in town to wander the Ringstraase and surroundings (getting mildly displaced at times) from the University area to the Kursalon in Stadtpark for a concert that evening.  I remember being tired, but didn't realize how far we had walked until I later took that journey by bus.  Yet, how could I have been to Vienna three times and still missed the Chocolate Museum? Sounds like another trip to plan.  And more to tell in the next post.

Click link for slideshow: 
Vienna, Austria
 Music: Mozart, Eine Kleine Nacht Musik
More Information:www.vienna.info
http://www.danube-river.com/

On the Blue (?) Danube

While no one seems to care about the color of most big rivers, everyone knows that the Danube is supposed to be blue.  Apparently, this expectation even pre-dates Johann Strauss Jr.'s popular waltz.  That's a high standard for Europe's second longest river (Russia's Volga is longer) that winds its way from its source in the Black Forest of Bavarian Germany through 10 countries before it spreads across the wildlife preserve of the Danube Delta into the Black Sea. (Hum--Black Forest to Black Sea--maybe it should be black??) The Danube has been the highway of civilization, commerce, and warfare for over two thousand years.   These days it is mostly traveled by tourist riverboats and industrial barges.

I have now traveled most of the navigable river (greeted here by curious Serbian children at Donji Milanovac who wanted to practice English).  In 2006, my niece and I enjoyed a Uniworld riverboat cruise of the Upper Danube (Budapest to Regensburg, Germany, and then joined the Main-Danube Canal to Nuremberg and overland to Prague).  This summer, I headed the other direction from Vienna, Austria, to Giurgiu, Romania. (We went to the Black Sea at Varna, Bulgaria, by bus, as the swampy Delta is hard to navigate.)  As I have never promised that my posts would be timely or sequential, I will combine photos and impressions from both trips for the Danube, Vienna, and Budapest, but will then tell of the recent trip before returning to sights in Austria, Germany, and the Czech Republic from my prior journey.

On the German stretch, the "Donau"(female noun) is a relatively small river that can become so shallow in a dry summer that boats must sometimes off-load passengers or cargo to make it to the upper reaches.  On my 2006 cruise, we were told that, at times, we were just a few feet off the bottom of the river.  The river is controlled by a seemingly endless number of locks through Germany and Austria, but with only 4 locks after Budapest.  Yet, spring rains can still bring damaging floods, and the river can get too high so that boats cannot go under the bridges.

From quaint Bavarian towns, the Danube flows through the lush Wachau Valley in Austria with its vineyards and apricot trees to the lively capital, Vienna (photo).  Vienna dealt with the issue of the Danube's suitability/ purity for swimming by installing a swimming pool in one of its branches. In most other countries, folk just dive into the polluted waters (although they are becoming cleaner through EU standards).  The Danube next runs though Slovakia's charming capital, Bratislava, as it moves toward the almost mystic Danube Bend where the Hungarian town of Esztergom guards the way to  Budapest with its lace-like Parliament.

Turning down through Hungary's quiet countryside,  I was startled to arrive at the bombed buildings from the Balkan Wars in Vukavar, Croatia. Yet, all is now peaceful as the river continues through Serbia's capital, Belgrade, and down through the beautiful countryside of southern Serbia.

The Iron Gates, where the Danube flows through the gorges  between Romania's Carpathian mountains and the Serbian Balkans, was the most difficult navigational challenge of the Danube until

a giant dam/lock was constructed in 1972.  While the dam tamed the wild whirlpools in this narrow gorge, it did not reduce the magnificence of this part of the Danube.  It looked as if we were headed into a kingdom of Tolkien's Middle Earth whose mountain crags held secrets known of old. (This will have a post of its own.)  There one can see  Ceausescu's unfinished bridge to nowhere.   Romania's dictator wanted to dump uranium waste on an island in the middle of the river, but was thwarted by the Yugoslavians.

Then, taking its place  as the border between Romania and Bulgaria, the wide river lazily meanders past fishermen on the shore, vacationing families, industrial plants, and farmlands.  If you plan to travel the Danube, take some insect repellent and bug bite relief (for those that aren't repelled).   I think Dracula and his vampire gang have morphed themselves into some very nasty mosquitoes that delight in sucking the blood of unsuspecting victims.

But you are still wondering, "Is the Danube blue?"  I saw muddy brown, rainy grey, shimmering silver, gleaming gold, and pollen green. Yet, often at twilight, in those magical moments of transforming day to night, I caught her slyly turning herself blue for those who were watching.  So, yes, for those with an artist's eye and  a poet's heart, the Danube is blue (sometimes).  Hope you enjoy your slideshow "cruise."

Click link for slideshow:
The Blue Danube


Music:  Johann Strauss, Jr., Blue Danube Waltz, Most Famous Waltzes


More information: http://www.danube-river.com/

Krakow, Poland: Searching for a Shake

This trip seemed like it would never come; then that it would never end; and now I'm procrastinating packing for one last post before I head home tomorrow from Poland.  I can't wrap my head around all I've seen and learned--so insights and pictures will have to come later.

I've loved Krakow.  I visited Auschweitz-Birkenau yesterday--wouldn't try to describe that yet--but today I had a great day in the old town. They were having a pierogi festival in one of the squares , so I filled up at lunch on these wonderful Polish dumplings filled with minced meats and cheeses while listening to local performers (future post).

I have learned in previous travels that McDonalds reliably has the best bathrooms abroad, so later  I headed for one in the Old Town.   However, here you had to have a receipt to use their bathrooms.  Without speaking Polish, I was able to order a raspberry shake to cool me off (more people speak English and they don't use cyrillic).  However, the concept of "shake" seems to have gotten lost in translation.  In the cup was a bottom layer of raspberry syrup with cold milk poured in and about 8 ice cubes.  If I stirred it a lot, the syrup and milk mixed and thickened a little, but there were still these big ice cubes in the way.  I've decided I definitely like  my milkshakes to be "shaken, not stirred."  

I've just ended my last night in Eastern Europe, celebrating Chopin's 200th birthday with a magnificent Chopin piano concert in a small historic salon.  My soul is filled.  Time to pack.

Failing at McDonalds or Why One Needs to Learn Ukrainian

I fully intended to learn some Ukrainian.  It’s not a regular sort of language to learn and though most here still know Russian (which I learned and and forgot decades ago), they prefer their national language in Kyiv (as they spell Kiev).  Several months before the trip I bought a Learn Ukrainian book/CD combo, but it was too fast and confusing.  So just before the trip I found  an audio program that I intended to listen to on the plane and river cruise, but I was too distracted. I finally started listening to the audio (on my ipod) as I waited for my delayed flight to Kyiv from Bucharest.  

Well, my too late, too little efforts have not paid off well.  Fortunately, the Swifts arranged for Vlad, an English-speaking member of the church, to pick me up--and he faithfully waited for my late flight and my slow sojourn through the particularly long line of a thorough passport official (all the other lines went faster).  In Kyiv,  I met Helen,  a delightful English-speaking guide that the Swifts recommended, who took me on a 3 hour walking tour of some of Kyiv’s highlights in their 104 degree, humid heat wave (hottest since 1905).  She pointed out a Ukrainian cafeteria restaurant.  I did go there for dinner, but found I had already forgotten my short course in Ukrainian and had to resort to grunts and gestures to get the food and quantity I wanted, although I was ok when it came to the delicious chocolate cake at the end.  Unlike the other countries I have visited on the trip, I found very few signs in dual languages and not many people that  spoke more than a couple of English words. 

The next day, Helen and I met in the early morning and wandered the streets, enjoying more of its sights (to be posted later) for over 7 hours in still hot-and-humid Kyiv.  As our time was ending, I could think of nothing better than getting back to my air conditioned hotel room and taking a cool shower.  None of the buildings we entered or the buses we sometimes rode had AC--it's a rarity in Kyiv, as it is seldom needed.  But when I entered the darkened hotel, I found out that all the electricity in that part of the city grid was out--no lights, no elevator, no AC.  I sat in the darkened lounge area until I had the strength to climb six floors up to my room to locate my flashlight before the sunlight was gone.  Fortunately, after a few sputters, the lights were back on in about 2 hours.  

So I decided to do dinner the easy way.  I was confident that I could go to McDonalds and be a successful communicator--all you have to do is hold up the number of fingers for your meal selection (I even remembered a few number words) and they would surely have some English-speaking staff.  Alack, there were no numbers on the selections, the board was only in Cyrillic, and none of the servers spoke much English.  Seeing my distress, they found a laminated English/ Ukrainian menu with pictures, but it only had  traditional items and not the Greek-style chicken sandwich with cucumbers and tomatoes that I wanted to try.  So in the end, I got the regular McDonald chicken sandwich and a strawberry McFlurry when I had wanted chocolate.  But it ended with “Thank you.  Have a nice day.”  Which it really had been....

  

History's Hard Lessons

Like the prior post, this was written earlier, but can just now be sent.  There was rain in Budapest and Croatia that impacted the photos:

With my limited success with the internet, I  will reserve most details and photos for later and indulge in some philosophical musings. The lands of Eastern Europe that I am visiting  (Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, and Poland) have been sliced and diced, combined and torn apart, formed and dissolved countless times.  They are the conquered and the conquerers; the rulers and the ruled.  Belgrade, Serbia has been destroyed 40 times.  One of our lecturers on the Balkans compared them to a well cooked stew--only this stew  periodically boils over and the ingredients have not all blended after centuries.

The Romans, Huns,  Slavs, Thracians, Germanic tribes, Mongols, Tartars. Ottoman Turks all conquered and settled; religions divided some and united others; other nations claimed them as spoils of war, relocating  or eliminating some groups; and others redrew boundaries for their own purposes. Some hatreds and distrust run deep, yet they desire to be members of the European Union.  As I hear their differing stories,  I wonder: How do we remember and teach the needed lessons of the Holocaust, Communism, and the recent Balkan Wars, while passing on a heritage of healing and not hatred?

I have seen the memorial of shoes in Budapest along the Danube where Nazis shot Jews into the river; stood beneath the communist propaganda statues in Hungary’s Momento Park; visited Vukovar, Croatia were 90% of the town was destroyed by the Serbs; and seen the damage in Belgrad from the 1999 UN bombing.  Yet in each place, I have found friendly and kind people.  At a lunch in the home of a family in the Croatian village of  Aljmas, the young English speaking physics teacher who had had to flee her home in the war simply said, “You just have to learn to move on.”  The young people seem hopeful for their future.  Perhaps they will finally learn the lessons of yesterday.

It's a Small, Small World

Internet access has been problematic, but the trip so far has been great.

Friends have asked--why Eastern Europe?  Plans for this adventure have deep roots and have been simmering for many years:  my participation as a teenager in a folk dance group that performed some Eastern European dances, a visit to Israel and meeting survivors of the holocaust, Adele’s story, my Bulgarian friend Julia’s story, the Romanian orphanages we assisted in RS projects, studying Russian in high school and just a fascination with the part of the world that was hidden by the Iron Curtain and Cold War.  So with friends serving on a mission in Kiev, Ukraine, and the Uniworld Eastern Euopean Explorer riverboat cruise waiving single supplements, this journey fell into place.

As this trip was not convenient, affordable, or of interest to friends and family, it is mostly a solo trip (except when visiting friends).  I wondered whom I would meet and how I would fit in.  So far, I have been amazed at the connections I have found with traveling companions:

  

--On way to Munich, sitting next to a priest who runs a home for orphaned Ukrainian children  

--On flight to Vienna (Austria), sitting next to an LDS woman from Salt Lake City

--On riverboat, meeting couples who have lived in the Washington, DC area; those with children in my area; some who attended school in Northern Virginia; other teachers and school administrators with similar professional experiences

--On way to evening concert in Vienna, sitting with a spunky, woman who remembered she had cruised nine years ago with doctors from my community  

--Visiting the Hapsburg’s Schoenberg Palace with a woman had lived and studied in Paris with her friend (also on the cruise) the same year my sister and I were studying in Tours France.  

--Becoming friends with a Canadian couple who used to live in Northeast England near where I visited my nephew last summer and  who taught in Alnwick Castle--one of my favorite places (see post)

--Being driven by a well-educated, English-speaking driver to Budapest’s Momento Park (containing former Soviet statues) whose father, like mine, had worked on developing rockets in the 50s, but his for the Soviet military and mine for the USA.  And there the two of us were, peaceably in Budapest, sharing our differing memories of the Cold War.  

--Sharing where we have visited and our hopes for further travel with the other 85 well-traveled and  interesting passengers (including a couple who had been to Antarctica 3x) and so on.....

It has been a trip of instant friendships, and it is hard to say good-bye to new friends as the cruise part ends.  I have been reminded that the commonality of mankind is far greater than differences in either places or circumstances.