Vienna, Day two

Well today we went to the Lipizzaner at the Spanish Riding School of the Hofburg Palace to see the horses perform their morning exercise. Now this is not a show like you would usually see, but more exercising the horses and putting them through their paces.
They are beautiful animals and it was a pleasure to see them up close. All of it is done in silence, the rider speak to the horse through hand gestures or by pulling on the reins. I noted that the riders do hold on tight, to establish who is in charge, these horses are big stallions and have a lot of character and personality, you see it in the way they behave.
Today the Riding school is a private art foundation and is no longer part of the Austrian Army. There are only 5000 Lipizzaner white stallions in the world. The only dissonant note was a couple of very fat, loud tourists who told everyone how much they paid for just about everything during their trip so far, this being a bar of how successful the trip is. We got away from them real fast.

Afterwards, we went again shopping for more Austrian clothing, we have enough of it now to do Sound of Music, just kidding, we bought more shirts and ties and summer pants.

For lunch we went to the Palmenhaus which is the old green houses of the Imperial Palace, part of the green houses is still used for rare plants and is also home for a large collection of live butterflies who fly through the green houses, it is very beautiful and the kids are so impressed by these little creatures, that they fall into a stunned silence. We had grilled forelle which is trout, it was delicious and so fresh with green salad and a glass of Gruner Vetliner, a light Austrian white wine.

After lunch we took a tour of the State Opera House, it was partly destroyed by aerial bombing in March of 1945 a week or so before Vienna fell to the allies. It was rebuilt between 1946-55 in a brutal modernist style. When you visit you can see the front rooms of the building which escaped the destruction and is original including the Imperial salon reserved exclusively to this day to the Austrian Head of State, the rest of the building, the auditorium and backstage is all modern. I pointed out to the guide that the Eagle above the Presidential box, (formerly the Imperial box) looks very American and not Austrian at all. She did not appear to understand what I was talking about. Maybe this was too sensitive a point, Austrians still have problems acknowledging their role during the Second World War and the sucking up to the Allies once the war lost.

We also visited the backstage area, the stage hands were installing the decor and sets for La Traviata. The stage area is one of the largest in Europe and the understage area goes down 4 floors, it is massive. The State Opera is open for opera and ballet only almost 7 nights every week of the year, 1000 people work there and it is a beehive of activity.

Afterwards Will had to return to the hotel, we changed our plans, we will return to Vienna directly from Salzburg and cancelled our stop in Linz. We re-arranged our hotel reservations and now will return on 25 May so we can attend the Volks Oper production of Oscar Strauss, Die Lustigen Nibelungen, a comic spoof on Richard Wagner's Ring cycle.

Tonite we are going to another Austrian restaurant, the Griechenbeisl, the name says Greek but this is because it is next to the Greek Orthodox Church on Fleishmarkt. (www.griechenbeisl.at). Tomorrow morning off to Salzburg and the Music Festival.

Now where are we...

So we drove Nicky and Nora to Capena down the Flaminian road to the farm where they were born and where their moms and dads live with other relatives. Nicky and Nora were put into the general pound to socialize with the cousins, Nora did not seem impress with them and Nicky looked down right offended, I did not think of taking a picture but it was so funny, with his big mustache standing up like Kaiser Wilhelm, he just looked at them with an imperious air of, have we been introduced, who are you? sort of look, obviously living in the Citta Eterna has gone to his head. The cousins where probably thinking what is with this guy.

The next day we flew Alitalia to Vienna on a Bombardier Canadair regional jet which holds 98 seats and is like flying with your own private jet, very smooth flight, these inter-city jets are famous around the world and the only competition for Canada is from Embraer Brazil.
In Vienna we were met by the driver of the hotel, who had sent a car. Very nice hotel next to St-Stephen's Cathedral, Kaiserin Elisabeth, you cannot escape the imperial family in Vienna, they are everywhere. See the hotel site www.kaiserinelisabeth.at

Big room and very clean, spotless hotel, very quiet also, though it is full. You hear nothing, even in the breakfast room in the morning, guests behave themselves. Today we went down for breakfast, beautiful silver service on each table and very nice presentation of breakfast food. If they do not have it on the buffet, just ask and they will be pleased to bring it to you. Free selection of international newspapers available. What I like is that the hotel feels like you are at home, quiet service, polite, always courteous to a fault, it is understated and it leaves you smiling. When we arrived the front desk recommended a very good lunch place, just a feet steps away down the road, Imevoll, its a typical Austrian restaurant and wine bar, ten page wine selection menu, great food, plain and simple. Now is Asparagus season, so they have lots of dishes featuring beautiful white asparagus. There was a white asparagus lasagna on the menu and asparagus with small white potatoes in a bearnaise or bechamel sauce, asparagus soup and of course other Austrian dishes of meat, veal, chicken, beef.

You also cannot come to Vienna and miss the pastries, cakes, marzipan and chocolates, everywhere coffee houses with beautiful pastries and sandwiches, a true delight. We went to Gerstner which also is the official caterer of the State Opera House and has been around for 175 years.

For dinner that night we went to a new Austrian cuisine restaurant called Artner, (www.artner.co.at) it was wonderful, the waiter kept calling me Commendatore, usually in Italy I am simply Dottore, this was a real promotion. This is another facet of life in Austria, everyone has a title, you simply cannot go through life here without a title, you do not have one, don't worry they will give you one. The food was excellent as was the service, this restaurant has a wine shop and the wine selection goes on and on. We ate too much but it was so good. I started with a home made goat cheese, made I was told by the mother of the owner, wrapped in bacon and served on a bed of grilled white asparagus. Followed by a filet of Austrian beef with green beans sauté with a slice of bacon. We had a Riesling with dinner and for dessert, fresh berries sorbet with mint leaves. Both at the beginning of the meal and at the end the chef sent little bouchés to open the appetite and to close the meal. While we ate, the restaurant being across a small square of St- Hieronimus, we saw a procession from the Franciscan church with parishonners singing hymns, holding candles, this is Pentecost week.

On this first day we also did some serious shopping, Will wanted a Trachten jacket so we went to the Trachten shop, they are all over Austria, they sell essentially traditional Austrian clothing for children, men and women. I bought a Sakko jacket and a shirt and 2 ties and will bought a Trachten jacket, pants and shirt and tie. (www.Kettner.com) The sales personnel are very nice and self-effacing but very helpful. We were on the second floor of the shop, men's area where they sell clothing and hunting rifles, riding gear, and foot wear for the serious sportsmen, all of it of the highest quality.

So all in all not a bad first day.

a stroll in Rome on a Friday afternoon

Usually on a Friday afternoon after lunch I like to either get my haircut or go out to see something. This friday I thought I would go out and get my haircut since we are going on vacation next week to Austria. So I called Mimo and made an appointment.
Photos here are of the streets I walked to get to my appointment and then the walk home.

I walked down Via Palermo which is a back street parallel to Via Nazionale. Went by the Opera House of Rome, then by a series of shops, many are specialty shops, like the one selling decorated cakes and designer handbags, well that is what I thought walking by. I was intrigued by the fact they were selling cakes and handbags, what a strange combination. I looked more closely at the Chanel Bag and the Ferragamo and the Louis Vuitton, they were very nice but then I realize they were made of marzipan.
What a fun thing to do for a party as a novelty, am sure they would be as good to eat as they are to look at.

Then I arrived at the corner of Vincolo dei Serpenti (alley of the snakes) it's a very old street in Rome, it is also the street where the private home of the President of the Italian Republic is located. A little street nothing special, in an old neighborhood. It took me a while to realize that something was odd about that street, no cars are parked, except for one with 2 fellows sitting in it, they are policemen, guarding the street.

President Giorgio Napolitano is 84 yrs old and has been a politician all his life, a communist Italian style. He is much respected by the Italians, a very dignified figure, a defender of Italian democracy and the Constitution. While he is in Office he lives at the Quirinale Palace just about 2 blocks away. Then I turn the corner and am at the barber shop, just across the street from the massive Palazzo Koch which is the seat of the Bank of Italy. The President and I share the same barber.

After my haircut, I decided to walk a little down to the old Market of Emperor Trajan, it was in its time the first shopping mall of antiquity, 5 floors of shops. Today it houses the exhibits of the Forum of Emperors Trajan, Nerva and Augustus.
These forums were fairly well preserved until 1605 when Pope Paul V decided he needed all the marble for a palace and a fountain he was building, what you see today is the result of this act of vandalism by the Pope. From the market platform you can look directly at the Altar of the Nation, this white marble monument was built about 130 yrs ago to commemorate the Royal House of Savoy and the unification of Italy as one country in 1860. It is the largest marble monument built in modern times. The belly of the horse on which sits the figure of King Vittorio Emmanuele can have inside a dining table and 9 men around it for a meal, there is an actual photo of this feat.

I then crossed Via Nazionale and walked up to the Quirinale Palace on my way home passing by the back gate of Prince Colona's garden where once stood the massive Temple to Serapis. The Quirinale was once a Papal Summer Palace, then in 1860 it was confiscated and became the Palace of the Italian King and in 1946 it became the Presidential Palace under the new Italian Republic. However it retains all of its grandeur and the President is housed like a king with all the ceremonial and protocol this entails.

I then walked up along the palace towards Piazza Santa Suzanna where the fountain of Moses has been cleaned after years of neglect, the stone has this soft butter color, it use to be part of a Cardinal's Palace, the palace today is the St-Regis Hotel. The fountain is in fact just a facade, it hides a beautiful apartment attached to the back.

Then onwards towards Porta Pia and home, the street lined with orange trees, full of oranges, they are apparently good to make jam but not to eat. I thought to myself, when would I ever be able to do this back in Canada. This is what I will miss most of Rome when we leave, this certain theatre of life and the elegance of this old city. Will continue to enjoy our stay and make most of it.

Orkestra Sinfonike, Tirana

This evening in the old theatre of the Faculty of Art of the University of Tirana (C.1933) the RadioTelevizionit Shqiptar Orkestra (radio-television orchestra of Albania) was giving a free concert, as is usually the norm in Albania. The orchestra was created in May 1962 under the Stalinist Regime of Enver Hoxha. It is a very good orchestra and a lot of its members are the original crew. The conductor is one Nir Kabaretti of Santa Barbara, California, who appears to belong to the ham fisted school of conducting. The soloist was Mirela Kokasykja who played the piano concerto opus 54 of Schumann, on a piano that needed tuning. The music auditorium is quite small about 500 seats, built like a bunker in concrete, poor acoustics and it has never been renovated since 1933, you can well imagine the terrible state of the place, the stuffing coming out of the chairs and the smell of mildew, dried sweat and stale cigarettes, I think it use to be called the smell of old communism. The chandelier in the ceiling is missing and the paint is peeling off the walls. Also during the concert people talk and take calls on their cel phones. But I have to say that though the Faculty is full of ghosts of the last 80 years it is sad but at the same time fascinating.
The faculty buildings of the University of Tirana stand at the end of the great boulevard built in the 1930's by the Italians for Mussolini, at the opposite end of the great square of Skanderberg currently under massive renovation by a Kuwaiti firm.
Though the concert was free only about 50 people showed up, many quite elderly.

On the main boulevard this week a protest by the Socialist party of Edi Rama,they set-up tents and are blocking the street, each night speeches to a light crowd who I am told is paid to attend and listening half-heartily. Lots of police around but not one has a gun or any weapon, just looking around.

Here at the Hotel Rogner (Austrian owned) jazz concerts on Thursday and Friday nights in the lush gardens. The music is quite good, it reminded me of Budapest. This is probably the best hotel in Tirana in terms of comfort, services, amenities and price.
Tomorrow return to la Citta Eterna.

Greece austerity, votes 172 for to 121 against

I just saw the vote in the Greek Parliament, the photos of the crowds outside Parliament on Syntagma Square an area I know very well since I stay in that area when I am in Athens. The austerity is harsh and for the Greek people this is a very difficult time and it will continue to be difficult for years to come. I have friends in Greece and I think of them and how they will do in this time of crisis.
Greece is a special place, every time I go to Athens I always go up to the Acropolis to see the Parthenon.
To me this says Western Civilization like no other places on Earth, this is our inheritance and our values. I am not Greek but nonetheless feel a connection with the place. This is why all this news of austerity and budget and sacrifice is such sad news. But as a professor of the University of Athens said tonight on the BBC World News, those who are responsible for this situation are not going to pay, it is like all crisis the citizens foot the bill. That has to stop, in any democracy, no one should be allowed to take advantage of citizens and if parliamentarians fail in their duty to protect the citizens, then they should be prosecuted.

A few photos of Tirana

This week I am in Tirana, Albania, this little country of less than 3 million people, no bigger than Vermont and a former Stalinist dictatorship with a personality cult to its paranoid mad dictator Enver Hoxha who finally died in 1985. The communist lost power in 1990 and since the country has been on a mad rush to catch-up. Albania joined NATO last year, with enormous help from Canada and other member countries. It wants to join the E.U. in the near future. I am on my 9th trip to Albania on work related issues. What surprises me each time I come to Tirana (pop 680,341) is the amount of change in the City. Per example 3 years ago, power cuts were so frequent that you needed a flashlight all the time with you and an emergency generator for your office and home, now it is a thing of the past. The City Mayor has planted 2000 trees around the city and you can see these green streets everywhere. New buildings and the first large modern hospitals have just opened, the airport and the highway to the airport is brand new. Infrastructure projects are everywhere, modernization is the ''in'' word. Today I went to the major square in central Tirana and discovered a huge rebuilding project of 50 million dollars paid for by the Emir of Kuwait.
The Sheraton Hotel is also owned by Kuwaitis and the other major hotel the Rogner is Austrian. What strikes me about Albanians is that they appear to simply want to enjoy themselves and life. Their history from 1940 onwards was sad and depressing, now they are putting all that behind and looking forward.
Photos of central Tirana where all the official government buildings are located. I also include one photo of the infamous 80,000 concrete pillbox which were part of the defense plan of the dictator, they are everywhere in Albania and impossible to get rid of.
This one is in the garden of the Rogner hotel, there are two others in the garden and one across the street in front of the former official home of the communist era Prime Minister. The idea was that in case of invasion the whole population of the country would go into them and shoot at enemies. By the time Hoxha died, the country was a pariah on the international scene and had no friends even in the communist camp, Hoxha had fought with everybody and saw the world as against him. He also had a huge white marble pyramid mausoleum built as his official tomb in the centre of Tirana. Today the marble covering is gone and the derelict mausoleum stands abandoned, a monument to his madness.

camping for a living

As I come to my 30th year of service I sort of reflect on all the places W and I have lived in. It often feels like one extended camping trip. My idea of camping, as the joke goes, is if I can dial 3 for room service then I am for it.
Living in staff quarters, with the usual government issue furniture, same furniture from town to town, at least this is a constant. But it feels a little unreal, when our furniture now in storage comes out, we often forget what we had before we left.

We are camping in a way, moving from continent to continent, from country to country every 3 to 4 years. Once or twice I moved twice in one year, living in boxes and suitcases, eating in restaurants, living in anonymous hotel rooms. Little creature comforts like making a cup of tea or coffee, just having buttered toast, not possible until you land somewhere and even then it may take months before your personal items arrive on that cargo ship sailing your way. You have to become comfortable, you have to be flexible, make a home where none exist, make the best of every situation. Flexible means learning new languages, appreciating foods of various cultures and not expecting that you will have foods you are familiar with. Having a wardrobe which suits the climate and the mores of the country where you are. If a tourist on a 2 week vacation just brings along what he or she would wear back home, this option is not available to you. I find that what I wear abroad I would not wear back in Canada, often because it would not be suitable.

A bit like going on camping, you have to plan and think what will I need, what I will not need, what is practical. Years ago this meant buying food stuffs for 2 to 3 years supply and other necessities of everyday life, everything had to be planned for your next assignment, a camping trip really which lasted a few years.

This non-permanent state creates excitement and certainly there is little routine, constant change around you is the basic. Not only change in living arrangements but also at work.

So this has been my life, one long camping trip. How many times have I moved, I loose track, but I know it has been more than 35 times so far. All the birthdays, Christmases, New Years and other life events in different cities around the world, never at home with family or seldom. This is why I find it so odd when people wish to spend their holidays with family and go to their parents home every year. It is true that I do not like traditional camping in a tent with a bag pack, bugs and all the uncomfortable bits. But my form of camping around the world, I am so use to it now that I barely notice if there are some inconveniences. But at the same time when the day comes, when I retire and go back to my native land, will I be able to adjust? Will I not be bored silly with the conventional, maybe that is the fear I have of the future, of life being conventional, no surprises, just routine, nothing exotic.

Here I am tonite in Tirana, Albania, former Stalinist dictatorship, a country today transformed, sitting in my hotel room, listening to Angela Hewitt, this great Canadian pianist playing J.S.Bach, the English Suites, camping in a way.