I just ran across this text I produced about a year ago on a trip through Europe and found it interesting. No real life lessons, more just allowing one to be a fly on the wall as I wander.
Hello all,
Sitting here in Vienna on a Sunday morning, a week before Easter. So far I have visited Rome (11 days) Naples (5) Florence (4) Bologna (3) Venice (4) and this is day three of seven in Vienna.
This is a very different experience for me as compared to previous long wanderings around Europe. I won’t shy away from owning the challenges and disappointments. I am aware that I am no longer 23, rather 53 (at least for another week!) The recent back injury that I am nursing doesn’t let me forget this.
But other random thoughts. I fricken love Vienna and always have. It is a perfectly designed city with amazing museums built for a nation of less than nine million, basically Washington state. I spent the day in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien yesterday, one of my favorite museums in the world (okay in the US, Costa Rica, or Europe which is basically the world to me at this point). I plan to write an entire piece for my blog on this museum alone. I will publish that once the damn folks at WIX allow me to get back into my account! I followed that up with a trip to a brewpub that I have always loved and had my first Wienerschnitzel mit Kartoffelsalat of this trip….and a rauchbier. Perfect day.
Part of what made it perfect is that here I can now communicate with people. I’m not perfectly fluent of course but speak enough German that I had an uplifting conversation with a couple different folks during the day. Human connection is so important, especially for me. My hundred or so words in Italian mingled with my few hundred more in Spanish masquerading as Italian just didn’t allow for this.
I loved Rome of course, my home away from home, probably my 12th time there at least, likely more. I was able to celebrate my dear friend Randy’s birthday with him there along with his lovely youngest son Alesandro. We even ate one night at a restaurant Jackie and I have been to many times. I’ll eventually get to eat again at Le Trumilou in a few weeks in Paris as well, the first dinner that Jackie and I had after getting married, literally. I’ve said that to the owners before in my broken French and they seemed to understand and say that they hear that often, funny huh? I can picture the black and white tiled floor and U-shaped design to the space (at least that is what is in my mind, and green around the bar?) I’ll also get to eat and drink at Glock’n am Kreutztor and other places in Ingolstadt where we lived for 2.5 years all those moons ago.
Napoli is still not my city, it is too chaotic and loud and dirty for me. Sorry Randy and family, but just like beets, I keep trying it every several years to see if I change enough or the place does but it hasn’t happened yet. I still don’t like beets either. But take Barcelona, I liked it 1993, not so much in 1996, then back again to liking it eight years ago or whenever that trip was, then back to not so much again now. Both Barcelona and I have changed a lot.
Bologna was a new city for me. I don’t see it as a regular place to visit, maybe just a day trip from Florence. It has a fascinating medieval center to the town that is well preserved and it is full of students which usually helps a lot but just the layout of the town along with all the noise reflecting off the portico ceilings coupled with the poor air quality all through Italy during this stretch of time was tough for me. I have always had a hard time with noise as well as having exercise-induced or mild asthma.
Whoops, forgot to mention Florence! This was I think my fifth time there. I had been sick two of the previous times, but knock on wood, healthy thus far on this trip! It is a favorite for many, but never one of mine…..until this trip. Like Sevilla last year, a favorite of many that I never really appreciated until last year. Florence is simply beautiful. Fortunately for us today there was a perfect confluence of artists and money and power and how to express all those during the Medici era. The powerful of that day expressed their power by investing in public art and buildings, secular and religious. The city is basically an outdoor museum. Oh, and there are something like 70 different indoor museums to visit as well. I visited just three or so. One a day is about right. I also went on my first walking tour of Florence, it helped me understand the city better.
Venice is still Venice. I both love it and don’t. It is so very full of tourists. I was also on this trip unable to find any local places to eat, everything was either really expensive or a tourist trap. I settled for a couple off the beaten path places that felt pretty touristy, but the spaghetti alla sepia was good nonetheless. Why don’t we ever have that dish in the US?
Was that my final overnight train? Am I getting too old for that? I was fortunate to have my own cabin to myself as the other three couchettes were empty, so I got some sleep. But, without using my CPAP the sleep quality is always poor. I still did get a neat rush of feelings as the train pulled away at 9:30 PM to arrive the next morning in Vienna.
