Maunderings

democracy

2005-03-09T18:15:00.000Z

From a story posted on cnn.com: 'U.S. President Bush added to the pressure Friday, saying, "The world is beginning to speak with one voice. We want that democracy in Lebanon to succeed, and we know it cannot succeed so long as she is occupied by a foreign power."' And from another story: "We want them to go because it's important for Lebanon to be an independent country and not a client state of Syria," Albright told CNN.'

But of course we can't apply the same arguments to Iraq, where freedom is "on the march". Syria has had troops in Lebanon for 30 years, why the sudden pressure to get them out? I think the Lebanese demonstrations against Syria in response to the killing of Hariri have given the international community an opening to attempt to limit the influence of Syria in the region. This whole thing really has very little to do with Hariri; after all, I haven't read of any evidence linking Syria to his killing. At least in Lebanon there are large counter-demonstrations being held in favor of Syrian influence. There seems to be no such divide in Iraqi public opinion toward the U.S. occupation. If I were Syria or Iran I would be afraid of freedom marching right on into my country. And you're damn right I'd be working on a nuclear weapon, it's clearly the only show of strength that this administration understands.

Bonds and steroids

2004-12-04T01:03:00.000Z

What hypocrisy--we clamor for athletes with perfect bodies to keep hitting home runs, sacking quarterbacks or dunking the basketball. Yet when they are accused of using the "wrong" performance-enhancing drug we turn on them and say "how could you?"

And what is a "performance-enhancing drug"? I cringe every time I see that term in print. Aren't the pain pills taken after a game used to get back on the practice field more quickly? What about the caffeine used to wake up in the morning, or the cough medicine used to get a good night's sleep, or the wine with dinner to relax? The very fact that marijuana is tested for under the NBA's drug testing program sends the message that marijuana is performance-enhancing (but we know that it's really about behavior control, of course). What about the chemicals in the food or vitamins eaten to maintain a healthy body? Or hell, when you get right down to it, water is the most critical of performance-enhancing drugs, one that we're all addicted to. The point I'm trying to make here is that the line separating the drugs that we consider "okay" from the ones that are "not okay" is an ever-shifting and arbitrary one. Androstenedione is okay, but pseudoephedrine (found in Sudafed, and banned in at least the NHL) is not.

The argument is usually made that the "integrity of the game must be preserved." But there is always a preparation differential, all the way from the guys that signed a fat contract and spent the off-season lazing around to the ones that spent the entire time working and training for the season to come. Personally I feel insulted by the guys who enter the season out of shape. I much prefer to see guys who have worked on their game and their body and tried to gain an edge.

Another argument against steroid use is that it gives one an unfair advantage over those who don't use them. What makes it unfair? And would it then be fair if everyone were to maintain the same drug regimen? The response that "it's against the rules" is no justification in itself for having a rule against steroids.

An argument is sometimes made for the safety of the players. Those that use steroids will do much harm to their bodies and so we need to protect them from themselves. This paternalistic viewpoint and the policies to which it gives rise have proven as useless in sports as in society at large in reducing drug use. There are the well-known risks of acne, shrunken testicles, baldness, etc., but the fact is that we don't know a lot about the long term risks of steroid use. One can make an argument that steroids should be illegal on a cost-to-society basis, though it's hard to determine what those costs might be. Even so, most who take steroids in the big leages do so with eyes wide open about the potential risks down the road--they're just trying to break into the league, or squeeze out one more guaranteed contract. There's a lot of money at stake, after all. The rewards far outweigh any possible risks.

And now to Bonds. All one has to do is compare pictures of the man from various points in his career to tell that he began juicing at some point. Of course he denied it--it's the American way to deny until proven guilty, and then only admit to as much as can be proven. Top athletes control every aspect of the food and chemicals they put in their bodies. He knew exactly what he was using and exactly what it does on a molecular level.

Does this put an asterisk by his name in the record books? NO. It's important to point out that at this point he has not been accused of breaking any laws or league rules (to my knowledge). He should be compared to the other players of his era, and the other sluggers of his generation have all taken advantage of the drug technology of the day. He is not the player he is because he injected the drugs--he injected the drugs because of the player he is, a very hard worker who is willing to do what it takes to make himself the best. This is the American ideal personified. But of course people will turn on him now, as he has never been the most lovable, and try to rip him apart. We do love to tear down our idols.

And you know what? If I'm a baseball player and I want to make myself better and increase my longevity in the game, you'd better believe I'm doing the things Bonds does. He's the best imaginable salesman for taking steroids. If these drugs are so bad, why is he so healthy and good at what he does?

And this, then, gets to the heart of the issue. These drugs apparently really work, and really do give those who use them an advantage. As long as this is so, people will continue to attempt to circumvent any restrictions or testing regimen in order to use them. Man will ever seek advantage in competition with other men.

And if we've learned anything from the U.S. government's prosecution of the War on Drugs, it is that supply will always rise to fill demand no matter how much is confiscated and destroyed. Demand, in turn, is not stifled by lies or misinformation (or even accurate warnings, once the source has lost credibility). The perceived risk/reward ratio of using steroids must be altered. The current strategy is to increase the risk (by testing and punishment), but decreasing the perceived reward will be more important to stemming demand in the long run. The main obstacle to this is that the health risks are generally long-term while the benefits are immediate, and for the most part people act with short-term interest in mind. Widespread drug use is here to stay in both sports and society at large. How we confront and deal with that fact will go a long way toward determining the face of sports (and society) in the century to come.

All good things must come to an end

2003-12-22T17:51:00.000Z

Ah, Berlin. What a city! It played such a central role in the events of the 20th century, but its charm is rooted as much in its energetic present as in its fascinating past. There is a lot of money being poured into redevelopment, particularly of long-neglected stretches of the former East Berlin. I spent most of my time on that side of the city in the Mitte district (which is right in the center).

I arrived in Berlin on a Saturday. The nightlife there has an outsized reputation, and as I did not have time to sample this aspect of Krakow or Prague I committed myself to doing so now. Berlin doesn't seem to have an area with a high concentration of bars and clubs, and as the city is huge our evening out demanded some advanced tactical planning. Given the very cold conditions we decided to stay pretty close to the hostel, as public transportation becomes a difficult prospect after 1am. It would have been nice to have found a local to give us advice on nightspots, but as it was we only had an events guide to go on as well as the opinions of the bartender at the place just downstairs from the hostel. This joint made a convenient spot for meeting up with other hostel denizens to plan an evening out. Our first destination was a place featuring a band playing Finnish versions of British & American pop songs. We had fun identifying the songs that were being played--it's amazing how much the sound of a song was changed with lyrics in a different language. From there it was a pretty standard night out, DJs and dancing and a big 2 Euro kebap to cap the night.

It was nice to come down to the lounge of the hostel my first evening there and get warm welcomes from people that I have met in other cities--from Budapest onward this has happened frequently. The people that I meet up with tend to take the same hostel recommendations that I do, so it's no surprise to run into people that were heading in the same direction. People that really click start to travel together, as I did with Ila & Jason in Turkey. The flipside is that somebody can be hard to shake if they are heading all of the same places--I had a couple of friends who had this experience.

The next day I took a walking tour of Berlin that lasted all day long for only 10 Euros. It was fantastic! If you're ever in Berlin you must take one as well, a Brewer's Best tour. Our tour guide was none other than Terry Brewer himself, a Brit with a long history with Berlin and an interesting perspective on the city as well as World War II, the Cold War and its aftermath. It seemed that he was on a personal mission to educate us and introduce us to as much of the city as he could in our day together. His knowledge of the city and of history bordered on encyclopedic. It was another very cold day (sub-freezing temps), but he kept us moving quickly (with harsh words for the laggards) and brought us inside to thaw from time to time. It was a perfect introduction and orientation to the city, and provided me with fodder for my next day's explorations as well.

It's hard to pick out highlights of this city, with such an amazing blend of grandiose old buildings, stunningly neglected war damaged areas, newly revitalized squares with the latest in sophisticated modern architecture towering overhead. Schinkel seems to dominate historic Berlin the way Bernini does Rome. And on a smaller scale there are plenty of innocuous buildings housing interesting displays within, such as the Frank Gehry-designed bank bordering Pariser Platz--fairly conservative exterior, but exotic fish-inspired interior. Another building Terry pointed out and I returned to the following day houses a collection of maps and giant models of the city, detailing plans for future development in various areas of the city. A chocolate store which features scale chocolate models of the Reichstag and the Titanic (why?) among others offered up a superb cup of hot chocolate.

What a mix of reminders of the past, by turns impressive, horrifying, and tragic, and promise for the future! As many interesting cities as I have seen in the former communist bloc of eastern Europe, nowhere else is such a city to be found. And I saw but a tiny fraction of the city.

The Jewish Museum, which I mentioned in my last post, is particularly interesting because of its architecture. The building that houses the permanent collection was designed by Daniel Libeskind, whose firm's plan to reconstruct the former site of the World Trade Center in New York City has been selected. The special exhibition currently on display there features his work, and there are some interesting projects in development. The most arresting will be the extension to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. I believe the Jewish Museum in Berlin was the first of his designs to actually be built, but the exhibition displayed models and drawings of designs for other buildings or public spaces that will not be realized, and some of these were quite striking. His work certainly is provocative, but I can't decide whether I really like it or not. One thing that bothers me is the manner in which he intellectualizes some of his designs. He says of the Jewish Museum, in reference to Schonberg's opera "Moses and Aaron": "I sought to complete that opera architecturally and that is the second aspect of this project." I'm not familiar with the opera, and Libeskind was trained as a musician so I suppose I lack his ability to see (or hear) it, but to me that statement is arrogant and preposterous. But good for him if others agree that he has accomplished this goal.

From Berlin I headed south to Dresden, to visit friends and to reclaim the bag I left there (thanks Dan!). Jones offered me a place to stay and even picked me up at the train station. I got caught up on the local gossip and we headed to Bottoms Up, which was my favorite place to eat this summer. The waitress even remembered my beer of choice! Too bad we didn't speak enough language in common for me to have properly hit on her. Then we went to The Church, which seems to be doing well. They get plenty of people for their concerts, but not so many hang out there on other nights. They are trying to get more consistent business, but it looks like they have a financially viable concern on their hands. Our next stop was another old haunt of mine, the Groove Station, where I got to talk with Ulli and listen to a concert.

The following day I spent reacquainting myself with the city. I wish I had had more time to spend there, I had intended to stay a week or so but I spent that time in other places along the way. I got to see the best of my friends there, but there were several other people that I wish I had had the chance to visit. Dan invited me to a dinner party that a friend of his was having, so I went with him and Manuela, his girlfriend. I hadn't been to such a civilized affair in quite some time, it's rare to get invited to an intimate gathering while travelling. It was a fun time and great food--the guacamole was a surprising treat that I have been looking forward to upon my return to the U.S. for some time, and the soljanka (a kind of Russian soup) was wonderful. My train was scheduled to leave at 6am the following morning, so I decided to stay up all night. So where else would I head but The Church? I saw a few more friends, Seb and Martin, and had a great last night there. An extremely drunken and confused fellow provided us all with hours of hilarity. All too soon it was time to leave to catch my train.

My destination was Luxembourg City! As I was flying out of Frankfurt and Ila was in Paris we had decided to split the difference and meet there. We enjoyed our brief time there together, despite having unknowingly chosen a very expensive city. I saw my first snowfall of the season there, even though it was a bit warmer than it had been at my last few stops. The city is quite pretty, perched on the hills and flowing down into the valleys below. French seemed to be the language of choice of those we met and overheard, despite the guidebook which had prepared me to expect primarily Letzebuergesch, with German and French in the mix. We had a nice encounter with a Pakistani family that have been living there for something like 20 years. We saw a sign with (for once) reasonable prices for a meal, and so we approached the place. They seemed to be decorating for Christmas so we started to turn away, but they welcomed us in. Normally they only serve food from 12-3 every afternoon, but they offered to heat up food for us anyway (it being around 7:30 or 8:00 by this point). We ate well and plentifully and it was fun to be welcomed into their family for a short time.

All too soon it was time to head to Frankfurt. I had changed trains there on my way to Luxembourg, and at that time I had stashed my second bag in a locker there. I had thought that lockers at train stations or airports were things that people only used in movies, but it came in quite handy to me and I was glad not to have to lug that bag around any more than necessary. I met up with Richmond and we caught up over some tasty Thai food. It was good to see him again and the visit provided some nice symmetry to my trip, which both started and ended there. After a night of restless sleep it was off to the airport!

And thus ends my Europe '03 trip. Stay tuned for pictures and thoughts about my return to the U.S. And beyond that, possibly further travels in '04!

Krakow, Prague

2003-12-17T16:51:00.000Z

I arrived back in the U.S. last night. Now that I have some computer time I will be posting updates and pictures from the last few weeks. As my time in Europe grew shorter I increased my pace in order to see as much as possible. That meant not as much computer time, and unfortunately that I have not been able to spend as much time as I would have liked in several places along the way. I suppose that just means that I will have to return!

It was extremely cold after leaving Budapest, right at the limit of what I could stand given the clothing options that my backpack has made available to me. If I am walking quickly then I can keep warm, but waiting or even leisurely strolling quickly becomes unmanageable. Those conditions are to be expected at this time of year, so given that I have continued to enjoy a remarkable streak of good weather with plenty of bright and sunny days. I've barely seen any rain, it has snowed plenty of places that I've been but I always just miss it. I suppose it pays to be friends with The Weatherman :)

Much of eastern Europe from Bulgaria to Poland had extremely hazy air, so even with the good weather it has not been prime conditions for photography. In some places I would attribute this to wood or coal smoke, but in Poland it was definitely fog, of the pea soup variety. I had fretted over not getting to see the countryside in taking several night trains, but I wasn't likely to have seen so much even during the day.

I arrived in Krakow before 6am, and as expected I was met at the train station by hostel representatives. I got a free taxi ride and with 24 hour reception I didn't have to wait upon my arrival there. That's the way to run a hostel! The first thing I was told upon checking in was this: "Unfortunately, you can't drink alcohol on the streets here, but you can consume it in the hostel!" I suppose that was clue 1 that I had arrived at a party hostel. I decided to head to Auschwitz/Birkenau immediately. It's not exactly something to look forward to, I'm there so I should see it but I might as well get it over with as soon as I could. It was not as grizzly as it might have been, given the enormity of the atrocities that took place there. I thought that the most sobering aspect was the sheer size of the Birkenau death camp--in its heyday it housed 100,000 people. Groups have been committing genocide for all of recorded history, and it's still going on today, but I think what made the Holocaust stand out was the German efficiency. They really perfected the art of mass extermination. It's hard to believe that a people that have given the world so much beauty in art, music, and literature could have been the authors of such evil.

The Jewish Museum in Berlin helped my understanding a little bit by placing these events in historical context. The collection of the museum documents the history of the Jewish people in the lands that now constitute Germany. From the earliest times of Jewish settlements in Germany (likely with the Romans, perhaps 4th or 5th century AD or CE as they refer to it here--Common Era, I believe) there was friction between the local tribes and the Jews. One thing I didn't like about the museum is that in my opinion it failed to fully address the reasons for the perpetual persecution of the Jews in Germany. Were they just the only convenient minority population to scapegoat? Perhaps they were the only minority that survived all of those years to have a tale to tell. Perhaps this persecution was such a common aspect of the Jewish experience everywhere that it was assumed to need no explanation. Or perhaps addressing the question could be seen as an attempt to rationalize their treatment. I suppose it probably boils down to the same reason for conflicts between groups everywhere: the competition for resources. As the Jewish people seemed to be successful perhaps this bred envy.

But Krakow had more to offer than proximity to the largest concentration camp. The town center is beautiful and surprisingly well-preserved, having somehow survived WWII intact. I enjoyed just walking around the city and looking at all of the beautiful buildings. I suppose that comes as no surprise, given the subjects of many of my photographs. I only spent one night in the hostel there, and the next evening I took a night train to Prague. I was therefore unable to sample the nightlife, but by all accounts Krakow is a fairly happening place to be right now. There are a lot of college students, and many bars and clubs that cater to the young. As has been my experience in most of the larger cities I've visited since Sofia, I encountered several people in the hostel who had stopped travelling because they enjoyed the nightlife there. That's my analysis of the situation, anyway--they've been there for several weeks, haven't seen most of the tourist sites, go out almost every night, and sleep most of the day. For most I think this was not the original plan, but they found a scene they liked and stuck around.

I enjoyed the food in Krakow. I tried something called a knuckle of pork. I was confused by this term as my mental image of pigs includes no appendages that might contain a knuckle. It is actually a cut of meat from the thigh, served on the bone (the femur or equivalent, I suppose). Most of the Polish specialties seem to involve meat and very little vegetable matter. For dessert pancakes are common, as they seem to be everywhere else I've been in eastern Europe. The term pancake has such heavy connotations, but they're much closer to crepes. They're often served with chocolate sauce or fruit. Good, but not so interesting. Ice cream hasn't appealed to me so much of late, as strange as that must sound coming from me! But when it's a constant struggle to stay warm, anything that detracts from that goal is unwelcome. I fully intend to reaquaint myself with the selection that Blue Bell has to offer upon my return to the U.S. In that vein, I'll be stepping back into the middle of the television season. What do I do? Catch up on my shows, or just count the whole season as lost? Maybe that means I have to keep travelling :)

The overnight train to Prague was the third in a row in which I have had an entire sleeper compartment to myself. It ends up being a pretty restful night of sleep, even with the border crossings, which of late have been quite painless. I only managed two days in Prague; I would have liked time to see other parts of the country as well, but it didn't work out that way. I have visited Prague before so 2 days this time was reasonable and a nice contrast with the summer season there. I do love the city, even though it seems trendy to do so--many travellers I meet on the road single it out as their favorite. Prices certainly had increased in the 7 1/3 years it's been since I was last there, but still remain fairly cheap--well below Budapest, for example. I discovered that I remembered my way around the city pretty well, and soon dispensed with the map for the most part. I stepped right into the Christmas season upon my arrival there, with street lights and a Christmas market in the old town square. Hot wine mixed with spices is sold on the streets in copious quantities, and regardless of its questionable merits in the taste category I appreciated it for its warming qualities.

On the recommendation of a fellow American I met in Budapest, I dragged several people I met in the hostel to a Czech restaurant. It was a bit of a hike in the cold, and expectations were high. Fortunately my companions esteemed the meal more highly than any other they had eaten since arriving on the continent, so I was forgiven the walk. Czech food is decent if unremarkable; the highlight is clearly the beer, which is widely available for less than $1 (U.S.) per half-liter. I can recall getting it for a quarter of that 7 years ago, but it's still cheaper than anywhere else--and better.

The following day I climbed the big hill overlooking the city and went to the National Museum, but the day was mostly spent in the Christmas market. I found a booth that featured brain teasers, wooden puzzles (which typically involved arranging the pieces into a particular shape) or metal ones (which usually required the removal of a ring from the rest of the contraption). I was sucked in, and it was nice to spend a day relaxing (more or less). Also I enjoyed talking to the girl who was working the booth--that could have played a role, I suppose :)

The only downside to my time in Prague was that the hostel seems to have been infested with bed bugs. This is the only explanation I can come up with for the hundreds of bites that I have enjoyed so much. They did not manifest themselves until reaching Berlin, but I am reasonably certain that bed bugs in Prague were the culprit. They itched quite a bit for over 10 days, and are just now subsiding into a dull background feeling. I initially thought that they might be travelling with me, as I seemed to be developing new bites, but I think that I was just bitten over my two nights in Prague. There seems to be an evolution to the bite of a bedbug, and as I had bites in various stages of this evolution (and given my lack of familiarity with this type of bite) I thought I was still being bitten. Fortunately that turns out not to have been the case.

From Prague it was on to Berlin--I will start there in my next update!

To Budapest

2003-12-01T16:36:00.000Z

I'm finally able to share some pictures again! It was not difficult to find the requisite computer facilities in Budapest; however, another difficulty was immediately presented, which is that I had exceeded my allotted amount of web space. I have dealt with this issue for the time being by reducing the quality of a number of photos so I again have some room.

I still have a few from Turkey. The first is a view over the ruins of Ephesus. The next one was also taken at Ephesus; here I demonstrate the usage of some ancient Roman facilities. In that same vein is this sign posted near the exit from the grounds--and I didn't spend the money, so I suppose we'll just be left wondering what kind of a special time I missed. And this is one of Ila and me together the night before we went our separate ways.

Sofia was a difficult city in which to take a representative photograph; the best I took was this one of the Aleksander Nevski Church. It was built as a memorial to the Russian soldiers who fought on behalf of Bulgarian independence from the Ottomans, and it's one of the central points of the city. I took this picture of the Rila Monastery, with the domes of the church in the foreground. And this one was taken looking down on the village of Koprivshtitsa from the hill above.

I took this picture of a billboard in Bucharest featuring a slogan that I really like (I'm told it's a very old advertising campaign, but it's new to me). This photo depicts the Palace of Parliament, the 2nd largest building in the world. My last night in Bucharest I attended a concert at the Ateneul Roman, which is more impressive on the inside. I got a ticket without really knowing what kind of concert to expect. It was a pair of brothers from Spain who play the piano together--the same piano. All of the pieces they played were Spanish pieces, written specifically for the two person piano. It seemed to me that they had to adjust their hands to account for their partner's. The music was enjoyable, full without sounding crowded. I suppose you would get much the same sound from two pianos, but then you wouldn't have the same visual effect. These brothers really liked the applause and milked it for all they could, despite the small audience.

The next day it was off through the fog to the train station. I headed north to the town of Sinaia, which features Peles Castle (for purposes of accuracy I will note that I have anglicized many of the names that I reference, which otherwise would include cedillas and other strange characters). Unfortunately the castle was closed to visitors during November, but I did get to tour the smaller castle nearby. Afterward I rode the cable car up the mountain nearby (used for skiing when there is snow) and took this picture of the castle from above. I continued on to Brasov, the second largest city in Romania. I used it as a base for visiting some nice little towns nearby; Sighisoara, which features a nice little medieval core on top of a hill; Bran, the home of "Dracula's Castle" (Vlad Tepes seems to have no connection to the place, but somehow it still gets the moniker); and Rasnov, offering the peasant's castle--the local peasants banded together to build it in order to have a retreat when times got tough. Some of the people I was with seemed disappointed by Bran Castle, but I loved it--winding stairways, well-appointed rooms, an unpredictable interior layout, and a nice roof-top terrace. Rasnov Castle was really more of a series of buildings protected by heavy fortifications, mostly in ruins but undergoing renovations as I watched.

From there I proceeded on to Budapest via overnight train. I had planned to spend some of my time in Hungary in smaller towns and villages, but I liked Budapest so much that I have spent the last 6 days here. The architecture here is wonderful, and it's fun to just walk around the city admiring it. There are good museums, large parks, and a serviceable public transportation system. One of the more prominent structures is the Parliament building, looking out across the Danube from the Pest side of the city. In the castle district (here's a night shot) on the hill just across the river is the Fisherman's Bastion. I took this picture of a reflective glass window with blinds inside and the Bastion behind me.

Some of the highlights of my time here: the National Museum, which had an archaeology exhibit on Hungary from 6000 BC until about 1000 AD, and then on another floor an exhibit on Hungarian history from 1000 AD until the present. This was a great way to address the history of the area and of the people. Spelunking in a cave below Buda was a great time. It's not open to the public so we took a guided tour and everyone had a blast. We crawled through plenty of tight corridors on our bellies, climbed up steep passageways, slid down muddy tubes, admired seashell fossils, and enjoyed the atmosphere of chambers such as the Library, the Theater, and the Elephant. The caves below the city were formed by the hot waters bubbling up from below, the same ones that power the thermal baths for which the city is known. I went to one of the better more famous baths in the city (here's a night shot of the building) with a group of friends. The interior of the building was large and impressive, the central pool was lined with large columns, and the men and women had separate bathing areas with steam rooms, saunas, and massage rooms. It was a fun time, but when somebody tries to start up a conversation with me at a bath house I can't help but feel that I'm being hit on.

Outside of the city but accessible by public bus is Statue Park, in which many of the communist-era city monuments were dumped. We had fun mimicking some of the grandiose postures. They could have done more with the park, but it was was interesting to see. That evening we went ice skating at an outdoor rink in one corner of the City Park--here's a picture I took the evening before of the castle that overlooks the rink. When we were there the entire rink was packed full of people.

I've used the pronoun "we" several times--I have spent a couple of days and most evenings with a group of people I met at the hostel. It's interesting to observe how these amorphous social groups coalesce, evolve, relocate and ultimately die. Brian (Canada), Cassandra (Australia), Chandley (Tennessee), Tiffany (San Diego), Gary and Jemma (England), and Sebastian (London) were all central characters in this cast at one point or another. Sebastian is a friend of Cassandra's who had flown in for the weekend, and I think it is fortunate that we met. He works in an industry that I am interested in exploring: environmental consulting to international institutions such as the United Nations and World Bank. I am interested in learning more, he claims the field has good job prospects and that I could put my IT background to use. We'll see.

The weather has remained unexpectedly nice for this time of year. The trend has been for there to be thick fog early, burning off by late morning, and then either sunny or overcast skies during the afternoon. We've had some rain, but only a little. Budapest has been more expensive than I expected, given my other experiences in eastern Europe and my guidebook's statements. It has been difficult to find a middle ground between fast food and expensive restaurants, so I have ended up consuming more of the former than I would like. Hungarian food is a step up from Romanian, but only a small one. I did manage to find turkey on the menu on Thanksgiving night (though it was breaded and covered with sesame seeds).

Tonight I'm taking another overnight train, this time heading for Krakow. My route takes me through Slovakia, so I have two border crossings to look forward to.

From Bulgaria to Bucharest

2003-11-22T16:51:00.000Z

I headed to the train station to buy a ticket out of Sofia. The buses are generally preferable in Bulgaria (faster and nicer), but I knew the time of the train I wanted and the bus termini were too chaotic to navigate. While buying a ticket I struck up a conversation with an interesting man, who has been to 88 countries and had plenty to say. The situation in Sofia has apparently been a little unsettled of late--fights between rival gangs have resulted in some killings. He observed that Sofia used to be a perfectly safe town to walk around at night, which is no longer the case because of the "idiots" who do whatever they want with no repercussions. The police do little and the system lets them off with just a hand slap. I think he was a little bitter because his car had recently been stolen.

One thing I have found in this part of the world is that the bus or train ticket agents can never tell me what time to expect to arrive at my destination. I think they just make up a time. When travelling from Istanbul to Plovdiv I was told (by various people) that I would arrive anywhere from 9am to 1pm (it turned out to be somewhere around 11am, as I recall). For my trip out of Sofia, I was told that I would arrive at my intended destination after 4 hours, but it only took 2 1/2. I would think that they might have a better idea since these routes are run every day.

From Sofia I headed to Koprivshtitsa, a village in the mountains that has been preserved as an open air museum. It has some importance in Bulgarian history, as the move to throw off the Ottoman yoke began there. They never would have succeeded without Russian help, though--there is a big church and at least one monument in Sofia that were built to honor the 200,000 Russian soldiers that died for Bulgarian independence. That number is courtesy of my guidebook, so perhaps I should not quote it as it has proved most unhelpful in Bulgaria. Whoever wrote this section should be barred from travel guide writing forevermore. As an example, the claim was made that the Ethnographical Museum is one of the highlights of the country. This is manifestly untrue, as I discovered during the 10 minutes it took me to view the collection. A useful Bulgarian section would have been nice, because travelling in this country is a bit more difficult than in others. I think they just aren't ready for or don't expect non-Bulgarian tourists. This is good and bad--it makes things more difficult, but it also made it feel a little more like I was off the beaten tourist path. The hostel in Sofia didn't really provide any useful information, as have most hostels in my experience.

So I arrived in Koprivshtitsa around 8:00. The lesson which I will carry with me these next few weeks is that when I arrive in a village, it is easier if I arrive during the day. I kept following signs to hotels/pensions which were padlocked and clearly shut down for the winter. My Kiwi friend Jason in Turkey had highly recommended the town, and told me to expect that I would be offered a private room upon arrival. Well, not at night! I ended up having to pay more than I had expected to, and staying in a hotel instead of a private room. I had two beds in my room, which illustrates the difficulty in travelling alone. It is much easier and cheaper to travel with a friend outside of the big cities, but I didn't meet anyone in Sofia headed my way. The people that I did meet at the hostel seemed to just be hanging out and partying in Sofia with no particular agenda. One guy got so drunk that he fell face-first and knocked off huge chunks of his front upper teeth. He had a Bulgarian dentist fix them for the equivalent of $25. I don't know whether that was a smart move or not--I suppose the "fix" probably won't last very long anyway.

Koprivshtitsa was charming by daylight. It appears much the same as it might have in the 19th century, with some attractive houses that have been preserved since that time. Horses and cattle wander the streets freely. I climbed a few of the more accessible peaks in the area, and quite enjoyed the chance to get into the mountains. That afternoon while wandering the town I engaged in a 15 minute conversation with a group of old ladies who spoke not a word of English. I did manage to gather that one of them had a son who played for a Bulgarian soccer team and had travelled to Chicago at some point.

The next day I was up early to catch the bus to the train station, where I bought a ticket as far as I could get toward Bucharest. The ride through the mountains was quite pretty, as I have managed to catch the tail end of autumn. The brilliant gold leaves, bare grey trees with a hint of ruddiness, and deep green conifers are all mixed together in a patchwork that is very pleasing to look upon. The train brought me to the border town of Russe about 5:10. I discovered that the last train for Bucharest had departed at 4:45. But of course when I purchased my ticket the agent did not have access to this info. I accepted the offer of a solicitous local to drive me to the border (at considerably more than the going rate for a taxi, I later realized) so I could try to hitch a ride across. This particular border crossing features a 5km bridge across the Danube from which pedestrians are barred. Not a lot of traffic was heading my way, I think it is deterred due to the high taxes that must be paid to cross. I had to fend off a taxi driver who repeatedly offered for a hefty price to drive me to Bucharest or just across the bridge (how would that have helped me? I still would have had to find a way to Bucharest). He just wouldn't accept that I refused to give in to his extortionate demands.

I haven't spent so much time hitch-hiking, but I have some idea of what kinds of vehicles to approach. After about an hour and a half I saw a car that fit one of the relevant profiles--three youngish adults and an open seat in the car. I made my pitch, they accepted, and aggressive taxi guy could only watch helplessly as another fare escaped his clutches. I was fortunate to have happened upon the car-mates that I did, I had some interesting conversation with Annie, who had lived in Paris for 4 years in the 80s before returning just in time to see communism fail. It was her first time in Romania--her attitude was that why should she visit a country just like Bulgaria, only poorer? The road to Bucharest was narrow, and made narrower by the fact that the right-most quarter had been sheared off in what was hopefully only the first phase of a larger operation. The road was not lit, and as we hurtled along at what seemed like a very reasonable speed for the roadway we would suddenly come upon large horse-drawn carts and have to swerve to avoid them at the last second. It was a dangerous ride! But I was dropped off in the city center with no trouble.

My initial impressions of Bucharest have been quite favorable. I have not been sure what to expect from Romania, as I have heard quite divergent opinions from fellow travellers. Some people love it more than any other place they have been. Others (and these are not first hand accounts) have nothing good to say at all. I think these are usually Aussies or Kiwis reassuring themselves that they have missed nothing--because they have to acquire visas before arriving at the border, most decide to avoid the hassle and the country. Most complaints are about Bucharest--I had heard that it is dangerous, dirty, pickpockets and scam artists everywhere to accompany the profusion of stray dogs. While this may all be true, I have so far found it to be a delightful city. The architecture around the city center is wonderful, everything from ornate little houses to grandiloquent state buildings. The parks are large, attractive, and well-maintained (though the fountains are turned off and the ponds drained, presumably in anticipation of cold weather to come). Some of the streets are lined with trees and populated with monuments and statues.

The highlight yesterday was an open air museum in a park featuring reconstructions of churches and homesteads from villages in the different regions of Romania circa late 18th - early 20th century (they were all labelled according to location and date). There were a few hundred buildings, with some distinctive regional styles and building materials. It was a beautiful day to spend in the park--I have been very fortunate with the weather, which has been unseasonably nice these past two days. Today I toured the Palace of Parliament, which is billed as the second largest building in the world (after the Pentagon). It certainly is opulent inside--no wonder Romania is a poor country, all of its wealth in the 1980s was devoted to this project! I also went to the National History Museum, which is in large part indefinitely closed to the public but did feature a room full of copies of sections of Trajan's Column. I'm reasonably certain that this is the column whose base I observed still standing at the head of Trajan's Market in Rome, right next to the Forum. The column is a series of over 100 scenes spiraling upward from the base that detail Trajan's campaign against the Dacians (the people living here in the 2nd century). Afterward I got to talking to some of the security guards, who said they didn't like Bucharest and would move to New York City without a second thought if given the option. They said that Romania is in a period of transition, but they don't expect conditions to improve for many years.

The security guards, like so many people that I have encountered in Bucharest, spoke good English. I was surprised, as I was expecting things to be similar to my experience in Sofia, where English is not so commonly spoken. And Romanian is a relief after the Cyrillic characters of Bulgarian--as a Romance language it has many cognates with French, and I have a much easier time deciphering signs. As far as food goes, it has all been downhill from Turkey. Meals in Bulgaria were decent, though unremarkable. I can only say that Romania is justifiably not renowned for its cuisine.

You may be wondering what the toilet paper that I encounter on the road is like. I don't recall any notable characteristics until Bulgaria; the toilet paper there disintegrated upon contact with other matter. In Romania it approximates thin, flimsy cardboard. I will only revisit this topic if it is dictated by the circumstances.

I have still been unable to find support for my digital camera, so it looks like I'll just have to pin my hopes on Budapest. I'll be heading through some smaller towns in Romania on my way there, and I doubt they will have facilities that exceed what Bucharest has to offer.

Good-byes, then to Bulgaria

2003-11-18T12:50:00.000Z

Greetings from Sofia! I've been to at least half a dozen internet shops here trying to find one that would allow me to upload photos, but for various reasons none of them support this function. As it may be some time before I can put my latest pictures up, I decided to add another blog entry today anyway.

Picking up from where I left off in Turkey--Gallipoli. I think it resonates with the Aussies and Kiwis because it marked the first international endeavors of their respective nations, and represents their step onto the world stage (though this is my interpretation). It was a little strange to learn about the bloody standoff between Turkish troops and the ANZAC forces, who of course had nothing against each other--it was just the way that politics in the world were being played out. I'm glad we took a guided tour because the area wouldn't have meant much to me otherwise. Our tour guide was able to make the battles come alive as we stood in the trenches or on the hills. There were quite a few monuments to the soldiers killed there, which grew somewhat tiresome after a while.

We headed back to Istanbul that evening instead of staying on the peninsula. Back in Istanbul we did the things we had missed the first time around--I made sure that Jason and Ila sampled the wonderful chocolate baklava, I went to the Turkish & Islamic Arts Museum, and we spent a wonderful last evening together enjoying live Turkish music (which I really enjoy) and smoking a nargile (the Turkish water pipe with flavored tobacco). It was difficult to say good-bye to Ila, as we really enjoyed each other's company and had such a great time travelling through Turkey together. That is one of the toughest things about life on the road--I meet so many great people, but end up having to leave them all sooner or later. If things work out we will meet up again.

Friday I went to an exhibition of contemporary arts called "Biennial" with Jason. There were some paintings, photographs, and sculptures, but the features were the video pieces. Some were quite fascinating, others just confusing. The exhibition closed down two days later, so I felt fortunate to have had the chance to view it. Afterward Jason acquired and I sampled something called a chicken pudding, which according to whom you believe either A) does or B) does not contain chicken--we couldn't tell.

That evening I took an overnight train out of Istanbul to Bulgaria. It was difficult to leave, but as Ila had flown to Spain that morning it felt like the right time to move on. I fully intend to return to Turkey someday--I love it there. English is commonly spoken, there is a well-developed tourist infrastructure, a good mix of city, nature, coast, ruins, history, art, and souvenirs. I would recommend it to anyone, and I really just can't say enough about it, so I should leave it at that.

I think other countries that I visit will pale in comparison. That train ride out of Istanbul was so cold--I had on all my lairs of clothing, and I was inside my sleeping bag (earning its weight for once), and that was just barely enough to keep me warm. Border crossings at 4am are always fun. My first stop was one of the larger towns in Bulgaria, Plovdiv. It features a nice old quarter, but my guidebook had built the town up to be far more than it is. The highlight of the town to me is a gallery of paintings by a local artist (Zlatyo Boyadjiev, approximately) that reminded me very much of Van Gogh, but with local themes. It was difficult to find accommodation for the evening, but I finally found an agency and booked a private room. The man at the agency spoke German, and the woman who hosted me spoke French, so my limited language skills (better understanding than speaking) came in handy.

The next day I hopped a bus to Sofia. It's not the nicest of cities, but not without its charms. It can be a bit difficult to navigate, as the guidebook gives street names in Latin characters, but the street signs are in Cyrillic--they don't match up! The entire country during my time here has been enveloped in some kind of haze--I don't know whether it is pollution or fog or some peculiar local weather pattern (nobody I've asked knows), but it doesn't seem to burn off under the sun the way fog does. Coming from Turkey I have been struck by all of the mini-skirts--the women here are attractive and make an effort to show themselves off. My first afternoon here I spent walking around the city, admiring the architecture of churches and public buildings, strolling through some of the huge parks, and soaking in the atmosphere. At one point I got sucked into a chess game, despite my best intentions. I hadn't played in quite some time, but my opponent thought I was much better so he gave way to an older guy who whipped out a timer before proceeding to beat my pants off (and take my money as well). I got used to seeing and playing backgammon in Turkey, it's funny that I cross a border and the game of choice changes. That evening I went out to dinner by myself and was seated at a table with some Bulgarians. After a little initial reticence we ended up talking for several hours, and they turned out to be quite engaging and agreeable people. They recommended various foods, drinks, and places to visit. One of the guys said he earns 600 leva (about 300 Euros, which is about $340) per month, which is twice the average salary and his job is considered a good one. He wants to visit London, but it's hard to imagine that salary going very far there.

I've seen a lot of people walking on the streets eating pizza with some kind of white sauce on it. I bought a slice today and at the shop finally discovered the identity of the mysterious white sauce--mayonnaise! Ugh! And I don't think I've passed a dumpster here without seeing someone going through its contents.

The computers here are much better than the computers in Turkey and the internet access is much faster. It's a little bit cheaper as well--everything except accommodation seems to be a little less than in Turkey. Most of the internet shops seem to be devoted to online games, and many are packed with kids playing them--I haven't seen this anywhere else. I can't help but thinking that this technology could be put to better use in service of the economy rather than just playing games.

Yesterday I navigated the bus system out to the Rila Monastery, situated up in the mountains south of Sofia. It was quite picturesque (which hopefully you will also soon be able to appreciate, when I find a capable computer!), though my expectations were higher given the reputation of the place. The highlight of the day was a beautiful wooden cross that one of the monks spent 12 years carving in the late 18th century--the level of detail was just incredible, almost too fine for my eye to discern. In figuring out the bus system (not the easiest of matters) I spent the day with a Kiwi and a French couple. Upon our return to Sofia we went out to dinner together, which capped a delightful day. After we parted around 11pm I realized that I had spent all day with these people and we had never exchanged names! So it goes.

I intend to leave Sofia tonight and head to some of the smaller villages in Bulgaria. My tentative route will take me through Romania to Hungary, then likely to Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic before returning to Germany. I visited a KLM office today and had them push back the date of my return flight to the U.S. until December 16th, as I am enjoying life on the road too much to rush back!

Seconds of Turkey, please

2003-11-11T18:36:00.000Z

The hostel I've been staying in the last couple of nights has a computer I've been wrestling with, and I've managed to get a few pictures up. The first one I want to share is the last photo I took in Rome--a night shot over the Forum.

I went to a Turkish bath when I was in Istanbul with a couple of guys I met at the hostel to a place that has been in operation for 500 years. It was enjoyable for the most part--the hot marble certainly felt nice to lie upon, the steamy air was cleansing, but I'm not convinced that the massage was the best thing for my back or joints. And the price we paid was supposed to cover everything including tips, but the employees requested money throughout the entire time we were there (despite the fact that we were wearing nothing but towels--where did they think our money was hidden?) and it seemed a bit crass. Even so it was nice to have experienced a Turkish bath.

The food in Turkey is quite enjoyable--I had gotten a very limited perspective from the Turkish joints in Germany. The meals are generally balanced, generous, and cheap. The sweets here are among the best I've had. I wasn't aware of the reputation of Turkish cuisine, so I have been quite pleasantly surprised, especially as I have just come from Italy which has such an inflated reputation for its expensive food.

I've had very limited interactions with Turkish women--the men seem to greatly outnumber them in general, and are the only ones who work in public positions in stores, hostels, restaurants, etc. I have developed a theory to explain this apparent discrepancy: the women are all working in back rooms to weave the carpets and kilims available for purchase on every corner. All of these are supposedly hand-made, and so there must be a lot of hands making them, right?

Prices outside of Istanbul are quite cheap--I had thought that this might be due to being here in the low season, but apparently tourism has been off everywhere the past two years, and so prices were lower throughout the summer. A night's stay is running about $7 and a decent meal can often be had for less than $5.00. I imagine that things might well be different during the high season, but they really cater to tourists here. I don't understand why this time of year is not popular with tourists--the weather here is absolutely gorgeous right now, I would consider it too hot during the height of summer.

And now for some pictures! This is a view of the Blue Mosque from Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. And this is a view of the Blue Mosque up close just before sunset. These were the only pictures I took in Istanbul that I liked enough to share--maybe I'll get some more good ones on my way back through. On my next stop, this is a view over a section of the landscape of Cappadocia with one of Turkey's highest peaks faintly visible hovering above the horizen. You can see some of the "fairy chimneys" with rooms carved into them in the foreground. People are no longer allowed to live in them (because of the danger of collapse, I think). Here's a picture I had taken of me with Ila as we hiked with a group through the Ihara Gorge. This one shows a small section of the Selime Monastery, a huge multi-level complex of caves and chapels and tunnels that was great fun to poke around, the picture isn't enough to really show the place off but perhaps it gives a little of the flavor. And that evening I was fortunate to capture this photo of the spectacular sunset.

Our last day in Goreme was spent exploring the area around the town on foot. I took this picture of part of a room that had been carved into a cliff. The extent of the cliff dwellings here is overwhelming--they're all over the place, and many of them are so high up on the cliff face as to appear to be completely inaccessible. Later on the hike we saw this view of the rock castle at Uchisar.

That evening we took an overnight bus westward to Pamukkale. Upon arrival we were picked up by a minibus and taken to our destination, whereupon we met Jason (from New Zealand) and Christa (from Canada), with whom we proceeded to travel for the next few days. The travertine pools on the cliffs above the town are quite pretty, even if people are no longer allowed in them. It was a little disappointing because we couldn't get to the places where the pretty pictures in the tourist books had been taken, and it didn't look quite as nice from behind the railing. Above this area are the ruins of the old Roman spa town of Hierapolis. In this park is also a pool which contains actual pieces of the ruins. That evening one of the guys who works at the hostel drove the four of us up to a little cave in the park that the locals know about, really just a hole in the rocky ground with flowing water that is 35 degrees C year round and quite delightful.

The next morning we were up early to go by train (rare in Turkey) to Selcuk, where I am right now. The prime attraction here is the ruins of Ephesus, the old Roman capital of the province of Asia. I took some pictures of them today, but they will have to wait for another day to be uploaded. Our first day here featured a ride to a little old Greek village in the hills nearby with lots of shops offering free wine tastings. I didn't particularly enjoy the red wines, the white were okay, but the notable ones were the fruit wines. We sampled wines made from pomegranate, strawberry, blackberry, raspberry, quince (what is a quince, anyway?), apple, pineapple, peach, apricot, melon, and I recall seeing but not trying kiwi, black mulberry, and blueberry. Assuming I recall anything clearly from that afternoon :)

Close by this side of town is what is left of the old Temple of Artemis, which was one of the Wonders of the World. There are just a few stones left, as it became used as a quarry after Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire. Supposedly the marble was taken to be used in the construction of the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul, but the historical literature in Turkey is often less than conclusive, reporting things as "rumored" or "apparent". The highlight of the day were the pancakes made with tahini (a paste made from sesame seeds) and honey...mmmmm.

From here three of us will be taking the overnight bus this evening north to Gallipoli, and Christa will depart for the southern coast. These overnight buses aren't so bad--it's a pretty cheap way to travel, it saves the cost of a night's accommodation, but it can make for less than a completely refreshing night's sleep. The Turkish buses in particular are pretty nice (no smoking allowed, thank goodness!). There is a steward who serves tea or coffee, cake, and sprinkles our hands with some kind of alcholic cleaning liquid. The only downside is that there is no bathroom on the buses; they stop pretty frequently so that's not a problem, but the stops tend to interrupt one's sleep. And last time we were unexpectedly thrust onto a different bus somewhere around 3am. But it's better than spending a whole day in transit, although the downside is missing the countryside on the way. At any rate, Gallipoli is obviously of greater interest to the Aussies and Kiwis, but we'll probably end up taking a tour which should make it more interesting.

Turkey

2003-11-06T20:08:00.000Z

I returned to the airport outside of Rome to find that prices to the destinations I was checking had all fallen. The best price was to Istanbul, so I took it! I've been in Turkey since then (a week's time) and I'm loving it. It was initially a bit of a shock to be charged $100 cash (I had $110 on me, thank goodness) to enter the country--my guide book which supposedly had last year's information indicated that I should expect to pay $45.

The Turkish people are some of the friendliest that I've met anywhere--the men, that is, I have yet to actually speak to any of the Turkish women. There are frequent offers to share tea, which is consumed incessantly. I've grown a bit wary of the friendliness after ending up in one too many carpet shop, though. There are some guys that roam the streets trying to lure tourists into their shops, but others are happy just to share tea and talk.

I find the aggressiveness of Turkish shopkeepers to be quite off-putting. It is impossible to pause while window shopping to admire or consider the merchandise, because inevitably within about 3 seconds the officious shopkeeper is asking you to make an offer on whatever item you happen to be looking at. This makes me want to move on rather than spend more time there. The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul was a huge largely indoor grid of shops of all kinds, and I found the merchandise attractive. As a rule I do not enjoy shopping, and as a backpacker I certainly do not have the funds or bag space to make purchases along the way. However, I could envision returning to Turkey in the future to acquire at good prices some of the fine items such as carpets, lamps, inlaid wooden boxes, ceramics, etc. Yes, I really just wrote that last sentence...wow.

Istanbul is huge--I can't seem to get consistent population estimates, but 15 million people seems to be the consensus. The touristed part of the city is relatively compact and there aren't so many sights to see (especially in comparison to Rome). My arrival here happens to have fallen during Ramazan, the Turkish word for Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting. There was a big outdoor fair set up on the hippodrome as part of that celebration. I am ignorant of the Muslim faith, but Ramazan seems to be equal parts fasting during the day and partying in the evening.

Everything in Turkey is negotiable. If you enjoy the art of bargaining then this is a good place to come. I prefer a set price that everybody pays--I can't help but feel here that I am constantly being ripped off, that other people are paying better prices than I am. Things are relatively cheap here, but not out of line with what I saw in Dresden, for example. The tourist sites in Istanbul were really quite expensive, for one thing. Prices here are often quoted in dollars, and this is the first place I've been where dollars are readily accepted--I hear that they are preferred for large purchases within the country.

The internet access in Turkey is the slowest I have experienced since the days of 14.4 modems--but back then at least I wasn't paying by the half hour. I've taken some nice pictures but you'll just have to wait until I have the opportunity to upload them.

As has been common on the road I met some great people in the hostel in Istanbul. One woman went to the same middle school in Denver that I attended for a semester! I met an Aussie named Ila, and we hit it off quite well and have decided to travel around Turkey together--it's more fun to do with a friend. She is almost 9 months into a year long round-the-world trip. The first night we met we went to the Ramazan fair and walked around for a while, sampling some nice Turkish pastries before ending up in a tent with Turkish music and water pipes. We stood outside and observed for a while before deciding to enter and join in. We had no sooner been seated and delivered our very own water pipe full of some aromatic blend of fruity Turkish tobacco when I was approached to join the dancing (which is apparently a male thing). I tried to resist but the employees there combined forces and I had no choice but to get up and try to follow along. The dancing involved holding onto the fellows next to you and and hopping around in some set pattern of dance steps which was quite beyond me, but I gamely gave it a try.

Sunday evening we hopped a ferry, not really sure where it was going. It ended up taking us to the Asian side of the Bosporus--my first time on that continent! The next night we took an overnight bus to Goreme, a town on the Anatolian plateau in central Turkey in the middle of the region called Cappadocia (that's where I am at the moment). The scenery here is quite spectacular--some pecularities of the soil in the region has led to some incredible geological formations known as "fairy chimneys". We toured an underground city 8 levels (85 meters) deep, hiked through a beautiful gorge with hundreds of old Byzantine churches, climbed through a monastery built into a cliff, stopped at an old caravanserai (a stop along the old silk road), and watched local potters at work. Last week we're told that it snowed a few inches, but this week the weather has been warm and nice. As it is the tourist off-season, many of the prices have been reduced and it is easy to do things without having to book in advance.

Tomorrow night we're going to take another overnight bus to some spots in western Turkey. Hopefully next time I update I will be able to share some pictures!

My backpack is found

2003-10-29T19:52:00.000Z

Thank goodness! It was a scary time...I wasn't sure if I could proceed with my trip. My ATM card even stopped working last night and this morning, what bad timing. The flight in from NYC was due at 9:30 this morning, so I called about 11:30 to see if there was any sign of the bag. There was not, so I decided to head back to the airport to get these people to pony up some dough for a nice hotel, bag, clothing, toiletries, etc. I tried to find a Delta representative first, since I had purchased my ticket through them. There was nobody around, and I was told that they are only available "in the morning". I did get a phone number to call, but I was told that they could not help since Alitalia had issued my claim number. I went back to the Alitalia lost bag desk, girded for war and prepped for a stirring speech. Of course they had finally located it, and were about to send it to the hotel where I had been staying but no longer was. This necessitated a walk to the cargo area of the airport (if you're curious about such places, don't be). I got some price quotes for tomorrow's flights, and I will head back to the airport bright and early to purchase a ticket. Destination? To be determined! I can't say that I have enjoyed these two days in Rome, but I've been here long enough already to see the things I wanted to see. And now I am ready to move on.

Wedding

2003-10-28T17:15:00.000Z

The Wilmington wedding weekend was wonderful! I was able to spend more time than I expected with Jordy and Tegan, I saw old college friends, got no sleep (due at least in part to jet lag). Friday afternoon I got to spend a few hours with Jordy running errands, and that evening was the Texas-barbeque-themed rehearsal dinner. Saturday I got up and went with Huy (who works with Jordy at Microsoft, and whom I had actually met before at a party in Austin) to a group tour of the grounds of Mt. Cuba. It's in Delaware, it isn't actually a mountain, but a highly managed area of woods, flowers, ponds, etc. It was the height of autumn, with leaving turning colors and falling, and just a beautiful morning for a nature walk. Huy and Lilly were very nice in giving me rides--I didn't take a cab (or pay for a meal) between Friday and Sunday. The Tiganis (daringly, I thought) hosted lunch at their home the afternoon of the wedding. The wedding ceremony itself was lovely, the reception a great time. Great variety of food and conversation, the evening just passed too quickly. I tried to put myself into a position such that I would under no circumstances catch the garter, but it magically leaped from Jordy's hand right to mine. I learned about a Spanish custom of "drunken cake" (I don't recall the Spanish term for it) in which brandy is poured over the wedding cake and then lit on fire (the brandy must be warmed first, if you get a hankering to try it)--I recommend this approach! There was a party afterward, a brunch the next day, and then I spent the afternoon and evening at the Tigani residence. I enjoyed dinner with them and even got to act the role of the "taper" as presents were opened. It was a full three days.

Monday I left to return to Rome. It was raining and my flight out of Philadelphia was delayed for 2 hours. I missed my connecting flight in NYC, but they put me on an Alitalia flight. Between the rain, a slow terminal shuttle, and getting stopped at security checkpoints because foil-wrapped hershey kisses in my pockets set off the metal detectors, I wasn't sure I would make the flight, but I did. Of course I was assigned to a seat with a broken video monitor (each seat had its own). And upon my arrival in Rome you can imagine my delight to discover that my bag did not arrive. Of course the Alitalia lost bag employees could tell me nothing--they were fairly unhelpful and surly, acting put out that I didn't have a local address and phone number with which they could contact me. They don't really seem to understand the idea of backpacking around the continent, or perhaps they aren't aware of a world beyond Rome. Naturally I won't be compensated for the additional costs in time and money that I have incurred due to airline incompetence.

Somehow it doesn't surprise me that it was the Italian airline that lost my bag--I had a bad feeling about having to travel with them as soon as I heard that's who Delta had pawned me off on. I hope my bag just missed the connection and will be here tomorrow--I don't like contemplating the alternative. I had not intended to stay in Rome, but I decided that it would be the best course of action. If I continue traveling hoping that my bag will catch up to me and it doesn't, it will be harder to deal with. Hopefully it makes it here tomorrow morning; if so, I will try to book a flight out of this country. I will probably have to buy a round trip and discard the return, as a one way ticket is twice as expensive (can someone out there explain that one to me?). High on the list of possible destinations are Lisbon, Madrid, and Istanbul. If I don't get my bag I'm not sure that I can really continue with my trip. Today for instance it would be nice to have my umbrella, warm clothing (as it is quite cold and raining hard), towel, toiletries (I had to book a hotel room instead of a bed in a hostel because I lacked those last two items, and I really wanted a shower today and tomorrow), change of underwear, etc. I suppose this is the downside of traveling--I'm cold, wet, exhausted from many consecutive nights of sub-par sleep, and this likely won't even turn out to make a good story years from now.

Rome

2003-10-24T21:11:00.000Z

I had a dream a few weeks ago in which I somehow missed watching the Super Bowl (even though the broadcast reaches most of the world's population). Afterward I found out that the Saints had played the Tampa Bay Bucs (which is impossible, since they are in the same division). The only realistic part of the dream is that the outcome of the game was that the Bucs beat the Saints 3-0. I have no idea why I dreamt this, but I wish the Saints would at least win in my dreams.

There is so much to see in Rome that I just can't take pictures of it all. For one thing it is difficult to capture the scale and grandeur of some of these buildings. For another, there are just so many impressive, photo-worthy sights here that one simply cannot capture them all. I have avoided taking pictures in museums and of churches for this reason--where would I stop? I have included pictures of some of the more famous sights in Rome, but not all. I'll start you off with the Trevi Fountain, a spot beautiful spot that is crowded night and day. Here's a view of the interior of the Colosseum. And here's a picture I'm quite pleased with (I usually note these, because they aren't so frequent), taken from the Capitoline Hill overlooking the Forum, with the Colosseum in the distance. This one is of the Baths of Caracalla--the Romans certainly knew how to turn a bath into a production.

Upon arrival Saturday (October 11th) I went to a private tourism agency (Enjoy Rome) and they booked me into a hostel and provided me with a map and city guide. After a week in the first hostel I had to move to a second one because somebody else reserved my bed out from under me, but at least they made a phone call and reserved me a bed in another hostel. This is definitely the way to go while travelling alone. I usually return to the hostel after seeing the sights of Rome during the day to try to meet somebody to go to dinner with if I have not already. Sometimes when I'm tired of meeting people I just stay out by myself. With this approach I have so far enjoyed dinner with Cat from England, Miree from New Zealand (the first Kiwi I've met), a group including those two plus Andres from Ecuador and Devrim from Turkey, Andy from Canada (currently on break from serving in the armed forces in Afghanistan), and Christa from The Netherlands. I have made good use of my earplugs--the first hostel I used was right on a busy road with vespas (scooters) revving their engines all night long, but even in a quiet neighborhood they are useful because people are arriving and departing at all hours of the night and morning. I have found that as long as I have earplugs I can get a good night's sleep.

There is no point in giving a day-by-day account of my time in Rome. I've seen everything that the guide books recommend seeing and much else besides. It's all worth seeing, so I'll just mention a few of the highlights. There are a mind-boggling number of impressive churches in Rome. My favorite is San Clemente--a 12th century church built on top of a 4th century church built on top of a 1st century house containing a temple. You can actually go down into each of those older levels and view the changing art (where it survives) and architecture. Another highlight was the crypt of the Capuchin monks. They apparently had a lot of human bones at their disposal and used them as decorating materials, building chandeliers, arches, and niches out of tibias, femurs, skulls, etc.

Italian food has a great reputation, but it hasn't lived up to it in my opinion. In many ways I enjoyed eating out more in Dresden. Everything in Italy is ordered separately, and it gets expensive. The one exception is the wine; the house wine is usually cheap and good. But if you order a piece of meat, you typically get just that--no sides, no vegetables. A pasta dish might have meat or vegetables in it, but usually not both, and it's usually not big enough to serve as the whole meal. The pizzas are good but generally very simple (and again, it is hard to find one with both meat and veggies). And I have certainly gotten tired of pasta and pizza, to the point where I actually went to McDonald's the other day, and when that failed to satisfy I later went to the Hard Rock Cafe. I was told that it has the best burger in town, and it tasted good but I have yet to find a piece of meat in Europe that is anything less than well done. Another thing that irks me about Italian food is the inconsistency regarding the coperto (table) or pane (bread) charge. Sometimes you get charged just for sitting at a table; sometimes that charge is per person, sometimes per table; sometimes the charge is for the bread; sometimes you get the bread you're paying for, sometimes not; sometimes the real policy matches the posted policy, sometimes not. Ugh.

That reflects a larger theme that I have noticed in my time in Italy, which is especially salient since I have just come from Germany. The Italians are antithetical to the Germans in many ways. They are unorganized and have no head for business. This is more of an overall impression, but one example of this is that when Graham and Kara and I stayed in the watchtower in Campania, payment was not extracted from us until the morning we left for Rome. Less scrupulous tourists might have just run off, and the arrangement made me uncomfortable because it just made no sense. Another example I include later in my description of a bad museum experience.

There are a great number of beggars in Rome, some of the most pathetic I've ever seen. They are almost always women. Some of them grovel and shake, others have kids with them, and as a rule these kids are comatose or drugged. It is my feeling that with such a great church presence in the city, those truly in need will be taken care of. The people studying theology in the city that I have talked to about this support my contention. Evidently some of these beggars make a decent living off of tourists, who should not be encouraging them in my opinion.

I have toured a half-dozen museums of mostly high quality in Rome. Here and elsewhere I have found that I like to get an audio tour of the museum. They vary in quality, but when done well they can really help elucidate the collection, and unlike signs along the way they don't distract one from looking at the important things along the way. I always get one if it's available--they were not in the otherwise fine museums in Dresden, but they generally have been elsewhere. As the Vatican Museums are so massive, I joined a guided tour. The best way to do this, I think, is to find an English-speaking tour guide giving a free tour of St. Peter's. They give them freely in order to promote their paid tours. Many of these tour guides are former theology students here in Rome so they are able to elaborate upon the historical, mythological, and religious backgrounds of the various pieces about which they speak.

Thursday was a pretty exceptional day. It started off slowly, with time on the internet checking email and adding a blog update. It gets expensive when you're paying by the quarter or half hour. As I was in the neighborhood I passed by St. Peter's to find out what was going on. The pope was to be presiding over his 25th anniversary mass in the square at 6:00 that evening, so I decided to come back before then. I went to a museum to look at some old Roman sculptures. When I returned I was just going to wait at the back of the square as I did not have a ticket, catch a glimpse of the pope, and then leave. Soon after my arrival a woman came up and offered me a ticket, so I took it and entered the security checkpoint. The mass was long and very little was in English, but it was a cool experience. Only two popes in history have served longer than 25 years, and John Paul II is close to tying St. Peter. I was skeptical that they would try to hand out communion, but indeed they did. The stampede at that point reminded me of a soccer match. Here's a picture over the crowd of St. Peter's basilica before the mass began. I worked my way a little bit close during the course of the ceremony and managed to get this picture of the pope--he spoke a lot during the mass, which surprised me. He is not looking or sounding so healthy. Many times he would start a line of speech intelligibly (not in a language I speak, but I could follow along in the program) but then trail off into incoherence. He has stated that he will not retire, but I wonder to what extent he can really fulfill the obligations of his office at this point? How much of what is done in his name is coming from others?

Later that evening I went out to dinner by myself at a nearby restaurant, the friends I had made at the hostel all having departed by this point. The group at the table next to me asked me to snap a few photos of them, so I obliged and then struck up a conversation. They were all from England (Yorkshire), two of them priests (one of them was the Dean of Stockton, which the other described as an important position) and two of them married (to each other). The couple had been childhood sweethearts, but had drifted apart and married other people, and had gotten back together after a gap of 23 years! They love Rome and come here frequently, which apparently is pretty easy with some of the cheap European flights I keep hearing about. The priests had come to Rome specifically for the 25th anniversary mass. We enjoyed the rest of the meal together, and before going our separate ways the priests invited me out to lunch on Sunday, after the mass at which Mother Theresa was to be beatified.

I returned to the hostel and chatted for a while, in anticipation of the execution of my somewhat dubious plan to head to an Irish pub I had spotted earlier in order to watch game 7 of the Red Sox/Yankees series. I was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to go to sleep, but I figured that there was no way I could pass this game up. Even if first pitch was at 2:18 am local time. Even knowing what the eventual outcome would be. I'm glad I went even though the inevitable bitter defeat came to pass. The pub officially closed at 2:00, so every time we reacted loudly to a play we were admonished to keep our voices down to avoid offending the neighbors who had been testy of late. Things were looking up early, we Sox fans were trying to restrain ourselves from gloating in the face of those damned Yankees fans, but then Grady Little (the (soon-to-be-ex-) Red Sox manager for the philistines out there) made the bizarre decision to send Pedro out for the 8th inning when it was clear to everyone that he was done. He had a few chances to rectify his error but avoided doing so until the game was tied, the Red Sox bats went quiet, and it was only a matter of time before the Yankees were headed back to the World Series. We came so close to a Cubs/Red Sox Series, that would have been the best thing that could have happened for baseball. Ah well, we'll just have to "wait 'till next year." I was surprised by how many people stayed there watching the game until the bitter end--approximately 50 people filed out of that pub at about 6:20 in the morning. Most of these were people who lived and worked in Rome, too--real die-hard fans.

The next day I climbed to the top of the cupola of St. Peter's dome. Here is a picture over the square below with the city spread out beyond. Here is another photo of the city from above--the line of trees marks the Tiber River. Note the many church domes that are visible, and the large white building that appears to be a typewriter or wedding cake (which are in fact two of its kinder nicknames)--this is a very visible landmark in the city (it's actually a monument to Vittorio Emmanuele II, the kind who united Italy in the late 19th century). And on my way down from the cupola, I was able to take this picture of the statues that line the front of the basilica overlooking the square below. And naturally my Rome narrative would be incomplete without a night shot from the Pont Sant'Angelo of St. Peter's, right?

Sunday I headed back to St. Peter's for the mass at which Mother Theresa was to be beatified. Hoo boy, was it crowded. I had met several college kids in the hostel who had flown to Rome just for this event, and they weren't the only ones. They actually woke up at 4 am to get a good spot in the square, but I wasn't so crazy so I left at 9 (the mass started at 10). The official estimate I saw later (on cnn.com) was 300,000 people. I ended up watching on a TV screen from quite some distance back from the church--I worked my way up, but it was just too crowded and I didn't feel like getting crushed. It got hot and by the end of the morning I saw several people get carted away (heat exhaustion or heat stroke, is my guess). There were a lot of medical personnel and even more carabinieri (the state police), kind of jarring to see them walking around with their guns at a religious celebration but I can appreciate the necessity.

Afterward I met the English priests at the appointed spot, and we headed to the restaurant they had selected for our repast. It was quite a fun time, we ate well, drank well, and had good conversation. Everyone else at the table was from England; the priests, two couples, and 3 theology students studying in Rome. It was interesting to hear their conversation (and get some of my own questions answered, too). Our meal lasted almost 3 hours, at which point I was quite tipsy (and I wasn't the only one). Here's a picture of me with the priests and the remaining two theology students. One of the priests paid for us all, I tried to insist on paying my part (it wasn't a cheap meal) but he was having none of it.

Later that evening as a close to the day's celebration there were fireworks over St. Peter's Square. I decided that the best place for me to be to get some pictures would be the Pont Sant'Angelo (scene of my previous night picture). I took quite a few pictures and selected the following as some of the best of the bunch. This one was taken early, as the show was just beginning. This one has a wider angle and is a bit dimmer. This picture and this one look a little hazier, as the smoke from the previous fireworks has begun to collect, but I think the fireworks in both are quite pretty.

On Monday I took a bus out to the Via Appia Antica and toured two sets of catacombs. They were interesting and well worth the trip--my only complaint was that I didn't see any bones. Apparently tourists/pilgrims used to take the bones as they walked through, and so they were removed to other areas of the catacombs that are off-limits to tourists. When I returned to the hostel, I went out to dinner with a group of nine people--the college kids (from Notre Dame) who had come for Mother Theresa's mass, friends of theirs from Georgia, and another hostel-goer like myself. A couple of the guys from Georgia are Eagle Scouts, and one is now serving as the Scoutmaster of his old troop at 24!

Dinner was quite nice. The guy who seemed to be running the place wanted to bring us antipasti (his specialty) so we acquiesced, and from then one he just brought us food--we never even saw a menu! After a big mix of antipasti and two different pasta dishes, we were stuffed and so we turned down the meat or fish that would normally follow the pasta course in a full Italian meal. But of course we weren't going to leave without our dolci! We got a nice mix of things (and tried them all, of course). Afterward he gave us a bottle of some kind of sweet dessert wine (on the house). When we finally were able to get our check it was just a scrap of paper with a number written on it.

I managed to get through the summer in Dresden without a single insect bite. The bugs in Italy can apparently sense this and are trying to make up for lost time. On an unrelated note, here's a picture taken from Pincio Hill of the Piazza Del Popolo below and St. Peter's in the background.

One museum of the many I visited is worth a mention in particular. The Galleria Borghese requires an advance booking for a specific date and time, and they only sell a certain number of tickets for each 2 hour time slot. I have no idea why they do it this way. This is an amazing building and collection, but the worst managed museum I have ever encountered. 2 hours is obviously not enough time to see everything. They additionally limit people to half an hour on the second floor, which makes it impossible to look at all of the paintings. The group that enters at 11:00 is forced to leave at 1:00, right as the next group is trying to enter, and despite the fact that they have created this arrangement, they seem totally unprepared for the chaos that ensues. I've never had to wait so long to check a bag and rent an audio tour. I have no problem with waiting in lines, but not if I'm on a strict time limit once I get in. In fact, I'm not sure if they just don't care, or if they are intentionally trying to create an unpleasant experience for everyone. Perhaps they just care about getting as much money as they can so they hurry people through. I didn't bother complaining afterward because it was clear that I would be unable to find somebody who cared. It's a pity, because they have some spectacular rooms, and even the incompetence/malevolence of those running the place could not dim their brilliance.

I enjoyed Rome so much that I stayed for 12 nights, which was not called for in the original plan. I learned how to visually distinguish the good gelaterias that serve house-made gelato from the touristy ones that serve up industrial gelato. I found a pasticceria that I loved and ate breakfast there every day thereafter. I just loved the city and can't recommend it highly enough--I'm glad I had enough time there to see so much, and not just the main things on every tourist's agenda.

Yesterday I flew from Rome back to the U.S. to attend the wedding of Jordan Tigani and Tegan Willever, two good college friends. This entailed traveling first by subway, then by train, then by plane, then a bus (to ferry us out to the puddle-jumper that brought us from New York to Philadelphia), and then by van to my hotel in Wilmington, Delaware. On Monday I will return to Rome--I tried to change my ticket to a different destination, but because of my "special fare" (special in this case does not mean cheap, that's for sure) I am stuck flying back into Rome. That would be fine except that I feel that I have spent the time I want to spend there. So my next step will be to look into some discount European airlines that may be able to take me out of the country more cheaply and quickly than any other method of travel.

Campania

2003-10-16T10:46:00.000Z

We headed out from the tower with the goal of reaching the top of Mt. Vesuvius. After a drive up the foot of the volcano we reached a parking lot, with a short hike to the top. Here's a view of the caldera--the wisps of steam in the middle of the picture were being emitted from vents in the rock. Mt. Vesuvius is, after all, still in an active phase! (It hasn't errupted since 1944, though.) The clouds blew in while we were at the summit, and as a result this is the clearest photo I was able to take of the city and bay of Naples, spread out at the foot of the volcano.

From there we headed westward onto a peninsula that juts out into the sea. The southern coast was our destination, an area known as the Amalfi Coast which is renowned for its natural beauty. The tortuous coastal road was frequently perched on the edge of sheer cliffs that fell several hundred feet into the sea below. Towns were built into the sides of ravines that led down to the water's edge. Stairways cut into the cliffs above or below the road led off invitingly to unknown destinations.

Finding a place to eat dinner near our tower turned out to be a daunting proposition. As the tourist season was past most places were closed down. However, they continued to turn on their neon signs and appear open, so we would stop and go in only to find out that the best they could do would be a cold, pre-made sandwich. We were forced to go into the nearest town, Salerno, far more often than I would have preferred. Even there it was not so easy to find a restaurant--they had lots of what they labelled "bars", which were actually little cafes generally selling cold pre-made sandwiches. The most interesting thing in Salerno was a pair of pants that I saw a woman wearing which was composed of alternating bands of leather, corduroy, and denim.

We were able to find one restaurant nearby early in our stay, called Heaven. How perfect! I got to crack jokes about climbing the Stairway to Heaven, and that in our tower we were staying as close to Heaven as one can get without actually being there, etc. We were there on a Sunday afternoon, and shortly after our arrival locals started pouring in. There was one group that appeared to have come from a baby's christening and another large group that seemed to be celebrating a young girl's Confirmation. We enjoyed having a nice long meal while sitting in the middle of these chaotic parties and observing the celebrations of the locals.

Kara frequently seemed to feel ill on the trip (I hope she still managed to enjoy herself), and during one of these days Graham and I headed off to find some caves in a nearby national park. A storm had rolled in during the early morning hours, and as it was still raining we thought that heading underground would be a good move. The entrance into the cave was via a ferry across an underground river--you can see the reflections of the lights in the cave off of the water. This photo was taken in the largest chamber of the caves we encountered. Due perhaps to the weather there were only two other people on the tour with us, so we basically had a guide to ourselves.

The next day Graham and Kara dropped me off at Pompeii and went off to spend the day together. I had about 6.5 hours there, which seemed at the outset like it might be too long but it quickly became clear that I would need at least that much time to see the whole city. It was an amazing sight! Most of my pictures feature Mt. Vesuvius; not only is it an impressive, imposing presence, but as the agent of Pompeii's destruction (and preservation) it makes a compelling contrast with the ruins. Here's a view along a typical city street with Mt. Vesuvius in the background. This photo was taken from a hill, looking out over the ancient ruins and the present day city of Pompeii (and perhaps another as well) to the mountains beyond. In this picture I used an arch at the intersection of two streets to frame Mt. Vesuvius. Here's a view up another street, with the tip of the volcano poking up above the houses. This one is taken across a field from the gladiator's barracks to the back of the stage in the large theater--you can just see the top level of the ring of seats beyond. This one was taken from the south end of the forum, looking north across the temple of Jupiter to Mt. Vesuvius. This photo was taken from the other side of the forum. And finally, this one was taken of one of the busier streets of ancient Pompeii.

It was a wonderful week, quite nice to get to spend time with a good friend. I have enjoyed meeting people in Europe, but it gets tiring to constantly meet new people. The week was also a good, low key way to prepare for the hustle and bustle of Rome.

Tuscany and southward to the Tower Tusciano

2003-10-13T16:47:00.000Z

I had made plans with Graham and Kara to meet that evening in front of an agreed-upon restaurant at 7:00, and we did so. Dinner was fine, but the real highlight was dessert. Graham had discovered a web site which recommended a gelateria that is supposed to be the best according to locals. It was outside the center of town, but as they had rented a car this (in theory) presented no problem. In practice it was a bit difficult to navigate the streets of the city without a decent map, but we finally reached our goal. I think the name of the place is Cavina, but the link with the info is down so I'm not sure. I tried 18 different flavors, and some were incredible. It was so good that all gelato since then has failed to satisfy.

Afterward we headed to Campiglia Marittima, where they had been staying for the last few nights. This is a little medieval town situated on a hill near the coast of Tuscany. It features steep, narrow, winding streets. Here is a picture of a typical street, and here is a view of the town from down the hill.

The next day we took a ferry to Elba. It was pretty hazy, which it had been in Florence and has been ever since. I'm not sure to what this haze should be attributed--it generally clears up to a large extent over the course of a day, but visibility has never gotten so high. My suspicion is that it is pollution, because it doesn't seem to behave like fog and I can't come up with a better explanation. Elba turns out to be quite hilly. Here is a view from the sea as we arrived in one of the ports. We drove around the island, stopping in a town or two, before deciding to head for the tallest mountain on the island for a hike. Along the drive we stopped and I took this photo back in the direction we had come. I left Graham and Kara to hike on my own. I chose a route marked as difficult, for expert hikers only. What they apparently meant by the term "hiker" was "mountain climber", as it wasn't so much a path as a rocky ridgeline (yes, the route I took to get to the point from which I took this picture took me all across the visible ridgeline--a difficult approach, as it turned out!). And from that ridgeline, here's a picture of the summit that I climbed. Also from the ridgeline, here's a view through the clouds (which were blowing through at my level) to a town below. This is the first time I've been able to look down from the summit of a mountain onto the sea below--it was quite nice with the sun shining off of the water, though it was too bright to get a decent picture.

The next day we drove down to our next destination, in a region called Campania south of Naples. We drove on the coast where possible, but it was slow going so we ended up jumping inland onto the autostrade. North of Rome we passed some kind of establishment that had a number of flags flying, one of which happened to be the Confederate flag! I was a bit surprised to see it there. Having access to a car definitely opened up a lot of possibilities to us, but it also exposed us to Italian drivers. There are apparently no rules on the roads here--passing seems to be allowed anywhere and tailgating to an extreme degree is a common practice. In cities these drivers have a tendency to drive too fast around a blind corner with a horn honk to warn anyone that might be in danger. Brights are flashed for reasons that are entirely unclear--we were flashed with alarming regularity, to the point where we got out and inspected the car to try to determine a cause (without success). The high point was when we witnessed the rare double pass, in which a car that was passing the car in front of it was simultaneously passed in turn by a third car.

Despite the constant feeling of danger on Italian roads, we escaped the next week unscathed. That evening we rendezvoused with the family that rented us our accommodations for the following week, in an 11th century Norman watchtower right on the coast. What a wonderful find this place turned out to be! It had plenty of room for the three of us, and could easily sleep 8-10 people. The limiting factor is that there are only two bathrooms, on the top floor off of the two main bedrooms (plus a half-bath outside), and the hot water heater is small. Realistically perhaps two couples with children would be comfortable. Here is the view from my bedroom window, looking northwest across the road, our trash-filled beach, and the sea to the Amalfi coast. Here is the view from my bathroom window, looking out over tilled fields to the dwellings and mountains beyond. Here is a view of the tower from its grounds, with fruit trees (pomegranite and lime) below. There were a group of men that would ride around the nearby track in their horse-drawn chariots (traps? I'm not sure what the most accurate term would be) each morning--it didn't seem that they were actually racing against each other, though. Here's a photo I took from our beach at sunset of an island off our coast. And here's one I took during the gloaming (I love that word!) a short time later of the tower with the moon.

One of our first destinations was the ruins of Paestum, an early Greek colony that was later acquired by the Romans and therefore had ruins from both civilizations. The Greek temples here are supposedly some of the best preserved around, rivaling even those of Athens. This is the first temple we saw, which I suppose is the oldest structure built by man that I have ever seen. Here's a view of the second temple across a field of mostly Roman ruins. And here's a view of the third temple with Graham and Kara in the foreground. Upon our return to the tower that evening we took advantage of the firepit, (wet) wood supply, and ample outdoor facilities to grill our dinner. I had been able to harvest some of the (not quite ripe) limes growing in the yard as part of the marinade for my steak (along with the other ingredients close at hand: beer, garlic, salt, red pepper--it turned out quite nicely). Graham and Kara don't care for animal flesh and so we grilled lots of veggies too, to go with our cheese, parmesan and pepper bread, olives, and local wine. It was one of the more memorable meals of the trip, probably because we made it ourselves.

A few initial thoughts on Italy: I was quite comfortable in Germany, and arriving in Italy was initially a bit of culture shock. The rhythms and sounds of the language are so different from German, it almost sounded like people were singing! Italians seem a strange mixture to me--quite fast in speech, driving, and the men's approach to women, but very slow and laid back in other respects, in particular the dining experience. The country is much more mountainous than I had any idea to expect--my previous experiences here were limited to Florence and Venice, so I wasn't aware that the Apenines extend all the way down the spine of the peninsula. It has been difficult to figure out where to point my camera in Italy; more precisely, it has been difficult to decide where not to point it. This is particularly true now that I am in Rome. I'm loving it here! But I have to catch up on my recent travels before I can write about my current stay.

To Florence

2003-10-12T16:03:00.000Z

I've been without internet access for the last 9 days or so, and I return to find that Schwarzenegger is governor of California and the Red Sox and Cubs are in their respective Division Finals. What's going on here? Anyway, I'm in Rome now and loving it! I've had a great time since my last entry and taken a load of pictures, so I'll get right to the first update. I will have more frequent internet access here and so updates should be more regular.

My final days in Dresden were hectic. My flat mates were also vacating the apartment at the end of September, and apparently the onus of repainting the place for the next tenants fell on them rather than on the landlord. So for the last 4 days or so there was much chaos, paint fumes, cleaning, packing, carrying, etc. Apartments here don't seem to include much of anything--everything went, including the refrigerator, oven, curtain rods, and shower head & wall mount.

I arranged a ride through an online version of a German institution know as a mitfahrzentrale. These are ride sharing agencies that bring together people driving from one place to another with those looking for a ride. I ended up paying $15 for a ride in a 3-series BMW all the way to Munich (we hit a top speed of 210 kph). That's the way to travel! I wish we had something like it in the States. I was dropped off at the main train station in Munich. My original desire had been to hitch hike to Italy, but for several reasons I instead purchased an overnight ticket to Florence. The advice I have gotten for hitching a ride in Europe indicates that the best thing to do is get to the outskirts of the city, find a gas station near a highway or major road headed in the right direction, and either approach people or make a sign indicating the desired destination. Munich is a large city and the maps I had did not make it clear how to get to an appropriate location via public transportation, and as I had arrived about 8:30 in the evening I did not relish a night of trying to hitch a ride. As Oktoberfest was going on, I expected great difficulty in acquiring lodging for the night and trying to hitch a ride the following morning. And since I had definite plans to meet up with several different people in Florence, I realized that this was not the proper time to embark on the exploration of hitch hiking as a method of travel in Europe.

But as my train did not depart until 11:30, I had time to do a quick run through Oktoberfest! My visit to that event must have been one of the shortest ever at 1.5 hours. I have to say that it was long enough, though. It would be fun to go with a group of friends, but as I was there by myself all I needed was to get the flavor of the event, and this I did. Here is a picture of the inside of one of the giant tents. On the theory that a liter of beer was not what I needed before an overnight train ride I actually did not drink a beer at Oktoberfest! I didn't really feel that I was missing out, I certainly tried my share in Saxony. There were a lot of carnival rides there that seemed to have been designed with the same principle in mind: make the riders as dizzy as possible. This seems like a rather counter-intuitive tenet for a fair whose chief pastime is imbibing large quantities of beer.

The next morning I arrived in Florence, having traveled from the city which used to be known as the Florence of the North (Dresden). Dresden lies on the banks of the river Elbe, and several days later I visited the Isle of Elba. These suggested to me a certain symmetry to my trip southward. I had been to Florence before, in my previous time in Europe back in 1996. I was only in town for 2 days this time, so I visited churches and museums that I had not seen before. I met my sister Marianne that afternoon--she is studying fine art at the University of Florence this semester. We had a good time walking around Florence and talking together, and on the recommendation of some of her Italian flatmates we found a nice restaurant and had a wonderful meal together. It's always nice to get the advice of someone who has lived in a city for a while. Here's a picture of the Duomo from the Piazzale Michelangelo and from the facade of the church. This photo is my favorite picture of all that I have taken so far. And this one features Marianne and me in the Piazza San Marco, very close to where she lives.

The next day I saw some of the sights in Florence that interested me--I managed to hook on to an English student tour group in the Galleria Palatina, which was nice because there was no audio tour and the paintings were really crowded in there. Marianne had classes most of the day and also needed to pack for her trip up to Oktoberfest--it's funny that she was heading there the night after I was there, but that's just how the timing worked out. That night I met up with Graham and Kara, two friends from Austin vacationing in Italy. But that is a subject for my next entry!

Some last thoughts on Dresden

2003-09-26T14:00:00.000Z

It's an interesting feeling to have spent the last few months in a place where I don’t understand or speak the language. I've picked up a bit, but even if I sometimes understand 50% percent of the words somebody speaks to me, it's still hard to figure out what is actually being said because the context for those words and all subtlety of expression is lost.

The public transportation system here is quite nice. It's the only place I can recall where it is possible to get a tram or bus all night long. The schedule is greatly reduced, so that if you time it wrong you might have to wait for 30 or 40 minutes, but it's still available and quite convenient if you know when your tram is coming. The payment system for the trams (I haven't ridden a bus here, I assume it's the same) works on something like the honor system. You might have a monthly pass, but if not you buy a ticket for the ride and have it stamped when you get on the tram. Lots of people don't bother buying a ticket. The fine if you get caught is $40, I think, and you don't really get in trouble until the 3rd time you get caught. It seems to me that they lose a lot of money with this approach.

None of the apartments I've seen here have a den or living room, unless an additional bedroom has been converted for the purpose. The common areas include the foyer, bathroom, kitchen, and often a balcony. It's a pretty different approach from the shared apartments I'm used to in the States, which always have a designated common living space. This doesn't seem to be an impediment to socializing--people just hang out in the kitchen or in one person's bedroom.

I have yet to see a healthy romantic relationship in Dresden--maybe all of those who are in one are at home raising kids or something, but everyone I've gotten to know in any depth has what I would consider a dysfunctional relationship. The one exception is my flatmate, Stefan, but his girlfriend lives in Freiberg which is about an hour away. Come to think of it, maybe the distance is what keeps it healthy.

My flatmates are fond of what they call the "Turkish way" of brewing coffee--nasty! They put the grounds right in the cup and then pour boiling water on top. Don't try this at home, folks.

My fingers no longer remember the English keyboard configuration after getting used to the German version these last few months. It is possible to change a setting to switch to the English configuration, and sometimes this setting changes on its own. It's so disconcerting (because of course the markings on the keyboard don’t change!) that I have to switch it back to German. I'm sure it won't be hard to readjust, but it's funny that my fingers can so quickly have forgotten the arrangement that they have used for so many years!

Leipzig

2003-09-23T15:30:00.000Z

On Saturday I went with Dan to Leipzig. He works for AMD (and came here from Austin, too, though of course we never met there) and they have provided him with a car, so I got to experience the autobahn for the first time. They actually do have speed limits in places, but outside of those zones people go fast. Dan managed to get the car up to about 180 (that's kmph, folks! about 110 mph) before the car made clear its intention to go no faster. There were cars going faster still, and it just seemed alright.

Leipzig isn't so far away, but I get the impression from talking to friends here that many people here almost never go there. Uli used to work there and commute back and forth from Dresden every day (the drive took us maybe 70 minutes), but when I questioned whether I should visit the city he and others told me not to bother, that there was nothing worth seeing there. This is in contrast to the advice of my guidebook, which claims that Leipzig is more fun than Paris. We weren't able to stick around to sample the nightlife, which has a good reputation and is presumably at least part of what the guidebook bases its statement upon, but I'm glad I visited.

We met up with a friend that Dan had made at AMD, Danny. He grew up in Leipzig and has spent most of his life there. Leipzig is where the protests started in 1989 that ultimately spread across the country and brought about the end of the GDR when Gorbachev refused to intervene with Soviet troops, and Danny said that his parents brought him along to some of the protests. I remember when the wall came down, but in some ways it is difficult to believe that it was only 14 years ago. So much has changed here, and so much continues to change. I think there is a difference in the people I meet based in part on their age--the people in their lower 20's have had much different life circumstances. Dresden is in a valley and so during communist times they were unable to pick up western television and radio. I asked Danny about access in Leipzig, and he said that there and elsewhere there were people who would check to see which direction your antenna was facing, and if it faced west you could get in trouble.

It was quite nice of Danny to act as our tour guide for the day, and it was a wonderful way to see the city--if only I had such a friend in every new city! We met his girlfriend Orica (sp?) in Augustusplatz in front of a bronze diorama of Karl Marx. From there we toured some of the shopping district, which is quite expansive. The artwork on the sides of the shops can be quite impressive. The MÃ¤dler passage is so pretty it almost made me want to shop (ok, not really), featuring Faust-related statues (in the foreground of the picture) at the entrance to the Auerbachs Keller, where Goethe liked to hang out (he even set a scene from "Faust" here).

From there we passed by the Thomaskirche where Bach was choir leader for almost 30 years. I really wanted to see the interior, but unfortunately it was closed for a concert. This picture was taken from the table at which we ate lunch, and shows a fairly typical narrow street with a beautiful building highlighted by the sun at the far end. We then toured an interesting and moving museum, the Forum of Contemporary History, which focused on the history of the GDR from the end of WWII until reunification. In front of this museum is this statue, which I think allows for some interesting interpretations. One arm fascist, one arm communist, a head sinking down into an empty torso (no heart?), with a shoeless foot striding into the future.

We took an elevator to the top of the highest building around, the MDR tower. Perhaps the most impressive landmark in Leipzig is the Battle of Nations Monument, built in 1913 to commemorate the decisive victory over Napoleon's army in 1813 by a combined force from 25 different nations and tribes (there will be a closer picture to come). In the middle of town is the Neues Rathaus (new town hall), rebuilt in 1905 to resemble the original 16th century building. Contrast that with this view of the city, featuring many communist-era apartment blocks. On the far right side of the picture it is possible to make out some train tracks receding into the distance, and in front of them a building with a series of pillars. This was formerly the Bavarian Train Station, and now houses a restaurant and brewery at which we later ate dinner. The main train station, one of the largest in Europe, also houses a huge shopping mall (we toured it--the shops on the top floor were especially impressive). After leaving the tower Dan and I got in a little bit of a tussle with some of the locals! The mascot of Leipzig is the lion, and statues like these can be found all over town.

Around sunset we headed to the Battle of Nations Monument. The city skyline was quite pretty at this time. Leipzig has more of a concentrated city center than Dresden and feels more urban. I really like this photo--the contrast of the old and new, the picturesque castle in the foreground (which is actually a crematory) and the coal plant spewing vapor into the atmosphere in the background (it looks like a nuclear plant, doesn't it?). This next picture is a bit out of focus (it was taken at long range), but I decided to include it anyway because I find these folks so intriguing. It wasn't the first time I've seen them, I've encountered their like on several occasions in Dresden. They appear to be on some sort of religious pilgrimmage, but I'm told that they are actually training to be roofbuilders. Apparently the German tradition requires that they dress like this and travel around the country (and even beyond) for two years to learn the craft from various masters. They aren't allowed to take anything but the clothing on their back, and they aren't allowed to accept any money on the way. I'm told that they travel alone, but I've only seen them in groups--perhaps they are meeting at the end of the day to have fun. And finally, sunset at a man-made lake on the south side of the city, in what used to be a coal mine (more of a coal pit, really).

I felt like a tourist again in Leipzig--a much different feeling from how I've come to feel here in Dresden! A feeling to which once again I will soon become accustomed--I leave next week for Italy. I have too many things here to take with me on the road, so I will leave a bag with a friend, which ensures that I will return to reclaim the bag and visit friends.

Pictures from opening night at The Church

2003-09-22T14:58:00.000Z

I described the evening in a previous post, but I revisit it here in order to bring you these pictures (taken by Jones). First is a view of the bar, which gives an impression of some of the artwork there. Here is the emcee for the evening accompanied by the two girls dressed as nuns--it is his intention in a few weeks to perform karaoke for 30 hours straight in an attempt to set a (rather dubious) world record. Though as a rule I dislike photos of myself, I feel duty-bound to provide a shot taken during my stint on stage (those lights sure are brighter and hotter than I realized!). And here are pictures of four of my best friends here in Dresden: Jones and Kathrin, Uli (the proprietor of the establishment) with and without the nuns, and Benny during his performance (the picture is a bit dim, but the wall-hanging behind him makes him appear to have a halo).

Images of Dresden

2003-09-16T14:25:00.000Z

There's a nice path on the broad southwestern bank of the Elbe that one can take all the way to the Czech Republic, as Jones has done. I rode my bike upriver (though it felt like I was riding downhill) to visit Pillnitz Palace. Along the way I stopped to admire Schloss Albrechtsberg, Villa Stockhausen and Schloss Eckberg (these are still within Dresden, and actually quite close to the Neustadt). After perhaps 12 km I reached the ferry to take me across to Pillnitz Palace. The building pictured is one of three large wings of the palace, which was the summer residence of the kings and queens of Saxony from 1765 to 1918. Two of the wings house a museum, which my guide book panned in claiming that the gardens and palace exterior are far more interesting. My guess is that the reviewer did a quick first-floor run-through, as I found the collections to be an intriguingly eclectic assemblage. There were many things one might expect to find in an old palace: furniture, crystal, wall hangings (from as early as the 14th century), paintings. There was art done on what appeared to be glazed pottery (in shapes from small plates to large ovens), porcelain, ironwork, and an extensive collection of late 19th / early 20th century glassware. Then there were rooms of art from the 1970's through the present, the most interesting of which were some pieces done in plastic (I think). It was a strange mixture, but delightful in its unexpectedness.

Back in Dresden, I took this picture of the rear of the Schloss, which is still undergoing reconstruction as a museum. I like this scene because of the contrast between the beautiful building facade and the ruins in the foreground--this contrast symbolizes Dresden, in many ways. And here is another view of the magnificent Frauenkirche, which has recently had the scaffolding removed from a large part of the dome.

Another evening I set out to get some night shots of the Dresden skyline from the Carolabrucke. I was lucky in my timing, as I got to enjoy a fireworks display and take some pictures of that as well. In this photo you can make out a dome to the left, a building known as Yenidze that was built as a tobacco factory. This shot is zoomed out a bit and one can more easily make out the Augustusbrucke in the foreground. And in this picture you can see the Semperoper (opera house) on the far left. And minus the fireworks, here is a view of the skyline including the Albertinum museum on the left, and an even better picture with just the Schloss, Cathedral, and Semperoper. I believe that when the reconstruction of the Frauenkirche has been completed, it will also be lit up at night.

The Church debuts

2003-09-15T16:07:00.000Z

I've been varying degrees of sick for the past week--better here than in a hostel somewhere. I'm feeling much improved now, thanks.

The Neustadt is like a town within a town. I like being able to walk down the street and run into people I know. I also enjoy being stopped on the street and asked for directions. Even if my German is extremely limited, when I respond with the correct information I feel more like a local than a tourist. I really like living in Dresden, I have developed quite an affection for this place. It will always have a special place in my heart, and it will be with no little sadness that I depart.

Thursday night, 9-11 (for the curious, that date was not intentionally chosen, at some point it was moved back a week) was the grand opening of the rock club The Church. After my performance at Saloppe I had been invited to perform at the invitation-only grand opening along with about 7 other performers, people in the local music scene. They had karaoke CDs but no monitor, meaning that we had to know all of the words to the songs we picked. I stopped by on Monday to look at the choices and make my selection. There weren't that many songs to choose from, but it soon became clear that there was one song that I would have to perform, and with Uli's blessing I picked "House of the Rising Sun". I have sung that one before, and given the New Orleans theme it just seemed appropriate. It had been 12 days since I had last seen the club, and while much progress had been made there still looked like a lot to do before the place was ready for business.

When Thursday night rolled around, though, everything was ready and the club looked great. I can't recall ever singing solo before coming here, but it's becoming more comfortable. Of course, when one friend claimed that her reason for excitement that evening was hearing me perform it didn't help my nerves! I think I did well, though, and I impressed at least a few people there. There are people here now who recognize me as a singer--that's a new identity for me! The other performances included a girl (a singer in a local band) who did a pretty dead-on rendition of Madonna's "Like a Virgin", a great version of Elvis's "Return to Sender", Metallica's "Enter Sandman" and Billy Idol's "White Wedding". The emcee performed a number of songs himself, including an accompaniment on at least one by a pair of girls dressed as nuns (in keeping with the whole religious theme of the club).

I had an interesting conversation with Benny's dad about the religious imagery in The Church. He is from Bavaria, which is a more Catholic area of Germany, and recognized some of the imagery as having been popular around 1870-1910. He was intrigued to see them resurface in this fashion. One picture he pointed out in particular as having been very common in the 1920's, and even a decade ago people would have thought it crazy to pay $50 for it (apparently the going rate now, mostly based on the worth of the frame). I had never seen Mary and Jesus presented with burning hearts, but according to him this was a Catholic motif dating from circa 4th-6th centuries. A little internet research indicates that this is a common way of representing the Sacred Heart. There are some who might find the whole religious theme of the club offensive or blasphemous, but then there are those who have accused the Catholic church of the same thing for centuries with their use of icons. If people are looking for reasons to take offense they will always find them.

I personally think it's nice to have a consistent theme, done in a tastefully kitchsy manner (that may be oxymoronic, but I stand by my turn of phrase!). The windows done in a stained-glass style, the candelabra and chandeliers with flickering bulbs that resemble candles, the pictures on the walls all evoke a sort of medieval (but not dark) mood. I will have to take and post some pictures before I leave. And speaking of pictures, Jones says he has some good ones that he took at the premiere, so hopefully in the next few days I will be able to post some of those.

The following night was the grand opening to the public, featuring three bands. I felt obliged to attend despite still not feeling great (staying out late the previous night didn't help, of course, but I had obligations to my public ;). The club is a pretty intimate venue to hear a concert, and their marketing efforts were apparently quite successful as hordes of people showed up. They had to stop letting people in, and at one point there were perhaps as many people outside as there were inside. The doorman recognized me from my performance the night before and I had no problem getting in, to the tune of his presumably effusive praise (it was in German, so I can only assume). Ok, so I got there before it was so crowded, but I like to think my celebrity got me in :) It was very hot and crowded, requiring periodic trips outside to cool off. I made it through the first two bands and heard the third one play a little bit before I just had to go to bed. I would deem the debut a success, I think they've done a great job with the club, and I hope that it becomes a successful business venture.

Jim Beam's American Bar shows football games on Sundays, starting at 7pm here. The television package leaves something to be desired. They (Premiere) pick the games (early and late) on Sunday morning that will be shown that night, and if either one is a bad game there is no cutting away to a better game in progress. The best parts of the game broadcast are also left out--the game breaks (cutting away in the middle of one game to show a highlight from another game) and the halftime/postgame highlights of other action around the league. Oh well--I'll take what I can get. The games predictably draw a mix of American expatriates and Germans who have developed a taste for the game, many from time spent in the States. Football seems to be growing in popularity here. While at a nearby park last week I observed more footballs than soccer balls, which I found shocking.

The football broadcast is also not allowed to show the American commercials, so rather than substitute local commercials they alternate between highlights set to music, and highlights of each of last week's games with a voiceover done by that guy with the great voice that makes even the 9-6 Colts-Browns yawner sound like an instant classic. But I spend more time talking to people than really watching the broadcast. This week I met some nice girls and spent the evening talking to them--we're going to meet again on Wednesday at a club called Peaches for karaoke night. I closed down the bar with one of them (Cat), and then we headed to (where else?) Flower Power! Hey, I hadn't been there in 9 days. While it's true that I'm making more of an effort to meet women here than in Austin, I also think that women here are more approachable. And I suppose I find European women more attractive even than Southern women--the accent is definitely part of it!

Friday a week ago I hung out with Jones, Lutz, Kathrin and Alice (all of whose pictures I've posted previously) at Kathrin and Alice's place (scene of my two-part haircut). For some people I've met in Dresden, Alice for one, I am the first American they have known. That's a pretty cool feeling; that was one of my intentions in deciding to come to Europe. It's great to meet travelers and other native English-speakers that have moved here, but it can be more difficult and more rewarding to interact with people who haven't gotten to know an American before (though how that's possible at this point in Europe, I'm not sure). We all ended up going to Flower Power that night (but as noted earlier, it was another 9 days before I returned!). On Wednesday night I went to a good-bye party for Alice. She has departed for her native France (Lutz has gone with her for visit for a few weeks, and that was another good-bye for me) and it is uncertain if she will be able to return here. These good-byes mark the end of the summer for me and signal even more strongly than the weather (which has warmed up again, thank goodness) that the time to head to Italy fast approaches.

Some observations

2003-09-05T12:40:00.000Z

Many places that sell beer charge extra for the glass (or bottle) and give a refund when it is returned. I like this system; I think it encourages people to return their glasses, it keeps things cleaner, and it makes it easier on the people working at those establishments. Trash is also separated more thoroughly here--there is a trash bin for organic matter, one for recyclables (more things seem to qualify for that designation here), and one for everything else. This is in addition to glass bottles, which have to be returned to a store for a refund or put into public bins which are separated into white or green glass, or paper (also put in public bins). Now of course I don't actually know what happens to all of the garbage once it's carted away, but I doubt it all gets mixed together again in a landfill somewhere. It just seems like a more environmentally-friendly structure than I've seen in America.

Shopping carts in grocery stores are chained together, and the only way to separate one from the chain is to deposit a coin into the proper slot on the cart, to be retrieved once the cart has been chained once more. I have been unable to determine the reason for this--the first thought that occurred to me is that it might be intended to deter theft, but it doesn't seem like it would have that effect. The nice thing about the carts, though, is that the back wheels are free to rotate, which makes them much more maneuverable than American carts. During checkout the cashier will lean over the counter to see if everything has been removed from the cart for payment. Meanwhile I have a backpack on, in which I could have any number of things, and in fact I sometimes use my backpack to carry things around in the store when I don't have the necessary change for a cart, but they never check the backpack.

I don't like carrying all the coins that one is forced to here--having a wallet with a coin purse is a necessity. The smallest bill is a 5 Euro note, and the coins come in denominations of .01, .02, .05, .10, .20, .50, 1 and 2 Euros. This leads to much time spent digging through change and examining it, as some coins are similar in size and markings. Cashiers and waiters will often ask for exact change, and waiters carry around giant coin purses with which to make change. Even in America I tend to pay with exact change rather than allowing it to accumulate, so I'm used to it, but most people here seem to need prompting.

Many women in Dresden seem to hold their cigarettes in the same way--between extended index and middle finger, with ring finger and pinky curled toward the palm. I suppose it must be considered cool. And many people roll their own cigarettes--they carry around their own pouch of tobacco, rolling papers, and filters. I call them filters, but really they don't filter anything, they just act as spacers between the tobacco and the lips. I'm not really sure why they go to the trouble--it's true that it's cheaper than buying packs of cigarettes, but that would seem to be outweighed by the inconvenience.

Popular music here in Germany at least seems to have entered a kind of cultural cul-de-sac. The computer may have been the worst thing to ever happen to music. There are certainly exceptions to this blanket statement, in the hands of talented musicians computers can be valuable tools. But there are a lot of people out there with no talent. I hear a little bit of music here from German bands, and a lot of older American & British pop music re-recorded with more dominant base and percussion and a driving techno rhythm. For instance, there is a version of John Denver's Country Roads (!) done in this fashion, I'm told it was extremely popular a year ago. I've heard it played before several sports matches, and it's somewhat disconcerting to hear a crowd of German people singing along to a song about going home to West Virginia. I guess it's just easier to take an existing song, maybe people here aren't familiar with it, and remake it in the current pop style, than it is to actually produce good new music. Some of the covers I hear are of more recently popular songs from the U.S. The other night I was out to dinner with Dan and a couple of ladies when we heard a cover of Nelly's "It's Getting Hot in Here" that added nothing to the original. Why even bother, why not just play the original? If it's not an issue of artistic merit (and it's not), then I'm thinking that in some way it comes down to money.

Life continues

2003-09-02T12:18:00.000Z

I've been hanging out with a guy named Dan who also came here from Austin. He ran into Peter in Amsterdam, who put him in touch with me. He works for AMD, and it's been nice for each of us to be able to make use of the social contacts that the other has made here. We've come to similar conclusions about relationships here, which is that every girl has a boyfriend. She may be looking for a new boyfriend, at which point she will transfer seamlessly to the new relationship (perhaps with an overlap). Possibly there will be a gap of time during which she is actually single, and that is the time to strike! Benny's now ex-girlfriend Claudia claims that there are more single women here than single guys, and that she has a lot of single friends. Where are they? Well they have better things to do than go out because they've given up on the men here, who are all "ugly, silly, and stupid". Hmm, I think perhaps she is biased.

Dan has no compunctions about approaching women when we're out. That's nice, because making that initial contact is usually the hard part for me. Women here seem to be pretty approachable, for the most part. Uli tells me that as an American here I have an "exotic bonus". This may be true, but if so it may mean that women are interested initially, but after a couple of dates the novelty wears off. The theory bears further testing, certainly :)

Friday night we went to Saloppe, scene of the earlier "Playboy Trash Party". The theme this time around was "Dirty Dancing". We arrived after the movie was screened to a packed dance floor. It was pleasant and cool outside, but hot and cramped inside. The DJ played a number of tracks from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack, but was apparently unaware of which songs were hits beyond "The Time of My Life", which I heard 5 times (ugh). I think the party broke up earlier than it might have because the DJ was boring. Dan headed home (he is a working man, after all) and I relocated with some of my friends who were there.

With Uli and Martin I headed to the Dance Factory, housed (I'm told) in a former Stasi headquarters. Dan has had good luck meeting women here before, but I think it was a little late in the night for that. Most of the women he's met there are between 18 and 21 and have boyfriends anyway. Uli describes the place as a being people by "proles". As I understand it, they use that term here to describe someone generally from a low social class that wears designer labels and makes every effort to look a part of the upper class. Many of the people there bore a remarkable resemblance to the people I saw in Dallas, TX, with that fake tan, bleached-blonde look.

When the party ended there, we headed back to the Neustadt, I thought headed home. Martin, however, knew of a party that might still be going on. I was highly skeptical as the sun was by this time coming up, but we found it, went in, and things were still jumping! I had the most interesting conversations of the night at this point, one with a guy named Oli who has decided that surfing is his life's calling. He had just returned from the coast of France, and was hoping to save enough money to head to the Philippines. Later in the Blue Note I met a guy named Robin who described himself as a master stonecutter, who said that he has received offers to come to America to practice his art, as it is apparently dying there. The night (morning) ended after meeting a guy who claimed (I believed none of his claims) to be a medical doctor, university professor, and submarine commander, and to hate America (for no reason, it seemed). That seemed like a good cue to leave.

Saturday night I went out with Ellie. We went to a place just down the street from me that features tea and board games. She had previously told me about a board game she liked and had offered to show it to me. The game is called carrom, which is similar to crokinole if that means anything to you :) It was a fun game, and afterward we enjoyed talking away the rest of the evening. Unfortunately she left on holiday yesterday for perhaps the rest of September--it's nice to have a female friend here to go out with, it's certainly a welcome break from another night out with the guys.

Last night (Monday) I went to a soccer game with my flat mate Stefan, his brother, and his friend (Livan? I'm sure I'm spelling many of these names incorrectly). The Dynamo Dresden are a 3rd league team, and they were playing the first league team from Hamburg. I don't think we have an exact equivalent in American sports, but it might be a little like a major league baseball team playing against a double-A team. Things are a little bit more fluid here, though, because teams can change leagues--I think I recall Stefan telling me some time ago that the Dresden team was in the 2nd league until the last few years. The stadium is in the Grosser Garten, a large park that I have visited on several occasions. We arrived about 80 minutes early to get good seats, at which point it began raining pretty hard. It let up just before the game began, but we were by that time very wet and cold. To my American eyes the game was a good one, and pretty evenly matched throughout the first half. In the second half the Hamburg team began to dominate, missing several very good, close shots before finally scoring the only goal of the game on a breakaway in the 81st minute. As with most sports it was much more enjoyable to see the game in person than on television, and I'm glad I had the chance to go.

On the Neustadt

2003-08-29T12:24:00.000Z

There is a lot of construction going on; in this area, in other parts of the city, and in the surrounding area (for instance, there is a new highway to Prague currently being built). Most of the apartments in the Neustadt have been renovated in recent years. Uli, after a recent trip to Cologne, said that he likes that city, but prefers living here because everything is new here and high quality--the roads, the apartments, the phone & internet lines. Parking seems to be a problem here at busy times, and Benny said his parents won't let him park their car in this area because apparently some of the street punks like to key nice cars. Even with all of the renovations there is a still a somewhat edgy, bohemian air to the Neustadt. There remain buildings that are run-down and empty, but the construction I encounter seems to actually get finished, unlike anything I ever saw in Austin. And speaking of construction, I stopped by the rock club last night that Uli and others are working hard on to meet the opening date in two weeks. There is a lot of work yet to be done, and I hope that their venture is successful--it looks like it will be a cool place. The occasion last night was a photo shoot for a Dresden bar guide to be published in November, but for some reason they couldn't wait two weeks to get a picture. They needed people to make it appear to be a club, which was difficult given the current status of things, but we managed to get a decent picture.

The roads here seem to be asphalt laid over the old cobblestones. In some places the asphalt has worn down to reveal the stones beneath. Other roads are still just cobblestones, which make for a bumpy ride by car or bike (although with a bike I can just hop on the sidewalk). Stone seems to be much more plentiful here that anywhere I've lived--it's used to build the streets as well as the walls of their buildings. People here don't consider an interior wall to be "real" unless it is made of stone. I would think that stone makes for a more enduring construction than the wood and brick houses & apartments that I am used to seeing. Either it's not as widely available in the U.S. or it's just more expensive.

When I first arrived here I attempted to live very cheaply and eat out only rarely. However, one of the benefits of staying in one place is that living and travel expenses are minimized, and so I can spend more on food and entertainment and still stay on budget. Within a five minute walk from my door, the cuisines that I can choose from include Bulgarian, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Irish, French, Indian, Greek, Cuban, "American", German of course, Spanish, Caribbean, Mexican, and Turkish. This last is the most numerous--it seems that there is a "dönner kebap dürüm" establishment on every corner (I can think of at least 7 nearby off the top of my head). It seems to be only Turkish men that work in these restaurants. Uli claims that there are very few Turkish women here, and that it is difficult for the men to find German women. He knew one Turkish guy who told him that he was going to Berlin for the weekend to get a wife, and sure enough he came back with one. I'm not clear on how that transaction went down.

It appears that there are too many restaurants close by--some aren't that busy, it's hard to understand how they could all stay in business. Some places have menus in English, most don't. I often don't know exactly what it is I'm ordering, but that's partly because of a sparse description on the menu. I enjoy being surprised, though, and the meal almost always turns out to be good. I particularly enjoy two restaurants / beer gardens nearby that feature a changing daily menu of entree specials. I usually order something from the daily menu, figuring that it will feature the best available fresh ingredients and the most interesting offerings from the fertile minds of the creative chefs. I have yet to be disappointed. One thing I don't like, though, is that I have always have to pay for a drink with the meal, there is no free water served as in the U.S.

Still in Dresden

2003-08-27T14:54:00.000Z

Here are a couple of recent pictures, taken in early morning from the Albertbrücke looking downstream toward the center of the city. The first depicts the Elbe as it makes its turn by the prominent buildings of the Altstadt on the south bank (in order from the left, the Frauenkirche, Albertinum (museum complex), Academy of Arts, Schloss, and Hofkirche). The towers of these last two are featured in the second photo. On the right bank one can see the place where every night this summer either a movie or a concert was shown--what a great backdrop for a concert!

For someone who has spent much of his life avoiding situations in which he might be forced to dance, it is something of an irony that I now seek out those situations. The circumstances have to be right, of course—music I like, or can at least tolerate (that’s a big no to techno, hip-hop, country), a drink or two under the belt, and an appropriate density of people on the dance floor. For that last reason I will no longer be returning to Flower Power on Monday nights—it’s just too crowded to have a good time. On other nights it is quite to my taste, though.

Last Wednesday, for instance. That night I went over to Alice's place so that she could finish the haircut she started (I had cleaned it up myself somewhat, but it required further work). Using Lütz's razor she proceeded to cut it very short. We had fun sitting around talking, drinking red wine, mashing English and French and German together. I met Alice's other flatmate, Ellie (Elisabeth), and after the others had gone to bed we stayed up talking. We were enjoying the music on the radio about 1:30 when she suggested that we go dancing. In Austin 1:30 would be a time that I would be thinking about going home (or well into REM sleep :), but here it sounded like a great idea. We hopped on our bikes and rode to Flower Power (there are other places to go, this just seems to be the best), where the DJ was playing music more to my taste than what I had generally heard there. We danced until they kicked us out at 5:00! We had a great time, and hopefully I will get to see her again.

Another day I ranged a bit further on my bike into the Dresden Heide (the nearby forest). It’s all uphill northeast from here, but of course that means that after making the loop it's all downhill back to town! The forest seems to be pretty closely managed. I saw periodic stacks of felled trees, and there appeared to be large stands of trees that were all about the same size & girth, which I took to mean that the stand had been clear-cut and then replanted at some point. I passed plenty of bikers, joggers, and walkers. While it has the feeling of wilderness, it is clearly too heavily used and managed to qualify as such, but nonetheless nice to have so close to the city center.

Friday night I was invited to a birthday party with a "Bonds & Babes" theme, meaning that partygoers were expected to dress like James Bond or one of the women of Bond. To me that indicates a tuxedo, and anything short of a tuxedo will fail to evoke James Bond. Not having a tux, and as the threatened booby prize involved shots of Grappa, I waffled a bit on whether to go or not. As it turned out I was dressed appropriately, and there was at least one guy who made no effort to dress up. It was the first party I’ve been to here in which I overheard English being spoken. The crowd was I think mostly folks from the Max Planck Institute, Infinion, and AMD—large technical employers in the area. I ended up talking to an interesting guy (Oliver) for quite some time. On the subject of the supposed insincerity of Americans, his opinion (he had gone to graduate school in Canada and spent time in America) is that people are just friendlier there, and Germans mistake the friendliness to mean more than it does, that it necessarily indicates some intention to be close friends. He works for a biotech firm operating in some unclear relationship to the Max Planck Institute, and as it turns out they employ a couple of bioinformaticians. I got the impression that perhaps they are involved mostly in gathering and figuring out how to store genomics data, and not on analysis of the data. I met one of them (Liisa) and would like to ask her about her profession when she returns from her brother’s wedding in Canada in two weeks (their local tradition in her neck of the northern woods: since her younger brother is getting married and she is still single, she has to perform a provocative table dance for the guests! I’m glad that is not our tradition :). I didn’t get the chance to talk to her at the party—there was some drama between the birthday boy and his girlfriend and then things kind of degenerated from there, effectively killing the party.

This weekend the city was overrun with visitors to the annual Stadtfest. Saturday afternoon I ventured out into the biomass. I would love to see an official estimate of the the number of people on the street—it had to be several hundred thousand at one time. I stopped off to see the boat parade, for which water was released from the Czech Republic in order that the river might accommodate the extra traffic. There were hordes of people lining the banks and the bridges, but I didn’t get it. Maybe I was early or late or something, but I didn’t see what people were lined up to watch. There was one area that seemed to be devoted to the American west—tipis and Indian dress, something that looked perhaps like a logging camp, and country line dancing (aack!). There was another area that had a sort of old English tavern theme, and this I liked best. The show featured musicians (a pair of drummers and a pair of bagpipers—quite good), a guy with a thing for rolling in crushed glass, and a guy who really liked to play with fire (eating it, blowing it, etc.). There were several outdoor stages & dance clubs in operation—I happened upon the end of Peter Schilling performing Major Tom. I had no idea that guy was still around; I think he’s still playing off the success of that one song (released in 1983). I also caught glimpses of what I gathered to be some sort of rock opera tribute to Falco—you may remember "Rock Me Amadeus".

Later that evening I met up with Uli—I suppose I haven’t really written much about him yet. He’s one of the better friends I’ve made here, and a smart, cool guy. He’s been involved in promoting concerts for a long time and is now working to open up his own place so that he and his associates can produce shows in the way that they would like. They have a lot of experience and contacts in the biz, so I’m hopeful that things will go well for them. Anyway, I went to a couple of parties with him that evening. For the first time since I’ve been here I really didn’t enjoy myself. The first was a birthday party—the gathering was a little too small and intimate for me to feel comfortable. I never ended up finding a good conversation, but it was nonetheless interesting to observe and be a part of this type of private celebration here (they sang Happy Birthday in English, if you’re curious).

The weather is starting to turn, and it is actually a bit chilly now (especially shorn!). The Mediterranean coast is looking more and more attractive. My latest plan is to stick around through the opening of the rock club here, since I want to see the fruition of the efforts of my friends here. Then head for Italy!

Living in Dresden 8-18-03

2003-08-25T13:48:00.000Z

I seem to have done a pretty good job of creating a social network here in Dresden. It required some effort and some luck, but it’s still surprising to me that I have had so much success. It’s not necessarily the kind of social life that I would consider sustainable if I were to stay here for a while--going out to clubs gets old after a while anywhere, I’m sure the barbeques end when the weather gets cold, and the novelty of being the outsider would wear off. My social life went in waves in Austin, and I succeeded primarily through meeting people at work, and then through activities (disc golf, martial arts). Since being here I've met so many kind and interesting people--it's good for a change to be more people-oriented than activity-oriented, which is my wont.

One could suggest that living this kind of life is possible anywhere, and that moving to Dresden to do so lacks value. Wouldn’t it be better to travel around Europe more, to see more places, more cultures? Traveling is definitely part of my plans while here, but it's tiring to live constantly on the road, and I think it's worthwhile to get to know one place well. Maybe interesting late-night conversations don't make one more productive, gain one more money, or enhance one's resume, but there is so much to learn from other people. That might be an obvious statement, but for years I tended to the view that books were the ultimate repository of worthwhile knowledge.

Or conversely, if staying in one place, why not make a real commitment and give it a couple of years, master the language, and find a job? This is probably a good course of action. There are some practical difficulties for me here: really mastering the language would take months of study in an expensive language school, and finding any job, much less a good one, is not so easy here right now. The winter is by all accounts unpleasant, and perhaps I will soon exhaust what interests me here in Dresden. Finding minimal employment doesn't seem to be much of a step in a long-term career path. It is worth asking, though, what my alternative plan might be, what I will do when I return to the States. My thinking in broad strokes is that I could 1) attempt to trade on the specific skill-set acquired while working at UT Austin (though demand may be low and scattered), 2) attempt to find a different type of job in the IT industry either in Austin or 3) somewhere else (most job postings require fairly specific skill-sets, so I might be forced to take an entry-level job), or 4) go to graduate school. I always return to this last, even though I don’t have a specific plan. It’s hard for a generalist like myself to make a commitment to one career path. Something like law school or business school is a sort of all-purpose degree, but neither seems so interesting to me. Having seen so many people at UT who had an advanced degree but had made no (or very little) use of it, it strikes me as silly to go back to school just for the sake of doing so. An advanced degree carries with it a certain cachet, it's true, and perhaps it is worth pursuing as an end in itself. But it seems better to me to pursue a degree with more particular job prospects. Something like bioinformatics, which would allow me to combine my experience with computers with the biological side of my psychology studies. Or perhaps environmental science/public policy, which would allow me to engage my lifelong passion for nature in its defense. Or perhaps becoming involved with politics in some form would give me an avenue to fix the problems I see in the world, while living the kind of public life that many philosophers have considered the highest calling (after their own, of course :). Or maybe I'll have some experiences here that will provide a new, unforeseen direction!

The last week has been a good one. Flower Power is a club with half-price drinks on Monday night, and I have never seen a place so crowded on a Monday! I have been to that same club on a Friday and a Saturday night, and in neither case was it nearly so full. Another day I noticed a large green area on my flat mate’s map of Dresden, and inquired what it might be. It's a big forest, just north-east of the Neustadt. The tourist maps of the city omit it, so I had not noticed it previously. I took off up there on my bike, and found a nice bike path with a network of hiking trails. The river doesn’t smell so good (perhaps run-off from the houses that surround the forest), but I think it's great to have a large undeveloped area so close to the center of the city (it’s actually considered part of the city). I discovered quite quickly that the back tire on my bike was flat, but there wasn't much I could do about it at the time so I proceeded with my trip. Fortunately, my friend Jones has the tools and knowledge necessary to fix a bike, and he helped me change the inner tube. I like using a bike as a primary method of transportation, and I think it would be great to live somewhere that that is possible. I used it later in the week to visit the zoo--always a bitter-sweet experience. There are some animals that are just so unhappy in captivity, and some of them in this zoo live in pretty high density. Other animals seem happy or at least incapable of expressing their displeasure in ways I can understand. The highlights were a playful family of orangutans (they have a well-known breeding program), a transparent fish (its organs were grouped up by its head, and its bone structure was clearly discernible throughout the rest of its body!), and a group of little creatures a little bit like prairie dogs (the German name was unfamiliar). One would lie down on top of their burrow, another would lie on top of the first, and soon there was a ball of 6 or 7 of these creatures. Some appeared watchful, others seemed to be sleeping. What was the point of this behavior? No idea.

Saturday night was another barbeque--the third Saturday in a row for me. This one was a birthday party that I was invited to the night before. It was held on the bank of the Elbe, just north of the part of the city called Johannstadt. I met a German guy who had earned his master’s degree at UT Austin and in the process developed a taste for baseball. I met a girl (Sabine) who is in town for another week who expressed an interest in getting together this week to work on her English and my German--a good idea, hopefully I will be able to contact her. People I had not even met before had heard the story of my karaoke performance the previous week--I suppose I must have been good because I seem to have acquired a reputation as a singer. I kind of like it, except when I am being pressed to sing the birthday boy a song a cappella in front of a big group--no thanks! Several guys, including the birthday boy (Lütz) became enamored of the idea of sending a message in a bottle (or flaschenpost, as they call it, "bottle mail"). Apparently one of them had done so previously and received a response from Hamburg. I thought it was a great party and I really enjoyed myself. Afterward a small number of us headed back to the apartment of Alice (Lütz’s girlfriend) and Kathrine for a more intimate gathering. Alice got it in her head that it would be a good time to cut my hair (which apparently was "too American" and not cool) and would not take "no" for an answer. She cut it very short, with scissors--it would have been easier to use an electric razor but she did not have one, and so after a while she got tired ("so many hairs!") and left the sides and back somewhat unfinished. It was an enjoyable night, which ended with a half-hour walk back to my apartment at 7:30am.

Living in Dresden 8-11-03

2003-08-25T13:37:00.000Z

Drinking beer on the streets of the Neustadt has apparently become a popular activity in recent years, due at least in part to the rise of stores that sell beer (go figure) until 2am. I guess the point is to watch the punks and freaky people walking by. Shortly after returning to Dresden from Amsterdam I approached some of these sidewalk-sitters and, well, I must confess to having played the "I have no friends, can I hang out with you guys?" card. Expecting laughter and perhaps a beating with broken beer bottles from such an opening, it was pleasantly surprising to have happened upon a really cool group of guys. One of the things I am learning on this trip is how to open up to strangers, and how to ask things of people. Typically I prefer to rely on myself, so it is a little disconcerting and uncomfortable to be forced to rely on others. But people have been very welcoming and kind. When you're by yourself on a new continent you can't be shy!

There seems to be a widespread view here that Americans will ask how you are doing without really wanting to know, and make offers that they don’t really intend to be accepted. I suppose this is true at least to the extent that people (and I certainly do this too) use a phrase such as "How's it going?" as a sort of generic greeting without the intention to elicit a true status update. Perhaps Americans really are less sincere, I don’t have a feel for whether that’s true or not, but either way that perception is unfortunate. And my personal experience is that some Dresdners who are critical of this trait in Americans are guilty of the same thing.

I look forward to doing more traveling, but I think that spending a longer time in one place is a great idea. It has afforded me opportunities that I would not have had if I were just passing through, spending 3 or 4 days here. The choice of a particular place to be is not so important, I think, but Dresden has proven to be a good call. It's big enough to have good restaurants, nightlife, museums, and cultural events, but small enough that it’s not overrun with tourists. People who don't speak German seem to be something of a rarity here, and I’ve met plenty of young people (who learned it in school, unlike people over about age 30) who haven't used their English in years. Some are happy for the opportunity to practice it, others have no interest in doing so. I suppose it's analagous to all of the French classes I took for so long--not having spoken it in years, I would definitely have to study and practice before feeling comfortable speaking it again. Hopefully it is still in my brain somewhere and it would quickly come back with immersion in a francophone country. For that reason the choice of living in France would have made more sense, but hey, there's still time for that too!

Staying for so long (2-3 months) in one place has the potential to get boring. It is not the non-stop action of being constantly on the move, but it has afforded me time to just relax and read (which of course I could have stayed at home to do). It does provide a nice counterpoint to life on the road, and I think it’s a good choice to have set aside time for both during this trip. There are only so many museums and things to do during the day. The night has proven a much more fruitful time for finding authentic local experiences.

This weekend: Friday night I wandered down to the Groove Station to shoot some pool by myself. Benny happened to be DJing there, and he invited me along to a "Playboy Trash" party. It was invitation only, and he had one for me. I had to go changes clothes first, as they had a dress code--described as "extreme macho casual", whatever the hell that means. Fortunately I brought along a second bag with me to Europe, and so I had some nice clothes with me that I won't while traveling. This second bag will provide some difficulty in determining what to do with it when I do hit the road, so thank goodness I actually put some of those extra clothes to use! We took a taxi to the party at 1:00. Things usually get going late here, and have a tendency to last all night. Upon entering the party I was told by the woman checking invitations at the entrance to unbutton my shirt by an additional button. Um, okay--I suppose that extra button was the "extreme macho" that I had been missing. I looked sharp though, I have to admit. The party was a lot of fun--attractive well-dressed women, blackjack (played for drinks, since playing for money is not allowed), and a good atmosphere. The place (Saloppe) has both indoor and outdoor facilities—indoors was music, dancing, and karaoke. Uli suggested that Hotel California would be a cool choice. Personally I would consider it a tad banal, and I wouldn't have picked it, but I went with the local "godfather of the Dresden music scene's" recommendation. I know it well and it's an easy song to sing, and I nailed it. I had several strangers (guys, unfortunately ) approach me to compliment my performance. Since the guys I was with are all active in the local music scene, this provided me with a certain measure of credibility in their eyes. I went out with the same guys again Saturday night, and all of them repeatedly remarked on my performance. Uli commented: "We thought you were just a stupid American guy, and now you’re our hero." Um, thanks, I think. They even invited me to sing at the premiere of their club, which has a private opening on the unfortunate date of September 11, followed by the public opening on the following night. The public opening will feature a number of rock bands, but the private opening will be people from the local music scene singing karaoke. So the invitation isn't really a big deal, my performance will just be one among many, but I still feel pretty good about it--after all, my typical audience is either the shower curtain or the car windows!

By the end of the evening people were being thrown into the pool--I think that can safely be taken as a sign of a good party! We left about 5:00, taking a cab back to the Neustadt. The Blue Note Cafe, just around the corner from my flat, was really jumping at this point. But that’s not really what I need at 6am on a Sunday, so with the sun coming up I went to bed. Saturday night was another good one—Benny's parents hosted a barbeque for friends & neighbors. It was quite enjoyable to be part of such a typical local gathering. The food was plentiful and great, in contrast to the other barbeques I have attended here—the difference being that it was organized by parents, I suspect. The others have been beset by problems such as not enough food, not enough table space, not enough light to see the food, difficulties with the fire, a lack of grilling implements, etc. But this one was done right. I expected to see potato salad, but instead there were two different pasta salads. A plate of mozarella, tomatoes, and basil, which I see a lot here. Several people at my table were drinking "prosecco", a German bubbly white wine that seems to be very popular. Benny was playing some hard rock early, but his father at some point got out his old records and played them for us--it was great! Mostly old Bavarian folksongs, many of which everyone present knew, with some other things thrown in--Benny said his mother was a bit exasperated at this (not wanting to disturb the neighbors, I think).

We left about 1:00 and headed to a reggae street party. The cops shortly shut that down (they seem to be very easy-going about these kind of things here), so we headed down the street to a cafe that had set up tables on the street outside, completely blocking it to traffic. This was supposedly allowed as part of the earlier street festival. From there we headed to the club Flower Power, which was pretty great--I’ll be heading back for the half-price Monday nights. The songs that I hear in clubs here are sometimes unexpected--many are English-language cover versions of American pop songs. Why not just play the original? Why are they even covered at all? Maybe it’s an issue of artist royalties or something. I’ve also heard songs here that I haven’t heard in years back in the States--when they like a song here it tends to stay in rotation. Some are pop songs in English that I don't recognize at all. Others are songs I would never expect to hear in a club in the States--in Austin there was lots of good live music, of course, but the clubs would generally play techno, the bars might play top 40 radio, I would never expect to hear something like "San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair)" as I did last night.

Technical difficulties

2003-08-25T10:55:00.000Z

It has taken me almost a week to post again as I had been trying to figure out what to do with my pictures. I decided in the end to upgrade my account on this server and get rid of the geocities account, for a number of reasons. There were a few difficulties along the way, but now it should be fully operational.

In order to preserve some kind of chronology here I will shortly post some writings that I originally drafted in Word over the past few weeks while I was still surveying my blogging options. Then I'll get to more recent updates :)

Trip to Amsterdam

2003-08-19T14:24:00.000Z

Then it was on to Amsterdam! I spent two weeks there, staying with Peter Shenk (an old friend from high school & Boy Scouts, for those who don't know him). Here's a view of one of the canals of Amsterdam at night (okay, so I've grown quite enamored of the ability to take pictures at night!). Here's a picture of Peter and Dutch pal Bernard on the roof of his apartment. From a nearby vantage, a picture of a typical street. You can see in the foreground a metal bar extending from the roof with a hook attached--they use these to lift their belongings up to move them in through the windows, because the stairs are too narrow. And here are a couple of pictures of Peter & Bernard as we sat & talked the night away. And here's another night view of a canal.

Peter and I took a bike trip north of Amsterdam, to the touristy fishing village of Vollendam and to the town of Edam, made famous by the cheese. Here are two pictures of the Dutch countryside; this one includes Peter, but it's not so good because his face is in shadow. I rather like the second, as the near sheep appears to have noticed us as the others go about their business.

I spent much of my time in Amsterdam in museums; here's an interior shot of the Museum of the Tropics (formerly the Dutch Colonial Museum; it was interesting to read history from the Dutch perspective). This shot was taken at the Vondelpark, a popular spot (as you can see) near the center of the city. The Netherlands is the most densely populated country in Europe; they really pack people into the residential areas, but they do a good job of maintaining large public areas. This picture was taken from a boat; I think the Nemo is a museum, I don't really remember, but there is a cafe on its sloped roof. This picture captures pretty well some of the leaning houses in Amsterdam; the whole city is just about to fall over.

Here's a night shot from the Museumplein. The magnificent Rijksmuseum is in the background, and on the left side is part of the Van Gogh museum. And here is yet another night shot of a canal--can you tell I enjoyed taking these? Outside of the main tourist areas Amsterdam is a quiet, peaceful town at night, and I enjoyed riding my bike along the canals. And finally, a picture of Peter in his pad. He is consuming a typical Dutch breakfast of chocolate sprinkles on bread(!?).

From Amsterdam it was back to Dresden. I think it's a nice place to spend some time and get to know the area and the people--I would describe this as the "relax and party" phase of my trip. The city and the surrounding area were quite devastated by the summer 2002 floods, which has just added to the lingering war reconstruction. Here's a picture of me with some Dresden friends, at the party outside the ZZ Top concert. It was taken with somebody else's camera, which is why I'm in the picture! I'm not sure yet where I'll be heading from here; I know I want to get to Berlin & Prague before heading on. I will stay here perhaps through the end of August, and then my tentative plan right now is to head down through eastern Europe to Turkey, and thence to Greece, Italy, France, and back to Germany.

Arrival in Germany

2003-08-19T14:10:00.000Z

Here are the first set of pictures I took in Germany. At this point I'm resizing the pictures I take to 640x480 before uploading them--I think that size offers a nice compromise between resolution and storage space. Pictures may come and go as space gets shorter and I (hopefully) take some better pictures. If I wait until all the pictures are good ones, though, you'll never see anything!

I began my trip by flying into Frankfurt. Unlike most arrivals to that airport, though, I actually spent some time in the city! I discovered that I have a first-cousin-once-removed that I never knew about living in the city, and he and his friend were kind enough to put me up and show me around the city and the surrounding countryside. Here's a picture of them (Richmond on the left, Norbert on the right) and a frog-crossing sign--you can just see in the background a line crossing the road, which is actually a passageway under the road for the frogs to cross danger-free. I suppose there must be a frog migration at some point of the year...or maybe they just really care about their frogs (yes, this is Germany, not France :).

This is a view of the opera house from above. The thing I find interesting is that as they are renovating the top section, there is a giant billboard all the way around with a view of what it will look like when complete. Maybe they should just leave that up--it would be cheaper than finishing the renovations, I'm sure. And here's a picture of the city.

From there I headed to Dresden by train. I'll try to get a better picture, but this is the street I live on (a local contact acquired the room for me prior to my arrival :). I live in an apartment above the bar on the far right; my room faces on an interior courtyard, so it's a bit more quiet than rooms on the street. This area, called the Neustadt, supposedly has a higher density of cafes/bars than any other section of any other city in Europe, and it can get quite noisy in the evening! This is a view across the Elbe of part of the very nice skyline of the Altstadt, dominated by the ongoing construction on the Frauenkirche. I'm told that the exterior scaffolding may be coming down pretty soon, which will be nice because in paintings it is quite beautiful. This is an outside view of one wing of a huge museum complex, approached by a bridge across a moat. And finally, here's a picture I actually like! A view across the Elbe of the cathedral at sunset; in the foreground a crowd has gathered on the banks of the Elbe, ostensibly to hear Alannis Morrisette in concert. She's playing outdoors, so we're there to hear her without paying, but the volume isn't so loud so it's really just an excuse to have a party. And the same evening, a blurry night view of the same cathedral and some neighboring buildings.

Intro

2003-08-19T14:00:00.000Z

Hello world! I'm starting this blog so that I can call myself a "blogger" :) I had started a web page on geocities (ugh) to share my pictures and stories of my travels, but for an experienced web developer their tools were annoying. A blog seemed like the easiest, fastest, cheapest, best alternative. The next few posts will be what I originally posted on the web page (on 7/30/03), so that it's all contained here.

I'll spare you my life story, but here's some context: I spent the last 3.25 years living in Austin, TX, and working as a systems analyst in Human Resources at the University of Texas at Austin. I enjoyed my life there, I had some good friends and hobbies that excited me (disc golf, martial arts, and bridge in particular), but I was feeling complacent and in need of shaking my life up. I could have kept doing what I was doing and been reasonably happy, maybe look for a different job, get a bigger apartment or a house, but I decided that now was no time to be tying myself down! I had no woman, no mortgage, and some money in the bank. Graduate school requires a little more of a focused plan than I have right now, and so I decided to head to Europe! I figure that with the economy the way it is now it should only be easier in the future to get a job in the IT industry again if that's what I end up falling back on.

So what can you expect from this blog? Well, it's intended as a way of sharing pictures, stories, thoughts & observations with family and friends. Basically, whatever I feel like writing.