Mind on Central Europe

Last week, our team had lunch in a trendy Bohemian restaurant. I'm not sure why it was called bohemian, thinking the place had some Eastern European connection, but the food was what I would describe as American fusion. Most of my colleagues order burgers while I got a Tuna Ahi bowl with raw tuna on top of rice. The lunch went well with good conversation about the company and about life in general. Later in the week, we gathered together in the conference near our area after getting food from a nearby lunch table organized by personnel.

We also had a good sharing during that second lunch, and it was a nice time to share our thoughts and general bonhomie as we truly enjoy each other's company as equals. The good atmosphere is due to our boss, who is no-nonsense but fair and treats us as responsible adults. I am glad I ended up with this team, and I have been with this group for about 3 years, though most of us are just new, coming into this group. I believe it is the best time that I have had in my career, except for the work I did with my French friend in Asia Pacific.

I also attended my first meeting with Habitat for Humanity and enjoyed the evening meeting at their warehouse, where I tried a nail gun and met skilled handymen and carpenters.  I learned a lot in that short two-hour session, and I plan to be active in the coming months in their projects.  The carpentry skills I will learn here will help me build a fence and deck in my backyard. I want to spend more of my time in my senior years volunteering and giving to the community.

I also practice racketball in my local gym and enjoy the game of hitting the ball against the wall. I hope to find a playing partner and join a league to meet people and improve my game. I strive for these new experiences to grow and get out of my usual activities in the past, with these new experiences of volunteering and learning a new sport. Otherwise, I fear my brain will regress if I don't keep learning new skills in my senior years.

I dream more and more of my time in Singapore and the Philippines, missing my friends and reliving the old good times with relatives. Old memories come back sharp and clear as if my mind is recalibrating its memories and adjusting its cognitive process. I read an article that the body and mind change during a certain period, and one such period is the 60s. I actively prevent decline by exercising and learning new things, plus increasing my use of the tDSC device and cognitive exercises.

It's been a week since I arrived from my trip to Venice and Budapest. I am reading books on these countries as well as watching movies. For example, I am enjoying the series 'Baptiste', the 2nd season filmed in Budapest. I want to watch the series 'Vienna Blood'  when I get back from California. I want to keep learning about Austria and Hungary to maximize my visit to these 2 countries. It increases my knowledge and experience of these foreign travels.

8 Day Itinerary

We spent a total of eight days on our trip to Budapest and Hungary. We visited palaces and museums, walked the busy streets filled with people, looking into the elegant stores, and enjoyed the Christmas Markets jam-packed with crowds enjoying the food and the products from the stalls. I remember the young faces and joy of the young Europeans enjoying their city.

Budapest has great natural beauty, with the Danube river dividing the mountains and the palaces of Buda and the busy streets of Pest on the other side. The experience was more raw and exciting under the cold weather. Vienna was more sophisticated, with elegant streets and modern trams> The beauty is in the old streets and coffee houses and the multitude of museums in the museum quarter to visit. The Schonburg and Belvedere palaces were exceptional.

History was made in these cities, in a time long gone after the World Wars. Only a semblance of its magnificence remains of the Habsburg and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. My first glimpse of this world was in Ernest Hemingway's 'A Farewell to Arms.'  The romance and elegance still remain, but the old days are still grasped in old novels, movies, and the old buildings in these cities. During the trip, I watched YouTube videos and learn more about this world long gone.

Budapest 

Day 1: 27 Nov, Thursday  

Arrival and check in, and meet at City Market, walk along the Danube on the Pest side

Day 2: 28 Nov, Friday

Walking Tour starting from St. Stephen Basilica to Parliament on the Pest side

Bus ride to Buda across the Danube river, Fisherman's Bastion, walk around the palace district until the funicular, dinner in the Christmas Market, walk along the streets and square, and go to St. Stephen's Basilica

Day 3: 29 Nov, Saturday

Walk in City Park, ride the Tram to the hotel area, and walk the streets with the Christmas Markets

Vienna

Day 4: 30 Nov, Sunday

Train ride from Budapest to Vienna, Hop on Hop Off bus along Vienna, go to St. Stephen's Church, and the Basilica

Day 5: 1 Dec. Monday

Go to Schonbrun Palace, lunch at the bus station, walk around the city center, and dinner at Karplaz train station

Day 6: 2 Dec. Tuesday

Go to the Lower and Upper Belvedere palaces and attend a Mozart and Schubert concert

Day 7: 3 Dec. Wednesday

Go to Leopold Museum and Wein Museum, walk around the Museum area, dinner at Karplaz train station

Day 8: 4 Dec. Thursday

Departure from Vienna to Toronto to Charlotte, and drive back to Greenville, SC.

I went back to work the next day, Friday, after getting some haphazard sleep on the flight and a few hours starting at midnight. I answered emails and posted comments in the group chat of the projects I am working on. Back to the grindstone on the 9th day.

City of the Viennese

Yesterday we went to Leopold Museum located in the Museum Quartier. Leopold had an excellent exhibition of Vienna artists like Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele whose paintings can clearly claim to be a new way of perspective. In fact, it was not only in the realm of art but also in psychology (Sigmund Freud), economics (Hayek, Schumpeter) music (Mahler and Schonberg) and architecture. It is one of those periods in history when gifted people, new ideas and a special city come together with the right ingredients to claim a break from the past and point the way towards a new way.

The exhibit at the lower floor of the Leopold was on esoteric subjects like Theosophy, spiritual enlightenment, life after death and such areas that pertain to the supernatural realm.  Vienna in the 1900s is like Paris in the 1920s or New York in 1950s or San Jose\ Silicon Valley in the 1980s or Shanghai in the 2020s. Unfortunately, Vienna succumbed to fascism with the rise of National Socialism and Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust. After the World War I, Austrian – Hungarian empire collapsed, and the Hapsburg were dethroned. It was not a happy ending considering the promising start.

The next museum we went was the Wien or Vienna Museum. Initially, I wanted to go to the Albertini Museum but decided we had enough of art museums. We walk through the museum quartier made our way towards St. Charles Church. There was a Christmas Market in front of the church but did not get a chance to visit the church or the market. Instead, we spent nearly 3 hours in the Wein Museum, which was all about Vienna, the city. The museum reminded me of the Tokyo Museum which I visited long ago.

I have been watching YouTube videos about the Hapsburg, Austro – Hungarian empire which I tried to relate to my visit, to imagine rising of a multi-ethnic society and the social process and governance it took to manage or mismanage this immense grouping. Wien Museum brough me down to earth, to understand the history of the place with exhibits of weaponry, armory, artifacts and good use of audio-visual technologies to improve our understanding. The admission was free, and I should have spent more time here.

I liked the exhibits on the siege of Vienna by the Ottomans, by Napoleon Bonaparte, Congress of Vienna and the Anschluss or annexation of Austria by Hitler. I could link my visit to Upper and Lower Belvedere which was owned by Prince Eugene of Savoy who fought in the wars against Napoleon. Of the city mayors and the business men and financiers whose palatial homes dotted the city center and their business history. It provided a closer glimpse of the Viennese and their city.

Mozart and Strauss Concert

 Vienna is a huge dense city, unlike Budapest which has a large river frontage and open spaces with clear views of the river and high mountain in the Buda side to see the wide spread of the city. Vienna does not have a picturesque view of the Danube River nor high mountains nearby where one can see the lay of the land. There are no natural highlights but tall towers, or large Ferris wheels like the famous structure in the movie ‘The Third Man’.

However, there is charm in the city streets with the imperial palaces of the Hapsburg or former princes like the legendary general Prince Eugene of Savoy with his Belvedere palaces. Other noteworthy structure is the immense Opera house or the other Hapsburg palaces that have been turned into museums. There is also the food. We had an excellent dinner of lamb kebab and chicken skewered server with rice, sour crème, pickles, onions and beets. For starters, we had excellent Bortsch and pumpkin soup and for s=dessert a strudel and Turkish coffee.

The central train station and the tram system were excellent though we had to figure out the train lines and the route to travel in the city. After dinner, we watched a concert where a young group played various pieces of Mozart, Strauss pieces in a small concert hall Wiener Music house near the restaurant which was an Albanian or Turkish restaurant that faced the street where people walked about and some smoked Shisha pipe on the tables outside. One can feel the wealth and ease that comes from a rich state.

The television shows did not have English sub-titles unlike in Budapest which is refreshing to see an un-Engligh leaning country that is confident of its European history. I watched YouTube videos of the Hapsburg Dynasty and how the family became an empire. In the exhibition at the Belvedere, the paintings by Klimt and Egon Schiele and the other artist that led the Vienna Succession offered a new way of seeing things. Their style was a real break from the romantic view and more towards an impressionistic way of seeing.

 Any new empire would have a whole different way of seeing reality and would be reflected in their new art, whether in painting or literature. This confidence of being on the vanguard of the new may often lead its rulers into wars such as the First and Second World War. The Hapsburg empire was a true multi-ethnic state that had several innovations that heralded a new way but unfortunately led to devastation and eventually demise.

Vienna Noir

 

We arrived in Vienna on Sunday after a chaotic start in Budapest train station where we struggled to find seats in the train. We set at separate seats at the start of the trip but eventually found several seats where we all sat together in a new caboose added later in the trip. We bought chicken nuggets in the train station and enjoyed our lunch together as the train approached Vienna. The countryside was wonderful under a dreary sky but eventually a day emerged as the train arrived in Vienna at around 1 pm.

The hotel did not have the correct reservation for our friends, so we had to find another hotel nearby; across from the central train station where we arrived. After settling in, I bought tickets for the Hop on and Hop off bus tour that circled the city through specific routes. The bus had an audio tour where we connected our earphones and listened to lectures of the historic building we passed along the way. We left the bus at the train station near the center where I had Sushi and bear.

Afterwards, we walked along the busy Sunday streets to the St. Stephens Cathedral and St. Peters Basilica where was mass was going on. The church was magnificent with the high Gothic architecture of St. Stephens in contrast to the Baroque architecture of St. Peters Basilica. The interiors were magnificent with high ceilings, frescos and intricate design. I lit a candle, said some prayers and dipped my hand in the holy water as we left the church. The streets were filled with people enjoying the festive night with Christmas markets and the elegant stores lining the streets.

Yesterday, we again rode the Hop on and Hop off bus at the central train station after breakfast of salmon and cheese sandwich, Bavarian donuts and hot chocolate. I also bought Red Bull which I drank later in the day. We toured the city of Vienna listening to the audio tour and got off at Schonbrun Palace were we walked the gardens for about an hour until the designated hour to enter the palace.

The Schonbrun tour was informative with good displays and as we walked through the magnificent rooms, enjoying the visual and audio tours. I was always interested in the Hapsburg and the Astro – Hungarian empire and to finally visit these places where the Hapsburg lived and understand the city of Vienna that existed in my mind and to finally reconcile reality with the mental images of my youth.

We had dinner at the central train station where I had boiled pork in soy sauce with rice and vegetables and Austrian beer. We explored the train stations and the various shops, checked the train schedules and the terminal for the train to the airport as our friend were leaving Vienna to go back home. We will stay for 2 more days and plan to visit the art museums. I watched several You Tube Videos on Vienna and Hapsburg.