Where we'll be next week.
It appears to be a place that does not suck.
We shall see.
It appears to be a place that does not suck.
We shall see.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Nostalgia
The temperature dropped yesterday....started off kind of hot but by mid-afternoon was cloudy, windy, and even a bit chilly. A light rain began around 7, when we left the house to catch a movie.
Midnight In Paris is Woody Allen's latest. Set in Paris, it's about a guy nostalgic for a time never knew: 1920's Paris. Through some magic or another, he finds himself able to visit that era after midnight each night, becoming more and more drawn into that world and the people who inhabit it, like Hemingway, Picasso, Gertrude Stein, etc. He has to decide if he wants to stay permanently in that era, or stay in the present day with his insufferable, shallow financee.
But it ends with the man realizing (to steal a line from a popular song of decades ago) that "these are the good old days." If (my interpretation) you don't waste these "good old days" in what Buddhists might call Wrong Living. And what is Right Living? You have to figure that out for yourself. In the movie, Gil realizes he's engaged to the wrong woman and while standing on a bridge across the Seine, meets a woman he'd encountered several times before at an antique dealership. It begins to rain. They both like walking in the rain, and walk off together.
---
We're going to Greece tomorrow morning for a week.
Depending on the reliablility of the hotel's internet connection, I'll try to post daily updates.
If you don't hear from me for a week or so, it means the connection is poor.
Or that we've decided to go back in time and live in ancient Greece.
Midnight In Paris is Woody Allen's latest. Set in Paris, it's about a guy nostalgic for a time never knew: 1920's Paris. Through some magic or another, he finds himself able to visit that era after midnight each night, becoming more and more drawn into that world and the people who inhabit it, like Hemingway, Picasso, Gertrude Stein, etc. He has to decide if he wants to stay permanently in that era, or stay in the present day with his insufferable, shallow financee.
But it ends with the man realizing (to steal a line from a popular song of decades ago) that "these are the good old days." If (my interpretation) you don't waste these "good old days" in what Buddhists might call Wrong Living. And what is Right Living? You have to figure that out for yourself. In the movie, Gil realizes he's engaged to the wrong woman and while standing on a bridge across the Seine, meets a woman he'd encountered several times before at an antique dealership. It begins to rain. They both like walking in the rain, and walk off together.
---
We're going to Greece tomorrow morning for a week.
Depending on the reliablility of the hotel's internet connection, I'll try to post daily updates.
If you don't hear from me for a week or so, it means the connection is poor.
Or that we've decided to go back in time and live in ancient Greece.
Next stop: Santorini
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Friday: A Swim & An Evening Out
Another hot day. Again, we went to the swimming hole for a cool dip or three.
B's folks were there, and also some friends of theirs---a guy who used to work for B's dad, and the guy's wife.
Between swims, we learned something interesting from the guy: there are large discount grocery chains here that offer great travel deals (!) The catch is, these deals come and go quickly, and are only for certain dates. But sometimes you can get astounding deals amounting to 80% off, or more. You might get five nights in an Italian health spa, or a cheap flight to India, if your schedule is flexible enough to allow you to take advantage. A good thing to remember for my next visit.
Wait. I keep saying "my next visit," but the next time I come to Vienna, it'll be to live here. Speech habits / patterns are hard to break...it took me a couple of months after we got married to stop calling B my girlfriend and begin referring to her as my wife. Sometimes I'd use both terms interchangably in the same conversation, which surely confused people who didn't know me.
----
After our swim B went home and met my friend D for dinner and conversation. His father sent along a bottle of the tasty Slovakian liquor he'd introduced me to when we visited their home. A most welcome gift!
Conversation went all over the place---politics, human behavior, Austrian and American idioms, D's upcoming trip to Ireland, etc. It was one of these conversational jam sessions where so much information flies back and forth that afterwards, you remember you had a great time but can only remember certain specifics conversational threads off the top of your head...
After the sun went down the temperature was more pleasant. There was a subway station nearby where we could catch our trains but D suggested we walk to a farther station and enjoy the breeze and the sights on this pleasant evening. As we walked along, D pointed out several buildings and related the interesting stories having to do with their histories.
Every so often I stopped to take pictures:
B's folks were there, and also some friends of theirs---a guy who used to work for B's dad, and the guy's wife.
Between swims, we learned something interesting from the guy: there are large discount grocery chains here that offer great travel deals (!) The catch is, these deals come and go quickly, and are only for certain dates. But sometimes you can get astounding deals amounting to 80% off, or more. You might get five nights in an Italian health spa, or a cheap flight to India, if your schedule is flexible enough to allow you to take advantage. A good thing to remember for my next visit.
This nice, relatively empty little lake is just the thing on a hot summer day
in air conditionless Europe.
in air conditionless Europe.
----
After our swim B went home and met my friend D for dinner and conversation. His father sent along a bottle of the tasty Slovakian liquor he'd introduced me to when we visited their home. A most welcome gift!
Conversation went all over the place---politics, human behavior, Austrian and American idioms, D's upcoming trip to Ireland, etc. It was one of these conversational jam sessions where so much information flies back and forth that afterwards, you remember you had a great time but can only remember certain specifics conversational threads off the top of your head...
After the sun went down the temperature was more pleasant. There was a subway station nearby where we could catch our trains but D suggested we walk to a farther station and enjoy the breeze and the sights on this pleasant evening. As we walked along, D pointed out several buildings and related the interesting stories having to do with their histories.
Every so often I stopped to take pictures:
I shot this through the window of a nice cafe.
Doesn't this look like a great place to grab a drink and read a paper or meet with friends?
Doesn't this look like a great place to grab a drink and read a paper or meet with friends?
Consumerism doesn't do it for me, and I'm not into shoes.
But I did think this impressive display of costly footwears was photo-worthy.
But I did think this impressive display of costly footwears was photo-worthy.
Windows in a passageway.
Had I timed the shot better, you'd have seen the entire blurry image of
a horse carriage passing on the cobblestone street, instead of just the back of the carriage.
Had I timed the shot better, you'd have seen the entire blurry image of
a horse carriage passing on the cobblestone street, instead of just the back of the carriage.
We went to the U4. He stood on his side of the tracks and I stood on mine, waiting for our trains. We talked a bit back and forth across the 40 feet or so separating us, and I took a couple of shots of him.
My train came first. We waved goodbye. He's off to Ireland soon, and we're going to Greece.
It seems strange to even write that: He's off to Ireland soon, and we're going to Greece.
Doesn't seem to be the kind of life I would have imagined for myself, somehow. Well. You never know.
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