(as ever; if you don’t want me to send you travel updates from life abroad, let me know!) “Mind the Gap” - Wise words foolishly ignored by myself. Some people get birthday cakes and party hats, on my birthday I was awarded 14 stitches, 2 tetanus shorts, 2 x-rays of my shin, and a trip to a German emergency room for “kicking a train.” If you don’t say what you want for your birthday you have no right to complain when you are given something you did not ask for; so it is with me. Next year I will have a list posted on Amazon. Anyway, I feel bad for the train; given the way my leg looks after our meeting, I can only imagine that train is damaged beyond repair. I expect the Deutche Bahn folks will be contacting me to take up the matter of rail-car replacement.
Truthfully, “kicking a train” gives me a too much credit, the real story is more passive and less impressive; I misjudged stepping onto a train and fell like a rock wearing a backpack, landing my left-shinbone on the lowered bottom step of the train-car’s entrance door. I am happy to report that the German medical system is, well, “very German.” This is a good thing. There are places you want people to be very ordered, detail oriented, and serious. I have never injured myself in Italy, but instinctively feel that given the choice I’d choose Germany for this kind of a tourist stunt. If you really want to get to know a country, injure yourself there and see how it works out. Germany is just fine with me. I have much to be thankful for. That I have no broken bones, many good friends, and am safe trip back to London where I appear to be healing well, are topping my personal list this week. Stitches come out next week. On to the fun stuff. Krista and I flew into Pisa, Italy in the last week of September. The weather was great and we spent the afternoon in Pisa before driving out to rural Tuscany for our friends Andy and Michael Anne’s wedding. I am happy to report that driving in Italy posed few problems in the countryside. The cities were more challenging with scooters often passing us in both sides and all directions, but the countryside and motorways were surprisingly easily navigable. We had been rented a Citron, which for those not in the euro-car scene is a French make; it also worked surprisingly well. Again, given the choice I think I’d eat French and drive German, but the thing had four wheels and operable shift, and got us around just fine. The wedding was terrific. A fairly large cadre of Seattle friends were there for the wedding and it was great to see people again. If we live good lives, give alms to the poor and are considerate to our elders we’ll be lucky to go somewhere like Tuscany when we die. It’s almost impossible to describe how beyond time the countryside seemed; it was extraordinarily beautiful. The basic layout of the countryside is one of rolling hills, similar to California, but lush. On top of a hill now and again sits a small fortified castle/city and around it rolling down the hillsides are vineyards and olive trees. I can only imagine that this has the way it has been for millennia; people living and working in the countryside with a fortification to retreat into when the wars came though. Go there sometime.
The wedding itself was spirited; much merriment and red wine, the town mayor officiated, and everyone danced the night away. All great fun. The wedding festivities took place on a Thursday and so Friday morning we hopped into our Citron and drove up to Florence. Having been to Florence once before, but never driven there until now, my advice is simple. Find your hotel and get rid of the car; behind the wheel you are simply a nuisance in everyone’s way. Luckily the second hotel enquired at had rooms available at reasonable rates and we found that the car rental return was only two blocks away from where we had parked the car. With a sense of relief we handed over the car keys and got our receipt stating that we had returned it intact.
Florence is at its most beautiful in the daylight. It’s a perfectly fun city at night, but if you’re looking for the reasons people rave about Florence, you’ll find these during daylight hours. Our friends Osh and Kati also came up to Florence after the wedding and we spent the first afternoon with them wandering around the city and taking in the views. On day two of Florence, we were on our own and decided to spend a good deal of time across the river wandering and exploring. The gardens in back of the Pitti Palace are top notch. Those looking for a good day hike should hoof it up the back roads to the “Belvedere Fort”; which has unequaled views of the city as well as some very funky modern art exhibits.
Waking up Saturday morning we discovered that the power had gone out. At first we assumed that this was local to the hotel we were in or to the neighborhood at most and simply went back to bed. Hours later we were to discover that this was to be the “great Italian blackout of 2003”, covering almost all of Italy. Given this, things were remarkably calm in the city and life seemed to hum along just fine sans voltage. The one exception to this is long-haul transportation; if there is no power in Italy it stands to reason that there are no trains running in Italy. Given the highly integrated nature of the European rail system, you can imagine the disruption this caused. Sometime around noon, power was restored and trains started moving in northern Italy again. Krista took a train to Pisa and I headed up to Turin where I had a day or two of work to do. Aside from crowding on the trains, all this went remarkably well. Krista got back to London, 6 hours later I rolled into Turin, weary but on track. Turin, Italy seems to be somewhat of a kept secret. I had never considered heading to Turin before and it was only a request to speak at a university there that coincided with a my vacation plans that brought me there. Having been there once now, I’d be glad to go back again. Of the cities I’ve been to in Italy, it’s probably the one I’d choose to live in were I to move there. Turin is a wonderfully old city with a great outdoor scene. It stuck me as very liveable and is probably what Seattle would look like if it had been built in northern Italy some time around 1700. Five key things to know about Turin: (1) Its in the far north-west of Italy, (2) It will host the 2006 winter Olympics. (3) It’s the home of Fiat (yes, every taxi is a Fiat), (4) The Po river, which flows though it, is beautiful, (5) It has these fantastically grand covered walkways that you wonder whatever prompted them to be built; until it starts raining and then you realize exactly why these were built; 18th century Italians were smart! If you find yourself there, walk the Po riverside and also cross the river and walk up to the mountaineering museum; it’s in the highest and most prominent building on the other side, can’t miss it.
After three nights in Turin and a day and a half touring around I went off to the Turin Airport and flew up to Munich to resume the holiday. My good friend Dan from Seattle had arranged with a local friend to put us all up at his place for the duration of Oktoberfest, saving us great frustration and expense. Dan and Adam came up from Italy though Switzerland, and Kerri drove out from Aachen, Germany and we all joined up with Dan’s local friends to do a big night of Okteberfesting. The beer-halls at Oktoberfest are exactly what you think they would be but on a scale too large to imagine; think of a beer with a whole row of zeros following it, you’re not even close. Lots of giant tents holding over ten thousand people a tent, people standing on top of large picnic tables quaffing down huge amounts of beer while singing, dancing, smoking and eating kraut. It’s a total mess, but also great fun. Unexpected observation: The beer-fraus who carry 4-6 large litre mugs of beer (called ‘masses’) are unstoppable. They simply line up the giant steins of beer in a wedge shape in front of them and roll though the crowd like old-style trains with cow-catcher wedges in the front. If you are in the way you will forcefully be shunted to the side by the motion. Nothing stops the beer and sausages flowing. The next day I had a headache. That following evening we also got together with our friend Allen Duan and some of his business school compatriots who were in Munich for the festivities. Chris Williams from London joined the party as well.
Following a few days in Munich, Kerri and I headed for Baden Baden. There we met up with Mark, who trained in from Aachen and Krista, Mart and Ellen who flow in from London (cheap Ryan Air Flight). Baden Baden was nice to walk around in an looked a lot like a well kept up, old-style ski village. We spent a few hours in Baden Baden and then drove a short distance into Strasburg, France. Strasburg is a city that has changed hands a few times between France and Germany and retains a strong flavour of both. On arriving, we spent a few hours wandering around and found it nice but not overwhelmingly interesting. We had some wine and retired to bed. The next day we wandered around the downtown and found the key to Strasburg’s charm, an area called “Petite France”; the area was beautiful and full of cafes, restaurants and plenty of small wandering streets. If you find yourself in Strasburg “Petite France” is where you want to be. In the afternoon Mark and Kerri left us to return to Aachen and Dan and Adam trained in from Munich having finished their festing there. Krista, Mart, Ellen, Dan, Adam and I then took a train to Heidelberg.
Heidelberg is a beautiful town containing the fantastic ruins of a castle on a hill, a beautiful stretch of the Rhine River and the oldest university in Germany. It’s a lively and heavily touristed university town, with a nice old city and plenty of places to grab a good meal and drown your whistle.
Two nights in Heidelberg and we were off to Luxemburg! Switching trains in a town called Saarbrücken is where I slipped boarding a train and got to visit the hospital. As there was no point in the others being saddled down by my injury and also friends waiting to meet them the rest of the gang headed off to Luxemburg. Luxemburg is apparently quite nice; I’ll give you a full report when I get there sometime! Krista and I stuck around in Saarbrücken for the night and stopped by the hospital the next morning to have my leg looked at before travelling. Given the OK, we then shifted destinations and decided to train up to Aachen to pay Kerri and Mark a visit; I paid very careful attention to train steps. Mark and Kerri were great hosts and we had a good time hanging out there for two days as my leg healed a bit. We even got to do a little turisting with Kerri driving us out to Monschau for an afternoon of light wandering; it’s a great little village at the bottom of a valley.
Friday, Krista and I bid farewell and hopped on another train from Aachen to Brussels; I am glad to report I think I am getting the hang of getting on and off trains; again, no additional injuries en route. In Brussels we met up with the Luxemburg crew, now numbering at least seven and had a quick lunch. From there I took a train back to London to rest from the weekend and reacquaint myself with work and our apartment here.
I type these words from the Starbuck’s down the street from our London apartment, having also stopped by the walk-in medical clinic last night; the leg is healing well. Travel is an adventure and almost an end in itself; but not quite. Having spent time with friends; time alone; time wandering and time sitting still has forced to mind the question of “what makes for a successful travel experience?” (Going around kicking trains does not ;-). Definitely a mix of social and solitary activities seems important. Only once or twice did I find myself in real, thankfully short-lived, malaise. These were the times when I felt rudderless. It seemed important to maintain some sense of purpose and specific goals to achieve that day. Conversely, having nothing but a checklist of sights to see is also its own death. A balance of goal and openness to new opportunities seems to be the right middle ground; I found even simple goals like “today I will wander the river and read the newspaper” seemed to make a big difference (as long as the paper is in a language you understand). In retrospect, my biggest failing this trip was not having brought a book with me; reading the daily paper gets depressing after a while (quickly these days for anyone reading world headlines) and a good book is something more substantial to dive into it’s got much more long term continuity. I had my laptop with me which served to keep me busy at times when I time needed filling; but it’s no book (you can take a book into the bathtub). To wrap up; it was a good experience and I’d do it again, ups, downs, stitches and all. Hope to see you soon!
As ever, your friend. -ivo
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