La Roche-sur-Yon

La Roche-sur-Yon

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Even if you weren't born then, remember.

The train ride to Poland was a little less than clear; my ticket showed me arriving at 7pm and having no connections, but I realized (thankfully before getting to Warsaw) that the train I got on in Vienna was not going straight to Kraków.  I had to get off at Katowice and hoped my connection to Kraków was legal; the train controllers didn't seem to be sure, either, but let me off the hook and I arrived around 10pm.  I was more than happy to join my friends Annie and Rodrigo at our hostel.

It was the strobe lights shining from the window of the hostel that worried me at first glance.  Its name was "Greg & Tom Party Hostel" ...and during the high tourist season, it probably is exactly what it sounds like.  Luckily, mid-April is a pretty quiet time, and our room was calm and never full.  Dinners were included, catered from the hostel's partner restaurant.  Not a bad deal at all.

Wawel castle
We had planned two days in Kraków.  It's a small but beautiful little city, but it has been improving over the past twenty years, and it's now charming and full of history.  Our first morning, we began by simply wandering the main city squares, some churches, and the Wawel Castle.  We didn't take the tour of the castle, but you can see the outside and walk through its cathedral for free.  The architectural mishmash interested me the most; the castle looks like several buildings from several eras smashed together.

We of course also tried some local specialties; I especially liked the stuffed cabbage with tomato sauce and the pierogi (Polish "ravioli", typically filled with cottage cheese).



In small European cities that "all start to look the same" in a way, I love finding small, unique places.  In Kraków, it was the Stained Glass Museum.  Tours run every hour on the hour...if there are tourists.  Tour guides are staff who work there and actually create the stained glass, so they walk you through the work rooms and explain what is happening as you watch the progression of their projects.  The three of us were alone on our tour and were able to ask plenty of questions and spend as much time as we wanted marveling over the process; it was truly incredible.  The work that is put into stained glass (cutting and molding the pieces, painting the pieces - maybe twenty times depending on the shading necessary - and the agony of messing up just one piece and having to completely start over on a project) is incredible.  Once a piece is finished, it also needs to be safely transported to its new home and placed correctly without being broken.  The work in matching colors, textures, and styles, is overwhelming, but our tour guide explained it all magnificently and answered our questions with ease.




Afterward, I walked almost an hour in the rain out of the city center and into the Jewish Quarter to visit the Schindler Factory, now turned into a museum.  Just before coming to Kraków, I had talked to a friend for recommendations; she said (and I pass on to you), if you have the opportunity, you absolutely need to visit Auschwitz.  As difficult as it is, it's important for every human being on this planet to go and see what humans are capable of, and remember.

Schindler's list
I started at Schindler's Factory.  There, I learned that much of the movie Schindler's List (which I haven't seen) is fabricated, but that Oskar Schindler did create a factory with decent living conditions for Jews at the time.  (He didn't have much to do with the list, though, but you can see a list of names in a circular room at the museum.)  The museum is so well done and moving, it will likely bring you to tears.  I recommend making the trek.  It's focused not exactly on Schindler, but on the lives of the Jews in Kraków leading up to their placement in camps like Auschwitz.  Germans slowly took over the center of town where Jews originally lived and forced them from their homes, placing them in what is now the Jewish Quarter; walls resembling gravestones were eventually erected around the zone.  In the end, they were almost all sent to Auschwitz or other death camps in the area.

Do not try to do both Schindler's Factory and Auschwitz in one day; you will need time to process each experience.  Rodrigo and I, and eventually Annie, decided to sign up for a tour with our hostel (for about 4 Euros more than going on our own, we avoided hours of waiting in line).  We were all nervous about what to expect, but we didn't think twice about giving up a sunny day relaxing on patios in Kraków.

Auschwitz is divided into two parts:  Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II (Birkenau).  The first camp is smaller, comprised of barracks that were mostly occupied by German officials (some workers and some prisoners on death row too).  The barracks have been turned into museums showing the estimated (probably vastly underestimated) number of people killed there and rooms full of the personal artifacts stolen from prisoners upon their arrival.  After the guided tour, you board a ten-minute bus to get to the second camp.  Annie and I were shocked by how modern the areas surrounding both camps were:  you can see supermarkets, freeways, and people living their everyday lives just five minutes from the former death camps.

Auschwitz II is a vast camp.  A double line of train tracks runs in through the front gates and stops in the middle; this is where families were brought in and separated, but, even in that moment, convinced that they would be okay and taken care of.  Those able to work were separated from the "weak"; even the weak were calmed and reassured as they were led to the gas chambers.  Much of the camp was destroyed by the Germans at the end of the war once they realized they'd lost, and wanted to hide what they'd done, but you can still see the blown up remains of one gas chamber.  The barracks are rebuilt every few years so that visitors can see where they were; the ground is too unstable for them to hold long-term.

I chose not to take photographs at Auschwitz; anything you really want to see can be found via Google search, I'm sure.  Photos are permitted as long as they are tasteful (no selfies, no having someone take your picture...) but we unfortunately saw those rules broken and were shocked and ashamed at how some (mostly, but not limited to, Americans...and not young Americans, either) behaved on our tour.  Depending on how you choose to get there and tour it, it can take around 8 hours; it is emotional, moving, and perhaps confusing, but you do not need to spill your every emotion to your whole tour group; you also do not need to "raise the group morale" by making goofy comments.  Hold your emotions and nervous commentary during the tour and debrief with your travel companions later.  Auschwitz is a burial ground and a reminder of terrible human capability; it is not a tourist site to check off your list; it is not the Eiffel Tower.

To summarize our tour guide's last words to us at Auschwitz II and echo with my own:  Let's be very careful of how we treat other ethnic groups and remember that we've already allowed similar camps to exist in America during WWII.  "Ethnic cleansing" is not a thing of the past; the holocaust is not a historical fluke that's now behind us.  It started somewhere and few noticed or stood up to how terrible it was becoming at the time.  Before you believe yourself to be superior to another race or any group of people in any way, remember to stop, sit down, and listen.  You may be different, but not in any way superior.  Yes, that can be a challenging concept, but the moment you sit, listen, and connect is the moment tensions subside, even on the small scale.  Ask, "Why?" or "How can I help?" or "Can you explain?" instead of making assumptions and passing quick judgment.  The answers may surprise you, and in the smallest of ways, help stop a new disaster.  Auschwitz is not a thing of the past; it could happen again today, maybe in some other way.  Instead, let's choose to be tolerant.

Saturday, June 4, 2016

Dear Vienna

If you took the classical music out of Vienna, I wouldn't have liked the city much at all.

Fortunately, I don't think it's possible to separate Vienna from its classical music history, and I left with some beautiful memories and would definitely go back to hear more music.

I must have used up all my sunny days in Budapest, because after the three-hour train ride west to Vienna, I spent the afternoon wandering in the pouring rain like a drowned rat.  That made the city rather difficult to navigate for a first-timer; my phone's GPS bowed out on me as well leaving me with only a soggy, inaccurate tourist map.

Mozarthaus
It was therefore a perfect day to visit Mozarthaus, the only Viennese residence of Mozart that remains; it's not far from St. Stephen's Cathedral.  The composer lived there from 1784-87.  The museum itself is small but covers four floors; it's very polished and well-done.  Some rooms are set up as one would assume Mozart had them arranged during his lifetime; others have been turned into a museum of his musical works and the history of his time.

St. Charles Church
That evening, I headed to St. Charles Church for a concert (Vivaldi's Four Seasons: third edition).  Concerts in Vienna are certainly less relaxed than in Budapest.  I watched people try various tactics to cut in front of each other in line while waiting for the doors to open.  The church was full; you had to pay for a program; and instead of switching on the heater, they handed out blankets.  The string group that played was excellent, but I was too stubborn to pay for a program and cannot tell you their name, nor can I identify the first piece they played.  The music itself was some of the smoothest and most polished work I've ever heard; the musicians were powerfully confident and hardly seemed to communicate onstage.  (Maybe a little bit over-confident, too - the solo violinist added a cadenza in each movement...so, yes, twelve cadenzas.)

One absolute must-see in Vienna is Schönbrunn Palace, just outside the center of town.  Because of its size and large adjacent gardens, it's a bit like a mini-Versailles.  Schönbrunn's added bonus is a ban on all photography inside the palace; people tend to walk through the rooms at a normal pace and you don't repeatedly walk into the guy in front of you who feels the need to take a picture of every chair.

Schönbrunn was built around 1640, but it is best known for its style since its remodeling around 1740-50, when Empress Maria Theresa lived there.  The palace has a rather varied interior mostly representing two distinct periods of history:  the Rococo-style rooms of Empress Maria Theresa's time and the neoclassical rooms of Franz Joseph I (1830-1916), the longest-reigning emperor of Austria.  The Rococo rooms are, of course, over the top, with gold, intricate carvings, elaborate wallpaper, and paintings.  The neoclassical style, in contrast, is much simpler; though he was one of the most important ruler's in Austria's history, Franz I's bedroom and bed were tiny and unimpressive.  I liked both styles, but my favorite was of course the Mirror Room, decorated in white, gold, and deep pink.  This was where Mozart gave his first concert to Empress Maria Theresa at the age of six.



Gloriette
After the palace tour, I took a walk in the gardens despite the drizzle.  They are less impressive than those of Versailles, but you can walk straight back and up a hill to the Neptune Fountain and continue to the Gloriette.  From the top, there's a nice view of Schönbrunn with some of the city center and beautiful dark hills in the background.

Upon returning to the center of town, it was obvious that the weather was not going to cooperate for a nice afternoon outside, so I ended up at Hofburg Palace, the former imperial palace.  It's been through many renovations going back to the 1400s, but today houses a museum with three parts: the Imperial Apartments, the Sisi Museum, and the Silver Collection.  I passed first through the Silver Collection, which readily blew my mind; it houses endless collections of royal silverware and takes you through the changes in table setting style over the decades.  The Imperial Apartments were nothing special after Schönbrunn, but the real draw is the Sisi Museum, following the life of Empress Elisabeth, the wife of Franz Joseph I.  She was born in Munich, which was then part of the Kingdom of Bavaria, and married rather young into Austrian royalty.  Despite her privilege, she had difficulties all her life adjusting to being in the royal spotlight, and was eventually assassinated in Geneva.  The museum effectively displayed the complications of her life in an objective way.

When you are all museumed out on a rainy day in Vienna, there is a solution:  Demel, a fancy tea and cake shop.  If you want to sit down and eat or drink, there is a lengthy and rather confusing process; I finally snagged a table after an hour of waiting.  I was happy with my hot chocolate and whatever cake I chose (due to the treble clef written on it in icing).

My anticipated moment of the weekend happened late Sunday morning.  Before the vacation, I had found advance tickets for the Vienna Philharmonic matinée for six Euros!  What a deal.  I was expecting general admission nosebleed seats, but acoustics in the back of the hall are usually better anyway.  I arrived at the music hall and collected my ticket, which read Stehplatz, and then shuffled into a long line.  The doors opened and we were let loose into the hall, which brings me to my:

German Word of the Day
Stehplatz - standing room

We were put into a small area on the ground floor in the back of the hall where there was much shuffling and craning of necks in order to see anything.  Once the concert started, many people dropped like flies and sat on the floor.  I wasn't sure how my legs would hold up being crunched in a small space for two hours, but if I was uncomfortable, I didn't notice at all: that is how incredible the Vienna Philharmonic was.  I even splurged on a program this time, and during the second half, I could see most of the right side of the stage, including the flute players.  The guest conductor was none other than the "Dude" - Gustavo Dudamel, the Venezuelan conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.  The highlight of the concert was Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, already a powerful piece.  Thanks to the acoustics of the hall, the cohesiveness of the orchestra, and the clearest of tones from every musician, you could hear every instrument perfectly, and they were all completely in sync.  The ending left everyone speechless...and I realized afterward that I hadn't given my legs a single thought during the whole piece.

I could move to Vienna just for the six-Euro standing room tickets.

You know you've been traveling alone too long when you start playing the statue selfie game.  After the concert, there was a marathon blocking much of Vienna, and the sun started peeking out, so I naturally decided to hunt down every musical composer statue in the city. I believe I hit them all: Brahms, Beethoven, Gluck, Bruckner, Schubert, Mozart, Strauss, and Vivaldi.

Once that was accomplished, I went grave-hunting.  Most composers are buried in Zentralfriedhof, the national cemetery of Vienna and one of the largest in the world.  To get there, you need to take the tram out of the center of town and then walk another thirty minutes.  When I arrived, I was disappointed not to find a map pointing out the locations of the composers like in Père Lachaise in Paris; this cemetery is massive, and I was also afraid that the gates would be closed and locked for the evening if I strayed too far from them.  Discouraged, I was ready to give up and turn around when I ran into them completely by chance, nicely clustered together: Brahms, Strauss, Schubert, and, of course, Beethoven.

Beethoven
Brahms
Mozart
Mozart was too cool for the national cemetery; he is a tram stop and another thirty-minute walk away in St. Marx Cemetery.  It's a smaller and quieter place (though they built an obnoxious elevated freeway above the cemetery); I just needed to follow a guy taking photos with his iPad to find the grave easily.

My last morning, I had a couple more places on my list to hit.  Naschmarkt was first after a long walk: the huge, daily outdoor market.  It was too early for a meal, but I did swipe some delicious-looking pastries for later on the train.  After, I hopped on the tram and up to take a peek at the Hundertwasserhaus, an interesting and colorful apartment block designed by the artist Hundertwasser.  You can admire it from the outside and from an inner courtyard for free: the pavement and building lines are uneven; there are trees growing from inside the apartment; grass grows from the roof.  It's one of Vienna's lesser-known gems, and doesn't take much time to stop and see.


That is where my solo travels ended; next stop is Kraków, Poland.