Day 57

The last celebration of the "50 days" is taking place at home, on day 57, a week later than originally planned. Joern, Markos, Toni with Silvia, Eva, Jano, Angela with Massi, Abdul, Lucero with Jan, and Ana Maria with Giovanni and Luca bring the number of friends who helped celebrate to exactly 50 (not counting partners). We serve Raclette, as on day 1, and let the 1877 pictures and videos from the trip pass by on the wall. Reminiscences of various high- and lowlights of the trip sprinkle the evening, and I end up confessing that I feel more European than before. Why did we embark on this crazy itinerary at all? It's Carlos' fault, since he suggested that I visit my friends for my birthday, given that I cannot gather enough of them in one place. And then, of course, there is Wanderlust, or the Anatomy of Restlessness. Good to be back!

A Passage Through India

The last country that we are insulting on our trip by rushing through is India. We fly from Bangkok to Chennai (Madras), from where we originally planned to take the train to Mumbai (Bombay). However, several people discouraged us from doing that, and the alternative plan to fly to Goa and take the recommended train trip from there to Mumbai (13 hours) gets scratched as well, mostly due to insetting travel fatigue. Chennai offers us a lively beach at sunset and a delicious southern Indian dinner. Yet, Carlos' antibiotics-stressed stomach dislikes the spices, and we spend the next day recovering in the comfy Ramada hotel and catching up with things like phone calls (among them to my mother) before flying to Mumbai. There, we are in the good hands of Sumit, who facilitates our travel and takes us to a nice dinner after we have explored Elephanta island and its cave temples. The final day in Mumbai should have been spent in the relaxing hill-top setting of Matheran, but while the driver gets lost in the middle of nowhere, I receive the call that my mom passed away during the night. As planned, we fly back to Europe in the evening, but I go to Zurich instead of Vienna and Prague. Thus, on October 8th, Trudi's last journey begins and our trip ends unexpectedly. And today, on the 50th day after the 50th birthday, we are saying good-bye to a special friend on Friedhof Enzenbühl, in Zurich's Grossmünster Helferei, and in Zunfthaus Rüden. She loved traveling - but she thought that our 50 days idea was overdoing it.

Thai Food, Temples, Vehicles

Our venture into Thailand was mostly motivated by our love for Thai food and we get to enjoy some delicious dishes, particularly salads combining various fruit and seafood. But the culinary experience is not that different from the better Thai restaurants where we have eaten in other parts of the world. Most memorable is a fine dinner at a cosy, dimly lit back street restaurant, sitting on the floor amidst flowers: the spicy northern Thai sausage waters the mouth remembering it, the Snake Head Fish adds to our list of 50 animals eaten (sorry, Jano), and the vegetable and shrimp curry tastes fabulously. A discovery for me is the succulent Langsat fruit, and breakfast at the conveniently located Grand President hotel in Bangkok is the richest we have ever had. Yet, we will mostly remember the four days in Bangkok and Ayutthaya for the beautiful Buddhist temples and for the vehicles that move us between them: tuk-tuk (rather scary in rush hour traffic), taxis driven by a broad range of characters, mini buses and big tourist buses, ferries and cruise ships, the efficient sky train (the vehicle of choice in this city of eternal traffic jams), the subway - and not to forget our feet. Among the temples, the Grand Palace is certainly the most impressive, and its mural paintings are some of the finest classical art I have seen. Also, Siam Niramit, the fantastic show of Thai history and festivals at the Thai Cultural Center in Bangkok, done to perfection and including live elephants, tells us a lot about the country in a short time.

Taking a break from sightseeing

Hong Kong, a very different and much more homogeneous cultural environment (95% Cantonese, the guide says), gives us a welcome pause. Martin, Teresa, and Jennie host us comfortably in their superb apartment, overlooking the bay to the south of Hong Kong Island from the 23rd floor (and including the roof top). Carlos spends the first day in bed with the COSIT bug, while I have just recovered enough to get some work done. No need to go out anyway, as spectacular fireworks get displayed at night from seven boats in the bay at our feet (for no apparent reason). The remaining two days turn out equally relaxing, one spent walking around the top of The Peak with its breathtaking views, the other on the boat that Martin shares with friends, just being lazy and spoilt with a fine BBQ. The evening in between we enjoy at the great show of the Australian Circus of Oz. Overall, the three Hong Kong days felt a bit like getting some rest at home - maybe also because of the (marked) Swiss German spoken. We catch up with tourism on the last morning, though, by visiting the huge Buddha statue and the Po-Lin monastery, in a great landscape setting close to the airport on Lantau Island.

"Nur Fliegen ist schöner"

Given the bad reputation of air travel these days, the flying experience of this Star Alliance Round-the-World trip merits a blog post of its own. I am spending 4 of the 50 days on airplanes (83.5 hours flying time, to be exact, plus some waiting on runways), using 13 different airlines. The longest flight takes 23 hours (from Buenos Aires through Santiago and Toronto to San Francisco) and also includes the longest segment without time change (11 hours from Santiago to Toronto). Though the trip is not monotonic in longitude, it is in terms of time zones. Only after five weeks of traveling are we delayed for the first time (3 hours out of Singapore) - my first 14 flights have all been on time! By the way, newspeak for "delayed" is now "re-timed"... With only one Lufthansa flight so far, service has also been much friendlier than I am used to. The only consistent hassle has been air conditioning, with unpleasantly cold temperatures for most of the time on almost all the flights. The worst chill was on United from San Francisco to Hawaii, though this September 11 flight also topped all others in comfort and fun: we were upgraded to row 17 (our lucky number) in spacious Economy Plus, ate Sushi de luxe that we took on board, and I won the random draw in the mid-way game (guessing when we reached mid-point between San Francisco and Honolulu) without even playing it. The distinction of offering power outlets in economy, on the other hand, goes to Air Canada (Toronto to San Francisco). Lufthansa and Swiss both manage to sell us their round-the-world tickets with an invalid segment (United takes no passengers just from Sydney to Melbourne), but we will get refunded for the Qantas ersatz flight, which gets me into Melbourne only 20 minutes later than originally booked on United. Finally, airports in Australia and Asia win our award for ease of use and spacious design. Hongkong's airport even has free Wi-Fi, which comes in handy, as we need to skype to Switzerland to find out Martin's phone numbers on arrival (and tell him that we are about to visit...).

Hidden talents revealed

Daeni and Myriam welcome us to Singapore at the opening of an exhibit with paintings by diplomat's spouses ("Hidden Talents"), including two captivating works by Myriam (Fire of Flowers, and Global Warming - probably no causal relation implied). Later, over a pleasant meal at the beautiful Swiss residence, we learn more about Singapore (as well as about the Woker roots near Muenster) and chat about sundry travel adventures. The city impresses us through its proverbial orderliness ("The Fine City"), its efficient cultural blend (we stroll past a Chinese and Indian temple standing next to each other, then through a huge electronics market to charming Little India), but also the amazing amount of green space and vegetation in a state the size of Lake Geneva with over 4 Million inhabitants. Difficult to judge whether a tightly controlled one party state is too high a (temporary) price to pay for living crime-free, without visible poverty, and in a thriving business and science environment.

A country my age (and considered very young!)

We don't seem to get enough of traveling: after an eight hour flight from Melbourne to Singapore, we pause for sight seeing and dinner in China Town, then take the night train to Kuala Lumpur (departing from the railway station, not the train station!). Christine's friend Gilbert walks us through the city, from its own China Town, which still sleeps early morning, through the old town with the muddy river (= kuala lumpur), up to KL Tower (with 421m the third highest telecom tower in the world, though the observatory is "only" at 276m), and around the twin towers of Petronas. A bustling mixture of cultures and their religions appears to live together happily here, reconciling conflicting social and legal systems. A 2.5 hour car ride takes us over a pass and down into the home town of Malaysia's first king. Near to his old and new palace, in a remote and thinly populated Malaysian kampung (village), Christine and Roger occupy a traditional house "on legs", surrounded by goats, chicken, and monkeys in the trees. They host us (in addition to Roger's mother and her friend) very warmly and we enjoy a relaxing rest in nature after having visited four big cities in a row. Just as we get up in the morning, a baby goat is borne, and Carlos becomes goat godfather, baptizing it to the Nahuatl name of Yolot. After breakfast with home-baked bread, delicious mango, and coconut jam, Christine drives us to Seremban, where we catch the train back to Singapore: seven hours of palm trees on the left and palm trees on the right, with one quick glimpse of a temple. In all other aspects, this was a memorable trip to meet up with Christine again, after 35 years!

COSIT

COSIT, the Conference on Spatial Information Theory, also known as Cognition, Space, and International Tourism, lives up to both of these interpretations again. This year, COldSIT would be another take on it. But Stephan and his colleagues have put together a great event at a beautiful site - assembling a strong scientific program as well as a large number of friends. Thus, on the first conference night, I get a chance to share fine Aussi and Kiwi wines with Andre, Andrew, Boyan, Christian, Dan, David, Femke, Mark, Max, Martin, Sabine, Stephan, Stephen and Tom (sorry, not everybody was caught on foto) - which lets the visited friends count soar to 31.

17 Sep 07

We chose Sydney to celebrate our 6th year together on the 17th of September, coinciding with the trip's mid point (day 25). Our "gifts" are long walks around town on our heads and a delicious buffet lunch on Sydney Tower's rotating restaurant, overlooking the fantastic multi-bay layout of the city. Because I left our travel guide book on the plane, Carlos misses his chance to eat crocodile (the guide says where they serve it). We make up for this loss with cangarooh, camel, oysters, many other delicacies, and a Pinot Noir that tastes like a light Swiss red, somewhat un-Australian, but goes well with the tender meats. We skip dinners, replacing it on the first night with Kilkenny and Chips in a lively Irish pub where a great band is playing, and on the second night with a toddy to cure our light winter colds. Carlos stays on for a few days, while I continue to Melbourne for COSIT.

Tourism pure

Honolulu, on the Oahu island of Hawaii, lets us indulge in main stream tourism. Dinner on the first night is an exception: Our wonderfully uncomplicated host Matt takes us to the only remaining traditional Hawaiian restaurant in town, and we get to know an entirely different cuisine, with some special treats (such as Lomi Salmon, a salmon and tomato salad) and some acquired tastes (like Poi, the sauce from fermented Taro). To digest the huge amount of food, we stroll through Waikiki by night, watching other tourists watching other tourists, as Matt puts it. On the second day, we catch more than enough sun at Waikiki beach and spend the evening at a Luau, a well done, colorful show of local and Polynesian dances, coming with a fine buffet that includes Kalua pork, cooked in the imu, an oven holed into the ground. A taxi takes us directly from this feast to the airport, from where we leave at midnight for Sydney on Air Canada. We will keep excellent memories of the laid back and friendly nature of people here! Quite a change from mainland USA, which nowadays often beats Europe in the rudeness competition.

"Too much of a good thing can be wonderful!"

With this quote from Mae West during a triple-Virgo birthday-pork-roast dinner at Karen's new home, Keola expresses perfectly how we feel about our visit to the Big Island of Hawaii. From a beach side dinner after arrival (with juicy scallops, Mahi Mahi, and Mai Tai) through the ocean view hotel room and balcony at Hawaii Resort and a wonderful day in Volcanoes National Park, all the way to our work as coffee cherry picker slaves in Keola's plantation, we feel like having too much of many good things. Most memorable are the succulent papaya at breakfast, high over the bay where Captain Cook was killed, fresh roasted Macadamia nuts, the stunning wood work with Japanese elegance made from the reddish Koa, rimming a crater while stalking over lava and learning about the spiritual background from Karen, and of course the lush, colorful and aromatic vegetation. Boarding the plane to Honolulu from open air gates at the airport, enjoying a smooth breeze, remains in style - and we will take the missed out snorkeling as an excuse to return.

Starving in San Francisco

Well, not really. But it is a bit unusual that Carlos and I spend two days in San Francisco without visiting a single attractive restaurant. On Sunday, after a late lunch at Bagdad Café and munching chips with friends of Carlos in Marine County, we are too tired to go for dinner. We finish the night with drinks at Badlands, where we met six years ago. Monday brings beautiful late summer weather, which we enjoy with long walks and great views, first around Bellavista, then through the business district up to Coit tower and back to Union Square. Lunch is in a food court and for a late dinner we only share a plate of pasta, in one of the few Castro eateries still open after 10pm. At least, it comes with a delicious bottle of Zinfandel, the "real" American wine that my cousin Daeni (whom we will meet in Singapore soon) introduced me to, 23 years ago in a Manhattan jazz bar. The Willows Inn, which carries special memories, accommodates us again, nicely but pricely.

Won't cry for you, Argentina

When I first visited Vienna in 1976 as a student, it seemed gray, noisy, and unattractive. Fifteen years later, I moved there from Maine - and have loved the city ever since. Similarly, my Buenos Aires permière is no love on first sight; it is affected by windy and damp winter weather, a lingering cough, and of course the fact that I have no friends to visit here. But I am happy to have finally seen this bubbling mixture of Italian (people), Spanish (language), Portuguese (pronunciation), British (tea leaves and a sieve!) and other influences (only - where are the natives?). One of the funniest combinations to watch are Italian tempered passengers queuing up diligently at bus stations, while honking cars pass by doubling up in lanes... The cafés are legendary, and Tortoni is wonderful indeed, while Iberia is a tad more modern, with power outlets in addition to wi-fi, and a waiter who shakes hands on my third visit. I spend mornings there, hiding from the wind and catching up on some work that doesn't wait, and enjoy afternoon excursions to Caminito, Santelmo, and especially Palermo Viejo. Hotel Central, right next to Congreso (at Solis 192), costs a mere 28€ a night and is one of these charming, but rapidly disappearing simple pensions with a rattling elevator and a padrone watching kindly over his guests.

Gilberto's treat

Visiting Gilberto is always a treat in so many respects. Starting this visit off, my presentation at INPE on primitives of geographic information leads to a stimulating debate on process ontology and is followed by a fine fish dinner in Sao Jose dos Campos (together with Vera, Hilcéa, and Lubia). During it, we discuss among other (less lofty) things, when two musical performances are the same, accompanied by funny stories. But no visit here would be complete without an island escape - this time "my driver" Fernando takes me to Ilha Grande, off the coast near Rio. This is the perfect place to think and relax, secluded from the rest of the world, and in a lush environment of rain forrest and beaches. Carlos, alone in Muenster, is equally happy about my isolation, and the days (two of them cloudy) turn out productive for my fall teaching and relaxing at the same time. An afternoon hike to the Mirante Bananal (378m) burns off enough calories to enjoy more Caipirinhas (the best I have had so far) and the tasty food, which combines Brazilian and Japanese ingredients, preparations and serving styles. On the sunny and windy third day, I take the hotel excursion to a small beach island just off the coast, on a boat ominously called Piuke... The Brasilian days are over, but they have been quite a treat indeed - see some pictures.

Off to a hot winter...

On August 29, TAP flies me from Lisbon to Recife in 7 hours and throws me from a rather cold European summer into a hot and steamy Brazilian winter, 8 degrees south of the equator (btw, the strangest thing for me in this part of the world would be that daylight always ends around 6pm - almost never get home from work in daylight??). Lucilene picks me up at the airport and offers me a delightful "Recife in less than 2 days" program (see the pictures). A lunch with two colleagues at a colorful Brasilian restaurant starts it off and offers so many specialties on a buffet (with some Caipirinhas), that I cannot list a single one any more - but they are all delicious. Touring old Recife reveals a great history involving not only the Portuguese and Dutch, but also the first synagogue on the American continent, thanks to Mauricio Nassau's tolerance for Jews in the 16th century. An excursion to Olinda provides superb views of the cute village and of the coast, plus a succulent lunch (lobster-stuffed pumpkin). The final highlight is a visit at sun set to Francisco Brennand's impressive sculptures and (much more fascinating) paintings. Next time, I promise to reserve enough time to go to Porto de Galhinas, the seemingly beautiful beach that used to be the landing for the slaves ("chicken"). But this will require the more leisurely pace of a business trip.

First choice: Lisboa

Lisbon started off my sabbatical in February and is now my first stop abroad. Instead of taking the a night train (read Pascal Mercier's beautiful novel!), I let Swiss pilot Ernst Rufener (a name sake of my highly respected and influential high school math teacher), fly me past Mont Blanc and over cloud-covered France and Spain to Lisbon, where the 25th April Bridge sits softly on a thin layer of fog that covers the Tejo. The picture is in my head only, as the camera was stowed away in the overhead locker... When we leave the plane, the young lady next to me says "e gueti Zyt" (have a good time), though we did not talk before, only laugh together at the impossibility to open the new sandwich bags of Swiss, and she does not know how meaningful her wish is.

Indeed, the days in this great city turn out wonderful, benefiting from beautiful late summer weather. Paulo takes me to the beaches south of the Tejo and cooks a superb dinner for us (his partner Pedro, plus Daniele, a friend): Watermelon with fresh cheese, ginger, and Oreo cookie crumble, then a huge slab of fresh salmon in Port wine sauce. Delicious, especially with a fine Drouro white wine, and enjoyable conversation and music.



The following day, Fernando and I lunch at the docks, directly under the rumbling bridge, exchanging thoughts on science and life, as usual, but taking some new directions. The afternoon passes quickly with my first blogging attempts, a pot of tea, and Pastel de Belem, in that old fashioned café, Pastelaria S. Rogue, where the owner sits at the entrance in front of the cashier registry, almost like Papa Schober used to do in his café in Zurich.



After a long stroll from Santa Catharina to Al Fama and back through Baixa, taking lots of pictures in the beautiful evening light, the last dinner is simply a glass of Alentejo wine with Portuguese cheeses, in a new wine bar in the Bairro Alto. What a coincidence: Since my former favorite restaurant down the road seems to have different owners and food of lesser quality, I wander around, find the wine bar, and entering it, I recognize the owner as the former one from that other restaurant. We spend a pleasant evening chatting, while he offers some Port to go with the cheese. This is how I had imagined our own wine bar to be, but it takes a different latitude to create such an atmosphere.

Almost missing my own party

Day 2, in Zurich, was to end with Tapas and wine in La Bodega, three minutes from where I grew up. Wrapping up the chalet in the morning, with some of our guests who had spent the night there helping to eat all left-overs (yes, including the eggs of the cake not baked), and then driving to Zurich takes longer than planned. But we manage, only an hour late, to meet Herbert with Sibylle and sons Lukas and Andreas, Ueli with Ulli, and Benoît with Doris, for a good Paella and excellent Ribera del Duero at the Bodega's upper floor. Who said "typical Werner"?

A cheesy start ?

Day 1, August 24, made for a great start. Though some could not make it on a Friday afternoon to our chalet at 2000m, above Evolène, a wonderful group of friends and family joined Carlos and me for Assiette Valaisanne, Raclette, Humagne Blanche and Cornalin: My mom Trudi and her sister Hanni, cousin Anita, Peter and Eliette, Mischa and Stephanie, Samuel, Raymonde, Nicole, and their friends from the Vieux Mazot ("mais c'est le paradis ici!").

Watching Dent Blanche and Matterhorn, we slowly chewed on cheese and stories from 2 to 8pm, followed by various tartes aux fruits. The lights on the glaciers at sun set were something special this day - changing from orange to purple to blue. See some pictures from the day.

If all is well that starts well, this promises to become a great tour - and maybe also great next 50 years!

Blog around the world

Fifty seems like an appropriate age to start blogging... I will try to keep it simple and short, so here we go with my first attempt:

On my 50th birthday, August 24, 2007, I started on a 50 day trip around the world to visit 50 friends. My partner Carlos had suggested, given my bohemian life style, that something like this would make more sense than a bigger party at a single location. When I found out that the birthday is exactly 50 days before the end of the summer break, the idea seemed perfect. Btw, Carlos will join me for two thirds of the trip, starting at San Francisco on September 9. Why there? See www.17sep01.de.

In this blog, you will find some snippets and pictures from our travels and encounters. More to come, as soon as I have figured out how to link fotos...

Greetings from a beautifully old-fashioned café in Lisbon (with wi-fi from the neighborhood)
Werner