Journal pages
Until I’ve recovered from my amazing African adventure long enough to write something more coherent, here are a couple of pages from my journal. Enjoy. I’ll post photos later.
Category: Daily
We arrive in Gabon!
I am writing this entry while my students are working on writing a part of a scientific paper. This way I can upload (I hope) this document at the next break. There are computers here at the Albert Schweitzer hospital for our use, but demand outstrips supply, so this will be the best way to …
A melancholy moment
After work yesterday, I stopped in at a jewelry shop on a big shopping street, to inspect their collection of gold charms. Although I do this on every trip to Vienna, I can never remember the word for charms. And this transaction was more complicated than most, because the ones I wanted to see were …
The case of the jay-walking nun
by Faith
Yesterday I was waiting for the streetcar at a busy intersection, on my way to work. It was cold and rainy, and the streets and sidewalks were slick. Some background: Austria is about 99.9% Roman Catholic, and you see a fair number of nuns and priests scurrying about, in Vienna anyway. And, most important for …
Was that dinner, or a vaudeville routine?
by Faith
Alas, dinner at Meinl was a bust. The food was mediocre, but the service was appalling. And this, at one of the top restaurants in Vienna! It’s a lovely place that looks out down the Graben (“moat” in German, not “grave,” as I always thought), one of the beautiful pedestrian streets in the city center. …
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Beautiful Wien
by Faith
I arrived in Vienna this afternoon (that’s the Stephansdom on the right), after a wonderful day driving along the Danube, stopping in to explore a few little villages. One was Durnstein (near left), where I stopped in at the church and took some photos. Ran across a wedding party, the bride zipping down an extremely …
Hotel mysteries
by Faith
When I first checked in to this hotel, I was given the curse of all lone travelers: the tiny room, with a single bed, and a bathroom with no tub. Boldly, I marched back downstairs and said, auf Deutsch, naturlich, have you any rooms with a tub? After a few minutes of computer this and …
My tour of psychiatric hospitals, part 2
by Faith
Today’s main destination: Maria-Gugging, home of the Donauklinikum, which is a psychiatric hospital where lots of artists happen to be. They have a workshop there called Haus der Kunstler, which is decorated in a kind of outsider art/art brut style, as well as a gallery where the work is displayed and sold. A lot like …
Ok, so agriculture was never my strong point
by Faith
When I arrived in Krems yesterday, I noticed lots of fields full of what appeared to be tobacco on its last legs. You know, most of the leaves had been pulled, but there were a few yellowing ones left. The plants were really a bit scraggly, but I figured, hey, maybe it’s some kind of …
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In Austria!
by Faith
Arrived this morning in London and then went on to Vienna and then to rural Austria, (via rental car–ah, but it’s been a long time since I’ve driven a stick!), where I am presently enjoying the view (hills, vineyards, the Wachau Valley), but not the weather, which is cold and rainy. Sorta like New York. …