meeting Sal Towse, OVFF, Filkcontinental

(Updated to include important chocolate bar info from Lyanne!)

Had to interrupt my trip report to say how delighted I was to finally meet Sal Towse, my markets editor from Inkspot days and well-known personality on misc.writing. We had e-mailed back and forth quite a bit for years, but never met in person.

I was supposed to meet with her back in March, but had to cancel my California trip because of my sprained elbow. Then I thought I wasn't going to meet her this time either, because the mystery convention Bouchercon was scheduled for the same weekend as Canadian Thanksgiving. But it turned out that Jeff and I would still be around on Thursday after all, yay! (To Gary: Sorry I was too late to hook up with you...hope you're having fun at the convention)

I was concerned about how we were going to recognize each other on the street, but when I arrived at our meeting place, she was wearing the Inkspot.com jacket I had given her for Christmas way back. :-)

SO great to finally chat with her in person. I embarrassed myself by frequently interrupting the conversation to suddenly exclaim, "I'M SO GLAD YOU'RE HERE!" and hugging her way too many times. Sal was so incredibly helpful and supportive during Inkspot.

To you writers out there: be sure to check out Sal's wonderful link resource for writers, which was selected by Writer's Digest last year as one of the best sites for writers.

Speaking of the Internet, I'm doing a chocolate bar swap with Rand's New Friend Erin (check out Erin's entertaining post about the quandary of romantic relationship terms), whom I hope to meet in person someday. She's sending me Fast Break chocolate bars for Jeff (which we can't get in Canada), and in return I'm supplying her with Cadbury Dairy Milk Hazelnut bars. Thanks, Erin! :-) (Later note: Lyanne has pointed out that Fast Break bars are available in Canada as Sidekick. This means, of course, that Jeff and I have to do a careful taste test of both types to compare.)

Had fun hanging out with Allison and Jodi last night at the Frog & Firkin, celebrated their birthdays. We're looking forward to attending OVFF in a few weeks! Some people have asked me if we're going to be performing. We'll be doing a children's concert with Ookla the Mok, which should be fun, as well as performing "The Lady" in the Pegasus Nominees Concert (Jodi's song was nominated, and we've been nominated as Best Performer). And of course we'll be in open filk on Saturday night and probably Friday night. Unless we're guests, Friday night at filk conventions has always been a "catch up with friends we haven't seen in ages" time. :-)

And of course we talked about how great it is that WE DON'T HAVE TO HIDE THE FACT THAT WE'RE GUESTS OF HONOR AT FILKCONTINENTAL IN GERMANY NEXT YEAR ANYMORE, WOOHOO! I am -so- hyped. Now the agony of waiting for the actual convention begins. I hope my head doesn't explode before next October. (I was going to post a cartoon of this, but it looked far too gruesome (though my friend Andy would find it funny, I'm sure))

Phil Allcock recently posted some photos of the convention and area and Kirstin Tanger has posted lots of photos in her Let's Filk About page. Wow, gorgeous scenery. Here are some of the Filkcontinental reports I've found, in case any of you are thinking about going but want to know more:

Phil
Lissa
Zander (one of the Guests of Honor this year):
  Part 1 | Part 2
Ju


And thanks for all the interesting comments about travel, everyone. Fascinating to compare different travel outlooks and strategies.

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Austria trip, part 4: why I like travelling

Women on a bench outside the farmer's market.


(Trip report continued from Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. Also check out my gradually expanding Austria trip photo album.)

Everyone has a different preference for "sightseeing" in another country. I tend to veer away from too many organized tours and big group activities. While these can be informative and fun, they leave little flexibility for individual interests.

I like to get an overview of a place or building via advance research or a quick tour, but then be able to follow up on my own, spending more time on things I find most interesting. Unfortunately one of the realities of vacations is TIME; if you only have one day in Vienna, for example, you inevitably end up rushing through sights and experiences you'd ordinarily want to spend an entire afternoon for each.




Took this photo when Jeff and I decided to walk
to Pottenbrunn on our own one day.


My idea of hell, I have to say, would be one of those "42 countries in seven days" bus tours. I think it's the crowds that would get to me. I've never been much of a crowd person, even in my own country. I don't mind occasionally doing the "everyone shuffle into this tiny room while the guide finishes her brief talk and it's time to shuffle into the next room", especially if it's the only way to access some tourist sights. BUT I also need something more to truly enjoy a vacation in another country.




A gypsy band (led by Harri Stojka, on the left) performed at the Schloss for us.
Many thanks to Arline for arranging this!


It's one of the reasons I usually attempt, even a feeble one, at learning the native language in advance; making some kind of connection with the people in the country, even in a minor way, greatly enhances the travel experience for me. Staying in the Schloss with a group of friends was also a huge bonus, getting to know the staff, establishing (even very briefly) a feeling of a "home base", a place to come back to after a day of sightseeing.





It would be a shame to visit Paris and not see the Eiffel Tower, but if I had one day in Paris and a choice between a tour of the Tower or spending the afternoon in an outdoor cafe, people-watching, I'd opt for the latter.




Vienna Choir Boys performance in Vienna.


In the end, what I love most about travelling is that I get a glimpse of a different way of life. It's a breath of fresh air, really, and a reminder not to take things for granted, good or bad.




Cora in Durnstein with a Caffe Melange.


It's like food, really. Hm...interesting how everything can relate to food somehow, isn't it? :-)

I might like porridge one day and start eating it every morning for breakfast. I may not even get bored with it, adding different toppings and serving it in a variety of dishes. But HEY, one day someone's set a dish of (*gasp) scrambled eggs down by my bowl of porridge. And crispy bacon.




Jeff!


And suddenly my world is changed. I still like porridge but y'know, maybe I'll try something different every so often. Mix things up, experiment a bit.

Ok, I'll stop with the food analogy. Besides, it's making me hungry again.

By the way, I feel the same way about travelling whether it's overseas or to the U.S. or even a little town fifty miles from Toronto. It's one reason I like snooping through neighbourhood grocery or department stores; I find you get a pretty good sense of some lifestyle differences that way. :-)




Typical street in Durnstein.


I'll end this entry with a poll question: Do you like travelling? If you like it, WHY do you like it? What is your focus during the trip? Sightseeing? Socializing? Food? etc.




Durnstein Abbey.


(Trip report to be continued)

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Austria trip, Part 3: the FOOD (!)

Woman vendor at the farmer's market near St. Polten's.


(Trip report continued from Part 1 and Part 2, also check out my gradually expanding Austria trip photo album.)

And now to an aspect of our trip I particularly relished: Austrian food.

Ah, the FOOD.

We were especially spoiled by Lazi's cooking at the Schloss. This man was a culinary whiz, and near the end of our stay, we were all moved to invade the kitchen en masse, chanting his name, clapping and cheering. He was quite taken aback but obviously pleased.

My favourite of his dishes was a spectacular chocolate souffle we had for dessert on the first night. Oh YUM, it was truly to die for. I had never had chocolate souffle before. I knew my broken German would be painfully inadequate in expressing my gratitude, so I drew a little cartoon instead, a doodle of me floating in euphoric bliss, dreaming of chocolate souffle.

Lazi ended up pinning it up on a kitchen shelf. I drew several similar cartoons over the week, and the Countess told me she planned to put my doodles in a frame to hang in the Schloss. :-)

A typical breakfast table at the Schloss:





There was hot tea, coffee, and hot chocolate on a side table, along with cold drinks, cereal and muesli, milk and cream. You could ask the staff to cook eggs; I usually asked for mine "gekocht" (boiled). The breakfast spread included radishes and baby tomatoes, both of which are relatively uncommon at North American breakfast tables.




Sugar pastries on display at a restaurant ini Grein.


Here are just a few of my favourite food experiences in Austria, and please note that any dishes made at the Schloss were cooked or baked fresh specifically for us:

- Chocolate souffle @ the Schloss.

- The BREAD. I'm not usually a huge bread eater, but I was completely converted during this trip. My favourite bread was a pumpkin seed roll shown in yesterday's Blathering, served fresh every morning at the Schloss.

- Fresh figs! Never had these before. Lazi put them in a salad along with cubed cheese and basil (I think it was basil) with a homemade dressing:





- Pflaume and ginseng tea (plum and ginseng).

- Kalbsgulasch und Spetzl (veal goulasch with spetzl) @ the Schloss.

- Chocolate brownie cake with blueberries @ the Schloss, drizzled with cream:





- Baked fig filled with orange custard (dessert one night @ the Schloss.).

- Marillenpalatschinken (rolled crepe filled with apricot jam) @ the Gasthof in Pottenbrunn.

- Chocolate souffle cake @ the Schloss.

- Chocolate mousse @ the Schloss. We got to choose what dessert we wanted one lunchtime, and Lazi whipped this up. And...holy toledo. This was the best chocolate mousse I've ever had: cold, frothy, smooth, not too sweet. One of our party chose this as her favourite dessert during the trip.

- The fruit was absolutely delicious, and all locally grown. In fact, the Schloss grounds had an abundance of fruit trees. The pears were especially good.

- Milchramstrudel in Durnstein: Topfenstrudel with hot vanilla sauce drizzled over top. Topfenstrudel is a flakey strudel traditionally filled with warm fruit fillings and cream cheese.

I did try some Sacher Torte in Vienna. It was okay, but Kardinalschnitte is still my favourite Viennese dessert. Lazi's chocolate souffle, however, remains my top food experience in Austria.

(Pause while Debbie wipes the drool off her keyboard here.)

Saw these deer in a yard in Pottenbrunn:





Judging from the number of times that deer played a role in the menus at the Schloss, I'm pretty sure they're not being bred as pets.

:-\

We ate most of our meals at the Schloss, but sometimes tried the cuisine in local restaurants. A few of the menus had pictures or English translations, but most were all German text. Here's the main course page from the menu at the Gasthof zu den Linden in Pottenbrun. I made heavy use of my culinary dictionary for this one! Click on the image for a larger version:





At the Gasthof, I ordered the "forelle", which means trout. It came as a whole fish, eyes and tail and all. Yummy, though the little bones were a bit of a pain. For dessert, I had the Marillenpalatschinken, which was served warm (some places apparently serve it cold), along with melange, coffee made with frothed milk.

Some differences I've noticed between North American and Austrian restaurants, or at least the ones I've visited:

- In Austria, you're charged per piece of bread taken from the basket; they're counted up at the end of the meal. Bread tends to come free with the meal in North America. But it isn't NEARLY as good.

- In Austria, you have to ask for the bill; they won't automatically bring it. They're much more patient about patrons lingering over coffee and dessert and a newspaper. When you do ask for the bill, the waiter will stand at your table while you count out your money. Also, I've noticed that bills tend to be very casual, sometimes just a few scribbled numbers of a scrap of paper.

- In Austrian restaurants there are no non-smoking areas, and a LOT of people smoke. This was one of the only negative aspects of the trip for me, but I only noticed it when we went out of the Schloss.

- Austrian food doesn't seem to be big on salads or low-fat cuisine. Good thing we were walking a lot on that trip. :-)

One of my favourite experiences in Austria was going to the local farmer's market with Ginny and Arline to buy ingredients for an outdoor picnic lunch. GREAT people-watching, and I very much enjoyed checking out the types of items for sale. Very few people spoke any English, and it looked as if we were the only tourists.

Here are a few photos:

























Back at the Schloss, we had our lunch outside by the moat on a temporary table set up by the staff at the Schloss. An incredibly scenic setting for a picnic, with the weeping willows, the moat, the horses grazing peacefully nearby. Our meal consisted of cold meats, a salad, cheeses, and fruit, and Lazi surprised us with two homemade apple tarts with some kind of cream cheese filling which were mouthwateringly delicious, still warm from the oven.

Arline and Ginny had also picked up a bit bottle of Stürm, fermented grape juice available in different flavours. The bottle they bought at the market had no sealed cap, just a piece of paper wrapped over the top instead. I tried several types of Stürm. It was good, but much stronger than it seems at first. Also, if I had more than half a glass, I got a headache. I generally stuck to Mineralwasser or Caffe Melange instead.








Lazi's homemade apple tarts.


If you haven't been able to tell, the food was one of my favourite parts of our Austria trip. The Austrians sure know how to eat.

And hoo boy, am I going to miss Lazi's cooking.

Especially that chocolate souffle...

* happysighdrool *

:-)

(Trip report to be continued)

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Austria trip, Part 2: practising German (and a few other languages)

Spiral stairs at the library in Melk, with a mirror
at the bottom.


(Austria trip report continued from Part 1...)

Please note: I'll be posting some of my favourite photos from the trip on my Flickr page over the next week or so. I'm also going to be linking some of them up to my Blatherings photos, so if you click on some photos in Blatherings, you have the option of seeing that particular photo page (with a bigger version).

So I got a LOT more German language practice than I expected, yay! I had been fully prepared for everyone around to be fluent in English, as was often the case in Vienna when we visited in December. Of course I could have still spoken German, but there wouldn't have been as much motivation and I'd have been much more likely to stick to English.




Where we had breakfast every morning. Food details
in a future Blathering.


When we were given the tour of the Schloss by the owner (a real life Countess), however, we were told that of the staff, only one spoke a little English. We also spent most of our time in smaller towns in Austria, where most of the people spoke very little English.

So not only did I have huge motivation for practising my German, in many cases I was being looked to by some members of our group for translation help (!).





Ok, you can stop laughing now. Yes, I know I'm far from fluent. But y'know, I had SO MUCH FUN trying out my German. Once again, it's clear how much more quickly someone can learn a foreign language by spending solid time in that country. And being willing to make mistakes in the learning process, sometimes embarrassing ones. :-)

Practising German in Austria

I abandoned any attempt at trying to form grammatically correct and complete sentences in German; I have a lot more to learn about word order and declensions first. My strategy: a combination of trying to come up with enough key vocab and verbs, often accompanied with sign language, a piece of paper and pen, and carrying around a dictionary, to get across my basic meaning. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.




Some of the Schloss staff; the fellow on the left
is Lazlo, the chef.


I found the staff at the Schloss IMMENSELY helpful and patient with my feeble attempts. My first attempt at a conversation, for example, took place after we arrived at the Schloss and had a nice lunch prepared by the chef that began with some kind of soup with noodles. I decided that this would be a good opportunity, plus I didn't want to go through the week not knowing anything about what I ate!

So I took my mini-dictionary, a notebook and my sketchy German skills, and headed into the kitchen after the meal to ask Laslo the chef (nicknamed Lazi, pronounced "Laht-zee") what we had for lunch.




I LOVED the bread in Austria! More on my food
experiences later.


At first he misunderstood and began writing out the recipes. I quickly shook my head and looked for another way to convey my meaning, frantically trying to remember the word for "menu." This became the pattern for the rest of the trip, really...I KNEW I had learned certain vocab, but when the German speaker was right in front of me, my mind blanked out.

But wait..."Speisekarte"! Yay! I knew it tended to refer to menus in restaurants, but I hoped it would do the trick. Lazi nodded and smiled, started writing out the lunch menu. Except "Rehsuppe" didn't mean much to me in terms of what kind of soup, and I couldn't find it in my mini-dictionary. It was at that point I realized I needed a better dictionary.

"Reh"?




In Spitz, this grape stand was by the side of a narrow cobblestone street.
One Euro for a cup, self-serve. We tried a few grapes
(and paid); they
were AMAZING.


I pointed to "Reh" and asked in German, "What is that?"

And then the real fun began. :-) Lazi motioned outdoors, searched for the right word, and said in English (so he knew a little English after all!), "in the wild,"and pointed outside. I figured out that the soup broth was animal-based...but what kind of animal? I could look different types up in the dictionary, but that was too laborious.




Rehsuppe.


"Baaa?" I said. Lazi smiled and shook his head.

"Moooo!" I tried. Who knows? Maybe Austria has wild cows wandering the countryside. Lazi laughed but no go again. He put his hands up above his head in what was obviously an antler imitation.

"DEER?" I didn't know how to imitate a deer, so drew a little cartoon deer on the piece of paper. I was in a hurry, so the sketch looked more like a spastic Bambi with an eye twitch than an actual deer, but Lazi understood; he nodded and gave me the thumbs up.




The famous library in Melk Abbey.


WOOHOO! Only my first few hours at the Schloss, and I had already learned a new German word as well as had conversation with a native speaker. Ok, so it wasn't in fluent German. But it was immensely satisfying since we did manage to communicate, and I could tell that Lazi appreciated the effort.

I found that to be generally the case overall, at least in the smaller towns. Even if the other person claimed to know no English, they were usually willing to give it a shot once they saw that hey, the weird North American didn't mind making a fool of herself, making their own attempts far less embarrassing in comparison. :-)




Melk abbey.


Later in the week, I discovered in a conversation with one of the staff who knew a bit of English that NONE of the staff were German! Lazi wasn't a native German speaker after all; he was HUNGARIAN, and the others were Slovakian. They all spoke some German, but I assume they probably found understanding my poor German even more of a challenge.

And that's why I started learning a bit of Hungarian and Slovakian. :-)

Example:
"Ahoj" (pronounced "a-hoy") means "hello" in Czech-Slovak.
"D^akujem" (pronounced "yakwee-im") means "thank you" in Czech-Slovak.
"Köszönöm" (pronounced "kuss-en-em", I think) means "thank you" in Hungarian.

Michael (I suspect he really spells his name Michal, but wanted to make it easier for us) taught me this vocab, and I enjoyed surprising the other staff by greeting them in the hallways for the first time in their native language.




A rather gruesome memorial in Melk abbey.


Mary asked in LJ comments if I had found out about the stone hand in the library. Unfortunately that was beyond my language abilities this visit...though I would probably be able to ask the question, I'm not sure if I'd be able to grasp the full answer...or if the staff would have the time to convey it in a way I could understand. :-)

BUT! I did have interactions in broken German that accomplished things, like being the advance scout for a dinner outing in a small restaurant where I had to ask for a table for a certain number of people, understand and answer a question about whether we wanted to eat a meal or were we only interested in drinks, and help (with aid of the culinary reader of my German phrase book...to Allison and Jodi: I used this book a LOT during my visit!!) with translation of the menu.

My brief conversation with one of the booth owners in a flea market ("Flohmarket") near St. Polten's was another example. The very chatty, friendly woman was obviously curious about me since there weren't many tourists around, and asked me in German where I came from, why I was visiting. I managed to convey my answers in very broken German, with her encouragement and obvious delight. At the end, she gave a big smile and said haltingly in English, "Have good trip in Austria!"

Some photos from Mauthausen

Jeff, Ginny, Arline and I visited Mauthausen one day, a memorial built on an old concentration camp and the main camp for all of Austria. Very sobering.

One part of the Mauthausen memorial had videos of survivors telling their stories:





Just a few of the memorial pictures and messages posted on the wall near the gas chambers:







I've heard stories and seen black & white photos of concentration camps, of course, but it really hits home harder when you're actually standing in a small wooden hut where prisoners were kept, climbing what was known as the "Stairway of Death" where prisoners were forced to carry heavy blocks of stone from the rock quarry, the gas chambers where as many as 10,000 prisoners were killed between 1942 and 1945.

I found that I wasn't able to fully absorb the implications of the photos and museum exhibits, the documentary movie we saw, the preserved barracks and other buildings. My brain was trying to put a wall up, to distance itself from the horrors of what had happened in the place.

Made me appreciate what I have all that much more.

(Trip report continued in Part 3).
(And here's Part 1 of my trip report for those who missed it!)

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Austria trip, Part 1: Schloss Wasserburg

Front view of the Schloss Wasserburg.


Weird to think I was in Austria this morning. Pretty tired after 18 hours of travelling, and I have lots of e-mail to wade through over the next few days. A belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Allison and Jodi! I was unable to host their virtual party this year since I was away; many thanks to Paul Kwinn for hosting what looks like was (and still is) a wonderful bash!

I wasn't able to get online while in Austria because the Schloss Wasserburg had a special internal phone system. I worked on a Blathering trip report offline anyway, for uploading when I got back home. And HEY, now I'm allowed to ecstatically announce that my music group, Urban Tapestry, has been invited to be Guests of Honor at Filkcontinental in Germany Sept.30-Oct.2nd, 2005, woohoo! And yes, I can now confess that this was my original motivation for starting to learn German. :-)

Anyway, here's my Austria Trip Blathering, Part 1:

The trip out to Vienna was easier than we expected. Our flight left from the new terminal at the airport, so we got to check out the new space. Very nice, much more natural light and less claustrophobic than the other terminals. It's still under construction, so we had to take shuttle buses to part of the terminal; supposedly eventually everything will be connected up so shuttles won't be necessary.




An aerial view of Schloss Wasserburg (does not show
the entire property). Photo from this page on Holiday-home.com.


Is it my imagination, or are seats somewhat closer together on Air Canada planes? In any case, I didn't get much sleep on our overnight flight, mainly because the fellow behind me had long legs. Every time he shifted position (which appeared to be at least once every few minutes), I could feel his knees in my back. Ugh.

We had a one hour layover in Frankfurt, which turned out to be barely enough time. Our connecting flight gate, despite being one letter higher than our arrival gate, seemed to be on the other side of the airport. We ran past all the shops and restaurants, down several long hallways and arrived just as our flight was boarding. Whew.

Ginny was kind enough to pick us up at the Vienna airport, and the three of us took off for Wasserburg. The Schloss Wasserberg was about an hour's drive away.

Gorgeous property, with a pond and lots of forest around to explore.





The family obviously have had a strong interest in horses, judging from the horse-themed statues, paintings and books inside and outside the building:





These horses came trotting over as soon as they saw us, obviously hoping for a treat:





There was even a trampoline:





And there were lots of places to sit and hang out, like this one:





There were two dining rooms, but here is the one we used the most often:





Part of Jeff's and my room:





What you can't see in the photo: a sitting table with mirror, gorgeous wood cupboard with foldout desk table (I'm sure there's a proper furniture term for this), small coffee table and two chairs, bathroom with tub and sink, adjoining smaller room with another bed, cupboard, work desk, sitting table with mirror, chairs. We didn't realize that the bed was actually two twin beds pushed together until later that night.

Schloss Wassburg itself was big enough that I kept getting lost the first few days, taking the wrong staircases and hallways...but hey, if I kept walking I eventually got to where I wanted to, and always saw interesting things along the way. The first floor included a sitting area with fireplace, fridge with snacks and drinks, sauna. The kitchen, dining room and sitting rooms were on the second floor. Our bedrooms were on the third floor. Also in the building were staff quarters and the family's private quarters.

We ended up congregating in the evenings to chat, play games, exchange stories about what we had done during the day. Sometimes in the library:





Sometimes in one of the other sitting areas, like this one:





A pingpong table in the most fancy rec room I've ever seen, with gilt and red velvet chairs lining the walls as well as oil portrait paintings:





Fun to snoop through the books, which were mainly in German, though I found a few in French and English. There were also lots of interesting drawers and shelves to snoop through. I found a stone hand in one of the boxes, for instance:





How cool is that?

In the next Blathering: practising my German language skills!

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