This is Starting to Get Muddy

51 Days, 1630 Miles

The Vienna National Library had an excellent exhibit on the composer Bruckner, with his scores along with headphones to listen to the various pieces. I could listen to the music in the stately hall while watching the librarian try to decode the obsolete shelving system. She took the book up the stepladder, then brought it back down, rechecked her cheat sheet, then went to the next section, then came back, looked again at the cheat sheet, then she just sort of gave up and shoved the book in a random opening (what are the chances someone is going to request that book anyways!).

Continuing with my library exhibits pass, I visited the Papyrus exhibit, highlighted by a 15-foot roll from Egypt (along with thousands of other ancient fragments, mostly tax records, petty squabbles, sheep and cattle counts, and my favorite, a clay fragment: “Forgive me, I could not find any Papyrus….”, that’s it, that’s what survived 2800 years for us to read in the museum!). Up next, the Globe exhibit, I was confident they would forget Mars, but they had 5 globes for Mars, including the cool 19th century versions, when we were sure there were Martians and canals on Mars.

At the reading room I rechecked the Opera website for tickets to the evening performance, none available. I hit refresh, none available, I hit refresh one last time, 1 standing room ticket available. Darn, I was tired just thinking about staying up to 1am again.

But it was the Premiere performance of the new production of Don Carlo, in 4 acts, it’s Verdi again!, I felt obliged to see how the Vienna Opera stacks up against Italy.

I had to choose between wearing my muddy cycling shoes or my camp slippers; I went with the slippers.

The music was grand, it’s Verdi after all, the orchastra brillant, despite only having 1 harp, but the staging was perplexing, with the opera set in a museum laboratory; they spent the first 2 hours with technicians in lab coats dressing models in 15th century artefacts while the actual opera performers sang in street clothes off to the side. I had no idea what was going on, but it started to grow on me towards intermission, I sorta liked it! The Vienna opera crowd was more hostile than I’m used to, there were a smattering of boos, or as the professional opera critic put it: “So, another divisive production…”.

I was very tired the next day, that’s it, no more Operas on this trip; well maybe 1 or 2 more, but that’s it! After a late start, I spent much of the misty day walking around Beethoven’s country apartment, where he went to get away from the bustle of the city (nowadays, the city bustle has overtaken it).

Leaving Vienna, I passed through the Heathens Gate, to reach what was the more important Roman city, Carnuntum, the provincial capital and where the Emperor would come to oversee the war against the barbarians.

These are unique Roman ruins, because a few key buildings have been rebuilt on the original foundation, using period correct materials and methods.

It’s rather splendid to walk through a functional Roman city, rather than just ruins, the bathhouse uses the original underfloor heating system, with a constant supply of wood for the oven. Peeking around the corner, I did hear the sweet hum of a mechanical pump, feeding water through the oven. So, they cheated just a little!

With some trepidation, I crossed the Iron Curtain. This seemed like a bad idea, they don’t accept Euros, the words on signs go from mostly indecipherable to totally indecipherable, and who knows if I can get back in if I leave the West.

But across I went, pretty easy really, the new bicycle bridge really helps, you no longer have to sneak across! And it turns out I had one last day to spend my Euros in Slovakia! So I went to the Castle overlooking the Danube, and then shopped for groceries on a Sunday (take that Italy & Austria).

The exhibit on coal mining in Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania was unexpected, Bratislava was celebrating a Slovakian-American who pioneered wireless transmissions in the US.

Things were going well, so I crossed into Hungary, whereupon the ATM said I had 1.2 million dollars available to withdraw! I withdrew tens-of-thousands and celebrated with an extra chocholate chip cookie.

Of course the celebration only lasted for a few minutes until I passed a billboard for Ford Auto, 8-million dollars, ouch!

The walking tour at Gyor was a more modest proposition, at only a couple thousand dollars, and it came with a neat guidebook and exhibits at different points about the town center.

Nearing Budapest, I again hit the Danube floodplain. Austria had deployed the army to clear the mud from the bicycle paths, Hungary it seems has taken a more egalatarian approach; why don’t we let the cyclists clear the mud from the cycling path! The first patch of mud wasn’t too bad, which lulled me in. The second patch was pretty bad, globbing up the gears, and splattering all over the spokes, but I got through.

Then it got much worse! But I couldn’t turn around, I was committed. The mud piled up between the fenders and the wheel, oozing out from the brake pads, and collecting twigs and leaves, and all manner of debris. The wheels stopped turning and I had to get off and push the whole rig through the slime. And, of course, 2 weeks after the flood, the mud smelled rather strongly. This wasn’t the worst thing that has ever happened while bicycling, but it was the most annoying.

Once out of the mud, I turned to the Danube, where I tried to wash off the mud using the slightly less muddy river water. It proved somewhat taxing, it seemed like adding water only made the mud adhere to the bicycle better! But after an hour of splashing around in the river, I had at least unjammed the wheels enough to get underway once more (and had cleared 8lb of mud from the cycling path!).

In need of something to improve my outlook, I found the train museum!

It was a good one too, all kinds of abandoned Soviet trains. And, all the old locomotives had rickety steps up, and signs that I think said, “Don’t climb”, but no one was around, so I climbed up into every locomotive!

Spirits uplifted, I arrived in Budapest proper, and had a misty day to explore the city on foot and by tram. The walking trails on the West side of the river provided fine views.

My mini apartment came furnished with some pots and a cooking plate, I could finally cook a proper meal.

Alaska cod was a good deal, only $3 a pound, it seemed rather too good a deal, I live much closer to Alaska, and the Safeway never prices cod at $3. The back had a code, which I googled, it was a fisheries code, not cool, this is Russian Cod! And Europe gives Wisconsin a hard time for selling knockoff cheeses, and here Europe is selling knockoff Alaskan fish!

It did make tasty fish soup though, whoever the fisherman was, perfect for the chilly weather.

And the rainy-mist continued, so I continued to hide inside the next day at the art museum. The ticket taker took one look at my wet, muddy rain coat, and made me check it at the coat check! I was happy though, it wasn’t muddy at all inside.