Family and the Polka Band

It is sneaking up on Oktoberfest time again – or O’fest as we call it.  This is our yearly opportunity to travel the world by having the world come to us.  Our family all comes to visit and we get to find out what they’ve been up to.  A good time will be had by all!

Z Musikmakers in residence
at the Weingarten in Mt. Angel, OR

“Family,” in this case means a lot of things.  Of course our “real” families will be there.  We work collectively as a band called Z Musikmakers.  The band was founded by Paul Zollner to perform at the Mt. Angel Oktoberfest.  Along with his wife Pat, Paul has kept some version of it running for about 30 years now.  The core of the current band is Paul and three of his daughters, Monica, Tecie, and Christiana, with older sister Katie occasionally sitting in for Christi. 

Over the years, the Zollner family band has “adopted” several “Uncles” into the family.  The older of us met and became friends through connections in and around the University of Oregon.  I met Pat and Paul through a church music group.  Rob Neidig was their teacher in a morning conversational German class.  Greg Backstrom and Paul were acquainted through a business group in Eugene.  Our love of music has kept us together and friends for years now.  Our newest member, Nichlas Schaal, joined the band, after Pat “retired” a few years ago, via a friendship with the daughters.

Dave, Klaus, and Paul having a quick strategy conference
before the jam set between the Donaumusikanten and
Z Musikmakers.  We do this the last set of our Sunday
show every year.  If you haven't caught it, you
should come and enjoy it sometime!

Of course, the Uncles all come attached with their own families.  Greg’s wife, Shelley and their two kids, Rob’s wife, Rosie, and Nichlas’ wife, Joelle and his three children are frequent visitors to rehearsals and gigs, and are some of my best friends on the planet.  O’fest season is a chance for us to find out what everyone has been up to.  Although we once lived much closer together, we now all live miles apart and look forward to the once or twice a year catch up.

What does a typical day look like for an O’fest band?  It starts late.  We are a hard-partying group of – OK, I’m lying.  The truth is, it is hard work, and while we enjoy a drink or two and listening to our friends on stage (about which more in a minute), the reality is that we are generally in bed by 11 or 12 in the evening.  It still starts late though.  We aren’t as young as we used to be.  This is always followed by breakfast and the ceremonial lob of the first bad joke – usually by Greg.  It’s downhill from there: a day full of laughter, bad jokes, festival food, folk music, bad jokes, music making, and more bad jokes – followed by a few more “Adult Grain Beverages.”  If you have never been in a band before, you need to add it to you bucket list – it’s one of the best things ever.  My band mates are great entertainers, and a huge amount of fun to hang out with.  I miss the energy throughout the year when we aren’t working.

Making music at St Josef's in Canby
with the Donaumusikanten.

Of course, there are other families at O’fest.  Most of us have a visit of varying lengths by our extended family.  I am still trying to learn the names of all of the extended Zollner clan, but I can tell you from personal experience that there are 1,324, 289 of them.  All of them are swell folks – nicer people cannot be found – there are just a lot of them.  My parents can be found in the back-middle of the hall for every show – they haven’t missed an O’fest in years.  Stop by and say “hi,” they love to meet new folks.  I’ve met various brothers/sisters/uncles/aunts/pets of my band mates over the years, and that is of course part of the fun of the whole thing.

Our family of musical friends now covers the world.  Our friends Gordy and Danny Groening, with Rod and Mark form the Gordanaires from Vancouver, B.C., who are gracious enough to let me share the stage with them for several fests a year.  We also enjoy hanging with the fabulous musicians of the Salzberger Echo, who always drop by to talk brass-shop and to egg me on in playing some orchestral excerpts. Then there are Klaus, Andi, Harry, Hugo, Halef and Thomas of the Original Donaumusikanten from Ulm, Germany, who let me share the stage with them at St Josef’s Grape Stomp – funny guys and fun to hang out with.  Then there is Darlene Jones, who has subbed with our band a couple of times.  And many others.  Among other things (like bad jokes), O’fest is our opportunity to check in with our musician friends and share a laugh and a beer or two.  If you watch, you’ll frequently see groups of bands hanging out to watch each other’s show (and heckle from the crowd).  At least in our band, plans are made around seeing our friends play sometime every fest (so we can heckle them from the crowd) and cheering them on, catching their new tunes, and critiquing their show – in the best possible light.  It would probably be better to say “watch what they are doing that is cool so we can steal it and put it in our show.”  Theft, in the music business, is the most sincere form of flattery.

On stage in Leavenworth, WA with the Gordanaires.

The nice thing about O’fest crowds is that they are small enough that you can get to know some of your audience well.  Over the years, our extended family has grown to include many of these wonderful folks.  We have shared dinner with Dee and David, pictures and e-mails with Rosie, borrowed a dog kennel for our kids from Karen and Keith, and ran into Sharon and chatted for a while at the mall.  I have two friends at my local Applebee’s that I met through the starter, “you’re the trumpet player in that family group down there in Mt. Angel, aren’t you?”  There are many other similar stories.  There is a gentleman who I met while coming off the stage a couple of years ago who told me that he has caught every show the band has played at the Mt. Angel Oktoberfest for decades.  He is such a fan that to do this now requires a flight in every year from Australia.  I am honored to have met these folks, but even more blessed to have had the opportunity to get to know them.

In my case, I also am also fortunate to get to spend some time at O’fest with my “school family.”  The Mt. Angel folks were kind enough to ask a couple years ago if my school group would like to come down and perform.  Like most schools, we were not allowed to perform at a “beer fest.”  This is when I got the idea of putting together a community group that a centered around my students, joined by alums, parents, fellow teachers, and community adults.  Hence the “Columbia River Folk Band” was formed.  One of my biggest joys of O’fest lately is watching the look of shock on my student’s faces in the crowd on a Saturday afternoon when they watch their teacher make a fool of him on stage.  When I see heads on the table, I know I have scored.

I am looking forward with joy of seeing my “family” in the next few weeks.  If you are a “long lost relative,” drop by and reintroduce yourself, OK?  It would be nice to meet you.

June 27 & 28, 2013

We had a bit we did back in college – I won’t claim credit for it, I think it came from Charles Dowd.  When things were a little off kilter, we would talk about this being on “The Oregon Plan.”  What is The Oregon Plan, you ask?  The punch line was “There isn’t one.”  I have long ago applied The Oregon Plan to these little excursions to the east.

The original plan for this summer had me researching places to go and things to see in and around Venice, Italy.  My short list for all such research for such excursions being two questions: “Who wrote music nearby?” and “Where can I get a good and unique beer here?”  This is all you really need to know about any location, my friends.  The rest, as they say, is just scenery.  I knew Venice had the Gabrielis and St. Mark’s (about which more later), so I could pass on the beer – always a little sketchy in Italy anyway.

Hey look!  They have Starbucks in Germany!

City Hall in Heilbronn.  You miss this if you never come
out of the stores!

Then Peter developed some serious medical issues that required a change of plans and the scuttling of the Venice trip for this year.  My new research assignment was to find places to visit near and around Peter and Vera’s German Apartment.  My short list for this was simple: Heidelberg for the bier and Stuttgart for the Mozart.  Being well acquainted with the Oregon Plan, of course it was no surprise to me when our one day of German sightseeing (due to our plane mishaps – see previous post) would involve going to Heilbronn to go shopping.  My skeptical “How many shoe stores are there?” was greeted with howls of laughter from Peter.

Heilbronn reminds me a lot of Amberg.  There are some very pretty buildings there, but an authentic postcard of the place really should be of a bunch of stores, as no one really goes there to do anything but shop.  Our shopping excursion begins at C&A for more fest clothes.  I then took a quick trip around town to look at pretty buildings while the ladies shopped for shoes.

Nordsee - would there were one near me!

My guilty pleasure in Germany is the Fish ‘n’ Chips at Nordsee, and I’m always happy when we can find one in our adventures.  Just our luck, there was one right outside the garage where we parked!  (I know – I am a vegetarian, but my Doctor is on me all the time to eat more fish for health reasons.  We compromise on about a couple servings a month.)

I admit to being greatly excited about our mystery visit this evening.  Z told me we were going to visit Michael Jordan.  “The basketball player?” I asked.  Turns out M.J. is 70+ years old, is fluent in Croatian, Hungarian and German (but not English), and is broader than he is tall.  Oh – and he’s Anglo.  Let me explain.  When Kyra was younger, she got frustrated when she kept being introduced to all these strange people with long names she couldn’t remember.  So Z would assign them names based upon their occupations or avocations. Many of the names stuck over the years.  All this is by way of explaining that M.J used to play for the Yugoslavian National Basketball Team.  Hence…

June 28,



Downtown Öhringen -
Pretty, isn't it?

The church in Öhringen.

This morning we took Peter to a medical visit, and then I was treated to a visit to, as Z put it, “another old town.”  Behind the wheel of the mighty Opel, I followed directions and drove out through the German countryside, past beautiful fields and half-timbered farm buildings, through to a new town for me – and into a parking lot.  Of a shopping mall.  To be fair, it was an older shopping mall.  And it only had two shoe stores, so there was that.  We “enjoyed” a couple of hours here and then had lunch from the counter at the Rewe.  Mine was a wrap of tomato, mozzarella, lettuce and “tomato pesto” (any resemblance to store-bought marinara was clearly coincidental) – it was, well, let’s leave it at that.  It was.

Z and I actually do take these
trips together - although the photos
sometimes make it appear otherwise!

After lunch I was directed to a lot in downtown Öhringen.  This visit easily made my trip (so far!).  It would be easy to see this place as a model for a theme park.  There are lots of old half-timbered buildings, dating back to the 1500’s, weird narrow pathways between buildings, a huge beautiful church, and on.  You have seen pictures of these kinds of places before – you know what I am talking about.  But after several years of visiting new versions of this stuff, I still get excited about exploring a new one – or visiting an old friend, for that matter.  I spent an enjoyable afternoon running around taking in the sights (even through the quick thunderstorm), while the ladies went shopping.

*****

This being Germany, of course many good biers were quaffed…

Altenmünster, brewed by Allgaüer Brauhaus A.G., Postfach 1109, D-87401 Kempten.  According to the label, it’s 4.9%.  Pale yellow in color with a creamy white head and a nice green aroma of Hallertauer hops – a classic German Pilsner.  I found it lightly hoppy in flavor with a hint of malt poking through, all well in balance.  It was a tasy pils, well worth a repeat – and so I did!  And it comes in one of those cool, old-style flip-top bottles!!

Halleröder by Hasseröder Brauerei Gmbh, 38855 Wernigerode.  According to the label, it is 4.9%  According to the publicity department, the label describes this as “The Beer of Soccer.”  Nice pils color, although the head disappears a little quickly for my liking (it could have been the glass – unlikely, Vera washed her glasses by hand).  Abundant Hallertauer hops in the nose and in the flavor, but not overpowering the malt.  It would make a refreshing summer beer.  Alas, according to the bottle cap I’m “leider kein gewinn” (not a winner), but I still get to drink the beer, so I’m good.

Budweiser Budvar, brewed by Budweiser Budvar NC, Karoliny Světlé 4, České Budéjovice, Czech Republic.  The label says it’s 5%, so who am I to quibble.  This is the original Budweiser, kids, accept no substitute – Budweiser meaning originally “Beer from Budéjovice” (Bidweis to the Germans).  Anheuser-Bush has an ongoing trademark dispute going with the two breweries in this little Czech burg using the name.  Best I can tell, AB is losing.  A few years ago, as a result of this legal wrangling, this beer became available in the states.  You can find in the beer isle near you, labeled as “Czechvar.”  Czech pilsners are bigger than their German cousins, and this one is no exception.  A lot of saaz hops in the nose and flavor, well balanced with the malt.  A very enjoyable beer – you should go find one, you’ll like it!

Unterländer Volksfestbeir by Haller Löwenbrau, brewed by Löwenbrauerei Hall Fr. Ethard GmbH & Co. KG, Schwabisch Hall.  The bottle says 5.4%.  I say wow!  Let me start by saying once again that this is not that Löwenbrau, this “Lion Beer” is brewed by a microbrewery in Schwabisch Hall.  It is crisp, refreshing – I.E. everything you expect in a good German Pils.  And this is one.  Very well in balance and quite tasty – a very good pils.  One you could easily see drinking at a fest from mugs the size of your head.  Hey – Mt. Angel O-fest board?

Binding Adler, brewed by the Binding Brauerei AG 60598 Frankfurt am Main.  The bottle says 6%, and after drinking a couple with few calories consumed before, I ain’t arguing.  It is a beautiful golden yellow beer with pillows of white head floating on top.  It is more malty than the traditional German Pils, and there appear to be more than just Hallertauer hops in here.  Very complex flavor, and is easily the best beer of the summer so far.  The hops hang around in your mouth after you swallow.  This is a particularly tasty beer.  I am told that it is a seasonal, and pretty rare.  So if you find one, bring me a six, ok?

4/6/2013 Vaya Con Dios Bier Festival

Sűmegi Házisór Weizen - the
clear winner at this fest!

We don’t often post in real-time, but the fest is still going on, so here we go.

The Vaya Con Dios Bier Festival in Vonyarcvashegy.  Astute reader will remember the I have no clue how to say “Vonyarcvashegy.”  No one does.  Because how ever they say it around here, it is not the way you or I would sound it out.  Hence “Vaya con dios.”  The town before it, fyi, is “Buenos días.”  And, yes, I had an initial shudder or two about a festival of Hungarian Beer.  We were both wrong...

So the beers…

Entry number one: Sűmegi Házisór Weizen – probably about 5%.  Nice yellow pils color and creamy head with compact bubbles.  A nice balanced nose that favors hops.  Aggressively hoppy – ala a great northwest IPA, but well in balance with the malt.  That’s right folks, a hophead beer in Hungary!  We have us a winner!

Blonder Bier - eh.

Entry number two: Blonder Bier – probably in the high 4.8%.  The local suds from Vonyarcvashegy.  Darker in color than the Sűmegi, but with a head that disappears far too quickly for a pils.  More malty than the norm here, but nothing special.  Eh.

Entry number three: the house beer from the langalló stand.  Probably 4.5%.  Nice dark yellow in color with a creamy, compact head.  A nose that favors the malt side of the equation.  A good hop/malt balance with emphasis on the malt side of the equation.  A langalló, by the way, is a Hungarian snack.  Think a pizza without the sauce, but with similar toppings, and cooked in a traditional oven.

The house bier at the langalló was a
good second place  winner.

Entry four: Litovel Dark – probably about 5%.  Dark brown, almost black in color, with a creaky, compact brownish-white head.  A smoked malt nose that carries into the flavor, but well in balance with the malt and hop bill.  Nicely, the smoke doesn’t obliterate everything else.

We had cream ale on the way out – but the electrical storm that was rapidly approaching kept me from making notes.  I liked it, but no one else did.  If you like English-style cream ales, you would have liked it, too!

June 24 (and 25 and 26), 2013

Dave and Z in Toronto. 
How we got there is a long story.

As always, our trip begins with an unexpected adventure.  We had an inkling that this might be coming when Z’s mom called in the middle of the week before our flight, full of curiosity about how the flooding in Calgary was going to affect our travel plans.  Z led me to believe that her phone call was filled with somewhat more urgency about her “curiosity” than the word would lead one to believe.  I believe the word “panic” was used in her description of the conversation more than a few times.

Regardless, frequent internet checks of Air Canada’s web site on my part continued to show green on flights into and our of Calgary, although you may have troubles driving to the airport.  Not a problem we reasoned, we were flying in.  I, therefore, returned to doing something much more important – playing with my grandkids.

Meanwhile in the background, the Drums of Doom began to beat.

CNN News report: Calgary flooding will crest at noon on Monday (that would be at the day and time we were supposed to fly through Calgary).  Back I go for a quick internet check.  Air Canada still shows green!  No worries!

Z, in total paranoia mode: “Have you checked the internet lately?”  She actually did this several times.  Back to the computer for another green report from Air Canada.

You have to understand that in our household, I take these events seriously.  These things are not “Acts of God.”  In Z’s opinion these events are all my fault.  See last year’s debacle with our baggage as proof (June of last year).

So on June 24^th, when all was clear and the lights were green at Air Canada, I breathed a sigh of relief and thought all was well in my world.

And the beat of the Drums of Doom got louder…

We went out and ran a few errands.  Had a quick brunch with Kyra, Nico and the grandkids, and, following tearful goodbyes, were ferried to the airport.

We had probably our easiest time ever, breezing through check-ins and security vetting and the like as seasoned pros.  We arrived at our nearly empty gate early, which as it turns out was a good thing.  For this was when the Drums of Doom got so loud even we could hear them.

In recent years I have begun to check boarding gate numbers while we are waiting.  All too often they have changed to another gate nearby, and it is useful to know this early.  This is where I overheard a gentlemen talking with the Gate Overlord –  or whatever they call them – from United about the text he had just received from Air Canada that “all flights to and from Calgary had been canceled.”  Said Gate Overlord informed us to call Air Canada directly, as the nice United folks couldn’t access the Air Canada booking computer.



Air Canada - the greatest airline ever!

A quick phone call later – OK, 10 minutes on hold and a 15 minute phone call later – and we were completely rebooked.  Pity the poor souls who found out about this later and were on hold for as long as 45 minutes.  Our new route took us from PDX to Vancouver, Canada (Eh?) with a long enough layover for a leisurely dinner.  From Vancouver we would take a red-eye to Toronto, where we were faced with a fifteen hour layover.  To make it up to us, the nice Air Canada man threw in a “Day Room” to hang out in.  By the way, did he mention that “we can make a positive out of a negative here?  Did you know that Niagara Falls is a short car trip away?”  Yes he did.  Repeatedly.  Finally we would travel on to Frankfurt on another red-eye flight to Frankfurt, a day later than planned.

All of this, of course, necessitated a trip back out to the front counter for a “do over” of our check-in, security vetting, etc…  Needless to say, the nice folks at United that ran Air Canada’s desk had no clue about any of the new arrangements.  Fortunately, we had new flight numbers and were quickly – OK, 45 minutes later while they unburied themselves from the chaos this all caused – on our way.

These things bring out the best and the worst in people.  Z and I have now been through enough of them together that we start getting the giggles and teasing each other – Niagara Falls getting a lot of play this trip.  This tends to lower our stress level and make us a lot of new friends, for example, Meg from London who was standing next to us while they unraveled our flight information.  She was on her way back after a couple of week vacation for job interviews in cartography, and was hoping she would have time for a shower before she went.  We wished her luck, and if her travels went as smoothly as ours, she should have been OK.

The United agents were great through this unexpected disruption to their workday – even-tempered and good-humored about it all.  Even in the face of the “gentleman” Z quickly dubbed “Mr. Grouchy-Pants.”

*****

Dear Mr. Grouchy-Pants,

The nice ladies behind the counter do not control the weather.  Nor do they work for the airline you are intending to fly.  What’s more, they are just a bit overwhelmed at the moment with all the other people in the same boat as you.  We’ve all got the same problem.  Chill out.  They will get you there.  They are not going to abandon you at PDX.  Although we can hope.

Thanks Awfully,

*****

The agents in question are Amy and Shelley – and they are wonderful.  United, give them a raise.  They let the negative roll off of them while entertaining us with commentary about being on hold.

An aside here – Amy had the singular greatest pin I have ever seen.  It was an oval metal pin, printed in blocky corporate travel type – obviously provided by and expected to be worn by the airline.  The text: “Ever been to Phuket, Thailand?”

A second security vetting and we were back at the same gate we started this all with.  No biggy.  After giving up my horns to ride under the plane (yikes!), we were on our way to Vancouver.  I amused myself (childishly, I admit) on the short flight by writing “eh?” after every incidence of the word Canada.  Hey, it was something to do.

In Vancouver we followed directions and cleared Canadian customs into the International Flight area.  Things having finally settled down, we had time for a bad airport meal, so we enjoyed one.  I didn’t know it was possible to screw up tomato soup, but Hourton’s managed to do so.  Z said her “Chinese Food” was not much better.

We took a walk after dinner and looked over the flight boards, as we didn’t have a gate number on our boarding pass for the next leg.  Strangely, none of the posted flights seemed to be going to Toronto.  A quest to find an information booth to solve this dilemma eventually led to our meeting “Irish Peter,” a chipper and helpful gentleman, who then introduced us to Alex, the Lead Concierge at Vancouver Airport.  After listening to our tale of woe, Alex led us through the airport, opening magic elevators and down empty hallways – always with a smile and the reassurance “don’t worry, I’m staying with you until everything is right and you are where you are supposed to be.”

A few words about the airline employees we met on this day are prudent at this point in our journey.  This has been an amazingly stressful day for them so far.  Chaos reigns everywhere, and nothing is going according to plan.  Yet, everywhere we go, whomever we meet, they are friendly, courteous, and in good spirits.  On a day where it was probably the last thing on their mind, they took the time to make us feel comfortable and cared for.  Props are offered to the employees of United and Air Canada indeed!

Working on the blog -
The book is green and yellow this year!

Alex eventually got us straightened out and to the nice man at Baggage Claim – you guessed it, bags lost again – who quickly filled out the correct forms and got them in our hands, reassured us that in all likelihood our bags would catch up with us in Toronto due to the length of our layover, and directed us to the security vetting for our next flight; number 3 for the day.

I should mention in passing that every one of these security vetting has cost us a $2.50 bottle of water or soda.  I get the security thing but: do we really need to have 5 security vettings on three legs of a flight?  And, more importantly, I can get the same bottle of water at my local Safeway for less than a dollar.  As we are no longer allowed to bring liquids through security, you and I both know there is now a huge captive market on the other side.  To mark up soda and water this much is Highway Robbery and my Congress Folks should be looking into this.  Just sayin’

Security vetting number 3 lead to our first “downer moment” on our trip.  It seems there is metal in my splint/cast thing.  In the course of taking it off for the police dude, I bent my wrist incorrectly, leading to an excruciatingly painful moment.  This is why they make Advil.  And expletives.  But “made it aboard” we eventually did, and off to Toronto we did go.

Our “Red Eye” flight got us in Toronto at around 6:00 in the morning and off to meet more nice Air Canada (or Air Canadia, as Z calls them) folks.  A short stop at the customer service counter found our evening flights reconfirmed, a new trace put out for our missing bags, and a voucher for our Day Room – they even threw in vouchers for breakfast and lunch!

Day Rooms used to be common in travel, back in the days of multi-day trips with many layovers.  Today, they have mostly fallen by the wayside of corporate travel and big business cost cutting.  Our Air Canada folks looked at each other, one telling the other “you are going to have to beg the hotel for it.”  What you end up with is a clubhouse to hang out in, garb a shower and a cuppa, and most importantly, a nap between legs.

The Congress Center in Toronto -
about all we saw of Niagara Falls!

A tip we have learned on several of these adventures and pass on for your consideration.  We were particularly delighted to get vouchers for both breakfast and lunch.  While those vouchers will get you a full meal at the airport, not so much at the hotel.  If you want both meals, then, eat them before you leave and after you come back.  Our $17.00 CDN would seem to be plenty for breakfast to buy a nice, sit down breakfast at the hotel– all we cared for.  Z had eggs and bacon, I had cereal and some fruit, and we still ended up kicking in $8.00 CDN out of pocket, plus gratuity, of course.

We hated to disappoint our Air Canada travel scheduler guy, but we passed on Niagara Falls to catch a nap and shower – maybe next trip – and were back early to grab some lunch at Toronto Airport before the next leg.  The cool thing here is that all of the restaurants in the concourse have you order off of I-Pads.  After you order, you are free to surf the web while you wait for your meal and flight.  I caught up on the Duck’s Football woes while enjoying a “Detox Salad” of greens, sweet potato, seasoned tofu and dried cranberries.  Z opted for coffee and a gluten-free brownie.  I’m not sure what she looked at on her I-Pad, but I would bet Facebook.  I think we both walked away happy – I know I did.

*****

My favorite thing to do on international flights is watch “Airplane TV,” the map thing they give you so that you know where you are in your journey.  It is insightful into what is deemed important to the mapmakers.  Of course, there is also hours of fun to be had looking at place names: Grimsby, Uxbridge, Gananoque, Magog, Antogonish.  Do they make cleaners in Ajax?  Does everyone in Tweed wear tweed?  Argyle in Argyle?  Does everyone have cancer in Asbestos?  I assume very small people live in Dalhouse.  Don’t forget to take a gander at Gander.  Then there is the ever popular Godthab – what does it mean?  You know it is important in that you can see it on the big map for almost the entire journey.

The "end of journey" traditional palinka and bundt cake!

*****

We were picked up, a day late, at Frankfurt Airport by Peter and Valentin, the gentleman Peter and Vera rent an apartment from in Germany, and were whisked off to Niedernhall.  Awaiting us was the traditional palinka and Bundt cake.  Let the vacation begin!

Nine Things I Learned (or Had Reinforced) On Our Day Trip to Graz, Austria

1. Hungarians are Homicidal Maniacs

With me at the wheel of the mighty Opal again, Z, Vera and I made an early get away to Graz. Graz is about an hour-and-a-half to two hours, depending upon the traffic, road construction, etc. Along the way, I had opportunity, once again to admire the superb driving habits of my wife’s people. I had people pass me on blind corners, swerve into my lane directly in front of me to avoid a scooter in their lane, heck, swerve directly into my lane directly in front of me to get around a truck going the speed limit in their lane. I had pedestrians lunge directly in front of me without warning. I had cars pull directly in front of me without warning. And on and on.

Particularly worthy of a Darwin Award were the two individuals riding bicycles down a back road two abreast and not moving for anyone – even though the roads were very busy on this day. Most of us would figure out that this would be a swell time to make ourselves as small a target as possible. But not this brain trust.

The sad part of all of this is that I am somewhat used to it by now.

For your information, all this craziness stopped the minute we got into orderly Austria.

Welcome to Fürstenfeld!

2. Fürstenfeld is probably not worth longing for that much.

Our friends from Germany, die Original Donaumusikanten, cover this catchy little tune about longing to go home to the burg of Fürstenfeld. We drove though this little hamlet on our way. You enter town through these lovely fields, around one of the most attractive round-a-bouts I have seen in Europe – only to find that the rest of the town is basically a big outlet mall. With an Adult “Bookstore”on one end (those wacky Austrians!). I think strip malls are pretty universal, so if you miss Fürstenfeld, go to Woodburn, guys.

3. The closer you park to the tourist stuff, the more it will cost you

We parked in a garage near the inner ring in Graz – close to the Centrum, as the locals call it. It was a nicely short walk to all the nice views of the pretty downtown area. Our visit lasted 5 hours, and set us back 25 Euros (about 32 USD).

4. Graz is a happenin’ town for music

Of all the places we have visited, Graz has the most happenin’ musical culture. We got out of the car to the sound of a couple of people in the apartment building across the way practicing a violin sonata. We listened to several really excellent groups and individuals playing street music. The music was pop, classical, jazz, and, what can only be described as “other.”

I liked them just fine - until they started playing
Andrew Lloyd Webber.

This is all explained by the fact that Graz has a several superb schools of music, as well as numerous local and international music festivals. There is an American opera festival going on while we are in town. I have been told a couple of times that if you want to study jazz in Europe, you go to Graz.

The best of the street musicians was a trio of flute, violin and cello. The arrangements were creative, often making it sound like there were more of them than were actually playing. They moved through the downtown with us, following us through the day. I thought they were the greatest thing ever, up until the end of the day. Don’t you know they had to blow it and play Andrew Lloyd Webber. He, by the way, fits in the "Other" category.

5. Catch the Schlossberg

The Uhrturm - Clock Tower

Like all European cities, Graz has a beautiful, scenic downtown area/pedestrian mall. But you are fool in Graz if you don’t climb the 282 steps to the top of the Berg (or take the elevator or funicular for 1.7 Euros, if you must). Looking down on all of the cool old buildings is breathtaking. In addition to the great view of the rest of valley (check out the berg to the northwest on the side of the hill), you get to admire up close the Medieval Clock Tower (Uhrturm). For two Euros you can visit the inner workings, including the oldest bell in Europe. It was constructed in 1560, and still works great. Why doesn’t my wrist watch work as well? Cool factoid – the bell used to be only rung to announce executions, moving on to a much better life announcing the closing hours of bars.

If you are so inclined, there are many restaurants up here. Enjoy a beer and rest up from your climb! They have great views – nice places to contemplate the pretty architecture of the city, and to marvel why the fair citizens of Graz would want to screw it up by placing a huge snail in the middle of the river and a huge frog hulking on the banks.

Downtown Graz - complete with "Snail" and "Frog"

Look, I am a musician, composer, and fancy myself an artist (whatever that means – but we can go into that one later). I completely get that sometimes the objective of art is to “shock.” Contrast with surrounding materials is often the best way to do this. But the thing that makes it all work is that there is some thematic choices that tie it all together, Surely there must be a way to drop these new weird buildings into classic towns in such a way that they enhance the surrounding buildings – they borrow from what is going on around them – rather than just plopping a frog on the bank. It’s kind of like replacing the “B” section of the exposition of Beethoven 5 with “Walk This Way;” or even Beethoven 4. There is no motivic connection to the surrounding work – it doesn’t fit.

I also get that there is a section of the art community that feels like this is the point. It is not supposed to fit – contrast and all that. You are wrong. This is intellectual laziness on the part of the artist. Drop these weird buildings somewhere where they fit. Like Seattle.

All of this said, maybe there are a lot of snails and frogs in the Mur and, thematically, these are just the Mothership for them. Maybe I’m all wrong here. Nah…

6. Don’t Reform This Tort!

Sacher Tort and Viennese Milange -
A sugar high in the making!

If you like Sacher Tort – and what’s not to like – the best can be found at the Sacher Café, right off the central pedestrian walk. They invented the thing, so one assumes they know what they are doing. Moist chocolate cake covered in a rich chocolate ganache, with an avalanche of freshly made whip cream on the side. It is about 5.30 Euros (about $7.50 USD) for this little bit of decadence, but my is it worth it. We had ours with a Viennese Milange – half whipped crea, half espresso – and spent the rest of the day on a sugar high.

Enjoying a Puntigamer

7. Puntigamer Bier

For the beer bloggers, here is Graz’s entry – Puntigamer Pils. Z describes this is “Austria’s Hofbräu.” I think that is pretty generous. They say it is 5%, but I find this a little hard to believe. Pale golden brown, and a little thin in color, it is covered with a nice, foamy white head that hangs on through the whole glass and smiles at you when it is gone. It is a nice summer beer, a great balance of hops to malt, but not too big, and a nice, refreshing hop finish – a little kiss of bitter on the tongue. A lawnmower beer. This is not going to win any awards (although maybe it has), but it was just the thing on this hot day. I bet this stuff is great from mugs that are the size of your head. I know it was great with my lunch of grilled polenta cakes, topped with fresh tomato and goats cheese, accompanied by a green salad topped with pumpkin seed oil and herb vinaigrette.

Statue and fountain

8. Walk to the Front

The fountain and statue at the head of the pedestrian mall are particularly attractive. And I’m not just saying this because I was able to enjoy it for 45 minutes while Vera and Z were shopping at H&M. Kick your shoes off and cool your feet with the locals/tourists!

Actually, I’m surprised that it was only 45 minutes. There is lots of great shopping to be done in Graz. All of the big European chains have storefronts here, of course, but there are lots of really great specialty shops. The sheet music store, though small, was especially complete.

9. The Demise of C&A

I guess C&A is no longer the place to buy trachten. The quality of their folk clothing, and clothing in general, has fallen off extremely. Peter and Vera have both noticed that there are fewer things in their stores, and it is of lesser quality. Good thing Vögel of Switzerland is nearby! The new place to go for all you trachten needs!

7/3-8/2012 Kishegyes, Topolya, Subotica

7/3

Yet another thing to like about Lojos and Bori’s house – they have a professional coffee maker hard wired and plumbed into their house.  Beans go in one side; tasty beverages come out the other.  Nice.

*****



The Church in "Downtown" Kishegyes

We wandered to “downtown” Kishegyes today to look in the stores, snap a picture or two, and have a gelato.  Sad to say, the activity I refer to as “Fast-Fooding” has made it to Serbia.  “Fast-Fooding” is a verb I invented in my music classes to describe my students inability to follow even mildly complex instruction.  They are so convinced that they “multitask” well that they haven’t put together that – well, yes they can multitask, but only if both activities are very simple and linear in nature.  They have practiced this extensively, and do it pretty well now.

Here is how it works; you go to a fast food place and order a burger, fries, and an orange juice.  The person behind the counter is inevitably surprised when, a few moments later, you are explaining “no, I don’t want a coke, I ordered an orange juice.”  Extreme Fast-Fooding has you walking to your table a few moments later with a tray containing both a coke and an orange juice, and the person behind the counter, with the cogs of their brain slipping, trying to figure out what just happened.  You, on the other hand, are shaking your head in wonder of how they managed to get dressed in the morning.

So anyway – we ordered four scoops of gelato, two of which were correct.  On the plus side, it cost us 40 dinar – about 80 cents – a scoop and it is “hand made by local artisans” on premise every morning.

*****

7/4

Lunch today is at Pista and Rosza’s house.  It is family lore that Rosza makes the best palinka in the area, and I must admit, it is much less like hitting yourself in the face with a hammer than some I’ve had this trip.  There is, hard to believe, some complexity to the flavor.  Today we are enjoying apricot – and pretty swell it is, too.

The conversation centers on farming and tractors.  So not only can I not follow it, I have no understanding of the subject anyway – with the exception that I like vegetables!

The carnivores are having liver dumpling soup (one of Z’s favorite things), followed by the traditional tray of various fried meats and sausages.  Z tells me that it is all fabulous.  The veg is enjoying fried squash, zucchini, and cheese!  I am not sure what they do differently with the frying thing here, but this is not at all greasy like you would expect, but light and refreshing – true almost everywhere.  Rosza is an expert at it!  We are all sharing the tomato/pepper/onion salad, the fried potatoes (fresh-from-the-ground Yukon Golds) and the freshly baked bread.  The alcohol fest continues with Champaign after lunch, followed by wine from Rosza’s trip to Italy.  Fortunately, I am driving, and Serbia is a zero tolerance state, so no more alcohol for me.  It’s too hot!

*****

7/5

Today we made our annual trip to Subotica, on what will eventually be a 100+ degree day.  Because of this we reversed our usual order of things and visited the “Black Market” first.  This place, as has been mentioned before, is a large mall/flea market.  Like all malls lately, increasingly what you find are clothes, clothes, and more clothes.  Today’s find, amongst the Chinese knock-offs of Puma, Adidas, and Nike sportswear was a cheap t-shirt.  The collar was bunching up and the fabric was transparent.  It was clearly not something that the above mentioned sportswear companies would never in a million years put on sale – even in their factory stores as seconds.  Emblazoned on the front, in a recognizable and I’m sure under copyright font, was “Oregon Basketball” – just like the ones on sale in the Nike Store in downtown Portland.  Hey, the Ducks are even getting knocked-off by the Chinese now. 

It does make you wonder, what does the Chinese version of the Chip Kelly offense look like?  And can Oregon State afford one?

*****

From the market, we moved downtown to visit the beautiful central square for coffee, sight-seeing, shopping and to visit the music store we found last trip.  I bought Book one of a Serbian sight-singing text on that trip that was sequenced beautifully, so this year we had to get Book Two.

The Synagogue in Subotica

I was delighted to see that the ruins of the synagogue in town are getting a makeover by the community.  The Jewish community has moved to new digs, but the town has dedicated the renovation as a memorial to WW II – and after – atrocities.  It is to be made over into a community performing arts center, but as much of the architecture as can be maintained is being done so.  You can now tour the building, with a guide that explains the history of the Jewish community in Subotica. The price was one Euro, but we were unable to go today.  I am looking forward to it on my next trip.

We had lunch at a Hungarian Cabaret in town.  The club has existed since the late 1800’s, and has been doing Hungarian entertainment and floor shows since it opened.  Strangely, it is now run by SAB Miller (I know – weird, right?).  Those guys are everywhere!

The banquet room was clearly visible from our table.  While we were dining, the lunch banquet arrived; about 100 third grade-ish girls.  I could see no adults, but they must have been there.  The girls sat down and had quiet conversations while eating, politely, with a knife and fork, a salad and an entree of potatoes and some meat thing.  Everyone was eating everything on their plate, and no one seemed to be complaining of it, even though this is the age of that stuff.  They had obviously been out in the heat before this, so they kept sending emissaries over to the bar to refill the table water pitcher – the only “weird” thing about the whole scene.  It was something to see – and something I would, sadly, be shocked to see back home.

*****

The dread Jelen Pivo -
possibly the worst beer on the planet

It is Emese’s Name’s Day, so by for a visit we go.  It was nice to talk to Emese and Joe – they are nice folks, and longtime friends of Z.  This evening, the topics of discussion included; an infomercial for the virtues of hyper-oxygenated water, opera, the perks awarded to 10 year and 20 year tenured teachers in Serbia (one month and two months of your base salary respectively), Emese and family’s trip to Rome, and how to make a local soft cheese that Z really enjoys.

To be polite – and so that Joe could have one – I sucked down a bottle of the dread Jelen Pivo (seems Joe can only have beer when there is company and they are drinking – happy to help out a friend!).  Reading the bottle, it seems they have been brewing this swill since 1756 – 20 years before the revolution.  I have to imagine it was better once – I wonder how long ago.  I’m sure the extreme metallic taste of preservatives, “hoppy drops,” and chemicals used to speed up and stop fermentation were not part of the original suds.

*****

Fresh Stew from the pot...

7/8

Capriolo Pizza - the best 'Za on the planet!!!!

Lajos and Bori are having us over for lunch today after the “big” market in Topolya.  The carnivores are having a stew made with some freshly killed game animal of some type and prepared in a big earthen-ware pot in the bread oven on the new porch.  My diner arrived shortly after the pot was removed from the oven in the form of a delivery from Capriolo from down the lane!  Folks, I don’t know how to say this more emphatically – this is the best pizza on the planet!  Today, I am having the classic Quattro Formaggio.  Salt and garlic are predominant in the flavor, but there is a smoked cheese in there, as well as garlic and oregano.  At about five bucks a ‘za, these things are amazing.  You must go!

*****

For the people who read this for the beer reviews, because I love you guys, and I want to spare you from the pain of bad beer, and I am willing to make the sacrifice for you, and this was a big one, so you owe me…

Lord help us – Jelen Strong, Jelen Brewing Company, Novi Sad, Serbia.  7.3% alcohol.  7.3%!  You can see where this is going, I’m sure.  Hard to believe, but the bright white head hangs around for a while.  The color of the beer is approximately the same color of my Oregon “Lightning” colored t-shirt.  The nose is the “wet hop” smell of badly produced pilsner, with maybe a tiny bit of hops.  How does it taste, you ask?  Well – thin and watery on the front of the mouth, changing to bitter and metallic on the back.  Strangely, you can’t taste the alcohol in it.  So what do we have – a nice looking beer that tastes like crap!  Obviously the purpose of this swill is to get you wrecked, as quickly as possible.  Stay away!  Ick!