I thought I would share some photos of experiences I had in Vienna that did make my previous blog entries. They range from the culinary (the monster schnitzel I ate at Figlmuller, for example) to the historical (the graves of the great composers in the Zentralfriedhoff and the Palace of Schonbrunn) to the silly (Mozart on a bench). Also, there are just random items I thought were intriguing! (Flak Towers in the city?) ... read more

The Ottomans made two attempts to capture “the city of the golden apple”, as they often called Vienna, but to the relief of Christendom both sieges were unsuccessful. The first one, in 1529, under the command of Süleyman the Magnificent (who died shortly afterwards while still on campaign in the Hungarian plains *), was not so significant in the grand scheme of things, but it did heat up the Habsburg-Ottoman rivalry that would last for centuries. The second siege in 1683 was really the most important, at least from the perspective of the Viennese (and much of the rest of Western Europe). The Habsburg victory was more decisive, not only in terms of defending the city; it also began the long process of pushing the Ottomans out of much of the European territory they had possessed ... read more

I. Bathing in Budapest I didn't know what to do with it at first. It was a piece of cloth, about the size of a small handkerchief, with two long strings. This, apparently, was the "costume" for bathing in the thermal baths, at least for the men's only day. I am not quite sure what purpose this little flap is supposed to serve. If it is meant to foster a sense of modesty, I think it might have the opposite effect. Nothing draws attention to the fact that you are all but naked more than a little apron that barely covers anything. So there I was, standing in my rather drafty bathing attire, trying to figure out just what I was supposed to do. But of course all the complicated signs were in Hungarian (which ... read more

In many parts of Europe, you notice the absence of Jewish life in once thriving Jewish neighborhoods. You see synagogues that are now museums. You see graveyards that haven’t been used since before WWII. Prague had only one synagogue, out of at least six, where services were actually still conducted. Budapest, however, has a visible, living community. Although the current 80,000 Jews in Budapest are about half the pre-war estimates (when they made up nearly twenty-five percent of the city’s population), it is still the largest community of any city in Central Europe today. Walking through the old Jewish Quarter (which also now happens to have a large Roma population), you see Jewish shops, restaurants, and, of course, synagogues - ones still used as houses of worship. Central Synagogue is actually the second largest in the ... read more

The dome arched above, punctuated with small bulbs of glass that allowed in a tepid light. Steam - or maybe it was my general blindness without glasses - enveloped the space in a thin haze. Drip. Drip. The echoes of condensation hitting the stone floor rang against the walls. I could have been hanging out in a hamam in Istanbul. But I wasn’t. Up a steep, cobbled road, I found a pretty rose garden on a hill overlooking a wide river. Within the garden, a grey octagonal tomb sat neatly, its crescent and star glinting in the hot morning sun. I peeked through the iron-gated window and saw the cenotaph enshrouded in a green cloth with gilded Arabic letting embroidered on its edges. I could have been visiting a Sufi’s tomb in Istanbul. But I wasn’t. ... read more