Back in Sunnyvale

In this last post of the Travel Adventures with the Tool-Kid blog I am going to try and explain how it feels to be back in Sunnyvale, back at the place that Max still wonders about - as in "This is our home?"

We returned in the middle of the night. Uli's friend Andy picked us up at the airport which was very fortunate and helped a lot given that neither of us really knew what time it was - actually and in our bodies. Max had been really great, he actually slept voluntarily on both flights, just sort of curled up on top of us, closed his eyes, and fell asleep. I guess he has become such a traveling veteran that he doesn't find flying exciting enough anymore to stay awake. Needless to say that both flights - from Vienna to Chicago and from Chicago to SFO - were just absolutely awful. On both flights every last seat was taken so when Max slept we were either standing in the aisle or he was lying on top of us which - trust me - can get pretty uncomfortable after three hours. I learned that one can't sit on the floor in a plane, I got up so Max could stretch out and had that silly notion that by the door in the back I could just sit, cross-legged and read a book for a bit but - oh no - that is against regulations: one has to stand. So I crouched down and - you guessed it - that wasn't allowed either. Seems like ones butt has to have a certain clearance from the ground - everything else is forbidden. In Chicago we had one of these "delayed incoming flight" thingies going and 94 people on the stand-by list. We started with about 2 hours delay after sitting for at least one hour on the tarmac - an all time favorite of mine.

But we eventually made it back in one piece. Only the bag we got in India which accompanied us on Indian planes and trains as well as on European planes, trains, cars and busses and survived all of that in very good shape got destroyed on the very last leg of the trip between O'Hare - where we cleared customs and it was still okay - and SFO. No surprise really, that's when the United Airlines people took over, carelessly dragging it around by one handle thereby ripping the top apart.

As an aside, United Airlines accomplished something rather rare, 10 years ago I was a loyal customer. I'd fly United even if it cost a little more, they were my airline and I liked them. Now I hate them, I hate them with a vengenance and if there is anything I could do to make live miserable for them I would. The managed in a few short years to turn me from a loyal customer into an enemy. That is not a small accomplishment! Those kids at O'Hare dragging bags around with the most bored expression possible - taking obvious pride in being as destructive as humanly possible without using outright violence or putting knives or explosives to the baggage they are entrusted with - convinced me again that the golden rule of flying is to avoid any and all American airlines (and United in particular) if you can at all help it and if this means stopping over in Karachi it is probably worth doing.

Anyway, here we were back in our house that really didn't look much like ours mainly because all out personal stuff was still stored away and also because it feels strange to return after such a long time and find that things are essentially the same but just not quite. I opened the cupboard without looking wanting to take a glass out but wait, where the glasses used to be are now the bowls and where the bowls used to be are now the plates and what is the cheese grinder doing next to the wok? I am sure there are very good reasons for storing the cheese grinder next to the wok and it is a perfectly legit thing to do - I just can't imagine ever doing it.

Then we started the search for Max's bed which I found pretty quickly but his blanket remains unaccounted for to this day. I know I will find it in some unlikely place and then I will remember how I put it there thinking that I will never forget that I put the blanket in - say - the freezer and promised myself that I would never forget that I stored it in such an ingenious place.

The first week was all about putting stuff away and doing necessary repairs and modifications (the grass-green wall in the walk-in closet would fall in that category and - in case you wondered - it looks awesome). We slowed down quite a bit by now and so there is still chaos abound but at least the clothing is organized, the kitchen sort of and the bathroom mainly. Don't ask about my office and don't even think about asking about the garage.

The first week was full of surprises of the not so good kind. I knew about the gas prices, about $4.50 per gallon and therefore almost 4 times as much as in 1999 when I came here, but I wasn't prepared for the 50 - 100% price increases in other products. My trip to the farmer's market prooved eye-opening: the bretzels I used to buy at the German bakery used to cost $1. A bit much but okay as a once a week acknowledgement of my German heritage. Now the same darn things are $1.75 and with that 75% price increase in just 6 month they are off the shopping list. I will miss then dearly but I am not crazy - bretzels I'll eat next when I am back in Germany. Then there was the visit at Max's favorite Chinese Dim Sum place ("oh, yummy, spinach!" form my child who would rather die than eat an ounce of spinach at home). This is how it used to work: we drive there and by the time we entered the parking lot I would jump out of the car and with no regard to good manners or bodily injury to others or myself bolt into the place pushing people aside as I run. I would run up to the counter and from afar start screaming something like "table for three" or just "three!". At this point they would hand me a small piece of paper with a number scribbled on it, generally something like 57 or 83. Then I would wait, eventually Uli and Max would join and we would hear them call "number 24, party of 4" or something like it. Eventually 57 or 83 would be called and we'd get a table. So, this time I did just that, jump out of the car, run to the counter, yell "party of three" and the hostess looked at me a bit strange and said "follow me". I was like "did I hear this correctly? Follow her where?" but she was already marching into through dining room and pointed at a table in the back. I said: "I don't like that table, I want another one up front" and she said "just give me a second" and indeed by the time Uli and Max arrive three seconds later I was already seated at a different table, tea being served and the Dim Sum ladies with her carts where upon me. The explanation came later when it turned out that the lunch which would have cost us maybe $25 six month ago now was $37. Ticker-shocked we vouched to eat at home more frequently!
Max is back at Nelly's and still really likes going there. There are a couple of boys his age now which I am very happy about. I felt for a while that he needed more peers and now he has got them. His Spanish has unfortunately disappeared but seems to be coming back all right although Nelly told me on Friday that my little Latino who used to speak perfect accent-free Spanish ("Max no tiene accento") now speaks with a noticable German accent. The rolling Spanish "r" has become the German in-the-back-of-the-throat "r". We'll be working on that!
By now we are sort of moved back in - boxes still everywhere. The initial enthusiasm for cleaning has dwindled to a trickle especially since I have started working on a consulting assignment and I have to admit developing a strategy for a company beats cleaning the floors or putting underwear away any day. We are back but I still wonder whether we are home. I love our Eichler house but the sterility of the Californian suburbs is getting to me: no real city centers, one has got to drive everywhere and everything is so darn far. But no matter where you go it sort of all looks the same: gas stations, Home Depots, car dealerships, a million little Indian, Thai, Chinese, and Japanese restaurants (all of which I love) in faceless buildings, shopping malls - by now emptier than I have ever seen them because even the last person seems to have understood that they need to save money and stop spending more than they make on a regular basis. I miss walking to the center like we did in Merida, Florence, Kochi, Sevilla, Malaga, Konstanz, Vienna, and Graz where there are people walking, shopping, eating in outside restaurants, hanging out and playing in the parks. I miss old buildings, good bike paths, houses that aren't a mumbo-jumbo of French Country mixed with Hacienda and a bit of Old English castle thrown in for good measure (the Eichler buildings like ours being the exception to that).
I find myself checking flights, mainly to Merida because I really liked it there and because its the closest from here. Predictably the prices are crazy right now and so this is just day dreaming. In my head I have started to plan the next "sabbatical" - I have never been to Istanbul and really would like to see more of Eastern Europe, especially Albania, then there is Laos and South Africa and Namibia, Chile, more of Central America .....
If it ever comes to that I will let you know. Until that time: Good-bye, Tschuess, Ciao, Hasta Luego, Pinne Kanam (Malayalam), Servus and So Long.

The Internet Black Hole Called Austria

Okay, so I owe you about three weeks worth of blogs - it turned out that Austria is so not happening when it comes to Internet access. All during our time in the countryside we didn't have access with the exception of one 30 minute period where the neighbor must have turned his router. I was exstatic announcing "Ladies and Gentlemen, we have Internet access" to Jasi and Uli but no sooner had I said that and blissfully started surfing it was gone again. Looks like the guy turned it on long enough to do his biweekly email check and then turned the router off again right away to conserve energy (we are talking Europeans here). Graz was hopeless altogether - no internet access at all, nada, nothing, not even an unsecured connection out there in our little hotel. A smokey Internet cafe down the street was all there was to be had. In Vienna we actually did have Internet access at our friends' place but we were there for such a short time that I just didn't have the the leisure of sitting down and write.
No we are back - I can't believe it - but more about that later. First a quick summary of the Austrian experience.
Austria was the most travel-intensive of our locations mainly because Uli wanted to cram a lot into the four week period and secondly because it really isn't such a great idea to stay in Fohnsdorf, his home village, for too long. I really get along with the in-laws fine but a week is enough, after that I can't guarantee for anything. So we did what we always do in Fohnsdorf, took little hikes, went to the local shopping mall, visited a few old churches, ate too much stuff that by no stretch of imagination can be called healthy, hang out with Uli's brothers and parents and ate cake at Tante Gerti's - and this time around we had the added "fun" of watching soccer.
Then, for one week, we stayed in a wooden cabin in a remote valley (well, as remote as things get in tiny Austria) called Johnsbachtal. Imaging "Sound of Music" if you are an American and imagine picturebook Alps if you have never heard of "Sound of Music" and there you have it: high, impressive, ragged mountains, green lush valley with little river, morning mist and evening Alpen glow. Old farm houses, a small church, six to eight restaurants, a small store with the wackiest opening hours and in the middle of all of that idyll our little cabin.
I have to say it is really cool to wake up, walk outside the cabin and look at a bunch of imposing mountains in all sorts of conditions - from sunshiny blue sky to grey, dark, cloudy dangerous skies but after a week I was ready to reenter society. We used the week well, though, I did three hikes none of which I thought I could do as easily as I did. I wasn't even particulalry sore after the couple of 2400 feet plus climbs and the really long hike I took with Jasi where we didn't climb all that much but covered a lot of ground. But Max had the best time of all of us thanks to the farmer and his 24/7 open door policy on the tool shop. You have no idea how many dangerous and therefore exciting things there are in a farmers tool-shop and how many others can be declared dangerous, explosive or otherwise impressive by an imaginative 4 year old. The other bonus was a tiny little cabin, not more than 15 square feet in front of the cabin. It had a chair, little table, cup and plate and a few other things and was declared promptly to be the exclusive property of Max. We grown-ups had to come visit and were served tea (imaginary), salad (grass), cake (stones or so), and the famos but entirely made up "trauberries" - a delicacy of Johnsbachtal. We three grown-ups took turns and each had countless teas every day while Max was talking away like only 4 year olds can - without a break, free flow of consciousness and no regard to the boredom of everybody else around.
As much fun as it was after a week of idyllic remoteness I was ready to face society again.
I was ready for houses, streets, cars and the occasional restaurant that serves something other than Styrian specialties (pork, pork and a bit of beef for a change served with small slivers of tomatos and yummy but serious baked desert, e.g. pancakes with jam and powdered sugar)
The third week in Austria we spent in Graz. Graz is the second largest town in Austria with a whopping 250,000 people but it is interesting beyond its size. It was the Culture Capital of Europe for 2003 and it shows: the architecture is an interesting mixture of old and super-modern. I totally love it: those palaces and historic buildings right next to something glass-metal modern I find creatively stimulating. One of the places I saw and really am intrigued with is an artificial island in he middle of the river (the “Mur”), its made of steel and glass in the shape of a mussel. It houses a cafe plus play area for the kids and is light in neon blue at night - cool! Then there is the modern art museum: I looks like a UFO, others say it looks like a model of a stomach and I guess it is a bit of both - totally organic shaped with little nubs sticking out, green glass with light circles flashing at night. I can understnd if one doesn't like it but one has to admire the guts and the vision with which that building was put next to the Mariahilfer Church, the historic houses and ubiquitos restaurants. I happend to like these things - every age has its style and we are looking at cities now and see buildings from many different centuries, why not add a 21st century flavor to it as well? Anyway, as always we walked around a lot, climbed the steep stairs up to the watch tower (pretty much the only thing left from the formerly proud castle which was destroyed by Napoleon - because he could), went to playgrounds, walked some more, met some friends and relatives of Uli's etc. At the pace we are used to go by now a week was over in a blink of an eye and before I knew it Jasi was gone back to Germany and we packed our suitcases and made our way to the train station and on the train to Vienna.
I have only once been to Vienna for any length of time and that was - more years ago than I care to admit and in the dead middle of a hard winter. So my memories were of theathers. museums, frozen feet, coffee houses and not much else. In fact, I didnn't like it at all then and was never very eager to come back. Coming in the middle of summer, though, was entirely different. Everybody is outside, parks and cafes are full of people, the ubiquitous tourists are everywhere, street artists are out in force by the "Steffl", Vienna's main cathedral. We had very little time but managed to squeeze a lot in: a walk through the city, a bbq with friends, a nice dinner, an afternoon at the Danupe (Max and Uli, me: another walk through the city), a tour of the wine bars - and all of that in like two days.
And then the day which I though wouldn't, just couldn't, come arrived and we were on our way to the airport with six carefully packed and weighed (not to exceed 50 pounds) pieces of luggage. Six months had just flown by and up until the time we landed in SFO in the dead of the night almost 24 hours later (including the usual delay in O'Hare) I didn't believe that our "great trip" - as we had started to call it - was over.