If only.
The great cities of Europe are drowning in a sea of spray paint.
They shall spray it on the walls; they shall spray it on the trains; they shall spray it on the lampposts; they shall spray it on the doors; they shall never let up.
On top of the paint, there are thousands of stickers advertising, moving companies, plumbers, etc... How anyone lives with that is beyond me.
We have seen Lisbon and Granada, where all you can do is paint over the paint. These cities are dying. Budapest is rapidly getting this way. Even super-clean Vienna is defiled. In our residential area of Rome, the vandalism is pervasive, disgusting and sickening. There is no pretense to artistic merit: just pure vandalism. The few doodles with actual words or symbols range from the puerile ("Do not write on this wall") to cop-hating phrases (of course they hate cops: they're felons) to the odd sprinkling of the hammer and sickle, evincing a mixture of imbecility and ignorance that is a wonder to behold.
The only cure would be to shoot the little fuckheads on sight. Not an obvious solution for a libertarian-leaning liberal (in its original sense), but I find that I can live with the cognitive dissonance. I would even buy my own gun and ammo.
I Was Wrong (shhh!)
As prosperous as Austria is, it has not declared war on smokers yet. Some bars and restaurants still allow smoking, albeit in separate rooms. And there is a sign at the door telling you what is going on. Very sensible and civilized. Anathema to crusaders everywhere.
What is not so civilized is that the government still restricts the hours shops can open! Stores are forbidden from opening on Sundays and late at night. They wonder why they have high unemployment: they could double the number of retail jobs by letting the people who actually own stores to open when they please, as is their natural right. Bureaucrats seem to have an innate tendency to dictate to other people. At best, it is annoying: for example, new euro-directives on the allowable wattage of vacuum cleaners and hair dryers (similar in spirit to Canada's own idiotic ban on high-wattage incandescent light bulbs) will only lead to dirty houses, damp hair, or an incredible amount of time spent on cleaning and drying. The mind reels.
I just learned this week that Cardston, Alberta does not allow the sale of alcohol in town. I thought this kind of stuff was confined to the more inbred counties of Kentucky and the like. Who the hell do these people think they are? They should have no right to dictate this. The mind keeps on reeling.
The Sound of Music
Yes, we were in Salzburg. As kitschy as the Mozart and Sound of Music connections are, this is still one of the greatest examples of an Austrian baroque city (WWII was kind to Salzburg) and is well worth the visit. It has one of the largest, and best preserved, medieval fortresses in Europe. Without the modern funicular, we'd have to climb up, like the serfs did hundreds of years ago. That would take away from the fun.
Big Night
Food. Glorious food. Much travel ends up revolving around food. So what have we learned?
First of all, 99% of what we had was great, but bad stories make better stories, so maybe there will be a few negative comments.
Unsurprisingly, they make great Chinese food in China.I think my favourite was what was dubbed as "Pork'n fish" at the local Spicy Joint (actual name): a hot/sweet/sour pork dish (no fish in sight). I also loved our local dumpling place, where I would go at night to get four dozen pork dumplings and tea for $3.50 (including vinegar and chili oil). We had many other great meals in Shanghai. Having said that, I'm looking forward to going back to the Szechuan Restaurant on 16th Avenue in Calgary. If it's still around, I may re-examine the possibility that there is a god (just kidding).
I am sure we missed a lot of good food in Shanghai. Most buildings devote the first 3 to 5 floors to businesses, including restaurants, but the majority have no English signs so their presence remained unknown to us. Even if we found them out, there were no English menus or pictures. Even with pictures, it's amazing how stir-fried pork intestines look like any other meat.
Vietnam was a bit of a surprise. Outside of a few places that were unaffordable to local people, we found that Vietnamese food is actually better at home than it is in Vietnam. The ingredients are just so much better in Canada, I think (especially the beef). Vietnam is still a poor country, so it's perhaps understandable that a $2 meal there will not taste like the same $10 dish at home.
Thailand was just wonderful. The incredible layering of tastes in Thai food is just beyond compare. We thought we had nice Thai food at Thai Sa-On downtown, but it doesn't come close. Actually, the best Thai food in Calgary is at Jackie's Thai, in Eau Claire Market (if it's still around). It's in a food court, but is well worth the visit.
Malaysia was a foodie's paradise. The mixture of Malay, Chinese and Indian cuisines makes for an endless variety, and as we've seen, food is very important to them. They also had many Western eateries in KL, some very good. Having said that, we had our worst Indian meal ever in Kuching. But Malaysia Airlines serves the best satay (disregarding the odds, we flew them half a dozen times and did not fall out of the sky).
What we did not find anywhere was good dim sum. Each place would have one very good dish, but the rest would be only so-so. I guess we'll have to wait until we go to Hong Kong.
I'm not going to comment on the food in London, so as not to offend my British friends.
I will touch on European food in a later post.
Lagniappe
The first picture is actually a sculpture commemorating the Jews of Budapest. During the last days of the war, those who hadn't been murdered yet were brought here by the fascist militia, ordered to take off their shoes, and shot dead so they would fall into the Danube. It's not clear whether the shoes were needed by the assassins. They'd already pulled out their gold teeth or any other valuables, so one is left to wonder.
In Vienna, we stayed in the old Jewish area (now also home to a growing Jewish Orthodox population). Brass plaques on the sidewalk commemorate those who were deported and murdered. Sometimes individually, sometimes in larger numbers: this plaque commemorates a whole family The Austrians got off easily. They willingly joined Hitler's Germany in 1938 and partied up in Kristallnacht, but never had to assume the collective guilt that the Germans did.Similar plaques can also be found in Rome.
Somehow, I find the individual memento mori to be more poignant than grandiose monuments and statements.
In Vienna, we stayed in the old Jewish area (now also home to a growing Jewish Orthodox population). Brass plaques on the sidewalk commemorate those who were deported and murdered. Sometimes individually, sometimes in larger numbers: this plaque commemorates a whole family The Austrians got off easily. They willingly joined Hitler's Germany in 1938 and partied up in Kristallnacht, but never had to assume the collective guilt that the Germans did.Similar plaques can also be found in Rome.
Somehow, I find the individual memento mori to be more poignant than grandiose monuments and statements.