First things first.. Happy birthday to my lovely and magical wife Diane.. . the queen of my planet, the ping to my pong, the yin to my yang.. the see to my saw.. the gee to my gaw..  even though I’m a bazillion miles away I’m blowing out my birthday candle on a piece of sacher torte in your direction. Diane. I love you more than words can tell.. and certainly more than I can spell..

 

OK.. now where am I ? I woke today as I was landing in Vienna.. a city I love but have not visited since 1006.  in the summer before Sam’s passing. I lived here as an exchange student during my junior year in college. I’m here for a whirlwind 4 day tour of client meetings, IBM employee meetings and university talks.. I managed to meet up with my old freinds (and ex landlords) Frau Erol , and her son Osman and wife Katherine and kids Stephanie and Konstantin, and Osman’s brother Murat and his daughter Murial . Osamna pciked me up at the airport and we headed out to their house near Schonbrunn plaace..

After a quick nap we wen over to Frau Erol’s ohouse where I lived from 1979 -1980..

THere was Herr Erol

s name on the door, but sadly, he passed away 2 years back. Frau Erol met us at the door looking exactly as she had 30 years ago..

We all sat down and had a austro-turkish lunch just like I remember having with them every sunday.. While I’ve been back here at least 5 since 1980, this is the first time we’ve all sat down for lunch like the old days.. It was like the last 32 year had not elapsed.. .. 32 years.. that’s pretty amazing.. !

 

Katherine had made a Sacher Torte which is delicious and required eating when visiting Wien (aka Vienna)

We topped it off with soem of freind Debra’s specially made Maple shortrbreads that id’ bought form home. It was fun trying to explain to murial what maple syrup was.

As I was lookign through pictures, I found several of my family that we’d sent Frau Erol over the years.. there were all three boys.. . I also found the picture of Frau and Herr Erol’s son Avi who died at age 3 in 1968.. THose boys were still so much in our hearts..  It was nice to see the small picture of Herr Erol as well.

 

After lunch I took the pilgrimage up to the 3rd floor to see my old apartment. Karin and her family live there now.. though Karin was out of town, I got to see her husband Willie and two of the kids..   The apartment had changed quite a bit !

This was my old room

 

and this was our kitchen.. now a bathroom

 

the views from the stairs were just as they were ..

 

We all then set oyt for a walk that lead us down Graf Starhembergass.. then down Kolschitzkygasse.. naemd for Count Kolschitzky who supposedly rode across the siege lines during the ottoman blockade of Vienna and stole Coffee from the turks. THats supposedly how Vienna.. then the rest of Europe and America came to know coffee !

 

Past my old Ubahn (subway) stop

 

Then over to the Belvadere palace ..

 

we then walked up to teh 1st district and came down Kartner Strasse.. the main waling mall.

 

and took a quick peak in Stephan’s Dom.. the city’s cathedral.

Though I’m far from Catholic.. I lit a candle for Sam and Dylan..

we then walked up the Graben .. passing severla of my favorite haunts including te Esterhazzy keller bar and trezewiniskies were I’d stop off an get pepper glop spread on bread and vodka before class (hey.. it’s the custom here.. :-)and went trough the Easter market before coming out on Freyung.. the site of the Kinsky Palace whre I went to school that year.

 

Then we wandered back towards Stephansplatz and caught the Uban  4 back to Sudtiroler  Platz and Frau Erol’s home

On the way out, I spied te self-same telephone that we used to hack with a piezoelectric lighter.. you clicked the lighter near te coin slot.. and shazam.. it thought you’d put in $50 of coins.. we never used it for anything. it was just fun to do..

 

Later this evening Osman, Katerine, Konstantine and Froau Erol and I met for a nice Italian dinner.. we walked home.. it was so great hanging out with my old freinds. Tomorrow I start work at 7AM and will be non stop until Friday.. Wish me luck.

 

More from the road tomorrow..

Happy Birtday Diane..

Nite all, nite sam

-me

ps. Here are some more pics I took today trough our long walk in the city.