The Hills Are Alive

The Hills Are Alive
The next day we took a 3-hour train ride to Vienna. This beautiful capital ranks as one of the best in Europe. Strewn with castles and palaces, impressive museums, gold leafed monuments and spotless streets make it inviting to anyone who loves history and great architecture. It is a city that reminds me of a chocolate box, filled with both surprises and treasures to be savored. Shops filled with the most delightful gifts. It is clear that this was once a very wealthy and prosperous city. It still very prosperous bustling with lots of shopping at upscale stores.

The Habsburgs have ruled over the Austrian empire since the early 1300’s. And for the most part, they were loved and supported by their subjects. Their palaces rival Versailles in Paris with its damask walls, inlaid lacquered walls, gilded rococo designs and masterly painted ceilings. An endless line of rooms for every conceivable use follow one right after the other each one more opulent than the last. After a while you run out of new ideas on how to decorate these big palaces. We toured the collection of royal place settings stacks of both silver and gold plates. The royalty never ate on anything but silver and gold for centuries. Eventually they introduced fine bone porcelain and of course there is an endless collection of royal patterned porcelain. Much of it was given to the royal family by other royal monarchs as wedding gifts, good will gifts or just for the heck of it gifts. They had more gold candelabras and mirrored centerpieces than they knew what to do with. Just storing all this loot was a major task. We also checked out the furniture museum. It housed all the back up finely crafted royal pieces that was enough to supply the “Antique Road Show” into the next century. I have no idea how one family could possibly use so many inlaid desks and gilded chairs.

The Buda and the Pest

My friend Jun is visiting me for 3 weeks. He sailed with me last fall from Marseille to Barcelona. Since he will be here for 3 weeks, we decided to do a ClickAir trip to Budapest and Vienna. So with the click of a mouse as magical as any ruby slippers, we were off to check out the capital of Hungry.

It is a beautiful city split down the middle by the aggressive flow of the Danube River. On one side is the ancient city of Buda and the other side the ancient city of Pest. The two combine together to make up modern day Budapest. Many call Budapest the Paris of the east, and for good reason. There is a similarity with strong stone buildings and magnificent bridges knitting the two sides of the city together much like the bridges of Paris crossing Sienna. There are no Eiffel towers but there are plenty of colossal monuments of military victories. Budapest seems to favor wild horses and heroic men over monumental arches however.

We spent a day exploring the extensive collection of art in the museums and the afternoon soaking in the big Turkish baths. The baths are a huge structure with multiple soaking areas. At the heart of the baths is one expansive soaking area covered by a dome ceiling with colored windows mimicking colored stars filtering rainbow streaks of light into the main soaking area.

One of the most impressive structures in Budapest is the huge neogothic parliament building. The second largest parliament building in the world only surpassed by England’s is built right on the banks of the Danube River. This structure has more points and spires than a sea urchin.

The next morning we visited the huge synagogue in Budapest. With its large domed ceiling and onion-topped turrets, it is the second largest in the world. Beautifully restored after World War II devastating bombing and munitions attacks. The ceilings are designed with intricate gold leafing and bright colors. It seats 1500 men on the main floor and another 1500 women in the balconies. (Men and women are not allowed to sit together) We learned that it was part of the Jewish ghetto where Jews were rounded up and virtually starved to death. Of the 6 million Jews that were killed in the holocaust, 10% came from Hungary. Back behind the synagogue is a holocaust memorial in the form of a stainless steel willow tree donated by Tony Curtis. His family is from Budapest. The leaves list the names of all those from Hungary killed in the holocaust. There is also a holocaust museum on the church grounds. The docent made it quite clear that the Germans could not have been able to do what they did without the willing participation of the Hungarian military and government. It is a very heart-wrenching story that always brings me deep sorrow.

Palm Sunday and Easter

I haven’t written much on this blog because not much new is going on. I have settled into a routine of going to the gym, taking care of business, working on my consulting project, riding my bike, working on my Spanish and hanging out with friends. Last week however was Palm Sunday. I started seeing these palm fauns in the stores. At first I did not recognize what they were. They aren’t green, but rather an ivory color. I think they are put in some kind of preservative. They take the leaves and weave designs into them. Sometimes they weave flowers into them. So when the fauns are complete, they look more like a vertical flower arrangement. The people in Spain buy them and put them in their homes. I was talking to someone about their significants and he told me that often the family will keep the fauns up all year. It is a sign of devotion and you get blessings from it. I guess you better choose one you really like.

For Easter, a friend brought over to the boat a traditional Spanish dish to share with me. It was similar to french toast. The bread is soaked in an egg batter and then deep-fried. Then you are supposed to sprinkle brown sugar on it and dip it in a very creamy vanilla sauce. The bread was a little oily for me and very sweet, but I did like the sauce. I asked him to send the recipe. I have to learn a little Catalonian cooking while I am here.

The Friday before Easter was a holiday, of course Easter, and the Monday after. A lot of the people left the city and took the whole week off. When there is a holiday here, everything is closed. You would starve to death looking for even a grocery store to be open. It is so different from the states where most stores would use it as an opportunity for a big blowout sale. Since it is actually illegal to have a sale this time of year, nothing special takes place. Something about sales causing unfair competition between businesses. Sales are only allowed in January and July. I think more than any other difference I see over here in Spain and Europe in general is how the economy is run. The government also makes it extremely difficult to open your own business. There are huge licensing fees to pay before you can begin which are out of reach for most people in Spain. A lot of the fees have to do with prepaying for the national health insurance and just the government red tape. You also are required to take government sponsored courses related to the kind of business you want to establish which you are required to pay for. The courses are only offered during certain times of year. So in the end, most people just take the easy way out and end up working for some company.

Partridge and Pear Trees

Most people know that the 25th of December was chosen by the church as the birth of Christ to counteract the drunken erotic Roman celebration of the winter solstice. Well things didn’t really go as planned. Instead, Christmas became a holiday of drunken brawls. It was far from a holy day. It was a day set aside for ignoring the law and even terrorizing the citizens. You all know the song about giving us some Figgie pudding. Well it goes on to say we won’t leave until we get some. And that was literally the case. If a person did not give the mob what they wanted, they would come into the wealthy homes and loot it. This went on for centuries. It was so bad, that churches closed their doors on the 25th, and good Christians stayed in doors hoping the holiday would pass without incident. Think of that Roman spring solstice we still celebrate as Mardi Gras only much worse. When the puritans landed in America, one of the first laws they passed was absolutely no celebrating of Christmas of any kind. Anyone celebrating this holiday would be jailed. Those laws stayed in place until the late 1700’s. The drunken brawls continued until the early 1800’s. Christmas as we know it is a relatively recent event.

The song 12 Days of Christmas was actually a song made as a code to worship the 12 days from Christmas to Three Kings Day. The true love is not a boyfriend, the true love is God. On the first day of Christmas God sent his Son, represented by the partridge, one of the few birds willing to die for their young. Two turtledoves represent the Old and New Testament. Three French hens represent faith, hope and charity. Can you guess what the four calling birds are? The four gospels calling Christians to repentance. Five golden rings represent the torah or first five precious books of the Old Testament. Six geese a-laying go back to the first six days of creation when the world was hatched. Seven swans a-swimming, a little more difficult. But since the swan is considered one of the most beautiful birds, they represent the seven gifts of the spirit. Eight maids a-milking. Being a milkmaid was about the lowest job one could have. Christ came for everyone even the lowest servant, and was mentioned in his very first sermon: Blessed are the poor, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst, the merciful, pure in heart and the peacemakers. Yeah that is seven. Nine ladies dancing? Also a little more difficult, but it is the fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness gentleness and self control. Ten lords a-leaping. This one is probably a little easier to figure out. Lords were the judges and in charge of the law; so the Ten Commandments. Eleven pipers piping. Kind of a trick question. It represents the eleven apostles spreading the gospel message. They didn’t count Judas because of the betrayal problem. The final 12 drummers drumming relate directly to the Catholic Church doctrine of the 12 points of the Apostles Creed.

No wonder this silly song has lasted for so long. So next Christmas when you sing this carol, you can think back on when Christmas was not a holy day and Christians had to hide their devotion through a coded song with silly lyrics. And on January 6th, if you haven’t taken your tree down, take a peek and see if the three kings left you anything.

The Epiphany and Three Wise Men

When I was a little kid, I remember a few families had the tradition of decorating their Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. It always seemed strange to me to do all that work only to take the tree down a few days later. For our family, the Christmas tree was the center of celebrating the whole Christmas season and really triggered the beginning of this festive season. We always put it up the day after Thanksgiving where it stayed no matter how much of a fireball it turned in to until New Years Day. Deep down, I wondered if the other parents were just looking for an exceptional bargain on a tree since they practically give them away on that night. I was also a bit confused about this whole 12 days of Christmas. It seemed to me that it should be 25 days of Christmas and start on December 1. It took me a while to figure all of this out. But I have to say; it took coming to Spain to fit the last pieces of the puzzle together.

I was at the mall this week getting some groceries at the big market there. As I walked in, there is a booth the mall set up to have your presents wrapped for you. I had seen it before Christmas, and though, wow nice idea and it seemed like a free service being offered. Well the wrapping center was busier than ever. Yeah I knew there was something called Three Kings Day, and I knew that children got presents then. In fact children in Spain usually only get a small present on Christmas Eve. Three Kings Day is when they really score.

As I was walking out of the grocery store, I see this HUGE line of kids. And there at the epicenter is a guy dressed up in a renaissance type costume. Red tights, square hat, little tunic. He was pretty young, in his 20’s and had a small Van Dyke. I was a little confused because he did not resemble any Santa I had ever seen or heard about. So I ask this guy that was trying to sell cellular phones if he spoke English and what this was all about? He tells me he speaks “just a little”. No French accent, but petty funny. So he tells me that this guy in the red velvet chair is a servant of the three kings. And he is asking the children what they want the three kings to bring them. Ahhh, I get it. And I think it makes perfect sense that a king would send his servant on such an errand and that since the three kings were the ones that brought the very first Christmas presents, they would be the ones to still be stuck with the job, not some jolly fat guy living in the north pole.

The legend goes that the Three Wise Men reached the baby Jesus on January 6th, and proclaimed him a king. That became know as the day of the Epiphany, which means to reveal or to reveal that Christ was the King of Kings. Hence, Christmas is the first day of Christmas and the Epiphany is the 12th day of Christmas culminating in a very spiritual recognition of the divinity of Christ.