Mikhail’s All-Star World Tour 2006

After talking to Masha about books, I decided to list some of the books traveling with me: those I’ve read on my trip, and those I’m reading now. I find time to read in transit, before going to sleep, waiting for others, and whenever I need a break from walking.

Around New Zealand and Sydney, I read Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake, about the son of immigrants reconciling the Indian and American influences as he grows up. It was Maiken’s recommendation, and a good book, even somewhat unsettling because it got close to home. I resented the author a little for disturbing me just as I started to enjoy my vacation. I got over it quickly though, and continued with the enjoying.

Driving down from Cairns, I read Prague by Arthur Miller (I think). Despite the title, it’s about five expats in Budapest after the fall of the Iron Curtain - discovering themselves, making money, wishing they were in Prague. Also well-written, fortunately ambiguous, and ultimately appealing in a voyeuristic sort of way: I could easily see myself choosing this kind of path after college, and I know people who did.

On the plane from Sydney to Bangkok I finished Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer, a crazy account of an American travelling to the Ukraine to find the woman who saved his grandfather from the Holocaust. It’s a little gimmicky, but in a funny way that mostly works: half of the narration is by the hero’s Ukrainian translator who uses a thesaurus to improve his broken English. The story itself is pretty good, I’d recommend it.

In Israel during naptime I read Terry Pratchett’s first two Discworld novels because I keep hearing people praise them. Yeah, it’s amusing in a clever-British sort of way, but I think he tries a little too hard to be clever and Douglas Adam does it better in the Dirk Gently books. I don’t think I’ll read the 22 sequels in the series.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in Nighttime by Mark Haddon was a convenient purchase for the flight from Israel because it was a tiny paperback and Amazon had recommended it to me repeatedly. An easy light read, and no complaints, but I’d say it’s more in the “young adult” category. The basic deal is that an autistic kid wants to be Sherlock Holmes, so he investigates the murder of a neighborhood dog and discovers some secrets that deeply affect him. If you like this, try Rats Saw God.

In Amsterdam I managed to finish Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It’s definitely the best of the books I’ve read on this trip so far - damn, the guy could write. It’s not a truly GREAT book - not conistent enough, especially in the end - but there’s great passages everywhere. Fitzgerald took 10 years to write this, and it’s a semi-autobiographical story of a psychiatrist, his wealthy wife, and a young actress who meets them in the French Riviera in the pre-Depression 1920s.

I try to travel light, but that rule has to stretch for books, because I find more and I can’t resist. I’m also greedy about reading several books at once. Right now I’m reading Stendahl’s The Red and the Black (Bettina’s recommendation for visiting Paris, took me a month to find), Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station (Laurel and Joe’s recommendation). Waiting for their turn in my bag are Freakonomics (left by Kenny after he finished it), and Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre.

Masha and Thor have been wonderful hosts: they’ve been feeding me, entertaining me, and they even took days off to show me around Koln. I experienced the famous cathedral by climbing to the top with Thor (500+ steps of stairs), saw the historical and shopping centers, strolled through the university, and visited the Museum of Chocolate (recently bought by Lindt). Chocolate is not made by elves - who knew? Rather, it’s made by robots, which are almost as cool, and slightly creepier. Rows of chocolate bunnies with frozen smiles, huge metal arms whirring behind them.

The city center is nice: what I like about it are the pedestrian cobblestone streets - not too narrow, not too wide, full of people with room left to walk. Prague and Amsterdam both have streets like this too. Residential neighborhoods in Koln remind me of Moscow suburbs: a mixture of 5-story apartment buildings and small private houses, lots of kids on the streets. So I like Koln, and I bet it only gets better in a month when it’s spring for real.

A moment for food talk. The Kolsch beer I had last night holds its own against Pilsner and Budvar. I had Dunkin’ Donuts for the second time in Germany, it seems to be a huge hit over here because there’s no local pastry tradition. I tried to stay local by ordering the “Bavarian Creme” donut. KFC is apparently huge worldwide, too: I’ve seen them here and in every other country I visited. Not too many people inside though.

I’m making another stop in Germany: yesterday and today I’m in Koln. It’s warmer than Berlin, both literally (sun!) and figuratively, because I have a personal connection to the city: I’m staying with Masha, Thor, and their daughter Noa (1.5).

Masha and I go way back to Moscow, where our parents were close friends since before we were born. She’s a few years older, so she saw me arrive from the hospital, bossed me around and babysat me, taught me the essentials of rock music and card games, and was the closest I had to a big sister. Her family moved to Israel, then we moved to the US. Now our parents still stay in touch and visit each other, but I haven’t seen Masha in fifteen years.

It’s been totally awesome to spend time with an old friend. We have lots to talk about - some catching up, but also shared interests like books and food, comparing countries, future plans and other absurd ideas. It’s an oddly calming feeling, in the middle of a conversation across a kitchen table, to remember peeking into another kitchen decades ago where our parents were talking about grownup things in the same way. Masha and I have different personalities, with different life experience, yet our tastes and values are still suprisingly similar, probably because of the way we were raised. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

It’s been cool to meet Thor as well. I haven’t talked to him as much, but he’s rock-solid: confidently quiet with a sense of humor. He’s a chemist by day, working with phospholipids - I’ll think of him whenever I see “soy lecitin” among the ingredients. He’s also been into photography for a long time; his Canon 20D follows him everywhere. He’s got a sharp eye for detail, and anytime his camera clicks I follow his lens and sigh: another great shot I wish I had discovered. He’s grown up in this area, so I’ve also bugged him with lots of questions about locals like “Do people here really like KFC?” and “How do you say (soon-to-be-forgotten-German-word)?” He’s been very patient and good-humored about it all.

Noa ties it all together: she’s an adorable kid with a thoughtful look in her eyes, early signs of good taste (she likes cake), well-developed baby skills (walking, eating, saying “Mama” and “baka”), and a persuasive way to insist on what she wants (Waaa!). Fortunately, the latter is used sparingly. Noa is a little bit scared of me - she hides or runs for a parent when she catches my eye. However, this doesn’t make her a coward: I’ve had the same effect on adults now and then.

Back in Amsterdam, we met Kutta and adventured around town together all day yesterday. First, the Heineken Experience - a multimedia tour of the brewery. It’s like beer Disneyland: there are rides where you can be a bottle that goes through the assembly line (the floor shakes) or a virtual coachman delivering beer to the citizens of Amsterdam in a horse-drawn carriage (you strap into a wooden “coach” and it shakes you around while horses are projected on a screen). You also get an introduction to brewing (pretty similar to the Guinness brewery tour in Dublin), some beer tickets, and a small beer glass.

Once walking was done we stopped by for an afternoon siesta: lunch and sitting around playing liars’ dice and durak (a Russian card game I showed to the guys). Then more walking around the canals, a bit of shopping, then more beer and music. Kutta took off at the end of the night, off to London for work, and Dave and Erik left Monday morning for their flight home. Kenny and I spent another day of walking around, exploring some outer parts of the Canal Ring. And today Kenny flew out, so I’m walking the increasingly familiar streets by myself. I bought a couple of books and a sweatshirt (slowly recovering from the laundry disaster), now checked email, and will next go out to find a good reading spot with a view of the sidewalk.

A couple of nights ago, we went to a Czech puppet theatre show. Large marionettes put on an abridged performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, complete with dramatic opera singing and supernatural special effects. Going to the show was Eric’s idea originally, and he was nearly apologetic afterwards, worried that we’d been bored. But Kenny and I enjoyed it thoroughly (Dave had gone back to the hostel instead). I think Czech puppet theater could be the next big thing on TV, if filmed dramatically. The visual style would be unique, would attract attention and set it apart. Tim Burton and Wallace & Gromit fans would be all over it, especially if the writing is good. Hollywood, send checks.

We went out to the bars again Saturday night. There was a modern and empty place, like a 21st century Nightwatch; we started drinking absinthe there. We tried a rock club, where the waitress wouldn’t serve us fries. On the way somewhere else, I noticed Schweik on a sign and we went in for a snack. It’s the bar where Brave Soldier Schweik begins, with the emperor’s portrait that attracts politically incorrect flies and illustrations from the book. I read this book three or four times as a kid, so it was great to see the real setting. Afterwards there was a Cuban bar, loud and packed, with dancing. We walked to the river again, took a bunch of blurry night pictures, then headed back.

On our last morning in Prague, we managed to wake up to another debacle: it was 8:30 when we thought 7:30, so we barely made it to the airport in time. Daylight savings time kicked in while we slept - what are the odds!

We spent our first full day yesterday walking around Prague. Most of the afternoon was a walking tour that took us from Vaclav Square to Old Town, over the Charles Bridge and up into Prague Castle. Afterwards, we had some dinner (goulash and Budvar for me), then returned to the river for the night view. My first impression has only been reinforced: I remain awed by this city.

On an even lighter note, a “stupid Mikhail” story. All of us needed to do laundry, so on Thursday we dropped off our clothes at a full-service place two blocks from our hostel. We didn’t have time to pick up our clothes on Friday because of the tour, and when I went there this morning I discovered that they’re closed for the weekend. So I guess my wardrobe will be getting some Czech flavor, and now there’s more room in my bag for souvenirs…

Got into Prague yesterday, by train from Berlin. The train ride was great, especially the second half (between Dresden in Prague): the tracks followed along a twisting, half-frozen river (Danube?), and across the water there are green hills with old rock castles on top.

Our hostel is in Old Town, five minutes from the clocktower by foot, so everything is close. We started with a traditional dinner at a place called “U dvo kocek”, with big mugs of fresh Pilsner Urquell. By the time we were done, it was twilight and we walked over through the clocktower square, over the bridge, around the cobblestone streets and back to the hostel. I don’t have words for how gorgeous this city is: the fairy-tale castles, churches, angled alleys, and lights along the Vltava, it’s everything I fantasized about when I was a kid with a bookcase of historical novels.

Sure, there are tourists, but not too many because of the off-season. And it’s cold, too, but that’s improving and it doesn’t seem to bother me as much here. Our hostel is next to two landmark bars, “Marquis de Sade” and “Chateau Rouge”, so we warmed up with a few more Czech beers after all that walking. Looking forward to exploring more today and tomorrow, it’s awesome that we’re staying three nights!

Took the train to Berlin yesterday and tried to spend the afternoon seeing the sights on our own. Potsdamer Platz was disappointing, supposedly Berlin’s answer to Times Square but really another modern plaza with Sony and American fast food, like the Metreon in SF. Food was good though: Imbiss currywurst for lunch around the hostel, then bloodwurst and liverwurst for dinner in Oranienburger Strasse. Our hostel is in East Berlin, close to a U-bahn station, so it’s easy to get around. Today we went on an organized tour of the major attractions in the city center. It was a good walk, and then I had a double dinner of steak alt Berlin (with chicken livers) and donner kebab.

The weather’s been freezing: from 5 C during the day down to -5 C at night. Last year, people were wearing Tshirts at this time of year. The cold makes aimless exploring less attractive, and in our limited outings I’ve found Berlin disappointingly conservative: it doesn’t feel as fun as I’ve heard it can be. The architecture is impressive and often imposing, but rarely beautiful. Well, OK, there are beautiful places like Unter der Linden and Museum Island, and the parks will be beautiful when they turn green, but it’s a subdued, generic big-city kind of beauty, no grand weirdnesses, romantic absurdities, or flights of fancy. The city takes itself seriously. Maybe I haven’t found the part of town where young people live, so maybe I’ll have to come back in a warmer season. Fortunately, the beer is consistently good and the food is hearty, so that’s good for now.

Off to Prague tomorrow…

Flew into Amsterdam on Sunday and took the train into the countryside from the airport. Drab, flat Dutch landscape, though I did get to see some windmills. I turned around and went back into the city, checked into the Flying Pig hostel and met up with Erik, Dave, and Kenny. It’s been a whirlwind of a good time ever since. We did a canal tour, spent some quality hours in the Rijksmuseum (interesting= and the Van Gogh museum (awesome!), sampled some local dishes (frites! pastries! Feebo!), and walked a lot. It’s colder than I expected, but I bought an Ajax hat and put on three shirts, so no big deal.

The Dutch seem like a sensible people, though they have some endearing quirks. Their bicycle obsession is one: walking around feels like snorkeling, except instead of schools of fish I kept seeing flocks of girls on bicycles. Canals and houseboats. A healthy respect for desserts. Tolerance for tourists and widespread knowledge of English. The scenery is specific, too: I had always thought some Dutch landscape paintings had a simplistic-cartoonish quality, but now I know it really looks like that, with the huge flat-colored sky, short trees, crisp light.

The nightlife here is fun. Almost everyone at the Pig is American, but the hostel is two blocks from the Red Light, and there’s absolutely no shortage of bars, coffeeshops, clubs, etc. It’s mostly for tourists, of course, but less plastic in its commercialism than Vegas. Feels surreal to see prostitutes in the windows, but the old buildings, canals, and cobblestones soften the surprise somehow.

Tonight I said good-bye to grandma and took a local train to Tel-Aviv. I’m staying with Lesha and Natasha, some of our family’s closest friends - I remember hanging out in their Moscow kitchen with my parents when I could still walk freely under the table (ah! my golden years…) It’s fun to talk to people who knew you when you wore diapers: there’s no danger of embarassment, so I can let down my guard and be myself. We talked about Van Gogh and Cezanne, beads as a hardcore hobby, my family and plans, my travels, their travels, a nice town to visit near Barcelona, my parents and a vacation in the US, work and being self-employed, and the generation gap. Of course I must mention the layer cream cake and eclairs: they accompanied our conversation so well!

Yura, Lesha and Natasha’s son, just got out of the Israeli army, so he’s home - I talked to him a little as well, though it’s a little harder because Hebrew is his best language. It’s cool that he’s into skateboarding and soccer, so there’s a Juventus match running in the background. Yura’s sister Masha lives in Cologne with her husband and daughter; I plan to visit them in a week or so.

My hosts are graciously indulging my Internet addiction, but I should go to sleep because the alarm is only four hours away. Gotta rise for that morning Amsterdam flight; I hear it’s 45 F and freezing rain over there. No matter, we shall overcome!