#23 Boston - My Athletic Magnetism - November 11, 2006

That must have been what led the young and somewhat haughty young Spaniard who sat next to me on the flight from Zurich to Prague to uncomfortably lean over to my side, to the point where I had to push back a little to squeeze him back into his own seat. Little did I know that I possessed such superpowers over this impressionable contemporary – good thing his body odor was in the tolerable zone and there were no other attempts at staying in touch after the plane touched down. After a sleepless overnight flight and just having spent four not-so-exciting hours at Zurich airport with my colleague Jerry and his charming wife Sarah, I was probably too weak to put up much of a fight against his encroachment into my space, and so resigned myself to enjoying our brief hour-and-a-half relationship for all it was worth.

We finally arrived in Prague, I got rid of the Spaniard, and hoofed it to the reasonably swanky Intercontinental Hotel (http://www.a-prag.com/picture-detail?select=54), which was to be my home away from home for the next few days. Prague, my friends is an unbelievably beautiful city – one of the Grande Dames of European municipal royalty it dazzles its visitors with stunning medieval architecture, church after church line its narrow streets and tower its impressive town squares (http://images.google.de/images?hl=de&q=Prag). I lucked out big-time as the IC was in the historic part of town, just down the street the beautiful Charles Bridge (http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/pcat/3199/display/159226) invited for a morning jog and along the way presented a spectacular view of the castle and the Moldau River. From there this jogger headed into the narrow streets of old Prague, escaping the temptations of street vendors and the many shops filled to the brim with babushkas, Czech crystal and Russian fake fur hats (of which I had to buy one anyway).

Prague Impressions

Hotel – boy did I luck out. The Intercontinental is as good as it gets (for Prague that is) – the interior design was Frank Lloyd Wright-ish in nature, the rooms and the bathrooms impeccable (including the yellow rubber ducky in the bathtub) and the obligatory bidet, an appliance that has befuddled generations of travelers (including yours truly). I honestly think that there should be either an introduction to this confusing convenience (Bidet 101) or they should be banished from civilization altogether. So far they are just a curiosity in my mind. Breakfast was fabulous and included in the room rate (which is a tad on the expensive side for the budget-conscious, but not quite in the New York-ish price range). My tip if you go to Prague – stick with the American chains, with the exception to the rule being the Holiday Inn right next to the conference center, where one of my colleagues got a dirty spoon thrown at her, and that was just one of her collection of sad stories.

Food – hmmmhhh – dumplings, dumplings, and dumplings, goulash, goulash and goulash. Excellent Beer! Beer Everywhere! If you like home-style cookin‘ you are going to love it here. Heaps of meat, usually in a heavy sauce, and dumplings of every style known to mankind. Czech yeast cakes, good ice cream (The Cremeria Milano for one), and a whole lotta great ambience in charming backstreet restaurants. Food is dirt cheap in Prague, you can feed three people for dinner with soup, entrees and beer included for about 30 dollars. Did I say the beer was excellent? The service at the restaurants mostly left something to be desired - slow and not particularly attentive - and on Tuesday night, when a crazy group of us consisting of staff from MGH, the Dana Farber and at least three pharmaceutical companies (including one poor guy we picked up in the subway and who had no idea what hit him), we stretched the patience of the wait staff to the max. In particular when a chemist who was part of our group wanted to investigate the flammability of the Czech brandy Slivovitz (I did not try it but was told its taste had a close resemblance to lighter fluid) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slivovitz .


Culture – you cannot walk three steps without running into a theater, may it be Opera, Drama, Black Light Theaters (http://www.wow-show.com/en/), marionettes, jazz clubs – you name it!! On Wednesday night, my colleague Eunice and I attended the Prague State Opera for a performance of *Tosca* - what an experience!! The State Opera (http://www.state-opera.com/) is a stunning building, balcony after balcony with gold-lined neo-Rococo embellishments, a ceiling fresco – it just takes your breath away!! Tosca was performed to perfection, and I can honestly say that this was the first time ever that I cried at the end of an opera performance –it was so beautiful! Tosca is your quintessential Italian opera, where it is drama, drama, drama the whole way and in the end everyone dies – people get stabbed, get shot and jump off balcony. Sheessh! One thing I noticed when roaming the streets of Prague that there dozens of performances of Mozart’s opera *Don Giovanni* - I have since learned that this is due to the fact that Mozart finished the opera in Prague, and only the night before the premiere (apparently he was procrastinating) and only because his girlfriend or mistress locked him up in his room.

Getting around – quite easy, the subway is a good way to go; interestingly enough there are Green and Red Lines just like in Boston. It is cheap, and all the important sites, including the opera, can be reached with it. One has to pay attention to pickpockets in Prague we were told, so avoiding big crowds helps. Taxis are not too expensive either, however we were told only to take them either to and from the airport and from the hotel. One agrees with the cab driver beforehand on the fare, which avoids nasty surprises. Never ever to take a cab in the touristy areas in the center of town.

The Czech – a mixed bag. As mentioned, customer service does not seem to be a concept that has caught on with unbridled enthusiasm, and there is a collection of anecdotes – my favorite being the *cookie incident*, where I was refused a cookie, by the conference caterers, because the 15-minute coffee break had just ended, and the *were closed*. Under no circumstances was I to receive a cookie, I could have been on death’s door, wouldn’t have made a difference. There were notable exceptions, in particular the hotel staff at the IC, and my overall impression of Prague was a delightful one. (Now if they would just switch to the Euro, that darn conversion of the Czech korunas was driving us all mad!! Mad, I say!)

I am currently hailing from Neuenburg, my home town in Southern Germany, where all kinds of hoopla is happening – I already attended a party of the local baseball club, and the official opening of Fastnacht (Mardi Gras) – the official kick off is 11/11 at 11:11 AM every year and lasts until February. Tonight there is a little belated birthday party for me, and who knows what else is planned for next week.

I have been busy snapping photos with my new digital camera, and once I am back in the US, I will put them up on a website – I know already that there will be too many to send. I will return to Boston on the 18th to a very cold home, as my heating system decided to die on me the day before I left, and I foresee a tough time getting the HVAC guy to come to my house the week of Thanksgiving.

You of course received my photos from last week’s hike in the Blue Hills outside of Boston to celebrate my friend Rick’s birthday which was topped off with (my first ever) Brazilian meal in Cambridge.

I gotta go now, a quick walk with my friend Gitta, her daughter Lucia and Nemo, the dog awaits.

Bis bald.

Pet:)

#22 Boston - Gusty - November 3, 2006

Try 70 mph (112.65 kmh) winds on top of a mountain and snow flakes!! How is that for a weather?? Gusty, is all I can say. I loved it - It was fabulous! Here we were this past Sunday on top of Mount Kearsarge in Southern New Hampshire, the wind was howling, yowling, wailing, whimpering, and for a minute there I thought I was hallucinating because I kept hearing helicopters overhead. Snow flakes started dancing around my head and this was yet another proof of how quickly the weather can change in New England. When we had left Boston it was a cool, but sunny Fall/early Winter day - not so up there! Climbing up the fire tower proofed a bit challenging, the wind had serious intentions of slapping us around a bit, but with a little coaxing I made it up there and lived to tell about it.

The hike up Mount Kearsarge is short and steep - you climb 1000 feet in about one mile - but it felt so good to move the legs after the marathon-induced hiking abstinence, even though some of our fellow outdoor enthusiasts were apparently not challenged enough, and added rocks to their backpacks..... Kearsarge is 2937 feet high and apparently the "oldest" mountain in the state (I am not quite sure how that was determined - maybe the next mountain that showed up wrote it down somewhere....). On a clear day (which Sunday certainly wasn't) you can enjoy quite spectacular views - Mt Sunapee, Mt Cardigan, Mt Monadnock and Mt Ascutney, and on an even clearer day - the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the Green Mountains of Vermont, Boston and event the Atlantic Ocean. The summit is bare (hence the view) since a forest fire did some serious damage in 1796.

Kearsarge is a so-called monadnock [I just learned that!] which Wikipedia says means "an isolated hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain". Its Native American name, Carasarga, means notch-pointed mountain of pines, which in our experience seems a fitting description.

The hike in New Hampshire on Sunday was followed by the always scrumptious homemade ice cream at Christina's at Inman Square in Cambridge (a MUST-GOTTA-DO) and a fabulous dinner at the East Coast Grill and Raw Bar (http://eastcoastgrill.net/) - it all added up to a very lovely day to celebrate my birthday.

Saturday was quite the opposite - don't get me wrong, my birthday was still celebrated in style, however the weather gods were not quite with us there. The weather sucked, man! As I peeled myself out of bed Saturday morning and decided to go and attend the Halloween Hustle road race after all, it did not seem that bad, but after about 11 AM the rain was pretty much relentless and showed no intention of letting up for the remainder of the day . Of course you know what happened at the road race - despite my promises not to run, I did it anyway - just as my friend Joo said "there is no hope for a junkie". The weather deterred quite a few of the runners from coming in Halloween costumes, but a big round of applause should go to my running buddy Anne-Marie who came and ran dressed up as Candy Corn (even though my uneducated European transplant self asked her if she was a piece of toast..... yep, embarrassing! Good one Petra!).

After braving the deluge and getting warmed up, it was open house for the rest of the afternoon, friends stopped by with tons of cake and cookies (some of which found their way to my hips, I am sure), and a nice cup of tea. Kudos go to Ginna's son Sean, who dazzled the audience with somersaults on my bed! Well done! Dinner with my friends Linda and Roger was held at the East Side Bar and Grille, which is just a few doors from my house, and with its generous and yummy portions certainly deserves a bigger dinner audience.

The week has gone by in a jiffy, it is unbelievable - just to give you an idea:

Monday night, 5 PM Yoga followed by a train ride out to Somerville to attend the production of "Tomes of Terror" (this is Halloween season, after all) - a staged radio "thrillogy". My friend Renee, who was one of the producers, had lured me to this performance of the "Post Meridian Radio Players" and it was worth every minute of it. Tomes of terror featured three stories, one giddy halloweenish and two scary ones: Fibber McGee and Molly - Giddy's Halloween Party - an American classic from the Golden Days of Radio (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibber_McGee_and_Molly). The original Fibber McGee show ran for 25 years and operated on a winning formula - Fibber always got in trouble, most often with his neighbor Throckmorton Gildersleeve (Gildy) and all hell broke loose for a while until matters calmed down. Story #2 was an Edith Wharton Adaptation of "The Maids' Bell" which was delightfully creepy and not to forget "The Monkey's Paw", third in the thrillogy - be careful what you wish for, is all I can say!!! What a most maaahvelous evening!

Tuesday, I headed out to Watertown to Patrick and Ellen's - yes, I lied again! I wimped out of waiting with candy for OPCs (other people's children) as I had promised - which in hindsight turned out to be not a bad decision as my neighbors reported there was only one adolescent that came by pretty late in the evening, and his costume was doubtful. Instead we all hung around on the Cooley's very comfy living room furniture and enjoyed the 1968 version of "The Night of the Living Dead". You gotta love a bad horror movie that takes place in rural Pennsylvania!

Wednesday night running group with no major injuries, followed by 3 hours of Battlestar Galactica.....

Thursday, after attending a very moving memorial service for the wife of a colleague who this week lost her struggle with cancer http://www.teamjean.org/, I hopped in the car and drove that little yellow bird of mine up to Salem, where he is vacationing for two weeks with the power team of Cooper and Cooper.

May I go now and be tired?

The weekend is upon me and you, and this Sunday I will hop on a plane and first attend a week-long conference in Prague and then visit the family in Germany for a hopefully very low-key reunion. Be well my friends, and feel free to send embarrassing photos of you in your Halloween costumes. I promise, I won't post it on my blog (but then again, do you think you can trust me?)

pet:)

A litte PS: Wind speeds at Mount Washington of course that day showed gusts of up to 158 mph (= 254.27 kmh).