After Vienna

During the final 2 weeks in Vienna another thing became clear...

The blog in this form had come to it's natural end also.  Words and still images alone can only go so far.

Armed with their new weapons, it became clear there was something else to be expressed in ways that words felt too clumsy to carry out.  So with the beginning of the Music, so it is the end of the blog in this form.

If Berlin is The Heart of Europe, then Budapest may be the Belly, where the fire of creativity burns, and so from here on we say goodbye to these words and images...

Now is the time for... The Sketches of Europa

The Music of Vienna

Yet again in this apartment they were kept inside for most of the 2 weeks, allowing the chaos that had been in the air to die down and sort itself out.

Gradually everything began to fall into place.  The laptop finally all set up and running in English, some instruments to travel with arrived by post, and anything else that was required to allow a more efficient way of functioning in this new creative era began to appear.  Vienna had delivered the Music as Dave & Kate felt it would when they arrived but in a totally different way to how they might have imagined it.

There was no need to wander the streets soaking up Vienna's musical heritage as the Music was delivered to them through modern means without them needing to move much from the apartments they stayed in.

They definitely recognised an old phase had died out and a new phase was being born and that was enough.  Vienna had given birth to the Music and now it was about to hand them over to Budapest armed with their weapons of mass destruction - ready to take apart the old and let something new shine in it's place.

Wiener Straße, Prager Straße & Budapester Straße

As they sat on the bus on their way to Prague they began to realise yet again that it was all there, presented for them, even when they felt totally lost.

That second day when they found themselves walking along Wiener Straße to the Hauptbahnhof they did wonder if this was a sign that Vienna was next.  What didn't quite fit was they had arrived in Dresden at the Neustadt station as this was nearer their hotel.  It made sense to leave from this station to wherever they went next.  But they only saw themselves leaving by train...

They hadn't anticipated going anywhere by bus.  Now they actually had left from the very train station Wiener Straße ran along.  In fact, the square directly in front of the station is called Wiener Platz.

Not only that but the main shopping street perpendicular to the station and leading up to it, which they walked along everyday, is called Prager Straße.

Close by is Budapester Straße.  Was Budapest on the horizon?  They couldn't see anywhere else in the frame after Vienna.  Before they were gone Dave left a message for the maid service at the hotel...

Lean On Me

Vienna was now growing undeniably strong as the next signpost...

While at the internet point they also checked out two other places, more out of curiosity than anything else.  They couldn't remember if Czech Rep. and Hungary were part of the Euro currency now.  They discovered both were not.  They had a curious feeling about Budapest, that it might be on the cards sometime.  With the hassle of changing currency they weren't so sure anymore.

So Vienna it was... at the same time facing the prospect of nowhere to stay again come Sunday if no more money showed up.

Each day in Dresden they walked into the Alstadt and towards the internet terminals at the station.  They'd do what they had to do and then sit in Dreißig's for a bit before either returning to the internet or returning to the hotel.  On the way back they picked up a Subway and some stuff from the supermarket - usually some crisps or chocolate, juice, bread and cheese for breakfast and sometimes they'd grab a bottle or two of the local beer.

For the rest of the night they'd sit in the hotel watching the tv or listening to the radio where signs would continue to present themselves.  One night Kate was joking about how Dave should go down to the piano bar in the hotel and play 'Lean On Me' and then she changed the channel on the tv and couple of minutes later there was a trio of women singing 'Lean On Me' as accompaniment to a guy playing a grand piano.

The same night Kate was flicking channels and landed upon a show with two presenters, one of them grabbing a ukulele.  Dave announced he'd just been thinking about ukuleles.