Padova ...

The last chapter in my formal European education ...
Benvenuto a Padova !

Settling down to classes at Universita Padova - the third oldest in the world (1222) and the host to some of the most important discoveries/work of Copernicus, Galileo, Dante, Veselius, Donatello (unfortunately, not the ninja turtle) ... and hopefully, me

A few days of orientation, including a reception at city hall in the Prato Della Valle (largest square in Europe, second only to Red Square in Moscow) ...

English is a luxury, and I've been told that my Italian is like a Spanish girl's English ... although nobody seems to know what that means either ...

And of course, getting used to the Italian lifestyle ... nothing working quite right the first few times (cell phone, PAINFULLY slow internet, Italian beauracracy) ... 3.5 Euro three-course meals (with unlimited vino rosso in the soda dispensers) at the University mense/canteens ... and the fact that it is perpetually 75 degrees and sunny.

Oh, how we suffer for our art ...

Loose Ends All Tied Up ...

My final few days in the Netherlands have been rather intense ... finishing exams, struggling to complete my thesis, working on a few manuscripts ... we will see whether this addiction follows me to Italy, or if pasta will be enough to occupy my attention ...



Competing with this alleged productivity ... an indulgence in the sights and smells of a welcomed Dutch Spring ... A visit to Keukenhof Gardens, the largest flower garden in Europe open only two months a year, with more colors than an enormous Crayola box !


I've posted more pictures of this and my journeys to Budapest and Vienna on my secondary Flickr site (I maxed out the free limits of the first one) ... http://www.flickr.com/photos/7761422@N08/ ...



Tonight I got to witness a lopsided 2-1 slogging of Eredivisie powerhouse PSV Eindhoven by the home side of NEC - Nijmegen ... a beautiful fairwell to my days as a temporary Nederlander (an eendagvliegen, of sorts)

Wien ...

On to Vienna, for more culture, cafes and caffeine ...

Spent the majority of my time searching out the elegant cafes that were the storied favorites of Klimt, Hitler, Beethoven, Freud, Trotsky, and my grandparents ...

After an afternoon waiting in line, standing room tickets for Beethoven's Fidelio at the Staatsoper ... better than the otherwise-120 + euro price of admission ... the simple pleasures of feeling cheap and out of place ...

A tram trip out to the Zentralfriedhof to see the grave of Falco (the man with the genius to ask WHAT IF Mozart had been a member of an 80's biker gang) as well as the graves of Brahms, Beethoven, the Strauss clan and 2.5 million other non-musicians ...

And no Vienna trip / reinactment would have been complete without a late night screening of an original print of the Carol Reed/Graham Greene/Orson Wells classic The Third Man in a small theatre off the Ringstrasse ... definitely a highlight, and certainly worth the trademark Anton Karas tune stuck in my head all the way to Bratislava !