Every once in a while we get the chance to do something out of the ordinary, to have an experience that can only be described as a convergence of coincidences. I was lucky to have that chance the over the last fortnight, and I am very glad I took it. It is chance; how else can you explain why an American in Oxford could spend week skiing in the Alps with four married Polish couples (only one of which he knew) and then attend a Viennese Ball all the while conducting vital aspects of his doctoral research? You ready for the story?

It actually begins before I even left Oxford. On the day I was to leave, I had no idea where I was actually going. I had my tickets (bus train, plane) and my various pieces of instructions (meet Maciek at Jenbach station at 20.09), but that was all. Where Jenbach was, or where I was going after that, I hadn’t a clue. But I couldn’t be bothered with that quite yet, as the day I left was an adventure itself! It was a Saturday, and I had an Ultimate Frisbee game. A little hesitant about re-injuring my ankle (that conscience thing acting up again), I still had a fun game. That is, until someone on the other team decided they would aid my conscience by stepping on my ankle. ‘Curses,’ I thought. But while I’m old enough to care, I’m still young enough to mend quickly, and I was up on my feet again in a few hours. It was a good thing too, because I had to prepare a dinner for 5 people that night. After, that is, a very classy party put on by Roy Giles in Headington. And if you think the dinner was the end of the night, you’d be quite mistaken, because, after seeing my guests off, my Swedish friend Ebba and I headed up to my room to pack (of course I hadn’t packed yet!). That being done, the night was about to begin. I had to catch the 1.30 bus to the airport, so what better way to while away a few hours than by going to a Bop? Enter skin-tight black short-sleeve top, red tie, and black fedora, and you have one Valentine’s day Bop outfit. Two hours of dancing and general revelry at Catz were folowed by three hours on the bus, just in time to catch a 6am flight to Salzburg.

Would you believe that after all that, I managed to make the morning church service in the Dom in Salzburg? I didn’t need to catch the train until that evening, so I locked my bags away at the station (remember here, that I had no idea where the station was upon arriving at the airport) and decided to see if I could find my way around this mountain city. No map, no directions, no scroll of must-see sights. I did indeed find the old city after wandering around some residential districts for a while (always look by the river is my advice). After the service (which I literally wandered into), I took to the streets once more to explore what Salzburg had to offer. I was in luck because it’s a very three-dimensional city. From anywhere in the city I could see the castle on the mountain-side, and I knew that from the castle (by sheer deductive reasoning) I could see the whole city. After a topfenkolatsche (cream cheese danish) I found myself wandering up the mountainside on an old path. The castle seemed closed, but the view was excellent, so I found a little cafe amongst the trees and sat down with a melange for my first moments of reflection. Here I was in the city of Mozart’s birth on the composer’s 250th birthday year. The city was crazy for him, with Mozart everywhere you looked. I soon found, though, that all of Austria has joined in a year of revelry for the magnificent man.

I love travelling alone because it allows me to do whatever I like. Turn right, go straight, see this church, sit for a while on a bench, etc. I planned my trip this way, you know. That is, I planned not to have a plan. Life is so much more interesting and ‘new’ that way. ‘Oh, hey! Look at that cathedral! Wow! there’s a mass going on with the University Choir!’

Soon the sunny snowy day turned to a cheerful dusk, and as a wayward traveller is wont to do, I found myself wandering towards a local tavern, which happened to be run by a band of merry monks. I partook my meal from a clay mug and an oak table, and in the company of a pair of Russians. All too soon, though, it was time to gather my things and make for the train, which I caught with less than a minute to spare.

A few hours later, I found myself, now nearing 48 hours without sleep, entering the company of six friends of who I had yet to make an acquaintance. In good Austrian fashion, I greeted them all - sitting around the table of the Gasthof (like a chalet) - with a hearty ‘Gr?ºss Gott!’ I quickly found my folly, as they laughed and said to each other what a funny American I was. . . in Polish. These were all friends (or wife’s thereof) of Maciek from his boy scouting days. ‘Right,’ I thought, and proceeded on a crash course in Polish, which all took great pleasure in. The result, as you can imagine, was that I began speaking Polish to all of the attendants on the ski slopes, who only knew German!

Austria in winter seems only matched in beauty by Austria in summer. The Alps, I must say, are quite exceptional, and I wouldn’t mind if my journeys took me there yet again. I managed to get my skis back under me with some concerted effort after ten years since my last foray onto the slopes, which I hasten to add were of a much inferior quality. It took half a day of non-stop skiing and lifts to cross from one side of the slopes in our region to the other. The slopes were busy, but not crowded, as this was the second of two weeks of the skiing holiday that the Austrians enjoyed.

In the evenings we usually sat around and watched the Olympics and played board games, but one night we ventured out to find a Tyrollean evening of song and dance. What we found were two accordions (movie), a lovely Austrian lady who served as barmaid, waitress, and singer, and four guys (movie) who seemed to enjoy their lederhosen a little too much (movie).
After four days of these pleasant pasttimes, I found my mind’s gears synchronising once more for work, and so took the last day to catch up on the week’s emails and prepare for the week ahead. Breaks are so necessary in doctoral research, and yet so seldom taken becasuse it is nearly impossible to separate our work from our other thoughts. Had we the internet at the gasthof, or I room in my bag for a few books, you could have ensured that work would have been done. Instead, I got by with only reading two journal articles before my ‘day off’.

We left our abode bound for an unexpected layover in Innsbruck, because Maciek had some basketball games for which he had to referee. By we, I mean Karo & Maciek and only one of the other couples, Jeanes and Magda, as the others made their way back north. And so, as I do when I find myself in such circumstances, I made good of the afternoon and discoverd a different side of the city that I had instantly liked when I first visited her last summer.

This time, since we now had a car at our disposal, we took the opportunity to visit the nearby Schloss Ambras, a castle of magnificent Renaissance construction. There are some places that evoke Romanticism the moment you see them, and while it might be more the fault of Sir Walter Scott, who I happen to be reading at the moment, I couldn’t help but dream up gallant knights and beautiful maidens to fill these corridors. It was a dirty and in many ways vile age, when swords clashed and blood was shed easily, but it was also an age when much was new; not because it it hadn’t been discovered but because there was no shared knowledge of it. And newness, for me, conjures up romance, perhaps because they share a sense of spontaneity.

After these moments of reflection and imagination, it was time to head to Vienna. And what wonders awaited me there! I worked from IIASA, the institute I was with last summer. I even got a chance finally to make a photo of the office I was in! I see a number of areas where I might be collaborating with them more in the coming months and years, particularly in regard to my new job as research assistant and event coordinartor for the Tomorrow’s Planet section of the Martin Institute. This was a working trip now, and I had a number of meetings in Vienna over the next few days relating to my research.

But all work an no play makes Sam a sad boy, so what better way to enjoy the evening than go to a Viennese Ball? The picture to your left [if you’re reading this in an email instead of on my website you’re seriously missing out!] is the Hofburg, the winter/city palace of the Hapsburgs. That, my friends, was where the ball was. I am really speechless when it comes to this. For one, the Viennese can DANCE! Foxtrot, tango, and of course the waltz, are the bread and butter of these people. The main hall had a 20 piece orchestra that began the evening with the aid of the Vienna Opera and the Vienna Ballet performing some Strauss, then the procession of the debutantes (all in white) and their dance. See the link above for more pictures of the event. There were maybe eight different bands in three times as many rooms, and time flew far too quickly, as before I knew it the night was over. If Austria hadn’t already won my heart, this would have done it in one fell swoop.

And that is more or less my trip. I flew out of Bratislava, Slovokia, but I went straight to the airport, so didn’t get a chance to see the city. I plan on making a number of trips back to Vienna this year for my research, though. There’s still time