Some things I have done during late September / October. Photo albums only. Enjoy!

Sicily sailing

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Hiking in Styria (AT)

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Hiking in Friuli (IT)

A week ago I entered into a new chapter: after the MBA year, newly employed with UCG. (Actually I am not really employed yet but that is another -less interesting even if somewhat bizarre- story.) So maybe this is a good a time to look back and of course look at the bottom line, if possible.

First of all, as in my good old days of regular blogging activity I looked for some images to illustrate my blog post with and I found two excellent things the first of which being this one below:

And wondering how to go on about reviewing my MBA experience I soon realized that it could be a good thing to enlist the help of an expert in back-looking, and who could be better suited for this than good old Frankie-Boy who has written the inofficial anthem of all back-lookers some quotes of which I am using to guide myself on this sentimental journey. However, I hope I am not facing the final curtain on a short term so I’ll have to start somewhere in the middle of the song.

“…I’ve lived a life that’s full,
I’ve traveled each and ev’ry highway…”
Yes, this was a life lived in full by my standards. Could have done some more partying and some less studying I guess, but then I remember Friday nights when no one wanted to go out because everyone was so busy working for the MBA (That’s true, I even blogged about this misery, one can still read it). I have also done a number of things for the first time in my life, which becomes increasingly harder to do as one gets older.
And yes, I did my fair share of travelling and exploring Italy during this year as all enthhusiastic followers of this blog may confirm.

“…Regrets I’ve had a few,
but then again too few to mention…”
Again true. I stand by my choices. Yes of course, with the knowledge of now one could do things better facing the same questions, but then was then and now is now so WTF.

“…I did what I had to do,
And saw it through without exemption…”
In terms of the MBA that is a good way of putting it. I really do hope my way of “seeing it through without exemption” was acceptable and beneficial for those working with me and that they forgive me the moments in which it may not have been so.
Seeing it through to me also means in the context of this past year truly letting go of something old to have the opportunity for something new to begin. That can be hard to do at first, but becomes a bit easier when doing it repeatedly. There is a wonderful story describing and explaining this phenomenen I was introduced to only very recently called “The Parable of the Trapeze”, you can read it here. Strongly recommended!!!

“…I’ve loved, I’ve laughed and cried,
I’ve had my fill, my share of losing…”
Yes. Emotionally all of this has accompanied me through this year. And this is where I have to bow my head and say THANK YOU to each and everyone who has been present throughout this year -physically or just remotely- for being such an inspiration and a part of my life!!

“…For what is a man, what has he got
If not himself then he has naught…”
Hmm, would certainly be interesting to follow that train of thought but that might be taking it a bit too far for this humble “Bologna experience” blog, as it says on the headline. Further discussions must remain reserved to long evenings with good friends and maybe with a lot of decent red wine . And they must remain unprinted. OBBIVIOUSLY!

So in the end the first class of the world famous and best Retail Banking MBA programs have graduated, to find themselves amidst a league of other extraordinary thinkers and scholars, academically decorated with the very same three letter code. To prove that point I am using the second result of my image search which I have mentioned before.

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August has been passing by slowly and nicely, I have to say. After a quite rainy start into the summer, the last weeks have brought quite beautiful weather also up here north of the alps. Reason enough to explore some more mountains – this time in my home region.

Himmelspforte (Heaven's gate)

Together with my friend Hans I hiked up to the peak of Schafberg via the route passing the Himmelspforte (Heaven’s gate). As we reached the top we realized somewhat surprised, that the hike that was signposted to take 4 hrs had only taken us 2.5 hrs. After an even faster way down we relaxed a little in the beuatiful lake (Mondsee) that you can also see on the picture. However, the result was that the following days I was walking like Robocop because it was not possible to move or even bend my legs without any substantial pain.

Below you find the link to the whole album, it also includes some impressions from Hans’ parents’ farm house and gardens in Baum… this is as typical upper austrian farmland as it gets.

Schafberg and Baum

And there is also a little video that gives an impression of the nice panoramic view from up there!

A week ago the very reduced MBA summer mountain crew got together in the quaint village of Klausen/Chiusa to climb nearby Mount Schlern/Sciliar. Sadly we lost one expedition member already to the public transportation systems of Italy or to a slight lack of preparation how to deal effectively with these systems…

Schlern / Sciliar in morning clouds

Anyway, on a beautiful Saturday morning after fixing some individual transportation system problems we started from the Seiser Alm plain at roughly 1.800 mts towards Mount Schlern with 2.584 mts. The first view was quite impressive and it really looked like a very far off and hard to reach destination.

But any we continuously climbed our way up, past the “Letzte Tankstelle”, through hordes of wild animals (and some hordes of tourists, to be honest). And after about 3 hrs uphill the goal was close!

So the joint Hungaro-Austrian expedition crew was able to have a nice sandwich up in the clouds to celebrate – and look down on the beautiful Dolomiti landscape all around.

But as always, watch the full story in pictures on Picasa… (Click below!)

Hiking on Schlern

And in case someone wants to follow our footsteps: Here are some Links to…
- our accomodation on a farm
- the beautiful village of Klausen/Chiusa
- the alpine area of Seiser Alm / Alpe di Siusi

And as a little reward for all who kept reading until here: the attack of the free running pig…!

So here’s the concert review now. I feel like I have already told so many people how much I loved the concert, but to honor the boss this post needs to be written. Because of the swimming world championships in the stadium next door the beginning of the concert had been postponed to 22.00 hrs, quite late when you expect a regular concert to last 3 hours, but anyway, Roman authorities seemed to think this would be a good idea. When I arrived at 20.00 the ground floor area was already filling up.

Stadio Olimpico before the concert

At 22.30 the concert then finally started. The video below captures these first minutes and the big enthusiastic welcome that the crowd was giving to the boss and the band.

Even though all the way through “Badlands” the audience was already really participating and singing along, the boss went on the first of his numerous running trips around the stage and asked the crowd shouting into the microphone “Is there anybody alive out there?” Oh yes, there is! What makes his shows so special for me is the almost extreme degree of participation by the audience. I mean, on what other concerts do you find thousands of people singing along not only the words of some of the best known songs, but almost all songs and even certain guitar or saxophone solo melodies?! So a big part of the magic is certainly the community of fans. But I will get back to that thought later.

The music was solid quality big band Rock, I am tempted to say “as always” with the E Street Band. The main impression one gets is just a wall of sound, with just few points of individual particular performance. To give an example what I mean: you have an organ/keyboard player (Charles Giordano, replacing the 2008 deceased Danny Federici) and a piano (“The professor” Roy Bittan”), you have up to 4 people playing some guitar: Bruce’s wife Patty, Nils Lofgren, Steve Van Zandt and the boss himself. So given that plus average stadium acoustics: how are you going to distinguish who’s playing what? The answer is: it does not matter, because that is not the point of a Springsteen concert. However I really enjoyed some of the guitar playing of Lofgren, especially the somewhat futuristic solo he played on the otherwise plain 80ies tune “The promised land” while spinning around his own axis like a dervish…

But coming back to understanding the magic of the show: during the 2,5 hours I was there waiting for the show to begin and contemplating both some of the past shows I had seen and the fact it was a Sunday, the thought occurred to me that in a way an evening with Bruce and the E Street Band has things in common with a religious service. And during the concert I found more arguments to support my theory:
(1) As already mentioned, it is a celebration of life or to honor life one could say. Speaking about “is there anybody alive out there”, which is also part of the lyrics of “Radio Nowhere” or also in the starting song Badlands the line “For the ones who had a notion an emotion deep inside, that it ain’t no sin to be glad you’re alive” or the energy coming from “No surrender”.
(2) The way he interacts with the people, also physically, walking on those stage parts that extend into the audience, touching and being touched, holding, shaking hands. It’s the blessing in the church of Rock’n'Roll.
(3) His special attention to the children that were there, taking a little girl and a little boy on the stage, making them sing into his microphone and lovingly appreciating everything they do, no matter how much out of tune…
(4) And special probably to this Rome show: having his mother and his also 80+ year old aunt dancing with him and the band onstage during one of the last songs – a uniting of generations in the one spirit of life, transmitted via the sound of Rock. It was very impressive to me.

There might be more things worth mentioning about this show and maybe I have already waited a bit too long before starting to write all of this down. But what I do remember vividly is the feeling of walking out that concert area at 1.30 a.m., after 3 hours of singing and dancing, before that 2 hours standing and waiting and still feeling energized in an incredible way. So it just remains to say: Thank You!

Earlier this year – when I thought I would spend it entirely in Italy – I came across the news that the BOSS himself would be coming on another tour to Europe. So checking possible consert dates and locations I quickly decided that Rome would be my best choice. Well, fate in the form of the MBA program then moved me to Munich in June and I considered getting tix for Munich or Vienna and selling the Rome ones… but then I thought: WTF, it’s just another good reason to go to Rome!!

What I did there I thought I’d just tell through pictures, so please find as a link below my photo-novel: Escape to Roma.

Roma in summer...

Business took me to Vienna on Friday and friends (and family of course) made me go to Linz again this weekend. And there was a special event… for the first time I made it to a concert of the legendary German punk band “Die Ärzte”! (Link to english Wikipedia, I am sure that all German readers of this blog know who these three guys are!) They started out back in 1982 (!) and are still able to play a 2,5 hrs rock show – my respect!

Even though there was some rain at the beginning, we had fun (see Birgit and Maria in the center of the picture) while others did not (see all other people around…)!

But as the concert began, the sky cleared up…

…and later we got rocked!

For everyone who wants to have a full audiovisual impression: This is one of their all time greatest songs, played at “Rock am Ring” !!

Some advertising today: Another blog has sprung to life, blossoming like a wild flower on the hills above the bosphorus…  I am happy to present “Floransali’s blog” (click for link).

If you like(d) following the adventures described on due torri, then I strongly suggest also bookmarking his page for an outsider’s inside view into other cultures.

So: Hoş geldiniz! .. in the blogging world.

1) If you order a beer you get 0.5 litres, no questions asked!!
2) For these 0.5 litres you pay substantially less than for the 0.4 you would get in Italy.
3) The 0.5 litres taste A LOT BETTER than anything you would get for more money in a 0.4 litre format in Italy, unless imported from north of the Alps (and don’t try to be funny about that South Tyrol stuff, sorry guys, but in the end…).
4) With these 0.5 litres of economic, delicious beer you can have equally delicious Schweinsbraten to eat!!
5) If all that is not enough: public transport runs on time, strikes are almost unheard of and not considered a national sport.

But then on the other side, there is….

Storm over Isar river, Munich (May 2009, taken from another blog)

…the F***ING WEATHER HERE, AAAARRRRRGHHHHH!!!!

Seriously, it’s raining and freezing cold. At the moment (June 22nd, 23.30) 10°C, with a preview of 12-13°C as top temperature tomorrow. Can somebody get me out of here, PLEASE!?

Last weekend I went home – to my parents’ place in Linz. The city is, as I mentioned in an earlier post, Europe’s cultural capital of this year (click for link). The most interesting art feature IMO in the city center at the time is “Höhenrausch”, an art park on the roofs of some houses (including a museum) in the very center of the town. That also includes a ferris wheel on top of the O.K.  (Link to my full picture gallery here!)

Ferris wheel on O.K. - Höhenrausch!

And after the culture and an aperitivo I relaxed in the Donaupark, while waiting for my friends to go out together…!

Sky over Donaupark...