Morning in a contemporary art gallery with Krist Dimo’s ‘Vuoto’ — paintings of fragmented figures and shared human experience. Evening at an Albanian wedding show, dancing in a circle shouting ‘opa.’ In between: a $6 pita, a produce vendor who now knows my face, and the realization that Tirana is starting to feel like home.
Shkoder Day 1: A walk through the Marubi photography museum, breakfast at Nam Bistro with orange juice that tastes of Valencia, and an unforgettable evening feast — 26 dishes, 4 kilos of rose petals, and a host who turns out to be a software-developer-philosopher rolling grape leaves by hand.
From the Baroque secrets of Maria Rotunda to the Gothic thunder of St. Stephan’s, the elegance of the Opernviertel, and Mozart performed in the very hall where he once played.
Cadence — The Sound of Music Today was a singular event. I rested my body for the day to prepare for the music hall Ehrbar Salon. It was a one hour concert where the masters have played before in years past. I took two subway trains to get here. I stopped off at a Persian…
From the scent of the Danube and the zany colors of Hundertwasser to a quiet Gothic church and a German-dubbed Odyssey — Vienna’s first day was a sensory feast.
From a ruby-leafed tree in a forgotten botanical garden to a bowl of goulash that bridged years and borders, and a harp on cobblestones that made up for a closed symphony hall.
First day in Bratislava: the immensity of the castle, the lost skills of Hungarian artisans, a voice like an angel at St. Stephen’s, and a filet mignon that transported us back to Uruguay.
Riga Central Market’s zeppelin-hangar produce halls, a pipe organ concert that shook 800-year-old stone, roast chicken in a candlelit medieval dungeon, and the opulent House of the Black Heads — Day 3 in Riga was a full-spectrum sensory assault.