May is without question the nicest month to be in Houston. The it is already pleasantly warm but not yet hot and humid, and with the hurricane season more than a month away, blue sky days rule. This is why May is the month chosen for various festivals and outdoor events.
(Click on the picture to see it full size, use a back button to return to this spot.) Every year, for two weekends, part of downtown is cordoned off for an international festival. Streets are filled with booths of vendors selling various souvenirs and knick knacks, ethnic food (seemingly dominated by gigantic turkey drumsticks – probably coming from genetically modified, or otherwise altered birds). There are various bands, most of which just make, what I consider, noise, and in general everybody has a good time. Every year a country is chosen as the main theme, this year it was China. There were some interesting moments, but it costs $10 dollars to get in, have to pay for parking and food and drink prices are exorbitant.

An even which is free and much more enjoyable and also takes place in May is the “Art car parade”. This is rather difficult to explain and probably has to be seen to be fully understood. But basically, a segment of Houston population dedicates considerable amount of imagination, money and often very good quality work to modify their cars. Now, these are not cars you would probably drive to work: one is completely covered by packages of ketchup, mustard and other sauces, there is car in the shape of a giant cockroach, space shuttle, two beetles glued together at the roof like automobile Siamese twins, car with two front ends, the list goes on and on. And these are not some temporary “floats” put together just for the parade, I am talking about serious permanent modifications, usually involving a lot of cutting and welding.

The bottom line is: if you have to come to Houston, come in May!

Middle of May was also when we drove to San Antonio for Monica’s graduation. I did not count, but sitting in the audience and listening to the surnames of the graduates being announced, I would guess that fewer than 10% were not Spanish. The ceremony ended with the newly minted graduates walking out to the tune of an excellent mariachi band. If you want to see what Texas is going to look like in a few decades – check out San Antonio. Returning back to its roots.

Given all this, it was with some regret that we took of for a trip to Europe. After all, it would have made more sense to try to escape the heat which will come in August, but by then Monica may be working and this was our last chance for a long family vacation. We flew to London and spent the night at Alice’s apartment. To be more accurate, a small part of the night, because we had to leave for the airport before 3 o’clock in the morning. We flew on Easy jet to Rome, where I had reserved a room for a couple of nights and then we took the train to Florence and started to “wing it”, that is we looked for a hotel once we got there. That was a little bit more fun and gave our more flexibility in terms of where to go next. The next stop was Pisa where we stayed a few days and I and Kumiko made a side trip to Carrarra to try to visit the marble quarries. Unfortunately it was Sunday and it would have been difficult to reach them by public transport. At least we saw them from the distance, and discovered that Carrarra is a lovely little town and a home to very active Anarchist movement. Alice and Monica headed to the beach.

After that I wanted to go somewhere where I have not been before and so we chose Ferrara. We visited the castle of the d’Este family, which essentially adopted the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand, who was later shot in Sarajevo. We also had the best meal of the trip (not that the other ones would have been bad, but this one was superb). The final stop on the trip was Venice. This time we also managed to visit the island of Murano (which reminded me, in terms of manageable numbers of tourists) of the simpler days in 1972 when I visited Venice for the first time. Also went over to the island of Lido – good place to take a breather. I hate to imagine what Venice looks like in the middle of the summer when the real crowds show up.

From Venice, the girls flew back to London and I went back to the train station. I saw the very posh Orient Express train, with a trajectory: Vienna, Prague, Frankfurt, London. That would be a nice trip too, but I suspect it costs several thousand dollars. Instead, I boarded a train going in the other direction, following the rest of the Orient Express route to Istanbul, even though I was going to get off in Belgrade. Not a very popular route. There were only two passengers in the entire wagon: myself and a Marxist boxer from Alabama (welter weight). We had enough to talk about until we reached the Slovenian-Croatia border. Then we had a chance to catch about 5 hours of sleep, the time it takes to cross Croatia, before being woken up again by border patrol at the Croatia-Serbia crossing.

If you are looking for a European capital without tourists, I can recommend Belgrade. located on high ground at the confluence of the Sava and Danube, it has all the prerequisites to be a nice city. But it does not quite make it, or perhaps not yet. It is difficult to find many building older than late 18th century. Often buildings of different periods and styles are thrown together.








Both are the result of military conflict and ensuing bombing, the latest courtesy of NATO, can still be seen. You can also seen refugees from Kosovo, but these are Serb and Gypsies and so you will not see them on CNN. The was has obviously taken its toll economically (the 70 odd nights of bombing must have destroyed lot of infrastructure). And then there is the attitude, reminiscent of our visit to Prague in 1990 – you will not find anybody who will smile at you when you are buying something. They probably have little to smile about. On the other hand, the main shopping street is very nicely fixed, filled with people and the largest number of street cafes I have seen anywhere. The Serbs know how to party – unfortunately, because I fall asleep with the stroke of 10, I have no detailed reports.

From Belgrade I took a train directly north to another border outpost of the Roman Empire – Budapest. Little bit like Prague, the architectural mix is little different, more Art Nouveau and fewer medieval buildings. The Art Nouveau section is on a much larger scale then in Prague, bigger buildings, wider boulevards – after all it was the other capital while Prague was still a provincial town. But, severe disappointment with Hungarian food – probably just unlucky, but did not have a memorable meal – disappointing. Visited the communist statue park, rather small, but perhaps they were very selective. All of the statues are absolutely appalling. Also visited the “House of Terror” a museum in the old headquarters of the Hungarian fascist police and later communist police. Quite well done but scary. Took a boat trip upstream to the so called Danube bend to visit the old castle of Visegrad and another short train trip to the palace at Godolo, favored residence of the Empress Sissy. And finally, after 5 days and help from the hotel lobby staff I learned how to read (pronounce – not understand!) Hungarian. Quite simple really. Grammar and vocabulary are probably a different kettle of fish. Even though there are words that are the same as in Czech: pohar (glass), spenat (spinach), mak (poppy).

I then followed the route of the Roman legions to another old outpost: Bratislava. What a cute little town – the old historical part that is. Very nicely restored, quite small so that you can walk through all of it in an hour or two. I was also able to visit the Devin castle, which because it lies right on the Austrian border, was off limits while communists ran the show. Could not even get within 5 km of it. Then I took a 40 minute train ride north to the Little Carpathians to the wine growing region. Everything is so small. I started walking and in less then an hour I was in the hills in the middle of vineyards. On the way back I stopped at a local vine cellar to sample the local product. Very good, but apparently it is pretty tough going with all the competition from the EU and South America.

From Bratislava on Ryan Air back to London and next day to Houston. June is going to be a month of rest – I hope.