Journal tags: vienna

Being in Croatia last week got me thinking about the country’s history.

I remember the break-up of Yugoslavia, but I was quite out of touch with the news for a while back in 1991. That’s because I was hitch-hiking and busking around Europe with my musical partner Polly from Cornwall. I had my mandolin, she had her fiddle.

We went from Ireland to England to France to Germany to Czechoslovakia (still a single country back then), to Austria to Italy, back to France, and back to England. A loop around Europe.

We set off on August 21st, 1991. The only reason I know the date is because I remember we had been to a gig in Cork the night before.

Sonic Youth were playing in Sir Henry’s (a great venue that no longer exists). The support band was a group from Seattle called Nirvana. I remember that some of my friends decided to skip the support band to stay in the pub next door until Sonic Youth came on because the pints were cheaper there.

By the time Polly and I got back from our travels, Nirvana were the biggest band on the planet. It all happened very quickly.

The same could be said for the situation in Yugoslavia.

I remember when we were stuck for a day at a petrol station in the alps trying to get from Austria to Italy. There was a bureau de change listing currency exchange rates. This was before the euro came in so there were lots of different currencies; pounds, francs, lira, deutsche marks. Then there was the listing for the Yugoslav dinar. It read:

• We buy: 00.00
• We sell: 00.00

That really struck me, seeing the situation summarised so clinically.

But what really got to me was an encounter in Vienna.

Polly and I did well in that city. On our first evening of busking, not only did we make some good money, but we also met a local folk singer. This young man very generously took us in and put us up in his flat.

At some point during our stay, we were on one of the city’s trams. That’s when we met another young couple who were on the road. Somehow there was always a connection between fellow travellers. I can’t remember who spoke to who first, but we bonded straight away.

It soon became clear that our situations were only superfically similar. This was a young couple deeply in love. One of them was Serbian. The other was Croatian. It wasn’t safe for either of them back where they used to call home.

I could return home at any point. I always knew that when I was sleeping rough, or struggling to make enough money to eat.

They couldn’t return. All they wanted was to be together somewhere safe. They started asking us about Ireland and England. “Do you think they’d give us asylum?” they asked with so much hope. It broke my heart to see their desperation, the pleading look in their eyes.

I felt so useless. I wished there was something I could’ve done for them.

I think about them a lot.

Earlier this year I was in Düsseldorf for a triple bill of events:

1. Indie Web Camp
2. Beyond Tellerrand
3. Accessibility Club

At Accessibility Club, I had the pleasure of seeing a great presentation from Manuel Matuzovic. Afterwards, a gaggle of us geeks went out for currywurst and beer. I got chatting with Manuel, who mentioned that he’s based in Vienna, where he organises a web meetup. I told him I’d love to come and speak at it sometime. He seemed very keen on the idea!

A few weeks later, I dropped him a line so he knew I was serious with my offer:

Hi Manuel,

Just wanted to drop a quick line to say how nice it was to hang out in Düsseldorf—albeit briefly.

I’d definitely be up for coming over to Vienna sometime for a meet up. Hope we can make that work sometime!

Cheers,

Jeremy

Manuel responded:

thank you for reaching out to me. Your timing couldn’t be better. :)

I was so excited that you showed interest in visiting Vienna that I thought about organising something that’s a little bit bigger than a meetup but smaller than a conference. 

I’m meeting today with my friend Max Böck to tell him about the idea and to ask him if he would want to help me organise a event.

Well, they did it. I just got back from the inaugural Web Clerks Community Conf in Vienna. It was a day full of excellent talks given to a very warm and appreciate audience.

The whole thing was livestreamed so you can catch up on the talks. I highly recommend watching Max’s talk on the indie web.

I had a really nice time hanging out with friends like Charlie, Rachel, Heydon, and my travelling companion, Remy. But it was equally great to meet new people, like the students who were volunteering and attending. I love having the chance to meet the next generation of people working on the web.

Back in December 1997, when Jessica and I were living in Freiburg, Dan came to visit. Together, we boarded a train east to Vienna. There we would ring in the new year to the sounds of the Salonorchester Alhambra, the band that Dan’s brother Andrew was playing in (and the band that would later be my first paying client when I made their website—I’ve still got the files lying around somewhere).

That was a fun New Year’s ball …although I remember my mortification when we went for gulash beforehand and I got a drop on the pristine tux that I had borrowed from Andrew.

My other memory of that trip was going to the Kunsthistorisches Museum to see the amazing Bruegel collection. It’s hard to imagine that ever being topped, but then this year, they put together a “once in a lifetime” collection, gathering even more Bruegel masterpieces together in Vienna.

Jessica got the crazy idea in her head that we could go there. In a day.

Looking at the flights, it turned out to be not such a crazy idea after all. Sure, it meant an early start, but it was doable. We booked our museum tickets, and then we booked plane tickets.

That’s how we ended up going to Vienna for the day this past Monday. It was maybe more time than I’d normally like to spend in airports in a 24 hour period, but it was fun. We landed, went into town for a wiener schnitzel, and then it was off to the museum for an afternoon of medieval masterpieces. Hunters in the Snow, the Tower of Babel, and a newly restored Triumph of Death sent from the Prado were just some of the highlights.

There’s a website to accompany the exhibition called Inside Bruegel. You can zoom on each painting to see the incredible detail. You can even compare the infrared and x-ray views. Dive in and explore the world of Pieter Bruegel the Elder.