I just got back from a fabulous vacation in Budapest and Vienna and it was one of the most luxurious trips I’ve ever taken. Our first stop was Budapest, where we stayed at the Four Seasons, a wickedly luxurious hotel with splendid views of the Danube and a thousand architectural delights inside. I loved this city! We visited museums, walked the Jewish quarter, toured an astonishingly ornate synagogue, and grieved at their Holocaust memorials. We dined in a castle where opera singers and fire-artists performed “Phantom of the Opera,” and even saw a troupe of Gypsy folkloric dancers twirl and whirl in colorful costumes while we feasted at a private banquet.
The highlight for me, though, was meeting up with a group of BDSMers for a simple dinner at a restaurant popular with locals. Some of them even agreed to let me share their faces publicly. Aren’t they a beautiful group?
I owe special thanks to the fellow whose ear I’m pinching. Daniel is the official munch-organizer for Hungarian kinksters. He surprised me last year by informing me that I had fans in Hungary! Who knew? It was beyond cool to meet these wonderful people and get to speak a little with each one, and have long talks with a few. Daniel told me about the difficulty of getting people to come out to events because while Budapest is extremely modern, people in the countryside are still very paranoid about coming out. I also learned a bit about BDSM in Prague from a Czech woman, Lucie (the laughing blonde), a scholar who was doing some research on the Budapest community for her doctorate. On weekends, she went back to Prague to play in her punk band!
After Budapest, my partner Jen and I boarded a train to Vienna. Not just any train. This was the Austrian Imperial train, modeled on the locomotive used by the royalty of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, Franz Joseph I and his wife Elisabeth. Each of its cars was plush, ornate, and other than modern lights, plumbing, and air conditioning, the train was outfitted in preposterously lavish 19th century style, replete with heavy drapes, thick rugs and ornate murals. We were greeted with wine and then gourmet delights were served on little plates throughout the entire four-hour journey. We felt like queens. OK, maybe old queens. 😉
Vienna was a revelation on many levels. On one level, it was luxurious beyond imagining, so modern, so clean, so architecturally and artistically stunning. On another level, new religious (anti-Islamic) tensions were in the air which reminded me of Austria’s disturbing history of old religious (anti-Semitic) tensions. The true history of the Jews of Vienna haunted my Holocaust-scarred soul but I tried not to let it sour me to the splendors of the city. We saw the Lippizaner horse show — replete with a hilarious horse-poop episode that got my sister-in-law giggling uncontrollably — toured a royal palace filled with Hapsburg and Napoleonic treasures, fulfilled my dream of visiting the Leopold Museum to see their enormous collections of Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt, and walked for miles and miles, dipping in and out of quaint streets in the hipster quarter that were lined with cafes, hidden courtyards, and art galleries. The skies were sunny, the city incomparably charming, and the coffee carnally luscious. Here I am in the throes of Viennese caffeine addiction at Cafe Demel. Jah, I want mein Einspänner!
Knowing my penchants for pets for all kinds, it probably won’t surprise you either that as much as I swooned over the glamours of old Vienna, it was their amazing aquarium that made me the happiest. Wow! They converted an 11-story WWII flak tower into a tower of animals! More than just fish — snakes and reptiles and tarantulas too, plus a rainforest environment with free-ranging monkeys and tropical birds that ran two stories. By the time we climbed to the roof to enjoy (you guessed it) MORE Viennese coffee, we were exuberant.
The week passed in a flash and lasted forever all at the same time. You know how that goes. I made so many new friends along the way, including an unbelievably beautiful and kind gay couple who became family to us on this trip, a few of Jen’s amazing co-workers, and also got much closer to Jen’s sister and father. It was a beautiful experience emotionally.
On the last night as I lay serenely on the fluffy pillow of the sweet-smelling bed in an exquisitely appointed suite at the Park Hyatt, I realized I wanted to stay in Vienna forever. Its endless possibilities for adventure and beauty intoxicated me. Literally, I was drunk on Vienna down into my soul. OK, perhaps it helped that we dined earlier that night in sumptuous Old World style at Palais Ferstel, a lush venue once favored by Sigmund Freud, where we were plied with many, many delicious wines. All I know is that poetry pooled in my heart and I felt reborn.
I never wanted to wake up from the beautiful dream that was my first visit to Vienna. But I did. I woke up coldly practical. Real life was waiting for my sexy embrace once more and as soon as I stepped on American soil, a more familiar joy flooded back in. Back to my husband, my pets, my garden and best of all, back with you all once again.
