I had no idea when I got up yesterday how it would unfold, other than I was going to head to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, first thing. I walked briskly early in the morning to the Danube and got a seat on the first sailing on the Twin City Line heading to Bratislava. I paid a little extra for a window view and enjoyed looking at all the fishing houses on the banks during the easy 75 minute journey. It was an international clientele on board and I heard numerous languages being spoken. The ship’s people were encouraging people to join their guided walking tours for when we disembarked, but I declined. 
I had already researched that a local student-led tour started 15 minutes after we got there, so I quickly made my way down the tree lined boulevard to the center of town and met Janna. I almost always go for the student-led tour because (1) they can use the money and (2) they get a younger group of guest so they walk more swiftly and cover lots more things and (3) I just love the enthusiasm of the guides.
Janna explains that Slovakia was once Moravia and goes through a decent history bringing us up to date with this man who was the local poet, revolutionary thinker and basically the Shakespeare of Slovakia. He was so cool he got to be a one named guy ( like Cher, Bono, Sting…) and make up his name ( real name Pavel Országh–not nearly as cool) which translates to “Slav of the stars.”
This is the beautiful cathedral of St Martin where all the Hungarian queens were crowned. That is a crown on top of the spire and even tho it looks tiny, it’s 700 pounds of real gold. Next to the cathedral was a touching holocaust memorial for the 100,000 Jews of Slovakia who were rounded up and ultimately perished in concentration camps.
Just as I suspected, Janna had us hiking up to the castle. Looks like an upside down table and has beautiful gardens in the back. The country’s parliament building is next door to the castle. The views from the castle are amazing. You can see this bridge the communist built to link the old town with where all the people actually live on the other side of the Danube. They call this the UFO bridge.
This is St Michael’s gate, the only city gate to be preserved of the medieval fortifications. 
Ok, I’m thirsty. Bye bye Janna and hello brewski. Now that I am refreshed I remember Janna said the reason the shops are closed today is that it is the Feast of the Virgin Mary. Any shop that is open gets a 100,000 euro fine. Yikes! But this is the one day of the year the town has a street fair and since she told me where to find it I head over there.
Oh my gosh the entire town is here–so fun and all locals. I don’t hear a word of English ( or French or Spanish)–just Slovak)
Yes please, some local cheese would be great.
Yes quadruple please. The bartender sees me coming and makes multiple aperol spritzes and then prays over them. I’m pretty sure this town knew I was coming. Ok got to leave. I’ve been here 6 hours and I could stay longer but I bought a ticket for the 4 pm return so I run to my boat( those aperol spritzes really make you fly, don’t they?). Nice journey back on the Danube. I’m in my apartment about 30 minutes when I remembered the Vivaldi concert at Karlskirche is tonight. I decide to just get ready and go and see if I can get a ticket. Color me lucky. The young man says they have one ticket—top of the price range ( which is a whole 15 euros more), but he told me I’d like it. Sold. But first I take a nighttime picture of this amazing church. This is considered one of the most beautiful buildings in Vienna.
My young friend was right that I would like this seat. Any closer and I’d be giving the concert. I really can’t do justice to how beautiful this setting was for the beautiful Vivaldi music. I was mesmerized for several hours. 
What an outstanding group of musicians. Four arias by the countertenor Nicholas Spano and four concertos with the primary violinist Dimitris Karakantas.
I leave the concert and have a vague recollection that the concierge at the Hotel Sacher ( who I was fortunate enough to spend an entire afternoon with– watch for a coming post about that) had told me about a place at the Naschmarkt called Nemi. I wandered about a little lost for a while and it was getting pretty late. Miraculously I found it and it was still open, I first ordered the Muhammara, a spicy red pepper dish ( which I ate before I thought to take a picture) and then got the Jerusalem Plate shown above. That a nice glass of Gruner Veltiner made a great meal.
They came around and said “last call” so I headed out through the Naschmarkt, went down into the subway and emerged near my apartment shortly thereafter. Not a bad way to spend 17 hours. 
I do feel quite welcomed by the beautiful city of Vienna. Imagine flying for 15 hours,running thru a tight connection in Paris and being deposited by the airport driver in a little alley that will be your new home for 30 days. Now I see a handsome man waving at me from an open window and saying “This is it!” Christian, my landlord, ran down and took my bag and led me into my beautiful high ceiling, spacious apartment.
I love the view from the rear windows flung open to the little pedestrian alley where I had earlier arrived. 
Even more surprising is that the apartment opens to the front onto Judenplatz, a pedestrian square lined with restaurants and pubs. 
As I get my bearings I see that my apartment is above the famous Grimm bakery, the oldest in Vienna and the only remaining bakery that still bakes on the premises.I will learn later that the 5 am aromas wafting up are both a blessing and a curse.
For now I roam the blocks surrounding my place. I met Dario who runs a pretty little coffee shop and Janna, who owns a leather shop and is expecting her baby boy any minute. She tells me she has a choice of taking 1 year off and receiving 1000 euros per month or 2 years off and receiving 600 per month. I see my local market and go in to discover a 3 story gourmet food shop with wine tasting bars in the section where you buy wine, fresh oranic fruit, stunning flowers and floors of tempting new products. 
Heading back I see a small bookstore in the alley underneath my window. Though tiny it is full of books that I know my literary Laura would spend lots of time browsing.
Yes , I think I’ m going to be ok. 
After we tasted cactus tacos from a lovely group of grandmas, we came back and prepared lunch with what we had bought. Loads of fun. Cost 1000 pesos per person.
It is a gorgeous day so I first walk to the 
I am finally forced to leave the museum as they are closing and I wander about through the Upper Town, seeing the citadel, churches and shops until heading down the Escalier casse-cou (Breakneck Stairs) to get ready for my dinner. Before dinner I snap this picture from my room of the sun setting over the city.
I wander through the crooked streets and up the hills trying to find my restaurant in the night. I hear a man call out from way above me, “Are you lost, my dear?” “Hopelessly”, I say.”Come up the hill and I will help you”, he calls. I scramble up the hill and meet Jerry who moved to Quebec City from New York several years ago. He couldn’t be happier living in Canada in this beautiful little town. After a fun chat, Jerry points me in the right direction and I make it to 
My main course is the house speciality of bison cheeks, braised in red currant vinegar, with celery root puree, carrots and potatoes. The chef kindly eliminates the mushroom component for me due to the unfortunate fact that I am allergic to mushrooms. This is my dish. 
Doubly incredible. My resolve to walk away happy and dessertless was to no use, as Olivier, Chez Boulay’s director, sensing he had a food lunatic in his midst sends out pie made from sea buckthorns laced with a pine forest spikenard creme anglaise. Yup that’s right and this is what it looks like.
Tomorrow is another day.
I see the impressive Basilique Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Quebec.
The most photographed site in Quebec City is the Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac, a huge castle with a copper roof built originally as a residence for the colonial governors and since has housed celebrities and dignitaries. It is impressive on the outside, but inside it is overrun by my fellow countrymen conversing loudly in large groups. 
I am very happy I am not staying there and return to my lovely hotel to pack up and return to Montreal. Via the train this time!
I stop to shop at a great place that features designers from Montreal and Quebec, called 
The food is fresh, local, organic ingredient, driven and as close to nature as possible. I decide on a salad of two kinds of greens, housemade aioli, roasted cauliflower and shallots and topped with fresh grilled sardines. Frank and Cedric tell me that the sardines, which are perfectly cooked, are female sardines that have the “caviar” in them. Seriously…this is a restaurant that gets the fine points down while being ultra casual and cool.
I end up talking to a fellow diner at the bar, Philippe, who is a photographer with his studio nearby. He confesses that this is his lunch counter several days a week. His dish looks amazing too!
Pretty much epitomizes why I am loving Montreal–yes the food….but most importantly the people.
Time to rent another Bixi bike. It is so easy to hop on and off these bikes and walk or take the metro in between. The stands are everywhere. I ride over Pont du Cosmos to the Île Notre-Dame intending to circle that island and return my bike at the end. But the Grands Prix Cyclists is taking place today and some of the roads are blocked. I get almost to my return spot when I am turned back by an official. She tells me there is another Bixi stand up the road. I dutifully ride up and see this:
There is no one around and when another biker comes by I say–Pouvez s’il vous plaît dites-moi ce qui c’est? in my perfect French and he says “What?” In his perfect English he explains that it is the Casino–the former French Pavillion for Expo 67. I say it must be closed and he laughs. “It never closes! You are on the back side. Go around.” I do and it is like another world. Taxis are pulling up and loads of people are going in( I’m not going to judge their attire, but….). There to the side is a Bixi stand. I put my bike in and decide to go inside. There are so many things wrong with this picture but I just had to take it. What is mainly wrong with this is not that I am in a casino all sweaty in my biking clothes but….. as so many of you know…..SHIRLEY DON’T DO CASINOS. Well at least it’s not in Vegas. I still have some integrity. 
I get a few dumplings at the stand in the park, reverse the ride and walk home from Place des Armes. And that is a non food-related Montreal day. Next up…food, glorious food.
After hearing about the usually long lines around the block I assume they are closed, but no–there with his wood-fire paddle shoveling bagels into the oven is Joe Santa Maria. I asked for whichever bagel is coming out of the oven now and it is sesame. I tear into it and it is different–really crispy on the outside and chewy inside. Delicious! Joe and I have a great chat about the karma of coming when there is no line-(he has no idea why) and how people often mistake him for Adrien Brody. As I left, the line was quickly forming. I walk a few blocks and find myself at Fairmount Bagels
–only one person ahead of me. Sesame is also coming out hot and I take one and sit on a bench—hmmm–good–but no comparison to St Viateur. Or maybe it was just that Joe was so gosh darn adorable. 
You can go lean, medium or fatty and Helen says to go for the medium–great choice. So happy! 
But you expect a little more detail probably. I arrived without any problem to my lovely apartment in Vieux-Montreal–the old part of town near the water. It is always a bit scary before I open the door for the first day of Shirleyfest. Will it measure up to the pictures online? I am happy to report that this one exceed my expectations. It is a very old stone building and looks out on cobblestone streets and people riding by in horse and buggies. Inside tho it is very modern with a lovely kitchen.
Too early to cook for people tho and I head out for my first dinner—at Le Serpent– a walk away where I sit at the bar and enjoy conversation with Ann the bartender, a couple who left 6 kids at home and are in town for some ‘clubbing” and a very nice Parisian fellow on my right in town for business. Great meal and a good walk home. Day 1 not too shabby.
But I am here not to down prepared food, but to buy fresh produce so I stock up a bit. The market is beautiful and the produce perfect. Don’t you want to buy these?
Now I am ready to bike home on my Bixi bike. I put my purchases in my basket and head thru Little Italy and it is about a 45 minute bike ride home. Relax a bit and decide to try to go to dinner at Foxy– a very hot new restaurant that I am unable to make reservations in advance as they are “booked up”. Not to worry. I manage to get in and enjoy an Aperol Spritz and a lovely dinner of melon and tomato salad, smoked pork ribs and yams with cartelized red onions. The bartender is Renaud and reminds me of Elmer from Tony’s back home. He and the front of the house, Corinne, and I make plans to go to lunch this week at the sister restaurant Olive et Gourmando. Day 2 also not shabby.
Bon Soir until the next post.
I took a tram home, showered and he picked me up. It was great. It’s a real local hang out. Had a bar and tables in the front and a huge courtyard in the back. We had white and rose wine and lunch and I met the staff. One of the fellows, Adam, played football for University of Kentucky. The other owner, Andy, came and we sat around with him chatting. After lunch at Cru we went to a wine shop in South Melbourne. Peter toured me all around South Melbourne. That night I went via tram to North Melbourne and saw a play called Bronx Gothic. It was part of the Melbourne Arts Festival. I dutifully came 40 minutes early and was one of the only ones there for 15 minutes. People do not get places way ahead of time. They are too busy having fun up until they change venues. Also, I was impressed that no one rushed to get in when the doors were open. It was a very chill scene. Everyone had a cocktail when they came in and no one was in a rush to leave their cocktail to go sit down. Later I asked some locals and they said people in Melbourne have an innate sense of fairness. They know generally who was there before them and they would not try to get an advantage by going in ahead of those people. Another person told me –no it’s not that–we just like to drink up until the last minute. As we were led into the performance space we noticed it was a darkened room where the solo dancer was off in the corner. I thought she was warming up but she was really dancing to herself in the corner with her back to us. She was beautiful, tall and African-American and had a burnt orange halter dress on.
By the time the audience was entirely seated she was quite sweaty. Lamps were scattered around the stage–some were overturned. She danced and read aloud from notes as if she was an 11-year-old girl in the ghetto in New York. It was a coming-of-age sexuality piece. It was very very raw. It was very moving. It was disturbing. It was lots of things and I was so very glad I had come. I heard thunder during the play I thought it was part of the act but when I came out of the play it was lightning and raining hard. I considered staying in the area but given my recent accident and the throbbing of my leg, I hailed a cab and was quickly back to South Bank. I poured a glass of wine and sat looking at the Yarra River from my windows and couldn’t stop thinking about that 11 year old girl. I’m so happy I’m in Melbourne.
Two women from Estonia set next to me. They were very polite and very sweet. The pageantry of the ceremony was amazing. The athletes , many in wheelchairs, were down on the field. Coldplay was doing a performance and did song after song. After that balloon women came down from the sky. The volunteers were also there and they were in a play that was on the field and Kevin son Alex was part of the volunteer Corps. Rihanna then performed in an amazing orange dress. She was running from number to number putting on her fur coat in between songs and then she would swing out on a huge swing to the stage for another number. Wonderful fireworks after. Probably the best of Ive ever seen. At the end Kevin and I tried to catch up with Anna and Alex but we didn’t. I took the subway home with loads of happy people and got home at 1:30 AM.
