First Days: Vienna, 5-K Race, Kibbutz Hatzerim

What a day it has been!!! (More like 2 days…) We got up at 5, were on the road shortly after that, and the journey began. The flights were super on time, and we arrived in Vienna after about 19 hours. My ancient German served me well, and we managed to meet up with Shiri without any problems. How awesome it was to see her after 6 months!! It was pretty chilly and windy, but we wandered for a while through the Prater, a huge park near where we met up with her.

 

Everything in Vienna is musical!! This is the bathoom in the mall--for a mere 70 cents, you can go in and will be serenaded as you do your business!

We wandered past some horses practicing for trotting races, and the stadium where the Austrian National team plays soccer. 

Opera House

Kurs Salon, one of the Concert Hlls

Strauss

After some delicious hot chocolate and cake, we continued to the House of Music—with 3floors of awesome exhibits: the first one celebrating the illustrious history of the Vienna Phlharmonic; the second was a super interactive one about acoustics and the science of sound. But the third floor was the best—exhibits featuring each of the the 3 Classic Viennese Composers: Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven (with smaller rooms dedicated to Mahler, Stauss, and the 12-toners, Schoenberg, Berg and Webern. By this time, it was getting later and we needed to get to the airport to fly to Israel. By this time, we had been awake for about 30 or so hours. We took off late, but arrived on time more or less—by the time we got to the kibbutz where Yoram grew up (and his dad and brother and his family still live, and where we’re staying) it was 3 AM, and we had been up for about 37 hours. We set the alarm for 6:30 so that we could be at the race we were signed up for on time.

The only existing picture of Mozart's family--his mom is in the painting in a painting on the wall, as she had died by that time.

On the way out, you had the chance to "conduct" the Vienna Philharmonic! Unfortunately, the laser pointer didn't work the way I wanted it to, so I wont be posting the video here!

When we saw in the Kibbutz newspaper that there was going to be a race right at the Kibbutz, the day after we arrived, we thought it would be a great way to get the kinks out after 2 days on airplanes, so we signed up. Running a 5 K on 3 hours of sleep, in Israel, on a day with winds the equivalent of the Santa Anas, was quite an experience!! We arrived at the site, tried to push our way forward into the throngs of cyclists and runners signed up for the race all trying to get our bib numbers and timing chips. The first race, combined cycle/run, was supposed to start at 7:30, and the others (43 and 21.5K bike races and 10 K and 5 K walk/runs) were to be staggered at 15-minute intervals after that. At 7:30, after a bunch of screamed “final announcements”, we heard, “3, 2, 1, Good Luck!” and the first race started!  The wind was hot, fast, and furious, the dust was whipping off the sand in the desert where we were running, it was crazy!! They finally got to us around 8:30, and we were off. I was dry as a bone before the first 500 meters! Fortunately, there was some shade (the course went through the jojoba trees the Kibbutz planted about 15 years ago), and we started off into the wind, so it was at our backs on the home stretch.  My time was really slow, but given the winds, the lack of sleep, and the heat, it wasn’t too bad. And I did win my age group, and was the 5^th fastest woman overall.  You’ll have to take my word for it, though, because our camera seems to have stopped working. The woman who came in 2^nd is from the kibbutz, so I have one photo that was taken for her, but all the ones Shiri took before and after the race never took. So disappointing! And now we start the trip without a camera! By the time we got back after the ceremony, Michal had arrived, so now we’re all here (the 2/3 of our family that are able to come. So awesome to see her, too!

The last few hours have been very relaxing.  It is really fun to walk around the kibbutz, especially into the dining hall at lunchtime, because you run into dozens of people you know! Like I said, Yoram grew up here, and even I lived here for a year before we got married and another year later 27 years ago, so we know many of the people. It’s fun to look at the faces of some of the kids and see that they have the same characteristics now as they did when they were 2 years old! Though there are many I wouldn’t know from Adam…) And sad to look at the people our age and older, and see how we all have aged with the passing years.  With many, it’s no more than a smile and a handshake and a brief exchange of greetings, but there were also a few people it was so good to see again, with whom we hope to get together over the next few days.

Now, the weather is even crazier—the winds are even stronger, and they have kicked up a dust storm of epic proportions, blocking out the sun! A flock of storks just flew by—disturbed by the crazy winds and dust, possibly. The modern version of the plagues of Egypt??? I don’t know, but maybe after a nap it’ll all calm down.