Interviewing and More



SATURDAY, November 19, 1994.

When I returned successfully from Brussels with an Italy guidebook in hand, I ran all over Liege to find Ebie her hair spray. Then, I was hungry and she wasn't going to be home for dinner for an hour and a half, so I bought some fries from the guy on the corner across the street. They shouldn't be called French fries. They should be called Belgian fries. They were the best damn French fries I've ever had. They were already fried but the guy dropped them back in the fryer for a minute, then salted them and put them in a little cardboard box for me. Amazingly, they were cool enough to eat and I put them back with the little plastic fork they came with - delicious! All that after my sugar waffle earlier in the day. Of course, I still ate my helping of the eggs and potato dish I made for dinner.

Thursday morning we headed out with our backpacks, checked them at the station in Liege, and headed to Cologne, Germany for an afternoon with Miles. The rendezvous was successful, and the three of us started walking around looking for a restaurant to serve us an authentic German lunch. Just outside the station is the cathedral which is interesting because it survived the allied bombings which leveled Cologne during World War II. Cologne was not that interesting. Just another postwar architected city with lots of stores and people shopping and going on about their lives. We eventually found a little German restaurant open for lunch and with an empty table. (Apparently in Germany, there are no waiting lists - you can't even ask how long for a table! Simply, you wait until a table opens or you leave.) I had a breaded, fried piece of flat pork (called Schnitzel "Art Wien") with some tasty potatoes. I sampled a large glass of Miles' favorite beer (Weiss bier) pronounced "vise beer" - very tasty, though I can't quite see how it's a water replacement for Germans like Miles' grandmother. After one glass, I found myself wobbly when I stood up from the table!

After lunch, we explored a little more, then checked out the interior of the cathedral before returning to the train station. Shameful to admit it, but Miles provided a welcome dose of shop (i.e. nerd) talk. Ebie and I had figured out the trains to Siena; our first switch after Liege would be in Namur, where we'd catch a train to Milan. When we were boarding the train to Liege in Cologne, Ebie noticed that the train continued to Namur and said, "Oh, we can just stay on to Namur." Luckily, I remembered that we needed to stop in Liege to get our backpacks and food. We joked for quite a while about how much it would have sucked when we realized that we had to turn around and go back to Liege to get our bags. Luckily, that didn't happen.

Within 24 hours, we were in 6 countries: Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, and Italy! The train to Milan took all night (8pm to 7am), and we weren't clued in on couchettes. We were able to sleep some in our train compartment, but those seats weren't meant for sleeping, and we were worried about theft. At some point, a disgustingly smelly man came in and sat next to me. Every time my head flopped in his direction, I got a whiff of cigarette smoke and urine. There was a rigorous security check at the Swiss boarder involving lots of police and police dogs. A French woman in our compartment commented that it was an unusual amount of activity. We never heard what was up. Bombs? Drugs?

Once in Milan, we happily paid a supplementary fee (we had Italian rail passes) to get on an express train to Florence. It was more of a business traveler scene (we the only backpackers). The train had airplane style seats with fold down trays, and get this, we were served breakfast. Our connection to Siena was at one of Florence's outer stations. We found ourselves with an hour to kill in the boonies of Florence, feeling like the only tourists in town! We walked around, which even with the packs on, felt great after so many hours on the train. We'd left Cologne at 5 pm and arrived in Florence at 10:30 am! We found a store and bought an Italian telephone adapter to add to our international collection before catching the train to Siena.

On the train, we sat across from a very large, very strong, very well dressed man who was quite friendly and helpful. When we boarded, he helped place Ebie's backpack in the overhead rack; he lifted it with one arm! Her pack was extremely heavy! I would've struggled, even using both arms. He gave us advice on what to see and where to eat. He also turned out to be wearing, along with lots of gold jewelry, an enormous gun. I decided not to ask him what he did for a living (good call by me).


SUNDAY, November 20, 1994.

The taxi from the station to the hotel was like a theme park ride, Disney's Siena Ride or something. Through the narrow, pedestrian-filled, flat-stone streets of Siena we rushed around blind corners, narrowly avoiding collisions on our way to our hotel just off the Piazza del Campo, Siena's centerpiece and town square. The ground floor of the hotel is a restaurant, up one flight is a landing where the owners hang out watching TV, then up another flight to some rooms. Up yet another flight to some more rooms and the bathrooms and showers, complete with coin-op hot water. The place was as Let's Go described it: cozy, with lounges outside the rooms. Of the two bathrooms, one was chronically smelly, and it was quickly deemed, "Mr Stinky." Our room was nice and had a rather large bed, a wardrobe, and a desk by the window. There were wooden shutters and curtains on the window overlooking the street which seemed perpetually flooded with singing Italian men.

Photos of Siena

I needed desperately to contact Fabio Mungo at Intecs Sistemi to find out about our hotel accommodations in Rome. We got a stack of change to feed to the pay phone in the hotel. I got through to Fabio and he had trouble getting the info together. We scurried, got more change, watched the meter clicking down 200 Lire at a time, and got disconnected before we received the information. Frustrating! We got reconnected, managed to get the hotel info and I was trying to explain that the pay phone was running out of money, that no, I didn't need his fax number, that we should say goodbye, and we got disconnected again! I didn't even bother to get more change. I hope Fabio understood the situation and doesn't think I was being rude. His shaky English made everything more difficult.

We also needed to call my friend Jen in Rome to give her more details about our visit, but we waited until we could buy a phone card - which was great once I realized that I needed to tear the corner off to activate it. With all that business taken care of, we set out to see the town. We spun by Grotta del Gallo Nero, made a dinner reservation, and then started dreaming about the pici (fat spaghetti) with porcini and sausage. Then, we went looking for some of the language schools that I had brochures about. One was closed (Dante Alligieri) and the other one let me in to see their classrooms, backyard (for warm weather classes) and told me about their program (Scuola Leonardo da Vinci)

At one point, we wandered into Nanini and bought an absurdly large piece of panforte, a local, extremely dense cake, which we proceeded to eat in its entirety. Later we saw what a more appropriate serving size was and felt gross. But we know we loved it. Generally, we just wandered around. The city is incredibly beautiful. We took some pictures and then sat a bit in the Piazza del Campo before going back to the room to change for dinner. Dinner was delicious and I was warmed and toasted by my $1.33's worth of Chianti! Wine is so cheap here! I had the pici with sausage to start, Ebie the tortellini with ham and a cream sauce. Delicious! Second we had rabbit and pork - both prepared similarly in a rich brown, mushroom sauce. Very tasty. It tasted like something mom used to make, but much better (sorry, mom). To top it off, I had one of the best cappuccinos I've ever had! No dessert though, not after that hunk of panforte.

Saturday, we explored Siena some more. Siena's duomo is made of black and white stones which form thin horizontal stripes around the outside. The inside is beautiful. Even the floor is a masterpiece. For lunch, we went to another of Let's Go's suggestions, Rosticceria Monti, where we had a killer, wood oven roasted chicken lunch. The chickens go round and round in the oven, dripping on a tray of heavenly fried potatoes and bread. We visited an elevated park atop the walls of the fort in Piazza del Liberta. From there, we had an incredible view of a very red, gorgeous, Tuscan sunset through the mostly barren trees of November.

From there it was back to Nanini to buy some panforte for gifts and sample a small piece of white chocolate, hazelnut bark (Yes, before dinner- life's uncertain). The place we wanted to go for dinner, the final suggestion in Let's Go, was closed for renovations and after looking around and finding one place completely booked, we ended up back at Rosticceria Monti to try the ravioli we'd seen earlier. Ravioli Ragu! Then we were off to a sidewalk cafe in the Piazza del Campo for cappuccino and a sampler plate of Sienese goodies, a few cookies and two varieties of panforte. Then we went back to the hotel to write postcards and go to sleep early. We wanted to get up and catch an early train to Rome.

This morning, I dashed about town at 8am looking for a cash machine so we could pay for our room. The Locanda Garibaldi didn't take credit cards and we didn't have enough cash! Fortunately, I was successful. We grabbed breakfast at Nanini, before taking another heart-pounding taxi ride to the train station. Unfortunately, we were over an hour early for the next train, but it gave me a chance to write this and catch up. Now we're off to Rome to see Jen, interview with Fabio Mungo at Intecs Sistemi, and see the sights.


WEDNESDAY, November 23, 1994.

The train to Rome was uneventful save for the fact that we traveling through many short tunnels which caused painful pressure changes in our ears. We arrived in Rome, got information about Ebie's train to Namur for Monday afternoon and then took a taxi to the hotel Villa Torlonia, which was very nice - especially in contrast to the cozy but non-luxurious accommodations in Siena. However, it cost $100 a night more! Luckily Intecs Sistemi was picking up the tab.

Equipped with Ebie's Powerbook and the phone adapter we bought in Florence, I went straight for the e-mail fix. I was expecting information about a possible interview at the Swiss Center for Scientific Computing in Manno, Switzerland. Manno is in the Italian speaking region. I struggled with the phone system, the AOL software, and some brain dead AT & T operators before I just gave up. Even after I devised the correct dial string to outsmart everything, the line noise was just too much to support a connection. Argh! To top it all off, this drained the battery down to reserve power and I still needed to work on my UBILAB presentation, and the outlet in our room did not fit the AC adapter. I was incredibly frustrated.

I called Jen and we planned to meet near the Spanish Steps, in front of the AMEX office at 7. She had a 5 o'clock appointment to see Italian director Bertolucci! She's in Rome with Melissa, a friend of hers from college, hoping to make a movie. Then, Ebie and I headed out to the impressively large Colosseum. We walked around it, but we couldn't get in because it was closed. The place seems to have been taken over by alley cats. From there, we then walked unknowingly past the ruins of the Forum on our way to the Pantheon. We stopped for some pizza then found the Trevi fountain. I threw a coin in backwards over my shoulder; supposedly this means I will return to Rome. We wandered about a bit more, several times getting confused and then returning to the Trevi for orientation. Eventually, we found the Spanish steps (from the top, by fate) and descended upon quite the social gathering. There were people sitting all over the steps and milling about in the piazza below.

Photos of Rome

We met up with Jen who was thrilled (understandably) with her appointment with Bertolucci and who told us about her brief hair style modeling experience in Milan on her way to Rome. The three of us had dinner at a small Italian place and then walked to the Vatican. There we found a spectacular round courtyard surrounded by two rows of mighty columns in front of St. Peter's cathedral where the Pope holds mass.

Monday morning when Ebie went to dry her hair we discovered that behold, the Powerbook could be plugged in in the bathroom! But it seemed it would be too late because I would soon leave for Intecs and would return after Ebie had left for Belgium with her Powerbook. I wasn't sure when I was expected at Intecs. I called at 9 and Fabio wasn't in yet - so I plugged in the Powerbook and went to work. Ebie headed out to go sightseeing. I called again at 10 and arranged to go right over. My presentation was farther along but still very incomplete. "Oh well," I thought, "too bad."

I spent the day "interviewing" with Intecs Sistemi. It seemed that I was a shoo in. They seemed more set on convincing me to work for them. We visited the European Space Agency and arranged to have dinner with Fabio and Professor Alessandro Micarelli, who had been my initial contact in Rome via my old manager at Apple. When Zac (from Intecs) dropped me off back at Villa Torlonia, I found Ebie in the room! She'd missed her train because of a Metro delay. Too bad for her, but this gave me an opportunity to finish my presentation after all! Of course, I invited her to join us for dinner. We ate at a local pizza place. It was very tasty. We had pizza, beer, and fried goodies (rice, pineapple, potato, stuffed olives, zucchini) - all for "only" $23 a person! $92 - pizza and beer for 4! Well, at least it was good.

After dinner, Fabio took us on a driving tour of the city. It was a nice easy way to see more sights. He brought us to the top of a hill with a view of the city by night. Rome is huge! 3.2 million people live in the city proper, 6 million in the area. Then back to the hotel around 10:30. I worked on my presentation until about 2 am and then joined Ebie for some sleep. Tuesday morning was frantic as I scrambled to finish up my presentation, attempted to contact Urs Meyer in Manno, and tried to figure out where I was going to stay that night.

Somehow, my presentation got done, and we headed out to meet Jen for lunch. After we ate, we went to an English bookstore to find information about Manno. I never got in touch with Urs - argh! The dumb Italian phones.... We didn't find any information about Manno, but from the postal code, Jen figured out that it was near Lugano, so I decided I'd spend the night there. We tried unsuccessfully to make a hotel reservation (they said I'd be arriving too late), but I decided to risk it. We had lunch, gelato and I got some Swiss Francs and then it was time to go the train station and skip town.

On the train from Rome to Milan, Ebie and I had it out. There was a bunch of "I think it's annoying when you...", "It irritates me when..." and talking about our differences. Ultimately, it was a healthy exchange that ended with us in better moods than we'd started, though perhaps feeling tentative toward each other. From Milan, I headed by myself to Lugano, where with some difficulty, I found a hotel room, grabbed a sandwich and a beer at the pub next door, called dad for a reality check and went to bed.

This morning, I managed to contact Urs Meyer (who had, as it turns out, expected me yesterday - but of course, I still haven't read his e-mail) and arranged a visit to the Swiss Center for Scientific Computing, which turns out was only a 15 minute cab ride from the station in Lugano. So the Lugano thing panned out! I'm glad I was able to stop by - looks like some interesting opportunities there. Funny, they're doing some work with Intecs in the future!

Now, I am riding the train to Zurich where I will meet Walter Bischofberger and the guys at UBILAB. Out of the window are the Alps - so beautiful, so steep and so high and sudden. They're covered with trees, some with the colors of autumn and the highest rocky peeks with some snow. It's strange to be alone again after over three weeks with Elizabeth. Strange, strange indeed.


WEDNESDAY, November 30, 1994.

I arrived in Zurich and found my way via taxi (the first taxi didn't know where my street was so he asked me to get out and get in another one - somehow I don't think a NY cabbie would be so honest!) to UBILAB which is on a little street in the industrial quarter. The building is high security with a card access revolving metal grating, and slightly cramped; the ceilings and door frames feel low.

I went to dinner for authentic Swiss cuisine with Walter and three other guys from the lab. I had bits of veal in a brown sauce with hash-browned potatoes. Tasty! The big surprise was that it was delivered to the table in two identical helpings! Those crazy Swiss-Germans put two big mugs of beer into me, saying half-seriously that they want people at the lab who can handle their drinks, and then started asking me my opinions about object-oriented software design. I think I managed some intelligible comments. After dinner, Walter, Thomas and I headed to a pub for some Swiss wine and a plate of thinly sliced ham and cheese. Walter gave me my travel documents, which consisted of a first class train ticket to Liege and a check for 500 Swiss Francs (about $400!) to cover "miscellaneous travel expenses." Wow! They had already paid for my train ticket, my hotel and my meals. Sounds like some bonus pocket change!

Thursday was my day at UBILAB. I began with an hour in front of a Mac polishing my presentation. Then, it was time. I was quite nervous, but I think my talk was well-received. People asked good questions and made valuable suggestions. After the talk, I went to lunch with Walter, HP ("the big boss"), and a few of the other guys at a UBS restaurant! I spent the afternoon learning about projects around the lab, talking with guys, net surfing, reading the UBILAB conference proceedings, and struggling to stay awake, appear interested in everything and stay sociable. A guy named Thomas invited me to have dinner at his house in a small town about an hour outside of Zurich. I met his wife and baby, and ate a dinner from a plate of cheese and meat, while drinking beer.

The next day, it was time to return to Belgium. Somehow, I screwed up and ended up stuck for 3 hours in Strasbourg, France on my way back to Liege. Had I not been so frustrated with the trains, I could've really enjoyed myself there. I explored a little bit, saw the pedestrian shopping streets, the monstrous cathedral, and the river. It's a pretty city. I finally made it back to Liege. On the bus from the train station to the apartment, Ebie boarded on her way home from choir practice! Incredible coincidence. That Saturday I was errand boy, taking care of photos, groceries, and accounting, while Ebie met with her group about a school project. I made chicken parmigiana for dinner and then we did laundry. Then on a whim, we decided to go to Amsterdam for two days, so we packed and went to bed.

Sunday morning, the train gods were with us and we sailed quickly and easily to Amsterdam via Maastrick. We got a room at the boring but easy Hotel Ibis next to the train station and went exploring. We saw the Anne Frank house which was very depressing. The museum had a well done history of the holocaust. Then, we tried in vain to find Rembrant's house. We saw the red-light district complete with dildo displays and prostitutes in the windows. Everywhere were lots of cool cafes and canals.

That evening, we went out and found the "The Doors", "a 60's style coffeehouse" which we rejected as too smoky and crowded. We ended up at a new-age place sipping fresh mango-juice and listening to an acoustic new-age band. On Monday, we ate Dutch pancakes for breakfast (like extra thick French crepes with toppings baked on top and served flat on a dinner plate). Then we visited the Van Gogh museum. We found a cool chess cafe and played two games while nibbling on grilled cheese sandwiches and sipping cappuccino. I won both games but she played pretty well and gave me a run for my money in the second game. It was stimulating to tax the brain after a long recess.

We headed back to the red-light district to investigate just what the story is with drugs in Amsterdam. We were in good moods, flirting with each other while we played pool and drank Heinekin on tap. Finally, I asked the bartender about drugs. Hash is illegal but "allowed." Hard drugs are available but "not here" and are not "allowed." The bartender was able to get me the "hash menu" when "the guy" came back downstairs. There were about twenty kinds of hash for sale. Interesting.

We grabbed some pizza for dinner before catching the train to Maastricht at 8:30. The conductor told us (much to our surprise) that there were no trains to Liege after 10pm (we'd get to Maastricht at 11) because of a Belgian transit strike. Shit! We'd known there was a strike on Tuesday, but no one ever mentioned that it started the night before. The guy who sold us our train ticket on Sunday should've told us to get home early on Monday. Naturally, he didn't; he was Belgian. We reviewed our options and decided it made the most sense to take a taxi the 20 miles to Liege. The taxi driver agreed to do it for $80 (some bargain). He brought us to Liege and then dropped us in the middle of nowhere and refused to take us any further. I couldn't even begin to argue in Dutch. So we paid him and walked the rest of the way. Luckily, Ebie recognized the area and it was only a 15 minute walk. Ebie was raging mad at the taxi driver. I was just relieved to have made it home.

Yesterday, we labeled our travel photos, went Christmas shopping for Ebie's family so I could bring the gifts back to the States with me, and went to the University of Liege so I could see the school. The school was pretty plain, but decent enough up on a grassy hill outside of downtown. While Ebie was in class, I spent time in the computer lab hacking a Windows application in Pascal! That was a trip! We had dinner in a Vietnamese restaurant where I spazzed because I couldn't read the menu or communicate that I wanted lemon grass chicken. I got over it, and we had a nice meal. Then we went back to the apartment. I finished packing and then went to bed around midnight with the alarm set for 5:30 am (ouch!).

This morning I forced myself out of bed, showered, dressed, and hugged Ebie before getting into a taxi headed for the station. I took the train to Brussels and then to the airport. Now, incredibly, I'm on the plane headed to California dreaming about the future - what to do about UBILAB, Rome, Siena, a Powerbook, who to see, what to do, and I'm still excited and happy that I've embarked on this post-Taligent adventure.



Copyright 1997 by Bradley Edelman
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E-mail: Brad Edelman