Thursday, August 30, 2007



Le train est entré en gare. Je n'étais plus très sûr de mon aventure quand j'ai vu la machine. Je l'ai embrassée A. avec tout ce que j’avais encore de courage dans la carcasse. J’avais de la peine, de la vraie, pour une fois, pour tout le monde, pour moi, pour elle, pour tous les hommes.
C’est peut-être cela qu’on cherche à travers la vie, rien que cela, le plus grand chagrin possible pour devenir soi-même avant de mourir.
Des années ont passé depuis ce départ et puis des années encore… J’ai écrit souvent à A. et puis ailleurs à toutes les adresses dont je me souvenais et où l’on pouvait la connaître, la suivre A. Jamais je n’ai reçu de réponse.
La maison est fermée à présent. C’est tout ce que j’ai pu savoir. Bonne, admirable A, je veux si elle peut encore me lire, d’un endroit que je ne connais pas, qu’elle sache bien que je n’ai pas changé pour elle, que je l’aime encore et toujours, à ma manière, qu’elle peut venir ici quand elle voudra partager mon pain et ma furtive destinée. Si elle n’est plus belle, eh bien tant pis ! Nous nous arrangerons ! J’ai gardé tant de beauté d’elle en moi, si vivace, si chaude que j’en ai bien pour tous les deux et pour au moins vingt ans encore, le temps d’en finir.
Pour la quitter il m’a fallu certes bien de la folie et d’une sale et froide espèce. Tout de même, j’ai défendu mon âme jusqu’à présent et si la mort, demain, venait me prendre, je ne serais, j’en suis certain, jamais tout à fait aussi froid, vilain, aussi lourd que les autres, tant de gentillesse et de rêve A. m’a fait cadeau dans le cours de ces quelques mois d’I.
Louis-Ferdinand Céline & Aisha y Victor

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

GOOD BYE SWEDEN!


It has finished.... Gone by the wind.
The Swedish summer is gone. The suitcases are packed. For the last time this year we are saying ' GOOD BYE, SWEDEN'.
The dance is over for us here this year.
All the tangos have been danced. The fun was had. The meals and laughters shared.
Good memories will be taken away.



















Our good bye milona was, of course, Carlitos, organized by our student Alexandra. The moments were immortalized. But the milonga goes on without us, as well!




Our last moments in our Swedish country residence, in Lilla Beddinge. We can feel the breeze from the Baltic sea nearby saying ' good bye'.
We embrace Inger for the last time this year.



















We take mental pictures of the Swedish landscape, still green fields, or black ones, full of seagulls, red barns and while houses scattered around the countryside.
We will miss our enchanted house in Skåne!




















Our last show was in Smygehus hotel, on the most southern point in Sweden, Smygehamn.
It is ONE BIG SYMBOL.
The winter is approaching, we are leaving the most southern point of Scandinavia to fly south, to the sun and summer....
Like the migration birds...

Friday, August 24, 2007

ÖSTRAN ARTICLE: Drömmen är en tango på slottet















Agnieszka Babicz och Victor Danelinck från Argentina är i Kalmar för att lära ut tango. Igår dansade de inför elever på Vasaskolan. Foto: PeO Larsson
Drömmen är en tango på slottet KALMAR

Argentinska tangoparet Aisha och Victor är i Kalmar för helgens tangofestival som håller till i högskolans lokaler. Men helst skulle de vilja dansa på Kalmar slott.
- Slottet skulle vara en så romantisk plats för tango, säger Aisha.
Hon heter egentligen Agnieszka Babicz och dansar tillsammans med Victor Danelinck. De är ett par både på dansgolvet och privat. I helgen håller de work shops och uppträder på tangofestivalen i Kalmar.
Victor Danelinck har dansat sedan han var liten eftersom han är uppvuxen med tangodansande föräldrar. Men i tonåren slutade han dansa.
- Han revolterade, berättar Aisha.

Började dansa igen
Han läste på universitetet, startade egen arkitektfirma och jobbade på. Utan att dansa.
- Men när min exfru gjorde slut började jag dansa igen, säger Victor och skrattar.
Han har lagt ned sitt företag och reser runt tillsammans med Aisha och lär européer att dansa tango. De har dansat tillsammans i åtta år.
- Men det tar fyra till fem år att bli ett i dansen. Nu är vi som ett djur med fyra ben, säger Aisha.
Tangofrälsta Lene Sejr Sørensen från Kalmar lärde känna paret genom dansen.
- De är underbara, säger hon om Victor och Aisha.
Igår fick eleverna på Vasaskolan, där Lene Sejr-Sørensen arbetar som kulturinspiratör, träffa det argentinska dansparet.

90-åringar dansar
- Det bästa sättet att hålla sig ung är att dansa tango, sa Aisha till eleverna och berättade att i Buenos Aires, där hon bor, finns det 90-åringar som dansar tango.
Aisha byter kläder inför varje dans. Victor strävar svettigt på i sin mörka kostym.
Paret har varit i Sverige i två och en halv månad för att dansa.
I tangon är det mannen som bestämmer vad som ska hända. Kvinnan följer hans steg.

Vara försiktig
- Det är min partner som leder mig. Han kan göra vadsomhelst. Men han får vara försiktig. Han leker med farliga saker. Jag har skor med klackar, säger Aisha och visar de spetsiga stilettklackarna.

Anna Smedberganna.smedberg@ostran.se0480-613 00
Lördag 25 augusti 2007 02:03

Monday, August 20, 2007

SWEDEN ONE MORE TIME,from SKÅNE -to a festival in KALMAR




First, it is alway's Skåne, the familiar airport, then a WELCOME BACK party at our enchanted house in the countryside, Beddinge, and then COMES THE REST. This time too, there is SKÅNE with a big board welcoming us, and then there is Malmo with its milonga, there are lunch and dinner invitations ( like the one by Leif, celebrating with us his new chapter in life starting by the visit in Buenos Aires), PR and then , there is a train ( one of those splendid, Swedish ones) which will carry us to KALMAR.
There is Edwin and Lene waiting for us there, with the whole tango crowd of Småland.
We are HAPPY TO BE BACK TO OUR SWEDEN!

Kalmar is another port town in Sweden. As Victor laughs, many towns in Sweden are ports, and therefore its inhabitants are portenos, like those of Buenos Aires.


Kalmar is a beautiful city on the top of it, with its symbol-KALMAR' s CASTLE, which seems to float on the waters...


It s not only the castle which seems to float on the water, there is a new, modern arquitecture, like the house on the picture- build totally on the water! It is raised on a floating platform and... can be displaced!

Lene & Edwin explain that this phenomena, which might possibly multiply, is a result of the lack of space in the center of towns.

We think that is also an extravagance of its inhabitants...

Kalmar town is situated on the eastern part of Sweden. And along the cost lies Sweden s most beautiful and aparently warmest island: ÖLAND!


The island is connected with Kalmar by the spectacular long bridge, once, the longest in Sweden. Now it is still impressionable....






KALMAR, is of course, Lene & Edwin, a passionate couple in tango and life. It feels more like visiting friends than coming here to work, although there was more tango work than usually! They have organized a KALMAR FESTIVAL and we were its main figure... The weekend was very intense: yoga classes, workshops, milonga, shows, show at school, interviews for 2 newspapaers and 1 magazine and a lot of social life!
Kalmar was favourable even with the weather and we had enjoyed breakfasts-lunches and even ARGENTINEAN ASADO OUT!
Asado was actually Swedish, but the invitation was from Argentinean-Finnish couple of our tango students.

We are again our ' animal farm' : with Mishu, who so much reminds our beloved cat MALENA back home...
There are more and more indications of the time ticking and a FINAL COUNTING DOWN...
Autumn in Europe is just about to begin and it means the spring in Argentina- it all indicates: there is only less than a month before we return!

The garden of our enchanted house in the woods is full of Edwin s sculptures.
It s so beautiful to combine nature and art!
I am still lucky to have my yoga outside, on the terrace and enjoy the fresh air in the morning.
More and more often we are wandering, what is our Malena doing, is she still AROUND???!! She is an old cat, but hopefully her tango name and tango ways will make her healthy and strong and living a long caty life.. Or several lives!
Our Polish students, on their visit to Buenos Aires, have taken this photo and sent it to us.
Malena, lemon tree and a cosy spring in Florida quarter, friends and food with so much flavour is what we are starting to miss...
























Wednesday, August 15, 2007

VACACIONES NATURISTAS por Victor



Cinco dias despues de llegar a la capital polaca, emprendimos la marcha, junto a Leszek, hacia un pueblito que casi ni siquiera merece llamarse asi, a 200 km. hacia el oriente, donde viven los padres de Aisha. En medio de la “ pampa” polaca, podria decirse que estamos en el borde-borde de Europa, pues si miramos mas hacia la derecha en el mapa, solo vemos Bielorrusia y luego las inmensas estepas rusas.

En esta zona del oriente de Polonia, Podlasie, viven los ultimos bisontes salvajes ( zubry) libres de Europa, y con la hierba que ellos comen se elabora la mitica vodka Zubrowka, marca registrada de la zona, y obviamente deliciosa.

Aca tendremos unos dias de vacaciones familiares que seran aprovechados para relax, correr cada dia 10 km., de casa al bosque, ( si senor), actualizar los mails,ensayar un poco nuestras coreografias, y preparar la ultima etapa de la gira, que abarcara 2 ciudades suecas, 2 suizas, e Ibiza en Espana.
La casa esta en un terreno muy grande, y tiene una secuencia casa- jardin-talleres-depositos-huertos-campo-bosque, todo grande y cuidado meticulosamente.
En los talleres, creados por Jan, el padre, trabaja ahora el hermano de Aisha, Tomasz, quien sucedio a su padre, ya casi retirado, con su taller de conservacion anticorrosiva especial de automoviles, y mecanica, tanto de autos como de maquinaria agricola, que en esta zona hay mucha.

Otra cuestion es que esta es una buena oportunidad para normalizar el consumo de alcohol y comidas. No es que falte, al contrario, pero el padre de Aisha, Jan, esta en la onda naturista, todo sin conservantes ni agroquimicos, y tiene una inmensa quinta donde se produce todo.
Jamas se va al supermercado, pues todo sale de la autoproduccion. Ademas la madre prepara conservas, fiambres caseros, frutas, etc. como para todo el pueblo.
Nada de esto tiene una intencion comercial, pero a veces se produce tanto, que se regala, se conserva, se consume y sigue sobrando, por lo que esporadicamente se vende, por ejemplo miel, despues de la produccion del 2006 de 200 kg. ( quien se come 200 kg. de miel?)
Seguramente me olvido algo, pero una lista de la produccion de la casa podria ser:
Pan casero integral, miel, nueces ( 2 tipos), tomates, morrones, melones, duraznos, ciruelas, peras, manzanas, crema, queso y manteca, lechuga, papas, remolacha, uvas, ( y vino casero), cebollas, frutillas, etc,etc..
Luego estan los elaborados con esas materias primas: Compotas, conservas, mermeladas, fiambres, etc.











El pan se hace con una harina especial, de trigo de las montanas de Hungria, super ecologica, integral y no se que mas, que vale 10 veces mas, pero el resultado es magnifico.

Si estalla la guerra nuclear, solo deberiamos hacer un refugio, pues comida y bebida sana hay para anos.












Quien busque vacaciones reales de desenchufarse y alejarse del ruido y el vertigo de la ciudad, este es el lugar. Si se la bancan, porque no hay nada, literalmente nada de lo que uno entiende por “ salidas”. En polaco “no hay”, se dice “ nie ma”.

Plaza central del pueblo: Nie ma.
Boliche para tomar un feca: Nie ma.
Negocios: Nie ma.
Cine: Jua!, Nie ma.
Calle peatonal: Nie ma.

Nic nie ma (no hay nada)

Calle principal del pueblo no hay ( nie ma) por una sencilla razon: no hay calles secundarias!
Para que haya una calle principal deben existir otras que no lo son, y este no es el caso. Es un simple camino en medio del campo, sobre el cual hay unas cuantas casas, cuyos fondos dan a la
“ pampa” infinita.
Pero lo que si hay es una naturaleza casi virgen, hermosos bosques y campos, increibles cielos estrellados ( justo estamos en la epoca de las Perseidas, esa lluvia de estrellas que se ve cada agosto, y aqui es un show cosmico muy bonito) y una simpatica fauna salvaje de liebres, ciguenas, ciervos, zorros y jabalies.

Lo de las ciguenas es muy interesante: Anidan en las casas, en grandes nidos circulares de mas de un metro de diamentro. Se pueden ver, en mayo, la pareja de los padres, grandes y elegantes pajaros, con su cria de 3 o 4 ciguenitas. Al volver en agosto, ahora, ya se ven 5 o 6 pajaros enormes, todos iguales, pues los crios crecen mucho y muy rapido. Casi ya ni entran en el nido, entonces llega el momento de aprender a volar, y abandonar el nido.
Pero eso se hace con un singular ritual: En unos campos anegados de banados, con abundante comida y agua, se reunen cientos y cientos de ciguenas de toda edad. Alli, durante unos dias, se alimentan muy bien, y a traves de un mecanismo que no se conoce aun, deciden cuales ejemplares estan en condiciones y cuales no de afrontar el largo viaje de la migracion para escapar al terrible invierno que llegara en unos meses.
Ese impresionante viaje es al Africa, a 4000 km. de aqui. Las viejas o debiles no tienen chance, y se quedan en estas latitudes. Al llegar los frios ( los frios de aca no son joda), si logran ampararse en alguna casa, o galpon, y alguien las alimenta y protege, zafan un ano mas. Si no, la dura ley de la naturaleza las mata. “ La naturaleza es generosa con las especies, pero cruel con sus individuos”.
El ano proximo, al volver, cada uno de los pajaros vuelve a su nido, al mismo. Solo las nuevas generaciones, las primerizas, construyen un nido nuevo. Si tienen suerte, estas hermosas aves viven unos 20 anos.
Dice la tradicion que es de buena suerte que una ciguena anide en tu casa, ademas son hermosas. Entonces la gente les prepara plataformas especiales, altas, sobre un poste, de madera, pero las muy guachitas eligen con anda a saber que criterio, y a veces les dan bola a esos preparativos, y hacen el nido, y a veces no, aunque a vos te parezca el mejor lugar del mundo para un nido, asi que ya sabes donde podes meterte el poste y la plataforma!
Tambien se ven en esta epoca enormes bandadas de cuervos, que graznan su aspero canto al crepusculo. Son miles y miles, en oscuras nubes que vuelan no se adonde, pues ellos no migran, se bancan el invierno aqui, contrastando sus negrisimos plumajes con los campos nevados. Parece la pelicula de Alfred Hitchcock “ Los pajaros”, para quien la haya visto.

Cuesta creer que a pocos quilometros de aqui, en medio de los idilicos campos, funciono hace anos un centro de almacenamiento y lanzamiento de misiles intercontinentales, capaces de llegar a EEUU con su carga nuclear y evaporar una ciudad como San Francisco de un saque.
Fue al estallar la guerra fria ( aunque no lo puedan creer escuche a uno que decia que era una guerra en invierno, aayyy!) poco despues del fin de la segunda guerra mundial, y la Union Sovietica, dominadora de estas latitudes, instalo esos chiches apuntando a EEUU.
Al firmarse el pacto de Varsovia, unos anos mas tarde, la cosa se equilibro y de comun acuerdo con la OTAN, se desmantelo ese centro y se lo reinstalo en territorio sovietico.
Hoy ya no queda nada de ese pasado peligroso ( o si?) Qui lo sa!









Otra buena de los bosques, son la infinita cantidad de hongos que se encuentran, exquisitos para aplicar en muchas recetas de la cocina polaca. Por supuesto hay que saber cuales son buenos para comer y cuales no, pues los hay toxicos, y tranquilamente podes quedar culo pa'rriba por comer los venenosos. Pero Jan, el padre de Aisha es un experto en el tema y vamos sobre seguro.

A pocos quilometros de aqui, ( 60-70) hay una zona de pequenos y limpidos lagos de origen glacial, que la gente usa para veranear, pescar, camping, etc.
Es una opcion facil, barata y agradable para las vacaciones de la gente de estos pueblitos, obviamente para los que pueden. Y uno de los que pueden son los padres de Aisha, que tienen auto y casa rodante muy buena, y Tomek ( el mayor de los hermanos varones) con su mujer y su encantadora hijita Karolinka, que ahora vendria a ser algo asi como mi sobrina, oia!
Un par de dias hemos compartido esas vacaciones nadando un poco, y compartiendo el ritual de las salchichas sobre el ognisko ( fogon) con unas birras polacas, a orillas del lago.
Si deciamos antes que Polonia es una sociedad conservadora, nacionalista y catolica en su conjunto, ni que hablar en estas microcomunidades rurales. Todas esa caracteristicas se potencian aun mas. En las grandes ciudades se desdibuja un poco, a la sombra de intelectuales, artistas, politicos, contacto con el exterior, etc., pero aqui es la Polonia profunda, la que aun teniendo auto, internet y celular, en su esencia no ha cambiado mucho en siglos. No digo que este bien ni mal, solo miro, escucho y evaluo.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

SLOW DANCE






Have you ever watched kids
On a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain
Slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?
You better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.


Do you run through each day
On the fly?
When you ask How are you?
Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done
Do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?
You'd better slow down
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

Ever told your child,
We'll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste,
Not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch,
Let a good friendship die
Cause you never had time
To call and say,'Hi'
You'd better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

When you run so fast
to get somewhere
You miss half the fun
of getting there.
When you worry
and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift....
Thrown away.
Life is not a race.
Do take it slower
Hear the music
Before the song is over.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

AUSTRIAN ALPS- BOHEMIA, travel through Martin & Ivanka real life story








AFOOT and light-hearted, I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose.
Henceforth I ask not good-fortune—I myself am good fortune;
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Strong and content, I travel the open road.

The earth—that is sufficient;
I do not want the constellations any nearer;
I know they are very well where they are;
I know they suffice for those who belong to them.

(Still here I carry my old delicious burdens;
I carry them, men and women—I carry them with me wherever I go;
I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them;
I am fill’d with them, and I will fill them in return.)

Allons! after the GREAT COMPANIONS! and to belong to them!
They too are on the road! they are the swift and majestic men; they are the greatest women.
Over that which hinder’d them—over that which retarded—passing impediments large or small,
Walt Whitman

Martin & Ivana invited us for a trip. As we were sitting under our lemon tree in Buenos Aires, chatting about their Austrian and Bohemian houses, we did not know that it would be a journey in space and time. A journey from the idyllic austro-czech present through the communist past- exile – back to the neo-communist era. We were traveling companions and we could not avoid to be emotionally involved. Involved in the REAL LIFE STORY of Martin and Ivana.
After a very intensive week in Prague ( not only tango wise, also because of the end of July heat wave) and a soak- in a swimming pool + asado day at Achim & Jana’s splendid residence in Horomerzice, Martin and Ivanka appeared to pick us up in their car and carry us to Austria, to Linz an der Donau, where they live. Both of them, apart from being our most faithful students in Prague (they come from Austria every time we appear in Prague, all four times) got closer to us sharing a month in our guest apartment in Buenos Aires. It was back then, when I first heard the bits and pieces of their AMAZING STORY, which made shivers come down my spine… Invited for a week of holiday and travel round Austria and Bohemia we were to explore the authentic places associated with the story...
FIRST IT WAS PRAGUE. Then, it was a couple of hours journey by car through Czech Republic to the Austrian border and then to Linz. More and more rolling landscape and tipical Bohemian court houses. We have stayed in a spacious apartment in a beautiful residential area with a view on the town,Danub and, from the garden up on a hill, even the Alps around, on a clear day… Martin and Ivana have lived in this apartment for nearly 40 years. Even though they are Czech born, or better to say, Czechoslovakia born, they feel Austrian and they declare themselves Austrian. Is it time question or rejection of a painful past they wish to forget, but at least they can make jokes about now…?
Martin was born in a Jindrzichuv Hradec, one of the few most interesting medieval, tourist ctowns in Czech, now protected by the UNESCO. He was born into a rich family of the textile factory owners, just after the II world war. The parents with a new born Martin ( “ Martinek”) lived in a huge palace-like house, built from the 16th till the 18th century by a noble family; The house includes numerous rooms for the family, guests and service. It must have some 3000 2m exclaimed Victor, the arquitect, when he saw it for the first time!
The happiness of Lukschal family did not last long. 1948, after the soviet glorious victory in the war, the communist take power. And the gloomy, perverse times began. The family was first deprived of textile factory- the communist society was to be based on the principle of equality, there was no place for the rich, aristocracy or bourgeois. Martin’s father, on a business trip selling the products in Austria, evaluated the situation and decided to stay there, calling and desperately writing the letters of urgency for the wife to come over with a small boy, Martin. The wife, however, could not believe, that the fruits of hard work of the family were to be confiscated; she decides to stay and defend the family’s fortune. It only got worse and the possibility to emigrate from the Soviet block countries decreased and disappeared. 4 years old Martin was not only deprived of well –off life, he lost his father as well. The communist have broken the family bonds successfully. Soon, the family situation was reduced even more: the communists took away the big house, and dozens of families were put up to live there. Martin with the mother was to use only a tiny part, being tenants like the others. The evil, however, was not reduced to the material side of the family. Martin and his mother were doomed forever, as enemies of the system. As such, not only ridiculed, Martin had no right to study at the university or get a decent job. The only possibilities he had, like any other person with a black stain on the family reputation, was the job as cooperative agricultural farm worker on the outskirts of the country, or, rending the services to the country as a simple construction worker. Always supervised, always scorned upon.The sin of his rich family was stuck to him forever. Martin, however, through his perseverance, manage to get all the stamps, permissions and good behavior certificates to be able to study on his own, getting his university degree based almost on the “ apartheid system”. He was always a danger for his colleagues and the system! A self made man, in all the senses of a word...
During his studies and work as a construction worker he met Ivana. They met at the ballroom dance classes and the dance united them forever. They dance till today, but they changed ballroom for argentinean tango. The destiny, paradoxically, wanted Ivana to be the daughter of the high positioned communist leader! Ivana’ s spirit was different, even though she loved her parents and the family, she was a black ship: she dared to rebel against the communism and her love to Martin went even further. There was no future in their condemned lives in Czechoslovakia, but the destiny opens the door to help Martin and Ivanka. It’s a PRAGUE’S SPRING, 1968. Both of our protagonists are only over twenty, but they take the change, forge the permits, using the idea of Martin’s father’s financial help from abroad and Martin's own impeccable behavior and they leave the country. Soon after the deed, the IRON COURTAIN CLOSES AGAIN… The Russians enter Prague.Martin and Ivanka are on on the other side, safe and stunned like Alice in the Land of Marvel!
We are sitting on the fairy tale lake in Sant Wolfgang, sipping cold beer in a blissful summer afternoon, the table situated just by the lake. The magnificent Alps surrounding the lake, give the air of dignity and gloominess to the story. I’m totally obsessed by the story and by those green eys of communism monster. I ask Martin: “ How did you feel, when you first arrived here, to Austria, were you taken aback by the beauty of the Alps? By the peaceful life? The possibilities? How did you feel, freshly out from the grey communistic country?” I was so curious. But Martin recalls:
We did not see the beauty of the Alps or the lake. I remember coming to this very place, St. Wolfgang, wandering around and looking at the windows displays. I only remember those stunning window displays with so much choice of everything. I was wandering- what the hell the people want so much of everything!? It is too much! What for?!” I could not believe the answer I heard. Martin continues his story:
I was only 23 with a wife and a new born child. Yes, in order to have Ivana as a wife, I had to make her pregnant. Only this kind of pressure made her father, dedicated communist, take the urgency measures. Then, I was in a paradise, which was strange and unfriendly. Nobody really invited us. We did not know the language. When you don’t have a roof above your head or a job to nourish your family, when everything is unfamiliar and unknown, YOU DO NOT SEE THE BEAUTY, neither of the Alps, nor the lakes or picturesque spa towns like Gmunden…”
But I knew Martin had a father, the one who desperately wanted his wife with a small son to come to Austria, to escape from the brutal change of the country, to escape from the prison. The time, however, changed it all. Martin’s father remarried with an Austrian, had another son, made his textile factory from the scrap. The appearance of a long lost son with the wife and an offspring only embittered the relationships. The stepmother was the worst. She was afraid that Martin came to claim his inheritance. They finally helped, but Martin and Ivana remember this year as pure hardship and discomfort. They got a job – in the factory, a roof and food. They were not considered to need more . The stepmother made their lives impossible. The first opportunity they had to leave, they accepted without a second thought. After having studied German with eagerness I can depict today. Martin speaks the very educated, Hochdeutch, without Austrian accent (which is considered a dialect form of “ High German” ) and expresses himself without afford, choosing and playing with words with the air of professor. In his job and a private life, he is a perfectionist. Ivana, however, learnt quickely by try and err, she was the first one to speak and her principle is communication.
The young couple accept the first serious job offer and move to Linz an der Donau. Martin, a clever, intelligent, educated professional was splendid acquisition for the company. Again, sitting on the balcony of Linz apartment, having a “ pantagruelic breakfast” I was asking him:” how was it to get a first job in Austria? Was it a big difference to a communist system, in which you get your salary not according to the merits, but according to the principle: “you may work you may idle, the salary is the same”. And this time too, Martin talked about the hard time he had, straight from the communism to work in a capitalistic country :
I was afraid to take initiative, to make my own decisions. The communist erased the whole idea of decision making from the individual. There were always commissions to be summoned and the “collectivity “decided. Of course, everything took forever and things were never made correctly. Everybody was afraid to put a brick on the wall without the general agreement about “where”, “how”, what for”. In his first job, Martin remembers his chiefs getting irritated with him asking so many questions all the time!. “I was asking for every stupid detail, I was afraid to pick something up from the table without asking permission”. But soon he grew to be appreciated engineer and got involved in many prestigious projects. Ivanka too, got a job and found a circle of friends on the spot. Their second son was born in Austria.

We are on a Gaisberg ( 1288 m), Salzburg at our feet. Perfect summer day, surprisingly no tourist, only paragliders on the othes side of a mountain, adding colour to the different shades of green. We look down at a picturesquely located town. It’s a Mozart’s city. Ivanka becomes pensive and a strange grimace rules her face. What happened? “ I’ m sorry, she says” but all those beautiful places we are taking you to, Gmuden, San Wolfgang, now Salzburg, I also shared with my Czech family. My father was there. I remember he sat down and he did not want to go away. He was moved. Or maybe he understood his lost life? And my brother too. You know, my brother, like my father, was a devoted believer in a communism. My brother could not believe it ended. He committed suicide when the new better times were to start for Czechoslovakia.. He could not live in other system than a communist… “ She pauses. A sudden gasp of wind makes me immediately think about this poor communist spirit. A young man who threw himself from the 9th floor of one of those grey depressing communist blocks of flats because he could not live without communism… The Alps are so majestic and they hide all the secrets. Even the thoughts of Ivanka’s father and brother’s exploring the land of an enemy…

Times changed. The communism, unexpectedly to everyone, crumbles to dust, without any war or revolution. Martin and Ivana find out they can claim the property taken away by the communism and they started a long beaurocratic battle to get Martin’s family house back.
Why hardships again? Has not the communism disappeared and a new era was beginning?
BY NO MEANS! And here are two testimonies of the eye witnesses, Aisha & Victor, traveling with the tango also to explore the post communist countries. We, hereby testify, that the communism is by no means over, it still lives in the heads of survivors contaging their offsprings- as long as they live, the communism is there as well. Martin & Ivanka hit against this wall!
To make a “ nice start” , Martin was allowed to recover ONLY THE HALF of the property, based on the still communist law ( SIC!) that he may claim only his mother’s part, as she stayed in the country; however, his father's part, as he was considered a traitor to the patria, can only be bought! Needless to say, Martin had NO CHANCE fighting for his rights for the whole house; he resigned and had to BUY A HALF OF HIS OWN HOUSE.
Actually, what he got was A RUIN OF A ONCE SPELDID RESIDENCE. 70 years of communism, neglect, abuse and not a single penny( korona) for renovation made a house into a ruin. A very depressing looking WRECK where you could hardly see the past glory.
One sunny morning we were sitting int this house " tower" looking at the photographs. Martin has the whole process registered in pictures. One day they will make a splendid album...

The post- communist odyssey did not finish there. Martin got the house, all right, but he got also THE TENANTS! All the families dwelling in the house, put up there by the communist, were STILL THERE. NO WAY TO DISMISS them. NO LAW TO REGULATE IT, only human persuasion and … money!!!!
Beautiful summer dusk in Jindrichuv Hradec. Our last day there and invitation of our hosts to go out and drink VELVET, a special 18% beer in a charming bar by the defense walls of the castle “ Pod Hradom” . Lights reflected in the river, by which we got a table. Perfect table again. And again the “ communist subject “ is raised. “ How do you feel now, Martin, when you meet your old communist acquaintances, the wrong-doers to be precise? They are alive and around, as you are. How do you react face to face with somebody whom you knew as a pig in the communist past? Do you reproach? Shout or scream? Do you ignore- is it possible to ignore? Do you seek justice?”- I enquire.
Martin smiles with the most bitter of his smiles and says: “ Yes. Zdenek is one of them. This communist pig STILL LIVES IN MY HOUSE. What do you think I can say more? “ But then Ivanka continues “ Zdenek was the one who denounced a 4 year old Martin and his mother Ivanka as dangerous enemies of the party and demanded them to be deprived of the house and all the sources of income…”
Then I get more details about Zdenek’s story: old, abandoned and fat he keeps drinking his vodka and lives like a pig in a stall. He is still an eager beaver communist and clings to his rights of living in “ party-given “ residence, which is now a private property of Martin. The part of his flat is a stinky ruin, to such an extend, that Ivana and Martin gave him a newly renovated flat in a house to be able to disinfect and refurbish this dungeon. Not only Zdenek was a phantom of the past. The bitterest memory was an OLD LADY. This is how they recalled her: an old witch. She was from the real high communist party member family. Got not only a part of Martin’s house , but the confiscated palace of a Czech “ bourgeois’ in the center of Vienna, plus another big house outside of Prague. A rich untouchable communist. “ She was so hard to get rid of “ – says Martin “ First she demanded an incredible amount of money to leave. Then, when I pointed out that according to the law she looses her right to live in a place if she had not occupied it for a specific number of years- she put her witchy smile and said : Then, denounce me and put me to the court. YOU WILL SEE WHO I AM THEN!”
The dreadful thing is – she was right! Martin only won the first instance of a court, but lost one after another the 3 successive ones. AND HE LEARNT: THE COMMUNISM IS NOT OVER; THERE ARE STILL COMMUNISTS IN THE COURTS OF JUSTICE, AMONG THE JUDGES, CONNECTED TO THE JUDGES, COMMUNISTS IN THE POLICE AND COMMUNIST IN ALL THE INSTITUTIONS. HOW CAN THERE BE A JUSTICE THEN?! COMMUNISTS ARE EVERYWHERE!
This sad truth cannot be beaten. But life and time has a different truth. The OLD WICH died soon after, liberating Martin’s house by one more horrible tenant for FREE.
The night was cooler and we decided to have a walk, all together, Martin, Ivanka, Victor and me through the OLD TOWN of HOROMERZICE HRADEC, illuminated Castle and the cobble stoned streets. So little seemed to remain from the past. The past not so remote. 15 years? What is it? If Garden sings “ 20 anos es nada. 20 years is nothing” , then 15 years is less than nothing. Generations will have to pass to erase the roots of communism.


Landstein castle is a ruin. The most picturesque, imposing medieval castle ruin in Czech. It has been, though, forgotten and forbidden during the communist era. Why? Was it too dangerous to remind about the royal past? Castles and palaces were reduced to be only the reminders of the fate of the rich. Communism wanted it that way. But, no. Landstejn could not be visited ONLY BECAUSE IT IS SITUATED IN A BORDER ZONE. A dangerous zone , some 20 km to Austria, the line between two enemy systems. From the tower of the ruin we can see vast view on the beautiful Bohemia and Moravia. A labyrinth of rolling landscapes, rivers and forests. Victor comes up with a question: “ How come people during communism did not use this wilderness around the border to escape? You cannot have guarded borders everywhere- there are mountains, rivers and forests! Did the people try to escape? A different world was just a couple of kilometers away…? Martin gets serious and talks about how perfectly protected the zone was. He tells us about the trained dogs, which could tear a human to pieces. About the fences with high voltage running through them, about the sensor zone which realized automatic shooting when entered… We look at the beautiful landscape below and the part of the beauty was gone automatically…. We wandered around the ruins, hearing that only high party members had an access to it. They could have their orgies there. Or secret communist party meetings on the summit. The sad past was hanging around this castle. And we could not think about kings, queens and knights anymore. Victor was inventing a paraglider to fly from the top of the tower of Landstein castle to the Austrian freedom…..

Bohemia is a region of castles. Not surprising- the landscape is so inspiring! Many of the castles are real jewels of architecture and landscaping. Ivana and Martin took us to Cervena Lhota, that is, RED CASTLE. Its story was pretty similar to Landstejn’s castle. During communism it was only accessible for high party members for their meetings and parties ( the idea of orgies there was not repeated by mistake). After the communism it was recovered by the descendent of the family, refurbished and exposed to the public. The castle is wonderfully situated: on an island on a lake! The only connection to the premises: suspension bridge ( “ puente levadizo” in Spanish).The nature around is stunning and totally wild. The lake invites for a rowing. Crowds of tourists put us off. Bohemia is Czech’s favorite destination region for holidays and weekend outings. People of all the ages on the bicycles. Entire families by cars.
We dream about dancing tango in this scenery one day…
Martin has been working on renovation of the house for years now. As he write to us in a mail today “ he has bled himself out financially” the palace devours so much of money and afford. Everything is still difficult in Czech, things do not function, people live and work by old patterns…
But he is a new man, with initiative and decision, perseverance and determination. Is it about the big possession generating money ( Martin refurbishes and installs the companies in the adequate spaces of the house)? By all means no! As Ivanka repeats “ I would not put up with this whole renovation idea, had it not been Martin’s family house. He wants to restore his FAMILY HOUSE, for the memory of his mother, who died not getting it back, for the memory of the child Martin, whose WHOLE LIFE WAS DOOMED ONLY BECAUSE HE WAS BORN IN THIS PALACE!”
Now Martin and Ivana are in their 60ties, but their young spirit and energy make them look at least 20 years younger. They surround themselves with younger friends ( LIKE US!) they spent their free time and money on Argentinean Tango and they say, they can talk and laugh about the past. They do not fit in their age group neither in Austria nor in Czech.

Among people like Ruda from Straz nad Nezarkou ( 40years old, Rumtsais type : a jolly character from the Czech cartoons) life is fun and laughter again. To give a simple example, Ruda calls us the next day after our arrival at the “ Jindrzichuv palace” and invites US: that is Ivanka, Martin, Victor and me, whom he does not know but from the stories, for the bonfire evening at his place. The bonfire was preceded by the visit in Beer Factory (Trebon Brovar) and a nearby castle. Sitting by the fire and baking Klobasa, that is, sausages ( 2 kinds: one with cheese: se syrem, other with garlic, s cesnekem, inside) and uzena krkovice, that is smoked meat, we talked about time and people. We talked and drank slivovice, until they began to sing. Ruda, Martin and Ivanka were singing the communist songs and laughing. When I asked why they laughed themselves to tears they started to translate us the lyrics. It was their own lyrics to the communist songs…
Once Martin or Ruda send them to me, I will put them down.
The story has its “ to be continued” . Ruda’s daughter, for the students’ exchange in Brasil now, writes to me mails in Portuguese. Maja is an incarnation of a new generation : language- and cultures minded, open, entrepreneur…and she has never even met us! Nothing of communist shadow above her head! She does not want to come back home to Czech, definitely not after discovering the LATIN WORLD..

Martin and Ivanka have spent a big part of their lives fighting, escaping and dreaming.
But I am sure they have lived their lives fully and intensly so far and neither communism nor the old age will defeat them! They are young and strong, the soul of the company and an example for the young-old people…