klauskomenda.com » Life in General

The Retirement Dilemma

Klaus — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 06:10:22 +0000

I can’t believe how quickly time flies. It has been over 2 years now since I made the move over the Atlantic to join Yahoo! HQ in Sunnyvale, California. But while one is working away and enjoying life in sunny California, there is one thing, one topic I am always putting off. Something that I should really deal with, but I am not really sure how to go about it, and that is taking steps towards financial security when the retirement age comes around. In a system where it is more or less entirely up to the individual how he wants to do it, it is especially difficult for me coming from a country where the options how to save up for retirement somehow sounded a little more…sensible.

The Pension system in Austria

In Austria, it is, more or less, dead simple. Whenever you are employed, that is working as an employee in a company (no matter if part or full time), part of your salary is contributed to a public pension scheme. When you reach a certain age, currently its 65 for men, the individual has legally gained the right to retire, meaning that he is able to drop out of the workforce and receive a certain amount of pension, paid for by his contributions made to the fund over e.g. 40 years in the workforce. The amount that he gets is typically around 70 to 80 percent of the salary he last received while still working. So considering that the cost of living in Austria is, by far, not as high as in the UK or in California, someone can expect to still make a decent living on these 70 or 80 percent.

Of course, the fact that people live longer and that there are fewer and fewer ‘younger’ people in the workforce being able to ‘pay’ for the pensions of the ones retiring, this system is no longer sustainable in the long run and prompted some reforms already which cut down on the amount of pension a retiree can expect. Experts are already advising people to, if financially possible, compensate these cutbacks by contributing to pension schemes offered by private companies, such as national insurance companies like UNIQA. Similar to the state-run public pension schemes, one makes regular contributions and when the age of retirement comes around, gets a certain amount as a pension paid out on a monthly basis.

So far so good.

The American DIY approach

As with many other things, Americans want choices and be responsible themselves about when to retire and what to do about it – and the last institution they would like to trust with the task of taking care for their retirement is the government. Or so it seems.

I remember that after the first year in the US, I started to do a little research as to how Americans save up for retirement, well knowing that I might have to do the same thing if I am considering to stay here longer than just 2 or 3 years. Very naively I was expecting to find a similar system to what I was used to from my home country, but I could not have been more wrong, at least speaking from my current point of view and level of knowledge.

Please correct me if I am wrong but so far I have identified the following options:

401(k). Many Americans seem to opt for this, as, especially in larger corporations, the employer matches the 401k contributions of the employee up to a certain percentage. However, I also heard that because the funds contributed into a 401k plan are invested on financial markets, meaning stocks and the like, the money is by far not guaranteed to grow until your retirement age comes around. I heard stories that when the economy crisis hit, some people had lost 50% or more of their 401k contributions because some of the shares their 401k money was invested in took a plunge on Wall Street. To me this does not seem like a system I would want to trust my money with when I can’t be sure I am actually getting enough out of it at the end to retire on.
IRA.I am little confused about IRAs in general, but from what I understand is that it is an account, e.g. as many banks offer it, that give the account holder certain tax incentives when used for retirement savings. From what I gathered, it is possible to make annual contributions to an IRA up to a certain limit and that money can then be used to either invest in funds, stocks and bonds for example, or, more conservatively, in a CD. Depending on the type of IRA, there are tax incentives related to either the contributions or the earnings of an IRA.

These are the two options I have identified, however neither of them seem to provide the financial security I would hope for when putting away money for my retirement. To me it seems that, with both systems, if investment decisions turn out to be bad when you are 60, you might be getting a lot less. A whole lot less if you are really unlucky. Doesn’t sound that secure to me.

In addition to these options, there is something else I need to remotely consider: It is true that I really like it here in California, in the US, but it is a possibility that I might have to go back to Europe, to Austria even, at some point in the future. If I already made considerable contributions to either a 401k or an IRA, what is going to happen with that money once I leave the country?

As you can tell, this topic brings up a lot of headaches for me. It would be great if any of you, my dear readers, have any tips or recommendations as to which way to go or how you, personally, are tackling the whole ‘saving for retirement’ subject. Thanks in advance!

Listen to the voices

Klaus — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 18:23:11 +0000

I am on my way back to the US after spending some nice days over Christmas with my family in Vienna. While I was there and especially now, heading back to the US, I am reflecting on my decisions that led me to a life on the West Coast of the United States of America.

When I am in Austria, which is, these days, only once a year for Christmas, usually one of the first questions I get from relatives is “So how do you like it there?”, which is the obvious conversation opener. But they save the real important question for later “When are you coming back?”.

“Not any time soon”, is usually what I respond.

Taking public transport and walking around in the city, I had some time to think about what it is that really makes me look forward to coming back to the US. I am trying to collect these thoughts and put them into meaningful writing in the following paragraphs. One could write a book about these issues (and most likely someone already has), but I am not trying to be scientific here. I am just speaking from the point of view of someone who, unlike what the average Austrian would do, left his home town, to, first, go to London and then taking an even bigger leap to move to the United States to seek a better job and, in a sense, a better life and a better future.

The Rising

After the second world war and gaining sovereignty in 1955, Austria prospered due to an immense effort being put into rebuilding the country after much of it was destroyed in the war. The social democratic party in power was more worried about creating a social infrastructure and safety net than about who will be responsible for the debt that incurred in those years. Fast forward, Austria grew to become one of the richest countries in the world, not at least for its key geographical location for economic ties to Eastern Europe and Russia, and joined the European Union in 1995.

Tourism contributed its fair share to this incline. Austria, and especially Vienna, is incredibly rich when it comes to history and culture. Tourists love this city for its magnificent old buildings, artifacts of a former large empire. According to several studies, Vienna continuously ranks high among the most livable cities.

Stuck the past?

However, I see some truth in the lyrics of Rainhard Fendrich, a Vienna-born “Austropop” musician. In his unofficial Austrian anthem “I am from Austria”, he writes “Dei Hohezeit is lang vorueber”, which essentially translates to: “Your best time is behind you” (referring to Austria, the country). I never paid much attention to that line in the lyrics, but it started to make more sense to me viewing my native country from the distance.

Everyday life in Vienna is influenced heavily by its past, but unfortunately not so much by the present and the future. I am trying to identify a few key distinct issues:

Materialism, jealousy and titles. Americans like to show their wealth, no doubt about that, but the difference is that people in Vienna look at other peoples wealth with jealousy more often, they frown upon others driving bigger, more expensive cars, have a bigger house or a better job, attributing it to luck, a win in the lottery or just “knowing the right people” (which, actually, might be justified in many cases). Nowhere else I have seen people bragging about having as many as 5 different titles, even engraved on their grave stone. It screams of “look what I have achieved, look at me!”
Thinking outside the box. Not. It is widely known that very few Americans own a passport and very few actually know what the world outside the US really looks like. To the contrary, lots of Austrians have a passport, they use it for traveling to popular beach vacation destinations in e.g. Italy and Greece. However, only a minority would consider moving abroad for even a limited amount of time to leave their comfort zone and experience life in a different culture, city and country.
“We have always done things this way”. Viennese (I can’t really speak for all of Austria here) are afraid of change. Too often people choose certain career paths because its the socially accepted way to do and will lead to prestige, a nice big (German) car and a house in the countryside. Entrepreneurship is, so it seems to me, more discouraged than encouraged. In the US, however, I feel you can become whatever you want, and nobody will look at you in disgust if “out” yourself as a musician or a painter. Questioning things, risk-taking and exploring new ways (of thinking) are not necessarily strengths of the Viennese.

Refugee haven

One particular problem that has always been an issue in the past decade (and even before that), but became more prevalent recently is immigration. Austria was always known, not at least from the civil war in Yugoslavia, to take on refugees and giving them shelter and social care. Its geographical location, bordering so many other countries, also makes Austria the ideal destination for people fleeing from corruption, poverty and economic distress in Eastern Europe. Unfortunately, it seems that this over-welcoming hospitality is growing into an ever increasing problem that, when not dealt with, might put the whole social system and, subsequently, society in danger. People are being accepted into the country that don’t contribute anything to either the Austrian society, nor economy but rather exploit the social security system for their own (and their families) benefit. Resulting in an ever growing financial burden for society. No wonder that right-wing parties like the FPÖ (formerly headed by Jörg Haider, now by Heinz-Christian Strache) are gaining more and more votes with each election.

You can have your own opinion about how the US handles immigration, a reform seems long overdue, but one thing remains true: The United States only (legally) accept people into the country, if these are willing to contribute to the economy. “You are a foreigner and out of a job? Get the hell back to where you came from!”.

Job opportunities

This brings me back to probably the main reason why I feel that the US is the place for me: job opportunities. Working in the internet business, the place to be is still Silicon Valley. Yahoo! is, despite struggling to get back up, still a big player and a big name in the business and being able to work for such a company is an opportunity that I would never find in Austria. And even if things would some day not work out any longer between me and Yahoo!, there are plenty of other companies in the Valley that would provide equally or even more interesting jobs.

Conclusion

Of course this is a highly subjective analysis of my particular situation, my personal thoughts and opinions. Others might (and probably will) disagree with some statements I made here and that is perfectly fine. Others might see Austria or certain issues I noted here differently. Feel free to disagree.

Listening to my inner voice, it tells me that Austria is a dead end (or rather a country to retire in), but not a country of possibilities, that provides room and opportunity to change and grow. As of right now, the US is that country for me. Will it be that country forever? Maybe not. All I can do is live my life, listen to my inner voice and see what the future brings.

Redesign and Retrospective

Klaus — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 11:36:40 +0000

It has gone quiet around here, not because I haven’t been doing anything, but rather because I did not feel like spending the time to update the web community about it. In addition I grew a bit tired of focussing on web development related topics outside of work, with this great weather here in California and so much outdoorsy stuff to do. But now, to this post, there are 2 main reasons and themes:

Redesign

If you look at this page in your web browser (and not your favorite RSS reader), you will notice that the design of this very page has changed. I was planning on a redesign for quite a while, but was lacking either motivation or creative inspiration or both at certain times. However, at work I had to just recently dive into all the new technologies that became mainstream in 2010, like HTML5 and CSS3. And finally, I decided, its time to tackle the redesign. So with just a rough idea, and some prototyping, essentially using Firebug, I came up with what you see in your browser. I switched the markup to use HTML5 elements (I still need to verify that I am using them correctly though), use CSS3 for some of the visual effects, and only really care at this point that it looks good in great modern browsers. I will deal with the rest later, or not at all. And that is fine with me. Cause if there is one thing I learned in 2010 is that perfection is something to strive for, but can never be reached. And that it’s ok that some things just don’t work as they would in a perfectly envisioned and engineered world. I would almost argue that imperfection provides the salt in the soup of life…but I am getting ahead of myself here.

I also cut down on some of the features, taking out my portfolio section (which only contained sites that were 3+ years old), took out my resume (instead linking to my profile on LinkedIn), and got rid of some WordPress plugins that either got surpassed by different technologies or just do not provide any value to this site any more. I stripped it down to the things I care about, and nothing else.

Retrospective

As mentioned earlier, one of the reasons you didn’t see any updates in terms of blog posts on this site in 2010 is simple: I just didn’t feel like it. I am not someone who is particular keen on letting the whole world know what is going on in my life, that’s why, if you are looking for me on Facebook or Twitter, that search is futile. I also felt I didn’t really have anything to contribute in terms of web development related topics, as I focussed more on spending time away from my computer outside of work. I decided I would rather enjoy the great outdoors in California on the weekends, than blogging about a new JavaScript pattern. And that pretty much sums it up. Now that might change in 2011, but only in a way that I might shift the focus of topics I write about to things that are not related to HTML, CSS or JavaScript. But who knows what 2011 might bring.

I am writing this blog post from my parents home in Vienna, Austria. I made it through the European winter travel chaos around this Christmas with amazingly only a little more than one hour delay in total, which still stuns me today, as some many people are still trapped at airports all over Europe. It is freezing cold here, but good to be back, relaxing and celebrating Christmas with my family.

And in that spirit, to all of my loyal readers (all 3 of you), I wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Vienna City Half Marathon, Take Two

Klaus — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 06:48:43 +0000

My first half marathon experience in Vienna last year was just overwhelmingly great. So only a few months later, in August 2008 in fact, I decided that, no matter what, I want to do it again. Moving to California and with all the things you have to get done when moving countries and continents, was very time consuming so I did not have as much time as I wanted to train for this event. I was wishing for a new personal record (last year I did the 21,1 km in 2:03:02), but considering the lack of training and that I was still suffering from jet-lag on race day, was not expecting much.

I was not prepared enough, so I thought, but came race day, I decided to change my strategy. The weather was just as great as last year, with blue and sunny skies all day. Almost too warm for running. And with almost 30,000 other runners at the starting line, I decided that I will try to stay under 2 hours. If I can keep the pace (which would be 5:41 min/km on average), that’s great, if I can’t do it, I will just slow down and just be there for the experience.

Looking back at the run, I believe I started slightly too quick. To be on the safe side, I was trying to keep my pace between 5:15 and 5:30, because you lose a little bit of time at the refreshment points and I knew that just after 11 km, there is a very long (about 5 km) stretch from Ringstraße to Schönbrunn Palace, which is also slightly uphill, completely in the sun. I knew this from the year before, this is the most tedious part of the half marathon. I had to slow down a bit and push myself through that part of the race. But slowing down there was not a big deal, because by the time I got there, I had established a lead (in relation to my goal to stay under 2 hours) of over 4 minutes. I literally checked my pace about every minute to make sure I am still on track.

Thankfully, after that uphill part, there is a turn that takes the runners back along Mariahilfer Straße (which is then slightly downhill) to the Ringstraße and to the finish line at Heldenplatz. By then, I couldn’t keep my original pace I started off with and the last couple of kilometres were more a matter of willpower than anything else. But finally, I made it to the finish line, hit the stop button on my watch and it showed me what I wanted to see: Under two hours. 01:55:50. Mission accomplished.

Resurrection

Klaus — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 07:00:27 +0000

Initially I was under the oh so wrong impression that moving to Sunnyvale from San Francisco, and closer to the Yahoo! office, would be a piece of cake. How could I have ever underestimated this undertaking? I have no idea, but I obviously did.

So what happened in those last two months without anything happening on my blog or my Flickr stream for that matter?

First, I came back from celebrating Christmas and New Year’s in my home town Vienna (which, so I learned, Mr Drew paid a visit to just recently) together with my family and close friends. Even though it was only for just more than a week, it was totally worth it to get back and spend the holidays with my loved ones.

The time between coming back to California and moving to Sunnyvale Jan 20 is a total blur. I commuted for at least 2 hours a day, that’s for sure, cause I was still taking the Yahoo! shuttle service from SF to Sunnyvale. I worked, so that’s obvious as well. Apart from that, I don’t remember much. Drinking? Drugs? Other forms of intoxication? Who knows…

January 20 was the big day. I moved out of my friend Cindy‘s place (and I can’t thank her enough for letting me stay there for so long) and to my own place in Sunnyvale. Let me state that I love San Francisco and would the office be there, I would have loved to find an apartment there. But I am a bit allergic to commutes that take more than 45 minutes a day. I know, I am probably spoiled, but that’s just how I feel. So I moved closer to the office and my commute time is now—even though I have to take a public bus until I have my US drivers license sorted—cut down to about 40 minutes. Door to desk. That’s more my liking.

Because my apartment came unfurnished, like so many places around here, I had to play the “plan-and-get-furniture” game. And I am still playing it, cause I am far from done with getting all the things I need, but I got the bare necessities covered for now. The rest can wait until I don’t have to rely on public transport any longer. Thankfully, my beloved Swedish furniture store is in Palo Alto, so not that far away.

Work is good and pretty busy recently, not least because we have a new CEO and things are being reorganized. But in economic times like this, more work is certainly better than out of work.

What else…let me think. Ah yeah: some of you guys might remember that I did my first half marathon last year in April. It was such an amazing experience that, a few months later, I decided that no matter what, I want to do it again the following year. So I am doing it again this year, which means I am going to Vienna to visit my parents and participating in the race mid April. Exciting. I will most likely not be able to beat my personal record, because I don’t have enough time this year to train as much as I want to, but I don’t care. This time, the experience counts, not the time.
Oh yeah, whilst I was at it…I also signed up for another half marathon, which is probably a little closer to where I live currently. Derek is still gonna laugh at me, but I don’t care

That’s about it, in a nutshell. The next couple of weeks will (apart from working at Yahoo!) consist of some more running, getting my US drivers license sorted, getting a car and some more pieces of furniture. I also have a couple of web development related tasks on my list and some ideas for articles which I hope I can also get to fairly soon-ish.

Until next time.

Location Based Services – my book on Amazon

Klaus — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 22:22:36 +0000

I graduated from University in 2006 in Austria and wrote my diploma thesis on Location Based Services. I talked about the foundations and technologies that need to be in place in order to provide such a service to users of cell phones and mobile devices. To round it up, I developed a prototype for a Location Based Service (a restaurant guide) in J2ME as well as a corresponding website.

The application on the mobile phone would give you a list of restaurants, bars, cafes etc. in your proximity, as well as details about their type of cuisine, opening hours, price range etc. and how other people have rated that particular place. Based on whatever the occasion was—whether you are planning a relaxed dine-out with your family or having a more intoxicated night with friends—the tool would recommend you the best place in your area.

While I was working on the prototype, writing my thesis and then putting the layout together in InDesign, I wasn’t thinking that a publisher would ever get interested in my work.

But the less you expect something, the happier you are when it actually happens. About 2 months ago I received an email from VDM Verlag in Germany saying that they found my thesis in the library of the university and would be interested in publishing it. “How awesome is that!”, was about the reaction I had. After putting all the required details about the book into their online system and reformatting a few things to fit their requirements, I got the confirmation that everything looks good and it is off to the printers.

And now, just in time for Christmas , I am happy to see my book being available on Amazon.com and Amazon.de. It is in German, so sorry to my non-German-speaking friends. I will most likely never reach the author status of my colleague Christian Heilmann, who wrote about 167 books about web development related topics, but I am very happy to see this and it makes me feel proud to see that all the work I put in at that time is now available to a wider audience. It is a really great feeling and I feel very content how it all turned out.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Karl-Heinz Weidmann, who was my thesis advisor, and Werner Flatz, who I worked together with during the development of my application.

First Days in the New World

Klaus — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 04:03:10 +0000

My bags were packed, I got my visa and my passport in my pocket. And so I jumped on a plane on November 12 to go to San Francisco via Munich. I have been over here for a little bit over a week now in total and I am glad to say: I like it. I like it a lot.

Until I have figured out where I would want to live here in California, whether in San Francisco or closer to the Yahoo! office in Sunnyvale (although I am currently leaning more towards the latter), I am lucky to have a friend like Cindy who lets me crash at her place for now. Thanksgiving is coming up and I am the one who has to be thankful for that. Also, because of her, I was able to meet up with some nice people like Marianne, Craig and Daniel. I was also able to catch up with my Web Developer mates from London: Marco and Ben. And because of Cindy’s status as a web celebrity, one needs to be prepared to do a lot of partying, like Marianne’s birthday at Foreign Cinema, Ben’s housewarming party…wow, I am already partied out and could use some relax time.

But that’s not happening. I had my first day at Yahoo! last Monday and had to go through New Hire Orientation—although I am technically not a new hire. But anyways. Also got a new MacBook Pro, which is nice.

If you guys are curious, I am gonna be working on the new Universal Profile, which was redone and a beta version launched just recently.

As stated above, I really like it so far. The weather is nice (apart from today, where it is a bit cloudy), the people I have met so far were all nice and welcoming. San Francisco as a city is, by far, not as busy as London, much more spacious and with its location at the Pacific, it makes it a place you just have to like.

The only thing I pretty much hate right now is the commute from San Fran to Sunnyvale, which takes about 1 to 1.5 hours one way. Yahoo! provides a shuttle service from San Francisco and back, equipped with nice leather seats and even WiFi. All nice, but I still consider these 2 to 3 hours every day pretty much wasted. Which is why I am more leaning towards finding a place closer to the office, in Sunnyvale or Palo Alto. I will think about that during the next couple of weeks.

To sum it up: All good here in California. I like it here and, most of all, I am enjoying it.

Whole Lot Of Leavin’

Klaus — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 20:18:14 +0000

When I came to London in May 2007, it was because of the great opportunity Yahoo! provided me. I got the chance of working with Europe’s finest Web Developers, gaining a lot of knowledge and experience. Furthermore, working in London, a great and big city I have only been to as a tourist. An adventure, an exciting one, so I thought at that time. And it was.

Living in London

When I arrived, I moved into a pretty small studio flat in Camden, but relatively close to work, so easily reachable by bus, tube or even by foot. On the other hand, Camden is a pretty busy, lively and noisy area. All the places I have lived before that, I was never used to be exposed to traffic noise or music from nearby pubs. Or hearing drunk people yelling on the street at 2am in the morning, for that matter.

And London itself is a pretty condensed city. I get the impression that it was originally planned for 1–2 million people at max, but effectively 7 million live here, many of which use the tube every day. And much like the main streets, the tube seems to burst at the seams during rush hour. Fun is certainly something else.

What I probably miss the most here is nature and not being able to escape the city life easily. You can’t do that by staying in the city, cause if the weather is nice (and that doesn’t happen often) literally millions of Londoners make their way to the parks. So you could go somewhere out, which is possible, don’t get me wrong, but it just takes a while (maybe with some strikes or line closures along the way) and you won’t be the only one having that idea, especially on weekends.

I used to bike to work at other places I have lived. Even though I see co-workers doing that, it just looks pretty dangerous to me. Some people are talking about having a little “accident” with a bus or a cab from time to time and considering the fumes…I’d rather not do that. Well, I did not even have to think about it, cause I didn’t even have the space in my flat to put a bike somewhere

Which leads me to money. My opinion is: You get paid more here in London, but you also spend more than almost anywhere else. Except maybe other expensive cities like Moscow or Oslo. But the quality of life that one would expect by paying almost 1000 British Pounds per month for a flat is just not there. No way. In the end it comes down to a simple question: For the money I am spending, am I getting back what I would expect? The answer for me here in London is: No.

Don’t get me wrong, London has a lot to offer. There is always something going on, which makes it pretty lively and interesting, especially for tourists and visitors in general. At the same time, there are so many history-rich sites and buildings. You can do something different every day, every weekend and not get bored. In fact, you would not be able to keep up with all the things happening. Which is great, don’t get me wrong. I really liked to explore new parts of the city and seeing new places.

But in the end, I believe those things were less important to me. Apart from my 6 months internship in New York City in 2005, I have always lived in pretty quiet, residential areas, with lots of green spaces around, easy access to nature and mountains. My parents’ place in Vienna for example is a house with a nice garden and within minutes from the Donauinsel where you feel miles away from the city life, even though you are still pretty close to the center. Dornbirn, where I studied, has 50,000 inhabitants, is close to Lake Constance, and has forests and mountains all around. I used to do mountain biking there a lot and I could have happened easily to not meet a single person for 3 hours whilst cycling up one of the mountains. I really loved that. And I did miss that a lot here.

Working at Yahoo! in London

Work is a bit of a different story. First of all, I got the chance to work with the finest guild you might find all over Europe when it comes to Front-End Web Development. I have no doubt about that. And that alone was worth accepting the offer back in 2007 and coming to London.

On the first project that I was working on, I got the chance to work with Drew, which was really cool and I met Simon, with whom I did a private project later on. And, of course, Jimmy, who I would say became my closest friend here in London, who gave me guitar lessons and helped me to keep my head above the water when things weren’t going so great.

Like the other two, Jimmy moved on to greener pastures as well. To Chile, in his case. In general, many of the people that where working for Yahoo! when I started have left the company in the meantime, which certainly did not help either.

Leaving and moving…again

I bet it’s warm in California,
I think it’s time to hit the road

Whole Lot Of Leavin by Bon Jovi

When I decided to undertake the adventure of moving to London, I thought that I will give it some time and see how it goes. If I like it, I can stay here for quite a while. If I don’t like it, I can move on. And that is what I will do in the end.

Around May this year I made the decision that London is not the city for me. It just did not work between us. Once you have figured that out, there is not much sense in arguing with yourself about it. It is time to move on. At that time I started to make contact with some people in the Yahoo! Headquarter in Sunnyvale and finally, a couple of weeks ago, we reached an agreement. So if everything goes to plan, I will have my first day at Yahoo! in California on November 17.

If I could turn back time, would I do it again? Would I go to London? Yes, absolutely. Cause the things I have learned, the things I have experienced during my time here in London were great. Some things were just incredibly awesome, some things were painful. But that’s life I guess. I think that I was able to improve myself as a person, which, for me, is already a big achievement.

I still have a couple of weeks here in London and I am planning to get the most out of my time left here. But come end of October, I will need to pack my bags and move on. To greener pastures, as well, or so I hope. California Dreamin’.

Running the Half Marathon in Vienna

Klaus — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:47:01 +0000

Inspired by my friend Annie’s motivation, endurance and discipline and by Derek’s Ironman torture, I registered for the Half Marathon during the Vienna City Marathon event which took place last Sunday, April 27. I had registered for it back in March, after I had done longer runs than usual (including Stanley Park in Vancouver) and figured that a Half Marathon should be doable. Finally, on Sunday, the time had come to prove it.

My friend Annie wanted to run the London Marathon for quite a while, but due to the strict entry regulations, it is pretty hard to get a spot. So she finally decided to run the Marathon in Vienna instead. I was really inspired and impressed but also thought that I couldn’t do such a thing—mainly because I consider the time commitment (training runs at least 4 times a week) being simply too much for me. But, on the other hand, I figured that I maybe might not be able to do 42 kilometers, but 21 maybe? So I signed up for the Half Marathon in Vienna, my hometown.

So we rolled into Vienna on Friday. Unfortunately, I was still feeling a bit sick from a slight cold I caught the week before. But I figured and hoped that everything will be fine on Sunday, the day of the big event. I did not sleep well the night from Friday to Saturday cause I had trouble breathing through my nose because of the cold, woke up at 3 in the morning and fearing that I won’t be able to run. I felt pretty miserable but decided I will try it and if I feel bad during the run, I will just stop.

On Saturday, Annie and I picked up our numbers and the timing chip, which was pretty exciting. Also, the weather was really gorgeous with sunshine all over the place, warm temperatures and an even better forecast for Sunday, the day of the event.

In our “Marathon package” we had also included a carb loading party, which was actually called “Kaiserschmarrn” Party in the City Hall in Vienna. That was pretty nice, had a portion or two of this traditional Austrian dish and chilled out in Rathauspark afterwards to enjoy the beautiful weather.

Sunday. The big day. We got up around 6 in the morning (the start was scheduled for 9), had some carb-rich stuff for breakfast (Palatschinken) and made it to the starting area at Reichsbrücke around 8. It was pretty interesting to see that street, which is a popular high traffic street in Vienna, completely sealed off and instead of cars, there were only runners.

We came across people from all over the world (apparently there were participants from more than 100 countries) and found a spot in the middle of the crowd. Then, at 9am sharp, we heard the start signal and the two of us plus about 30,000 other runners were on our way to conquer 21,0975km and 42,195km respectively. For me, the feeling of being part of such an event with so many other people felt really great.

We made our way over the Reichsbrücke along Lassallestraße with spectators watching and cheering, it was so great and it filled me up with more energy than any drug in this world could have given me probably. I was emotionally touched by the whole atmosphere and I felt just great.

We ran along Prater Hauptallee and I was already running considerably faster than on any of my training runs, but the combination of the great weather, the atmosphere, the stream of people that are in this with you together just pushed me to keep up the speed and it felt really good—at this stage.

After the Prater, we made it to the Ringstraße, along the Ring and turned left after the Opera House into Linke Wienzeile. Again, at the Opera House, lots of people chanting and supporting the runners. Another touching highlight.

Then came the hardest part for me. Along Linke Wienzeile, passing the Naschmarkt, we were supposed to go to Schönbrunn, make a turn and then go along Mariahilfer Straße, back to the Ring. Towards Schönbrunn, we had to go slightly uphill, with no shade in sight, in the bright sun…it was definitely a tough couple of kilometers. For the first time during the run I felt my body aching, especially my knees and I thought: “Oh jeez, that is going to be tough.” But I also said to myself, as Annie and I noted a couple of times during our training runs: it is all mental. Your body tries to tell you a lot of times that you should stop because of some little pain here and there and that what you are doing does not really serve ANY purpose at all.

But that is a lie. The thing is that your body is capable of much more than any normal person needs in his or her everyday life. We are just used to have it comfortable and not challenge our bodies that much. So in situations like that, it is normal to think that lying on a couch with your feet on the table should have been the better choice. But that is not the case. You can do it. It is all mental.

Finally we made it to the turning point at Schönbrunn and made our way back to the city center. Going back again felt rather easy, there were some areas of shade from the adjacent buildings and the fact that it was going slightly downhill made the thing a lot easier too. Then we crossed the Gürtel at Westbahnhof and I knew: now it is just down Mariahilfer Straße (a famous shopping street, kind of like Oxford Street in London).

Well, and kinda like Oxford Street, Mariahilfer Straße is, in fact, pretty long too. But finally, we got to Museumsquartier and made the left turn onto the Ringstraße again. I could already see the last turning point onto the Heldenplatz so I started to run faster, already sprinting actually. There were lots of people, more than on any other area along the route. It was just electrifying, gave me a last push of energy. I was making the last turn, through the Heldentor, into the finish area. There were, again, lots of people on the stands, chanting, applauding, shouting and with a couple of other people I crossed the finish line. It was awesome, the feelings I had were hard to describe in words. I felt happy, exhausted, but happy, disbelieving that I really achieved my goal of finishing it. It felt just great. My time in end was 02:03:02, with some more details on the VCM web site.

After picking up some refreshments and resting on the grass in the park, I waited for Annie to finish the real challenge, the full marathon. I was waiting along the Ringstraße behind the barricades and a little bit before 3pm, I crossed the finish line with her. I felt so happy for her and have so much respect for her for achieving this goal—running the whole marathon. My deepest respect, I am really proud of her. Proud of both of us.

It has been such an amazing experience, the atmosphere, the weather, it was just great. And now I can finally understand why people get addicted to running and doing these kind of events. At least for me, I feel that doing this with so many other people, conquering the distance with other runners and the support from the other runners and especially from the people watching is just so emotionally touching, it is hard to describe. It is an incredibly good feeling of happiness. Something I could see myself wanting to feel again.

PS: As soon as I find the time, I will upload some pictures to the Photos section. Meanwhile, check out some pics on flickr about the Vienna City Marathon.

All Austrian

Klaus — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 20:31:34 +0000

Being in London for more than 4 months now, every now and then I encounter certain “things” that remind me of the country I was born and raised.

First, I would like to mention the Austrian Club London. This club is basically a chance for Austrians, who ended up in London one or the other way, to socialise at events with Austrian “flair” and meet guys who speak their mother tongue. For example, every two months they are holding After Work Drinks at the Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Pub, and, of course, their highlight of the year is the Austrian Ball in October. So if you are a fan of the Austrian culture, you are most certainly welcome to join…

Last Wednesday, I got to see The Sound of Music (the movie) for the first time. When I went to the states for the first time in 2003, I came back with the impression that this movie (with Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer) is the only thing that comes to an American’s mind when they hear “Austria”. Apart from the fact that it is Austria, not Australia, bitch! (thanks Phelim).

So thanks to Cineworld, which was showing this marvellous piece of cinema last Wednesday only, I was able to finally close that gap of cultural ignorance in my brain *sigh*. Sidenote: As the footage was, of course, not digital, they had some trouble with the sound at the beginning of the movie. The whole thing started, Julie Andrews appeared on the screen on one of the mountains around Salzburg, singing her heart out…but no sound. Apparently, they took the sound out of The Sound of Music. My girl and I had a lot of fun. Finally, after that bad start, they fixed it and restarted the movie.

And finally, beloved by all of my fellow Austrians (including me) for their best on-board service, Austrian Airlines does some advertising on the London tube. I recently saw some posters at Leicester Square and Camden Town tube station. Awesome.