NEWS

DIRECTOR'S IMPRESSION OF EUROPEAN CULTURE

This the first part of a story by Durban Arts Director Noel Fairhurst on the cultural aspects of his European holiday.

Our six-week tour of Europe began with a spontaneous folk song concert on the airbus flying out of Johannesburg on a Thursday night. Some 30 Slovene farmers with arms like hams who were making a tour of South Africa got down to some solid, untrained glee singing interlaced with insider jokes that must have been blue from the laughs they got. Although they were not physically destructive the row went on all night and destroyed our first night's sleep.

VIENNA

Next morning at 05h55 at Vienna Air-port I was looking for a distant relative who would introduce us to the cultural and historic features of Vienna. Austrians insist on not being like Germans and I couldn't find a single manned counter to ask questions, a pretty vain hope with my scant German. Also, facing the information counter, was a tall black man in a maroon jacket. I asked him if he was South African. He said he was, so we shook hands, embraced and did not feel so far from home. The new South African abroad.

Finally I did find a manned counter and got talking to two ladies from Zagreb, who had English. Then my guide found me. The trouble had been that she was looking for someone taller and I was looking for someone blonder!

We arrived same day in Geneva for lunch to meet a senior official of the Red Cross which has its headquarters in Geneva. A North Country lassie married to an American, whose shorthand and typing skills alone had taken her right to the top by her mid-30's.

When my son returned early from work on his Harley Davidson (the new 'in' status symbol) he immediately took me to Sirene du Leman. This is one of the scores of little harbours around Lake Geneva, just a quarter of a mile from his home, and takes its name from an exact replica of the statue of the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen. That's when my love affair with Lake Geneva began and it still laps my dreams. The lake, longest in Europe, is 168 kms long and is my son's constant reference.

Next day we motored down to Douvane in France for the annual antique crafts fair. Most of the items belonged to the first half of the 19th century, though there were some from the 18th and even 17th century. Frightfully expensive and the French were not there to bargain. The piŠce de resistance was a bureau in rosewood, possibly early 19th century, which the French dealer touted as "Ang-lais; Anglais"- something from Britain that one Frenchman thought highly of.