Around the World: Salzburg

March 25, 1992

Last night I dreamed of music.  An endless stream of unheard tunes played constantly in my head while I slept.  I didn't realize how much I missed the sound of familiar songs.

It's a drizzly, damp day, but a little misty rain won't stop me from exploring Vienna on my last day here, especially with a loaned umbrella.  After a long, leisurely and filling breakfast, I go to visit an artist exhibition of optical illusions before departing for the train station.  I almost made it to the station before I realize I still have Uwe's umbrella.  I walk back to Uwe's apartment and push it through the mailbox slot and brave the drizzle on the way back to catch my train.

Salzburg is a very small place.  I think I saw most of it by night on my way to the hostel and the rest of it searching for a night club or just somewhere to listen to music.  The place I find is a small bar, where I can stand while I sample the local beer.  I don't recognize any of the music, but it's not terrible to listen to either.  Still, it's not quite the fix I was hoping for.

• ¤ •

"Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without."

~Confucius 

Around the World: Budapest

March 24, 1992

Budapest is just a short train trip from Vienna and gives me an opportunity to visit Hungary.

The tourist information booth at the train station is a bit like accomplishing a task in India.  Once I find the booth, I am sent upstairs to wait in line for 20 minutes only to discover that maps are not available here.  Another booth that changes money downstairs has maps for sale.  It doesn't take long to discover that only major streets are marked, which is often not the type of street I am on.

Sausage Goulash

Not knowing much about Hungary or the city of Budapest, I search for postcards to point out sites of interest.  I can't find those either.  I do know that Hungary is famous for goulash, a thick stew that simmers for hours, making the meat delicately tender.  There are different varieties so I decide to seek out a restaurant that boasts their goulash as the best.  The place I choose does not disappoint.

On a search for a souvenir to bring to Uwe, I discover that my rear end is once again in sampling territory.  Tired of being constantly checked for freshness like a bushel of produce, I find a can of goulash in a small grocery next to the train station and head for the safe haven of Vienna where my butt isn't treated like a loaf of day old bread.

Budapest, leaving the train station.

Vienna is a different animal at night.  As I walk from the station to Uwe's house, I pass several prostitutes advertising their availability, each of them wearing more or less (well... less) the same thing, like a sort of uniform.  Not far from the train station, I notice I am being followed by an unsavory character.  He's lanky and not terribly good at being discreet.  To test my theory, I stop to look at a dress shop window display and notice he stops to examine a window display of fine china and tea sets.  When I start walking, I can see in the reflection of store windows that he is trailing me again.

I have to turn a corner just a few blocks from Uwe's place, and not wanting to be followed home, I duck out of sight into the shadows of a doorway and wait for my lanky stalker to make the turn and continue past me.  I don't know what he saw; if the shadows and the additional height of the step made me appear threatening, but the sight of me startled him.  He increases his pace, now walking ahead of me and looking back over his shoulder frequently.  Whether he is trying to keep track of me or I am making him nervous, I don't care.  I adjust my pace to duck into the alley that leads to Uwe's while he's not looking.

Safely home, I offer to cook the goulash from Hungary for dinner.  Everyone is curious what goulash from a can could be like, but it's actually pretty close to what I had for lunch.  Hopefully, that's a good thing, considering the directions to make it are only in German.

• ¤ •

"We don't live in a world of reality, we live in a world of perceptions."
- Gerald J. Simmons

Around the World: Vienna

March 22, 1992

It's Sunday and nothing is open today except the museums, which Vienna has a variety to offer.  I spent the day exploring as many as I could.  The clown and circus museum has pictures and miniature circus figures.  The doll and toy museum has teddy bears, trains and handmade dolls that date back to 1740.

The Anker clock marks each hour with a historical figure marching across the clock's face.  At noon, all the figures appear in a sort of parade, each with their own unique music from their respective time.  When the parade began at noon, a person appeared from within the crowd draped in a white bed sheet holding his hands in the air, one hand displaying a peace sign, the other thumbs down.  I wonder if this is part of the show or one individual's protest on the passage of time.

Figaro house was once the residence of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart where it is believed he composed The Magic Flute and The Marriage of Figaro.  Most of the furniture from that period has been destroyed or lost, but the museum does boast a desk where Mozart sat to compose his music.

Back at Uwe and Elisabeth's flat, friends of theirs are listening to Uwe's tales of India.  After some Campari with orange juice (tastes like cold tea mixed with rye), we head out for dinner and later to a nightclub.  Nobody likes the music playing so we go to the nearby flat of one of Uwe's friend's and listen to their stereo and talk over a few glasses of wine.

• ¤ •

“Music, even in situations of the greatest horror, should never be painful to the ear but should flatter and charm it, and thereby always remain music.”

~Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart