Around the World: Willkommen

March 26, 1992

Today, I walked around Salzburg in the daytime.  The gardens are beautiful to walk through on my way toward the castle.  The outside is all I will see, as I can't afford the admission.  It looks like I'll be heading to Munich a little bit earlier than I had planned.

Munich has placed an hour long stroll between the hostel and the train station that takes me through a park with plenty of pleasant scenery to offer distraction.  I could have taken the subway, but the criss-crossing lines were too confusing to figure out over the single, well-marked cobblestone path to follow to the hostel's front door.

The hostel is busy, but I'm able to find a bunk in a 4 bed dorm with a family of three from France.  The husband and son say very little other than civil pleasantries.  The wife is quite the dictator, friendly but very matter-of-fact about where I should put my bag and making sure I am aware of which bed belongs to whom.  I only have to put up with her for a few moments now and while I'm asleep tonight.

Picnic basket by Jonsu Sampson

The scenery I was mentioning earlier is worth a much longer second look.  A nearby grocery store has all the ingredients for a lovely park picnic, including wine at $1.40 a bottle, some chocolate and fixings for a sandwich.  There are musicians scattered about the park jamming cohesively with other musicians within earshot, and a group of people engaged in a role-playing game of chess.  Each person represents a chess piece called to move by another person perched on a tower chair.   It appears to be a very intense game. 

Human Chess game in progress.
Photo courtesy chess.com

It's warm and sunny and I am in Germany.

• ¤ •

"Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going and why. "

~Eddie Cantor

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