Europe: Rambling in Salzburg

I've been without wifi for a couple of days, so here's a blog to start catching up!

Wednesday, 22 August, 2012

On Wednesday morning, Michaela drove me to the Amberg Hauptbahnhof, my jumping-off point from Germany. We said a warm goodbye, I bought a (surprisingly cheap) ticket, I wished Zack luck, and then I stood by myself once more on the station platform, ready to head out into the great unknown. Three weeks of Germany were behind me, and I felt ready to experience another culture, although I guessed that Salzburg wouldn’t be different from a tourist’s perspective.

You read about my day in Salzburg in my previous blog. But I wrote that before I got sick. Yes, I got sick in a hostel— for the second time in my trip to Europe. I think it was food poisoning of some kind, and it wasn’t too severe, but I got very well acquainted with the hostel’s toilet. At last, dizzy with nausea but exhausted, I was able to fall asleep. 

Thursday, 23 August, 2012

Fortunately, I woke up feeling washed out, but much better. A kind couchsurfing host had written me, so I spent my second day knowing that I had a place to sleep (a fact that had been doubtful the night before, since most of the hostels were booked Thursday and Friday). 

For most of the morning, I sat by a modern sculpture in front of an impressive-looking domed building and read “The Secret Garden,” a book I had enjoyed immensely as a child and still rather like. Then I ate some lunch (a self-serve salad for less than a euro!) at a place called My Indigo and contemplated what to do. What should one do when one is lugging a heavy backpack all day and is still a bit weak from vomiting the night before?

The answer was abundantly clear: go on a hike! (Hey, at least I didn’t try to rent a bike or something silly like that.)

The hike route I found was labeled on the map as “Easy Hiking Tour.” I forgot to translate that into Missouri speech: “Strenuous climb up extremely steep angles and/or ancient steps.” As I slogged up paths that should never occur on a hike labeled “easy,” I was glad that I hadn’t attempted a trail considered “difficult.” To top it off, the weather was unseasonably hot— somewhere in the 90’s. I haven’t been that completely soaked in sweat like that since Cornerstone. Still, my legs will obey me when I ask them to, and although I was nearly faint with heat, I floated along on happy memories about a day when I was similarly drenched in sweat: the day I became a fiancée.

The views were worth it, of course, but, like any hike, it was more about the journey. I appreciated the tall, thin trees and the little birds darting through them (although I’m driven crazy that I don’t know any of their names). At one point, two antelope bounded across my path, and I was so excited I nearly hyperventilated. Glimpses of the city kept me looking for the next break in the trees.

By the time I was done with the hike, I realized that sitting down was probably a good idea. I found a nice place to sit and relax…

Or, alternately, be completely overwhelmed with Baroque architecture. The Salzburg Cathedral is a marvel of engineering, even though it was built in the 1600’s (yeesh, Europe and their newbie buildings). Every inch is decorated, and the art on the walls, contrary to many cathedrals I’ve seen, are museum-piece quality. I spent a good two hours sitting in a pew, just taking everything in, then slowly walking down the side hallways staring at the masterful oil paintings of the Stations of the Cross and stories from the Bible and from saints’ lives. 

I finished off the day by sitting in the Mirabell Gardens, a manicured park with decorative lines of red and yellow flowers swirling into patterns between statues and well-clipped grass. I blew a whopping 1,20 euros on a strawberry ice cream cone, which I savored while watching the tourists pose like the statues for photos. Then I read more of The Secret Garden, which just seemed appropriate. Aside from my daily Bible readings, I haven’t actually read anything since I left home. I get lost in books, and when I want to be awake to my surroundings, I keep my head up and my eyes open, preferring to listen to music. But today, washed out from the hike, it was good to read about gardens while sitting in a garden.

Now it was time to hop the bus and find my way to my couchsurfing host’s house. Georgi said he would be home by 8:30, so it was getting dark as I boarded the bus and took my seat. Soon I noticed large raindrops splattering against the windshield, and streetlights glowing glossily. 

A few seats away from me, a woman offered candy to a mother and her toddler. The toddler grabbed the piece with a hearty high-pitched “Danke!” The woman proceeded to dig around in her purse, offering every piece of candy she had. The mother tried to get her to stop with no luck, and by the time she and her son stepped off the bus, his fists were stuffed with paper-wrapped sweets.

Fortunately, the correct bus stop was well-marked, so I felt confident hopping off to a stop with the airport behind me, residential complexes in front of me, and a vast stretch of farmland to my left. I pulled out my umbrella and noticed lightning flashing off in the distance to my right. 

Slowly I walked in the direction of Georgi’s apartment, but I found myself distracted: I stared at the nearest mountain, which jutted up into a jagged polygon of stone, black against the almost-black sky, tipped with two tiny points of light. As I watched, thunderclouds rolled onto it, shrouding the top from sight. In the distance, I saw the mountain’s brothers, indistinct in the darkness. I glanced back to my right just in time to see a crack of lightning illuminate the Alpine peaks for an instant. The rain spattered down and thunder roared in the clouds above me. I hurried to find the apartment.

Georgi welcome me in, let me dry out, and fixed supper. We ate tomato-cucumber-white-cheese salad (a staple from his home country of Bulgaria), tortellini, and big bowls of ice cream. He showed me how to fold an origami rose, suggested some places to see in Salzburg tomorrow, and then let me crash on his couch. I shut my eyes at 11:00 and didn’t wake up again until 9 the next morning.

~~~