The Sound of Music...constantly

Although my bus pass has been very economical and fairly convenient, trains are just so much more fun. I don’t know what it is...old school?  The train to Salzburg was probably one of the best routes to take as we passed snow capped mountains, small villages, fields and grass running all the way to the horizon.  The compartments in the train also added to the nostalgia of travelling gone by and so I sat and wrote and looked out the window, I really didn’t want the trip to end.  The girls slept, changing positions every 20 minutes, and by the looks of things, Tuck was really struggling to get comfortable, amusing. 

We arrived in Salzburg and began walking to the hostel, when a major incident occurred.  One of my thongs had a blow out (flip flops, not underwear, to all the non-Aussies).  I think everyone appreciates the pain when this occurs, the sense of loss when you realise it’s not a superficial blow out where you can just pop it back in.  And the sad realisation that you are a thong snob and will only ever be happy again if you find Havaianas to replace them.

devastated

Anyway, arriving at YoHo the girls were thrilled to find that the hostel has daily showings of ‘The Sound of Music’, so tomorrow morning was sorted then, all 3 hours of it. 

We traipsed the streets for dinner looking for all the restaurants that had been recommended and ended up at yet another Italian restaurant next to some Australians who were staying at our hostel.  Although we hadn’t done a lot we were fairly knackered and had an early one.

We had breakfast and then all seated ourselves for the 10.30am viewing of ‘The Sound of Music’. The girls were truly excited about the film judging by the look of horror on their faces when the DVD froze just as the Von Trapps were getting enthralled in Edelweiss, but we fixed it, crisis diverted. 

 

The girls thought I was lying about the 3 hours, but no. So early afternoon we set off for a walk around town and decided to stick with tradition and have another picnic.

So we got our staple ingredients and a bottle of champagne and began the long walk up to the Salzburg fort.  It is the largest in Central Europe and has never been conquered by an enemy.  It was a long walk uphill, reminiscent of the Camino days, and completely worth it.

Finding a spot overlooking the city we unravelled our picnic and poured the champagne.  On the other side were stunning views of the Alps, we spent the day on top of the world.

We caught the funicular down to the bottom and wandered around finding a few spots from ‘The Sound of Music’ to take photos of ourselves in front of, just so we would look like extra cool tourists. 

  

haha, they must get that a lot

The evening was spent at yet another Italian restaurant next door to the one from the night before.

The next morning it was finally time for The Sound of Music bike tour, as naff as it sounds, it was an  absolute highlight.

We spent 3 hours riding through the city, over the fort and then through the countryside of Salzburg.  Possibly the best part about it was watching Tucky try to ride a bike. She looked as if she was about to go bungee jumping and was holding onto the handles for dear life, so all her photo’s were blurry because her arms were literally shaking from the exertion of securing herself.

The abbey gates

When they filmed parts of The Sound of Music in the city square, they put up a huge Nazi flag without much explanation to the residents and fear spread across the city until they figured out that it was only a movie.  

We finished up at the pavilion where they sing the ‘I am 16...’ song and had a frolic while an elderly tour group sang the song in their respective parts, pretty cute.

On the ride back, we were given iPods with all the songs from the movie, not that we needed it. Since we arrived we had been singing the songs on repeat...all of them...on constant annoying repeat. 

Back in town, the girls did some more shopping (surprise) as I lay reading on the banks of the Salzach River.

Salzburg literally means ‘salt castle’ and the city’s wealth came in the 17^th century from their export of salt which was in high demand for many things including the curing of meat (as there was no refrigeration).  As salt became less essential, the city’s wealth declined, which is why there are a lot of beautiful buildings left from the Baroque period because that is the time when they were one of the richest areas in Europe.

We had a wine at one of the restaurants on the river and then dinner at a traditional restaurant and discussed our future travel plans.  The girls were heading west, and due to money restraints, I decided that I would head east, so this was our final goodbye as there was not much chance of us crossing paths again.  It was a melancholic feeling, I was very sad to see them go, apprehensive of what was to come but also excited to find out. 

So we packed all our things, had a good night’s sleep and early the next morning headed to the train station to catch our respective trains.  I was able to wave them off as their train pulled away and then hopped on mine back to Vienna where I would catch an overnight bus to Budapest.  

Vienna, Mozart and the Memories of Music.

I never usually eat the breakfast that hostels provide, usually I just go out somewhere and find a coffee, so it was pretty exciting to experience the buffet of food that this hostel gave us for an extra 3.70 euro.  Ok, so it wasnt amazing, pretty standard actually, but the prospect of cereal for breakfast was exciting, as it had been a while.  

Unfortunately, I think some of my dad’s ‘travel tricks’ (or general thriftiness/tight-arseness) has rubbed off and I did make a sandwich and took an apple for later.  I used to be so embarrassed when my dad did that. But then again he is much worse. He would make a complete packed lunch and spend 20 minutes creating, wrapping and re-wrapping his picnic that we would eat later that day when the cheese was warm and old and the tomato has soaked through the dry croissant, then offering us a range of marmalades and jams to choose from for desert.  And all the other people would be sitting there watching and shaking their heads at us as he handed me a wad of napkins and some ham and cheese rolls to wrap in clear view.  (Although it did come in handy one time when we got thrown off the train to Rome.)

graceful

It was a Sunday and so everything was closed except for a few museums so we strolled down to the old part of town and looked around the old square.  There was a crowd protesting next to a clown making balloons for children next to couples lunching, all behind the backdrop of the old square and cathedral and the architecture of the new banks and shops. 

We wanted to see the opera and had considered standing in line for 3 hours to try and get a cheap standing room ticket for the opera house.  In the end, we got roped into buying a ticket to a different opera from the men and women dressed like Mozart.  Every one of them was offering us deals and telling us how every other opera was a rip off and theirs was the best.  All the people we talked to offered pretty much the same thing, so we took a risk with one of them who had thrown in a free ticket for us.  As we walked away, a previous Mozart we had been speaking to stopped us and said that he was sorry for us as we had bought tickets to the place where “school children go for their excursions.”  By that stage we didn’t really care anymore, according to all the different Mozart’s, all the operas were shit, so we accepted that we were probably getting ripped off but at least we had a seat and didn’t have to waste three hours in a line. 

By that stage it was lunchtime for the girls. I had been forced to eat mine already as the cucumber in my homemade breakfast sandwich was acting like a tomato and spreading sogginess everywhere. So I ate my apple as the girls got some of the best looking pumpkin soup and pizza.  I have thought about that pumpkin soup since, I really really should have got some.  

Inside the restaurant was an exquisite looking lady of around 40.  She was dressed in a 1920’s style matching skirt and jacket, gloves, a fantastic hat and was perched on her seat an espresso with a graceful pinkie perpendicular to her cup.  Just watching her in this old Italian restaurant complete with lace curtains, heavy tapestries and wooden furniture next to burgundy walls, we felt like we were in a movie or had wound back time.  We waited as long as possible because we wanted to hear her speak or watch her swish down the stairs, instead she pulled out her powder compact and dabbed her face and reapplied her lipstick.  The complete act. 

We went looking for Mozart’s house but when we arrived we decided that we didn’t want to pay  9 euro to see a house that he had only lived in for 3 years and which had been completely refurbished less than 20 years ago.  It’s generally not too difficult to convince the girls to express spaghetti past a museum. 

We went back to the hostel in order to make plans for the next stage of our respective trips.  I had no idea where I was going next.  The girls were going to Salzburg, but as my bus pass doesn’t cover interregional travel I would have to decide whether I wanted to pay the 47 euro to get there and where I would go next.  I had planned to go back to the Eurolines office at the bus stop to ask them if any buses went to Salzburg that I could pay for as it would be cheaper than the train and to ask where the buses went from Salzburg.  Instead, the three of us managed to fall asleep for almost 2 hours. 

Somehow we all woke up and looking at the time realised that we had a very small amount of time to get ready and to get ourselves to the Opera. So with pillow creased faces and ruffled hair we tried our best to make ourselves pretty and dressed up for the Opera. 

We stopped in at another Italian place for a quick cocktail and a salad (Italian restaurants are EVERYWHERE and it is genuinely difficult to find a restaurant that isn’t Italian) and then almost ran to find the ‘theatre’.

Well, we found the address.  It was definitely not a traditional theatre and ominously did sort of look like an old school hall.  Determined not to be disappointed we continued inside and up the stairs into a makeshift ‘theatre’ and were led to the back seats in which we all had to sit on our legs to see.  Still, we were not bothered, and decided that the night still rested on the skill of the performers and the ambience they created.  I asked the girls if they knew where the bathroom was and Carli responded with “I think it’s across the school yard past the playground.”

It would have been nice to be sitting in an opera house or a nice theatre but still the performance was fantastic.  The orchestra played beautifully and pieces from Strauss and Mozart transformed the room and took us all away to a place where your mind can finally be quiet.  The two Opera singers were also very good and lovely to listen to.  As Tuck used to be a dancer for over 10 years, the ballet was a slight disappointment as she pointed out to us that within an hour we could have learnt how to do the same thing. But we gave them the benefit of the doubt as they had a very small space to work with.  

So the night was a success and it was really relaxing to just stop and listen to some classical music. It made me miss playing it as well.  In Edinburgh Tuck and I had spent an afternoon on the hostel piano playing and teaching each other and I had decided that day that when I go home (if I live near my piano)  I’m going to start playing again.  The guitar I’ll always fiddle around on, but I should take the 10 years that I learnt piano and saxophone properly and continue with them as well. 

Walking home, we stumbled upon a concert in the park.  It was one of those typical ‘youth’ concerts where there were about 10 people singing on stage with a conductor throwing his entire body into it as he was obviously so ‘overcome’ with the atmosphere.  It was good actually and full of locals but we only caught the end of it. 

Coming back to the hostel we went to the bar for a little while and played pool while drinking cocktails.   

We crashed into bed and prepared ourselves for the train to Salzburg in the morning.

Counting Time

I have ended up doing a lot more travelling with Carli and Tuck than what I had originally intended.  When I left England, it was an impulse decision but it seems that some kind of fate timed it in order for me to travel some stages with friends.  It is nice to have such great and easy going people to join in with.  It is perhaps a different kind of trip that I had envisioned but it’s not a bad thing.  It’s been good to have friends around at this time and they’ve also given me much more material to write about and have graciously given me permission to take the piss out of them and the wonderful things they blurt out at the most ironic times. Thanks girls. 

I decided to travel to Vienna with them that afternoon, although I would be getting the bus and they would be on the train.  So we had one last day to explore Prague. 

We had read about a flea market and found it on the banks of the river.  It wasn’t exactly a market; there were about 5 ‘stalls’ with people’s old clothes and broken belongings scattered on the ground.  It was kind of like hard rubbish day at home, without the couches.  But I did find some leather to add to what is already on my wrists.

Prague used to have one of the largest statues of Stalin in Europe; it sat upon a hill and looked down upon the people.  After WW2 when the people started to realise his crimes and they decided to blow it up and in its place they put a large metronome that would always show time passing and act as a memorial to time past and present and what is to come.  Tuck really wanted to see this and we were hoping that it resembled a large version of the metronomes that we used to have when we spent hours practicing scales and chromatics and all that fun stuff on the piano.  It did and we climbed to the top and sat next to the large whirring hand ticking past the time as we all had some thoughts to ourselves.  

Further down along the river we found Kampa Island.   It’s a small park on the river filled with space, museums and art.  We sat at a small stall and had a beer. Well, I had a wheat beer and Tuck tried coffee with vodka, mainly because they didn’t understand anything else we asked for.  It tasted a little bit like sake crossed with kaluha, not as bad as Tucky was expecting (she had sat in front of it for at least 10 minutes contemplating her options before I got bored and poured the entire shot into the tiny cup of coffee leaving her only one option).

It was relaxing to be able to just sit around and not do anything.  I think when travelling it is so easy to get caught up with the notion of ‘doing’ things all the time and you start to feel guilty if you’re not looking at a painting, a church or a museum or something else that is written in a guide book.  Personally, I think it is important to be able to just sit and watch and think and feel and to be able to let that be fulfilling enough.  

We wandered over the bridge again and got caught up with ‘The Bridge Band’.  Five of the most caricatured old gentleman playing the most charming music.  Our favourite was a man who looked to be in his late 70’s with a steel washboard hung over his neck playing percussion.  He had more talent with his whisks and thumb thimbles than many percussionists I had seen.   The man playing the tuba had a face like leather and the most defined upper cheek muscles, he reminded me of Pinocchio for some reason and as he was expending more breath than he was taking in and staring into the direct sunlight, we all watched him tensely waiting for the moment he would take a break and a glass of water.  The singer/conductor/front man looked like the captain from the Titanic (complete with hat) and had the roughest voice that he would occasionally add into the mix through an old brass megaphone.  We must have stood watching them for close to an hour.

It was time for me to go to the bus and the girls to go to the train; we went our separate ways and planned to meet in the hostel in Vienna that evening.  It was about a half hour walk to the bus station and I was cursing myself all the way for having too many things.  But I made it and lay on the ground for an hour reading while I waited for the bus.  It was only a 4 hour drive to Vienna and it passed quickly.  

It was 10pm when I arrived at the bus station in Vienna.  It looked to be closed and it was dark and set in an ugly part of town with a few strange men hanging around.  Finding my bearings once again and yet another train station I found my way to the U-bahn closest to the hostel.  Unfortunately from there I was a little bit stuck without a map. I was considering wandering about the streets hoping to find the right place when I heard some English speakers climbing up the stairs; I waited hoping they had a map or knew the right direction.

Tucky and Carli just kept on walking to the exit until I called out; Tuck just gave me this dumb stare as we both had a moment of realisation that we knew each other.  Although we had planned to meet in this city around this time near this place, Tuck’s facial expression was gold and it sent me into fits of laughter.

They had a map and we found the hostel.