4 p.m. and my titles have gotten lame lame lame

Just spent a delightful afternoon in Salzburg. I think I really like that city. It was small enough but also had a nice big feel. I thought I was going to miss the Thursday market because I heard that it closed about noon. I arrived at the train station at half eleven and couldn’t manage to figure out the bus system. I spent 15 minutes trying to decide which bus I should take, finally asked someone and they said it best to just walk. So I did. I asked a few more people along the way if I was headed the right direction. Success!

I ended up taking a slightly different route but thanks to the trusty map Seb B’s mom gave me, I found the Mirabelle Platz the back way. I’m glad I took the back way because I was greeted with all the bread and sweets stands :) The front was all flowers and fresh produce. I decided to eat at the market. There were stands selling frankfurters with mustard and ketchup and Steigel bier. So that’s what I had. I then went back to the sweet bread stands and got a giant sweet roll.

Twice at HMC Seb B made traditional Austrian dumplings from bread his grandmother sent with him. The first kind we had with goulash and the second he made with spinach and butter. I was able to recognize the spinach butter ones at the market. I almost got about 6 of those. But I really just wanted to keep the memory of the homemade ones in my mind and on my palate.

I walked across the street to the gardens. They had a section that was basically a maze of skinny trees. It wasn’t a labyrinth. More like trees that had been planted really close together, creating enclosed spaces with little openings from people pushing their way into the center. This is what I did. I sat and listened to all the people chatting in German around me. I’ve become quite taken with German. Maybe I should start to study it.

After wandering around the park a bit I made my way to the city center. I wandered around a bit. Found a post card. Wrote it for James Kanimba. Found a post office. Sent it to James Kanimba. I also bought a roll of tape so that I can stick stuff in Lydia’s notebook and not have hundreds of little pieces of paper floating around my already stuffed and cluttery Paris purse. And shoved inside my delicate copy of Brother’s Karamazov. That poor book.

I have many things with me that are doomed to not make it back to the States. I feel a little bad putting my tennis shoes on every morning and saying “Shoes, you might not make it back to the States. Socks, you won’t make it back to the states with the looks of that heel.” I think it’s better to foresee these things though so that when it comes right down to the moment of truth I won’t hesitate and I won’t feel bad. Those jeans knew their travels were almost over.

Anyway.

After mailing that post card I walked next door to the panorama museum. I figured it was a euro 50. Why not? Basically this guy in the mid 1800’s went to some of the most far off and beautiful places in the world and painted huge pictures of them. I think there were 25 paintings of places like Mecca, the Grand Canyon, the Matterhorn, Jerusalem, Istanbul, the Sphinx, etc. So that was cool.

I then decided a coffee would be the right thing after that. I found a little places and I think it was called the Golden Duck. It really could have been anything. I managed to order one cappucchino, please, in German. That was good, but bad because my waiter then thought I actually spoke German. Of course the rest of the German I actually knew would not let me tell him I didn’t speak German and that I needed the check, please. So I had to out myself as a non-German speaker.

So I made a nice jaunt back to the station without the use of my map and without the direction of strangers. Yess.

Now I’m on the train to Wien. I can’t wait to get to Vienna. I’ll charge this laptop. Post these posts. Download photos. Shower. And talk to Lydia. Hopefully I can find some musicians to chill with. I need a bit of music in my life that I’m participating in.