I had a feeling
today was going to be a good day. Despite the fact that I got in at 4am, slept
in my clothes, and within 10 minutes of waking up, was muttering profanities,
and then out the door by 10am. The sun was shining. The weather had turned
around; it was a clear day, a picture perfect blue sky, and hell, it was even warm…like, 8 degrees warm. It was just one
of those days, where as soon as you wake up/peer curiously at the sunlight
flooding into your room/step out of the house you know it’s going to be a good
one. Anywho I set out to explore the town, running into acquaintances I had met
last night, as we all tried to ignore the fact that we had completely forgotten
everyone’s names, before making a quick exit wandering through the Old Town of
Salzburg.
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| Salzburg...the city carved into the mountain |
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| Love of Mozart |
Ladies wearing fur
coats and dainty heels, Austrian men wearing suede jackets or Lederhosen for
Mozart Week, the crisp smell of Viennese sausages sizzling from market stand
stalls, only to be doused in mustard and then wrapped up in newspaper for you. Bonus
– dinner and reading material all in one. Heidi Klum featured on mine.
Having been
travelling alone, I always say to myself (and to others when they ask) that
it’s never really lonely, because you meet so many different people on the way,
and strangers in the hostel/on the tour/ on your bus are simply friends you
haven’t met yet. But when you aren’t in the company of others, - you have to be
content with being by yourself. Today was one of those days where I was utterly
content with being alone. Every day when you’re travelling is a good day – but
today was even a better one. There was something…I don’t know, excuse the
cliché, in the air or whatnot. The Old Town was a hub of activity, there were
people, musicians, every man and his dog were about and about doing something(literally,
very man and his dog IN A SUEDE JACKET), and all the sights, sounds and smells
of Salzburg were at my feet.
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| Digital postcard |
Spent a bit of time wandering
around some historic landmarks, namely places that were used in the filming of
The Sound of Music…as if I already couldn’t get enough of the film.
And honestly, sorry
to harp on it – but the weather! The weather, the weather, the weather. You
could have honestly not asked for a better crisp winter day. I ate my lunch
down by the river in the sun, whilst pondering the irony of ‘locking your love’
onto a bridge in a famous city – only to use a combination lock. Isn’t the
whole idea to lock your love there and throw away the key? Wouldn’t then a
combination lock imply ‘our love is everlasting only until I want to use the
combination to unlock it and then see ya later big guy’?
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| Lock your love |
If there was ever
any way to do something half-arse, I reckon a love lock like that would be it.
But anywho, I’m still going to buy a lock and lovingly write ‘Weiner Schnitzel’
in flirtatious calligraphy, before locking it up there. And I will throw away
the key. There will be no shortcuts for me on this one.
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| Famous shopping district |
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| In summer this fountain is happening, but this is the square where Maria skipped across to sing 'I Have Confidence' |
I headed to the
station around 4pm, now to catch a train to Passau, a small-ish town in
Germany, on the Austrian border, where my fabulous German sister Mareike is currently
living. A quick run down on our history;
In the early 3
months of 2009 she stayed with me and my family in Melbourne, that November –
January of 2010 I lived with her and her family in Ansbach. We also visited
both sets of her grandparents who live in Bremen, in the north of Germany. Two
years later, in my summer of 2012; my travel companions and I met Mareike and
her boyfriend Sven in Prague, as we were passing through, and then later on I
went to see my German family again; my German parents in Ansbach, Mareike, who
was then living in Nuremburg, my German brother Matthias, who was living in
Regensburg, and all 4 German grandparents and uncles/aunts living in Bremen.
And here I am again, exactly 2 years later, 2014, coming to see all the people
that I hold so close to my heart, who have shown me nothing but kindness and
love, and who have repeatedly opened up their homes and their arms for me. I
don’t think I could quite accurately, in a short amount of space and time,
fully verbalise my thoughts towards my German family, but just know that I
refer to them as family for good reason; Meike is just as much my mother
whenever I am abroad, and Mareike, whom I have always considered as my sister
before secondary as my best friend, travel companion and support.
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| Fortress on the top of the hill |
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| That is Salzburg ladies' and gents |
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| #torbz |
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| #torbz |
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| #torbz |
Anywho, if the
sentimentality hasn’t killed you yet, get ready for MORE TO COME because I am
going to see Mareike now for a few days, before chipping all over Bavaria for
more couch hopping. YAY. On a count of the fact I’ve not seen them all for two
years, I am bursting with excitement, to see everyone again, and return to my
beloved Germany. Austria, you’ve been fabulous, but Germany is and will always
remain my most favourite place to be.
Oh, and at the
station I thought I’d give it a last shot, and inquire about my backpack. I
figured it was a long shot, but the Lost and Found for Salzburg Hbf was right
there, and I had time before my train. Obviously, computer says no, they hadn’t found it, but through a couple of
phone calls and clickety clicks we phoned Croatia again – and I was chatting
with the guy on the other end of the line – and they had my backpack sitting
for me at Zagreb Hbf – waiting for me to pick up! It was a momentous moment;
it’s been lost now for over three weeks, and I had given up all hope, honestly.
But YAY, things are good. YAYAYAYYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYA.
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| Nonnberg Abbey - where the 'real' Maria was a novice and the Captain and Maria married in real life |
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| The Abbey, also the cemetery that inspired the recreation of the cemetery for the film |
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| The scene where the Von Trapps are hiding in the Abbey from the Nazis? Love it. |
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| Mirabell Gardens |
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| Do-Re-Mi filming location |
When I spoke to my
mother a few weeks ago about the trauma I had recently endured with the lost
backpack, she simply smiled and told me that she was sure I’d get it back.
“You’re Caty
Gierer”, she said proudly, smiling at me. “Things like this always happen to
you. You’re the girl who leaves her wallet in the middle of the city only to go
back and find it there untouched. You lose cash, valuables, and bags all the
time – and they always find their way back to you. It’s a Caty Gierer thing;
with you bad things are predispositioned to occur; only because they all work
out okay in the end.”
I contemplated that
for a minute, in all truth not very seriously, because I knew, I just knew that
this wasn’t one of those things. Yes,
my name is Caty Gierer – but it comes attached to all sorts of other drama and catastrophes.
But you know, here I
sit, with my things waiting patiently in Zagreb, and o can’t help thinking that
maybe I am lucky. Perhaps I’d best go
and buy a lottery ticket. Wait no I can’t actually - I don’t know where my
wallet is.
