The Transylvania Joem: A Young Peace Corps Volunteer in Romania

These five ‘city posts’ concern a trip I took through central Europe, beginning on July 2nd and ending late in the evening of July 14th
(Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Salzburg, Vienna):

Before this trip, I was talking with one of my new favorites, AMAC, about her experiences in Salzburg. “Salzburg is like a fairy-tale,” she said, and so, I rolled into Salzburg ready for some stuff of fantasy. This is what I got:

Similes aside; Salzburg IS fairy-tale, no?

Kwondo and I only had one long afternoon and an early morning to spend in Salzburg, so we moved fast.

First, we took a quick walk through the Salzburg old town, before tracking back to the Mirabell Gardens. It’s important to note here that Kwondo is a SOUND OF MUSIC fanatic. Hence, she was bound and determined to make the Frauelein Maria Bike Tour that early evening. I, on the other hand, don’t think I’ve ever seen the movie in its entirety. So, Kwondo and I parted ways, and I did what I always do best: I walked.

I found my way to a little sidewalk style piata, and drank a green tea and bought a half kilogram of apples (three big ones) from the two older women there. I tip-toed through the rhythmic tourist tides and found a statue of Mozart in a courtyard. I sat and washed my apples with a little bit of my bottled water as the sun smiled down onto me and made me groggy and content.

I looked back over my shoulder where the Hohensalzburg Castle hung to the cliffs behind me. I awkwardly unfolded my hotel map, and followed a green dash from my park bench up to the castle. The dash was a walking tour, and it teetered along the rise that overlooks the entire edge of the city.

“That will be good,” I thought. And so, I ate apple number one, and did what I do (which is to walk, remember?).

I walked hard and high up to the castle gates, found that it cost about 10 Euros simply to enter the courtyard, and turned around. I rejoined my dashes, and they led me away from the castle,  over single lane paved streets into an unbelievable neighborhood somehow tucked away onto that hill. There are hostels and hotels back there, and a modern art museum with a long patio all blue-umbrella’d and beautiful.

The best part is the forest there. It is surrounded by streets below, but it’s raised enough and dense so that no sound or smell of city life can possibly penetrate. It feels wild and hidden, and it is ripe for dwelling deep into the mind and spinning wild stories of make-believe. The second-apple bites were amazing, seasoned by the sunlight flashes glinting over me as they tumbled like goldfish through the leaves.

After two hours of idle wandering, the make-believe ended, and I was suddenly spat from the forest. I found myself on an acute-angle curved road above a closed monastery. I walked without plan a little while, certain that the Salzach river was close by. Then, as I stepped through a parking lot, with the empty monastery on one side, and a long swathe of unsheltered road on the other, the sky opened and devoured the sun. The darkness began to spew rain onto the city in droves.

I huddled against a pine tree on the side-walk, and ate my last apple. Then, in madness, I decided to run down the sidewalk in the rain. I vaulted from each patch of dry cement under over-arching trees, and spidermanned alongside kiosk walls to try and stay dry under their short roofs. Finally, I found a tunnel with a pedestrian sidewalk underneath. A dozen chilled faces with pink cheeks stared at me from the dark, and I entered and  stood among them, until the rain stopped.

I had run about 10 minutes through the storm, but I had gotten so severly disoriented that, when I finally found the Salzach, I was three bridges north of where I had originally intended to be. But my fairy-tale felt undiminished: after all, what hero’s quest occurs without a little bit of adventure, resulting in hardships buffed into glory? My madness was the stuff of blue centerlight pops that make everybody go “Awww.” It was a time of hero building.

The Brave Joem battled the Salzburg storm with little more than a hotel map and a half kilogram of apples.
And, once dry, he would live happily ever after.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

Walk: Head up towards the Hohensalzburg Castle. There’s a turn up the  final ‘stretch,’ of dirt lane that will take you to the gate/ticket office. Don’t go that way. Instead stay on the road walking away from the gate (it goes under the tram). It’s free, and it’s gorgeous out there. Be sure to check the weather, beforehand.

Indigo Cafe: Beautiful, sweet and sort-of-shy Austrian girls serving Asian/Indian food and great wine? Done. Stop in to Indigo and get a spicy, vegetarian rice bowl with curry, or some sushi bites. Two glasses of wine and a full meal cost me less than 10 Euros (ridiculous cheap, in comparison to other eateries in Salzburg). It’ll warm you up well.