Going away, pausing the story: Salzkammergut
I didn’t mean to take so long between posting about my adventures; I got very sick a few days after getting back from spring break vacations and since then have been trying to catch up. I think I’m ready to tell another story. You know, when my friends asked me to keep them updated on my adventures, I thought, “Oh, that’s a great idea! I’ll tell the story of being abroad.” Except in the past few posts I haven’t exactly told stories as much as tried to badly caption an excerpt of the pictures I took. Why? I’m a story teller, or a writer, or a what-have-you. I think in stories. So firstly, I’ll apologize for the lack of story in my posts about London and Edinburgh, and promise to try harder about next time.
Next, I want to explain something that amuses me about these stories. Blogs usually start at one time and then go on in a line, right? But because I didn’t start at the beginning, on January 3, and instead started halfway through, this is more of a collection of stories in different countries in Europe rather than one adventure from one place to the next. Instead of having it all laid out there, you have to piece together the pieces. This makes me smile: not only I have to work, but you do too. I wonder, what kind of story could you put together from my pictures?
I’ve been in Vienna since the end of Spring Break, and this week I was sick of it. We had a four day weekend coming up, as Ascension counts as a holiday here in Catholic Austria. I wanted to go somewhere and do something, and my roommate presented me with the perfect opportunity: go home with her to Salzkammergut, where all the art geniuses of the turn of the 20th century spent their summers. I jumped at the chance, even if just for one full day of sightseeing there. I was ready to leave. Vienna was okay, there was even a full weekend of events planned, but I needed a time out: time to see what natural wonders you could see in Austria.
Aha! That is what I needed. Being a predominantly city girl, I hadn’t realized how much I was aching for nature. My roommate made sure to catch me up on the sights and the small towns and Austrian way of life around here. I probably could have stood in that spot forever: soaking up sun and breathing in the lake. I did enough soaking up the sun that day, and my arms are now acceptably browned for the summer.
The funny thing about Salzkammergut, which is a collection of small towns in an area of Austria, is how much it reminds me of home. That lake: that could be Lake Chabot. The houses built on the side of the hill, overlooking the lake: That could be Sausalito. Isn’t it beautiful?
After a day of wandering around, driving around, seeing what I could see in another part of Austria, I felt grounded, ready to go back and enjoy what Vienna had to offer. I realized that everyone needs a break sometimes, to get out and recharge. But the question is: how do I do this at home? How do I get a cheap train ticket and just go somewhere else?
It’s a dilemma, really.
Tags: Austria, countryside, Ferien, Salzkammergut
Ahhh that is why I miss having my car so much. I just drive around and look at things. Every once in a while I snap pictures of what I see.
This can be a building with a reflection in its glass, an artsy building with grass growing between the bricks or even a tree growing in a shape that trills me. Maybe a road with a bit of morning mist obscuring the end so that it looks like it could go forever (that one is on my deviant art account). See, sometimes it isn’t the whole but parts that can attract so I can just go across town for inspiration. But of course back to the car… I don’t live by a bus stop so no just jumping on a bus to ride off on. Oh and there is always clouds. Heh heh heh