myownshoes: adventures in authenticity: lucky

Although excited to move onto Salzburg and continue my journey, I was also sad to say goodbye to Michaela, to her fabulous apartment that I have called home for the past 5 nights (case in point: I had been planning on leaving at noon, and when she got home from work, I was still there...), and to the city of Vienna in general. I know I said this before, but I will repeat and italicize: couch surfing is a sure way to meet incredible people. What a beautiful stay in Vienna - thank you, Michaela!

A dear and important mentor of mine recently introduced me to the art of Frida Kahlo, and so I was eager to attend a Kahlo exhibition yesterday. This exhibition just opened on Sept 1st, and so my visit to Vienna was timed perfectly. It was very beautifully laid out, with not only paintings but also a great deal of photography of Kahlo, and many excerpts from her life story. Beautiful, disturbing, inspiring, intense, dark, yet vibrant and alive - she was truly a fascinating woman. A large percentage of her paintings were self-portraits, and so many aspects of her story can been witnessed by noting how she portrayed herself differently over her life's course.

Needing to decompress after the Kahlo exhibit, I found Christine's favourite Viennese gelato place (thanks, Christine!!!), had some lunch, wandered a bookstore, sat in 3 different churches, and finally took the subway to the Schönbrunn Palace: http://www.schoenbrunn.at/en/home.html. An absolutely HUGE place (the palace itself, and also the land around it), I wasn't in the mood for viewing the opulent living quarters of royalty, and so I spent a couple of hours wandering the gardens (and still didn't see everything), enjoying the variety of statues I ran into now and again.

Yesterday evening, Michaela and I took the train to Korneuberg (a small and quaint town about 15km north of the city) where her Mom picked us up. From there, we went to a traditional Heuriger: this is a wine-tavern unique to Eastern Austria, that is only open at certain times of year. There are more touristy Heuriger in Vienna itself, but I was definitely the only one at this location! Insistent that I was too skinny, Michaela's delightful mother put the biggest spread of food in front of me that I have eaten in a long time: a mincemeat kind of blob of meat and spices, potato salad, bean salad, bread, and four different kinds of spreads (liver, pig fat, egg, and cheese). We drank sturm once again (quickly becoming my drink of choice) and sampled three different desserts, including punschkrapfen (http://www.cis.at/de/formulare/presse/images_food/punschkrapfen300dpi.jpg - traditionally Austrian, a chocolate cake soaked in rum with pink icing). I described the evening as a bit surreal; there are moments where it occurs to me just how far away from home I am, and this was certainly one of them. Such good food and such good company.

And so, after a lazy day at Michaela's apartment and a 3 hour train journey, I have arrived safely in Salzburg. As Sarah will attest to, many city maps in Europe do not have the all-important "You are here" feature on them. And so, while standing outside the Salzburg train station, staring at a large map on the wall and trying to figure out where I was, I was thankful for Barney and Mike, two punk dudes from Chicago ("We've f-ing been trying to hitch-hike to Croatia all day, and finally gave in and bought a ticket for 50 f-ing Euros), who noticed my confusion, came over to help, gave me their map to keep, and helped me find my way to my hostel. Notable, is that their map came with pictures of hearts at all the best "kissing locations" in town, and before we said farewell, Mike said that he hoped I would "get lucky" while in Salzburg.

And...if by lucky, he meant The Sound of Music tour, then by golly he was right! I am thinking that I will likely embrace the kitsch and head off on Fraulein Maria's bicycle tour of the Sound of Music scenes tomorrow morning bright and early. A typical Austrian, Michaela hasn't actually seen The Sound of Music, but is highly amused that I'm going on this tour; I imagine that she will be singing "The hills are alive" for days to come.

I will leave you once again with a few photo highlights...
The hills are alive.
With love xo