Welcome to Ostrich (part one)

I was just traveling through Austria and the Czech Republic for over a week with my awesome friend Danika (of the bollywood dance on the Eiffel Tower and amazing weekend hiking in the Alps). Kelvin of Lakeside joined us for the first half of Salzburg/Vienna! The title of this blog post comes from the fact that Danika kept telling her host mom that she was really excited to go to Ostrich… the French word for Austria is Autriche….ostrich is autruche. Shoot. I can’t possibly fit SalzburgViennaPragueInnsbruck all in one post so I’m going to do this in installments.

Abnormal Tourism Hours: Salzburg

Kelvin determined that we experienced Salzburg in12 phases… just go with it, I’ll explain.

1. The overnight: We wanted to stop in Salzburg and we wanted to take an overnight train to save time/money sooooo that meant that we trained from Zurich to Salzburg Haupbanhof (train station, get used to it, I find German endlessly amusing) from 11:00pm to 4:12 am. Sweet! My compartment-mates included an incredibly earnest Chinese guy who spoke English and German and a Macedonian man who thought I understood German. No matter of blank stares and “no sphreichens” could convince him otherwise. Then he chugged red bull just before we turned to lights off.

2. Delirious Indecision: We get off the train at 4:12. We follow signs for the Salzburg Congress thinking it might be pretty and lit up at night. It is an average office building. We proceed to pathetically meander through a park scouting nap spots. Eventually we decide that before we give in and sleep in public we should catch a peak at the river. I call our hostel and determine that check-in time is 5 hours in the future….”See you THEN!!!” I tell the tired Austrian man, a little too enthusiastically.

3. Church Nap Time and the Creepiest Graveyard Ever: We found the river! And all the pretty buildings. Danika had the bright idea to try to get into the massive cathedral called Erzabtei St. Peter and lo and behold it was open! Awe-inspiring in the pre-dawn darkness. If you know much about me you know that I LOVE hanging out in beautiful cathedrals so I was having a grand old time. Everyone else slept. Kelvin reported some of his most vivid dreams in months! We then decided to head up the hill to get a view of Salzburg for sunrise. This decision took us through one of the creepier places any of us had ever seen. I recognized it right away! The graveyard that inspired graveyard where the Von Trapp family hid from the Nazis and Rolf saw them. So I guess seeing it 6:30 am in complete darkness was true to form… On the right you'll find Kelvin deep in slee - I mean prayer.

4. The Largest Fortress in Europe: Clearly no one was at the ticket counter so we just stumbled into the largest fortress in Europe, up quite a solid hill… turns out it was one of the best views I’ve ever seen! ALPS. Adorable Austrian Salzburg in the foreground and ALPS ALPS ALPS in the background. It was frigid so we swaddled ourselves in every available article of clothing and huddled penguin style… of course Kelvin and I sang the Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music. Except, problem – those are not HILLS, excuse me. They are ALPS.

5. Church nap 2 and Horse pictures: Another round of napping in a (different) epic cathedral. We then started to try to move towards breakfast but literally made it no further than ten yards at a time without getting distracted – mostly by taking pictures of horses from various angles but also of Austrian cow bells on sale, a sculpture of a man standing on a giant gold ball and a man who insisted on giving Kelvin a mystery morning pick-me-up beverage.

6. Breakfast: After collapsing into the first breakfast establishment we found we began to systematically terrorize the wait staff and other patrons. No intentionally! We could hardly be help responsible for our actions at that point. It took a REALLY long time to feed ourselves… we composed some rather revealing poems:

Two hours I slept

Before the hills were alive

Kelvin and I sang

Macedonia

Fell asleep in my breakfast

As cold as penguins

Walk ten steps then stop

Lost control of our fingers

Pictures of horses

For a complete compilation, inquire to the artist! (me….)

7. Nap time! Finally got into the hostel, glorious sleep (except Kelvin, weirdo). Sadly things got a little less funny after this since we weren’t delirious. But it was also nice that I no longer felt like a shell of a human wandering the dark streets of Salzburg.

8. Sound of music musical recreations: Normal tourism hours! How dull. Just kidding, I skipped through the trellis where Maria and the children run around singing “Do a Deer” and squealing with delight. Kelvin and I had plenty more musical reenacting to do… Stay tuned for a compilation video.

9. Mozart! Highly recommended Mozart museum – his adolescent household filled with artifacts, pianos he played on, lots of music on the audio guide, and – as seems to be the case all over Europe – an interactive audiovisual spectacular.

10. Trespassing on Sound of Music Properties: We saw the nunnery! Didn’t actually trespass there but stood at the gate and wandered around the outside, sang a little How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria and looked at some more Alps. The Sound of Music family compound in the movie is actually a compilation of two houses in Salzburg – we saw the one that includes the house and the lake: We then realized we weren’t strictly speaking welcome there (the gate had been so pleasantly open!) so we hid behind some bushes and watched the sunset over the lake. I’m fairly certain I saw Maria’s room from the outside! I certainly saw the place from which Rolf threw rocks at the window J

11. Bach concert: Impressive Cello concert. Very well attended by locals…. We learned about it while hanging out in the first nap-cathedral of the day. Kelvin's friend who was traveling with us knows a lot about classical music so offered some colored commentary before and after.

12. Dinner: Weiner Schnitzel and a traditional Austrian Beer! Our roommates were fairly confused by our schedule:

Tourism 4am – noon

Sleep 12 – 2:30

Tourism 2:30 – 10:30 pm

Sleep 10:30 pm – 6:30 am (up for another train…to Vienna! Stay tuned)

Bongiorno Cinque Terre

Unbelievable weekend. I left early Friday morning for Cinque Terre (five gorgeous fishing villages connected by footpath along the northwestern coast of Italy just south of Genova. This was another trip with Kelvin Bates from Lakeside and a couple of his friends – we realized that we seem to have a tendency to go to Italian speaking places together! Although with Italy itself and Ticino, Switzerland we may have already exhausted our options…

I would like to THANK MY MOM for encouraging to go on this jaunt. I have the research paper about the legacy of Calvinism due on Monday and a big test later this week. I was going to have out and study in Geneva but when I talked to my mom on the phone she said – and I quote – “work shmerk!”. I was quite diligent last week getting all my interviews and research done before I left and I’m SO GLAD that I minded my mother and made it to Italy!

Making friends with an Italian Magician

First off, I love trains. They’re pricey, but part of the joy! I did work all during the Geneva-Milano train but on the train from Milano to Cinque Terre I had an unbelievable time making friends with Italians. Have I mentioned how much I love random encounters of people? Well this certainly qualified.

Kelvin and my other friends were in a different compartment because we made our reservations separately, but I didn’t mind at all because I find that trains can be a really fun way to make friends. (Note – the border crossing into Italy was literally just two Italian policemen glancing at our passports. They saw I was American and hardly even opened it but they examined every page of the passports of the two Russian ladies next to me…). Anywho – my Italian train compartment was me, a middle aged lady, and a guy in his mid/late twenties. We got to talking because I ordered a little espresso from the train man and they looked really worried. After a moment he blurted out – “Please do not judge the Italian coffee from this coffee! This is the train coffee!” From there I saw that the guy was reading an English book so I asked him about it…. turns out he’s trying to learn English for – wait for it – his Magic career.

Yes, I shared my train compartment with the official magician for the Italian branch of the Kinder Chocolate company. He does magic shows for kids all over Italy and even on TV sometimes! He was incredibly warm and kind and basically facilitated a conversation between the three of us because the lady didn’t speak any English. I could follow the gist of very basica conversation because it’s so similar to Spanish. They wanted to tell me all about the right foods to eat in Cinque Terre (seafood of course, a special kind of noodle made with pounded chestnuts, a pizza that involves chickpeas, ficcacia bread – this is where it comes from, and pesto – this is the homeland of pesto!!!). They also explained that though both of them live in the north now, they have “Southern Italy in their hearts”. The young guy, Scizzo, went, “I am from Sicilia, bang-bang Mafia, you know?” Yes… I have heard of the Mafia. In the 1940s many Southern Italians moved north for jobs and remain to this day but still maintain their separate identity. They explained to me that the reason they wanted to make friends with me is because they have Southern Italy in their hearts so they are warm and loving (yay stereotypes!). The lady told us all about her life – she was really amazing. She lost her husband when she was fairly young with a small daughter who is about my age now but has some health problems.... but she has a very warm view on life. In just a three hour train ride she gained quite a fondness for me – she wanted my address in Geneva to send me postcards from her hometown. Then she gave me a bracelet that she had in her purse – so I gave her a pair of earrings that I made last year at Whitman. This is really my favorite bit of traveling – meeting people, exchanging ideas. The other favorite travel experience would be seeing beautiful things…. which is basically all of Cinque Terre so I was in luck!

Cinque Terre!

You never thought I’d get to the five seaside villages, did you? We got to Riomaggiore in the mid afternoon – time enough to check into an AWESOME private apartment for the five of us that was cheaper than communal hostels in Switzerland….oh Switzerland and your devilishly strong currency. The villages are built into little valleys leading to the sea, so the houses are all jumbled on top of each other which makes an artistic array of angles. An artisit must have designed these villages – the building are all painted warm shades of yellow, pink, and orange and the occasional purple with green or amber or some other lovely color windows…. then there are the sandstone or peach churches, bright blue water, lush green hills, and sheer cliffs into the Sea. SO ugly. We wandered into a church service and around the beautiful town, had an Italian coffee overlooking the Sea, and later a divine meal. That night we went down to the beach and Kelvin and I swam in the Mediterranean Sea! It wasn’t too cold but apparently only the Pacific North Westerners could muster it J. Beautiful moonlight, gentle rocking Sea….wow.

On Saturday we hiked between the towns and took in some more beauty, and of course, local cuisine. Gelato! Ficcacia bread! Interesting spinach-egg – pizza-like thing! At points it felt like the jungle… there are palm trees and cacti all over the place. An extremely mercurial climate. Pictures are really the only way to describe it, so:

It started to rain in the afternoon….and rain HARD. But even that gave a different kind of beauty to the landscape. So we were soaked and had to get another Italian Cappucino to recoup. That night after we’d finally warmed up and the rain had let up we took a jaunt down the pathway that connects Riomaggiore (where we stayed) with Manarola. It’s called “Via delle Amore” – pathway of love – because it was the first path between any of the villages – built just before WW1. It opened up all sorts of social and romantic possibilities for the young people of the two towns. Before that everyone had only ever married people from their tiny villages. A tradition began of meeting along the pathway and fastening a lock with you sweetheart in, as Rick Steves describes it in his guidebook, “a lovey-dovey spot”. People still do it so the path looks like a modern-art display in spots.

I’m not in Levanto waiting for my train to Milano. It’s almost an hour late…that’s fine. I’m not in Switzerland anymore! The entire time I’ve been writing this two older men have been playing the slots in this little Train Station café. Something I would NEVER see in Switzerland. The Swiss like their stability. It’s pretty incredible how different two nations that share a huge border like this can be. And I’m in Northern Italy!

Life, life, you are fascinating. So once again, a thanks to my marvelous mommy who encouraged me to go on this jaunt. And a shout out to Mae Rice who LOVES Italy. I can’t wait for you to explore here, you will love it in person as much as in concept.

Things about me that I contemplated a lot this weekend:

1. I need to live near the ocean

2. I need to have a dog in my life

3. I love chaos and adventure but above all I prefer the comfort of home

I hade a couple hours layover between trains in Milano so I jaunted through town. Mostly wandered around the Duomo for a very long time. Duomo is the fourth largest Cathedral in Europe (after the Cathedrals in Rome, Seville, and London). The Milanese started building it in the 1400s…and completed construction in 1810. They wanted to get some respect from the Italians down South in the Vatican….they certainly put in the time! And it shows. The Cathedral just keeps going. It was built to hold 40,000 people – the population of Milan when construction started. Breathtaking. I then wandered around the Galleria where there are a bunch of incredibly famous Milanese fashion stores like Prada…. for a mall it’s gorgeous. For anything it’s gorgeous, actually. I thought I was headed for a museum but I was going the exact wrong direction so instead I bought a cheap street snack that tasted sort of like a nut but also seemed like a fruit…. and talked to the old men hanging out at the stand in Italian for a while. Communication was minimal but good intentions were maximal.

Love! Arreviderci!

~Alice