Vienna in the Springtime

I had stumbled off the bus from Prague to Vienna into a live snowglobe.
The snow stuck to streetlamps and tree branches, and matched up against the frilly white baroquesque buildings, it all looked like lace or a world made of decadent icing on a large wedding cake.

I wandered towards one of the large buildings, hoping it was a bank to exchange money into euros. It was. I groaned slightly as I walked through the doors, glancing at the neon red numbers: USD: 1.67

Why oh why does this have to be the year the dollar loses all value?

I walked down the streets a bit longer, enjoying in some silly way the manner in which the snow fell and stuck to everything, simply everything. I hate cold weather but I love snow. Snow in 80 degree weather would be heaven. I didn’t recognize any of the street names. All the signs were in german. The two people I asked for directions didn’t speak english. I felt like an alien. But for some reason, I wasn’t worried. My familiar travel companion “Anxiety” did not rear his ugly head. And for a brief few minutes, I enjoyed the feeling of being completely anonymous and alone inside a snowglobe of a city.

Backpack firmly stuck to my back, protected by a scarf, woolen hat and mittens and my small orange suitcase and a pocket (not quite) full of euros, I hailed the first cab I saw and handed the driver the address of the apartment.

My friend Maggie once told me that when you travel, your soul lags behind a few days. If that's true, I think it takes me about 5 days to rejoin myself. The first five days in a city are filled with panic: "I've made the wrong decision" or "why did I come to a country where they don't speak english" etc etc. And thusly went my first few days in Vienna, full of ups and downs (unfortunately, more downs than ups, but so it goes). I traveled to the smaller city of Melk for the weekend, where I stayed with an adorable family on a farm.

Flash foward a couple days later, driving through Melk at night in a car with 3 Austrian guys, talking over loud Goa electronic music in German. We're speeding down winding country roads, passing through landscapes that look a little too much like pennsylvania. It is day 5 in Austria, and just as the winter clouds clear, so does the thick layer of my discomfort, revealing the star filled night sky and myself, breathing it all in.