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Published: August 2nd 2013
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As I waved good bye to Budapest, the temperature was again 106 degrees.
I climbed on board an Ice Train and headed west ... to Salzburg, Austria.
West you ask? Why not east? I thought the plan was to go east?
My plan had been to work my way through Eastern Europe to Istanbul and then back, but frankly I am running out of time.
By way of explanation (I will not call it an excuse, because an excuse implies a mistake was made), I spent more time in each city than I anticipated.
What I learned on this trip is that I enjoy (i) arriving in a city in the late morning or early afternoon, (ii) spending that afternoon and the whole next day exploring on my own, with no specific plan or itinerary (its amazing what you find), (iii) using the third day for something unique to that city or area and then (iv) leaving on day four. I followed this plan everywhere except Berlin and Prague (I spent 4 days in each of those cities).
My original schedule was, in hindsight, too ambitious. Lesson learned.
I am especially disappointed about missing
Istanbul, but you know me ... there will always be another trip.
So now what? You ask.
I have about 10 days left, so I am going to visit Salzburg for a couple days, then on to Amsterdam (insert your own pot joke here) and then I need to schedule the last couple of days (I have a couple of ideas).
At the suggestion of Lori Anderson, I read World War Z, which is a terrific book. Thank you Lori, I would not have considered it without the suggestion.
I am currently reading the History of the Third Reich, and today, literally as I was reading about Hitler's youth in Linz, Austria, the Ice Train stopped at ... wait for it ... Linz, Austria. How is that for coincidental (and in no way ironic).
I arrived in Salzburg. It was about 65 and raining. Really raining. As in Wrath of God, Old Testament Rain.
I knew my hotel was within a mile of the station, and the cool air felt so good. I decided to forgo a taxi. I put the rain cover on my backpack, slipped on my gortex and ventured into the
monsoon. I was soaked when I arrived (as in "don't you have enough sense to come out of the rain" soaked) but I felt cool and clean for the first time in days.
The next morning, I wanted to take the Sound of Music Bus Tour, but because I failed to make an early reservation, I was unable to get a seat. I struggled though my disappointment and instead asked if there were any good hiking trails nearby. I was given several options.
Unfortunately the heavy rains continued.
Finally, in the afternoon, the rain became a drizzle and I ventured out. There was not enough time to start a hike, so I grabbed my IPhone and crossed the bridge into Old Town, a quaint area near the river that is more intimate than the historic sections of most larger cities. There was a very nice market and a castle (there is always a castle).
As near as I can tell, the entire Salzburg economy is built on the foundation of Mozart and the Sound of Music.
Hopefully things will clear up for some hiking mañana.
I would like to end today's blog with a
short discussion about the blog itself. I am shocked that I have 70+ regular readers and that some of the entries have been read by more than 300 different people (ok most of those 300 are Norwegian friends of the guys in the garish suits .. but still).
Who are you?
When I do the math on who might be remotely interested in my exploits, I come up with a dozen people max (and 4 or 5 of those are my nieces and nephews who are being forced to read by their parents).
In all honestly, I am humbled that so many people are reading.
Its also fun to see what you are collectively interested in. You seem to like the tale of me losing my wallet (I can see you all, hunched over your computers thinking ... "the man is an idiot") and Auschwitz was popular.
But my procedural tales are less popular. "Budapest ... Train Travel" was a flop, because, I think, it focused on the logistics of train travel. Frankly, I wrote it because I had some funny observations to make, and because I really hope that some day before you embark
on your own train trip across Europe that you come back to the blog, re-read the Train Travel entry and make notes.
It is especially odd when you get comments from complete strangers, but I must admit to being prideful when I received a comment today from a stranger who found my Train Travel blog helpful.
More mañana.
JJf
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Jed
non-member comment
I read you blog!
First of all, I hope I was among the dozen. For what it's worth, I read your blog because (i) I miss you, so it's fun to "hear" your voice, (ii) you are going to interesting places, and doing interesting things, (iii) I may someday want to go to the places you are, and (iv) you are a keen observer of humanity, and I enjoy hearing your observations. I say all of that, because I don't want you to start crafting your blog to pander to the masses. I greatly appreciated the train travel entry, and your blog would suffer if you self-censored. Jed