The train ride to Salzburg from Munich was peaceful. After getting yet another night of poor sleep (and yes an unwelcome male visitor despite you telling the front office of the situation the night before), Starbucks was a welcome sight. We hoped on the train and I immediately went into a zen state, staring out the window but not really sleeping listening to the peaceful tones of Cecil from Welcome to Nightvale on my iphone. We stepped onto the Salzburg HBF and immediately began following the directions to the hostel I had booked a few days prior. The directions were easy enough to follow until about the last two steps. The hostel was hidden amongst an apartment complex and the road we needed to take was unmarked. We ended up having to wander for another 20 minutes before finding it. In the meantime, our patience had run short and Sara's tendons had once again begun flaring up. Exasperated, we walked into the lobby only to find that the front desk was closed from 10 am to 5pm. We had arrived around 2 pm so it would be another 3 hours before we could get a room, get internet...do anything but sit in the lobby with our luggage.
All of this doesn't sound too bad. Minor annoyances but surely not worth the soul wrenching hopeless monologue I began this post with. It was at this point that Sara realized that she had left her laptop on the train. Any semblance of calm composure that Sara had, which she was already running thin, vanished in a few seconds. My mind immediately struggled in futility to console and come up with a solution to this new problem. I was tired and exhausted. I didn't have a phone that worked (yay new country, back to roaming). I pulled out my laptop, no internet. All I wanted to do was run home or talk to my parents. Something. I finally realized that the only solution was to return to the train station and talk to someone, maybe the train could drop off the laptop in Vienna (our location for the next day). One of us had to go and I knew immediately that it wasn't going to be Sara. I brought up the solution to Sara and before long left to once again return to the HBF, a good 30 minute trip from the hostel.
As I sat at the bus station waiting for the next bus to take me back, I was immediately overcome by hopelessness and stress. I was just not built for this abuse. Nothing bad had happened to me directly, no. But at this point in time, I had to be the rock for our little couple. This trip only worked if one of us to anchor the other emotionally. I had been forced to do a lot of heavy lifting in the last couple of weeks and I just didn't have anything left. I was so tired of being responsible and caring. But, I can't be otherwise either. I took a deep breath and went to the station. I talked to information services and they called the train which took down the details and promised to leave the laptop at the lost and found in Vienna should they find it. I disliked leaving the doubt in that statement, but there was nothing else I could do. I remarked that I supposed my luck was better than the other couple at the station, which had just realized that their young daughter had wandered onto a different train which was now hurtling towards another far off city.
I returned to Sara and did my best to cheer her spirits. Before long, the lobby was open and we had rooms. The hostel was actually very nice. The lounges were beautiful. Internet was free. Breakfast was included and the rooms were clean and nice. The food and vending machines were also really cheap which was a great relief. We dropped off our things and then I compelled Sara to go exploring even though the sun had already set as it always does around 4:30pm each afternoon.
We wandered through the city and had a few laughs trying to disperse and forgetting the underlying tension and anxiety about the lost laptop. We managed to scope out a few sights for the next day and see a little bit of the Christmas market. It was at this point that we found out that Salzburg had two things going for it. Mozart and the Sound of Music. Just about everything was an advertisement for one, the other, or both. One of the most common things to see, were Mozart chocolates. They consisted of Marzipan and pistachio balls dipped in chocolate. We each tried one and they weren't bad.
We turned in for an earlyish night and I even got to skype my parents. We also got to know the two girls who were also staying in our dorm. They were Australians on holiday and it turned out that our itineraries had been nearly identical for the past couple of weeks, including staying at the same hostel not but a night before. They however were not following us south to Italy, but rather continuing on to Budapest and Amsterdam. We slept marginally better than the previous nights.
The next morning we packed up, had our continental breakfast and checked out. We immediately began this day on a low, but I was optimistic that good things would happen. We first went to the main train station and locked up our things for the day. We picked a train to take to Vienna and then went exploring. The city of Salzburg is more beautiful during the day. We wandered by Mozart's birthplace (having seen Mozart's adult home the night before), plenty of shops, churches, another Christmas market, and the beautiful Marizbel gardens. It was overall enjoyable and we very quickly got our fill of the city. We returned to the main station to wait for our train.
I leave the story there as we are currently spending our first night in Vienna. I'll let the anticipation and mystery of the lost laptop settle with you for the moment. On a whole, Salzburg ended up being more trouble than it was worth, but it was never really Salzburg's fault. We got to see some beautiful and historically important places. The Alps which surround the city were also a nice sight to see. I hope we have better luck in Vienna, but then I may have already jinxed us. We will be spending Christmas in Vienna and also spending the most time in Vienna that we have spent in any one place, 6 whole days. We will see how long my optimism holds out.
Adventures Await!
KH
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