Vienna was great. I have a couple of stories not for for internet consumption, but when I get home they wil be part of the 'Slide Night Extravaganza' I will be subjecting all my friends to. I figure I've got to dangle the occasional carrot out there to get people to look at my not very good photography at (short) length.
That is, of course, a joke. There will be no slide night.
Apart from all the brilliant things I am seeing I am constantly struck by the amazing an friendly people I have met. In the last 5 days I have met the following people:
1. dJim (yes, there is suppsoed to be a d there and it's a weird, long story). I met Jim on the train yesterday as we were both missing our connection to Krakow because apparently Polish trains only got at 40mph when people are actually trying to get somewhere. So we chatted on the train to Krakow about life, the universe, everything. He was a really interesting man - he made records for bands like the Microphones (!!) and was a musician/painter. Currently an unemployed musician/painter, but for the past 11 years he had worked as a caretaker for a woman in Boston on her estate. She let him turn any building he wanted into a temporary studio. When she recently passed away, he and his musician friends had a 2day long session in her vintage gymnasium recording songs in tribute to her.
Anyway, we went for dinner last night and ate Polish food at this random restaurant with weird dolls everywhere. He was so cool and interesting. As part of his trip to Europe he had brought photos from the estate to a Czech woman who was friends wth Louise, his employer. He saved the photos of this lady's mother from being thrown out by the people inhertiting the estate and had brought them all the way to the Czech Republic for her.
2. Erna I met Erna on the train yesterday and she was such a cool old lady. She would have been in her 70s and she spoke limited English - explaining to me that she had started learning before Communism but had to stop afterwards. I thought she was doing pretty well. She gave me sweets on the train (yes, I know that's how all good fairytales start, with old women giving youg girls sweets) and pointed out all sorts of things in the countryside and explained some of the history and geography of the country.
When she asked me about me about my trip, I explained what I was doing. She asked me if I knew anyone in Prague and I said no. She told me that now I knew her and that if I ever come back I should come and stay with her. Her husband died 2 years ago and she had no children and that I should definitely call on her. She gave me her address, phone number and was insistent. It was also very cute when she told me that she was very modern and had a mobile number.
Erna is going to Turkey for 2 weeks in July. She said her friends told her she should be home in bed not wandering around Turkey. I couldn't disagree with them more.
3. Austin I met Austin, who is an American missionary and her Czech friend whose name I can't spell, when I first got to my hostel in Prague. They work for a Christian group who teach English in the Czech Republic. Anyway, after my first night there they were heading back to he border town where their program was run and Austin said to me I've been thinking about you travelling by yourself for 6 months and wondering how many hugs you get'. I then got two massive hugs which were very much appreciated, especially since I was in the process of having a massive internal sook about the hostel I was staying in.
Their thoughtfulness almost made me cry actually.
4. Stefan I met Stefan on the train from Vienna. He was from the west of Austria and working in Vienna. He said he missed the mountains. He was so cute and sterotypically Austrian. It may have been that his sports short and golf socks were very 'European Abroad' but he was incredibly sweet.
I also thought Prague was brilliant, even in the rain. I loved its gothic beauty. I am now in Krakow and it is still raining. But again, it is a beautiful city. At least the few blocks of it I have seen.
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2 comments:
ohhhh i waaannt to be there!!!!
It's actually really amazing that your trip - correction: my second-hand readings of your trip - can inspire me, many thousands of miles away.
I can imagine you talking to these people, and being enraptured by their stories, humbled by their openness, and moved by their selflessness. And its enough to render my cynicism as really just stupid. It was definitely enough to make me smile.
Thanks for sharing these stories, m'dear. They made me both want to be experiencing what you're experiencing, and glad to be able to appreciate just how much you're enjoying this freedom of yours :)
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