08 Dec 1985, Posted by Scott An Chora in Travelogue, No Comments.
12/08 Lienz, Austria
When we finally reached Villach and obtained some currency, sugar was on the menu. I found a dream of bakeries and was operating on the ‘try everything once’ premise, but we cut that short for some real food. We spent the rest of the day checking out shop windows. Jenni expressed a passion for shop windows. I suggested that she get herself a nice camera and perhaps someday she would publish a book. It was my opinion that books like those would become very popular, familiarity that could have a lot of diversity. It was obvious our surroundings had changed. We were among well dressed middle class and it appeared that they had all showered that morning. I suggested that we continue heading north to the small village of Lienz. I enjoyed the time I spent there and it was the perfect distance to make a stop. As far as Jenni was concerned, it didn’t matter, “As long as we were heading north”.
Snow continued falling like angel wings falling from the sky and blanketed the tracks as far as the eye could see. When we reached Lienz it looked like we were pulling into the Santa’s Village, Saint Nick’s backyard. Lienz was covered in snow that appeared colored by the reflections of the numerous Christmas lights that lined every square. The picture was post card worthy. The tourist office wasn’t just closed for the season, it had been converted into a print shop. There was a young man there over dressed for a print shop, he looked as if he stepped right from the pages of a modeling magazine. I noticed he had an eye on Jenni so I played it to our advantage. “Perhaps my mother could put you up for the night”. He called home and his mother agreed. She would just need thirty minutes to clean things up and make the house ready to accept guests. The three of us walked the town, talked about local history and located a cold beer. We ended our walk across the river at a large door to a big white house. The room was exceptionally nice and caught Jenni’s expectations completely by surprise. From the moment we entered the room she was all smiles as if she had discovered a present with her name on it under the Christmas tree. “I don’t have a room like that at home”, Jenni explained. Our hosts suggested that if we weren’t too tired from traveling they knew of a nice restaurant and would enjoy our company for dinner. We showered, put on some cleaner clothes and the three of us and his younger brother headed across the river. My wallet was really thin so I just stuck to ordering soup and blamed it on all the pastries. The conversation never really included me. Both brothers were hitting on Jenni. When one of the brothers grabbed her hand I hit stage left and set out for a cigarette. I wandered in the cold but the mood of Christmas was warming. I stood for some time on the bridge and watched the water grab pieces of ice and race them down stream. When I returned to the restaurant it was like I never left. The conversation must have come full circle. They made me feel as if I got caught daydreaming in a classroom. “I’m sorry could you repeat the question?” It brought back memories of day dreaming in school. I’ve always dreamt my way through the school day and missed out on learning lots of things. Never really applied myself. It was late and we all wandered back to hit the sack.
That was one of the most comfortable beds I had ever slept in. It was like sleeping on a cloud. Morning to me was like Christmas day. I couldn’t wait to get dressed and head out into the snow. I made a snow angel and threw a few snow balls at imaginary friends then wandered alongside the river’s edge until I came upon a small coffee shop. These little places hidden where only the locals know are priceless and worth seeking out. I stopped by the station and bought a pair of tickets into Innsbruck. Without a rail pass these little transaction added up quickly. When I got back to the room the comforter that covered the bed was so large and fluffy I couldn’t tell if Jenni was under it. Underneath the comforter she was still asleep. Breakfast was served in our room and was as exceptional as the bed.
The older brother asked me the previous night about my relationship to Jenni so when he suggested walking us to the station I knew that was his last chance to make a move. Just prior to the train pulling in I thought I’d give them some time together so I made up a story that I was out of film and wandered into town for a goodbye beer. We boarded the train just prior to the engine arriving. Looking in both directions you couldn’t see the tracks through the snow which hadn’t stopped for several few hours. It was a winter wonder ride into Innsbruck. Even though I had been along that path before everything looked different covered in white. Surprisingly when we reached Innsbruck it was raining very hard even though it seemed cold enough to snow. We darted from building to building in an attempt to locate a room but all our inquiries resulted in no vacancies. Things just weren’t falling together the way we would have liked and we began to get discouraged. The rain had a lot to do with it. We made a few more inquiries and eventually decided to play the “eat well and sleep on the train” card, so we shelled out and pigged out. We hit up the Chinese restaurant that Jim and I had gone to on occasion. Not only had its menu changed but it seemed their prices had doubled. We did eat all we could and hung around as long as possible hoping the weather would let up and give us a window to get back to the station. Our plan was to sleep our way into Amsterdam but when we got a hold of the price tag we needed to consider other options. After checking out the schedules and the ticket prices I came to a conclusion that we could reduce our fare by half if we traveled through Munich, so that became our ticket. Our wait on a cold station floor eliminated any opportunity to grab real sleep so I caught up on my journal.
It was wonderful to be back on a train. Trains were a wonderful way to travel and venture to say I considered them to be on an equal footing with automobiles. Each had equal advantages and disadvantages. Trains were fast and direct, easy to sleep on and were always an easy place to locate a smile. Automobiles on the other hand provided freedom, allowed one to travel at a slower place, to stop and take pictures but provided no sleeping, hardly any leg room and could be difficult to read or write.
When we reached Munich it was still raining outside so we never left the station. We chased down an exchange for enough money to buy two tickets and eat. My budget made it here but no farther. I needed to borrow money from Jenni. When we reached Amsterdam I planned on making a withdrawn with my American Express Card, take out enough money to pay back Jenni, buy a plane ticket home and hang around for a few days to finish up my journal. I had about two blank pages left and only its cover would be untouched. It took really good vision to read it. The size of the letters started out about a font of six but after about thirty pages the letters began getting smaller and smaller. Showing this journal to someone for the first time usually got a chuckle. I still had a few poems I had been working on unsuccessfully and the last part of “Our nature is at conflict”, so relaxing in Amsterdam would bring this to a conclusion. I had a frankfurter and beer, then another and again. It felt good to be full.
