31 Jul 1985, Posted by Scott An Chora in Travelogue, No Comments.
07/31 Vienna, Austria
Roger, a minister from back home who had conducted numerous musicals at our high school and local theater, headed up a choir that was touring Europe this year. I was given their schedule of appearances and some of those dates were approaching, so we made a decision to seek them out rather than tolerate the German rain. We began heading south into Austria until we reached Vienna. Our empty stomachs lead us straight to a small pizzeria not far from the Stephansplatz. While waiting for our order to be delivered I took the opportunity an attempted to place a phone call home. It was about time to let my loved ones know I was doing okay. Well, the technology here hadn’t quite caught up with the states. After failing numerous times, they were unable to make the connection and I just gave up.
After a couple pieces of pizza and a few beers we headed back to the streets to find ourselves a room for the night. Yes, we’ve seen a lot of interesting places and met a lot of interesting people but this kind of traveling was not all vacation. There was a lot of work getting from one place to another, exchanging currencies, staying on a budget, finding a place to sleep and avoiding obstacles. It could take a lot out of ya. We had no luck finding accommodations. We walked and knocked on door and wasn’t able to find a vacancy, everything was filled. At that point it was rather dark and we started debating the option of boarding a train to accommodate a night’s sleep. We were sitting on a grassy hill adjacent to the train station. It was a warm night under a full moon and during our indecisiveness, one by one what appeared to be transients or other travelers began gathering around us. By their preparation it appeared that this hill was accustomed to accommodating overnight freeloaders. As we procrastinated, the idea seemed more and more reasonable.
A couple introduced themselves and asked if they could claim the spot alongside of us. Once we began talking we discovered that they were a bride and groom on the day before their wedding. They were on their way to Budapest to get married. Well this is an opportunity to perform a toast, so I walked across the way, procured a bottle of rum and a bottle of coke and we toasted to their future. The rum, the company and I suppose the slope of the hill did not equal a good night’s sleep. I laid their most of the night watching the clouds overtake the moon.
