Mein Home?- Part 1

Since I started travelling abroad years ago, I try not to go to the same place twice. There have been exceptions such as Belgian Beauties Bruges & Antwerp, and bustling Barcelona. When in central Europe how can I not make a pit stop in magical Venice? Munich & Dublin have been important gateways to larger new explorations and great places for a beverage. OK, so it is a rule that I have broken quite a bit. However the rule has never applied when it comes to Vienna. I’ve been there several times, and honestly I won’t apologize for wanting to go there several more. I feel strangely at home there, even though I’m not Austrian (Or maybe I am, DNA is inconclusive but leaves open the possibility. Still I wasn’t raised in Austrian culture). There is just something about that Habsburgian capital that just draws me into her spell.

My strange love affair with the city began years before I travelled anywhere, or even wanted to, while watching the movie “Before Sunrise” (great movie). I was bewitched by the background and the legend of Vienna as illustrated through the film. I had to go there one day! The first time I went, I had come off the train from Czech Republic. I was tired and must admit walking around the “regular” parts of the city around the (former) Sudbahnof I was frankly a little disappointed, especially after witnessing picture-perfect Prague. Then after a nap and a tasty dinner, my friend and I went strolling around the old city, and my initial disappointment turned into delight, and then euphoria. The majestic buildings, the violinist playing on the street corner, the regal horse-drawn carriage, the fantastic coffee everywhere I went, the cultured air, everything I had imagined was true. My friend and I gorged on Mozart, he being a musician. We attended the very touristy but completely enchanting Mozart Review in the Vienna State Opera House, which was more like a Temple to the God of Music. Busts of legends such as Beethoven, Hayden and 0f course Mozart among many others were watching over me as I had a glass of champagne in a gilded parlor room overlooking Vienna’s famed Ringstrasse. It felt impossibly classy. This had to be a dream, especially since most other patrons were spending intermission crammed into a modern room with their beverages. What is wrong with people? But maybe the explanation was a simple one. I’ve joked that it was like I was some long-lost Habsburg who finally came home. Maybe I had?

A year later a friend of mine was invited to a wedding in Devinska Nova Ves, Slovakia, which is an hour by train from Vienna. She said she would fly in and out of Vienna and wanted my advice on whether she should base herself there for a few days. Instead of advising her, I became her date to the wedding. I needed to have this homecoming! Over the last several years I have had the opportunity to explore many countries in Europe and have become quite comfortable meandering in foreign nations. However, this Viennese excursion was still in my travel adolescence. My travel ease was not yet that developed. But in Vienna, after only one four night visit the year before, I was completely acclimated to and enamored by Vienna’s grace. The weather was not very cooperative so I suggested instead of walking everywhere all the time we should utilize the city’s very efficient public transportation system. My friend basically told me to take the lead and she will follow. We took metros and trams everywhere. I showed her sights and excitedly pointed out historical places and the events that had transpired. We went to cafes that I had been to or heard about. When the weather permitted we walked all over including outer neighborhoods and palace grounds. Occasionally my friend would give me a quizzical look. When I asked what was wrong she would just shake her head and say nothing.

After spending a couple of days in Slovakia for the wedding, we returned to Vienna before our flight home, except I kept referring to Vienna as home while we were across the Austrian border. We celebrated our last night home, I mean in Vienna, with dinner at a local place that I had heard about. Once again my friend gave me that look but this time she confessed her thoughts. She was a devout Catholic, but somehow I had lived in Vienna in a past life. Since reincarnation is not part of Catholic doctrine, I was fostering a spiritual crisis in her! She was joking of course, but the point is even she could sense that I had some unexplainable meta-physical connection with the city. While I don’t have any of the physical… characteristics shall I say… of the Habsburg dynasty, who is to say that I’m not one on some level?

To be continued…