Salzburg

I’m alone, in a biergarten, and bored. bad combination, but something about Salzburg makes it hard to be too upset. Maybe it’s the postcard-perfect skyline (seen in all its glory courtesy of the 550 m climb up to the castle overlooking the city). Or maybe it’s just that there’s something great about a country – a continent, really – where public squares have chessboards, and perfectly acceptable way to spend a Saturday is drinking beer and accepting all comers. I’m finding it very hard to miss the US. Life here just seems so much more eventful, more connected to other people. I suppose that could be true of cities everywhere, but Salzburg isn’t really any bigger than Lafayette. And yet it somehow seems that life is better here. The rosy glasses of vacation, maybe, or could it just be that they have a 1000-year head start?