The sky was blue like water color, and always high. The light clouds gathered like a wide thin layer of a haze, just try to cover the blue, but still fail to climb up. The breeze was not enough for me to be nice, but I understood that it was part of a good summer day here.
It was in the summer 2008. I was on the top of the hill and looking down at Schloss Schönbrunn, where I was on the heavy, white snow day, 8 years ago. Same place, but for me, it's different. Totally, different.
Different? I understood what I felt different did not come from the summer blue sky and strong sun shinning, or winter white snow and chilly north wind of 8 years ago.
To say honestly, I felt that the difference came from Schloss Schönbrunn, which maybe had been there for more than two or three hundred years, I guess. Schloss Schönbrunn in my memory on the winter day was, actually, bigger and brighter than what I saw on the summer day.
I remembered that the ceders with full snow on its each branch and twig in the garden were so tall that I thought they were a quasi-snow wall for the solemn place in here. On a summer day, I looked up the blue sky between the branches of the ceders, and the birds in there sang a song like chatting. Here was Wien, Austria.
On the new year's eve, the last day of 1999, I saw tons of stalls that sold plenty of pig mascots especially to the locals in Wien. Of course, tourists, just like me, were looking at them and some or many would buy and fill their bags with them. At that time, many stalls on main roads had small wooden gable-roofs, which were perfectly mixed with a classic row of houses in the center of the city. I still remember that a small, plastic pig mascot was just S5 (Austrian Schilling, not Euro at that time), so I tried to buy a couple of small pigs for my family. My guidebook told me that pigs or pig mascots for the upcoming new year symbolized "wealth" in Wien, because a pig was well known by its fertility. After looking around several similar pig stalls, I decided to buy a small one, later, not on that eve day, but maybe on a new year or the day after it.So, on January 2, 2000, I definitely decided to buy small plastic pigs and walked around the city to look for them, but couldn't find a stall itself anywhere. Maybe, people would buy pigs by a new year coming. I somehow found one stall without any gables on a back street, which sold leftovers. In the stall, a small pig was for S10, costing double. I, nevertheless, bought two of them.Here was on a back street, Wien, Austira.
At 20:00, I was on the riverside of Donau, or Danube, the great and longest river in EU. Its surface was totally frozen and on it, there was about 2cm-snow-layer. It was just 2cm and the ice itself was so thin that I could break it easily by throwing only a small snow-chunk. Inside the ice, the river looked deep and dark. In that darkness, fishes seemed to be too reluctant to move.I came here by taking subway. When walking on the snow road to the shore of Donau, I saw several juveniles skateboarding on the dry, no-snow place under a bridge. They played skateboards without saying anything. Just a strange feeling. On one hand, I saw the frozen Donau silently running under the thin ice. On the other, I heard only sharp noises occurred sometime by juveniles' boards hitting the concretes. Walking back to the bridge, I saw that there was a multiplex, or movie theater complex, which at that time had Luc Besson's "The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc", I remember, because of its huge poster in front of the building.The juveniles might be just waiting for the movie while playing here, or might not.Here was near the great Donau, Wien, Austria.
On January 2, 2000, we had a heavy snow falling from the early morning in Wien. I walked from a hotel I stayed to Wien Mitte station. While walking, I was just surprised how the snow scape of the city became so different from what I looked before snowing. I took just 25-min-walk from my hotel to the station. The huge snowplow ran regularly on city's main roads and made a little snow walls along with them. I took a subway from Wien Mitte to go to Schloss Schönbrunn, or I can say, Schönbrunn Palace, a world heritage site. Of course, in Schönbrunn, there was snow everywhere, and moreover, it was the heaviest snow-falling moment when I arrived there. So, my impression of this palace, is firstly "a snow scape", but therefore, beautifully white-bright.After looking around the palace, I took a subway again to go to Stadtbahn Station Karlsplatz. I don't know why I decided to go to Karlsplatz at that time, but certainly remember that I had a pretty good croissant sandwich at the stall.Here was Wien, Austria.
In a couchette car, there are two of three-level-beds placed on both sides of the room. So, basically, a room could have six passengers maximally. I was in one of second-level-beds. Each top-level-bed was occupied by a young couple that seemed to go skiing in somewhere mountainous spot in Austria. Ironically for me, each lowest level bed was also occupied by an another young couple that seemed to go skiing in somewhere mountainous spot in Swiss.One of two couples said hello to sleepy me, and went outside the room. They chatted in a corridor over the night. Unconsciously listening to the chatting from the corridor while sleeping, suddenly, I heard a crew said something about a passport directly to me. Then, I opened my eyes and saw a middle-aged man who asked me to bring my passport for passing a border. As the man told, I handed it to him. He just went outside without saying anything.Next morning, around 6:00am, the same man brought my passport back with two slices of toasts, a strawberry-jam, batter, a glass of orange juice and small bottle of water.At 8:00am, I stood in Wien Westbahnhof.Here was in a train station located west side of Wien, Austria.
On the evening of the new year's eve of the Millennium year, I and my friend were in the classic city hall of Wien. In front of the main building, there were two big temporary stages for a countdown event. At the shake of the evening, these two stages were filled with people who were made up in classic costumes. As Johan Strauss II's "An der Shönen, blauen Donau" was played by the orchestra (of course, all of us could easily expect this), people in the stages began to waltz. The two huge screens set in the facade of the hall captured every single people waltzing happily in the stages. Then, I realized that the large audience around us began to waltz with their girls, husbands, wives, grandmothers, relatives, or even people standing just next to them. The great waltz world on the last day of 1999. In order to celebrate this, I and my friend bought cups of hard cider from a stall there, though I didn't or don't usually drink. Every stall used a special cup for the celebrated Millennium year, which I slightly remember had a logo "Millennium Wien" on its side. Unfortunately, I lost my cup without notice. The cider was a little bit strong for me, but that taste and waltzing made me happily say hello to the year of 2000.Here was Wien, Austria.
Walking up to a new residential area in Stadt Salzburg, which we might say a "new town" area, I and my friend hardly met anyone on streets. All shops and stores were closed because of a new year holiday. The sky was deep gray having plenty of snow, though it was still around noon. The snow would come on later, when we went across the Salzach river. Until we finally found a line of headlights of cars going to an old town area, a silent town and cold made us a little bit scary.In an old town, there were tons of tourists that walked around not only the beautiful heritages listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but also in a few restaurants that opened in a holiday in order to get a less-competitive bonanza. That's a reason why we went in a franchise Mexican restaurant and ordered chicken burritos, salsa and chips as parts of our lunch in Salzburg.Here was Salzburg, Austria
I was in a train from Wien to Salzburg at the very first day in the newly Millennium year, almost seven years ago. I was with my friend, and chose to get on an empty compartment, which had two long seats for four people, in an Inter-City train at Wien. I slightly remember that it was almost three hour trip, and by the first an hour passed, we were only two in the compartment.I forgot the name of the stop, where an elderly man came in our room. He firstly gave a glimpse into the room, and then said to us in German (maybe) if he could come in. We, of course, said "no problem", So, he just came in with a huge smile. After the man sitting on an opposite seat to me, I realized that his clothes were coated with dust, and his smell was just like a dried straw. He just laughed, and said something in German, which I and my friend couldn't understand totally. We just inclined our heads. Then, he began to speak a broken German-English, though we hardly listen to. Finally, He began to sing a song. At that time, I didn't know the name of the song, but felt that I surely used to listen to the melody someone sang somewhere. Later, I found it was Stevie Wonder's "Music Of My Mind".Here was in a train, from Wien to Salzburg, Austria.
The sky was blue like water color, and always high. The light clouds gathered like a wide thin layer of a haze, just try to cover the blue, but still fail to climb up. The breeze was not enough for me to be nice, but I understood that it was part of a good summer day here.
