The Place Where Trains Don't Leave...Ever

the old town in innsbruck
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Hallo Jeder!

First stop on this vacation, Innsbruck, Austria. After a nice long night in a sleeper car and a quick stopover in the Munich train station for some rather delicious pizza I got to the once home of the Winter Olympics. Taking a train into the Alps is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I’m used to mountains having foothills so after an hour of traveling out of Munich I still hadn’t seen any bumps in the landscape I began to get nervous. Did my lack of German end me on the wrong train, again? Nope. Straight from flat farm fields to giant, titanic, mammoth, awesome, colossal mountains.

weather trumps trains
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After getting over my shock at the giant mountains I got a whole new shock getting to see Laura. We figure we manage to see each other about once a year, pretty good given that she lives in LA and I in Boston and I’ll be at NYU and she at Stamford.

The nice weather followed from Paris and we were able to walk through the old town and along the river. Innsbruck is absolutely gorgeous. There are snow-covered mountains everywhere. They’re so close to the town that, at night, you can’t even see them.

She works at a British kindergarten so Friday morning I went along with her to work. The kids are adorable. They’re meant to only speak English but many of the younger ones still speak mostly in German. Laura and the other girls who work there can actually understand German, me, not so much. The kids however, didn’t seem to differentiate. They kept saying things to me in German. I just nodded and smiled. “Nod and smile,” it’s becoming my new motto. It was one of the kid’s birthdays when we were there and the mother brought this incredibly ornate chocolate cake in to be served at snack time. Snack time came and we served the cake. They sang happy birthday and then the weirdest thing happened. Nearly all twenty of the three year-olds didn’t eat more than a few bites of chocolate cake. Weird, right?

We couldn’t figure it out either. We just shrugged, cleaned them up, and sent them off to play for a bit. When it came time for our break we each took a piece of cake upstairs to eat. We couldn’t let such a thing of beauty go to waste. One bite and we knew exactly why the kids didn’t like the cake. That was the most heavily liquored cake I’ve ever tasted in my life. Oops.

That night we had the ultimate girls’ night in. Chick flicks, chocolate, and Bordeaux. Yum.

Saturday I was meant to leave for Switzerland to see my dad. I almost missed my train. She lives right next to the train station so we weren’t being cautious until we realized that my train was set to leave in fifteen minutes. Throwing all my bags onto our backs we set off running. We get to the station with five minutes to spare and run up to the platform.

No train.

We asked a nearby conductor and he said that my train had been delayed. Okay fine, I’ll wait. We go for some coffees and pastries and when we come out of the café an hour later my train isn’t even posted on the board anymore. I go downstairs to ask the ticket office what happened to my train. She says the train has been canceled due to a windstorm. Okay, can I use my ticket on the next train?

There is no next train. What does she mean?

All trains today are canceled. Okay, about a flight.

All canceled.

Living in Boston or New York or Paris or Los Angeles you become accustomed to thinking that travel plans are set plans that are going to happen. If something gets canceled there is always another option. Yeah, not so much in the Alps. Man vs. Giant Mountain, mountain always wins.

So we had an extra day. What are two girls to do? We headed for the only thrift store in Innsbruck. It turns out to have a better selection than many of those I’ve been to in Paris. We both walked out with a few bags, (3€ each) and Laura got a puzzle.

When we were walking back to her apartment from our little shopping excursion we cut through the train station as a short cut. The entire floor was covered with people and ski equipment. A few people had pitched tents and sleeping bags were unfurled everywhere. Mother Nature really does rule all.

The next morning I was up at 7:30 and off on the first of three trains to meet my Dad.

Until next time,

Kate