SALZBURG, Austria – I don’t have much time as I write this. The school year in Salzburg is over and I have to move out of my room.
I am truly sad over this.
I’ve loved my time here and really don’t want to leave.
Through all of Salzburg’s quirks and ridiculousness, I have really fallen in love with this town.
I’ve become used to all the stores being closed on Sundays and holidays and always closing by 7 or 8 p.m.
I’ve become used to riding the bus or my bike everywhere I go.
I’ve become used to pedestrians having the right of way and cars observing crosswalks.
This is also the land of beer automats and bars in student dormitories, train travel and unimaginable amounts of dessert and coffee.
It will be hard to return to America.
There won’t be any schnitzel, incredible scenery with the Untersberg mountain on my walk to school or dirndl- or lederhosen-wearing locals.
I won’t be able to look up from my desk in class and see the Festung and I won’t be able to talk to people in German, going around greeting God (that’s the direct translation of the traditional greeting used when interacting with Salzburgers) or using any of the other wonderful Salzburg dialect.
But a return to America will provide me with numerous things I have missed this year, most of them food-related.
I want a good hamburger every time I order one, without strange sauce and with ketchup.
I want free water with my meals.
I want ice cream that isn’t gelato.
I want a hot dog with coney sauce, thick pizza and tacos from Taco Bell.
I also want unlimited Internet, and to not worry about receiving stares when wearing shorts or heading into the kitchen in my pajamas and with wet hair.
I will have these things soon enough, as I return to Ohio tomorrow, but I will have them only in exchange for these other things I love in Salzburg that I will be leaving.
It will be hard readjusting to the American life. I will have jet lag. I will be cranky. I will be missing Austria.
But I know that I will be back. I have too much love for this town to be gone too long.
