The first Great Escape

September 4, 2004, First journey, Salzburg, Austria-Österreich

Enough is enough, it has been two weeks since Nate arrived. He was already getting frustrated with the bombardment of rumors, bullshit and other un-intelligent issues. So, we decided to take “a great escape” from our living dorms (aka, the Abrams) for Salzburg. We could have taken a day trip with our friends, Jagger and Stephen, but considering that Austria was only a half-hour away and plus neither one of us has ever been there, it was worth going. As we arrived in Salzburg, we found our hostel and located all the important sites to check out. One site in particular that was important to visit was the infamous ‘Festung Hohensalzburg’ or the Salzburg fortress, which overlooked the city. We did nothing but take pictures and discussed everything about our friends back home who would either enjoyed this type of journey or those who wouldn’t. Later that same day, we had our Wießbier (white beer), which was located in the center of town. Beer after beer, we were wasted, we returned to our hostel to only be bored with the crowd there. So, we went back out at night to experience more of the town and found nothing. We thought we got lucky as we entered a lively bar with nothing but women and hardly any guys. We found out later after a few more drinks, we were in a hooker bar. We were without grace and money. We returned to our hostel. We enjoyed this great city for two days. We returned to Garmisch for work..

September 18, 2004, Road Trip to Prague,
Czech Republic

No more bullshit, we all agreed. I guess we were all feeling the need to get away from our American community of the Abrams. So, it was set, Nate, Jagger and I were heading out of town. Also, Stephen rented a mid-size Peugeot station wagon, with power windows, CD player and a sleek look, especially for the AutoBahn. We gave Stephen the full responsibility to not only drive all the way, but to actually find Prague even with the bizarre German highway signs and unfamiliar road stops. Plus, Stephen was 19 years old and he was driving really fast, then again, it was the German AutoBahn. We’ve talked about everybody and everything, we slept for a bit, we got lost and finally found arrived in Prague. Though, none of us understood Czech and the signs were nothing to understand or figure out. We just knew that we had to find the city center. Jagger’s broken German was not helping either and English seemed unknown as well. Later, we found the city center and we went around to find accommodations. One hostel, in particular, had no rooms available, however, the receptionist, said that we could stay with her friend on the other side of town. We had to meet this lady, Maria at the Republisky train station. It seemed that we waited forever, so we decided to head back on the metro train to the city center and find our own accommodation. As the metro train doors were about to close, a man grabbed me and told me to follow her. Jagger said, “This is the start of an adventure.” We followed this woman, Maria to our luck to her apartment. She showed us our room, a large living room converted into a guest room. With three beds and a view of the city, we took it.

That same night, we went out into the town, found a local tavern, ordered some Pilsner Urgüell (Czech Beer.) At the time of ordering our drinks, Stephen became worried about the car and decided to move the car to another area. We were unsure why he was worried, but he left us and it seemed like hours before he returned. Luckily, he returned and everything seemed to be going well. We walked around this amazing city, taking pictures and entering different stores. We even went out barhopping, we even had some of the infamous, Aspinite drink.

Hours passed, me, Jagger and Nate, we’re drunk and luckily Stephen was not of a drinker. We headed back to the car, which was now parked further away from where we arrived. It was a cold night and all we could think was going to bed. We walked and walked; suddenly Stephen noticed that the car should have been parked where he left it last. “Where’s the fucking car, Stephen?!” Stephen wasn’t sure but suddenly became very certain that he left the car at that particular area of town. With my somewhat language skills, I was able to read the sign where he left the car and it was illegal to park on that street. So, we assumed that the car had been towed away. Finding a police man who could speak English was another task. Go here, go there, this way, maybe here, were our only point of reference in this city. Even the taxi drivers weren’t sure what Police station meant. “Polizei, policia, la police, securità. . . .” No language was going to help, except Czech. Even one taxi driver took us to the Train Station, even though we expressed in every language possible “Police station!” Finally, someone understood English, “police station, no problem.” The taxi driver dropped us at from what suppose to be a Police Station. We arrived to a building that looked like something left over from the Soviet bloc area, dark windows, half lighted hallways and two large men with batons. “Do you speak English?” I asked. Engliska! Niet! Parla Italian, habla español?, Parlez-vous Français, sprechen sie deutsch . . . .Nederlands? The answer to all the possible forms of communications was not understood. Finally, I decided to use sign language for car towed. I held my hands up in a position as though I was driving a car, making the sounds of an automobile with my lips, however, gripping my hands as though my car was hitched. Suddenly, the policeman understood and spoke to his fellow officers and told us where to find our car. Danke! Merci! Grazie!

We flagged down a taxi driver and got in. We gave the car the address, which the policeman gave us. The driver told us in broken English that we could simply take the metro to this address. I guess, the taxi driver didn’t want to take us there. We then flagged down another taxi driver. “Hello, per favore!” The drive was a bit long and away from the city. The taxi driver drove up some hills, down some dirt roads. I then asked Jagger if this was still an adventure? He was silent, like everyone else. We were unsure if this driver was actually taking us to this address or some other place. The mystery was building. Finally, the taxi driver stopped at some car lot in the middle of nowhere. The taxi driver took off quickly and we weren’t sure if we were at the right place. Also, there was no way we could have found this place by taking the metro in the middle of the night. We went to the attendant and showed him our documents and what type of car, which was towed. We had to go into our usual: Hello! English? Parla Italian, habla español?, Parlez-vous Français, sprechen sie deutsch . . . .Nederlands? So I had to return the very basic forms of communication. I held my hands in the position as though I was driving a car and having to make my hands into a hitching or grabbing position to explain that our car got towed. Yes! He finally got it. But, now we had to explain the type of car and what color. I showed him that we were four people and we all had to enter through four doors and that the car was black like my skin. We had to sign some papers and had to pay with a credit card. It was 6am and check out time was 11am. With only a few hours to sleep, this probably was the longest night of my life.

October 10, 2004, Reutte & Pinswang, Austria

Going back to Österreich, leaving on the 9am train to Reutte. Nate and I just finished working another graveyard shift. I tried to keep my eyes opened during the one-hour train ride, seeing all the beautiful landscape, but hell working late nights got the best of me. As for Nate, he was excited as ever, because he soon will see his parents in the town of Pinswang. His parents took a tour group package deal around Europe and they sent him an e-mail of the dates and times of their arrival. It seemed like the train ride was only five minutes as we arrived in the town of Reutte. A small railroad station, no tall buildings, just a small town full in the middle of nowhere. Imagine walking around a small catholic Austro-Bavarian town on a Sunday, with two lost hungry travelers? Basically, we had no chance of getting food or a taxi ride to this town of Pinswang. In any case, we were blessed with the understanding of directions and maps and somehow we knew to walk one road, which was an 8km journey.

Along this long journey, we stopped to take pictures of this beautiful country of green hills, open valleys, huge Bavarian houses and other eye-catching interest. Later, we finally arrived to what appeared to be the town of Pinswang. Probably five houses around this small town and the only place to find food was at the Gutshof zum Schluxen or guest house. From the postcard of this guesthouse, apparently King Ludwig II spent a night in this place. And the infamous Ludwig’s castle was about a half hour walk away. We sat down in the restaurant part of this guesthouse, our Austrian waiter spoke a little English, but he understood that we wanted two Weiβbier. After having two more beers each, we decided to find an open grassy field to crash until his parents arrive. I never slept like this before, the grass was very soft almost like a pillow and the warmth of the sun was comfortable.

Hours passed and the sun was behind the mountain, this day was getting colder by the minute. With our backpacks left untouched and our vital organs still intact, we had a very safe sleep in the outdoors. We went back into the guesthouse and ordered two more beers. Soon after we had our beers, a large bus arrived and Nate’s parents, Jim and Joanne Tweed. Joanne was wasted but happy. She introduced me as her second son next to Nate. After getting everything in order and bags dropped off. We had dinner, we talked and took pictures and his parents were so kind to even pay our room for us, which cost about €70. We all got up early the next morning to take the walk to the Neuschwanstein Castle of King Ludwig II. The castle was amazing, but it was unusual compared to other European castles. It was the most modern castle in Europe. After walking around the castle, we sat down by a near by park area to have lunch. Nate and I complained to his parents about our work and living environment and how it sucked being around non-traveling Americans. His parents told us to consider the fact that we, as friends were in Europe and somehow we will overcome these obstacles. We said our good-byes and found a taxi driver to drive us back to the train station in Reutte. We couldn’t believe how far we actually walked. I told Nate that if we were truly in a traveling environment, we wouldn’t tolerate the people in the Abrams. I could only hope to be in another setting.

November 29, 2004, Regensburg, Germany

Twelve-hour shift completed and finally two days off! Nate and I left off for Regensburg. This town wasn’t anything special, we just felt that we had to get away from Garmisch and Munich for that matter. Everywhere, we went around Garmisch or Munich, we would run into our American neighbors and the questions they could bring up were about work and more work and why we weren’t at work. I also guess that Nate wanted some time away from the pressure from the Abram’s women and the gossip. At the same time, the graveyard shift was getting the best of both of us. Our days off was spent sleeping or better yet trying to sleep, because either people would be yelling in the hall-way next to our door, or someone would purposely fail to remember that we just finished working a graveyard shift. We then decided to just get some rest without these disturbing elements away from Garmisch, in Regensburg. We spent a good amount of money for a quiet room in a hotel and it was worth it. Before heading to sleep, we went out in the town to buy some Baguettes, different bottles of wine and some pretzel bread. We didn’t watch television, we didn’t go out to make friends, meet new people; we just wanted this time to rest. We talked all day as we sipped on wine. We had our first drink in honors of our friend, Jagger, who just left three days before. Jagger was our hero and on his last night in Garmisch, Nate and I dropped about €80 Euros of food and drinks. Jagger was the guy who introduced me to the world of the Abrams and what to avoid while living in that place. He also showed me the world outside of the military environment, such as the Wellenbad, different unique German bars, learning the German language and taking trips to clear the mind; and lastly eating healthy. Before Nate arrived in Garmisch, I’ve sent him e-mails telling him about this guy and I already knew that they would become friends. Being in Regensburg, I guess we needed this time to think about our friend, Jagger, as we followed up with some bread. We passed out and it was a bit odd, no one knocked on our door. No one came to our room to inform us of who was sleeping with whom, no rumors, no gossip or questions about work. “Escape the bullshit and free your mind and travel!”