2 americans, an italian, and the city of salzburg.

during caroline's visit, we had plans to go to salzburg for my favorite student festival (anyone reading this who knew me in salzburg is laughing right now; i was obsessed with this studentfest…/still am).  i updated my facebook status and jokingly asked, “who wants to come?”  five minutes later, my italian friend, francesco (who studied with both me and caroline in salzburg 2 years ago), sent me a message saying that was getting in his car and driving to salzburg. 

from bologna. 

yes, he lives in bologna, and he was driving 6 hours to meet me and caroline and go to the fest with us.

i feel like this is one of those times in which i have to say, “only in europe”. (well, yeah, only in europe can someone drive from italy to austria…but you know what i mean.  do you know what i mean?)

so, i jumped on a train to meet caroline in salzburg (she had gone a few days earlier, i had to stay in germany to work). 


sidenote:  coming into salzburg, i was sitting in the same train compartment with two american girls.  i couldn’t help but overhear their conversation, which consisted of the following quotes:

“isn’t it cool that salzburg is so close to the czech border?” (it’s not.)
“we could totally just take a walk in salzburg and end up in the czech republic!” (no, you totally could not do this.)
“i wish i spoke french. then i’d actually be able to communicate with people in this country.” (people in austria do not speak french.)
“look through the window! what city is that? it’s so pretty!  why are we slowing down?  we’re not in salzburg yet.” (yes, we are in salzburg and we’re slowing down because our train ride is over.)

….anyway, once i parted ways with those two little einsteins (but seriously, we all probably said stuff like that when we first started traveling....maybe.), i met caroline outside of the train station. 

moments after greeting her, francesco called me and said, “hey! meet me at mirabell gardens. let’s go to dinner.” 

other sidenote:  being able to, just, meet a friend at mirabell gardens is one of my greatest joys in life.

fast forward 10 minutes:  we’re waiting in mirabell gardens and francesco, in his sleek, shiny, brand new black audi pulls up (when asked how he drives such a nice car, he simply replied, “i’m italian!”) to take us to rossbraeu, one of our favorite restaurants (and where i ate my first meal in salzburg, ca. 2009!).  caroline got a schnitzel, i a bowl of soup, and we laughed and laughed as francesco told us of his lavish italian lifestyle (“yeah, my parents have money, what can i say?”), the mafia (“oh, it’s definitely still at large. italy couldn’t function without it!”) and how much he misses salzburg (don’t we all, ‘cesco…don’t we all…).  his accent is just the best (well, his austrian accent when speaking german is really the best, but let’s not talk about that… #sojealous).

oh, and, because he is a very well-connected individual, he somehow acquired free fest tickets for the 3 of us.  and to think that all this resulted from a facebook status…thanks, zuckerberg. i owe you one.


we then finished our meal, got back in the car, drove around with the windows down, felt the cool breeze with the pixies’ ‘where is my mind’ (#fightclub) blaring through the speakers, and went to the student fest.  and then we lived happily ever after.

this was one of those nights where i thought to myself, “i really love my life”.