27. Austria, Part 1. 1970

After spending the night at the youth hostel in Salzberg,,,,,,,  I have no recollection of specifics in Austria.  I can remember different items but not where it was or with whom.  I do remember one persons name, but am not ready to tell you who it was until later.  What I do remember is that I broke off from the group in the Volkswagen van.  They were still headed north and I was not ready to go in that direction.

My first night in Austria, it started raining.  I remember going to a restaurant that some in the hostel knew about.  They served real schnitzel, sausages, and saurbraten.  I think it was the Austrian equivalent of a good English pub.  I met a few people, some students and some travelers.  One was an American student that lived near a lake southeast of there.  He gave me his address in case I was "ever in the neighborhood".  I also met a girl that traveled with me for a couple of days after.  We hitched to, I think, Vienna but am not sure.  What I am sure of was the fact that one of our rides was with a young couple on their honeymoon.  We rode with them for a few hours in what seemed like a rural area.  When they stopped we were at an exclusive resort.  We were met by a doorman, a parking attendant and a group of porters to attend to their luggage.  They invited us to stay and share a meal with them, but we could tell that they were being nice and wanted nothing but to be alone!

We were back on the road getting small scattered rides that got us closer to our goal but not by much.  That evening we were still in farm country.  We were under an overpass, it was pouring rain and there was no traffic.  We saw a farmhouse almost a half mile away across a field with a barn that was a short walk from the road we were on.  We had intentions of asking the owners if we could spend the night in the barn but by the time we reached the barn the rain had changed to a heavy downpour and it was thundering and lightening.  We could tell the owners would not be back in the barn this evening.  The animals had already been fed.  There were two cows, a few chickens and an old workhorse.   When we looked around, we felt we were in a barn from the movie "Heidi".  On the walls were hanging a couple of old scythes and other old implements scattered about.  Also hanging on rails and posts were old harnesses, yokes and other tack supplies.  In a couple of stalls were an old plow with the yoke hooked up and ready to harness and two old horse drawn sleighs that had seen better days.  It felt like we were in a museum, but this was real.


We had ourselves a little supper with what we had, probably some bread and cheese and maybe some jelly and a piece of fruit before it got completely dark.  There was a kerosene lantern there but we were leery of trying to light it in a barn with fresh hay all over the place.  After we ate we moved our bags up into the hayloft and settled in for the night.  After laying our wet clothes out to dry we buried ourselves in the hay and watched the storm continue outside while we dried off and slept the night.

We had overslept the next morning.  When we woke up, the sun was shining and we could hear the animals lowing below as they were being fed by their owners.  We laid there quietly while we listened to a man and woman talking and laughing while the animals were being fed.  The people seemed like they were in a good mood and we did not want that mood to change by knowing we were there, so we remained hidden.

After they had left, we got out of our sleeping bags and quickly dressed.  When we got to the loft ladder and started back down we discovered a small table or stool next to the ladder with a tray of food.  Some boiled eggs, cheese bread and even two cups of milk left for us.  We had been caught!