April Rising: First Day in Salzburg

14,445 steps - a little over seven miles - of stop and go walking through Salzburg are behind me on my first full day. Nothing has changed with me since my last solo trip in 2010; I still set out walking in the opposite direction of the action, get lost, have to ask questions, double up on the mileage needed to get places. The good news is that I am already thinking in German. My first internal monologue happened tonight as I was tripping over myself, backtracking between University buildings, churches, and a small festival with hot dog eaters and wine guzzlers and a man shouting from the top of a giant golden globe. "
"Ach ja!" I thought, "Macht nichts. Ich werd's schon finden."
Which in English means, "Oh well! It doesn't matter. I will find it."
The it was St. Peter's Abbey, where I was supposed to be at seven (nineteen hundred hours) listening to a concert of Mozart's piano sonatas. The German/English flyer said: Experience these unique concerts of Mozart's piano works in the historic, atmospheric Romanesque Hall of St. Peter's Abbey in the heart of Salzburg's old city. It didn't tell me how difficult it would be to find this Romanesque Hall. St. Peter's is a huge complex and kind locals wanted to send me to the Stiftskeller, also belonging to St. Peter's, where tourists listen to Mozart while dining on eighteenth century delicacies.
I finally found the place, a kind of vaulted white-washed cellar with stone pillars and recessed lighting and an old carpet beneath the piano. For the concert there were about 25 of us, sitting on uncomfortable chairs for 45 minutes, not moving a muscle, listening to a young Russian woman with magical fingers. Her mastery of the piano even kept several children in the audience motionless.
Going back to the beginning of the day, I had experienced an aha moment at two in the morning when jet lag woke me and decided I had enough sleep for my first night in Salzburg. After having landed, on Friday, in rain and icy winds, I suddenly realized that I have the option of simplifying my days. Why must I see all the museums, cover all of the town's sights? Cancer has changed me in this respect. I am now able to be more relaxed in my travels. More spontaneous. Less organized. And though the morning arrived promising sunshine, I abandoned my schedule and just wandered about for three hours in the car-free old town.
Around noon I bought cherry tomatoes, tangerines, and a ham sandwich at an outdoor market. Then I sat on a bench in the garden of Schloss Mirabell and watched throngs of people take pictures with their cell phones while I ate my lunch.
Later, when I passed Mozart's birthplace and saw crowds mingling in the entrance I had my second revelation of the day. I don't really need to see where he grew up, he didn't even like his hometown, why don't I listen to his music instead? And so, after a short nap, before I wandered the streets again, I bought the ticket for the evening concert at the hotel desk.
I can't promise that this new me will spend the next three weeks wandering aimlessly through cities without visiting museums and birth places, but today certainly felt great. I saw a lot without trying.
Salzburg - First Day