The summer of 1972 was perhaps my best summer ever! In May of 1972 I was a Sophomore in college. I had worked part-time during my first two years of college, and had moved back into my parent’s home that Spring so I could save extra money for my first trip to Europe. I had spent a lot of time planning the trip and was very excited! My plan was to go to the Goethe Institute in Passau, Germany, spend six weeks there improving my German and then spend the rest of the summer traveling in Germany and Austria. I had also arranged to go to Salzburg, Austria, to attend another school and visit the Salzburg Music Festival later that summer.

The trip started out well enough, though the flight was very long. When I got off the plane, I learned that I had a long train ride in front of me too. Prior to taking this trip, I had not had many opportunities to travel, so I did not plan the trip very well. Besides packing too many things, I had not anticipated such a trip without a rest stop. Between the plane trip and the train ride, I ended up traveling for over 24 hours straight! I also learned, the hard way, if you want to travel great distances with several large suitcases, they would be best equipped with rollers. Mine were not, and I only made it to Passau with the help of some very kind strangers. When I finally arrived at my destination, I collapsed in exhaustion.

The Goethe Institute is a language school that offers intensive instruction in German. The brochure stated that you would "live with a family" so you could be totally immersed in the language. Much to my surprise, the family I was assigned to ran a bakery downtown and they rented rooms to the school for its students. I did not live in their quarters and had virtually no contact with them! After recovering from the trip, I realized that I would be virtually on my own. Besides being disappointed, I was terribly homesick.

The first day of class did not make me feel much better. I got lost walking to the school, was late, and the headmaster told me that students who were late could not have breakfast. I was in shock! Besides being tired, hungry and disoriented, I started thinking I had made a huge mistake coming to a place that treated its students so poorly. I thought seriously about going back home. Gratefully, the kitchen staff had mercy on me and a very kind lady snuck me some breakfast. That made all the difference, because I decided to stick it out and see what the rest of the trip would bring.

After a few days, I made some friends and started to settle in. My best friend was a young woman from Italy, named Lucia. We would go out for coffee after class and practice our German. We would shop and laugh (and commiserate). We were very different. Whereas I wanted to improve my German so I would have a better understanding of the literature and philosophy I read in school, Lucia’s family had sent to Germany to improve her oral language skills because they were shopkeepers who wanted to be able to communicate better with the German tourists who came into their shop. But our differences complimented each other. Lucia was very outgoing and sociable. She led the way when it came to going out to dinner, going dancing and participating in social get-togethers. As 20-year-olds in a new country, we had lots of fun exploring things together.

Things got even more interesting when my boyfriend back home surprised me with a trip to Germany. He arrived toward the end of my term with the Goethe Institute, we took off for "parts unknown." We visited Venice, Italy and eventually ended up in Salzburg. The train trip to Salzburg, was particularly interesting (if not entirely comfortable). That’s because we did not know that buying a ticket for a train trip did not necessarily buy you a seat on the train. We learned this the hard way when we were had to relinquish our seats to passengers who had bought "seat tickets" and ended up sleeping in the hallway! We learned a lot about asking more questions and not making assumptions. Taking a 12 hour train trip without a "seat ticket" is not a mistake I’ll ever make again.

After arriving in Salzburg, my boyfriend went back home to the US and I stayed to finish my trip. The housing arrangement in Salzburg was much more to my liking than it had been in Passau. We stayed on the palace grounds of the Schloss Klessheim (Schloss means "palace"), and the grounds were beautiful. We learned later that the students were housed in a converted stable, but that didn’t matter. We were on the grounds of a European palace, and thought we were in paradise! This time, most of the students were college students from the US and the classes were more interesting than they had been at the Goethe Institut. They included music and even tickets to the Salzburg Music Festival! I went to my first opera. I met new friends and we would travel downtown in the evening to find string quartets performing in the streets. The whole town was filled with music and excitement. I felt like I was in another world, not just another country! I was sorry to see it end.

I decided I wanted to stay in Austria. I did not end up staying there, but I did make an attempt. I had learned from some of the other students that it was possible to earn enough money to live in Austria by being an au pair (caring for children and living in a family’s home), so that’s what I arranged to do. I found an agency in Vienna that connected au pairs to local families, and they arranged for me to work for a doctor’s family in Vienna. I planned to live with them and take classes at the University of Vienna that Fall. The only problem was that everyone went "on holiday" in August and I got hit with homesickness again. I simply couldn’t make it through the whole month waiting to start my new job, so in a moment of impulsiveness, I booked a flight and came home.

To this day, I wonder what my life might have been like if I had stayed in Austria that year. No doubt, my life would have been different. I have no regrets, however. I’m just sort of curious. I learned so much during the Summer of 1972 that I have to say it was, by far, my best summer vacation ever! It was not always "fun" and it certainly was not always "comfortable" (especially that train trip sleeping in the hallway), but it was certainly memorable.