Be who you are

Current days

The wheels of the bus are rolling and you can hear Christmas songs which date back two decades from now overwhelming the whole atmosphere!Outside the drips of light sleeting are crossing ways with the windows and falling down on the roads only to disappear in the snow. The melodic carols accompany the fast images passing by the windows while the bus changes countries and borders. Free pass from Czech to Germany and from there to Austria a bucket list filled with memories you cannot touch and cannot spoil! Thick fog is covering everything but you can make out some picturesque houses with white roofs and vast expanses of fields all grown and ready for the spring crops. Czech, German, Austrian farmers a live part of agricultural life even in harsh conditions! Long sequences of Christmas trees reveal the altitude and the steamy smoke coming off the chimneys reveals the cold temperature,probably 0 degrees!She leans on the window, exhales and makes a snowman with a carrot nose and a funny hat with her finger!She smiles! No one is outside,neither a car nor a living creature.Yet there she is in a tourist bus heading towards Mozart's hometown,Saltzburg. It has been a long wild night for her trying to catch up with responsibilities and getting ready for a Christmas adventure! Relaxing at the back seat staring at the colourful fog in the foreign lands she exhales deeply."I made it!Everything's settled and I'm here to get some steam off work and family." The Christmas songs give way to beautiful melodies from the "sound of music",the original soundtrack of the movie with Julie Andrews,still music from another century prevailed!"Austria is a magical destination if you know where to look!",she is murmuring to herself."Next stop Saltzburg hotel Mitte" the announcer sounded urgent!She got ready pretty fast considering that she put on a woolen hat,scarf and a cardigan under her jacket,grabbed her backpack and handbag and got off the bus!"I'm here!one step closer!"

The hotel is a strong building all built on huge piers as if it is expecting a flood to come. The staff looks friendly speaks fluent English but she speaks German too. "Ein Zimmer fur die Nachte,bitte!just me for today,yes one room.Danke schon!"It appears to be a very modern construction interior and exterior-wise. Employees pass by all the time offering their services,letting you know that there is cucumber,potato and mineral water for free in the lobby! "Almost there,second floor!"Although their pace is fast, the atmosphere is not at all hectic, so as she uses the door's automatic card system to unlock her room door she grins back at the people she left lazing around on the first and second floor!Her backpack is not that heavy and she could have brought more things with her but she had always had a feeling that less is more when travelling so she packed the absolutely essential traveller's equipment!She had a bath and slept setting the alarm at 7:00 in the morning where she would have an early breakfast and check out the room. Time matters even when you are sleeping, as it determines the amount of sleep you are going to get and presupposes the rate of freshness you are going to acquire throughout the night! However,alarms have become a hideous way of waking up,pretty much like the traditional rooster, alarms are hated every time they ring!She hates alarms but for the time being they are useful!

It is Christmas eve today. The Catholics and Orthodox Christians celebrate that day in the comfort of their own houses,gathering all the members of the family together, eating, drinking and exchanging gifts! But she was alone. Running away from the hustle and bustle of her life so far and facing her demons alone!All she wanted was to get away from the materialism, commercialism and fake spirituality of the people around her.For her Christmas was just a getaway, a loophole for travelling, tasting, exploring, meeting people, learning about customs all over the world!Money is not the case here, she has worked her ass off this year to have enough provisions and she was determined to do it again! She could buy Christmas gifts for everybody in her family from all over the world and could give them after Christmas, that didn't mean she didn't care about the Christmas spirit, only that she could not keep up with the time people have set and the yearly celebrations religious or non-religious people have determined. Anyway, Christmas eve is a dead time for Eastern Europe as everybody celebrates it at home; the shops are closed and only local Christmas bazaars exist for the tourists. She preferred to rest for the night!

As the night falls dark and silent, the stillness is disrupted by the buzzing sound of a text message on the mobile phone. Apparently that has just woken her up and put her in the state of mind that you have when you're asleep for too long but conscious enough to understand that your saliva is drooling from your mouth! Swooping her watery mouth she switches on the light next to the bedtable to read her message. "Where are you? I did it. Meet me at "Candella bar" in half an hour!" "Wow!this must be cousin Chris!I don't believe he actually made it to Austria and remembered where I would be!The number is Austrian though but he must have bought an Austrian sim card for his own convenience!I'm so excited!I should go find him!It's almost midnight so technically it's the next day!"she thought and ventured to get out of her sweatpants and dress up! At the lobby she left her card and called a taxi!Waiting for 5' minutes for the taxi left plenty of time to send the reply message "I'm coming stay there!"