Stepping off the edge

In my Norway blog I mentioned that my European backpacking trip in 1980 ended prematurely and I never made it to Norway. So here’s my story. I had been traveling around Europe for 5 months when I found myself in Mozart’s birthplace, the picturesque Salzburg.

Salzburg is surrounded by mountains as depicted in the movie, Sound of Music. I wasn’t in those hills but walking the streets of the Alstadt or old town when I rolled my ankle.

I could hardly walk and resting it wasn’t helping. Someone at the Youth Hostel suggested I go to the Krankenhaus or ‘accident hospital’. I was told I needed surgery and would need to remain in hospital for a few days.

In Florence the month before, I’d befriended Lotte, an Austrian woman who grew up in Canada. I later visited her at her home in Innsbruck. She had arranged for me to meet a friend of hers that evening. I called her to let him know I wouldn’t be able to meet him.

The next day I was put under and a tendon in my ankle repaired. I was taken to a 10 bed dorm room with a cast from my knee to my toes. The other women in the room were in different states of recovery from car crashes and climbing accidents. I couldn’t speak any German so I had to make do with hand signals and ‘danke’ and ‘bitte’.

Alone in the hospital, without the language or my family I was pleasantly surprised when an older woman arrived bearing bananas. Lotte had called her Mom Hannah, a physician, who arranged for me to be released to her care.

Since I didn’t have a walking cast and needed to be examined periodically, I was at her rural farmhouse for 2 months. She took good care of me with her delicious cooking, toured me around Upper Austria, and educated about the language and the country. We spoke a lot about Canada as she and Lotte had lived in Kingston, Ontario for 18 years and she missed it.

I flew home, never making it to Germany or the Nordic countries. Much better though, my experience began a 44 year friendship. On this trip we stayed with Lotte, in her Mother’s former home, were treated to delicious food and a tour of beautiful parts of Upper Austria and yes, we spoke about Canada!

And my ankle is just fine!