Continuing the story from yesterday.
The party in the hostel bar began to wind down sometime after midnight. I don’t really remember as I wasn’t paying much attention to my watch at the time. Petite Blond (PB) and Ingrid inquired about Tall Asian (TA), Short Asian (SA), and my intentions for sight seeing the following day. TA and I were non specific about our plans while SA like an eager puppy replied that he and TA were trying to figure it out and oh, would the girls have any good recommendations? They had a wonderful idea. We would all go on The Sound of Music tour. See where the various scenes from the movie were filmed. What the heck. I actually wasn’t the type of guy at the time to say ‘fuck no’ and walk away.
The next morning came much too soon. By around 8am it was clear the day was going to be scorching hot and sticky. So humid you’d feel like you were in a sauna with some skinny little joker who wouldn’t stop dumping water on the hot rocks. The air so thick with water you felt like you were swimming and breathing the water.
The tour bus was looking mighty inviting as it had air conditioning. Too bad the tour company felt like they needed to play the movie and loop the soundtrack during the whole 4 hour ordeal. The capper on the whole trip was the group of women who would sing along to all the songs at the top of their lungs and slightly off-key. Still, I got to see a couple of castles, a beautiful alpine lake, and a couple of baroque churches I never would have seen if I hadn’t gone. Not necessarily an equitable deal.
All and all, Ingrid and I, TA and PB along with our 5th wheel had a decent time. In between the sights, Ingrid and I would talk about our families, relatives we both had in Europe (her’s in Germany), and where we grew up. She actually lived only a couple of hours from where I lived in the States at the time.
We got to talking about where we both were planning on going over the next couple of weeks. I told her I planned on heading to Vienna next and Prague shortly thereafter. She said that she wanted to head to Switzerland soon and do some hiking. Then she paused as if to size things up. She asked if I wouldn’t mind if she tagged along with me to Vienna and possibly to Prague. Talk about a green light.
Hmm, what to do, what to do… I liked Ingrid. She could carry a conversation, she was nice and thoughtful, and I could tell she was into me. But she was a butterface. A face of a 2 on a body of an 8 goddess. Also know euphemistically as a double bagger. To have sex with her would have necessitated a bag over her head and a bag over mine, just in case the bag on her head fell off. If I’d been coming off a dry spell, I think I might have been sorely tempted to ignore my standards and get the notch. The thing was, I’d just left a beautiful 19 year old Danish HB7 a week or so earlier who had drained me thoroughly. I was also contemplating extending my trip a bit so I could go back and see her some more.
Believing my will power strong enough, I told Ingrid I’d be happy to have her tag along, but no funny stuff. If I’d been schooled in game, I suppose I would have known saying that actually would work like a charm in exactly the wrong way. It was as if a switch had been flipped. If anything she became more feminine, and worked at being more seductive. Not in a slutty way, but more along the lines that she was now clearly the predator, and I was the staked goat.
As things went, we took our leave of PB, TA, and SA. Poor TA was shut down at every turn. All of his advances rebuffed. He told me he planned on hooking up with PB when they were all back home in California. Who knows if it ever happened. We parted ways at this point and like most of the shallow friendships one strikes up while traveling they ended after the brief connection.
Ingrid and I hopped on a train to Vienna after three days in Salzburg. I didn’t know about kino at this point, but there was a lot of initiation by her. There was some reciprocity on my part, but I was trying to keep it on a platonic level, as I would treat my younger sister. Thinking about it now, that was probably a mistake too as it probably made Ingrid pursue even harder. The train ride was uneventful. We talked, played cards, and listened to music. Typical stuff to pass the time.
When we got to Vienna, we found a hostel with a couple of open beds. I remember this hostel was composed of a couple of buildings with a small courtyard garden between the two of them. We were assigned a couple of bunks in the back building open dorm. Picture a very large room with 3 or 4 dozen bunk beds, no air conditioning and baths at either end. I was somewhat relieved at the lack of privacy.
We spent the next couple of days touring around Vienna. Vienna was a jarring city. The juxtaposition of old and new was off putting. I suppose that much of that could have been due to WWII bombings. I really don’t know. All I can say is there were some parts of the city I liked and much of it that I disliked.
While in Vienna, Ingrid visited the Canadian Embassy to see if she needed a visa to go to Prague. It turned out that she would need the visa and it would cost something under $100. She was torn. On the one hand she wanted to go with me to Prague, on the other, she didn’t want to blow her budget for the visa.
We decided to go down to the Danube and eat lunch on the banks of the river. She wanted to talk about going to Prague vs. going to Switzerland. We sat and ate and talked about things. The conversation wound down and we were sitting there, comfortably. Our arms touching, our heads not too far apart. We looked at each other and I could sense she wanted me to do something. There was a war that was going on in my head at that point. Do I or don’t I. Yes, no, maybe.
I could do it, I could kiss her. It would be easy. I’d been willing to lower my standards a bit in the past. Typically if it was a body flaw, but there always had to be something about a girls face that hooked me. The face was the most important thing. With Ingrid, the face was her least attractive feature.
I don’t know how long we sat there starring at each other. It was probably brief and yet it seemed to last a very long time. I was the one who looked away first. And at that moment I think she knew there could be, there would be, no physical connection. I knew I could have gotten the notch. I knew I could have had a warm luscious body next to mine for a couple of weeks, but I also knew that I wouldn’t be happy with my decision. My white knight tendencies at the time would not allow me to casually toy with her affections.
She looked away for a moment too. When she turned back in my direction, she announced that she’d be leaving the next day for Switzerland. We got up and headed back in the direction of the hostel. We didn’t talk much, but then again there wasn’t much to say. The next morning as I was just getting up from my bunk, she came up to me. All of her stuff already packed, backpack resting on her shoulders, and she was heading out the door to the train station. There was a sadness in her eyes, or at least that’s the way it seemed to me. No hug, just a handshake, a quick ‘goodbye’ and she was gone.
When I got back to the States three months later, there was a letter from Ingrid waiting for me. Most of the contents were superficial information. What she’d seen after we’d parted ways. What she was doing now that she was back home. That sort of thing. And a photo. In it were the two of us sitting side by side, flanked by PB and TA on one side and SA on the other. We were all smiles. A happier time when our merry band traipsed around Salzburg.
