State of Grace

For this, my final post from Vienna, I thought I would dedicate some time to two things I love: walking and footwear. Anyone who knows me knows that I love to walk, and I love fabulous shoes even more (thanks for that addiction Mom). Unfortunately, fabulous footwear and walking often don’t mix, and nowhere has this become more apparent to me than in the cobblestone streets of Vienna. The streets are quaint, romantic, and evocative of a time long gone by – and also utter hell to anyone walking in anything other than a tennis shoes.

I’ve gotten in the habit of packing my heels in my book bag and changing my shoes in the office, but even my dressy flats are a bit of a chore on the cobblestone streets because they have a narrower frame than your practical walking shoe. This often results in the “Whooooaaa wobble” where your ankle buckles and you have to catch yourself quickly before you face plant into the lovely stones on the road. Todd has a moderate amount of patience with this, but since he’s not the heel-wearing type, he just can’t entirely sympathize with the great pains we women make in the name of fashion. I also worry about taking a nosedive because it could mean I have to go to the “krankenhaus,” or hospital, and if there is one thing that scares me, it is having to utilize my already exorbitant individual Kaiser health plan while “out of network.” I might as well just sign away my first-born child. Here’s hoping that I make my way through the cobblestone streets of Prague, Budapest, and Italy without any trips to the hospital along the way.

My lack of grace culminated in an incident two weeks ago, when I lost my sandal in the subway. Yes, I lost my sandal in the six-inch gap between the train and the platform. I’ll pause for a moment for you to laugh and make whatever jokes you need to about my “not minding the gap.” Now that you’ve had your moment, let me explain what happened.

First, I should mention that there is absolutely no subway etiquette in this country. Unlike New York, San Francisco, or DC, where people line up for a train in a semi-orderly fashion, and most importantly, wait for the passengers departing the train to get OFF before cramming into the train, Vienna is a veritable public transit free-for-all. You’ll be shoved, pushed, and stepped upon each and every day as you try to get on and off the train. It is in this atmosphere that my poor Reef sandal fell victim to a ruthless public transit user who couldn’t wait to get on the train.

I was with Todd and our friend Marlena, and as we stepped onto the train, someone stepped on the back of my sandal, and I walked right out of it. I turned around, expecting to find my sandal, and instead found nothing. Oh no no no, I thought to myself. The gap is six-inches wide. There’s no way it could have fallen down there. I stepped off the train, glanced down the gap, and saw my poor sandal below. We stepped off the train and Todd looked at me, still in a state of disbelief that I could be this clumsy (and in my defense, it wasn’t MY fault), and I got him to go up to the station agent window and ask them to help retrieve my sandal. If this had been any other city, I simply would have said auf wiedersehn to my sandal, but as I mentioned before, Vienna is a very clean city, and frankly, it was my beloved Reef sandal. I’ve never owned a more comfortable pair of flip-flops, and with our travels only weeks away, I need a good pair of walking sandals. And with the dollar continuing to tank, I don’t want to have to buy one more thing than I absolutely have to.

Like a knight in shining armor, an orange-vested station agent came to the platform with a long hook and retrieved my sandal. Apparently this happens more often than one would realize. I never thought I would be so grateful to see something come out of a subway. After a good cleaning, my foot and sandal were reunited – and I am even more paranoid about my shoes on the subway.

Well dear readers, Todd and I leave tomorrow for our travels – a “Pickpockets Tour of Europe,” as one friend called it. We’re off to Prague, Budapest, Rome, Florence, Siena, the Cinque Terre, Venice, and a day at Marlena’s parent’s retirement home outside of Florence. We’ll do our best to mind our belongings – and the gap. I hope to post about my continuing travels, but I can’t make any promises since we won’t have a computer and my access to a computer for a prolonged period of time may be scarce. I may try to post when we return though, as I’ll be writing in a good old-fashioned journal during our trip. Then it’s back home to California, and to so many of you. Lots of love to you all, and please comment or email and let me know how you are doing!