Stories of this Canadian girl's adventures exploring Europe & beyond...join me!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

castle princess

There is something so strange about walking on the exact sidewalk you walked a year ago, but being in a completely different mind and heart place.  If someone would have told me then, that I would now be living here with great guy - who, at the time, was just a guy I had met a couple of times - I would have laughed that off as totally nuts.  A year ago, I was still mourning my last love experience.  Believing that there could be, might be, someone out there better for me, and whose life would be lovelier with me in it, was difficult for me.

A year ago, I dropped my sister-in-law off at the Frankfurt airport, after our Rome and Barcelona adventures, and found myself standing on the train platform thinking where should I go now.  I wanted to spend a few days on my own.  I was feeling a bit blue about my life back home.  I was missing my mom.  I wanted to be somewhere that might feel familiar, safe, and maybe bring me closer to her.  I ran my finger down the train schedule, looking at all the destinations of trains leaving within the next half hour, and after a minute knew exactly where I wanted to go.  With my insanely heavy backpack, filled with Spanish pottery, I jumped on the train heading to this place I'd never been to;  a place which my mom had visited and where great guy's sister was from.  I knew it would welcome me.

There is a castle near here....okay, there are lots of castles near here.  But, there is one in particular which my mom loved.  Before she died, she gave me a small photo album filled with photos just of her (which, for anyone who knew my mom, was just like her) and about 25 of those are of her wearing a black ballgown, with a flower wreath in her hair (I'm not kidding), posing in front of the castle wall, on top of the castle wall, on the castle staircase, and through the castle windows.  Mom had asked great guy's sister, who was here visiting, if she would be the photographer, and amazingly she said yes.  Great guy's sister is a very patient and nice person.

As I walked on that sidewalk yesterday, I realized that though some things are so different now, others are not so different.  I still want to visit the castle where my mom dreamed of being a 'burg prinzessin'.  But, not to worry, there will be no photo shoot.
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