Cindy’s Farewell to Vienna

Yes, Vienna was the city of my dreams since I arrived there in 1981. I have always seen it as a magnificent, unbeatable city in the world. Traveling to Vienna was my first ever trip to Europe, and what began with a 2-month Goethe Institute German course, turned out to be a seven-year adventure that simply changed my life. Singing on the street for a living, moving to 8 different places within a year, teaching band at the American International School, climbing mountains, singing recitals, meeting new people, and having new experiences nearly every day was absolutely thrilling. Everything seemed possible, and I felt free.

I think you feel things much more intensely when you’re young, hence my re-visit to Vienna was bittersweet. It wasn’t the Vienna I remembered because that was over 40 years ago. Now I see things through much older eyes, but still have so many wonderful memories of my time there.

This amazing trip through Europe has made it crystal clear that there are so many more absolutely amazing cities and beautiful countrysides as our trains whizzed down the tracks. Vienna will always remain special in my heart. I look back on that time in the 80s as life-changingly sweet, but I will never go that way again, and I have now put Vienna in its proper place of honor in the past without putting it on a pedestal. I see there’s so much more out there.