Mozart Slept Here

It seems to me that most everybody on the Net has a blog. Well, today I joined the club. And why not? I've always kept a journal since I was 11 or 12. And as a writer, I have the bylines and the clips - even an award. Sure, there was a period in my life when I didn't do much writing at all. But after all this time, after all the great resources and opportunities we have in the online world, there really isn't any excuse not to write anymore. So here I am.

I live in Salzburg, Austria, the hometown of Mozart and the Von Trapp Family, whose biography became fodder for the movie The Sound of Music. To this day, that movie is the best tourism advertisement for Salzburg that Hollywood ever produced. In the summer, when I occasionally navigate through the throngs of camera-toting gawkers in the old city center, I don't know if I should feel glad about living in a tourist trap. But the feeling passes quickly.

When I came to Salzburg as a student eleven years ago, I thought I'd only be staying here for eight months. As John Lennon put it, "life is what happens when you make other plans".