rain songs

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This post is about a 19km walk from Schwechat to Vienna. We visit the Cemetery of the Nameless, and we sing songs in the rain.

When we left the hotel it was raining, so we put on our ponchos and got going. Soon we were in a heavily industrialized area that was difficult to navigate, so I checked the map again and again.

We were standing next to a concrete plant when I told Brad that we were in fact close to a strange place called Cemetery of the Nameless.

the nameless

“Are you kidding?” said Brad.

As it turned out, the Cemetery of the Nameless was the setting of one of her favorite scenes in one of her favorite movies: Before Sunrise, a romantic film about a young woman and a young man who meet on a train to Vienna.

When we arrived at the graveyard there were only a handful of other people around. I wondered if they had come for the cemetery itself or for the movie, but I was too shy to ask. They were leaving anyway, and soon we had the place to ourselves.

It was grey and rainy, and the graves were sad. They had been made a long time ago for unidentified dead people who had washed up in the river. Visitors had decorated some of the graves with flowers, stuffed animals, or little figurines, and some had since been identified. But mostly they were simple and small, and only had one word inscribed on them: NAMELESS.

you are not alone

We took our lunch break on top of a hydroelectric power plant. It was nice because there was a glass roof over our heads, and because we were overlooking the river. Our meal was the usual beans and bread, but I was a bit sad. I knew, and Brad knew, that this would be our last roadside lunch together. Brad had a ticket home from Vienna. After one month and a bit more than 300km, our adventure was about to come to and end.

The rain intensified after this. We responded by putting on some music and singing along. The Kelly Family. Ricky Martin. Michael Jackson. Teehee!

And so we sang. We sang our way through a park. Through a nudist area. Over another bridge. Down a bike lane next to the river. Past a bunch of allotment gardens and boating clubs.

We walked and we sang, and sometimes we danced, all while the rain was coming down on us.

And it was one of the happiest moments of our walk.

pictures

the walk from Schwechat to Vienna:

Brat in her poncho

allotment gardens near Vienna

heavy industry next to the cemetery

Cemetery of the Nameless

grave of a person whose name we don’t know

Jesus with a doll head

“nameless”

grave of Maria Beran with plush toy rabbits

Brad in the Cemetery of the Nameless

“You don’t have to be afraid of death. When you get to Heaven you forget all the evil in the world. God receives us with love, in Heaven we feel good. We go through a gate, and butterflies and stars follow us. The gate leads us to God.” – Sara, 8 years old

okay, this was pretty cute

reminded me of Germany

I sit on a hydroelectric power plant

nudist area in Vienna

Vienna from afar

Brad in the rain

Brad on a bridge under a bridge in Vienna

“vaccinating kills”

the Danube in Vienna

someone lost their martenitsa