The thinker of whom it was said that he thought day and night and even in his sleep arrived in Vöcklabruck one day and, after making inquiries in the main square about a high-class inn, went to the Capercaillie, which is highly regarded by everyone and in which, it is said, the cuisine is the most reliable in Austria. Even the thinker was not disappointed in the Capercaillie; on the contrary, the food and drink were far better than he had expected, and he could not refrain from asking the landlord to come to his table for the one purpose of complimenting him. After the thinker had praised the landlord in terms more glowing than he had ever used to praise anyone in his whole life, he hit upon the idea that in the future it might be better to live not as a thinker but as an innkeeper, and all at once he suggested to the Capercaillie innkeeper that he might like to change places with him. The thinker barely had the words out of his mouth before the Capercaillie innkeeper agreed to the exchange. The Capercaillie innkeeper left the Capercaillie as though he were the thinker and the thinker remained in the Capercaillie as though he were the innkeeper. In the nature of things, neither the innkeeper nor the thinker functioned from that moment on.

Early Train

EARLY TRAIN

Sitting in the early train, we happen to look out of the window just at the moment when we are passing the ravine into which our school group, with whom we had undertaken an excursion to the waterfall, had plunged fifteen years ago, and we think about how we were saved but the others were killed forever. The teacher who had been taking our group to the waterfall hanged herself immediately after a sentence of eight years’ imprisonment had been passed on her by the Salzburg Provincial Court. When the train passes the scene of the accident, we can hear our own cries intermingled with the cries of the whole group.

Beautiful View

BEAUTIFUL VIEW