Crisp Apple Strudel

How an Austria boy learns that desires have consequences.

I don’t remember a time when Strudel wasn’t at the top of my list of foods I loved to eat, and I guess it would not have been possible for me to have voluntarily removed that food choice from my personal menu.  I would have eaten it every meal and twice for snacks every day.  But, I was becoming a bit pudgy and by the time I was ten I had a weight problem.  A serious problem.  I was fun, always happy to be around, but not vey agile or mobile, so something had to be done.  Yes, to say the least, a crisp apple strudel was on my short list of being One of a few of my Favorite Things on earth.   

With my parents being in the ambassadorial services of the nation, I and my siblings were under the care and supervision of a nanny.  We were not unhappy, we were kept busy and involved and plenty of responsibilities around the home.  Our home was on the outskirts of Salzburg, Austria.  It was a big old house with two floors which was decorated in a garish style with lots of enormous drapes over every window and thick silk rugs on the floor everywhere.  It was a pleasant life, with few if any known adversaries to worry about.  Times were peaceful, and without concern for hardship, eating strudel was on my mind a dozen times a day. Fortunately, the kitchen staff was amenable to my strudel needs and prepared fresh hot strudel every day.

But, then, one day, right out of the blue, everything changed.  Our home was virtually destroyed by a flash fire started by a small but highly localized earthquake.  There had not been an earthquake in our city or even our nation in over 80 years.  Underground service lines were interrupted and gases released that fueled the fires.  Our home was virtually destroyed, turned into a heap of ashes in less than an hour.  We were homeless in minutes, with no place to go.  Our parents were not only out of the city, they were out of the nation, they were in fact in America and could not return home for weeks.  So, to have so strong an earthquake was an enormous force to wipe out an entire city. The city was virtually wiped out within minutes, and it was abandoned until order could be restored.  We were forced to move to Hamburg, Germany, and live with relatives there.  We would never return to Salzburg, Austria. 

Our parents finally returned home for a short period but returned to the capital city of Vienna, Austria and remained in the diplomatic services.  But, their service to the nation had become more critical and they were in Vienna and would not be home on a regular basis to support our daily needs.  We were in no way suffering, we were well covered in that regard.  The biggest thing I was missing out on was the lack of any apparent concern for my need for Strudel.  I was fortunate to get Strudel once a week.  And, it was affecting my happiness.  In fact, I was becoming depressed, and isolating myself inside this new house with thoughts of running away.   I was desperate for Strudel care, and not getting satisfaction, I was ready to seek it out on my own if necessary.

Well, after two months of being without any Strudel, I made the decision, packed my bag and left the house in middle of the night headed for Vienna.  It was almost three hundred kilometers away.  Fortunately, it was an 18 hour bicycle ride, but to walk it would take 60 hours at least.  And, by train, it would take just over 2 and one-fourth hours.  I had bicycle, but not enough money for a train ride.   But, I had to get to Vienna, to my parents and to the grand land of the Grand Strudel.   It was all in Vienna, and I was going to go there.  It seemed to be a matter of time, I would be there before I knew it.  Unfortunately, I didn’t think about the possibilities or the obstacles that lay in my path. 

But through it all of the turmoil and disaster, all I could think about was Apple Strudel.

I had not ridden my bicycle more than 5 kilometers when it began to rain.  The rain was quickly followed by enormous flakes of snow, which fell non-stop for over an hour until the roads were covered with snow and as I pedaled found the road to be getting more and more slippery. 

Before I had gone another 5 kilometers, I had slipped right off the road and down into ditch now standing in water six inches deep.  That got my pants, socks and shoes soaking wet and next thing I know I am shivering uncontrollably.  By morning I had only progressed to the city limits of Salzburg, and I became more and more distressed every time a train passed by me because I knew it was on its way to Vienna and a million Apple Strudels.

It was early morning but the traffic on the streets was increasingly denser as people were going to work, or to schools or to run errands, probably going to go buy apple strudel.  But, I was only a tenth of the way to my destination.  I had another 278 kilometers to go, and who knows what else in my way.

After pedaling up into the Alpes, I realized that I was no longer going forward.  I looked down and much to my dismay, my bike’s chain was dragging the ground broke.   And, I was sliding backward at a side angle toward the guardrail.  And, before I could arrest the slide, my bike’s rear wheel hit he guard rail and I and the bike fell backward over the rail.  I grabbed the guard rail, and watched in horror as my bike went down the side of the mountain and passed from my sight.  I never saw he bike again.  Now, I was on foot with over 250 kilometers to go to get to Vienna.  I was stranded and it was just occurring to me that I was going to have to abandon my journey.

The slide backward into the guard rail had somehow caused me to sprain my left ankle, so since I could no walk further, I sat down on top of the guard rail and waited for help.  That was all I could do at that moment.  I was hoping for some kind people to offer me some help, but within just a few minutes I was surrounded by Austrian Police.  They were somewhat kind, but they were not going to allow me to set there injured.  They took me into custody, put me into the back of a police card and took me back to Salzburg, not Vienna.  I was extremely disappointed. 

They took me directly to their headquarters about 20 kilometers away.  A Police woman came into my room and told me that my family and my parents had been notified of my detention, and ordered to come retrieve me, but it would be hours before my parents could arrive.  But, in the meantime, she wanted to know if she could get me anything.  She asked me, when had I eaten .

I told her I had not eaten in hours but I would love some Apple Strudel.    She said with a smile on her face. “I’ll see what I can do for you.  Within 30 minutes she came back with hot apple cyder in one hand and a rather large apple strudel in the other hand.

I couldn’t get over how easy it had been to get apple strudel.  All I had to do was Run Away from Home, or act like I was; lose my bike over the side of a mountain, sprain my ankle an ‘get arrested’.  I was back in Strudel heaven, and happy as a clam. 

If I had only known, I could have ridden down to the police station, I could have saved all that turmoil and discomfort I experienced for over 5 hours to get up on the mountain, to get taken into custody.  To then be brought to the police station where I would be offered Apple Cyder and he biggest chunk of Apple Strudel I have ever seen.  It was fresh, I was hot and it was delicious.  OF course, I could not help but ask for seconds.  And, I got them.  What a wonderful way to end a perfectly awful day.  No one came for me until after dinner time.   So, they kept giving me cyder and Strudel.   I loved it.  And, by the time I finished off what they had, they decided that that they needed to place an order to resupply.  And, believe me, I was totally behind that idea.   That ordered arrived about thirty minutes before my father arrived to pick me up. I had time to eat my share of the new Apple Strudel, and drink the hot Apple Cyder that came with it. 

Later on, I had time to think about running away from home to get to Vienna and my parents.  It was, for me, all I had left, but what I did was to draw conclusions that were seriously flawed with inadequate information, that put my life and health on the line, and that were unattainable in reality.  I lost my bike to the mountains, I sprained my ankle and could have gotten pneumonia. 

It all worked out in the end and I got to my father, and I got to eat all he strudel and drink all he cyder I could drink, but I endangered myself and others to do so.  Although, I got what I wanted, I failed to get to Vienna, and endangered my life to get there, and placed others in jeopardy to achieve what I wanted.  What I did was reckless and lacking in judgment. 

I decided that if I place others in jeopardy to achieve my goals, then I have done something that is irresponsible.  If I do something that puts other in harms’ way then I have been reckless, and it is not fair to put others at risk to achieve my own personal goals. 

I learned a lot that will stick with me.  Lessons for living life are valuable lessons.  Learning from ‘Trial BY Error’ is often the best teacher. Such lessons tend to stick with us longer, than reading out of book.  But, nevertheless, however we learn the lessons of life, the idea is to learn.  We learn about the impact of bad decisions on our lives so that we don’t repeat mistakes over and over again.  Mistakes are time consuming to make, and to recover from.  And, it is often costly to make mistakes repeatedly.  There is no logic, no sound principals behind callously making mistakes over and over again. 

My goal was to get to my Father so he would feed me Crisp Apple Strudel, and yes, ultimately, I got what I wanted, but he laid he law down to me and told me that if I ever pulled such stunt again he would cut me off, and I would never see him again.   He was furious with me.  It cost him a lot of money to pay for the damages I caused.  He refused to get me another bike.  He had to pay to get my bike off the side of the mountain.  All in all, my little foray set him back over a few thousand schilling, and it caused him a great deal of embarrassment and loss of prestige. 

Whenever we set out to do something, we should always count the cost of our endeavor and see if the outcome is worth it.  There may always be unintended costs, and there could always be the possibility that our plan or our goals are in reality unachievable.