Improbable Itinerary – A Provincial Past (Rendezvous With An Obscure Destiny #75a)

The moment arrived thirteen years ago when it was time for a visit to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This fabulously absurd idea obsessed me for years. By the standards of 21st century Europe, the idea was improbable and not impossible. Austria-Hungary is a thing of the past, but so is almost everything else people travel to see in Europe. Austria-Hungary disintegrated in the autumn of 1918. That makes it no different from the Venetian Republic, Belle Epoque France, and the Dutch Golden Age, just to name a few of Europe’s finest that did a disappearing act. Each one of these has also performed a magic act. Continuing to exert a powerful effect on authors and tourists. Travelers see Europe from a rearview mirror, looking back at a past that is sold as glorious.

Austria-Hungary had its fair share of glory. It also had decadence and decline, insane pockets of wealth and large swaths of abject poverty, More so than other parts of Europe, much of what was once the Austro-Hungarian Empire still mirrors the way it was from 1867 – 1914. Ethnic strife still seethes in some areas, nationalism did not make a comeback in the area because it never went away, disparities in economic development are vast. Vienna glitters, Sarajevo slumbers. Budapest and Prague are as delightful as Bosnia and the Bukovina are hard scrabble. This makes traveling through the successor states which replaced the empire fascinating. Seeing as much of Austria-Hungary a century after it vanished has become a life goal.?

Intuition & Instinct - Sources of Enchantment

History is a remote place. Pursuing the past can mean going it alone on forgotten frontiers. I gained firsthand experience in such an endeavor starting twenty years ago. Back then, my goal was to visit every county in at least one American state. I did just that not once, but thrice. Spending an inordinate amount of time and energy driving around some of the most obscure places in America. The process was exhausting and ultimately satisfying as I visited every county in Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming. Why did I decide to visit such obscure places? The only answer I can come up with is twofold, intuition and instinct. I never asked why, I just followed a feeling. This satisfied my appetite for remote regions in America. Over time, I developed a new goal, much more distant. This one had been lurking within me for several decades. I wanted to visit Austria-Hungary. I did vicariously through history books and documentaries. This was not enough. I needed to set foot on the soil. Once I did, this started an addiction that needed to be constantly fed.

As my visits became more frequent, I looked at a map and realized that I had a unique opportunity. There was a possibility that I might be able to visit every province in the old Austro-Hungarian Empire. After over a decade of trips to regions of the former empire stretching across larger parts of East-Central and Eastern Europe, I should have been able to attain my goal. That has not been the case, for a multitude of reasons. The main one is because curiosity has gotten the better of me. I have distracted myself by wanting more in-depth experiences by visiting certain regions multiple times. This took me to every county in Hungary and most of the counties in Croatia and Slovakia. These willful distractions have delayed my potential visits to all the provinces. I do not know if I will get to each one, but I intend to try. And that is the point. To travel as far and wide in those lands whose history has been a source of eternal enchantment for me.?

Reassembling The Remnants – East & West of The Leitha

I have now lived longer than the Austro-Hungarian Empire lasted. In 1867 the empire formed as an evolution of the Habsburg Empire, which had ruled large parts of Central and Eastern Europe since the Middle Ages. The Austrian Habsburgs came to a compromise out of necessity with the Hungarians whose independence movement they had defeated less than two decades earlier. The Habsburg Empire was threatened with absorption by Prussia which was only a few years away from unifying Germany into an empire. The 1867 Compromise created Austrian and Hungarian administered halves of the empire divided by the Leitha, which runs close to the current Austria-Hungary border. West of the Leitha, Austrians administered Cisleithania. East of the Leitha, Hungarians administered Transleithania.

The empire was a sprawling geographical entity known for its ethnic and linguistic diversity. The only dual functions of the empire were defense and foreign affairs. The empire was unwieldy, barely keeping a lid on ethnic tensions until defeat in the First World War led to its implosion. Then, the former crown lands were absorbed into existing or newly created nations. The empire’s old borders ceased to exist. Some of the provincial borders loosely followed national ones. These would be altered by revolutions, treaties, and wars. Anyone who cares to revisit the disparate parts of Austria-Hungary will find themselves crossing multiple national borders, navigating an array of languages, and visiting places of great splendor and squalor. This largely mirrors the socio-economic conditions of the empire. Reconnecting the remnants of Austria-Hungary on multiple journeys appealed to me.

Going Off - Passionate Excess

Most Americans who travel to places that were part of Austria-Hungary visit Budapest, Prague, and Vienna, not exactly in that order. Rural areas, other than those that can be seen on Danube River cruises, are almost always an afterthought. Many of the American tourists are pensioners who prefer visiting Paris, Tuscany, Amsterdam and taking a cruise along the Rhine River. They only head east when they have exhausted other options or Rick Steves, the American media establishment’s anointed travel guru, tells them to partake of Sachertorte in Vienna, the Szechenyi Baths in Budapest, and stroll across the Charles Bridge in Prague. That comes at a cost, both in terms of experience and monetary cost. Sometimes it pays not to have a large amount of money to travel throughout Europe. Austria-Hungary offers the less is more option. The further out one travels from the most popular places, the more affordable and unique the adventure. That is what I set out to do in 2011. Thirteen years later, my obsession with Austria-Hungary shows no signs of abating.