I'm a bit rusty... and tired

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And I'm off!

Back to Europe for the third time in three years. A natural hat-trick of extremely good luck!

This time, the Balkans are firmly in my cross-hairs. I've just got to get back to Bosnia!

However, that's all I've really planned this trip... Pretty much, the last three weeks have been certifiably insane. Since I started my new job, I automatically assumed that my European trip plans were off for this year. I'd also assumed that I wasn't going to the Sasquatch music festival, since it was sold out. Needless to say, that was kind of a bummer.

But three weeks ago, both of those things changed in a weekend. My boss approved my six week vacation request, and I found a friend with a set of tickets to Sasquatch that they weren't going to use, and so I jumped at both opportunities. I bought the tickets, and bought a flight before anyone could change their mind...

Sasquatch has come and gone, and I think when the dust settles in my brain, that'll go down as the best weekend of my life. (So far). The number of good times and laughs I had with the amazing friends I went down with should not have all fit into one weekend.

But I'll move on from Sasquatch... which left me very tired. I had about, oh, a day to prepare for my 5 week trip to Europe, so I was a bit scrambly.

So, in the airport lounge I played two games: What did I forget to pack, and German or English.

The first game was not so bad, since I knew I had cash and my passport, so I'd be alright. In the end, I realised that I forgot to pack a book. Drag. But I can probably rectify that on the road with an English bookstore somewhere.

The second game involved looking around and trying to guess which passengers waiting for the flight spoke English or German. This was a futile game, since many people are flying to Frankfurt because it is a hub and offers connections to everywhere else in the world... Actually, the people I sat next to on the flight where from Saskatchewan and on their way to Ethipoia to adopt a baby! Wild stuff. I guess that'll be one more Roughriders fan in the world then...

So anyway, forget all that. It's not that important. Let's focus on me. And some things that I've learned. In three trips to Europe, I've learned some things about flying. Beef never tastes as good at 30,000 feet, so get the chicken. You sleep about 25% what you planned to, no matter what you planned to.

And this time I learned two important things: 1) Seat 45G has half of it's legroom taken up by a metal box. Pick another seat. May I recommend a window seat, because the view I caught of the mountains in Greenland through someone else's window was spectacular. And perhaps most importantly, 2) arriving in Frankfurt on a plane at 6:30am is sweet if you have to catch a connection to somewhere else in the world, but it sucks if that's your destination. That's a full day to be exhausted before you can justifiably go to bed. Also, because of the flight over the pole, the sun never goes down for you, and then is up all of the next day to boot. I don't know how this is going to work out... Luckily, thanks to my sleep deprivation at Sasquatch, my internal clock is already broken, so this might work out...

And it was part way across the ocean that I realised this. I also realised that I had absolutely no plan for when I got on the ground. And since I normally have a very good plan, this was, at first, unnerving. Then it was exciting. But then I had to spend some time actually thinking about it. So when I landed, I thought it might be neat to try and catch a last minute flight to Budapest, hopefully on the cheap.

Note to travelers: There is a ticket desk in the Frankfurt airport dedicated to this very thing. Just tell them where you want to go, and they see what price they can get. I was quoted 280 euro for a one way flight to Budapest at 12:50pm that day on Lufthansa. That's really not bad at all, but it's not as good as a discount airline would have been, if there were any flying out of Frankfurt.

And I was all set to shorten my journey to Budapest by about 7 hours, but then I checked rail ticket prices, and they were about half. So there. That was an unnecessary exercise.

In the airport, I also met someone from Edmonton that had just been to Sasquatch. Small world. Except he liked Pavement. So I ended that friendship.

I'm also totally exhausted while this is going on.

So I went into Frankfurt to buy some groceries, use the internet, and buy a rail ticket.

I accomplished all of these things, and I also saw a number of sketchy looking characters, watched one of them puke in the gutter, and discovered that I actually had no idea how to purchase a ticket into Frankfurt from the airport on the S-Bahn.

Seriously, I might be rusty, but I don't think it was ever this difficult. The machines had an Enlgish option on the screen, but the buttons you pushed to select your ticket were all in German. You also had to pick your destination, which was a bit cryptic and subject to interpretation, I felt. In the end, I had made a bunch of educated guesses and was all set to go ahead with the purchase, when serendipitously a woman explained the whole process to two other young travellers right in front of me.

Turns out I was right. Just for the record.

My train to Vienna was uneventful, unless you count a six hour power nap as an event. Actually, at one point I think I must have snored extremely loudly, because:

1)I woke myself up.
2)Everybody was looking at me, a couple were smiling.

Whatever. I was so tired, I was pretty dead to the world, and just went back to sleep.

I decided to call it a day in Vienna. Another 3 hours to Budapest would have got me in at about 22:00, without a hostel. Better to sleep it off, and hit it fresh tomorrow. Plus no one had stolen my stuff while I was asleep, so I didn't want to press my luck.

And I made another bonehead move while navigating the U-Bahn in Vienna. I had no problem purchasing a ticket or understanding where I had to transfer and whatnot, but I got off about three stops too early. Too many three syllable names start with “K”...

Long story longer: I got there, got a bed, and am on my way to sleep in it.

So far I'm enjoying many things about solo traveling. I made a lot of mistakes today, and some bold decisions, but at least I didn't ruin anyone else's day in the process. I'm free to chase any whim, whatever the outcome.

That being said, I miss the companionship. It's nice having someone else to look out for you and your stuff, or to tell a joke to. But there has already been plenty of opportunity to meet new people, and I'll engage in these opportunities even more when I'm not so tired...



Anyway, I'm off to Budapest tomorrow! Woo!

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Photos

Vienna!
I'm back... and at the time of this picture, looking for my hostel...