Hurry up and wait.

I'm sitting in the airport in Vienna, eating an overpriced cup of fruit (well, I assume it's overpriced... it's an airport, after all... but I don't know what the exchange rate really is to euros. That might be for the best). I'm waiting for them to open up gate C39 so I can check in for my final flight in to Sarajevo! It doesn't take off for another two hours, so I have plenty of time to sit here and people-watch... heehee.

So! I've made it to Vienna safely! My grandparents dropped me off at the Detroit airport on Monday a couple hours before my flight was scheduled to take off, but due to bad weather literally everywhere (apparently), the line was super long to check in and I ended up speedwalking through the Detroit airport to get on the plane on time. Whew--what a way to begin my first international trip alone! But I made it just fine, and arrived in Washington, D.C. about an hour later. There it was a pretty quick turnaround (complete with a stop for Chipotle [hey Jack!] because I was really hungry) and on to a massive plane for the flight from D.C. to Vienna.

The flight to Austria was pretty nice. Nine hours is a long time to sit in a tiny little chair, but I'm not super tall, so I don't have anything to complain about. (And, I got a window seat.) :) Plus, I had a really interesting seatmate--a 22-year-old guy from Kosovo named Bejar who gladly talked with me about Kosovo, how to pronounce words in Bosnian, what it's like for him to be Muslim in the United States, his wife waiting for him in Kosovo, why he thinks Kosovo is way better than Orlando, etc. I was sorry to see him leave. It was nice to have a travel buddy for a little while.

And then... Vienna! My layover here is four-and-a-half hours long, so I decided to be adventurous and leave the airport. (Though clearly not all that adventurous since I'm already back.) I bought a roundtrip ticket for the train that runs directly from the airport to the city center, and took the 16-minute trip to downtown Vienna, just for the chance to walk around and stretch my legs and actually put my feet on European soil. (For the first time ever! Let's all celebrate this momentous occasion!)

Vienna is beautiful. Granted, in the hour I was downtown, I certainly didn't really get to see much of the city, but the view as the train whizzed through and the part I did experience while walking around was lovely. If you're a woman traveling alone through Europe, I highly recommend Vienna--I felt totally safe and comfortable walking around there. The streets are narrow and mostly one-way, with tall, well-maintained, old stone buildings packed along the streetsides. Everything is really clean, at least downtown; I even passed a city employee in a bright orange vest picking up little pieces of trash with a long stick. Really, I just wandered around, trying to follow the signs to what I assumed was a monument to Radetzky. (He was an Austrian general; there's a famous march dedicated to him, so nerdy me saw a sign reading Radetzkyplatz and wanted to find out more.) I never found it. But what I did find was a gorgeous Catholic church, complete with tolling bells and a flock of pigeons around the fountain out front. So what does any good, self-respecting person do in that situation? You feed the birds, of course! I hadn't eaten my breakfast sandwich from the plane, tucking it into my bag instead for lunch... so I sat on the bench and threw bread crumbs and enjoyed the sunshine and generally felt like an old man. It was wonderful.

But enough rambling from me. I'm going to go check on C39. I met an elderly couple also going to Sarajevo, so perhaps I'll find them. (Don't worry, Mom... I only talk to nice strangers.) :)