In the sleeper of my overnight train to Vienna. It is 8.25am, there are three of us girls. There were 6. The other three were older than my mom and departed a few hours earlier-boy did they usher in confusion with a remodeling of the train car on their midnight arrival from Frankfurt. 

I am getting excited for the wedding. I was nervous about crashing a family wedding in Austria. I questioned the appropriateness of it being the Chan family -and Paige. But the Chans are family to me, whether they realize it or not, and Lizanne, she’s right up at the top of my list of favorite people. I was close to considering not going, I had hoped to spend some more time in Cologne. With all my travel disappointments with missed flights and lost tickets I only had a mere two days. They were a rich two days. Myron, another person right up at the top of my list of favorite people, opened his home for me right in the center of the city. I love Cologne. One does not have to go far to get anything. There are large grocery stores, and just stores of every kind with cafe’s and pubs of every kind on every block it seemed. There are large portions of the city where it seems to be just one massive mall, streets and streets of what makes up St. Catherine's in Montreal, only no cars. 

My favorite moment would have been drinking beer lemonade (and then just beer), from a little kiosk with Myron near his place right after my arrival. The weather was amazing, just sitting in the sun and talking. I had wondered why visiting Myron at the start of my trip seemed so important-and it was. I felt that the moment I get to Germany, I would be fine. Truth is, I was fine the moment I hit Toulouse, but there was a safety and familiarity with Myron which I haven’t felt with too many people over the last few years. A feeling not associated with the Chans, or Joel (I will be meeting Joel in a few weeks), and I realized it is because, Myron is one of the very few people connected to my past, but not to the painful moments. He is not family, neither mine nor my ex’s, and he is not connected to the church (he’s in fact a zealous atheist). He is a friend to those connected to that part of my life, but he is not from it or of it and holds no need for me to explain any shame away for the choices I made to abandon those parts of my life.

My head is singing, “the hills are alive with the sound of music” as I travel through Austria and try not to get motion sick from watching the landscape while writing. My travel companions are both great girls. One is a journalist. She has been amazing to me. My train is delayed-yes, another travel delay... I must have pissed off the gods of travel somehow, they hate me. However, last night it was a possible three hour delay which would have made it very difficult making it to the shuttle in Eggenburg on time. The journalist had offered me her home which is near the train station and her boyfriend even to possibly drive me to Eggenburg!! Fortunately we should be arriving into Vienna quite shortly with only an hour delay. I found it interesting that my main concern and frustration was with being delayed and not actually with the fact that there was a broken wheel on one of the cars...

Well, I suppose that is enough for this update. I will be getting to Vienna soon, and off to meet my first couchsurfing experience and directly off to a Viennese wedding.