terriaustria

Vienna, Austria

Many years ago I was finishing another trip in Europe with my favorite traveling buddy, and we were ending a summer of driving through Europe camping and traveling in a leased car. On this day before we were to fly home, we needed to turn in our leased car before noon at a certain car agency near the Bois de Bologne. We had no time, no money and no fuel... literally. We found ourselves going the wrong way on the peripherique, the highway encircling the major downtown part of the city. We had to turn our car in before 12 noon, as the place closed for the weekend at that time, and we were flying out the next day. We had little money left, and it was after 11:30am. We ended up pulling off the highway and getting what amounted to about 63 cents worth of gas, making a great joke for the attendant. There was NO WAY we were going to make it to the car place in time, but we had to... and so we did. NOT getting there was just not an option, and pulling in on the fumes of our 53 cents worth of gas at 11:59am, we knew that we'd achieved something. Later, over my first lunch of pasta with pesto, I blurted "you know Cyndi, sometimes I think I can do anything... and SOMETIMES I can" That was one of those times.

Today was also one of those times. Every flight was delayed by nearly an hour making the next one an impossible connection. In Calgary, I arrived with 15 minutes to board my connecting flight that was clear across the airport (seemed like miles) and had to pick up my bags FIRST, take them through Customs, find my way with only the help of an elderly airport attendant in a red polyester cowboy pantsuit, and I made it on time. Unfortunately, that flight also ended up being delayed, leaving me with 40 minutes at Frankfurt to again race through the airport (at least my luggage was supposed to be checked through) several checkpoints, and make it to my gate in time to get my boarding pass (It would not be printed for me in Portland), and make my plane.... Against a number of circumstances that worked against me today (and I'm only naming the most annoying), I was determined to GET THERE TODAY and I did. Today was one of THOSE days where I CAN do anything....

Yeah, but my luggage stayed in Frankfurt! I arrived LATE to Vienna, and I - along with about 15 other passengers watched the wheel go round and round.... After some checking, it was determined that it had remained in Frankfurt, and instead of having one more thing to worry about, Kelsey and I waited for another 2 hours for my things to arrive... and they DID arrive....

But the only REALLY important thing about today is this... That smile was worth the trouble! Great to be back with my girl!

Tomorrow, my beautiful tour guide shows me Vienna from a local perspective!