PLAY IN THE DIRT: österreich.

the trip from paris to austria started off with an undesired bang, but quickly improved from there. here's what happened.

our train was scheduled to leave paris-gare de lyon station at 6:15 am. all fine and dandy, but at about 6:11am, i was deep underground preparing myself for a flat out sprint up to the train platforms as soon as the doors of my metro car opened. i had caught the earliest possible metro from where i was staying and as i planned the previous night, i figured i would have about 10 minutes to make it from the metro to the train. a little close for comfort, but doable. however, as soon as all the drunk 20-somethings descended onto the metro at the first stop on their way home from their friday night exploits, i knew it was going to be a rough ride. there i was, smashed against the door of the metro, huge backpack in tow making maneuvering impossible, surrounded by sweaty, stinky frenchies, alcohol leaking from their pores, slurred speech and song spewing (loudly) from their lips, and not a thing i could do about it. to make matters worse, because the drunk 20-somethings took longer than normal to get on and off the train, we were running a few precious minutes behind schedule, which meant i just missed my connecting metro, which meant i would have to wait 4 minutes for the next one to come. it's an interesting place to be in, really-- knowing you are 100% out of control of a situation. no amount of foot twitching or watch checking could make time slow down or make the metro come early so that i would be able to catch my train. there was absolutely nothing i could do... except prepare myself for the flat out sprint that was about to happen as soon as my metro doors opened. and sprint i did. given the huge backpack on my back, it probably wasn't my fastest ever, but effort wise, it was definitely up near the top. i chugged up the flights of stairs (don't worry, sara. didn't forget the mouthguard), around the corner, and into the hall of trains. i knew my train would be on platform #?, but i entered into the platform with letters (damn train station. two halls of platforms? REALLY?) so after somehow asking a kind french man where the other platforms were, i sprinted down the corrider and around another corner into the correct hall.

pause here. should i ever get to heaven, i really hope to re-watch this scene of my life again. and then i'll put it in slow-mo for added effect. i swear... straight from a movie.

just as i was about to enter the hall, i heard a whistle blow and right as i turned the corner, i saw my train start to pull away, friend and sister on it, and all dreams of sound of music reenacting flying out the window. to say i was bummed is an understatement. i was sick to my stomach. i couldn't believe it.... and you shouldn't either, because that last part wasn't true.

here's what really happened: i rounded the corner, saw sara and sophie standing at our pre-determined meeting point and as soon as they saw me, they started running down the train platform to let the conductor know we were going to be getting on. i caught up to them (couldn't stop the sprint now) and not 30 seconds after we got on the train, the whistle blew and our train started to move. all this before 6:30 am. a little too much excitement so early in the morning, don't you think? my mother must have prayed extra hard that day because i still have no idea how i made that train. truly a miracle.

to sum up the rest of the trip (because this post is long enough): o.m.austria, i heart you. i want to live within your borders. and o.m.s and s. i heart you, too.