Flying Solo

So I ditched my friends in Rome, and we went our separate ways. I somehow ended up on the night train to Vienna, Austria. There's something to be said about how bizarre it is to wake up and be in a different country. Still kind of weird me out.

When I got in to Vienna, it took me a day or so to adjust to the fact that I was now on my own. I had just spent three and a half months with 30 friends, then two weeks with 3 friends, and now I was embarking on my last two weeks, flying completely solo. Kind of a drastic change. The hardest change to accept was that my Hearts crew was no longer by my side! What was I to do when I felt like playing cards?

I got to my hostel early in the morning, straight off the night train, and crashed there almost the entire day. With the exception of going out to a Vietnamese restaurant to treat myself to a giant bowl of pho. There are certain things in life that should always be enjoyed with my mother, and pho is one of them. That was my first bowl of pho without her, and it just felt wrong. I then spent the rest of the evening trying to get lost, just wantering around the city-- I found the Hofburg Palace, Stephansdom (St. Stephen's Cathedral), and then eventually made my way back to the hostel and crashed.

One of the girls in my room was from Canada-- and so began my first negative experience with a fellow traveler. From the moment I said I was from the U.S., she started quizzing me on my knowledge of our friendly neighboring country. No, I ignorantly didn't know the capital of Canada, but it's not like I was competing in a geography bee. In the most accusative and pompous tone, her ranting went something like this:

"Well at least you admit that you are ignorant. I don't blame you, I blame your government and your schooling system. I took U.S. history in school, but it's not like you would ever take Canadian history. I just think that you should take some sort of personal responsibility to know about your bordering countries."

All because I didn't know the capital was Ottawa.