07/11/2012, travelling by train, Vienna - Linz

 It's 10:50am and I just caught the train by suprise. Just when it was ready to scuttle off in two minutes time. If i'd have missed i would probably have waited for a couple of hours till the next one. So... 2 minutes of stress in a 24-hour day is a very good ratio, when you think about daily lives.

Just showed my ticket to the inspector. I have enough time to note down my days in Vienna. The story continues at the point where I leave Dimitri behind. The journey between Budapest and Vienna usually lasts 3 hours but it felt no more than 5 minutes thanks to four 20year-old Americans who study in the University of Chicago but staying in Vienna for some sort of an exchange program. They offered me a jolly good company and some useful info of what to visit in the States. Learned a lot about their educational system, and they learned a lot about the crisis in Greece. (It seems that everyone is interested in that topic, when I reveal that I'm greek but they're all too afraid to ask.) I Wave them goodbye, jump off the train and a brand new chit-chat begins with a fifth american girl, who's been listening the whole time but was too shy to join in. She tells me about her own monthly travels around europe, beginning from the highlands of Scotland to Vienna. It was quite obvious by now that if you choose to walk this road, you'll see the footsteps of the ones who made the same choices before you, and meet all those who think and act in the same wavelength. And they.are.many. We exchange our farewells with the american girl, (it seemed like an awkaward moment because I think that she expected me to suggest a night-out, which i didn't, but ok...) (όχι δεν με "έψηνε" για του έλληνες φίλους).

Straight (Damn. I just threw a glance outside the train's window and it's beautiful. Bright-green valleys, traditional houses. Ok I'll stop writing for now. I want to enjoy this...)

(short stop at St Poelten. I'll just continue now...) So... straight to the hostel, had a great laugh with the guy at the reception. Very funny guy. (sidenote: Just one honest smile can take you a long way. Seriously. I'm pretty certain that the three free beers and one free breakfast I got was the result of some good atitude. Of course, if you choose to turn into a joyful person just for some free mugs of beer, then you're no better than a slut. But at least a joyful one. Who doesn't like joyful sluts? I will stop here because I'm not sure where this is going.)

5 more minutes and I'm in the room with Rohan, from India, talking about... What were we talking about? Probably the crisis in Greece. A couple of minutes later Edmilson comes in. A really tired-looking brazilian, who after 10 minutes of joking around has forgotten all about exhaustion, and what that was, and joined us for beers down at the bar. (Great company. There were times when I had to kneel down and fold myself just to survive the laughter.) So, there we were, a greek, a brazilian and an indian (just like a generic joke) talking about american series, weather, women and cucarachas. And the more we talked the more the idea that "the things that unite us are far more than those which divide us" was solidifying in our minds. Every single person in the whole world despite its religion, political views, birth place, or language really understands concepts like love, freedom, safety and happiness. Despite the fact that these are some of the most abstract constructions of the human mind. We've all have experienced them at some point in our lives and we all struggle for them. And i still can't understand how we so skillfully managed to create so many artificial differences between us. Because, ultimately all differences are man-made. Off-topic again... Or maybe not...

P.S. I'm really glad that I chose to stay in hostels and not some cheesy hotel, because, apart from the price, hostels are like small communities. They're like breeding nests of interesting people from all over the world.