Well, where to begin?
This was one of those trips that the universe was trying DESPERATELY to keep us from going on. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Before we had even left the Kartause.
We started planning 2 weeks in advance, but somehow we still didn't have transportation on Tuesday, and we were leaving that Thursday.
So Scott helped us book our rental car, which was fine until Annie realized she didn't have her license, and the car was in her name.
Shoot.
We scrambled around trying to figure out who could go with her to pick it up since she didn't have a license, and just when we were about to give up, she found it. Trust me, it was a bigger deal than it sounds.
So we send her off with the Brothers to get our car, and then we get a call, we can't pick up the car because we need a credit card. And no one has one.
Well shit.
TIP: When you rent a car, you need a credit card, with at least 900 for them to block off. Don't be that dumb American who doesn't know that, cause that was us and it sucked.
So Annie is stranded in Vienna with the Brothers and no car, so we fly through the Kartause collecting all our belongings because the last bus from Scheibbs is about to leave, and we just found out we need to get to Vienna. Tonight.
So we make the bus and all our necessary trains, and we get to Westbanhof (Which we are all very familliar with since the Vienna debacle). There and then we decide not to spend money on a hostel, we can just sleep in the trian station.
And as I'm settling in for the night, around 12:45, I vaguely remember Scott telling us on the phone last week that we aren't ready to sleep in a train station.
Remember that part about Scott knows? He was completely right. Not two minutes later, a man comes over and tells us the station is about to close, and that we can sleep outside.
what.
TIP: THE TRAIN STATION CLOSES. AS IN, YOU CAN'T STAY THERE.
So we pack up and hit the benches outside. We are just starting to fall asleep when two security gaurds come over and offer us a place to wait for the train. So I'm like, sure, it is freezing and I'm exhausted.
Bad idea.
They lead us through this gate that looks like a jail cell, and while I was expecting a waiting room of some sort, what we found was a series of rooms that led to other rooms that resemebed unfinished basements. Then they locked the door behind us. So we were stuck.
I remember laying there thinking this is one of those mistakes that people don't recover from. In all honesty, I thought we were gonna be taken. Locked in a random creepy basement-like cement walled janky room, with no guys with us, I thought we were toast. Luckily, they came back for us at 4am, and let us out.
TIP: SCOTT KNOWS. You don't know, Scott does. So listen to him. Don't sleep in the train station. And if you do, for the love of all things that are good, make sure its 24 hours, and use good judgment.
So after our wonderful night, Annie finally get's the car, and we are on our way to Split Croatia! It's about an 8 hour ride, we dropped MaryRose and Annie at the ferry in Split, then Karly, Theresa, and I headed to Medjugorje.
After getting lost in the city of Medj for hours (it is not that big, it's like one circle), we finally found some Frannys who helped us get to Nancy and Patricks castle.
This is the little piece of heaven. Medj is one of the most beautiful, excellent, holy places I have ever been to. An apparition was going on when we got there, and Dominick and I both saw the Miracle of the Moon. It was so cool! I knew Mary was present, and it felt so beautiful. It was Friday, a fast day, so for dinner we just had bread. But the next morning, Nancy made a big breakfast for all of us before we set out for the day.
Nancy and Patrick are also incredible. If you ever go to Medj, you HAVE to stay with them. They were a god-sent. Well, actually, you can only stay with them if you are a Franciscan University student, or a religious, so sorry to everyone else hoping to go, you can still go, but they only take in Frannys and religious.
That day we went to mass, walked around the town, went souvenir shopping in all these awesome little hippie flee markets, (basically souvenir shopping was rosary shopping. So. many. rosaries.) Then we went to mass again, and prayed some rosaries outside. We visited oily Jesus, it is this statue of Christ that secretes oil from the knees. It is so blessed. Definitely a must see. There was some hiking to do, Cross Mountain is a popular one, usually done barefoot and offered as a penance you can meditate on the stations on your way up. Also apparition hill, where Mary actually still continues to appear is super blessed, especially at night.
The Saturday night mass, prayer, and holy hour was incredible. We took a small break to eat Patricks delicious hot-dogs and drink crack tea (this incredible sweet tea) and do more rosary shopping, but it was such a blessed night. You could feel the presence of Christ in the whole city, and how everything is truly centered around Mary, our mother, queen of peace, and her Son. It was a beautiful thing.
We woke up at 4am the next morning to head out. While we were getting ready to go, the second wave of disaster stuck.
We had recieved a text from our group that told us to pick them up in a completely different location form where we dropped them off, which happened to be 3 hours, so 6 hours (since we were 3 already from split) away from heading home. We knew we had to leave ASAP and that returning the car that day wasen't going to be an option. However, when we got to said location, we realized there was a miscommunication and they were actually still in the original place, hours and hours from where we were. They made the decision to double buckle in the cars they had, and while we hauled ass back to vienna to try and return the car on time, they ran into trouble of their own.
Very very long story short, we ran up over 600 dollars in data charges trying to figure stuff out, tons of extra money in gas,
and a 500 euro fine for double buckling.
TIP: DO NOT BREAK ANY LAWS IN EUROPE. You'd think its pretty self explanatory, but trust me, you will be tempted. DON'T DO IT.
And we didn't even get the car back on time. So we had to pay for an extra day. After driving around Vienna for hours, we finally decided to call it a night and head back to Gaming. We had no GPS and no directions, so we stopped to ask and were told to follow signs to St. Polten, stop again, and ask for directions back to Gaming from there.
So that is what we did, and the very very nice lady in the rest stop told us to follow signs to Mariazell...which happened to be really really out of our way.
Also the funny thing about Europe and Sunday is that all the gas stations close at 4pm.
Guess who ran out of gas 40 minutes from the Kartause at 1am in the middle of the mountains?
This trip could not get any better.
So we knock on some random person's door, borrow their phone, and call Scott, because he knows.
And I kid you not, when I say this man is a god-sent, I really really mean it. He came and picked us up, and then drove me the next morning to pick up our car.
If you don't have a Scott to save you form every disastrous situation, I feel really sorry for you, because without that man, I do not know where I would be right now.
It is difficult to explain exactly how everything could go wrong in a matter of days, or how disastrous it really was, but think about 500 euro, a bunch of college students, and feel bad for us.
I thank God that we are all safe now, for an amazingly blessed weekend, and that we had Scott, but this was a tough one. Austria is really great, and all about learning, but this was too much.
I got some great friendships out of it, Theresa and Karly and I have come a long way, not to mention the bonding time with Scott, so through it all I still feel very blessed and happy to be here. A redeeming weekend would help for sure though.
Next weekend: Oktoberfest.
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