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"In Kürze erreichen wir: Wien Hauptbahnhof," said the female voice of the train announcement. "Dies ist der letzte Halt unseres Zuges. Wir bedanken uns bei allen Fahrgästen und wünschen Ihnen einen angenehmen Aufenthalt." Annie James blinked the sleep out of her eyes and stretched as best she could, sitting on her seat. The train journey from London via Paris to Vienna had been long and hadn't given her much opportunity to stretch her feet. But now she was here. Here. In Vienna. Where she would live for the next three, maybe more, years.Studying in Vienna after school had been her dream for a long time. Ever since the summer when she was eleven and her mother had sent her on a cultural holiday for children, travelling with her group through some of Europe's capital cities. They had travelled to Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Geneva, Rome and, of course, Vienna. Why it had been that city of all places that had taken her by storm, Annie didn't know. Why wasn’t it Paris, the city of love? Amsterdam with its canals and bicycles everywhere. Or Rome, with its churches and historic buildings on every street corner? But it was Vienna that she had talked about the most when she returned home at the end of the summer. And when she had started to think about what she wanted to do after school a few years later, she knew that she wanted to move to Vienna.And now the time had come. The first of her fellow travellers got up from their seats and started to head for the door, so Annie hurried to put all her things back in her bags and heave her suitcases down from the luggage rack. There were two of them, one large and one smaller, and Annie was glad that she had decided not to take another one with her, as it was already difficult to drag them and her two bags through the corridor. Still. Most of her things had stayed at home and there was hardly any room left in her luggage for personal items, apart from clothes for the different seasons, everyday items such as bed linen and food for the journey. But that was all right. She had the most important things with her, such as pictures of her mother, her grandfather and Martin, her necklace with an A on it and her favourite book. She didn't need anything else and if she did, she could buy it.The train slowed down and a glance out of the window told Annie that they were pulling into the station. All at once, something tightened in her stomach. So this was it. She had been working towards this for the last few years, saving up, working in the summer and learning German after school. The time had come. She’d arrived.The train came to a halt, the doors opened and the passengers crowded out. Annie struggled to follow with her suitcases. "Hier, lass mich helfen," a voice suddenly said behind her, and she turned round to see a young man about her age with one hand outstretched as if to reach for her large suitcase. Annie scrutinised him for a moment and he smiled at her. He seemed nice and Annie didn't want to get into the awkward situation of holding up the entire queue of passengers on the train because she didn’t manage to get all her luggage onto the platform at once, so she nodded. "Danke," she said, the German word strangely heavy on her tongue. She wasn't sure if she should say anything else. It was one thing to speak a language in the safety of her home, where she could always fall back on English if necessary, where no one expected her to actually speak German. But here, in a country where everyone communicated like this, there was suddenly pressure on her to get everything right. The queue moved forward, and Annie had no time to think, let alone say anything, because there was only one more person before it was her turn to get off. She slung her cloth bags over one shoulder and held on to a handle with the same hand, then took the suitcase in her other hand and descended the steps, finally entering Viennese ground.It had been a crowded train and the platform was even worse. There were people in suits and briefcases, families who had been waiting for a friend or family member who’d been on the train and were now hugging each other, backpackers, groups of tourists. Annie took a few steps to the side, then turned round to look at the man with her suitcase and saw that he had followed her.
"Danke," she said again and held out her hand for the suitcase."Kein Problem," he said and grinned. "Ich kenne das, viele Koffer können überfordernd sein. Ich kann gerne noch helfen, ihn vom Bahnsteig zu bringen. Wo musst du jetzt hin?"It took Annie a moment to translate the words in her head into English. Then she shook her head. "Ich weiß es nicht." She removed her hand from her suitcase and rummaged through one of her bags instead. Eventually she found what she was looking for and pulled out a blue folder. Inside were the printed papers describing her journey from London to the flat share where she had found herself a room. "Uh ... I – Ich muss fahren nach ... Wien Mitte," she read off the sheet. "Eine U3?""Zuerst zur S-Bahn," the man said, nodding to her. "Soweit kann ich dir noch mit dem Koffer helfen," he said and followed the stream of people, who were all hurrying towards the escalators that took them down one floor. Annie hurried after him.Danke für die Hilfe," she said a third time as she finally stood behind the man on the escalator, feeling rather stupid.He turned around and grinned at her. "Kein Problem. Ich bin übrigens Cil, oder zumindest werde ich so von allen genannt.""Annie," Annie replied and held out her hand to him. "Es freut mich, dich kennenzulernen.""Ebenfalls," Cil said and shook her hand. Then he pulled the suitcase off the escalator and went ahead. Annie hurried to follow. "Woher kommst du, Annie? Warum bist du mit mehr Gepäck als ein einziger Mensch tragen kann auf dem Hauptbahnhof?""Ich komme aus London," Annie explained. "Aber ich ziehe um. Nach Wien. Ich will hier studieren."Cil laughed. "Wow. Das erklärt jedenfalls die vielen Sachen. Warum ausgerechnet nach Wien?" He led her past shops to a spacious square inside the building, above which hung a large display board. He took a quick look at it before turning left towards the next escalators.Annie shrugged her shoulders. "Einfach nur so. Ich mag die Stadt.""Das ist auch ein guter Grund. Wenn man es sich aussuchen kann, sollte man immer dorthin reisen, wo es einem gut gefällt." At the end of the first escalators, the next ones began and Annie began to wonder how many there were in this building, but instead of going down the next one, Cil turned right and led her to another platform. "Hier sind wir," he said. "Dein Zug fährt ab in ..." He glanced at the display board, "in zwei Minuten. Noch irgendwelche Fragen, Annie aus London?"Annie shook her head. "Nein. Danke.""Nun dann –" Cil paused as the sound of an incoming train grew louder. The train stopped, opened its doors and when no one got off, Cil lifted the suitcase up the two steps into the carriage. Then he jumped out again and let Annie get in. She placed her small suitcase next to the large one and held on to the handrail, then turned round to face Cil once more. Before the doors closed, he grinned at her again. "Willkommen in Wien, würde ich mal sagen."She had got the wrong impression of Vienna, Annie decided, as she finally dragged her suitcases up the steps of the U3 station. Cil had been nice, the train she had come on comfortable. But after that? The suburban train, the so-called S-Bahn, had been old and without air conditioning and she had sweated to death in it. Then, because it was bound to happen, she had got lost on the way from the S-Bahn to the U-Bahn, the metro station (but really who could blame her, the station was a labyrinth!) and when she had finally found the U-Bahn, sweaty and out of breath, it had been so full that Annie hadn’t gotten all her luggage in before the door was closing and her suitcase had jammed the door thrice before she’d managed to pull it all the way in. During the following stations, she had had to step out each time to let her fellow passengers step out behind her, and when she got back on, it had been a challenge time and time again to get back to her suitcases. In the meantime, she had feared that she would never manage to leave the underground with all her things. However, it turned out that most of the people had suddenly left, shortly before her station, leaving the carriage almost deserted.And now she struggled up the stairs. It was just her luck that the escalator had been stopped for maintenance today. Panting, Annie finally placed the large suitcase next to where she had put the small one and the bags on the first round. And just like this. She was in the right place and now, luckily for her, it was all downhill. She counted the cross streets she would have to pass before her turn and memorised the name of her street, then set off, dragging the suitcases behind her. Dusk had fallen over the city as she had travelled on the metro and now, one after the other, more and more windows flickered to light in the houses around her.The area where she had found her flat share was a residential neighbourhood. Tall houses towered all around her and trees lined the road. The street wasn't vegetation-friendly, the trees planted in far too narrow strips with car after car lined up between them, but there was little traffic, Annie realised, feeling content. She had chosen a quiet neighbourhood, which was good.
While Annie curiously surveyed her surroundings, she didn't even realise how much time had passed and soon she found herself in front of the house where her flat must be in. Annie took a deep breath, then rang the bell.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Belfast Grand Central Station
Hallie glanced over to the platforms. “Great, and what now?” she asked.Niki just shrugged. “Find another way. Pretty sure there’s not a single train leaving from this train station anytime soon.” She was right, Belfast Grand Central Station was under full construction right now, with every platform being closed and no train in sight. “Níl traein anseo,” Niki added.Hallie gave her a look. “Really? No one’s here. You don’t need to impress anyone with your crazy language skills.”Niki grinned. “I know. Just let me try a bit. Honestly, I’m not even sure this sentence was correct. Irish grammar is just the worst. Do you know how many prepositions they use? No, neither do I, because I get it wrong every time. And then there’s their VSO-sentence-structure which irritates me so much, I can’t even …”Hallie stopped listening. She loved Niki, she truly did, but sometimes the girl could drive her crazy. Not that she’d want her any other way but … Niki was her best friend and that meant she had the right to be annoyed at her flaws. And one of them was that Niki was way too obsessed with language and that she had to take any chance she could to tell people about it. When they’d met, years ago, at summer camp, Niki had already spoken French fluently, learning Spanish, while Hallie had only spoken English. Since then Hallie had gone through some cruesome years of Latin at school and forgotten everything the minute she walked out of her very last lesson swearing to never take another language class in her life. Hallie, however, had added five other languages to her portfolio – that Hallie knew of – and was trying to expand it by the day.Her latest obsession was Irish, which wasn’t too surprising, considering that they’d decided they’d make Ireland their very first stop on their European trip. Where they’d go after, they didn’t know yet, but they had saved their money and taken the cheapest flight to Belfast, where they’d gotten themselves an Airbnb apartment for a week during which they’d gotten to know the city – and especially it’s pubs. Now it was time to travel further.Hallie opened Google Maps on her phone. She nudged Niki. “It says we can take a bus in five minutes and then switch to the train some place called Newry. Or we can wait half an hour and take a bus that’s taking us directly to Dublin.”Niki shrugged. “Let’s take the bus if it’s all the same to you. That’s probably cheaper.”Hallie nodded towards some ticket machines in the middle of the station’s hall. “I’ll get them, while you refill our water bottles?” She grabbed her own from her backpack and gave it to Niki who nodded. Hallie hated bus rides with a passion. She always got sick from them. However, she understood Niki’s position who had to pay for all her expenses herself. While Hallie’s father had a vineyard and they were off well enough, Niki’s family didn’t have too much money, and with Niki being the oldest of four children, her parent had wanted her to go to college immediately after her high school graduation because “they didn’t have money to throw away”, especially for something as expensive as travelling to Europe. College was expensive enough as it was, no need to add some very expensive holidays to that. However, Niki had really wanted to go, and so she’d worked and gotten herself some money together, while simultaneously trying to persuade Hallie to join her. And because Hallie hadn’t wanted to go to college anyways, and because her father had pitched in with some money, Hallie had agreed. Now, here they were.Buying the tickets wasn’t too complicated and soon she found herself sitting down, waiting for Niki and scrolling through Instagram on her phone. Her father had posted pictures of himself on their vineyard looking at some full, ripe grapes. Hallie knew the picture had to be old, it wasn’t yet time for harvest and those grapes looked about ready to fall off. She smiled. Years ago, her father had had an affair with a woman that Hallie had hated. Back then had been her first summer at summer camp and only her new friendship with Niki had helped her get through their overhasty marriage and subsequent divorce. Those had been rough times, however, if there’d been one thing her father had learned from that woman, it was social media. She’d been the one to get him to make an Instagram account for the vineyard, and it was the only good idea she’d ever had. Nowadays most of their customers had found them through that app.She scrolled further, seeing pictures of her school friends and colleagues. Jamie was now working full time as a dancer, uploading videos of himself at one show or another. Clara posted a picture of herself at the beach, labelling it “First time swimming in the lake after the OP ✌🏳️⚧️👙” and Hallie smiled and scrolled past Patrick’s newest poem. She liked him, she really did, but his poems were horrible.Suddenly there was a water bottle in front of her and Niki sat down beside her. “Anything new?” she asked.Hallie shook her head. “Nah, not really. But I do still need to make an Instagram post with you about our week in Belfast.”Niki smiled. “Sure. Let’s do it while we wait for the bus.”