How to amuse yourself for hours on end.

Amusingly enough, I came to Slovenia at sunrise... and I left Slovenia at sunrise.
It was so indescribably wonderful.
It was a quiet ride from Ljubljana to Villach (Austria)
Austria makes me so happy.
I tried and tried to get pictures of the Alps that appropriately conveyed just how incredible they are... but no luck.

Twelve hours on a train was quite the adventure. If you ever find yourself in such a situation, here are some ideas for things you can do:

• Watch the sunrise
• Listen to music
• Touch your toes. Calisthenics are very important!
• Attempt to photograph the landscape
• Abandon photography and just watch the landscape
• Go through really really really really really reallyyyy long tunnels
• Make faces in the mirrors of the car
• Sort out minor crises via cell phone with the help of the ticket woman. Insist you are not traveling with your husband... or anyone else, for that matter.
• Read a six hundred page novel
• Befriend Austrian teenagers and discuss, in a broken mixture of English and German, whether the tourists in the aisle way are American or British (they were, for the record, American, and the Austrians were quite impressed with my astute observations- or maybe just my valiant attempt to speak German)
• Observe the beautiful lake outside the window- Faaker See Lake, if my geography is right. Absolutely stunning. Bright blue, nestled in the Alps... sigh.
• Change trains. Bonus points for making the transfer in under two minutes, preferably out of necessity rather than mere insanity.
• Eat a delicious snack (fresh baked sweet roll from a Slovenian deli... terrific)
• Befriend a small child. I had the luck of finding the cutest seven year old on the face of the planet, and we watched a Disney movie in German together. And she shared her cookies.
• Play Robot Unicorn Attack
• Solve expert level sudoku puzzles.
• Play solitaire
• Make up stories about the random people standing on the platforms
• Play Uno
• Marvel at the random castles that seem to pop up all over the place
• Play Boggle
• Think about how desperately you are still procrastinating on that four page paper you have to write
• Check the time
• Check the train schedule
• Check the time again
• Check the train schedule again
• Spend a moment appreciating the Austrians for both air-conditioning their trains AND coherently announcing each stop. Alas, not everybody is so considerate.
• Eat lunch
• Giggle with the aforementioned small child
• Drink juice
• Change trains- again, rapidly. Because life is more fun when you're under pressure... right?
• Give up and write the paper (this, regrettably, took less than an hour)
• Watch the rain
• Read another novel
• Chant "home, home, home, home, home" over and over again in the hopes that it will soon grace the horizon
• Befriend the Jack Russel who wants to eat your food
• Yawn. Repeatedly. But don't sleep! You might miss something!
• Joyfully note Prague emerging in the distance!

Ahh, it is good to be back home in Prague. My own apartment, and my own bed! I have to say though, I am very proud of all my independent traveling! I had a blast... and in just a few days, I'm off to Brussels with Maddie!