I’ve just been awakened with a pleasant, German accented, “Morning! Breakfast!” I raise the window of my sleeper cabin to find myself sitting at the Amstetten train station in Austria. I’m about an hour away from Vienna though I’ll be transferring to another train to Budapest when I get there.

Yesterday I went to Venice. I arrived from Cairo yesterday morning to have a message on my phone from my host telling me that she’d had business come up and had to leave town. No place to stay. I went around to several hostels only to find them completely booked. No chance of a hotel. Same thing. My only choice was a camp ground around 30 min. away. I don’t know….

Venice is a fantasy world like no other. It is a playground where you gleefully lose yourself in the wonders of architecture, music, food, art and bliss. It struck me as the true meaning of romance. I walked around the narrow streets and canals soaking in the vibrancy of the city, again without any map. I eventually made it to Piazza San Marco. It was gorgeous sunny day with a cool breeze coming right off the water. It is the light of Venice.

I decided to not stay. The more I wandered around this beauty, the more it created a longing. I was walking back to the train station at dusk and it was apparent, like all of Italy, that the true flavor of Venice comes out at night after a slow simmer all day. I was not ready to dine on the meal of this city or more to the point, unable. One day, I will return.

Off to Budapest.