Rained Out On The Way To Slovenia

yes you are right, this station officer is wielding a hammer

to indicate to the driver that it is safe to proceed.

Apart from the rain which has followed me everywhere in the last month, the journey to Slovenia from Austria was fraught with other dangers. I was accidently locked in the compound of my hostel and spent an embarrassing few minutes sitting on the wall and screaming for help, meanwhile waking up some grumpy neighbours. And just before the station I was caught J walking by two cops (you think that only happens in Auckland three weeks before the APEC meeting). Now the only Austrian Cop I like is Inspector Rex.

I must admit that I am suffering from a bit of a mid-trip-crisis. Basically I am starting to panic about the fact that my backpacking trip is half over and the reality of having to resettle into routine and work and life decisions by the end of the year is dawning on me. I am absolutely loving the freedom and spontaneity and the great variety of people I am meeting on the trip. The adrenoline rush and the speed and the recklessness of hooning around Europe is just this one huge head rush I am not ready to calm down from. I am kinda using the trip as a procrastinator before I need to decide on where to take my life and career to next. While I have learnt a lot and grown immensely in the last two and a half months, I still feel that there's more fun to be had and more stones to be turned. But I guess the maturity that I have gained in recent months keeps telling me that I can't stop time from ticking and I know that by the end of this trip, whether or not I am ready to stop or not, those answers will come to me much more easily than I ever anticipated.