The day before, I was diagnosed with mononucleosis, great. The blood test results were supposed to come in a month, but the doctor called me in the evening and briefed me on the basic analysis. Nevertheless, the idea of going somewhere for the weekend still persisted; I had a huge tendency to get out of the house, out of Brno, out of the Czech Republic. I bought tickets for the FlixBus, spent the morning having a healthy lunch in Špalíček shopping mall, and by noon, I was boarding the green bus towards Wien Erdberg, VIB.
During the journey, I was contemplative, with no specific plan in mind. I just thought of visiting Liechtenstein Castle in the south of Vienna, where we stopped with my classmates about four years ago on our way to an exchange in Liechtenstein. However, I slowly realized that I might not have the energy for it. I went to bed around 2 am and woke up around 8 am, which, combined with the ongoing infection, took a toll on me. BZZ, a message, I received a photo from my dad—half-isolated window returns on the front facade of our weekend house.
The bus has arrived in Vienna, and I headed straight to the U-bahn, bought tickets, and travelled a few stations to the Museum Angewandte Kunst (MAK), where the internet said there was a free student library. A kind lady took care of me upon entry, told me where to leave my backpack, and where to go next. Behind the library doors, another lady took my ID, registered me, and I could sit down at a table. It was incredibly quiet, with relatively few people, about a third of capacity.
I spent about two hours drawing a mind map, I also checked Airbnb for accommodation and found that the prices were about twice as high as I expected. Well, great. I definitely didn’t want to sleep outside, and besides Booking.com, which wasn’t much cheaper, I couldn’t think of another option. A friend from Vienna, whom I messaged about staying over, wasn’t responding. The idea of studying for a repeat chemistry exam that awaited me on Monday in the library did not work out either.
From the library, I went to a nearby Starbucks, hoping for a slightly less chilly environment. When I got there, I suddenly had to go to the restroom and spend a couple dozen minutes there. I was terribly exhausted, and the castle trip seemed more and more out of reach. In the end, I spent about an hour sitting on the first floor of the coffee shop, with my chin resting on my hands, melancholically contemplating what to do next. Eventually, it was too noisy again, and other sensory stimuli drove me out of the cafe into the park. I took out my phone and called a friend who was doing her Erasmus exchange in Aachen, we talked for around 45 minutes about a cool castle in Belgium I saw on her Instagram, about my trip to Vienna and other news.
I still walked around a bit, but rather thoughtlessly. I saw a peace march in support of Ukraine, which pleased me, however I was too much in my head to really pay attention. I fell into some quite negative feelings, which, apart from others, could also be caused by exhaustion. The decision was made; I bought a train ticket home, which was about to leave in an hour from Hauptbahnhof. Just enough time to get there. Before boarding, I bought a nice fresh baguette for 4.10 Euros, and I waited for the train to finally arrive. The journey home was spent listening to piano covers coming from my earbuds.
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