[OnyxCougar]

Turned it to Atlantis: The Lost Empire by Disney. Which I have at home. *sigh*. Boring trip, and I was tired. I had gotten 2 hours sleep before we left, and another 2 or 3 on the flight, and I was tired, but excited at the same time.

Before the journey had started, we did some research on what there was to do in Vienna, and decided we really wanted to see Saint Stephen's Cathedral. We weren't real sure how to get there, but we had about 7 hours until our bus left for Croatia, and we wanted to do something in Vienna while we were there.

Finally, the plane started to descend and we looked at each other. "This is it," we thought, "we're finally here." After 30 minutes of descent, Kelle's ear clogged up and it's been that way ever since. Happy to be on the ground where we could WALK, we grabbed our stuff and walked off the jetway into the land of where-they-speak-German. Only. Thank god for pictures on the signs, or we'dve been screwed. We weren't sure at which point our friends, who had come up from Croatia, could meet us, so we just walked around slowly, and kept our eyes open. We went through passport Control, and got stamped. We went through to baggage claim to grab the luggage, and waited. My bags came down the chute just fine, but Kelle's 2 bags, with both of our jackets and some clothes, were nowhere to be found. No problem, I thought, there's probably another cart to be unloaded. So we waited.
and waited.
and waited.
and waited.

A lady in the red livery of Austrian Airlines approached us hesitantly. Apperantly my jaw was set a certain way so as to make me look like someone she really didn't want to talk to at this point. Nevertheless, she did find the courage to ask, in heavily accented english, if we were missing some luggage. Yes, I said, we were missing two pieces. She invited us to follow her and we walked into the Austrian Airlines Baggage Reclamation Office. The lady took the luggage claim tickets and took a report. "They aren't lost," she explained, "They are in New York." I blinked. "We know right where they are." I blinked again, and opened my mouth. "We are putting them on a flight to Munich." I closed my mouth, then opened it again when I realized we weren't in Munich. "Then they will be flown here. We will deliver them to you. Where are you staying in Vienna?" I explained we weren't staying in Vienna, we were boarding a bus for Zagreb, Croatia at 5pm. "No problem," she said rather too happily. "We will have them here by 3 and send a car to the Vienna bus station where your bus leaves from at 4." Oh. That was ok. "Which bus station are you leaving from?"

Keep in mind I must have looked like a fish opening and closing my mouth, and now I was truly stunned. I had no idea which bus station the bus left from, but I knew the guys would know, since it's the station they came into that morning to meet us. So I explained the situation, and she understood immediately. "Are they here waiting for you?" Yes, we said, but we don't know where. "Oh, probably right outside customs. Would you like me to page them?" Uh, yeah. Sure. So she did. We waited, but they didn't come. So she said, "Well, tell you what. Take the bags you do have, go through customs and find your friends, and bring them to this window with these papers. We'll have them explain which bus station you're leaving from, you can give us a phone number to call if they have a cellular phone, and we'll get the bags to you at 4pm today at the bus station. OK?" Slightly confused, but completely understanding her intent, we got up and went through customs.

Tired, slightly pissed our stuff was gone, but happy someone with intelligence was helping us, and confident we'd get the missing bags in a few hours, we emerged from customs and looked around. Didn't see the guys.


As we walked thorugh customs and the tightly meshed group of people I saw Ivan. He looked right at me. He was holding a bag. I didn't see Hrvoje. As I turned to watch where I was going, I almost walked into a man with a long black jacket. I paused briefly so I wouldn't run into him and as I looked up at his face, I realized it was Hrvoje. I don't know why I kept walking, I could have reached out and grabbed him, but I knew if I didn't sit down, I was going to fall.