Arriving in France

July 22nd

Whew! What a long day. Culture shock, cold temperature, sadness, good to feel at home. It feels at home here in this part of Europe. Very green and lush as opposed to dry arid vegetation in Turkey. It is 7:30 in the morning. We took a night flight from Istanbul. One of those cheap flight carriers with no reserved seating so people push and shove to get on the plane. Now I am in Basel sitting at the train station. I have an hour before my train leaves to Strasbourg, then I have to make it to Heiligenstein, somehow. Larry left on his train to Prague half an hour ago. It was a quick good-bye it turned out and sad too because we had a great time traveling together and experiencing new things. But our new adventures have great things in store too. He’s meeting his daughter in Prague for a few days and is very excited about that. I’m meeting up with the pilgrimage group later today and am looking forward to the new things to learn and experience there.

Having this laptop is great. Sitting here on the track we’re leaving from is quiet as it is still quite early and a Sunday morning. I hear the occasional sounds of slow moving trains and I thought the best way to pass time is to get caught up on my journal writing. There’s lots.