Chapter Text
"In Kürze erreichen wir: Wien Hauptbahnhof," said the female voice of the train announcement. "Dies ist der letzte Halt unseres Zuges. Wir bedanken uns bei allen Fahrgästen und wünschen Ihnen einen angenehmen Aufenthalt." Annie James blinked the sleep out of her eyes and stretched as best she could, sitting on her seat. The train journey from London via Paris to Vienna had been long and hadn't given her much opportunity to stretch her feet. But now she was here. Here. In Vienna. Where she would live for the next three, maybe more, years.
Studying in Vienna after school had been her dream for a long time. Ever since the summer when she was eleven and her mother had sent her on a cultural holiday for children, travelling with her group through some of Europe's capital cities. They had travelled to Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Geneva, Rome and, of course, Vienna. Why it had been that city of all places that had taken her by storm, Annie didn't know. Why wasn’t it Paris, the city of love? Amsterdam with its canals and bicycles everywhere. Or Rome, with its churches and historic buildings on every street corner? But it was Vienna that she had talked about the most when she returned home at the end of the summer. And when she had started to think about what she wanted to do after school a few years later, she knew that she wanted to move to Vienna.
And now the time had come. The first of her fellow travellers got up from their seats and started to head for the door, so Annie hurried to put all her things back in her bags and heave her suitcases down from the luggage rack. There were two of them, one large and one smaller, and Annie was glad that she had decided not to take another one with her, as it was already difficult to drag them and her two bags through the corridor. Still. Most of her things had stayed at home and there was hardly any room left in her luggage for personal items, apart from clothes for the different seasons, everyday items such as bed linen and food for the journey. But that was all right. She had the most important things with her, such as pictures of her mother, her grandfather and Martin, her necklace with an A on it and her favourite book. She didn't need anything else and if she did, she could buy it.
The train slowed down and a glance out of the window told Annie that they were pulling into the station. All at once, something tightened in her stomach. So this was it. She had been working towards this for the last few years, saving up, working in the summer and learning German after school. The time had come. She’d arrived.
The train came to a halt, the doors opened and the passengers crowded out. Annie struggled to follow with her suitcases. "Hier, lass mich helfen," a voice suddenly said behind her, and she turned round to see a young man about her age with one hand outstretched as if to reach for her large suitcase. Annie scrutinised him for a moment and he smiled at her. He seemed nice and Annie didn't want to get into the awkward situation of holding up the entire queue of passengers on the train because she didn’t manage to get all her luggage onto the platform at once, so she nodded. "Danke," she said, the German word strangely heavy on her tongue. She wasn't sure if she should say anything else. It was one thing to speak a language in the safety of her home, where she could always fall back on English if necessary, where no one expected her to actually speak German. But here, in a country where everyone communicated like this, there was suddenly pressure on her to get everything right. The queue moved forward, and Annie had no time to think, let alone say anything, because there was only one more person before it was her turn to get off. She slung her cloth bags over one shoulder and held on to a handle with the same hand, then took the suitcase in her other hand and descended the steps, finally entering Viennese ground.
It had been a crowded train and the platform was even worse. There were people in suits and briefcases, families who had been waiting for a friend or family member who’d been on the train and were now hugging each other, backpackers, groups of tourists. Annie took a few steps to the side, then turned round to look at the man with her suitcase and saw that he had followed her.
"Danke," she said again and held out her hand for the suitcase.
"Kein Problem," he said and grinned. "Ich kenne das, viele Koffer können überfordernd sein. Ich kann gerne noch helfen, ihn vom Bahnsteig zu bringen. Wo musst du jetzt hin?"
It took Annie a moment to translate the words in her head into English. Then she shook her head. "Ich weiß es nicht." She removed her hand from her suitcase and rummaged through one of her bags instead. Eventually she found what she was looking for and pulled out a blue folder. Inside were the printed papers describing her journey from London to the flat share where she had found herself a room. "Uh ... I – Ich muss fahren nach ... Wien Mitte," she read off the sheet. "Eine U3?"
"Zuerst zur S-Bahn," the man said, nodding to her. "Soweit kann ich dir noch mit dem Koffer helfen," he said and followed the stream of people, who were all hurrying towards the escalators that took them down one floor. Annie hurried after him.
Danke für die Hilfe," she said a third time as she finally stood behind the man on the escalator, feeling rather stupid.
He turned around and grinned at her. "Kein Problem. Ich bin übrigens Cil, oder zumindest werde ich so von allen genannt."
"Annie," Annie replied and held out her hand to him. "Es freut mich, dich kennenzulernen."
"Ebenfalls," Cil said and shook her hand. Then he pulled the suitcase off the escalator and went ahead. Annie hurried to follow. "Woher kommst du, Annie? Warum bist du mit mehr Gepäck als ein einziger Mensch tragen kann auf dem Hauptbahnhof?"
"Ich komme aus London," Annie explained. "Aber ich ziehe um. Nach Wien. Ich will hier studieren."
Cil laughed. "Wow. Das erklärt jedenfalls die vielen Sachen. Warum ausgerechnet nach Wien?" He led her past shops to a spacious square inside the building, above which hung a large display board. He took a quick look at it before turning left towards the next escalators.
Annie shrugged her shoulders. "Einfach nur so. Ich mag die Stadt."
"Das ist auch ein guter Grund. Wenn man es sich aussuchen kann, sollte man immer dorthin reisen, wo es einem gut gefällt." At the end of the first escalators, the next ones began and Annie began to wonder how many there were in this building, but instead of going down the next one, Cil turned right and led her to another platform. "Hier sind wir," he said. "Dein Zug fährt ab in ..." He glanced at the display board, "in zwei Minuten. Noch irgendwelche Fragen, Annie aus London?"
Annie shook her head. "Nein. Danke."
"Nun dann –" Cil paused as the sound of an incoming train grew louder. The train stopped, opened its doors and when no one got off, Cil lifted the suitcase up the two steps into the carriage. Then he jumped out again and let Annie get in. She placed her small suitcase next to the large one and held on to the handrail, then turned round to face Cil once more. Before the doors closed, he grinned at her again. "Willkommen in Wien, würde ich mal sagen."
She had got the wrong impression of Vienna, Annie decided, as she finally dragged her suitcases up the steps of the U3 station. Cil had been nice, the train she had come on comfortable. But after that? The suburban train, the so-called S-Bahn, had been old and without air conditioning and she had sweated to death in it. Then, because it was bound to happen, she had got lost on the way from the S-Bahn to the U-Bahn, the metro station (but really who could blame her, the station was a labyrinth!) and when she had finally found the U-Bahn, sweaty and out of breath, it had been so full that Annie hadn’t gotten all her luggage in before the door was closing and her suitcase had jammed the door thrice before she’d managed to pull it all the way in. During the following stations, she had had to step out each time to let her fellow passengers step out behind her, and when she got back on, it had been a challenge time and time again to get back to her suitcases. In the meantime, she had feared that she would never manage to leave the underground with all her things. However, it turned out that most of the people had suddenly left, shortly before her station, leaving the carriage almost deserted.
And now she struggled up the stairs. It was just her luck that the escalator had been stopped for maintenance today. Panting, Annie finally placed the large suitcase next to where she had put the small one and the bags on the first round. And just like this. She was in the right place and now, luckily for her, it was all downhill. She counted the cross streets she would have to pass before her turn and memorised the name of her street, then set off, dragging the suitcases behind her. Dusk had fallen over the city as she had travelled on the metro and now, one after the other, more and more windows flickered to light in the houses around her.
The area where she had found her flat share was a residential neighbourhood. Tall houses towered all around her and trees lined the road. The street wasn't vegetation-friendly, the trees planted in far too narrow strips with car after car lined up between them, but there was little traffic, Annie realised, feeling content. She had chosen a quiet neighbourhood, which was good.
While Annie curiously surveyed her surroundings, she didn't even realise how much time had passed and soon she found herself in front of the house where her flat must be in. Annie took a deep breath, then rang the bell.