in transit

...from a park bench at the base of Wawel Castle...

Probably one of my favorite things about traveling around here is going by train. You pass through so many little towns and see the countryside that you normally would never get to see. We just passed into the Czech Republic on the way to Poland. Only one thing seemed different from Austria, and that's the colors. The countryside here has the beautiful autumn colors - red, orange, yellow (even the browns here are beautiful), in full force.
I love being able to make up stories for the little villages we pass by, I think my favorite are the lonesome houses. These houses are surrounded by large, bountiful gardens. They always have a grand tree close to the house, and the houses themselves are always small and appear to be falling apart. You know that these houses have stayed in families for centuries because you know that hardly anyone would want to live all alone next to the train tracks.
All in all, it's just the shear beauty that strikes you.
It reminds me why I'm here in the first place - to see and experience the beauty of the things in Europe that have survived centuries of wars. When I see this beauty, I also hope that my faith in all of that will fill me up again, like it used to before I started actively participating in life.
I hope that I never get too jaded to be able to recognize the inherent beauty of the world around me.
And on the side of the tracks there are men digging ditches.
And o the side of the tracks you see a mother showing her son the trains.
And on the side of the tracks is something new to you.
You see forests of trees in which every tree changes color. This time of year, the forest floor is a soft and vibrant carpet of red.

This is the sort of place that autumn was made for.