#readyfordecember

Vienna is one of the safest cities in the world; it’s amazing to live in a city where women aren’t afraid to walk home alone from the bar at 3:30AM and first graders take the subway to school by themselves. 

Because I knew coming into this that Vienna was so safe, there was never a time when I was paranoid or on edge about being in a foreign place. I was realistic, though, and always kept my phone and money hidden- just to be safe.

Yesterday, I was looking up directions and had my phone out walking into the U-Bahn station (something I never do), then put it in my backpack’s pocket (also something I never do) so I wouldn’t drop it walking down the stairs (because I had an iPhone 4S for two and a half years and got a BRAND NEW IPHONE 6 a month before coming to Austria, so I wanted to take care of it forever and grow old with it). 

Then disaster struck. The kind of disaster that people in unhealthy relationships with their cell phones have nightmares about. The ONE disaster I thought would not happen to me in the safest city in the world.

SOMEONE. STOLE. MY IPHONE.

THE ONE TIME IT WASN’T BURIED IN MY BACKPACK.

THE ONE TIME I HAD IT OUT ON A U-BAHN PLATFORM.

THE ONE TIME ANYONE HAS EVER ASKED ME FOR DIRECTIONS.

In the (literal) five seconds between putting my phone in my backpack pocket and stepping down to the second step, someone seamlessly reached over me, grabbed my phone, and sprinted away before I even had my hands back in my coat pockets.

I was/am devastated. We’re constantly out and doing something or going somewhere here, so my phone was the only way I could get in contact with the people I’m traveling with and, most importantly, my family and friends.

I now have no way to document my trip or take pictures of things I’ll miss seeing here.

I don’t have the pictures I took of the people/Roc I left in Texas to make me feel better when I’m homesick.

As if it couldn’t get worse, I had 200 euros in my phone case that I was saving to travel this weekend.