I don't know what I was thinking.

I'm going to Austria.

I've booked a flight from O'Hare to Munich, leaving next Thursday afternoon. From there I'll take the 1.5 hour train ride to Salzburg. Then after a couple of days there, I'm going SE to Hallstatt, where I can hike and canoe and go to the ice caves, and tour a salt mine. Take a day trip or two to other smaller towns. I'll get back on the 19th.

That is, if there isn't any crashing and burning involved.

I'm really terrified of flying. I try to be rational and think of the safety records and whatnot, but you know... I have this battle raging inside of me. Yeh, I've flown before, but only four times. Three of which were on my former company's private jet, and the flights were only about an hour each way. The best flight was when I was allowed to sit in the cockpit. Now that was cool, because I had this false sense of being in control and of knowing what was going on. And while we are waiting to land in Lone Rock, he generously asked if I'd like to go anywhere in particular, and so he flew the jet over my childhood home and the hills I know so well.