CHAPTER 2: The Ruby Sofie

Welcome to Vienna.

We arrived in Vienna already confused. Not by customs, or signage, or even the language. Just by how smooth everything was. The train from the airport ran like it had something to prove. It glided. It whispered. It felt less like transit and more like being delivered.

We disembarked at Wien Mitte, the very station we’d been told was more or less adjacent…