Life in Lockdown

Posted on March 19, 2020 by admin

We’ve been in “lockdown” since Monday. We only found out about the new restrictions the day before, on Sunday. The order for schools to close came late last week (effective Monday), as well as for almost all shops to be closed. But on Sunday, it was expanded: don’t leave your house unless required, don’t go out except for groceries, prescriptions, or necessary work (written permission required), no gatherings of more than 5 people, no gathering or going out with anyone not from your household, playgrounds shut, military and police to patrol, borders closed.

That escalated quickly.

That being said, the feeling here is tense, but not frightened; dutiful, not panicked. There is a collective hope that by taking drastic measures, upending our lives, changing basically everything, that we can mitigate this disaster. We’re happy to do it. We want to help, and it feels good to have a role to play.

We’re on day four of “remote learning” today. It’s a ton of work. I know that some (most?) kids in the world are stuck at home, glued to screens all day, bored, and bothering their parents as the parents try to work from home. I know that some parents are trying to navigate their full-time jobs as well as childcare that DOESN’T involve full-time TV or video games. (Spoiler alert: I’m pretty sure that doesn’t work. If you manage to figure it out, please let me know.) But my kids are still having school. ALL of school. The same classes, at the same times, as they would if they were in school. For us, that means two different schedules (elementary and middle school) with classes changing at different times. And their schedules are different every day. Some classes are being taught by conference call, some are being conducted by text, or by email, or by prerecorded video. Regardless, it’s intense. There’s a ton of work, new tech challenges to sort out, and almost none of the mitigating social interaction that 3rd and 6th graders survive on. I am lucky to have a very small workload right now (silver lining to being without a new freelance contract). If that weren’t the case, either the kids would not be getting their school work done, or I or my husband would not be getting our work done. As it is, most days, the kids are not finishing their school work and are sometimes following up 6 1/2 hours of “school from home” with another hour or two of “homework from home”. I am fighting against feeling stressed and overwhelmed by the expectations of the teachers (even while I am immensely grateful for and truly impressed by their efforts) and I’m trying (and, I think, probably failing) to not compound the kids’ stress with my own.

Our grocery stores and pharmacies are still open. The shelves are not bare. My neighbor went out and got five new chickens on Saturday morning, so we’ll survive on eggs, I guess, if things get tightened down further (and as long as our neighbors continue to like us). Dan was able to go out and pick up some staples at the store this week (including toilet paper, although we did get the last package).

Being expats comes with its own set of considerations, as it often does. We’ve contacted some friends and asked if they will care for the boys if Dan and I were to fall sick at the same time. With closed borders, airports shut down, and a pandemic raging that makes it especially dangerous to our parents to travel abroad (if they could even get into the country), we have to have a plan with a local solution.

As of now, we’re all fine, and life goes on, but these are very strange times. We are not isolated in any real sense — I see my neighbors when I hang up my laundry, or when the kids go out to play — but we FEEL very much on our own. As I tuck my boys in to their cozy beds at night, our home feels like a little island in an infinite sea, a tiny fortress of protection in the night. I sense that we are on our own in a way that we have never really been before. I hope that these efforts that we all are making, these minor sacrifices, have real consequences and maybe even help to save real lives. This will be worth it, a million times over, if that is what we get in exchange.

My next adventure … with VIPKid

Posted on January 22, 2019 by admin

Blurry, yet totally adorable

Hey there everyone! I’ve completely fallen out of the habit of posting here about my day to day life in Austria. We’ve traveled to new locations, gotten a couple of new Corgis (!) from Italy, and become reasonably good skiers (more the kids than me!) from a couple of ski weeks in the Alps. Life is an adventure (as always) but one of the reasons I’ve not been blogging as much is that I’ve been working. A few years ago, I started working as a freelance copy writer and editor. I’ve had some fantastic opportunities writing for a variety of companies and websites, everything from a nail salon to a new age health site to a clothing designer to a coloring book company! It’s been a lot of fun, and it’s been incredibly satisfying to help small, woman-owned businesses polish their public presence.

But the inconsistency of freelance work can be daunting — I can go from being overwhelmed with work one month to having tons of free time the next. And frankly, I get used to the income during the busy months and kind of miss it during the quiet ones. So I wanted to find something else I could do to help keep my income level a bit more consistent.

I started looking for something that would really suit my life. I wanted to be able to make some good money for the time I would invest. I wanted to have the flexibility to be available when my kids are off of school. Ideally, I wanted to work from home. And, in a perfect world, it would be something I’d enjoy as much as I like writing. So my search began.

And what I found was VIPKid.

Continue reading →

Long time, no talk

Posted on October 13, 2016 by admin

So, it’s been a while. Not since my last post, but, more generally, since I was writing regularly. I used to do this every day. For my first year, it was every day, no exceptions. I’d made a promise to myself. I knew that if I only wrote when I felt like it, I’d only capture the highest and the lowest points — our biggest victories and deepest frustrations. And I didn’t want that. I wanted to record, for myself, and for anyone else maybe going through (or contemplating) something similar, what it was REALLY like. And so I did. After the first year, I relaxed the “every day” rule, but kept up writing very regularly for years after that. And so, I’ve got one hell of a detailed story of our first few years on this crazy adventure. I’m glad. It has given me perspective on the progress we’ve made, and reminded me of small moments of the journey. And, every so often, someone finds the blog and reaches out, for help, for advice, with compliments or critique. And I love that. I love connecting with people, and as an introvert, any connection that doesn’t require me to change out of my pajamas gets extra credit.

But, the truth is that this blog was so much more to me than a journal. In the beginning, it was necessary for my survival and my sanity. Here, so far removed from almost everyone I knew and loved, at home all day with a baby and a toddler, with no social life and no friends, no chats or coffee dates, being able to express myself and have anyone even sometimes reading it was an absolutely vital outlet. Getting the occasional like or follow kept me from feeling so alone. I don’t know what those first years would have been like without this blog (but I know they would have been lonelier).

And so, I’ve realized that there are two reasons I’m not writing here so much anymore. I’d still love to keep up with the journaling and record keeping aspects, but I truthfully don’t need this blog the way I once did. I have a social circle now. I have friends, I get to talk to adults almost every day. My kids are in school full time, and my psyche is no longer so starved for connection. It’s a good thing. The other reason is that if you consider the original scope of this blog — sharing our challenges as we adjusted to this expat life — we no longer really qualify. We’ve been here 5 1/2 years. We’ve more or less adjusted. We’re still not locals, but neither are we “new” anymore. Things have changed.

Obviously, I don’t write every day anymore, and I have no intention of returning to that schedule. It’s my hope that in acknowledging the changes that have caused me to write less, I’ll hopefully feel drawn to write more, now that I’m aware of how I find myself to be in such a different place. I’ll still be writing, but I grant myself permission to branch out from my fish out of water story. I think maybe I’m back in the water now, it’s just that my new pond is quite different than my old one.

Please, though, if you’ve found this blog and want to reach out, ask a question, or just chat, please do! I love to help and I’m happy to answer questions. And I’ll be around.

Adventure playground

Posted on November 21, 2015 by admin

It’s a tradition at Benjamin’s school that every year, each class takes a trip together. In the older grades, the trips vary from a weekend spent camping to a week skiing in the Swiss Alps, but for the younger classes, a day-long field trip is typical. Last spring, B’s class took their trip to an “adventure playground” called Robinsoninsel (Robinson Island). I had no idea what to expect from an “adventure playground”, but B’s teacher had talked several times about how much she was looking forward to it, so I imagined it was going to be a pretty fun day.

As one of the parents who had volunteered in B’s class throughout the year (and, possibly, as the first to volunteer), I got to join them on their adventure playground trip. I, too, was pretty excited when the big day arrived. A whole day to play outside with my kid and his friends? And it counts as school? Sounds great! Once we got there (after a tense moment when I almost missed the bus stop with my assigned group of first graders), I started to understand the excitement. This was a really cool place. It covered most of a city block and looked like the kind of “playground” a child would design of you let them — there were rope ladders, trees to climb, swings, hammocks, tree forts, rabbits, ducks, a pond with tadpoles, and a “smurf house”, made of living trees.

As always, one of my favorite things about being able to join in on these outings is that I get to spend the day with B. But also, as I had been in the classroom every week and gotten to know each of his classmates as well, it was great fun to watch each of them explore their new environment in their own way. There were actual goals to accomplish, like looking at bugs under microscopes and learning about different types of animal habitats, but most of the day was spent in a less structured type of learning — climbing, balancing, running, jumping, getting dirty and discovering on their own.

Though the day was gray and drizzly at times, we had a fantastic time (and, on the plus side, no one had to worry about sunscreen, including me). It was a wonderful opportunity for a group of city kids to learn and play outside for the day, and I felt honored to be able to join them.

Schönbrunn summer concert

Posted on November 17, 2015 by admin

Every year, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra puts on an outdoor concert on the grounds of the Schönbrunn Palace here in Vienna. The concert is recorded and rebroadcast in the US (and perhaps elsewhere) later in the summer, but it actually takes place in May. (As a result, every summer we get calls and emails from friends and family asking if we are going to a concert that actually happened months earlier.) It’s a free event, but due to busy schedules, sick kids, and inertia, we’d never been before. This year, we made the trip out to Schönbrunn to see it.

Weather-wise, we may have chosen the worst year of our time here to finally go. It was raining, and though we hoped that the drizzle might hold back the crowds, there were lots of people in attendance (though, since we’d never been before, it’s possible that it WAS significantly less crowded than it would have been in great weather). When we arrived, we got to walk through and under the palace to enter the grounds (a passage I’d never seen open before), and out into the gardens, which were fenced off and organized to corral the people and protect the flowers. There was no chance of getting a spot (standing only) anywhere near the orchestra, so, after a bit of wandering, we took a position with a good view of one of the tv screens showing the action (the point being to hear the music, anyway). The Gloriette was lit by colored lights, and the atmosphere among the crowd was happy and relaxed, excited for the concert.

And it was lovely. The music was fantastic and the setting absolutely stunning. It was fun to be out for the evening, even in spite of the rain, and the kids enjoyed themselves more than we had expected. It started relatively late (for us), so we knew we wouldn’t be able to stay for the whole thing, but the boys happily stayed for over an hour of classical music, which was pretty impressive. They danced and clapped and ran around as much as the crowds allowed. After about an hour, the boys were getting antsy, and we were all getting a little stiff-legged from standing/holding kids, so we decided to call it a night. Rather than fight our way back out through the crowds, the way we came in, we opted for a side exit, through the gardens and out towards the zoo.

And that was the most magical part of the night. We could still hear the music from the concert, but, as we walked through the trees, we were mostly in darkness. There were spotlights among the trees, which gave us some guidance, and a steady flow of other people also leaving the show, but we were mostly on our own in the warm, summer darkness, in the gardens of Schönbrunn Palace. We let the boys run ahead, warned them to watch out for puddles and for other people, and listened as their laughter came back to us as they ran and leapt through the gardens. It was so joyful, so peaceful and so beautiful, I could have stayed there forever. It was an absolutely perfect summer night, in an improbable place, with my most favorite people. It was like a dream. I imagine that if my boys remember it, it will be the kind of memory that seems like it wasn’t actually ever real. I doubt I will ever forget it.

Mother’s Day hike

Posted on November 16, 2015 by admin

It’s taken me years to figure out how to make Mother’s Day work at our house. If we were in the US, we’d get together with my mom and do something nice like a dinner out, most likely, which would be great. Here, it’s a little less straightforward. The idea is for the boys to make a nice day for me, but a lot of what I actually need the most is a break from my usual “mom” duties. I don’t want to spend Mother’s Day doing anything other than being with my boys, though, so I’ve finally discovered the key to having a great day: I get to decide what to do, and no one gets to complain. (That works better in theory than in practice, though.)

In reality, it’s kind of an opportunity for me to get to do something I’ve been wanting for us all to do but haven’t had the chance. Over the past few years (though never before on Mother’s Day) we’ve been working on a hike that we’ve cobbled together in bits and pieces (including this past April when I foolishly assumed that pleasant weather down in Vienna would translate to pleasant weather up in the hills — which it did not). My lone Mother’s Day request was that we complete (or at least continue) that hike.

And so, we set out to do just that. We took the bus to the stop where we had quit during our early April snow shower hike. Luckily for us, it turned out that we had done very nearly all of the uphill hiking on our previous journeys, and we had only to walk down the hill to Vienna. That also meant that we were also able to start our hike with a gorgeous view over the vineyards and down into Vienna. And then we set off, down the hill, through the woods.

The boys had brought stuffed friends along with them, as well as binoculars, and we took lots of breaks — to look at bugs, climb on trees, and admire the lovely views. Our walk through the woods gave way to a walk along the edge of some of western Vienna’s many vineyards, and then along some hilly ridges lining farmland.

We walked, and we walked, and we walked, and though the occasional grumble came through, they were remarkably patient with indulging my request for the day. We picked wildflowers, smelled lilacs, and did our best to stay out of the way of the many bikes that flew past us. Near the end of our nearly 4 mile long hike (good thing it was mostly downhill!), the route turned steeply downward, crossed through and under what looked like maybe the remains of an old city wall (anyone know what it is — near Nussdorf, Eichelhofstraße?), and then, quite suddenly, we were in Nussdorf, at the end of the hike, and finally, completely finished.

In all, it took many tries over several years, but we did it. And I had a lovely Mother’s Day with my boys (and I think they enjoyed it at least a little bit, too).

Labyrinth

Posted on November 15, 2015 by admin

The grounds and gardens of the Schönbrunn Palace are some of our favorite destinations here in Vienna. We visit the zoo on a regular basis, make a point of going to the Christmas and Easter markets every year, and always enjoy a climb up the hill to the Gloriette, with the lovely view over Vienna as a reward at the end. Still, with our many visits to Schönbrunn, we had never been to the labyrinth, though we’d always meant to. So, this past spring, we took a free day and made another trip out to the gardens of Schönbrunn.

Our main goal was to explore the labyrinths, but we were planning to make a day of it, so we got started early. I had always wondered — what would the labyrinth be like? Would it be fun? Boring? A little scary? Would we get truly lost? That was part of why we hadn’t ever done it — we weren’t sure we’d enjoy it, but, with the recommendation of a friend and her slightly older (than my kids) son, we were up to try it.

There are a few labyrinth choices — one set made of short hedges (that you could see over), and another with 8+ foot high hedges — more of a classic hedge maze. We decided to start easy with the short one. It was a good choice. The kids took off through the maze — literally. While we adults were limited to the actual paths, the kids could slip between the hedges to switch routes. They got ahead of, and away from, us very quickly. The only way it worked was that we could still see their heads as they ran on through the maze. Though I was slightly concerned that we might lose track of them, we actually didn’t, and I think it was extra fun for them to reach the end of the maze well before we did. At the end, we were rewarded with some large games — an interactive fountain, some balancing tables, and a big musical instrument the kids played by stomping on it. A success! Much fun, and no one got lost.

After our success in the little labyrinth, we decided to take on the bigger one. This one, with hedge walls over 8 feet tall, was not a place we could safely get separated. We stuck together and wound our way through, encountering, at each dead end, a stone block bearing a zodiac symbol (for reasons I don’t understand, but the kids were enthusiastic to learn the symbols). At the end, we got to enjoy a lovely view of Poseidon’s Fountain. The journey was relatively short, but we had to discover the way out, as well, so it was a good adventure. After finding the exit, we stopped for an ice cream and some playtime at the playground — including an elevated eagle structure (whose wings were actually flappable — only in Vienna!).

We wanted to extend our day at Schönbrunn, so we climbed up the hill behind the palace to the Gloriette (something we’ve done many times before). We took a hike through the woods, had a picnic lunch, and inadvertently took dozens of inchworms along with us on the rest of our hike (they kept dropping out of the trees onto our clothes). We finished up our day with a climb to the observation area at the top of the Gloriette (our first time up there) for an even better view over Schönbrunn and Vienna.

As usual, we had a fantastic time visiting the grounds of Schönbrunn Palace. It remains one of my favorite places to take the kids in all of Vienna. And, even after 4 years here, we were able to experience something new and exciting in a familiar place.

The lost backpack

Posted on September 13, 2015 by admin

Getting the kids to and from school every day is controlled chaos. We commute on the always crowded rush-hour trains and buses. Last year, in the mornings, Dan would take both boys in, dropping B at his school first and then taking Liam to his school, 2 U-Bahn stops away. Then, at noon, I would go to get L from his preschool, rush home for a quick lunch (and, some days, a short nap for L), and then go back to B’s school to pick him up with L in tow. (We’ve changed things up a bit for this school year, but the basic principles are the same.) By the end of the day, we’re all tired. L is either desperately in need of a nap that he’s not going to get, or groggy from just having woken up from a too-short nap. B is tired from a long day at school and sometimes PE or after school sports. And I’m worn out from managing it all. Our trip home can be relaxed, peaceful and comfortable, or it can be stressful, crowded and grouchy — it depends on the circumstances and on our own states of mind. Such is the reality of traveling to two different schools each day via public transportation.

I try to not be the packhorse mom, laden down with bags, books, paper, sweatshirts, art projects, toys, gym clothes to be washed, and coats, for several reasons. It makes me grouchy. I’m already tired. I don’t feel like it’s safe when my hands are over-occupied with STUFF when they should be free-ish to help the kids on and off the train, up stairs, onto an escalator, or through a crowd. And, I feel that teaching the boys to be responsible for their own things shows them what a pain it is to drag around extra stuff and hopefully makes them more aware of the consequences of their own choices (and less likely to think that it’s absolutely necessary to drag every Beanie Boo on every outing). That being said, last year B was carrying at least two bags home every day, and the choice was not his — it was school-mandated. So, I would typically carry my purse and one of B’s bags, while B was responsible for his second bag, and they were each in charge of anything else they might have brought along.

But even with our routines, and our attempts to not be overburdened, it doesn’t take much to unravel the whole thing.

One day last April, we were headed home, as usual, and had gotten to the last leg of our trip before the last 2 block walk home — the bus. L had recently been in the habit of collecting coins, and he saw a very cool Russian one on the floor of the bus, after we were already on and seated. Since we were already underway, and I’m not in the habit of letting the kids run around a moving bus, I told him that if it was still there when we were getting out, he could pick it up. He was very focused on it, and every time the bus so much as slowed down, he was poised to leap out of his seat and grab it.

My mind was on L and the coin, and preventing him from hurting or endangering himself trying to get it.

We finally arrived at our stop, the last one on the line, and L enthusiastically leapt down and retrieved his coin. Yay!!! We all got off the bus and made our way through a crowded flea market on our block. We got home, went upstairs and inside, and then realized we were without B’s backpack.

The buses from our stop run every 5 minutes, so, in the hope that we would be fast enough, we threw our shoes on again, ran out onto the landing, realized the elevator was in use, rushed down five flights of stairs, dashed back downstairs, through the courtyard and the flea market and back to the bus stop, where a bus was waiting. Though I was fairly certain, just by looking, that it was not our bus, we climbed aboard and checked anyway.

It was not our bus. Our bus, and the backpack, were gone. We were too late.

B, already panicky about having lost his backpack, was crushed.

We fought our way out again against the flow of embarking passengers. And then, at a loss for what else we could do, we sat on the step of the bakery near the bus stop and waited.

From having lost many previous items on public transportation (the unseen cost of commuting with kids by train, rather than by car, is the insane number of times hats and gloves must be replaced), we knew that theoretically the backpack would be found and turned in to the transit authority’s central lost and found. We also knew that despite the fact that Austrians are generally conscientious about getting things back to their owners (hanging up lost gloves and hats on the nearest fencepost is nearly a religion here) we had never before recovered anything that had been lost on public transportation.

The buses on that line run on a relatively short, 20 minute (ish) route through the center of the city. So, I figured that shortly, the bus (if not the backpack) would be back.

We waited. When the next bus pulled up, we hopped aboard behind the departing passengers to look for the backpack. The interior of the bus was the wrong color. Not it.

We waited some more. The next bus pulled up, and we hopped aboard. The driver scolded us for getting onto a bus that was not the next set to depart (the previous bus was still also waiting at the stop), and it was still not our bus. We were getting discouraged.

The next bus pulled up and we hopped aboard. Aha! It was the right color inside! And it had the same “One Direction” graffiti we’d had on our bus! It was our bus! But alas, when we climbed back to our seat, there was no bag. The driver, confused at our excitement and enthusiasm, watched us as we walked up to the front. “Bitte, hast du eine rucksack gefunden?”, Benjamin asked.

And, he had. With a quick but kind reminder that we might not be as lucky next time, he happily lifted the bag over his little divider and presented it to B.

Everything inside was accounted for, and we happily headed home, grateful for the kindness of strangers, and for the Austrian tendency to help lost items get back to their owners.

4th Viennaversary

Posted on September 10, 2015 by admin

We arrived here in early April of 2011, amid the persistent wind and intermittent rain that characterize what is still early spring here. I remember standing outside of the airport in a cold drizzle wondering what I had gotten myself into and feeling slightly mystified that I had truly moved my family to another continent.

That feeling of mystification returns every year when the anniversary of our arrival passes. Each time I have to double check my math — we’ve been here HOW long? And this year was the same. The weeks leading up to our “Viennaversary” were spent stressing about whether Dan’s new contract would really be signed, so then, suddenly, it was the beginning of April and I was again counting years on my fingers to ensure I hadn’t fumbled the math. We really have been here 4 years.

This year, our “anniversary” fell on the Monday after Easter, so Dan had the day off of work and the boys were out of school, so we were able to do something to mark the occasion. The weather was a bit chilly and breezy with lots of big, fluffy springtime clouds, but the sun that was getting through was bright and we had recently had temperatures which were some of the warmest we’d seen since the fall, so we (I) decided we should mark the occasion with a hike in the Vienna Woods to a part of Vienna we had yet to visit.

We had done the first part of this hike last spring, so the plan was to catch up with the trail (by bus) where we had left off and to complete the rest of the route, which was largely downhill. To get to our starting point, we had to take the bus up to the hills overlooking the northwest of Vienna, and it would take us nearly an hour to get out there. The kids were less enthusiastic than Dan and I, (when I say “hike”, the whining usually starts right away), but they, too, were suffering from a bit of Vienna winter stir craziness and were complaining more out of habit, I think, than actual objection. They packed a few toys and supplies (i.e., candy from their Easter baskets) and dutifully suited up for the day’s adventure.

I had made a slight miscalculation, however. While it had been breezy, sunny and warmish in the heart of the city, it was windy, solidly overcast and quite cold at the top of the hill. We had brought hats and gloves, but we were dressed for 50 degrees and breezy with sun, not 30 degrees and windy with no sun. We were all pretty cold, but wanted to make the most of our trip. On the plus side, we were able to sneak a few peaks through the leafless branches, views that would have been obscured by greenery later in the spring or summer. We were looking for crocuses and daffodils among the leaves, and attempting to keep the kids interested, which worked relatively well. But by the time we’d been walking for 20 minutes, it has begun to snow.

I love being outdoors, and I’m up for a hike in almost any weather, but even I had to admit that this wasn’t quite what I’d meant to sign us all up for (nor was it what we’d come prepared for). We trekked on down the hill to Kahlenberg, with a beautiful (though cloudy) view over the city, and made it about another 100 yards before Liam began stridently complaining about his frozen face, and we all decided that perhaps this battle would best be fought another day.

In all, we lasted only about 45 minutes and about 1.2 miles before we gave up and headed for home. We had walked the distance between two adjacent bus stops.

But, it was, as so much of this adventure has been, at least memorable. I learned my lesson that marginal hiking conditions at 500 feet above sea level do not necessarily reflect acceptable hiking conditions at 1600 feet. And, though it was brief, we did, indeed, see a part of Vienna we had not seen before.

We all went home to thaw out, and I was undaunted in my wish to one day finish the hike. As for our 4th Viennaversary, however, we finished the celebration cozy at home.

Another Easter

Posted on September 4, 2015 by admin

I love Easter time in Vienna. They really celebrate it here, and not just with chocolate bunnies and going to church — not that I’m opposed to either of those things, but both of them have limited appeal in my life these days. Easter is widely and truly celebrated in Vienna, and though its roots are religious, not all of the celebration is. It is similar to (though of a different scale) than the wonderful Viennese Christmas celebrations. In Vienna, there are Easter markets, several days off from work and school and a general feeling of festivity that flows through the city. In the same way that Christmas feels very much like a celebration of having made it through darkest part of the winter, Easter feels like a victory celebration — spring has returned, with brighter days and (slightly) more warmth.

Easter is also our unofficial anniversary in Vienna. We arrived just before Easter and visited an Easter market right after having found our apartment. The best Easter market in all of Vienna (in my opinion) is that same one we first happened upon, and it is right across the street from our house. So, as always, we visited that market several times in the weeks leading up to Easter.

I always enjoy wandering through all of the markets. I love seeing the intricate, painstakingly decorated eggs. I enjoy the food and the shopping, and I always make a point to visit the bunnies in their market stall. This year, the silver lining to the catastrophic mirror crash of last spring was that I actually got to shop for eggs — after our first few years, I had put myself on an “only one a year” plan, because we were collecting so many. But, after about half of our collection met its end under a very heavy broken mirror last year, we “needed” some new ones.

We also enjoyed some fun Easter activities. The boys painted eggs and played games at the markets, and we colored eggs at home (a process I’m finally getting the hang of here). The boys did sweet arts and crafts at school, too. I just love it. I love being out in the city as the days begin to get noticeably longer, and as the sun begins to be ever slightly warmer.

As is our tradition, the boys celebrated Easter morning with a hunt for eggs, and we followed that with a trip outdoors. For the first time, we actually visited an Easter market on Easter morning — I had no idea they were open on the big day! But, it turns out that they are (or at least the one close to us is), and it was a fun way to observe the morning. We visited the bunnies at the market again (closely scrutinized by the boys so they could attempt to discern which one was THE Easter Bunny), bought some flowers, and even stopped in to an ACTUAL church during Easter service — though just for a minute (which was actually really nice).

Then, in the afternoon, we were lucky enough to have been invited to join some friends and their family for Easter dinner, which was lovely. Holidays are incredibly hard when you’re far from home, and getting to be with friends, rather than just celebrating with ourselves, was a nice change. (Plus we got the added benefit of someone else preparing most of the meal — and it was someone who actually enjoyed doing it!)

All in all, we had another great Easter here in Vienna. We had a lovely lead up to the day, enjoying the markets and the springtime weather. And then, on Easter itself, we enjoyed the company of good friends, and the boys got to eat way more chocolate than they probably should have. In short, a good time, and a happy Easter, was had by all.

A Mommy Abroad

Our big adventure, as a family of three.

Category Archives: Adventure in Vienna