Today was the 29th annual Vienna City Marathon. It’s a big deal — 36,000 people run, and it feels like most of the rest of Vienna comes out to watch and cheer. The course runs around and through some of Vienna’s most famous sights, and roads and significant parts of the above-ground parts of the public transportation system are shut down to accommodate the runners.
There’s almost always something going on at the Rathaus (City Hall) in Vienna. We live very close by (I think, technically, it’s about 2 blocks from us, but you can also see it from our west-facing windows). When we go for a walk or a run, we go right by, and we’ll often either drop by or just take a peek at whatever is going on, whether it’s a movie festival, ice skating or an elaborate market.
Liam is at that age. The age of the head injury. Other injuries, too, but it’s mostly his poor head that takes the brunt of it. My dad jokes that this is the age that you’re afraid to take them out in public because you’re worried that someone is going to think you’ve been beating your child.
It’s not that bad (not quite) but he is, for the time being at least, constantly bruised and wounded. As of this morning, he had bruises on both shins, a scratch on his neck and two bruises on his forehead, one in purple and one in yellow. And he still has a barely visible, pale, unpigmented line on his forehead from his most recent bad head wound (bad being a relative term — I debated whether he needed urgent care and decided against it, so it wasn’t TOO bad).
We are (finally) starting to seriously think about planning our spring/summer travel fest, which, as of now, includes destinations elsewhere in Austria, France, Germany, the US, and the UK. Whew. I’m tired already.
In planning these trips, I’m thinking a lot about what we’re going to do — what we’d love to see versus what’s reasonable, how to keep the kids entertained but not wear them out completely. It’s tough balance to strike, but it’s important if we all want to have a good time. Here are some of the things I’ve discovered in our travels so far, which I’m trying to keep in mind, so I’m also going to share them:
Last week, on Thursday, Benjamin had a crash on his bike. He’s completely ok. But, he crashed into the corner of a building. Into the corner of a STONE building, and the first thing to hit was his head. He wasn’t going super fast, but he was going fast enough that when he lost control of his bike he traveled about 10 feet without being able to stop and without being able to keep from crashing headfirst into a building. I think it could have been bad.
We are all worn out. We had a lovely day yesterday, but we did too much, we stayed out too long. That seems to be true of all long weekends — I think I always overestimate what is reasonable to do or accomplish and we end up finishing the weekend completely exhausted with little energy to get through the coming week. Rather than going into our week refreshed and recharged, we go into the week counting down the minutes until the next weekend.
That’s what today was like. We all really enjoyed our long (4 day) weekend: we cleaned the house, we visited with friends, we took a day trip, we hunted for Easter Eggs. And today, we had no energy left. We got through our morning pretty well: B got to school, Dan got to work, Liam & I ran some errands. But then, nap time was a bust (very short for B and non-existent for Liam, which, oddly seems to be the rule rather than the exception on these days where we’re all so tired) so I threw in the towel and decided that rather than attempt to have a stimulating afternoon of activities and playing together, we were going to have movie afternoon.
“Movie night” in our house is typically at whole-family Friday night affair. Today, it was just me and the boys, but I did it right — I made popcorn (Benjamin helped me) and then we all snuggled up on the futon together (still set up like a bed from Mina’s visit). For our “real” movie night, we don’t let the boys wander around or get riled up playing with toys, but today was just “movie afternoon”, so none of the usual rules applied. Mostly, we got to snuggle together and eat popcorn while we watched “Cars” (which we all could recite from memory, so it doesn’t require a lot of attention). When the kids played, they still needed a lot of my involvement — their energy levels are really low, which means their tempers are short and they are quick to frustration. But even so, it was a relatively peaceful day.
Even with an afternoon of no real activity, I’m exhausted. I hope tomorrow gives me a chance to recuperate. How long until Friday?
I love the train in Vienna. We ride the city trains all the time (the strassenbahns, the U-bahns) but the big trains (the ones that go between the cities) are really something special for us. We’ve ridden the train out of Vienna, past Salzburg and most of the way to Zürich, when we went to Innsbruck, and I loved it — we’ve ridden the train west of Vienna to the beginning of the Alps, to the north nearly to the Czech border, and today, we went south to visit some friends.
Last night, we put a treat and a note out for the Easter Bunny, in anticipation of his visit. Benjamin wanted me to write, “Dear Easter Bunny, thank you for finding us in Austria.” Yes, the Easter Bunny did a good job and found us all the way over here in Europe (pretty impressive for a bunny).
B woke up first this morning, and groggily pointed at his basket — “Look Mommy! Easter Bunny finger puppets!” (He and Liam each had one.) They also had chocolate bunnies and eggs (the first time we’ve — I mean, the first time the Easter Bunny has — given the boys chocolate on Easter).
Today I’m starting something new. Instead of just posting on my blog, I’m going to start also posting here. In fact, starting today, this will be the primary home of my blog.
For now, at least, it’s pretty much just going to be a new place for me to share my blog (although I’ve started outlining some other potential pages of information and resources) but my hope is that it will eventually be more than that — I hope it can be a resource for people who want to travel with their kids (whether that means a road trip, a flight to see Grandma, or moving and living abroad). Certainly, it’ll be most helpful to anyone who happens to be moving to live for a few years in Vienna (because, obviously, that’s my area of expertise) but I’m hoping that it’ll find a wider audience than that. I’m hoping the stuff I’ve discovered and the hard-won lessons can benefit others, too.
Really, I’ve learned a lot while living this adventure. I’ve learned a lot about myself (and grown a lot). I’ve gained a tremendous appreciation for how flexible my children are — how much they enjoy being on this adventure right along with me. I’ve learned, through trial and error, a lot about what works and what doesn’t, what’s important and what isn’t, what to worry about and what to let go of. I’ve learned which things are easier than I expected and which things I took for granted that can be completely frustrating (hello, grocery shopping).
I hope it’s useful. Please feel free to share it with anyone you’d like. I’m going to approach it as writing a resource that I would have found helpful when we were moving here. And if it convinces some of you to come visit while we’re here, so much the better.
April 6, one year ago, about 8:30 in the morning, we arrived in Vienna. We dragged our amazingly patient kids and our exhausted selves off the plane and through the airport, loaded a cart down with approximately one ton of luggage, found our dog, wandered through customs and deposited ourselves on the sidewalk outside of the Vienna International Airport. It was cloudy and drizzly. It was cold. It was completely overwhelming.
We were waiting for a friend of Dan’s (another American ex-pat who I had never met) who had, incredibly kindly and generously, offered to pick us and ALL of our stuff up at the airport. Greg arrived and we managed to wrangle everything (and everyone) into his car. He got us to our place, helped us communicate with the rental agent (who was very nice, but spoke only a little English). I was worried about paying for our temporary place when we arrived — we had paid a deposit, but suspected we’d have to pay in full before we could check in, and we didn’t have an Austrian bank account and had only a few Euros. I was having panicked moments imagining us stranded on the curb with two kids, a dog, a ton of stuff and nowhere to stay. Greg was bemused by my concern. He helped us in with our stuff (as did the rental agent — everyone was tremendously kind and helpful), and then went out and made a run to the market while we got ourselves situated. Greg gave us his grocery bag, since they don’t supply them here, and we didn’t have one. We still have it. We use it every week.
One year after arriving, outside the entrance to our first Vienna apartment.