Despite the almost alarming frequency with which I feel compelled to post (I don’t really enjoy writing up travel posts, but I love HAVING them; I feel a bit the same about our beloved photobooks—they’re so much work and often my experiencing self cannot wait for the process to be over, but the finished result is so satisfying it’s worth every second of effort)… I feel like I’ve been missing the rambling spontaneity of writing about everyday stuff.
Travel posts are so factual. We went here. We did this. We saw that.
But it misses the day-to-day minutiae of life. To be fair, most of our day-to-day minutiae lately has been focused on going hither and yon, seeing and doing things.
But, in no particular, a few things on my mind in the TEN MINUTE WINDOW I HAVE BEFORE WE GET TO MUNICH. Today we’ll hit four different countries, Lord willing, which is mind-blowing.
Random thoughts:
- I love watching how well the kids navigate travel. It’s exhausting and overwhelming at times. We were up this morning at 4 am. The bus scheduled for 4:45 never arrived, so we had to spontaneously walk over a km to the nearest subway station. And they did it without complaint or issue. This is the UNglamourous part of travel. The schlepping of bags, the early mornings, the navigating subway stations and train depots and managing digital tickets. But we’re doing it. WE ARE DOING THIS TRIP.
- The Alps. Another thing I have loved is watching the excitement both the kids (but especially Indy) feel about seeing the Alps. His eyes literally shine when the train rounds a corner and he spots a snow-capped peak. These are the moments of travel I wait for; spontaneous, unprompted—that despite the incredible layers of privilege associated with our ability to do something like this, that we can all be humbled and awed by natural beauty and grandeur.
- I had two coffees this morning. The first was from McDonalds and it was delicious. One of the best I’ve had in Europe. It was so good, John asked if I wanted another from the train. I said yes, but resigned myself to the fact the coffee was likely going to be subpar. IT’S A TRAIN (a discount line at that). It was without a doubt the very best coffee so far on this trip and I savoured every single sip.
- I read and finished Strangers by Belle Burden today. It is a very hype book. Lately I’ve been struggling to know what tips something in a 5-star read. I’m so tough (too tough?), but am generally fairly stingy with handing out 5-stars. I think it’s a gut feeling. This got 5 stars. Definitely not for everyone, but a really incredible moving memoir for me.
- I was sad to leave our apartment this morning. It felt like a version of home and there’s something so final about getting attached to a city and a place, knowing I might never be back to Vienna. I’ll almost certainly never set foot in that apartment again. Will probably never get on the U4 at Spitteleau, or take the D-tram toward Aspergasse.
- Remember how I mentioned my hair is starting to go grey? THAT HAS SPREAD TO MY EYEBROWS. And the grey (white?) hairs are a completely different texture. I am unprepared for this sudden and dramatic change of events. Also, my hair which used to be dirty blonde now looks reddish. What is going on? I think I should blame it on perimenopause because that is the catch-all default at this stage in my life.
Okay. Time to pack up. It’s go time! (Which includes meeting Catrina later today; woot, woot!)
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Oh my goodness, the bus DIDN’T arrive?? Well saved, Elisabeth! So proud of your kids pulling through without complaining!
Have a wonderful road trip to day and looking forward to seeing you tonight!!
Eeks! All’s well that ends well… and we made it to Zurich!!
So glad you had the subway as a backup plan! Kudos to your kids for pulling through like Champs!
Blame perimenopause for your hair ( and anything else that goes wrong)! My hair has brown going silver, so I reframed it as sparkle! Maybe reframe reddish as highlights?
And I think my eyebrows have thinned- they looked so weird when on a video chat with my daughter. Oh well, they’re still a nice shape.
Have fun in the new country!
Sparkle! That’s a brilliant re-frame.
Aw say hi to Catrina for me!
I agree that it’s not possible to travel, write up every detail in real time, plus do the day-to-day stuff. So when something is not possible what do we do? We do our best and write about what we want to write about. Your 10 minutes were well spent.
We spent the whole day with Catrina. She is as lovely in person as she is on her blog, and she planned a fabulous day for us. Including a tour of the Lindt Factory!
I think you experienced Vienna to the fullest, and it sounds like such an amazing place! I can see why it feels a little sad to pull up roots and move along. Hooray for good coffee and wishing you all the best at your next stop!
The coffee was so good! I was dreaming about it this morning (not literally, but wishing I was able to get a Westbanhof train coffee whenever I wanted one).
It was a wonderful city and I can see why it tops the lists of “most liveable” places to live in the world!
Oh, I was not at all prepared for how peri- and menopause would be changing my hair! Totally caught me off guard. And for me at least, it keeps doing different weird things, which is kind of disconcerting. Like, A change, okay, but the change after change after change? Settle down, hair!
Yes, my hair seems so strange lately. Different texture and the colour switch is really surprising to me. I have ZERO blonde at this point which seems weird after years of always being dirty blonde.
I’m reading Strangers right now! Loving it so far, just started yesterday. IS HER HUSBAND AN ACTUAL MONSTER? I must finish this book!!!
Nicole, he is an absolute MONSTER. I think he must have some personality disorder of some sort??? We need to discuss this once you’ve finished reading it.
Ugh, the snafu with the bus must have been so stressful. That is why I do not like taking buses all that much. They are so much less predictable than a train. But sometimes it is the best option and I have to put up with feeling quite uncertain that it will arrive on time!
I have Strangers as my next read! You usually don’t rate memoirs so the fact that you are giving it 5 stars really says something! I’m reading “Family of Spies” which is a memoir/non-fiction book written by a woman who finds out her grandparents were Nazi spies! It is wild and such a page turner. I can’t imagine it not being 5 stars for me.
@Lisa, thank you for mentioning Family of Spies. I just reserved it at the library.
I think Strangers will be a love/hate book for people. I’ll be soooo curious to see what you think of it.
I need to add Family of Spies to my TBR.
Ha. I just went and looked… and it’s already on my TBR!!! Excited to read it, especially now that you’re saying it’s a compelling read.
Ooh! Catrina!!! How fun! And… I know that melancholy feeling of leaving a place. I felt like that when we drove away from Waco for the last time. It was my son’t home for four years, I was there sic different times and really got to know the town. It felt so strange to think I’ll never be there again (most likely- never say never, but really, why would I go back?)
Good luck on the road trip!!!
Isn’t it such a bizarre feeling? That sensation of finality. I’m realizing it a lot on this trip. The present feels like it will last forever and then it’s over and some things are truly out of our lives forever.
You and I are such melancholy kindred spirits. I feel so seen and understood <3
I love that the train had such great coffee!
Your bullet point about leaving Vienna made me so sad! Although I suppose it really speaks to how much you enjoyed your time in Vienna, which is a happy thing. Endings are hard, sometimes surprisingly so.
“Endings are hard, sometimes surprisingly so.” THIS FULL STOP!
Today’s post didn’t have the usual first photo, but instead has a sidebar of info. Not complaining, just letting you know in case you can learn from it.
I love these posts with a compilation of information and thoughts.
I just reserved Strangers from my library and also entered the GoodReads giveaway, because, like you (ahem, you Twin of mine separated by 30 years), memoir is my favorite genre. What is a “hype” book?
Those goodbyes on trips feel so final, so painful. I hate that sense of “I’ll never be here again, go there again, see this again, experience that again”. Shoot, I can hardly drive down the hill to teach drawing lessons for half a day, all the while KNOWING I am coming home that evening.
I wonder why the MacDonald’s coffee is so good. And why the train coffee is too. On Mary Hunt’s Everyday Cheapskate website, she warns against airplane coffee, but I’m guessing that train coffee is a better bet. (And now I can’t find what she said!)
FOUR COUNTRIES IN ONE DAY! Incomprehensible.
Thanks! I didn’t have time to put in a picture. I literally hit publish as the train was pulling into the station!!
A “hype” book is one where a lot of people are talking about it (usually positively). I think this will be a divisive memoir (love/hate), but I was shocked at how much I really appreciated her writing style and her sharing her experience.
You get it!!! “I’ll never be here again, go there again, see this again, experience that again”
I never, ever get coffee on planes. Blergh.
Not only four countries in a day, are you sitting down for this next fact? It was four countries IN AN HOUR. Isn’t that insane? We literally crossed through four countries in less than 60 minutes (because of how their borders intersect).
Way to go on your kids being flexible travelers! That says a lot that they didn’t complain. (I am very much a complainer, lol.)
I used to be stingy about 5 stars, but not anymore. If a book made me feel something and I don’t have any real reason to knock down a star, it gets 5 stars. Memoirs are harder for me to rate because they are someone’s personal story! Sometimes I won’t rate a memoir, but often I do.
There were some complaints on the road trip, I assure you.
I often don’t rate memoirs (usually I only rate it if it’s a 5-star rating).
4 countries in an hour? Wow. We live at the intersection of 3 towns, so I get it. On a morning walk I can go through 3 of them pretty easily. But COUNTRIES? California is so big, it takes us forever to get to the next state.
I know, right? We have provinces in Canada that can’t be driven across in an entire day. But, we did indeed go through four countries in an hour. Wild!
It’s fun to hear your rambling thoughts again 🙂 I just started Strangers and I’m wondering it’s going to be too sad for me, but your 5-star reads are usually wins for me, so I’ll persist. I can only imagine how thrilling it is to see the Alps! Actually, I’ve seen them, so I know what it feels like, but the childlike wonder adds a whole other dimension! I can also imagine that feeling of leaving behind the apartment – such a special little season you spent there!
Strangers is intense and I felt viscerally for the author, but I was really pulled in by her writing.
The Alps are incredible. Truly took my breath away and my first “real” mountains to see in person.
How rude of the bus to NOT show up when you were clearly there for it.
Being able to pivot when you need to is an essential skill we all need to navigate life; it’s good to start learning it early.
I’ve not heard of this book before, but I love that you gave it five stars!
Onward and upward to your next adventure!
It is such a good book, Suz. The writing is tremendous and it pulled me in ALL THE WAY.