an aussie in austria

It was only going to be a quick trip… it was! Three weeks from start to finish which amounts to 2.5 when you take out the flight times. We didn’t want to put Sam through another long flight and jet lag, so the decision was made that I would go on my own.

I was excited. This was going to be my trip. This was going to cancel out all the disasters from last year’s trip – the snow, the Covid, the everything. I was organised, my excel sheet was planned out and it was going to be great!

And then… Sam got the flu. I tried to be positive. I really did. But with Sam home from daycare preparations weren’t going the way I planned. The carefree feeling of excitement I’d had for the trip was gone, it was replaced with an impending sense of… the flu. I endured the six hour bus ride to Munich airport, rather grumpily, headed to the business lounge poured myself a Verve Cliquo and tried to rally.

On the plane I picked a movie, ordered my dinner… but when they put the food and wine down in front of me… I suddenly realised I was not well at all. So I took some drugs, and settled in. When I arrived in Australia I felt a bit better. I unpacked my bag, went up to eat lunch with my parents are realised… I had to go to bed.

So just like that, a week went by (though at least I had no toddler to take care of – so… silver linings).

So we made the decision to extend my trip by a week.

And after some well-needed R&R, I did have a great trip. I made it up to Albury to visit my brother, which we’d had to cancel the previous trip. And otherwise, I just did stuff with people – their stuff – life stuff. I went to a school swimming sports. An under 9s netball match. The skatepark. Dog walks. TV watching. Just sitting and shooting the breeze. I caught up on their lives. They caught up on mine.

I ate way too much food. I ate Thai and Chinese and Indian… we had roast pork and roast lamb and I learnt that Bunnings sausages are still awesome, but expensive. I ate a servo pie and a bakery pastie and I tried as many caramel milkshakes as I could cause you can’t get those in Austria. I enjoyed brunch and cocktail frankfurts and fish’n’chips and overpriced pints of cider at the pub.

I swam in the clear waters of Safety Beach. I saw the resident giant sting ray (Steve) multiple times on my morning beach runs. At one point I swam over a Banjo Shark and completely freaked out (Banjo sharks or Fiddler Rays are, despite their name, harmless). I visited all of my favourite outdoor pools.

So in the end, did everything go to plan? No. But was it a disaster? Also no. I’ve had my hit of sun and I’ve had my hit of home and the memories will help keep my spirits up as I stare out into a rain-drenched start to Spring.