Week 14.

Where: Vienna, Austria

R E F L E C T I O N S

It’s hard to believe my time here is over. Fourteen weeks is the longest I’ve been away from home, and certainly the longest amount of time I’ve spent outside of the USA. Not only did Austria change the covid rules this week and move the vaccination goalpost, they also announced yesterday that they’re implementing a full lockdown starting on Monday. I feel extremely fortunate that I was able to enjoy the area as normally as possible before being potentially stranded here with nothing to do.

As of this writing, I’m in Frankfurt waiting for my delayed transatlantic flight to Seattle, of all places. Last time I flew home from Europe, this leg of my trip got delayed and I missed my connecting flight in O’Hare, which was extremely frustrating. I’m hoping for the best with this airline though, and maybe I won’t miss my flight to ATX in about 13 hours. Fingers crossed!

This week was more of the same— palaces are blending together, much like all the renaissance art and churches. I did a lot more silks this week, including back-to-back classes in conditioning and advanced sequences, and three open studio sessions. It was really fun being able to bond with kindred-spirit strangers over aerial, teaching each other new moves in the small basement studio of Aerial Silk Vienna. I already look forward to coming back to Vienna sometime and dropping in for an open practice.

Now, on to the recap:

I finally got to go to some Christmas markets and experience that particular European tradition, as recommended to me by a friend. I indulged in a few steaming mugs glühwein, ate Hungarian street food, picked up a cute hat and some Christmas ornaments. On Monday, I went to the Belvedere (nearly wasn’t allowed in because of a miscommunication about my vaccination status), and finally saw Klimt’s The Kiss, which was magnificent.

On Tuesday, I don’t remember what I did. It was probably one of the days I slept really badly and ended up doing very little aside from work and silks. Yeah. That sounds right.

On Wednesday, I had breakfast with one of my friends from the aerial cruise, went to open studio again, and had a late lunch with another friend from the aerial cruise. I did a lot of walking through the city that day, exploring a few new streets I hadn’t been down and one particularly lovely park.

On Thursday, I finally made it to Schönbrunn palace, which was another one of Empress Sisi’s places of residence. It was lovely, but like I said— all the palaces are starting to blend together. I also experienced my first random-checkpoint “papers please” moment exiting a subway station near the Danube, which was— at best— disconcerting.

On Friday, I took the day off work, spent some time tidying up the airbnb, and tried to solve the puzzle of how to pack my overflowing suitcases. I ended up having to leave a few things behind that were in good shape but not important enough for me to bring home, and one of my friends here is going to donate somewhere for me. We went to dinner at a very traditional Austrian cafe, and then walked around one of the neighborhoods drinking beer (Vienna has open-container law, apparently).

If I sound low energy this today, it’s just because I’m tired: I really had a great week overall. I’m very ready to get home. I’m ready to see my cat, see my family, and sleep in a familiar bed.

G R A T I T U D E

There’s no more “upcoming”— that’s it! that’s a wrap! fin!

But I wanted to take a minute to do some shoutouts to the people who made this trip really something special (many of whom probably will never see this but honestly I think that’s when it counts the most).

There’s no particular order here, just writing as I think of it. I’ll probably think of a few more later after I’ve sent this out, so if I missed you, I’m sorry!

~

To Nick & Jenn, for being my pen pals and making me feel missed back home.

To Will, for making Italy so much fun and for helping so much with the logistics when my brain just couldn’t handle any decision-making. I appreciate you.

To the Aerial Cruise crew, for remembering to speak in English when I was around and for being a part of one of the most unique and amazing experiences of my life. I had a blast with y’all. To Rebecca and Steffi, in particular, for hanging out with me in Vienna and giving me a million recommendations. I’m excited to stay in touch with you and hopefully see you when I come back sometime.

To my new friends from Aerial Silk Vienna— it was such a blast trading moves with y’all. Thank you for welcoming me with open arms.

To my Aunt Jane and Kristen, for facilitating FaceTimes with Granny from time to time.

To Paola, for giving me advice on all my crazy travel plans as they were in a constant state of flux.

To Beste and Avery, for hanging out with me in Istanbul and making sure I was safe and okay from time to time.

To Kenya, for making time to meet up with me right before your wedding. That meant something and it was wonderful to see you.

To Walker, for the endless recommendations and an introduction to two friends in Vienna that I hope to keep up with and see again sometime.

To Jane C, for the kind replies to my newsletters and letting me know you’re thinking of me.

To Josip, for checking in on me in Croatia even though we never got to meet up.

To Elle and Henry, it was so wonderful to meet you. Thank you for spending time with me and including me in group hangs. I forgot how nice it is to actually socialize.

To my coworkers, particularly Michi, Rich, and Alex for being patient and understanding when I was tired or stressed, for getting up super early on the West Coast to make meetings work (@Dillon), and for being so supportive of me going on this trip. There’s no way I could’ve done it without the flexibility I have in my current role. Many thanks also to my manager, Luke, for being open to me doing this.

To everyone who sent me a message and checked in over the last few months— it meant a lot hearing from you, especially once I got off Instagram.

To Rafael, for taking the best care of Mila that I could possibly ask for. I’m sorry I can’t let you keep her— I miss my baby too much. But you’ll always be her uncle Raf.

To my parents, for always taking my extremely long, extremely self-doubting, extremely stressed-out FaceTimes. Part of the reason I did this trip was to purposefully walk into some stressful situations so that I might know myself a little better and do a little growing up. It wasn’t always profound, and it certainly wasn’t always pretty, but I think it worked. I’m so extremely grateful for your sticking with me through it patiently; for the words of encouragement that you never fail to offer; for your advice and wisdom and generosity. I’m so happy that we have such a strong relationship; I don’t know what I would do without either of you.

~

Can’t wait to see everyone again, on both sides of the Atlantic ❤️

C O S T S

travel: $43.06

• 1 transit pass

• 1 antigen test for getting home

lodging: $315.28

• airbnb in Vienna (7 nights)

food: $297.50

• cafes

• groceries

• more cafes

fun: $143.74

• 2 aerial classes and 3 open studios

• Belvedere Museum

• Schonbrunn grand tour

• glühwein!

misc: $343.69

• a hat from the Christmas market

• Some Christmas ornaments

• Postcard and stamp

• more data for my phone

___________________________

total damage: $ 915.09

I went out to eat a bit more this week, but otherwise pretty much as expected.

Thanks for tuning in!

If you’re playing catchup on these adventures, my past newsletters can be found on my archive page.

Catch you on the next adventure, whenever that is.

Jo