Sunday afternoon in Vienna

It’s Sunday afternoon here in Vienna.  I thought about going out for a walk, but the forecast says rain and the clouds outside my window seem to confirm that.

Two weeks have gone by since I returned to Vienna, and I’m getting settled in to life here in the city.  I’m trying to refresh my “okay/intermediate-with-bad-grammar” German and add new words to my vocabulary.  Goal: fluency!  (Which has been my goal for awhile – haha!)  It’s also a really beautiful city, with genuinely nice people.  Here, culture is revered.  People on the street are familiar with the names of classical musicians.  And on any given nice evening, you can hear live music in the air as you walk about the Kärntner Straβe.

I don’t live too far away from the 1st district (aka: the Inner City, or old city.)  It’s only a ten minute walk to get to the Ring (the main thorough-fare that circles the 1st district.)  My room itself has lots of girly pink touches, some pretty artwork (hope to add more), and lots of photos.  Mostly pics of Miloš and I, but also family and friends as well.  On my desk, I have my LOTR Legos that Miloš gave me as a present during our summer vacation in 2012.  (AWESOME present!)  I’ve got a few Disney elements around the room.  (Jiminy Cricket, my Winnie the Pooh that smells like Miloš’ cologne, and my Minnie Mouse key chain smiling at me every time I work on my computer.)  I’ve done my best to make it feel like home.

You all know that Miloš and I got to see each other last Tuesday when his ship came through town, but now we’ve got another two weeks to get through until he comes through again.  (And on that next visit, we’ll probably just have a few hours together – but we’ll take it!)  I know compared to all those previous three month stretches apart, that it should be a piece of cake.  But dammit, right now it feels like an eternity.  We were video chatting a little bit earlier today, but the signal was so bad where he was, that the calls kept dropping.  (He’s going through no-man’s-land, sailing out to the Black Sea and back for this next stretch.)  In between calls dropping, we kept having to wait for the signal to come back so we could call each other again.  In and out, back and forth.  And then the signal was just gone altogether.  (Insert sad face here.)

For Miloš, it’s also a really stressful route.  They’re going in and out of various countries, including leaving and entering the EU, so there’s tons of stuff with customs and the like.  Plus, they have all different cruise itineraries.  That alone involves so much administrative stuff, it makes my head spin just to hear about it all.  I so wish I could do something to make it better for him.

These are really those times where you wish you could just win the lottery.  I mean, I think we’d ALL like to win the lottery for obvious reasons, but if right now we could just win some money, we wouldn’t have to be apart.  We could just go out and get a place of our own and have a life where we’re together every day.  It’s not like we’d be lazy sloths.  I’d really like it if we could start a business together, as we make a great team, but right now it’s not a financial possibility.  It’s just so frustrating.

So we’ll make do the best we can with the situation as it is.  There’s no other choice.  At least we’re making some kind of progress in the whole grand scheme of things by me moving here to Europe.  Like I said in my previous blog post – no more three month stretches apart.  That there is definite progress.

In the meantime, I’ll get more settled in to my routine in Vienna and I’ll keep you all in the loop as my adventures over here continue!

P.S.  I feel like I again need to remind everyone that I’m still doing my travel agent work while I’m here!  The only difference is that I’m checking my email from my room in Vienna, instead of checking my email from my room in Pennsylvania!  I’m also able to make super cheap calls to the US via my Skype account if you’d like to connect that way.  So, I still can help you plan a kick-butt Disney trip!  Plus I obviously also have a ton of first hand experience all over Europe, if you want to jump the pond!  Let me help you plan your adventures – we both win!

P.P.S. Here’s a little peak at my room!