I’ll be honest. Austria is not one of those dream destinations if you are a fun-loving thirty-something couple. At least, it wasn’t for us. But Austria is as European as they come. Even more so as it was, we later found, the seat of the great Hapsburg empire. With this in mind, the country is seen through a whole new lens. Things now make a tad bit more sense and you are ever so slowly drawn in.
I like to think that there is a season for everything (the Bible? Shakespeare, maybe?). For example, we don’t expect our twenty-three year old nephew (Royce-Tyler) to yet appreciate the work and care that goes into a home-cooked meal. He has (and we, admittedly, have too) grown up in a culture of fast food, frozen dinners, and home-delivered meals. It makes almost absolutely no sense to own a stove these days. We hope in time though, that he will come to realize that what he is eating has little to no nutritional value (basically, enter expletive here) and, more importantly, that there is more to preparing and eating (and sharing if he’s lucky) a meal than just to fulfill a necessary bodily function. For now, he can keep eating hotpockets and Popeyes to his heart’s content. The reverse can be true as well; there are things in this season of his life that he should enjoy. Be mindful of your money but do not be a miser; be frivolous when the opportunity arises. Experiment with the limits of your body before it develops a mind of its own. Fall in love and then get your heart broken. Do it now kid and not later when the season has changed. It just won’t be the same.
That said, in hindsight, we probably would have appreciated Austria more (and we did appreciate it) had we been in our 40s (spoiler alert!) or older.
Before the trip, not much came to mind when we thought of Austria except this latent inkling to spin dervish-like on a verdant hilltop somewhere (should the opportunity miraculously arise of course), muttering the hills are alive….
