Berlin in Frankfurt

Despite 2020 life moving at a slower pace than normal, I still can’t believe November is just days away.

So, “Herbst” means fall/autumn in German and to make things really cheesy, I think I’ll cover only things that start with “H” to highlight Herbst in Vienna.

Heurigers

Heurigers are Viennese wine taverns and they are scattered around the Vienna city limits. Many times they are close to or in the vineyards and you can sample the wine and local dishes – fresh and delicious. To learn a little more, please read this post by one of my favorite Vienna bloggers.

We’ve visited five or six heurigers so far – some closer into town to have dinner and wine or other times, we’ve hiked to heurigers to enjoy the sunshine and views and just a glass or two with a snack. Just lovely!

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Hiking

We’ve done a couple of hikes since arriving here. There are 11 Vienna city hiking trails, meticulously maintained by the city and all accessible by public transportation. What a gift. Many of the routes wind above Vienna in the mountainous city forest with small wineries and casual restaurants dotting the path. Others go along the river and feel more urban. So we’ve done #1 and #2. Should we just go in order at this point?

We made a daytrip to hike at Höllfall (Hellfall) which is about 90 minutes outside Vienna. The scenery was breathtaking and reminded me of the lush green Black Forest hiking we did this past summer. On our way there, we passed a stunning body of water with vibrant fall foliage and had to pull over to explore. It appeared you could hike around the water and rent boats which would make for another fun day trip.

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House

At some point, maybe I’ll do another post to share more photos of our apartment but for now, snippets here and there will do. We are not downtown, which really bothered us when we first got our housing assignment but having settled in, we LOVE it here. We enjoy easy access to downtown and more space and amenities because we aren’t smack in the middle of the city. The space is larger than our last couple places so we’ve enjoyed buying a few new items to fill things out…like a new area rug, little bar cart, a runner for our freakishly long hallway, and furnishing our favorite part of the whole house – the balcony. It’s very cozy now and I think Jeff plans to move out there permanently…

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Hospitality

Jeff and I both love to show hospitality, sharing whatever home we are living in and for people to feel cared for. I love when guests sit down on the couch and there are plenty of soft blankets to cozy up with or having them sample a cocktail or appetizers we thought they’d especially like.

Hosting brings me more joy than almost anything else. Thus, it’s fitting that one of the harder aspects of this transition is that we moved here right as cases were spiking again and restrictions tightening. The usual welcome happy hours, barbecues, and get togethers didn’t happen so we still don’t know many people quite yet. I miss the cocktail parties where people ask if its ok if they bring one more friend and you say “sure! I’m making a punch bowl cocktail and we have plenty of appetizers, bring them over!”

That said, we’re so thankful to have our neighbors, we basically take turns inviting each other over and planning different things . I know this lull won’t be forever and for now, I’ll just dream of parties on Pinterest.

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Heart

Every day, several times a day, I vacillate between feeling incredibly grateful to live in Vienna to deeply missing friends and family. There are countless times I’ll experience or see something and think “my mom would love this spot” or “Man, Sam would think this was so cool” or “what a great spot to have a drink with XYZ friend” and I get what I can only describe as a physical ache in my heart.

In a few weeks, it will already be a year since I’ve seen my mom and almost 18 months since I’ve seen the rest of my family and that is just ABSURD. To know when the right/safe/best time to try and make a visit is so challenging but that’s a whole separate topic.

I know many of you are probably struggling with the fatigue and grind of this year in different ways. I allow myself to rest in the sad moments for a time then try to refocus my mind rather than letting it control me or ruin my day. How are you staying sane during this time? What things are you doing that bring you joy?

So that’s it, a little happy, a little sad…..the five Hs of Herbst ❤