Day to Day Life — But Where Will You Live?

Sometimes it seems as though people think our life is a vacation 24-7. If you aren’t at “home” then you must be “vacation.” Vacation, to me, means: eating out, hotels, putting off work. Or put another way, putting real life on hold—shedding the responsibilities of day to day life. Often when I talk to friends and family, they want to know how “vacation” is going. I struggle to answer that question because so much of my day to day is the same as it is no matter where I am—and I haven’t really shed all of my responsibilities.

The nomad lifestyle confuses many people. It’s why I like the term “adventuring” instead of vacationing. Even when I had a home base in Colorado or Florida, I was all about adventuring. We’ve been in Vienna for over a month now. And other than when my mom came to visit, it really didn’t have much of a “vacation” vibe. We are living our lives much as we would anywhere. Sure, our evening walk is along the Danube River instead of around the neighborhood lake or a trail in the foothills, and we can decide to pop down to the City Center for some world-class opera (if that’s your thing), but we also do mundane things like grocery shop, go to doctor appointments, read books, go to the movies, and I pull out my laptop and do some work every so often.

A perfect pup waiting outside the veggie stand for his mom.

I love the mundane things. I actually enjoy them the most. I LIKE going to the grocery store and looking for the ingredients to make Jim a birthday cake. I like learning what the baking section in Vienna has that I don’t see in the US. Of course, it also takes me 5 times as long to do everything since I don’t speak the language (oh how I love Google Translate!) and things are just different when you go somewhere you aren’t familiar with. Some basic, everyday things that are taken for granted in the US—like a grocery store the size of a city block with everything from towels to bread to plants to over the counter medicines—just aren’t to be found. It’s not that I can’t get those things here, those things just aren’t at that big box retailer: they're at the towel store, the bakery, the florist, and the apothecary.

Other things that are easy—like getting a document notarized—become a whole different kind of adventure in a foreign country! We sold our house (yay!!) and had to have two documents notarized. Easy-peasy in the US, where there’s a notary in every UPS Store, government agency, and more. In Austria, it’s not easy to find someone to notarize a document—and it is expensive! We had to make an appointment at the US Embassy and pay $50 per notarized document. We were also very surprised to find that the closest FedEx drop off location was a 2 hour train ride away. Fortunately, for a hefty sum, we could ship it UPS from down the street. So, it may cost a few extra bucks, but you can sell a house from 5,205 miles away (with the help of an AMAZING realtor—seriously, this guy was AMAZING. If you are ever looking for someone to help you sell your place—this guy went above and beyond).

There may not be a notary on every corner, but there is a drinking water fountain to fill my water bottle!

So, in your mind, I may be on vacation 24-7 because I don’t have a “home” and you don’t know where I am tomorrow, or next month, but I just see it as living my best life and reading my latest book club book with a different view (and somehow I STILL feel behind in my reading!).