Vagabonding: What country am I in?

For the past 56 days, we have been roaming around central Europe. We are 3 days away from moving into our home, which we have rented for 10 months. We are all so excited to really unpack – into drawers and closes – and put away our suitcases for a bit.

I want to take a moment and capture our current state of mind, before it becomes a fleeting essence, glossed over by time, and remembered only in Facebook posts and Instagram photos.

I think the best word to describe our current state is “unsettled”. We have no sense of place, sense of home Sure, we say “home” to describe any place that we currently are. “After dinner, do you want to go home and play cards?” But that’s really just shorthand for “Let’s go back to the place we have rented for a spell, where all our worldly possessions sit in piles all over the floor, tumbling out of suitcases.”

What we are all looking forward to is our “home” in St. Gilgen, that we carefully chose and patiently negotiated.

My Italian kitchen

More times than I care to count, one of us has asked, “What country are we in?”  “What day is it?” “Remind me again where we are going next.”  A few times, I must admit, I have asked myself, “Was all of this really such a good idea?

Skate park Zurich

Getting used to a new city each week has its challenges. Where did we park the car? How do we pay for street car tickets? (Screw it, the bus is here!) What time does the market open….and close? Why doesn’t this bathroom have any wall hooks?!

Lest you think it is all challenge and churn, fear not. We have had great fun and adventure, too. That’s what’s captured on Facebook. Here are some of the things that are not quite as easy to document, but should not be forgotten:

·       The tiniest elevators in the world (Zurich and Riva del Garda)

·       Four flights upstairs to our apartment – wishing for a tiny elevator now! (Paris)

·       Paying a fine for riding the street car without a ticket (Zurich)

·       Seeing major police presence, and crafting our exit strategy (Paris: Tour de France and U2 concert)

·       Needing an hour to cook pasta – damn ceramic stove! (Riva del Garda)

·       Cooking eggs in the microwave because that and a tea kettle were the extent of my kitchen (Interlaken)

·       Dropping off two carloads of stuff to my cousin’s house, and missing some of the stuff while we are separated

·       Going to more skateparks and lake beaches than churches and museums (everywhere)

·       Finally having a gas stove, and lighting it with a match because the ignitor didn’t work (Zurich)

·       Flooding the laundry room and mopping it up (Riva)

·       Deciding to trust onboard navigation rather than street signs and totally missing the airport (Munich)

·       Enjoying the awesome, clean, easy-access gas stations and roadside restaurants (all over Europe, paid for by frequent, and sometime very expensive tolls – worth every penny)

That’s summer in a nutshell. Now we are looking forward to the boys speaking German, Mike and I having some time to pursue our own interests, making friends in our town, and so much more.

Here is a list of places we've stayed and the durations:

Hanging out at the lake --

one of our favorite activities in any city

• Munich Sheraton -- 1 night
• Salzburg apartment -- 2 nights
• Interlaken studio apartment -- 2 nights *
• Milan Sheraton -- 1 night *
• Boat in Port Grimaud -- 4 nights *
• Chamonix Heliopic -- 2 nights
• Zurich apartment -- 1 week
• Paris apartment -- 1 week
• Chamonix Heliopic -- 1 night
• Riva del Garda apartment -- 3 weeks
• Innsbruck Hilton -- 2 nights
• Gaissau house -- 1 week
• St. Wolfgang apartment -- 1 week

* Mike was running around Mont Blanc during these stays -- and stayed a different place every night.