Day 5: Rest Day
After our amazing outing the day before, today turned out to be a day of much-needed rest.
When we got home from our friend Claudia’s house, I quickly got the kids to bed and I literally collapsed into my bed without so much as an ounce of energy leftover.
We had definitely run too hard the day before, but I also think the jet lag was catching up to me as well as all the stress of packing and just getting here. I was done, fried, baked…or as they say in Austria “Kaputt!”
But pretty soon after I had closed my eyes and entered into a deep trance, I heard footsteps and the sound no mother traveling alone with 3 kids wants to hear: projectile vomit. Everywhere!
I’ll spare you the details, but let’s just say it looked like something from Poltergeist in this tiny little apartment. I have so much respect for those who clean up crime scenes or work in the ER. This was not a pretty sight. Or smell. My poor baby had eaten too much the day before and he just couldn’t keep it in. (he was immediately fine afterwards, and I’ve been keeping him hydrated today)
Subsequently, I spent the next two hours cleaning up and didn’t get to bed until after 2am. When I awoke this morning, it felt as if I had never slept. I was so so tired. And my poor kids were beyond exhausted — especially the one who had just lost half of his body weight.
So, we slowly got up and around, made our way to the grocery store at around 11:30am, and came back to the apartment to try and eat a little and head to my parents-in-law. But at about 3pm, when I noticed how content my kids were just laying down in their beds on their tablets, I called off all engagements and called it a day IN.
We literally didn’t move for hours upon hours other than to go to the bathroom, get drinks and bicker. When evening finally did hit, my youngest thought it was still morning and asked what we were having for breakfast. That, my friends, is how OUT OF IT we all were.
So, thanks to my friend Tammy, we ate some leftovers she had given us, got cleaned up and went out for ice cream and came back home and crashed again.
The place we went for ice cream is called Zanoni & Rindo. We have been there one other time since we arrived, and the kids begged for it again. Today, we got to know the owners and enjoyed a nice long conversation about American politics. Austrians love to question Americans for their political leadership — especially about this particular administration. I know of NO Austrian who doesn’t have a strong political opinion about American government, and right now, I think any conversation is a good one to get their minds off of their own political disaster that they are currently going through. Because I lent an ear, the owner kindly gave my kids a second cone of their choice. Very generous!!
Why am I up still? Because I wanted to get this post out to you. And…I’m too hot to sleep. This is the only downside of staying in Austria during the late spring. It does cool off to a nice 50 degrees at night, but there’s no ventilation in the room and if you open your window, you’ll hear all the people walking the streets and cars going by. We solved this problem by wearing eye masks and ear plugs at night, but tonight, all 3 kids said they’d go without and I’m afraid of opening the window. But I think I might have to. I’m 44 and I don’t do warm well.
All in all, it was a great day, and you know what it taught me? We need to slow down. The reason we decided to do this trip is because we really want to see family and friends, but we decided to stay a few weeks, because we want to also enjoy ourselves and take in the city of Vienna. But we have to make room for rest, and today showed me that we have to create that margin ASAP!!
So, we were somewhat loose today and enjoyed the downtime of constant tablet time, and I know tomorrow we will enjoy spending the day with the grandparents in Mödling.
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