Strangers In A Strange Land

This verse has been one that I now fully understand and now take to heart. I will apply it forever when I encounter those new to my native land. 

So the plane trip was ROUGH.... Like so hard and we ended up being separated on the plane so it was basically Robert and I to manage the youngest four totally alone. We thought car seats.. Nope car seats that were guaranteed to fit did not. I later learned why but one bit or research I should have handled. I am glad there was a poor young lady on my row who jumped in and held Clara and watched sam and just stepped in when I looked frazzled. I hope she had a lovely trip in Croatia. 

The plane basically was Robert and I switching on and off who was crying. Clara pretty much needed to nurse 90% of the time and jakey was miserable. Sam had a blast though and could not believe how fancy the plane was. He felt like royalty. I caught one picture of the one short nap they all took in the middle of the Atlantic. 

However we all survived and arrived at Heathrowe. Heathrowe was quick security because purely by magic we were the only people there. I know this is probably unlikely on our return. We made it through security and to the holding area. Then.... Jakey puked all over me. He was on my back in ergo and just lost it all. Well this mom was prepared for changes for everyone but myself of course. Sooooo I apologize for whomever sat new to me on Austrian Airlines. We did it though we made it halfway. Next we roamed over to our gate and there was a large line. Except attendants saw us and let us skip. I hated that because it really pisses people off however it happened a lot on this journey so we just need to embrace it I suppose.  This is a great expression

of how we felt after the first leg.

The flight to Vienna was rough it was hot and bumpy and I had clara and matthew and Robert battled Jakey. The people behind me kept singing "Vienna Waits for me" and they were so excited. I however was feeling petrified. How would I make this work?? My morale was sorta gone and panic set in. Everything was really weighing on me but we continued on. (had no choice at this point right) 

Well we arrived and the very first thing we did is we lost Andrew. We scrambled and looked for him. While doing that our driver was paging us and our bags were stacking up. We found him and these pictures show the weary travelers we were. 

As we gathered our insanely large pile of luggage it took three carts. Oh they only took Euros of course. CRAP we had no Euros. Robert worked it out and we found our drivers. The quickly loaded the vans and the first group took off. Well I was left with the little four and Rebecca. As the others drove into town our driver lost his parking permit. He rushed around lot with van swearing and panicking. All of a sudden he parked the car leaped out and ran away. This was how we felt. 

So here we are 4 kids 5 and under and Rebecca. I am abandoned in the vienna airport without a clue how to talk to driver or where to go. So we just waited and waited. All of a sudden he run back in car swears in German then says : I am about to be fired". He was angry and drove like it on the way to flat. Seriously I was terrified of the drive on the roads and in hindsight driving on those roads many times again it is not the roads but the driver. 

We finally made it and met Josef our landlord. He provided so much extra amenities to us. He put together a changing area, three cribs and a huge table for our family. The biggest surprise of all.. a extra bedroom. The flat is great and huge and will work great. 

So we unpacked and set up and this was how we all felt. 

SO we slept and we slept and it refreshed us. Then we ventured to see our neighbors down the street. I think the first time I saw it I was shocked at the beauty of what is Vienna it is amazing. I am sorta getting used to it but I still look around and think "wow I live in Vienna right now"

So I digress. We went around and explored Belvedere  Palace. It was amazing. 

This thing right here was my arch enemy for the first week. We have made friends and I work it hard. Figuring out appliances i another country is hard but now we have mastered it.

So we know we have 6 short days before our next adventure. However we knew at that moment. Vienna was waiting for us to explore. So the first week we will write about tomorrow. 

Vienna Waits For You

Diary Entry June 8th 

Today's musings. 1- when you are allergic to cherries and want to test if it is just american pesticides (which many say). If you are a idiot you start eating and devour a ton. Then when your lips and tongue swell up, you realize that you are allergic to all cherries. 2- forever grateful for a pharmacist (whom shall remain nameless) who is one message away to tell me max doses. 3- i need to learn how to call their 911 and figure out ER stuff just in case. 3- words in german i think are just made to be hard. I will take a pic of my washing machine.... Of which i still can't operate. My landlord has helped me every load. I am sure he thinks i am a idiot. 4- Bernie is loved here.... Yay Bernie. 5- when you are stressed and ready to give up because your children are acting like wild animals. You are worried the neighbors are
Made about noise so you decide to go for a walk. When you open door a lady is standing there and says she is from downstairs... Ugh my heart dropped. I apologize for noise and she laughs. Her reply "i heard you had kids and would like to have you over to play".... Yay!!! She follows with "i married a american" 6- americans are not
Embraced here. We heard a few scoffs about us walking by. Apparently the german in me does not cover up my american. I feel like i should be wearing flag pants, camo and a cowboy hat. Yeah.
Tomorrow dad goes to work. This should be interesting :)