The Final Countdown…

Diplo Repost: We’re just about to leave Vienna….again – here is what was on our bucket list the last departure around!
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Today marks one month to departure day.  I can’t believe it – honestly.  Where did the time go? We came here with barely a year of marriage under our belts, and leave with almost four…and a baby! When did all of that happen?  Yet more evidence to support my mother’s constant reminder that I am not getting any younger.

But we’re not the only ones changing.  Vienna is too – hard as it is to believe.  The grocery store takes credit cards…the ice cream shops all raised their prices 20% and got LCD screens for menus instead of the hand lettered signs…our bakery, where I went nearly every day to order the same butterlaugen and hot chocolate and still didn’t managed to get recognized, closed…Some restaurants even briefly went smoke free around here, until they lost too much money (can you believe that? people actually prefer to sit in a haze of cancer inducing toxins while they eat here) and went back to being smoking.  The times are a-changin’ around here and maybe it’s a sign that to move on.  Next thing you know someone will be telling me the airport got air-conditioning.

But, there’s still lots to do before we (tearfully) say good-bye to Vienna.  And while I’m still in total denial, as I am about any major (or minor) life change, I’m still capable of putting together a good bucket list.  Here are the last couple of things for us to check off our list this month.  It’s not the most inventive list, but it’s full of lingering things we’ve wanted to do, and old favorites we’ll have a hard time giving up:

1.  Take the boat to Bratislava – let’s be honest, there’s not too much to do in Bratislava.  If you’ve been once, you can check that box, but there’s a great place for hot chocolate in the square, and as this was the first field trip we took when we got here, we wanted it to be one of our last.

2.  Spend the afternoon by the pool in Berchtesgaden – if you’ve been following, you know that this weekend trip is our favorite by far, so we’ll throw in one last hurrah in our mountain retreat.

3.  Watch one final performance in the Opera House – going to the Staatsoper is something I’ll never get tired of.  I recently threw out all the random tickets from past performances in a cleaning frenzy but now wished I had kept everything in a stack.  I think I’ve seen nearly every ballet they put one since we’ve been here and a solid handful of operas so I’ve done it justice, but I’d like to have the experience just one more time.  And it goes without saying that this includes a glass of champagne and treats during intermission.

4.  Eat a slice of genuine Sachertorte at the genuine Cafe Sacher – like the Opera, it never gets old.  I’d like to bring my daughter with me this last time so that when she grows up, I can tell her all about the time I took her to the Hotel Sacher.  And because this will certainly not change every in Vienna, then she can take her daughter.

5.  Enjoy kaisekrainer at the Albertina stand – what can I say, still the best sausage in town and they’re just not going to have this on every corner in DC.

6.  Visit Baden – Remarkably, even though this is less than an hour away, we’ve never been.  I’m not sure that this town quite caters to our age demographic, but it seems like it’s full of nice walks and coffee stops.

7.  Purchase an I {heart} Vienna t-shirt – because I really do {heart} Vienna.