bike ride through the vineyards

When I'm home and I want to see my brothers, I usually ride my bike through the vineyards and along a little canal. It takes me an hour to get to their city and I much prefer it to taking the car :)
One morning when I went to help my brother and sister in law to move, I took my camera along. It was a cold morning and it looked like the harvest was about to begin.

In case anyone wants to know, the grapes tasted sweet and delicious :)

cycling to Bratislava

Usually before I head out of the country, I like to assemble all my favourite people. We always go out for drinks, which is lovely but this time I wanted to break with tradition and do something completely different.
I sent out an email if anyone was up for some bicycle action - a trip to Bratislava along the Danube river. I had talked to Ian at some point during the summer about it and how much fun this could be and he was the first to reply haha Most people weren't sure about it but in the end everyone was keen and for some reason Sami was the one most excited about it haha
Ten of us set out for the trip and only one made it. Kidding! We all made it and it felt like a big family day out. I think that during the entire journey everyone got to cycle with someone else, chatting as they were riding along. We were pushing those pedals, picnicked somewhere in the national park, ate cake and had a laugh.

 

  

 

Some call us crazy but those 75km were totally worth it. I guess everyone was very happy to take the train back though :) Thanks for coming out to play everyone. Next year we'll make it to Budapest haha Love you all x

Funny thing we found out later: the day of our trip was World Car Free Day - couldn't have planned that one better!

bike rides to refresh the soul

Who knew that cycling from the city to my parents house would be so pretty...
Hard to think that it takes just over an hour, which makes taking the train only 20 mins faster. Crazy right.
Here's what I love about riding your bike: it clears your head, you save money and the planet, you actually acknowledge your surroundings and if that weren't enough, you get fit.
And one last bit of information, when cycling uphill and you think that you can't do it cause your legs will give in, belt out Survivor by Destiny's Child. People may look perplexed but it helps :)

packing once again

I'm heading to the wonderful city of Salzburg...  Hooray!!
Going with my sustainable lifestyle, I'll be riding my bike to the train station and take it with me on the train, just to jump out in Salzburg and ride to my Salzburg family's place, where I'll be camped out at for the next two weeks :) It will be interesting since I've got a massive backpack and hand luggage haha Somehow I wish I could document it :)
Anyway I'm so happy to be going back to work again. I'm sure I've talked about seasons before, there is a time for everything yada yada yada... This last season in between jobs has been a tough one for me. It's weird being in a place I once called home but doesn't feel like that anymore.
Being in a place you really hoped to be familiar with or feel comfortable in plus being out of work is a really strange combination. Way too much time to let your thoughts run loose.
It would be so easy to let go of God's promises in times like these when everything is just one gigantic question mark. Again I'm thankful for amazing friends who speak into my life and who encourage me and tell me off at times. There have been many conversations that have cleared my head and encounters with strangers that brought new perspective.
We all have a very unique race to run in this lifetime but can I tell you something... sometimes my race feels darn lonely compared to those around me.
Does it mean the nomad days are over - hell no (caged bird syndrome sets in way too early haha)
Does it mean that I've got to get out of Austria again - probably yes (it just doesn't feel right)
Does it mean that I gotta trust God with my whole life and believe that He has the ultimate plan for me - YES, YES and YES. To be honest, I've been really bad at this and let obstacles and difficulties distract me like nothing else. I gotta hold on to the things that have been spoken over my life and have faith that there is a way bigger part to this than I can ever believe or hope for.
Looking forward to two weeks in the theatre. It will be crazy and schedules are far from normal, but I can't wait to be back there.
Have a phenomenal start of the week everyone. Thank God for new mercies every morning x

current obsession

image via here

Brit comedy
I've been re-watching The IT crowd and Miranda recently. I cannot stop laughing and oh my goodness I feel like that kind of humour is just so much closer to Austrian humour than US stuff could ever be in a million years... so dark and deadpan and most of the time ridiculous border lining bizarre - oh hello the mighty boosh!

bike rides
Now that I finally have my very own bike (Ella - black, beautiful and she's got soul!), I feel like I can easily give up public transport, especially since they raised fares - in your face Wiener Linien!
Anyway every time I sit on it I start humming this song :)

evening bike rides

Last week I took my bike over to see Romy and after hanging out all afternoon we went exploring on our bikes before I cycled home :) The sunset was ridiculous, gotta love spring.

bike rides in downtown

Last night we went cycling.
There were eight of us and we all dressed up as if we were horse back riding in the English countryside (or whatever we could find and people thought was English haha).
It was so much fun and I finally got to see a bit more of Nashville.
Thanks to biking everywhere when I was in Austria in June, I didn't feel like dying once!! Progress!!!
It was funny as people kept staring at this group riding their bikes, apparently it  doesn't happen very often around here... one guy was yelling "get a car" at us - yeah things are different in America.
I wish I would have taken more photos on my digital camera instead of my old old SLR one, but we'll see how those will turn out. As the film roll expired a while ago, it could be interesting.

The boys are arriving in a couple hours and I can't wait to see them. It will be great to have family around for a bit!! More on that later, I'm about to start a new book - which marks number 17 on my list, 10 more to go until the end of the year. Oh dear.