Reality and success
Watch a movie or TV show and you’ll see each plot line convince you that utter failure is on the docket but in the end the Good Guy always wins. They narrowly miss disaster and somehow just slip by to find success in the end. Every. Single. Time.
That’s not real life.
If you really put forth the effort, focus your mind and truly believe you can accomplish something, you still find there’s plenty of failure along the way. It’s just business as usual. And that’s fine. You got to parse out reality from fiction and recover from failure and learn from mistakes – on the fly.
Success for me includes equal parts learning from failure and savoring the journey. There’s also the bit about looking back at the compounding accomplishments. I truly love that.
Traveling with two kiddos (it’s not easy but it could be worse)
We’re lucky we have two well-behaved boys. And more importantly, my wife and I have the good sense and fortune to be on the same page as parents. I think that is far more impactful than anything else, including outcomes. Flying with a toddler and a baby comes with certain challenges, so it’s critical we have good communication and a common goal.
For example, something as simple as my wife changing a diaper means I have to stay in place with the big boy; there’s too much hand luggage for me to keep a free hand for my son, so mobility is the casualty. On the other hand, we can divide and conquer once we take our seats on the plane, each taking one of the kids. Whether it’s bottle feeding or entertaining with toys or a cartoon, we run man coverage, not zone.
Air travel has all but lost its thrill and mystery as I fondly remember from my own childhood. But with a good boy who loves adventure, a nursing baby on a schedule and a loving and organized wife, we had a pleasant trip home as a family. And our son’s German has improved substantially – woohoo!
Two adults, no kids
23 hours. That’s the amount of time my wife and I had in the city of Vienna without kids. Our boys were safely under the experienced supervision of my in-laws and we were free, if only for a fleeting day.
We had lunch, Greek gyros on casual sidewalk bistro. No one does sidewalk cafes like the Viennese. It really is a lifestyle.
Next we found ourselves leisurely enjoying some refuge from a sunny but rather hot day under the awning of an electro-boat on the Alte Donau with friends. Here the water is controlled and does not flow; it’s like a giant lake in the middle of the city where you can swim, boat, SUP, kayak and fish. The understood rule is Don’t be a jerk, and everything else is fine.
We finished our evening and thus the greater part of our free time with Friends Dinner, a once-per-trip tradition with friends that we’ve done for a few years now. Some friends have moved from Vienna, some new friends join, and other friends have been there all the while. It’s always a nice evening. We realized this year that, considering none of us has any real connection to the UN, we were a surprisingly international bunch. Naturally, our view over the Danube looked upon the UN’s Atomic Agency.
Crazy enough, we did miss the boys. We’re nuts.
Bonus experience: The Vienna recommendation
Here’s a unique experience for you. Travel to Vienna, and rent a Lime (or other) e-scooter. These are battery-powered, stand-up scooters designed for convenient and quick travel around the urban environment, with several pick-up and drop-off locations scattered all over. The scooters are equipped with a central phone holder in case you want to use your phone for navigation. That’s pretty standard; now here’s the unique bit.
Everyone rides them wrong. They all put one foot forward as you would ride a skateboard or snowboard. But these scooters are wide enough to accommodate side-by-side, feet-forward stance, which I highly recommend. At this point, you’re already standing out from the monotonous crowd, so turn on your favorite tunes on your phone’s speaker, get your nav dialed in, and dance to the beat as you cruise through town. Tip: the e-scooters accelerate faster than anything else in the bike lane, so feel free to pass ahead of everyone at the red light and goose it when that light turns green.
This is sure to be a memorable experience in every city that offers the e-scooter services but there’s something else about being cheerful and dancing in a city where everyone prides themselves on how much they complain (known as Wiener Grant) that unlocks a special talent that even the most average among us possess – smiling. If you do as I have described, you will experience bliss and you will smile.
Disclaimer: always be aware of traffic, wear a helmet, and I am not an expert on Austrian traffic law. It’s your responsibility to understand the law of every country you visit.
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