A quick round up of our trip to Vienna and Salzburg, Austria with family over the Eid holidays.
]]>It is a country I have visited before but during the winter months when it is covered in glorious snow, so seeing it in spring would be a new experience.. and it did not disappoint!
We flew into Vienna and were welcomed with cool, fresh air, beautiful tree-lined streets and stunning historic buildings at every turn.
We stayed in Vienna for a few days, some of which it rained which was actually a nice surprise when coming from the heat and sun in Abu Dhabi. We then took a trip south-west across Austria to arrive in a more rural location outside of Salzburg.
Here we stayed for four days exploring the countryside, the rolling hills, stunning waterfalls, snowy mountain tops and incredible scenery.
We were able to spend a day strolling around Salzburg visiting all the sites from one of my favourite movies - The Sound Of Music. It's a beautiful historic city filled with winding streets, historically palaces, ideallic town squares, catherdrals and stunning architecture.
I would highly recommend a trip to Austria if you have the opportunity, our family group age ranged from five to sixty-five and everyone had a wonderful time, there is something for everyone to enjoy.
Our highlights have to be Stadtpark in Vienna, the horse & carriage rides for making my little girls feel like real-life royalty, the rhubard strudel from a tiny side street cafe off the Residenzplatz in Salzburg, the cable cars up to the medieval castle, St Peter's Abbey from The Sound of Music, the ideallic lakeside venue of Hallstaat and of course, the beautiful, beautiful countryside.
We will be back Austria ➕
]]>So in a bid to make this year memorable - as my good friend declared it - I began looking for ways to do so. I had the usual Forty For Forty ideas; a list of forty things I wanted to do before turning the big 4-0 but it felt like I was just thinking of things to add for the sake of it and not necessarily because I wanted or needed to do them.
I began looking for something else but with this constant side-note 'things to do' list going round in my head. This was a list of the normal things such as I need to have a better diet, I should exercise more, I must remember to sort out the spare room, don't forget to be a grown up and sort out your finances etc etc etc. As I'm sure it is with you, this list is forever spinning and forever growing.
Then it occurred to me that instead of spending every day either ignoring this list or just adding to it without making any efforts to cross things off, why not set myself a smaller challenge of just doing one thing at a time and making that one thing the key focus for one month of the next year... yes perhaps twelve months is a long time to get a jobs list done but I felt this way was less overwhelming and oh so much more manageable.
And in that moment, A Year of Challenges was born and I spent the next week or so planning how I was going to concur each block of thirty days and what I planned to achieve at the end of each of them...
• Aug - Vegan Month (100% effort into clean eating)
• Sept - Journalling Month (write it down every day)
• Oct - Self Care Month (my hardest challenge)
• Nov - Dry Month (zero alcohol in support of my friend in training)
• Dec - Carb Free Month (a hard month to choose something as it's my favourite time of year and the lead up to Christmas)
• Jan - Financial Month (get everything in order)
• Feb - House Detox Month (finally sort out that spare room full of everything that doesn't have a place)
• Mar - Sugar Free Month (has to be done)
• Apr - Workout Month (move my arse every day)
• May - RAOK Month (do something kind every day)
• June - Biscuit Free Month (a toughie!)
• July - Yes Month (let's say say to everything and have a bloody good time!)
And that's my list and the plan for the next year, why don't you join me on some of the months, I'd love a bit of company and love to hear how you're getting on.
Can't wait to update you on how it's going ➕
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