The move to Salzburg, Austria.
Hey guys, it’s been a while hasn’t it? I know I left you all high and dry but I truly had a lot of things happening in my life and I’m back to share some if not all those things with you.
I thought I might fill you in on my new and exciting life here in Salzburg, yes that’s right, for those of you who didn’t know it yet I have officially packed my bags and left South Africa to come to live in Salzburg with my now 11-year-old son and my husband and yes I am married now and that also a blog for another day, I promise I will fill you in on that. We will try to make something in chronological order to keep you up to date so you know exactly how I ended up here.
It actually took a while for me to get here permanently because I had to bring my son with me, I needed so many documents and with the Coronavirus situation, things just weren’t easy. Government offices closing out of the blue, not knowing who to call or ask for information, having to wait for long periods of time for things that would have taken a matter of 6 weeks and at worst maybe 2 months tops, it took about 5 months but there weren’t a lot of drama happening just crazy amounts of money having to be paid and unbearable waiting was at some points too much. So gathering the documents was more the uphill part than my application at the Austrian Embassy for my son’s visa took less than 10 days, Now that’s what I call efficient.
I arrived officially in Salzburg on the 15th of November 2021. It felt to me a little unreal, like did I really pack up everything I own and took my son and up and left to go live in another country that is 14 000km away from home?
Well yeah, I totally did it and so far it hasn’t turned out badly I might say. It was as well my son’s first international flight and he handled it like a pro, this is how our move went…
The day we left, was quite an emotional day but I do my best not to show my emotions and I felt I needed to show a strong front for my family. If they see me breaking down then maybe that could have made them feel uneasy about my well-being around and besides, they are not used to seeing me getting emotional. I kissed my mom on her forehead because we felt that hugging would have made us both cry babies, I hugged the rest of the family and some of my neighbours and drove off with my two cousins. I wasn’t looking forward to arriving at the airport because I knew it would get even more emotional. It’s quite an overwhelming feeling to know that you’re leaving everything behind.
At the airport, it took a while to get through check-in but once it was our turn to check in, the was a tiny bit of drama when the lady who was assisting us needed to see my marriage certificate. I had left the original hard copy in Austria a few months back and I figured it’s ok that I have a soft copy on my phone. I’m not sure exactly what she was missing on my document but her last words were “well hopefully wherever you’re going they will have no issues”. I mean what a way to make me panic right? The next thing I needed was to get bags checked in and me thinking I am clever, I figured as long as all the bags were within the weight limit then all is well but I neglected the fact that it was 2 pieces of luggage per person allowed, not 3 for me and 2 for the kid. So there I was trying to pack and unpack bags so that I would be able to take one of the smaller bags with me in the cabin.
They asked why I don’t just take the smallest one with me and well I couldn’t take that one because I had packed lots of South African food items and some of which were liquids that were way over the limit of 100ml. My heart was pounding so fast, I eventually managed, bags check, manager or supervisor was meanwhile saying we need to hurry because boarding had long begun. consider that this was just at check-in and we still needed to go through security and border control.
There I was running through to the security check got stopped. Oh My, what is it now? I needed to fill in a short coronavirus survey about my travels. I carry with me a least 3 pens, that’s a thing I do and on this day, two of these pens wouldn’t write and I needed to fill in my form and have my son fill in his form and by some sheer luck I found on the floor a broken pen but the pipe with the ink was still intact. heart beating faster and faster and all that was on my mind was that I can not miss this flight. The supervisor came over to check if we were done and bless him he said don’t stress too much, he had a smile on his face and that calmed me a bit but I was still worried because the lines at security can be a nightmare, God forbid I should have something in my bag that would make them wanna rummage through it before I could go through.
Done with the survey, slammed it on the table and got scanned with some heat sensor contraption and then ran like crazy. At the security, they asked if I had laptops and all that, the standard questions, I mentioned that I had my son’s Nintendo Switch and its charging stand and at that moment I made shirt prayer that they don’t tell me that those are not allowed in the cabin. the lady just asked to see the Nintendo switch and for the life of me I couldn’t remember where I put it, a cold sweat ran down my back when I dreaded that I might have left the thing at home but we made it through security with less than 10 people ahead of us at the border control.
The officer who assisted us asked which flight we were on and I told him and with a kind smile he also gave me the direction I needed to go in and wished me good luck and that I make it in time. I couldn’t get out of there running fast enough, all kinds of thoughts going through my mind, all these emotions. Thank God we made it, last to get on board but we made it. I can not explain the relief that went through me. I finally understood what the people on the reality show The Amazing Race goes through, totally stressful I tell you.
It was a cold, windy and grey morning, on a Monday when we landed. We had just left sunny South Africa and landed in what seemed to me like miserable weather, excuse me but I just don’t like grey skies or winter days, so much for being a winter baby. Despite the bad weather and the day looking unexciting, I was nevertheless so excited to be with my husband, I missed him a lot and we had been through a lot and still going through it all but that’s what commitment is, we go through it all as a team.
He was there waiting for me on the other side, had to go through the formalities, immigration and all. finally, I have done it. Here I was on the other side of the world, a kid, five pieces of luggage bags, two backpacks and a stuffy named Maximus (not part of my plushy army, he belongs to the kid and he flew economy), flown to Salzburg with a short stopover in Istambul.
Once the formalities were done and we were finally through and that Nandos sauce I carried with me from South Africa was the only thing on my mind, I was worried that they might say it wasn’t allowed, you have to forgive a girl for worrying about the most important things.
Anyway, my Bae was right there on the other side, patiently waiting. We got through the doors and there he was, big smile and open arms, big bear hugs all around. The best thing was to watch my two boys lovingly hugging each other and at that moment I felt secure that I am in the right place.
It’s been 4 months now and I feel like I’m settling in but it’s a bit slow, then again what’s the rush right? I call myself at the moment a home executive aka I look after the family and the house. I am learning German and doing something else I never thought in my life I would do and that is putting myself out there to actively make friends, making the first move and trying to talk to people. For now, it is all still online but maybe one day I will approach someone, smile and say Hello.
That’s all for now, thanks for reading and look out for the next post.
