Vienna Departure: The first day of our adventure!

Alarm at 5:30am, a couple of snoozes. We had to be out the door of our hotel close to the train station in Vienna before 6:30am, to make it to our train to the airport in time — keeping in mind we still wanted to reserve a few minutes for a celebratory glass of prosecco in the airport lounge.

Tired but excited we got out of bed and, almost mechanically, started to get ready — partly due to excitement, partly due to how tired we were. We couldn’t sleep properly the night before, as was expected: excitement, anticipation, a bit of uncertainty and respect for the journey kept us awake.

The last few days before our departure had kept us busy. Meeting our friends to say farewell, talk about our (now more concrete) travel plans and brainstorm on where each would like to visit us — a year without our favorite people is way too long, after all! 😉

We left on time to catch our train, and off we were. We didn’t speak much on that short 15-minute ride to the airport — Alex because he was still partly asleep (definitely not a morning person), Erika because her mind was racing — it’s happening! Today is the day! The day we had been planning for months, the day we have been working towards for a long time, the day we have been waiting for since we first talked about traveling the world together!

The last few months were nothing short of crazy. We both quit our jobs. We packed all our belongings, once again, and moved countries — also once again. London, where we lived since January 2025, was supposed to be a short relocation from the get-go, but just 1 year was never in the cards. Who in their right mind would sell all their belongings, move to another country, rent an apartment, buy new furniture — only to do it again 12 months later? Well, seems like we are! 😅 And so, we did! December 2025 was hectic but beautiful, offering us at least one Christmas in our wonderful London apartment, which we loved very much even though it had given us more than a few headaches in that one year. Was it hard? Yes. Was it worth it? Abso-freaking-lutely!

We had spent the last few months preparing for this trip. We researched, we planned, we packed, we repacked, we researched some more, and then we packed again. In the end, we had one big backpack and one small daypack each, and that was it. No lists, no spreadsheets, no color-coded itineraries: we had booked the first two hotels — one in Doha and one on Phu Quoc — and had a visa for China and a date by which we needed to cross that border. That was it. The rest we would figure out as we go.

The Vienna airport was surprisingly busy for the hour, but we made it to the lounge. We raised our glasses with the celebratory prosecco and cheered to everything: the adventure, the unknown, how lucky we were and the circumstances that enabled us to do this, the best friends and family we could ever ask for, and to everything ahead.

The boarding call came too soon, and we made our way to the gate. We were ready to board our first flight of the trip — a short one, from Vienna to Doha, where we would spend two days before continuing on to Vietnam.

There is always a moment after takeoff when the mind catches up with the body. For months, our trip had been assembled through effort. Then suddenly effort was irrelevant. We were on the way. We could not pack better, plan more, or remember another thing from the apartment. The trip had started.

Seeing the rooftops of Vienna disappear from the window in a pale winter morning wash, roads flattening into pattern, then cloud, was a strange feeling. We had both called Vienna home for several years, and being back there for a few days had been wonderful; and now we were leaving it behind again. So we let ourselves feel a little sentimental, but not too much: the excitement for what was to come was too strong to be overshadowed by nostalgia. We were leaving, but we would be back. And we would be back with stories to tell, and experiences to share, and a new perspective on the world.

See you on the other side 😉