The Last Week!

Looking up the Sill River towards the Bergisel ski jump and the mighty Serles. This view was along the way for both of our daily bicycle commutes.

     No matter how much preparation is underway, how many plans have been laid, or how many times you've had to explain how you're both sad and happy to be leaving, the last few days of an experience like our year in Austria always sneaks up on you somehow. One day you're folding laundry, the next that laundry's going in the "pack this away until we're back in Canada" pile. One day you're enjoying a coffee at the regular spot, the next day the barista is asking you if this is the last coffee you'll be buying (maybe it would have been free if yes was the answer?). 

In the last year we've learned that we're both quite the record keepers/ collectors/ hoarders. Our bulletin board was constantly changing, but here's the final iteration before it is taken down and the contents sorted away. 1. Panoramic photo of the Nordkette with labels and summit X's added in pen. 2. Pin from Talisker whiskey distillery visited on our honeymoon. 3. Made up facts from a made up encyclopedia. 4. Postcard from Ljubljana. 5. List of restaurants we want to visit in Austria. 6. Coffee loyalty card completed on a three day trip to Haywards Heath in England. 7. Free ticket to ride the Rax gondola when the girl in the ticket window thought we were part of the Mountain Rescue. 8. Ticket from the art gallery. 9. Postcard sent from Hungary by Molly, showing Garmisch, a town an hour north from Innsbruck. 10. Postcard from Ludlow. 11. Christmas shopping list: no peeking! 12. Innsbruck drawing given to us by Eliza Pinney. 13. Photo of an old alpine club, artist's business card, a self portrait with a good Tirloean name, and a random piece of old paper. 14. Favourite quote from a daily calendar.

     When we arrived in Innsbruck, we didn't know whether it was going to be for a year, or two, or just a few months if my visa got rejected.  However, here we are, after a year of skiing, working, hiking, coffee drinking, home making, and croissant baking, preparing to fly back to Canada. Why now? Are we giving up? Do we miss Tim Horton's? Are Austrians racist towards Canadians? Our official reasoning is as follows: We wanted to stay for a year if possible, and use the experience from that year to decide what is next for us. During the summer, as a year abroad approached, we thought and talked and prayed a lot about what we should do, and came to realize that when we think about our future and our home, that is always Canada. We love this little country dearly, but our hearts lie in the Great White North. Staying here another year, or even two, would have been doable, except for the more integrated we are here, the harder it will be eventually to leave. We both work in in the service industry, which was great for the year, but long term is probably not sustainable for us. So we would have (and kind of did) start looking for more career oriented jobs, which require a certain amount of time commitment. On the other hand, the longer we stay here and more integrated we become, the less connection we have with Canada when we return. This could affect us job-wise, but it manifests itself more in things like the fact that we have a nephew in Kamloops we've only met over Skype! We want to be around to do the aunt and uncle thing with him and his brother, and be part of a community that we can see ourselves as a part of for the long run. It wasn't an easy decision to make, but we are sure as we can be that we made the right one, and we're so excited in touch down in Montreal in December. 

Tasting snowflakes.

     Our last few weeks here have not just been moping around folding laundry and being surprised by baristas though, we've kept very busy enjoying what Tirol has to offer. We actually went skiing a few few weeks ago up on the glacier, and enjoyed a September powder day! There was only one T-bar open, but we shared it with just 20 other people and it was snowing so hard that we had fresh tracks every run! Speaking of powder days, any snowboarders out there will hopefully be very jealous to hear that I served Travis Rice at my restaurant the other day, I just about fell over when he came in and asked if we had an English menu. File that under Harry learns what it means to be starstruck. Shortly after our ski day, Christi flew to England for a quick trip. . . 

. . . I took a quick trip to England to see my friends Amy and Dan, because, why not? England is much closer to Austria than it is to Canada! And also, they are expecting a little one soon, so it made for am even more special to visit the in this exciting time! So thanks Amy and Dan for hosting me for the weekend and for the wonderful time catching up on the last few years. Can you believe, the last time I visited Amy was five years ago, a week after her arrival from Canada to live in England Incredible to see the differences and growth between then and now. The second part of my trip I got to spend with my parents in-law! They were, amazingly,  and totally by coincidence, staying a mere 45 minutes away from where I was on their own vacation. It was a delight catching up and getting to be a Gillett child, learning about medieval history and old English architectural styles. Thank you David and Katy for the good food, good conversations and the gift shop souvenirs. A quick and very special trip to England, my last banked holiday days, and I returned to two weeks of work. Which, by the way, I have officially completed.

     In this next week, we will be saying lots of goodbyes, probably eating out too much trying to visit our favourite places just one more time, and doing lots of packing and organizing. We have quite a month ahead of us, travelling back to visit family, and then starting on the month of travelling we've been saving for over the summer. After stuffing ourselves with food from our grandmas for a week, we leave our luggage at Omi's house and take the bus to Budapest. From Budapest we head to Instanbul to visit a dear friend for a few days, and then fly to Athens. Athens is just a stopover to an olive farm in the south west of Greece where we will be living for two weeks and working on the olive harvest. We're really excited for this, as its going to be a totally new experience for us, we'll be learning a bunch, and life on the farm sounds pretty idyllic. After Greece, we have a quick stop back in Austria for final goodbyes and to get our luggage, and the off we go to Canada! We will be posting photos from our travels as usual, and we will write a few short blogs while we're on the road too. So stay tuned!

- Harry and Christi

In the absence of a proper Thanksgiving turkey available from the grocery store, and the fact that for two people (plus a guest) a turkey would be way to much anyways, we made our own! A turkey breast roulade, complete with stuffing inside!

Some Innsbruck fall views.