We’re Moving to Australia…
To say 2020 is filled with uncertainty and change would be an understatement of dramatic proportions.
On a global scale we've had not only Covid-19 to contend with, but the ripple effects of dramatic economic downturns, the horrific Australian bushfires, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the closing of a swathe of industries that support thousands of livelihoods. Rippling underneath it all is a pervading sense of uncertainty for the future.
So what better time to make dramatic life decisions, eh?
Nothing has played out in our lives this year as we thought it would.
Through months of uncertainty, visa stress and an unexpected yet greatly welcomed pregnancy, it's all shuffled around to a result I could never have predicted.... we're moving back to Australia.
Newcastle’s ANZAC Walk, February 2020
'The Plan' for 2020. Ha. Haha.
Personally, I came into 2020 determined to grow my business through this blog, focussed on local, responsible, slow travel in Austria & Vienna. I'd planned to host retreats and walking tours to support my community and local businesses, while growing diverse income streams.
I was excited and a little bit wary of becoming full time self-employed, but up for the challenge, feeling I was finally equipped to deliver on years of experience.
But first, a quick trip back to Australia in February to visit family, celebrate Mum's 60th and escape the European winter blues.
Treasure the priceless moments and memories….right maybe not this one though…
It was there we heard the first whispers of Covid 19, listening to radio reports of the escalating situation in Wuhan, and saw, briefly, the immediate fallout. A fishing trawler in Hobart, Tasmania, filled to the brim with fresh caught lobster, selling each for the bargain price of $60AUD.
When Stefan got chatting with the fisherman he explained - his haul was normally exclusively sold to the Chinese markets at much higher profit, but in the 4 weeks he'd been at sea, the world had shifted, his entire order inventory cancelled and suddenly, he had an overabundance of lobster, and needed someone to take it off his hands.
These whispers of dramatic change were just the beginning, though we didn't know it then.
We carried on with our trip, enjoying Melbourne brunches, an overnight train ride to Sydney, a day or so in Manly Beach and a fateful visit to a small coastal town about 2.5 hours North of Sydney - to Newcastle, NSW.
Within 3 hours of arrival there, Stefan turned to me in the ocean pools, as the sun set along the coastline and whispered ‘we could live here’. I smiled and laughed in that 'yeah right' kind of way, imagining the beach bum lifestyle and access to daily swims and decent coffee.
But I knew he was serious two days later, when the spreadsheet plan comparing living costs came out!
Could definitely get used to breakfast by the beach!
Wait, why Newcastle? Why not move back to Melbourne?
Important contextual information for this seemingly random decision!
Our apartment lease in Vienna is expiring in March 2021, so we'd been casually searching for a new apartment in Vienna for months, and new prices were double our current rent for an equivalent size and location. When compared with Newcastle, we could get the same size apartment or larger, with beachfront location and slightly cheaper rates. Thanks spreadsheet comparison!
More importantly though - Newcastle (or 'Newie' for locals, because of course Aussies have to shorten it) is right beside the ocean. I'm talking full-on Home-and-Away vibes rolling surf and stunning beach baths.
With Stefan's chronic eczema only worsening after years of dietary, medical and topical treatments, the chance of treating it daily with saltwater swims was a huge factor in our decision.
Atopic dermatitis is a chronic, lifelong disease, which for him manifests not only in painful physical symptoms, but takes a huge toll on his mental health. It's something we've both lived through and managed daily for the duration of our relationship and impacts every part of his lifestyle.
To be honest, having seen him struggle through so much agony and sacrifice for years, knowing there was even the slightest chance moving by the beach could help, the idea became something we had to try.
Because as this year has proven over and over - nothing is more important than your health.
Now don't get me wrong, I was just as shocked at the thought of moving as anyone reading this likely is.
I love Vienna.
I love our lives, our community, our Grätzl, our friends, my professional network and the joy of living in the centre of Europe.
I love hopping on a train to Tirol or Graz, skiing in the winter and crunching through leaves in October. I mean, you've read this blog, you know this.
I'm basically Vienna's #1 fangirl and the thought of leaving all that was heartbreaking and shocking, dropping out of the blue sky of a February morning.
Besides which, in 8 years together in Vienna, we never planned on life together in Australia. It always seemed prohibitively unaffordable to live in Melbourne, especially compared to the breezy lifestyle of Vienna.
But Newcastle....
‘Newie’ is north of Sydney, a Smart City with a growing startup scene, perfectly placed within the East Coast tourism trail with Hunter Valley wineries within reach. It’s young, affordable and accessible for two self employed folk to afford a rental apartment.
So the seed of an idea was planted in February, we flew back to Vienna in the dwindling days of winter, mask-free, even making jokes with friends on arrival back in Vienna about Corona (which seems insane now.)
Two weeks later, Austria went into hard lockdown, and the whole world changed.
Read my Lockdown Letters from that time here.
How We Went About Deciding for Real
Beyond a very impressive spreadsheet, there were a few logistics we needed to clear before making the leap to move to Australia. It still felt like a very 'fairytale dreamland' idea to me, and I wasn't really sure we would, or could pull it off.
Let alone in a bloody global pandemic.
First - Visas. Stefan would need to apply for an Australian Partner Visa and I was awaiting renewal of my Austrian visa (a painful process that ended up taking 6 months...).
Next, work & income.
I'm self-employed, with a handful of Austrian clients, and a brand built entirely around being an English speaking expert on Vienna and Austria. So, not really ideal for relocating!
Then, once Covid hit, the tourism industry tanked, Vienna walking tours and retreats became a distant pipedream, and every plan I had for the year shifted. The city changed, the networking I was relying on for referrals ended, and location suddenly wasn't the biggest challenge anymore.
Like hundreds of others working in tourism and hospitality, my career was in jeopardy. A pivot was going to be necessary whether we were in Austria or not.
As for Stefan - blessed be the sales guys working in software.
He works for an incredible, successful startup based out of Silicon Valley that has no offices, only remote workers. When he pitched his bosses the idea of relocating to Australia for his health, their response was 'nothing is more important than that, do what you have to do'.
Essentially, the golden ticket. For which we are extremely grateful, especially considering how many other folks are struggling right now.
So we had at least one secure job, a shot at a visa, the only thing holding us back was...
Could we get into Australia in the middle of a Pandemic?
Months of Uncertainty & Anxiety
By the time all those details got confirmed in mid-summer, it was looking more and more like I'd need to book a shipping container for our belongings, Australia suddenly introduced their flight caps and quarantine system.
An incredibly strict, limited entry programme to control and quarantine all arrivals. The fallout of this choice meant thousands and thousands of Aussies were stranded aboard, with flights being cancelled, only business class seats available, even families stuck living in airports in a desperate bid to get home.
Almost 30,000 #strandedAussies have been abandoned overseas.
— Kristina Keneally (@KKeneally) September 30, 2020
It’s time to send @ScottMorrisonMP a message- bring them home.
Sign the petition 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻https://t.co/dYatM0DZdj
If you've seen my Twitter feed or Instagram over the last few months, you'll know how enraged I've been about the issue. Not for us, personally, we're super privileged, we would be fine. But for thousands of other Australian Citizens abandoned around the world in places like Beiruit, India and even the UK by the Morrison Liberal Government. (Read more here and please support the petitions!)
The upshot of this was - we had no certainty if we could even get on a plane to Australia. We booked our flights in good faith (at an eye watering TRIPLE the normal price for economy seats) and crossed our fingers.
Oh, and somewhere in there I found out I was pregnant.
So the crunch to decide if we stay or go became pretty urgent. If we didn't get on a plane by late November, we wouldn't make it before the babies arrival. And, not being entirely insane, we knew that would mean we'd be in Austria another 12 months at a minimum.
A manageable outcome sure, but Stefan's country boy feet were already itchy to leave Vienna after 10 years, and I'd spent a fair while talking myself around to farewelling my favourite city.
To say the last six months of uncertainty have been emotionally exhausting and stressful would be putting it mildly.
We made plans, but each was undercut by the thought 'if we make it on a flight'.
We tried to imagine what our apartment could look like, but each time it felt like we were kidding ourselves.
We booked the shipping container, packed and sold our stuff, but knew we could easily be unpacking again in Kufstein, not Australia.
Everytime our friends asked how things were going, we had to give equivocal answers because neither we nor they knew what was going to happen.
It was six months of living in limbo, nothing for sure, nothing secure and no clear sign if our efforts would pay off. This coming over and above the general anxiety around Covid and job security was.... a lot.
We basically had to make the choice to proceed with planning as if we were going to make the flight, while having a backup plan in case we didn't.
So we slowly made step-by-step plans, reached out to the Australian Embassy, the airline, anyone we knew who'd flown in or out of Australia recently and tried everything we could to ensure we could get on a flight.
Meanwhile, I was taking a long, loving farewell of my favourite haunts in Vienna, savouring our short trips to Tirol and Graz in summer, and trying to imagine if we were *actually* going to do this crazy thing.
You already know where we went most often, right?
Publishing the Slow Travel Guide to Vienna in the midst of this major shift was particularly important, as I wanted to pour all my hard earned 8 years of love and knowledge of Vienna into one location for others to enjoy!
Looking back, I don't quite know how we made it through the uncertainty of the last 6 months. It was like having one foot in the present and one in an extremely unsure future.
I had days of despair where nothing felt solid beneath my feet. My job, my blog work, hell, my identity as the 'Aussie in Austria' was all being shaken up, oh and now I'm going to be a parent on top of that too??!!!
2020 definitely got me good.
But rather than panic and despair, I realised that these huge upheavals and transitions can be massive opportunities if you let them. (I watched this talk from the spectacular Lola Akinmade Akerström a few times on those days!)
I mean, I definitely had my eat-Ben-and-Jerry's-while-doom-scrolling-Instagram days, but being an eternal optimist, and having a wicked smaht group of friends and blogging buddies to pull me through, we somehow came out, blinking, the other side.
So, did we make it?
So it was, last Sunday, with me blubbering and teary most of the morning, we packed up the final bits of our luggage (that shipping container service had already moved most of our stuff....more on that process soon!) and locked our Vienna apartment door in a gorgeous corner of the 14th district for what *could* be the last time.
The drive to the airport and waiting for checkin to open, In was basically numb - we'd done everything we could to ensure we got on the flight, now it was down to the mercy of the airline and the Australian Government.
Stefan had his tourist visa (thankfully still valid from that February trip), his exemption to travel, I had my document from the Dr clearing me to fly while pregnant and at checkin, after an agonising call to Australia for clearance, we made it.
Three hours before our flight, in an eerily empty terminal like I've never seen in Vienna, we were both in shock clutching our boarding passes.
It was really going to happen. We could get our neighbour to drop off our apartment keys, because we were getting on the flight to Sydney.
Two, of only 50 people that had the luck on our particular flight.
Now, we're riding out our two weeks mandatory quarantine, with a ludicrous view over Sydney Harbour.
No fresh air and microwave meals on loop, but blessedly, thankfully, here in Australia.
View from our Quarantine hotel room - not too shabby!
Stefan and I have done crazy life turnarounds in under six months before (getting married for a visa, anyone?) but doing so in a global pandemic, while pregnant was escalating things, even for us!
It's not over yet, and I'm sure there will be many more challenges but for now, I'm just so bloody grateful to have made it, where 30,000 other Australians are still waiting in limbo.
What does it mean for Austrian Adaptation?
The biggest question I have had from friends and you guys is of course - what happens to this blog? Will there be an Australian Adaptation? (Short answer - that name is WAY too many letters and a mouthful to brand something! I know better now!)
First of all - rest assured all the resources, articles and the Slow Travel Guide to Vienna will be staying here. This website is 8 years of knowledge and info of life in Austria that isn't just going to be erased overnight, so fear not!
I regularly have so many lovely people message me on Instagram or via email to say how helpful the advice here has been, which is all I ever wanted for this site - to help others going through what I've been through. So that won't change.
There's still a backlog of content to come for ski trips in Tirol, summer itineraries and updates on cafes and brunch spots. So basically, business as usual here on the blog. In future I'm planning to collaborate with local writers and bloggers as contributors to keep content up to date here too.
And you best believe once travel is possible normally again I'm getting my ass back to Vienna every October at least to frolic in the Autumn leaves!!
But for the next chapter of our lives in Australia, it doesn't feel right for those stories to live here. This site is home for folks who want specific insight on Austria and slightly beyond. The next part of our story will unfold differently.
That's why, I'll be updating on all things moving abroad, career & work, slow travel and living over on carlyhulls.com .
A fresh start for a travel and lifestyle blog, where all you lovely lot who have been a part of the adventure so far can keep up to date with how things play out.
My heart will always be split between Austria and Australia, and I hope in time, we can split our time between both incredible countries. So this isn't goodbye to life in Austria....it's simply, Auf Wiedersehen!