Arriving in Austria

Oh man!! My blogger is in German! Gee...I hope I click the right menu... :\

Last night we went to bed at 8pm because we were extremely exhausted after a more than 20hours flight from Kuala Lumpur to Graz via Rome and Vienna.

2 days before we departed Kuala Lumpur, I had to take care and finalize everything by myself. No maid’s help. I got frustrated and agitated so easily because I haven’t had enough sleep for a week preparing for this trip.

I was very worried about my son and whether I would be able to control him during the flight. I was very worried that he might get tired or sick before we arrived in destination.

Thank God everything was perfect yesterday. My son slept most of the time. He slept along the way from Ipoh to KLIA. When we arrived in KLIA, he woke up and got excited because I told him we were going to take a plane. He loves planes so much.

He requested to drag his own baby bag full of his diaper, toys, books, and some extra cloths. He obediently followed all my instructions. He felt so responsible of his own bag and he didn’t want to be helped at all.

After checking in, we went to Golden lounge to wait for boarding time and at the same time we wanted to have dinner because we were starving already. I was so hungry I ate so much until I didn’t have an appetite for my aircraft meal anymore… :)

My son was happy playing inside the children play room in Golden lounge until boarding time.

During the flight from KL to Rome, my son slept again until 2 hours before landing. So, I really didn’t have any problems with him. The only problem was that he got so excited until he lost his appetite for food. Even when he woke up, he was busy playing with the in-flight entertainments.

When our Boeing 777-200 touched down very smoothly at Leonardo da Vinci airport, it was 20 degree Celsius and the weather was fine.

After clearing the immigration check point, we had to wait for another 4 hours before our boarding time to Vienna. My son still refused to eat anything other than an apple I brought from Ipoh. I let him run around the airport to release his energy so that he would sit down or sleep on the flight to Austria and it did work. He slept again for 1.5 hours from Rome to Vienna. Our Fokker 100 arrived in Vienna late for half an hour so the moment we landed in Vienna, I had to carry my son, his bag, my bags, his stroller and run to the gate after we cleared the immigration. Thank God we made it.

It was raining heavily and the clouds were so low when our small propeller aircraft was en route to Graz. Along the flight until we landed in Graz, our small plane shook violently up down, left right, and I got so afraid my heart nearly stopped pumping. As for my son, he got all excited for the first time taking a propeller plane which landing gears are kept inside the wings. For 30 minutes flight, he sat still and was busy playing with his sticker book. I swore and cursed for choosing a plane from Vienna to Graz instead of the train. Man! I really don't like the propeller aircraft.

When we landed in Graz safely, my knees were so weak and my hands were trembling. I could not stop messaging my chest. I took a deep breath and felt so relieve that I finally arrived in Graz. We got a Jaguar taxi to take us to our hotel. Damn! It was really a Jaguar! I never sat in a Jag before… :D

I was so afraid the taxi driver would scold me for carrying too heavy bags. But no, he was so nice and so friendly.

The moment our taxi headed to our hotel, I felt ‘home’ immediately. When I looked out the window of our taxi, it’s deja-vu. I felt I’ve been here before. I feel like I am back in New Zealand. Everything reminds me of New Zealand except that everyone speaks German and I can’t speak a word at all… :-|

I immediately felt in love with Graz especially when we were greeted personally by the hotel owners like their daughter who just returned home. They were so happy to see my son. They said my son has grown up so fast. I wondered when they saw my son before. They told me that my husband had shown them our pictures. They hotel owners are very very nice people. The whole family members stay in the hotel as well. Apparently this hotel is very famous for their food.

We had dinner in the restaurant of our hotel. I ordered the signature dish of this restaurant which is so famous in Graz, the Backhendl. Backhendl basically is crispy fried chicken with bread crumb. It’s very yummy. If you have a chance to visit Graz, do stop by this restaurant and order 1/2Backhendl.