For the past couple of years, Lisa and I have been primarily based in Austria (and Germany). We have been using Austria as our launching point for different areas of Europe. That is when we are able to travel. It’s been great! However, we have celebrated the New Year in Austria for those years. Due to Covid, there wasn’t much of a choice.
Last night (New Year’s Eve 2021) was incredible. We sat up at a friend’s vineyard around a fire, drinking and eating while we waited for midnight.
Austrians have a tradition where before midnight they write down all the good and bad from the last year. After midnight they take the paper or cardboard they wrote it all down on and throw it into the fire. Letting go of the previous year to allow a fresh slate for the New year. This is the embodiment of the New Year in Austria.
This year the skies were clear. From the vineyard, you could see everything. Once the fireworks started it was bright flashes across the sky as far as the eye could see. An incredible contrast to the previous year.
New Year’s Eve 2020 had a roll of fog and clouds across Lower Austria. As the clock struck 12 and the fireworks started, nothing could be seen. All you saw were flashes in the fog and the booms of fireworks going off. It was surreal. It felt like going back in time to the 1940s. You could imagine the guns and bombs going off as people watched in fear and awe. The smell of gunpowder on the air.
It was surprisingly synonymous with the ending of 2020 and the starting of 2021. Things felt bleak. Utterly hopeless. As if the world was on fire and coming for us. The flashes of light and resounding booms did little to tamper the worries of the previous year.
Last night felt different. Fireworks shot off into the sky all evening. Then at midnight, the sky lit up with hundreds of people lighting their own fireworks. You could hear the celebration in the air as a new year in Austria had finally occurred.
Tears stung my eyes as we watched the fireworks continue well past 12:45 and I finally felt true hope for the first time in two years.
Shortly after, I dropped my list in the fire and felt the weight that had been almost collapsing my shoulders and chest for the last two years evaporate. This, for me, was a new beginning and a new year in Austria.
I look forward to what this year holds for Lisa and me. As well as what it holds for Nomadic Inscriptions.
How was your New Year’s Eve? Did it bring about the hope you’ve been looking for? Tell us about it down in the comments!
Until next time travel authentically, travel nomadically, and let the world leave its inscriptions on you as you do on it.
Happy New Year.
