Why Vienna?

When I tell people our plans I am usually met with two reactions. The first is a mix of envy and excitement, then that is quickly followed by puzzlement as they try to work out why we would pick Vienna out of all the places in the world.

The simple answer is that The Beard grew up there, I fell in love with the city the first time I went and there are plenty of potential career options for me out there.

The slightly longer version of the story is inevitably more complicated!

It all started when we went to Vienna in September 2008 to see The Beard's best friend, who was about to move to the UK for a year to do an MBA. I flew in a week after The Beard and they picked me up from the airport, whisked me to Vienna and within about 3 hours (and after a few cocktails) I was proclaiming my love for the city. These feelings only deepened when we went for a walk around the city the following morning.

At first The Beard wasn't sure. I could completely understand - as much as I love Cornwall and think it is an amazing place, moving back there would feel in some respects like a backward step. We talked more about moving abroad generally. He'd pretty much decided he didn't want to stay in the UK, and I was rapidly warming up to the idea of trying a life in another country. But whereas The Beard is more free spirited than me, I have a reserve and caution that can only be described as British, and felt like I needed something a bit more concrete that we could build a new life upon. Add to that my lack of languages - inevitably moving abroad would involve using something other than English.

So I applied for the Civil Service Fast Track to join the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the idea being that if I got in I'd be posted somewhere, but would get the language tuition etc to go with it. That didn't work out (I didn't make it past the personality test), so we started thinking about alternatives. We looked at a variety of options, including Bermuda!

Ultimately I felt some apprehension at moving halfway across the world without any form of support network. Despite being incredibly independent, I only live 100 miles away from where I grew up and although I don't see my parents that often, I know that they are nearby. Moving out of the country is scary for someone who hasn't ever really lived further than the next county on... So Vienna became a real thought that grew in our minds. Because The Beard spent most of his teen years there, he has a good support network in his best friend's family, plus a couple of others.

I appreciate how lucky this makes us. Plenty of people move abroad without such support networks. It will make life a bit easier for us, especially when we don't have jobs, but I don't intend to rely on them solely, but it'll be a nice start!

Once I started looking into further education opportunities and possibilities, I soon realised that in the field that I am interested in academically, there are career opportunities in Vienna. Suddenly it became a properly viable option.

Now we're almost there, I am absolutely sure this is 100% the right step for us to be making. I don't even know whether I will end up with a job in the field I want, but at least I'll be in the right place to figure it all out. And even if I end up working in a bar for the next year learning German and completing my Masters, I'll have still achieved something.