I went on a Workation to Vienna and that’s how it was
My first ever Workation I went on to Vienna was actually quite a lame experience. But let me start from the beginning.
I’m from Austria, so I figured why not go to its capital Vienna for a test run and see how such a trip might turn out, if I packed in everything I thought I need and if the travel bag I already owned would be enough (hint: it wasn’t, it didn’t have wheels and so I almost ruined my back and shoulder with all the stuff I brought with me). Furthermore, my sister is living in Vienna and so what could go wrong, having her around.
Now thinking back, I see that I even made some Workations before that time before even knowing what that is. I just visited my sister in her apartment, brought some cloths and my laptop with me, and spend a good time with her. I think at this time the word Workation wasn’t even invented yet and so I’m tempted to say that I was one of the pioneers of this movement.
To get a primer on Workations please check this article.
You need to start somewhere
Now back to my first “real” Workation: There are a couple of reasons why it was such a failure. For one, I chose a pretty bad Airbnb. It was my first time on this platform and so I wasn’t that experienced yet. On the photos everything looked pretty nice, but then arriving at the apartment all the niceness was suddenly gone. The place was quite run down for a rather high price and it was on the tiny side. At least it had everything I needed: A bed to sleep, a couch to sit at, a table to work, and a kitchen to cook — all crammed into a tiny apartment, unfortunately.
Actually, the first day was quite enjoyable. It was a holiday, so I had the whole day to walk around, explore the city, and check what I could do in the neighborhood in the next days. My first goal was to get breakfast and I found this lovely place with a good selection of food. But this wasn’t the best part: I went out on this Workation to meet people and to have some lucky encounters, which strangely happened on the first day right away, basically in the first hours of the trip. There was this elder guy sitting next to me who saw that I was reading on my iPad and approached me about his own device which he seemed to have problems with.
But that was only a small part of the conversation in the end. It turned out that he was a cook, and a pretty famous one who had travelled the world pursuing his passion and meeting quite some celebrities while doing that (Schwarzenegger, anyone?). It must have been at least one hour while I listened to him — and the breakfast was good too.
Working, after all
And then reality kicked in. I vividly remember the first working day of my Workation: It was the first day after a long weekend and so I not only had more than enough to catch up with but there was also the “added stress” of being in a totally unfamiliar place, without the usual work gear, no breakfast bought yet, me sitting in this tiny room (which neither was beneficial to my motivation nor inspiration). And to add to that, I also needed to figure out what to do in Vienna. I mean, I was in this awesome city without a plan what to do or where to go. Oh boy, I still get the goose bumps when thinking about this moment …
Another reason why I didn’t enjoy this Workation at first was that I wasn’t ready yet to see all the possibilities of such a trip, working in different places and not sitting in the apartment all day (as I’m anyway doing it at home too, so what’s the point?). Unfortunately, this didn’t change much until I went home again, but it at least gave me a glimpse of what such a trip could actually mean — and I learned a lot from it and did much, much better on my second Workation. I’ll tell you about it another article, stay tuned!
I need to admit that the weather also wasn’t in my favor and so it must have been the third day or so where I finally took the courage and went out to have breakfast and I was so bold to take my work gear with me. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much experience with that yet and the MacBook I had at this time didn’t last very long and the external battery was lame too (and surely there was no power plug nearby). So I ended up having a call with a colleague on the iPad which was also close to being out of power. At least the breakfast I had was delicious, it was a mixture of Indian food I had never tasted before with some Turkish coffee I also hadn’t experienced so far. And then there was sunshine, a lot.
Opportunities
I made all the mistakes you shouldn’t make when being on a Workation but despite all the challenges I tried it again the other day and sat in a cafè near the riverside of the river Danube that flows though Vienna. It must be lovely here in the summer — and it was also the first time when I realized how nasty direct sunlight on a laptop screen can be. But it was still an enjoyable experience, sitting outside, having a lot of people around you, being able to order some cool drinks and freeing your mind in the fresh air.
What I did pretty well on this Workation in Vienna was to explore the city in my free time — I couldn’t wait until I finished work (which was usually quite late, as I stressed out a lot and got less work done than I wanted) to walk around, which I did a lot. I think there must have been no place in the city center that I didn’t see. And I ate a lot of good food, which Vienna is famous for, like Wiener Schnitzel or Gulasch, and drank some good local beer. Then there was also the time I spent with my sister, she even managed to show me some spots I didn’t see before and took me out to an exhibition of Keith Haring in the “Wiener Albertina,” a famous museum.
All in all, my first Workation wasn’t the experience I was looking for and surely not the best prerequisite to go on more such trips. But it didn’t hold me back from going on another similar trip just a month later, that I had already booked and was very excited about (Trieste, Italy, to be precise). It also taught me to plan well on one side, to prevent mental overload when being in an uncommon location, but at the same time be spontaneous and appreciate all the opportunities you have in such a city.
Most of all, it allowed me to see how important it is to get out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself. I had these awesome possibilities as a former employee of Alludo and it would have been nothing short of stupid to not use them and enjoy the given freedom as much as I could.
If nothing else, the trip to Vienna helped me to see what I may have forgotten to pack and in which mistakes I should not repeat again, so it was a useful lesson how NOT to do a Workation. And that alone helped me to enjoy my future trips even more, so I tried to see the positive sides as much as I could. It also made me realize that there is nothing in life that doesn’t happen or a reason.
Would you also like to go on a Workation and avoid the same mistakes I made? I’d love to help you make this trip into an unforgettable experience. Check out my feed on Instagram and send me a message.
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