The year 2024 marked a jubilee in my family, and my parents had always talked about doing something crazy when it came. And the time came and we did something crazy. This trip did not go as I would have planned, and in general I would have done quite a few things differently, had I been on my own. However, it was not a “real” trip, it was a family celebration. A complicated one, at that. My parents are both in their 70s and they cannot keep up with a schedule I would plan. Furthermore, they had been in Vienna more than once before, while my sibling had never visited, and I was there in 2017. Thus, a lot of balancing and compromises were needed. I would have made different choices, but after all this was my parents’ celebration, and they had insisted on paying for everything. I think that gave them the right to choose and veto.

We actually started preparation on the 1st of January 2024, almost a whole year in advance. That’s when we started looking at companies to make the trip – and attend the concert. The one everybody watches on TV on New Year’s Day. That concert. In Vienna. At the beginning of February, we signed up for the ticket draw lottery – though, as expected, we did not hit. Chances were extremely slim, but higher than zero.

At that time, we had narrowed possibilities down to two online companies that could get us there. At the end of February, we decided to ask in the travel agency my parents prefer, Viajes El Corte Inglés. There was indeed a trip option, but apparently the tickets for the concert were obscenely expensive, so my parents decided that we should settle down for the second best – the Silvesterkonzert on the 31st, which has the same setlist and musicians. When they say the concert is a once in a lifetime experience, let me tell you that it is.

Around June we had a family meeting to try and make some plans. My sibling stated they wanted to do two things – visit the Spanish Riding School Spanische Hofreitschule, and eat Sacher-torte at Café Sacher. One of my parents had said, half in jest, that they wanted to go to the restaurant where the old TV series Kommissar Rex kicks off – I found the restaurant for them, it was the DO & CO Vienna. My other parent wanted to go one of the palaces. Unfortunately, they kept confusing the Schönbrunn Palace, the Belvedere and the Hofburg. I never got to know which one it was. Neither parent cared about the Sacher nor the Spanish Riding School, though. Thus, I negotiated that we could have one evening separated so my sibling and I could do those things. It was reluctantly accepted on some parts, gladly on others.

Once confirmation had arrived in April, I had set alarms all around on the dates we could start booking for the different events and activities, so we could start moving after things were decided. We ran into a bit of an impasse, because one of my parents wanted to book everything in advance, but they also wanted me to take care of things – those things are not compatible at the same time. My other parent wanted to let everything flow and improvise – not the greatest idea for peak season. I booked the Spanish Riding School on the 23rd of June, and for the Sacher Café on the 3rd of July. My parent booked DO & CO in September and I managed to convince him to book a funny restaurant he wanted to try in November.

We made a general plan for the 29th, full plans for the 30th, and it was decided that we would improvise on the 31st. I did not find this too wise, but I went along with it, because I felt that it was not my trip So even if I wish we had been in another hotel, and or I had bought a little good-luck piggy in a Silvestermarket, or that I had been at the Stephansplatz for the New Year fireworks, it was all right. I would have made some different choices that would have made the whole thing less stressful, though. But it was all right.