The first week of my husband’s leave from work was mainly spent with my in-laws. They came down to Graz and stayed with us for a few days. While they were here, we went to see a couple of places with them and there was a day when we all went down to Italy. It was just a day’s trip. First, we drove to Ljubljana, Slovenia and ate lunch there and since Trieste, Italy is just about an hour away from Ljubljana, we decided to go there and have an ice cream just like my husband and I did last spring. Then, on the way back north to Austria, we stopped by Maribor, Slovenia and ate dinner there. It was a really nice day with the whole family.

The second week was spent in Lower Austria and Vienna. We’ve been visiting some friends there and it was all cool except for one thing. My husband’s car just won’t start at some point. It’s really a total “kill joy” because we are planning to have another trip to Croatia next week. Now, we will always worry about whether the car can make it or will it just die on us again.

My husband’s car is a 13 year old Audi A4. It is a very good car but we have to admit, it is old. Sooner or later we will need a more reliable car and that is something we can’t afford at the moment. Before buying our place, we said that we won’t take loans except the one we need for the house and until now, we still follow that decision.

I suggested that we get a brand new car we can afford. It doesn’t matter if it is not one of those known brands but that, internet, it is not an option for my husband who works for the car industry and who believes that if he would buy a car he would buy it from the market which he works for (the European car industry ie; BMW, Audi, Mercedes, VW, and so on). But the thing is, even the secondhand cars from these brand are expensive. Of course, there are also cheap ones but I bet that the cheap ones are in the same state like that of my husband’s current car—crappy. And who wants a crappy car?