Our adventure starts. Really, our adventure started a week ago, when I finished my yoga program, and then 3 days later we moved from our rental house into a house we bought. While in my yoga bubble I tried to totally ignore the reality of another move (I’m not counting, but this is the 5thmove in 7 years….that sounds patently unstable doesn’t it?) I'm officially sick of moving.
We managed to do it all though; pack, organize separate suitcases for the trip, finalize things with the new house and get basic things in the new house set up (like internet, a security system etc.) It was a mad rush. I think coming off the yoga train I was especially chill….so I let a lot of things go, and didn’t let them wear on me. Example. Ava didn’t pack her suitcase until the night before we left. Literally. Two nights before we left she had 6 friends spend the night in our new house, among the chaos and take out food boxes. She dug thru boxes of stuff she’d packed to put together god knows what to finally pack for this trip. As a side note I think I heard her asking if I had extra underwear from the other hotel room a few mins ago…but I’m totally ignoring that. Oh, and she apparently didn’t bring a toothbrush. Is that important?
But I digress. The point is, I let most things roll off my back, including the total chaos that we left behind….box after box, after box—a virtual sea of boxes. It’s the kind of thing that two years would have sent me over the edge and driven me to stay up all night and unpack like a maniac. Not this time. What’s even cooler is that I actually made it to 4 yoga classes last week—I treated it as “medicinal” and necessary.
We were scheduled to take a 7 a.m. flight on Monday morning, but then got an email late on Sunday night saying that the flight was delayed until 10:30 a.m. Then got up to get on that flight at 6:00 a.m., only to find another email saying that the flight was cancelled, and we were rebooked on an Amsterdam flight at 1:30 p.m., with a 6 hour layover before a flight to Venice (which basically means you spend the entire night in the airport—definitely not a sleep friendly situation.) We managed to all get into the über, with all of the stuff we were bringing (such as it was). Ava & Lucia were dressed like two college students after a week long bender in Ibiza. For the record, I said nothing. Well, truthfully not nothing, but I tried harder than normal.
John parted ways in Amsterdam so he could fly straight to Milan to pick up the rental car (we could only pick it up here because we are visiting a big list of countries and most of the rental agencies block one or some of the countries—the one out of Milan didn’t). So it was me and the kiddos for 6 hours, trying to hold it together thru those wee hours of the morning when you feel like all you want to do is pass out. The Amsterdam airport's equivalent of a “food court” had a glorious café with farm fresh vegan friendly, and gluten free friendly foods. Fresh juices, and green smoothies galore….basically my favorite kind of place to eat. The older girls got some sort of baguette sandwiches at another restaurant, Romeo wanted nothing but a smoothie, and Gia….well, she declared she’d have chicken nuggets. Gross, I know. Wouldn’t you know it, next to my beautiful health café was a Burger King polluting the space. Not only that, but the line took no less than 30 mins to get the dried up "maybe-chicken-nuggets" order — it was the most packed place in the whole court. But I did it, because one of the rules of traveling is to stave off fatigue and hunger with the kids at all costs—those two things are a buzz kill to sanity for sure. You can see the pic below...side by side, BK, and the healthy cafe-- ironically with a sign above their drink cooler than said "the future of fast food". Here's to hoping.
So, now we are at the Hilton near the Venice airport, John’s arrived with our rental car and all that’s left is getting a great night’s sleep so we are ready for our drive to Vir, Croatia tomorrow. Let the party begin…..
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