The Incredible Journey

The good news: we made it home. The bad part was all the bits leading up to that. I mean we enjoyed our time in Istanbul, but it wasn't really needed at the end of a long trip and to do a day of travel and a two day delay without any luggage was a bit of an inconvenience. 

I ended up washing socks and underwear in the sink each night (for those who cared about those details). It was basically civilized Survivor. We had some fun experiences over our two days that I can write about later, but since the power cord to my computer is in my luggage that still hasn't made it to Bahrain (more about that later) I'm limited to typing on my phone, which I hate. 

As we neared the end of our second day we were getting a little antsy about getting to the airport, joking around that we wanted to make sure not to miss our flight this time. We went ahead and took a cab at 4:45 for our 8:30 flight, figuring even though the airport was only 20 minutes away, it was better to wait at the airport than at the hotel. 

Thank God we did, because an hour and a half later I was still stuck in the back seat of our cab with the 4 kids. Each of them getting on my nerves in a different way. Carter complaining that Meels is crushing his balls. Meels sprawled out across 3 laps, accusing people of farting.  Calvin and Bob absorbed in their screens and not caring at all that we were making zero progress toward the airport. Josh was in the front seat, clenching his jaw and trying to stay calm by playing a game on his phone and I was having heart palpitations as the minutes ticked by and the miles didn't. 

It took 2 hours. I'm convinced my fervent prayers cleared the roads for the last few miles and allowed our driver to finally shift out of first gear. We ran into the airport with all our new carry on acquisitions -- Turkish towels and artwork, we know how to shop when we're down. Wearing 3 day old clothing, it felt like we were in the middle of our own remake of Vacation, with extra arguing, but minus the sexual innuendo. 

In my frazzled state the only thing I wanted to do less than get on the plane at that moment was to not get on the plane. 

We did a lot of this right up until we turned in our boarding passes -- not getting caught this time! 

We made it on the plane and sat back in our seats. I'd like to say I was able to relax, but I felt like I was caught in a series of unfortunate events and just needed to hurry up and get home to break the cycle. And as I was sitting there, looking out at the only rain showers we got on our entire trip, I spotted my suitcase being loaded onto our plane. 

Hey! Our suitcases were in Istanbul the entire time? Oh well. At least we won't have to spend time tracking them down at 2am when we land in Bahrain. But then, as the luggage moved up the conveyer belt, one of the airline employees scanned the tag on my bag and pulled it off to the side. Hmm, maybe he was loading the bigger luggage last … until I saw our orange suitcase head onto the plane and the same thing happened. Scanned and pulled aside. I got Josh to get ahold of an attendant to try and stop them, but the flight attendant reported back that the only luggage that was pulled was for a few passengers who didn't show up for the flight. Nope, that was last time. Tonight we are sitting on the plane and those were our bags. But by that time I had seen all 5 suitcases pulled from the line and then hucked unceremoniously through the air into the back of the luggage truck where they tumbled until they banged into the back wall. Jerks. And then they sped off and we took off. 

I'll spare you the details of my tedious 3.5 hour flight which was comprised of a lot of restless squirming in my seat and whispered vows that if I could just get home, I would never leave again. 

Sure enough, the missing bags were ours and supposedly they will be on tonight's flight and will be delivered to us tomorrow, only 4 days later than expected. I'm thankful to have made it out when we did because Istanbul is getting snow today, more tomorrow, and Turkish Air has been cancelling flights all day. Thank God we aren't facing further delays or I'd be having a serious breakdown in the Istanbul airport right now. Instead I'm wrapped up in my new Turkish robe, catching up on the Survivor finale, and eating Trader Joe's chocolates from a care package from someone who loves me. All is well in my world. 

Community Chest: Take a detour … in Istanbul

Otherwise known as Do not pass GO, do not collect $200

I'm putting this here so I can tell the story and then forget about it. I had just been thinking earlier in the day, as we made the long trek from Bavaria, by train, to Munich, that we are such cautious travelers that we'd rather give ourselves plenty of time and wait at the airport end rather than spend a little more time at the hotel and risk running into a late train or bus that might cause us to miss our flight. 

So we did. We arrived 3 hours early for our Munich flight and had a 2 hour layover in Istanbul so no need to worry about making the connection this time. And yet, here we are in a hotel in Istanbul for the next 2 days. 

The dumb airline (Turkish Air, who we used to love to fly, but no more after all the problems on our recent flights on this trip) posted the gate number about an hour before takeoff. We waited until the board flashed the message GO TO THE GATE next to the listing for our flight and then headed over. We waited in the gate area (where there are no signs) and sometime during those 20 min they changed the gate, but no one said anything. Not the gate agents, no announcement, nada. 

They didn't even make an announcement about the destination of the flight we were "boarding," they just started collecting passes and it was only when we got to the front of the line that the gate agent saw our tickets and said, "oh, your gate changed," (to one that was a 5 minute sprint away). We sprinted, but by then it was too late. 

So then Turkish Air was unhelpful and said that it was our responsibility to check the sign again (really? When we are only 10 min from departure?) and charged us to rebook our flights (the No Show fee was the part that really irritated me) and … surprise! The flight is booked for tomorrow, but we can get you on the one 2 days from now. 

After a few frantic calls to Josie to ask her to go back to our house to watch the pets (God bless her) and Josh's work to extend leave we found ourselves in the Istanbul airport with the clothes on our back and no plans for the next 48 hours. 

Everyone would have rather been on our way home, but we pulled some lira out of the ATM, found a taxi that would take us downtown (Egypt-style, all 5 of us in the back and Josh up front) and we had him drop us off in the part of Old Town that we know well from our previous trips and we went hunting for a place to stay. 

I'm thankful to be writing this from a comfortable and warm bed, with 2 sleeping kids in this room and 2 others a floor below. I'm thankful we have an emergency fund that covered this big surprise and I'm happy we are stranded in a city that I know like the back of my hand. 

Now to decide what to do over the next 2 days. And then hopefully, inshallah, we will get home. 

Planes Trains and Autobuses

Traveling to Bavaria
3:30 this morning. An ungodly hour. Why are we doing this again? Because I love my kids and they want to go skiing this second week of vacation. So we have to get up and out of Budapest on the first flight so that we can get to Munich and then take the 2 hour train ride to southern Germany so that they can get fitted for their ski/snowboard equipment this afternoon to be ready to ski tomorrow morning. We made it from the cab to the plane to the train to the other train and now I’m falling asleep at 10am as our train winds through the countryside. And I’m going to have energy to get up and do snowsports tomorrow? Sleeping in, sitting by the fire, and reading a book all sound preferable at this moment. 

We made it to Munich. Everyone looks wiped out. 

The commuter train from the airport to downtown. Making themselves at home. Thankfully it is early on a Sunday morning and the train is almost empty. 

We made it to Munich and transferred to the regional train to Garmisch. I'm so grateful that we first did this trip in the summer -- all the transfers with extra luggage this trip were seamless. 

It looks like fall here, not winter. It’s cold and the leaves are brown, but the grass is still green and there is no snow. And none in the forecast either. I guess we brought Bahrain weather to Germany — it’s projected to be 55 instead of 32.

We arrived in downtown Garmisch and wheeled all our luggage across the street to wait for the public bus. It's only 11am, but since we've been on the road since 4am, it feels like a long day already. No since in taking a cab since the bus stops right outside the back gate of our hotel. 

Because we haven't traveled enough today, we arrived at the hotel, had them hold our luggage until check-in time and set out on foot for the 3k walk to the ski lodge to get fitted for our ski equipment. 

We passed a Christmas tree lot -- it seems that everyone here (and in Budapest) waits to buy their trees until the week before Christmas. 

If we weren't hoping for snow, this would be perfect weather. 

We took care of all the details for our ski week and then walked home. The kids loved "skating" on all the puddles and stomping on them and trying to crack the ice. 

Classic Bavarian house with a yard full of chickens. 

The sun rises at 8am and sets at 4pm. It's 3pm, but getting dark fast.

Night, night Bavaria!

skiing day 2

I haven't been taking any photos because I've been busy in my own ski school, but tomorrow I'm going to try and get some photos of the kids skiing/snowboarding. I was going to attempt it while going up the tow lift, but between juggling gloves and being pulled up the mountain, I was afraid I'd either drop my phone, cross my skis and fall down, or somehow end up looking like an idiot. 

It's really fun to be skiing on the same hill that Calvin, Josh and Carter are snowboarding on and being able to see them improve over the course of the day and this afternoon Caleb "graduated" to our big hill so I got to watch him ski with his group too!

I snapped this one before we headed out for the day

This is called the "magic carpet" it's an inclined moving walkway that you ride to the top of the kiddie hill -- kind of like the long flat people movers in the airport. 

Camille coming off the ramp at the end of the walkway

When we picked her up after school she was ready to show off again. 

Even better than yesterday! She was proud she could weave through the "lollipops." 

trying to follow her down the hill -- she's fast! She was telling me that her legs get tired so she goes down the hill and then asks her teachers if she can take a break to play in the snow. After every run. Oh goodness. 

ski school

I guess it's a been a pretty busy vacation since I haven't had time to write about it. Lots of thoughts, but not a lot of energy to share them from all the walking and adventuring we've been doing. (I think Josh estimated that we walked 60 miles the week we were in Budapest -- average of 8 miles/day, one day was 12 miles.)

Today was our first day of skiing and it couldn't have gone any better. The three boys were excited, Camille and I were not as excited. She's been saying for months that she's nervous about skiing and yesterday when we arrived she was in tears at registration. Literally crying about it. I was ready to bail for the both of us because I was fine with the idea of skiing, but since Europe has been having an extra warm winter, there's no snow on the bottom of the mountain so all the skiing is taking place way UP, UP, UP and requires a gondola ride to get to the snow.

I was measuring the tradeoff between easy mornings, sleeping in and lazing around the hotel OR being put in a tiny swinging box suspended by a wire and it seemed like an easy decision -- I'll "sacrifice" and not ski myself so Camille can stay home. Besides, she's only 5. Why would I be a mean mom and make her go to ski school all day with strangers when she's petrified?

I'm pretty sure that Josh could see through my rationalizing because he talked Camille into trying it for at least the first day. Oh Lord, I'm going to have to get into one of those boxes. And then get back in another one to get off the mountain.

Funny enough, or maybe not if you know her, as soon as she found out that she got special gear to wear she became a lot more excited about skiing and all her nervousness vanished. Not content with her skis, boots and helmet, she wanted pink goggles. I told her if she did the first day of ski school like a big girl, I would get her goggles. 

Also excited about his snowboard for the week. He claims he's going to shred the mountain. He's a big talker and full of confidence. 

The next morning we dropped her off for ski school -- the 5 to 7 year olds have a special room where they color and watch movies while they wait for everyone to arrive, then they build snowmen and have snowball fights before going to ski. She was a little tentative, but not nervous. 

If she can do it, so can I! I was determined to not be nervous about riding up the mountain so I chatted with my other Adult Beginner skiers in my group and pretended I was somewhere else. Easy peasy. It moved pretty fast so I as least could be content that it would be over as soon as possible. 

At the top this adorable German mom had a toddler with a sled and a baby in this moses basket sled. She had a vest and straps so she could tow the baby around the mountain. 

The runs themselves had plenty of snow, but in-between the slopes was grass and dirt peeking through. It's all man-made, but there's enough of it. The nice part is because it's so warm we only had to wear a shell and I didn't need gloves until after lunch. The ski instructors joked that we were getting spring skiing in December. 

On the beginner hill going up the tow rope. I was in a class with 7 other adult beginning skiers. Josh, Calvin and Carter were all together learning to snowboard, and Caleb was in the youth skiing class. At the end of the day, everyone had had a great time and was happy to go back tomorrow. 

Plenty of snow at the top of the beginner hill. 

Josh in the neon helmet, working on his turns. It was fun to be in different groups, but to be able to see each other on the hill -- as I zoomed past the snowboarders all grouped together on their butts halfway down over and over again. I asked Josh why their class stood around in groups and tried to crash into each other, but I guess they weren't supposed to do the crashing part. Snowboarding is tough on day 1. 

Carter, not quite carving yet . . . 

We picked Camille up at the end of ski school and she was anxious to put her skis back on and show me that she could ski down the hill by herself. I was impressed she could put her skis on by herself! Those ski instructors are worth every penny. 

Showing off her skills. Caleb is in the blue jacket and comes down the hill first, then Camille is the pink bomb that I'm following. She earned her goggles. 

#selfiesof6arehard

On our way back down the mountain. The gondola isn't so scary anymore. 

Back to the lodge to change and store our gear for tomorrow 

We did a quick change at the hotel and then headed into town for dinner. We had plans to meet Josh's friend who is in the German military who lives in Garmisch -- they went to school together in Monterey. 

This town is adorable on any given day, but lit up for Christmas? It's like a scene out of a movie. 

We met up with Josh's friend and family at the Christmas Market -- drank hot wine, ate melted cheese on bread, 

and of course Germany is where you get the biggest and best Bratwurst. 

We headed back to the hotel early and sent everyone to bed so we're all rested for another day on the mountain tomorrow. 

A King Midas kind of day

It's almost impossible to top Day One in Budapest, but there's a lot left on my list to see and do. Since it's another overcast day we decided to stay on this side of the Danube river and save the views of Buda for tomorrow. This place used to be two cities: Buda, the hills on one side of the river and Pest, the flatlands on the opposite bank, until they joined back in 18 hundred and something or other to form Budapest (pronounced "Pesht").

We slept in again -- the sun isn't rising until about 7:30. Perfect for a relaxing vacation and such a nice break from home where the sun rises at 6 am even on the short days of December. Thank God for Josh who has been making breakfast for everyone before I've even opened my eyes.

After breakfast we headed out to the large market right around the corner from our house. Gorgeous displays of vegetables, cheeses and meats and magnets, potholders, gloves, and t-shirts that say things like "Communism is a party," and any other tchotchkes you can think of branded with "Budapest" or "Hungry for Hungary."

Since I was having second thoughts about my lack of layers, we stopped back by the house where chaos ensued -- we are staying in an apartment with a code for the front door and of course everyone fights over who gets to input the stupid code. I don't even know the code myself since one of the kids has done it every time since we've arrived. I'll be locked out in the cold if they ever aren't with me. Anyway, tears and fighting over the dumb code and threats to leave them at the apartment because they are ruining my vacation happened, but we finally got things worked out and instituted a ban on two particular children not being allowed to have contact with each other for the rest of the day.

Yay for family time!

We set out again for the metro and on our way to our first stop Josh made a new friend. A guy was promoting tours and Josh asked him where he was from because he could hear that he spoke English with an Arabic accent. He was from Tunisia and then he and Josh chatted in Arabic on the street corner until Josh could pull away.

We went to St. Stephen's church, known for having a mummified hand of St. Stephen that sounded a lot more interesting than it was in real life. The church was huge and beautiful and ornate, all red marble and gold, but a bit strange because the main statue/sculpture up front was Stephen himself (not Stephen from the Bible, a different one) and all the areas to pay tribute to Jesus were off on the sides.

Anyway, the best part of the church was our hike to the top -- round and round and round up a million steps and then coming out on the turret that surrounds the main dome, looking out over the roofs of Budapest. Amazing views, even through the mist.

It reminds me of Mary Poppins and the chimney sweeps . . . 

the Parliament building

They want to go on "the eye" (big freaky ferris wheel in the background). I'll be passing on that one.

 

One of the Christmas Markets in the square below -- with a blue Christmas tree and an ice skating rink in the center. 

After descending the tower we explored the market in front of the church. Lots of booths with handmade crafts and souvenirs and hot wine was sold in every other stall. 

Hey, a nativity scene! It's been a while since we've seen one of these. 

Smoking fresh salmon over hot coals

Warming up with hot tea and mulled wine

After a short break we headed over to the Parliament building. Yes, it was a hike, but I wanted to see the river so we walked down toward the water and the Chain Bridge. Caleb had to stop and see if the lions really were missing their tongues (from Hannah's Cold Winter -- they are!) and then we walked down the river to the HUGE Parliament building.

Josh got tickets and we had about an hour so we went around the corner to grab lunch at a cozy cafe.

The tour lasted about 45 minutes and it was gold, more gold, long hallways, gold ceilings . . . lots of gold. All the gold that is overhead and out of reach is actually gold -- the bits that are down low are paint.

My camera never captures the sparkle nor the brightness of these interiors, but I keep trying. 

The brass fixture at the bottom is a cigar holder so back when they used to be able to smoke inside, peeps could leave their cigars burning outside the meeting room while they went in to vote. 

The voting room -- students were in session doing a mock government exercise. 

Right on the Danube. What a beautiful place to work. 

Since we were on an opulent roll, we decided to walk over to the opera house to see if there were any tickets left for the Nutcracker. They've been sold out for months, but I wanted to see if anyone had canceled and turned some in to be resold.

No such luck. But the building itself is beautiful, gold leafed, and worth a visit. No more tours for us today though. Too tired.

We opted to walk up the street to the Alexandra bookstore and cafe to rest our feet. Hot chocolates and cappuccinos for everyone with live piano music and gold painted mirrors and ceilings. super fancy. If it seems that we are drinking our way through Budapest, that's because we are. If we're not stopping for coffee, it's to fill our cups with some hot wine. It's freezing here.

Not your neighborhood Barnes & Noble . . . 

Chili, mint and dark hot chocolate. All great choices. (I had to taste them all)

We headed home to warm up and grab dinner. We tried to go to one restaurant on our street, but it was booked with a party so Bob pointed out a pub a few doors down that looked interesting. We went in and had some comfort food -- goulash, pickles, red wine and sweet crepes for dessert. 

Pickles!

All warmed up from the inside out and home to bed.
(We walked over 10 miles today!)