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| The trip - prelude |
| Sunday, March 11, 2012 |
With a week off after the most exciting holiday ever, I thought it would be a piece of cake to write the most detailed trip report ever in the shortest time. But alas, SK proposes God disposes. I have been infected by bacteria and fungi and whatever not in the ear twice over. With clogged ears it is very difficult to think clearly leave alone remember the good times spent in Greece and write about it in the same enthusiasm that we actually felt. So, a week later, all vacation over, boohoo, I am just starting this trip report, to relive beautiful memories in which I will drown the sorrow of spending a week off in sickness.
As a side note before I begin, BSK has had a massive change over since our return or may be during the trip too but we were too busy to notice. She has transitioned from being a cutie pie baby, to actually a little person, with her own wishes, and happiness and anger. She has also become very mobile, giving anyone watching her a run for their money. I guess the honeymoon period has officially ended, tough times are ahead, and I am dreading it, very very much.
With that said, we had a two week gap between in laws leaving and my parents arriving, and in spur of a moment we decided to take an international vacation. Since we had to take the time off anyway to take care of BSK, why not? We knew it was not wise of us to do such a big trip for the very first time with BSK. But we decided to do it anyway. It was February which meant a lot of countries were out, due to the weather. I badly wanted to visit Europe. Our choices were Spain or Greece or Egypt. Due to various reasons we zeroed in on Greece. Our luck, after we booked the tickets Greece was very much the talk of the world, in the news everyday. We made our arrangements on the side, booked hotels and flights and tours. We told a few friends about this trip and they were sacred for us. "be safe" "think twice, you may not be able to do any sight seeing" . A friend also kept forwarding news articles about riots and strikes. I was a bit scared. But I was in touch with some folks in Greece and I learnt that the things were not so bad and that the media always blows things up out of proportion. The same thing happened when I visited Israel sometime ago. Trip advisor is a great place to discuss travel and things to do. Even restaurant and hotel recommendations are available.
The week before the trip was spent looking at the weather sites, hoping and praying it wouldn't rain the week we were there. So essentially we had three things that could go wrong in our trip that we had to watch out for - the weather, the political situation and the baby. Add to that I had a ear infection which got worse two days before the trip. I took my medication with me. I read reports about people losing hearing because of flying with a ear infection, something about the ear failing to equalize the pressure after landing, I don't know how such articles meet only my eyes.
Add to that, in a moment of enthusiasm we decided to visit friend J in NY since we had an overnight layover before heading to Athens. We planned everything in Greece with comfort and baby priority in mind, except NY. NY gave us some headache.
So we tried to pack everything for the baby to keep her as comfortable as possible. We shifted to disposables for the trip obviously. We moved to jars of baby food for travel. We also decided to make her get used to Formula.
Our flight to NY was at 6AM. We bathed BSK the night before and swooped her from her crib before stepping out of the house. We put her in the car seat in the cab while she was still too sleepy to protest. We checked in and reached the gate a happy family. Having the baby gave us some privileges. Early boarding, lot of smiles from the airport staff and fellow passengers. Just as we got comfortable in our seats, with BSK in the baby carrier on me, the pilot announced that the flight will be delayed by 3hrs. 3hrs! Before I proceed Ergo baby carrier was one awesome purchase we did that helped us loads during the trip. Easy to put on and take off, ergonomically sound, no back ache, shoulder ache inducing, so close to you, BSK fell asleep like a baby in it, most of the times. So back to the flight, we spent 3hrs inside the flight playing with BSK, taking turns sleeping. The flight was only 20% occupied when we took off finally, others had got off to other alternatives. We reached NY at 6PM local time. We had rented a car to drive to J's place. We took all our luggage which was a lot, 2 check ins, 4 carry ons and a baby and a stroller, which we never used and easily could have left behind. JFK airport is the most painful airport. We had to get out of the airport, cross the road, we were not ready for the cold, take the air train to the rental cars. Sounds simple enough, but difficult when you didnt anticipate it and with the baby. Finally we got the car. Now we didnt bring the GPS, because of me. My reasoning was, it was only for one day in NY, and we have the iPhone anyway. Bad bad move. We underestimated NY. We had to drive through Manhattan, cross Times Square to get to NJ. Bleah. It was a bad ride. BSK decided to get cranky just then. All through our planning we wanted to avoid just this. We didn't plan NY well. Somehow we reached J's neighborhood. I was sooooooo happy to see J. We were meeting after almost 7 years! We had already lost 3 hrs in the delay, but caught up as much as we could over dinner. J's son is 3months younger than BSK so it was fun watching them interact. Finally it was past midnight when we reluctantly decided to call it a night and sleep. Once we settled down I realized I left my handbag in the car in all the excitement, and the car was parked on the street. Some of our bags were also in the car and somehow I had this insane fear that someone might break in to the car and stealth stuff. So I made a very very pissed off DH go out at 1 in the night to bring the bags :--( hey, better safe than sorry no?
We woke up in the morning at 8:30. We spent some more time yapping, coaxed J against cooking, so we can spend that time yapping some more and ordered pizza. We also started getting ready, feeding and bathing BSK, and doing some packing too. We had thought of leaving by 12 noon, as our flight was at 4:30PM and you never know how the NY traffic might be. We were regretting getting a rental car,a cab would have worked out so much better. As we started driving, BSK was peacefully sleeping, so we were able to navigate better but still all the traffic had me wondering if we would miss the flight. It was an international flight we should give it it's due respect no? And check in 3 hrs ahead of time? But no. We reached the departures at 2pm, DH dropped me and the baby and the luggage and took the tickets and everything with him,to return the rental car. We figured it would be quicker. 2:30 we checked in. We were flying first class, so less line. All time. BSK's first vacation and international trip and she get to fly first class, and she is not even a year old. Since we were late checking in they had already moved us to the next itinerary thinking we missed this flight. They fixed that quickly and we were on our way to security. Security was a hassle, with me carrying the baby DH had to do everything, I helped as much as I could. If BSK got hungry, feeding would just happen on the go. Which made good topic of conversation with airport staff. I called J and told her we made it finally. Priority boarding later we were all set to fly to Athens!
contd - The Trip - Athens |
posted by SK @ 8:18 AM  |
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| 4 Comments: |
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wow..deciding international vacation in spur of the moment..I should totally take inspiration from you.. You go gal! Looking forward to hear more about your fun times at greece.
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Ally, wasnt spur of the moment as such. I think better to travel sooner than later with babies!
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R
WOW, you flew FIRST class ? too much..
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wow..deciding international vacation in spur of the moment..I should totally take inspiration from you.. You go gal! Looking forward to hear more about your fun times at greece.