Sunday, May 16, 2010

Travel Craziness

The last 3-4 weeks have been nothing short of crazy. My U.S. trip (and Target visit) was not as exciting as anticipated, given the wonderful volcanic eruption in Iceland and related canceled and re-routed flights, lost luggage, and unexpected extended stay...although I was lucky (or unlucky I guess) to have even gotten a flight out in the first place -- my flight out was the day of the eruption so some were still going and I was (sadly) persistent enough to get on another flight to the U.S....This is my U.S. travel nightmare in a nutshell, because I am too exhausted to recount it in detail at the moment.

I was only home from the U.S. a couple of days before having to travel to Greece for a business meeting and short holiday...trust me, it sounds great, but it wasn't very relaxing and we managed to get out just before the economy-related strikes and protests (and further cancellation of flights) got underway. Note to travelers: Athens is NOT a nice city. It is extremely polluted and just not very nice, i.e. not a lot to see/visit, not a very walkable city, etc - sorry that I cannot elaborate further, butif you have specific questions, I can answer them :) . My suggestion is to spend 1-2 days maximum in Athens to visit Acropolis and museums, then head to a nice island somewhere. We headed to a nearby island which was great, but next time I will be flying directly to one of the islands!

Finally, 2 days after our return from Greece, my family (dad + stepmother + 2 toddler siblings) arrived for a 2 week visit!! We took a family roadtrip to southern Germany - the Bavarian region - for a week and drove ALL around upper Bavaria...very tiring to say the least, but I am happy to have seen some new towns...strikingly religious down there!

At this point in time, as I sit here and type away, my family are all out visiting the Keukenhof flower gardens and I am staying home to rest, because at almost 5 months pregnant, I need a BREAK from all of this. The pregnancy is just now starting to 'hit' me and I can't walk around as much as I used to! Aaah!!!

I am definitely looking forward to my life returning to normal. I need it to normalize a little, so that I can actually begin to grasp the next adventure ahead - having a baby. Even at 5 months, it's hard for me to get my head around and I definitely need some down time to mentally prepare and also to get everything else ready! 20 week ultrasound in 2 weeks! Yay!

I will also post travel photos soon! Stay tuned....