So we packed our suitcases with the things that we would need over the next 6 weeks, then they packed our things into an air shipment and an ocean shipment. The air shipment things would be sent by plane so that they would arrive more quickly. The ocean shipment is sent on a massive ship across the sea. Where some Italian company will collect our belongings and deliver them to our apartment on the day we choose. The fact that all of this works out seems crazy to me.
So after a very long day where 4 nice men packed up and hauled off all of our earthly belongings, we spent a day in Virginia at my parents house and then flew to Kansas City to visit Josephs parents for a few days. Then back to Virginia to get all of the last minute things done, like buy and pack peanut butter and Jasper's pacifiers (who knows if they have the only brand that my amusingly particular son will suffer in Italy, and that is not a risk I was willing to take). Also, gorging ourselves on all of our favorite American foods that we won't really be able to find in Italy, Mexican food, hamburgers and fries and BBQ.
Then, on March 4 with two one-way tickets in hand we filled up the back of my Dad's pick up truck (we had 8 pieces of luggage) and headed to Dulles Airport. We had a very nice skycap man load up all of our luggage onto a cart and bring it inside for us.
Our flight left at 10pm. We had our long leg to Frankfurt first.
Oh, also just so you know they don't do pre-boarding for people with infants anymore. So you are standing in a crowd of people forever trying to board the plane, and then on the freezing cold jetway as a line has backed up since apparently it takes forever for people to stash their carry-ons.
Thankfully, many prayers were answered and Jasper slept for most of the flight while I held him and barely even made a peep. I was so nervous about the long flight.
We even got lucky and had the whole row to ourselves. Although then someone who was so sick he looked like he wanted to die sat down in the aisle across from us. Paranoid about getting sick Joseph and I basically sat on top of each other as close to the window as we could get to try and get as far away from the sick man as possible. I even tried to cover Jaspers head as much as possible to try and filter out the air. It seemed to have worked because we all managed to escape the flight without getting deathly ill.
Then after arriving in Frankfurt we had a connection and just a one hour flight to Milan. It should be said that the Germans were much nicer to us on account of us having a baby. They let us board the flight first, they gave Jasper a little rattle toy when we boarded, and they also had a special baby seat belt for him which was pretty funny.
When we landed in Italy we knew we had a driver waiting for us, which was a huge relief. However, it didn't change the fact that now we had to get ourselves and all of our luggage off of the baggage claim and through customs. I loaded Jasper into the BabyBjorn, we loaded up two push carts with luggage and we were each pulling a piece of luggage behind us. We looked hilarious. So hilarious in fact that the Italians on the other side of customs were looking and laughing at us, with no attempt to hide it. Fortunately, our driver was very prepared and he showed up with a large luxury van and dropped us at our apartment. There was also fortunately another man waiting for us at our sublet to help us carry all of our luggage up to our apartment. Or, rather, put one piece of luggage at a time in the elevator, because the elevators here are tiny!
All in all we made it and things couldn't have gone more smoothly. We were tired but excited to be in Italy. We had survived our first transatlantic flight with a baby (that in itself was a miracle).
No comments:
Post a Comment