Our Home Away from Home in NYC

In traveling, the one thing I can definitively say we have learned is it's all about location…location, location, location!  We not only loved the location of the apartment we were able to stay in while living in New York City, but we loved the apartment itself.  The family who rented us the apartment had a girl and a boy a couple of years older than Amelie and Liam.  This meant that the room was set up perfectly with tons of toys to make us feel at home and comfortable for our stay.  Not only were the kids comfortable, but Bobby and I slept the best we have slept in years on the most comfortable king size bed.  Keep in mind that most of the places we have traveled come equipped with futons or very old mattresses.  We truly felt completely at home in this apartment.

The bunk beds could not have been a more perfect fit!

Liam spent hours playing with the trains.  He LOVED the trains!!  I would have fun building high bridges for him too!

Amelie enjoyed the Barbie house and the bin full of Barbies and Barbie clothes.

We also enjoyed living in a building with a doorman who we spoke to going and coming everyday, and a laundry in the basement.  At first I was disappointed that the laundry was not housed in the apartment, but I learned that no one has this commodity living in the city.  Being able to come and go to the basement to do laundry was a luxury, and I was glad I didn't have to use a local laundry mat!

View from our bedroom window.

Amelie at the entrance of the building.

The kids LOVED the revolving door.  I was always so nervous someone was going to get hurt, but no one did.  They were both very careful.  Many times arriving home, the kids would sprint down the walkway, through the revolving door, past the doorman, and end at the elevator way ahead of us.

Since we had our car, Bobby had to learn the parking game.  Every Monday and Thursday between 9 and 10 a.m., he would have to sit in the car to move it for the street sweeper while not losing his spot near our building.  Saved us a lot of money to park on the street for free though!

The location was also fabulous as it was in the Upper East Side, which is a very family friendly neighborhood.  We were walking distance away from Carl Schurz Park, Central Park, The MET, and of course a Subway stop that took us all over the city!

The red dot is our location. 

Our walk along the river to Carl Schurz Park.  I really enjoyed the walk.

We spent a number of times playing at Carl Schurz Park.  It was the perfect place for me to take them while Bobby was playing the parking game or working.  The playground was large and had a sprinkler in the center.  At times, a Parks & Rec employee would be present with various crafts for the kids to do.  Amelie made an awesome glitter cat one day.  Liam and Amelie enjoyed playing with water balloons provided by various kids too.

Bagel Bob's was close to our apartment and made the best bagels!  We treated ourselves a couple of times to this delicious breakfast of bacon, egg, and cheese on an everything bagel.

Our hosts have offered to let us come for a month every summer, which is a very tempting offer!!

Our Last *New* Surroundings for this Trip

Can you believe that we are in our last city of our almost year long trip in Europe?  Bobby and I were talking today about how much time and effort we had devoted to preparing and planning for this trip.  Selling our house, selling our stuff, planning the cities, booking the apartments has all taken a good amount of our time.  It is crazy that all for what we have prepared and planned is almost over.  However, I guess it is not really over as we still have an open book as to what our future will hold. 

"We have learned a lot" is really an understatement, but it is so true.  Even as we settle into this new city we are reminded about how far we have come since we first started arrived to Paris.  Croatia is certainly the most foreign country we have lived in as the language is very difficult to decipher.   We have settled in nicely to our new home.  We love the area as we are living within the walls of 1700 year old palace ruins.  The harbor is extremely close allowing for pleasant walks along the Riva.  We have easily accessible grocers nearby as well as fresh markets too.  There are truly beautiful views everywhere we look it seems!

Houses built upon the rocks.

Bell tower of the cathedral of Saint Domnius.
The bell tower is the city's main symbol and can be seen in many of our pictures.
The bell tower was built in 1100 AD. 

This 24-hour clock was added in the 14th century on the west wall of the palace on the already existing church, Our Lady of the Bell.

One of the first things we do as we settle into a new area is check out the nearby playgrounds to determine which one(s) will be the best to frequent.  There are not many playgrounds in our area.  There is one near the beach and another on the opposite side near the harbor.  We frequent the one that allows us to walk along the water near the harbor.  We have not done very many touristy activities as we are pacing ourselves with the ending of the school semester.  We will have some time off for Thanksgiving Break as well as Winter Break that will allow us to have plenty of time to explore the area.

The playground is dinosaur themed.  The tail of the dinosaur makes me nervous as Liam climbs, but so far my rock climbing spotting skills have saved his life a couple of times. ;)

Amelie and Liam loving the see-saw action.  I am sad to admit that my quads have been sore from all the action....

As I mentioned before, we enjoy walking on the Riva.   One of our favorite things to do on the Riva is to purchase fritules with chocolate to share.

The street from our house to the Riva.  You can see the sea in the distance.  We live in Old Town which means that the streets are pedestrian only...so fun when you have little ones that want to walk everywhere!

Eating a snack while watching the sun set.  A good late afternoon stroll!

We like walking through the streets at night.  It reminds us a lot of Venice!

Our apartment is very nice and suits us well. We have available to us the essentials: coffee maker, washing machine, dishwasher (listed in order of importance...haha!).  We have a dishwasher again which has been amazing!  The kids room is upstairs while the rest of the living area is on the main floor.  Although I hit my head constantly on the slanted ceiling, it is really a nice large open space that allows for good play time.  Since it is above our living room, I do not have to worry about the running and jumping for neighbors underneath. 

Amelie reading to Liam in the living room.

Amelie counting how many days left until we head to the States on her count-down calendar posted on the refrigerator.

Amelie and Liam's messy bedroom.  Liam is pointing out his bed.  It's a large pack-n-play type bed. He can climb in and out which is why we keep it up against Amelie's bed.  She also loves having the little table for her art work.

Eating breakfast.  I love the view of our patio and neighboring stone buildings.

Liam has recently said that he wants to go to a "normal house."  When I ask him what is a "normal house" he says, "I don't know."  I am so thankful that they have been able to feel right at home wherever we have parked ourselves.  I guess this could serve as a warning with Christmas approaching and visiting.  We also might have to shop from now on at IKEA to feel at home as most of our furnishings have been from IKEA. ;)  I am glad that we ended up in Split, Croatia.  It's a great city on which to end this trip.

Normalcy in the Adventure

I am thankful that our kids have remained happy, flexible, and have seemed to enjoy this adventure. I understand from other family travelers that this does not always happen with young travelers.  Changing home environments, trying new foods, coupled with the rigor of sight-seeing and learning from new cultures can just throw some kids into an over-stimulated, not knowing what to expect frenzy. We have had our moments of whining, have experienced pure exhaustion; but we have not had any meltdowns to date (fingers crossed we can make it the duration without any).

So, what factors do I think have made the difference? First, keeping some normalcy in the craziness. In each city that we stay in we have a "house."  We call it home while we are living there.  We have the kid's room and our bedroom.  In addition, we have done the same nightly routine since we brought the kids home from the hospital.  We eat dinner, do bath time, read stories, pray, sing, sleep. We have not varied from this except when it is absolutely necessary.

Amelie and Liam are sharing a bedroom again in Valencia.  

We also throw into our schedule things that we would be doing if we were actually home like frequenting the playground or watching a movie together. This also includes cooking foods that are familiar like spagetti and black beans/rice.  We have learned when to push our kids to be flexible in the midst of new things, but also when to embrace familiar things too.  I'm still learning that it's all about a good balance.

Liam packing his toys in the apartment in Lisbon.

So, moving day always is an exciting day full of unknowns and apprehensions as to what the new place (city and home) will be like.  On Sept 7th, we loaded up in a taxi to head to the Lisbon airport at 9:30 a.m. (this is a much more respectable hour than our 3:00 a.m. trip to Lisbon).  We ate a delicious McDonald's breakfast in the airport with nata's for our dessert.  We just had to enjoy nata's one last time.  The plane ride was quick...1 hour.  Once we arrived in Valencia we did not have a good way to communicate with our hosts so we took a chance and just showed up at the apartment.  After trying every buzzer on the intercom without any luck, a resident felt pity on us and let us (and all of our luggage) into the building.  Bobby then proceeded to go from floor to floor, door to door, trying to ask in broken Spanish if anyone knew our hosts.  We finally had luck and were able to text our hosts who showed up within a couple of minutes to let us in and show us around.  The couple is around our age with a 20 month old boy and another baby on the way.  We enjoyed trying to talk to them in our broken Spanish and their broken English while our kids made themselves at home by running from one end of the apartment to the other.  (Have you noticed a theme that my kids love to run?)

We learned how to use the appliances, where to hang the laundry, where to take out the trash, how to work the A/C (yes, we finally have A/C again!), and a couple of recommendations of what to do/where to eat nearby.  We were pretty pleased with our new place.

We now hang our laundry out doors.  It is over an enclosed private patio.  After being here 2 weeks, I have only lost a couple of clothespins but no clothes.  We did have a bird pooping fiasco the other day so that is a bummer to have to re-wash, but the clothes usually dry super fast outside in the sun. 

One of our favorite features is the coffee machine.  You press a button and it grinds the coffee beans and then makes your coffee.  After drinking dissolved coffee in Lisbon, this coffee is like gold!

Our hosts were kind enough to offer us a cot, high chair, beach umbrellas, and these large foam puzzle pieces.  The kids have loved making tunnels, hop-scotch, bus stops, basketball goals, robot outfits, and more.

We love the balcony and our location.  We love listening to the bells chime from the nearby church,  we love being so close to the beach and harbor (you can see the water at the end of the street), we love watching the bikes driving by on the bike path seen in green, and more.

I love Valencia.  It is a beautiful city.  Instead of taking public transportation, we have rented bikes for the month.  The city is extremely biker friendly with bike lanes and Turia park for easy access to all points of the city.  I really love Valencia. ;)

Our New Destination: Lisbon

"He who would travel happily must travel light." - Antoine de Saint Exupery

Leaving Edinburgh with one less suitcase was a smart move on our part. We are now traveling with one suitcase, a pack, a carry on bag, and our laptop bag.  Truly, it is much better to travel with less then to think of every possible scenario and try to pack accordingly.

"Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey."- Fitzhugh Mullan

To make our 7:15 a.m. flight out of Edinburgh, we had to leave at 4:00 in order to catch the bus to the airport.  We were all very tired by the time we reached the apartment in Lisbon around noon.  We dragged ourselves to a nearby grocery store and bought food for lunch.  We all took a long nap and felt much better.  Once we woke up, Bobby and the kids headed to check out the nearby playgrounds while I unpacked and tried to help us feel settled.

"There are no foreign lands.  It is the traveler only who is foreign."  - Robert Louis Stevenson

We are back to feeling out of place and clueless.  We stick out with our light skin and blonde hair children.  The first phrase we have learned:  não falo português.  This means I do not speak Portuguese.   However, I think we have learned how to just jump right in and try to learn and accept that we will become more familiar as time goes by.  

"To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as it is for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted." - Bill Bryson   

The apartment we are staying in for the month has a lot of wonderful features.  First, it is much bigger with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.  It has a bathtub!  One of the bedrooms is set up for a little girl with lots of fun toys to play with.  There is a laundry room to be able to hang clothes.  In addition, we have an office space with a proper desk and chair.   I have had to learn how to use a different washing machine and dishwasher (with buttons all in a different language) as well as how to make coffee in a different way.

View of our living room and actual dinning room table.

Liam is in the office reading a book.

Amelie doing crafts in her room at her desk.

Toys found in Amelie's room.

Just finished with a nice bath.  I had been traveling with hooded kids towels but took them back to the States in June.  This apartment has nice kids hooded towels!  :)  It's the little things that makes mommas happy. 

Laundry room with drying rack on a pulley system.  I love having the separate space.

Liam dressing up with my hat, Amelie's necklace, and Bobby's shoes.  Yes, he does need his own pants on but let's not mention that. ;)

"Traveling is a brutality.  It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends.  You are constantly off balance.  Nothing is yours except the essential things - air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky - all things tending toward the eternal or what we imagine of it." - Cesare Pavese

With it being so hot, we did spend one day (Aug 10th) walking to IKEA in search of air conditioning as well as a fan for our apartment.  We also ended up buying plastic plates, bowls, and cups for the kids along with a 11 Euro highchair for Liam.  It was another all day affair of lots of walking, but we are glad to have a fan around the house.  We also enjoyed eating yummy meatballs! 

"One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things." - Henry Miller

Did we do enough?

With the approaching of our departure from Scotland, Bobby and I both kept asking each other, “Is there anything else you wanted to do?”  We like to do and see as much as possible, but there is no way we will be able to see and do all that a city has to offer.  In these last two days the Edinburgh Festival was in full swing.  I am going to do another post of pictures of the performers filling the Royal Mile with their acts.  There was so much variety, it has to be seen to be believed.

On my plane rides back and forth to the States, I read the first Harry Potter book.  (Yes, I know I am a bit late on that craze.)  So, I wanted to see the birth place of the Harry Potter books.  We even saw the actual school, George Heriot, for which she based her description of Hogwarts. 

We made it through Greyfriars Kirkyard to see the statue of the most faithful dog in the world.  This dog became known as Greyfriars Bobby because he supposedly spent 14 years guarding the grave of his owner until he died himself in 1872.  Now that is loyalty!

We enjoyed our time in Scotland.  We had amazing weather during the majority of our stay.  It was cold, but for more days than are typical it was sunny.  Although our apartment was small, I will miss it and the area.  I have found that moving on to another city is fun and hard at the same time.   I enjoy having familiarity with my surroundings and having a semblance of a routine, but I look forward to learning new routines too.  I loved Scotland and the beauty of this city.  Bobby was getting antsy because he was especially ready for a new challenge.  However hard it is to say goodbye, we all are ready for new adventures that await us in a new country not yet explored by us. 

Here are some fun shots of the outside of our building and the street that we lived:

This is the back of our building.  We lived on the 5th floor.    Too many times, one of us would forget the keys and the other would throw them down from the window. :)

Walking back home towards the front of the apartment. 

The entrance to our apartment.  

I loved this building.  It was across the street from the local grocery store. I loved the detail.  Built in 1864! 

Liam jumping off on his own. 

Amelie waiting while dad had to run up to the apartment to get something.  We do a lot of waiting. :)