First Stop - Copenhagen, Denmark

(July 3, 2014) We've been to Copenhagen before so this was actually a great first stop for us. Less pressure getting off the boat at a particular time plus getting an idea of the procedure for disembarking. As expected, it was a fairly streamlined process. Royal Caribbean has been doing this for quite some time, they've got these procedures down to a science.

For a little background, Copenhagen was founded in the 10th century and was originally a Viking village.  It only became the capital of Denmark in the 15th century.  It's also one of the richest cities in the world.  Given it's location and the fact that in the winter there are only 1-2 hours of sun per day (because of precipitation, not because it's dark), obviously these people are spending their days in the office making money.  I can't say I blame them. From March til May, they get 4-6 hours of sun per day - still not enough for me.  What I also found out is that Denmark is a very green country and Copenhagen is one of the most environmentally friendly city in the world.  The aim is to be carbon neutral by 2025, not too far off into the future.  As we continued on past Copenhagen we saw hundreds upon hundreds of wind farms in the sea which are owned by Denmark.

So back to the touring, Copenhagen is also our first taste of summer in Northern Europe.  If this is what we can expect of summer, it's not so pretty.  It feels more like fall to me. I hear there are nice days and I guess you appreciate them more when they are few and far between.  But it was cloudy, cold and windy in Copenhagen with the temps just reaching into the 60s in July. 

Regardless of the temps, it was a great day for exploring - not too warm and not too cold.  We got to hit upon places that we didn't get to see the last time we were here, which included the Little Mermaid and the Tivoli Gardens. 

Copenhagen is an easily walkable city and we did just that, walked all day. After being cooped up on the boat on day 2 all day, it was nice to stretch our legs for a bit.  We walked from 830-330 so it was a decent day on our feet.  Good thing I have a pedicure tomorrow!  I'm used to walking a lot in Barcelona but even with all the walking we would do, it rarely would equate to a 7 hour day. The great news is that after growing up in the city, there was not one complaint from the kids about being tired from walking. You wouldn't have heard that 4 1/2 years ago when walking 1/2 mile would have them complaining. 

Back to the touring. The two big things for us were the Little Mermaid statue and Tivoli Gardens, both of which we missed on our last trip. As expected, the Little Mermaid was just that, little. Though to be honest, not as little as I expected given the reviews on TripAdvisor. But it was there, on our way to Tivoli and I'm glad we stopped to get pictures, but yeah it was no big deal.

A cute marina on the way to Little Mermaid

Here she is... the Little Mermaid.  I'm glad we were early as there were tons of tourists here when we walked by in the afternoon.

Happy to be running outside

And playing with his brother

Right before he put his hand in bird poop... awesome

The Gefion Fountain (built in 1908)

Statue of King Frederick V

Amalienborg built in the 1700s - the winter home of the Royal Family

The Royal Guard

Frederik's Church with the largest dome in Scandinavia 

We stopped at Andersen Bakery like the last time. They didn't have any Danish this time but they did have out of this world cinnamon rolls. Yum!!  Turns out Tivoli didn't open til 11. Had we realized that we may have spent more time on the ship this morning or maybe more time in the bakery. Regardless we ended up with an hour to kill before the park opened. 

When the ticket machine got stuck as we were trying to buy our tickets, I'll be honest, I was thinking about scrapping it and just finding something else to do. But since Josh had already paid for the tickets, we pressed on.  It took a good 30 mins to get the machine fixed so that we could retrieve our tickets for the park. 

The park itself was beautiful.  A gathering place for many, I can imagine. Beautifully kept grounds, tons of little restaurants and good kiosks, none of which looked bad in the lot (a rarity at amusement parks) and a decent sized group of rides for both young and old. I admit, there should have been more rides given how much we spent on tickets. But for the amount of time we had available, it was perfect to explore much of the park. 

We expected more garden at Tivoli "Gardens" but have to say it was the most beautiful and green amusement park we've ever been to!

Lots of cute shops and restaurants in the park

This building was a park of the park!

The kids loved rolling around on the wire barrels (which people were also using as tables)

Roller coaster that Josh and Aidan went on

Liam and I getting ready for our "rollercoaster" (which was really just a circle with little hills - enough for both of us!)

Lots of sweets

Another roller coaster for Josh and Aidan

Cute little "streets" along the park with restaurants and shops

We spent some fun times on the rides and a quick burger lunch before heading back to the ship, about an hours walk away. As I mentioned in my last post about Copenhagen, it's a pretty city but I'm still not sure what all the hype is about. We may have to dig deeper on this, maybe another trip will be in order. We shall see. Until then, tomorrow we are at sea and then Saturday we are in Tallinn, Estonia. See you there!!

Nyhavn - 17th century waterfront buildings

Liam is trying to push Aidan up the anchor - he didn't get far

Back on the boat, look at Liam's face as he gets in that freezing cold water!

This is more the idea of what to do on a cold evening....

Besos,

Julie

Cruisin' the Baltic Sea

(July 1, 2014)  Last year when we thought we were moving back home, Josh and I decided that our last trip in Europe would be a cruise in the Baltic Sea.  A few of our friends had done the cruise and raved about it and our thoughts were that we hadn't had much opportunity to explore Northern Europe and that we could at least touch upon some areas we hadn't seen and then decide if they were places we would want to make the journey back to Europe to see in more detail.  In the end, instead of a "goodbye Europe" trip, it ended up being, "Intro to Northern Europe" now that we are moving there.

We aren't cruisers by nature.  There is nothing wrong with it, it's just not usually our cup of tea.  Plus we often travel for just long weekends rather than for a week or more at a time so most cruises don't usually fit into our schedule.  The only other cruise that I had been on was the Disney one 6 years ago with Josh and Aidan (Liam was at home) and Josh had been on several in his earlier 20s but cruising in your 20s is very different than cruising with your family in your late 30s.

Regardless, we are very excited about the cruise and all the stops we will be making, especially St. Petersburg, Russia.  There aren't many opportunities one has to visit Russia in their lifetime and so we are especially looking forward to that port.

We had decided a while back that since the boat wasn't leaving the port til around 5PM that we could fly out the day of the cruise.  Since we were closing on our apartment the day before, it worked out well.  Ok, perhaps the 7:45AM flight wasn't the best idea as we had to be at the airport around 6AM. We fly EasyJet often but 95% of the time without luggage, only carry on.  Well, we made it by the skin of our teeth on to that plane because the line was so incredibly long.  We basically ran to the plane and then proceeded to wait in another line.  Ah well, we were on our way!!

The weather was surprisingly beautiful in England when we arrived which was a great start.  Though it was a long 2 hr drive to the ship dock.  Liam really had no idea what to expect - he seemed to think we were taking a normal sized passenger boat to all these places so when he saw the ship as we drove up, his jaw totally dropped.  To him, this ship was epic (his words)!!!

On the bus ready to get to the ship

Sooooo excited!

Not a great shot of the ship but this is when Liam realized just how big it was.

Day 1 was all about exploring the ship.  We found the rock wall, the pools (though it's way too cold here to use them), the mini golf, the basketball court, and of course, the dining area. The kids loved all the place space which was great!  Happy kids = happy parents.

Huge windows

The rock wall (which by the way, we never used)

Basketball court

The arcade

Racing against each other

Boys and their "toys"

Getting ready to set sail

Harwich, England as we set sail

Our dinner on set sail day was casual - we aren't planning to do any formal nights. It was too much stress on me to organize and buy what was needed when we have so much on our plates lately. And it would only cause a tantrum from Aidan as well since he has no interest in dressing up.  I know, I know - don't let him rule. But this is a family trip and everyone should be happy. Regardless the families we sat with were lovely, one of which was a military family living in Germany so some similar experiences to chat about. 

Day 2 was an at sea day and we slept in. Both kids ended up in our bed which made for a not so great night sleep. I think they were freaked out by the rocking of the boat. Liam got a little nauseous during dinner the first night. To be honest, well into day 2, I'm not loving the rocking. I'm not sick but I find the constant feeling of motion annoying. I hope it passes. 

The boys went to the adventure kids area for part of the morning. They pushed against us and didn't want to do it but in the end, the loved it. They are going back this afternoon.  During that hour and a half, Josh and I tried to get online. And like the Disney cruise 6 years ago, this ship has internet circa 1999. It sucks and it's expensive. Part of me loves being able to totally disconnect and if it were only a week, I would just suck it up. Alas we are gone for almost 2 weeks and I cannot neglect my business this long. So once a day I shall check my email and that's it. And so, I guess that's about as disconnected as I can get. It's also why these posts are so late to go up. 

The cruise has a pretty aggressive itinerary (and I will check my email my phone in the cities when I can!). Thankfully today, day 2 is going to be an at sea day. A chance for us to get our sea legs and have a day to chill before we hit the intense part of the trip.  Admittedly this trip has not been a huge priority for me with the move and all so we will need to wing quite a bit of stuff which we are perfectly fine doing.

Towel animals each night had the kids entertained

Watching the new Muppet movie on the big screen outside

Watching the movie - it was COLD out!  Ok, cold by Barcelona standards, but still cold (hence no one else is outside as you can see).

Love this little guy - too cute for words!

But tomorrow we hit Copenhagen. We've been there before but just for a day. So it will be fun to see what we missed the last time we were there including the Tivoli Park and the Little Mermaid statue. 

From there we continue to Tallinn, Estonia and then on to St. Petersburg for 2 days. We are incredibly excited for the Russia portion of this trip. After Russia, it's on to Helsinki, Finland and then Stockholm before our final stop in Visby, Sweden and then to Harwich, England to make the circle complete. As I said, it's an aggressive itinerary but we are super excited to see all these places. 

See you in Copenhagen tomorrow!!

Besos,

Julie

Thanks for the Memories - Goodbye Barcelona

(July 1) This morning we left Barcelona. The word that best describes how I feel right now?  Relieved. Yeah I wasn't expecting that one either. But not only have the last 9 months been some of the most trying of our lives, the last 4 or so weeks have been especially so with everything coming to a head with exploding hot water heaters, apartment repairs, moving, taxi strikes, problems with our house in the US, my MacBook deciding to kick the bucket, saying our goodbyes and so much more. 

So relieved it is. Relieved to be ready to move on to the next chapter. With so many balls in the air, one piece is done and we can focus on the future, starting with the next 7 weeks before we move to Amsterdam. 

But while I'm relieved, I'm also, of course, sad to say goodbye to a city that I unexpectedly fell in love with. I think I can vouch for Aidan that he feels the same. He tried so hard to hate it here (and did for the longest time) only to find himself calling it home more than the US, a surprise to us all. I think the move is hitting him the hardest of all. 

Barcelona changed us. I'd like to think it is for the better. There is a saying I like that I found a few years ago that I hold dear to my heart:

"And once the storm is over you

won't remember how you made it through, 

how you managed to survive.

You won't even be sure, in fact, whether the storm 

is really over.  But one thing is certain.

When you come out of the storm, 

you won't be the same person who walked in."

Barcelona was a storm that we had to weather. There were times when it was like a wild tornado with everything around in total chaos. There were other times when it was like a beautiful tranquil spring day when our lives just felt... Normal.  It took a long time for us to get to normal but it just goes to show what can happen when you just let life take it's natural course - things just fall into place. 

This experience of living outside our comfort zone was something I truly believe everyone should do at least once in their lives. It changes who you are down to the core. You find strength where you didn't know you had it. You find you are more resourceful than you ever realized.  You find that there is more to the world than the bubble (that you were perfectly happy in) you were living in.  You find you are capable of ... Anything.

If you can weather the storm that is expat life, really, the world is your oyster. There is nothing you can't accomplish. This life is not for the faint of heart. In a million years I never would have thought this would be our lives. NEVER. When the idea of moving to Barcelona came up 6 years ago (a year and a half before we actually ended up doing it), I thought there was no way we could do this - to leave the lives we had been perfectly content with, to uproot the kids and take them away from their family and friends, to go to a place where we did not speak the language. 

There have been times where it has been overwhelming, intimidating and even downright scary (never for safety though!). And there have been way more times filled with laughter, excitement and the joys of living a life less ordinary. This adventure was a leap of faith for us. It could have been a disaster. It's certainly had its disastrous moments, but it has been anything but a disaster. It has opened our eyes to the world in a way nothing else ever could. 

When we look to the people our children are becoming, truly third culture kids, it gives us a great sense of pride but also reaffirms that this was the right decision for our family. We've had our struggles like any other family - whether an expat or not. But as a whole, this has made them global citizens, something essential in this day and age where the world is rapidly becoming a smaller place. This experience will open doors and create opportunities for them that would not have otherwise existed had we stayed home in the States, opportunities that we probably wouldn't have even known existed. 

It will be hard for us to define normal again. We want to move back to the comfort of home again, some day. And I've heard mixed reactions about what that move is like. Some say it feels completely natural. Others say that it wasn't long before they had the itch to get moving again. And others say that they no longer feel like home is home but nor do they feel that where they are is home either - an eternal sense of limbo. 

We are thankful. Thankful that we have been able to have these amazing experiences and to give our children these opportunities to experience a different life. Barcelona has set the bar high and it's not going to be easy to top what we have learned about the world and ourselves through living there. But we are excited to see what new adventures Amsterdam has to bring to the table.

We will be back Barcelona. I already miss your beautiful blue skies - that special blue that only seems to exist here. We will miss your vida tranquila. We will miss our friends. And our school. And we will even miss those annoying quirks that may frustrate us but also make Barcelona a unique and special place to live. This is not goodbye Barcelona, just see you later - we will be back.

As we depart, I need to add this one last song that always puts a smile on my face when I think of Spain and I expect every time I hear it going forward it will remind me of all the amazing memories we have had here the last 4 1/2 years.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DY9bhpEH-ks

The day we arrived in Barcelona, January 5, 2009 - Liam age 2 1/2 and Aidan age 2 1/2 (taken at Barcelona airport upon arrival)

And the day we left Barcelona, July 1, 2014 - Liam age 7 and Aidan age 10 (taken at Barcelona airport upon departure)

Besos,

Julie, Josh, Aidan and Liam

Adding Insult to Injury

There is no way to truly describe our last 9 months in Barcelona.  Trying.  Frustrating.  Depressing. Scary.  Difficult.  Broken.  I could go on and on.  In the end, it was probably some of the most difficult months of our lives.  Living lives in 2 different countries with no idea of what our future held.  It's a scary prospect when you don't know where you are going to be in a matter of months and how to prepare for the unknown when really, you can't prepare.

But to add insult to injury over the last 9 months, we've had everything that can go wrong has gone wrong.  Now don't get me wrong (ok too many uses of that word in 2 sentences), I totally understand that these are first world problems.  But that doesn't make them any less frustrating when we were already going thru an emotional rollercoaster.  But to just name a few things:

Josh has travelled EVERY SINGLE WEEK since November.  Our household has not been the same without him there.

The furnace went in our Attleboro house... had to be replaced.

Our tenant in Attleboro contacted us about some carpenter ants.  Turns out when I had the house sprayed they also found we had termites... also had to replace the dishwasher.

There was a taxi strike as the kids and I tried to get back from our house hunt in Amsterdam.

Not to mention the week we were leaving our apartment, the hot water heater decided to explode with water shooting out of the top leaving us with no hot water for a good 4 days.

By the time we left Barcelona we did not have a signed contract on where we would be living in Barcelona.

And the straw that broke the camel's back - as we were finally getting ready to leave Barcelona, my computer hard drive crashed - 10 years of work... gone.  As I write this on July 18, I'm still in recovery mode.  And I'm still hoping that I will, in fact, be able to recover everything.

So while none of this is life threatening stuff, it just kept piling up.  And we just kept plowing ahead because what else can you do?  It was like at every turn something new was breaking or going wrong.

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel...hopefully.  The kids and I are in the States now, Josh in Amsterdam.  In just about 4 weeks, we'll all be together again on a weekly basis for the first time in over 9 months.

Anyways, this was just a quick rant as I work on getting my blog posts back up to date!!

Besos,
Julie

It's Not Goodbye, It's See You Later...

We are at that stage, the final goodbyes. They started about a month ago we had some of Josh's friends from work over, we did some last lunches with friends and we started to organize our calendar to maximize our time spent with the friends we've made here.

Obviously the kids' friends are the top priority. As adults, we know this is not goodbye forever and have various methods to communicate. While Aidan, at age 10, is getting better with email and the such, he's still not an effective communicator. And so these last days have been especially important to both kids as we don't know the next time they will see or talk to their friends (though we are thinking of maybe a trip in May to visit). 

And so our calendar, especially since school ended on the 20th has been jam packed. Like scary amount of things we've had planned. And it's no wonder the kids are walking around like zombies. Let's recap the last 10 days...

June 20 - last day of school. We went with a bunch of friends to the park after school finished. It was the last day for Aidan to see Nicolau's and Liam to see Quinn as both were leaving for their summer trips. Liam slept at Quinn's that night for a little extra time together.

Max, Aidan, Nicolau and Guille

Aidan and Nicolau - one last goodbye as Nicolau was leaving the next day for Japan for the summer

Miles, Liam and Quinn - one last goodbye with Quinn as he was leaving for vacation the next day too 

June 21 - Liam play date with Mateo at our house, Aidan ended up with an impromptu play date with Isa that evening. 

Liam and Mateo on the wii

Such great friends!!

Isa was Aidan's first friend in Barcelona and they have remained great friends to this day!

June 22 - Both kids had a play date at Pablo and Luis' house in Valldoreix.

Pablo and Liam

1...2..3... Jump!!

June 24 - Liam play date at Mateo's in the afternoon. Picked him up and we brought Aidan to Max's for a sleepover.

Liam and Alyia - there may be 2 years difference between them but they are peas in a pod and have so much fun together!

Aidan and Max after a sleepover and playdate all afteroon

Just being silly

June 25 - While Aidan spent the day with Raul and Max, Liam had a play date with Miles. In between I dealt with the hot water heater repairs. Good times.

Aidan, Max and Raul

June 26 - Liam went to Shoma's along with Miles.

Shoma, Liam and Miles at the end of the day - such a great group of kids!

June 27 - Aidan went to Guille's for most of the day, the last photo of which is on my camera. I had drinks with my friends Eddy, Ricardo and Nasi that night. 

My going away gift wrapped in Catalan Independence paper - yes I did get a kick out of it.  And I loved my beautiful framed picture of Barcelona.  But I loved the words on the picture even more - thank you guys!!  xoxo  As the picture is already packed, I don't have a picture of it to post.

Eddy, myself, Ricardo and Nasi

June 28 - Aidan had a play date with David at a park and Max met up with them later. In the mid afternoon, Liam went to Mateo's for a sleepover. Meanwhile, Aidan's play date with Max turned into a sleepover and even a trip to Casteldefels to see Johnny. They got in at 130am. Yup he's tuckered out!!!

David and Aidan

Aidan, Max and David

Johnny, Aidan and Max

Getting in at 1:30AM

June 29 - I picked up Liam at Mateo's at 12 and went to get Aidan at Max's. We ended up staying for lunch and just hanging out (such a great afternoon) before meeting up with Liam's friend Shoma's in the late afternoon. 

Shoma and Liam on one last playdate - thank you Yukiko for making it happen!

June 30 - We had our home inspection and then it was off to see Luca and Roan for one final play date in Spain...for now - we will be back!

The boys in Sitges - having a great beach day on our last day in Spain.  We look forward to visiting them in Stockholm this year!

Probably the most epic photo bomb ever!  So much so it deserved the xlarge setting ;)

It warms my heart to see what amazing friends the boys have. We have been so lucky in that respect. They took the boys to their homes since we were moving and/or at a hotel, or they met up with us at various parks. It really meant the world to the boys and to us. 

We know this isn't goodbye forever. We hope everyone stays in touch, comes to visit us in the Netherlands and knows that we will be back to visit!!  It's been a crazy 10 days but every moment has been worth it!!

Besos,

Julie

PS - On a separate note as I'm finally posting this post move, it was a really good idea (as of this moment) to go straight on vacation from moving - it really cut the emotion out of it as it felt just like a temporary absence rather than leaving for good.  Or at least this is how it feels now, we'll see what it's like when we get to Amsterdam in 5 weeks!

Moving Day #2

This post is delayed for several reasons - the first and most important being that the day we left for the hotel after our move was the day my hard drive decided to die.  As I type this 2 weeks later, I'm still in recovery mode because I couldn't do the recovery on our cruise.  Anyways, better late than never, I'll have a bunch of entries from our move to our cruise and our time in the States coming up!!

For some reason day 2 of the move was harder than day 1. Boredom perhaps?  No furniture to sit on other than the very uncomfortable dining chairs maybe?  The silver lining at least is that I was ridiculously productive during these two days and caught up on more work than I had in 10 years. For the first time in a long time, I'm caught up on all my projects. For now (and I never should have written that part because that's probably why my hard drive died).

Anyways, the move. I didn't realize how much stuff we had. When we moved to this apartment two years ago, the movers spent one day doing prepacking. Maybe it was because it was a cross city move rather than an international move, but not only were these movers more meticulous, but they catalogued everything. And I'm sure that explains why it took so long.

We also managed to double what we originally brought with us. We arrived with 110 boxes but are leaving with 230. Yikes!!  Now some I can explain.  Furniture that we purchased here, as we brought only one piece with us, electronics as we brought none... But does that really cover 100 extra boxes?  Apparently I have some purging to do when I get to Amsterdam.

The kids were painfully bored. Aidan went to a friend's for a few hours which was a relief. I don't think he could take one more day of sitting on the rug with his iPad. No toys, no tv, not even a pen and paper. Finally Josh decided around 4 to take them to the hotel to check in. But first he and I had to take care of tossing a few things - throw rugs and some old chairs that were on our roof. Plus returning our cable box.

It was just before 6 before they were on their way. And the movers were wrapping things up with moving truck #2. Yes 2. In my defense, they couldn't fit a normal sized moving truck on our street and my guess is they will transfer all the contents of the trucks to one large container for storage and then shipping in August.

So incredibly bored... ipads can only go so far over 2 days...

Using their imaginations and limited "toys"

Moving truck #2 is off - next stop - Amsterdam!

So part 1 is now done. The move.  We spent the night in a hotel in Poblenou, a cute family neighborhood where we really haven't spent much time as a family (but Josh worked there every day). I went out with some amazing friends for drinks to say goodbye (for now) and it was so strange getting into a taxi and not only asking to take me to a hotel, making me feel very touristy, but to not be going "home" to my apartment. It all still feels a bit surreal that we are truly done here.

Today, Saturday, we are having the apartment cleaned. Remember, here you turn in your apartment exactly as you received it, if not in better condition - there is no allowance for wear and tear.  The kids will both have play dates while I hang out at the apartment. Tonight Liam will sleep at his friend's house and Aidan enjoyed not one but two play dates today including an impromptu sleepover with Max. He was going to go to dinner with josh and I at Recasens, one of our favorite places in Poblenou, but now instead we lucked out with an unexpected date night (still to Recasens)!

Another play date for Liam tomorrow and then on Monday we do our final walk-thru with our landlord, hand over the keys and then head to the bank to release our aval money (this is the security deposit the landlord takes). The kids and I will head to Sitges to visit with friends while Josh has a dr appt and ties up any loose ends. Tuesday morning (way too early) it will be time to head out to Barcelona airport one last time as residents - the next time we come back it will be as visitors!

Besos,
Julie