We returned home over the weekend. Long haul flights are a special kind of bullshit and I don’t feel much like reliving the discomfort and tedium of it all except to say that Bitti was very well behaved and aeroplane food is the pits. We flew with Qatar and had a 14-hour stopover in Doha, which we spent in their Al Mahar transit lounge. Although it has a 6-hour time limit no one came to kick us out so we ate all their food and had a sleep on their hard little chairs (although they do also say sleeping is banned).
Today my dad asked Bitti if she enjoyed Italy. She said, ‘no’. So really feeling great about my decision to spend thousands taking her to Europe. It is her style to downplay everything though and I know she is happy with parts of the trip. Things that seem to be a standout for her are the Tuscany kitten, spaghetti al pomodoro, croissants for breakfast, the variety of ‘bommy knockers’ (door knockers), the cat cafe in Milan, chasing pigeon flocks and collecting their likely diseased feathers. I know she did not enjoy Rome, walking in the ‘hot’ weather, travelling around on the regional trains or my unreasonable insistence that she put on shoes and have her hair brushed. She did get better at walking, perhaps due to the cooler weather in the north.
I’m really pleased that travelling with our friends worked out well, it would have been terrible if we’d not got along! I’d love to return to Italy one day with a grown up Bitti or with another adult so we could do all the walking we wanted, go out in the evenings and sleep in. Or alone! Then I could get a lot of reading done. This was my first holiday where I didn’t read a thing. For our next holiday together, we’ll go back to camping with other kids, it’s better for Bitti to have some people her own age to play with. Whatever the drawbacks, it was still great to spend some quality time with my daughter and experience Italy first-hand.
It’s a strange country really, the Italians can be very warm and friendly but also extremely rude. Having Bitti along certainly helped with getting a smile out of people. We noticed a huge change in how we were received in shops and restaurants when she was with us compared to adults alone. If you give any sense that you’re a pushover they will ignore you and have trouble fulfilling the simplest requests, but start your interaction with a bit of attitude and suddenly they’re on the ball.
The food was what most people said would be amazing, and it was for the most part. We had some delightful pasta dishes and I especially enjoyed not having to plan a meal, cook or clean for three weeks. Bliss! But towards the end I was getting a little sick of the same old menus, and craving some vegetables. I even tried a coffee while I was there! Had a few cappuccinos to start my day when I was feeling very flat. It tastes absolutely foul but certainly perks one up! If I drank more than half of it there was a pretty uncomfortable feeling in my chest though. Not sure how people go about drinking three or more of these per day! It’s not something I’ll bring into my real life.
Overall, the trip was a big success and I’m glad we did it. Although it wasn’t restful, it was still a break from the scheduled machine that is my normal life. I have a lot of uni work to do to catch up, that was the biggest difficulty of taking the time off. Next time I’ll know I have uni though and can plan the dates accordingly. Now I’m off to get my stupid cat out of a tree he’s climbed without considering the descent. Did I miss him? Hmmm
Two Little Travellers 