End of Part 1, Beginning of Part 2 of Our Family Trip

Where we're staying now. No, that door doesn't move, and it doesn't have any glass in it anyhow.

Today was... quite a day.

Last night I ended up going to sleep quite late, as we had to leave this morning to get to the airport in time for our flight home. I ended up doing the laundry that was in the machine, hanging it to dry, washing all the dishes, and went to sleep really late after an exhausting day.

This morning, then, I served everyone breakfast, packed up my stuff, washed the rest of the dishes, washed the rest of the laundry (the dirty tablecloths, towels, etc...), emptied out the fridge, packed lunches for today, took out the garbage, packed up everyone's clothes and bags and made sure we had everything from the apartment, and finally got everyone into the car on the way to the airport. We were supposed to return the rental car at 10:00 am, but I only managed to leave the house around then.


Goodbye Sofia, goodbye cute little apartment that we stayed in for a week and adored. Goodbye and so long, hopefully we'll be back again.
We make it to the airport, unload the bags...

And Anneliese's bag was not in there. She claimed that Rose pushed her bag out of the car when we left the apartment. By now it was already 10:45 and our flight at 1:15 pm, and the knowledge that you're supposed to get to the airport 3 hours before an international flight was screaming in my head, but instead I just turned around and said hello again to the airbnb... but nope, the backpack was not on the ground outside where the car was parked.
I went back inside and nope, the backpack wasn't there. But guess its a good thing I went back in, because I found some more clothes that I missed in my frantic packing this morning.

I get back to the car, dejected, writing off the backpack and everything that was in it, trying to figure out what happened to it, if someone stole it... and I decided to be on the lookout to see if maybe someone stole it, saw there was nothing worth stealing in it and chucked it (it was just little girls clothes), and around the corner from the apartment, I found the backpack!

Yay!

Turns out that once I started driving, I saw that the back door wasn't closed well, so I pulled over and had the kid open and close the door. And that's apparently where the backpack fell out.

Eventually I made it to the airport with everyone's bags by 11:30. Online check in meant that it wasn't such a terrible thing. We made it through security in the small airport, had no more snafus, and arrived back in our home country in one piece.

I think I wrote elsewhere that we flew from a city that is quite far from where we live, and the bus ride there is rather expensive. That city is a resort city tourist trap, that I'd never visited before, nor have my kids, so I decided about a month ago to extend our trip two more days and visit this city.

We arrived in the city and walked to the apartment where we were staying, went to do some grocery shopping so we'd have what to eat, and then when we get back I sit down to work and am freezing. I try to see if there's any windows open, and then I see that not only are there "windows open", there literally is no way to close them. There are plastic blinds, but there are no actual windows. And no doors to close off that area either.

I've been in touch with the hostess of the place and she's trying to claim that its normal here, and that if I'm cold, I should get a blanket. I contacted HostelWorld, the site I used to rent this place, and we'll see what happens.
To be honest, as soon as we arrived in the place the kids were making faces. The place feels like a dump. The entrance to the building smells like cat pee, its full of broken things and looks run down. I told my kids that this is a cheap place in an expensive city and you get what you pay for, and to try not to complain, and maybe the inside is better. The inside of the apartment is better than the outside in terms of looks at least, it has normal amenities, if old... Other than the lack of windows or heating.

Oh well.

We'll see what happens tomorrow, and if we'll cut our trip short, make do with this place, find another place tomorrow night, or who knows.

But the kids are already asleep and we do have a fun day planned for tomorrow.