Today is the fourth day we have been back to NZ from our Europe trip, we are all struggling a bit with Isabella’s sleeping or lack of sleep at night.
Isabella is 15 months old when we started the trip, she just learnt to take her first few steps. On the way to Spain, we first took 17 hours flight to Dubai then spent one night at a hotel near the airport. The next early morning we took another 8 hours fly to Madrid. Once we landed in Madrid, we picked up the rental car and Magnus drove for 4 hours to get to Albir near Alicante where our family was staying.
Isabella was wonderful on the way there, she slept most of the way on the long flight. For the time she was awake, we entertained her with some cartoons on my laptop and lots of snack and toys we specially prepared for this trip. Magnus and I were also really excited about the time in Spain especially bringing Isabella to meet the whole family in person for the first time. The anticipation and the joy made the way flying there quite enjoyable. She also slept really well for her first night when we reached Spain, so the jet leg was easily managed.
After a beautiful 4 weeks holiday with families soaking in the sun and eating lots of delicious food, we headed back to NZ. We know its another brutal long trip, so we booked a really nice hotel in Dubai, The Palace Downtown, its located right in the city centre and next to the Dubai Mall. The world’s tallest building Burj Khalifa is right above us, our room looked out to the man-made lake which also featured the famous Dubai light show in the evening. Although we just spent less than 48 hours there, Dubai is mind-blowing. The islamic culture reminds me a lot of my childhood. The crazy design of the buildings brings us to a Si-fi movie scene. I have full respect to what they achieved out in the desert, and I also understand there are some deeper issues and prices which come with all these grandness.
From Auckland to Dubai, the Emirates flight attendants remembered us from the flight we took 4 weeks ago. I guess Isabella’s chubby cheeks left some impressions. The long flight from Dubai to Auckland, we were lucky to have the whole row of 4 seats to us on the plane. Isabella could stretch out and sleep instead of sleeping on my laps for hours. She was a bit more restless this time as she is older and understand more things and have more demands than 1 month ago. Magus is the calm in the storm, always up to take her for a stroll along the aisles, I just feed her lots when she is sleepy. We were quite pleased how she was on these super long flights.
These past few days at home she has been up between 12-4am and having difficult to go back to sleep, as it is day time in Spain. She cries a lot and we just have to be patient and hope she will eventually gets back to her routine. I’m starting a new job in three days, so here is hope to some decent sleeps for my first week in the new role.
Till the next adventure with this little one and kudos to those solo parent taking babies on flights.
LIYANG'S THOUGHTS 