“I will only go to Africa from Europe” (shorter distance). #lie

Three years ago, I made my first mission trip to Rwanda. See blog (https://cobbsdoeurope.com/2018/07/09/africa/). This time, it was Kenya’s turn!

I said it was too far, but I pushed my comfort zone out a little farther. The initial trip was only a 5 hr drive and then 3 flights to get to Nairobi, then just another 3-4 hr drive to Bomet, Kenya. Not too bad 😜.

Kenya 🇰🇪 is a much larger country than Rwanda. It is slightly smaller than Texas but with 28 million more people. On the east side, it borders the Indian Ocean. The west side borders Lake Victoria and the Serengeti. The country is much more arid and desert-like than Rwanda, which was very green and lush. It was overall much less clean, but then again, Rwanda is the cleanest country in Africa.

As we drove out of Nairobi, one of the first areas our driver pointed out is one of the largest slums in the world, Kibera. It went on for miles. It is estimated that nearly 1.5 million people reside in the slum.

About an hour outside of Nairobi, we reached the Great Rift Valley. It is part of an intercontinental ridge that runs from Mozambique to Tanzania, through Kenya, north toward Ethiopia and the Red Sea. It was beautiful.

We continued to drive west about 3 hours and reached our main hub, Bomet. From there, we drove roughly 2 hrs (45 ish miles) each day to get to the different clinic sites. Thankfully most of the roads are paved (but not smooth!), so the really terrible off-roading was minimal.

Here are some pictures from the drive.

The clinics

Our team was smaller than the last team and was comprised mostly of medical staff. We had 3 physicians (2 were surgeons), 3 nurses, 2 pharmacists, one veterinarian, and 6 others who helped manage lines, helped in surgery, pharmacy, and with the vet team. Additionally, we had 3 local missionaries who joined us to help.

The clinics were set up in 4 main sites, just as last time: triage, doctor, pastor, pharmacy. Additionally, we had a surgery site for minor procedures on a few of the days.

Over the 4 days, we saw over 1000 patients and handed out over 2000 meds. Roughly 10 patients were able to have minor procedures. A handful of patients were very ill and required further treatment at the local hospital or required a transfer to Nairobi. The costs of those treatments are covered by our mission.

The most common complaints are dizziness, dry/itchy eyes, stomach issues, neck and back pain, malaria, and amebiasis (amoebas in the stomach). Luckily most of these issues can be alleviated with medicine and the patients are grateful.

My favorite description of stomach issues is “lions in the stomach” – to which I’m still not sure if this is amebiasis or just hunger.

A couple of patients had blood pressures higher than I had ever seen before. Thankfully we were able to treat those as well.

Overall, we were blessed with great days and good weather for the clinics. One day there were rainstorms that forced us to pack up early but the team tried their hardest to still seek out and treat the sickest people before we left.

In addition to the medical clinic, the vet team saw thousands of animals for deworming and a minor procedure here or there. The vast majority were cows, but they also saw goats, sheep, and donkeys. The rodeo of the animals was quite a site. Not sure how they managed it, but they did!

Favorite pictures

And with that, I must say goodbye to an awesome trip. Until next time!

London for the day?? Yes!

Even though it already feels like a lifetime ago, it was just 2 months ago that I took my final solo trip of our European journey. I have previously written about our not-so-great ‘London for a weekend’ trip and then a much more desirable ‘England for a long weekend’ trip, so I felt I should finish all of that out with a ‘London for the day’ trip.

London is a quick 2.5 hr Eurostar train ride from Brussels, something even I can handle. The Eurostar is pricy, though, especially last minute, so I randomly decided to book this trip months in advance. At some point, I had a friend decide to come, but then life takes over and schedules are too busy and cancellations happen. But, I decided to just go alone and I checked off a bunch of English boxes!

My only actual requirement was recreating the picture on the Tower Bridge like my grandfather. So I planned my day around that and anything else was a bonus! It just had to be a totally “English” day.

Harry Potter

Started with Platform 9 3/4 and the Harry Potter shop.

Tower Bridge

Then I took the underground all the way across town, fighting my hatred for the subway, to recreate my Tower Bridge picture.

Big Ben

Next up, total tourist photo op with my London shirt at Big Ben (completely opposite side of town, requiring more subway of me). Even though it was under construction, I had to have the picture. I mean, I have the same picture at the other places on the shirt – Paris and Rome…just gotta get back to Reno!

Tea Party for One

English tea was next on the docket with an even more English theme – Peter Rabbit. Scones and clotted cream, weird but delicious little tea sandwiches, and amazing little desserts.

“Culture” (Wicked)

Finally, after quick stop at a Alice-in-Wonderland vintage bookstore, and a slow-paced walk to the WRONG Apollo theater, I completed my day with a sprint across town to the correct theater in the West End district. Made it in at 14:29 for a 14:30 show. Wicked was great – can’t believe I haven’t seen it before! There were parts that even seemed to be adapted to be “English”.

This last trip set the score for my England – ‘yay or nay’ trips with a 2/3 success rate! Though I never mentioned my Canterbury trip that ended with 4 cancelled trains and a 6ish hour bus ride landing me home at 4:15 am…but that’s for another time (or never 😂).

Pics of the day

Last year before Christmas decorations even thought about emerging from the attic, I started getting the unsettled feeling that comes with knowing this is the last whatever holiday/season in this house. It’s a strange feeling that I’m sure most military families are familiar with. I mean I still really feel like I just unpacked and just finally figured out the most sensical arrangement of my furniture!

Nevertheless, here we are again, plotting our return across the pond, just two years after arriving. I say just because while I’m sure it seems like plenty of time for the vacation it looked like, it really is kind of insanely short for a life overseas. Two years is pretty short even just moving state to state, but overseas – totally different ball game.

First, the adjustment period is sooooo LONG!

When you make an overseas move, you’re reminded multiple times by the ones already there to expect 6 months before you feel adjusted. It took me a solid 9 plus, though some of that was likely an adjustment from working to not working, in addition to all of the foreign-ness. I like to think that if I were to do it again, I’d have a different mindset and would adjust faster.

I’m not really sure why the adjustment is so long, or maybe it was just me? It’s hard even for me to grasp how cultures that are relatively similar could feel so different. And how a vacation abroad could feel so different than a life abroad – but to me, they do. Totally different.

Other than the obvious language barrier issue, which is quite huge, some of the things I found difficult to adjust to were: convenience, stores closing at 6 pm and not open Sundays, lack of information on the internet (everything seemed to be word of mouth), stores not taking credit cards, restaurants open 12-2 and 6-10. These all seem silly, but it ends up making everything just more frustrating, especially in the beginning. Because you know, you’ll have googled a restaurant, found no info, go at 5 pm to find out it’s not open, go back at 6 to find out its cash only…😬.

Although I will say I never really adjusted fully, it seemed that right after I felt more comfortable, we learned we would be headed back a year earlier than planned. And sadly, once you hear you’re leaving, the same thing starts to happen on the way back. You start to physically prepare and clean, organize, donate. Then you begin mentally checking out – imagining your new life, debating on schools, houses, jobs.

All of this “adjusting” (again, probably just me) effectively makes for more than half of my time here spent unpacking and settling and then repacking and unsettling.

Second, the amount of stuff we bought to live (probably a little too) comfortably is mind-blowing.

Twenty or so power strips, NINE floor fans and a portable A/C, an additional couch, multiple TVs (I really, really like TV and am embarrassed to say how many we have), four giant travel plugs, 2 crockpots (one broke), a vacuum, a microwave, a toaster, coffee grinder and coffee pot, electric kettle, blender, bug zapper, hair dryer, flat iron, hair clippers, regular iron, DVD player, a hot glue gun, a drill. Whew.

When you start to lay it all out, because you’re desperate to sell it 😂, you feel overwhelmed, wasteful, ridiculous.

Third, we haven’t had enough time to master the language!

Hahahaha, kidding, I’ll never speak French. But the kids – one more year would’ve been just the right amount to make it sink in. I’m going to have to follow through on my promise to myself to find them a French tutor. Someone hold me to that, because I LOVE to give in!

But in the end, I’m sure there is nothing that qualifies as “enough”. I definitely don’t want to complain, because two years is way more than no years.

The travel opportunities alone were enough to offset the hardships, and the life lessons I’ve learned are priceless, everlasting, and in so many ways, also humbling.

“They say” – things people say that maybe you just roll your eyes at. For instance, “they say” staying in state for college and avoiding hefty loans is good idea (right, mom and dad??? I didn’t listen to this advice either 😬).

For Europe, “they say” bringing a huge American beast car is a bad idea. What I gathered from that is that roads are narrow, parking garages are small, gas is expensive. Ok, I hear you, but we’re bringing it anyway. We’ll deal with gas prices (since we always have), we’ll spend an inordinate amount of time finding garages that are taller than 2.05m, we’ll use caution on the narrow roads.

There’s also the concern about the terrible roads and flat tires. Well, these are off-road tires, they’ll be fine.

What about mechanic work? Well, it’s a newer car and we had it thoroughly inspected and had all ailments fixed before shipping.

All set, shipped our American beast so early it was there when we got here! Amazing! First few days driving around and we’re like, “this is cake”. And it felt super great to have a piece of yourself/home with you. I instantly felt comfortable when I got in my car (though driving it certainly creates a lot of stares).

We felt like we totally made the right decision for at least a year, with the exception of one small parking garage incident (Justin). Psh…”they say” don’t bring it. Winning!

But then it started to go downhill (I’ve written a little about this before). In the summer, it was one of the few reprieves from the heat since our house doesn’t have A/C and neither do most stores. It was great to have it blast in the car. But then, it stopped.

Assuming and hoping it was just Freon, we replaced it and it worked for a week or so. Justin did exhaustive research and watched repair videos and determined it was the whole system. By then it was August and we just decided to wait until we got back to the states the next year. (Wrong).

Next, we get a nail in our tire. Unfixable. Need 2 new tires as they must match per axle. We decided to get all 4 tires just in case. Of course they don’t have the tires here and even if they did, they’d be super expensive. So we ordered from US.

“They say” that the company Tire Rack ships over here and it only takes a few days and it’s free shipping! Sweet, unless your car is so big that the tires are too heavy and have to go by boat…and then it takes 6 weeks and IS NOT free to ship.

But, as I wrote in another blog, this was actually a blessing in disguise as it forced us to rent a car instead of driving ours on a long road trip, where it ultimately would’ve have died.

It’s now November and cold, who needs A/C? Tires are all fixed, we’re good. Then the motor in the front window dies (and we roll down to go through security 8 times a day 😐). We take that to a mechanic to lock shut while we order the part from the US. Once we get the part (weeks later, of course) they replace the window motor and we ask them to take a look at the A/C system as well. It’s bad. Un-drivable bad.

It was more than the A/C. It was the whole system. A/C compressor, serpentine belt, a whole host of other things. It was close to snapping. Early December. Car down.

January arrives, our parts are in from US finally. We have it replaced (compressor, belts, some other stuff) at a local mechanic with the knowledge that it might not work since it’s supposed to be completed in a vacuum. But they can’t fill the Freon because the car is too big. Then we try to have the Freon filled at a special place but they can’t because it’s all electronic and they don’t even have big American Beast car in their database 😐.

Well, it didn’t matter anyway, because the whole thing failed again. The car seized and sputtered and basically gave up. Took to a Ford dealer for our appointment (which takes weeks to schedule) and they can fix it after ordering parts from US for like €3700 😳, and there is NO WARRANTY on the work once it leaves Europe. Hard pass.

THEN, the fuel gauge dies!?!?! Turns out we have to fix this to be able to ship this piece back to the states because they have to know how much gas is in it (must be 1/8 tank or less). Another month of waiting for part (must pay up front!), then waiting for an appointment.

At some point in February, after 4 rental cars and 6 months of struggling with only a 5 seater car (there are 6 of us and none old enough to be left alone), we decide to buy another car to fit us all. Luckily purchasing a car that is US spec (to send back), that is physically present in Europe just 4 hours away, takes FIVE weeks. FIVE MORE weeks without a car.

By early April, it had been a solid 5 months without a car big enough for the whole family. We struggled with carpooling, using the bus, staying home, renting cars. Then we finally get the new car. Whew.

The American Beast car is still functionally dead. It starts and drives but is really just waiting for its spot on the boat back. Hopefully we’ll get back, pick it up and have the 8 month drama all fixed in just few hours!

So, what have we learned? “They say” bringing a large American car isn’t the best idea – and they’re *probably* right 😂. If only one of these things had happened, I probably wouldn’t have been convinced that it was a bad idea, but the whole comedy of errors? I’m sold. Europe definitely wasn’t ready for my beast 😂.

“My kids are SUCH great travelers” is not a phrase I will ever say.

On every list of “must-see” France is the Loire Valley and endless amazingly fantastic chateaus – giant castles, fancy furniture, meticulously landscaped gardens, beautiful scenery. These characteristics do not impress my children.

Maybe they’re just tired of being dragged around? Maybe not. They started this Euro thing angsty about castles. The very first city we visited in Belgium has a super fun castle and they hated it! (So naturally we’ve taken them there 4 or 5 more times 😂)

Why???? How could a child NOT love an amazing castle??? They sure do love the gift shop, though.

So naturally knowing they’d hate it, we spent 2 full days hopping from château to château in the Loire Valley. It also turns out that after we left chateau central, we ended up in even more castles 😂.

Chambord

Château De Chambord was their middle-of-the-road-hate-it experience 😂. Fortunately for them we were on typical Cobb schedule and running behind, which only gave us about 40 minutes inside. We practically ran room to room, got the key forced-smile pictures, refereed about 10 fights (including rock throwing) and were ready to move on.

I thought it was great! In our typically late fashion, entering with only 40 minutes practically guarantees it will be mostly empty inside, which makes it much more enjoyable and takes much less time (great since we didn’t have any!)

This château is one of the most recognizable châteaus in the world, was actually meant to be a hunting lodge, was never actually completed, and remained abandoned for quite some time in the 1800s.

Cheverny

This was a last minute decision and the best decision! They actually mostly liked it, so we’ll call it their favorite!

Château de Cheverny is one of the most well-decorated of the chateaus, is the inspiration for the chateau in TinTin (who we love because he’s Belgian!), and trains hunting dogs on the grounds. We got to see the foxhounds with their trainer for a feeding, a cool LEGO exhibit inside the chateau, a TinTin exhibit, and the chateau has a garden with over 150,000 tulip bulbs.

Chenonceau

This was my least favorite even though it’s pretty amazingly picturesque. When I get annoyed with something, the kids pick up on it and then really focus on the bad stuff. So, they really enjoyed picking at my negativity and also decided this was their least favorite.

Château de Chenonceau is most recognizable for being built over the River Le Cher. Strikingly beautiful. Stupidly crowded – even at 4:30 pm. Stupidly designed for visitors – routing foot traffic through the rooms in and out the SAME doors! It was one big cluster of people everywhere – people pushing in and refusing to let you out. Eek. I hated it. And kids were fighting over the stupid audioguides. Bennett won. We let the 3 year old soak in the history 😬. And Wesley decided it was a good place to juggle tsum-tsums.

Missed opportunities

We got to Leonardo Da Vinci’s last home, Château Amboise, too late to do anything and it and it’s park are very difficult to see while closed – lots of walls and such. We were hoping to just get pictures of the outside, but we weren’t lucky with that.

And this cute castle, Château de Bièvres, was closed for lunch when we pulled up but we didn’t have time to go in any way…and the kids might’ve mutinied if we tried.

Finally Blois (prounounced BLWAH)

We didn’t force a visit to the castle, but we got an obligatory picture with the fun sign outside, saw some weird dragons that come out of the windows at the maison du magiques, and then saw the Mona Lisa on the Blois stairs.

Loire Valley – check ✅. On to castles and chateaus in another region 😂.

We made it to Greece without turning into our own Greek tragedy!

With the equivalent of 120 flights of stairs, 50,000 steps for a total of 33 miles in 3 days, we maxed out our legs, but saw some pretty breathtaking history.

ATHENS

Growing up in Nashville, I visited the Parthenon 🏛 too many times to count. I kept telling the kids that I didn’t need to see the real Parthenon in Athens because I had been before…in Nashville…to the one built in 1897…of plaster. While that is a really awesome museum and replica, it doesn’t actually compare 😂. I mean, 120 years vs 2500?!? Cement vs naturally cut, perfectly designed marble from 2500 years ago???

We picked a perfect hotel so close to the Acropolis we could see the Parthenon from our window. So we spent the first night touring the Acropolis museum seeing tons of the original marble walls and sculptures. It was the perfect time to go because the museum was practically empty, just how I like it. The next morning, we hiked up the hill and stood on the Acropolis.

It only took about an hour of this climbing to start the constant outpouring of whine. We pushed them on about 3 more hours just to the brink before letting them quit. On our 5 mile walk, we saw the remains on the Acropolis – the Propylaea, the Temple of Athena Nike, the Parthenon, and the Erechtheion, then climbed back down and saw the remains of the Roman Agora (built in 11 BC and housed commercial activities of Athens), Temple of Hephaestus (built 449-415 BC and later turned into a church), and The Stoa Of Attalos (built around 150 AD and houses the museum of the Agora).

Our European journey has also aligned us with many amazing people, but especially a lovely Greek family that was stationed in Belgium with us. They were so hospitable in Belgium, always offering to have the kids over, cooking great meals for them, bringing us desserts, giving us easy access to the Greek fest. In Athens, they continued with the hospitality taking Justin and the girls out to lunch (the boys were DONE), sent home food for the boys and I, and providing excellent recommendations. We were also invited to their house for dinner and games but we ran out of time 😥.

With their suggestions we changed our day 2 plans and headed west to Nafplio (a seaport town) with some history stops in Acrocorinth and Mycenae, really just to get our stair master exercise in.

ACROCORINTH

My favorite was Acrocorinth – the Acropolis of Corinth, and considered to be the largest, highest, and most spectacular Acropolis of Ancient Greece. It had the best views of the beautiful blue Gulf of Corinth and the city of Corinth. Human occupations of the Acropolis and of Corinth date to Neolithic Time, but it’s probably most known for being part of the Roman colony of Julius Caesar. It was rebuilt by Caesar in 44 BC. Later, it was a temporary home to Saint Paul in 49-50 AD, eventually leading to the writings of the first and second letters to the Corinthians (I love this!).

And what do you know, it also just so happened to be a place to meet a fellow Auburn alum and his wife, who’s cousin was in pharmacy school with me! At the top of an ancient Acropolis in Greece! WDE! Kind of sad I didn’t force a selfie with them, but they took this picture for us, after I slid down a rock and banged up my ankle since I was so excited for someone (an Auburn alum!) to take our picture 😬.

The views

MYCENAE

Next stop, another climb! Just north of Argos, Mycenae has a famous gate – The Lion Gate – the only known monumental sculpture from Bronze Age Greece (1600-1100 BC). And I selfied with it!

Mycenae has some pretty good views, too.

NAFPLIO

I said we didn’t have any tragedies while we were in Greece, but we thought we might.

Nafplio started out interesting with a child attempting to serve as a parking attendant and begging fairly fierce fully for money. He wouldn’t leave us, kept following, had another join, until we took their picture and chased them to a car where an adult was directing them. Not a great situation and forced us to move the van, still wondering if it would be intact when we got back. Luckily, it was. I think the photos of them and the adult’s license plate scared them off. Whew.

The city itself was very charming and the views of the Mediterranean (I think 🤔 😬) were unmatched. Eating, shopping, strolling and rock-skipping made a good afternoon.

VOULA

Probably still part of Athens, but this random stop on the way to the airport was super fun too. Rock climbing, rock skipping, playgrounds and lunch with a view.

So thankful for good weather (except for that wind!) and relatively easy travels. No airport/airplane issues, very little waiting, a huge full-size rental van that our Airbnb people helped us park and…no accidents!

OPA!

I’ve now overshared on our unfortunate events, but I need to share the good stuff too! So here is the “best of” listed by City/country area and my favorite highlight from that area.

Berlin and The Berlin Wall

We’ve heard this was a good city for families and I agree. It was an easy city to drive and we easily drove past tons of monuments and memorials.

It was our first stay in a hostel. I honestly can’t imagine ever traveling solo and sharing a room like that with complete strangers. I had a hard enough time with my own family! But it was an interesting experience. The hostel was a close enough walk to the Berlin Wall so we went there right after checking in.

The Berlin Wall was the highlight of Berlin for me. It’s one of the few historical moments-in-time (the collapse) that we have visited that happened in our lifetime. I believe I remember seeing it on the news as a kid.

It is so much larger and longer than I thought. The memorials and info about it were endless and impressive.

We walked along it for what felt like miles, seeing more and more of the wall, guard towers and other remains. Eventually, we stumbled upon a cute cookie store. We were drawn in by the fun signs (in English) and the allure of cookies. Turns out the draw was really because the owner is American 😂. What we didn’t even notice upon walking in is that we stepped over a small rocky border to cross into the building – that was part of the wall also. She explained the how her building was an old communist building that had since been remodeled, but there are still remnants from the wall and the previous regime.

Final highlight of Berlin was the Humboldt Box/museum. The muesum exists as a temporary forum while they rebuild the Berlin Castle, Stadtschloss, which was bombed twice in WWII then later demolished by the German government. The museum had the best hands-on fun for the kids and was FREE! It also had decent views of the city from its deck.

Poland and Auschwitz

Polish pottery debacle aside, Poland was a fantastic destination. First, we were the only guests in a giant castle near Wroclaw, then we had a super fun cabin in the mountains. We got to visit Boleslawiec, Wroclaw, Krakow and Zakopane, and briefly visited Auschwitz, which was my highlight of Poland.

Wroclaw has little metal gnome statues throughout the city and that thoroughly entertained the children as they ran around searching for them (win!).

It was also amazingly beautiful, super cheap, and afforded us fun and traditional polish food – pierogies, golabki, kielbasa!

When we left the Wroclaw area, we were headed to the mountains, but we stopped last minute to see Auschwitz-Birkenau. It was originally in our plans as we backtracked home, but we shifted last minute. This may or may not have been a good idea since they were sold out of entrance tickets. But we were able peer through the gates and see the main rail line in. It probably wasn’t enough for me, but I can’t imagine how hard it would’ve been to walk through.

I know sounds strange to be a “highlight” but it truly was and I am thankful to have been able to see it. I’ve watched countless documentaries and have read numerous books since we’ve been here and it really puts a ‘face’ to the images – definitely hard to really fathom the horrors that this land held.

Other Polish highlights – Krakow was beautiful even in terrible weather and the mountains near Zakopane have fun hiking trails that lead to a giant waterfall. It was trying for me and my bum feet, but I did it, all 3 miles. I just couldn’t walk in Prague the next day 😬.

Prague and the Special Effects museum

Prague is an amazingly beautiful city, though awfully crowded. Even with the crowds, it now ranks as one of our top favorites. The architecture is incredible and the number of churches and classical music concerts is never-ending. The girls and I even went to see Swan Lake, the ballet.

But our favorite part (or at least mine) was the Karel Zeman museum – a 20th century movie and special effects museum. The kids got to test out old school equipment and see how they made movies with perspective and creativity and without computers.

So fun!

Final stops

We returned through Germany with a quick stop in a cute city, Rotenburg on de Tauber, with its original city walls still intact AND still allowed to walk on. The city fed us traditional German schnitzel, pork knuckle and potato pancakes and introduced us to a new dessert – Schneeball (???). They were much, much prettier than they tasted 😂 and they were kind of difficult to eat.

But what would a super long roadtrip be without a stop for the kids? A stop in Little America, also known as Ramstein Air Force base. It’s always good to get a little America back in you after months and months of Europe. We needed you, swimming pool, PF Chang’s and Chili’s!

Sometimes I feel like I should rename my blog “Misadventures in Europe”, because what would our trips be without them?

Justin thrives off of trip planning. It’s the only thing that helps him get through his less-than-favorite job. He’s been planning this fall break trip since mid-summer when every other nation took their MONTH (yep, a month) of summer leave and he was stuck working alone. He’s been so looking forward to getting the heck outta dodge (work), but as summer was ending, the problems began.

The car

First the A/C in our Expedition went kaput (likely from the enormous amount of energy I required in the car since there is no A/C anywhere 😂)…but it’s not an easy fix. Some kind of valve leak somewhere and untrustworthy mechanics here had us deciding to hold off on fixing. Could we make the drive without it? Sigh, yes, but it will suck as I like to use A/C even in the winter!

Next, the tire started leaking air. After waiting a week or so to actually investigate, we finally found out that there were two giant nails stuck in the tire (Belgian roads!). So we ordered a tire plug and took the advice of a few friends and the American auto shop (they can change oil and put tires on but can’t order), and ordered tires from TireRack- “They arrive in roughly a week”. Well a week came and went and nothing – checked tracking and they don’t even appear to have shipped. We dallied a little longer hoping maybe they just didn’t get scanned and so we asked the post office to get the same response “really? They usually come in a week”. Finally we call the company and because we have a monster car, they have to go standby on a ship. Excellent. 4-6 weeks. The best part is that everyone we retell this fun story to says the same thing “really? Ours came in a week!” 😐

We kept waiting and hoping the tires would come, but they did not. So as we waited, we took some days out of the trip, then more, then more, then finally decided to rent a car. Sigh.

I guess it was good we cut a few days out of the trip since the car was €500 more than we planned to spend (wait for it 😬). The rental was also much smaller than our car and didn’t have a roof rack for our roof bag, but was likely better on gas mileage and would get us on the road.

So in a jam-packed car, we set off 5 days later than we had originally planned.

First night

We left later than we wanted (always), arrived later than we wanted, ate dinner later than we wanted and ate noodle soup (lame) since everything was already closed.

Turns out soup (liquid) at 9 pm is a terrible idea for a known travel-bathroom-issue-kid (Every. Single. Trip.) Luckily 😐 said child was sleeping ON a true down comforter ON a couch and didn’t tell us until it was WAY too late. And luckily 😐 we had 4 more days/nights planned without a washing machine. So we carried a half-rinsed and damp favorite blanket in a plastic bag in the packed car for 4 more days. Smells good!

Polish Pottery

It’s kind of a ‘thing’ here. I have tons of friends that have full sets of dishes, and casseroles and bowls and such. At first, I didn’t really see the allure other than that it was pretty. But over time I got it in my head that I NEEDED it to replace our everyday dishes. It was the one Libby stop on the roadtrip and I was pretty excited!

Boleslawiec, Poland is the Polish Pottery mecca and is full of factories and stores and outlets. The roundabouts and buildings are adorned with giant vases and bowls. The prices are amazing and the outlets have even cheaper items (as if Poland wasn’t already a total steal! Seriously, vacation in Poland, it’s awesome).

Well, first I was a little worried that we seemingly had no room in the car, but Justin assured me we could fit it. We go to the first place – a factory outlet with a end-of-line clearance tent. I probably told the kids a freaking 1000 times “DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING”. You can see where this is going 😐. We did a quick browse and decided to check another store. But before we left, I decided to check the end-of-line tent one more time. Just the girls came with me. It was crowded. People are rude. Pottery was precariously placed. I had a basket with a few items and I set it in the middle where no one was and asked the girls to JUST STAND next to it. But Meredith couldn’t JUST stand. Next thing I hear is a giant crash. And with that, I am the proud new owner of 280 polish zlotys ($80) worth of stuff I had no intention of buying (a giant vase and tea cups and saucers – literally the opposite of what I wanted to buy – plates). Not really sure what she was doing, but of course I yelled and cried. No one bothered to help as she was still awkwardly holding what she could. Man, if I could go back…I’d take a picture 😂😂😂 kidding.

But look, I should’ve known. I had Justin take this picture of me earlier 👇🏻in the store and look what is happening on the right!!!!

So I cried and asked to just leave without anything. Just leave. I just wanted to leave the whole town. The experience had been ruined for me AT THE FIRST STORE. I know, I know – why did I take the kids with me??? Sometimes it’s just hard to shop alone. You need opinions and help. And sometimes that ‘help’ turns into giant crashes.

But Justin insisted that I try other stores and I did. I ended up buying some more expensive plates because I was just too ashamed to go back to the original store.

Lessons learned…and we are going to keep this vase forever. Or maybe I’ll just save it and give it to her for her wedding gift 😂.

The rental car

Seinfeld wouldn’t have had an episode about rental cars if it weren’t the truth…but he had the extra insurance…and we did not 😬.

It WAS a great morning. We had this super little cabin in Poland (so affordable!) and the kids were playing outside and loving it. We were getting ready to go for a hike, one of the very few things the kids do NOT complain about. It was going to be a good day!

We pulled out of the driveway and drove 50 feet and smash. Next door, someone was backing out of an inclined and blind driveway. He must’ve had to gun it a bit to get up the hill because it just smashed right in the side of the car as we were driving – so it’s not just one spot, it’s the whole darn side of the car and the scraped wheel – IN A RENTAL CAR 😳.

He spoke no English and had to get the owner of the house (who also owned the cabin we were staying in – awkward). Two hours later the police finally came – nothing uncomfortable about police in a foreign country with a damaged rental car.

It was the other driver’s fault but the rental car agency doesn’t give a damn. He basically told us we’d be liable for the entire amount of the car and they’d just put it on our credit card. Hahahahahahahaha – who the hell has €25000 available on their credit card???

Our actual insurance should cover most of it (we hope, per our conversations with them) but the rental agencies are so ruthless and really want you to feel like you owe them your next child! I’ll tell you what, if they charge the entire amount, then we have a new car. No way in hell would I turn in a car and pay for it! WTH?

But how this ends may or may not end in a whole new blog in a few weeks.

Side note: the tires for our expedition arrived 5 days into our trip 😬.

The end

All-in-all it was a great trip (and I will share all the good stuff too!) and after reading and re-reading what I’ve written, maybe it wasn’t that bad? But there is always tomorrow! 😂 One last drive home with fingers crossed!