The Terrific3 travel blog

We are currently seated in a a complimentary upgraded premium class seat on British airways, hoping to take off in 15 minutes and land in PDX about 10 hours, barring any further ​adventures after 16 days in Europe, 4 more than originally planned, compliments of the local Italy Norovirus.

We are thankful for the final silver lining of being upgraded to premium and the boys are psyched.  I’m also happy to have more space, more fluids offered to me, and a foot rest and a little more recline.  The boys are back to full health but I’m not 💯 quite yet.  I’m pretty sure my body is done fighting the virus and I’m not contagious. I thankfully haven’t vomited in over 48 hours.  However, yesterday I probably tried to advance my diet a little too fast and my stomach and bowels reacted immediately and violently.  In a way, this was good information, allowing me to decide on a purely banana, bread and tic tac diet for today to maximize my hydration.  Luckily I slept well for the first time last night in days, and I feel mostly hydrated but definitely not back to baseline.

So what have we learned from this adventurous trip full of misadventures of the kind no one wants?  16 days ago, I left my country despaired and disappointed, looking for a vacation and an escape from the reality of what awaits us the next 4 years.  We had a FANTASTIC first week in Rome and Florence.  The kids, now ages almost 9 and 11.5 are both fun and mostly easy to travel with, and able to walk the 12+ daily miles required of a European vacation, and I loved seeing Italy through their eyes.  Everything was going seamlessly, almost too easily.

Until we were stuck on an island, namely Venice, with no cars, 2 kids who were febrile, vomiting, having diarrhea and horribly dehydrated, one of them not having eaten for 5 days, where any in person medical care or going to the pharmacy, or moving anywhere required 2 orthostatic kids to walk 10-20 minutes with possibly 1-2 sick or almost sick adults who were caring for them and waiting for the bomb to hit them too.  Being on Venice during that experience felt like a claustrophobic trap and not only could I not wait to leave, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go back again.  It’s a beautiful place, and I’ve been there twice now in my life, and that’s more than enough.  

I also learned that you can’t have enough travel insurance.  I had initially insured us based upon trip cost months ago and didn’t try to update the cost until 2 weeks prior and somehow the policy didn’t  let me.  I should’ve called.  Be sure to always get enough to pay for the full cost of your last minute flights back plus extra accommodations etc.  Expensive lesson learned, but this trip will be paying for 1-2 trips we likely won’t be able to take next year.  But money is money and health is most important.

Next lesson—this I’m good at—when things like this happen, make a plan and another plan and another back up plan. My cousin and I sat down and mapped it all out—how we would leave Venice to get to mainland, backup flights, and I went ahead and bought a fully refundable flight back to PDX in case we didn’t make our first flight (which was made with miles so could be canceled last minute).

Next lesson—those people who are part of my life are my gold.  Of course I already knew this, but important to reiterate.  From my cousin whose presence made it easier for me to take care of the kids, to my friends in portland who checked in on me, stocked my kitchen before we arrived, helped give me “medical” advice, and everyone else who checked in.  It really helped me not feel alone in a corner of Venice.

Next lesson—when you are taking care of sick kids on vacation in another country, nothing about it is fun. For those who may say, “well at least you were in Italy,” of which I did get some comments, see above—being on a non English speaking island without cars or delivery services when you were worried you or the kids will need ER or hospitalization is definitely not ever better than being at home.  At home, there is a medical and support system we know.  In a foreign country, there is none.  So the second, longest part of our trip frankly sucked lemons, and I think I’ve earned permission to not always be positive and to say it as it is.  I am thankful we are all healthy and ok and I still want to say it was quite terrible, with a few sparkles sprinkled in.

Next lesson?  My kids are freaking awesome.  They handled a horrible illness with as much grace as they could and then took care of me on the other end of it.  They are the loves of my life and I’m so glad I get to adventure with them. 

The last, and most ironic lesson?  Well, the country I was trying to escape after the horrendous election is the one I currently can’t wait to get back to.  Because despite the politics, my friends, my community, my heart and my home still live there. So if this whole trip was a lesson to me to learn that, it is a lesson well learned.  See you on the other side of the Atlantic.