In 5 weeks we will start our travels around the world. It will be a few months filled with ups and downs (I am not that naive to think that it will only be love, peace and harmony) but I hope those months will bind our family together even more and it will be an adventure my girls will still talk about when they are old and gray.
Liya starts to ask more frequently now how long it still takes until we go back to Switzerland. This is probably due to the fact that we start talking about what will be after our Time in Canada and the months we spend traveling. I already signed the Girls up to return to their old daycare and we talk about summer in Zurich when we return and Babys of friends who we haven’t seen yet and how we will go and visit once we are home.
I am sure the girls feel the anticipation but when we tell them that we prior to going home will go on a very long vacation, I am not sure how much they understand of it. After all, time is still a rather abstract concept, so I try to explain it by using milestones within the year „We will leave when it is still winter but return to Zurich when it is already summer.“ „On your Birthday (for the first time a big topic and already anticipated even though it takes another four months) we will still be traveling but we’ll be home when it is your Nana’s birthday“ and so on.
We are now 5 weeks from starting our next adventure but it doesn’t feel like a big change in life is ahead of us. Firstly, since we will travel “standby” on all our flights, it will not be possible for us to plan too much in advance. We have a rough plan about how our trip should look like and where we want to go but that’s about it. Our routes and the duration of our stay at one place or another depends largely on the availability of seats on the plane.
Then there is the packing. I don’t like packing. I tend to pack too much and the wrong stuff. No matter how I tackle it, I always have either too many or not enough cloths or not sufficient cloths for the particular weather. Not wanting to look like a tourist (aka my vanity) does not help either (think matching shoes to certain outfits etc.) *
This time, we don’t only have to think about packing our suitcases for traveling, but also about packing up all our personal belongings we took to or acquired in Canada. We rent a furnished apartment here in Montreal, yes, but we brought along toys and bought books, children beds etc. and we will have to deal with these things before starting our travels.
Even though live still goes on as usual at the moment I start to feel emotional now. Emotional about saying goodbye to this place that has become home, to my life and routines here, to the friends we made and places we visit frequently. We start thinking about where we want to go one last time, about what is still on our bucket list, yet without a tick behind it. But I also start feeling emotional about going home, seeing friends and family again, moving into our new apartment. I am anxious about having to look for a job again when I get back and how the children will adapt to life in Switzerland and their old daycare again. How will they react when suddenly everybody just goes about their daily routine again after having spent several months traveling and sticking together 24/7?
And of course I am very excited but also nervous about the traveling itself. Will it be relaxing or tiring. Will the girls play along or be totally annoyed with moving around, will they like the destinations we chose? (Liya keeps telling me that she doesn’t understand why we can’t go to Thailand again). Will they be able to handle all the new impressions? Will it be an enrichment or an imposition?
The only thing we can do for this trip to become as fantastic as we hope is (I believe) to be open, flexible, stay calm when things don’t go as planned and to trust the blood of a long history of travelers that runs through my daughters veins.
*I have a short sidestory to add here: I was once on vacation with a friend whom I consider stylish and cool, so when he said that Swiss women are always recognizable by rather dressing functional than stylish, this affronted me at first but I had to realize that he was right. I was brought up like that and therefore I still now, that his words ring in my ear every time I dress for a concert, bike ride or pack my bag for a trip, I catch myself thinking first about what is practical and then trying hard to go the other way.
