The past few days we have had a great time with the Sieber-Schaefer family. They were our first guests and we had a fun time doing some of our favorite (so far!) things. Yesterday we decided to visit the town of Sitges about 40 minutes south of Barcelona. Before embarking on our journey we had read the guide books and many websites and it seemed like a straightforward journey. Cab to the train station, C2 or R2 train to Sitges. It didn’t seem very hard.
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| Nick in his Sitges inspired outfit. |
We arrived at the train station and waited in line to buy tickets from the automated machine… Whoops, there are two train lines and we needed the other machine. Stood in line again and then become confused by the machine. Thankfully a smelly man who spoke English offered to help for one euro (nice business plan!). We finally had our tickets in hand.
We headed towards down to the platform and were confused if the train already in the station was the right one. Yes, no, yes, no, yes…. After some ambivalence we hopped on, convinced it was the right one. After about 15 minutes we realized we were going in the wrong direction. Crap! We now had to jump off, take another train back to Barcelona and finally get on the RIGHT one.
This kind of thing happens to us with regularity here. It sometimes feels like a full time job to just go with the flow. I know intellectually that we need to slow down and let things happen. I also know that it is a good life lesson for the children to learn that all is not lost when there are bumps in the road. But sometimes I just want to get there DAMN IT!!
Thankfully Sitges was lots of fun. We rented a paddle boat with a slide, admired scantily clad Europeans, had a massage and indulged on gelato and caipirinhas. The return trip was flawless and we all arrived home happy, sandy and tired.
I know that people say it is “all about the journey”, and generally I agree. But sometimes, especially on hot days with a load of junk and eight people, it is about the destination.
P.S. Lily says that I should make sure that people know that the boat was a car boat with rainbow wheels and flowers. Very pretty!!
Did your early years of being the child of a sabbatical-taking family prepare you for all of this??
Sitges looks wonderful. (so does Nick!)
The boat is super fun!
I think it must have although I am not sure exactly in what ways. I think mostly it made us feel like it was totally doable and not as foreign as it literally is. Mike's family did sabbaticals as well so I guess we are both conditioned for it.
I agree with Emily, the boat is awesome!
Also, you'll be amused to know that when I was in Birmingham, England recently (where I in fact speak the language), I bought the wrong sort of ticket on the automated machine. Apparently the return trip was for same day and also it was for one train line, not just any train line. The conductor was willing to "fix" it by charging me more… 🙂
However, I think there is a huge difference between being a kid on sabbatical and being the parent/grownup on one. When our family went on sabbaticals (granted, no foreign ones) – it was just one big adventure – fun! New House! New Places to go! Trips! I don't think any of us kids had any real idea of the stress, complexity and sheer amount of work "going on sabbatical" entailed. 😉