We arrived safe and sound late Friday evening. Just as planned and hoped for. I couldn't have asked for a better trip - no delays, no lost luggage and D was excellent except for around midnight on Thursday when she had a nightmare and woke up rows 29 - 32 in coach with her crying and screaming. I only got one "shush" though, and the crew was getting ready to wake us up for breakfast anyway. So all's well that ends well, although I could go for the rest of my life without ever passing through Gatwick again. Smoky, smoky and omigosh are the bathroom stalls SMALL. Barely made for one person, let alone someone with 3 carryon bags, a stroller and a small child. We actually got stuck because I couldn't open the door wide enough to get the stroller out. I was trapped on the toilet side and D was at the door. I had to shove her out into the bathroom, toss the bags out to her (she valiantly tried to pull them aside), and then partially close the stroller before I tumbled out. I think airplane bathrooms are bigger.
Kosovo is totally unlike anyplace else I've ever been, yet elements of it remind me a lot of Jamaica, of all places. Maybe it is the concrete and stucco homes, or the piles of debris by the roads, the cows grazing in the fields. I cooked my first dinner last night: penne and tomato sauce. Then celebrated by waking up this morning with a raging migraine. Really very sick in every way possible. I slept it off while M took care of D. But it was a near thing and if I have any more mornings like that I'll be heading for home much sooner than expected. But so far that is the only sign either D or I have had of jet lag. D is already on her regular sleep schedule!
The food thing is going to be hard to figure out. No frozen foods, no mac n' cheese, no fast foods at all. We went to a local restaurant for lunch today. Had some types of schnitzel, mine was chicken and M's was a part of a cow. No English translation for the part but it was tasty anyhow. D got the "Florida Salad" - chicken nuggets with salad and fruit. We also got a delicious soup (looked and tasted like pea puree with pasta or rice in it), a very fresh, huge side salad and a little bowl of fruit with caramel and whipped cream all for free with our meal. The whole meal was only 12 euros. The food here is amazingly inexpensive. We did some basic grocery shopping and a loaf of fresh-baked bread is only 25 cents and eggs are 75 cents a dozen. Even the canned goods are just a few cents, however I couldn't always tell what was inside based on the pictures. Dairy is the same way - M had bought some yogurt and D had one for breakfast, but neither of them could decide on the flavor based on the pictures. D settled on "apple," eventually. But the fruits and veggies are cheap, fresh and delicious, so I think we'll at least be eating healthy. Dinner tonight was "Kosovo toast" - french toast without sugar, cinammon and syrup, but with fresh cherries and strawberries instead.
It's all good, just being together again.
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