I had an amazing weekend. I flew to Berlin to see a dear friend I met when I was an exhange student in US in 2007. She’s actually italian but work at the moment in Germany and last fall sent me a message inviting me to visit her. We saw eachother in 2011 when she came to visit my family when our little sir was just few months old.
Last fall my future was unsure as I wasn’t sure on my work or how the kids would handle me being away (especially the little lady, if I’d still breastfeed her). Travelling with kids feels too overwhelming yet so I said maybe not at the moment…
But at the end of the fall I had a job and I felt I really could use a free weekend, totally somewhere else. So I booked flights to my friend!
I have to mention that I have the most amazing hubbie, who said immediately “go ahead” when I told him my plans. No problems, only encouragement, which I actually did need. Being away from my family for the first time is a big step for me! And the great part is that I could leave with a peaceful mind, no need to worry if the family could survive without me for the weekend (of course they can!). And I have great bosses too, without any complaints, I got a day off (I have so many over hours, great way to use them!).
Eveybody (family, coworkers and friends, especially my “father in law” (the real one passed away before I started to date my hubbie)) were wishing me a happy trip. I was in such a good mood and so relaxed even on the thought!
I have always loved traveling. Though traveling with a friend or family is always fun, I relax more when traveling alone. No need to take care on anyone else, I can do what I want, how I want and when I want. I love just sitting, drinking a coffee and watching busy people. I love observing other passangers and just walking around. For me traveling is one of the biggest pleasures of a trip, if I do it alone. Not saying I don’t enjoy doing it with family or friends, but then the pleasure is elsewhere, in the destination.
But during my trip to Berlin (included two flights), I noticed something new about me. I always plan everything well ahead, the trip, the flight changes, the sightseeing etc. I don’t stress but sacrifice a lot of thinking to it. This time I basically planned nothing. I booked the flights and on my friends request checked some sightseeings (ending up saying, basically anything is fine for me but lets not plan too much).
I had a possibly tricky change of flights, as I didn’t know if I could just transfer check-in or if I needed to “go out” and re-check-in. For the first time I thought, well, I’ll just see then what I need to do, I’ll figure out something. I knew I’d have plenty of time, so I didn’t take any stress of the unknown (which I have usually done).
Another new trait I noticed in me was that I automatically browsed around and analyzed everything “how would this work with small kids?”. I didn’t even realize this until I was in Berlin.
Once I arrived, I had some time to walk around, before my friend came to pick me up. It was amazing, we’ve barely been in touch since she visited us but we started chatting like we’d seen last week! Sure there was a lot to catch up but the flow was good and I had the feeling I actually hadn’t even been traveling to another country!
Berlin too was great, the weather was beautiful and I got a glimpse if upcoming spring. We just walked around, did some sightseeing, talked a lot, ate well…
Anyway, the weekend was so relaxing and really unwinded me. Total change of environment for a weekend did so good!
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