Alright everybody! It's been a WHILE since my last post. I realized I haven't written since before I got married. Welp! Many things have happened since.
A little over a month after the wedding, we found out we were pregnant! We had planned to wait a couple of years before trying, but I guess God wanted this baby to happen. When we found out, Adam was actually about to leave for Europe on a month-long tour. You can imagine the stress of not having him around for that long while my body does some WEIRD things. The good thing about that was I was going to meet him in Europe on Christmas Day and we'd stay an extra week after everyone left for our honeymoon.
YAY, honeymooning!
I flew to Germany with one of my best friends, Logan, and a new friend, Betsey. There, we met our husbands on tour. That week was so much fun! We saw beautiful towns, ate a lot of carbs, and tried new things. I think the fact that we had everything planned out for us was a plus. It made everything flow and we didn't have to worry about anything. The time came for everyone but me, Adam, Dave, and Betsey to leave Europe and go home, but we still parted ways.....after eventually figuring out how to do European trains together. haha
Here's where the "fun" began.
When we made it to our train, we didn't know how carts and seats worked, so we just went in and sat down. We then realized (thanks to an English speaking Italian) that we were in the wrong cart. We were in cart 32. We needed to be in cart 4. By this point, the doors were closing and the train started moving. If you've never been on a train, I'll try and paint a picture. The aisles are probably a tad more narrow than a commercial airplane, some don't have any storage above your head and if they do, you might be able to fit a small suitcase. There are sliding doors between each cart and each cart is about the length of a semi. Ok, picture that, and then picture Adam and I carrying 2 large suitcases, one smaller one, 2 backpacks, and a guitar tumbling our way through 28 carts full of people. We had a connecting train, so that one was a lot better because *I don't think there were assigned seats.
We made it to Lucerne, Switzerland and it took us a while to find our hotel. It was freezing, we were walking, we were tired, our BODIES were tired, and I'm pregnant, so..
Soon enough, we realized just how close the hotel was, and we made it safely inside. The hotel was adorable! We were so thankful to have a comfy bed, but we also wanted to take a look at the city and eat. The city still had their Christmas lights up, so that was beautiful! It's a tricky thing being lactose-intolerant, vegan, AND pregnant because all of the things you want, you cannot have! While we were looking for a restaurant, their menus were pretty disheartening. I was craving tomato basil soup, but nowhere had it, so we must have walked for an hour before we just gave up and walked into a random place. They seated us and then sat 2 other tables after us. They hadn't cleaned our table yet, but I figured they would eventually. So much time had passed and the other two tables were taken care of, but we still had a dirty one from the people before us. ( I am convinced it's because we're American) We were exhausted and before I knew it, I started crying from anger and hunger and ran to the restroom. These hormones, man. I guess that got the waiter's attention because he went up the to table while I was in the restroom and Adam ordered. Once we had some food in our bellies, we felt a little better and we went back tot he hotel. At this time, my nose holes were completely shut and I had just run out of my nasal spray. I can't sleep while breathing through my mouth; it's just not an option. I took a shower to try and relieve it, but it wasn't working, so I ended up crying in the shower.
My husband, being the amazing man that he is, went out searching for nasal spray... He found one and spent way too much money on it; it did not work. All we found were saline sprays and not decongestants. There were also very loud children staying in the room next to us or across the hall...or both. IT. WAS. MISERABLE. The next day started out a little disappointing. The receptionist had told us the night before that because it was a holiday, breakfast would be served until noon. When we arrived downstairs for breakfast around 11:30, there was a sign that said breakfast ends at 10. LIES! We tried not to let it get to us thought.. I also tried to stop acting like a hormonal nut job on our honeymoon, so we went around the town going into the shops, looking and learning about the historical town, trying out different food, and we found a grocery store, thank God. OH OH!!! I almost forgot!! We went to the museum and witnessed an old man snorting coke while watching one of the artistic films. That was pretty funny actually. Anyway, the next day, we were headed out.
Bye Bye, Lucerne!
This time, we decided to take a long distance bus trip on the way to Milan. It was so much cheaper, so it had to be worth it. Luckily, we found the last two seats next to each other towards the back of the bus. So, I've learned that Italians are very loud. :) Also, don't ever plan on using the restroom on the bus. There is nowhere safe to touch. Nowhere. THANK GOD my balance was still really good at this point. I can now laugh at this next experience but at the time, it was so extreme that Adam and I kept looking at each other in shock that this is life: There was an old man sitting behind Adam, and if you know us, you KNOW how annoying we fins chewing with your mouth open or mouth noises in general. Ok. This man didn't have anything in his mouth... he straight up sounded likeAdam and I do when we're over exaggerating someone's mouth noises. It was.....I can't even explain it. But it was the whole ride there.
Hello Milan!
We arrived in Milan and it was too dark outside to walk (and it would take an hour to get to the hotel) so we took a taxi. This hotel was GORGEOUS! It was the nicest hotel I've ever stayed at. We went down to have a nice romantic dinner in their restaurant and it was AMAZING! I felt like we were finally having a honeymoon. The next morning, I was woken by people outside. I don't know what they were doing, but it was loud and it was echoing and it didn't stop for hours, so I woke up...around 7:30. That day, we wanted to see the cathedral and all the pretty sights in the city, so we ventured out, realized we were 45min away, went to a bakery to fuel up, and tried out the subway system. With a few fails, we finally figured it out and we saw the most beautiful sights in that square!
When it crashed and burned
A couple of hours later while we were looking for a place to eat, I started feeling the worst pain in my stomach. Painful enough to where all I wanted to do was fall on the ground, curl up in a little ball and cry...in the middle of the city! We rushed out of there as fast as we could, but as fast as we could ended up being an hour or so. When we got back to the hotel, I couldn't keep anything down and I spent the rest of the evening in the restroom. It ended up being something I ate. There was either milk in the soup or butter in the biscuits. We spent the rest of the day in the hotel, and the next day was pretty bad for me too. I couldn't stop throwing up and I didn't have an appetite. Poor Adam stayed with me in the hotel the entire second day ALL THE WHILE, receiving stressful texts from our roommate about annoying things that were happening back home. Luckily, we were leaving the next day back to Germany.
Bye Milan, and good riddance!
We decided to take a plane for this trip! I'll just say I don't agree with the way they do things, BUT we made it to Germany pretty quick. We took the shuttle to the Holiday Inn Express, and of course, it was the wrong Airport Holiday Inn Express....because you need more than one. We were told the cheapest thing to do is for then to call us a car to take us to the other one and it would be able 12 Euro. ...26 Euro later, we get there. By this point.....actually way before this point, we were ready to be home. We missed Sheida, we missed people understanding us, we missed vegan food, and we missed my nose spray. We made it a day and a half and left Germany, only to have our flight seats messed with to where we couldn't next to each other anymore... and NO ONE would move. Again, I'm tried, exhausted, stressed, hungry, still kinda sick, and ANXIOUS. Screw all of those people who said no to moving for a pregnant woman with anxiety.
SCREW. YOU.
We eventually made it back to the States and needless to say, we were SOOOOO happy to be home. Now, time to let the fact that "we're having a baby" set in.
Moral of the story is you probably shouldn't travel somewhere cold and unfamiliar while in your first trimester. We're definitely going to have a re-do in a warm, tropical place at some point.
Hope you enjoyed.....
Photos from the trip are under "Travels" on the main page.