Traveling again...Italy this time

Let me just start with the obvious.  I left before the "Storm of the Century" hit.  Now let me explain; we have one TV station here in St. Paul that every month seems to have a "Storm of the Century".  Robert and I laugh constantly.  Well, I laugh  and he just talks back to the TV.  This station is SO dramatic.  Yet we keep watching.  And laughing.

The flight to Amsterdam was long.  As usual.  As I sat there, I remembered our first trip to get the adoption process started and then the subsequent trip with Alex to bring Viktor home.  We had a change of plans for the second trip where we felt it was necessary for Robert to accompany Alex and me.  I am SO glad that happened.  The memory of the trip and the long ride home is with a family of four.  Not me alone with 2 teens.

I did manage to get aisle seats both to Amsterdam and then to Milan.  And on the side of the plane so it was just me and one other person crammed in like sardines.  I managed to get a seat partner from Iran (from Des Moines no less) on the way to Amsterdam and one from Pakistan on the way to Milan.  Yikes!  No political discussions on this trip!  Keep your mouth shut Jan!

I am always amazed at some travelers.  This one is a doozie however.  They were just getting ready to shut the doors and we ALL were eyeing an entire middle row of four seats where the travelers hadn't shown up.  It was in an exit row no less so they were facing the blank wall and had extra leg room.  Again, we were all salivating eyeing that open row and the gentleman across the aisle from me had already staked his claim talked to the stewardess about moving.  In fact, she had already told him to move when all of a sudden there was a flurry of activity up front and lots of commotion.  Needless to say, the hoard family that was supposed to sit in those seats had finally decided to grace us with their presence arrived.  May I remind you, this is four middle seats.  And in walks 7 (yes SEVEN) people.  For four seats.  Four adults and three children under the age of four or so.  They certainly were not under the age of two.  We are late pulling away from the gate because 1.  tthey are late , 2.  there was no place to stash their stuff at this point,  3.  there was a TON of stuff to stash and 4.  they had to have an open aisleway in front of them so even their seven coats had to be stashed.  What a nightmare!  I could hear the collective groan from the entire back half of the plane.

Sure wish it ended there.  Being that this is an overnight flight, most of us planned to get some shut eye.  Yea, not so much with the three SCREAMING children.  I kid you not, at least one of these kids cried the entire flight.  Nine long hours.  And they were four rows ahead of me...URGH!  Mom and dad didn't seem to have any plan what so ever for entertaining or amusing these three children for 9 hours.  Seriously?  Dad gave up part way through and went to the front of the plane for a while.  When he came back, he tried to get his child out of his seat and back on his lap.  Oh my gosh, the screaming!  And his answer was squeezing the child harder to get him to stop.  Really?  You think that's going to work?  I pity the folks on the next flight they were taking out of Amsterdam.

There was a woman on the trip back from Amsterdam on our first trip to Ukraine to get Viktor where she was traveling alone with 3 young children.  She had the four middle row seats.  She had movies, cheerios, books, music and her secret weapon (Benadryl).  Those kids were great!  Hardly a peep out of them. 

I mean seriously, 9 hours on a plane in a lap for a three year old?  And three of them?  How stupid are you? What did you expect?