Day 1 and 2 - Flying across the world with an Infant and Making it to Sarajevo!

Overall things are going really well! (With the exception that our fourth adult travel companion is still stranded in the US trying to get here...poor poor Tom...but hopefully he will join us very soon!)

Our trsvel buddy - Meredith ready to go!

All set!

I am going to keep this short because sleep is in short supply and critical need, but...we drove to Dulles airport Wednesday night and flew from DC to Istanbul with little incident. The plane was terribly hot for an international flight, but overall it went well - we had a bassinet that Hannah slept in for a few 1-2 hour stretches and she was never inconsolable. We only had to walk the plane with her once on the whole ten hour flight! So, overall it went very well (doesn't mean it was easy or not exhausting...but with the exception of the too warm part it was what I expected or better). After landing in Istanbul we quickly found our way to the gate to catch our flight to Sarajevo and this was when Hannah was kind of done with the airport experience. I spent the time at the gate walking her in circiles and around the huge windows with a beautiful view of the strait that cuts through Istanbul. She wasn't horrible on the flight to Sarajevo, but she wasn't great either. Our bag of tricks had lost its charm and we had a fussy Hannah, but we made it without major incidence and were very happy to find ourselves in Sarajevo! We found an incredibly jolly taxi driver and headed to our favorite hotel in this city - Hotel Michele where we had reserved a beautiful apartment (we stayed here the last time we were in Sarajevo and were definitely looking forward to a return).

Hannah's bassinet on the plane (no she didn't sleep with all that stuff). Jacques the Peacock was the hit and life saver of the trip!

Hotel Michele!

Meredith checking out Hannah's cute outfit

Finding food was tricky because we had landed at 7:30 at night so by the time we were at the hotel it was at least 8:30...there was lots and lots of beer to be found as people gathered to watch Croatia and Brazil face off in the World Cup, but food was in short supply. We found passable fastish food and called it a night.

Hannah fixated on the candle at dinner- forget the awesome atmosphere, she loved the candle!

enjoying our evening stroll

 

I was nervous about how Hannah would do over night. To be clear, she isn't remotely sleeping through the night. Like...not even close. ...We have actually regressed from the weeks she would sleep 2-4 hours and go back to sleep that long. Now it's a stretch of like...ninety minutes or two hours maximum. Seriously. We hit a growth spurt at about 10.5 weeks and for four days it was brutal...and ever since I haven't slept more than two consecutive hours. It's been at least a three weeks since I have gotten three consecutive hours of sleep. I wish I was kidding. So...I was not remotely optimistic about her first night when she would be attempting to sleep during the day. But overall? She did well. Still no long stretches, but she was able to go back to sleep each time with is the critical part (and the one way in which she earns points in the sleep department - overnight she may wake frequently, but after eating she goes right back to sleep.

 

We enjoyed a lovely breakfast at our hotel and then set out to explore, but I am going to let the photos help explain our adventures. I'm only posting a few tonight in interest of time, but hopefully will have some more up tomorrow and a better recap of the tourism part of our trip thus far!

 

Daniel and I had visited this city in 2008, so I was excited to see the changes in 2014, especially it is a city rebuilding from a modern war. I can definitely tell that rennovations have been ongoing and there are more truly modern style buildings cropping up throughout the city. Simultaneously, there are still many buildings with pockmarks from mortars and bullets and piles of rubble where a building had once stood on many streets. But the charm and warmth and character that we loved about Sarajevo the last time is still there and the enduring hope and focus on progress still prevails.

 

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