A False Start To Kenya
After our amazing Monaco beach day with friends, it was an early start to stuff the car for the drive to the airport in Milan for our flight to Kenya. We had to fly out of Milan to return the (dinged up) rental car that we had (out-of-contract) driven to France. Turns out, these were only the first of our blunders.
A few hours into our drive, we realized we were flying out of Milan Linate, not Milan Malpensa, where we were supposed to return the rental car. We headed to Linate anyway and hoped they would take pity on us dumb Americans. We had left early and were making good time until about 30 minutes from the airport. The toll traffic was completely stopped. The lanes weren’t moving. Italians were honking and yelling in what we could only assume was colorful language. We sat for nearly an hour before we made it through, which put us dangerously close to our departure time for the overnight flight to Nairobi.
But we made it! They took the car, rushed us over to the terminal and we ran to the ticket counter. Where we were refused our boarding passes. Although we had applied for our Kenyan visas a few days prior, we were still under the impression that you could also get them when you land, so we weren’t worried we didn’t have them in hand. Well, that has changed. Americans MUST have a visa prior to entering Kenya. Although we frantically refreshed our emails for the next 20 minutes, the ticket counter closed and the flight departed without us. And after all of our travels - 12 weeks, 5 countries, 4 continents, 2 difficult kids and countless miles, we finally found ourselves stranded at an airport.
And we were stranded. We didn’t know when the visas would come in, so we rescheduled our flight for three days later. Sitting on the floor with backs against our luggage, sending the kids on Starbucks runs to keep them occupied and fed, Russ and I started calling hotels. One after the other they were full or only had suites left that would cost more per night than all our tickets to Kenya. Turns out it was the start of Milan’s Fashion Week and the end of the F1 race. The city was full and we were out of luck.
An hour later, we were still dialing hotels. Rosie, convinced we were sleeping in the airport, started showing signs of the anxiety that plagues and often cripples her. Jordan, ever the opportunist, was high on all the unauthorized chocolate he took advantage of consuming.
And then the text came in. Our good friends, Sarah and Jose Luis, who visited us just a month earlier in Portugal, live a fabulous life. They have homes in Miami, Madrid, and…Milan. When they heard we were stuck for a few days and they weren’t in Italy, they promptly invited us to stay at their Milan flat for as long as we needed. Sarah sent the address and before we even got in a taxi, she and Jose Luis were sending us text after text filled with restaurant recommendations, sites to see, things to do.
I almost cried when I couldn’t figure out how to use the washing machine in Portugal. This time, I actually cried: gigantic, grateful tears for their generosity.
In all of my blogs so far, I have focused on the awesome experiences we are having. So now a pause, as I struggle to explain how difficult it has been to travel nonstop with two kids who are usually in some state of emotional dysregulation. Their neuro-diverse needs and extremes are one of the many reasons we chose to take this adventure and leave the US. I haven’t focused on all that yet, but it has played out in many stressful and challenging ways since we left the states.
So here we are. We had left home in June, it was now mid-September, and we were looking forward to settling down for several months in one place and making it home, hopeful that the stability would give us all a respite from the heightened cortisol levels we had been surviving on. This unexpected turn of events, a delay with an unknown end, had me questioning how we could have let something as important as visas slip by. Plus the rental car mishap. And almost missing our flight due to traffic. What else were we missing? Was this all a big mistake? Are the amazing experiences actually worth the difficult bedtimes, the constant fighting in the car, the Big Emotions? For the first time, I felt completely shaken, questioning everything.
So when I say that we are thankful and grateful for Sarah and Jose Luis’ offer of their place, it is the understatement of 2022.
When I say that their flat is beautiful and well-located, those are also profound understatements. Newly renovated with cutting edge interior design, in an iconic building, with three full bedrooms, two balconies with views across the city and adjacent to a fabulous public park and walking distance to everything, we went from losing to #winning in about 20km. Their place is absolutely gorgeous and I stressed my family out for our entire stay making sure they did not put a dent in a brand new sofa cushion or leave their dirty paw prints on the freshly painted walls.
Although this unexpected turn of events had me far more out of sorts than I even realized at the time, I was highly motivated as a parent to exemplify calm within a storm. Every problem has a solution, and in this case we were very, very lucky. So we had no choice but to embrace our delay and make the most of four perfect fall days in Milan. We had lunch in the shadow of the Duomo, ate risotto milanese, explored the canals in Navigli, and spent tons of time walking around the city and exercising in the park. Our visas came through within three days and we (re/re)booked an early morning flight for the fourth day. This time, we actually made it to Kenya.
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**This post is dedicated to the generosity of Sarah and Jose Luis. The fact that Russ and I are not divorced and that we didn’t call it quits on our crazy travel dreams on the floor of Milan Linate, is all thanks to them. Thank you!
