Tag: travel

Dreaming of France No More!

by turknoys, posted in France, Travel Adventures, Why Travel With Kids?

I believe that everybody dreams of going to Paris, France and seeing the Eiffel Tower.

There are enough movies, soap operas, news, marketing publicities about France being the most romantic country in the world to make everyone wants to go there.

Including me.  And to think that I came from a very (very) remote town of an archipelago country.  I wanted to see the Eiffel Tower ever since I saw the movie French Kiss. I was almost 17.  (I did tell you I am a remote country girl, right?)

To see  the Eiffel Tower for me was one of those goals that you have to have in the list but totally okay not to achieve; right there in the group of “to marry my prince charming” list.  These goals I thought would never actually happen.

Eventually, I did marry my prince charming and we did live happily ever after. Then it hit me – dreams could come true. Why not go to Paris?

But part of living happily ever after is having kids. We had three. Yes – prince charming can’t keep his hands off his princess.

Later on,  my prince charming and I realized, that since we have kids, it would be almost impossible to travel. So they told us.

According to our happily-ever experts, there are a lot of reasons why we can’t travel. Period. Much more travel to France. The most popular one is that kids will not appreciate France and the baby won’t even remember. Bottom line, almost everyone around us thinks that it is not just worth it.

That same reason why we can’t travel to France just yet, fueled my desire to go to France more .  We went to France March 2013. This is my happy-ever-after. This is not my kids’ dream. This is MY DREAM. I want to explore France.  I want to travel with my family. I don’t want to wait until they are “older” to appreciate the place same as I would. I definitely don’t want to wait until we are retired and kids are all grown up.

My happy-ever -after is now.

For seven beautiful days we explored Paris, France.  On top of that, we stayed in Disneyland, Paris for three awesome nights. We explored further and went to South of France: Nice and Provence France for additional week.

I am dreaming of France no more!  I am happy; ready to move on to other dreams.

If the kids want to come back later on, it will be their dream to be conquered. I have achieved my life-long dream, they should follow their mother’s lead.

Have you been to France? Do you want to visit the country sometime? What’s keeping you? 

 

Arc De Triomphe
Disneyland, Paris
Disneyland, Paris

We Love This Part of the World in the Summer!

by turknoys, posted in United Arab Emirates

We have our reasons. When all expats from the Middle East are planning their escape from the desert heat, our family is rolling out our home activities and travel around GCC! We simply love this part of the world in the summer.

Yes, the summer at more than fifty degrees Celsius! What could be more exciting? Or boring depends on what perspective you are coming from. Imagine a day raising a gifted 7-year old, a rambunctious almost 4-year old and an equally active 1-year old and having the only the option of either indoor activities or heat stress. Life is simply glorious.

Last year, we finally kicked off our travel and off we went to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Might as well explore the neighboring countries. The summer discount is huge. Normally, we couldn’t afford our stay in The Palm Atlantis – in the summer, we can! We stayed in the fabulous hotel for three days and two nights and we were ecstatic!

enjoying summer at The Palm Atlantis
enjoying summer at The Palm Atlantis
There are loads to do in the Palm that we planned to just explore the place. We were very fortunate to have a friend in the area who were very willing to guide us around Dubai. Highlight of the tour outside Atlantis are exploring the tallest building in the world – The Burj Khalifa, and skiing in the desert during summer – how cool is that?  It was way TOO cool for us! It really does help to know someone in the area, reuniting with an old friend and free local guide! Perfect!

The tallest tower in the world
The tallest tower in the worldOn top of the world - Burj Khalifa

On top of the world – Burj Khalifa

The parents had a blast and the kids loved every minute of the trip. This trip actually inspired us to explore more! We intend to go back to United Arab Emirates to visit other cities. There is way too much to see.