One thing I can say for my kids – they are equally comfortable getting going upscale as they are keepin' it real. They can happily eat street som tam (Thai spicy papaya salad) on a lawn in a park or in the sand on the beach. They also know what to do with an aromatic body wash and a hotel bathrobe.
Last night that's exactly what they did. After a quick assessment of our room at the Sofitel, Sennen Ailyn had showered in the fragrant Olive Era body wash and hair care products – and were then lounging in their soft terry bathrobes. We didn't need a full meal after an afternoon of grazing, so the Greek cheese pies we grabbed on the way out of the terminal made a great handheld dinner that could be enjoyed without looking up from their iPads.
After checking in with a few loved ones, I called bedtime. The kids acted as if they weren't tired, didn't need to sleep. Only within five minutes of heads hitting the pillow, they were out like lights. I cite fatigue, but they blame the Sofitel mattresses for knocking them out. We all slept for 11.5 hours.
Happily recharged, we're ready for the next leg of the long journey: an afternoon domestic flight to Kos and a night ferry to Patmos where at 1:10 am, we reach our Patmos home. My team of pro-travelers has a great attitude. Happy to get checked in for the flight, patient with the airport processes and wait times, happy to make their way to the ferry tonight and excited to see what their new beds feel like. Last year the beds we thankfully inherited with the house purchase were hard as rocks, so the kids are happy for the upgrades. Ailyn has also decided she doesn't need to bunk with the boys and will upgrade her lodgings and mattress by joining Bubbee in the master bedroom (ostensibly my bed).
While the travel today is less involved and stressful than yesterday, we nonetheless have a full travel day before we get "home". Luckily, kids who know how to enjoy the soaps and bathrobes of a hotel also know how to work an airline lounge – especially by the third lounge of the trip. They locate restrooms, scan buffets, check for the best seating and exchange tips. Discussions of how they came to select their respective flavors of panna cotta and where to find the sparkling water are commonplace now. As are discussions of which airline lounge is best and why. So far Star Alliance LAX is best on environment and ambiance, but Istanbul IGA killed it on food – and in my mind offered the best restroom upgrade in comparison to the quality of the regular restrooms around the terminals. As I recently discovered in reviewing old blog posts, I have never been a big fan of Turkish restrooms.
On yesterday's flight from Istanbul to Athens we sat in front of an American family with two small children – I would guess three years and eight months respectively. The baby cried during the descent and needed calming once we landed. Memories came flooding back beginning with Sennen's first trip to Patmos at 15 months and then to Ailyn's first trip to Bali at six months, Sennen at two-and-a-half years. I felt empathy and admiration for the couple and a quiet sense of relief of being past that stage. Those first trips were wonderful, foundational and exhausting – perhaps as much from what we didn't know and how we worried we were about "getting it right" than the travel itself.
They couple asked me if it's easier to travel with the kids now and an almost visceral "yes" came from my mouth and body. Not only does my little team tolerate travel well, but they are helpful and independent. I realized I almost take this for granted now. This year, Sennen is wearing one of the two carryon backpacks. They more or less get their own stuff in and out of their carryon pack as needed. Restrooms are no big deal – they go by themselves whenever needed – no more assistance, let alone awkward diaper changes. They read menus, make appropriate food choices, help with getting through security, read airport signs and navigate…. So many things that used to be work have just melted away.
Sure, Sennen has the propensity to still ask ill-timed and/or volumed questions like when the nice check-in agent at Aegean was kindly using a loophole in the company's baggage policy to allow us to check-in all of our luggage at no additional cost – and Sennen was loudly asking both why there would be an additional cost and how the man was solving it. We still need work on discretion.
At all ages travel had broadened the kids. At young ages it may have had more to do with becoming adaptable to different environments like planes, airports, the tropics, people dancing in bright costumes, people who look different than people at home, food with a variety of textures and flavors. As they have gotten older, they have learned more specific things from cultures to geography to how to negotiate situations. Airports always pique Sennen's interest. He wants to know about airlines he sees and destinations on flight boards with which he's unfamiliar. We talk about Azerbaijan and Greece's Sky Air vs its other airline, Aegean. We talk about airline loyalty alliances like Star Alliance and OneWorld – or why more airlines from Central Asian countries are represented in Istanbul than in other airports to which he's been.
Today Sennen started asking questions about IATA and why one organization gets to set all the rules and standards for flight and airport safety. How did this organization come to exist? Why does it get to set the rules? Why does everyone agree to this? Until he began to become concerned IATA is running some kind of questionable, unchecked monopoly. Perhaps an abuse of government power – or an imperialized system that's unfair to smaller member countries?
At this point, an American woman sitting behind us at the lounge chimed in to tell Sennen he asks great questions and how impressed she was by his curiosity.
I tried explaining that IATA standards help keep air traffic and airport standards uniform to reduce accidents. Imagine if one or a few countries decided red meant go and green meant stop at traffic lights – wouldn't that cause a problem with international visitors that would increase accidents?
Sennen wanted to know if all countries and airports MUST belong to IATA. I explained they don't and in fact, Kathmandu does not. He asked what happens to an airport that doesn't belong. I explained many airlines won't fly to a non-IATA airport which is why there are no North American or European carriers present at Kathmandu – and many Asian carriers also absent. He asked if there were any problems as a result. I pointed out Kathmandu has a higher rate of aviation accidents compared to other countries and airports. Sennen withdrew his objections to IATA standards.
The thing with kids is you never really know what they're looking at and what they'll take from a situation. Travel is like art – it's open for us all to observe and interpret differently.
Frequently, what I imagine the kids will learn or care about isn't at all what captures them. I think Sennen learned more about 17th Century French history from the exterior of the Louvre than he learned about art inside. It doesn't matter – he got something important from it and other visits will offer other lessons. Ailyn, on the other hand, told me one of the best things she learned in France was skin care – particularly how valuable Clarins is. A more practical lesson. She was also very inspired by all the art in Paris and it made her feel more resolute in becoming an artist.
In the end, it doesn't matter if they learn what I expect or want them to learn – it matters that they expand and grow. Perhaps what they take will be different or even more valuable than I imagine. After all, I didn't travel internationally until 16 and didn't travel avidly until 23. Who knows what life would have been like if I had started at six months? One important lesson from couples therapy: your spouse is not you – they are a different person. That goes for everyone else too.
So who knows what this summer will teach my kids. Or even the rest of the afternoon and evening of travel? Who knows if Kos will be a place for killing time or a revelation? All we can know is that potato salad sandwiches at the Goldair Lounge in the domestic terminal at the Athens airport were both strange and underwhelmed us all.
Now we move on in peace, thankful for IATA's tyranny as we safely skip over the Aegean right into the Dodecanese we sometimes call home.
