Traveling carry-on only with an infant

As you’ve probably gleaned from this journal, I am fundamentally opposed to checking luggage. It doesn’t matter if it’s traveling for a year internationally or a long weekend, I feel like there’s very little you absolutely CAN’T get at your final destination*.

So when we adopted a baby (OMG, did you know we adopted a baby??), for our first trip with her, I just knew I had to do it with carry-on only. My husband was horrified, but went along with it because he trusts me – and also kinda wanted to see what would happen.

First of all, here’s a gorgeous baby photo 🙂

We could have packed even a little lighter than we did had we not brought our portable crib, but we are determined for her to be a safe sleeper. Here’s the one we bought. Since it’s the length of a long yoga mat, I got a nice yoga bag to carry it (and some small things can fit too). Still officially not too big for carry on!

Since we were only going from California to Colorado and would only be staying 3 nights, we bought formula and diapers once we arrived, bringing only what we needed for travel and extras just in case. And just before we left the house, I popped a spare diaper or a burp cloth in any extra space left in each of the bags.

Some tricks to know for traveling with baby:

• Wet formula or breast milk is allowed in carry on luggage
• A car seat can be brought on the plane if you bought the baby a seat
• A car seat, base, and stroller can all be wheeled up to the plane and “gate checked”, which means when you get to your destination, you might wait a few minutes when you get off the plane, but it will be brought there instead of baggage claim. And while you’re in the airport, your stroller can double as a luggage cart!
• A lap infant isn’t given any baggage allowance
• If you didn’t receive a special boarding pass for the baby, you will have to go to the airline counter to get one before going through security

Since the baby is adopted and the adoption isn’t final yet, we brought her original birth certificate and the adoption paperwork (the agency told us which papers to bring). When we got up to security and discovered we needed a boarding pass for her, we went back out and to the counter and showed them all the paperwork. Southwest was amazing! They barely batted an eye at the papers and gave us the boarding pass with no hassle.

Baby was a great little traveler and I can’t wait to travel with her again (next week actually).

Here’s the list of baby things we packed (our list never really changes and we can both fit our stuff into one roller bag), leaving a little room of course for gifts from the grandparents. (Note the [] before each item. If you use Evernote, copying this will make them all checkboxes for you.)

Misc:

[]Adoption paperwork

[]Car seat base

[]Car seat

[]Stroller

[]Sound machine

[]Thermometer

Toys

[]suction cup toy

[]moose (her favorite thing ever)

Clothes

[]swimsuit

[]onesies (2x per day)

[]pants (~1 per day)

[]booties and/or socks

[]warm hat

[]sun hat

[]sunglasses

Feeding

[]Burp cloths (1 per day)

[]Bibs (1 per day)

[]Bottles (5)

Sleeping

[]Sleep sack

[]Crib

Diaper bag

[]Diapers (1 per hour)

[]Change of clothes (1-2)

[]Formula (some dry, some premade)

[]Wipes

[]Muslin blanket

[]A couple toys

[]Pacifiers x2

[]Lots of ziplocks

[]Baby K’tan (sling carrier)

To buy on arrival

[]Diapers

[]Wipes

[]Formula

Liquids (to keep under 100ml)

[]Baby Tylenol (never had to use it!)

[]Diaper cream (also didn’t have to use)

[]Baby wash

The long bag is the crib, the backpack is the diaper bag, and the roller suitcase is all of our clothes and toiletries. Note the baby toes visible in the carseat 🙂 

The master traveler

 

 

 

 

*In all my years of traveling, the only things I have had trouble finding have been: Zyretec (in Japan), sunscreen (in Cuba, luckily I brought enough), snacks (hard to find vegan snacks in Cuba).

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Woke at 5am to get the free shuttle from the hotel to the airport to take the short flight to Dubrovnik, Croatia.

When we arrived in Dubrovnik, we took a shuttle from the airport to the Old City gate of Pile (pronounced “pee-le”), which was very easy to find, and only cost $7 each. Our AirBnB host said he could set us up with a taxi for 35 Euros!

The weather was perfect, the town sweet and beautiful and small. Our AirBnB was right inside the Pile Gate on an alley right off the main street.

We dropped our stuff and went to eat lunch. We came upon a very busy restaurant (Gradska Kavana Arsenal) facing the main square and looked at the menu, the maitre’d said they also had seating in the back on the water, so we checked it out. When he said on the water, he meant it! We sat at a table facing the port where the sailboats come in and had a lovely meal of squid (for me) and lamb (for Dave). [I’m now writing this after the trip and this was in the top 2 best meals we had on the entire trip!]

After lunch we walked around to get our bearings – the Old Town is small enough to walk end to end in an hour or so, the streets are pedestrian only and made of limestone and super shiny. In the later afternoon, we took the cable car up to the top of Mt.Srđ. Very cool to be able to see the layout of the Old Town with the walls and towers, just like it looks in Game of Thrones 😃 We went back down to the Old Town and went to Fort Lovrijenac, a fortress just outside the city walls, and then to the Franciscan Church and Monastery. For dinner we had a simple dinner of goat cheese and smoked fish in a small square in Old Town. There is a famous spot to see the sunset from – it’s a bar called Busa Bar, which means “hole in the wall” (buža means “hole”).

At the end of the day, we had walked 7.1 miles.

Istanbul – part 1

We arrived Istanbul at around 6pm. The airport far less crazy than expected, maybe related to Ramadan?

Turkish Airlines has a program where if you are laid over overnight, they give you a free hotel room. The website was very vague about how it worked, it just mentioned going to the Turkish Air counter to do it. So we left customs and found the counter. It was so easy, they took our boarding passes to make sure we were actually laid over and then called our names 15 minutes later, led us to a shuttle, and we arrived at a Marriott on the outskirts of town.

I use T-mobile and had cell signal and data with Turkish Telcom. Since I have month-to-month service and no contract, I pre-pay, which means I never worry about roaming rates anywhere. I’ve been traveling on this account for many years and highly recommend it, my bill is exactly the same every month and I get service included in every country I go to!

We decided to drop our stuff and take a cab to Istanbul’s Old Town. The cab driver had no idea what we were asking – we tried names of big things (“Blue Mosque”) and I even looked up a random restaurant on TripAdvisor and gave him my phone with the map. Still no understanding. So he got out at the hotel and asked for someone who spoke English – that person looked at my phone, said a few words to him, and we were off!

It was the first day of Ramadan (Ramazan), and when we arrived in the Old Town, it was the call to prayer to break the daily fast (Iftar). The cab driver was able to explain that the lights on the top of the minarets turn on at that time signaling time to eat.

We went to the restaurant I had found on TripAdvisor and had a decent meal, but it was definitely a tourist place.

Then we walked to the oldest part of Old Town. I am a compulsive hand-holder, but I was afraid that PDA wouldn’t be acceptable, so I held Dave’s arm as I noticed most people seemed to do.

We went into the courtyard of the Blue Mosque. The signs outside warned that women needed to cover their heads even on the grounds. I saw a guard and gestured to ask if my hood was ok, he nodded, so I put the hood of my hoodie up. I wouldn’t have thought, but I guess any head covering is enough.

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At the Blue Mosque there were many many people bathing outside (hands, feet, head) and preparing to enter to pray. There were men praying outside too, maybe because it was too full? There was also an interesting display with posters explaining the Muslim religion and things like the bathing rituals, hijabs, the Koran, etc.

Then we walked through a market (not the bazaar) that had all kinds of booths selling food, drinks, puppets, crafts, and Turkish coffee made over hot coals. We bought a rose drink which tasted a bit like drinking perfume.

After walking around until we were exhausted, we took another cab back to the hotel and slept until our flight the next morning to Croatia.

Istanbul, Croatia, and Bosnia

We’re getting ready for our next big trip! We’ll be spending 2 days in Istanbul, Turkey, almost 2 weeks in Croatia, and 1 day and 2 nights in Bosnia.

Here’s the itinerary I setup for us:

We leave in 2 days!!! There’s still so much to do!

I keep all of our packing lists in Evernote, so there are normally checkboxes next to things. Here’s the list for this trip, naturally, it all fits in carry on baggage:

WEATHER:

70 night, 80 day

DAYS:

13 days, 1 overnight flight (there)

TO DO:

paperclip for iPhone SIM card

Download dictionary

Call cc

Clean out wallet

print tickets

print itinerary

take any photos off camera

Download books for Kindle

CLOTHES:

Dave socks 5 acorn socks underwear 10 Shorts 3 shirts 4 jeans 1 Hat sweater rain jacket pajamas swim trunks sun shirt greek shirt hiking pants 1 sleep mask

Roxane socks acorn socks underwear sports bra Shorts shirts jeans Hat hoodie rain jacket vest? pajama shirt bikini sun shirt scarf dress hiking pants snorkel shirt

SHOES:

Dave water shoes sandals sneakers

Roxane water shoes sandals sneakers

FOOD:

energy bars

almond butter

water bottle

protein shakes + bottle

trail mix

TOILETRIES

baby wipes

laundry detergent

sunscreen

first aid kit

brush

toothbrush

paste

soap

Medicines

Pain relievers

bug wipes

dramamine

OTHER:

headphones

iPhone charger

kindle + charger

camera + charger

power adapter/converter

backpack

small shopping bag

money belt

ziploc bags

earplugs

Passports

Boarding passes

Roxane Travel pillow

Dave inflatable pillow

tennis ball

aux cable

sarongs

umbrella

kayak gloves

snorkels/masks

reading glasses

camera lens protector

Austria

(I totally forgot to blog the rest of the trip – it’s now 6 months later. Oops!)

Heather and I drove to Austria on the Autobahn, stopping in Salzburg on the way.

After a day spent meandering around Salzburg, we got back on the road and went to Vienna to spend 2 nights there. We stayed at a little Airbnb in a sweet neighborhood very centrally located (Search Google Maps for “wien 1020 austria”).

Vienna is an interesting mix of old and new art. Churches, graffiti, and Ai Weiwei.

Churches!

Graffiti along the waterfront:

Ai WeiWei:

Munich

Upon arrival in Munich, I got my rental car (an orange, manual transmission, Mitsubishi Space Star) and proceeded to freak out trying to drive from the airport to my hotel. 

I had google maps to help me (hooray for free data from tmobile!) but as soon as I got on the freeway, the GPS in the car started talking to me in German telling me to go somewhere else! I couldn’t figure out the road signs, plus the directions, plus turning off the GPS (turning the radio off didn’t stop it!), so I did what anyone would do – continued driving while laughing hysterically. 

I was able to ignore the German GPS enough to get to the hotel and park but he first thing before getting out was to reset the language. Then I figured out it had been set to the parking garage at the airport, so the whole drive it was trying to tell me to go back to where I started!

Anyway, got to Munich where I was staying in a Novotel, and immediately set off in search of another vegan restaurant: Max Pett. 

While walking, I discovered that I was staying in a beautiful area right next to a park by the river. The city folks were all swimming at the beach – so interesting how it’s right in town. 

  
I found the restaurant and had an amazing meal – though the matcha latte had banana in it…not to my taste.

  
I had only a few hours to kill before heather arrived, so I meandered to my hotel, grabbed the car, and headed back to MUC. 

We settled in for a quiet night as we were going to Vienna the next day by car, a 4-hour drive. 

Düsseldorf

I arrived in Düsseldorf after the long flight across the pond and found it very easy to get around. I stayed in the hotel that was actually at the airport, called the Maritim Hotel – surprisingly quiet for being at the airport. After taking a long hot shower, I decided to try and find the Gehry buildings, a set of buildings on the Rhine made by an American architect. 

The train was pretty easy to figure out but when I arrived to the area, it was maybe 90 degrees and the sun was beating down. I walked a little bike trail to the waterfront only to find that there was no breeze or relief from the heat by the water. I found the buildings, took some photos, and got back on the train for the more downtown area where I was in search of a vegan restaurant. 

  
The vegan restaurant turned out to be a bit of a bust as it was mostly a dessert cafe. I got a pesto, cheese, and tomato sandwich and a chai ice tea (no milk, more like iced tea with spices). 

Got back to the hotel and crashed for the night, ready to get to Munich where it was supposed to be less hot. 

Germany and Austria plans

My friend Becca and I were talking about travel and I said how I’d like to go to Europe this summer and Dave didn’t have enough vacation time to go with me. Becca was thinking of going to somewhere in Europe to meet up with her dad. While mulling this over, I asked my (German) friend Franziska where I should go and she heartily recommended Bavaria. So…I bought my ticket. Then Becca posted this to Facebook and my friend Heather said she’d been wanting to go and could she come along. Hell yeah! Road trip!

My packing list was for hot weather – shorts, tshirts, (totally forgot my sandals), sneakers, and jeans just in case. 

The basic plan was: me alone in Düsseldorf for 1 d/1n, then Munich in the morning. Heather arrives in Munich that night and we go to Vienna for 2 days. We then return to Munich to get Becca and drive north to Rothenburg ob der Tauber for 2d/2n, then back to Munich. Then on the last day go to castle Neuschwanstein.

Next up, how it really went 🙂

Money in Cuba

There are a lot of articles on the internet already about Cuban money, here’s a 10 cent version:

• The national money is called Moneda Nacional, or MN, or CUP, or peso. Tourists don’t use this.
• The official currency is Convertible Pesos, or CUP, or dollar, or peso. Tourists use these.

The exchange rate is approximately $1 = 1 CUC = 25 CUP.

If someone is selling something that should be very cheap (like an orange) and the cost sounds very expensive (like 10), then it’s in CUP. If you don’t have CUP, you either need CUC coins of less than 1 CUC or you’ll get ripped off, especially if you don’t know the look of the different bills.

Example: a bottle of water may be listed as “$25.” You give them a 5 CUC note and they give you back 4 CUPs. That means you just paid ~$5 for a bottle of water and got back about 1 penny.

How do you convert your money?

Since you can’t exchange into Cuban money outside of Cuba and your US bank card won’t work there, you have to carry cash with you into the country. I did some research and found that in Cuba, they charge a 10% surcharge to convert from US dollars into CUC, but only 3% from Euros. So we exchanged $800 into Euros in Miami (3% fee), then exchanged it to CUCs in Cuba (another 3% fee), thus saving 6%. (Though of course we had 100 Euros stolen, so it was a wash.)

DO NOT CHANGE MUCH MONEY AT THE AIRPORT! If you need a cab, change only enough for that and change the rest at a reputable hotel in Havana.

How much money do you need to bring?

This was a challenging question to find the answer to.

First, we had prepaid for most of it: the tour, our flights, visas, rides to and from the airport in Havana, and the extra night in Havana.

Second, for spending money, we changed $800 into Euros and then to CUC. We split that between the 2 of us. Then we brought about $500 in USD that stayed strapped to us at all times. We broke into that on the last day in order to tip and buy a few souvenirs.

There weren’t many souvenirs to buy and the cost of most of our meals was included. Check with your tour but you may need to bring less than you think.

Things we learned

We found out later that what we paid for the ride to/from the airport was about double what we would have paid in-country.

Booze, cigars, and coffee at the airport is the exact same price as anywhere else. You may as well buy it there. And it’s a good way to use up the last of your currency as it’s completely worthless once you leave the country.

 

Cuba – Gifts

We had been told in all of our documentation (and in articles online) that the Cuban people have a lot of trouble finding and affording some basic things like: soap, hand creams, notepads, pens, etc. So I had gone to a dollar store and brought with me a small bag of these things, along with candy for kids.

We asked Tony, our guide, over and over about how to give these gifts. He would say things like “give them when someone has done something nice for you.” But the problem is we didn’t have a ton of reason to interact with people who weren’t: A) our guides, B) our hosts, or C) people selling us things. We were told that the hosts tend to be among the wealthier people in the town, so they don’t need these things as much. And of course our guides are getting huge tips from us at the end. And then people selling us things are already getting a potentially largely marked up price. So, then, who??

We started leaving our gifts to the hosts and hoping that they would get distributed somehow. But it felt wrong. Like one of our hosts just watched as Tina, Deepak, Dave, and I sortof unloaded our bags of dollar store stuff onto her table. But it felt almost disrespectful as her home was well-equipped and she was clearly not poor.

We saw beggars only a couple times, asking for soap and pens. I gave one beggar a notebook (I didn’t have a pen) and she pocketed it quickly and went back to begging for a pen. Again, didn’t feel right.

Also, Barbara had asked me when we left for the bus trip (knowing that we would be back), “You didn’t leave anything in the room, right? Nothing like soap or money?” I answered no, wondering if she meant that I should be leaving something…

There were 2 things we brought that ended up being useful.

One was guitar strings. My dad mentioned it right before we left so I grabbed a couple packs the day before our flight. Dave gave them to a guy who let him play the guitar and he seemed genuinely happy.

The other was over the counter painkillers. I talked a bit to Barbara about gifts and told her I’d like to find a clinic to give pain relievers to. She explained to me that medicines were incredibly hard to find and then were very expensive. She said that “Motrin” specifically is around $1 per pill. So I ended up giving her some individually packaged Tylenol and Ibuprofen. She and her brother looked so happy and hugged me.

In a funny coincidence, I had brought some stickers I found that had Mickey Mouse on them. It turns out that Barbara loves Disney, so when she told me that, I pulled out the stickers and she lit up! And then as we were leaving, I gave her some money and then pulled out a single US dollar. She smiled and kissed it and put it on her altar (presumably to bring more US money to her).

Also, at Barbara’s house, we had a miscommunication with the agency about where we would be staying. Barbara was able to convince the agency to let us stay at her place even though the room was taken, so we stayed in her bedroom and she slept with her daughter. In her bathroom, I noticed she was not lacking for soap, cream, razors, etc. All the things we had been told them couldn’t get!

On the last day, we were alone, the tour having ended a day earlier, we went to an alley that was beautifully painted. On this last day I decided I would carry candy around with me to finally find somewhere to leave it or gift it. The alley was right by a playground, so I saw tons of kids. But how do you approach them? I can be a little shy, especially when I don’t really understand the cultural implications of literally being a stranger who is giving free candy to kids. So I saw a sweet 8 or so year old girl and just handed her a whole bag of jawbreakers and walked away. Her eyes lit up and she ran away with her friends to eat it.

I found this fantastic article about gifting, I wish I had read it before we went to Cuba. In the end, I wish I hadn’t brought those things with me. The Cuban people are not as poor as we think. They have their basic needs cared for and those who are enterprising have much more than the basics.

So if you’re going to Cuba, bring: things useful to a specific type of person (musician=guitar strings, artist=paints, student=dictionary, reader=literature in Spanish) and pain relievers in small packages.