Day SIX: HOME

We left the apartment a little after 8 to catch the metro to the main station where we would take a 40 min bus ride to the airport.  THANKFULLY, we gave ourselves a time buffer because panic set in!  We had purchased our bus tickets online to save a whopping 2 euro and confirm our seats on the bus, BUT when we asked the apartment landlord to print our tickets for us, he printed the email confirmation and NOT the actual tickets (my mistake for not catching that when he handed me the paper)  The bus kiosk wouldn't except our email confirmation and Leevi had to scramble to an Internet cafe to try and print our tickets.  Long story short, because he was logging on to his email account in a foreign country, he had to verify himself with on his 2nd email account which is his military account and there was NO WAY he would have access logging into that from a foreign country.  We ended up purchasing a 2nd set of tickets (and wasting $25) and loaded the bus just as they were pulling away!  Sigh!!!!!!!!!!  Our back up plan would have been to take a taxi for about $50 which is actually what we ended up spending since we had to buy 2 sets of tickets!  Ha!!!  Oh well!!!!  It was a hard way to end our successful trip, but after navigating Italy with 3 kiddos using only public transportation and sleeping in 3 different cities in 6 days, we couldn't be too bummed!  We joked the entire week that it was like we were on the reality show Amazing Race!  Leevi and I seriously high-fived each other constantly!  ;)  

 

Wearing Hailey's hat and waiting for our final metro ride!

Finally at the airport and through security...we can breathe!!!!!  I've become a nervous wreck flying recently; not so much the flight itself, but getting there on time, checking bags, making it through security and all of the regulations, customs checks, language barriers, remembering passports, on and on!!!!  I know I'll be a mess when we make our flight to the States with Leila and praying that we've done everything we need to for her!  Sigh.....

On the plane...we had about a 2hr flight home.  Leevi and Hailey napped (Hailey NEVER naps and she willingly put away the iPad and closed her eyes!  Italy did her in!!!)  Kai and Luke played and watched movies and we were all so antsy to get home!!!

Once we landed back in Germany, we still had an hour and 15 min drive home.  Hailey gets carsick on windy roads especially when she's watching a movie!  We finally had to turn the movie off because she was turning so pale.  I turned around to check on her and found her like this:  we definitely chuckled to ourselves! :)

It was an AMAZING yet EXHAUSTING experience and the ultimate test in patience from all 5 of us, but we passed with flying colors!!!  So blessed to have had the opportunity to vacation in Europe over the past 4 years!!!

We were glad to be home and Leevi had taken off the rest of Spring Break to prep for the move.  We hit the ground running getting everything sorted, cleaned and ready for movers on Monday.