Around the World: How we travel the world with a child
It is believed that the birth of a child long inhibits the social life of parents. And if at home you can call for help grandmothers or a nanny, then in a foreign country you have to rely only on yourself. Irina Lugovaya travels around the world with her husband and one-and-a-half-year-old son. Today she talks about the joys and sorrows of such a lifestyle.
From idea to implementation
It all started in 2014, when my husband and I first left Moscow for Europe to winter. We spent the whole of January in Portugal, and already then we understood: abroad, during the low season, cheap and good. Renting an apartment is cheaper than in Moscow, there are fresh and tasty products in the markets, there are practically no tourists, and most importantly, the sun is shining. And if you work remotely, you can afford such a trip to the usual capital wage (we both work in the PR sphere). So, every winter for a month we began to leave the Moscow dullness: to Greece, to Sicily, and last year, together with our three-month-old son, we spent January and February in Montenegro.
When the question arose, where to go next time, we thought: why, in fact, only for the winter? And why only to Europe? Husband, PR director of the tourist Internet service, decided to go for broke and announced to the employer that he had the idea of a world tour, and offered to become a brand ambassador at the same time. Fortunately, we approved the idea. Grisha kept his full salary, if he could work from anywhere in the world. Now he not only performs his official duties, but also advertises the service in social networks, and also takes photos and videos for the company while traveling. We do not have free tickets and discounts.
We decided on this journey also because our son Seryozhe is only one and a half years old. So, while you can not think about kindergarten and school, besides, accommodation and flights just up to two years are free. Very soon, we will face the issue of children's education, and perhaps the second child - and not the fact that we will ever be able to repeat such an incredible project.
It’s very difficult to plan a trip around the world: you want it everywhere and immediately. We decided that we would go where we could find a suitable budget accommodation or where someone from the local could help us - you can turn to your “own” person in a difficult situation and feel at home. They remembered all friends and acquaintances in different countries and began to make a route. They decided to start from there, where else you can swim: we stopped in Sicily. Next is Corsica, where a French girlfriend, with whom I studied in Lyon, called me. I have long wanted to go there, a friend promised to help with housing - so why not? Further chose Spain.
So, on October 8 we flew from Moscow to Sicily. We decided to live in each place for a month. Firstly, in order not to pull the baby - because children love stability. Secondly, because it is cheaper to book accommodation for the long term. Thirdly, on this our Schengen visas should have ended, we had to do other documents and move on. After that we decided to go across the ocean: we planned to start the new year in the Dominican Republic, from there to move to the USA and finish in Australia. But in the process it turned out that there are often no direct flights, and apartments are too expensive. Therefore, we had to abandon the United States and the grand tour of Latin America. I hope we go there separately.
Children's question
For five months we visited Italy, France, Spain and the Dominican Republic, and now we are in Mexico. We want to not only see the sights, but also feel the local flavor. Therefore, we live away from home - at home: my husband works on a laptop on weekdays, I take care of my son, life, and plan a trip. When Grisha has Skype call with colleagues at nine in the morning in Moscow, Seryozha and I (already at seven in the evening local time) leave the house so as not to interfere. On weekends we explore the place where we live and the neighborhood.
Our son tolerates the trip. He gets used to the new place, time and climate in two or three days. Every month he has a new playground, new acquaintances and new experiences. He spent four months out of five by the sea, absorbing vitamin D and digging in the sand, satisfying his need for sensory development. And the word "palm" for him now means more than the strange word "snow." And although he hardly understands that such an amazing childhood does not fall out for everyone, or he remembers at least something from this journey, I know that he is well. We, for our part, try to maximally respect his needs and treat him as a full-fledged member of the Around the World. And, of course, we appreciate the place from the point of view of how comfortable, interesting and safe it is with a small child.
So, in Sicily, all playgrounds are the same and almost empty. Italians do not take walks with children, like ours, twice a day in any weather. But in the supermarkets baby food with prosciutto and parmesan is sold, and oranges are introduced into the diet almost in three months. There are no playgrounds in Corsica at all (six swings on the whole city are nothing). At the same time, children literally from the cradle accompany their parents on trips to restaurants, and, probably, they can no longer live without croissants and camembert a year. In Spain, the infrastructure for children is OK, and the attitude towards the kids is the warmest. You should go to the Dominican Republic with a child just for the sake of the beaches and the all-inclusive system, and it’s better not to go outside the hotel with it at all - dirty and unsafe. In San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico, with children's entertainment, everything is in order, but with moving in a pram the other way around. Therefore, local children, until they learn to walk, literally sit with their mother on their neck - in rebozos (a scarf, which is used instead of a sling), and then descend to the ground, but still do not lag behind her a single step.
The feeling of being at home around the globe is more important than the weather and the number of square meters - after a few months in rented apartments, willy-nilly, you begin to miss your favorite wallpapers and family dinners with relatives. In Sicily, my parents joined us, and on New Year's Eve my husband's parents came to Spain. It was not only a real holiday, but also the opportunity to take a little rest, because in the Around the World you can only rely on your own strength - grandmothers, nannies and kindergarten in the near future, we are not expected.
Adventures of aliens
Oddly enough, the brightest impressions are left not sunsets, not picnics on the beach and not national holidays in central squares. Ridiculous, strange and unexpected cases - the most memorable. For example, in Sicily, while jogging, Grisha broke his arm: he decided to jump over the chain around the sidewalk, stumbled over it, fell on his arm and injured his elbow. The insurance company reported that this is not an insurance case. We asked for help from the landlord, who lived in the last visit. He somehow issued the appeal of my husband to his insurance, sat with him in the queue and carried out the necessary offices. Grisha walked with gypsum for a month - just at that time we moved to Corsica. We had to go by train, ferry and bus. I had to pack and carry all the things — two suitcases, twenty-five kilograms each, and a stroller. We lived five minutes from the station, but they seemed like an eternity. But in Corsica, we even went on a hike - the plaster was still in place at that time.
In Madrid, too, was a curiosity. We booked a hotel in the city center, parked nearby and rejoiced at how lucky we were with the place. It was already evening, we spent the night in a hotel, and in the morning we went to the embassy to receive an American visa. Of course, the phones had to be turned off and handed over. It was at this time that they called me from the police and the rental company with the request to rearrange the car. When we returned to the hotel and saw that there was no car, we went to the police station and found out that it was at the car park. It turned out that we stood right outside the police building, in the parking lot for police cars - the sign was not visible behind the trees. In this case, the police behaved very politely and even apologized: "We tried to call you".
From Spain we flew to Punta Cana with a transfer in Brussels. It was at this moment that we didn’t have cash with us, and we missed the airport shuttle. I had to go on a city bus. At first I tried to pity the driver, but he was adamant. Then I had to ask for the money to travel directly from the passengers: "Good people, give us, round-the-world pedestrians, six euros in debt." The most amazing thing is that one lovely girl paid for us, and we had time for the flight - in response, I gave her a candy brought from Russia. Without adventures and kind people, our journey would not be so interesting.
When we left Punta Cana, the trouble happened right on the passport control. It turned out that the visa-free period lasts exactly thirty days, after which it is necessary to pay 2500 Dominican pesos per person (this is slightly less than three thousand rubles). We spent thirty days in the Dominican Republic and several hours, which were considered to be just one more day, - during those half a day we with the pain in our heart counted 7,500 pesos (approximately 8,600 rubles). Because of this, despite the sun and beaches, the memories were not the most rosy. Moreover, here we are the whole family poisoned.
Now we are in Mexico City, and I - surprise - again I am in the hospital with poisoning. Enough is not enough, but we appreciated the medical and insurance services of different countries, and this is also an interesting experience. Despite the fact that our insurance company cannot contact local partners, Mexicans do not speak English and we have to pay for the treatment ourselves, Mexico is the brightest and most unusual place we've been to. Nothing unusual has happened here yet. We wait.
For us, a world tour is an opportunity to try on new places and think about whether we want to stay here. We do not plan to move completely from Russia, but it is interesting for us to try and in the future live in two houses, where it is equally good at different times of the year. Now we are in the active search for "our" places. Ahead are Australia, Bali, South Korea, the Far East and Kazakhstan.
Photo:mlehmann78 - stock.adobe.com
