Nightmare start

4.50 local time. In bed next two two little ladies who are watching "sand kasteel" on you tube. Arrived in the apartment at South beach 4.5 hours ago instead of 1.5 day ago as we were supposed to. 

Let me start from the beginning, the 26th. We woke up at 4, the taxi had missed our booking so we were slightly late to the airport. There Justus could not be checked in as he had mistaken an O for a 0 on his online US visa application. And when he was doing a new visa application it took him 45 minutes instead if the normal 5, so we missed our flight. What to do? Log in to flygresor.se and buy 4 new bloody expensive tickets for a flight a few hours later. To make a long story short the electronic travel agent did not release our e-tickets in time, so we missed that flight as well. What to do? Go home, microwave some blodpudding for the ladies and book a third flight. So instead of going 6.30 to Berlin, we left 19.35 to Zurich. 

Arrived in the airport hotel at midnight, woke up 6.30 next day to go back to the airport.

Yesterday started well, amazing family lounge and really friendly people (not quite our Arlanda experience.)

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We boarded our plane to Miami... And sat there for 5.5 hours without moving an inch. Snow was the problem. Somehow we and our fellow passengers survived the longest trip in our lifetime and arrived in Miami about 2 AM Swedish time.

 I will not bore you about dteails about in which order our luggage came, or how long the queue was for the car rental, but at midnight local time (6 am Swedish) we could go to bed. 4 hours later the girls woke up. Time to go out and find some breakfast.

Hello Africa

Time flies. Realized today that the time we have left on this trip - a tiny little week - is what people normally have when they go on vacation. Put things in perspective...

We are still as fond of Spain as last time I wrote. March is also the perfect time to be here - 20-25 degrees, flowers everywhere and hardly any tourists. There is so much too see here in Andalucia that we could easily fill a month, but as Junias most common phrase in the car is "kommer kräks" (vomit on the way) we try to limit our excurcions to the closest area. We have done some beautiful hiking among olive groves, lambs and old fortresses, and another highlight was Malaga where we spent a day with our home exchange hosts. Our expectations was that it would be a rather touristy place (and from travelling with Mats & co 14 years ago I just remember that the only hotel we could find late at night had battery driven toys and that Anders got pickpocketed). But it is really a beautiful city with so much to see (and eat...) that we need to go back one more day this week. Really recommended! Muchisimas gracias Begona, Pablo y Juan Pablo for showing us all highlights!

Today we went to Africa however. One day organized excursion to Tanger (incl. lunch, guide and "opportunities to buy") was cheaper than just the trip itself, so we went for the whole shebang. No carpets, saffron, kaftan or lamps, but instead two little camels. Beautiful medina (old town) where it would have been nicer to get lost on our own than to be escorded from one opportunity to buy place to another, but hey, it was cheap. And the lunch was good. It was Junia's 17th and Alma's 8th country by the way.

Alma gungar for the first time. Gibraltar (amazing playground by the botanical garden!)

Jimena de la frontera

A sick mormor on a quick visit

Malaga

oh yes, those little teeth can bite. hard.

Ronda

Morocco

In Espana

Since last blog entry we have been in two more countries - but we still have two more to go! :)

Even if Buenos Aires did not end on best terms with our stomaches - mine has almost recovered now, a week after what we suspect, an evil lomo - we still had a fantastic time and are sure that we will come back. So many places to eat still.

The flight went quite smooth, luckily we had an extra seat so Junia slept non-stop from 21h (Arg. time) until we landed (10.15 Dutch time, 6.15 Arg.) Alma wasn't too bad either, but the adults were unfortunately rather lousy sleepers.

After a long stop-over in Schiphol (stocking up on hagelslag in Albert Heijn), we eventually landed in Sweden where we went straight to the metropole of Örebro. Had the best night in years. Slept like clubbed seals.

One day shopping in Örebro (almost as many fynds as in Palermo soho), and then up 5.15 the day after for the flight to Malaga! Again, we were deeply impressed of the flexibility of our little backpackers, no complaints, no worries. even if we drag them out of the beds in the middle of the night to catch another flight. Alma's 7th this was, by the way.

Anyhow, from Malaga we continued to our home in Estepona, another really lucky exchange. Just have a look at the terrace!

Estepona itself is way more nice than imagined, not touristy, cute little streets, fantastic food, friendly people, and the biggest play ground we have ever seen. What more can you ask for? Tomorrow we will make a little excursion to the UK!

Fontana di trevi style

Every street has flower pots in a different colour. My favourite are the flugsvamps styled ones.

20 degrees, clear blue sky, and the smell of orange blossom...

Carpe diem

There is a risk that this blog entry becomes a rather pretentious one, but I'll take it. 

Yesterday we had planned for a day in the park (Costanera) with our Swedish parental leave friends, and it started out well. There was space for us including three strollers on the metro, there was a nice empanada picnic (oh, how I will miss those) and the girls were playing. 

Then, to make a long story short, a big iron fence fell on Junias's arm while she was sitting in the stroller. The park guardians called an ambulance, we went to the hosptal in la boca for x-rays and examination, and after about 45 minutes from when we left with the ambulance Junia's arm was declared intact and we were good to go. Amazing how smooth everything went in the hospital! Junia got a Hello Kitty band aid upon the big bruise, and was then fine again.

Lesson learnt 1: An accident can occur when you least expect it. We consider ourselves really lucky that the stroller was not parked differently so that the fence would have fallen on Junia's head.

Today someone turned 34 and had planned a day with gym visit, cup cake, steak, ice cream and possibly a hair dresser. Instead it was spent with some fever and stomaches on strike for the adults.

Lesson learnt 2: Don't wait with your visit to that special restaurant or to have that fantastic cake. You might be sick on that very special day and the cupcake place might be closed for renovations.

But luckily we have one more full day here in Buenos Aires, so the gourmet tour is postponed   until tomorrow if our stomaches allow it. 

But, as our friend Anna says, "you should not put too much emotions in planning. There needs to be some space for flexibility". That was lessons learnt 3.

On the boat

We are now on our way back to Argentina after a nice little week in Uruguay where we stayed in two different homes with mileswide views. A definate highlight was the Carnaval which is celebrated for about a month in Uruguay, in different places, and we were lucky enough to catch the desfile in Maldonado, half an hour away from where we were. Apparently the carnival is just ad big in Uruguay as in the Northen neighbour, or even bigger, and I read somewhere that it's also unesco listed for the patrimonio cultural or however it was called. I would call it a true folkfest for the whole family where children and grandparents danced alongside, we probably were the only tourists and the beat of the drums made Alma sleep like a log in the Ergobaby, regardless the decibel.

As you can see, Junia also danced, even if it was more the bopping style than proper samba.

We have also climbed a mountain (Pan de azucar, Uruguays 3rd highest peak) where both ladies fell asleep in the ergobabies on the steep way down. Fantastic.

Junia found it a bit windy at the top.

Then we have chilled in Punta del Este, South America's equivalent to St Tropez, with sea lions...

... and visited an animal resque center

Pets in our first home

Real cowboy 

Rambo

Change of countries

We have now moved north and changed countries again, from big Argentina to tiny Uruguay with only 3 million inhabitants. Here we have two different homes the coming 10 days before a final stop in Buenos Aires. We will be happy to come back to Bs As, even if it is just for 48 hours, as there are sooo many places to eat and shops to look in still. We will do our best, but the museums unfortunately will have to wait for another year as we did not have time.

The last few days in Bs Aires we have visited some markets, 

done a very cool grafitti tour which have changed the way we look upon tags 

and covered many many quadras. Pity we don't have any stepometers, but I am quite sure that the daily brownie with dulce de leche is burnt within a few hours. We also picked up another Swedish parental leave family in the playground. Having dinner with strangers you just met a few hours ago - something you would never do in Stockholm...

In the very early cab yesterday morning we said to eachother that it is amazing how smooth this trip has gone, like on rails! Well, that was about to get tested after we got out of the boat a few hours later in Montevideo. Then Justus realized that his drivers licence that he for safety reasons removed from his wallet still was very still safe hidden in our apartment in Buenos Aires. So was mine as I tend to avoid driving south of Holland. The rental car company in Montevideo did not want to rent out a car without a drivers licence, and Justus and Junia were already on their way back to the harbour to go back to Buenos Aires when they eventually agreed on that if we could get a fax sent with a copy that very day, and then the little piece of plastic sent later, we would get the car... Luckily a fantastic friend of the owners had a spare key and mercy for us, and a few hours (plus an additional hour in order to repair a broken seatbelt...) later we were on our way! We arrived to our final destination 22h instead of early afternoon, the last 10 minutes driving on a dirt road as we are literally living in the middle of a kohage. It was not the happiest campers if we say so. But coming to a beautiful old farm house, with a fridge and cookie jar filled just for us, lifted our moods. Home exchange is fantastic! One day waking up by the party in Palermo Soho, downtown Buenos Aires, the next by the parrots living in thr tree outside our bedroom window.