Four years of Awesomeness

2016 makes us Three! We are excited to embark on the journey of parenthood. Four years of togetherness and now we have a cute little bundle of joy waiting to join us this SUMMER! These ten months has been quite a ride with lots of surprises and lots of traveling. They say pregnancy can get on to you and drive you nuts, but for some reason my hubster feels i’m more calm and composed with all the spiking hormones. I should admit, that I couldn’t have got through this without him! He was very supportive and made sure that pregnancy didn’t take a toll on us. Anyone who knows us personally knows how much we love traveling as a couple and first comment we received was ” Now that you are pregnant, you really need to slow down on traveling and of course all the free advice on pregnancy and parenthood”. But stop traveling was one thing we really couldn’t agree on. Ten months, Ten destinations was our target to pop out a healthy baby ;p I did have my regular medical check ups and my doctors approval before each vacation. My first trimester was crazily filled with morning sickness. It didn’t really take us long to adapt to my new throw up routine.  The internet is filled with remedies for but it takes a while to figure out what works best for oneself! My remedy was the christmas markets across Europe. We had already planned our christmas vacation a month earlier and all we had to do was to squeeze in my new morning sickness routine to the plan. We took plenty of small snack breaks and thanks to those beautiful christmas markets filled with handmade gifts and yummy food. Our first trimester it was Austria, Czech, Hungary. We did the usual touristic city tours and relaxed in the cafe enjoying the desserts, of course we did go to the pubs late evening though I had to stick to “orange juice”  unlike Karthik! End of First Trimester, we had to take that milestone pic in front of Eiffel Tower! We totally make unjust to this city, may be it’s beacause Paris is too close for us to travel anytime. So, we take it for granted! This time we also visited the Notre Dame and the catacombs.Now, Catacombs would raise a lot of eyebrows for a pregnant lady to visit. Though it didn’t really make me feel odd.

Milestone pic

Catacombs

Salzburg

Prague

Budapest

Vienna

Second trimester is supposedly the honeymoon phase of pregnancy, and I should say it was one hell of a roller coaster! I had my official baby shower with family and friends. Babymoon, we chose Dubai. Though we had to skip on the desert safari, never mind I managed to spend a little more time in shopping malls. Our sixth month mark was well celebrated at the world’s tallest building “Burj Khalifa”. Karthik didn’t stop with his surprises, who says you should have only one babymoon. We decided to do a impromtu road trip! I should say it was the most comfortable ride during my pregnancy! I personally prefer car over flight, though we made a quite a few stops in rest areas. Last minute car rental, last minute tickets and an eight hour drive, we were at the Santiago Bernabeau for Real Madrid’s champion league semi finals! With future madridista bun baking in my little oven, it was one hell of an adventure to see them win! I did feel a few baby kicks during the match.

We were already there in the Third trimester! Our next stop was Portugal filled with scenic beaches and Praias. Though we were welcomed by showers every now and then. The small easy hikes around the praias and the speed boat tour to the caves in the south was one of an experience, though i did get few friendly stares for hiking and climbing around the praias with quite a big belly.  Finally, my bestie came to visit me with his less chessy wife ;p This time we decided to explore the beautiful South of France. Antibes, Eze, Cassis and Monaco. After a good struggle in finding a parking spot at Cassis, we finally hiked to the calanques. This is one place I can never get bored of. The french towns are famous for their laid back lifestyle, small boutiques and the flower adorned alleys. I had to skip on the wine when the other three monkeys were enjoying their glass of French! I should say, I was a little disappointed about the Monte Carlo Casino! Though it definitely houses the rich and luxury cars. My bad I expected more Las Vegas ish! Never mind, we always found alternatives to burn the hard earned money.  After all the walking around Eze, we did a splurge in Galimard perfumery and the small boutiques. Finally the mandatory pregnancy photoshoot! Karthik went full on fancy with his photographic skills at the lavender fields of Provence. We did plan one last trip to Paris for anniversary, but we decided against it as I did not want to deliver in Paris with a new French doctor. So, we decided to stay back home as per my doctor’s advice but looks like my baby still feels more safe inside the belly! Finally we do hope to show the world of traveling to our cute little bun.

Eze

Portugal

Portugal

Provence