As it was Christmas Eve when we arrived at the airport in Toronto, we came across Santa Claus, who was handing out candy canes. The girls were thrilled with the treats, but wondered if security would allow them to bring them through to the plane ride. I reassured them that they could load up on them if they wanted to! We had an amazing lunch/dinner at a restaurant in the airport and enjoyed some comfortable downtime before the big journey.
Our flight from Toronto to Ottawa was a short one and we didn't have a long wait for our next flight to Vancouver. The flight to Vancouver, however, felt very long. I think anticipating that it was our 'shorter' flight set us up for feeling that the almost six hours we were in the plane passed way too slowly. When we landed, I was grateful that we had made a last-minute decision to switch hotels -- we were now staying at the hotel right in the airport.
The hotel was close by and absolutely beautiful! The girls loved the room and the view of the airplanes outside our windows. When we got in the room, we saw that the hotel had left a stocking full of treats of us, for Christmas. Once the kids were in bed, Paul and I sat on the floor together, chatted and enjoyed the treats ourselves!
The next morning, being Christmas morning, we decided to treat ourselves and we ordered room service for breakfast. We also knew that we had a long day ahead of us. The girls enjoyed the luxury of it and not having to get dressed and go out to eat. It was yummy!
I was nervous for our flight to Beijing -- being stuck in the airplane for thirteen hours is not my favourite way to travel, but it was necessary. The kids did an amazing job and we all survived. Ailee and Paul slept for a couple of hours, but Maelyn and I did not sleep at all.
Once we landed in Beijing, we were looking forward to checking into the airport hotel and getting a few hours of sleep, as we had a six hour layover before our next flight. Unfortunately, we found out that the hotel had closed down and that there wasn't any other option -- so we had to scour the terminal to find some empty benches. By this point, Ailee was beside herself with exhaustion. My priority was to get her as comfortable as possible on the chairs and let her sleep, which she did. Paul and Maelyn went in search of food and enjoyed some noodle soup together. Afterwards, Maelyn finally crashed and slept for about an hour and half. Waking her up when it was time to check into our next flight was not easy!
We hit a snag when we tried to check into the final flight. We had booked our tickets when Ailee had her old passport and they were not happy that she now had a new passport number. They didn't want to let us on the flight. I promised to fix the situation before we did our return flight at the end of the trip and they finally agreed. Phew!
When we landed in Nanchang two hours later, the girls were doing well and I was beyond exhausted. We met up with our guide and our driver for that night and began the two hour drive into Wannian County. It was 2:30 am, so the roads were nice and clear!
We checked into the hotel and very gratefully unpacked just enough to get ourselves to bed and finally get some rest.
Still not sure if the indirect travel was worth it or not -- time will tell!
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