Europe Road Trip - Part 3

My last post was written shortly after Naz and Piper departed for a month in Australia leaving me sad and lonely on the other side of the world. Since then a lot has happened.

48 hours after they departed and completely, coincidentally, I was required to head to Melbourne to work for 3 weeks, you can only imagine how much I needed to stop and consider that request. Given I was originally supposed to be working in Washington for August a change to Melbourne and a chance to catch-up with family and friends was a very welcome change.

So with travel and work commitment I have not blogged in over 4 weeks and here we are now in September.
We are all together back in Dubai but as usual life is never boring. We move house this coming weekend, the new school year started today and I have hit the 30 week mark (all healthy but feeling very pregnant now).

I have posted up some final pics below from our European holiday (which seems so long ago). I will be back later this week with some Piper school pics and a baby update x

One of our favourite discoveries - Lake Achansee, Austria. We cycled 20km around the lake this day (this pregnant mumma needed a rest day the next day).

Piper decided on this holiday clothing was optional.... no matter where we were! This was our lunch stop on our bike ride.

Cycling - Lake Achansee, Austria

Lunch in the most beautiful city ever - Salzburg, Austria

Posing in the square at Mozart's museum - Salzburg, Austria

Streets of Salzburg

Walchansee, Switzerland - stunning rural town

Walchansee, Switzerland

Zurich Switzerland - beautiful but wowsers, most expensive city I have visited!

Triberg Falls, Black Forest - Germany - this hike tested my preggy belly!

Munich

Munich, Hofbrauhaus Beer Garden - sausages and pretzels for lunch of course!

Europe Road Trip - Part 2

We made it home to Dubai safe and sound on Friday and our holiday now feels like a long time ago. 

Especially as I am here in Dubai and yesterday Naz and Piper flew to Australia for the next month.

It was the hardest goodbye ever, well for me anyway, Piper couldn't wait to get on the plane and get to Nanny's house, wear gumboots, see rain, play with her cousins and enjoy being totally spoilt for the next month.

A selfish part of me wanted to stop her leaving but it doesn't make sense for her to be here right now. She still has a month left of school holidays, Ramadan doesn't finish for another 10 days and it is far too hot to go outside in the daytime at all.

Enough of my feeling sorry for myself on my lonesome here, I have finally edited some more photo's from our holiday and some of my favourites from the German Alps region around Fussen are below.

Town of Fussen at the foot of the Alps

Medieval lunch in Fussen - love those paper bibs

View out the window from the cable car we took to the top of the mountains.... sensational view but I could barely breathe the entire trip up and down!

Looking down from the cable car on the toboggan run down the mountain....... this was one ride I wasn't skipping. I promised Naz I would behave and go down the hill slowly but my childhood Magic Mountain  memories kicked in and I flew down that thing! Don't stress grandparents - bub is just fine :)

Breakfast on top of the mountains

The top of the Alps was full of crazy people like this preparing to jump off and fly.....

Preparing to jump

Running to launch

Up up and away! We had to tear Naz away, he would of stayed watching all day if  we let him. I have a bad feeling that one day we will be watching him jump from mountains!!

Europe Road Trip - Part 1

Our European adventure is almost over but I will break up our pics over a couple of posts.

We are currently in Munich after finishing up our mobile home cruising and camping. Over the last couple of weeks we have travelled across Germany, explored the Alps via Austria, Lichtenstein and Switzerland, accidentally visited France and Luxembourg and found our way back to Germany.

Lastly but most importantly our little Piper turned 4 while we were on the road! 

One our favourite towns discovered in our first week - Landberg am Lech

Birthday Girl - never needs an excuse to wear tulle!  

An accidental visit to Legoland - not part of our plans but we couldn't resist stopping when we came across it. We expected to lose an hour or two...... not 6!

This is one of the tamer rides, we discovered later in the day Piper has a love of roller coasters and speed! Unfortunately these signs below prevented me from taking part in case I harm my legless, armless lego baby!

Birthday cake road trip style!

Outside our motor home ready to hit the road on Birthday day!

O'Brien's are doing Europe

So much for staying on top of the blog, it is only now we are finally on our summer holiday I have the time to update it.

We are currently in Germany and have spent the last 3 days exploring Berlin, and judging by my sore butt cheeks and tired feet there is not a lot of Berlin we left unexplored.

Today we took a 5 hour cross country train to Dusseldorf and tomorrow our next adventure begins when we pick-up our motorhome and head off south for the Alps.

The beautiful summer weather here of 25 - 28 degrees has been a welcome relief from the horrid Dubai heat and with Ramadan due to start any day in the UAE we are happy to be out of the country.

Everyone is happy and healthy, including bub in the belly (although I probably need to scale back on the cycling distances going forward).

Some of our pics from Berlin are below.



Berlin Wall



Berlin Wall at Topography of Terror site



Berlin Wall



Brandenburg Gates.... and random bear



Cheers - we survived the 2:30am flight from hell and our first day in Berlin!



Berlin also gave us our first ever grazed knee with 'real' blood, it was very dramatic!



Naz was more than happy to discover beer at the zoo



Berlin Zoo.... this goat head butted Piper in the stomach about 10 seconds after this shot!



Picnic lunch and a break from the bikes. Cycling was the best way to explore Berlin.



Pumping water - possibly Piper's favourite thing about Berlin after the zoo!

In case you missed it..... THIS HAPPENED!

YES, Bubba number 2 is due in early November!!! We are all very excited, nervous but excited. It is going to be a very different story this time around.

Bub will be born here in the UAE, we have made a family decision to stay here until at least October 2014.

We are now 17 weeks pregnant and boy am I glad to get to this point. I could not be having a more different pregnancy to my dream one with Piper.
Up until the last two weeks ago I have been experiencing 24 hour a day morning sickness and cannot even describe how bad it was. I was so lucky the first time around and this really took me by surprise.
I may have scarred Piper for life, I caught her this weekend playing Mum with her dolls and making horrid sick noises and running to the toilet..... oops!!
I have also had strange cravings which included eating Japanese for lunch and dinner every day straight for over a week, it was the only thing I could keep down. Miso soup was my best friend for awhile there.

Naz departed for a month of work back in Australia in early May and he returns home tonight! I think I might be more excited than Piper. But I have to admit I am rather impressed I survived this month and one earlier in the pregnancy, solo parenting and working full-time whilst basically attached to the toilet.

However Naz hasn't exactly been having a holiday back in Melbourne. As well as working his full-time job at the fire brigade, he has also been working hard on our new business venture, but I will save that story for another blog post.

I know I annoy the Mum's with my inconsistent blogging (most likely the only readers of our blog, well at least the only ones that tell me off anyway) but with Naz back in just 3 hours I will have more time to update.

Thank you for all your well wishes and over the phone and Skype support the last few months, even though most of you are far away you have still made this a really exciting time and helped me through some tough days x

5 Signs You May Have Been Living in Dubai Too Long

1. When driving Piper to pre school she asks from the back seat "why are you driving me to school? Why don't we have a driver like the other kids?" Umm ok.... not sure this family of 3 needs a full-time nanny and driver!

2. When you realise you just got pissed off because Starbucks wouldn't answer the phone and you actually have to take the two minutes to get out of your car and collect your own drink on the way to work 

3. When after driving around the mall car park looking for a parking space for less than two minutes Piper comments "can't we just valet it Mum?"  (You can practically valet park anywhere in Dubai including the hospital, which actually comes in handy when you are rushing your Dad to emergency with a broken sternum from a roller coaster ride!)

4. When you turn up to a 4 year olds Pirate themed birthday party and you are genuinely surprised it is being hosted at a 5 star hotel and not on a private yacht

5. When it's 38 degrees outside and you declare it is still cool enough to dine outdoors but summer will be here soon

Life lately in happy snaps

Do you use Instagram? I love it and how easy it is to stay in touch and share photo's. You can follow me under the Instagram name carlyobrien.

Please don't just stalk our blog, leave your Instagram name in the comments section at the bottom of this post or send me a comment via Instagram so I can stalk you too.

Below are a few pics from my iphone lately. I also got a little fancy schmancy and added an Instagram widget to my sidebar where you can see my latest pics.

Kite flying on a lazy afternoon (thanks for the kite Nana Liz)

Our afternoon was interrupted last week by a strong earthquake in nearby Iran that was felt here in the UAE. It was quite frightening and went for far longer than anything I have felt before. We evacuated our apartment for a short time. This pic was taken later in the afternoon, our energy and adrenalin spent tso his is how these two iPad addicts rested.

This is how Piper dresses herself to go to Sushi Train for dinner!
One always needs a tiara to eat Japanese right?

This is what 3 year old fairies do after too much sugar and fun at a kid's party!

In typical Dubai style we attended a children's birthday party at the 5 star Al Qasr hotel this weekend.
As you can see Piper made a classy departure!

Early morning road trip through the desert. Yesterday Naz and friends competed in a triathlon type event in the nearby Emirate of Al Ain ( blog post to come soon). I am also proud to say the early morning was worth it, Naz finished 14th!!

Don't forget to leave a comment below and share your Instagram name!

Desert Camping Adventure - The Empty Quarter

Naz returned to Dubai last Wednesday and I don't think Piper and I have ever been happier to see him.

However, rather than take things slowly and relax, in true O'Brien style we planned a road trip and camping adventure for the weekend.

We ventured to The Empty Quarter, a unique desert area at the northern tip of the UAE bordered by UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Yemen. It is a vast desert, home to some of the worlds largest sand dunes, approximately a three drive from Dubai (unless you have a toddler who needs to pee every half hour).

We travelled with friends, one of who had befriended a local man on a previous camping trip. We contacted Salem and he was only too happy to meet up with us crazy bunch of expat's and show us around. This kind man led us into the desert, took us to a friends camel farm, tested our 4WD driving skills before finally leading us off road into the dunes to the most secluded and beautiful camping spot.

It is quite rare to share such intimate time with local Emirate's. For the most part expatriates and locals lead very separate lives. But Salem was welcoming and engaging. While the boys set-up camp he took myself and two other friends in his car for a bash through the dunes, it was horrifying and exhilarating at the same time!

Not sure this desert has ever seen a little poodle from Australia before!

Fireside conversations

Sand boarding

My favourite pic - cars on the left, friends up on the dune and the boys sand boarding