The Journey to Canada

We left our hotel in downtown Sofia very early in the morning.  After flying 2 days ago I don't think that the kids were as excited but we were prepared this time with motion-sickness medication.  We boarded our fist flight from Sofia to Frankfurt Germany and the medication made a huge difference for both of them and they could enjoy the flight.  Eliana took so many photos out the window of the sunrise.  It was very beautiful!
We ate some brunch in Germany and waited for 3 hours for our next flight.  I am not a huge fan of the Frankfurt airport but we found a corner to camp out and wait.  I got an hour of sleep and the others played games on their ipods and watched people.  We could not leave our spot to take walks together because there were so many people crowded into a small area you would loose your place to wait.  Half an hour before boarding we did go for a long walk to stretch our legs before the 9 hour overnight flight to Toronto.  There happened to be a man at our boarding gate that spoke Bulgarian and he was very kind so he talked to the children a little which was nice for them.  We boarded the flight and the we had to start by putting down some rules about what was allowed to be viewed on the TVs.  We know that they have had MUCH more viewing experience than what our children at home have but we could not just leave this open ended.  So we allowed them to choose movies and shows off of the children's list and while we would not show most of those shows in our home they were entertained by the TV for the entire flight and did not sleep at all.  In my opinion they had had enough tv to last for a year at least, but you do what you have to do to get through sometimes.  All in all it went very well and they never complained about being confined once.  They are very good travelers.
We had planned for another 3 hour lay over in Toronto because we had to go through customs and immigration.  Once we landed both procedures went very smoothly with no lineups.  We ate some supper even though the kids said they were not hungry.  The fatigue was setting in.  After supper we proceeded to our gate and found a nice cozy spot on the floor because this gate area in Toronto is one of the annoying ones that has permanent arm rests on each seat.  Nice for fitting a lot of people into a small area but not nice for sleeping.  Eliana tried hard to refuse lying down on the floor but I insisted and she fell into a deep sleep.

We could hardly wake her for the next flight.  I am so glad she could finally rest.  Justus ended up sleeping for most of the flight from Toronto to Winnipeg.  Our flight was an hour delayed for some unknown reason but we did finally land in Winnipeg.  Finally home!  What a relief to be done flying for a very long time!  Next post, our family united!