Apra having Fun on her first Holiday in India

After having told you about our holiday in Lucknow in the past days, I also would like to tell you how much fun Apra had during this time, how she dealt with the change of place, with the many things that we did and saw and how she enjoyed her first holiday in India.

I already described her disappointment when we didn’t get into the train on Thursday evening and also her happiness when she discovered that we had changed plans and were going by plane. At the hotel, she was not apprehensive about the new place, there was no sign of hesitation, we could only see excitement and the wish to explore everything new!

It was only in the evening, when she got a bit tired around dinner time, that she didn’t seem very satisfied anymore. While the hotel restaurant had prepared a delicious dinner for us, she was not happy to sit there, not happy to walk around in the restaurant and just wanted to get out of there. We thus shortened down our dinner and set off towards our room. On the way we then had an idea why our baby was all of a sudden cranky, which was so untypical for her: she was missing home!

At our room, we thus immediately called the Ashram via Skype and when she talked to everyone, her face just lit up, she was so happy, showed them the new shoes that she had bought, told them excitedly about her adventures and finally, when she got tired, fell asleep with a smile on her face.

This was the only attack of homesickness we experienced on this weekend – it did not return and she had the most fun possible on the remaining time! When we started our sightseeing tour, she was asleep but once she woke up, she started running around in the monument complex and the garden there. She was immediately surrounded by other children, played with them and even got some biscuits from them.

She made us laugh when, at the entrance of the Bada Imambara, we had to take off our shoes and she refused to stand on the floor in her socks, shouting ‘The socks will get dirty!!!’ Everything was fine when we took off her socks and she could walk around barefoot – and enjoy the cold stone floor.

A highlight for her was obviously the zoo, where Apra excitedly showed us all the animals she saw. She was so fascinated by the crocodiles that she just kept on asking me again and again to repeat the story of the crocodile which I sometimes narrate to her. She became good friends with Alisha, my friend Manish’s daughter who is only half a year older than she. They walked hand in hand, put the arms around each other and played lots.

And then there were the animals that she got even closer to: She met my facebook friend Avdhesh’s dog, who was younger than her but definitely bigger! She squeaked with delight when the dog wanted to play with her and tried to quickly and shortly touch it. In town, we saw a horse carriage and took that instead of a rickshaw a few times – oh, how proud she was, holding the reins and telling everyone that she was driving!

Finally, when we got into our train on Sunday, she slept well and woke up in the driving train in the morning. The excitement of being in a train at the end was huge. Even bigger however was the joy that we now finally were on the way back home! The train got delayed on the way back, too, for about five hours, but we did not care. We were sitting in the train, now we were just going to reach back home. Whenever the train would reach, would be fine with us and we managed to entertain Apra with her books and toys.

We had a wonderful long weekend! And the most important thing: Apra had lots of fun. We can easily go on a trip with our young lady!