Last Vacation of the Year

Hi there. It’s our time to enjoy a Christmas family vacation. Hurray! If you follow me on Instagram and the video stories, you know where we are and what we’re up to every single day. Yesterday we had quite a long day travelling. To get to our holiday destination -South Tenerife – we flew from Malta International Airport to Madrid at 9 am and then caught another flight with a 9 hour gap in between at 9 pm to land at midnight, so it was quite tiring to have to spend all this time at airports.

The mindset options we had to face this day were: to either A) to be grumpy at what a lot of time we were wasting doing nothing interesting or B) to relax, go with the slow flow and just use our time wisely. Be positive. Which one do you think we chose? You know the answer already if you know us!

While in Madrid, with over 6 hours to spare, I got this awesome idea of recalling some of the best vacations in 2017 and telling them to my husband. Milan was one that sprang to mind of course and I remembered that I had some photos by Justin Ciappara from my epic Milan Fashion Week Trip which I hadn’t used, and while Luna was sleeping, I sat down in a Spanish restaurant with Free Wi-FI and just typed this post with you all in mind 😉

Cute things that I notice during our travels. Is it just me?

It’s OK if they don’t speak English (or your language)

When we are on holiday, it seems we are even more understanding, and we try to ignore barriers in communication. Starting from the children, how cute is it when children from different cultures and families spend hours playing happily at airports and on the beach, even if they don’t speak a word of the same language. They have a blast anyway despite no verbal communication because they are in the same flow and they are just open to new possibilities.

It feels even more OK to Ask For Help IF Lost

When we are in a totally foreign environment, we feel less shy to ask someone for help because we are travellers, because we are somewhere where we don’t know it all. It is such fun to get lost, to see how people give you directions and to get lost again. Unless you are on a very tight schedule of course. Then there are the scary situations too which can help you learn something. Getting out into the world, and encountering scary situations, can make you more confident, self-aware or more cautious. I remember once getting lost late in the night in an alley in Rome and I was alone and I could not find my way to the main roads and that feeling I had reminded me how it feels to have to think on my feet, be prudent and have to ask for help to get where I needed to be.

Travelling with Children Is Essential

This year was also sweet for me in that I did enjoy quite a few vacations with my husband and baby Luna who is already becoming a little professional traveller. She knows all the check-in drills, plane drills but most importantly she is getting loads of new experiences out of her normal environment. How important is it for children to see, smell, taste and imagine things out of their classroom walls? How important is it for us to keep that sparkle in their eyes by talking with them about what they want to talk about as opposed to what society wants them too. I learn so much from Luna. The world is so much more colourful and exciting seen from their eyes. I want to see her world too!

Before your children are all grown,
Travel as frequently as you can as a family.
Although we see our family every day,
We don’t really get to be with one another.
A change in environment can do wonders
And can bring families closer.

Special Travel Memories

Think back to some of your earliest travel memories, they probably involve special moments as a family, right? That is what your child is experiencing RIGHT NOW and you have the opportunity to create lasting positive memories for them with each family travel experience. Making special memories together as a family is one of the most important reasons to travel the world with your kids. Take them on that trip. The little headaches are so worth it!

The People We Meet

Last but not least – Hello and welcome to ALL the people I meet every single day of my living life – the good, the bad and the ones in between – all have something important in my journeys. This is how I face each day and my travels. I choose to face everything with a joyful, open heart and a curious mind and I just enjoy seeing all the signs along the way. This way, even if something goes wrong is meant to be and I just go with that flow.

Ayumi Yamamoto in a costume he designed for a fashion project about elves.

During the Milan Fashion Week holiday, what a lot of beautiful people I met! One thing that makes me happy is to see how happy people are from reaching successful milestones in their lives. I support all talent, the dreamers and cannot resist celebrating all forms of creativity. Think it. Dream It. Achieve it. From professional fashion and art designers, to photographers to aspiring designers, travelling enhances every experience you have with people you meet, because you are out of your country and you are excited about what you don’t know.

Ayumu Yamamoto was one of these persons I met in Milan. A young aspiring fashion designer in the making, with lots of sparkle and enthusiasm for life combined with kindness and welcoming attitude. When I met him, his hair was a bright turquoise blue and we immediately hit it off. He called me the Maltese Diva! Based in Milan, he has got so much potential and I look forward to meet up with him and all the design students I met during the last trip some time next year.