Adventures of the Hakkawegians: the 33-hour door-to-door trip

We're back in Taiwan for Chinese New Year, and with that came the trip here, which lasted about 33 hours from we left home (Tromsoe) until we arrived home (Jhudong).

The night before we left, I woke up at 4am and couldn't fall asleep again, as I was worried about our luggage being over the limit. So after tossing and turning, I re-checked the various airlines' limits that we were taking, and when we got up, I took some of the stuff out and re-weighed them (on the scale we bought just for luggage-weighing purposes, as we didn't have a scale from before), just to be on the safe side.

All together we brought with us two big suitcases weighing in at about 20-21 kg each, two carry-ons weighing in at about 8 kg each, my diaperbag not filled with much, Leona's new car seat (the one that can be rearward facing up to 25 kg), and our back-pack baby-carrier that we had stuffed about 3 kg worth of honey in that we were gifting to family here :P

90% of the content in our luggage was gifts for family, or clothes that are too small for Leona (so perfect hand-me-downs) or too big for her (that she can wear in the fall or next winter) - these latter items being in preparation to lessen the amount of stuff we need to bring back in the fall.

It wasn't until we checked in at Oslo without a hitch that I was finally able to lower my shoulders in relief and relaxation.

[Leona with our carry-on - and an apple -

after we got the rest of the luggage checked in Oslo]

All in all it went exceptionally well. We transferred in Oslo, London and Hong Kong. Leona was able to take an hour's nap in Oslo during our 5 hour layover, and then slept a bit on the long haul to Hong Kong (as did both Judge and I). She also only cried a little a few times (espesially on the flight to Taipei, as by then she was just completely over-tired and hungry, and I wasn't up for nursing her the whole flight), and she only went to the bathroom in her diaper about twice (on the long 11 hour flight-stretch and the flight to Taipei - because she is scared of the plane-bathrooms). And then we were landed at Taipei and back in the land of humidity and greenery.

Driving from Taipei to Jhudong, looking out at the lights and traffic and buildings, it was like we had never left. A strange feeling.