I’ve just come home from a 4-week trip to Italy with husband and kids in tow. Before I left, I had great plans to blog regularly during the trip, telling fabulous tales of our adventures. But it was not to be. Total number of blog entries written while traveling: 0. Oh dear.
We had an awesome trip. A wedding, a family get-together, Venice, Florence, Tuscan hills, Rome. We visited art galleries, museums and roman ruins – with children! I feel like I deserve a prize. But I just couldn’t fit in blogging. The rates for using a computer in Internet Cafes were surprisingly steep (EU 3-5 per half hour). Wi-Fi was practically non-existant – and certainly not free. And I found myself struggling to justify taking the time to blog when the intent of the vacation was to spend good quality time with my family.
Not to mention that traveling and sightseeing with children is hard work. Even with an almost unlimited supply of gelato, with temperatures over 90F, even the adults start wilting and all the children want to do is sit in the shade or stay in the pool. It takes a serious effort to keep tempers steady while at the same time exciting an 8-yr-old in the Leaning Tower of Pisa (“OK, it’s cool, can we go back to the pool now ?”).
Obviously there are many travelers out there who find the time to blog while on the road. Maybe if that’s you and you’re a traveling parent, you can share with me how you did/do it ?
OK – so I don’t have kids but I still sometimes have trouble finding time to blog while I’m traveling. Generally I write up my blog entries on paper while sitting at a coffee shop or at night and then when I get to an internet cafe I can write up my blog posts rather quickly, post-dating them so they show up over several days or a week.
I have the same trouble.
I also have trouble taking photos when I travel when I’m having a good time and involved in what’s going on. I only seem to manage to take photos when I’m bored and need a distraction.
If you can find low cost internet service, you could try letting the kids surf the web while you blog. I did something like this in Malaysia – I’d drop my husband and kids off at an internet cafe where it cost about $1/hour and I’d take myself off to a nearby spa for an equally inexpensive massage or other treatment.