two backpacks and a diaper bag

Saturday, June 2nd. Lisbon-Singapore via Frankfurt. Today, we go home. Although, the road has been our home for the past 96 days. I woke up this morning and I felt sad. This adventure was about to come to an end. We were no longer going to move from place to place. I wonder how it’s going to be when we’re back home. I was afraid. Afraid that I would miss this lifestyle. Afraid that I wouldn’t know how to live the life I led before we traveled.

When we go back home, we would have to train Arthur to get on the bottle and to sleep through the night so that we could go back to work and become productive at work. What if I wouldn’t want to go back to work? What if I’d rather stay home with Arthur? Have we lived in an illusion these past three months?

No matter what questions swirled in my head, and no matter the fear, I had to pack my backpack, make breakfast, and tidy up the apartment.

At 12, we were ready. Two backpacks, a diaper bag, a stroller, and a car seat. We also decided to carry the laptop in Sean’s new cork laptop bag, and I decided to carry my new cork handbag on the plane.

Illona used the mytaxi app to get a 6-seater taxi. It arrived within two minutes. It was a large cab, enough to fit all our belongings.

We got to the airport about 20 minutes later. The line at the TAP counter was really long. We asked if there was a separate business-class counter. There was, and it was right by the main entrance.

When we got to the business class check-in counter, we saw an unattended large laptop bag. It was placed about 10 feet away from the counter. No one claimed it. I remembered that we saw a couple of policemen at the entrance. While Sean waited in line to check-in, I took Arthur to the main entrance to grab a policeman. I explained to him what I saw, and requested that he come with me to the counter. He followed me.

He saw the bag but then he left. I was confused. Illona was too, but then she said that the guy at the counter also reported it.

About a minute later, another policeman showed up. He started speaking to his walkie-talkie. Then, another policeman showed up. The two of them conversed and made a call on their phones.

It turned out, a lady had left her bag there. When she tried to claim it, the policemen asked her to open the bag. We didn’t stay to see what happened afterwards.

I’m glad there was nothing to the whole deal, especially in this day and age when airport security is super vulnerable and important.

In other news, Lisbon airport was kind of confusing to me. It wasn’t laid out very well.

Anyway, we went through security, put Arthur to sleep, and headed for the lounge.

At 12:10, we made our way to the gate. Illona’s flight was not until 4, so she stayed at the lounge.

We took the car seat on board since the person at the gate said that the Business class section really meant that the middle seat in each row was blocked for comfort, so we could have the car seat there if we wanted to.

Unfortunately, the flight attendants only allowed us to use the car seat during the flight, not during take off or landing. Good thing the car seat fit in the overhead compartment. I was worried.

The flight took just under three hours. Arthur slept for about 40 minutes during the flight. All the other time, he was pleasant. He didn’t cry or anything. The descent was also good. He didn’t want to feed, but he didn’t mind sucking on my finger. I think that helped him equalize.

When we landed in Frankfurt, they allowed us to get our stroller back. This was useful as we had a 3-hour layover.

We looked for a transfer desk to inquire about a bassinet seat, but there was no transfer desk in the terminal. The security officers and other airline officers said that we would have to go outside to the check-in desk. We didn’t want to go outside. So, we had to wait until SQ airline representatives arrived at the gate for us to do the request. Meanwhile, we were free to walk about the terminal.

But first, we had to go through immigration to get a stamp out of the Schengen state.

Thankfully, there was no line at the immigration so we were able to walk directly up to the immigration officer. Sean handed him all three of our passports.

The officer looked at my passport first. Easy breezy. I got a stamp out.

Then, he looked at Arthur’s passport and flipped through the pages. He stopped and scrunched up his eyebrows. He went to Sean’s passport and did the same thing. He looked confused. He turned to another immigration officer and said something in German. His partner responded.

He turned his attention back to us and said, “You’ve overstayed your visa-free allowance.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t understand. What do you mean by that?” Sean asked.

The officer closed all three passports, got up from his seat, opened up the door, and asked us to follow him.

As we walked behind him, he said that we have stayed in the Schengen region for 91 days. It was one more day than allowed.

15 seconds later, we arrived at the immigration police office.

For the next 30 minutes, they had to process Sean’s paperwork. Essentially, Singapore passports are allowed to stay in the Schengen region visa-free for a total of 90 days in a 180-day period. Exiting the Schengen region and coming back in doesn’t reset the 90-day allotment. We had stayed in the Schengen region for 41 days, exited to go to Croatia, and entered back in and stayed for 47 days. For me, as an American, the 90-day allotment reset. For Sean and Arthur, however, the 90-day doesn’t reset.

Since Arthur is a baby, he couldn’t be charged. Sean, on the other hand, had to fill out some paperwork and had to be put in the system.

At one point they asked Sean if he wanted to call his embassy.

“Ummm… should I?” Sean asked. A surprised and worried look occupied his face.

“No,” the office replied. “This happens quite often, actually. One day overstay is not a big deal.”

They asked Sean for our home address and told him that if the prosecutor decides to pursue this case, then he will receive a notice in the mail. They also added that the likelihood of a follow-up is very, very low.

After several signatures, we were out of there. Before we left, they asked us if we knew our gate number. We told them that it was not yet posted on the screens. One of the officer took a quick look at his computer and told us our gate number. I guess they would have to know the gate numbers in advance for security purposes.

When we got to the gate, the Singapore Airlines crew had not arrived yet. So we decided to head to the lounge.

Arthur was not agreeable. We tried to put him to sleep, but he refused. He also refused to feed. Even after a diaper change, he still was happy. Unfortunately, we had to hang out with a cranky baby for an hour.

An hour before our flight, we made our way to the gate. We approached the gate officers and asked if the bassinet seats were available as we were advised to ask for them at the gate.

They said no bassinet seats were available. One of the Singapore Airlines representative approached us and was very apologetic about the whole thing. She said they had to give the bassinet seats to a family of 3, because that row was the only row available for them to be able to sit together, even though they wouldn’t be using the bassinets at all. She assured me that the business class seats were large enough for me to share with Arthur.

Due to the way the flat-bed seat is angled, however, the amount of space for me to stretch our with Arthur is not very good. But, hey, at least I was able to put him down for a good portion of the flight.

The flight back home was all right. I thought sitting in business class was going to make things a lot more comfortable for us. It was comfortable, but I think I had too high of an expectation. At the start of our trip, we had the whole row to ourselves. That, too, was comfortable. I don’t know which I would rather have: the whole row or the flat-bed seat. Both seemed to be good. I think if we had the bassinet seat, the flight home would have been more enjoyable. Nevertheless, it was a comfortable journey, and I’m glad we decided to fly Business back home.

When we finally landed, I felt a bit sad. This chapter of our life had come to an end. No more packing up and moving around for a while now. Other than traveling to Seoul at the end of the year for the annual Poluan-siblings get-together, we have no other travel plans. Yet.