Those boring old hotels

Back when Zoe still thought minibars were exciting

When I was putting Zoe to sleep we talked about how today had been ("Zoe thinking that it was a good day") and what activities are coming up next. I reminded her that this week she will go to an English nursery for two days while I work in Manchester and then we will take the train to visit one of our friends who used to live in Stockholm. One that Zoe likes very much and got excited talking about. "But first we have to stay in a hotel for three days", I said, thinking she would also be a bit excited about that. But no. "Oh, that's a long, long time", she said in a tone of dislike. I asked her if she didn't like hotels and she thought about it for a bit. "Hotels boring", she then said and there I had it: My 3 year old has stayed so many times in hotels that she now thinks it is uneventful. She knows the little wrapped soaps. She knows there is never Pocoyo on TV in hotels. She has fallen down the hotel beds more than what's good for her (why are they always so bloody high?). Even the minibar has lost its glory. But our friend's apartment, she mused about for a while. Did it have stairs or an elevator? Could she walk up the stairs while I took the elevator? Would there be a balcony like we have? I didn't know but we will soon find out.

This is our next trip coming up. Due to practicalities such as my teaching obligations at the moment and timing of planes, it was impossible for me to drop Zoe off in Copenhagen for this three day trip to Manchester. Instead I managed to get a nursery to take her for two days, a private babysitter for the evening of the dinner and I got her plane ticket on my miles. All in all it will cost me around 200 dollars for the babysitting, which is much cheaper than any other option I could think of, and we get to make a trip out of it. Too bad Zoe thinks hotels are so boring, I'll try my best to spice it up a bit next time.