The Honeymoon Is Over

People say that the beginning of a marriage is the best part, but I disagree.

Starting out is rough! I’m glad the “honeymoon phase” is over. It’s hard learning to share your whole life with someone else. The longer we’re together, the better things get. I’d hate to think that the highlight of our lives was deciding who would pay the bills (hubby) and who would pick up dog poop (me).

I thought I’d be glad when our actual honeymoon was over, but that got better, too.

I’m not a good traveler, and unless you count a quick hop across the border into Mexico more than 10 years ago, I’d never left the country. We decided we would go to Sicily. I’d always wanted to visit Italy, and hubby, who had been before, loved Sicily (where his grandmother was born and raised) and wanted to share it with me. I applied for a passport, he rented us an apartment overlooking the water and we hopped on a plane the day after the wedding.

When we finally reached Italy, we found out our luggage didn’t come with us. We ended up buying 2 toothbrushes, 1 bottle of toothpaste, 1 bar of soap for something like 28 Euro-Dollars (“just Euros,” hubby corrected me; “you don’t have to add 'dollars' to the end”).

After landing sans-luggage, we still had a 2 hour bus ride ahead of us. Sitting at the crowded bus stop, tired, hungry, unable to understand the language being spoken around me, wearing stinky clothes and having no idea where my bag was, I started crying, and I (I can’t believe I said this…) asked hubby to please just take me home. He did no such thing, of course, but gave me a hug and told me it would be ok, we’d have a great time (and we did!)

Our apartment was on the top floor, up 78 stairs, and 78 stairs is a lot for anyone with a bad knee. Once inside it was beautiful with a wonderful view of the water. Speaking of water, we only had running water for 60% of our trip. Thankfully there was torrential rain every night (except the second to last evening), so we got drenched … er, I mean, to rinse off.

FYI, it’s not terribly romantic to spend your honeymoon un-bathed. It wasn’t a huge deal though, since the bed was so uncomfortable that hubby and I ended up sleeping separately on the sofa and loveseat at night.

Despite it all, we really did have a great time. We got our luggage back on day two, and the water typically came on every other day. The food was fantastic and the experience of walking the streets in Sicily and visiting the old churches and the Mediterranean were unsurpassed. I loved the comfortable pattern we fell into, waking up to the sound of the ocean, getting a pastry before heading to the market for fresh fruit, bread and cheese. We’d snack on our purchases during the afternoon with a glass of wine, go for a walk or read and have a delicious supper every night followed by gelato on the beach. Neither of us was ready to leave when the time came.

I’m really glad hubby didn’t just take me home.