I’ve posted before about some of the low points of our travels (both Prim and Lark have puked on a plane now, and sometimes when you’re traveling you just straight lose your patience), but our Bordeaux trip started with a complication of a different kind.

Traveling to Bordeaux we did something we very rarely do — we flew in the evening. Our flight was at 6:30pm and landed around 8pm, which is after the girls’ usual bedtime. Usually we opt to pay a little more to fly in the morning or midday so the girls won’t be overtired while on the plane, but this flight was significantly more affordable than other flights at more convenient times so I decided to chance it.  Even though the timing wasn’t ideal, I assumed we would power through the flight, get our luggage, catch a cab, and get the girls into bed immediately upon arriving at the house.

Everything went relatively smoothly on the flight and we made it through passport control in record time. We arrived at our home exchange house at 8:45pm and went and knocked on the door of the neighbor who supposedly was holding the keys for us. I had texted the neighbor on our way from the airport to let the him know that we were on our way, and prior to that we had received a text from the family we were exchanging with saying that the neighbor was waiting for us with the keys.

But then, there was no answer.

And no answer.

And no answer.

We knocked, we texted, we called — nothing. We attempted to contact the family we were exchanging with, but by unfortunate coincidence their flight had taken off from the airport just as we had arrived at their house, meaning they were out of contact until 10:15pm, at least.

We waited and waited and waited, and after an hour we finally just picked up our luggage and our very tired children and headed to the closest place that was open — McDonald’s. Lark fell asleep in the carrier, Prim watched videos on KC’s phone in a tired daze, and I stress ate french fries while we waited for the family’s plane to land.

Finally at 10:30pm, we simultaneously heard from the family and the neighbor with the keys. Apparently we had been given the wrong address — the one for the neighbor on the right side rather than the left — and for some reason the neighbor hadn’t checked his phone in almost two hours. It was all very inconvenient (and led to a very fun bedtime meltdown by one Lark Adelaide), but we survived.

So yes, while it would be fun to just post pretty pictures of all the amazing parts of our European adventures, it’s not the whole truth. Sometimes these things happen — planes get delayed, luggage gets lost, and miscommunications add up to one big headache. We made it through that (very annoying) first night relatively unscathed, and luckily the rest of our trip was amazing. But make no mistake — despite how it all might look on here or on Instagram, it’s not all easy.