Baby Transport in Europe

As we mentioned in an earlier post, we've been enjoying carrying Ieva in a sling around the house, as it keeps her happy being close to us & gives us 2 hands to do things with. Until this week, however, we hadn't ventured outside the house with her in it. Due to the somewhat complicated nature of our transportation system here, the time came to brave the elements & try it outside the safe walls of our home.

Before Ieva came into our lives, getting around our city of Klaipeda without a car was fairly easy, and we intentionally have made the decision to stay carless despite her addition to our family. The city has lots of options for public transportation - taxis, mini buses & big city buses (the photo to the left is of an older-style city bus). And not to mention the general public's modus apperandum - their feet. This is a walking culture. On any given day, the streets are full of people - leisurely strolling, heading with a purpose toward somewhere in particular, or popping in & out of the many shops that line our downtown streets. You also see loads of baby carriages - no matter what the weather!
Our pediatrician actually prescribed 2-3 hours of fresh air for Ieva & I per day! And she was quick to tell us that there's no weather too bad for babies - only for parents. Apparently, all Lithuanian parents get this same prescription & it seems that most follow it. I feel like I'm doing well if I get her out for a walk 2-3 times per week! We have a typical Lithuanian stroller for Ieva, but to most Americans, it looks like a baby-sized armored personnel carrier. They are built to be taken on cobblestone streets (off-road tires), to be out in the rain (it came with a plastic rain cover), and to be out in the bitter cold temperatures of the Baltic winters (it's made of thick material & has lots of layers to bury the baby deep within). We tell Ieva we're taking her out in her mobile home - which is what it essentially is to her, since she has no clue what is going on in the world outside her cocoon.
Since we live on the 3rd floor, keeping our big stroller up here is not ideal. It actually has a portable bassinet that sits in it, so we're able to keep the stroller locked in the basement (just 5 steps down from the front door) & then carry her down in the bassinet before loading her in. Once we're out on the streets we're all good.
Well...sort of.
One of the first days I took her out alone for a walk, I realized all too quickly how people bound to wheelchairs must have felt back in the days before the Americans with Disabilities Act in the US. European streets were not designed for wheelchairs or strollers. Not only are the cobblestones a bit rough, but most shops either have steps going up or down to get into them. It's rare to find a place where the entrance is level with the street. And no place besides the major grocery chains offer ramps. So, here we are - the moms & handicapped of Klaipeda - bound to the sidewalks. But looking on the bright side, our bank account will probably benefit because of this sad state of affairs!

When it comes to going somewhere too far to walk with a stroller, that it a whole different story. Our friends Kim & Mark live in another part of the city where it would probably take a solid 45 minutes to get to by foot. Last week my friend Gina & I were taking our girls to Kim's for a play date with her kids. Gina knew I had been curious about taking my stroller on a city bus, so we met at a nearby bus stop to take one to Kim's. We discovered, however, that not only did we only have 1 option of all the bus routes that would take us where we needed to go, but within each route, there are different shapes & styles of buses. Some have wide doors without steps that are conducive to strollers & wheelchairs while others don't. You don't know what kind of bus you'll get until it pulls up to the stop. So, we waited & the bus that could take us the right direction finally came, but alas, it was an older model that wasn't stroller-friendly. Such is the fate of a mom in Eastern Europe. Gina ended up calling her husband & sweet-talked him into giving us a lift in their car.
A few days later I was going back to Kim's again & decided to forget about the stroller & try taking Ieva out in her sling. That might sound like a relatively normal thing in the States, but I've barely seen parents carrying kids in front or back packs, not to mention something as strange as a baby sling. After bundling Ieva up inside it & then putting it over my thick coat, it actually worked great & allowed me to catch one of the many mini-buses going the direction I needed to go. Even though the bus was pretty full, I was able to manage essentially the same way I would if I had big bags of groceries. The people on the bus kept looking at me & Ieva and making little comments in Lithuanian, which I think - as far I as I could understand - were all positive about how cute she was. Either that or how crazy this foreigner must be to carry her baby around in what probably looks like a book bag!

Oh, the joys of being a foreigner with a baby in Eastern Europe!