The Here and Now-Present Day….

I can’t believe it’s been over a year since my last post “time really has flown” it has been a couple of eventful years but I will get to that in more detail later.

I realize my last blog post ended with me meeting a strange guy at an airport and then no further information was posted which could have been a bit worrying to the reader. Well to update you, everything turned out just fine. My first Airbnb was not awful but not perfect either, but my second Airbnb was wonderful, I made some lovely Spanish friends who I have continued to stay in touch with and I also made a return visit to the apartment. So, apart from a few little hiccups along the way my solo traveling has been a very positive, and quite possibly a life-changing, experience.

To date since I decided to start my journey in August 2015; I have made 5 trips, lasting up to 3 months in length, spending 12 months in total in Spain, I have stayed in 30 Airbnb properties and volunteered 3 times. I have visited: Mallorca, Ibiza, Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Malaga, Granada and Valencia. During my trips I have met many wonderful people and made some very special friends. 

Do I have any regrets? Not at all, sometimes I missed home very badly in deed, on occasion I had to accept living standards well below what I am used too. But knowing that it was only a temporary situation helped and because of this I realized and appreciated how much I do have in my everyday life in the UK.

What’s next? Who really knows, I have some interesting offers but it’s a bit too early to decide just yet as I have only been back home for a few weeks. I know I will continue to travel and my love affair with Spain is the real deal and not just a crush.

Just Where Shall I Go?

Now I had made the decision to go travelling, the next step was to decide where I would go.

Would I go to one country or several; would I stay in Europe or travel further afield in Asia or even venture down under? Would I return to a previous destination? Or go somewhere for the first time?

Decisions, decisions, decisions, my head was spinning with trying to come with an answer.  I spent endless hours on the internet, I think I read every travel guide in my local library; I hung out so much in travel section of Waterstones I am surprised I wasn’t escorted off the premises. Self- help guides always advise to mediate when trying to find an answer; unfortunately my monkey mind never stays still long enough to be able to mediate. (Most likely a sign that I am a perfect candidate for mediation)

However the answer did come to be quite by chance or was it serendipity after all. I was looking on my bookshelf and came across a book on Majorca I had completely forgotten about. This book was full of fabulous images of the countryside, beaches and the city of Palma, what a beautiful place. I had visited the island as a child with my parents in the 1970s when tourism was just beginning to become an important industry to Majorca and this was the first time I had been abroad. This seemed the perfect place to begin my journey; it was not too far from home, I had been to a night class in Spanish ( although my skills were not that good) and having had a miserable, grey summer so far that year the prospect of blue skies and some sunshine was a very nice idea indeed.

So the decision had been made, I didn’t even change my mind for a second that had to be a further sign that this was a good move for me.

So now onto the next step….