August Arrived

I don’t know what happened but August arrived, just a flip of the calendar and I couldn’t stop this feeling of wanting to cry. I’m kind of an emotional person, so to those who know me this isn’t the biggest of surprises but it was still there, just hanging around in my chest. So I Skyped home because that tends to help and my brother excitedly got hold of my mom’s phone and went, “Amielle, you’re home in 29 days. I know that because yesterday it was 30 and tomorrow it’s 28 but in 29 days you’ll be home,” and that helped but again it didn’t because all I wanted to do was run back to Madrid and board the next plane out and just be home already.

Hello, Nerja

Life is funny sometimes. I read this post on a Sunday and was in Nerja for the day the next day.  Dad, daughter and I packed up quickly Monday morning and arrived at Grandma’s house in time for a late lunch. In the space of a few hours, I practiced my fledgling Spanish, chatted with a cousin visiting from Copenhagen who made me think of my day trip last summer (how has a year passed already?!) and ate some of the best lemon pepper chicken with homemade mayo out on the front porch. That’s what summer’s supposed to be like, right? Eating until you could sleep followed by a trip to the beach and reading in the sun. Cause if it is, I’ve got this cased.

Goodbye, Granada

The one thing about not having a plan was that I didn’t have a ride back to Málaga. And then the internet went down at the hostel. And my app stopped working for a few hours. Which meant that getting back to the house involved a bus, a train and a taxi ride that cost more than the rest of my transport that weekend combined. All in the name of adventure. However, before all that happened, I walked (a lot) and took more vertical photos than I think I’ve taken. Ever. 

Hello, Granada

Out of the blue, my new host mom told me I could use the weekend to go away.  Dad and daughter were spending a weekend with Grandma and she was going away with friends for the weekend. Friday afternoon was spent quickly arranging for a ride from Málaga to Granada for Saturday morning. I didn’t quite have time to look up a hostel, but a stop at the tourist information in Plaza Nueva had me sorted out and I ended up at Oasis Hostel, which I absolutely loved and goes to show that not everything needs to be planned for a trip to be successful. 

Being Abroad: Travel on the Cheap

While I was writing my Au Pair 101 post, I was thinking about how, as an au pair, you have to make do with the funds you have to do the travelling you want.  Since I’ve managed to do a bit of travelling while on an au pair budget (which has fluctuated based on family), I figured I’d share how I managed what I did and hopefully that will help someone out there! I’ve found that a lot of Europeans already know most of what I’ve written below, since it is so easy to travel on the cheap here. However, for at least North Americans and possibly others who aren’t used to travel here, this should be very helpful. I wasn’t aware of most of this before I arrived, because it’s just not available in Canada and was definitely a bit of a learning curve. Once you get into it, however, it’s definitely very easy and becomes second nature.   Note that this is a general summary of what I’ve done, so as to be as useful as possible to people who might want to be travelling in various countries. I do have more specific information for both France and Spain, but all of this is definitely useable across the board, no matter where you end up staying.