We made it!
After months of planning, listing items, donating stuff, and a lot of other things, we arrived in Málaga a few days ago. Now the arrival didn't go fully smooth as two suitcases are pretty heavily damaged and a day later the third big suitcase also decided to have a broken handle. I still need to fill in the form for the insurance, now that I think about it again. Anyway, even though the suitcase was brand new, it did not spoil the fun upon arrival in Málaga. Immediately after walking to the taxi, I noticed the famous palm trees which we definitely didn't have in Budapest. These trees always give me a feeling of a holiday, and I remember they made me feel happy even after living in Spain for longer than a year.
Taxi drive
We took a taxi to the hotel and while driving there, I fully enjoyed the surroundings even though some weren't that pretty! I appreciated every single thing I saw along the way simply because I missed being in Spain so much. The taxi drive took about 10 minutes max and it was there when we discovered that the new suitcase had broken because the taxi driver had a bloody finger as well as my boyfriend heard a crack while he threw the suitcase in the car. I decided to just take a few pictures and sort it with the insurance, I was far too happy to be here finally and didn't want to spoil the happiness by having an argument with the taxi driver.
A well-earned drink
After all the packing, carrying, and traveling from A to B we were quite exhausted and decided to have a drink in the lobby. A Bacardi coke and for me a "zuma de melocoton" which is very typical for me to drink in Spain as it allows me to get a tapa even though I'm not drinking a beer. I really love peach juice even though I never drank it until I lived in Spain and could not even recall how the English name was until recently, this is something that is so connected to Spain in my brain that I never even used the word in Dutch or English. Just like "manzanilla" tea that we gave our baby daughter at some point for her stomach issues. Camille tea, is also something I only remembered in Spanish for several years simply because I never used this before we lived there.
Day one and our daughter has embraced the juice as well, lol. Later that evening I decided to enjoy a Baileys, just because I could:
We sat down and discussed the journey from the beginning of our plans to the execution so far and had some good laughs and chats about memories in Spain as well as how good it feels to be back.
I felt at home instantly
The kindness of the receptionist checking us in as well as the guy at the bar who had a good laugh when my boyfriend ordered a Bacardi coke with ice cream instead of ice cubs (helado instead of hielo) lol. They spoke very fast but still, I was pleased to find out that I could understand most things by listening carefully. When I saw the flower in my header image, I decided to capture it as it represents exactly how I felt being back in Spain.
Here's to new adventures!
Previous parts of The Expat Diaries
- The smoothest security process ever - Our flight to Spain
- Our final day in Budapest
- The final countdown - It will never fit!
- The sound of an almost empty home
- Narrowing down our life to 5 suitcases
- When the universe aligns everything perfectly
- Catching up and saying goodbyes
- We're closing the kindergarten chapter sooner than expected
- Finding a place to live in Spain
- The countdown is real - The last times in Budapest
- Our life in 6 suitcases - sorting, selling & giving away our belongings
- Moving back to Spain very soon!
Credits
- All images used are my own and can't be used by someone else unless I gave permission to do so.
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