Documenting the process of our journey
As you have noticed, I've been sharing many steps of our process from the planning, the budgeting to the actual departure of our emigration to Spain. But so many things were happening every single day that I wanted to document and share, that I probably have a month's worth of content at least in my folders waiting to be used. I just pick whatever I like to share today and use that in my content. Today I would like to show you the inside of our first Airbnb, remember that one with the great view in the food pictures?
Why didn't I book just 1 AirBnB?
You probably think why it would not be better to just book 1 place for several weeks, which I will explain. At some point during the preparations, I needed to start making final decisions rather than keeping things in the open. While I was reaching out to homeowners as well as real estate brokers for months, I didn't get more than 2 messages back. But you never know if tomorrow someone responds and reserves a place for you or maybe the first day after arrival you find something. In that case, we'd be left with 2 weeks of accommodation and could cancel the ones after that without any charges. Meaning that I could use these funds towards our new home and all the things needed there. I wasn't really thinking we'd find something within two weeks, but in the end, it was the day of departure when the hostess told us that she had something with 1 bedroom, which we checked out just 2 days later and agreed to rent. In the end, I wasn't too far off with my guess regarding the needed time. But we got lucky, I know this very well.
Our first place looked great & had an awesome view
Check out the pictures I took, I'm sorry but I forgot to take a decent picture of the living room, but I can tell you, the ugly couches weren't worth it anyway, lol. The living room was the least interesting place of the home.
Great bed and lots of closet space!
Nice kitchen wich most necessities in it
Living room cabinet, why I only took this, no idea but I guess I was too excited to finally be there haha.
The bathroom, with a bath!
Strawberries and they were so delicious!
And now let's focus on the view instead of the strawberries:
Yes, sea sight, what's not to love?
View from the kitchen window
I forgot to take a picture of the pool!
Although we were very satisfied arriving at this place, we discovered that the pool would open after we would leave in two weeks. This was a disappointment to us but mostly to our daughter of course. Thankfully, after 1 week (probably due to the heat), they opened it early, so we got to swim a few times after all.
Our stay had some issues from the first day, the air conditioners were broken and the internet was so slow that you could barely open any pages. Thankfully, they tried to fix these issues, even though it took some days, we were super happy when both air conditioners were working and we could sleep in a bedroom with cool air at night. Leaving the window open was not optional as I got bitten by a mosquito on the first day which caused me a huge allergic reaction on my leg and as soon as the evening fell, the mosquitos were happy to enter our apartment.
The best part about this place was sitting on the balcony as soon as the shade arrived on that side of the building. We ate outside every evening, sometimes lunch too but mostly when it was a cloudy day, otherwise, it was a bit too hot to sit there at day time. The ocean breeze was so lovely, Sitting there was very tranquil. I still miss that balcony.
The hosts have several rentals
As I saw them appear on the AirBnB pages a lot, therefore I asked them if they had something to rent long-term. They said they didn't but our wishes were 3 bedrooms when we asked them. When we turned in the key, the landlady told us about this apartment with 1 bedroom (not theirs) and we could check it in a few days. This was when we knew, we'd take it as we didn't want to take the apartment in the big city in the first place, it was only because our time was running out before no long-term rentals would be left that we said yes to that way too expensive place. A few days later, we agreed on renting it, and so we will be forever grateful that these hosts gave us that opportunity as we know people are asking them daily and the demand is huge while the supply is much lower.
What a way to start this journey here in Spain, the first people we met, are those that connected us with our new home!
Thanks for reading!
Previous parts of The Expat Diaries
Are you curious to read the previous parts about our journey? I have most of them linked below:
Credits
- All pictures used are my own.
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