It’s Saturday and the warm air is hanging around a bit...

It’s Saturday and the warm air is hanging around a bit this
evening here in Granada. In three days time, our trip here is ending and I’m
starting to understand why the warmth is sticking around tonight. After eight
months of living abroad in Spain it’s only now at the end that I can begin to
see the value in what we’ve done for our family. There are the obvious, travel
guide bonuses of life along the Mediterranean. Cobble-stone walks to school
each morning, markets selling cheap, delicious food a stone’s throw from our
terraced home, views of a fourteenth century castle right from our bedroom
window; all that you imagine life here might be and more. The reality is that
the romance of those things fades relatively quickly. It’s the tangible stuff,
the experiential nature of living abroad, that will stick with us as memories
of flamenco recede; our friendships with locals and fellow travellers, adapting
to a culture, a way of life, a language. Finding hidden caves and streams off
the beaten track. Children running around plazas at 10PM on school nights.
Realizing that much of what you thought your kids needed in life they don’t. I
think it’s easy for us to believe that once we’ve started a family and found
our routines, the travel we did in our youths is an unreachable dream best put
off until retirement. But in many ways, this whole experience feels like a
trial run for something much bigger down the road. I think we’ve planted the
seeds for a life we’ve yet to discover.