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Things Fall Into Place

One of the things I’ve learned as I’ve gotten older and possibly wiser is to stop fretting so much. If things are meant to be, they fall into place. If they’re not, there’s no sense working myself into a frenzy trying to bend circumstance to my will.

I was blessed to find a sit in England at the start of January, right around the time that I have to be out of the Schengen zone. But that still left me about three weeks to fill between the start of that sit and the end of my sit here in Almería. I really wanted another sit to fill that gap to avoid having to pay for accommodation.

So I began to look for sits in Morocco, the Costa del Sol, and Portugal, eventually expanding my search radius to all of Spain and France as well. I found a few sits that looked promising, but they were either super complicated and expensive to get to or the homeowners declined my applications.

I pondered this for a bit and wondered if it was a sign that I should just pony up the money and go to Morocco on my own dime. But I crunched the numbers on that and kept on coming up with a huge NOPE. Remember, I’m heading to Mexico, perhaps for good, in May!

Then, I had a thought. Plane travel in Europe is very inexpensive and if you go between major cities, it pretty much doesn’t matter where you go as it’s all roughly the same price. So is there anywhere else I’d like to go in Europe that would be a straight shot from either Almería or Málaga and then from there to Manchester? Weather was no longer a consideration by this point since I’m heading to England in January and need to get acclimatised anyway. The answer came immediately.

I promptly went to my housesitting websites and did a search for that destination. I found a two-week house and cat sit right between the end of my time here and the start of my sit in England, giving me time at both ends to travel (and possibly a day or two to explore Málaga and Manchester). I emailed the homeowners and they got back to me straight away, saying they thought they had someone lined up, but that person was being flakey. Could I give them a couple of days? Of course.

I just knew this in-between period was sorted and was not surprised when they emailed me late last night to confirm that the assignment is a go.

So I’m very happy and excited to announce that I will be ringing in 2017 from… Amsterdam!

22 thoughts on “Things Fall Into Place”

    • Amsterdam has always seemed like a cool place.

      And, yes, another cat! And there’s one waiting for me in England too!

    • Since I don’t have to pay for accommodation and will be able to cook (groceries should be cheaper than Canada, though higher than Spain) and I’m only going for two weeks, the cost of being there doesn’t scare me too much. I’ll do it like Barcelona, lots of ambling and only the odd meal out.

      • Rae, Peter is right; Amsterdam is not cheap. However, I have not been there since 1974. But you will LOVE it for a number of reasons. First, the tourist areas are fairly compact for walking and biking. Second, you will drown in art museums of the Great Masters. All of the canals running among the streets and the people living in their little boathouses on the canals are a sight to behold. Third and last (and there are many more reasons), the preserved residence of Anne Frank (her diary I read as a young girl) who had such hope and optimism in the face of all the death and destruction going on around her. My visit to her hiding place was to pay homage to her and her family so that we will always remember them in our hearts. Anyway, you will thoroughly enjoy Amsterdam.

        Dee

        • As I said in my post, Amsterdam is a place I want to visit, not just some place I chose arbitrarily. So I know I will love it. 🙂 Not having to pay for accommodation will offset the cost of living.

  8. Congrats! You’ll love it. I’m so envious, I love Amsterdam. I’ve been there a couple of times many years ago.
    Have a wonderful Christmas with all that Dutch chocolate.

    Elaine on Vancouver Island

  9. I sense several blog posts coming in our future & I’m looking forward to them.
    Sounds like a great place for you to do your Rae thing!
    Congratulations! 😀
    Hugs

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