A Dream By Design Came True: A Baguette, A Tantrum, and Everything In Between: The "Siesta and Fiesta" of our Spanish Family Expedition
To say I am a travel enthusiast would be an understatement. I've always envisioned a travel show starring my family, aptly named 'The Travelling Tumbleweeds'. Okay - agreed, we still need to earn that name. Our dream was spending extended periods in local haunts, fully immersing ourselves in the culture, or in other words, aimlessly searching for the best local food and pretending to understand the local lingo.
Much like the rest of my life, my social media presents a thoroughly curated, sunshine and rainbow-tinted version of our travels. Today, however, I want to set the record straight and let you in on the highs and the hilarious lows of traveling with your very own pint-sized chaos agents.
Our Spanish escapade started in Barcelona, where we planned to get over the jet lag in a mere four nights. Reality, however, had other plans. The jet lag was worse than an unskippable YouTube ad, but we still put on our explorer hats (literally) and started our journey southward. We explored some beautiful local places in Barcelona where Tom and I even fantasized about living there for a few years. It was really fun to get lost in the city where the local adults gathered in tapas places while the kids enjoyed the playgrounds strategically placed.
As we passed through Valencia, Altea, Mojacar, Granada, and Malaga, we realized we had seen so much of southern Spain but hadn't quite mastered the art of the afternoon siesta. Between trying not to be super ambitious and striving to see everything, we found a balance in our unique strategy: do one thing a day, and if the kids complain, bribe them with gelato.
Speaking of our munchkins, ask them about their Spanish adventure, and their faces light up with the memories of beach visits, swimming, ice-cream, and the glorious indulgence of dessert-for-dinner. Never mind the diverse landscape, the beautiful language, the ocean sounds, the moon above the ocean, the sunsets, the sun rises as you will see in a few pictures; nothing could top the thrill of a second helping of churros.
Meanwhile, our trips to tourist sites turned into mini-protests with placards of tears and chants of “we don’t want to go!” But worry not, Tom came to the rescue with the perfect solution: the feelings scale! Ranging from 1 (worse than eating asparagus) to 10 (better than a double scoop of ice-cream), this little game became our secret weapon in tackling tantrums and navigating mood swings.
And so, amidst all the complaints and cries, we experienced the beauty of family bonding in an entirely unfamiliar world. Our kids showed resilience in navigating new situations, made friends in unlikely places, learnt fragments of a new language, tasted exotic foods, and even started appreciating the existence of other cultures beyond the realms of Paw Patrol and Peppa Pig.
All in all, I'm proud of my little adventurers. They showed us that you can still be your best self, even when you're thrown into a world full of unknowns, weird seafood, and parents insisting on visiting 'one more cathedral' and Royal Alcazar of Seville where they took a scene of Kingdom of Dornes from Game of Thrones. It's safe to say, we're already planning our next family expedition - 'The Travelling Tumbleweeds' are not yet ready to hang up their hats!
My enterprenuership has helped me make my dream of travelling during summer came true, which gave a lot of opportunities to stay grounded and wear my coaching hat during mini-prtests of “we don’t want to go” or “yuck, I don’t like that”.
