Dreaming of Spain by Kelly Reising

  
   I guess this is more of a non-travel story, than a travel story never the less here it is. When I graduated from high school, I had saved up a lot of money during my part time jobs that a friend and I were considering traveling to Spain for a few weeks. Kind of like a last hurrah before we had to buckle down in college life. Having studied Spanish my entire middle school, and high school career I was fairly fluent in the language. Plus my teacher was a native of Spain, and was more than happy to help us plan our trip. Weeks of researching to look into the cities we would visit, travel options, and hotel stays made me feel all that more excited. Then my friend backed out. I was devastated.

    At that point in my life, at 18-years-old I wasn’t confident enough to take the trip on my own. I don’t think my parents would have let me go alone anyway, but I was very disappointed. All that money saved up to go, and all the crazy intense research I did was for nothing. It just make me ache to travel to Spain that much more. So off to college I went, not having the dream trip I had worked so hard to plan.

    Now I’m 20 years out of high school. Not old as of yet, but veering towards middle age. You do the math! Alright, so I’m almost 40 years old, and I have never had a chance to pursue my dream of going to Spain. Life hasn’t turned out all that wonderful for me. I’m sure no one truly gets the life they want. I haven’t been able to travel much. More often than not, it was money issue. There never seemed to be any extra, especially once I had children. Things come up. Problems happen. Tragedies occur. I’ve had my share. Serious illness, the death of a parent from cancer, divorce (mine), friends dying, and the worst possible outcome in my family life. I lost custody of my two daughters.

    This morning, I felt inspired to look into what it would cost to go to Spain. I checked flights, hotels, and rental cars. I looked at all the various routes I could take to get there. The same beautiful cities that I longed to go to are all still right there on the map obviously. Spain probably hasn’t changed much in the past 20 years. My spanish might be a little rusty, but who cares. At least there is wi-fi now, right? 

    Then I found AirBnb, and looked over the affordable staying options that were available. I can do this on my own. I will make this trip to Spain. So I booked my flight, contacted some lovely AirBnb people, and am actively making plans to go this summer. I couldn’t be more excited, and it’s the long overdue trip I have always dreamed of.