We Did It

As many of you know, I have recently moved to Spain with my husband and dog. The last two months in San Francisco were absolute insanity. Last minute hangs with friends, parties, work, getting all the necessary paperwork in order, vet visits, etc.

The energy of the last two months came to the perfect head on the Saturday before we left. We, ignorantly, thought we could move all our belongings out of the apt in one afternoon. We were only planning to bring clothes, so this seemed pretty straightforward.

Turns out, an entire 1-bedroom apartment worth of items takes about 19 hours (and two rock star friends) to move onto the street, throw away, while simultaneously cleaning the apartment. Our dog was picked up at 8:30am Saturday morning, and we did not complete the move until our Uber picked us up for the airport at 3:30am Sunday morning. Amongst the absolute chaos of trying to move out of an apartment, I would have periodic breakdowns worrying about our dogs first international flight. All and all, it was one of the most emotionally draining days of my life. 

We arrived in Madrid and had over 6 hours to wait until we could pick up Bruce. Luckily, a friend of mine had suggested a “day use” hotel so instead of waiting at the airport, we were able to be in a hotel room where we could shower, nap, eat a snack, and wait for him comfortably.

Then, the chaos started again. We pick up Bruce on an airplane loading dock, directly from his crate. He was amazingly in good spirits and I breathed the biggest sigh of relief during this entire move. We had a 5hr drive ahead of us to get to our home base. At this point, other than a short nap at the hotel, we have not slept for 48 hours.

We arrive at our family friend’s home (where we were temporarily staying while we get settled in Spain) and do the dog greeting with their dog outside on neutral territory. Everything seemed fine so we brought them into the house. Unfortunately, their dog started to resource guard and Bruce (who at this point has gone through one of the most intense changes in his life with us) didn’t like that. They got into a tiff, and we had to keep them separated in the house moving forward. 

Tuesday, our friends gave us a run down of taking care of their dog and their house, as they were leaving for a month-long trip early Wednesday morning. 

Wed morning, my husband takes them to the airport, comes home, and for the first time in months - everything is quiet.

Because we were in a small town and had access to their attorney, my husband was able to get all his necessary paperwork to be in Spain and get my visa process started as well. From what we’ve read, this would’ve taken much longer in a larger city. 

Alhama had 1 gym and it just so happened to be a Crossfit gym. I quickly joined to get some routine going in my life and make sure my mental and physical health was taken care of. Our time in Alhama was quiet, we enjoyed the free tapas at every bar, the low costs of nearly everything, and occasionally taking trips outside of the area to Granada (Alhambra is worth it!), Nerja (the beach!), and Malaga (world famous sherry bar!). There were also stressful parts - navigating keeping the dogs separated, the language barrier (southern Spain is another level), and living in a home that though was GORGEOUS, wasn’t ours. We longed for the city life again and a place me, my husband, and Bruce could call their own.

As I have been working remotely this entire time, my husband took on finding us a temporary place in Valencia. We had come to really like Valencia during our trip back in May, and we were super excited to spend a little more time there. After 1 month in Alhama, it was time to get back to city life. 

We’ve now been here for over a month and I think it’s safe to say, we have found our new home. Valencia reminds me so much of San Francisco - it’s a small big city, it’s by the water (but the heart of the city is downtown), and their symbol is even a parrot! After such a short time here, I already have people I would consider new and blossoming friends. This is so unlike my time in Rome - it took me ages to find a community and people I could call for a coffee. I can already think of 3 people I could call here. 

Even though we found a temporary place to live for now (through Jan), I wanted to “casually” start looking at apartments here for 2026. Though this was a super informative process and we learned about many different barrios, places that we would love to be or places we definitely want to avoid - it was also stressful. Turns out, finding what we wanted wasn’t going to be easy. Finding long term leases here is a challenge in itself as most people want to take advantage of expats/tourists and create short term leases which come with super high fees. I would say we’ve been looking for about a month - multiple viewing per week. 

And then last week - the dream apt showed up. Our fav neighborhood, the right price, a long term lease, everything we were hoping for. And I can excitedly say that as of yesterday, we have signed a lease and paid our deposit! 

We finally have a home again to call ours.

To be fair, reading this now, I realize that we were really only “homeless” for 2 months. But it’s wild how travel and newness makes things feel like they are lasting forever. The uncertainty of finding a place to live in a country we are only beginning to understand made me feel anxious and frankly, scared. 

I know this is one hurdle of likely many to come, that’s just life. But I wanted to write this all down to really take a pause and acknowledge…we moved to Spain. We picked up our entire lives, flew across the world, and are starting over again.

We did it :)