Ah Spain!

AI generated, please excuse any errors!

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[Music]
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Hey Tanya, do you have an Ospay moment for the week? I do. I was so excited about this one, let me tell you. Oh, so
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it's in a It is in ah Spain, but I don't. For me, it's only ever happened in Spain. It might have happened in
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other places for other people. I have been traveling for years. Like I said, I moved to America when I was 21. I've
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been taking been going through airports in all over the place, but I've never ever had this experience, which is what
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happened um yesterday when we were traveling. I was traveling with Zena from Spain to England, which we do quite
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a bit back and forth. And Valencia is a it's a small airport. It's a really nice
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airport, but you've still got people usually, right? And it and I will say I will agree it is a perfect sized
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airport. I think for someone who travels a lot it is but go and I don't know if it's the same as it was but it's kind of like what Burbank used to be when I
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lived there. I mean it's like a smaller airport. I have no idea if Burbank is still in LA is still this tiny place but
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it was very much like that like I don't know 20 years ago or something. It still is. It's still Yeah, it's kind of the
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it's the little airport that's near the really big airport so people aren't using it as much. So, we go we go in and
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we're we we you know swipe our card like our um QR code to get through of our
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boarding pass to get through to security. We get to the we the gates open. We go over. There are literally
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three people in the security area and they're all at a conveyor belt thing
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already dealing with their stuff and there's probably five conveyor belts open like and I said to Zena I was like
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well pick whichever one you want to go to. Like we literally have the whole of the security place to ourselves. I've
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never had that experience ever. It was so delightful. I would and obviously we got through like it was just so chill.
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I've never had such a chill experience going through an airport in my whole entire life because the security is kind
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of madness. Right. Usually, right? And that Well, yeah. I I'll say I've I I I
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love that because I I've had I've I've only been to our airport twice. Oh, really? Yes. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, um LA
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So, I I have I actually could add to it. I have a ah Spain and an ah Spain. Well, with airports for sure. I mean, they're
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mostly Spain, right? There's not a lot of ah Spain at airports, that's for sure. So, I had never had this what
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you're talking about the QR code um uh security like the QR code on your phone to get through security, right? I mean,
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I've had it with like the person checking it, not completely automated. And last summer, we went to Paris for
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the Olympics and we had this, but we were in some weird cell phone like no
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man zone. And so, I didn't like download them. I was just opening like the email or the app or whatever I was opening,
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but it wouldn't open. So, I got Paloma through, but then it wouldn't like load up the other two for me and Omar. And
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so, we were sitting outside of security and we're like, "What do we do? We can't get in. My daughter's been sucked into
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the airport vortex and we can't Oh my god. Yes. And then the security woman's like, "Fine, take her through." Like,
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they get her back. Oh, they let her back. No, they let her back out. But but the thing is is so then I went outside
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and like waved my phone in the air like a crazy man trying to find a cell signal, you know, and then we got it and
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I loaded it back in. But then they they like let Paloma through cuz we couldn't get her through security again because
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the pass had already been used. Oh my god. And and then it was like the same security. She's like, "It's fine. It's
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fine. Just run her through." It's very stressful. So I've had two experiences like that. So, first of all, I always if
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I have an iPhone, I always add the I always add the the boarding passes to my wallet so that they're not in the app
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because I'm afraid like what happened to you of the app like breaking down or something or you know, oh, sign in
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again, we've logged you out and then it's like I don't know my password or whatever happens. And then I also take a
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snapshot of it on my phone and I have it in my photos. So I have it in various places because it's just a QR code and I
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also send Zena hers so she can use it on her phone so she has a bit of like oh I get to scan myself in, right? So that
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way that kind of works. But I was when she was very very young um that was the
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first time I had done that. We just had regular boarding passes then and I she was in a stroller so I scanned my
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boarding pass and strolled us both through right without scanning hers.
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When I got to the gate, they were like, "Oh, we don't have her registered." No, they didn't have me registered.
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You're on a no-fly list now. No, no, no. So, I had I had only scanned one of the boarding passes. I had scanned hers,
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right? And she was like, "Two and and then they hadn't scanned I hadn't scanned my boarding pass. I'd only
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scanned hers." And I went through and they're like, "Oh, we don't have you." I'm like, "What do you think? A 2-year-old is like traveling alone?" So
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now I'm sitting at the gate and they're like, "We don't have a seat for you." And I'm like, "This is crazy. like you
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can't have a seat for a 2-year-old and not a seat for a parent. This isn't like computing at all. They did sort it out,
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but that was the first like time where I was like, "Okay, you got to scan all the boarding passes. You can't even if you
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can get a little kid through, you got to scan them all because you could get in trouble later on." And then in cuz I go
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back and forth to Stanstead a lot. and in stance said what happened to me one
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time what happened to somebody else I was going through cuz they have the banks where you you know like five or
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six people can scan their boarding passes at the same time and this woman did the same thing she let her kid through first and Zena was probably like
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eight or something at the time and her kid was like six scanned the kid through the kid went through and then her boarding pass didn't work so now she's
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on the other side from a six-year-old and right she's like freaking out obviously and I had gone through with
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Zena luckily at that moment and the and the and the security person there wouldn't let her fix it like they did
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with you. So, she's separated. So, I'm standing there. I was like, "Do you want me total stranger? Do you want me to
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look after your child? Do you want me to stand here with your child?" She's like, "Yes, please. That would be great." And she's running around with the security person who won't let the child back
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through. So, we're standing there for like half an hour while she's sorting this out. Oh, that's a child. I was It
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was so ridiculous. But, I mean, thank God I was there with a child because otherwise, like, who are you trusting
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your child with? another you always feel better with somebody else that's a parent, you know, even who knows what
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kind of parent they are. Who knows what's going on, right? But so yeah, be careful with the always
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have the QR code scanned like onto your phone in another way, not just in the app. That's my advice for that one. Um
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but yeah, we've been we've been traveling we've been traveling back and forth. Unfortunately, my dad was in the hospital. So, I know that's a lot of
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concern that people have that are traveling from America wanting to move to Europe and feeling like their elderly
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family members are, you know, a a really long plane right away. And it is a concern. So, we moved one of the
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reasons, one of the many reasons which we keep bringing up all the 50 million reasons that we moved to Spain was to be
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closer to to our family, my family in England, um my husband's family in Morocco. So, we have been closer. And
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then when my dad was in the hospital, we've been I've been able to go back and forth, which has been really, if I was
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still living in the States, that would have been impossible. I would have had to commit to coming over here for probably a month or two. And then we've
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been going back and forth and my brother's been going back and forth from where he is. And then unfortunately, my
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dad did pass away, which is why we're back over here now for his funeral. But we've been able to go and in as awful as
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all of that is and as dreadful as the last several months have been, it has been a blessing to be closer where I've
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been able to go back and forth and do that. So obviously I'm in a very different situation from people thinking
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of coming from the States because I'm kind of fixing that problem. Right. Right. Um but you know it is something
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to consider. Um, and that's why it might be sim we might sound a bit confused sometimes where I'm pretending to be in
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Spain, but I'm in England and really I've been going back and forth to both. And um, that is one of the in this is
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not a great scenario, but it is a joy of being in being in Spain is being able to
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pop back and forth to different countries easily and for for me to go back to England. So there you go. as sad
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as this as this is at this particular moment, um I'm very grateful that we made the move to come back so that I
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could be there for that, you know, and and all that. So, Right. Right. Yeah. I
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mean, and and and it's and and you're very um uh uh
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it's very very lucky for you to be able to do that, I guess, is what I'm also trying to say is that, you know, and then and thankfully you were able to to
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be there during this time, right? Yeah. And then also, you know, for my mom. So, it's it's it's everything. I think it
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would have been extremely stressful to have been in the States just, you know, financially flying back and forth
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time-wise, sorting out your job with your with traveling. And if you only have a short flight and you can do
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everything in both places, I think it makes you more available for your family. And if that's something that you
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desire, I think it is important to be um to be in a situation where you can do
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the things that matter to you, you know, and if you're, you know, for me that meant being over here and being closer
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to England as my parents were getting older and for other people, you know, you might be able to move over here and
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still have the flexibility to go back to the States um as well. I think it's definitely something to consider. Um and
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I realized it is. So that's one of the kind of perks of living here is is
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compared to even America because if this had happened in America, not even the England, but like if you were living in California and and your, you know, your
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dad was in like Chicago, airfare is just so prohibitively expensive in America
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where in Europe you can go to England for 30, you know, euros round trip on a
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a Ryan Air fight as long as you only wear shoes. as long as you not bringing any bags
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with you, you can fly really cheap, once you once you add a carry-on, now it's a Yeah. So, outside of my horrible
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scenario over the last couple of months, um on a brighter note, um besides all of
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that, being in Europe, one of the great things that we've also taken advantage of is is traveling around Europe easily.
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And like you said, traveling around America is not that cheap. And it is and it can be traveling around Europe when
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you are in Spain or any country you're living in in Europe. And that is one of the things that that we wanted to be
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able to do was to come here and be able to go to different places. And we've touched a little bit on the different
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cultures, but it's like, you know, going to a different country and that's close and getting a you can go on to any of
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these sort of airlines and just if you don't really care when you go and and and what you can get very cheap flights
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you very cheap and and you know I I do want to mention that we actually did have a comment on Spotify from a face
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Torres from Oklahoma and her comment was she wanted to know what it would be what
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it's like to live in Europe to travel to other places. So, Oh, there you go. Thank you, Faith. So, I hope we're going
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to answer or talk and and and and let you know you've been heard. Yes. And can
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I just say how excited I am to have a listener in Oklahoma because I don't know anyone in Oklahoma. So, that was
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also a real treat. It's like great and a little comment. It's like we are we're we're we're a force now, Tanya. We're
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we're a force. So, please comment wherever you are. like I'm like, you know, it's just really exciting to to to
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see where people are listening from. And it also helps us with sort of coming up with ideas of what we're going to talk
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about cuz um Gatano and I could talk about anything. We could literally talk about shoes and socks for an hour. So yeah, we we literally almost did an
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episode about socks just to see if we could. So if you give us suggestions of things you want to
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hear about, it will streamline the process a little bit probably. Yeah. Because this is about our life here and
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why we moved here. But it is also like what do you want to know about it? Like what because stuff that we might think
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is mundane and not want to talk about could be very well interesting. So thank you. So thank you Faith because you know
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the travel is is so easy. It's getting mundane. No, I'm just kidding. Oh, we have to go to I mean I have
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teenagers so it is I have to travel again. Yeah, we went like I said we went
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to Paris for the Olympics and it was just like a three-ight trip. It was a quickie thing and in retrospect I wish
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we would have stayed longer cuz I was thinking the crowds were going to be crazy and the reality was Paris was
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dead. There was all these people but they were all inside stadiums so it was the perfect time to see the Lou and all
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these. But that's a humongous surprise, right? Like you would never total surprise but and the hotels were ridiculous. The hotels were Yeah, that's
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true. Yeah. I mean we were staying I don't even tell you what we paid and where we were staying. It was a beautiful quaint town, but it was like
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20, 30 minutes outside of Paris. But it was like Disneyland idea of France. It was ideal. Well, I mean, traveling for
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traveling for an event is one thing. I mean, just for anyone that's interested in football, I do believe the World Cup, not the World Cup. Is it the World Cup
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that's coming up next? Is it going to be in Spain? Oh my god, my husband's going to kill me for not knowing the details
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of this. Well, it's been nice knowing. So, um I believe that you married a
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Moroccan and you haven't put football is like your like it's like in your blood now and everything you think about
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morning, noon, and night. I mean, I he I believe it's being shared between Portugal, Spain, and Morocco. I believe
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I think you're I think you're right. Oh my god, I'm Yeah, I I'm sorry ahead of time for this. Anyway, so that's going
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to be something that people might be traveling for for an event like what you were talking about, and that is obviously a different thing. you have to
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pay extra for those things. But outside of these types of scenarios, just go find the you can just sit and find the
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cheap flights. I think the reason that we had no security at the airport when we traveled on Tuesday was because
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spring break's coming up on Thursday. So, there was just that we kind of got in ahead of that, but close enough to it
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that you know that there wasn't other things happening. It wasn't a weekend, but that was that will probably never happen again. Um, but the I don't know.
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I had a similar experience, not when we went to Paris, but when we went to England back in January. Um, and uh, we
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we went to the airport and it was dead. And when we arrived back, the airport was like empty. And me and my daughters
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looked at each other and we felt like we were like in an HBO movie. Like we're like, is did the world end? And no one
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told like we were the last survivors of like we felt like it was like it was like Yeah. There was like we're zombie
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apocalypse like what happened? I mean airports just aren't empty. No. So the other thing is here um we did I did
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travel a few times because I was going back and forth so much. I was looking for sort of cheap flights at times that there weren't maybe cheap flights. And
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um Caston is another airport just north of Valencia about by car. Let's not get
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into the um by train situation because I don't think you can get to it by train which is an unfortunate scenario. You
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get to what? By train. The airport. Yeah, you could get to Cast on the town, but then you have to then take a bus to the airport. It's a very disconnected um
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unfortunately a very disconnected public transport um airplane airport, but the but the airport is like it's like flying
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out of someone's living room. So, you literally like the airport is closed to the to the um to the gate area until the
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plane's about to go because they probably have like four staff working in the hallway. Right. Right. So, it was
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like that was also a lovely experience, but the airport's in the middle of nowhere and you do pretty much have to drive up there. But that is also an
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option for this area for the Valencia area is to if you have a car if you have a car. Yep. You can leave your car there
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and fly in and out of like the parking is like free still there or something. Well, I don't want to jinx it because we might use that airport again because I
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was talking to somebody in the airport because it's I I was sitting there and the airport was, you know, the area to
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go up and go through security and everything was closed and and I and I said, "Am I in the right place? Is the
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is the airplane leaving? Like I don't know what's going And then we started talking about the parking and and she it
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is free but they have recently she said put up the the ticket barrier things
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which gives me the feeling that they might be thinking about charging for it. So I don't want to jinx it by telling
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everybody that it's free but right now I believe it is free. So you could very easily go up there if you want to leave in the next few weeks and go to Cassian
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airport. Don't come after me. Don't come after me if you get charged for two weeks with your with your car at the airport. Definitely check first. Um but
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but yeah, I think it's I I think that's another nice sort of little little airport to go out of if you do happen to
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be in the Valencia area. There are options. And the Valencia airport is like you said, it's it's very like Wait,
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did you say Stan said small too or No, Stanstead's a nightmare. But also that day we got through we went through
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passport control and it was only our airplane going through it. So we happen to have a nice experience there. But they just do the most ridiculous
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ridiculous things there. Yeah. Yeah. when we um I mean I will agree that the Valencia airport it's it is like to me
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it feels like the Long Beach airport or these like regional airports you find in like Florida. It's just like there's like a few gates I think it's like what
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17 gates or something and I mean half the planes you have to take a bus to get to the plane. Right. Right. You don't
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even I'm like I want a jet plane. Why do I have to get on the bus to go to the other side of the tarmac? Well that's like the DC airport has those like they
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look like um they look like oh the Mad Max thunder things. That's what they remind
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me of. Yeah. Duct tour. Yes. That you have to go on and feel like this is this is exciting the first time and then
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afterwards you're like I just want to walk it so that I can take how long I want. But speaking of going around
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Europe from from Spain, I want to point out Morocco is really really close. So
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and she like you can I look at Ryan Air and they had like flights for like like 30 round trip 17 round trip. It's like
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granted you can only wear shoes but um well I mean that's the same for whether you're going to France or England or
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Morocco anywhere like if you want to get the cheap flight it means not taking an extra bag that's the that's kind of the
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weather any bag like you can have a you can have a backpack that fits that's fits under your seat and that's the only
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thing you get for free right but I have I have fine-tuned that experience because you know well now going to
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England and and Morocco we leave stuff there because we're going back and forth but if even if you're not I mean it's
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It's a decent size bag that if you're being not too fancy, you can sort of go
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for a weekend on a bag that you can sit under the seat. But I I would say, you know, yeah, Morocco's um got really good
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flight prices, but also it's a fantastic place to visit. Speaking of different cultures, I mean, if you want to get
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into a culture outside of the sort of European culture because if you're going to Italy, France, like traveling around
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Spain, definitely very different, but not as different as going to Morocco in my experience. Like it's just a very um
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very unique experience and they've got a lot of great shopping down there of all the things that you want to buy and yeah
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it's and great food. Well then now it's now you've got a $500 return ticket because now you have package. This is
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the problem. It talk me it cost me €10 to get there and 500 to get home because I had to buy a rug right and and I do
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find this is the problem. I find it and it didn't fit in my backpack. No, for some reason I find it difficult like if
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I'll say, "Yeah, I can I can I can like pack in this bag that's so small, whatever." But then it's very hard for
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me to leave room for me to buy anything to bring back, right? So, so a trick
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that I learned years and years and years and years ago was bring disposable clothing. Clothing that you're ready to
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get rid of and then you just leave it there and you buy the stuff you wanted. So, if you're like, I wanted to get rid
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of these jeans, wear the jeans, and then throw them away in the new country. Now, you have that space in that little
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backpack. So, yeah. Or wear all your clothes. I don't know. Yeah. I can just
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imagine you at the airport in like 14 layers and it's 700° outside. You're
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like, I'm not paying, but I've got my I've got two coats and three I'm wearing a dress underneath. Oh my gosh. Yes. And
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the the airlines are brutal. They have the thing that you have to fit your bag in. When we were we were flying out when we were flying out yesterday, there was
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a family that had a bag that was literally 3 in too big and they were going to town on the fact that they
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weren't allowed to bring that bag in. And I thought that was a bit much, but that's what they do. So your bag, you know what really ticks me off is when
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they don't do that and you've bought the small bag that was like because that's the other thing people when you're traveling, none of the airlines are
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consistent in what size bag they allow is like that roller bag carry-on. So
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Ryionaire size is different than easy jets and that's different than Vlings or Ving or however you pronounce it. It's
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pronounced different in every country and and Transavilla which is the other like French discount airline because
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I've looked and they all have like these different requirements. But there is one size I think that will kind of get you on all of them if you want to
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look. So you just have to kind of abide by that because frankly in my experience
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we've we travel quite a lot and we're always I'm using like skyscanner.net net
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to to find the tickets which gives you all the different prices for for different airlines and sometimes you're going out on Ryan and coming back on
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EasyJet or something. So, you know, it's just you will be using all of them at
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some point. So, it's it's just easier just to have that sorted out so you don't run. When we went to England, I
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had the I bought the new bags, the smaller ones cuz I was like, I'm not paying for and these tickets were cheap
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and I'm not spending more and they'll charge you for everything. So, you have to, right? I'm like, if they if this if
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like I already had it paid for the carry-on and I was like and then it was like, you know, when you book the
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things, you have to be all you have to like call customer service because it will make you it'll charge you bags for
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every passenger in your group and then you have to call I only want one bag for one person and they're like, oh, you can
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do that. You can do that, but you got to go back and pay for it afterwards and then you can do it. Right. Right. Right.
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But you like I found like whatever airline I was like I had to call and then they were like oh actually but
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there was then they showed me there was a back there was a back way through the website to do it but it was not made at
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all. No no they want you to buy it for everybody. This is what this is what Reddit and Quora is for people. So go
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see but there are you can do that. So it will when you go through the process it will make it look like you have to buy a bag for everybody but you don't have to
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just go through and pay and then go back and buy it. You buy your regular tickets, then go back and just buy an
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extra bag. Add the bag. Yeah, exactly. So, there are ways around it. We Oh, I was going to say, but we were So, we had
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these small bags and we're here in in Valencia and then this other family
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walks by and they have these huge roller bags, which aren't huge, but they're huge compared to these little pittences
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that we had bought. And and I was like, you're not even putting that in the
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thing? You mean we could have brought the other one we had at home and I could have actually just paid for one extra bag instead of the two because that
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would have fit the two that these are whole. I was very annoyed. If it makes you feel better, they will eventually
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get caught. I think they go through phases because sometimes they're not checking and sometimes they're I'm like,
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Zena, put your bag behind your back, you know, and she's she's a small girl, so I'm like, her bag looks bigger, too. Even though it's the right size, I'm
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like, put it behind your back. And we're if we're seeing the the the passport person on the left, put it behind your
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right side. like you know so we're like strategy but I do think there are times when they literally have somebody on
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there just to check the bags and you know they obviously and the size of these bags is clearly to catch you so
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they can charge you it has nothing to do with anything and that's why they're all different so you can't just own one I
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think they're in cahoots with the luggage business people like we'll make 75 bags that are almost the exact same
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so in a minute they're about to change the size to 10 in 10 cm smaller in one
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way so that all the bags that we've bought no longer or obsolete. Exactly. I think they must get commission or
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something though because I just can't understand why the people that work there would care as much. I did read somewhere that they do like the the gate
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agents get commission for every everyone they catch because I don't think anyone in any job would care that much about it
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to get into fights with people if they weren't getting a commission of some sort. So anyway, just with that sort
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that's a that is the ongoing fight that everybody has at all the airports in Europe when they're trying to get
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because you bought a flight for €20 for like nothing and then you don't want to get charged €100 for a bag, right? So it
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just doesn't make any sense. You're like, I'm I'm sticking with this ticket price. This is what I'm going to do. Um so it's a it's a fun game that we all
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[Music]
24:23
play. I and I will say that, you know, I see like people on like the message boards, you know, like the or the
24:30
Facebook groups about moving to Spain and people saying, "Well, what what city should I move to?" And I and and all of
24:36
they have kind of like no idea yet. And one of the reasons why I chose Valencia and and the other cities we were looking
24:43
at, what was important to me, and I think it's important if if traveling around Europe is your goal is make, you
24:48
know, there's a lot of smaller airports and smaller cities in Spain that have some very well-connected airports. So
24:54
just go on Wikip like when you're looking at cities go on the Wikipedia page of that airport and click on
24:59
passenger you know planes and destinations and be like oh that goes to places I'd like to visit because it's
25:06
very nice for you know we you know to be able to just take the subway into the middle of the airport here it takes us
25:12
20 30 minutes to get to the airport and we're inside the airport and we're on a plane and an hour and a half later we're
25:20
in Paris and two hours later like it's so like it's you know for the amount of time it would take us in America to get
25:26
from our home to the to security at the airport, right? The many hours of all of that, we're already in a foreign country
25:33
already. You we've already landed in the thing and that's the great thing about Europe too is outside of the Castion
25:38
airport. Most airports have direct train links into the cities into the town. Yeah. And also from from living outside
25:45
of the city, Valencia is a great city because it is very small and when you
25:51
get to the outskirts of the city, it just kind of stops. It doesn't it's not a sprawling city. So we live, you know,
25:58
25 minutes outside of the city in the countryside in the mountains and it takes us it takes us 25 minutes to get
26:03
to the airport. So by car. So it's we're still even though we live quite far outside of the city theoretically like
26:10
you know feeling wise. I mean, if if you were in LA that same distance, it would take you 3 days to two camels
26:17
and to get to the airport, you you would be just like, I'm just going to drive to Vegas and get their airport. I think I
26:22
wouldn't even be worth coming into LA for that. But yeah, so I would say it's a very very accessible airport in
26:27
Valencia. Um, and I don't have a lot of experience with with the other airports um around Spain because obviously we've
26:33
been flying in and out of this one, right? Which is but like there's like Malaga is very connected. I think
26:39
Alakante is a is a has a bigger area because it's a more touristy um thing. So um you know the the the other thing
26:46
though is like to you to what you were talking about earlier if you have family that's ill and you want to take care of
26:52
them and they're back in the states um you're not getting to the states from Valencia. You're going to have to go
26:58
through Madrid, Barcelona. Um but that also being said is because Valencia is
27:03
so well connected, you can fly through Paris, you can fly through Frankfurt. There's a lot you have a lot of other
27:09
literally fly through any of the other countries and get and get out. Yeah, for sure. And and find cheaper fairs that
27:14
way. So, you're not just restricted to Madrid. And the thing about Madrid is Madrid is so close um that you know it's
27:21
cheaper just to take the train to Madrid and then fly from Madrid out to some of these other countries versus trying to
27:27
get a connecting flight because the that's what you did, right? You flew into when we when we moved here first
27:34
episode when you were talking. I remember now. I was like, "Yeah, I remember that you were flying in and then decided to take that train, which I
27:40
couldn't understand, but yeah." Well, because the we couldn't fly you can't fly animals into Valencia from London
27:46
because there's very few there's very few airports you can fly out of England
27:51
with your pets that will take them because you can't fly into England with pets. So, it's like it's just this kind
27:56
of like So, speaking of England, if we can just talk about England for a second. Oh, so this is like an ah
28:02
England. It is. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah. So since, oh my god, um, since England
28:09
Brexited Europe, Eur is not in this lovely pocket of passport-free travel
28:16
from Spain. No. So there's a special part of the airport in Valencia you got
28:21
to go through that there's like just one little cafe and everything else is in the other part of the airport. That's where that's where our gate is and
28:27
you've got to like, you know, go through the passport control and then you got to go through passport control in England. that ends up taking a lot of time that
28:34
you do not have to put in when you're going from Spain to another European country. So, and since that's what I'm
28:40
doing most of the time and then we go to Morocco, which also you obviously have to do passport, but when you travel, so it's a different experience, you know,
28:46
the passport and for foreigners, you need visas now to get into England that
28:52
I didn't know about until like the night before the flight. The airline said, "Do you have your visa?" And I was like, "What? You need a visa to come with an
28:59
American um passport?" Yeah, you it's it's like an electronic visa and they get you and it's it's €10 per person and
29:06
you have to have the app and they asked me at the gate, do you have your visa because we won't let you on the plane. Show them the email. Is that the SB S
29:13
whatever? Not SB, but like Yeah. Whatever. It's initials. Yeah. It's initials, right? Yeah. So, you just have to have your name on that list
29:19
basically. It's not so much a visa. It's like you've got to pay you got to pay and you got to be registered on this list so that they have you blah blah
29:25
blah. And it's only good for two years. And then what really what really you know? Yes. What really makes me angry.
29:33
Yeah. Yeah. How do I keep this clean um is I had to renew my daughter's
29:38
passports. So now I have to repay that 10 because it's only it's tied to the
29:43
passport number. So it was so I have to pay for it again the next time we go to England, which I'm sure we'll be going
29:49
to England in the next year because it's so cheap and we have friends there. I mean it's it's England's not cheap, but
29:54
getting there can be very cheap and we have friends. is not the I have I have managed to get some cheap tickets for
30:00
sure. If you don't care when you go, you can. If you need to go at normal times, England shoots up dramatically obviously
30:05
because London is also a it's a hub to get to everywhere like you just said. So, but you know, having to go through
30:11
the passport control unless you have a traveling day like we had yesterday is you can be sitting in that line for some
30:17
time in London. Um, so that's an extra timing thing you have to sort of consider and that's a that's just I'm
30:23
just like another reason that is that I'm not happy about Brexit. Right. I
30:29
mean I don't think anyone's happy about some people are obviously it wouldn't have happened. I think the number gets smaller and
30:34
smaller. Uh, but um I was going to say, you know, the great thing about Spain is
30:40
we have all these like random holidays, which I'm sure every country has their random holidays, right? But we have all
30:46
these random holidays that don't coincide with anyone else. So if you're like, well, we've got this random
30:52
Wednesday off. So we we went to England and I think I think I spent like €220 total for the three tickets, which
30:59
I mean that's really inexpensive for three people to travel anywhere, you know, especially coming from America,
31:04
right? And it was because we had this random Wednesday off in January. And I was like, let me check airfares to see
31:10
if we take off the Monday and Tuesday or the Thursday Friday and most people are already taking that because they're
31:15
utilizing this is a great time to go to Italy or this is a great time to go to France because no one's traveling and we have this day off. So we might use like
31:22
and so that's what that's what we did. So, you know, the another great thing
31:27
about living here and the ease of travel is that because you can get airfares
31:32
cheap and you have these random school year, you know, school day in these days off in the school year. Um, and you look
31:40
at flights that way. You go on Skysand like we have this weird day off in February. Let's just because I didn't think Skyscanner you can just put dates
31:46
in and like broaden the search to show me the cheapest flights. And they're like, you can go to Bucharest. Well, I
31:52
Why not? Why not? Right. And but you can go for like two three days because it's so cheap and you don't you don't have
31:58
this feeling like if you were coming from America or if you're Europe going to Asia like you have to get all of it
32:04
in because it's such an order and you need to stay somewhere for like two weeks or something because you're traveling so far see it all because
32:09
we're never going to get here again. Like when we were at Paris for the Olympics I'm like oh we're not going to see all this stuff but we're non plus
32:15
because we're like eh I mean it's just an hour away. I mean it's not like we can't come back here right and well and the other thing is you do the you do
32:21
reverse travel. So the other thing is is like we went to Denmark in July. So everyone's coming to Spain, right? So we
32:27
went the other way because we were like it's as hot as hell here. We're we're feeling it. So let's go to Denmark and
32:34
it was kind of cloudy and rainy and we loved it in the middle of July. But you know who wants to go there in July?
32:40
Well, us. So you or you can also like get get tickets to go to places that people aren't generally going to at that
32:46
time of year because your your whole scenario is different, you know? Right. So that's I mean speaking of reverse
32:52
travel, this summer we're going to do a train trip through Spain. So we're going
32:58
to go to Granada and see the Alhhamra and go to Sevilla. Oh, trains. Because really I I I cult the reverse let me
33:07
just say this. The reverse travel though is we're going to inland Spain in the summer. So we're getting hotels for
33:13
really like family of three. Exactly. Everyone's at the beach. So the beach the hotel rooms are 500 a night. But in
33:20
Granada, we're staying at a place with a pool for 10 a night. I hope it also has air conditioning because you're going to need it. Air conditioning pool and
33:26
breakfast included. I'm like 100 night. We're going. This is Oh my gosh. Well, speaking and every face is going to burn
33:32
your face up there. Well, speaking of trains, I calculated because I was sort of looking at can we be creative and
33:38
going to England and maybe take a pick take trains or drive or whatever it is. I mean, when you compare the cost of air
33:44
travel now, the cost of taking trains around Europe or driving long distances.
33:49
I mean, but specifically the trains where you think we'll just hop on a train and go to London. No. Well, I mean, isn't that the that's the American
33:56
myth where they think that, you know, that is, oh, the trains and every you can just take trains everywhere. Well,
34:02
if you live in Spain, you're not taking the train to southern Italy because it would take you seven days. Well, also the cost of them, they're not cheap.
34:07
Like I calculated I think if I wanted to take a train I would have to go from Valencia to Barcelona then I think I
34:14
could make it to Paris from Barcelona and then I've got to take that Euro train over to England which is like 350
34:20
a person. I mean by the time I was done with like a family of three we might as well have taken like I don't know the
34:28
Concord or something if it still existed. I mean something really expensive. I mean it was going to be very very very expensive. So, and that
34:34
is the thing like once you cross the borders, the train travel gets more expensive. Now, like if you're in like
34:39
central western Europe like in Germany and France and Switzerland, those trains I don't know the cost, but yes, you can
34:45
go to those countries very quickly, but if Spain is far removed from the rest of
34:51
Europe, right? It's a peninsula. It's its own place just kind of it's much bigger than you think. So, when you
34:56
think about taking a train from like southern Spain, for instance, over into France, that's a very long trip. hours
35:02
from here to get to Paris by train if you're lucky to get the connection being small in Barcelona, right? And it's not
35:08
a direct train. That's the other thing. Like you're not taking direct trains. Whereas, like you said, if you're in the middle of um sort of easterny Europey
35:14
area, um then you can probably take a train over a border into another city
35:20
into another capital city and and really see a lot of places there, right? Yeah. But it was not worth it because I was
35:26
like, that would be fun to just take the train and and and I was like, well, you got to change like three times and then
35:32
the price just isn't worth it. You might as well because they do have some scenic trains and things that you can take for
35:38
trips that are kind of like cruises but trains through different places and you're better off like spending the money doing something like that because
35:45
that is a thing that you get on and then you get off at the end like you know and you're better situation I think because
35:51
you're actually paying for something special. We did the Olympics. I wanted to take like to fly there and take the
35:57
train back. I'm like, "Well, it's 9 hours. It's a long time." I'm like, "It's only 9 hours." And we could see all the green and the farms of vineyards
36:04
and fields of of lavender through France, right? And then through the
36:10
coast of Spain. But then it was because we're crossing the border. It was going to come out to like 200 per person to
36:15
take this train. I'm like, "But the flight was like going to be a hundred, you know, per person each week." So it
36:20
was it was the Olympics. It was an expensive flight comparatively, right? And I was like, well, we're not going to
36:26
do that. Plus the cost. Plus, you got to eat and do things that if you're getting on a short flight, you just kind of do
36:31
that and then eat when you get there. So, if you're going to take a a flight to to Paris or something, you're not
36:36
going to eat in the Valencia airport. You're going to wait until you get to Paris and get some really delicious French food when you get there. So, you
36:43
know, you're starting your holiday that way, I think. So, totally different experience. But yeah, so the train has a
36:49
big but train travel in Spain itself is very is very inexpensive. And then we have like we have competing trains like
36:56
in America you just have Amtrak and that's the only train you can take, right? And here we've got the the Erio
37:02
and the We go. We got an Italian company, a French company. We have like discount train lines. So like you can get to Madrid like €9 each way if you
37:10
plan ahead and look at the right times and stuff. It's insane how cheap that can be. No, absolutely. And that's a
37:15
fast train too. So there's a fast train between Madrid and Valencia. So that is commutable actually. Like if you've gone
37:22
there for lunch and to the museum and came back the same day and not exhausted like we came back like all right, let's go out to dinner once we got back into
37:29
Valencia. No, it's very very very doable. And I think that's that's kind of Yeah. So within each country I think
37:34
you can you can really use the trains and well I would say in England the trains are very expensive um compared to
37:41
you know other forms of transportation but so it probably depends on the on the country but yeah in Spain it's it's very
37:48
doable depending on where where you're going I would say but yeah I think that the travel overall is is very exciting
37:57
here with the different things and the other benefit is is let's not forget you're in a place that people want to
38:02
visit it. So if you have other friends, maybe they might come from America, but even if you have other friends in
38:08
Europe, they can come see you as well. So, you know, you're in a spot where people are happy to come visit. So, you
38:14
have a lot of I've lived in, if I lived in LA and I lived in DC, people weren't really visiting me in those places. LA
38:20
was way too far away for anyone to visit me in DC, I mean, it is a place that people would go, but I mean, when you're
38:26
living in Spain, people are like, "When can I come visit?" Right. Oh, I mean our first year we were
38:31
we were we were you know inundated in a good way. I don't mean that don't don't if any of my friends are listening we'd love to have you but we had a lot of
38:37
visitors and now our second year like the visitation has like dropped off which is common for everyone I've heard
38:42
is that the first year everyone's coming and then the second year like where all my friends go. But what we've done too
38:48
was like when we went to when we went to the Paris Olympics we were just going as a family and then my my dear friend and
38:55
her husband said you know what they they live in England. and they're like, "We just looked up and we found some Olympic tickets and we're going to go and we
39:02
found a room and you know, we'll just meet you there." And like that was the great thing. And I've told my friends, well, if you're going to go to a
39:07
country, just give me a couple months notice, right? And if it aligns with us, maybe we make a trip out of it and we
39:13
meet you for lunch like like not to like you not to glum on to your trip, but to be like, "Hey, this could be a perfect
39:19
opportunity us to go see a city we weren't planning on seeing and see a friend for lunch or dinner while we're
39:24
there." Absolutely. And then we had friends that were living in Italy, American friends that were living in Italy that just came and visited us from
39:30
there because it was easier for them to pop over while they were still in Italy than to go back to America and then
39:36
visit us. So they just came over for like a long weekend and that was a blast. So it's like having your friends
39:41
that might be either taking a trip like you said around Europe and then maybe they use you as a stop or whatever or
39:47
like you go visit you go with them and meet them somewhere for one part of their trip. So that's also like a very
39:53
doable thing as well. And you might get to visit another another country when one of your friends is visiting I don't
40:00
know another another part of Europe. Right. So Right. Which is I mean it's exciting. So now I'm looking at like I
40:07
look at the the school breaks and then look at Skyscanner and I'm like what random like so I really want to go see
40:14
places like Bucharest. like I want to go to I want to go to these like random cities I never thought about that like
40:19
you know that aren't like that aren't like the the grand tour of Europe cities cuz now we're here and if we can go and
40:24
find this like little like unfound gem and stay in a really nice hotel for really cheap and have this kind of
40:30
experience that you would never even have thought oh my god I went to Romania in the early 90s and I would love to go
40:36
back and see I'm must have changed just so dramatically and I've heard great things about there other than my
40:42
experiences there which were great but yeah that would definitely maybe a spot. Yeah. So, you have all these little
40:47
dreams of places and you just keep them and then when you go on to Skyscanner, you're like, "Let me try this one." But also, some of these airlines will put
40:54
out like we have cheap flights right now to these cities, right? And you can see I mean, you know, you can see if that if
40:59
that works for you as well. Yeah. I mean, if if ever I come to the moment where I'm like feeling like like, oh, we have this like I mean, it would be great
41:06
like right now if like I I'm planning for the future, you know? Um, but like
41:11
if I had extra cash in my hand now to be like, "Wait, the girls are off for two weeks for spring break. Maybe I should put in and see who's got a cheap flight
41:18
tomorrow." I mean, that would be great. I would love to be able to do that with the kids. So, that used to be your site. We're leaving tomorrow. Yeah. But
41:24
remember, do you remember that used to be how it was done? Like they would give away flights for the next day or the same day because they were empty, right?
41:31
But that does that hasn't existed for a very long time. A long time. Yeah. But maybe that would be nice if that was the
41:37
But, you know, I've noticed in the few times we've traveled here that I mean,
41:42
it was funny when we went to England, the airport was empty and so was the flight. Like, we were like, there's not a lot of people on the flights. Like, I
41:48
feel like I don't know, maybe I'm wrong. We haven't traveled a lot. Like I've said, we've been to Paris, we've been to England, but I I I feel like they're not
41:56
overselling flights in the States. I don't know. Am I wrong? I rarely I mean again we've we've flown we've been to a
42:04
few places but we've I've rarely had a spare seat next to me very quite rarely and I think they they're pretty much
42:10
booked most of the flights but I'm also flying to London and Morocco and Denmark and maybe well Denmark was in the middle
42:16
of the summer. I don't know. I think maybe some cities might be different where they don't have as many people but I think they got pretty they got pretty
42:24
good now. Like I think people are traveling a lot and they've got pretty good at like how many people are
42:29
traveling at certain times to around different cities and they kind of know. So it's quite unusual these days for
42:35
these little hopper planes to get a flight where there's empty seats on it. They're pretty booked up. But you know
42:41
and then the thing about like the Ryionaire some you have to check the times because Ryionaire's like $4 flights are like at four o'clock in the
42:47
morning. Like the airport's not even open. like you have to let yourself in through the back gate and another
42:53
combination to get on your plane. It's absolutely packed because Ryionaire has like four flights going at that time. So
42:58
you get there and it's packed and it's 4:00 in the morning, but none of the services are open. You're like, "But I
43:04
can't get a croissant." No, you can't get anything, but you can just get on your flight with the 5,000 other people
43:10
that are there at 4:00 in the morning. Really grumpy. Really grumpy. And the kids are like sleeping on the suitcases.
43:16
I mean, it's that's not you. We've looked at that too cuz we had looked at taking a different trip this summer and
43:22
um the flight back was like 5:00. It was like 5:'lock in the morning. I'm like
43:28
that means we have to leave the hotel at like 2:00 in the morning to get to the airport. I'm like then I paid for a
43:34
hotel room that I'm not using really. So now this flight's actually more expensive. Well, that's true because we
43:40
I took one of those flights once and we got in to we got into London at like
43:46
midnight. Now, where where we were, we could get into London probably, but where I need to go in England, I
43:53
couldn't get to at that time. So, I basically then, like you said, I had to pay for a hotel next to the airport cuz
43:58
I'm like, I'm not going to take a taxi or something to a to a hotel far away.
44:03
So, I'm getting a hotel right next to the airport just so that we can then wake up in the morning and take the
44:08
train or whatever to get out to go where we need to go. So, yeah, you have to also look at like, can you get to the airport at that hour? Can you get to
44:15
where you need to go when you get to the other end at that hour? Because if it's only a 2-hour flight, which it probably
44:20
is at most, right? You're getting there at a ridiculous hour as well, right?
44:25
It's like there's a lot of sort of things where you're like, I don't know if that actually makes sense financially
44:31
at this point. Right. Exa Exactly. But it is kind of it it is and that's how
44:36
they do the cheap flights is by having flights at times when nobody else wants them and then they have the odd one at a
44:42
time that people do want and then that one will be more expensive, right? But hey, it works. I mean, depends on where
44:47
you're going. I mean, it's an adventure, right? It is a definite adventure, you
44:53
know, living here and having all that at your fingertips. Yeah. I mean, what a luxury it, right? Because I mean I have
44:59
when when I lived in the states I mean I didn't travel as much as I wanted to. I did travel quite a bit but you know
45:05
driving doing road trips in America was always really fun because of all the different places you would go in in
45:10
between the cities and things that were hard to get to. And so that's kind of an adventure that was fun when I was younger there. But and we've driven a
45:18
little bit around Spain as well which is which is really nice. Um, but it is quite a luxury to have all these
45:24
different cultures so close and and the different types of food and it's wonderful. We have to take advantage of
45:31
it more for sure. Right. And and it's great because when you're in just flying within the Shenen area, there's no
45:36
passport control. It's just like easy breezy. It's you don't even you don't it's it's very stress free. It is very
45:43
stress free. And then you you're so spoiled you don't do it. This is the problem. Well, then my kids have school,
45:49
right? And it's like I mean they have these random holidays but I also have to be like but is this random holiday like right before like finals are actually
45:55
and you're so exhausted that you want two days of not driving around or not getting picking up your kids from school
46:00
or whatever. So we're just going to stay home and not do anything. So we have all the same issues. You have all the same
46:06
issues here as you have wherever you're living right now. Right. But we're trying to take one school trip, like one
46:13
trip during the school year on this rand like one of these random holidays when no one's traveling to like just kind of
46:19
get some cities out of the way or see friends, you know, like especially like England's England was really important
46:24
for us because it um one we have very good friends there, but it kind of gives my children that kind of American light
46:32
experience like everything's in English. We go see a we go see a West End show, you know. It is refreshing. Yeah, I will
46:39
say like I think until you speak Spanish completely fluently, it's quite nice for
46:45
your brain to go somewhere where the language is something you don't have to think about. Um, especially when you
46:50
want to see a show like I don't know what it would like to be like see the Book of Mormon in Spanish in Madrid. Like I don't know how how I could even
46:58
enjoy that, right? Like because I don't I mean that's a that's a level of Spanish I I hope to get to one day, but
47:03
that seems like a lot. That does seem like that would be a lot. Unless you're seeing it for like the third time or something and then it's like it's like
47:09
going to Well, to me that would be like going to an opera or something which I've never really understood cuz it's the same thing. It's all in like Italian
47:14
or whatever Latin. I don't know if I can't understand it. Not clearly not my
47:20
thing. Um for the same reason. Yeah. Right. So, Faith, I hope we've
47:26
answered, you know, or given you some insight to your comment. Um Right. Right. And also if anyone else has any
47:34
questions or things they would like to know about Spain or Europe I I guess as an extension we are here extension or
47:41
just uh what it's like to live here raise kids here like any you know like questions like you know what made us do
47:48
it like what was you know the impetus or what how we even began the research I mean anything like we're just giving you
47:54
the comments right now. Yeah. Yeah. Give them all the ideas. The whole point is that they give us ideas. Yeah. Okay.
48:01
Strike that. Reverse it. That's how it works. All right. Well, I think we've
48:07
sort of reached the end of this one. So, it was great chatting with you. Until the next time. Until the next time. Bye.
48:16
Hey, can't get enough of us? Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at rpane podcast and on our website.com, which we
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will be updating with exciting new things as we grow. We would love for you to message us with any topics you would
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like to hear about. See you next time. Bye.