Tarifa.

Hi guys!

Here I am again, today I'm going to talk about my trip to Tarifa, in the south of spain.
I went to Tarifa, Cadiz at the end of august this year, after my trip to london was cancelled. I went there together with my parents and my sister. Eventough we only went for 4 days I had a lot of fun. Tarifa is a typicall surfers town. The atmosphere is amazing! It's so relaxed and laid-back, surfboards everywhere and guys with dreadlocks and "Hippie vans". One of the things that caught my eyes the most was the fact that in nearly all restaurants and bars dog where welcome. Now we didn't bring our dog but she would have loved it! The apartment we where staying at was really basic but perfect because it was literally 200m from the beach. I love going to the beach so I spend most of my time there. Apart from the beaches and surfing, Tarifa also offers some big landmarks of the spanish history. It's also an amazing place to go out at night. The main road offers a big variety of restaurants. We found a really good italian restaurant by coincidence. It was in one of the small side streets near the main square, It's very small but really homie and tumblr if you know what I mean. the tables and chairs where made out of wood and there was an old surfdocumentary on a tv in one of the corners. They had hung mason jars of different sizes with spices from the sealing which looked magical. maybe you don't like these kind of things, but I am a sucker for cute, romantic and family owned restaurants and bars. And most times the food is better then in a fancy restaurant. I had a salmon and rucula pizza that tasted amazing! I wasn't sure about my choice at first but it turned out to be a very good choice! The restaurant is called Ninén and you should defenitely check it out if you ever go to tarifa. Another restaurant I liked was once again italian (Yes I like Italian food, get over it!) we went there on our first night and I had Gnocci with tomato sauce, mozarrella, parmesan cheese and basil. And the first night it was amazing but when we went back a few nights later and I decided to get the same thing, there was barely any tomato sauce and way to much parmesan cheese. I don't really like parmesan cheese but this was even to much for my sister, who ADORES all types of cheese. What bothered me the most was when I told the waitress kindly at the end of the night, she just brushed me of and looked at me with a dirty look. I normally don't like talking badly about things but I tought I should share this just incase you go there. All the other dishes my parents and sister had where very good, so I would recommend going there just don't eat the gnocci with tomato sauce and cheese, unless you love mountains of cheese then go ahaid :)

One of the things I did and was most looking forward to was going surfing. I've always wanted to go surfing but never had the change, untill now. The first day I went together with my dad and I spend more time in the water then actually on the surfboard. But I still really liked so I went again, this time alone. My dad took pictures and I look like a right pro (NOT)

The thing that shocked me the most at first, was how cold the water was, eventough it was the middle of the summer. One of the things Tarifa is also known for is that at a certain point the mediterranean sea and the atlantic ocean touch. So on one side of this island you have the mediterranean sea and on the other side you have the atlantic ocean. Now the atlantic ocean is very cold but the mediterranean isn't, So the change is quite strange.

But there are many more activities apart from surfing, going to the beach and visiting sites. For example you can take day trips to marroco, you go on a ferry, see some famous things ride a camel etc. Another thing I really like is the fact you can go on a boat trip to spot dolphins and wales. Now lots of people think this is animal abuse but it's the opposite. The companies that do these kind of excursion are mostly organisations about sea animal wellfare. They show people the dangers of the ferries and explain all the hard facts. I love animals especially dolphins, so this was one thing I enjoyed very much. The people where very friendly and they loved there job. I bought a pair of very cute dolphin earrings, half the money went to charity so it was a double good cause (New jewelry and helping a charity.) We didn't see any dolphins unfortunately but we saw a lot of pilot whales and other sea animals.

To conclude this blog, I would really recomend going if you like relaxed seaside towns. It has been infuenced slightly by tourist and all the attention but it's still very nice and typicall spanish.

Sorry if this was not my best post I'm quite busy at the moment as I am in my last year of a equivalent of A levels in England and it's very stressfull. I also want to apologise again for any spelling mistakes I make as I'm not english.

Hope you enjoyed my story about Tarifa and it was helpfull if you ever go.
See you soon and have a nice day/night wherever you are.

xxSimone23

How to deal with moving!

Hello people!

It's my 7 year anniversary of living in Spain!! Well actually it was 2 days ago but I forgot to post it so I'm posting it today, hope you enjoy!!

So as a continuation of my previous post I tought I'd give some tips and tricks that worked for me when I got the news I was moving to Spain.

1. Talk about it with someone. Even if it is just to have a shoulder to cry on. You will feel a lot better if you have someone to talk about and who can maybe help you. Don't have anyone? You can always talk to me!

2. Make a list with advantages and disadvantages. Even if you have way more disadvantages. This gives you a clear view of all the thing that are going to change and you can focus on just the good stuff, trust me it works. Altough we shouldn't just forget about the bad things, because you'd be lying to yourself.

3. Keep a journal or diary during the moving process. Or longer if you allready have one. This way you can rage about all the hings you feel and think without hurting anyone around you. Especially your parents.

4. Do the things you wanted to do and won't be able to do anymore when you leave. Like go to your favourite restaurant, to the beach, take a walk trough a forest, you name it. Just go all out because you deserve it.

5. Trow a goodbye party for yourself, or if you have an awesome friend who loves organizing things let him/her do it. Don't do it for the fact your leaving, use it as an excuse to have one more epic party with all your closest friends and family. I had a sleepover with my closest friends, we covered the floor of our (empty) living room with matresses and just talked, danced and laughed all day. If you are older (remember I was 11 when I moved) you can go to a club and just go crazy. Do what you want, it's your party.

6. Look up information about the city/country/town your moving to. Interesting history, things to do etc. You can also look for things in close proximity, like this you have things to look forward to. It makes it less boring when you don't know anyone or anything. This can also be a good thing to make friends.

7. Now this one depends on if your moving to a different country or not. If you aren't then try and find a sport or club that interests you, this is one of the easiest and most entertaining ways to make friends, because you allready have one thing in common. If you do move to a different country, thsi is a little difficult as most times you won't now the language yet. But as I have learned trough experience, the fastest way of learning a new language is simply talking to people. Because if they only speak their mother tongue, which they most times do, you'll have no other choice then to speak their language.

8.And most importantly, even if you may not be moving by choice and your parents or family are forcing you to go. Don't get mad at them, even if you want to, vent about it in your diary or on a blog, but keep your family close because you will soon realise that as soon as you've moved, they are the only people you will now and you need them to help you trough the hard moments. Because even though you might think it's not all that bad, or I make it out to be, it can be very hard at times. I'm not going to sugar coat anything. Sometimes moving away can feel amazing and sometimes it sucks, and when it sucks it sucks big time and you feel very sad or angry. It's in these moments that you will need your family, because they are going trough the same thing as you.

I know this was shorter then usual but I just wanted to give you guys some tips that helped me. If any of you that read my blog ever need someone to talk to, don't hesitate to send me a message or leave a comment and I will do everything I can to try and help you!

Have an amazing Night/ Day wherever you are and I will write soon!

xxSimone

The perks of moving.

Hello again!

So one of the main reasons of me writing and creating this blog was wanting to help people with a maybe difficult situation such as moving to a different country or just a different town. I've always liked writing and have been quite good at expressing myself trough stories and things I made up. But now instead of making up a story I'm going to talk about what happened and how I felt when my parents told me the news that turned my life upside down.

I was 11 years old and my family and I had gone on a trip to Spain, at first I tought it was just a holiday but it turned out to be so much more. My parents had been thinking about leaving our live in The netherlands behind and changing it for something else a different place. After much debating they decided on Malaga, Andalucia in the south of Spain. When they told my sister and I, I didn't want to believe it, why would I want to leave everything I knew behind to start over? I had all my life figured out, or at least thats what I thought of course nobody knows what your future is going to be like at 11 years old. My sister took the news even worse then me, she cried for ages and refused pint blank to go. She obviously didn't have a choise as she was only 8 years old.

The entire process of moving was very blurry, busy and confusing. My parents sold our old house in September, they had allready bought a house in Spain, in the middle of nowhere. I said goodbye to al my daily things, friends and family, they where all very suportive but that didn't make it easier for me. On November the 16th my mom, my sister, my dog and I got on a plane and left The Netherlands behind. It was only a 3 hour flight to Spain but at that time it felt like an eternity, maybe because I didn't want to get there or maybe just because I hate flying.
The house my parents had bought was a very old farm that had been abandoned for over 3 years. We had nothing only a few beds and the essentials. The garden and orchard where overrun with herbs, and the house was old and dusty. My parents and grandparents spent months cleaning and fixing everything. Only to find out in the first winter that the entire roof was broken and it was leaking everywhere. That obviously was the winter with the most rain recorded in the last 25 years. Just our luck.

After about a few weeks in Spain my parents enrolled us in a local spanish school. It was very strange and very scary, I didn't understand anyone and they didn't understand me. But I learned things fast and I made a few good friends. But still I missed my old life and kind of wanted to go back. But after accepting that was not going to happen I accepted the fact I would stay here for a long time. I started seeing the good things of moving, I had a change to start over.

I obviously have many more stories and tips but I will tell you about those in another post. Also sorry if I have any spelling mistakes, English is, as you probably guessed, not my mother tongue. If you do happen to find any mistakes feel free to tell me, I'm always open for constructive criticism.

Have a great night/day wherever you are and I will speak to you soon!

xxSimone

Trip to the Netherlands

Hello!
So school just started again for me. which meens no more getting up late and doing whatever I want. I haven't been on my blog for a while because i've been on several trips such as one to the Netherlands my home country! Today I'm going to talk about the things I did and the things you can simply not miss when visiting this little country.

Now first for the people who don't exactly now where The netherlands or sometimes known as Holland is located I'll tell you now: The netherlands is located in the north-west of europe next to Germany. I'ts a very small country, very flatt (Barely any hills) and the entire country is below sea level so if the sea level rises a lot if not all of it will al disapear. The weather can be very bad and it rains a lot but if there is nice weather the country is absolutely beautiful! So apart from the obvious things as visiting Amsterdam and the tulip fields there is a lot more you can do in Holland.

I went to Holland for a week together with one of my schoolfriends, she had never been to Holland so I did a few things I normally wouldn't do because i've either allready done it or it's just a normal thing for me. Our flight left really early in the morning which was good because it means you can get things done on the first day aswell and you don't waste an entire day travelling. First and most important thing was food shopping, a thing that on it's on is allready an adventure because the supermarkets in Holland are very different from the once we have here in Spain.
Another strange thing for most people is the fact that there are so many bikes and very little cars. And because neither my friend nor I have our dirving licence or are old enough to hire a car the only way of transport apart from the bus and train was a bycicle.

So the second day we went to the village we where staying at, now my grandparents have one of those big mobile homes on a camping so we where living in there for a week, it defenitely improved mine and my friends relationship because we were together for a week nonstop. We  cycled to the village and did some shopping, as I said before she found all the different things in the shops amazing.

The third day we went to a famous dutch themepark. Now this is not your ordinary themepark it has a big forest full of fairytails and every ride and show is about a different story like the flying dutch man and many more they are all decorated beautifully so waiting in line isn't all that bad. I've been going there since I was really small so it was amazing to be back there after so many years. They have an amazing parkshow with knights, horses,sword fighting, fire etc it was so amazing I just can't put it in words.

We of course went to Amsterdam, my uncle gave us a ride saving us a lot of money because the trains and busses are very expensive! My uncle dropped us of at the museum square, where you have the "rijksmuseum" the Van gogh museum and many more. We went to the Rijksmuseum which has a lot of the most famous  dutch paintings by painters like Rembrant.

 This is the nightwatch from Rembrant a very famous painting at leats for us dutch people so I was very excited to see it.
After that we walked around the city visiting some shops. A book shop (waterstones) and Lush because I'm just addicted to reading and love taking baths ;). We went to "the Dam" a famous building with a square and walked along the canals taking pictures, I looked like a right tourist haha. Lastly we went on a boat trip trough the canals a la fault in our stars well except for me having a handsome date and standing up. we got stuck with a barking dog...

On another day we went to my hometown or better said city. It's called Shertogenbosch, Den bosch for short. I showed my friend around the city and we went to the cathedral it's very big and beautiful it's so big you can't get the whole thing in a picture. I also made her eat Bosche bollen, she didn't seem to mind because they are a-ma-zing! It's a sort of thick dough filled with whipped cream and the best quality chocolate. They are imposible to eat neatly so our hands and faces where covered in chocolate and cream.


And that was pretty much all we did cause we were only there for a week so it was quite packed. Our flight back was not very nice mostly because I hate flying (I know, great thing for someone who loves to travel.) and there was a lot of turbulence so I was not happy at all! I was very glad when we landed I could kiss the ground ( Not literally)

This is me with my friend at the theme park's famous entry it's called Efteling if you're ever close you should defenitely go!


So that was my trip to Holland. I might post another entry about other dutch things later but this is it for know. 

Have a great day/ night wherever you are!

xxsimone

 

Hello World!

Hello everybody!

So this is my first entry on this blog, first of I want to say that I know there are a lot of blogs about lifestyle and traveling. But considering I moved to a different country at a young age (11 years old) I tought that by writing about my experiences I could maybe help some people who are going trough the same or have been and need some help adjusting. So if you are moving to a different country or just a different city and you want some advice don't worry and just ask me and I will help you as best as I can. So first of somethings about me:
I'm 18 years old at the moment, and I live in Malaga in the south of Spain. I was born in the south of the Netherlands in a city called S'hertogenbosh, S'hertogenbosch is quite a big city as is Malaga but when I first moved to Spain We ( my parents, my sister and I) moved to an old farm in the middle of nowwhere. This was maybe the biggest adjustment, because I had always lived in a big city or village and had been able to do things on my own even at a young age. But when I arrived in Spain for the first time I noticed how far away from everything our house really was. The closest little town was 20 minutes away in a car. I couldn't do anything withouth my parents and was suddenly stuck with my sister everyday. It turned out to be a good thing because my sister and I are now closer then ever.  You also learn to adjust to a different life and be closer with your family. I guess it's a good thing but it could also get very annoying because you have barely any privacy, especially because my parents decided to begin a B&B, Our house had a small house in the backyard and a pool with a terras surrounding it so they decided to rent out the small house and a couple of rooms in our house. It can get very annoying at times because most people that come are dutch and they always ask the same questions : "Oh and do you speak spanish yet?" "Do you miss Netherlands and your family?" "Would you go back to The netherlands or not?" and on and on it goes. The best thing to do is answer quickly and nicely and then get the hell out of there or at leats that's what I do. I moved out of my parents home and into a small apartment in Malaga las september to study, and I'm liking the experience very much so far. I've had some ups and downs but who doesn't? I have a lot more freedom because now I can just go into the city to go shopping or to get some food on my own instead of having to ask my parents to take me. But I feel like I'm rambling on now. If you read all the way to the end: that's awesome and thank you! If you have any questions or want me to talk about a certain subject just leave a comment or send me a message and I will do it. I don't know how many times i'll update I will try to update as much as I can but it depends on the time I have and the topic, Somethings are harder then others.

Enjoy the rest of your day, wherever you are in the world and I'll see you soon!

xx Simone