How to move and don’t freak out (to Spain from the UK)

Chapter 2

How To Move and Don’t Freak Out

I’m just starting to write about it, but this is a new chapter in my/our life……it’s started 2 months ago

We left the UK with kids (9-M and 4-F)…to make a long story short = in need of sun…with big hopes and few house arrangements..some ups with creative downs..challenging situations and language as an issue…finding our ways….

Nr 1 …NIE number…if you want to do anything in Spain (and I really mean it) you need to have a NIE number… 

Going a bit in the past, about 6 months ago my husband decided to buy a bank repossessed flat in a small town in Valencia region. The guy how was administering it was British and he helped us to sort it all out…well….for the money of course. But, his Spanish fiancee was our appointee in Spain to deal with the paperwork, and, to be honest, we wouldn’t be able to do it without her. Naive enough, still in the UK, we were paying solicitors for the documents we needed in Spain, we transferred money to Spanish bank account to have a proof of income, we did so many things, paper wise,  that I can’t even recall them….but, there are websites where you can find out, step by step what the process is. Mainy my husband was dealing with this part of our move.

I was sorting out the moving companies, checking Shiply.com, getting things packed, trying to sell as much as we could, as minimalism was our aim. I used Gumtree, Ebay, Shpock, Facebook and word of mouth to sell things. Unluckily we didn’t manage to sell the fridge and few huge wardrobes, but we don’t miss them. It was a council rented house, so they will utlise the stuff that we’ve left. 

It was just after Christmas, so I understand that people didn’t have money, weren’t thinking about it…etc 

The man and the van came and collected our 11 big boxes, 3 packed bikes and a tall shelf, yes, that’s it…a bit over 10 years packed in just those boxes. He was friendly, helpful and gave us all the details. Delivery was on time and we received a help with unpacking. The service was 5 stars (the top).

In the weekend before our leaving date, we had friends coming and we were giving them “presents” that we didn’t want to take. It was fun but it was busy too, as the time was really limited….and our luggage was limited too.

On the last night I drunk a lot of coffee, as the flight was early in the morning and taxi was booked for 5am, I decided I don’t have a time for sleep. I was still throwing away things, preparing boxes for charity shops. My brother was helping a lot on the last day, he was moving fast and doing things together with my husband. Kids, as the friends were coming with their kids, seemed to be a bit not-so-much-realizing that “the time is here”.

It was raining when we were leaving, it was still dark and cold. We did it. We were on the airport on time, with our luggage checked in and were waiting for the plane to come.

The new life…we’ve moved out from a house in the UK to a flat in Spain…we have had a huge dream that we can live in a warm country, kids will be homeschooled and we’ll be travelling and enjoying the peace. Hmmm….reality check came