Life in Transit: What We’ve Learned So Far
Two Years, Three Cities, and a Whole Lot of Bureaucracy
In this Issue you’ll find:
For todays issue I’ll do a little catch up on our project 1 year 1 place.
Bites of the web 🗞️
Hey 👋, together with my husband, we have created Borderless Guide, a free-to-use GPT. It is meant to help you on your discovery search. Guiding you, giving you ideas, and off the beaten path tips. Made for you to explore and discover other places and another way to travel.
It’s been two and a half years since we left France for Spain. Now we find ourselves in Donostia–San Sebastián. And while life’s been good here, life’s logistics are still a storm. I thought the change was going to be smoother and easier. But no, a change of country is a change of country. Even if it’s within the EU, changing countries is still hectic.
The Journey So Far: What I’ve Learned
Freelancing & bureaucracy in Spain
Funny how perceptions can mislead. We assumed Spanish bureaucracy would be smoother than France’s. But no, we were wrong. Bureaucracy is complex here. Nothing is very clear in terms of how to do things. Just trying to get a meeting can become mission impossible. Sometimes you end up paying someone just to get that meeting, or simply to help you figure out what you’re supposed to do.
Freelancing in Spain is hard. Mostly when you're just starting out. I don't think I could have launched my freelance career here from scratch. In Spain, you gain 0; you pay. Also, the tax system is so complex that you need to pay a consultora to do your monthly declarations (as freelance). So that’s more money to budget for. And when you're just starting out, it’s hard to keep up.
Settling in takes time
This is my third country. And from my experience, you need at least three years to truly settle and find your footing. It takes a lot of patience. You need to go step by step and accept that there are things where you’ll feel lost. Bureaucratically and culturally. Rebuilding your life is not an easy pursuit.
Right now, we’re not staying long enough in one place to truly settle and create a life. We’re in this halfway space; where just when I start to feel a bit more settled in, we’re already thinking about moving.
That got me thinking about true digital nomads. Changing every few months. I don’t know if I could do that. For me, moving almost every year already feels like a lot of shakiness.
And of course, settling in is about more than logistics. It’s also about people.
Making Friends as a Remote Worker is hard
Being an adult and working remotely makes it a bit challenging to make friends. Unless you’re a social butterfly — which I’m not. I’m pretty shy.
It’s not like when you’re in uni, where is a very social experience and getting to now people is easier.
Here in Donosti, I’ve made friends through one of my cousin’s friends, who lives here. That made it easier to connect. Also, a lot of them are foreigners. Which I think makes creating friendships smoother, since we’re all new in the city.
In Europe, I find it’s hard to make friendships with locals, and if you do, it takes time. The thing you don’t have if you're moving constantly. You can have acquaintances, but true friendships are harder to form.
If you have the budget, I think joining classes or group activities helps a lot with meeting people and making friends.
And if you know other ways to make friends, let me know!
To consider for our plan: 1 year 1 place
This recent move to San Sebastián got us thinking about two things we need to figure out:
We’re still not light enough.
We’re lighter than before, but not enough. Especially for when we move to another country.
The move from Montpellier to Valencia was hectic. We ended up leaving stuff behind in the apartment because it couldn’t fit in our car. We also bought some things without thinking ahead. Most of them we had to left behind.
It’s wild how much stuff you can accumulate. Closets, drawers, random corners. When you start moving, you realize how much you can piled up over the years. So yeah, we need to go lighter.
The tricky part is that long-term furnished rentals never come fully furnished. There’s always something missing (towels, bedsheets, kitchen utensils). So moving with just one bag? Pretty unrealistic for us.
That being said, we can definitely improve our organization. One mistake we made this time was not eating up all the food we had (spices, pasta, pantry stuff). Now I need to plan ahead so we use all of that before the next move.
Bureaucracy.
Thinking about moving to another country and staying for a year or more, adds a whole other layer of bureaucracy.
Taxes, residency, rules… it can get messy. So for that, we really need to think things through and probably get a lawyer to advise us. Because otherwise, it can turn into a huge headache.
Where We Are Now: San Sebastián
It’s been four months now in Donostia. We’re very pleased here.
This city wasn’t even on our list. We only added it last year after a visit and decided to consider it. It’s a small city, but it offers everything you need. I love the energy of this city.
We left Borja because we realized we prefer cities. Small towns like Borja have their charm and advantages, but only for a short period, at least for us. Thanks to that experience, we now know that small villages aren’t for long-term living (for us).
I think we’ll stay here at least until next summer (2026), before heading to our next destination.
Honestly, we’re good here. We’ve made some friends — and that’s not easy in our situation. So we’re very content living here.
Thinking about moving in March (which would make it a year) feels too soon. Moving is exhausting. It takes a lot of time, effort, and energy. And I’m tired. I don’t see myself going through the whole moving craze again just yet.
As for our next destination? nothing is written in stone, but we’re thinking maybe Nice. We have plenty of places on our list in our search for a place to call home.
We’re learning to live with the idea that home is a shifting place.
Right now, it’s Donostia.
Next year? Maybe Nice.
But for now, we’re staying still.