This is another installment of Vicki B & 10-year-old Ben on the road
Alicante, Spain
By Vicki Baublitz
Backpacking through Europe sounds so fun and romantic, doesn’t it?
The reality is that it’s gritty, tedious, and exhausting. I do pretty well in the daytime, fueled by espresso and optimism, but when the sun goes down, the loneliness and fatigue set in. I try to keep it upbeat, but it’s been tough. I’ve been trying to figure out why it’s so hard and have come to a few conclusions.
We’ve come to the realization that we don’t like big cities. When your traveling companion is 10 years old, you aren’t going to be spending 4 hours in the Louvre, or standing in line for an hour to see a famous museum. We go to parks and feed pigeons a lot. And we don’t need to be in Madrid or Rome to do that.
The Villa in Alicante
Also, we need to slow down. It’s exhausting to have to pack up and move to a new place every day. It’s more transit schedules to figure out, more carrying around a 12-pound backpack, more unfamiliar places.
So when someone recommended this villa in Alicante, where we could rent a whole apartment for only 39 euros a night, I immediately reserved it for our remaining two nights in Spain.
We need to unwind.
Ben agrees.