The Universe Has Its Ways - I'm Thankful For The Change Of Plans

Passport trip

Remember that I was not really looking forward to going to Madrid to renew my daughter's passport? A big reason for this is the huge costs that are connected to the travelling to get to Madrid and to book an accommodation for a night. It actually all started with the difficulty of even getting a free slot at the embassy to make an appointment. For weeks and weeks (I kid you not!) several times throughout the days and sometimes night (just to be sure), I was trying to at least see some options to book an appointment.

Throughout the first month, I found 1 option and I found it on a Friday, while the slot was that next Monday at 10 AM, which was impossible because the city council had already closed at the time and I needed a fresh document proving we live here. So this one option, wasn't an option, even if I found cheap flights. Not important, but the flights would have been triple the cost of the cheap flights as well, so I was not going to consider that anyway.

Preferably a fun trip as well

As my boyfriend is often working many hours and can use a little break every now and then, his idea was (clearly) that we'd go to Madrid together. I quickly saw that it would be a lot more expensive having to book for two adults and a child instead of just one adult with a child. But I obviously respected the fact that he wanted to join because I also wish him a getaway.

He knows that I will not just do a passport run in a day and at least try to make it fun a bit and with that I also take into account that my back will be thankfully if I allow myself to rest when it's a bit too much walking, rushing. I find traveling exhausting and even though I have 0 experience with in-land flights, I suspect that even this time, I will be happy when I'm at the hotel and can kick off my shoes to rest a bit. But we'll see.

Third party

As the embassy slots stayed non-existent, I was fed up wasting all my time on this struggle and decided to book a third party appointment where I'd pay a bit more on top of the already expensive 150 euros for the passport (plus expenses) but at least it would mean I could book everything and be done with it.

Last week I had a feeling that I should check the embassy again every day because if at some point I'd find a slot on one of the days that we're in Madrid, it would save me some money and cut out the middle man completely. My gut feeling is usually right, and so it was this time.

April fools

On April fools day (no joke!) I tried it again (this was the third or fourth day I did so since I had that hunch, and guess what? Not only did April pop up filled with green marked days (read: open slots) but I could go all the way to June to pick from many days every week.

Funnily enough (at least, I didn't think it was funny at the time) in the week that I was going, not one slot was available, djeez. I figured that my only shot could be a last minute cancellation and that's it.

Venting

Today I was venting about the matter to my daughter's tutor and said that it was unbelievable that only that week had 0 slots open. Then I realised it may be caused by the best flight deals because that's what made me book those days to be back home the next day so my daughter wouldn't miss too much of school.

While I was chatting, I opened the site again and filled in the data, and there it was: free slots during that week but only on the two days that I'm there, haha. Funny!!! Thank you universe for saving me some monies.

Not only advantages though

There are a few advantages as well as disadvantages to this appointment. The bad news is that I have to travel much further from the hotel to the embassy but I figured I can either change accommodation (if a better one pops up) or just see this as an opportunity to guide me to some places where I can make a stop to check out some nice places to eat and other stuff we can check out.

And while I hadn't found any place near the hotel to eat properly, I now took the place where I have to change busses as the place to find some lunch and found several amazing options to eat.
The money I'm saving from not using the third party will now go into a 2 day tourist pass to travel through Madrid together and I'm going to try and use the stops where we have to change transport as inspiration to explore that part of Madrid.

Somewhat planning ahead

You can read that I'm planning ahead some things so that I don't have to think about too much when we're there but can pick from the stuff that I already found while researching for things we could do these days.. It could quite possibly go totally different as we wonder through the streets and find other gems to check. I don't mind, I just don't like to get on my phone to navigate through the city centre on the spot but have a bit of an idea where to go.

I guess in terms of the arrival and departure this is very smart and quite necessary even because we don't have any food options near the hotel that are open when we arrive. So this new appointment and change of travel plans has opened up new opportunities which make me even more excited to go because damn, I've seen some amazing food that I want to check.

Sad that my boyfriend can't come with us

I feel a bit guilty that I'm overly excited and sharing these restaurants with so much healthy and good looking food and things I want to go and see while he will be at home working. It would have been nice to share this experience together as we've been doing for a decade or so now. We have to go to Madrid (or Barcelona) every few years though because our passport renewals are out of sync, so we could make it a tradition to explore the city every few years.. I'm just the first one to explore a bit for future trips when he joins...

Renewed positive energy

This change of plans for the passport trip has given me the needed positive flow and energy back to get through the less fun part that needs to get done as well, so I'm again grateful for this opportunity that presented itself.

It's funny how the universe has its ways, don't you think? And by the time that I'm publishing this post, I have even more of these universe showing her lovely ways examples. I feel blessed without being religious, if that makes sense.. Grateful to say the least!

I'm off to bed now, it's midnight and a school day... Have a good day/night!

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