A Slight Change of Plan...

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about my upcoming trip to Chile. My original plan was to stay out there and find a job. I'd already booked an Airbnb for the first week, and I was planning to look for more permanent accommodation during that week. However, because of recent events in Chile, it became obvious that this wasn't the best time to try and settle out there.

I will still go, but I'll only be staying a week. Unfortunately, my boyfriend's final exams at university have been postponed for the time being, and he doesn't know when they'll take place, so we won't be able to go off travelling very far. But we'll definitely take a day trip to the beach and maybe some other nice places! It will be great to be back in one of my favourite parts of the world with one of my favourite people. 💗

Once my parents heard the news about the protests, they were fairly keen for me to either cancel my trip or to cut it as short as possible! At first I was quite determined to stick to my original plan, but I came to realise that this just isn't the best time for either searching for work and accommodation or for travelling around the country. So I looked up flights out of Santiago on the day I check out of the Airbnb. The best value one was to Barcelona, but that would mean going from one unstable place to another. The second best value flight was to Madrid, so I went ahead and booked it!

I've been to Spain a few times before but not to Madrid, so I'm pretty excited. It looks like a great city to visit, and I've been interested in going for a while. I'll spend a couple of days there before moving on to my next destination!

I've decided to make the most of my time on the Iberian peninsula and take a trip to Portugal, a country I've never visited before. My family went there on holiday when my mum was pregnant with me, but I can't really count that as having been! So, I'm going to be able to tick another country off my European bucket list. I'll be taking an overnight train to Lisbon from Madrid, which will be a new experience for me. Lisbon looks like a beautiful city, and I'm looking forward to the couple of days I'll spend there before heading back to the UK. I've started learning a bit of Portuguese in preparation!

Although I wanted to get the next chapter of my life started as soon as possible, it's probably for the best that I'm going to have to wait a little longer. I haven't quite finished my TEFL course yet, and it's going to take a bit of time to receive the certificate once I pass. It will be easier to sort out my CV and apply for jobs from home than trying to sort everything out abroad without the certificate. Now my plan is to get a job in Chile that starts after Christmas. 😊

There's less than a week to go now until I go off on my travels, so I'll be writing here again very soon!

Image by Pixabay from pexels.com