I better write this one in English, if you all ever want to find out if we arrived in beautiful Granada, as I don’t want to make you wait until Luke gets his act together and writes some more on the subject.

Although we both have been pretty lazy since we arrived at the middle of April and plunged straight into work which was quite a change of paste for us. The last eight month were incredible and we experienced the most wonderful places and met interesting people along the way, but everyone who has been on extended travels also knows that it is not all holiday and that you do get tired of constantly moving and packing your bag. Hence, we were relieved to have made it to Granada and not only find the city as we remembered it but we also felt straight at home as we moved into our gorgeous new house. Now, I don’t want to brag but we have four bathrooms. I am sure you all remember our tiny bathroom at Blenheim Square, well now we can choose which one to use.

We started work pretty much straight away as we felt ready to embrace a routine and were interested to learn how much the Hostel itself might have changed and what we can learn. Luke started work in Reception and I worked in the Kitchen, which serves breakfasts every morning. Since then we have swapped around, so we both get to experience as much as possible. We both only work half days in the morning and a free in the afternoons to re-discover the city, so we thought at least. We have not really done anything since we arrived last month as it has been so nice just to have a home. I particularly enjoy having my own kitchen, we have been cooking pretty much every day. I admit that we have been a bit lazy but why not, you can not really spend much time outdoors during the middle of the day anyway as it is extremely hot here, particularly when we finish work. So we have just enjoyed our house, a few restaurants and bars and I am embarrassed to say I particularly have enjoyed cable TV. Our house is very beautiful, an open plan building which we have made our home already. Specially as we already had the joy of having guest in our house. First Belinda and Jonno an Australian couple that we already met in El Salvador. We travelled together to Nicaragua and we invited them to stay with us straight away as we enjoyed their company so much and felt a bit lonely in our big house being used to having plenty of other travellers around in Hostels. They only stayed a few days but we had such a brilliant time. Recently we had the Peña family staying with us for a couple of days. We met them a long while ago in Ecuador but stayed in contact and as they recently went to Cost Rica they contacted us to meet up. We invited them of course to stay with us as we always enjoy the company of guests and we had a truly brilliant time going on little excursions and cooking for each other (their Curry was wonderful).

Right at the beginning of our stay we made friends with Odysseus, a little ginger kitten that came to our door for help. Of course we could not do anything else than care for this abandoned little thing and after a few days he already was much healthier. Sadly Oddy only stayed with us a few days, he passed away after the vet gave him some injections, the vet explained that he already had too many parasites in his tummy that he could not fight. It was really sad saying goodbye to the little friend as we had to bury him in our garden, at least we were able to be his family for a few days so he did not have to die by himself.

A week after we went to a Spanish school to enquire about Spanish lessons, another thing that we have not quite got around to do, where we met our next little pets. Oscar and Ometeppe got abandoned a few days earlier in front of the Spanish school and one student had been taking care of them for the last couple of days as they still needed feeding with a pipette, they were so tiny. She was going home a few days later and the Spanish school said that they did not have the time to care for them, they would take them back once they are more independent and can east solid food. So of course my heart melted once again and we took the two little buggers home with us. They both have been such a joy and we feel so happy to have them around, even though we did not quite grasp how much work you have to invest into little kittens. When they arrived they were very small and fragile but they have been growing daily and they are full of beans, jumping around and are up to no good as I write this. They have learned to use the potty and we mixing their diet with solid food now, so they are on their way to independence but of course we will keep them as long as we live in Granada.

Granada itself is incredibly beautiful and just as I had it in my memory. The colonial architecture is very colourful and pleasing to the eye. It is a bit more touristy than seven years ago when Luke and I met exactly at the same place where we are working now. Hostel Oasis is more or less the same as well. There are some more rooms now, the space from that got taken away from the common areas, which is a shame but the vibe of the hostel is still chilled and relaxed and we really enjoy working there. We have already learned so much in our first month of work, I won’t bore you with the details but I think it is so important that we made this experience to find out that it is really what we would like to do with our future. Opening our own hostel is now even more appealing and we have so many amazing ideas and plans. We both can’t wait to move to Spain and get started.

Even though we enjoy life here in Granada, we are both excited to be back soonish. We are planning to work at Oasis until the end of July and then take another month of travelling to explore the corners of Central America that we did not see at our last visit. Which will mean that we will see you all at some point in September. We are booth looking forward to seeing and hugging all of you on our return. For now I am looking forward to my parents who will be with us on the 9th June, I am very excited and can’t wait to see them both again.