Month in Review: February 2020

Since moving to Prague, I thought it would be fun to do a monthly review and roundup post to share more of our travels and expat adventure. I’m a little behind on my monthly reviews, but without further ado, here’s the month in review for February 2020! 

In case you want to catch up, here’s my latest recap: A Year in Review: 2019

Travels

This month we went to…

• Barcelona, Spain
• Madrid, Spain
• Toledo, Spain
• Seville, Spain
• Tarifa, Spain & Tangier, Morocco (for about 4 hours each)
• Chefchaouen, Morocco
• Fes, Morocco
• Marrakech, Morocco
• Agafay Desert, Morocco

And because I missed doing my monthly review for January, we went to London at the end of that month!

Highlights

Obviously all of our travels were the biggest highlight of February! I can’t believe all of the cool places we got to go to. And, best of all, we got to travel with my siblings! We met up with my sister and brother, Jade and Lee, in London and travelled together through Spain. It was so nice to spend time with my sibs and to experience their first Europe trip with them.

Highlights of our Spain travels would definitely be Casa Batllo in Barcelona, the basketball game and amazing pastries we had in Madrid, and absolutely everything about Seville (seriously, Seville is the best!). In Morocco, my highlights were the rooftop views over the blue city of Chefchaouen, our awesome private guided tour of Fes and looking up at the stars from our glamping tent in the Agafay Desert.

Of course, coming back home to Ellie after all of that travel time away was also a huge highlight!

Lowlights

While our travels this month were a huge highlight, they also brought a few lowlights. We’re over eight months into our expat year, and I’m still struggling to find that work/life/travel balance. It’s hard to work online as the primary breadwinner for our family while sightseeing all day and switching hotels every two days. I know that’s the most privileged problem to have, and I wouldn’t trade this life I get to lead, but it does get stressful. It’s no fun worrying about a work deadline or being on a client call when I’d rather be hanging with my siblings.

Another big lowlight of February was sickness! I got sick on our transfer from Spain to Morocco, and it was absolutely miserable. I had a cold, sore throat and then got super nauseous – just in time for us to get on a five hour bus ride. And on our way back to Prague, it was Colin’s turn to borrow the tissue box.

Posts from this month

Here’s what was published on Teaspoon of Adventure in January & February. If you missed any of my posts, click below to read them (and add your email to the subscribe box on the right or at the end of the page so you don’t miss anymore!).

What I Read in 2019

Expat Life: Taking a Break

Should You Visit Herculaneum or Pompeii?

2 Days in Rome – Your Perfect Itinerary

Should You Travel with Debt?

Where to Go in Italy

12 Reasons to Solo Travel

What I read this month

Below are the books I completed reading in February. If you want to check out my reading and reviews on these books, visit the Story Highlights on my personal Instagram @rianaautumn.

• Anti-Diet by Christy Harrison
• Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow
• Dear Girls by Ali Wong
• The Bride Test by Helen Hoang
• This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay

And because I missed last month, here’s what I read in January:

• The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett Graff
• Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center
• Becoming by Michelle Obama

Best reads/listens/watches

Reads: For February, my favourite read was Catch and Kill. This book, by Ronan Farrow, dives into the investigative journalism that went into exposing Harvey Weinstein and other sexual predators in Hollywood. The story was WILD! It was so engaging and absolutely nuts how much cover up there was (and I’m sure still is). Definitely a must read!

I also want to give a special shout out to The Only Plane in the Sky as my favourite read in January. This book is an oral history of 9/11, looking at situations all over the US on that fateful day. Incredible read that was so heart-wrenching and informative.

Listens: In January, I started listening to a podcast called Big Dreams Bold Moves, which features interviews with families who are living abroad. I love hearing about how families are leading unconventional lives all over the world, and it’s giving me lots of inspiration for our future!

And just this week I was on an episode of the Global Travel Channel podcast. Check it out!

Watches: Survivor is back! And this is the best time to be a Survivor fan. On US Survivor, we’re watching the behemoth all-winners season 40 and over on Australia Survivor (which is amazing!) we’ve got All-Stars. Seriously, incredible time to be watching Survivor!

Best and worst meals

Best: There were a lot of amazing meals this month! I loved that we had Chinese food twice in London (I was craving it!), I’m still dreaming about the chocolate Napoletana pastries from Madrid, and Morocco sure knows how to do tender and flavourful meat in their tajines. We also had amazing burgers in Barcelona, great food market finds in Madrid and some delicious sweet mint tea in Fes.

Worst: Our first meal in Barcelona was a bit of a let-down. It was overpriced and everyone was unsatisfied with their meal, except for me. And it was a similar story at our final restaurant stop in Madrid too. And in Morocco, some of our breakfasts were looking a little sad.

Expat life

One thing I love is getting to travel with my siblings! Seriously, such a blessing to do something I love with the people I love. I know this wouldn’t have been possible or even come up if we weren’t living in Prague. I feel so grateful and lucky that we were able to make our schedules work with this trip.

One thing I hate is working on the road. I always used to fantasize about the digital nomad life but it’s hard! It’s hard to prioritize sightseeing and work, to force yourself to get on your laptop after a day out, and to cross your fingers for good enough wifi to get anything done.

One thing I’m learning is the type of travel I want to do. One of the coolest parts of this expat year has been refining the way we like to travel and the places we like to go. I’ve found that smaller cities with a lot of charm and history, like Seville, interest me more than big cities like Madrid. And Colin and I have definitely learned the value of slowing down and building rest days into our schedule (though we still struggle to put this learning into practice!).

Gratitude

This month, I’m most grateful to my siblings, for making the long haul from Toronto to Europe to spend some time with Colin and I. Thanks for making our trip to Spain incredible and for trusting me with the itinerary. And thanks to our parents for supporting and making the trip possible. Can’t wait to do it again soon!

Coming up next

When we arrived home in mid-February after all of our travels, I was exhausted. It’s nice to be home and I’ve enjoyed these last couple of chill weeks. We’ll start March with another week or so at home and then we’re back on the road! This time, we’re road tripping to Hungary to meet up with Colin’s friends, who are participating in a wrestling show there. On the way, we’ll stop in Slovenia, a country that has been on my bucket list for a while, and Croatia. And then Colin’s friends will come back to Prague with us.

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What did you get up to this month?