The Girl Who Goes

independent, intentional travel

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Why We Decided To Move to Alicante, Spain — Without Ever Visiting It

alicante, spain

Hello from our new home in Alicante, Spain!

Three and a half years after moving back home to Kansas City from Madrid, I’m finally back in Spain — and the best part is that Matt is with me now, too. 🙂 While our first few days here have been a whirlwind of adjusting to the time zone, looking for an apartment, and even having our TIE appointments bright and early on Monday morning, I’m ready and excited to start sharing our adventure with you all.

Of course, once we got approved for the Spain digital nomad visa, there was an important decision we had to make: where in Spain did we want to live? We talked about different cities for a while, but in the end, we decided on Alicante… a place that neither of us had ever visited before!

It was definitely a little bit risky (but so is moving to another country at all, lol). In the end, there were five main reasons we felt like it was going to be a great fit for us. So, without further ado, here’s why we decided to move to Alicante without ever visiting. [Read more…]

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How To Apply for the Spain Digital Nomad Visa: Our Experience

spain digital nomad visa - passports

Spain digital nomad visa… here we come!

Back in September 2018, I moved to Spain to work as an English language assistant through the auxiliares de conversacion (NALCAP) program. I lived there for two years, four months of which were the initial onset and very early days of the pandemic. While I would have loved to stay in Spain for longer — and bring Matt, my then-boyfriend and now-fiancé — over with me, the craziness of 2020 and 2021 was not the right time to attempt an international move.

Although I moved back home to the U.S. in July 2020, the idea of living in Europe again never left my mind. We thought about applying for a digital nomad visa in Estonia, one of the only ones that were available at the time. But in August 2021, something caught my eye that remained in my sights ever since: a new digital nomad visa was coming to Spain.

Two years later, in September 2023, we’d officially been approved to move to Spain on the digital nomad visa! Here’s exactly what you need to know if you want to apply for the Spain digital nomad visa as an American. [Read more…]

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What It’s Like To Be a Digital Nomad in Mexico City

digital nomad in mexico city - feature photo

In 2022, we took four international trips, though two were what we considered to be digital nomad “lifestyle” trips rather than vacations: Quito from January to March, and Mexico City for three weeks in May/June.

With these two trips, the purpose was to take advantage of the fact that we could work remotely… so we just decided to try out life in a different country for a while. All we needed besides plane tickets was a longer-term Airbnb where we could make ourselves at home for a few weeks or a few months.

Here’s what it’s like to be a digital nomad in Mexico City. [Read more…]

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3 Big Differences Between Life in Spain and Life in Ecuador

spain ecuador difference

In Spain, a grocery store could be right around the corner. In Ecuador, not so much….

When Matt and I decided to spend a few months in Quito, Ecuador, at the beginning of this year, I didn’t really know what to expect. And while I’d traveled to more than 20 countries on four continents, it was my first trip to South America — and it was only the second country, after Spain, where I was spending more than a few weeks.

(And living as an adult. When I lived in London for 4-5 months during college, it was very much a college experience.)

Anyway, there were plenty of surprises when it came to life in Ecuador compared to what I knew in Spain, so I thought it could be fun to take a look at a few of the differences. [Read more…]

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Hola, Ecuador!

park carolina quito ecuador

Finally, finally… we are in Quito, Ecuador.

There’s not much else to say about how much we’d been anticipating this trip. I’ve already said it all, and I don’t want to repeat myself too much. Feel free to read more here, and here, and here if you want the whole background on the situation.

But now, we are here. And I’m so excited to have something to write about again!

I guess I’m going to start by sharing the story of our travels and everything that we needed to get into Ecuador. Here we go! [Read more…]

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Learn About Spain’s NEW Digital Nomad Visa

digital nomad visa spain

Update October 2023: My fiancé, Matt, and I have officially been approved for the digital nomad visa! Learn more about its requirements and how to apply in my most updated blog post about the Spain digital nomad visa.

One year and two months ago, I wrote one of the saddest blog posts I’ve written in my four-and-a-half years of being The Girl Who Goes: it was my goodbye to Spain and Madrid, which had been my home for the two years prior. Not only was I saying goodbye, I was saying it in the worst way — without getting a chance to say many goodbyes at all. As COVID-19 upended my second school year in Madrid, it also upended my future plans to stay in Spain. [Read more…]

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What I Miss About Living in Spain

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Crystal Palace in the Retiro

There’s still not a whole lot to write about around here… though as COVID cases keep decreasing here in KC and vaccinations keep increasing, it’s getting easier to feel hopeful! Matt and I are both vaccinated now, as well as my parents and sisters, so we are ready to get moving again! Though, of course, it’s going to take some time for other places to catch up.

But it seems like I’m dreaming about my life in Madrid — and traveling in general — more than usual lately. So while I wait for the day when it’s safe to start traveling again, I thought I would make a list of all the things I miss about living in Spain. [Read more…]

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Hasta Luego, España

To say that my second year in Spain didn’t go quite how I expected would be an understatement. It makes me more grateful for the whole, uninterrupted first year I had. Traveling to another country every month, riding the metro around the city on the weekends, meeting friends at cafes, taking the train or bus to new cities in Spain. [Read more…]

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Coronavirus Update: Madrid, Spain – May 25, 2020

Day 1 of semi-freedom

Another month has passed since my last post, but it seems that May has gone more quickly than April, and MUCH more quickly than March.

In my last update, I wondered how much longer it was going to be until the end of lockdown. Well, just a few days later, I got my answer. [Read more…]

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Coronavirus Update: Madrid, Spain – April 27, 2020

Hi everyone. It’s been over a month since I last wrote something, and I think that may be the longest time I’ve ever gone without posting. As of this month, I’ve been writing as The Girl Who Goes for three years! (A fact I was reminded of when I was prompted to renew my domain registration.) So, it looks like I’ll be the girl who’s going for the next three years, at least. 🙂

Obviously, Spain has been in the news a lot over the past couple of months. It’s the second-most affected country in the world after the U.S., and third in number of deaths after the U.S. and Italy. That being said, as I begin Week #7 of lockdown – honestly, it’s more than just quarantine – I have seen a lot of changes over the past 6 weeks and glimmers of hope for the next weeks to come. [Read more…]