Benidorm, Spain with Friends

I love people. I really really do!

And I really love meeting and spending time with people who I can relate to…people who think “Outside of the Box,” you know?

We are SOOOO fortunate that we are part of an online social group of traveling families throughout the world. This group is extremely supportive and encouraging of one another, and has provided us several “close” friendships with some individuals who we have yet to meet in person!

Lucky us, when we pulled into Altea, Spain…we knew that one of our traveling family buddies was living in town.

We found a hostal (not cheap-sadly!) right on the ocean, which made for a great sunset, sunrise (yes, I was actually up that early!), and beautiful ocean-sounds all night   There is nothing more peaceful than the sound of calm ocean waves, in my opinion!

We finally reached our friends to say, “Surprise—we’re in town!” And it just happened that another traveling family (SnapsandBlabs.com) was in town visiting them, as well!  Double bonus!

The next day we made plans to go to a Waldorf School event that invited parents to come see what their children’s day at school were like (our friend living there was sending her kids to this school). We showed up at our friend’s house to meet the two traveling families in person for the first time. There were a few minutes of, “Oh crap…are we going to get along? Are we going to have anything in common?!” But those moments quickly passed, because as it turns out, most people who are crazy enough to travel with their kids, as well as homeschool and love natural foods, etc…well…they’re bound to have a lot in common with us.

What resulted was a wonderful day of building new friendships—both among the adults, and among the kids!

After the kids were able to make bread at the Waldorf School…

And we all ate a lot of delicious (DELICIOUS!) Spanish vegetarian paella…

With our tummies full, we skipped out of the Waldorf event a bit early (by the way…I do love Waldorf…very cool!), and we hit the beach in Benidorm.

Benidorum is sadly a monstrosity of high-rises on the Eastern Coast of Spain. It certainly wouldn’t be my top choice of places to visit…but it is apparently popular enough to warrant a ton of condos and apartment buildings for visiting foreigners!

The beach was awesome, albeit a bit cold this time of year!  We mostly sat there by the sidewalk (some kids were sleeping in the cars with the doors left open), while the bigger kids (all girls!) went and played sand volleyball. Ella and Maiya instantly bonded with the other families’ kids, and they had a fantastic day!

After pretending to swim in the ocean, we ran to the grocery store and stocked up on some produce for dinner. We did not  buy one of these gigantic legs of ham (ugh, I shudder)…!

We then went to our friend’s house in Altea and our friend from SnapsandBlabs proceeded to cook us up a wonderful spaghetti sauce to feed us all. Two of the adults in this group are Bulgarian (one from each couple married an American), and it was fun to hear a little about that culture (and it’s food!).

The kids continued playing…

All in all, we had a hard time pulling ourselves away. I think we didn’t leave until nearly 2am!  The kids were still wide awake, playing away (except for Maiya who passed out on the couch early, and one of the adults!), and were sad to leave.

Thanks to meeting families like this…I am constantly reassured about our lifestyle and educational choice for our kids right now. If I can adore them, their unique perspectives and lifestyle choices, as well as the way their kids are all turning out, it makes it clear to me that we’ve made the right decision with our family, too!

Our thanks go out to these wonderful families for a memorable day in Spain!