With a sigh she searches her card folder and hands me the one from her health insurance. The door slams shut with a bang. I follow her example and get out of the car as well. I put the card on the windshield and make a frantic attempt to scratch off the ice. It is eight o’clock in the morning, dark and cold. We never thought it could freeze. Apparently the car rental company didn’t think that could happen either. Our efforts to clear the window makes everything worse. Clearly our plan to exchange the cold back home for sunny Spain still needs work.
When we manage to clear the window after five minutes of scratching, my sister and I get back in. My mom starts the engine. It is the second to last day of our journey through southern Spain and we have three more home viewings ahead of us. From Pinoso, which is known as a wine region, we drive on. Outside it slowly gets lighter. Fortunately, the cold winter weather has no effect on the green pine trees the city is named after. However it is still too early for the almond blossom, which makes the landscape turn white and pink every year.
No problem. Because for us this is not a journey in the usual sense of the word. Yes, we booked a plane ticket with Ryan Air for a pittance. And yes, we then refused to pay an extra ten euros per person to pick our seats. So we were supposedly seated randomly, but of course completely planned, throughout the entire aircraft. It gave me time to open my book and read all about buying and living in Spain. That reading that book proved to be more of a challenge than I first thought becomes clear when I tell you that my urge to fall asleep on top of it was greater than my will to absorb all the information in it. And so, while my eyes started to close during the flight to Málaga, I went on a journey again. One that currently only gets shape in our dreams, our thoughts and our conversations. But also one whose destination is within reach.
Because everything depends on finding the right place. After an hour and a half, my mother parks the car. We get out. The shadow slowly gives way to the sun. We are ready for the first viewing of that day.