Living Small
One thing we are getting used to more and more as we go along is living smaller. Smaller living space, smaller luggage, even in terms of living more locally. These are all things that I am, for the most part, enjoying. We started by staying in rooms in someone else’ home in NZ, but with a very large yard and lots of space to move around. We had a car and drove around the island quite a bit. Then we moved to the North Island in NZ and we were in more of a cabin setting with one bedroom/shed space, a medium sized living/kitchen space, and a medium amount of outdoor space. We ventured out to the nearby towns every few days, but stayed closer to home more. Next up was Croatia where we were in an apartment, though a fairly spacious one with three bedrooms and a nice size kitchen. We had a car in Croatia and almost wished we hadn’t. Most everything was easily accessible by foot from where we were staying. While we definitely enjoyed having a car (rather than taking a bus) to get to the National Parks, there was really nothing that we needed to drive to while we were in Zadar. In Spain we went down in size again to a very small one bedroom apartment with a tiny balcony as the only outdoor space. While we ended up traveling quite a bit in Spain to different cities, the day to day stuff around Vera was easily as accessible as in Zadar, we just happened to get a killer deal on a car at $210 for a full month ;).
While I won’t say that I would choose apartment living for our eventual home, it has been liberating not having so much “stuff” to deal with. Living out of a backpack with a week’s worth of clothing, a couple of pairs of shoes, and a few toys/electronics and other essentials has been much simpler than I thought it would be. I hate being a cliché, but I am already agreeing with all of the people who say “you will only use half of what you pack”. Well, we’re not down to half yet, but we could definitely send back a small box of stuff that we don’t use enough to make worth lugging around. I am finding myself shaping my idea of “comfort” a bit differently, and my vision of our future house is shrinking bit by bit :-).
While the smaller living is becoming more comfortable, one thing I don’t know that I would ever get used to is the close living. Even in Vera where there is plenty of space in terms of usable land, all of the apartments, duplexes, townhouses, and homes are stacked right next to one another. Vera is more pleasant than some with apartment complexes rising just 3 or 4 stories rather than the 10-20 stories in towns closer to the beach and in the larger cities, but this little town is still packed like a sardine tin. Growing up as I did in wide open spaces, this feels almost more foreign to me than the languages and mannerisms. I have absolutely enjoyed having the ability to walk wherever we need to go, but I don’t know yet if I would consider it a fair trade for the lack of space and privacy. Plus, I am a terrible neighbor! I dislike random socializing, I’m too shy to ask to borrow anything (though I am happy to lend things if someone asks, so I have that going for me at least), I like running around naked but I hate having the windows covered, I like loud music but I hate when I can hear someone else’s music or TV. Really I’m just not someone you should live next to. You have been warned.
We shall see which feature will win out by the end of our journey, convenience of living within a tightly packed yet accessible city, or the space and privacy of living further out….
