2017 Life & Travel Highlights

It's 2018, and we’re reflecting on the best parts of last year as we adjusted to our life as expats in Spain and explored new travel destinations throughout Europe. 
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In 2017 we finally started to get the hang of life in Spain and are wrapping up the year feeling more at home in Valencia than ever before. Afterall, in the last year we…

• Survived two all-nighters and watched the city burn during our first Fallas, an amazing and insane festival unique to Valencia  

• Celebrated our 1-year Spanniversary and added more Spanish tenses to our arsenal
• Moved into our new apartment, which (spoiler alert) we LOVE. You may see it on HGTV this spring because we also filmed an episode of House Hunters International (airing in March!)

• Felt an extra dose of gratitude at our bilingual,  multinational Friendsgiving, with 16 friends from Spain, Portugal, England, Canada, Scotland, Sweden, Bolivia, Germany, and Colombia
• Adopted a freckled golden-boxer-german shepherd mutt named Mac, who is equal parts complete handful and total joy

• (Ryan) successfully navigated Spanish bureaucracy (many stamps, meetings, phone calls, etc) to finally be approved for Spanish residency, 1.5 years in the making
• (Megan) started and ended a job in PR/marketing, which proved to be worthwhile by re-padding our savings, introducing us to great new friends and ultimately reminding us of the million reasons why we want to work for ourselves
• (Cohica) appeared in Travel + Leisure magazine, legitimizing all of our hard work and fulfilling the dream of every little travel company in existence 

While we didn’t make it everywhere on our list of 2017 Travel Goals, we did check off quite a few trips, including:

• Belgium, where we rang in 2017 by drinking deliciously strong beer and stuffing our faces with waffles
• Ibiza, which we determined is so much more than a party destination and on the list for a return trip in 2018
• Scotland​, which inspired a new Cohica Trip and gave us an excuse to taste Scottish whisky for “work”

• Barcelona, which we visited twice this year, both with Megan’s dad and lifelong amiga, Katy
• Mallorca, where we discovered rocky cliffs, turquoise water and our love of cala hopping
• Dublin, for a quick stopover and obligatory tasting(s!) at the world famous Guinness Storehouse
• Portugal, including the Azores islands (aka the most beautiful place in the world), and amazing Lisbon, inspiring our Cohica Portugal for Foodies Trip

• ​Boston, Colorado and California, where we had some much needed family time and enjoyed evenings spent fireside, California Cabs and summer ball games
• Paris, for Ryan’s birthday with our buddy Ty, because Paris is always a worthy destination for a celebration

• The Pyrenees, to celebrate our first wedding anniversary and breathe some fresh mountain air
• Southern France, where we (and Mac the pup) spent the holidays wandering the Christmas markets and a hilltop castle in Carcassonne

In 2015, after we wrapped our World Tour, we vowed to continue to seek out new places and travel frequently. We’re currently working on this year’s travel goals, which will include a lot of exploration throughout Europe and new Cohica Designed Trips. 

Look for our 2018 travel goals, coming soon!