A Ukrainian woman named Anna, who spent four years living in Poland, has taken a three-month job caring for elderly people in Germany to save money for a move to Spain with her boyfriend, she said on Instagram.
Anna said she and her boyfriend were relocating from Poland to Spain but first needed to build up a financial cushion. To reach that goal as quickly as possible, she said, she took work as a carer in Germany, adding that she had no idea what she was signing up for.
Isolation in a remote village
Anna said the reality turned out to be harsher than she had imagined. More than a month into the job, she described the experience as a disaster and said she was living in complete isolation in a small, remote village.
She said the hardest part has been the distance from her partner. She said she has been in the relationship for almost four years, and the longest the couple had previously spent apart was a week.
A sharp contrast with life on the road
Anna said the isolation felt especially stark set against memories of the previous year, when she and her boyfriend travelled around Europe together in a van, rarely apart and with something always happening. She said their current situation is the complete opposite of that life. For now, she said, their phones are the main link between them, and she is putting her energy into job hunting to keep from dwelling on the separation.
Why they are leaving Poland
Anna had previously explained the couple's decision to leave Poland for Spain. She said that after four years in Wroclaw, the country had stopped suiting them, citing bureaucracy, growing deportation risks for men and a tense social atmosphere.
She also pointed to expensive rent, saying a small studio on the outskirts of the city cost from 700 euros a month without utilities, as well as difficulty finding work even in a large city, polluted air and constant traffic jams.
Anna said that since housing and employment problems are roughly similar across Europe, it made sense to choose a country with a better climate, which is why she and her boyfriend settled on Spain.
