Mallorca wasn’t my first fresh start. It was my hardest.

Three fresh starts before this one

In 2014 I left Germany for California as an au pair. I told everyone I’d be back in twelve months. I stayed three, long enough to study management and learn that starting over somewhere foreign was something I was good at.

Back in Germany I studied International Management in Augsburg and spent my final year in Luleå, in the far north of Sweden. By my mid-twenties I’d built a life from scratch on two continents. I thought I knew what moving abroad takes.

One wish, and one small car

My first time on the island wasn’t a holiday. I’d moved back to Germany for a while to be with my mum, and her last wish was to see the sea. So we flew to Mallorca together.

A few months later, in December 2022, my best friend and I packed everything I owned into my car and drove south from Koblenz, through Lyon to Barcelona, then took the night ferry to Palma. I didn’t know yet how hard the next months would be. I just knew I was finally going.

And I still got it wrong.

I’m German. An EU citizen. No visa, no permit, no border to cross. On paper, moving to Mallorca should have been the easiest move of my life.

It was the hardest.

The NIE appointment I couldn’t get. The empadronamiento no one explained. Registering as autónomo and the tax reality that came with it. The gestor who half-helped. The healthcare card. A long-term rental in a market built for tourists. All of it in Spanish, in an order nobody had written down. Three moves abroad behind me, and I was still drowning in admin, alone.

From notes on my phone to Moving2Mallorca

The information all existed. It was just scattered, out of order, and nobody walked the path with me. So I started writing down everything I wished I’d known, and people planning their own move started following along.

Today the island is simply home. I help people make the move I once fumbled through, with a clear plan and someone beside them who’s done it.