Posted on 04/17/2017 7:12:37 AM PDT by Oshkalaboomboom
Because my wife wanted to be closer to her Grandchildren who live in England and we were looking to retire I decided to leave America and move to Spain in March 2016. Since I didn't know how busy it was going to be I left FR also but now that we are settled in I can afford to spend a bit more time on the site and share my impressions of the country. Spain has a lot of things conservatives would actually appreciate and I wish America would follow their lead.
The most admired thing there is no entitlement mentality here because there are no entitlements. If you work and are a citizen you get health care and a pension when you retire but if you don't work or get laid off you get a limited amount of unemployment then nothing. Immigrants get nothing unless they pay for it. Couple that with a high unemployment rate and the limited number of migrants who sneak in here from Africa keep right on going into France. If you don't speak Spanish or Catalan that's your problem. Because there are a lot of English speaking people here and they want them to understand the traffic laws they do have an English study manual for a driver's license (which you have to pay for) and the written exam is given in English but anything else you either have to know the language or pay for an interpreter. All government documents are in Spanish (or Catalan if you live around Barcelona). Of course you can find stores and services that operate in multiple languages but that is driven by Capitalism, not government.
It is fairly easy to emigrate to Spain if you either have a skill they need or the money to support yourself. People applying for a working visa must have a promise of employment in hand. Folks like myself and my wife must prove they have the funds to be self-sufficient and pay for a year's worth of health insurance in advance to be considered for residency. Deadbeats need not apply. There are some expats who bum their way around the country entertaining on the streets or begging in front of stores but the competition is fierce and it doesn't take long for them to figure out it isn't going to work. There are no jobs Spaniards won't do. Many of them work punishing hours at low wages. 15 hour days 6 days per week is not uncommon and they show pride in having any job at all.
Once you get past those hurdles you have a host of choices on where and how you want to live. They have everything from mountainous regions to the spectacular coastline to Europe's only desert, recognizable to any fan of Spaghetti westerns. We chose an area called the Costa Tropical because it is the only part of Spain where the mountains come right down to the sea. The mountains form a microclimate that keeps the area about 10 degrees cooler than inland in summer and 10 degrees warmer in winter. It averages 320 days of sunshine per year and never gets down to freezing. As an example of how much sun we get the area we moved from, Atlanta, gets 211 days of sunshine per year. For you gardeners it is similar to zones 9-10. The other big advantage is that because it is so hilly it is easy to find a place to live that has a fabulous view. From our terrace we can see the Mediterranean, the Sierra Nevada mountains and the whitewashed town. We even have a castle to look at. With all of that we are 600 meters from the beach but on a quiet street with no traffic. You've heard the expression "million dollar view?" Well you can get that view here for a fraction of the price. If you forsake the view and want to rent a decent 2 bedroom flat can be had for 300 Euros per month, even less if you move inland a few kilometers. The cost of living is low enough that you can easily afford to live well on nothing more than a Social Security check.
With all of those nice features, you still live in a Socialist country. The most obvious sign of that is gas stations. Where we moved from in Georgia there were half a dozen gas stations within a mile in any direction while here we have 2 stations for a town of 27000 people. Gas prices are set twice a day and it's scary expensive. The big workaround for that, ourselves included, is the motor scooter. We have 2 cars but they sit idle while our scooter is the workhorse. It costs 5 euros to fill the tank and we fill it once a week. There is no 2nd Amendment right to own a gun. Shotguns are fairly easy to come by but pistols are strictly regulated. They actually used to have a thriving gun manufacturing industry here but it died years ago, a victim not of regulations but a bad economy. There are still a small number of manufacturers but it is mostly custom shotguns. I had to sell my guns before I left the USA. The main weapon of self defense is pepper spray, which is legal. Tasers and stun guns are illegal. For me it took about an hour, a hacksaw, can of spray paint, a rubber tip and a handle from a broken umbrella to fashion a walking stick made from a piece of half-inch steel pipe I got out of a trash can. It's legal anywhere in the world and can break bones without scratching the paint. Not the best but better than nothing.
I did get to vote in the Presidential election. Registering was easy and I was told that even though I don't live in Georgia anymore if I (nod, wink) intend to come back some day I was also eligible to vote in local elections. Since I did register as a Republican I still have to be alive to vote. Nobody here talks about American politics. It's either local or Brits talking about Brexit. I prefer to stay out of it because it's disheartening to hear so many people willing to sell out their sovereignty in order to keep getting "free stuff."
My main source of news is Fox News, which is shown on our local cable channel. Because of the 6 hour time difference I watch reruns of Tucker Carlson, Hannity and Bret Bair while at noon Fox and Friends comes on live. Other than that I have BBC News and RT. Most days it's hard to tell which channel is more anti-American.
Anyway, now that we're settled in I'll have more time to pay attention. Even though I'm in another country I still want what's best for America.
Thank you for posting this.
Schools and colleges? My 17 year old is interested.
Found this very fascinating. Please keep writing! How safe is it for a woman to travel alone in Spain?
Our media attempt to portray “Hispanics” as all having the same interests and as being a unified voting bloc for political purposes, but it’s far from a unified group. In New Mexico, the outright disdain of old settler Spanish-descended families for Mexican indios and mestizos is something that I experienced first hand decades ago. I’d never heard the word “wetback” before, and that’s where I heard it. Cubans don’t like Mexicans at all, either. Then, you’ve got Puerto Ricans. They’re all different and really have little affection for the other groups. The only thing they really share is a language, in addition to being countries largely comprised of mixed-race people being ruled by white Spaniards.
Having lived in northern New Mexico near Abiquiu, I agree with you 100%.
Great post! We're here in GreenAcres, Beautiful Bartow County. I do like it here EXCEPT for the winter months when we have ice storms with single digit temps and the encroaching Democrats who flee ATL, wanting to make the surrounding counties just like what they are fleeing...!
Enjoy and give us updates!
Going there in June, we’re visiting Madrid, Sevilla, Costa del Sol, and Barcelona.
I loved Spain,and didn’t really want to go but a friend needed a traveling companion.
We spent a couple of nights in one of the paradores-—what a treat,it had been a monastery.
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>>>>The big workaround for that, ourselves included, is the motor scooter.>>>>
Congrats on the move. I wish nothing but the best for you and your wife and family.
Speaking of scooters, I’m a lifelong motorcycle rider but with our recent purchase of a vacation condo in Southern California and it’s one car garage, I’m thinking of a Vespa 300. They really go and look like fun. They can hit close to 90.
What kind of scooter did you get? I’d be curious to know.
Thanks! Great post.
God luck and enjoy...I live part time in Colombia so I can appreciate your endeavors
While in Barcelona, I found out that Spaniards are very proud of their involvement in the discovery of America. And they really like Americans.
I have a home in Colombia...cost of living is nada there!
My daughter spent last summer in southern Spain through the Texas Tech engineering dept. An overseas trip is required for engineers, since it is such a global commodity.
If she can make it to Spain with a local college then she can see if she could survive overseas. Sometimes finances will kill a dream, sometimes the culture just isn't a good fit, and sometimes the folly of youth will conspire to bring her back to the US.
I guarantee that she will appreciate the US much more after she returns.
See a doctor
Out of curiosity, how expensive is that? Is it a regular insurance company or do you pay the government somehow (is it socialized medicine)?
Mexicans are looked down upon in most of S America
It's hard to put into words the wisdom of a provincial choice because there ARE places a white guy can and has ... lost his head.
But then, we have Chicago and Detroit so ... use your brain and ask questions.
Would I get in trouble if I wore a “Viva Franco!” T-Shirt?
Loved the experience and where we lived in a small town called Alcalá de Guadalquivir, in Andalusia, about 10 miles outside of Seville in southern Spain. Guadalquivir was the river running next to the town. It had a pleasant Mediterranean climate.
We lived in a spectacular duplex built on the side of a hill by an American doctor in 1929. Lots of colorful tile on the floors and up the sides of the walls with 4 patios or courtyards and a garden in the rear. We lived across the street from an olive processing plant.
Our next door neighbors in this lavish duplex was the family of the manager of the largest bakery in Spain at the time. They produced most of the bread for Seville and the surrounding communities. As a result, the town was sometimes referred to as Alaclá de los Panaderos, meaning Alcalá of the bakers.
We loved our time there and I learned Spanish in school. We traveled throughout Spain, Europe, Britain and north Africa during the three years we were stationed there.
A life experience I will never forget.
There is a movement, mainly by Spanish historians, trying to correct the bull crap that Muslim-ruled medieval Spain—“al-Andalus”—was a multicultural paradise, a place where Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived in harmony.
I am currently reading “The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise” to help get some of the historical facts ans rid myself of the propaganda I have been fed for 80 years, but mainly in the last eight.
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