As such, this seems like a good time to review and summarize my impressions of our lives as expats in Spain.
We've found life in Spain to be mostly laid back with occasional periods of stress. The stress is most often caused by our interactions with the Spanish bureaucracy. However, we haven't had too many interactions of that kind and we've always had good people on our side to help us through the process.
In my opinion Spain's big draw is quality of life. I use the phrase "quality of life" to encompasses many different things, including beautiful scenery, excellent weather, friendly people, good food, affordable living and a rich culture. The phrase "rich culture" describes so many different things. Spain has a deep history, fantastic historic buildings, art in public places, and traditions of music and fiesta.
Spain has convenient and affordable access to the rest of Europe. For example, we've flown round trip from Valencia to Rome for only 40€ each plus baggage. We're budget travelers and I've found that most trips have cost us a total of about 250€ a day. Last year we took a driving trip to the Basque country at a cost of 150€ a day.
So what is life here like? Before answering that I should describe our situation.
We had the option of city living in a city flat, utilizing public transportation or a home outside of a city. We chose the second option. That in turn required buying a car and getting driver's licenses. Our home is in the mountains about 11 km from a small city (Gandia) and twenty minutes from a white sand Mediterranean beach. We purchased our house and cars outright so there's no landlord and no payments.
Everything we've needed on a day to day basis has been available in Gandia, which has large grocery and hardware stores. Clothing and other necessities are available in small shops. There are many of them in old town and in the city's two shopping malls.
The biggest challenge has been the language barrier. We've always managed to get things done but communication can be a significant issue. As we learn more Spanish this is slowly becoming less of a problem.
For about the first year and a half it seems like there were always projects that needed to be done. Things like buying furniture, getting drivers licenses, fixing a leaking swimming pool, renewing our residencies and the like. We've pretty much completed those tasks and now we're spending more time doing the things that we want to do. I'm learning to play the piano, we're traveling more often and we may even take up scuba diving again.
With the one time expenses pretty much taken care of, we're living comfortably on our US Social Security benefits. Our medical expenses are a tiny fraction of what they were in the US. Deductible-free health insurance cost about 230€ a month for the two of us. In contrast, 2017 when we left we paid $1400 a month for two bronze level HMO plans with $7200 deductibles and 20% copays. We pay more income taxes here but we pay far less on property taxes. I'm going to call that a wash.
Healthcare services are good here. In 2019 Spain ranked at #7 worldwide for healthcare with the second longest life expectancies. The US is ranked #30 and life expectancies are in decline.
I get the sense that many US citizens think that anything beyond their border is strange, exotic and perhaps a bit dangerous. This is a false perception. All the EU countries are safer than the US. Except for the language and the lack of guns, most Americans here wouldn't notice many significant differences. Burger King and KFC are fairly ubiquitous and people generally dress and look about the same. It is true that some things tend to be smaller in Europe, such as cars, elevators and waistlines.
I've long said that when you get down to it, people everywhere are essentially the same. We all have the same basic needs and desires. While this is true, there can be significant cultural differences and expectations from country to country. It follows that one can inadvertently make social missteps. Generally people tend to be graceful about such things though they may express things bluntly. Of course it's not their job to conform to our expectations. As expats it's our job to adapt to the culture that we find ourselves immersed in. (This should not need to be said, yet often Americans act boorishly when abroad.)
To summarize, we have found life in Spain to be very good, significantly better than what we left behind. This isn't to say that there haven't been occasional road bumps, but those are unavoidable no matter where one lives. There are differences and that means it's important to be willing to learn and adapt. People who don't like change will probably find that requirement to be a bad thing and they might be unhappy here. I believe that change can stimulate growth and keep a person sharp mentally, both of which are good things.
When I add up all the pros and cons the pros win (by a lot).
In the future I will be writing more blog entries dealing with the specifics of what it has taken for us to move to Spain along with some trip reports.
I've attached a random assortment of photos that I've taken here over the last two years.
