Month: August 2023

I keep saying this, but the cuisine in Spain is so good it can match anywhere in the world. It’s why when we cook at home we always use fresh ingredients, and cook everything from scratch. It’s very disappointing to see the meteoric rise in the fast-food chains like McDonalds and Burger King. Immensely satisfying to eat as they’re all fat and sugar with hardly a nod to any kind of decent nutrition, and becoming more popular by the day, but not at all great compared with freshly prepared local food. When we go out to eat, usually for lunch, we tend to choose Spanish bars and restaurants as the food is cooked to order from fresh, local ingredients. One place we love is the Restaurante Thermae El Pozo, in Mula, Murcia. It is right beside the balneario, or thermal waters and spa centre, not unlike the one we have in Fortuna, only smaller.

The restaurant is excellent, the food is fantastic! Everything is freshly prepared to order, and beautifully presented. It certainly is a “cut above” the average places, a bit special and worth every cent. Anywhere that provides linen tablecloths and napkins has a head start on most of the others! A morning spent relaxing in the rejuvenating thermal spa waters, followed by lunch at the restaurant makes for a great day out.

We are lucky to have a wide range of bars and restaurants in the Fortuna area where there are always tapas and menus del dia available. We also have both a Chinese and an Indian restaurant. However, the latter two leave a lot to be desired and are very disappointing – the food is generally very poor quality so best well avoided! Having said that, most of the bars serve good, hearty food, and are very inexpensive, so it’s no wonder we eat out so often! When we do, it’s strictly on an “OMAD” basis, that is, one meal a day, otherwise we’d be the size of a house! We’re very happy to drive quite a way to meet up with friends and to enjoy decent food, part of the pleasure is finding new places.

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When you move to a foreign country, not only do you need to adjust to different ways of life, you need to also try to make friends, learn a new language, and sometimes change some long-held expectations. We found it’s generally best to just “go with the flow” and see where things lead you! One of the major issues in helping to settle somewhere very different from home is whether or not you need to work. There are many “ex-pats” here who are retired and able to live comfortably – or sometimes not – on pensions and investments. Others need to work to pay mortgages and rent, and perhaps have young families to provide for. Spain is no longer the very inexpensive option it used to be, and since Brexit was rolled out it’s become even more difficult to be able to move here. For those with UK passports it now costs a considerable amount of money to move to Spain. You have to apply for a particular and limiting type of visa, you can’t work for some years until you get residence granted, you need to prove you have enough money in the bank to keep yourselves and pay your way – this incudes taking out full private medical insurance cover. All this amounts to many, many tens of thousands of pounds/euros, making the dream now unattainable for so many people. We are very fortunate that we don’t need to work, and have a number of good pensions between us, meaning we can enjoy a very good quality of life without a mortgage or rent to pay, and without having to work for a living. We are very, very grateful for this and count our blessings every day.

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If you’re not working, how might you spend your day? There is plenty to keep us busy, like the usual chores we always did before moving to Spain. So, floors still need swept and washed, bathrooms need cleaned, kitchen needs cleaned, washing needs done, ironing needs done (but only if it’s linen or something that can’t be rolled up very tightly to avoid wrinkles!). See? The usual suspects! It can take longer here as this is a much bigger house than we had before. That’s also before we start on maintaining the garden and the pool. Once we have finished the main renovations (any day now!) we will be able to have a cleaner come in a couple of times a week to keep things running smoothly. What to do then with all that free time? Well there are lots of activities available to try, wherever you live. There are walking and running groups, language groups, painting classes, church activities, lots of voluntary work in different areas like dog rescue centres, the list could go on forever! There’s a group of people locally who are keen on quad bikes and who get together every week to explore some of the mountain trails together, followed by a welcome cold beer at a local bar. One way or another you need to find something you really enjoy, something to look forward to! Amongst other things, we attend a meditation class every Monday – it is great because it helps you to metaphorically blow away the dust from the previous week, and centres you to look forward to the week to come. I also practise meditation at home, very calming and relaxing.

Peter is a good artist, so we have converted one of our rooms into an art (and music) studio, where he will be able to enjoy developing various projects. I have my own study at home, where I can use the computer to develop my writing. I belong to a local writers’ group and really enjoy our meetings. Everyone is very encouraging and we get the chance to practise and share what we write in a safe and supportive environment. One thing of note about our group is we are a very cosmopolitan bunch. Members include English, Irish, French, Dutch, Welsh and Norwegian! It amazes me how well our non-English speaking members manage to write in a language outside their own, a very talented group indeed!

Other than our current hobbies we just like to explore the region, whether it’s to have a day out somewhere different, or to find and area that looks interesting enough to spend a couple of days exploring. At the minute, because it’s been so hot here with temperatures stretching up around 40C we have been spending much of our time just relaxing in the pool. Bliss.

It’s a hard life but yes, somebody has to do it!

One of the brilliant things about living in Spain is that we are able to drive to most of the places we want to visit, and they are usually easy drives at that, due to the excellent road system.

Accommodation here in Spain is so reasonable that it is easy to just decide, on the spur of the moment, to throw a couple of overnight bags in the car and head off somewhere different. We often use booking.com but it can also make sense to contact hotels directly, as they frequently offer far better deals. Both hotels and self-catering options are very easy to find in Spain, offering everything from the totally luxurious to just basic, shared dormitory hostel options, and all points in betweeen. For us it’s more like the former – we leave the latter to the young and those on a much tighter budget! We have stayed in some fairly basic places, but always immaculately clean, comfortable and well presented. One of our best bargains was in Cordoba – LOVE that city! – where we had a little quaint hotel on a street corner about 20 metres from the Mesquita, the Islamic mosque. It was built in 756 after the Muslims conquered southern Spain. It was converted to a Christian place of worship in around 1236 following King Ferdinand lll re-taking the area from the Muslims. Fortunately for us, the “new” cathedral was built over the original mosque, so we can see both.

One of our favourite restaurants in all of Spain is in Cordoba – it’s a very special award winning restaurant called Garum 2.1 and is utterly fabulous! The first time we went we were very honoured to be shown into the “holy of holies”, the upstairs private dining rooms, where “the elite meet to eat”, quite an experience! If you ever go to Cordoba please, please eat there! The food is fantastic, the atmosphere amazing, and the staff are so helpful, knowledgeable and friendly. The website is http://www.garum2punto1.com so have a wee peep and don’t miss it if you’re in the area.

If you’re looking for a holiday in Spain but don’t want to be in the hustle and noise of the traditional tourist areas, then why not consider staying somewhere inland, where the mountains and lakes will blow your socks off and you can relax and enjoy the scenery.

One fabulous place, near us, is run by Julia and Kelvin, and is called Tranquil Stays. Their home is part cave, and you can enjoy a different experience there, though with all the comforts of home – as well as a swimming pool for those hot summer days!

The house is located close to Fortuna, Murcia, in the quiet of the countryside, yet is only 10 minutes from town, and 30 minutes from Murcia city. About 40 minutes will have you at the coast, so really it’s a great place to stay if you want to explore our little part of Spain.

Julia and Kelvin, the hosts, are very friendly and welcoming, and will do everything they can to ensure your stay is a memorable one. The website for viewing more photos, and for contact and booking information is at https://tranquilstays8.godaddysites.com/

If you need somewhere to stay in Northern Ireland, you just can’t beat the Metropole Maison de la Plage, in Portrush, on the north Antrim coast. This is an utter gem, and is probably the best place we have ever stayed in – and we’ve travelled a lot! The house is immaculate, having been renovated, restored and rebuilt by our friends Rhona and Stuart, much of the work being actually done by themselves.

It is beautifully decorated and equipped, with three double bedrooms, two bathrooms and two sitting rooms. A lot of thought has gone into what guests really want from their holiday accommodation. The house is only 2 minutes walk from the beach, and 10 minutes walk into town where you can get everything you need, including rail and bus links to wherever you want to go. Rhona is just the best host ever, read the reviews and see for yourselves. I’m not at all surprised that they are usually booked up well in advance, with lots of returning guests. We absolutely LOVED our stay there!

Since we’re talking bit about travel in Spain, a word about toll roads, some good news and some not so good! Apparently they are going to do away with the tolls on the AP7, it’s the main toll motorway along the east coast of Spain. Good news, certainly. When we use this motorway to go shopping in La Zenia, or other areas near to it, the toll is €2.85 in the off-peak months, and €4.35 during the busiest peak tourist season. You pay this to get onto the motorway, but listen to this – you also pay the same again to come off at La Zenia Boulevard shopping centre! Eh?! A great little moneyspinner indeed! But there’s worse….we were there last week, on Wednesday, meeting friends for lunch. We paid by card to get on and to get off again. No problem, you might think, even if €8.70 is a bit steep for the pleasure of a virtually traffic-free road. Well no wonder it’s virtually traffic-free at those prices! And no wonder we don’t usually go near the coast in summer – too many people!

Here’s the word of warning… from now on we will always pay cash, we will NEVER pay by card again and here’s why. We were charged the two lots of €4.35 for our trip last Wednesday, one to get on the motorway and one to get off. No problem. We didn’t use the toll road on the way home, we took our time meandering along the coast road instead. However, on Monday of this week I noticed two transactions on my Wise euro account for another two lots of €4.35 apparently for last Friday, when we weren’t anywhere near the motorway. This has happened before to me on this motorway. I had contacted Wise and they paid the excess money back to my euro account and retrieved it from the Autopista del Sureste management people. I’m very happy to report they did the same this time when I advised them of what had happened yet again. Incidentally, the day after the previous incident occurred, I noticed that someone had managed to spend almost £3000 from my Wise sterling account, in London! I contacted Wise at once and within 48 hours the money was back in my sterling account. Someone had decided to pay their council tax, utilities and goodness knows what else using my card details. I’m very glad Wise acted so promptly, and I now freeze my card immediately after every use so the details can’t be used. You live and learn!

A couple of recommendations for you now…we’re very fond of music in this house – we have a guitar, piano, mandolin and kalimba, and a few hundred CDs, only outnumbered by the amount of books we have lining the walls. The husband is learning to play then mandolin, little by little, or “poco a poco” as the Spanish say. We’ll get there!

Here are some links to some of the best music you’ll ever hear, and I’m very happy to confirm these are friends of ours:

http://www.eilidhpatterson.com

http://www.anthonytoner.net

http://www.brigidoneill.com

All amazingly talented singer/songwriters from Northern Ireland, and all often feature on our playlist at the pool every day. Enjoy!

When you move to another country, especially one where you don’t initially know the language, it can be more difficult to make friends. You will inevitably meet people who do speak the same first language as you, in our case English, but some expats seem to only associate with other native English speakers, thus losing out on the richness of cultural exchange. It never ceases to amaze me how many English expats there are who are only able to utter a few basic words in Spanish, even after living here for years.

We don’t claim to be fluent in Spanish, or anywhere near it, but we can hold on-going conversations with most people and in most situations. We are reasonably competant, which is really how it should be, given that we’ve been here for a total of 38 years between us!

Forming new friendships in a foreign country is difficult, mainly because you have no shared history, and no real knowledge of who the person is, so you have no idea what their agenda is. My lovely friend Karen Roberts offers really sound advice when making new connections in a new setting – she says you should always ask yourself “If these people lived down the road from you at home, would you be friends with them?” If the answer is no, probably not, then remember you can be friendly without having to be best friends. So many people come out to Spain with a different agenda, a need to reinvent themselves, and any problems they had previously are just brought with them. Often they can end up with even more problems once they get here. Sometimes they end up suffering with poor health or even, in the worse case scenario, finding out the house they’ve bought isn’t actually legal. In fact, many expats themselves aren’t in the country legally – they haven’t registered for residence as required by law, and they often work for cash in hand to avoid paying tax. We knew quite a few like that in the last place we lived. It’s now becoming much more difficult for people to fly “under the radar”, thus many seem to be heading back to the UK.

In the last town we lived in there were quite number of illegal or “irregular” houses, making the owners’ lives more stressful than necessary. In addition, many ex-pats tend to confine themselves to the same cliquey groups, often, sadly, arranged round drinking. The drinking culture is alive and well amongst ex-pats. Sadly, it often means their friendship connections are limited. They also lose out on a lot of the Spanish culture and tradition, sometimes not even venturing too far outside their own area. Sadly, we saw this all too often in the area we used to live in, though I’m sure it happens everywhere. Drinking and driving is a national problem in Spain, so many people think nothing of downing beers all afternoon in a bar, then driving home. In Spain the alcohol limits are much lower than in the UK – two bottles or cans of beer will put you on the edge, if not just over the limit. Three bottles or cans means you will be well over the limit and will pay a fairly heavy penalty. It’s no wonder the place is full of the most atrocious drivers!

It’s not always easy adapting to a different culture, but the most important helpful hints are to learn the language and to get out and about, away from your immediate area. You will find that this enriches your life abroad!

That’s why, so often, it is just brilliant to catch up with friends from home, and it really does the heart and soul good to keep those connections alive and healthy. We love it when friends from home come to stay with us, or come on holiday to the coast within easy striking distance so we can get together and catch up on all the craic from home as well as from here.

Cherish those friends, people, they’re your tribe!

A recent report by InterNations has shown Spain is the second best place in the world to live in, for ex-pats. Not surprising, given the beautiful weather, the fabulous variety of scenery, and the generally much more affordable standard of living, compared to the UK. Mexico scored highest – I’m not too sure about that one! If you retire to Spain you can have a great life if you have no mortgage or rent to pay by owning your property outright, and if you have an income that means you don’t have to work to pay the bills. It is more difficult if you have a young family, and mortgage or rent to pay. We’re very fortunate in that we own our (fully legal) house outright, and we have a very healthy and comfortable income – all that hard work over the years has definitely paid off for us! Since Brexit changed the rules for UK passport holders it is much more difficult to emigrate to Spain, or any other Schengen country. It is also very, very expensive in terms of having to take out private health insurance, and the amount of money you have in the bank to prove you can support yourselves as initially you will not be allowed to work. It’s no wonder so many people from Great Britain suddenly decided to love the Irish and pursue family links that would enable them to obtain an Irish passport! And here’s another way Irish passports are very desirable – they have music and poetry printed on every page!

There’s no doubt that, for us, Spain is a great place to live. It’s a very big country, with great infrastructure, making travel to the different areas quite straightforward. Decent hotels are very affordable, so we often just decide to have a night or two away somewhere different, to explore and enjoy a change of scene. We have two more little breaks in Spain planned before now and Christmas, as well as our upcoming trip home to Northern Ireland. Of course it’s also lovely to come home to your own bed after a trip away – and we think the views from our terrace match any views in Spain!

We’re thinking of renaming our house “The Forth Road Bridge” as all the things we want and need to do to it seem never-ending. We really are almost there in terms of renovations and repairs, just a few more upgrades to some of the electrics, replace one of the bathrooms and then it’s just the decorating to do. Well I say “just the decorating” but with 13 rooms it’s going to take a fair old amount of paint! It will look grand when it’s finished – eventually! Probably just in time for us to decide to sell? We are thinking about a few years hence, and looking at the possibility of selling the big house to buy somewhere smaller in Spain, and also somewhere in Northern Ireland. As we are both Irish citizens and thus have Irish passports we won’t be limited to the “90 days in any period of 180 days” that third countries have to manage when visiting the Schengen zone. The main issue would be to not stay in Spain for more than 183 days in any full year, as otherwise we would remain fiscally resident in Spain and be liable for taxes here. Being taxed in the UK is far more advantageous – the personal allowance there is £12,750 whereas in Spain it’s a miserable €6000, not great! So, six months in Northern Ireland and six months in Spain sounds like a plan we’ll be considering further.

Watch this space!

Two good things about Spain for you now – food and body confidence. Is there a link? Probably. but these are just my observations, see what you think!

I’ve said it before and I’ll keep on saying it – one of the fabulous things about Spain is the rich and varied range of food on offer. We do like to eat out, mainly because it’s usually very inexpensive, and we truly believe we’re worth it! I wrote recently about a favourite restaurant in our town, where the “menu del dia” is the most amazing value. We often venture into the city by tram for a bit of a stroll, some shopping, and, of course, lunch! One of our favourite places in Murcia city is the Mercado de Correos, or the “market” which was the old post office building. It’s somewhere a bit special where we can bring friends when they come to stay with us.

It is a tapas bar, with a garden courtyard to the rear, where all the gorgeous young things gather in the evenings for cocktails and live music. In the main building the seating area is in the centre of lots of little stalls preparing and cooking fresh food to order. There’s everything from traditional Murciano fare, to Chinese, Japanese, Italian, and a variety of others! You have a wander round to decide what you’d like, the waiter then comes and takes your order, and it’s brought to your table. They are supposed to be tapas but honestly the portions are much bigger that you expect, and very reasonably priced too. Problem is my eyes are always bigger than my stomach and it’s too easy to over order! It’s a lovely, lovely place to eat but be warned – get there by about 1pm, if you leave it too much later you’ll maybe not get in as there’s always a long queue outside the door by 2pm, Spanish lunchtime.

There’s a lovely “fin de siècle” elegance about the place, and it’s no wonder the smartly dressed professionals like to eat there.

When we do have friends to stay, and we go into the city, another place of interest is the Casino. Gambling is a funny thing in Spain, you’ll be hard pressed to find general betting shops, but most big towns and cities have casinos which are not at all like the Las Vegas type places. I’ve always thought of the Las Vegas casinos to be devoid of all culture – unlike our beautiful casino in Murcia! It’s like a private club, with reading rooms, restaurant, ballroom, and beautiful design everywhere. Just the entrance alone is enough to take your breath away. Up a few steps straight off a little side street, there’s a rather ordinary looking building. Open the door, go inside and…oh my word! A different world!

The entrace is Arabian and is the most fabulous tile and mosaic sight. there are also works of art and statues throughout the building. If you’re in Murcia you must go there!

So there you have it, a couple more of the good things about Spain. When it comes to food I think the rise in fast food outlets really should be labelled “bad”. Now there are loads of places you can get “fast” food in Spain, but those are the real, freshly cooked dishes that seem to be conjured up out of nowhere and taste divine. The others are….outlets like KFC, McDonalds and Burger King. I’m happy to report that although they are all to be found in the local big shopping centres down the road towards the city, there are, so far, none in our wee town!

They say there’s a definite link between the rise in fast food chain outlets and health, in particular obesity and diabetes. There certainly seems to be a rise in children and young people looking much heavier than their peers did some years ago. It might be also down to a far too long lock up during the covid episode, so children weren’t as able to get outside for proper fun exercise as much as before. It might be to do with the rise in computer games, meaning children stay indoors and are not out with all their pals. It might be any one of a number of reasons, but most likely a combination of all of them. I just feel a little bit sad when I think of the fabulous reputation Spain has for really good food, and then see these artificial, nutritional wastelands springing up everywhere.

But….back to the good again. One of the things that I really appreciate is women’s and girls’ body confidence in Spain. They don’t seem to come under the same pressure to be thin, thin, thin as the media tries to impress on us in the UK, for example. I’m in no way advocating for females to emulate someone like the rapper Lizzo in any way, but it does seem that they carry themselves with a sense of pride about who they are, and they wear what they want. I have seen girls and women weighing at least 130 kilos – more than 20 stones in “old money” and they’re happy to walk around in skimpy vest tops and very short shorts. While nobody should condone it from a health point of view, there’s something rather admirable about a woman who knows her worth isn’t dependant on the size number on the label on her clothes.

And so to the ugly. The really, really ugly – in my opinion. Bullfighting. A fiercely guarded tradition in Spain. I have noticed the new, temporary bullring being built in our town for an exhibition of bullfighting this month. I won’t be going anywhere near it. Nor do I intend to be even in town at the same time as I do not wish to hear the cheers of a crowd of people who still believe it’s a noble sport. I’m not sure how anyone can call it noble when an animal is being taunted and tortured, causing it severe pain, before finally killing it when it’s actually no longer a threat. Most people are unaware that the bulls are actually tortured prior to going into the ring. For example, they have acid poured into their eyes, amongst other things. The matadors often make tens and even hundreds of thousands of euros for each fight.

It’s good to see that the “tradition” of bullfighting is slowly dying out across Spain, but it is holding on tenaciously in more rural, inland areas.

A final word? It may well be that bullfighting is a long-held tradition in Spain. However, it’s not always right to continue to uphold traditions. Yeasrs ago it was traditional to send pre-school age children up the inside of chimneys to clean them. Happily we realised that this was one tradition we needed to obliterate.

I rest my case.