Coronavirus Diaries: the “we found a home in Spain” edition
October 18,2020
We’re back in Spain just as the Covid is back to being at the top of the news cycle all over the world. Some people don’t believe it, they think the virus is still a hoax. But whatever you think, it’s affecting everyone and increasingly so in many places where new lockdown measures are being put in place to curb the contagion. This week France instituted a 9 pm – 6 am curfew in Paris and other cities. Bars and Restaurants in Prague have been shut down. London and Berlin are facing new measures with even stricter rules seemingly in the works. Portugal has just re-instated a “State of Calamity”, just 2 weeks after we flew through Lisbon. Cases all over the continent have soared and just about every country has imposed new restrictions over the last few days. Even cases in North America are getting worse and I just read that Montreal (where we spent the summer) is warning that its hospitals might be overrun by Covid cases within a month.
Here in Spain everyone wears a mask outdoors. I’ve heard reports of people hiking in the hills getting fined for not wearing a mask (I read that on an expat facebook pages and I frankly don’t believe it…just can’t imagine police patrolling the mountains searching out non-mask-wearing hikers). My point is that wearing a mask outdoors in Spain is mandatory – yet you can sit in a bar, café or restaurant eating, drinking or whiling away the day and it’s perfectly ok to take off your mask while doing so*. It makes no sense. But again, that’s a sensitive point for a lot of people working in the hospitality industry.
* Barcelona just decided, effective October 16th, to close all bars and restaurants for the next two weeks. It might be a sign of things to come for other Spanish cities. Unlike in Spring/early summer though, there’s a lot of resistance in Spain just as there is everywhere else. People are fed up.
We’ve just signed a 1 year lease
I’m not going to disclose just where yet (although I know some people will recognize the location in these photos). I’ll do that when we move in in a couple of weeks.
We started looking at various apartments when we arrived back in Spain. The first few were depressing. And finding an unfurnished apartment is a challenge.
Then last Friday we found it. A beautiful 2 storey townhouse with 3 bedrooms, 1 ½ bathrooms, and plenty of outdoor living space. In a quiet complex with a pool, located 2 blocks from the beach. The apartment is furnished but it has a storage locker in the backyard. I’ve already arranged for our furniture to be brought over from Zagreb (a link there in case you don’t know why our stuff would be in Zagreb). Whatever we don’t want will go in the storage locker. Cost for the apartment: 800 Euros per month. Electricity and water are supposed to come out to about 75 Euros/mo. All in, it should come out to about $1,400 CAD/mo (that’s $1,025 US).
We don’t know if it will be our forever home. But with Covid we just wanted to have our own place for the next couple of years. I just don’t see things getting back to normal anytime soon. And besides our new home being in a pretty seaside town, there’s lots to see in the immediate vicinity and tons of hiking. I’m planning to do lots of that.
I’ll be writing a lot about our new home in the next little while. But with 2 weeks before we move in I’d just rather not say anything just yet.
Thankful for the last 6 years of full-time travel
We had to make a lot of tough decisions when deciding to leave Montreal in 2014 for a life of full-time travel. But now, 6 years later and with Covid being a reality, we’re thankful we did it. We have so many memories of the people we’ve met and the places we’ve visited over that time.
It’s easy in life to say “we’ll do it one day”. But that day might never come and things and places change. I despise wishy washy slogans and feel good quotes and the people who throw them around but what’s currently happening really enforces that you have to live in the moment. Not that we’re perfect: we had many days during our travels where we woke up unmotivated or where we didn’t go to that lookout for that perfect sunset because we were feeling lazy. But for 6 years we’ve seen and experienced a lot. We see other bloggers/travellers who’ve recently set out for a similar lifestyle who’ve had all their dreams explode in their face. If you’re a full-time traveller there are very few travel options right now…and with a whole new set of restrictions being imposed almost daily it’ll make travel even harder.
All to say that we are both lucky and thankful. We still hope to do a lot of travelling both in Spain and beyond – but if something were ever to happen at least we lived a life we both aspired to. No regrets.
Spanish Odd and Ends
Getting a TIE in Spain. I recently wrote about getting a Spanish non-lucrative Visa. We’re currently going through the 2nd half of the process in Spain, trying to get an appointment for our TIE (a foreigner’s identity card, known as a Tarjeta de Identidad de Extranjero). With Covid, getting an appointment on the government website has been next to impossible. But we communicated with our lawyer here and they’ve arranged for a gestor to get an appointment for us (according to google: “A gestor, or gestoría, is a private professional agent who specialises in dealing with Spanish administrative bureaucracy on behalf of a client”). I’ll write more about that and getting a TIE when we’ve accomplished it. It’s something I get a lot of questions about.
Spanish Driver’s License. I eventually have to think about getting a Spanish Driver’s License. In theory, I’m allowed to use my Canadian driver’s license for 6 months while in Spain. Past that, I have to get a Spanish license if I want to drive. Many countries have agreements with Spain and you can have your license transferred. More here. Canada (and the US) don’t however so if you want to get a license you have to go through the whole process from scratch.
Spanish films. My Spanish is ok. Lissette’s is at about 95% (Spanish was her first language). But we both have a hard time with “Spanish Spanish”. Now back in Spain, we’re trying to get used to the local Spanish which is quite a lot harder than Latin-American Spanish. One of the things we’re doing is scheduling “Spanish movie nights”. I found this post: 31 Best Spanish Movies on Netflix (why Netflix? I like listening to it but also reading subtitles). Of those movies we watched El Ciudadano Ilustre (The Distinguished Citizen) which is excellent (even if not wanting to practice your Spanish I recommend it) as well as the Baztan Trilogy (a trilogy of 3 thrillers filmed in the Basque which we’re now curious about after having seen the series). If you have any Spanish films that you can recommend (on Netflix) I’d appreciate any suggestions.
It’s been a busy time and I’ll write a lot more about Spain – and getting settled here – in the near future.
Thanks for Reading!
Hola Frank y felicitaciones por encontrar un nuevo hogar! Y también que han obtenido sus permisos de visa no-lucrativo. Wherever you guys are, it does look like a fantastic place to spend what could be a moribund winter…… and of course, the months/years to come. I think going with the coast rather than the altiplano at least you won’t be freezing your ass off (not that canucks are afraid of a little chilly weather). I can totally relate to your philosophical reflections on having been fortunate to have travelled widely in the prepandemic year(s?). And after spending almost 2 months in Toronto, i also realize that a higher quality of life (corona virus be damned!) means living near the Med……well southern France in my case. But alas…. I’m still looking at escaping somewhere this winter. So far it’s come down to southern Turkey (Antalya area) or Zanzibar (i spent several wonderful weeks there some 20 years ago and have been wanting to get back there). All the best man, don
Hi Don!
Thank you very much!! And it looks like we got out just in time, heard yesterday Canadians are getting taken off the list of approved travellers to the EU.
I guess no updates on applying for the long sejour in France? Wish you well with that.
Agree Toronto a shitty place to be in winter. Antalya has beautiful geography but we didn’t really like the place much aside from that. Ah, Zanzibar…would love to go. Africa the most exciting continent and I hope to spend more time there in the future. If I could choose that would be my vote.
I wish you all the best getting out and enjoying some sun Don!
stay safe there as the next wave seems to be hitting Europe pretty bad in Europe. Thanks for the update Frank!
It’s pretty scary, with the Guardian today writing about the Virus being soon out of control in several countries in the mainland EU countries and the UK. A French friend of mine in her seventies has been hospitalized but she was, unfortunately, taking the Paris subway every day. This winter is going to be rough.
Hey Great! Glad you both found a place so quick too! Looking forward to hearing more about your travels. Will keep in touch! We are hoping to take the plunge early spring😀
Great. Let me know if you have any issues!
I’m almost sure which city you guys settled too, using google maps (my best friend hehe).
It’s crazy to compare the housing prices in other places – you’re getting a 2 storey townhouse 3 bedrooms near the beach = here is the same price for a small studio near downtown Vancouver. Uff
Vancouver’s prices have always been crazy. This is exactly why we’re moving to Spain – we come from Montreal which is cheap in comparison to Vancouver but still Canadian pricing. Plus add 6 months of winter…
I owe a lot to Canada for career opportunities and it was a great place to live while working. And Canadians some of the greatest people. But now, with neither of us working, we couldn’t live there.
Frank, congrats on your new location. Looks wonderful. We’ve been watching Grand Hotel, the Spanish tv series. Totally unrealistic, lots of plot holes, but still enjoyable.
Escandalo! Just looked it up and looks like the kind of drama we’d like. BUT..it’s not on Netflix in Europe 🙁
Hah! I guessed correctly and confirmed it by Googling too 🙂
Glad that you found a good place. The location sounds perfect!
Gee, what do you Google? Everyone seems to be figuring it out and it’s obvious to me people have better google skills than I do! 🙂
One of your photos in a previous post clued me in. Plus that you had mentioned in that post that you were staying in a small town/village outside of Malaga. I like to play Sherlock Holmes myself though in reality I probably lean more towards Inspector Clouseau. You notice that none of us have actually written the name of the town so if we are wrong, we’ll never have to admit it. 🙂
Ah ha! I think I know how you found it.
Googling is part of what I do for work. You can find the answer to almost everything! One of your pictures has a word that you can search for in context. Turns out more than one person has taken the same photo. I won’t be more specific in case some readers haven’t figured it out 🙂
Fabulous! Congratulations, it’s sounds wonderful. You know what they say, location, location, location. I’m fairly certain I know where you’ve settled, but won’t spill the frijoles. Fun to leave people guessing. It must feel so gratifying to have found a home from which to explore, but also to have a safe place to ride out this Covid nightmare.
I read your post to Abi and we agree with your assessment of people being fed up. We had the same conversation earlier today while out walking and comparing how many people are out in comparison to six months ago. They’ll never go back inside, people are indeed “fed up” as you say.
Enjoy the settling in process and take care of each other.
We’re just a bit superstitious (ie. Spanky) so until we actually move in just don’t want to officially announce it.
You’re seeing protests everywhere and while they seem unrelated to Covid they’re exacerbated by Covid: Thailand, Chile, Armenia/Azerbaijan…and the protests in European cities in direct protest of Covid restrictions. People are angry, fed up, and feeling that there’s no hope. And it’s only getting worse.
And I’ve totally avoided talking about US politics Patti. I just shake my head everyday with the antics going on…
You’re fortunate in that you can avoid talking about US politics, Frank. What it feels like to be living through this is something I cannot adequately put in to words, but the weight of it is exhausting.
Congratulations. You didn’t end up in Granada, I see, which you were leaning towards. I think I know where your new place is. Half an hour or so east of Malaga? 🙂 The rent on your house is very good for what you got. I hope you enjoy it. It will be fun keeping up with your new adventures.
Gee, why is everyone so good at searching for things on Google? 🙂
Depressing times but nice to see you’ve made the best of a terrible year.
Very helpful about the Spanish visa process, we’re following your progress and hope to do the same next year. Will be interested to see how you get on with the TIE, have heard the same about everything being tied up these days.
Stay safe!
Hi Jack. I’ll have a post on the TIE process as soon as we get it!
Thanks for the kind words
Congratulations for another progress! I guessed where it was and Google confirmed my guess 🙂 Look forward to learning more of your lovely new home and what life is like there once you have settled in.
Thank you for not mentioning it! 🙂