One other new begin …and on questioning if Spain is correct for us.
A yr in the past (virtually to the day) I wrote a put up about transferring from Nerja to Antequera. We hadn’t been pleased with our lives or life-style in Nerja and wanted one thing totally different.
The put up right here: We’ve moved! A brand new begin in Spain (and in our lives…)
Simply this previous week we moved from Antequera to a brief residence in Granada.
It’s not that we weren’t comfortable in Antequera. We actually appreciated town, we beloved the geography, we loved all of the cultural occasions. In some ways it was every thing we wished and we made the correct choice after we determined to depart Nerja for Antequera. Zero regrets.
As I say we actually appreciated town. However sufficient to say that we wished to remain one other yr or a lifetime? No. Life is just too quick.
A little bit of background…
Most of our readers know that we travelled full-time for six years earlier than deciding to settle in Spain in 2020. Why did we settle in Spain? We wished to be everlasting residents someplace in Europe. We love being in Europe and may’t see ourselves ever transferring again to Canada. And of anyplace in Europe, Spain made essentially the most sense. So we got here right here figuring out that we must reside at the least 5 years earlier than getting everlasting residency.
*As non permanent residents, you’ll be able to’t depart the nation for greater than 6 months consecutively OR for greater than a complete of 10 months over the 5 years you’re working in the direction of everlasting residency. After getting everlasting residency the principles are far more relaxed with the most important requirement being that you’ll be able to’t be out of Spain for greater than 12 months repeatedly.
Our first base was Nerja the place we stayed for two ½ years. We arrived on the top of Covid and it was just about the right base. The city was quiet, surrounded by nature, and had pleasant locals.
Nerja modified when Covid handed. As soon as journey acquired again to regular, Nerja grew to become jampacked with vacationers and expats. It was time for us to maneuver on.
That led us to transferring to Antequera a yr in the past.
If you wish to learn extra about Nerja and why we selected Antequera (and why we selected to depart Antequera), see our put up: Dwelling in Antequera (in comparison with Nerja)
There’s been loads of highs and lows over the past 3 ½ years in Spain.
A few issues we realized:
We miss our earlier journey life-style
We miss journey and we miss the approach to life we used to have throughout these years of full-time journey. We miss the liberty of being nomads…and we get bored being in a single place for a very long time.
Most individuals don’t perceive the above and even hate us (thanks Fb!) for with the ability to reside that life-style.
As I’ve written beforehand, you don’t should be a millionaire to reside a nomadic life-style. In truth our common price of residing over these 6 years approximates our price of residing in Spain.
Just a few months in the past we have been pondering that we’d depart Antequera and “gradual” journey round Spain. We’d abide by the non permanent resident guidelines relating to time spent in Spain…whereas discovering totally different components of the nation. It will be a variation of our full-time journey days (“full-time journey 2.0” as we began calling it).
Our lawyer poured chilly water on that. “To be able to apply for the everlasting residency, you’ll have to present a 5 years of empadronamiento to verify you have been residing in Spain. This can be a necessary doc and with out it, you won’t be able to get Everlasting Residency”.
* empadronamiento, or a “padrón”, is a doc you get hold of from the municipality you reside during which proves that you’re a resident. The right way to get a padrón? Nicely, the commonest approach is to point out them a minimal 1-year lease.
So our “full-time journey 2.0” plans have gone out the window…at the least for now. It seems like we’ll should have a lease someplace in Spain for at the least 18 months with a purpose to fulfil the necessities for everlasting residency.
Spain and on “residing the dream”
A few weeks in the past we have been on the practice station in Malaga heading house to Antequera. In entrance of us within the line have been an American couple. We began speaking and discovered they have been on their option to Granada (Antequera is on the Malaga – Granada line). They requested us the place we have been from and have been shocked to listen to we lived in Spain. Their precise remark: “you’re residing the dream!”.
Are we residing the dream?
Generally we really feel we’re attempting to suit a spherical peg right into a sq. gap in relation to Spain. We ought to like it. It’s lovely, it’s cultural, it has loads of solar. We converse the language so it ought to be a pure match.
Why isn’t it?
Throughout our 6 years of full-time journey we had taken a yr off in 2017 to reside in Break up (Croatia). We had visited Croatia and had fallen head-over-heels with town. We didn’t converse the language and immigration guidelines for 3rd nation nationals have been stringent (and would finally result in us having to depart). However we had fallen in love with it.
It hasn’t been the identical with Spain. We’ve chosen Spain and have wished (and are nonetheless attempting) to make it work. However as I say, to this point it’s been like attempting to suit a spherical peg right into a sq. gap.
I don’t wish to admit the above as a result of I really feel responsible. Most individuals suppose precisely like that American couple. Why aren’t we loving it? Why aren’t we extra appreciative of the truth that we’re “residing the dream?”.
What’s fallacious with us?
Issues realized
We’ve realized loads about ourselves over the past 3 ½ years.
We thought that we may change our stripes, that after 6 years of full-time journey we may quiet down someplace and name that place house. We’ve realized that we’re not like that (or that we’re not there but). We nonetheless have itchy ft. We’re not getting any youthful and we all know that sooner or later we’re going to should settle someplace long-term. We frequently speak about having a canine and of calling her or him both Darko or Zoran. However that’s hopefully at the least 10 years away.
Possibly it’s these itchy ft that cease us from totally embracing Spain. As I say, perhaps we’re simply not there but.
However we’re not sad. In Nerja we felt sad: we had an enormous residence with an enormous yard, there was loads of every day upkeep. It was a life suck. It wasn’t for us. We realized from that and severely downsized and moved right into a smaller, extra fashionable residence after we moved to Antequera. It required a lot much less upkeep. We had extra time to do the issues we like and will simply lock up the residence and journey (final fall for instance, we took 2 months off to discover Mexico. We additionally spent 10 days within the Baltics).
We’ve realized one thing about possessions which I want we had realized 10 years in the past after we left Canada to journey full-time. On the time we put virtually every thing in storage, mainly every thing that we owned. The pondering on the time was that “what if full-time journey doesn’t go well with us?”. 4 years later we had all of it shipped to Croatia. Then in 2020 we had it trucked to Spain. All the things. We must always have ripped off the bandaid earlier, however in our minds the worth of our possessions (we had some very nice furnishings from Thailand, Morocco, Indonesia, Mexico) justified the storage and transportation prices. In spite of everything, we’d have to interchange it sooner or later proper?
It was all an enormous mistake and we’ve lastly realized over the past yr. Transferring to Antequera we bought/donated 80% of our belongings. Then final week, we moved to Granada in a taxi with 2 carryon-sized suitcases, 2 backpacks, and a few luggage of home items (a big bag of good linens, a bag of important kitchen stuff. All issues that will be expensive to interchange if we’ve got to lease an residence). There have been some private gadgets that I needed to do away with which made me cry on the within, issues like my airplane assortment (I had collected Shabak and Herpa planes because the 80’s) and my coin/international payments assortment which had been handed on to me by my father…which I ended up passing on to an older man who seemed identical to him in Antequera.
However we needed to do away with these issues. We’re getting ready to journey once more and we’re now not going to place something in storage.
Associated: Each Nomad’s dilemma – Promote or Retailer your belongings?
Plans
Our lawyer popped our happiness bubble with the information on the empadronamiento rule. It set us again on our journey plans. Why can’t we simply freely transfer across the nation? Why do we have to signal a lease? (and no, receipts from short-term residence leases gained’t lower it based on her).
However we’re adjusting. Being so gentle now with our belongings, we will discover a small furnished residence (in Spain it’s a lot simpler discovering a furnished residence than an unfurnished residence). It may be in Granada, it may be someplace else. Both approach we’ll discover that metropolis and the encircling area to dying.
However the precedence for us, the aim behind coming to Spain, is getting everlasting residency in Europe. And it seems like meaning signing a lease for no less than one other 18 months in Spain. That, and fulfilling these 18 months in Spain, will lastly get us Everlasting Residency.
After which we will perhaps get “full-time journey 2.0” again on monitor…
Recollections from full-time journey 1.0
Associated: Ideas on the liberty of being a nomad…
Associated: Regrets of residing a Nomadic life
Associated: Trying again at 2023…and ahead to 2024 (a yr of continued modifications…)
