As if you need me to give you three reasons! I thought I’d write about three of the most common reasons why people move to Spain any way.
Sunshine
Yes at number one you guessed it. The reason most people move to Spain is the amount of sunshine they get. Look out of your window in the UK, the chances are it’s cloudy and grey. You might be lucky and it could be sunny but the probability is that it’s grey.
Now I’m not knocking the British weather at all. I have to say that sometimes the unpredictability of the British weather can be interesting, you never know what it’s going to be like when you get up in the morning.
Compare that with Spain. In the summer especially you know you are going to get mainly hot sunny days and it’s a rare event to have a wet day. This is great for so many reasons.
You feel better in the sun, sun is good for you. You can plan, you can arrange to have a Barbecue with friends on a particular day and you know the weather will be good for it. In the UK you just can’t plan easily for outdoor events in the summer because it could be an awful day and your plans are ruined.
Waking up to sunshine in the morning is one of the nicest feelings, you want to get up and embrace the day. Sometimes when the skies are grey it’s a lot harder to feel positive.
Culture
The Spanish culture and the way of life can be refreshing after living in the the UK. Of course this is partly due to the weather they have, in Spain you can make the most of the warmth and have festivals in the streets, wonderful outdoor markets and spend a lot of time socialising outdoors. In Britain we have found ourselves spending more time in front of the TV than we do socialising.
Going out in Spain in the evening can also be a culture shock because of the time of day that Spanish people tend to eat, especially in the summer. If you want to live there and eat in a restaurant you’d better get used to having your dinner at midnight. Now this is a bit of an exaggeration. Not all restaurants open that late, but in the big cities of Barcelona and Madrid this can be the case. You’ll get used to it any way.
Food
Forget Shepherds Pie! When you move to Spain you’ll want to embrace the food. Food is part of the culture so the two can be combined, but food is such an important part of culture that I think it should be thought about separately.
Traditional Tapas Bars are wonderful, you can just turn up, order a drink, order little bits of food and either just snack, or have a larger meal. It also doesn’t matter if you’re on your own or in a group, you can easily be accommodated. Sometimes in the UK if you are eating alone you can feel a bit awkward, in a traditional Spanish Tapas Bar you’ll find lots of people eating alone.
Now there are three good reasons to move to Spain, if you have any more of your own leave them in the comments below, I’d love to hear them.