Is it nice to live in Spain?
Is it nice to live a life in Spain?
4 Answers
I should imagine it's a lot better than living in Zimbabwe, but I suppose it depends on what you expect out of life.
Depends on which part and what expectations you have. It is a large country with diverse regions and climates.
Somewhere like Catalonia is beautiful with a thriving city like Barcelona at its heart but although almost everyone speaks Castilian Spanish, in most homes and in private, people speak Catalan. That might not be a problem if you´re willing to learn two Spanish languages.
Galicia is a bit more remote, beautiful and less developed, but its weather is less predictable and another local language is spoken as well as Castilian Spanish.
The southern coast guarantees you lots of sun and beaches, but it is heavily overdeveloped with ugly high rises and cheap hotels and you´re just as likely to meet fat, drunk, sunburnt tourists on cheap package holidays from northern Europe as you are a local. Don´t get me wrong. There are lovely places on the southern coast, but they´re getting rarer. The parents of a friend went to live in a beautiful, picturesque fishing village of 5,000 people 20 years ago. Now there are dozens of hotels and high rises and a population of over 50,000 people. However, many of the houses are second homes and the tourists can be rowdy, so it's not the rural idyll they bought into.
The Basque country is beautiful as well, with Bilbao, a regenerated city with its own Guggenheim at its heart, but again learning some Basque comes in handy. And the winters are cold. Near some good skiing though.
Madrid is a modern thriving city with great cafes, architecture, galleries, etc... but it is miles from the coast and gets really hot in summer.
Best buy several guides, or even better something more in-depth than Fodors or Lonely Planet, and make your choice from that.
I wouldn't move there right now, it's hard to find a job with the recession and it probably won't get better for the next few years.
It is nice if you like the sun and even better, the language
